Distension discussion

I don't think it should be easier to unlock Lanc to be honest because then everyone would be lanc. Similarly with the weasel.

Lancs and weasels aren't that popular at all in pub. The only reason people flock to them in Distension is because they're overpowered and also because they're so difficult to unlock. IMHO just balance them, make them no harder to unlock than the other ships and everything will be fine.

[Trunks_rage]

It's clear to see that Shock Therapy was "assisting" the other team because he didn't like the one he was on, and was only doing it to be on the better team; a clear case of abusing the assist system. The assist system is meant for players to help the lesser team, not for hoping to the good team because you're a greedy motherfucker. There are a few people that do this often, and if you do it you're going to be locked in spec.

The people that do this know who they are...

The funny thing is that when shock left for the other team we ended up winning.


Also in response to everyone who thinks Lanc should be an automatic unlock at a certain rank. I wouldn't say that is a bad idea, but to be honest it wasn't very easy to unlock lanc and it would be a bit annoying if people could simply get it without displaying any skill, just racking up points over the long run. Right now the problem is that spiders are too hard to upgrade once u get into the mid 30's. And the spider is really the ship that you need to unlock lanc with. The lanc is easily the most powerful ship, so I think it SHOULD be hard to get. Otherwise distension will become Lanc Wars. I wouldn't mind if lanc was less powerful and easier to get, but right now it's too powerful to make readily available.

[Stabwound]

For one thing, it's a Distension-only ban.

As for TagMor's question, it's usually not hard to tell when someone is abusing the assist system. Check out a situation like this:

         Shock Therapy> 18v14
         Shock Therapy> need terrs
P            Stabwound> !assist 0
P                 DBot> Now an honorary pilot of PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF MISANTHROPY.  Use !assist to return to your army when you would like.
P                 DBot> For your assistance, HQ awards you a 826 RP bonus.
E                 DBot> STABWOUND is now assisting your army.
E                 DBot> A FREEMASON is now assisting your army.
         Shock Therapy> we have no terrs
E                 DBot> SHOCK THERAPY has left to assist the other army.
T                nobbi> ty freemason and stab <3s
             Stabwound> well that's nice

It's clear to see that Shock Therapy was "assisting" the other team because he didn't like the one he was on, and was only doing it to be on the better team; a clear case of abusing the assist system. The assist system is meant for players to help the lesser team, not for hopping to the good team because you're a greedy motherfucker. There are a few people that do this often, and if you do it you're going to be locked in spec.

The people that do this know who they are...

[kthx]

Yeah, if you don't assist correctly in distension you will get banned from TW.

[TagMor]

There are people that abuse the shit out of the assist system by purposely assisting onto the stronger team, or assisting right before a win, etc (and you know who you are) and if you do it you're going to be punished.

How are you going to discern between that and legitimate assisting?

[Stabwound]

(MessageBot)>2009 Jan 19 9:01AM (distension) qan: Until we're able to get a better bot server, the player cap has been set to 24, and the message rate has been reduced somewhat. This is just a temporary precaution.

This is due to the crash that happened a few days ago. I know that cap sucks but it's better than not being able to play at all.

(MessageBot)>2009 Jan 19 9:01AM (distension) qan: Additionally: Ops, please spec-lock or ban those who abuse the assist system, and shut down the bot if the winning freq refuses to assist and it's heavily imbalanced.

There are people that abuse the shit out of the assist system by purposely assisting onto the stronger team, or assisting right before a win, etc (and you know who you are) and if you do it you're going to be punished. On the other hand, in the case that the teams are greatly imbalanced, feel free to assist the losing team or you might find the bot going down. :greedy:

[Chasov]

i agree that we need another way to unlock weasel+lanc.
maybe get lvl 30 in all assault ships for lanc
and lvl 30 in all support ships for weasel?

[KuNi]

"I would suggest a level unlock for both ships, like maybe a level 40 ship for weasel, and a 50 ship for lancaster, not to replace the current standards, but an addition to."

I don't think that is a good idea cause terr is obviously the ship that is easiest to level up, and you would be able to unlock lanc much quicker in a terr compared to, say, a spider.Or would this be the reward for people playing terrier because its the most important ship in the team?

[roxxkatt]

ill just leave this here...

jngy slate> whats $?
jngy slate> no srsly whats $?
5:jngy slate> hahha suckas
5:jngy slate> i asked the mods
5:jngy slate> so prooud that u know ur little online game slang and someone else does

I would suggest a level unlock for both ships, like maybe a level 40 ship for weasel, and a 50 ship for lancaster, not to replace the current standards, but an addition to.

a very wise idea

someone with access to the database, what are all the fields in the users table?

its np, i have those, theyre already in

It doesn't store kills/deaths or anything like that

ive wanted a !stats since almost the beginning, but it isnt that important, theres a whole bunch of random crap we could keep track of

[KuNi]

soo... what happened this morning? distension died? could of at least recycled the server 30 seconds later to save the 45 minute round.

