To the players, with love

[Voth]

We've had our many many differences, that's for sure. But what can I say, you just proved to me to care enough about this game to be in the position you are in. Thumbs up on getting this off your chest, maybe you're not what I thought you always were...

[Izor]

ahahahaha sit

[Centurion]

Say it ain't so, Joe. :/

[SpaceHiker]

Pub issues

Secondly, I think that a new SMod position should be created as an arbitor of publics (it was arilou, but he sort of stopped playing.) This player should be a trusted pub player who will take into account the opinions of the masses and create a more cohesive public.

I average approx. 1 forum post per year, so I guess this is my post for 2006. Vehicle is right about the need to re-work pub a bit, but I also think it should be taken a bit further.

I remember about 3 years ago when everyone was complaining that pubs sucked because it was overrun with levi's and they wish there was a separate pub that didn't have levis. At the time, staff said it was impossible, because of course if you know how the server settings work, pub is pub, you can't specify different ones.

Then along came some brilliant bot programming and the problem was solved. Now that we have lived with this setup for a while, we have learned a lot from it, including fully realizing the power of what bots can do for us (as I now watch staffers *UFO themselves using bots!).

Alas, though, it's time to make some decisions on what we have learned and move forward. We now have such disjointed settings depending on what arena you are in that it has to be a real turnoff to potential new players. If I just started playing now, I would come into pub a few times and be like "WTF!" each time because the rules were totally different each time. And heaven forbid if I read one of those green zoners and went to a hosted arena, as confused as I already was.

I think we have learned a lot about how we can improve upon ship settings to unify the pubs. One thing that we cannot forget is that a large part of TW's success is owed to the brilliant combination of settings that were originally created by people like PriitK and Arilou (and some others who I can't think of right now). It is an extremely delicate balancing act, coming up with 8 ships that are different but competitive, and playable as a team game. If we start eliminating ships it actually becomes much easier to manage but that is a shortcut, not the true solution.

In the old days, Levis were just fine, a very necessary "heavy artillery" component to warfare. We have to look at what happened that caused so many of us to want different pubs that kept levis away from us. The big problem with levis isn't the fact that they are levis, and they really don't need any special settings changes in my opinion. The original idea was that "heavy artillery" needs to be expensive, slow without some help, and very cumbersome. The "expense" of gaining a useful levi was eradicated when people started "cheating" by greening levs in safe (you know: switching teams, then suiciding, to help green a levi). Suddenly, levis were everywhere. You couldn't play a decent game anymore because the ships had become unbalanced.

The solution is to make levis expensive again. Find solutions to the greening problem and levis will again be balanced with the rest of the game.

Years ago, the placement of certain bricks in the pub map made it more difficult for levi's to blast flag room. That, combined with a more "expensive" levi as I explained before, would mean that the Cram is an annoying component of the game that would still have power. To me, the small weasel is a great way to help unbalance the Cram, and it brings that ship more into the game than it ever was, so it should stay.

Now, as to the role of the bots. They should be in all pubs and run the timed games continuously. The timed games are a great way to give the pub game an actual beginning and ending. If some people choose to duel in pub instead of playing the timed game, so be it. At least it is there for those who want it.

I could also see limiting the numbers of certain ships to POTENTIALLY be a good idea, although it would have to be tested a bit. If we have team ship limites, they should be roughly the same as what will be used in ?go base, TWBD, TWLB, etc... (more on this issue a couple paragraphs down).

I would like to see private freq's be allowed again in all pubs. Each pub should be larger than 35, I think we're at 40 now and I would actually like to see 45, which would accommodate private freqs better while still allowing for competitive basing.

Now here is the thing where I disagree with Vehicle a little. These should not just be pub settings. These settings should standardized across all of TW "as much as possible" (no levis in zombies, kthx). But I think that the decision to have ship restrictions that are different than pub in ?go base, TWBD, and TWLB, was a poor choice. I believe that all basing arenas should have same settings. I know it's not easy to go back through old maps and bring them up to date, but I also believe those maps shouldn't be hosted until they are brought up to current ship settings. I'm tired of hosted basing events that have a large weasel. And Levis should be allowed in all basing events if a team cap is crazy enough to try to use one.

What is the desired result of all of this: a more unified game across arenas with 8 very balanced ships that all play well together as a team. That is what brought hordes of people to Trench Wars in the first place, and I believe it will bring in a new generation of players, as well as bring back some old ones.

One of the hardest parts of making major changes is the fear that it will cause players to abandon the game. But I think the approach I have outlined is a way to fix things without making any changes that people would consider "major". Really it's just a handful of small changes. Although it would reshape the game in many ways, I don't see any thing so major as to cause people to have to learn a new game.

[Vehicle]

I agree with almost everything you said space. The settings should be brought up to date zone wide in arena's that use the standard public settings, there should indeed be bots in every pub running timed games (with or without levithans,) and some tiles may need to be reworked to make levi's less muderous. I have also been campaigning for the allowance of private frequencies in all pubs for a long time, it encourages competitive gameplay and also encourages more veteran players to come back to pub and stage a takeover.

However, we do disagree on one major issue, the cloaker. In public arena's the cram isn't really an issue because players don't spider, let alone cram when they enter pubs. The cloaker is nothing more then a hard to hit lobbing machine that captures the flag and saves the game every once in a while. However, you may remember a small group of players who were actually good at playing weasel when it was large.

This is why there needs to be a player to lead the charge to change publics for the better while still not betraying the original shipsettings and without alienating a large amount of the community.

[crazi]

You are a great dean. You were the only person that would give me a chance. (well after yomama)

[Diakka]

You were a great dean. You gave crazi a chance! Now look at him! Hey crazi!

