DISTENSION Ship-Balance Proposal

[roxxkatt]

on the other side of the coin, by adding shrap and reducing emptime + splash, there is a huge reduction in TKs and the whiny idiots who are bad at energy management associated with them
that way when i get a enemy 3fer + 1 dumbass from 1 bomb hit, i dont end up with a sum of -25rp anymore


this whole thing is very similar to the whining about LTs in pub as well.
having 2 bounces in tw really hasnt been done before, and might actually do well with splash/emp reductions, in addition to adding interesting new play styles

[project dragon]

Some possibilities for Levi:

- Reduce EMP a great deal and bomb damage somewhat, but fairly radically increase the bomb speed, reduce fire delay and reduce fire cost. Straight rapid-fire bomber.
- Low damage but higher amounts of shrapnel, including some by default, possibly.
- Triple-bounce.


Re: shrap, changing it to non-random might be a nice idea. Would give people a reason to have specific shrap amounts, though... and some of those are EXTREMELY deadly in experienced hands. I would say if we did this, shrap damage would need to be reduced (it's currently 100% of your bullet damage), as well as possibly shrap speed. We still could reduce shrap speed by a bit, regardless, to cut down on its random slaying potential. But would need to compensate the shrap-using ships somehow if so.

For the shrap thing, I think deadly in experienced hands is a lot better than lucky in a novices hand. as I feel the current random shrap is. It would imply, albeit very simply, that bombers would start thinking more about how to "aim" their bombs, rather than simply lobbing and hoping for the best. People will still lob, but with fixed, there is an additional thought on the bombers part to consider where their shrap is going.

For the proposed levi changes, adding more (in terms of bomb delay/added shrap), would decrease the skill factor of the ship. It becomes more of a spray'n'pray ship, which, when the population gets higher, could become detrimental to the gameplay within flagrooms. For jav bombs, they have splash radius, but nme ships can still heal, which is why shrap as a secondary "attack" makes sense, in my eyes. With the levi, you could say the secondary "attack" is the emp (direct bomb damage is less, yes, but you get the idea). Increasing the amount of shrap (reducing the requirements) would mean that levi bombs would have a stronger third attack as well.

lvl3 emp bombs will most likely be OP. but it is a very double edged sword. You can't (or at least shouldn't) just lob the bomb and hope for the best, because it becomes a liability to your team. Playing around with the splash radius would be a good start, but I am weary about the bounce/+shrap idea. Also, you've put the levi as a support ship, so I guess what needs to also be considered is: Will your proposed ideas for the levi change be in line with the support aspect of that ship? If you are going to go your route of proposed ideas, I would say the levi bomb should be decreased (or at least, make lvl2/lvl3 bombs available later on or more costly), so that the emps would be the main support feature.

[Shaddowknight]

Tripple bounce but short alivetime could work

[Spock!]

Some of the other setting sound groovy qan, but triple bounce would just be terrible. There is a reason I don't play hyperspace........

[qan]

Levi is definitely on my radar in terms of needing reworking... as someone pointed out, though, it's difficult to do, as it's the only ship not really part of the standard TW basing game (yes, Stayon, believe it or not, Dist is based on TW settings). I just don't know if you can incorporate a straight bombing ship into basing very easily.

Some possibilities for Levi:

- Reduce EMP a great deal and bomb damage somewhat, but fairly radically increase the bomb speed, reduce fire delay and reduce fire cost. Straight rapid-fire bomber.
- Low damage but higher amounts of shrapnel, including some by default, possibly.
- Triple-bounce.

Regardless, though, L3 on the Levi is going to be hard to use in a base environment. You could hold down mid with it, sure, but once in base you're praying for L2. Not really sure what to do about that, aside from adjusting bomb radius in general, which would of course mean -- once again -- affecting all ships that use bombs. (SS settings work is so .. much.. fun...)



Re: shrap, changing it to non-random might be a nice idea. Would give people a reason to have specific shrap amounts, though... and some of those are EXTREMELY deadly in experienced hands. I would say if we did this, shrap damage would need to be reduced (it's currently 100% of your bullet damage), as well as possibly shrap speed. We still could reduce shrap speed by a bit, regardless, to cut down on its random slaying potential. But would need to compensate the shrap-using ships somehow if so.

Re: Terr EMP, it was changed so that there is a maximum of 1 EMP per army per minute. So Terrs can still save them up, but can't use them rapid-fire, and 2 Terrs can't do them back-to-back, either.

