OFFICIAL DISTENSION THREAD HERE

[qan]

I've talked with Willby (events head) about scheduling. We'll likely be using the previous schedule, with some modifications, to host Dist. Biggest modification is that each scheduled host will be for a reduced amount of time, in consideration for other areas of the zone. Should also be able to get the regular weekend host as well, though.

In the meantime, Dist will continue to be hosted on demand by event staff. At present I believe there are 4 people on events capable of running it (kyler, Board, Flion & of course Willby). Left_Eye also can run it but is normally occupied in the bans dept.

This means you can do a ?help call to request a host of it, or request via the RoboHelp bot, if we still have that feature in there.

More info to come as we solidify the new schedule.

[qan]

Ahh, it's not that it's not scheduled so much as that I don't yet have the schedule going. There were some fairly large changes (revised settings, new map) and I needed to test things out a bit before we dive right in.

I'll also need to train the events team to be able to host, and then hopefully also get a schedule at that point.

Honestly I'd like to have more overall playing time, but with a greater variety of times offered.

• 2-Base threshold to 30 (from 26)
• Respec cost to 0.3% (from 1%, and a bit earlier, 3%)
• Scrap allowed until 50% of rank (from 25%)
• Bonus for changing to support ship increased, especially for very low-rank and high-rank players. Also, by default you will receive at least 150RP in your new ship.
• Autosave changed to a hard save (process-locking save) rather than running it in a background query. Not sure why the background queries were having problems.

Last match didn't have the time to rework your ship because I wasn't certain if the !shutdown mode would save ships properly. Now that autosave has been changed to active, I think !shutdown should work just fine.

If it turns out that Dist isn't run often enough, I will definitely run it with the RP bonus.



Appreciate the feedback! Distension isn't entirely back, but it's getting there. Baby steps.

If anyone wants to save time before the next run, ?go distension3 or distension and download the updated graphics/sound package.

Also, still looking for people interested in making alternate Distension maps.

[Viruk]

Nice to see Distension back again.

Not having a regular schedule does change the game though:

Less time means less RP which means I need to concentrate more on playing a single ship in order to get meaningful ship development. In the last session I only made enough RP to shift the progress bar a fraction and I have no idea when, if ever, I will next be able to play.

Consider upping the RP rewards by a significant factor to compensate for less playing time.


I have forgotten what most of my original ship design goals were and will need to rethink for the new conditions.

Please ensure the cost for a complete respec and scrappage is low and there is time for redesigning after the battles are over.


I am now more reluctant to spend any time in support ships that are needed, particularly in two-base battles.

Consider raising the player threshold for two-base battles and extra increases for any bonus to your current ship for switching to a vital support ship when needed.


Thanks for all your hard work on this.

[qan]

Quick update for those interested.

We ran Distension as the weekend event and got close to the old populations. Had a decent number of new players come along as well.

The new energy/recharge levels worked fairly well to help balance, though I know some people were disappointed at seeing their higher level ships lose energy/recharge. (It only becomes evident I think after rank 40 or so -- otherwise your ship should have more NRG/CHG.)

Spiders will be happy to note that the bullet fire delay is back to the normal setting as found in all other areas of the zone. Levis will not be happy to note that their bomb damage will be reduced somewhat -- was set a bit high due to settings corruption. Remember that Levis receive support bonuses, though, meaning they earn more on round win than any of the fighter ships, and also earn RP even for round loses. Ops also has an RP boost for round wins (and losses). Assist bonuses are reduced somewhat.

All event staff will be added as Dist Ops, and given a bit of training as to how to run it. At that point, they should then be able to host Distension as an event. (This means doing ?help host distension may actually do something in the coming weeks.) I'll need to work out with Willby (event head) what it will count for as quota, as it's a long event. Other than that... should be seeing it hosted more regularly. I'll work on getting a schedule together soon as well, to have a few guaranteed games that are a bit longer. The spontaneous, off-the-cuff hosts of Dist won't be any longer than 1 hour at a time, to avoid disrupting the zone.

I'll also be updating the graphics/sound package (the LVZ) to remove the horrible font colors, fix the green sound, and a few other little tweaks.

[roxxkatt]

+

[roxxkatt]

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[Morh]

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[qan]

Settings all done. New map and settings up in ?go distension3 (would love to have more maps to rotate through).

I did tweak them so as to be a bit more fair toward newer players. Basically, higher starting energy and starting recharge, but slightly reduced how much is given by energy upgrades (by about 20%) and also reduced recharge upgrades (by about 40%). The additions to starting energy/recharge levels are roughly comparable to what was lost in each upgrade. Couldn't nerf the energy upgrades too much without making energy costs for everything a bit wonky. And if it doesn't work, I have a copy of the new settings minus these balance changes, so no worries there.

Will be testing soon!


Also, "Visitors found this page by searching for:" images of illuminati in ratatouille disney

What the hell, TWForums. What the hell.

