Distension Beta Suggestions/Bugfix thread

[jngy slate]

gtfo cheese

[maddack]

Just wanted to say why I have stopped playing beta (I stopped a long time ago I know).

You made the game way too complicated by adding new features all the time.

Now I was bored and curious what has happened. I remember a post saying launch of "live" version around mid-april. Instead you have started adding all kind of stuff.

Distension was fine before you added the ops feature.

[Viruk]

A few things:

I find it confusing when it tells me I have gained 10UP per level and I only have 4 of them to spend. It should tell you they are going towards the automatic upgrades. It should tell you when an automatic upgrade happens so you get some sense of progress as, apart from energy upgrades, you are unlikely to notice the difference.

Ideally you should have the option to see all your upgrades including automatic ones as well as the numbers behind them when you check your armory. This will make it possible to tell the difference between the various ship types while testing and could make it easier to plan upgrades while playing. Seeing your automatic upgrades should give a better sense of progress. Seeing the numbers behind the upgrades would make it possible to tell whether an upgrade ought to be good value or not and should lead to fewer complaints about high priced, big increase upgrades.

Unless I choose the Z class this will mean at higher levels I will be lucky to make any useful upgrade in 3 - 4 levels which could take quite a while with no beta multiplier. Even in today's beta I found myself switching my terrier to Z-class merely to have more fun with a chance of upgrading something when I leveled rather than to maximize a particular combination.

Not sure if this is already suggested or done: Would it be possible to have automatic dummy upgrades that could make the number of ship upgrades up to your rank if less? Would the upgrade number on screen then be a more accurate indicator of level? Obviously this still won't work very well if people are able to make more upgrades than levels but I am not sure this is happening much right now and may never happen at higher levels.

When you type !specialize with no argument I think it ought to list the ship types.

The !specialize X:YES syntax seems to be case sensitive on the YES bit which I find rather annoying and could easily confuse someone who doesn't realize this.

I like the new format for the end of the game score display. It seems clearer and easier to find the bits you are interested in. Please finish the bottom and put your end of game RP bonus in it too.

Terrier bursts still rather powerful - I noticed I was first for RP and joint first for max streak and terrier kills in the last game. I am a lousy terrier pilot and missed most of the opportunities to use my ports and died many times when I had bursts. At several points I wasn't even paying full attention to the game. My terrier was Z-class and not optimized for killing and everyone is more or less the same rank as me. Admittedly if I was playing more seriously I would have been playing much more defensively. I still do not think it should be that easy for a terrier to kill so much and level so fast. Bursts (sometimes after an escape pod in FR) and a good (if irregular) burst recharge rate must have been the cause although I did manage to kill quite a few with my little red bullets.

I would rather not be spammed by all the level-up messages for other players. I would prefer to be able to turn these off completely but if this is not possible can it be made so they only message the arena every fifth level until level 50 or so? I know it is not going to be such a big problem without the beta multiplier and some other players would rather keep them all but it seems utterly ridiculous to be notified that player Alpha has just reached level 3 when you are at rank 40.

Would it be possible to display a graphic with your team's flag or emblem when you return to the distension arena? It would make it faster to spot when you have been reshuffled to another team and perhaps the design could include your team's frequency number, name and home base colors to help tie all this together. Possibly some of the symbology could even be included in the base graphics (perhaps mixed in the north base as this will be the battleground for single FR games).

My kill messages help me see levels and target the more profitable ships but an option for brief kill messages would be nice as this could cut down on spam and save the bot some bandwidth. Something that would include but abbreviate all the various factors (e.g. 'ES' for 'Ended Streak') with the total RP and total bonus %.

[Zeimonster]

dont know anything about the other ships but i tried shark for some 20 mins today and imo it was highly overpowered at level 40 already. I had ~1550 energy, max thrust and speed, 3 reps and 50% regen, cloak and enough recharge to be able to keep cloak on without losing practically any energy. I dont think i specialized in anything. Just killed one guy, leveled to 40 and upped everything I could.

Umm, but like I said, I dont know anything about the other ships. I just dont recall seeing so powerful sharks earlier even though some of them were at high 50's.

On another note, bombs have no radius anymore? Too sleepy to read all the posts above - sorry if it's been answered somewhere. Even as a shark the small radius didnt bother me in-game, though. Just wondering how many people would play javs anymore. At least give them 2 bounces for their bombs to make it more fun! :turned:

[DankNuggets]

I like the different classes thing. I was actually talking about this on the game then somebody mentioned you'd had a similar idea, heh.

For those interested, I've set up a small resource page for distension on my site. Currently it has some numeric stats and a program that lets you plan out your ship build, could come in handy. Of course that'll need updating whenever dug changes game balance, but I've made it so updating is easy enough.

Anyway you can update that site with the new ship types ? Would make everyone's life much easier :grin: :wub: :thumbsup:

[DankNuggets]

after last night's test, i was only really able to upgrade my lev but i did specialize it. before specialization, i had decent energy (no idea about recharge) and 400 UP. I chose Z-Class, and spent nearly all my of my 400 UP on slots 4/5. After I maxed those out, i figure i'm only 1 or 2 steps ahead of every other ship (50-100 energy) and no idea on the recharge. But i'm down 300+ UP and only ~80 UP better than the other ships. If I have to spend 300 UP on energy and recharge, I want it to be much better than the other ships' energy and recharge. The insane costs to keep the energy on par with the stock scout don't make sense.