[roxxkatt]

iirc each ship gets # shrap per green up to ship max from 0, max max is 31

[project dragon]

- Fixed position shrap on all ships, to prevent shrap from double-stacking and making it somewhat easier to dodge.


Aside: do all shrap upgrades start with just 1 shrap? How does each upgrade multiply? Shark shrap upgrades seem disproportionate compared to the other ships, unless the intention for that is because sharks can mine a bunch, thus increasing the total shrap they have. I suppose fixed shrap would only be detrimental to sharks mostly, but I'm okay with that.

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

People really need to start reading titles, lets stop turning any/every distension related thread into 'It hurts the zone'.
This thread was supposed to be about ship settings so lets stick to that, if you want to comment a separate issue feel free to voice your concerns in a separate and appropriately titled thread.

[roxxkatt]

ever considered that the reason twd is dead and dist is not is because dist is fun and twd is not

[Ephemeral]

Stayon,
Distension is enjoy by many people including a large group of staffers. When I see it running and there are usually at least 5-6, and sometimes many more, staffers playing. I also notice that it usually has a higher percentage of ‘vets’ playing then players who I consider pub players. I’m not sure I have ever seen a real noob (< few hours of playing time) in it.

But I see nothing wrong with having an event that is attended (and enjoyed) by staffer and more experienced players. Obviously the zone needs a variety of features to attract the widest player base possible.

That said, the frequency and duration of all events needs to be further understood. Staffers appear to fire off events without much regard to its impact on pub or other features. TWD has most certainly been impacted by Distension as has hockey. All too often we have seen various events rape pub and reduce it to a 4 vs 5 game. Staff needs much better stats and metrics on the impact of events so they can make better decisions about them.

We can keep dancing around this issue; but there is no denying that we are simply cutting up this population pie into smaller and smaller pieces. Distension isn’t going to save this zone. Hockey isn’t going to save this zone. TWD or TWL isn’t going to save this zone. Only one thing that WILL keep this zone going; attracting new players and getting them to hang around. IMO, the running of any event should always be considered in the context of how it will impact the rest of the zone.
eph

[Stayon]

I love it how these silly little league players think they are the center of the universe.



$20 Please.

Are you new here? Don't want to be rude, but I never saw you here.

In case you haven't noted most of the people that form TW's real comunity (after going through the pub phase) since ever are the ones on Staff, league players (twd/twl) and the ones here on the boards as they all are connected to TWD. If you want, you can break it down in two, the pub community, much less organized and ocasional, and the TWD community. Which means most of Distension players come from the TWD community and a few pubbers, so we're all holding hands.

Ill give a recent and systematic example. Player logs in, there's only two arenas going, everything else is dead. Pub and Distension. Player either logs off, since there's no elim/base/wbduel/javduel/twd/events going, or plays pub or Distension. I already seen people that didn't use to, starting to play Distension because they barely have options left.

Your "silly little game" that has nothing to with TW, not only kills activity, ocasionally makes the zone lag, and still forces people to choose to either play it or log off. This is what's always happened with this terrible arena, im not making anything up.

If you want to see it, come to Lisbon so I can hit your forehead with it.

[Spock!]

TWD dead whenever Distension is on. Distension causing TW lag problems still wasn't properly fixed. .

I love it how these silly little league players think they are the center of the universe.

Suck my Portuguese 8 inches tanned cock

$20 Please.

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

Indeed the lanc is a little underwhelming at later levels, the x radar could do to be changed so that recharge rate is not effected, it wouldn't change the game very much but at least it would become somewhat viable at preventing x's. Alternatively, having leeching at 15% might make the lanc a little more formidable without making it significantly more powerful.

[Stayon]

I love how ironic it is, this isnt even a TW arena anymore, when you're just messing with ship settings. If you wanna play a different ship go play another zone, or move this activity killing arena out of the zone once and for all. TWD dead whenever Distension is on. Distension causing TW lag problems still wasn't properly fixed. If it's a Final Fantasy characther evolving type of experience your after, go buy it. Come dislike my post, distension newbies (its a direct correlation with the fact most playing Distension are dreadfull players out of it.) Suck my Portuguese 8 inches tanned cock.

[roxxkatt]

having fixed shrap affects all ships, so lev and shark will also be affected

pro tip: sell shark guns for lv3 shrapnels