Distension discussion

[Stabwound]

I saw qan say something about wanting the levels to max out around rank 50, and after that are just "prestige" ranks that add a bit to your ship, but take a very long time to achieve.

It's kinda funny that some ships have really good abilities at rank 79/80ish but will never see them. =p Like, spider gets level 3 bullets at rank 79 I believe.

[usoi]

OMG i need to LVL UP right NOW

[Viruk]

IMHO the current RP grind is extreme overkill. It's reasonable if you only ever play one ship(besides the last 10-15 levels which are absurd) but the system really sucks for people who like to mix it up. Getting multiple ships to the high levels right now is extremely difficult for the hardcore crowd and impossible for casual players. What's wrong with letting people hit max-ish rank in a reasonable amount of time? If they want to keep progressing they can change ships. IMHO, RP requirements should be dramatically lower, say 100k to rank 50 and maybe 10 million to 80. Let's be realistic, most of us don't play Continuum like a full-time job these days.

There are good reasons why it should be difficult to rank up:

• To avoid having to reset too often.
• Having most people mid-ranking makes the game more fun. A base full of high powered ships leads to too many random deaths due to bigger bombs, more reps and bursts, killer shrap etc.
• It allows room for RP multiplier events as well as regular Distension. These would help promote Distension and could fill an arena even if people start getting bored with it.

[Dolios]

It would be nice level easier. Year ago Distension was in beta and the leveling was much nicer and smoother, nobody has 12 hours

[roxxkatt]

There are good reasons why it should be difficult to rank up:

• To avoid having to reset AT ALL
• Having most people mid-ranking makes the game more fun. DO U REALLY WANT A LVL80 LEVI WITH BLUE BOMBS, 30 SHRAP, AND PROX ON THE OTHER TEAM?
• It allows room for RP multiplier events as well as regular Distension. These would help promote Distension and could fill an arena even if people start getting bored with it.

fixed

[Peace_Maker]

Page 3! Welcome, the games today were fun. The ships around me are getting stronger and I am not keeping up. Hopefully I will find time to play more soon.

[dako]

Most people are going to rapidly level out pretty soon, meaning the RP difference between rank 20 for a pretty high level wb and 29 for jamal is about 50k, which is nothing once you get past rank 40. The only ship that really naturally levels faster than all the others is terr, terrs will always be the highest, and in the past levs / lancs have always been the lowest, but im pretty sure they have the highest RP cost per rank of all ships.

[gdugwyler]

I'm going to catch up on this thread tomorrow when I have a bit more time, but I wanted to pose a quick formatting question. Does anyone think it would be helpful if DistensionBot sent messages as remote private messages? For example, right now you see:

              Joey fox> lol
           Mister Cool> lol
         DistensionBot> Something important 1
         DistensionBot> Something important 2
         DistensionBot> Something important 3
       Captain Awesome> lol lol lol lol so funni im illerterate lol

Instead it could be:

              Joey fox> lol
           Mister Cool> lol
(DistensionBot)> Something important 1
(DistensionBot)> Something important 2
(DistensionBot)> Something important 3
       Captain Awesome> lol lol lol lol were am i lol???

Opinions? Note: could also print some of DistensionBot's messages as remote and others as in-arena if it might help differentiate. Another option: get the bot a very short name.

[roxxkatt]

i would like to have remote pms from the bot, would make it ezier to see


also, id like end round spam with stalemates too

[Raible]

Bugs bugs bugs

Noticed three bugs since yesterday:

Bug #1:

RPs are not saved at round end under certain conditions. As can be seen here, I got promoted twice:

  People's Republic of Misanthropy will win the battle in 10 seconds . . .

  RAIBLE of Intergalactic Planetary, Inc. has been promoted to RANK 38 in the Terrier!
P Distension> -=(  RANK UP!  )=-  You are now a RANK 38 Terrier pilot.  Next rank in 22199 RP.

  |  END OF BATTLE 3: Victory for PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF MISANTHROPY (0)  \

P Distension> Another player wishes to enter the battle; you have been removed to allow them to play.
P Distension> RAIBLE leaving hangars of INTERGALACTIC PLANETARY, INC..  Time played today: 67 min.

