Distension Beta Suggestions/Bugfix thread

[2kill]

Also, is there any way to warn a terr that their escape pod is actually going to work? I've made a habit of pressing warp after I die so that I can get out of safe before I rearm so that I can have full charge right away. However, I will do this whenever I see my ship appear on the screen, making me warp away when I get respawned in fr lol.

If you are modeling the escape pods like Hyperspace's antideath, hyperspace gives you a warning text in your chat that you are about to be resurrected with antideath, so I think it is a good thing to implement.

Just for convenience's sake, please!

ps. good work dug : )

lol I've done the samething a few times just a few

and it would be nice to know

[project dragon]

I'm not modelling it after HS; I just stole the idea. The way that it's set up giving you a warning isn't possible as of yet. I kind of like it that way, though I could implement the warning. Without the warning it's less valuable, more surprising, and I think it's too valuable as it is. I'd say try to get used to it, and consider using the !warp option. You have automatic priority rearm anyway, so rearming really shouldn't take that long at all.

If it's valuable and helpful for the terr, then it shouldn't be something that "surprises" the terr and catches them off-guard. It's there to benefit the terr, and if the terr has a warning before it happens, they could react in a way that escape pods could benefit a lot more than they do now.

[AcidBomber]

Hmmm... 1400 today? ok! :grin:

[roxxkatt]

dug, does ur afk check involve pms to the bot, text in pub, AND firing weapons? idk about rotation, thatd be difficult.

and be -very- careful with antideath...

[Mjollnir]

A few observations, some of which Dug already knows of:

- The UP cost is huge and the amount of energy given is tiny in the Weasel energy upgrades. Since the blue bullets cost so much to shoot it is really hard to make do with such a small amount of energy that results from the above.

- It's great that dug is adjusting the yellow bullet damage to make blue bullets more usable. We just have to be careful not to make the damage so small that some ships can tank way too much before blue bullets become available. Also, the max energy levels for some of the ships may be too small or the energy costs too high to effectively use the blue bullets.

- The spiders that are lvl 40+ seem to be making a HUGE amount of RP now that they got lvl2. It does feel like they are a bit overpowered.

- Leveling a javelin is a pain now that they can shoot less often.

- The leviathan gets 80% recharge at 6/12 upgrades and the upgrades cost very much and only give 3% / upgrade. That feels a bit weird.

- The huge amount of bursts flying around in the FR is very annoying. I know we have discussed this before but I would love to see some radical changes to the amount of bursts given and then giving terriers an alternative way of getting more RP. It is currently the biggest luck factor in the game and dampening the effect of such factors can't be bad. The skill factor in aiming bursts is real but not enough to justify a huge amount of bursts.

- It is almost impossible to capture a flag if the enemy has a shark and there isn't enough time to kill the whole flagroom. Basically every time the game has ~20 seconds left and the enemy has a decent shark, the game is lost. All the shark has to do is sit and rep-wait-rep-wait-rep and keep doing it with all those zillions of repels they get. Even if someone gets to the flag and the shark dies, it will just attach again, rep the losing team away and touch the flag and the timer isntantly continues making it impossible to do anything. The odds of being able to recapture the flag are tiny and it all depends on a lucky terr kill or something similar. I am still of the opinion that the timer to change the flag should be shorter or something else should be implemented to help the attacking team.

[gdugwyler]

If it's valuable and helpful for the terr, then it shouldn't be something that "surprises" the terr and catches them off-guard. It's there to benefit the terr, and if the terr has a warning before it happens, they could react in a way that escape pods could benefit a lot more than they do now.

You've explained my point perfectly: were a notice given, it would benefit the Terr a lot more than it does presently. The ability is already an extremely powerful one, and I'm trying to ensure it doesn't get too much more useful. See roxxkatt's ominous statements, for example -- I'd be interested to hear more of the details of the problems this causes, however, rather than vague intonations of a bleak future for Distension should we neglect to heed the warnings.

Additionally, if a Terr has the pod, he or she will slowly grow accustomed to waiting to see if it fires. I would consider it another piece of strategy that gives those who are willing to think how best to exploit all of their advantages an edge, and something for new players to learn and overcome. Consider also that right now everyone is a new player. There are as of yet no Distension vets.

