Distension Beta Suggestions/Bugfix thread

[gdugwyler]

• Stalemate now should give a percentage of points based on the total amount of time the flag was held by one freq. It will say something like: "Stalemate Award: 19203890192038 RP ... Split: 41% for army 0, 59% for army 1." Thanks for the suggestion about somehow giving it more one way than the other -- lead to that idea.
  
  I think that should be about as fair as a stalemate can get, and perhaps now both sides will be happy with the result, even if it's not an extremely desirable situation. If anything a stalemate shows that both teams are extremely competent (or both extremely incompetent!), and deserves to be a fitting end for a round.
• Terrs should no longer be summoned by !summon orders. It was never intended that they should be. It should also no longer affect Ops who are not spectating a particular player.
• I'll reduce Jav L2 bomb firing costs slightly.

Questions:

• If it's generally agreed that Levis are underplayed, I'm going to increase their bomb damage again (or, alternately, reduce firing cost and delay). I would like them to be a formidable support ship rather than a weakish attack ship. Seems like just a while ago everyone was saying that Levis were terrors?
  
  I would like this ship to get a special bot ability in the way that many others are receiving, if anything just to make it more interesting to play. I don't want any to get too boring.
• Is Jav's JumpSpace at all useful? Are the negative aspects too significant to make it work?

The bulk of the work I'm doing lately is focusing on an introduction for new players, as this is one of the last few pieces necessary. A window will pop up for any new enlisted player, and give them the option to run a short intro that will familiarize them with the game rules and objective, the basic HUD, and so on with similar pop-up windows that will play like most game intro sequences over the period of maybe 60 seconds. (This should still allow the player to move around and fight normally if they wish.)

[jngy slate]

it appears summon is working... though I would like if the terrs could get on the don't summon list as it is they get summoned and have no why of getting taken off meaning that they loss their place in flagroom

2kill

I agree. At least have an option for the terr to be taken off the list. There are many times when there are 2 terrs on the same team going to the same base. During a flag room battle if one of them dies the other could use !summon to try to bring him back quick. That could be a cheap way for a terr to get up there in the long run. Or maybe the terr is actually a bottom base terr but gets summoned to the top.

[2kill]

terr !summon

it appears summon is working... though I would like if the terrs could get on the don't summon list as it is they get summoned and have no why of getting taken off meaning that they loss their place in flagroom

2kill

[Mjollnir]

yuh, energy cost for L2 bombs is too harsh, definitely. Some 1500-1600 would be more bearable. I dont mind shrap being slower, that's good, but you also reduced the damage they do quite a bit.

Agreed with this. Playing the Jav was no longer fun.

[Viruk]

TKs no ending streaks for person that got tked is ok. Punish the tker and make javs aim is even better!

Agreed!

Why crippling terrs? Because 1 player complains about bursts?

I count at least 3 players who feel strongly enough to post here.
It would take a massive burst and port nerf and not a small fraction of regen to 'cripple' the terrier. In any case since bursts are as effective against other terriers as anything else then nerfing bursts might even help base terriers survive longer although it would reduce their killing power and leveling speed.

There are 3-4 terrs in the game per freq, and their only defense is burst... fire a bullet and you die to any ship that hits you.

This is obviously not true:

• They have the option to fire (and they have energy and recharge enough to survive in many situations after firing.)
• They are speedy enough to run - particularly if they are heading towards shelter.
• They have ports.
• They sometimes have EMP.
• They can call for help and often have attaching players to help.
• They will have summon when it is fixed.

Yes they are more easily killed when they fire but that is true for every other ship except possibly a shark with reps or a fully charged levi.

Terr is not overpowered.

Regardless of what ship I am flying I usually die when I go up against any skilled terr near my level in a 1-on-1 situation in base. Bursts and ports seem just too great an advantage against any other single ship in a FR despite the terriers slightly limited thrust and firepower. If the terrier is busy doing something else then with a bit of skill and luck I can often kill it.
My terrier has leveled up so fast that it is at a comparable level to fighter ships I have sweated blood to rank despite the fact that I rarely play terrier and am not very skilled in it.
I don't really mind it being it being a bit overpowered because it is not designed as a duelling ship or a fighter - it needs to be powerful enough to survive in a FR battle and be popular enough to ensure the team has enough. Compared to any other single ship I have no doubt that they are indeed overpowered though.

EMP is used frequently, and it works. I get EMPed at least 4-5 times in long rounds.

I am not sure we have long rounds any more but probably about this. At the moment it seems powerful but not too frequent and not too high a duration.

Will test summon today, thks for looking into it.
I didn't notice javs that wipe out entire team, but they still get 4-5 kills with 1 shot, which is not so bad. Imo, jav is good now (speaking from the perspective of jav's target).

I haven't played jav since the nerfs but since it never had L2 or used much shrap I doubt mine will have changed much. At around level 30 I found it a lot easier than it used to be when I was struggling to rank jav through the 10s and early 20s. Thankfully I have noticed less shrap around lately but it is too early to say it is no longer going to be a serious random death problem. I have still been dying to javs regularly.