P     Raible> ~
P Distension> Sorry, no playing slots are available at the moment.  You have been added to the waiting list.  Players in waiting list: 1

P Distension> A slot has opened up.  Sending you to your army...
P Distension> Special Agent RAIBLE authorized as a pilot of INTERGALACTIC PLANETARY, INC..  Returning you to HQ.
P Distension> R-37 Terrier Classified  20015 / 20181  166RP to R-38.    [=================== ]  99%  UP: 0  

  RAIBLE of Intergalactic Planetary, Inc. has been promoted to RANK 38 in the Terrier!
P Distension> -=(  RANK UP!  )=-  You are now a RANK 38 Terrier pilot.  Next rank in 22199 RP.

Bug #2:

Something about !assist and/or returning players to their army is working oddly. This all happened inbetween rounds:

P     Raible> !assist 0
P Distension> Now an honorary pilot of PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF MISANTHROPY.  Use !assist to return to your army when you would like.

E Distension> IMBALANCE: Pilot lower rank ships, or use !assist 1  (max assist rank: 57).   [ 87 vs 19 ]
P     Raible> !assist 1
P Distension> Returning to your army now would make things too imbalanced!  Sorry, no can do.
P     Raible> !ar
P Distension> #   Army Name                          Total     Playing   Strength    Flags
P Distension> 0   People's Republic of Misanthropy      494       2        77          0
P Distension> 1   Intergalactic Planetary, Inc.         494       1        19          1
P     Raible> !assist
P Distension> Returning to your army now would make things too imbalanced!  Sorry, no can do.
P     Raible> !ar
P Distension> #   Army Name                          Total     Playing   Strength    Flags
P Distension> 0   People's Republic of Misanthropy      494       2        77          0
P Distension> 1   Intergalactic Planetary, Inc.         494       1        19          1
P     Raible> !assist
P Distension> Returning to your army now would make things too imbalanced!  Sorry, no can do.
P     Raible> !assist 1
P Distension> Returning to your army now would make things too imbalanced!  Sorry, no can do.

Perhaps the "max assist rank" value is just incorrect.

Bug #3:

The bot can fall into an inbetween-state where it says a round will start but it never does:

  ,---------------------------------------------------------------------.
  |  END OF WAR: GRAND VICTORY for INTERGALACTIC PLANETARY, INC. (1) !!  \
  .==============================================================================.
  |  Total award: 321.0 RP         75% for 2 on support   -> average 120 RP      |
  |  Hold percentage: 67%          25% for 2 on attack    -> average 40 RP       |
  }======   MVPs   =============================================================={
  |  Holds: Nobbi [5]                     Breaks: N/A [0]                        |
  |  FR Kills: Pub [22]                   TeKs: Pub [4]                          |
  |  Gen. Kills: Pub [26]                 Best Ratio: Pub [1.18:1]               |
  |  Best Streak: Raible [5]              RP: Pub [322]                          |
  .==============================================================================.
  Round time: 8:30                           END OF WAR STATUS   0 [   |===] 1   
P Distension> HQ awards you 220RP (double) for the final victory (100% participation), + 5RP for 1 sector holds = 225RP!
  NOTICE: 5 minutes remaining.
  FREE PLAY for the next 5:00.  Rules: Flags worth no points; goals earn RP.

For the next few minutes, it was changing momentarily wether the three players per freq required for the flag game were in the game or not. After that, there were often at least 3 players per freq, at one point it was 6v6 playing the ball game. At least half an hour later, the bot would answer:

P     Raible> !bi
P Distension> The first battle of a new conflict is just about to begin.

But the game never started. It's very likely that the bot never did the "A new conflict begins in 1:00 (goals active until then)" announcement, but I can't say for sure because the log is incomplete. Eventually (maybe another half hour later) the bot just disappeared without saying anything.

