Distension Beta Suggestions/Bugfix thread

[jngy slate]

Weasel seems underpowered. Vergilius and TildeStar are some of the most leveled up in the weasel and they don't get that many kills. I don't know, which ships have xradar? Weasels should be able to kill warbirds np.

[Vergilius]

Dug, you said that the warping bug had to do with the bot not being able to recognize your exact location? Why not bypass that and make it so that a ship cant use the same warpchannel twice in one life? (So, a ship has to die before it can use the same route again?) Or would this mean even more data that needs to be kept and causing problems?

[Zeebu]

then why would you make it very cheap?

[meddi]

Giving terriers a cheap decoy sounds kinda neat. If anyone would truly benefit from such an ability, it is the terr.

[2kill]

We are starting to see more use of Tac Ops with at least one player over lvl 20. (Perhaps add Tac Ops and player rank to http://www.trenchwars.org/distension/statistics.php)
I can imagine much higher level Ops on both sides repeatedly using their ability to close the base gates to make the game overly annoying or even practically unplayable unless there are limits to this. I do not think that the available level or OP cost of the basic ability should be increased as it is one of the few useful things a low level Tac Op can do. I think it needs a lengthy delay on repeated closures (of the same gate) and limits to the number of gates closable at once if this is not already implemented.

I would prefer it to be possible to defend both mids. I suppose you could always make the mid spawn zone fairly limited and EMP everyone spawning in it to make them sitting ducks for competent mid defenders.

Nice idea if balanced right. I think ideally only FR terriers, FR sharks and FR ships with super or antiwarp active should count as crucial ships though.
I am not so keen on temporary movement upgrade abilities as weasels already have rockets and a sudden unexpected speed increase would probably ram me into a mine :P

The levi 'safety override’ idea is good too but needs a delay like the Terrier EMP to prevent excessive (suicide) EMPing.

Okay:

I agree with the ops on the website though you got to talk to foreign to get the stats up

I think your right about the doors too... cause in free time I was sitting with 3 OP points and closed the tube doors on a terr and this terr didn't try to go to the other door so I kept closing it every time it opened so for a total of 30 secs cause I’m only lvl one on doors... and in game I closed side doors and kept out a terr then redid it right after this time warping the terr as the doors closed on him ... doors are something I know that valcruist (forgive the spelling :P) likes a lot, I do more fast rearm then I worry about the doors so... maybe doors won't be used so much cause it really can only be closed a lot at home base so it shouldn't end a round till very high level

Warping to mid: I like this idea a lot but, it could increase round times thats not a problem to me but... you could warp them to a contained area like at the end of the tube or at one of the sides so just inside or outside the doors whichever you want

Weasel speed: rofl viruk well your right if you didn't see the greens increase... also I said I wanted it to work pass death for the full minute so... but then I don't play weasel a lot so your word is better then mine.

Weasel planning: ya I could see that, though it could be hard for the bot to know when super starts or ends...

Lev safeties: again I could see that though it wouldn't have to be limited as much so like 10 mins instead of 20

Does anyone know how the rank system is set up or what order it moves in?

By ranks I mean, Cadet, Lut, Officer and such...

well I will tell you what I know... it starts I believe at Class 4 cadet and goes to a class 1 cadet after that you have officer ranks starting as an ensign going to a 2nd Lieutenant then Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander… that’s all I know for sure but if I was to guess it would continue with Commander, Captain. Then it would switch to ‘flag officers’ starting with Commodore, going Rear Admiral, then Vice Admiral, then Admiral, and finally Fleet Admiral

Long post but thats all for now

2kill

[moltenrock]

Does anyone know how the rank system is set up or what order it moves in?

By ranks I mean, Cadet, Lut, Officer and such...

[Viruk]

We are starting to see more use of Tac Ops with at least one player over lvl 20. (Perhaps add Tac Ops and player rank to http://www.trenchwars.org/distension/statistics.php)
I can imagine much higher level Ops on both sides repeatedly using their ability to close the base gates to make the game overly annoying or even practically unplayable unless there are limits to this. I do not think that the available level or OP cost of the basic ability should be increased as it is one of the few useful things a low level Tac Op can do. I think it needs a lengthy delay on repeated closures (of the same gate) and limits to the number of gates closable at once if this is not already implemented.

Re: Round time - Anything from 5 to 60 mins usually works for me. 20-30 minutes is ideal. I don't really mind which sort of timer is used as long as it isn't near-impossible or too easy to delay a victory.
Even if you implement truce systems or tweak the settings in the hope of shorter rounds it still makes sense to cap the rounds at 60 minutes. Everyone then has a chance to leave or take a break without deserting their team or losing a bonus. This should also limit the chances of losing massive bonuses due to disconnections, bot deaths and other interruptions. (Although it would be better if it could save participation on a per ship and per round basis.)

Re: Warbird M.A.S.T.E.R. Drive - I am glad to see the warbird get a new offensive ability - especially if it proves to be more effective for skillful players and a good reason to upgrade to L3 bullets.

Another possibility is allowing people to spawn in their respective mid at any time, if they so choose

I would prefer it to be possible to defend both mids. I suppose you could always make the mid spawn zone fairly limited and EMP everyone spawning in it to make them sitting ducks for competent mid defenders.

Weasel: 'crucial planning' when a weasel does something really productive to basing they have a chance at a shield or super (or just one) productive being killing a terr, shark, spider (all basing ships), or getting a sector hold or break

Nice idea if balanced right. I think ideally only FR terriers, FR sharks and FR ships with super or antiwarp active should count as crucial ships though.
I am not so keen on temporary movement upgrade abilities as weasels already have rockets and a sudden unexpected speed increase would probably ram me into a mine :P

The levi 'safety override’ idea is good too but needs a delay like the Terrier EMP to prevent excessive (suicide) EMPing.