[Stabwound]

The only real stats the db stores are battles won and your ship unlocks/ranks/upgrades. It doesn't store kills/deaths or anything like that. I found that kind of odd, though, and really don't know why it wouldn't at least store K/D and maybe total time played.

I've made some suggestions to qan as far as team strength goes. Right now every ship is equal in weight: a rank 50 terrier has the same weight as a rank 50 spider, even though the terrier is clearly much more useful to the team and should be worth at least 2x as much as the spider. Terriers, and to a lesser extent, sharks, should weigh more in team strength than they do now, as they are by far the most important aspect of a successful team. I also suggested that teams with only one terrier in a 2-flag game should have a large amount of strength rating taken off, as it is virtually impossible for them to win. The same should happen with sharks but with a lesser amount of strength taken off. These changes would go a long way toward making team strength ratings more accurate and should make avarice happen much more often in unbalanced games.

[Trunks_rage]

I never really thought about it this much, but I agree with this guy. Back when my highest level was like...15, I obtained the weasel rather easily. Ended up losing it the very next battle to Stabwound anyways, but I didn't care much at the time cause I figured I could get it back whenever I wanted. Now I can't even get close to the 20 streak required (Sir Chrono has killed me 7 times at 18 or 19, then I stopped trying).

I would suggest a level unlock for both ships, like maybe a level 40 ship for weasel, and a 50 ship for lancaster, not to replace the current standards, but an addition to.

I don't think it should be easier to unlock Lanc to be honest because then everyone would be lanc. Similarly with the weasel. But I do think the spider is too hard to upgrade or at the very least should be able to get lvl 2 bullets at rank 40 rather than 47. It's still my highest ranking ship but it isn't very effective now that most people can eat so many lvl 1 bullets. If the spider was easier to upgrade it would be easier for people to get lanc because it is the best ship to unlock lanc with. As it stands now the point spreads are enormous to get to rank 47 and having only lvl 1 bullets isn't going to be enough to get there.

[jngy slate]

how do u unlock weasel and lanc?

and also for the balanced teams algorithm, the bot should consider a lot more than just RP. like danknuggets said, emphasis should be put on terriers and sharks. what else does the bot keep track of in the database? does it keep track of how many total kills and deaths someone has? it should consider k/d ratio. im not sure how the k/d ratio for sharks in distension is, but in base and pub the ratio is like 1/15. so it should keep in mind if people are playing their role in their ship, or just running around killing people. it should consider teks, are the ships who should be killing the terr killing it most of the time? for the 15 vs 10 problem, i don't know if it does this but does it shuffle just the people who are currently online, or does it shuffle every single player in the database? if it's every single player, it should organize the team by the ones that are currently online, have been recently online, or have played in recent distension events. because some people get on just for distension and nothing else. or get online when distension starts and stay.

someone with access to the database, what are all the fields in the users table?

and cheese!, you could try looking at this site for design ideas

http://www.oswd.org/

I never really thought about it this much, but I agree with this guy. Back when my highest level was like...15, I obtained the weasel rather easily. Ended up losing it the very next battle to Stabwound anyways, but I didn't care much at the time cause I figured I could get it back whenever I wanted. Now I can't even get close to the 20 streak required (Sir Chrono has killed me 7 times at 18 or 19, then I stopped trying).

I would suggest a level unlock for both ships, like maybe a level 40 ship for weasel, and a 50 ship for lancaster, not to replace the current standards, but an addition to.

[KuNi]

ok, lanc and weasel are almost impossible to unlock now, unless you have already unlocked them. spider can no longer unlock lanc, cause everybody can tank a lot of level 1 bullets, and noone is even near unlocking level 2s, terrier cant unlock it easily either cause theres so many people shooting bullets all over the place(cause everyone is such high level and high charge rate) that they cant come out and shoot without dying.
weasel is also hard to unlock, but not as hard as lanc. most people would of unlocked weasel by camping with wb in fr, but a lot more people can tank level 2 bullets easily, and theres jabs lobbing bombs in the side of fr.Also they're in the path of where x's sneak into fr, and of course they cant see them cause hardly any wb's have xradar.
lots of newbs coming to distension will want to play as there favourite ship, and there are lots of complaints about, "wheres my weasel!",and "how come i cant use lancaster!", its hard enough to unlock them with a level 0 ship, and by the time they are a higher level, it will be even harder to unlock the 2 secret ships.
I dont know how to fix this problem, but maybe for players that have been playing distension for a long time, get weasel and/or lanc once they get to commander rank(100 army wins)?
i hope there is a way to make it easier, because or else, all the players who have weasel and lanc now will be the only ones with it, and will make them more overpowering.

or you could just give me lanc and ill shut up