[D1st0rt]

Solid move. You may have just effectively created your own penis showing game, or at least taken a step towards it (reference to Waiting, the movie Wark was talking about). Anyone who says you did a horrible job as dean probably doesn't have a full appreciation for the position.

The final idea that I have and really challenge anyone who can program to do is this: Make a system and bots to replay an actual game that is played(with bots as the players) . I think this is possible and would be awesome to actually see done. I know there is so much dev and other stuff that is important but I really like this. I know that’s sorta getting off topic but creative ideas are what separates this zone from the others. (note this is a total side note of the rest of the post).

I know we've had several lengthy discussions about this, so I'll just summarize for the general forum people before they get any great ideas like flooding bot devs. As I see it, there are a lot of issues with this that make an ideal implementation of it next to impossible on a ssc-connected subgame server.

If any of you who know what you are talking about would like to discuss more of the technical aspects, I'll be happy to talk about my take on it.

[Vatican Assassin]

We need a single player option with AI ships for practice and electrical storms. And will someone switch this game to 3d already.

[D1st0rt]

We need a single player option with AI ships for practice

http://www.ssforum.net/index.php?showtopic=11542
http://forums.minegoboom.com/viewtopic.php?t=6605

We kinda have electrical storms in hyperspace, they're player activated area-of-effect damage inflicting things called fields

[kthx]

I guess everyone is anxiously rubbing their hands together greedily while cracking their knuckles and preparing to flame me when I write "owned" etc in this forum, unfortunately to you this isn't going to happen. Pure_Luck me and you really never saw eye to eye, at best we tolerated each others presence for limited periods, with the occasional idea from me to you in a PM or joke in staff chat. I don't think you were that horrible of a dean honestly, compared to Poid before you especially you were an upgrade. And now who knows who could be taking your place, hopefully not Nethila or some other trash smod such as that, but hopefully someone who saw what you did wrong during your term and has made it into a learning experience. I will not however sit here and say that I am glad you didn't step down from your position, it has been widely said throughout the game that the time for you to do it during the last year or so. You unfortunately attempted to turn Trench Wars into a graven image of sorts, remaking the zone as you saw fit in the way you had planned it to be in your mind, occasionally taking a few ideas from people to make it seem like you weren't being completely closed minded about any changes that didn't result in your personal Trench Wars. You would be surprised how many mods and smods took up for you when I berated you and Nethila for this years TWL and said that "PL isn't a bad dean, he just tries to do everything himself and it is too much for him" I never until recently believed this. Anyways I think that you did the right thing in stepping down from your spot in the end, I just hope that you think verrrry long and hard about who is going to be replacing you, because it could very well be the decision that ends this game, or saves this game.

[Dr.Coiff]

http://www.ssforum.net/index.php?showtopic=11542
http://forums.minegoboom.com/viewtopic.php?t=6605

We kinda have electrical storms in hyperspace, they're player activated area-of-effect damage inflicting things called fields

Hey Dist...I remember about a year ago I went and visited Bahamut in another zone that he was helping out in. I think it was called Zero Anihilation....anyways, I was chatting with the OP and he had programmed a sort of AI game where during battle a bunch of bots came out and started hunting the humans. It was really quite neat as they actually had the sense to follow and chase. Played it for a bit but it never caught on.
Perhaps someone else knows something about this?

[Ayano]

We also need to combine the devs and form one committee that oversees them all.(yes stealing your idea ikrit) . We need to be able to go to a person or to a committee and they should know what others are doing. Not everyone doin their own thing. We need structure in this regard too. On a side note, the maps need also to be more carefully scrutinized .

Amen. The rift between Twmaps and Twdev has caused a few problems. Having Twmaps as a supervising body to Twdev was never right in my opinion. Those who 'joined' Twmaps from the twdev map division tended to feel the power rush to thier head as they now had the ability to 'approve' and 'optimize' maps on the basis that they were improving it for upload on trenchwars. Rather than improving, this has caused arena limits, setting errors, alterations in game play; all of which could be avoided if the two were one and the same. Twmaps were treating Twdev maps as if they were submissions form local players rather than projects from twdev itself. For the current head of Twmaps, F22, I feel his agenda lies more on the staff side rather than the dev component. I know F22 has done much for this zone but i've seen little leadership from him, and even less communication with development members even when it comes to projects. F22 would make a good staffer, but from my view stance, his role doesn't seem fit for a head development position.

Merging Twmaps and Twdev is a rather seamless process as a commitee is already in place and these commitee members can act just as well as Twmaps in the aproval process with one difference. Rather than having a seperate group in which twdev needs to appeal before, the process is internal were both approver and developer are on the same playing field rather than one feeling he or she has final say on the matter like how it is now. I found it akward when Ikrit merged all development to Twdev that Twmaps refused to be incorperated, in some way it felt it had to stay seperate as if it were a higher body of power. We don't need this seperation in dev, I refused to join the group on that basis; when F22 opened the topic on recruiting to Twmaps from the twdev map division I felt as it was some 'special' yes/no club. In all due respect, tw map division members who have joined this 'special' group have used their position to push through thier own maps which would otherwise if submitted, would have been denied; there is also a high questionability (for the newer members) on thier conduct and knowledge of the CFG 'crashables'.

[F22 Raptor]

People, be more serious about it.
Thanks

[Ravos]

idd 3 years fly by.
Nothing to complain about actually tw is still fun.
will always be.
Only thing like you said yourself u recruit most of basers to be zh.
Would have been cool to have some diversity with javs and duelers too