[Wazzaaa.nl]

qan doing good job lately
keep it up
example for the rest of staff right here

[Shaddowknight]

I used an atlatl once.

[LF]

I stopped reading at "atlatl" but good job dug!

[qan]

Hiya folks.

Here's what everyone's been waiting/dreading to hear: I'll be pushing to have Distension back in TW after the TWL season. Running some diffs on the settings right now, compared with an early beta version. It's not too bad. Some settings we will just have to push through with trial and error, but, hey, the settings were never perfect anyhow.

I have an altered map ready, and would like to do some map rotation, as many other games are fond of doing (but SS has mostly avoided, for whatever reason). If anyone's interested in making a Distension map, talk to me in-game.

I'd also like to focus on shorter hosts, but more often, including non-scheduled hosts (like any other event), so as to be less disruptive to the zone while giving a greater variety of players a chance to play. Thinking a 30 minute slot, but of course only shutting off after the round ends, so probably more likely to end up being 45. This will help accommodate it into the other functions of the zone.

There may be a small overhaul of energy and recharge settings. Basically, I'd like to see players start with more energy/recharge, and each energy/recharge upgrade give a smaller amount. This way, competition between higher level and lower level players will be more viable, and allow new players to join more easily.

May also switch off to a temporary database on occasion, where all players start at rank 0, but the RP bonus is 20x or similar. This DB will be cleared at the end of the host. The idea behind this will be to give players who have not invested a lot of time into the game a chance to enjoy it without having to be a slave to Dist or a Dist schedule just to compete. Would like to see Distension in general integrated more into the standard repertoire of TW, with the event staff as operators -- assuming they're willing -- and again, more varied and spontaneous short hosts, with perhaps one or two standardized times.

NOTE: To those cute little guys who will tell you that this game was a waste of dev time better spent on other parts of the zone, I urgently request they learn to code by tomorrow, and report in for training as a new member of the development staff! (i.e., please don't forget that all work in TW is done on a volunteer basis. We do what we can. I help maintain the zone, but I also work primarily on projects I believe in, such as this one. Trying to code something your heart isn't in is about is about 15 times as hard as writing that detestable research paper on ancient homonyms of the word "atlatl.")

[Demonic]

I am guessing not as long as qan believes a Distension player is trying to cheat with their weasel. :\

I don't believe this when the game was sabotaged by Distension-hating staffer previously and there are other Distension-hating players (probably including staff) about.
I also thought that some of the lev settings changes qan suspected as cheating were openly discussed with Distension players by staff.
Also, look at the likely suspects for weasel cheating:

1. AcidBomber (49)
Switched from almost exclusively playing spider to weasel.
The most obvious cheat-suspect as the one who has benefited most from weasel settings.
Ex-dev (I think) so would have technical knowhow (and possibly legacy access?).
But I don't recall him doing or saying anything really lame, despite flying a lame (but fun) ship.
Also, why would you continue to alter a highly visible setting like ship energy when you are by far the most likely suspect and risk a total weasel level reset (which was discussed) or the game you have invested so much time in and were already a leader in?

2. Raveni548 (40)
Mainly plays javelin so would not benefit from powerful weasel and no known problem with altering jav settings (despite them being relatively underpowered at low level)

3. Demonic (39)
A senior staffer as a Distension cheat?
Also one who has deliberately highlighted the issue by PMing me about testing weasel in-game?
Saboteur: maybe. (Paranoia rules!)
Cheat: no.

4. LF (38)
Mainly plays terrier but has tried everything. Would not benefit from an overpowered weasel much.

5. steiger (32)
Mainly plays Spider, Terrier and Weasel. Limited benefit from weasel cheating.

6+
It really isn't that hard to rank a weasel once you have one. Before the (welcome) fire-rate nerf I managed about 6 levels over level 10 in one session. It seems almost inconceivable that someone went to the effort of cheating by changing settings yet failed to reach the top 5.
Epic fail?

I would like to know what staff have done to identify the problem and tighten security.

If someone can mess with Distension arena settings it means they can probably also change them in TWD, TWL and other events. Some players may be reluctant to invest time in any competition if cheats or saboteurs are allowed to prosper.

Another nail in TW's coffin.

I doubt settings were being touched by a dist player to be honest, that would have been easy to find. It wasn't just distension being changed, other arena's too but due to the nature of distension it brought it to the fore as each setting change was obvious. Whether dist comes back or not is down to Qan tbh, if it does and people want it great! However, need to make sure its a lot less then before, and not to a detriment to the zones other arena's.

[Shaddowknight]

didnt like 4 or 5 of the addicts quit though... is it really worth bringing it back over fixing our current issues/features?

[Left_Eye]

Distension will be coming back soon enough. Qan and I have been talking about it for a while. Just letting y'all addicts know.

Lots of love,

Left_Eye