Distension Beta Suggestions/Bugfix thread

[Oops]

Streaks...

Im a lvl 50 terr, yesterday i decided to just sit in midbase and kill people and port, i had a rocord of like 70 kills and 13 deaths or so, im not sure how many people i killed but i had not died and had only received a streak one time. Meaning i got a MINIMUM of 20 kills i na row and it only counted 5 of them. So i am wondering, what level do i have to kiull to get the kill to count as a streak and depending on the level, it may or may not be too high?

[2kill]

ok random idea

well we are setting in distension cause it didn't start on time and were wishing for something to do... and i suggested a powerball now it would have to not increase the lvl of your weapons thats easy but can the bot change the cfg at the one minute before round start to not have the ball. cause that was the only thing that bothered people would be the delay in firing when you pick up the ball they thought annoying people would grab the ball and take it into base. It would be good for free time it would get everyone in the middle dogfighting and doing something completely different.

though i could understand if you decided not to... cause its completely different

yours respectfuly

not trying to ruin your game

2kill

[HFShadow]

Im a lvl 50 terr, yesterday i decided to just sit in midbase and kill people and port, i had a rocord of like 70 kills and 13 deaths or so, im not sure how many people i killed but i had not died and had only received a streak one time. Meaning i got a MINIMUM of 20 kills i na row and it only counted 5 of them. So i am wondering, what level do i have to kiull to get the kill to count as a streak and depending on the level, it may or may not be too high?

Send the bot !killmsg to turn on killmsgs and it'll tell you why stuff doesn't count towards your streak.

It would be good for free time it would get everyone in the middle dogfighting and doing something completely different.

This idea has merit.

[Mjollnir]

The area near the flag where one can't lay a brick is totally different in the top fr and the bottom fr. The bottom one is a lot bigger and quite annoying as it uses up your brick yet nothing happens. About bricks being overpowered - I don't think they are. It can be a fun tool for a while but I would MUCH rather have Firebloom every time I spawn. A brick is nothing compared to it and a brick doesn't get you any kills. The brick is also a level 50 ability whereas Lancs get the much more powerful ability earlier than that.

I don't enjoy playing the Weasel anymore for some reason. Sometimes I play it for 5 minutes and get bored and switch to another ship. I guess it's because it feels so weak compared to other ships. I think the Weasel doesn't improve enough when leveling up since the energy and charge rate costs are so big. That leaves only the specials and possibly the blue bullets. Since the yellow bullets are actually very useful compared to the blue bullets, even at level 52, the difference is very small. Otherwise the ship stays almost the same (as in almost as weak) from early 20s to 50+. Some Weasels seem fairly happy though, so maybe it's just me...

[meddi]

Distension> Leiutenant Commander MEDDI of INTERGALACTIC PLANETARY, INC.: TERRIER - RANK 49

Typo! Lieutenant

[gdugwyler]

what level do i have to kiull to get the kill to count as a streak and depending on the level, it may or may not be too high?

It's presently 20, so that if a rank 50 kills a rank 29 it doesn't count toward a streak, but a rank 30 does. I think this number worked while players were generally pretty low-rank... however, I think it's becoming clear that some kind of a percentage of your own rank is probably the best way to figure it. Maybe half of your ranks should be the determining factor -- 25 for rank 50, for example, with the minimum valid value being maybe 10. Will have to see how it works, because at present it doesn't seem all that fair.

Mj, I checked the map, and the areas are the same for the brick. Also, I do still think that Weasel isn't quite where it needs to be as a special unlock. The way it's going lately, a lot of ships have pretty decent bot-based abilities, plus some sort of item: Spider has the super/energy tank combo plus anti; Lanc has leeching + firebloom; WB now has MASTER + Thor. I'd like to see most of the other ships (including the less combat-oriented) have similar things. Weasel has Brick + VB, but neither is offensive, and the various other bonuses -- support ship, Terr bonuses, streak bonuses, etc. -- don't really add up to making it fun to play, which is what I would most like to see. It's really a shame TW isn't running ASSS or we could do a lot more with this... far beyond the very basic and allow me to say rather uninteresting money system HyperSpace uses.

The bottom line is that we have new ability slots available, and I would like to see the Weasel get something more. Possibly would also like to see a bot special ability for the Levi at a high rank, as well as something more interesting for the Shark, and possibly a special item for the Jav. Suggestions welcome here. I don't want to just add abilities to make ships more powerful -- the power of the ability can be balanced with costs and the power of other things adjusted. Really what I want is to make every ship as enjoyable to play as possible, at all times.

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?

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[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

[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?

[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

[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?

[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.