Distension Beta Suggestions/Bugfix thread

[HateTheFake]

heh you should start everyone off as a terrier, til level 5, at least some people will actually use it.

[Malladrin]

heh you should start everyone off as a terrier, til level 5, at least some people will actually use it.

Agreed.

[2kill]

heh you should start everyone off as a terrier, til level 5, at least some people will actually use it.

lol true

[gdugwyler]

Ship balances

First, the good news: I think we'll be able to run Dist again. Hooray, etc.

Other one: I made the ship balance change, as there weren't too many objections. This is probably the largest settings change you'll yet have seen... all energy and recharge upgrades do half of what they did previously, but all ships start with a lot more recharge and energy (proportionally to that factor). Sorry if this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I've been up all night with insomnia and am starting to go a little fucking crazy in the head! Anyhow, this should allow new players to compete a lot better than before, and will also allow people to experiment more freely with ships.

To coincide with this change, the following ships now start off with L2 bullets: WB, Weasel and Lanc. Also, the Levi no longer needs to purchase L1 bullets. I made a small mistake refunding L1 Levi bullets in the database, though, so 16 total Levis (probably every Levi, come to think) is probably off 3UP. If it's true that there are only 16 altogether I'll just give everyone 3UP. Or I might even do it regardless. Will check that tomorrow.

Hope this makes it all a bit more interesting. Yes. Goodnight.

[Foreign]

I think it would be nice if certain things about the ships were automatically improved at certain levels and did not require any UP spent. The best candidate I can think of is max energy, since it behaves much like HP in any other game.

Another idea I just thought of is to have a better explanation of something the first time it happens: for instance, the first time I level up maybe a message explaining to me what leveling is, what the armory is and how to use the upgrade commands. The first time I upgrade to get bursts in terrier, I ought to be informed how to use my new upgrade (same goes for decoys, portals, rockets, etc, etc). Maybe you already do this for some areas but not all? Seems like a professional-looking addition.

[Mjollnir]

A few notes after testing today:

- The javelin seemed okay.

- The warbirds can tank yellow bullets again. I think they get like 1600 energy while the damage is 1400.

- The lvl 3 bullet energy cost is huge. I can barely shoot one single shot with my level 36 weasel and I can't even shoot a multifire shot. I would probably have to scrap A LOT to be able to even shoot one. Also upgrading to the lvl 3 is expensive which doesn't help.

- The attach -> rearm -> get warped thing is happening again but that is probably due to the lag?

- The huge time needed to recapture a flag is annoying.

- I also had a weird thing happen today. I upgraded to level 3 bullets with my weasel and after that I didn't get prized my specials anymore. I had to scrap the gun and buy it again for the prizing to start working again.

EDIT: After the 2nd test and the new lvl 3 multi cost I still think blue bullets shouldn't cost as much energy. If you aren't going to make them any more cheaper, then at least make the single fire as cheap as the yellow single fire is compared to the yellow multi. Currently the blue single takes about as much nrg as the multi.

[skullspace]

wb is overpower

I am hight level in lanc and still I am bad in fight : \

[gdugwyler]

Foreign: I like the automatic energy increase each rank. Unfortunately it'd be a little tough to implement (or just require a lot more prizes/prize levels for energy). HyperSpace, running ASSS, would stand a better shot of this. The intro bit is also a good idea... Maybe with LVZ or the like. Again, might want to do some kind of tutorial arena. There are unfortunately some limitations to how well we can do that considering we're doing it on an ancient game.

Was able to talk to Mj personally about most of those, some of which have been resolved (and some may be due to lag as was mentioned). For example, some ships are going to be able to tank L2. L2 energy was increased back a bit (after being seriously reduced for this update) so that it should do about 1500 -- killing any stock ship. Weasel firing costs were reduced a bit and I think it's working out well. I had a good time weaselling yesterday, and even at a low level was able to do decently. This is what I'm hoping for with the ship, being that it'll be a special unlock.

skull: Warbird vs Lanc has always been a bad match. The Lanc can fire more but the WB can outrun it, dance around it, and snipe it with faster bullets. I'm not sure if this is a problem: in an open dogfight a WB should usually win by sniping. Lanc is more of a combo base defender and dogfighter, so it's not ideal for either. Its bullets cost a lot less as well (though again are slower). Not sure what to do with this. Anyone else have Lanc experiences?

[Mjollnir]

...
skull: Warbird vs Lanc has always been a bad match. The Lanc can fire more but the WB can outrun it, dance around it, and snipe it with faster bullets. I'm not sure if this is a problem: in an open dogfight a WB should usually win by sniping. Lanc is more of a combo base defender and dogfighter, so it's not ideal for either. Its bullets cost a lot less as well (though again are slower). Not sure what to do with this. Anyone else have Lanc experiences?

