Distension Beta Suggestions/Bugfix thread

[Zeebu]

Dug.. regarding the website, would you be interested in some assistance with it?

I'm a very experienced php coder, if you'd be willing to provide an example of the db schema / data I could whip up a bunch of stats + help pages. I'm assuming upgrade costs and all that are in the db?

It'd be pretty sweet to have a page where you could test out deploying points into each upgrade along with showing the costs for everything at each level.

this would be pretty sweet

[DankNuggets]

a nice webpage once the game gets running would be essential. The better the webpage, the more people you'll get interested in it too. A top 5 is a nice begging, but once it gets going full swing you might want to have it kinda like the old edome site, with everyone ranked and the ability to filter and sort it by other stats. Maybe post screenshots of the week or something too. i guess the upkeep on the site would be minimal since the game won't be constantly upgraded anymore.


A suggestion for Tac Ops--

I unlocked this feature the other day and decided to take a break from the action and give it a try. I had no clue how to start, so I did a good ol' !help and figured out after a couple of other bot commands, but the text the bot spat out wasn't aligned right at all- i'm not sure if it's b/c i was using a lower resolution (1024x768) and it wraped itself or if its just not tabbed right. Also, trying to read through misaligned text while paying attention what's going on is damn near impossible. A good idea would be to make a simple .txt file that has all the commands and what they do listed in it. Also a short introduction/guide to playing ops or distension in general would be good. Most pc games (at least all good ones) have some sort of help file that's generally not too much better than .txt to at least show commands and give a direction to head in. This could be extrapolated past OPs and used for all ships.

I would just ask, that instead of making this an f1 thing, A1 text, or a bunch of spam at the begging, put a link in for the .txt file like you've done for the forum thread and stats and load it somewhere (hopefully not with all the other ss d/ls) easy to find (the stats page).

I'd much rather spend 10s to print or scan through black text on white background than try to read all the traffic jam of colored text and moving ships without being able to scroll through it.

[Birthday Party]

I am one of the higher level warbirds, and I would trade all the master drive stuff to have an antiwarp. Streaks just do not happen that often. And this is what I see the warbird as best at: Killing terriers, especially when they are in middle base.

[gdugwyler]

Website: not sure on the status of it. Foreign started it, then Rii was picking it up, but he's been busy for a while. He might need help, or even someone to take over. The DB is arranged pretty simply. The only trick is that all of the upgrade data has not yet been entered into the DB -- presently it's just loaded from static data defined in the bot code itself. The format is created, and I think I got as far as entering all the info in for Warbird. It's tedious data entry, but once that is done, the bot can read from there. Due to lack of a good SQL array format the upgrade data has to be read as straight text and then parsed by the bot and the website, so that would be the only tricky part about manipulating stats on the site -- also I'd need to add a field to the player table for whether or not the player is playing, so that you couldn't modify stats on the site while in-game (would cause some problems). If it sounds interesting, HFS, ?msg Rii and see if he could use a hand. I'd definitely like to see it go somewhere, including stats and so on. We can talk more about it later.

Hybrid mode: To FarScape & Cheese, it's pretty silly to propose only using the old timer mode simply because the rounds end too quickly. There are several factors that can be adjusted so that rounds last longer with the mode -- this is a beta test, for chrissakes. The point is to try things, tweak them, and not just throw them out at the first sign of something going wrong. I don't have a whole lot of reports on the new timer, and personally I can only attend 1 of the 10 tests due to how they are presently scheduled. So far I've heard everyone say that the new flag mode seems to make games go on too long. Now it's too short. What am I supposed to believe? I need more detailed reports here. You guys are my eyes and ears in the beta test; to continue the analogy I'm the supposed brain, but if the image is fuzzy or I hear almost nothing of what happens I can't do a damn thing. Anyone else have reports about the new timer? Anything is helpful. I'll increase the time required for a round win once again. Let's try to make this work rather than just saying to scrap it. It has potential.

Warp points: Yeah, it would require yet more data to be stored. Not that it couldn't be done, but it would be nice to get this working better instead. How often does this problem come up? Did it come up less often when they were first implemented?

Anti for more ships: Anti is extremely strong, and not all that pleasant an ability. I'd like to keep it limited.

