Distension Beta Suggestions/Bugfix thread

[roxxkatt]

is there a date set for the public release?
i would recommend 7/14/08 if possible...
or the 21st...


anyone heard anything?

[gdugwyler]

Haven't had a lot of time recently -- lot of work around the house over the weekend, and now I'm packing up for a few days of camping in the middle of nowhere with my dog, my girlfriend, and some illicit and elucidating substances. (It's my birthday this Friday; turning 27 and still looking 17.) I haven't set a date for public release, but have a few things to fix up before we get it out the door, both in terms of the game and the political aspect -- figuring out when it will run and for how long, that kind of thing. One thing that those who are afraid of the elimination of the beta RP multiplier will be happy to hear is that (while the multiplier is still going) each ship will have its base to-rank cost reduced. This may be about the equivalent of having a 1.2x multiplier on at all times. Not much, but something. Yes, the ships are going to take a lot longer to rank up -- but consider it this way: you'll be able to play just about any time you want, and can take a more leisurely approach to playing. Consider it something like a more robust version of pub, where you play for the enjoyment, but also happen to rank up from time to time. Hopefully we can strike a balance. If it seems too grind-heavy, adjustments can be made. I'll probably tone down the amount extra required to rank up in the later ranks as well.

Will get back to the rest of the posts when I have a free moment. I'll start really pushing on Monday of next week, with a projected release of 7/21. That's if everything goes well (particularly thinking the politics/scheduling/moderating side may be tricky).

[DankNuggets]

5 days and change, i can't wait

[2kill]

5 days and change, i can't wait

^^

I'm a bit worryed but I still can't wait

[gdugwyler]

I'm still working at it. Minor setback with the DB stuff, but that's almost working, and that's the biggest part. We may still be on track for next Monday, or we might need to hold it another week. In order to make sure that everything works properly (the end of the test waned and made it so we couldn't test everything as much as I'd like) and there's enough interest, rather than opening full-time it may just be hosted as an event for several hours at different times of the day. Eventually as it becomes more of a staple of TW we can introduce the regular weekday schedule, probably with hosting on weekends.

[jngy slate]

XFD this is still in beta.

[DankNuggets]

the way i see it, it's a catch 22 right now

If you open it up 24/7 immediately, it's probably gonna have the population that it had a month ago, maybe a little more since it's starting. I think so because it won't have a lot of people in it at one time, and when the people used to seeing a full arena come, they'll leave if it isn't pretty full.

If you host it at set times, people will know when it's up, and will come. But a lot of people who would like to play, won't be able to due to time restrictions. A benefit is that it's more likely to ensure bigger games, but at the expense of a bigger playerbase. Also, i love distension, but i'm getting past the part where i plan my day around it.

Left to rot away in 24/7 with 10 ppl on average, it wouldn't be nearly as fun, and it would have large rank discrepencies. However, if it's more like 20 ppl on average (look at the pubs now) then it'll find a comfy medium pace. It won't be the "can't look away" hectic game that it was in the beta hayday, but it will be fast enough not to be boring.

Good luck on finding a way to keep it like the pubs: partially full, all the time. Maybe it'll eventually phase out the purepub as a more rewarding form of public basing...

[Viruk]

If you host it at set times, people will know when it's up, and will come. But a lot of people who would like to play, won't be able to due to time restrictions. A benefit is that it's more likely to ensure bigger games, but at the expense of a bigger playerbase. Also, i love distension, but i'm getting past the part where i plan my day around it.

I agree with this completely

I don't think it ever ought to replace purepub because I feel there ought to be an arena for casual basing where everyone's ship is equal and ships are known quantities. Distension is great but it does sacrifice some combat skill and newbie-friendliness for the sake of ship variety and long term goals.

I don't think it should be limited to being hosted on request because its nature as a leveling game makes it more of a long term attraction. It could crowd out hosting for other interesting short term games as people clamour for a chance to level up their ships. Alternatively it could languish if unpopular with ERs. It could well become little known and little advertised and so become unpopular with players as they would never get the opportunity to make much progress with their ships.

Possibly it should run permanently but I suspect that unless it runs alongside the pubs with new arrivals to the zone dumped in the arena automatically it isn't going be heavily populated. (Since it is somewhat different from the pubs I would be surprised if it was put on par with them anyway.)

