Distension discussion

[getting pwned]

This is sad. It ships get reset though, I would like some compensation like at least extra UP.

Why should YOU be any different than anyone else who gets their ship reset?

I don't mind it, actually I kind of want it. To start your ship from 0 again. See how fast you can level in one session.

You really need to get over yourself baby cakes. Theres only talk about a reset. It's not a set in stone thing.

[jngy slate]

This is sad. It ships get reset though, I would like some compensation like at least extra UP.

[project dragon]

Resets are actually better than you might think, the longer we go in Hyperspace without having one the more people start asking for it

Not to mention that since the last reset a few weeks ago, Hyperspace population has been able to maintain a steady population (35+) everyday.

[Stabwound]

I am not totally against a reset but as a player with high ranking ships and ambitions to improve them further it would certainly hurt. It would be worth it if it revived Distension though.

Well, you're about 1 of maybe 5 people that regularly play still. Everyone else has totally lost interest. I figured that if none of the former players play anymore then resetting them wouldn't be much of a big deal. The idea of resetting everyone is to just clear the slate once everything has been tweaked and is working well. If the ranking system was changed (and I think it should be) then it would obviously need a reset.

My worry about this idea is that if people know their ship gets regularly reset with nothing to show for it then we will lose some of the long term committed players in exchange for a bunch of players who will be happy in the short term but then leave as soon as we get a spread of levels or when leveling progress slows or the game becomes too challenging for them in some other way.

Well, I didn't say regular resets... but there was the idea of allowing people to willingly reset their own ships for a bonus. The hope was that the bonus would be enough of an incentive to have people to reset their own ships without forcing it on everyone.

Could we even safely do a reset without qan at the moment?
Is there anyone else who can take over coding from qan?

If the answers are 'no' then there is little point in discussing anything other than when the current Distension is going to be hosted and how it is going to be promoted.

Well, for one thing, Distension is qan's game, and I don't think he'd want anyone else touching it. For another thing, I highly doubt there is anyone competent enough to continue developing it- not to mention someone that would actually WANT to do this. Besides, I think that anyone trying to take over developing would need qan's permission if only because of how TWDev/TWCore is setup. Nothing is going to be reset or changed at all without qan doing it. I just suggest things to him- all of this is just suggestions currently. qan has the final say in everything.

Anyway, as far as I'm concerned Distension is dead and beyond hope without qan, and I don't have much interest in helping keep a dead game going. There are tons of issues with the bot/game that need to be addressed. Before anyone whines, what I do is completely voluntary, and I'm no one special; just a player and staff member who likes the game and wanted to help run it. Anyone else on staff can do this if they want. That's one of the reasons it pisses me off when people whine if the game isn't started on time, or whatever. It's not my responsibility at all; I just started it up a lot, and then everyone just grew to expect that I'd be starting it every single time it's supposed to be run.

[Viruk]

Resets are actually better than you might think, the longer we go in Hyperspace without having one the more people start asking for it

I am not surprised. A starting ship in Distension can actually kill a high level - even one that hasn't had their thumb mashed down on the fire key for half a minute.

There is much more potential for low level ships in Distension to coexist usefully with the highest levels. Sadly it doesn't work well with low player numbers and unbalanced teams.

[D1st0rt]

Resets are actually better than you might think, the longer we go in Hyperspace without having one the more people start asking for it

[Viruk]

I am not totally against a reset but as a player with high ranking ships and ambitions to improve them further it would certainly hurt. It would be worth it if it revived Distension though.

My worry about this idea is that if people know their ship gets regularly reset with nothing to show for it then we will lose some of the long term committed players in exchange for a bunch of players who will be happy in the short term but then leave as soon as we get a spread of levels or when leveling progress slows or the game becomes too challenging for them in some other way.

Somehow this game has to balance the needs of newbies and occasional players with those willing to spend a long time to get high level ships. The ones we need most are those who are going to consistently turn up and take part - whether these are newbies or oldtimers.

Getting qan to come back to do all the coding you suggest (and another lot from me) would get my vote... but I don't get a vote. It is up to qan (if he still lives) to decide whether this is worth his time.

Could we even safely do a reset without qan at the moment?
Is there anyone else who can take over coding from qan?

If the answers are 'no' then there is little point in discussing anything other than when the current Distension is going to be hosted and how it is going to be promoted.

[Stabwound]

This is pretty much dead until qan returns. He hasn't been seen in nearly 2 months, but I'm hoping he shows up sooner or later, because he's the only one that can/will work on the bot. Anyway, this is what I was thinking:

I know people will probably be extremely averse to it, but I think an eventual player wipe may be a good idea at this point. Before you scream, hear me out.

