Distension Beta Suggestions/Bugfix thread

[AcidBomber]

On dist-topic: the rumor of all progress from the last 3 days being deleted, true?

Yes.
But then again is beta, things do happen. :P

[gdugwyler]

Sorry about the loss in data. I have no idea how that happened. I made a copy from the database we were using to a new one... but, yes, such is the way of beta. Also, I think I figured out why it didn't save yesterday before the automated shutdown. Should be fixed today.

TK penalty: Made this slightly less serious across the board for Javs and Levis, but it'll still hurt. Also, the TK penalty used to be reduced for TKing someone below rank 10; now it's reduced for anyone 20 ranks or more below you.

Levi Multi: The delay hasn't been reduced, no. You simply have to think a little bit about how you might use it, as is the case with a lot of Distension abilities. (God forbid it not simply be a spread that costs a little more than normal fire! O heavens!) Consider that it's much, much cheaper than regular fire. The intent is not to use it by itself, but in conjunction with the standard fire and bombs. As it costs so little, you can fire it when you have almost no energy. At this point you wouldn't be able to fire a normal shot, or, if you fired a normal shot with the minimum amount of energy, you'd have to wait about the delay of the multi's delay to recharge back enough to fire again -- if not longer. The point of the Multi is having an extra shot at the end of a barrage when you'd otherwise be waiting around to recharge anyway. High-skill players with a good Multi toggle location will do well with this, whereas those new to the game will not ... and generally this is how I aim to have most of the powers work, so that skill (as well as a thoughtful, tactical approach) remains a large factor in how well you do in Distension.

Shrap: Slowed it down slightly.

Player cap: This isn't done because I necessarily want it to be done. After a certain point too many people in game would admittedly get ridiculous, but I don't think we've yet reached that point. Mainly this is to keep the bot running smoothly, rearming people at a good speed, without too much waiting or lag, and with no risk of recycling the server. As most people can probably attest to, in most cases the rearm speed is much better than it used to be, and the bot doesn't lag any longer. The cap I intend to be at 50, but during beta I need it at 40 to ensure the system works before public release. Depending on player demand and whether or not the server and bot core can handle it, multiple arenas may be in order. In particular we may have one arena for somewhat higher ranked ships only (25+ or so), and one that allows 1 to 40 or thereabouts.


Need opinions:

Cadet/Officer/Flag officer rankings: You've probably noticed the addition of these rankings. I'd like to see them become meaningful. You already have to be an Officer (Ensign or above) in order to pilot Tactical Ops. I'd also like to see Ensign+ give some abilities, such as official communications. You PM the bot something, and it sends out the message with the header ENSIGN SOANDSO: <msg>. A really basic function, but one which gives your message a more official bearing. Limited to one every 5 min or so per person. Starting with the command ranks (Lieutenant Commander+) I'd also like to see the option to give orders to lower-ranked individuals: go to this or that base, defend this person. Or, forming squadrons, so that a certain bot command could communicate between members of the squadron (no limitations), with the leader's messages given a special header. Ideally it would be something simple, like just starting the PM to the bot with -, and then the message after would be sent to the formed squadron. At the Flag Officer level (Commodore and above), even more selective commands would be useful. Maybe something to alter how the army behaves, such as bonuses to special ability chances, or increased levels of maneuvering for all ships, each with some sort of cost built in. Flag Officers could also order full squadrons to specific areas and so on. Just throwing out some ideas ... would be interested to hear if you guys have any suggestions for what we might do with the new rankings.

(Also, this sort of thing could really be added after we go public ... there's a lot that could be put into Distension after a public release, so long as it's understood that it's still in development. A lot of games continue to develop quite a bit after beta -- just without the fear that character stats will be reset.)

