Distension: returning, & a vote on possible increased-RP cycles

[qan]

Hi folks. Been awhile since I've been around these parts more than to check up on messages. IRL fun. My time is finally opening up a bit again and I'll be working on the zone again as best I can.

Distension hasn't run in quite awhile. I'm currently working out scheduling with fiS, attempting to get enough people to host it at least for 2 days a week (possibly more later if interest is there). I wanted to use this interlude to propose a possible change to how we play the game.

Here are a couple of problems I see with Distension:

• Disparity between new players and old makes it inaccessible for late joiners. Either you've been playing Distension for a very long time, or you haven't and will never really get to be competitive. It also means that to stay competitive, you have to play as many sessions as possible. It's a lot of pressure for a simple video game.
• Once you've sunk a lot of time into a ship, if it's imbalanced in the late game, there's really nothing you can do about it. You're just SOL. I suppose I could allow players to transfer RP from one ship to another (or some % of it), but that's not a great solution.
• Because players are deeply invested in a particular ship, rounds very quickly get imbalanced. For example, if nobody terrs on one side, the game is basically ruined.

Considering this, I'm wondering if it might be worth trying out a few different ways of playing the game (thus the poll). Note that for any cyclic option, all old data would be saved, and we could easily switch back to it at any time. We could also switch between a few different options (old saved data on day X, single-day massive RP multiplier cycles on Y, for example). Here's a rundown of options:

1. Keep it as it is. People have invested a lot of time into their ships, and this would allow them to continue to upgrade ships they've worked on quite awhile.
2. Keep it as it is but raise RP rates.
3. Offer new player incentives. For example, we could raise the RP rate for those who're just starting out for their first few weeks, or offer instant level 20 in their choice of ship or ships.
4. Run in cycles, as has been proposed for elim, with a dramatically increased (5x to 25x) rate of RP earning. At the start of every cycle/season (every month? Every 2 months? Every 2 weeks?), stats would be reset and players would be able to start the process of upgrading again. You could easily compete for being #1 in any ship, and would be able to easily try out different ship options/builds without the risk of it being permanent or leading you into a dead end down the road. Obviously Distension is still an incomplete game, especially in the later ranks, and while I'd love to spend time developing those later ranks, I really only have time at present to fix what's truly game-breaking. Of course, having vastly increased RP amounts would allow testing of those later-game elements, and give players a chance to explore each ship, so that they didn't simply think their ship is terrible and everyone else's is OP. We could start to get slightly less biased data, in other words.
5. Run a fresh cycle every single day, starting from rank 0. RP multiplier would be set to something absurdly large. Teams would probably need to be scrambled after every round as a result.
6. Run a fresh cycle every single day, but start all players at rank X (probably 40 or 50) every time, with a decent RP multiplier. Every player could try out every ship at a high rank. This option and the last option of course eliminate the feeling of upgrading and customizing your ship so that it's unique from all others, instead focusing on the session at hand. But it would allow you to enjoy each session as a contained, individual entity, playing a ship you enjoy that would also help the team succeed... in other words, focus on winning each round rather than worrying about the personal outcome. Distension sometimes brings out the worst in people (abusing !assist is a good example) and this would help to counter it, while still allowing the game to be played.
7. Your own idea (post in thread)

Having put a lot of time into it, I'd like to keep this game relevant, and serving TW's population as best it can. Perhaps 4-6 would also keep people from feeling like they HAVE to play Distension whenever it's run, in some cases dropping their league matches ... I'm not sure, though. Opinions?

[roxxkatt]

8. dont forget the 100% automated alternative
9. increase rp earned through level differential

[2pac]

8. dont forget the 100% automated alternative
9. increase rp earned through level differential

fail again

[soup]

Please no distension, it already killed/ruined the zone a few years ago. It ruined the zone again a while back. Just make a new zone for it and fuck off with this shit.

[qan]

Please no distension, it already killed/ruined the zone a few years ago. It ruined the zone again a while back. Just make a new zone for it and fuck off with this shit.

#thanksobama

[roxxkatt]

[HEHE Meat]

I voted for #2, "As-is but with increased RP multiplier"

The main thing that made distension fun for me was that upgrades were permanent. Changing it to reset after a cycle would, for me, eliminate the primary drive that keeps Distension fun. It takes a lot of practice for most people to really master a ship/configuration, and this can't be earned in a day or week. Part of the fun is knowing what your opponent's can do, and if everyone is in a different ship every week you lose that.

There was never really been a problem getting enough players for Distension. Even when it was hosted at random times, there were plenty, right up to the day when the attacks started.

If Distension is only hosted twice a week, the RP rate is far too low. I think it was too low even when it was hosted every day. Increasing it now is a good compromise to help new players catch up while keeping current players from feeling like they've lost something.