Maybe Z class could have AVG or MED recharge and energy, with only 3-4 upgrades for slots 4 and 5 that are separated like 10 ranks. That way, it'd still only be slightly better of a ship energy-wise, but it'd be paying a fair price (a couple of upgrades) instead of the 15 upgrades that it has currently (of which i don't know how many it takes to keep it on par with scout). Maybe less UP could be given per rank if it has med/avg to keep it with the others.

Specialization is gonna be hard to test out at this high of a rank i think, since it took me a whole test just to tweak 1 ship @ 1 specialization. All that !a !u takes awhile, especially if you don't know what to expect. You won't see a lot of people trying each specialization out, since it takes a long time to do and it's hard to see the difference right away.

[2kill]

and there is no way to check your ship alignment after you specialize... like !myalign or something

and the new energy/fire levels are still terribly unbalanced, why is it that i have a level45 shark, and can barely take a lv2 bullet, when almost every ship is firing lv3s?
AND ALSO, if zclass ships are PAYING FOR THEIR FREE UPGRADES, why did you cap it? and why is the cap so low?
50% nonfree chg/nrg leaves there no reason to be zclass...


and when you added the 'swarm of sharks' thing, you forgot to check the number of players, because in a 2v2, everyone gets -50% rp


also, i noticed you made respecialization of your ship cost 5%, which is a rather large change, wouldnt u agree?
by contrast, to scrap 1 item, it costs 15%.
i suggest that scrap and respec cost 5% and 10%, respectively.

k first point the !myalign should really be in the !status spam

just wondering here cheese but didn't you say last test that you were a Science Vessel? that would mean you would have the lowest energy and recharge but most UP. that would be why you can't tank.

yea I was noticing that to with the swarm I was terring and someone switched to a terr giving us 2 in like a 5v5 match and I got swarm of terrs :-/

I think specializen should cost more then a scraping cause you're scraping your whole energy and recharge lines.

about the terr: it is my opinion that warship for a safe terr, or artillery for your attack terr are the best ways to go poor cheese got me when I was testing the attack terr lol though I did get like 5 streaks in a round

Thats all for right now I've only gotten to play a bit and have only upgraded my wb, jav, and terr so I don't know about balance issues.

2kill

P.S. I still think go with commonweath names what with my pro-british leanings

[roxxkatt]

lol, that kinda snowballed a little ^-^

/spam

if (cheese==boring)
{
tl;dr
}
else
{
gtfo cheese
}


^_^;

[roxxkatt]

and also, while i still had ops, my last three suggestions are these:

#1:
sometimes i would close a door, and they would randomly disappear.
i found out what was causing this, and exploited it.
every time the other ops would close a door, i simply closed a worthless door worth 1 op or whatever, which opened the bad one.

door 1 + door 2 = door 2, i would rather have it be
door 1 + door 2 = DOOR SETTING 3.

also, the ability to open enemy doors have a much brighter future, even though u cant atm...

it should cost the same for you to close it, as to open.


#2:
i never used, and never saw used, the ops sabotage messages.
theres no way to upgrade your 3/3 message pool, and the sabotage messages werent useful, and expensive.

i propose that it maxed out at 5/5, and all messages cost 1, regardless of its type.

even as my ops was -LEVEL 75- BEFORE THE BUG, WHICH I NO LONGER HAVE, i still kept it at lvl1, wasnt worth upgrading.

#3:
prizing shields was supposed to be the pinnacle of the ops ability, with the final ops ability being prizing everyone shields....

why are shields so useless?
everyone i shielded died within seconds...

either dramatically reduce the cost, as in half or less, or extend shields time for every ship EXCEPT WB, to 20 seconds or so.



...ops probably wont be tested again...ever.
probably not before the public release.

*edit*
2 more things, make the orb a little bigger, so it covers thrust as well.
enigma compensates for this by removing it.
and make the shroud bigger, to cover those in 1024x1068 or bigger...
*edit*
also, after the bot leaves, the 2 opsmen are still on freqs 0 and 1, and were never returned to the spec freq...
*edit*

and ALSO, when this goes public, there WILL be more then one arena, whether theres more then 1 bot or not...
i strongly suggest that there be a GLOBAL OPS (ship 10), with all ships > 50 (1-9), and at least a Fleet Captain (which is 10x harder then ensign).

i also still propose you use the US Navy enlisted and officer ranks, as theres more, they sound cooler, and youve already used about 60% of them...