AFK check: it doesn't check chat; it doesn't check commands; it doesn't check weapons; it doesn't check rotation. Part of why it is implemented in the present way is to prevent players with profit-sharing from just going off into the rocks and reaping the benefits. If you think about how a human detects an AFKer, it's not easy for a bot to do the same. Though, I think I've just thought of something that, while not being completely foolproof, is pretty damn good.

- The UP cost is huge and the amount of energy given is tiny in the Weasel energy upgrades. Since the blue bullets cost so much to shoot it is really hard to make do with such a small amount of energy that results from the above.

All upgrade amounts are pretty much relative to the max energy a ship can have. However, the Weasel does have the smallest amount given per upgrade -- this is true.

- The spiders that are lvl 40+ seem to be making a HUGE amount of RP now that they got lvl2.

May need to increase the rank required for this.

- Leveling a javelin is a pain now that they can shoot less often.

As discussed Javs will have RP to next rank reduced, and a new ability added later on.

- The leviathan gets 80% recharge at 6/12 upgrades and the upgrades cost very much and only give 3% / upgrade. That feels a bit weird.

Compared to which ship or ships? I don't know how the percentages break down at all. I just deal with the CFG numbers. Also keep in mind that percentages are rounded to integers and aren't a very accurate indication of what the ship actually has. Levi recharge appears pretty good in my book after the buff, though.

The huge amount of bursts flying around in the FR is very annoying.

Ok, I may do the burst refund today. The idea is to dramatically increase the cost of burst for the second one on, but still allow players to purchase them. To keep that change fair the regen amount will be increased slightly, encouraging less suiciding and more careful terring.

It is almost impossible to capture a flag if the enemy has a shark and there isn't enough time to kill the whole flagroom.

Well, first off, on a team of 10 or 15 people, you should have at least one shark. If you don't, then you should take personal responsibility and play a shark. Teamwork is going to be necessary for people to succeed. Also keep in mind that Tactical Ops in action may make it easier to bust an FR, particularly your home FR. Assaulting the other base may also help. Part of why the 10 second requirement is in is to increase the value of sharks and the level of strategy required to hold a base, rather than a person rushing in with a weasel and holding the flag for 3 seconds to interrupt what has otherwise been a solid display of teamwork from the freq that probably really does deserve to win. Basically I would like to see people jumping into a shark themselves rather than making half-hearted attempts to get in while essentially just giving the victory to the other team. The bonus now given to players changing to shark on a sharkless team of a certain size reflects this attitude.

[Zeebu]

why not make the max burst 1 then just have the upgrades reduce the amount of time until a new burst is prized?

in other words, youd always start with 1 burst. at level 1, if youve used your burst, you get a new one prized every 45-60 seconds or something. then at lvl 2 burst it would take 30 seconds, then at higher levels, the burst life length would equal the burst recharge length. that way, there would be no way to have more than 2 bursts active at a time.

if the life time is 15 seconds and the recharge is 15 seconds, the ter can hold onto their burst for 14 seconds, burst, get it recharged in 1 seconds and burst again right away. that would still allow the ter to burst more than once at a time, but not a giant number. then theyd have to wait 15 more seconds to burst again (by which time their previos ones would be gone) and then to do another doube burst theyd have to wait an additional 14 seconds then burst twice back to back again. but if the ter doesnt pay attention, and they miss their double burst, theyd just get another burst prized to their max of the one they have already and only be able to shoot one until it is prized again.

the neat thing about this, is that if an early level ter plays close attention, it can still do a double burst by waiting until it is about to get prized another one then fire them back to back. it would just be a long time coming until it gets prized more the earlier the level.

but, i havent really been able to play distension much lately. to me it seems like a good balance though

[gdugwyler]

Hmm, kind of a nice idea, Z. It would require a lot of changing as far as how the system works, but I'll think about it.

Warning to high level spiders: rank required for L2 bullets is now 50. This makes more sense anyway, as most ships get their "capstone" ability at 50 or right around there. In the meantime the reduced L2 damage should make you more valuable in being able to vulch off of people eating an L2 but then getting pegged by a spider bullet.

[Fluffz]

attacking base is such a bad idea. we were feeding freq 0 for like an hour for a lousy 3000 winning rp. cant you do something to make atacking more benefitial?

also, can u reduce shot delay for lvl3 bullets only or is that also impossible due to settings?

[maddack]

Soooo you upped the price of 2nd burst to 45. Not enough by a mile.

I tried selling some of upgrades 1-5 and bought myself 3 bursts (they're at 45 and 58 rp). Result: I am massively overpowered.

