Distension discussion

[RiiStar]

I can understand shutting down Distension to run hosted arenas, but it doesn't make sense for it to be down when nothing is being hosted. Distension being down should be the exception IMHO, turn it off for a couple hours when arenas are definitely being hosted and then turn it back on again.

Problem is <ER>'s don't run on a schedule, this would work for the weekend/Wednesday events that ECT organize but the stuff that <ER>'s host on a whim aren't at set time or places... Some times its quiet hosting wise, others there's more activity...

If it was quiet and Distension is running then cool... but say an <ER> was goin to host an arena part way into or say 15mins after Distension is started when it was quite what happens then? Im sure the distension players would get pretty shitty if it was killed when something else where is hosted... :P

I can understand shutting down Distension to run hosted arenas, but it doesn't make sense for it to be down when nothing is being hosted. Distension being down should be the exception IMHO, turn it off for a couple hours when arenas are definitely being hosted and then turn it back on again.

[Turban]

I honestly hope Distension will never be 24/7 -- I've seen a decrease in the turnouts of events and public arenas dying when Distension is running.

I don't want to see TW dying.

Having Distension run 3-5 hours Monday to Friday, 5-8 hours during Weekends sounds good for me.

Just my opinion. >.>

[RiiStar]

From my understanding the reason for not having it running 24/7 is that Qan/dug wanted an OP present when it ran in case it crashed and they could tell him when and perhaps why... and to help ppl who are playing or just started playing...

When he's happy with his overall product im sure it'll move more towards the 24/7 mark...

[2kill]

I am not arguing for it to be nerfed. I think it fair that if any ship should have a slight advantage it should be the most vital support ship in the game. But lets keep that advantage slight. Even if there is sometimes a shortage of terriers I don't think you will attract good, safe terrier players by making it more of a kill ship. Multi-bursting, rabidly attacking, suicide lamer terriers we can happily do without!

glad we agree as I was not advocating an increase in the terrs powers. rather maintaining the status quo

2kill

If it's technologically feasible, I see no reason not to run the bot 24/7. Survival of the fittest - if people want to play Distension more than other arenas, why stop them? Maybe schedule times when it goes on break and other arenas are hosted, but I don't see the need for the artificial scarcity.

[Viruk]

you're right that people who don't play the terr don't want to have the responsibility but the people in the terr also want to have fun... but sometimes they are the only people on right then that are GOOD enough to terr and win a round (I had that happen so many times in beta, and its starting to happen now in the public release) and when I come on to have a quick fix of distension I would like to spider or something and just go in there and kill things left right and center... but I also don't like getting wiped in 1 minute, and I don't like wiping the other team in 1 minute too. which means I will switch to terr or assist or what ever is needed. if you nerf the terr much more I will be forced to play it even more and then I'll just grow tried of distension much faster and go find another game to play most of the time. REPEAT: DON"T NERF THE TERR PLEASE. I think we have got it to an okay point, raible is annoying in his terr but he always was lol

I am not arguing for it to be nerfed. I think it fair that if any ship should have a slight advantage it should be the most vital support ship in the game. But lets keep that advantage slight. Even if there is sometimes a shortage of terriers I don't think you will attract good, safe terrier players by making it more of a kill ship. Multi-bursting, rabidly attacking, suicide lamer terriers we can happily do without!

[Vergilius]

(DBot)>Win! Award: 1455RP (96% participation) + 44RP for 15 holds & 14 breaks = 1499 RP!K/D: 59/108 TeKs: 5

44 RP for 29 holds/breaks? this srsly cant be right...


Edit: Well i guess it is.. ridiculously low if u ask me :/

(DBot)>Win! Award: 2092RP (DOUBLE) (95% participation) + 31RP for 11 holds & 9 breaks = 2123 RP!K/D: 33/73 TeKs: 0

[2kill]

Agreed. 5 or 10RP for a hold or break isn't worth much at current ranks. Right at the beginning it would be nice though.

It would only be fun if it was very rare indeed and I doubt this would be true once players have maxed out their regeneration. Even my level 20 terr was getting 3 bursts fairly regularly.

Looking at player ranks I see the terriers are ahead. When playing I see high level terriers tanking my L2 bullet and then firing some back at me. If players are not already encouraged to play terrier by this then nothing short of gross imbalance will do it. Lets face it - the reason most people don't want to play terrier is that they haven't learned the skills and they don't want the responsibility.


It was intended to be ridiculous to discourage all but the most insane or high ranking suicide terriers. So it should remain. Since we already tested ship balance in the beta and since terriers are clearly doing well in the rankings it would be really stupid to make them more powerful now.

about breaks I agree they should give a nice bonus.

you're right that people who don't play the terr don't want to have the responsibility but the people in the terr also want to have fun... but sometimes they are the only people on right then that are GOOD enough to terr and win a round (I had that happen so many times in beta, and its starting to happen now in the public release) and when I come on to have a quick fix of distension I would like to spider or something and just go in there and kill things left right and center... but I also don't like getting wiped in 1 minute, and I don't like wiping the other team in 1 minute too. which means I will switch to terr or assist or what ever is needed. if you nerf the terr much more I will be forced to play it even more and then I'll just grow tried of distension much faster and go find another game to play most of the time. REPEAT: DON"T NERF THE TERR PLEASE. I think we have got it to an okay point, raible is annoying in his terr but he always was lol

cya all in supspace
2kill

[FarScape]

