Hello, It's been about a week since I started playing (10 days from my records) and I feel now that I have enough understanding of the game mechanics to make a post like this. First off, I'd like to say I'm really enjoying this game. The general design ideas and constant 'get you into the action' game play is what is lacking from a lot of open world games. I'm also really looking foreword to playing the hive faction as it looks rather interesting. I have noticed a few problems however, and I'd like to propose some solutions. If you believe they're bad ideas, please tell me why they wont work. Ves mentioned how new player slaughter is a concerning issue to him. I agree. This type of behavior will certainly push many new players out of the game. This isn't a problem that only one faction is responsible for, I've seen it on both sides, and have engaged in it a bit myself, even though I also am new. I should also note, that I'm doing fine, these fixes aren't designed to make my personal game-play better at the expense of others but rather to improve the game as a whole so we can attract more players. Part of the problem stems from the lack of sectors each tier of ship is the king of. T4's are so dominant in 6's because they're the biggest ship available. If t6's were allowed... certainly they'd become the most dominant. Another issue is these lower cap pt systems have maps that are rather small, so large ships can see much of the map just by turning on their scanners. Proposal: lock each incremental sector cap to a tier level. 2-4 caps: t3 (uses 1 cap pt ) 6 caps: t4 (uses 2 cap pts) 8 caps: t5 (uses 3 cap pts) 10 caps: t6 (uses 4 cap pts) 12 caps: t7 (uses 5 cap pts) 14 caps: t8 (uses 6 cap pts) 16 caps: t9 (uses 7 cap pts) 18 caps: t10 (uses 8 cap pts) The numbers above are of course placeholder. I'm sure ves has some math and metrics that could be used to indicate which cap level suits which tier of ship the best. Also, note that these are merely meant as the highest tier that can be in those sectors. you could of course bring 18 players in t3's into an 18 cap and run it that way. If the numbers above were used the locations where these pts are on the map may need to be reworked, such as making all the systems adjacent to dock worlds at least an 18 cap so every tier of ship can participate. Another change I would make is turning all the systems touching open space into 2 caps... and the next row in 4 caps. Then I would periodically turn some of these systems into pirate strongholds which would send ai out to engage the surrounding systems and take them over if not dealt with. This would give new players some game play to engage in to learn game mechanics without getting crushed by veteran players. Taking these systems back from the pirates or defending them would not give officer pts. Proposal for afking in system If you afked throughout your entire last round, your next round gets cut in half and continues to do so. Example using arbitrary numbers: afked though 60 seconds on allocation round, combat round gets cut down from 60 seconds to 30. If the player afked though the combat round, they now have 15 seconds during the next allocation round. Partial numbers get rounded down, so the next timer 7.5 seconds will become 7. If this continues and the player gets below 1 second, an ai will take over and will attempt to go back to base. The player is loaded back into the station while the ai does it's thing, all ships will say "in transit" as is the current mechanic. If at any time before the ai takes over, the player returns and does any type of input into the game the timer resets back to the original time allotted.
It usualy takes all 50 sec to setup a c10. If you`re slow or can`t click the damn counterfires you might miss your allocation and all setup resets.
This ^ Planning out a turn in a c8/c9/c10 and then making up my mind for allocation for it can usually take me the full minute in high risk situations, especially with my CTS. People accuse me of dragging out turns and flame me (fox) Could maybe set the timer based on ship? (might be a bit hard to implement)
I would leave it as it is. Yes 60 seconds can be a long time, but the argument, that bigger ships take longer time to setup is correct. Also 60 seconds isnt that long. If u think somebody is dragging it out on purpose, then just focus fire on him - problem solved. I think it is also a valid tactic to gain time for reinforcements or hinder players to defend other sectors. And since it can be employed by both sides equally it is a "fair" mechanic.
2 things. The 60 second number I used was just an arbitrary example for the sake of showcasing the afk mechanic. And secondly if you're clicking the interface, the afk mechanic wouldn't activate. You wouldn't be required to actually move or shoot to prevent the afk timer from working. It's merely meant to keep people from walking away from their computers and holding everyone else hostage. As to baalrog's point, people could still use the turn timer to delay, they just couldn't actually afk it. And you can't shoot your own faction, so you can't kill afkers in that instance. The code would look something like: afkMechanic [ if Player doesn't click interface turnTimer * 0.5 /* reduce turn timer 50% */if turnTimer < 1 second logout /* or a nearly identical class that would do everything logout does except disconnect you from server. */else proceedAsNormal /* call the normal player turn class*/]; Correct syntax and math would need to be implemented of course, but that would be the general idea. Thanks for your input.