New abilities: With the new abilities I'd like to try to keep them unique, so I'm fairly against the Levi EMP that mimics the Terr and the Weasel ability that gives Super. I'm thinking for the Terr, the summoning ability that was mentioned a while back would be a good one. A decoy might not be all that out of place, either. For the Weasel, I experimented with using bounce enabled for 10 seconds or so, but TW unfortunately still can't handle it (sysop warnings). Now I'm imagining an ability that charges up like Energy Tank and JumpSpace, and uses a special command. When you use the command, it prizes you a large number of decoys -- say, 3 to 6 depending on how many levels of the upgrade purchased. After a short amount of time, the decoys will all be de-prized, so the Weasel has to use them in a flurry, creating a wall of illusions. The idea is that with so many decoys in such a short time, the target won't know which is the Weasel before it's too late. With this implemented an offensive ability to couple with it might not be out of the question.

Weasel strength: Considering the proximity of bombs of higher ranked ships (and even lower-level Levis), I'm going to up the amount provided by each Weasel energy upgrade. I don't plan to increase bullet speed, as I consider this a characteristic part of the ship, but I'm lowering the rank required for Stealth, and in exchange increasing the rank required for L3 bullets. I don't think L3 are needed much until the ship can afford to fire them anyhow, and Stealth may be a help earlier on. By the way, what's the Stealth+Cloak energy cost like for ships that have it?

Sudden Death: It's in. It will give a warning at 45min, and will end a round as a truce at 50. The time can be adjusted if needed. The award should split evenly between the players, still based on rank and participation.

Text file of commands: This is planned. I actually would like to make !help into an easy-to-read graphical file that can be displayed as LVZ, and either toggled on and off, or just be up for a certain amount of time -- probably the latter. F1 help is still being worked on when I have the time. The website will probably eventually contain command lists and so on. I'll see if I can reduce the width of the Ops help in the meantime. How much overlaps to the next line at that resolution?

[dako]

I must admit, many of the aspects are feeling more and more... "lame" as people progress throught this game.

Theres now 6 javs with level 2s, and about 10 more over level 30 that are quite close. I think all of the 6 except myself have rocket, and it seems all a jav has do to is sit back until they get full energy, rocket into an enemy group, shoot a level 2, and get a teamfer. The 6 shrap per bomb doesnt help a lot either :P

In getting Ops, its very very overwhelming at the start, and you basically sit there for the first 4 levels or so.

And in case anyone was wondering, these are in order the hardest ships i found to get to level 20 (or at least, how long it took me to get there)

Easiest : Javelin
Terrier
Lancaster
Weasel
Leviathan
Warbird
Shark
Hardest: Spider

Yeah, it was fairly easy for me to level weasel, basically suicide + rocket, and the assist points for VB helped a lot. Spider was an absolute nightmare, as barely anyone dies from a level 2 bullet anymore, much less a level 1. I cant see why anyone would play spider over lancaster at this point, except for the odd multi super level 2 spam. Maybe i just suck with spider.

Also, I'd like to hear what everyones max streaks are
I had a streak of 29 yesterday, although im sure dack falu and aqua have had more pre wb nerf.

[Vergilius]

Welcome to the ignore list ward. Say hello to Tone.

Anyways, on topic: the warpspots. Yes, this problem does happen alot more since the start of it. Actually, since the time you altered the speed that it takes to get warped. I guess that is because when you have more time, you have a bigger chance of getting far enough. Aside from the time i got trapped in it (only happened once, trying to do it again) it seems that i have to cross a wall boundary. So if i warp to roof, i get warped back unless i get into fr (which requires pretty accurate driving, and making the warpspot for any other ship besides weasel useless, since they cant get in). If i warp into a ear (high ear, close to fr) i have to get out of the ear, into middle base. Into a low ear, I have to get out of the ear and go into mid. If i go out of base and move to roof that way, i get warped back 99% of the times. Dont know bout high ears, never tried that. Will do that on next test.

Uhm... other option, make the warp a command? like, you have to sit on the spot and type !w to the bot, and then warps you? That would solve the issue of being killed while waiting too.. I do realise that would make things really complicated for new players too though..

[Aquatiq]

how about making the ops more involved with and more dependent on what's happening in the game? i mean like certain things that happen will give it OP points or make it lose OP

just examples...

