PotBS Dev Tracker

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Rusty
1 in thread Isildur on PotBS, July 2007 [Ask an FLS Developer!]
Quote:
Originally Posted by beltpouch
What sort of effect will this new system have on piracey and commerce raiding? Your comment of "let people reasonably access the PvE of towns" has me a little worried as it could also "let merchants reasonably access the production of towns" which goes against the economic warfare of the game. If merchants just have to wait a few minutes for some strange roving PvP zones to move out of the way to get to thier production then it will mean the end of economic warfare.

I'm all for spreading PvP out a little more instead of having the sames towns in PvP over and over again but you have me a little nervous Rusty :-)
It will have an effect, in that there is a benefit to putting a port into constant, indefinite PvP. But that really wasn't our design, and winds up with people taking the same ports over and over again, which is ultimately dull for them and horrendous for PvE players. What it will do is to push you into going after different ports than the one you just took.

And in case you're wondering, I pick out various players with representative styles and keep them in my head to consider the effects of any change. I may be surprised at your reaction, but I believe you'll be fine with it.
Rusty
1 in thread Isildur on PotBS, July 2007 [Ask an FLS Developer!]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kylra
I am taking this against the context that the winners do not have enough reward for winning, and this implies that the winner is going to get significant long term bonuses over losers for winning. If this is incorrect, please correct my assumption.
Yes. The incorrect assumption you're making is when you use the word "winners". This won't be something that is a benefit to the NvN winner, it's a long term ramfication to every nation that takes at least one port (potentially excluding Pirates, we haven't thought through how they interact with this idea yet).
Rusty
1 in thread Isildur on PotBS, July 2007 [Ask an FLS Developer!]
Quote:
Originally Posted by GB
yes because i keep seeing posts from FLS devs that try to portray unfair gameplay as the only way to win.

Whilst i do accept war is unfair this is not the vision to portray without many players mis-conceiving it.
i don't think the game is the real problem but more lack of understanding of it.
Now if i could point them to a post that proves FLS does not approve of griefing that would help a lot
Consider you're talking to a guy who takes flavor over effectiveness every time, and generally takes on combat as the underdog because it's more fun. I'm not a fan of griefing!

The problem with having the kind of blanket statement that covers that is that griefing is such a subjective issue. We even have internal arguments here as to what griefing is in specific situations, and how we can design around it. But I'll see what we can do.
Rusty
1 in thread Isildur on PotBS, July 2007 [Ask an FLS Developer!]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulot
That's a definite answer in the right direction, we know that what is currently happening is unacceptable. As for the rest, guess we're waiting until next week to hear more. Yet I think with the unrest decay, do we have any reasonable window for when this will go away? Keeping it in place for another 2-3 weeks is going to be a gamekiller I reckon.
We plan to do it and push it for 1.35. Specifically, we're creating a separate launch window for it because we don't want to wait for 1.4. I'd love to get it into 1.35 if possible, but I'm dubious. We are starting work on it now.
Rusty
1 in thread Isildur on PotBS, July 2007 [Ask an FLS Developer!]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulot
Yet I would say the current situation is nothing but 6 on 1 in a lot of cases. Furthermore, you enter the bubble, you expect PvP from whoever is there. Ganking a newb shouldn't protect you from that. Shouldn't "No crying in the bubble" cut both ways? That those who launch a gank squad, if reinforcements suddenly show up, now they have to fight a "fair" fight.
Sure, I don't have a problem with reinforcements showing up (we wouldn't have the thirty second timer if we did), I have a problem with reinforcements showing up *every* time.
Rusty
1 in thread Isildur on PotBS, July 2007 [Ask an FLS Developer!]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Loktofeit
That's not what I am saying at all. In zero-strategy PvP where combat is gear and level dependent, which is most mainstream MMOs, the devs strive for balanced combat. Those games have a different focus. To start, their focus is only balance at level cap or against even levels. You'll notice it's very common in those games to have a 15 level difference to be an almost undisputed "I WIN" button. In those games a lower level player is useless. He is of little or no value to the overall scheme of things. Anything he uses, farms, crafts, or does is completely inconsequential to the 'endgame'.

Even level fighting and balanced matches are important in other games because there is no depth beyond a fragfest for realm/honor points. PotBS is designed so that every player of every level can have an impact on the balance of power. That being the case, any system that restricts interaction by level would be counterproductive to the entire design of the game.

Do you follow now? This is a different game design. The game is more similar to chess or RISK or Axis and Allies than it is to DAoC.
Wow! Much better than how I explain it.
Rusty
1 in thread Isildur on PotBS, July 2007 [Ask an FLS Developer!]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulot
Then there's the thirty second window. If someone is getting ganked, if you arrive to help him in 31 seconds (and if your caught in the wind at the edge of the bubble, this is not inconceivable) you are too late. Meanwhile, people would just jump right out from the port and join the battle. Why not just say that if you are in a battle, as long as you stay alive, anyone can join in the fray?
Ship combats take significantly longer than the travel time for someone to join in, which means all combats come down to 6v6 fights. It removes the elements of setting up the fight and ambushes. Plus, unequal fights are actually some of the best fights you can have. 1 on 5 isn't really interesting, but more modest differences (say 3v5) are really exciting depending on the mix of ships.
Rusty
1 in thread Isildur on PotBS, July 2007 [Ask an FLS Developer!]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulot
I think Rusty, the problem is not that ganking happens in PvP. It's that, given the current mechanics, ganking is not only encouraged, but rewarded. Let me give an example. I play on Blackbeard. The pirates have put up a perennial bubble around Bluefields. They don't generate any real contention, they just leave it there. Bluefields has a lot of the story quests. Want to participate in genuine PvE content? You can't in this instance. Since contention decay is turned off, the bubble remains in perpetuity. You can have a group of 6 50's to grind the contention down, but since very few pirates or anything else spawns out by bluefields, this is next to impossible. Is this situation "working as intended?" If so, is that desirable?
Nope. But I just had a long chat about contention with Designco, and we're going to be addressing this situation. Basically, we want accessible PvP, so that the PvP guys always have somewhere to go to fight. But the unrest decay change results in the situation you describe above, which is unacceptable.

The new system addresses all of this. Isildur will do a dev log next week describing it in more detail, but we're going to push PvP around the map instead of letting it stay in the same handful of towns. This will make strategic conflict more interesting, and it will let people reasonably access the PvE of towns without them being indefinitely in PvP. It'll also make taking a port more interesting, because you won't be able to flip it willy nilly. And finally, the results of a round of NvN will have longer term effects that last into future rounds.
Taelorn
1 in thread Where would i find a small frigate? [Discuss: Ships, Ship Combat, & Ship Skills]
The Cerberus used to be called the Small Frigate.
Misha
1 in thread Server Issues 3/28 a.m. [Important Announcements]
Quote:
Originally Posted by SirGrey
...AND I cant believe that it will take 12h or more to make a rollback.
Yeah, I don't know. Ask Gray Noten. When he's had more than 2h sleep in 3 days.