OFFICIAL DISTENSION THREAD HERE

[roxxkatt]

thread +2 troll retards

[mtine]

Sok, as long as there is Cheese, we r doomed.

[but...why...per...]

Will this ever come back?

[Viruk]

Will this ever come back?

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.

[roxxkatt]

never forget that there is another ship to abandon to

[steiger]

[QUOTE=Viruk;857201]I am guessing not as long as qan believes a Distension player is trying to cheat with their weasel. :\

I don't think it's about qan necessarily believing "a player is trying to cheat" with their own ship(s). It's about someone dicking with the ship settings, period. qan doesn't like having his stuff touched, and I can't argue with that too much, given that it's his hours poured into development of the game, and how much subtle changes to ship settings can affect the balance, and thus the viability and integrity, of the game.

Personally, I found even a nerfed weasel more fun to play than most other ships. Once I got the weasel, most other ships seemed tedious to fly. Of course, I don't love normal TW settings -- I only really log on to TW to play distension and events like battleship or starcon, so I don't visit often anymore. Given how much unjustifiable hate there is for distension there is in TW, I'd be happier if qan convinced another server to host it, that would treat it with more (i.e. any) respect. I'd even play Cheese's version of distension, if people logged into it.

Near the end there, TW staff seemed actively hostile to distention being hosted -- I wouldn't be surprised if the settings were getting molested intentionally in order to stir up shite.

[Shaddowknight]

very few people actually had access to change the settings, but most ers hated that it killed any chance of hosted events, and often restructed other things like wbduel javduel and to a lesser extent, pub and twd. It also sucked when you were midlevel with everyone else being so brokenly overpowered. This type of game has its merits, but needs to have a very fine balance between ships and players.

[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

[Shaddowknight]

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

[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.

[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.")

[LF]

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

[Shaddowknight]

I used an atlatl once.

[Wazzaaa.nl]

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

[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!


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