Distension discussion

[PH]

PH: "they already killed the only fun ship and you want to" -- elaborate? Can't fix the unknown, baby.

you took my shark bullets and you beat them over the head with a cinder block. now they're absolutely useless. so what, i'm supposed to rely entirely on mines and bombs that i can't even get off half the time due to wb/spider spam to get kills? yeah, interesting offer, but i'll pass.

[roxxkatt]

PH: "they already killed the only fun ship and you want to" -- elaborate? Can't fix the unknown, baby.

awwwwwwwwwwww yeaaaaaaaa

he's a bad mutha -SHUT YO MOUF-



RIP =(

[Peace_Maker]

27/4 isn't a good idea, it will die out soon enough if u do that...

Interesting theory to shorten the week to 4 days and add 3 hours to each day, so a work week is 3 days and you rest on the forth?

I disagree with Barton on the game dying out. There are tons of upgrades and even if it does "die out" it is still way better than a pub that has been messed up and unimproved for a couple of years now.

[Barton]

27/4 isn't a good idea, it will die out soon enough if u do that...

[Viruk]

• Blinding issue: can't figure this one out. Is it only the blinding? Does it ever say that Vengeful Bastard has fired? (It will if you don't have !killmsg off.) If it's related to round-end loss, that one is intentional.

I have never noticed any other Vengeful Bastard effects. Last time I noticed it I was blinded shortly after my own team scored (with nothing saying that VB had fired) so it is not just a penalty for allowing the enemy to score. This was not shortly after end of a battle and I had been on the same team and ship since I arrived. Perhaps it can blind anyone randomly after goal scoring?

This is a work in progress. I am not going to be shoving this down trenchwars throats. There are still bugs to fix.

No one is forced to play Distension.
Many want more Distension.
Most Distension players enjoy it despite the bugs.

With the current rationed 'schedule' there is pressure to concentrate on leveling whenever the game is running.
24/7 Distension would free its players to attend any other interesting events.
24/7 Distension would free its players to better investigate bugs.
24/7 Distension would be fairest to those in other timezones.

Until we get 24/7 Distension we can't expect any one person to be able to provide a decent schedule of games (unless you can find a trusted insomniac Distension freak with no life). More Distension hosts please!

[Jeenyuss]

i know i've said this before but can we please please please change the colour of the text back to regular? if it must be stylized can we at least make pm's green instead of blue?

[Peace_Maker]

• Blinding issue: can't figure this one out. Is it only the blinding? Does it ever say that Vengeful Bastard has fired? (It will if you don't have !killmsg off.) If it's related to round-end loss, that one is intentional.
• PH: "they already killed the only fun ship and you want to" -- elaborate? Can't fix the unknown, baby.
• Ranking up is slow, I agree. However, this game's only been running a couple of weeks and we already have people in the low to mid 20's. The ideal "max" rank is supposed to be about 50, with a few additional powers available afterward, but really not a hell of a lot going on there otherwise. At the risk of it becoming to grind-happy, the ranks have to be made slow-going. The other reason is that Distension is designed so that the newbie isn't vastly overpowered by a high-rank ship -- just somewhat. The additional powers should give you an edge, but not a guarantee of a win. This is why there can't be essentially infinite ranks with increasingly awful powers... it has to have a cut-off. The balance is the slow ranking. Consider that it's about the same with other MMORPGs. However, the difference is that they're usually mind-numbingly boring to rank up (thus the term grind). Distension, on the other hand (or at least this is the intent), provides a solid action platform, with a foundation of TW basing, that's actually fun to play aside from the enjoyment of customizing and ranking up your ship. Yes, you may have to play 5 hours, but at least it's not a boring 5 hours, as it would be in WoW (in my opinion). It's, uh, action-packed. If it gets out of hand and there's a unanimous outcry, I'll adjust the rates, but for now let's just see how it goes.

I have noticed when distension is turned off and everyone is specced everyone was put in blind mode. Other times I have noticed blinding is when scoring a goal during the ball game and when changing ships between rounds. Hope that helps.

I believe PH would be referring to shark since that is his favorite ship. I do not know what was changed with the ship though.

Keep ranking up slow. I don't want to get bored with the game.