[2kill]

Cadet/Officer/Flag officer rankings: You've probably noticed the addition of these rankings. I'd like to see them become meaningful. You already have to be an Officer (Ensign or above) in order to pilot Tactical Ops. I'd also like to see Ensign+ give some abilities, such as official communications. You PM the bot something, and it sends out the message with the header ENSIGN SOANDSO: <msg>. A really basic function, but one which gives your message a more official bearing. Limited to one every 5 min or so per person. Starting with the command ranks (Lieutenant Commander+) I'd also like to see the option to give orders to lower-ranked individuals: go to this or that base, defend this person. Or, forming squadrons, so that a certain bot command could communicate between members of the squadron (no limitations), with the leader's messages given a special header. Ideally it would be something simple, like just starting the PM to the bot with -, and then the message after would be sent to the formed squadron. At the Flag Officer level (Commodore and above), even more selective commands would be useful. Maybe something to alter how the army behaves, such as bonuses to special ability chances, or increased levels of maneuvering for all ships, each with some sort of cost built in. Flag Officers could also order full squadrons to specific areas and so on. Just throwing out some ideas ... would be interested to hear if you guys have any suggestions for what we might do with the new rankings.

now heres a few ideas for flag officer (though I think they maybe too powerful)

#1 conscription: the ability for high ranking officers to order people in to support ships (terr and shark) limited to one per round or something and as a bonus new people to the ships could get the RP to level up to rank 5 or so (cause thats what I hear the most from people in the game 'I would terr but my terr low rank so its going to be really bad')

2# Discounts: the ability to discount by 5% or something a general upgrade(like thrust, top speed, recharge) for the whole round and free time following to give the people who are to busy in the round to upgrade. (terr)

also I see a chance that no one will listen to orders so there will have to be an ability to !courtmartial <soandso> he could lose 1 rank or so much RP from all his ships. (Or perhaps the bot from an ability like conscription can lock you in to a ship? or check to see if a squadron is in the right place and if the majoriaty isn't it would -RP everyone I mean that that would count spawn as where the squadron is supposed to be too)

Cadet 2nd class 2kill

[Edit: another idea, a !progressrank (or !pr) to tell you how many more rounds you need to win to increase you standing, just an idea]

[Mjollnir]

now heres a few ideas for flag officer (though I think they maybe too powerful)

#1 conscription: the ability for high ranking officers to order people in to support ships (terr and shark) limited to one per round or something and as a bonus new people to the ships could get the RP to level up to rank 5 or so (cause thats what I hear the most from people in the game 'I would terr but my terr low rank so its going to be really bad')

#2 Discounts: the ability to discount by 5% or something a general upgrade(like thrust, top speed, recharge) for the whole round and free time following to give the people who are to busy in the round to upgrade. (terr)

also I see a chance that no one will listen to orders so there will have to be an ability to !courtmartial <soandso> he could lose 1 rank or so much RP from all his ships. (Or perhaps the bot from an ability like conscription can lock you in to a ship? or check to see if a squadron is in the right place and if the majoriaty isn't it would -RP everyone I mean that that would count spawn as where the squadron is supposed to be too)

Cadet 2nd class 2kill

#1 conscription: Sounds okay. Being level 0 or 5 doesn't make much of a difference but I guess it doesn't hurt either. This would probably get abused though since people would be leveling their friends up.

2# Discounts: This would probably be too much of a mess to implement. What happens after the round ends? How about an ability to give a rank in all main manuverability upgrades (or other upgrades) to a ship/ships?

I do not like the idea of losing RP over not listening to orders. Other alternatives would be demoting a player (after several offences) or forcing them to the ordered ship if that is the order. I do not want to see people losing a lot of real RP from not listening to orders since most people are droolers (and hence won't listen no matter what) and if someone is abusing the orders it will get old pretty quickly.

EDIT: Following orders could lead to faster promotions.

[2kill]

#1 conscription: Sounds okay. Being level 0 or 5 doesn't make much of a difference but I guess it doesn't hurt either. This would probably get abused though since people would be leveling their friends up.

2# Discounts: This would probably be too much of a mess to implement. What happens after the round ends? How about an ability to give a rank in all main manuverability upgrades (or other upgrades) to a ship/ships?

