Distension discussion

[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?

[kthx]

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

[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...

[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.

[Zek]

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.

[roxxkatt]

today there was more ppl in spec then playing for a while...

Cheese!> love how they dropped it all the way from 17v17 to 12v12 in a crash that barely broke the limit..... >:/


--edit--

'This player limit is only temporary and will probably be raised a bit in the near future '

^hope so

[HateTheFake]

today there was more ppl in spec then playing for a while...

Cheese!> love how they dropped it all the way from 17v17 to 12v12 in a crash that barely broke the limit..... >:/


--edit--

'This player limit is only temporary and will probably be raised a bit in the near future '

^hope so

loved how it crashed and recycled zone with just 24 ppl playing =/

Lets get this thing fixed once and for all

[Stabwound]

There is clearly something else going on so it's going to be down until it's looked at.

[roxxkatt]

how convienient that it happens to crash at the same time slot, regardless of load on the server, whilst 2 of the most outspoken anti-distension fanatics happen to be on staff...

[Vergilius]

Where is Tone when you need him?

[dako]

It has become more apparent than anything to me, if nothing else, that whatever is causing the crashes is not the load on the server. When distension came out of beta and into public, it was hosted regularly for hours upon hours with 40 people in, and crashes were rare. It was hosted as the weekend event at one point, for fourty-eight hours straight, with zero crashes, with a solid 20v20 for at least half of this time period. Therefore, there are only a couple viable issues I see for what is causing it to crash with a 12v12 within 2 hours.

1. Players are much higher levels now, and require many more upgrades in order to re-arm their ship. The 48 hour test had everyone under level 30, most people under 20, meaning there was much less re-arming going on.

2. There is a problem in the code itself, created through a recent change, that is causing the bot to commit suicide. I don't know how good the report system is for crashing bots and information as to why it crashed, but it doesn't make sense to me that we used to play with 40 people for 48 hours continuous and be fine, but now cant even field a 12v12 for a couple hours.

[Aquatiq]

Where is Tone when you need him?

trick question!

[roxxkatt]

There are people that abuse the shit out of the assist system by purposely assisting onto the stronger team

this could be alleviated by implementing a timer into the bot where you can not assist if someone has assisted your army in the last 60s

[jngy slate]

Or it could simply not let people assist the stronger team.

[KuNi]

The bot doesn't know the stronger team if the difference in strength is more terriers and sharks, when they are low levels.