Changes to Public Arena coming June 10th

[the block]

Greetings Trench Wars,

As many of us will agree, the Public arena is due for a bit of an overhaul. There have been many changes over the years, and our goal is to restore some of the most popular aspects of the arena to try and make it as fun a place to play for our veterans as well as the newbs that are just starting out in our zone.

These are not the only changes we plan to make, but we have to start somewhere. We'll of course continue to take the community's opinion into consideration as we move forward with changes, and evaluate their impact on Public and continue to tweak them if necessary.

Starting June 10th the following changes will occur in Pub:

• Removal of current asteroid graphics. We will return to 2d & smaller asteroids.
• The weasel will be returned to its larger size. It gains stealth in addition to cloak.
• The levi will be able to green x-radar. X-radar for the levi will drain energy similar to how it drains while used by a jav. The levi will also be able to !buy x-radar for $200 pubbux.
• Removal of following !buys: Shields, Epidemic, Baseterr, Roofturret
• !Buy for all ships will be restricted to the safety zone only.

We acknowledge staff has not always been good at communicating these types of changes to our players, so we are trying to break that cycle and keep everyone well informed of what our plans are to improve the arena. As someone who plays pub exclusively, I want nothing but the best for it and am glad to see at least some changes will be moving forward. We're never going to have complete consensus on what should or shouldn't be changed in Pub, but I'm hopeful we can at least get a productive dialog to follow this announcement of the changes. Thanks!

[Wazzaaa.nl]

so the levi will have even more disadvantages now?
or will the levipower be increased like the old days

[Rab]

yay big weasel, thank fuck

[bkgmjo]

So, few questions just to clear things up, as they were in discussion:

1. random starting loadout for lev?
2. L3 for lev or not?
3. removal of the fake L3 graphics, which just confuse/fool players?
4. removal of !buy purepub along with all other !buy wins?
5. restoration of the high antiwarp/decoy costs from ?buy times or still super low?
6. last minute freqhopping illegal soon as planned or not?
7. removal of the fire delay for lev?
8. reduction of turret size?

All I wondered for now. Might be more soon.

[Frightful]

Why are you catering to levs? That should be the price you pay for levving, which is being x'ed. If you read bkgmjo's suggestions, almost all are to benefit levs and LTs. This isn't 2002. LTs ruin basing.

[Jessup]

ok!!, glad the asteroids are leaving lol that was annoying as crap. Weasle I sort of like small tho .. just wish they couldn't buy shields. I hate the store in general honestly and think it detracts from competitive play. If and when steam starts this feature is going to piss off new players. Shrap really needs to be curtailed for example.. honestly would be thrilled to see it all go.. use buy features for spider antiwarp and all ships allowed 1 decoy per life as it was in the old days...the rest of our money should be for duels, betting and fruit and maybe a few other thought up things in the future. As it is now greens shouldn't even be in the game lol. They are pointless when you can just buy them. Still a step in the right direction .

[Jessup]

oh.. I always did want us to allow 1 ship a 10 second brick.. Weasle or lanc perhaps? Maybe Lev? Also would not be opposed to allowing a buy of 1 thor per freq every 15 mins . K input is over from me. Ty

[Leland]

bring back supers

[Fork]

Bet you in a few months time, some stuff will be changed back again and titled 'the changes to pub you've been waiting for'. Actually the changes to pub I wanna see is ideas that create incentive to play pub?

Where's the tutorial mini arena? everyone's been waiting for that for years haha.

Changing the weasle to big personally takes the fun right out of playing in that ship. I'm sure this will be changed to small again soon

[bkgmjo]

@fright not suggestions, just questions about things that were in discussion inside and outside staff meetings.

Also, block is just the messenger. Do not expect him to be able to change anything or work with any new suggestions right now, as much as I bet he would want to ;-). TBH, I wonder if these changes will even happen.

[2pac]

Why are you catering to levs? That should be the price you pay for levving, which is being x'ed. If you read bkgmjo's suggestions, almost all are to benefit levs and LTs. This isn't 2002. LTs ruin basing.

How retarded can you get? You want pure basing stick to ?go base, this is pub it doesn't HAVE to be pure basing, idiots like you are the reason why there are no LT squads.

Bring back !buy superlev and allow more damage.

Simple as that.

[Jessup]

So.. depending how this steam thing works out for population.. If we get over 60 people playing in pub.... 1 arena isn't going to cut it...especially with LT's flying about. Please be ready to have multiple pub arenas with player limits. I'm personally not opposed to the main pub arena being pure basing with 60 person limit... now roof wb bot is gone .. LT's gonna be just too annoying in the main pub. At least be ready to implement a change quickly if it turns out being a Lev fest. Noobs love lev too so I'm sure we will have a blue bomb bananza going on.

[bkgmjo]

Generally you have two options with enemies on this game: run away and cry/complain/insult or attack and kill them. Which is your choice?

[2pac]

if an LT is on roof and killed me, i'd go hunt it if im not successful i'd get a terr and spider and take care of business simple shit that jessup has a hard time of understanding.

[Shaddowknight]

So.. depending how this steam thing works out for population.. If we get over 60 people playing in pub.... 1 arena isn't going to cut it...especially with LT's flying about. Please be ready to have multiple pub arenas with player limits. I'm personally not opposed to the main pub arena being pure basing with 60 person limit... now roof wb bot is gone .. LT's gonna be just too annoying in the main pub. At least be ready to implement a change quickly if it turns out being a Lev fest. Noobs love lev too so I'm sure we will have a blue bomb bananza going on.

Agreed completely on multiple arenas. I said multiple times a year ago that pub has become too bot-dependant. Without the pub bot, the game should still be able to run and not look "broken." The bot should only provide non-essential enhancements to gameplay. Without a bot, there is no item buying, no base size changes (causing the map to look broken), and no flag timer to give the appearance of a goal or purpose for players.