Distension Beta Suggestions/Bugfix thread

[Viruk]

#1: while the bot enters automated shutdown, it closes at the end of the next round, or free play.
HOWEVER, the bot will stay up permanently if free play is still going with not enough players, because it cancels the current round when there isnt enough players...

Suits me. I get to idle away for a few hours, practice my goal shots, try out all those commands I never have the time to play with and check my armories at my leisure.

#2: no reward should be given for assisting with less then 3v3, (thats 3v3, not 6v0), and the reward should only be given out every 5 minutes, instead of 1 (currently)

The testing of the assist exploit was being pursued with great zeal. It came very close to interrupting my idling.

also, why cant my wb even fire lv3 bullets at lvl45, when spids get to fire a stream of lv2s?

I could have sworn my artillery warbird was firing L3s earlier than this. It still can't fire when it is holding the ball though!

also, why is the assist bonus FOR ONE ASSIST currently worth -THREE TIMES- more then the end round award for winning?

When I saw I was getting 24K RP for an assist it certainly encouraged me to assist more :P

slow down lanc bullets
raise lanc multi fire delay

Unless you want to turn it into an area denial ship the Lanc needs bullets fast enough to hold its own in a dogfight.
Since switching my spider to warship and fitting L2 bullets my Lanc is no longer my most powerful fighter. The very high energy of the warship made a big difference* and my spider can seemingly shoot more L2s faster than my Lanc. Perhaps the age of Lanc dominance will be over sooner than I thought.
I may try out an L3 warship Lanc and see if it excels at more than just cross-FR camping and tube shots. Maybe at warship energies the multifire can still be fired rapidly despite the last tweak and perhaps leeching will work often enough to recharge.

(*Level 47 Spider energies: Artillery 1300 Scout 1355 Warship 1750)

lower wb fire delay
lower wb fire cost

Perhaps, although I don't think its rate of fire ought to approach the Lanc or Spider in order to keep the ships distinctive. I see the real problem with the Warbird at current levels is that its L3s appear less likely to be a one-hit kill because the new system allows more energy to some of its prey. (All the reps, ports and decoys about at these levels don't help snipers much either) At current levels many other ships can get fairly good speed and thrust too. It also has relatively underpowered specials*. I think for my (artillery) Warbird it is recharging the high L3 cost that delays fire. Possibly warships or Z-class may be different. I don't recall big problems with L2 cost or rate from earlier on though and reducing the L2 cost/delay might make it overpowered at pre-reset levels where it has a bigger maneuver advantage.

(*e.g. My level 1-2 M.A.S.T.E.R. drive has triggered once in 5 levels! By the time I had sped across the FR to find some enemies it did nothing apart from lure me into an early death. Ouch!)

2nd terr burst should be lowered to 100UP, instead of 160, the burst recharge is worth far more...

Should only be worth more to good base terriers that can stay alive long enough to collect them. Otherwise the recharge is too cheap. To lame burst-and-die terriers the 2nd burst is worth more.
Are Terriers currently underpowered? I think not!
Do we need more random death in the FR? I think not!

[roxxkatt]

Suits me. I get to idle away for a few hours, practice my goal shots, try out all those commands I never have the time to play with and check my armories at my leisure.

which is why there should be a 'shutdown mode' where we get -5 minutes- to leisurely do stuff, perhaps call it a 'refitting mode'...

ONE ASSIST currently worth -THREE TIMES- more then the end round award

FOUR TIMES*

lower wb fire delay
lower wb fire cost

the wb was overpowered, then it got nerfed, but too much.
im finding fire cost is too great for wb, it takes the whole bar to fire one shot, while a lanc can fire 4 bullets, with half the bar...
as well as the fire delay cap, which is too long, as i cant fire fast enough, and find myself waiting for the next bullet.

It still can't fire when it is holding the ball though

the increased damage while carrying the ball is enough...
set fire cost back to 100%, 150% is just unnecessary...

Do we need more random death in the FR? I think not!

most people think this way...
which is why its currently exorbitantly overpriced, but most people dont think its the burst RECHARGE thats annoying...
as of now, its impossible to get, and only a fool would buy it.


and i noticed the bot is still scorereseting, make it stop.
noone likes score resets...
bot needs to be 100% score reset free!

[Viruk]

A couple more lowbies who somehow didn't get their level 39 ranks:

kalidor(67) killed by: Viruk
P Distension> +172 RP: kalidor(21) [x9.1 beta]

PreDominate(42) killed by: Viruk
P Distension> +54 RP: PreDominate(6) [x9.1 beta]

[Viruk]

I like refit mode but apparently it needs to disable ship limits so all can refit.
It also needs to disable the assist system especially as it was still giving bonuses. Probably the support ship switching system was too although bot was shut down before I could test this.
Ideally it needs to rearm after death too.

[roxxkatt]

right, the refit mode is good, but shark/terr limits need to go,
its still prizing rp for assist.
also, you have disabled rearming? why?
since theres no rp, whats the harm in rearming?
also, after the 5min refit timer, the bot doesnt shut down.


intro works well now, but every picture needs to be displayed TWICE as long,
some people dont read very quickly...


also, id like the beta multiplier to be raised again.
lets accelerate the final testing before interest drops even more.

its almost time for public.