I feel the lanc is quite boring to play. I played my lvl 27(?) lanc most of yesterday's 2nd session and it was getting OK kills but after the battle dragged on it got really boring. The ship is basically a turret that gets most of it's kills when camping while defending the flagroom.

Lancs do have a hard time killing warbirds especially when the warbird can tank one yellow shot and it's very hard to hit a wb twice (and since multifire recycle is slow you can't use it either). I guess it wasn't that bad in the flagroom though since you could just camp.

I still think the lanc bomb could be tweaked to be a bit more effective to make the ship more interesting. I think only one lanc is using it at the moment and he doesn't seem to be able to do much with it. I forgot which lanc it was (skullspace or 2kill) but it would be nice to hear a comment from him about the bomb.

[Vergilius]

Noticed a weird thing yesterday - i saw mjoll in his 35(or sth) weasel flying around with a bty of 54, all others saw the normal bty of 27. After i died and i saw him again i saw the 27 too. i was NOT drunk or high or whatsoever, and i am very sure about it, i talked to mjoll about it at the moment. Weird little bug in the system?

Sorry, no screenshot, i was too surprised -_-

EDIT: weird things today:


By vergilius at 2008-01-09
in the pic you see that #7 is missing, i took it after i did an upgrade of #7. the upg points were taken away, and you see UPGRADES: 25. yet the bounty is still 24. i do get the !upginfo 7 tho. Weird thing. I dont know if it actually works, just sth is wrong

[gdugwyler]

I just realized: you have obscene on. The name of the upgrade is "Vengeful Bastard". (Will have to change that, apparently.)

[Vergilius]

Edit: ur right. no idea how that filter ever got on, mustve been on accident. but still, the bounty issue?

[gdugwyler]

If you're referring to Mj's odd double bounty, that's a bug I've seen a lot and have been stumped as to when it comes up. Fortunately it doesn't come up much, but unfortunately that means it's next to impossible to see why.

As for your bounty, as I was trying to explain, the ability in question won't add to your bounty. If you've played a Terr or Spider, this is much like the regen abilities, or the spider's super -- you upgrade it, and it enables the ability on your ship, but doesn't increase bounty like a prize-based upgrade.

[gdugwyler]

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Leviathan is now a support ship. This means it is worked into the (slightly higher) support bonus at the end of the round, and receives some profit sharing, though not as much as shark and terr.

Weasel is still not a support ship, but it receives a little bit of profit sharing. This is partly to keep in line with the potential idea of following an unlock course for assault/support, in which weasel is the special unlock.

Abilities added:

- Vengeful Bastard (had to put "B*stard" in game as otherwise those with obscene on won't see it... yes, this day and age bastard is still considered an obscenity): chance that when you kill the player with this ability, something bad will happen to you ... generally this means engine shutdown for a short time, but you could also have your energy reduced to 0, or something far worse. Weasels and Lancs, the special unlocks, both receive this ability; however, Lanc upgrades it later, at a somewhat greater cost, and with fewer levels.

- Escape Pod: chance that when you die, you will respawn where you died rather than in the rearm area. Both Terr and WB will receive this ability, though like Vengeful Bastard above, the Terr version is (much) cheaper, has more levels, and requires lower ranks. So as not to increase WB strength too much, the cost is high: because of this taking the ability or not on that ship will be a difficult choice.

- Priority Rearmament: made free/automatic for all Terrs. Added for WB, Jav and Spider at high ranks and costs. These ships all had open ability slots, and I think at this point they're pretty much finished, but just needed something to round them out as far as options go. PR is a fairly generic, benign ability anyhow ... but has a nice bonus of prizing full charge at the end of the rearm, which anyone can use.

[gdugwyler]

One more: Leviathan Multi is now useful, though in a way different than most. It now costs only about 40% of what a normal Levi shot would to fire, but it has a pretty long delay before you're able to fire (anything) again. To couple with this change, the firing delay for the normal shot has been reduced a bit. The angle of Levi multi stayed about the same. For most purposes you can just consider it a normal shot, but much cheaper and with a longer delay.

Those that think about it a little will find several tactical options for the new multi: fire it at full energy and you're still able to withstand multiple L1 bullets (possibly an L2) while you scurry out of the way to safety, or empty out a few of the now- faster-firing regular shot, switch to multi when energy is low, and fire that last shot that ordinarily would cost too much. Meanwhile you're recharging and wouldn't be able to fire anyhow, so the delay isn't a problem.

Also: in before legions of 16 year old boys all whine in unison, "useless!"