[AnidaLife]

so i tried terr's summon today, and it said you can summon again in like 16000 minutes. either we don't know how it works yet or it just doesn't work yet.

As for terrs, I think they're fine now. Most people are comparing them to pub/base terrs, and feel they need a nerf, but in distension there are 20 enemies in 2 bases with only 2-3 sharks on your team. there are way too many things that can kill a terr. so they need the bursts/ports to stay alive. if you nerf bursts, maybe give them something like lanc's leeching.

[Joku Ugo]

In case of "stalemate", i.e. time running out, the winner could be determined by the total time of flags held, like in normal basing. Maybe the win bonus could be a bit smaller since it's not a "true" victory.

Or another option, which I'm sure has been suggested already: Why not decrease the time required for victory if the round is taking too long? It would start at 2 mins, go to 1 min after 20 minutes, to 30 seconds after 30 minutes and so on. Games would never end in stalemates. At least I would be more satisfied with having one team win eventually, even if one might then win more due to luck.

[Zeimonster]

anyone noticed the complete lack of levis lately? today i saw one lev playing in a round with 40+ players and i thought "wow, wtf, a lev". Even i dont ever play my levi because it's so utterly boring no matter what build i try. If i want to get good streaks i rather pick wb or spid or lanc and if i want to bomb the shit out of the base, jav is obviously my choise. There's just nothing appealing in lev anymore

[Vergilius]

Little bug involving streaks: killed ase, he respawned, attached to ajant and exactly then i kill ajant (and ase too). I understand that for the double kill that the streak doesnt count, but it didnt count the kill I had with ajant as well.

here, if it would matter: the msgs from the bot (so in a 5 sec span or sth)
Distension> +155 RP: asesino-en-serie(33) [x4.7 beta] Streak: 2
Distension> +319 RP: Ajant(57) [Terr: +20%] [x4.7 beta]
Distension> +155 RP: asesino-en-serie(33) [x4.7 beta] Streak: 2

[Zeimonster]

yuh, energy cost for L2 bombs is too harsh, definitely. Some 1500-1600 would be more bearable. I dont mind shrap being slower, that's good, but you also reduced the damage they do quite a bit.

[Ajant]

TKs no ending streaks for person that got tked is ok. Punish the tker and make javs aim is even better!
Why crippling terrs? Because 1 player complains about bursts? There are 3-4 terrs in the game per freq, and their only defense is burst... fire a bullet and you die to any ship that hits you. Terr is not overpowered.
EMP is used frequently, and it works. I get EMPed at least 4-5 times in long rounds.
Will test summon today, thks for looking into it.
I didn't notice javs that wipe out entire team, but they still get 4-5 kills with 1 shot, which is not so bad. Imo, jav is good now (speaking from the perspective of jav's target).

[roxxkatt]

it may become more profitable to ignore teammates

but people who dont know what theyre doing, or malicious people may be ending more streaks then tkers aiming for 1 blue dot in 10 yellow dots...



also, would it be possible to use the US Navy ranking system instead of the current one? theres more ranks to use, and they sound cooler =S



and could there be a rank picture below the progress bar, and a fast rearm picture for ops, so they know when its on?

[gdugwyler]

tks shouldnt end streaks, whether killing or dying

If TKs don't end streaks for the TKer, it may become more profitable to ignore teammates in all situations in favor of taking the -RP TK penalty but earning the streak reward. I'm not willing to do that.

Now what's this about changing ship radius? Why do you say it "should be" anything but the standard value? All ships are the same radius except the Weasel and I don't see any reason to change that from stock TW settings, unless there's a general agreement in the community.

I'll reduce burst frequency just a very slight bit more, but I'm not looking to nerf the Terr -- just make it more skill-oriented. If necessary I'll give it other special options for Officer or Flag Officer Terrs, that sort of thing. For example, might make EMP work a bit more effectively. (How often is that used these days, by the way?)

Also, fixed up summon. It will now give feedback at all times, telling you how many players were summoned, if any. If none can be summoned, it will not use the ability, and if you aren't yet cleared for the next summon order, it will tell you exactly how long you have to wait.


Important: Javs - Opinions at present? Was the second nerf too hard? I felt the first didn't adequately adjust. Regardless, I would like to keep the slower shrapnel to keep the overall luck/lame factor down to a minimum. But I'm open to reducing the cost to fire L2 a slight bit.

[2kill]

Just thought that I would post this (save dug the trouble)... the stalemate was changed to 35 minutes cause staff complained about distension going well over its one hour. the stalemate will go back to 50 minutes when the game is released

2kill

P.S. I like the long games too and don't shot the messenger

[roxxkatt]

bursts are the #1 cause of death to my levi.
its really annoying to be on a streak of 8, not have had any newbs on my team suiciding on my bomb, to be killed by some stray burst that appears to be going to miss my 18 radius levi (btw make it 12-14) lame me shortly after i get my 9th kill, preventing me from getting the streak of 10.

also, i loved the long games, and i really hate this stalemate thing.
it might be acceptable if it were at 60mins.

• tks shouldnt end streaks, whether killing or dying
• radius should be 12-14
• less bursts
• 60 minute stalemate