Distension

[Peace_Maker]

I heard a rumor I hope is not true. The rumor was that distension was only going to be allowed to turn for about 2 hours a day when it is finally released for public play. The game has become very popular and I believe if players wish to play the game they should be allowed to and not restricted because the event coordination team does not want it played. This is the same principle as staff hosting a game they wish to host instead of a game players want to play, what sense does that make? This game should be turned into what elim is now. The bot can start as soon as X number of players enter the game. I would like to know the reason staff is leaning toward limiting the game play of distension. If there is a valid reason that would be understandable but limiting the game because someone would like to host a different game is not a good reason in my opinion.

[Stung]

Limiting the game play to just 2 hours a day is pointless in my opinion. It will just make this new game die out quick becuase players have different time schedules and wont be able to play half the time.

[Jeenyuss]

i thoroughly agree. this event has the potential to do big things for trench wars. don't cut off the nose to spite the face on this one, dipshits.

[Chao.]

Two hours a day is for the testing period only, it's currently supposed to run through the weekdays and stop for weekends once it's released. That's what I have heard anyway.

[Peace_Maker]

The way the game is set up it will take over a year to make rank required for some of the upgrades that need to be tested before the game can be fully released. Allow the game to be played more often and longer than it has been so far.

[Chao.]

The way the game is set up it will take over a year to make rank required for some of the upgrades that need to be tested before the game can be fully released. Allow the game to be played more often and longer than it has been so far.

I agree with you there, but I think the increasing beta bonus multiplier will make it easier (It's supposed to keep getting higher and higher, I think up to x10 or x20) to get to the levels we need.

[alinea]

Beta or not, Distension has proven that it can run for numerous hours without needing dug to babysit it, and I would think (dug can verify) that a lot more feedback comes out of hours of play. 1 hour just isn't enough to get a feel for the balance of the game and many people still miss it (eg: I can catch the 2nd testing, but only if I skip out on work, and I'm not awake for the first test). I fear it will never get released with the constant restrictions put on it.

-ali

[HateTheFake]

Agreed on all accounts, make it go 12 hours maybe, play it on the weekends when more ppl are online, more distension the better

[The Unliked One...]

The 2 hour limit. I heard that you can use it anytime of the day you want so you don't have to worry about your schedule but if you let it run 24/7 what's the point of having er's anymore since we can't get any ppl to play when it's on. Just pointless :/

[Chao.]

The 2 hour limit. I heard that you can use it anytime of the day you want so you don't have to worry about your schedule but if you let it run 24/7 what's the point of having er's anymore since we can't get any ppl to play when it's on. Just pointless :/

He's already come up with a better way to do it...I think he wanted to let 50 people max play at one time and when a new person wanted to enter, they would be switched with the person with the longest logged time on the game for that day when the current round ended. It's a much better way than just saying only 2 hours a day.

[gdugwyler]

Yes, 2 hours is no longer any magic number for anything in the public release, either for how long the bot will be running, or how long single players are allowed to play. (For about a day I entertained the 2 hour a day personal limit, but what Chao posted above has replaced that.)

In beta we're now running two tests per day, each of approximately 1-1.5 hours (since that last round after 1 hour sometimes takes a while to finish up). With the beta bonus added in and continually rising, I think it should be enough to test the game without limiting things too much. The fortunate part of where we are in testing is that largely the old bugs are worked out, and so the focus is on adding more new features (and then bugfixing them), and balancing out ships. The less extravagant time limit was requested by staff so as not to interfere with hosting, particularly as one of the two tests is during a time when there are more people on. When the game is finally released, this will not be a problem, as players will have access to it all day, and I fully expect from the response it's had so far (this thread being a strong indicator) that it will nearly always have a full boat of 50 people. Leaving for a favorite event will be no big deal -- nor will keeping up on staff duties (uh) -- if you know that the game will still be running when you come back, and that you can also probably get a slot after other people have racked up more time than you would have if you played all the way through. Those playing a long time may actually want to play more events and get more involved in other parts of the zone when they know they're close to the next in line to be swapped out.

[Mjollnir]

I think that the amount of testing should be allowed to be unlimited. The way it was before with dug coming and starting it up a few times a day (for longer periods of time) was actually okay but now that the testing is only allowed to continue for a few rounds it discourages people from playing.

The time needed for leveling is high and the less we test the longer it takes to get to the public release. Even with higher beta multipliers it is not going to be much fun testing for such short periods of time. A lot of people will also miss the event altogether and the ones who come in late are not going to get a chance to play almost at all.

[Maurauth]

This usage swapout will be just for the public release though? Not for beta?

[gdugwyler]

This usage swapout will be just for the public release though? Not for beta?

It's actually implemented in beta, too, but we haven't hit the 50 player limit. I'd like to test this feature sometime, maybe with an advert.

[Jeenyuss]

The 2 hour limit. I heard that you can use it anytime of the day you want so you don't have to worry about your schedule but if you let it run 24/7 what's the point of having er's anymore since we can't get any ppl to play when it's on. Just pointless :/

what you seem to be forgetting here is that it shouldn't be about the <ER>s making their quotas. it should be about pleasing the trench wars population. personally i don't give a shit if stargazer doesn't get 25 people to the 5th hunt event he's hosted that day. this would still be the case if distension wasn't even an option. distension offers something fresh and very entertaining to the stagnant waters that trench wars events have become. distension entertains the people, shouldn't that be what <ER>s are worried about? sure they might not get as many people to their events but fuck them. i'm fighting the urge to branch into the discussion of the general lack of good event referees, this thread is about lessening the restrictions around distension after all, but in all honesty there are probably 2-3 good <ER>s out there and the rest are shite with zero creativity.

don't hold distension back, please.