[Lag.Com]

I'm for the 'bot has short name' idea but I thought it was policy to always end bot names with 'Bot'? Maybe 'DBot' would be good enough.

Otherwise you could pick something self-important like ARBITER

[Zek]

There are good reasons why it should be difficult to rank up:

• To avoid having to reset too often.
• Having most people mid-ranking makes the game more fun. A base full of high powered ships leads to too many random deaths due to bigger bombs, more reps and bursts, killer shrap etc.
• It allows room for RP multiplier events as well as regular Distension. These would help promote Distension and could fill an arena even if people start getting bored with it.

Of course there should never be resets, I never suggested that. If high rank ships break the game that much then there needs to be more balancing. My point is that the current leveling curve is far too focused on single-ship play which is not fun for people who like to spread their play across multiple ships. It's just pointless to restrict the high levels for a single ship to months of frequent play, most people simply don't play Continuum that much and I think the high levels should be accessible to everybody. Even if leveling were 10x as fast, it would take years for someone to max out every ship and have no reason to play anymore.

[Viruk]

Of course there should never be resets, I never suggested that.

Then eventually all the regulars are going to max out all the ships they like. The game is going to be pretty tough for newbies and rather boring for regulars at this point.

If high rank ships break the game that much then there needs to be more balancing.

Shiptype vs shiptype isn't too unbalanced at high levels. I don't think the balance was ever intended to be perfect at all levels though.
High vs low level ships will only be balanced in the sense that low level ships will benefit more from their much rarer kills.
The problem is that all the extra specials and weapons are harder to counter at high rank and lead to more random deaths (e.g. bomb radius increases but FR size remains constant). Perhaps this could be made better but not without removing lots of the mid-level fun and it would take a lot of effort and testing. Much better to have a limited number of high level ships for most of the game.

My point is that the current leveling curve is far too focused on single-ship play which is not fun for people who like to spread their play across multiple ships.

At early stages you have to focus on reaching target ranks to unlock some ships. Later on, the leveling curve makes it easier to get several mid-ranking ships. It is harder to focus on a single high level ship because it is slower to rank at high levels, your kills get RP capped, you are a preferred target and are vulnerable to ship limits or swarm/pall penalties. Unless there are other more flexible players able to switch to support ships as required your team is also more likely to lose.

It's just pointless to restrict the high levels for a single ship to months of frequent play

Wrong. The whole point of a long term leveling game is to make the high level ships a difficult but worthwhile goal.

most people simply don't play Continuum that much and I think the high levels should be accessible to everybody.

But a fair number of people do play that much and you have to take account of that when designing a game.
I agree that everybody should get a chance to play a high level ship eventually. I would like to see enough time to get at least one high level ship for an hour-a-day player before any reset. RP multiplier events would help with this. Perhaps you could also increase the multiplier as the 'season' end approaches like we had in the beta.

Even if leveling were 10x as fast, it would take years for someone to max out every ship and have no reason to play anymore.

Wasn't the final beta multiplier something of this order? It didn't seem to take too many weeks before players were lobbing blue bombs around. Perhaps not too many years before total max then. Most players will not want to max out the ships they are not used to playing though.

I'm for the 'bot has short name' idea but I thought it was policy to always end bot names with 'Bot'? Maybe 'DBot' would be good enough.

'DistBot' a.k.a 'DistressedBot' or 'DissedBot' sounds about right to me.

[dako]

Weird sequence of events this morning

Apparently FarScape got glitched lanc, then the bot crashed

Gen. Kills: Raible [76] Best Ratio: dald [2.79:1] |
| Best Streak: dald [10] RP: Raible [1235] |
.================================================= ====
Round time: 28:33

And then...

trenchwars.org/distension/statistics.php

Lancaster
1. FarScape (0)

Im willing to bet the relationship between this and the bot crashing isn't a coincidence, but does he get to keep his lanc? o.o

[Vehicle]

Can we get rid of the ball game already? Or just make it like a minute long or something?

(If this was already talked about, MY BAD.)