Distension Beta Suggestions/Bugfix thread

[Viruk]

End of game message is a little unclear

Told me I have won 6xxx (-75% avarice) + 7xx for holds/breaks Total: 7xxx RP

Is this a bug or is the initial 6xxx the modified figure after avarice?
If a bug is it a bug with the text or the actual amount awarded?

The averages and breakdown with time, participation, etc is of interest for diagnostic purposes but also sometimes rather spammy.
I often struggle to pick out my total end of game bonus from all the scrolling info. Would be nice to have this on a separate line at the bottom with some sort of formatting that makes it stand out from stats, awards and kill messages.

[gdugwyler]

Sorry to be absent a bit lately. I've been more successful writing the past few days than I have in quite a while, and am focusing more on that. While I haven't read back everything here, I will soon.

I made one change to the time system so that with larger groups, less time is required to win the round. With 35+, 50 seconds is required to win; with 40+ (or maybe 45), it's 45 seconds. Also, with a large 1-flag game only 1:45 is required rather than the full 2 minutes.

Based on some suggestions here I've sort of re-thought how the time might work. It would be more of a push toward the standard timed game as seen in base, but maintain the feel of needing consecutive time to really clinch the victory. The idea is to have an overall time required by each side, such as 5 minutes, with time added to this clock when a particular army has a sector hold. But unlike normal base timers, there would still only be one number displayed: either for one side or the other. So let's say freq 0 has the advantage, and the counter reads 3 minutes. If they secure another sector hold, time is added normally. However, if instead the other side secures, time is subtracted from that counter at a very fast rate -- say, 3 to 5 seconds per second held -- until the counter reaches 0. At that point, the "advantage" changes to the other frequency, and the timer begins to count up toward 5:00 again (or whatever number is found to be most pleasing for your pleasures). In this fashion it's more like a tug-a-war, and possibly adds a bit to the tension and overall feeling of victory. Right now you're never "on the ropes" or just about to win... half the time it's just a lucky break -- maybe a terr on the other team left or was DC'd -- and you take advantage of the weakness. This sort of time system might still encourage strong basing offense and defense, while not getting the losing freq too discouraged when the other freq is getting close to a win. (This last reason is why, when I implemented the pub timer, I chose to use consecutive minutes; however, Distension is more competetive and a hybrid of the two systems, such as this, may be better.)

How does it sound? It might be a bit hard to understand at first, but an LVZ graph showing progress of one freq or another might make it easier. I could also have it alternate between these two game types to find out which one is better, or even just leave it that way for variety.

[gdugwyler]

Implemented the time system described above. We can try it out tomorrow.

Also, escape pod should prize you with all of your goodies after respawning. I'll have to check out why it's not. I may consider re-allowing multiple refires as well, since the new Weasel ability can end the streak rather simply. That will increase the value of the Weasel as well.

[Vergilius]

Warpspot bug- used the bottom bar-roof one, it happened to me that i got warped back, nothing new there, but i couldnt get away. i tried flying away, rocketing away from the spot, kept warping me back. I even warped manually into base - no effect, 2 seconds later i was back on roof. Only way i quit it was by speccing.

[Mjollnir]

Implemented the time system described above. We can try it out tomorrow.

Also, escape pod should prize you with all of your goodies after respawning. I'll have to check out why it's not. I may consider re-allowing multiple refires as well, since the new Weasel ability can end the streak rather simply. That will increase the value of the Weasel as well.

Please do not allow multiple refires since it only advocates suiciding. To increase the value of the Weasel, you could make it so that the Terr doesn't get prized any specials (or even some other upgrades) for the pod, if killed by a Weasel.

[jngy slate]

I thought the terrier doesn't get the pod if killed by the weasel.

[Viruk]

I may consider re-allowing multiple refires as well, since the new Weasel ability can end the streak rather simply. That will increase the value of the Weasel as well.

The weasel would have to be one of the main causes of terrier death to curb excessive escapes. Right now I am pretty sure it isn't and is unlikely to become so.

Possibly you can somehow upgrade the weasel to make it easier for it to kill terriers without making it overpowered. I would still hate to think I ought to be switching to one just to stop some pesky terriers from popping up all over the place.