I do not like the idea of losing RP over not listening to orders. Other alternatives would be demoting a player (after several offences) or forcing them to the ordered ship if that is the order. I do not want to see people losing a lot of real RP from not listening to orders since most people are droolers (and hence won't listen no matter what) and if someone is abusing the orders it will get old pretty quickly.

1# conscription: they would only be able to level them up to level 5 its wouldn't be to abused since if you want, those levels go pretty quick, but it makes them have some stuff like a burst I can't remember right now when you can upgrade them.

2# discount: you would keep your upgrades at the round end cause you did spend your UP on them. Now do you mean that they would get the improvement just for that round? (I could see that working since dug mentioned it in his post already)

I think your right it could get annoying if someone abuses it, maybe give mods or staff the ability to demote someone to a cadet again? and as I said I would perfer a bot enforcing the rules. and if they won't listen to orders they should be taught to listen

2kill

[Mjollnir]

How do level 4 bullets and bombs work in Continuum? Are these bullets also hardcoded so that shooting them costs x times more energy than lesser bullets. What about the bombs? Especially level 4 bombs could be useful as an ability. Warping a player on top of a ball (that increases bullet and bomb level by 1) and back would enable having up to lvl 4 stuff. This could be a high level tactical op or a high level officer ability. This ability has three potential problems though:

1) It would mean that the ball would keep giving different people (even the enemies) the ability to get higher level stuff since the ball doesn't disappear anywhere.
2) If the energy costs cannot be lowered most people couldn't even shoot, rendering the ability useless.
3) Warping isn't possible with a ball since the warp button shoots the ball.

With all the problems and uncertainties I am not sure if it is a good idea to have something like this but I guess that new ideas can't hurt either.

EDIT: Other high level abilities could be prizing a brick, a thor, bouncing bullets, super, shields, or warping people to certain locations. Some of them are probably OPs abilities already?

[Dack Falu]

EDIT: Other high level abilities could be prizing a brick, a thor, (bouncing bullets) or warping people to certain locations. The last one is probably an OPs ability already?

Thors are WB's rank 50 ability. It's not fair to us if it could be prized.

[Mjollnir]

Thors are WB's rank 50 ability. It's not fair to us if it could be prized.

Almost all of them are some ship's abilities but if they were very high level abilities it shouldn't be that bad.

[duel pasta]

You can use a flag so you can scrap problem 3

[Mjollnir]

You can use a flag so you can scrap problem 3

I don't think you can use a stationary flag and a moving flag at the same time. I hope I am wrong though..

[duel pasta]

I don't think you can use a stationary flag and a moving flag at the same time. I hope I am wrong though..

Fuck, I'm ashamed for not remembering this, but

dont you put stationary flags on the map with tiles and moving flags with settings. I'm pretty sure, but you can't say where exactly they spawn tho' you have to say how far from center they spawn

[Mjollnir]

Fuck, I'm ashamed for not remembering this, but

dont you put stationary flags on the map with tiles and moving flags with settings. I'm pretty sure, but you can't say where exactly they spawn tho' you have to say how far from center they spawn

If that is true, is there a command for finding the exact coords of the flag? That way it would be easy to just make the distance huge (so it would be outside the map box) and warp the player on top of it.

[AcidBomber]

I dont like that discount thing.
It would be vastly unfair for the pilots on the opposing team.
Just think, level 30 ship wb vs another level 30 wb would have differences in the amount of upgrades.

Bad idea. <_<

[Fluffz]

no pink enemy, please leave the chat alone, nothing to improve there...

[AcidBomber]

no pink enemy, please leave the chat alone, nothing to improve there...

On that note, i like that wormhole (is fun and interesting during free play).

The red dot for enemy on radar is a good addition too; however, i think you should have more contrast/colour on the names. Is very hard for me to distinguish between the enemy and teammates without looking on radar (because the 'red-ish-pink' looks similar to the 'silver-grey').

Also, chat is very hard to see/read, and it hurts my eyes...