+1 OP for every 5 enemy base terriers that die
-1 OP for every 5 of your own team's base terriers that die
or like +1 or -1 Comm. point for every break/hold your team makes, and break/hold the enemy makes?

this isn't really a means to an end, it's not intended to make ops vulnerable, but I think it's going to get them involved and propel them to help their team more and help out with the urgent situations, because it will directly affect them (unlike right now, where all that "not doing well" affects is whether or not they get the jackpot reward).

[HFShadow]

I left a msg for rii but he hasn't been on in more then 10 days.....

[jngy slate]

Today I got my first 20 kill streak. On the second test. But it also was one of the times I got the least kills overall. o_O Probably cuz it was so short.

[DankNuggets]

rofl gg whoever silenced that ignoramus

[Lizard Fuel]

Ive read about 10 posts of the 800 in this thread, but I think there is an issue with something. There has got to be some sort of leniency with the lower ranked ships, I really wanna try out that OPS thing so Ive been trying to rank up the ships Ive never played. (X, Lanc, Levi) So when I logged on today, I only got to play for about 20-25 minutes and managed to go 7-114 and gain 1 level in my X due to all the high ranking players swarming me, 2 or 3 in paticular. Not only because Im really annoyed right now, but I think there should be some sort of consequence for this, like losing some RP everytime you kill a low ranked ship more than say....15 times in a row. Todays test was fucking rediculous. (Thanks skatarius and Birthday Party)

[2kill]

Found a bug today,

I was flying around in my lanc and I got M.A.S.T.E.R Drive, after a bit of testing I think I know what caused it, I would get a streak and since after every kill the % increases it would start after enough kills after the streak.

I'm sorry to all the people I totally owned abusing this bug

2kill

[Zeebu]

Ive read about 10 posts of the 800 in this thread, but I think there is an issue with something. There has got to be some sort of leniency with the lower ranked ships, I really wanna try out that OPS thing so Ive been trying to rank up the ships Ive never played. (X, Lanc, Levi) So when I logged on today, I only got to play for about 20-25 minutes and managed to go 7-114 and gain 1 level in my X due to all the high ranking players swarming me, 2 or 3 in paticular. Not only because Im really annoyed right now, but I think there should be some sort of consequence for this, like losing some RP everytime you kill a low ranked ship more than say....15 times in a row. Todays test was fucking rediculous. (Thanks skatarius and Birthday Party)

well thats some faggotry right there.

but i agree to the slow leveling of very underleveled ships. i agree that there needs to be a high/low rank caps, but sometimes it seems a bit rediculous. i could get in a level 20 ship and kill a level 40 person and cash in, but if i kill a level 41 guy, you get diddly (at least thats how it used to work i think). if you manage to kill the person 20 levels above you, shouldnt you get exactly that much for killing a guy beyond that? same thing works for lvl 1 people just starting out in a world of 30+'s. if you manage to kill a level 20 person as a brand new ship, shouldnt you get the same 'max' reward if you manage to kill a guy thats even higher?


if thats the way it is and im just confused, i apologize

[jngy slate]

I've come here to complain because I lost in a children's game

I hate those doors. Yes I know there's many strategies against them but I still hate them. Most of the time I lose the will to play just because they pop up. There shouldn't be a game god, or Ops w/e you call them, out there. I hate god and I hate ops.

[2kill]

Found a bug today,

I was flying around in my lanc and I got M.A.S.T.E.R Drive, after a bit of testing I think I know what caused it, I would get a streak and since after every kill the % increases it would start after enough kills after the streak.

Ok update on this bug...

I got it to work in my terr with super very sweet but never got shield, thats weird but that is like lanc... I only ever get shield in lanc never super... also I was talking to oops who was going streak crazy in terr and he was up to 28 kills and if my understanding of the bug is right that would be 23% chance of a shield or super and from my experience he should have... so I got to thinking maybe this bug exists only for people who have M.A.S.T.E.R Drive in wb?

Just a thought

2kill

P.S. dug do you know that they have moved the first test time back 30 minutes? I haven't seen you yet so I was wondering if you knew

[Edit: I just remebered that I did get a shield once in terr my bad]