Time for some pub changes

[Dierienow]

Are decoys too cheap for the usefulness they provide and the amount of time they last? I think they should be more expensive or last a shorter amount of time.

[Rab]

Are decoys too cheap for the usefulness they provide and the amount of time they last? I think they should be more expensive or last a shorter amount of time.

What do they cost and what do you think they should cost?
Are there any rebuy time limits, or location restrictions?

[Dierienow]

TW-PubSyst> Item: decoy (A decoy)
TW-PubSyst> Price: $900
TW-PubSyst> Targetable: No
TW-PubSyst> Buyable from spec: No
TW-PubSyst> Restrictions:
TW-PubSyst> - Available only for ship(s) : 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
TW-PubSyst> - Maximum of 2 per life
TW-PubSyst> - Maximum of 1 every 15 seconds

Notable information missing: how long the decoy lasts for. Decoys should cost at least 15k for the effect it has and duration IMO. Certainly not $900 lol. You can't even randomly donate that amount it has to be more than $1000.

[Rab]

OK, so what would you change?

[jim the chin]

Recently, the settings were changed to allow peeps to switch teams to join the LARGER team. This was a problem a couple of years ago because we had a troll in the pub arena constantly joining the larger team, or the winning team, to make the game more uneven than it was. This killed the fun and made people leave. Well, the troll is back doing the same thing now, because you've changed the settings to allow him to. Please reverse that change immediately. It is killing the pub arena. BTW, the troll is jeffpotatoes. Just watch him for a bit, you'll see what I mean.

[IxaDor]

Recently, the settings were changed to allow peeps to switch teams to join the LARGER team. This was a problem a couple of years ago because we had a troll in the pub arena constantly joining the larger team, or the winning team, to make the game more uneven than it was. This killed the fun and made people leave. Well, the troll is back doing the same thing now, because you've changed the settings to allow him to. Please reverse that change immediately. It is killing the pub arena. BTW, the troll is jeffpotatoes. Just watch him for a bit, you'll see what I mean.

Someone give this guy a medal. He single handedly found out what has been killing pub, the troll by the name jeffpotatoes! Wow! Bravo!

I hope someone puts this fix in ASAP as I would love to see the pub population return to what it was two decades ago.

Good stuff! Thanks Jim!

-IxaDor

[jim the chin]

Someone give this guy a medal. He single handedly found out what has been killing pub, the troll by the name jeffpotatoes! Wow! Bravo!

I hope someone puts this fix in ASAP as I would love to see the pub population return to what it was two decades ago.

Good stuff! Thanks Jim!

-IxaDor

There's plenty of other things killing pub, and stopping people like jeff from switching to the larger team to create grossly uneven games is not going to return the population to what it was two decades ago, but it will slow the decline to what it was before this recent change.

[qan]

Slight tweak with pub: I reverted part of the change on rocket buys. This change was deeply unpopular with a small but very vocal group. I've once again removed the delay timer on rocket buys, but the price is now $3K, as a compromise. This should keep spamming down, as it becomes a bit painful to buy repeatedly at that price. But, if they wish to do it, they still have the option to save up and then enjoy a small bit of time playing the game as they wish. This is in keeping with the philosophy that pubbux can be used to manipulate pub toward a playstyle you enjoy more but others may enjoy less (at least, within reason), because it roughly represents the time you have put into the game.

Also, the !switch reward will now scale based on how big a difference there is in player numbers between the two public freqs. Should hopefully incentivize it more. Keep an eye out for people scamming it and please let me know if it can be abused in some unforeseen way.

Recently, the settings were changed to allow peeps to switch teams to join the LARGER team. This was a problem a couple of years ago because we had a troll in the pub arena constantly joining the larger team, or the winning team, to make the game more uneven than it was.

There was a loose exception in the code that allowed stacking one of the public freqs if there was an equally-sized private freq. I've tightened it up a bit. Let me know if this seems to solve the problem. If you're able to replicate this issue after today, please post how you can do it here, or send me a private message.

[Soldier13]

I remember the good old days when Paladen use to take base in public frequency and chase wolvencreed squadron away. Sometimes Time Lords and Floydians even a few of No Surrender rivalries. Without any of the previous and much improvement and change, am happy to join the Paladen team and game with.

[Rab]

TK bot in pub is getting on my nerves, keeps warning me about TKs.
If I can kill half the enemy team, at the cost of 1 of my guys, I'm going to do it, and my team is gonna be glad I did.
I'm winning the game for my team in jav, and the bot switches me to spider. Get the fuck off my ship choice 1984.
And get rid of that $500 spam / forgiveness crap, I don't care about $500.

[qan]

Forgiveness also removes the TK from your record, so it's not just about money. It can get a bit spammy though. Currently just reminds you the first time about forgiving players, and then has a 33% chance of firing after that. I'll take that % down a bit.

Not sure about what to do with the first issue. Not so easy to test for. The TK system works like this: for every (unforgiven) TK, you receive a point value. That point value rapidly decays. So if you go without TKing for not so long a time, the points disappear from your record, though a record of the TK remains for moderation purposes. If you're not TKing very frequently and you're not TKing the same person -- or if you're doing both of these, but are saying sry and getting forgiven -- it should basically leave you alone.

[Rab]

Use a percentage. I reckon maybe 10% of my kills are TKS. But a problematic TKer will have that over 50%.

[Rab]

Bot isn't working properly.
When someone takes the flag from you, you have a few seconds to reclaim it.
When I reclaim it, it resets the timer. So I have to hold the base another 1:30 to win.
When people reclaim it from me, it doesn't reset the timer. So they have to hold the base only a few remaining seconds to win.
So there's something in the 'reclaiming the flag' code which is clearly racist.

[Rab]

TW-PubSystem> For playing 2 days in a row you earn a bonus of $2500! Play again tomorrow for a bonus of $5000.

bro... I played about 9999 days in a row... wtf r u smoking.

[Rab]

TW-PubSystem> GAME WON! Bonus: ($26320 [5x FESTIVAL MULTIPLIER]) !commend to commend your team $250 each
- Basing King/Queen : Rab +$530 - Most Veteran-Like : Rab +$265
TW-Guard0> NOTICE: Your ship has been automatically changed due to excessive killing of teammates.

make your fucking mind up.