[Vergilius]

I still get placed back on my own freq after assisting 90% of the round (in a terr, the only terr of that team), and not getting any winner bonus for that. Also, ive noticed that if i burst, die right after, and then my burst kills people, the kill messages display ...-XX% OUTSIDE BASE- (or sth like that) is that based on where YOU are at the time of killing or where the nme is when being killed?

[DankNuggets]

I still get placed back on my own freq after assisting 90% of the round (in a terr, the only terr of that team), and not getting any winner bonus for that. Also, ive noticed that if i burst, die right after, and then my burst kills people, the kill messages display ...-XX% OUTSIDE BASE- (or sth like that) is that based on where YOU are at the time of killing or where the nme is when being killed?

it must be where you are at the time of the enemy's death. i get this all the time in a shark when i'm respawning and someone dies to a mine.

[gdugwyler]

• Refit: Sorry about the refit problems -- I pretty much just added it on the fly to see if it'd work. All of the issues mentioned should be fixed. Let me know if there are others. Also, Tactical Ops should now be able to be refit during this time.
• The auto-switchback system now should work a little more intelligently. When looking for a person to switch back, it will take the lowest-strength ships first, giving high-rankers a little more security. It also takes Terrs last. If a Terr is the only eligible candidate, it will only be switched if there's another Terr available -- or in the case of a two flag game, actually 2 Terrs still available. And if on the offchance that two Terrs are assisting, the weaker one will always be chosen.
• In-base killing deduction will now check for the location of the player killed rather than the killer.
• Sector hold participation reset changed to accomodate the various new game types and timer lengths. Now it occurs if you're within 40 seconds of the win for changing into support ships, and 60 seconds if changing into assaulters.
• Found a small bug where if a player specs and has lagouts remaining, and rather than doing !lagout, enters in to a different ship (even the ship that they were just playing), their participation was being reset. Should now attempt to subtract from # of lagouts. Note that because this is not a standard lagout, players are still subject to the ship change participation reset restrictions for armies that have a sector hold.
• !hideintro added, which will turn off any intro graphics currently being displayed. Note that due to how !intro is written it won't stop the intro altogether, just make the current screen go away. (Isn't it great how there's no easy way to send special input to the bot except in PM? For example, a key combination that would fire certain things would be very nice ...) This command isn't in the !help -- just tells you about it when you type !intro.
• Getting closer to reading all upgrades from the DB, after which I'll start pretty hard on new abilities.
• F1 help coming soon. I know, been saying this for a while, but it's really quite true.
• We're getting very close to public release. Please start to get very nitpicky. Development will continue after public, but in a slightly more restrained fashion -- meaning, I won't want to mess up too often.

[gdugwyler]

Brief notice: the remainder of the Distension development and design will fall on the shoulders of some newly-rehired member of staff (qan is the name I believe). Sorry, this is out of my hands.

[Lizard Fuel]

why the hell would you OR staff take this project that you have worked countless hours on, and endlessly listened to pointless harsh critism from forum faggots, and just hand it over to some washed up nobody who hasnt been seen in years. If you let this happen, I hope it dies along with your desire to finish what you started. qan, or anybody else, does not deserve any credit for your creation. I can only assume what kind of BS politics are involved that we don't know about, but I think you should suck it up and drive on, and finish YOUR project, THEN staff can suffer without you

[Maverick]

why the hell would you OR staff take this project that you have worked countless hours on, and endlessly listened to pointless harsh critism from forum faggots, and just hand it over to some washed up nobody who hasnt been seen in years. If you let this happen, I hope it dies along with your desire to finish what you started. qan, or anybody else, does not deserve any credit for your creation. I can only assume what kind of BS politics are involved that we don't know about, but I think you should suck it up and drive on, and finish YOUR project, THEN staff can suffer without you

Much agreed, Lizard Fuel :unsure:

[DankNuggets]

too bad there's not a shear and utter disbelief smiley

:huh: :blink: :shock1:

[gdugwyler]

Just a little joke; didn't mean to cause any real trepidation. The truth is that I've been operating under the name "dugwyler" for the past 2 years -- I used it to come back and code without making contacts. Well, obviously that's no longer what is going on, so I've rejoined staff as qan. You'll see me on that name mostly from now on.

[milosh]

Much agreed, Lizard Fuel :unsure:

I laughed.

[Lizard Fuel]

Just a little joke; didn't mean to cause any real trepidation. The truth is that I've been operating under the name "dugwyler" for the past 2 years -- I used it to come back and code without making contacts. Well, obviously that's no longer what is going on, so I've rejoined staff as qan. You'll see me on that name mostly from now on.

For the record, you are officially a faggot. All this time I've been using Qan whenever Q came up in acro in your remembrance, only to get punk'd. Whatever. Ignore the ?message i sent you on dugwyler, for that would only further my gullibility. Faggot.