[HFShadow]

the "shroud of darkness" ability needs to have the size of its circle increased.

http://www.subspacedownloads.com/ind...=file&fid=1068

Using that ships file, it adds a small red aiming dot to the front of all your ships, but with the green shroud on top of my ship it actually doesn't cover the dot. End result is that the shroud doesn't really affect me at all

And I have noticed the decline of spiders and wbs recently. Presumably because they are worse in regards to flag room battles. Cmon now, spiders are the staple of basing, and get routinely owned by lancs.

Pretty much....... I have one of the higher level wb's and i havent been playing much just because it hasn't been fun. I get owned regularly in the base by lancs. There's no point me even going into the FR if its under heavy attack since one stray shot and I'm dead.

[aeroplane jelly]

When I played last there was a lot of levs tking..and it started getting really excessive . Maybe if when someone tks x times in x minutes they dont get their bombs prized to them when they respawn or some other system like that, it just got really frustrating when every time I attached I was either killed by a tk or left emp'd at 100 energy

[JeesPoks]

To the weasel problem:

IMO, if weasels main point is killing the terr then you just have to cloak and get them. Ofcourse it will be very hard, but when the terr is dead, team will fall quick. So hard missions grant you awesome prizes, am I right? But it would still be ridiculous to see team ( like 5 ? ) of weasels gathering to a gap and spreading out from there.. And larger groups get spotted easier.
And i dunno which rank weasels get port but when they get it they are pretty hard to kill ( if they have their ports planted )
meh..

[2kill]

Things I noticed:

the new timer when counting up went pass 5 mins the farthest I saw was to 5:15 then it counted down. (could this be from us grabbing the flag then they take it back then we get it and it counts up well we are getting sector hold?)

also the round went for quite awhile so long in fact that we never got two bases…though enough people showed up… I think 3 mins would be the best time to try

WB new ability: k question is the length random like spider super? As to the shield, I had a weird thing happen... it activated and I decided to ram a mine to see... I went right over unfortunately about the super I can't eat yellows which is what it would let you do if you had energy, because the firing delay was about the same time it takes me to recharge

so I think i'm going to scrap it on my ship till I have more energy. also getting streak constantly in wb requires you to be flying around in mid or spawn not really basing i know, sometimes you do get a streak in base i did once in the test but it didn't help me cause fr had been cleared lol ... though it is a pretty cheap upgrade so maybe people won't mind putting UPs into it on the off chance that you could get a shield in base

in conclusion I would say the point of this upgrade is the shield not the super so much as I thought at first, I could see super keeping you safe like a shield if you could eat yellows as I can't

that’s all for now

2kill

[jngy slate]

complaint

About the upgrades for the terr's burst/portal. The 2nd upgrade for burst costs 160UP. I scraped a whole bunch of stuff to get this and it's just an extra burst when you respawn... Hardly worth it. Same goes for the portals, they don't cost much but getting an extra one at spawn is not al that useful. Getting 10 10% regeneration is so much better in so many ways. At least make it so the portal/burst last longer, or the bursts are faster, something that will make me upgrade them even more. Right now they're pretty much worthless. I will eventually buy them, but that would be when I don't have anything else to buy, and excess UP.

[meddi]

About the upgrades for the terr's burst/portal. The 2nd upgrade for burst costs 160UP. I scraped a whole bunch of stuff to get this and it's just an extra burst when you respawn... Hardly worth it. Same goes for the portals, they don't cost much but getting an extra one at spawn is not al that useful. Getting 10 10% regeneration is so much better in so many ways. At least make it so the portal/burst last longer, or the bursts are faster, something that will make me upgrade them even more. Right now they're pretty much worthless. I will eventually buy them, but that would be when I don't have anything else to buy, and excess UP.

As terr, I use 2 starting portals and 1 starting burst, and I have 90% regen. I find the extra portal on spawn to be somewhat useful when getting into the FR. Spending 160 UP on a burst is out of the question. That number seems to be quite large.

Perhaps lowering the cost requirement slighty, or upping the rank required to something like 55-60 would have the same effect of reducing the # of bursts without making the 2nd burst virtually unobtainable. As it stands, 160 UPs can be sunk into much more interesting things.

[Mjollnir]

I thought the terrier doesn't get the pod if killed by the weasel.

Good point. My mistake.

[Oops]

Im a terr too and..

yeah the 2nd burst upgrade is a ton of rp but with the 10% regens and whatnot i do fine without it, so not buying it is no harm to me but it does make it kind of worthless due to its price. All im saying is DEFENITLY noone will buy it at 160up because its not that great anyway. just a waste of an upgrade imo(at that price)