[gdugwyler]

When replying to this thread last, I was in a computer lab, and the girl next to me hit the power button on the computer I was using, triggering a shutdown. She walked away, apparently not realizing what she'd done. Well, keeping this short as a result:

• Upped goal rewards, mostly for higher-rank people. Let me know how it feels. Also removed rewards for those in base/respawn at the time the goal is scored. Those who are spawnkilling may actually be contributing to the win, so no harm done in giving them the reward.
• Blinding issue: can't figure this one out. Is it only the blinding? Does it ever say that Vengeful Bastard has fired? (It will if you don't have !killmsg off.) If it's related to round-end loss, that one is intentional.
• Sound codes: should be fixed. Let me know if you still see any, and if so, where and when.
• For scheduling, I'm working on getting more ops together, particularly those that can host during odd hours. Making Distension available for everyone is important to me.
• PH: "they already killed the only fun ship and you want to" -- elaborate? Can't fix the unknown, baby.
• Lanc is now a bit easier to unlock.
• Shouldn't be any Levi problems anymore. Also, unlock ranks will show up properly in !hangar, now based on whether you're in a support or assault ship (as intended).
• Ranking up is slow, I agree. However, this game's only been running a couple of weeks and we already have people in the low to mid 20's. The ideal "max" rank is supposed to be about 50, with a few additional powers available afterward, but really not a hell of a lot going on there otherwise. At the risk of it becoming to grind-happy, the ranks have to be made slow-going. The other reason is that Distension is designed so that the newbie isn't vastly overpowered by a high-rank ship -- just somewhat. The additional powers should give you an edge, but not a guarantee of a win. This is why there can't be essentially infinite ranks with increasingly awful powers... it has to have a cut-off. The balance is the slow ranking. Consider that it's about the same with other MMORPGs. However, the difference is that they're usually mind-numbingly boring to rank up (thus the term grind). Distension, on the other hand (or at least this is the intent), provides a solid action platform, with a foundation of TW basing, that's actually fun to play aside from the enjoyment of customizing and ranking up your ship. Yes, you may have to play 5 hours, but at least it's not a boring 5 hours, as it would be in WoW (in my opinion). It's, uh, action-packed. If it gets out of hand and there's a unanimous outcry, I'll adjust the rates, but for now let's just see how it goes.

Please keep the changes coming. Those who have reported bugs, please contact me in-game while it's running so that I can give you a reward. I'm working on implementing a way to do a sort of "maintenance" load of Distension, which means eventually I'll be able to give these awards regardless of whether the bot is running. At the moment, however, it will only be while it's going. Thanks for the input, thanks to dako for starting such a thread (I was getting to it, but not quickly enough), and also to whomsoever stickied it.

Also, for the Americans reading this ... today is the day we begin to restore our flagging reputation in the eyes of the world: here's to the hope that the polls have been right.

[DankNuggets]

Agreed, let it stay running. If something stops working then it could just stay down till someone comes on that can fix it. I think qan is the only one that messes with the coding of the bot.

I agree, if a few people were allowed to start the game, and set the timer to like 4-6 hrs or w/e, it would work OK. They could keep track of any bugs and if there's a serious one, they could take the game down so it could be fixed. I guess the problem with this is that you'd need to have people with staff powers to start/stop the bot, and warn/ban people for abusing bugs. You also need someone who's pretty familiar with the game and it's progression so they can recognize if someone's abusing a bug or if there's something that's not working right. I think there's at least one other person who's messed with the coding, but I could be wrong. You'd probably also want someone who's available enough at consistant times to keep it somewhat predictable.

on a side note, Cheese! could handle starting/stoping distension, but i'm betting you'll be sick of it soon enough. the guy's got good intentions and dedication, but I wouldn't put him in charge of the whole thing. But he is in the arena 24/7, so he might as well be the bot.

On another note. I dislike how some ships are secretly unlocked. Why not just let players know how to do it so it can be a goal.

This. It wasn't a secret in beta how to unlock them, it's kind of annoying. But I think it was always dug's intention for it to be this way for at least one or two ships.

Okay, Let me make this clear, I DO want distension on weekends. I just shut it down LAST weekend because it was halloween and i had holiday plans in place first. Okay? It will go back to the 'normal' way. FFS Distension has only been available for what?? 2 weeks? And people are stating we have patterns on weekends??????????

Dude, we're more than happy you're hosting this at all. I think the only, and i mean the only reason people sound unhappy is that we need a schedule of sorts. People really want to maximize the time they can play. Scheduling is critical to the success of the game. When it went into beta, it had sporadic following untill he set up regular testing times and then it was packed consistantly. The schedule was messed up with the addition of specialization and testing was not held to schedule. Other factors were involved, but everyone quit testing.