Personally I would rather Distension always be available when I am ready for it than be forced to choose between neglecting it or scheduling my day around it. I am often content to mess around in sparsely populated arenas even without the benefit of leveling up a ship.

My suggestion though would be to combine the two models: Have a permanently active Distension arena with very low RP rewards but also a regular, advertised schedule of wars (perhaps 3 or 4 a day) where there is a x3 or x4 RP multiplier for the duration of the war. Possibly also make it so ERs can host a bonus multiplier war on request.

This would mean that the game itself would be always available for all players to practice and enjoy but also give players an incentive to get together for a nice big rewarding game from time to time. Regular bonus wars would also mean the arena would be regularly advertised in pub and any new players attracted would be more likely to see the arena at its best.

[roxxkatt]

...lets hope for the 28th...?

[gdugwyler]

My suggestion though would be to combine the two models: Have a permanently active Distension arena with very low RP rewards but also a regular, advertised schedule of wars (perhaps 3 or 4 a day) where there is a x3 or x4 RP multiplier for the duration of the war. Possibly also make it so ERs can host a bonus multiplier war on request.

This would mean that the game itself would be always available for all players to practice and enjoy but also give players an incentive to get together for a nice big rewarding game from time to time. Regular bonus wars would also mean the arena would be regularly advertised in pub and any new players attracted would be more likely to see the arena at its best.

This sounds like a good idea. It would give new players an easy way to jump in to the game and get a dent made in some early ranks, as well as a reason to go at a specific time.

As for the schedule I'm thinking of a sort of hybrid between the two options: first, it's not running; then someone decides to host it and advertise for it, and sets up some kind of bonus; the bonus runs for maybe an hour (or a full war, though who knows how long that will last -- maybe just a set number of rounds or a certain amount of time, whichever comes first), after which the host is not officially "hosting" the game any longer. At that point it switches to regular Distension. This means it will advert at the start of new rounds, if it hasn't done so in the last 20 minutes or the like, and hopefully draw people in using the same techniques employed by the full-time arenas like Elim or the long-running ones such as Tourny. It'll continue to print info to the chat, as well as to the alerts chat. (Rather than having a specific bot, such as DistensionAlert, set up, the bot will just be on the channel. I have no idea why we don't do this for Tourny, the various team dueling arenas, etc., the code to which we have easy access to... makes no sense now that I think of it. Now that RoboRef isn't coming back we can actually do away with all AlertBots -- at least until his charming return.)

As for the actual game progress, I've gotten it up and running with the DB upgrades, which is the biggest hurdle, and am now adding various small features. (Some of my time has been diverted to fixing up elim/belim, though -- they're higher priority at present.) I'll still need a few testers to ensure various new features work, such as the RP bonus, and possibly the special ship unlocks. Also wouldn't hurt just to check over it for anything odd now that the debug mode is disabled. Note that anyone who participates in these very limited tests will be able to keep their RP in the main release, effectively being the first ones to play public.

I'm still not guaranteeing Monday, but my girlfriend is going away on a microbio retreat starting Sunday, so I'll have a lot of free time to kill. It should get out the door fairly soon.

[2kill]

As for the actual game progress, I've gotten it up and running with the DB upgrades, which is the biggest hurdle, and am now adding various small features. (Some of my time has been diverted to fixing up elim/belim, though -- they're higher priority at present.) I'll still need a few testers to ensure various new features work, such as the RP bonus, and possibly the special ship unlocks. Also wouldn't hurt just to check over it for anything odd now that the debug mode is disabled. Note that anyone who participates in these very limited tests will be able to keep their RP in the main release, effectively being the first ones to play public.

I would love to help just ?message me the time I need to be on for or post it either way

[gdugwyler]

Update: Girlfriend's grandmother died; her parents are milling around here whereas I thought I'd have the week alone; leaves me with very little time; going on vacation starting next Tues; returning 8/19; planning on getting Distension out the door from 8/20 to 8/30 with a slated release right around end of the summer, as originally promised some time back... apologies for continued delays.

[roxxkatt]

so if the release is still going to be a monday.....

that would be today?

anyone hear news from qan?

[DankNuggets]

i guess he's on a walkabout

[Andy H.K.]

Heard him talk in in-game Distension chat yesterday. He said Dist will be released after a few more tests is conducted. He would need a small number of people for that.

We just need to stay tuned.