Cheese!> YES
Cheese!> YASD
Cheese!> ASRKLUHASDKL
Cheese!> ASDF
McVicar> unlocked levi
Shock Ther> fucking specced
DaKo> cheese
Cheese!> I
McVicar> cool
Cheese!> DID
Cheese!> IT
Cheese!> I
HandofDeat> diff teams again
Cheese!> DID
Cheese!> IT
Shock Ther> 191 minutes played
FREE PLAY for the next 3:00. Rules: Flags worth no points; goals earn RP.
DaKo> you shouldnt have gotten it cheese
Cheese!> WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Sketch_hs> gdamn
HandofDeat> i think it's a team balancing thing flion
Cheese!> FUCK YES
Cheese!> SUCK IT
Cheese!> SUCK IT LONG
Viruk> streak 54!!
DaKo> cheese stfu kid
Cheese!> SUCK IT HARD

So cheese got lanc, gj, but is this the image you want your ops portraying in front of 70 players? The kid can't control himself, has a terrible attitude, and gets mad at the drop of a hat.

Before you criticize on someone else, maybe you should look on yourself, hypocrite.

[Viruk]

Obviously distension isn't going to run during TWL. (On second thought that might not be obvious, but it should be.) I would also presume that most squads during the TWL season will want to practice rather than play distension, so that knocks out the weekend until after 6 PM EST.

For as long as Distension is rationed we need to avoid clashes with other important events. If it was on 24/7 it would be quite easy to leave it and return when your squad matches and practices are done.

1) Hold and break rewards:
The hold and break rewards seem to be extremely small nowadays. Are they intended to be this way? I remember them giving a nice amount of RP at some point in beta, which added more incentive for getting the flag. At the moment, the amounts are totally insignificant in comparison to the other rewards.

Agreed. 5 or 10RP for a hold or break isn't worth much at current ranks. Right at the beginning it would be nice though.

2) Shark reps and Wb bullets:
I would also like to continue the discussion about Shark reps and Wb bullets. I think the repels were nerfed at some point and even the Wb bullet speed may have been increased. Whatever the case, I feel that the reps could use a little fine tuning in form of a slight range or power increase. Like I stated in a previous post, it is almost impossible to rep a Wb bullet with the current settings, which is silly.

I haven't noticed this problem when Distension sharking but then I am a pretty bad at it. I know repping a Warbird bullet at close range has always been difficult in pub but I am not sure how much this is due to lag rather than settings. Since I hear a lot of whingeing about the lack of lag limits in Distension then perhaps this is the problem rather than the settings. However if it really is true that reps can be countered by fast mid/long range warbird bullets I would be quite glad of this as I have always believed repels to be somewhat overpowered (due to the sheer amount of enemy firepower they can neutralise or turn back on the enemy), annoying (because they bounce your ship around and wreck skilled movement and aiming) and without any counter until players start getting Lancs with fireblooms (repelling a terrier burst doesn't make it much more dangerous in most cases).

Most of what you said is incorrect/misleading, but I don't want to start the argument again.

Let's just say to increase the number of people playing terr, you might set the max number of bursts to around 5. It'll be as fun as spider multi super, only much rarer.

It would only be fun if it was very rare indeed and I doubt this would be true once players have maxed out their regeneration. Even my level 20 terr was getting 3 bursts fairly regularly.

Looking at player ranks I see the terriers are ahead. When playing I see high level terriers tanking my L2 bullet and then firing some back at me. If players are not already encouraged to play terrier by this then nothing short of gross imbalance will do it. Lets face it - the reason most people don't want to play terrier is that they haven't learned the skills and they don't want the responsibility.

I also agree that 160UP for the second burst upgrade is ridiculous, especially considering the fact that 50% of the time I spawn I'm prized a free second burst by the time I make it to a flagroom, anyway.

It was intended to be ridiculous to discourage all but the most insane or high ranking suicide terriers. So it should remain. Since we already tested ship balance in the beta and since terriers are clearly doing well in the rankings it would be really stupid to make them more powerful now.

[Stabwound]

It was said over and over again by the high-level terriers in the beta that yellow bullets are a godsend. Has that changed? Just don't buy level 2 bullets straight away, maybe? Also I don't think many people !specialize their terriers to Scout, heh.

Well, I'm just giving Scout as an example. With Warship it still takes just about half of your max energy. I dunno, I guess it's probably okay later on, but don't forget that people in the beta had crazy RP multipliers. It's still a downgrade if you buy it at the level you unlock it, though, unless you're playing some kind of suicide terr or something.

[Lag.Com]

The point is that it's dumb that the original weapon is better than the high-rank upgrade.

It was said over and over again by the high-level terriers in the beta that yellow bullets are a godsend. Has that changed? Just don't buy level 2 bullets straight away, maybe? Also I don't think many people !specialize their terriers to Scout, heh.

[Maverick]

Also, I don't think it would be that hard to code the bot to autostart at a certain time and *zone for itself so that ...

I have to disagree. This is probably quite a substantial amount of work (unless Qan has a easy solution to make this work in either Distensionbot or the core).
Since Qan doesn't have alot of time anymore to code (correct me if I'm wrong), this can take quite some time to fix while staff can start the bot easily on their own.

[Stabwound]

onoz, u cant shoot and tank bullets too!
-cries-

The point is that it's dumb that the original weapon is better than the high-rank upgrade.