I like the idea of having a few seconds of shields that you can use whenever you wish

Terriers already have powerful special abilities. A controllable shield seems overpowered to me. If they have a spare slot they should have something cheap, optional, that is more fun than powerful and ideally more fun for them than annoying for the other team. How about a 0-10% upgradable chance of a random special every time they kill something in a FR or receive a base terrier support bonus? Most likely a full charge but rarely a port, burst, active shield, active super, antiwarp, cloak, stealth, rocket, jumpspace, energy tank, repel, thor, decoy or brick. All should be lost on death or escape. It could reward both lonely base terriers and assault terriers but they would need luck to get something useful or effective at the right time.

Re: Ball games - I would like to see something else to play with while waiting for the bot during this beta-testing period and I like the idea of a short ball game between rounds providing the previous round was not too long. Perhaps it would be a refreshing change to get out of the base between rounds and play across the wormholes in the middle rather than have goals in the flagrooms. I would happily tolerate 10% ball rounds in base if others prefer it though.

[meddi]

sorry but thats retarded

LOL

I like the idea of having a few seconds of shields that you can use whenever you wish, but don't you think shields are sort of overused as a special?

[Oops]

idea for ability for terr

Mind Reader
Being able to tell when other ships can use their abilities.

Actually I don't know ho the specials work. Do they get them randomly every few minutes, does it depend on kills, what?

sorry but thats retarded. maybe something along the lines of a shield for 2 or 3 seconds upon doing 'something' to earn this shield . maybe get a 10 kill streak, and unlock the shield to use whenever u want one time regardless if u die

[jngy slate]

idea for ability for terr

Mind Reader
Being able to tell when other ships can use their abilities.

Actually I don't know ho the specials work. Do they get them randomly every few minutes, does it depend on kills, what?

[2kill]

To the new abilities for ships,

Weasel: 'crucial planning' when a weasel does something really productive to basing they have a chance at a shield or super (or just one) productive being killing a terr, shark, spider (all basing ships), or getting a sector hold or break

Note: super would be really deadly on weasel so the chance would have to be small

Weasel again: 'fuel collectors' when the weasel kills someone it gets a % chance of increasing its speed, thrust, and rotation by 2 for one minute. to be really helpful I think that the minute should include any rearms if it could do that

Levi: 'safety override’ the lev would trigger this by messaging the bot with something, the effect would be like the terr's EMP but it only EMPs the people in the same base as the lev, but to do this... the lev turns off the safeties on his EMP and 'overloads' it causing it to burn out... you guessed it the lev loses his EMP bomb till he rearms next death

Note: I gave the lev a negative to this to keep it balanced as its ok right now

thats all the abilities I've thought about right now will post new ideas as they come


2kill

[gdugwyler]

Thanks for the opinions on the round times.

I forgot to add, the ball idea sounds like a promising one. If there's enough interest, I could add it in. Rather than having it between rounds, I was thinking that we could actually have some kind of fully-functional ball game as a normal round (maybe 10% chance of that mode coming up), with goals in the FRs. First to 3 goals wins, that sort of thing; in this mode you'd defend a specific base/goal and attack the other. Having a home base is sort of how I wanted Distension to work to begin with, though it's been hard to instill that feeling properly. This might help it make more sense.

Another possibility is allowing people to spawn in their respective mid at any time, if they so choose -- maybe with the !warp option on, you would be auto-warped into your mid. It would give a leg up in defending home base, while not necessarily preventing attackers from being able to take and hold it.

[meddi]

Also, are the rounds going on too long in the Hybrid system still? Do people like it? Don't like it? Don't care, as I'm guessing the comments have been almost none?

The single flag match works very well with the current win-timer system. I think it is awesome.

With two bases, the rounds have been perhaps shorter when compared to the old way of things. It used to be that every day would see at least one round where a shark or weasel grabbing the the flag would push that single round over 60 minutes in length. Regardless, like someone mentioned, once teams get warmed up, they tend to be capable of defending one flag room or another quite effectively; thus, the games may drag on a bit. This is probably inevitable with balanced rosters, but I enjoy the rounds none-the-less.

[2kill]

Hybrd timer system

Okay I think i've been one of the few talking about the timer but i'm going to recap my thoughts:

• Since people want shorter rounds I think the new system should be used straight on the old times like 1 min count for two base and 2 min for one base

• I think how fast it counts up needs to be decreased a bit I think you have it at 3 secs for every one?

The problem will be I think that the rounds will go really fast... but i've never been complaining about round length so <shrugs sholders> I guess you will have to wait for other people to post about it to find out if it is to fast.

2kill

P.S. I'll start thinging about new abilities

[DankNuggets]

i noticed two things going wrong the other day:

1 - i couldn't adjust my stat box in #distension by esc + pg up/dwn

2 - i think someone else already mentioned this, but i tried to use the midbase warp points and got stuck in the sense that it always warped me back to the original base (not that it constatly warped me back and forth)

as for the length of the games, i think the only way to acheive a short game is to have an unbalanced or unprepared side. Both styles of game seemed to drag on when both armies were warmed up and choosing good ship combos. I think that the 3 min countdown/up timer worked alright, but it seemed that the holds got reversed a bit quickly.

On another note:
I like 2kill's idea of having a ball 'minigame' or something like it during the free play time. Maybe it could just be a tag like game with someone running around with the ball or you could make two, close together, goals in between the bases. I don't know how well this could be implemented, it seems like it might be a lot of work for a few minutes of play.