I think the main disparity problem can be solved simply by adjusting the team strength (balancing) algorithm. Right now a level 50 player I believe is worth 1.7 level 1 players, or 1.3 level 20 players. I think these numbers should be much larger. They should try to reflect the actual contribution potential of every ship/level combo.

If the team balancing was more accurate, I don't think level disparity would be a problem. It sucks when you're new and useless, but that's part of the fun -- I lived through this myself since I did not join Distension when it was new (there were already dozens of 40+s). Seeing what the more powerful ships can do gives you the drive to stick with it. However, RP needs to advance much more quickly -- even when it was hosted every day it would take playing every day for the better part of a year to get relevant.

Also, I would suggest awarding a token amount of RP to the losing team (maybe 10-20% what the winning side got). This will keep the incentive to win, but significantly reduce the frustration and anger that comes with being on a losing team, especially when you're on the losing team all day long.

[roxxkatt]

would be interesting to see a rp multiplier based on the population average level

would have to periodically grab ships > lvl10 from db and do average, and divide that by the ship level you are currently playing
in addition to increasing kill reward rp for ships higher lvl than u

[Shaddowknight]

Increasing rp multiplier doesn't help a lot in fixing the gap between older and newer players. In fact, it will actually make things worse over time, as players who are high level, will be significantly higher, and those who start new will be at an even greater disadvantage. Sure it'll be easier to level, but you're gonna get your ass kicked even harder by those who have played every session.

[bkgmjo]

Progressively increase until recycle maybe?

[Shaddowknight]

Restarting more often would make the increased RP rewards more okay, but makes it pointless to get into it late into a recycle period. Having it reset every session would make it run similar to LoL, where everyone is grinding for faster upgrades, and a missed session isn't putting you farther behind. It would be possible to have a reward on start to top players in each ship from last session. Something like a starting rp boost or something else. Small boosts to make you want to play, but not big enough to guarantee instawin with starting so far ahead of everyone else.

[Viruk]

Have an annual season with automatic RP multiplier based on week number. So in week 52 you could have a 52X multiplier.

At the end of the season, reset all ships but give players with top 10 ships free UP for next season (those with a #1 ship should have extra UP.) This will give the regulars some incentive to keep playing competitively (and to play TW rather than some other game) and mitigate some of the disappointment of losing their powerful toys. With an annual cycle, by the time this causes any great imbalance to the game, the whole zone will be dead.

Players who start mid season should be given a single RP-boost token that they can choose to cash in to get any one of their ships up the to the average top 20 ship at their time of starting.

Do we have any idea how many potential 'late joiners' there are likely to be? Is this zone even attracting enough new players to make this a significant issue? I cannot recall any player who has said they would want to play Distension only if they could without the level disparity but then I rarely talk to anyone.

Terriers/sharks are already easy to unlock and level. Even if you implemented some better way of transferring their RP to the ships that players really care about, some people do not enjoy the playstyle or have the skills to play them well. This is more of a problem with low populations. Pay people to play this game? Some form of limited automated attach points, FR rep cover and mine-clearing? Stop players terring or sharking whenever imbalance is detected? Pub has the same problem. I see no easy, good solution.

More important than any of the above is getting a reliable schedule. I hate seeing the whole thing dying every time some asshat attacks the servers. Automate the start if there is a staff shortage.

"Viruk> ?find dbot
Not online, last seen more than 10 days ago"
*Looks about to see if there is any good pub basing going on*
*Sees only one base terr, a private freq LTing the shit out of the FR and outnumbering any active basing freq... again*
*Esc+q*

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

Viruk, Distension should always have a host. Without a host people would abuse the system/rules.
As far as I know a new schedule will probably be Distension running 2 or 3 times a week. Hopefully with this reduced number it should run on time.

[Viruk]

Viruk, Distension should always have a host. Without a host people would abuse the system/rules.

I would rather see someone gain 50% more RP than they deserve in a session than wait about for a game that never happens. It is a personal preference: Some people will stop turning up to play if there is too much unfairness, others if their event is too unreliable.

[qan]

Thanks for all who voted. It looks like we'll be running Distension as normal, but I may still try to run it sometimes with a second database and bonus RP, maybe as a weekend event. Would be fun to try out new ships at high ranks, no?

Presently the event heads are working out scheduling with the rather small crew of ERs. Should be seeing Dist return at least 2 days a week (sounding like Tues or Wed + Saturday at the moment) with the old database.

I did make some adjustments to the code that give newer players a much larger bonus for killing those high above them. Hopefully will help things along a bit. Possibly other changes to come, including bonuses for newbies, and possibly a standardized way to transfer RP from 1 ship to another, though at a fairly substantial loss.