The initial debut was something dug hyped up for months, and planned on hyping it up extensively right before the release. It was hyped so poorly this time, i never even knew about the weekend release, and i read the damn forum 5 days a week . The posts about the weekend event were done like Friday at 2 am or w/e. I'll get over that, but everyone's asking about patterns of hosting, because that's what we were lead to believe would happen. I get pissed when I log on and see "not online, last seen 0 hrs ago" (i've gone to auto-commanding ?find distensionbot) over and over as it's been lately.

If you're hosting it haphazardly, then so be it. But if there's a method to the madness, let us know. But I for one, am extremely happy :bigups: it's being hosted at all.

I have been hosting 1 hour -1 hour 30 minutes. at approx same time we used to do beta. Again, We do have to host other events. And I am attempting to host distension during peak times, and the occasional dead time to get the max amount of people.

This is a work in progress. I am not going to be shoving this down trenchwars throats. There are still bugs to fix.

Good to hear a plan! That's all we wanted, to know what to expect.

[Malladrin]

Again, We do have to host other events.

btw: awesome game. Pretty much the only hosted/pub game to catch my interest in, like, 5 years.

So if we got inferior pub and games compared to another one, we have to host the inferior ones as well. I don't see why?
If good events are hosted they will get people even if Distension is running. Maximize happiness for the players, not for staffers, staff.

[H.M.S. Stargazer]

Okay, Let me make this clear, I DO want distension on weekends. I just shut it down LAST weekend because it was halloween and i had holiday plans in place first. Okay? It will go back to the 'normal' way. FFS Distension has only been available for what?? 2 weeks? And people are stating we have patterns on weekends??????????

Jesus christ people think. There are other things happening in the real world that we need to celebrate.

I have been hosting 1 hour -1 hour 30 minutes. at approx same time we used to do beta. Again, We do have to host other events. And I am attempting to host distension during peak times, and the occasional dead time to get the max amount of people.

This is a work in progress. I am not going to be shoving this down trenchwars throats. There are still bugs to fix.

-H.M.S. Stargazer
Event Coordination Team

[dako]

What did he kill? o.o

[PH]

I would give Cheese! the ability to start / stop distension

aldklskagkfdlasgkd;l nonoononoonoononono

no

they already killed the only fun ship and you want to al;kdsdsl;fjksdjd

noononno

[dako]

Just wondering: why is it run so little now that it's out of beta? I just don't see the reason to keep it from being played on weekends, and even on weekdays only a few hours per day. It's even more annoying to just shut the game down before it's even finished (after a round ends, but still). If anything, I think it would be better to have it open on weekends. I mean, it's obviously a popular game, and I think TW needs anything that can get people online and playing.

Is it going to be up more often at some point?

btw: awesome game. Pretty much the only hosted/pub game to catch my interest in, like, 5 years.

As of now, HMS Stargazer is the "Event Coordination Team", so he decides when it goes up etc. Im pretty sure most staff doesnt like distension because it takes players from other events (being a superior arena and all). Im not sure if actual thought is put into the scheduling or if its just like a "HMS hosts it when he feels like it, if he feels like it" sort of thing. It unfortunately seems to be the latter. If I could have it my way, I would give Cheese! the ability to start / stop distension, of course reporting errors to HMS / dugqan. Im pretty sure the bots at a stable state enough so that it can be run without supervision

Peace_Maker: Thats part of the goal, to figure out how to get those secret ships :P

[Peace_Maker]

Just wondering: why is it run so little now that it's out of beta? I just don't see the reason to keep it from being played on weekends, and even on weekdays only a few hours per day. It's even more annoying to just shut the game down before it's even finished (after a round ends, but still). If anything, I think it would be better to have it open on weekends. I mean, it's obviously a popular game, and I think TW needs anything that can get people online and playing.

Is it going to be up more often at some point?

btw: awesome game. Pretty much the only hosted/pub game to catch my interest in, like, 5 years.

Agreed, let it stay running. If something stops working then it could just stay down till someone comes on that can fix it. I think qan is the only one that messes with the coding of the bot.

On another note. I dislike how some ships are secretly unlocked. Why not just let players know how to do it so it can be a goal.