When I get into FR I usually have 4 bursts, so I fire them all away, very hard to dodge that. OK so the enemy manages to kill me huh? Well I get an escape pod and fire away 3 more now having 7 bursts in FR.

I'm not kidding at some points there were about 5 enemies in FR and they won the battle, or so they think because when I got the escape pod I burst them into hiding and we won back the FR way too easily.

I kinda like Zeebu's idea. Worth a try. Note that this will penalize a terr guarding a quiet FR, as he can't "collect" bursts with time.

That or if you go traditional way up the RP cost further. Second burst 60 rp, third 100. And cap it at four, make 3 bursts the most you can buy (currently you have 5).

Summary: Terr is fine, just fix bursts.

Other note: I have yet to see anyone use antiwarp and like it.

Other note 2: Dack Falu was playing the streak game. If he was on a streak he would warp out at the slightest sign of danger. Streaks are kind of detrimenting the team aspect of the game, since they are worth more than a war victory.

[roxxkatt]

for a lousy 3000 winning rp. cant you do something

agreed, ending rp needs to be 200% what it is now.
the losing team should still get -something- too, maybe 25% of current ending rp

why not make the max burst 1
the burst life length would equal the burst recharge length

a good idea, but i think the cap should be reduced to 2-3, not 1.

- The leviathan gets 80% recharge at 6/12 upgrades and the upgrades cost very much and only give 3% / upgrade. That feels a bit weird

its fucking expensive too, im at 10/12, and ive had to forgo stealth, portal, all speed, all thrust, multifire, and more...
its up to 25UP for next lvl... (which is almost -4- upgrades for terr)

levi multifire

the fire delay makes it WORTHLESS, not a SINGLE levi uses it.
how long is it? like 1200ms or something?
rediculous.

It is almost impossible to capture a flag if the enemy has a shark

very notable, but i would downplay the reps
ITS THE FUCKING MINES THAT ARE THE PROBLEM.
if your team doesnt have a shark, you wont win, because every damn shark puts 5 mines on the flag.

- The spiders that are lvl 40+ seem to be making a HUGE amount of RP now that they got lvl2.

increase lvl to 50.
problem fixed.
perhaps you could make recharge more expensive.

jav fire delay

looks good to me, i was fighting mjoll, and he still fires a lil fast ;D

lv3 costs

apparently this is a little high for every ship...
wzl fire cost should be a bit lower, i noticed mjoll struggling with it, BUT ONLY A LITTLE BIT. idk about cost.
i havnt tried levi lv3, but im guessing it wont be nice >_>

LACK OF DISTENSION

WTF tw staff is apparently limiting distension times, thats why dug only lets us play an hour every other day.... <_<
we need to convince tw staff to give us more time.
dist is the new tw, whether staff wants to admit it atm...

have fun reading! >=)

[Aquatiq]

You can single-post from now on, cheese.

[Epic li]

multifire is usefull in lev, a l2 bullet for 200 energy? god damn usefull, just gota know how to use it

last time i played i could shot a l2 and survive if my enemy shot

[meddi]

All the shark has to do is sit and rep-wait-rep-wait-rep and keep doing it with all those zillions of repels they get.

Just !upgrade RepIgnore like mango and Dack Falu. All you L2 bullet people must have that as an option.

[Mjollnir]

...
Well, first off, on a team of 10 or 15 people, you should have at least one shark. If you don't, then you should take personal responsibility and play a shark. Teamwork is going to be necessary for people to succeed. Also keep in mind that Tactical Ops in action may make it easier to bust an FR, particularly your home FR. Assaulting the other base may also help. Part of why the 10 second requirement is in is to increase the value of sharks and the level of strategy required to hold a base, rather than a person rushing in with a weasel and holding the flag for 3 seconds to interrupt what has otherwise been a solid display of teamwork from the freq that probably really does deserve to win. Basically I would like to see people jumping into a shark themselves rather than making half-hearted attempts to get in while essentially just giving the victory to the other team. The bonus now given to players changing to shark on a sharkless team of a certain size reflects this attitude.

People are pretty stubborn with their ships so too often there is no shark even with the added incentive to play one. How about reseting the win timer (back to 30 secs) or adding something like 10 seconds to it every time the enemy team touches the flag (max being 30 secs)? Currently, even if you get the flag the enemy ships will just rush the flag and the timer will instantly continue from it's original point.