[roxxkatt]

also, we did some troubleshooting today, and found that the bot was lagging after a new player entered, somewhere after the 300000rp starting bonus.


and opsmine still isnt in?
all it takes is 5 mine pics in the lvz between the player and tile levels, and sending *objon....
and the bot placing them...


and there is no way to check your ship alignment after you specialize... like !myalign or something


and the new energy/fire levels are still terribly unbalanced, why is it that i have a level45 shark, and can barely take a lv2 bullet, when almost every ship is firing lv3s?
AND ALSO, if zclass ships are PAYING FOR THEIR FREE UPGRADES, why did you cap it? and why is the cap so low?
50% nonfree chg/nrg leaves there no reason to be zclass...


and when you added the 'swarm of sharks' thing, you forgot to check the number of players, because in a 2v2, everyone gets -50% rp


also, i noticed you made respecialization of your ship cost 5%, which is a rather large change, wouldnt u agree?
by contrast, to scrap 1 item, it costs 15%.
i suggest that scrap and respec cost 5% and 10%, respectively.


also, i noticed that theres a !ban, but theres no !listban...
im sure rudy would get unhappy about that =P


and i noticed
m_botAction.sendPrivateMessage(arenaPlayerID, "YOU ARE NOW A MASTER " + shipname.toUpperCase() + ". ALL WILL FOREVER REMEMBER THE NAME OF " + name.toUpperCase() + " ... CONGRATULATIONS!!!", Tools.Sound.VICTORY_BELL );
m_botAction.sendArenaMessage( name.toUpperCase() + " has become a MASTER " + shipname.toUpperCase() + ". SALUTE THIS LIVING LEGEND!!", Tools.Sound.PLAY_MUSIC_ONCE );

btw, MASTER OF THE would sound much better, if u insert tactical ops after, the original sounds terrible.

could that be a zoner instead?
id say it would have been earned...
as Fleet Admiral as well...


and on line 7286, you have Tools.printLog( "Error banning player " + name );
in the UNBAN function...
unbanning*

[roxxkatt]

then it died*

btw, has noone noticed that there has never been a break?
"Breaks: N/A [0] "
possibly a coding error?

perhaps it could be possible to award RP in proportion to the end reward for being on the end leaderboard?
like we used to do for having most breaks?

also, dug, you still havnt added the bottom you forgot about to the end spam,
is that coming?
i know its only a tiny fix =P

additionally, in a ship supposed to be getting +11UP per rank, i only got +10 when i lvl'd (default still?)
was in shark, science vessel, lvl41.

and would it be possible to raise the beta multi to x10?
just because its a nice round number =P
but ive also noticed that at high ranks, its too sharp an exponential, and ranking takes a REALLY LONG TIME. the beta multi is countering that, but when this goes public, its going to be really noticable...

Actually, your comment truly was absolutely fucking stupid.

and who the fuck are you?
some retard who never plays, doesnt know shit, and noone cares about?
dont butt in to things you cant possibly finish, fucktard.
go crawl back under the little rock you crawled out from under.

[Fluffz]

duno what caused this but it looks fishy

END OF BATTLE 3: People's Republic of Misanthropy (0) is victorious.
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 10 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 15 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 20 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 25 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 26 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 27 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 28 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 29 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 30 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 31 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 32 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 33 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 34 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 35 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 36 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 37 in the Warbird!
SAM SPADE of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 38 in the Warbird!
CHAO <ER> of People's Republic of Misanthropy has been promoted to RANK 41 in the Shark!
.================================================= =============================.
| Total award: 26811.0 RP 75% for 4 on support -> average 5026 RP |
| 25% for 4 on attack -> average 1676 RP |
}====== MVPs ================================================== ============{
| Holds: Chao <ER> [12] Breaks: N/A [0] |
| FR Kills: MegamanEXE [39] TeKs: MegamanEXE [7] |
| Gen. Kills: MegamanEXE [49] Best Ratio: MegamanEXE [2.23:1] |
| Best Streak: Wagyo, MegamanEXE [5] RP: MegamanEXE [21141] |
WAR STATUS 0 [ =| ] 1 2 MORE NEEDED FOR WIN

than it died

[gdugwyler]

i suggest a higher speed upgrade cap for scouts!

Hm, interesting idea. I was thinking of making some of the upgrades available only to certain ship types... could also try something along the lines of a single slot that would represent a different upgrade depending on type. Nothing too wild, but just something more to set them apart.

By the way, if you're taking the Scout option I hope that you're choosing Advanced Scout. After a certain rank, the default Scout is even worse than the Science Vessel in terms of energy and recharge upgrades. It's meant to be the starter ship and not much else, though it might be advantageous in terms of UP and upgrades given to keep around to a certain rank...

[Fluffz]

i suggest a higher speed upgrade cap for scouts!

[gdugwyler]

Thanks ali for that concise and clear description of the large number of changes that have occurred in the game recently. Sorry to those with whom I was short with today. It's been a frustrating last few days of (non-)testing and I was not in a mood to repeat myself for each player -- that said not even the prior forum posts made a decent explanation of what had happened, so the questions were not surprising.

One major issue remains: that of the lag (or more likely packetloss) between our RoboKing bot server and the TW server itself. Today's test and especially yesterday's were severely limited by the bot simply not being able to stay online with a shoddy connection. I might have a temporary fix for this -- basically just forcing the bot to slow down the number of packets it tries to send out at once -- but until the issue is resolved the game will not be running all that well. That said, once it is we'll resume all testing as normal, and will need all the testers we can get for this final phase of testing.