When the game went from beta -> released, it was full of problems. The biggest was the constant recycles, which in turn caused the player limit to be slashed repeatedly. It went from 40 players to 24, which was horrible. The low player limit combined with the broken queue system insured that no new players would join the game; they'd enter the arena, not be able to play, and just leave. The player base stagnates, long time players leave because they have to sit in queue for an hour, etc. The severe instability and recycles were definitely a factor, too.

After I shut the game down for a week because of the recycling, the game never recovered. qan implemented the bot suicide thing to prevent recycles, but it's never really been fully tested since the arena is never full.

Anyway, now that there is no longer a queue we still don't get new players. First of all, people come into the arena, see there are only 4 people playing, and then leave. If for some reason a new player DOES start playing, it's next to impossible for them to kill anything. In a full arena it's not hard to get a few stray kills and you're well on your way, but with few players it's very difficult. Even when the arena is packed, I don't think the game gives off a very newbie-friendly vibe. It sucks being forced to play an extremely crappy warbird or terrier. The blue font sucks. The bot and commands are confusing. It's just a mess. I don't think it's possible to revive the game in its current state and without qan.

There's a good chance the suicide method will prevent recycles, but it's still not optimal. I could push to have a separate Distension zone hosted on TW's server, completely separate from TW but still connected with a BouncerBot that kicks you to the zone when you ?go distension in TW. There was an effort to move the entire TW zone to a new server which would have solved Distension's problems completely but I don't think anything has happened with this. Anyway, no matter which way this ends up going, there are a few things I think should happen:

1. Make ABSOLUTELY sure that the bot will never recycle the zone again.
2. Have the automatic assist system finished.
3. Implement the system that allows people to voluntarily reset their ships to rank 0 for a unique bonus.
4. Have the player limit raised to 40 (or more) like it should be.
5. Tweak the ship/arena settings a bit to make them more newbie-friendly.
6. Reset the entire player database.
7. Relaunch Distension as though this was a second beta.

Also, I think the game should be hosted much less often; it only took months before people maxed out their ships and got bored. 4 hours a day is far too much unless the RP requirements were tweaked to, like, double or triple what they are now. I was one of the people pushing for 24/7 Distension, but it's clear to see that the game does not suit that style of hosting. Maybe 1.5 hours a day, tops. Either that or increase the rank limit to 200 or 300 but spread the upgrades much farther apart, such as +10 energy per rank. This will, in practice, make little to no difference to the actual game, but still gives the player a sense of progressing their ships, which is a major part of the appeal.

Lemme know what you think. I know there will be people against a possible reset, but before you go nuts, think about the game and what I've said rather than the effort you've personally put into your ships.

[disorder]

Why are the color's so blurry, and the text is silly, hard to read, well for me anyway =]

And when is my name on to be lifted of the ban for scoring a goal while I wasn't mean to

Haha I reported you for goaling during flag time. I made a big stink about it to HMS because you were being gay on squad chat and obstinate in distension chats.

You were like I dont care what I'm supposed to be doing go ahead and try to make me stop it's not illegal, blah blah blah. hahahaha, sucker.

[roxxkatt]

anything can die if placed in the wrong hands

[dako]

Well it was intended to be more of something to get Qan to say something if he was still lurking around.

[kthx]

I just miss the times I had during this thread..

distension was the future of tw

distension is the only reason tw was still around

tw would die without distension

...

good times.

[Liquid Blue]

This is not fun anymore. It isn't stabwounds fault either, I dont know why people blame him. Qan has been completely negligent of this game for about 4 months now, ever since the major recycles and bugs have occurred. He used to give the whole "but im busy" speech in a desperate attempt to justify it, but doesn't even bother to let us know if he's still alive. The last time he was seen was 4 weeks ago, and hasn't even let us know "hey guys im giving up on this sry". And it didn't help that qan gave distension ops so little power to actually do anything. So if nothing else, at least perhaps this post will urge dugwyler to explain the rash of lazy patheticness that he seems to be increasingly experiencing.

You suck qan.

Love, dako

poopface said it better, but if this was the type of attitude I was met with whenever I found time to volunteer program and debug for this zone, I wouldn't do it either.

[CaptainPoopface]

This will soon be the fate of TW pubs too... Same people doing the same crap over and over, as the number of players dwindles.

And dako, you are saying, "Qan sucks for volunteering hundreds of hours of his free time to make something for other people to enjoy, because it's not perfect and he won't keep pouring his free time into it." Do you think that warms his heart? Do you think that makes him scratch his head and say, "Dako is right, I do suck. I need to spend more time breaking my back for people like him, for free."?

There will always be problems with SS, but at least the price is right. Keep things in perspective.

[kthx]

glad freezetag still draws a crowd.