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Azreal
Chief Marshal
Joined: March 14, 2004
Posts: 2816
From: United State of Texas, Houston
|  Posted: 2012-04-22 13:52
Barren MV. Server barely making it. Players come and run away. "Why?", we ask.
The DS we all love is still here, yet...what exactly IS it now? I realize games evolve, especially a decade old game. However, is DS still what it once was?
Yes, and no.
The attraction of instant spawn and get into some kind of trouble is still there. Ships are still somewhat fun. It still has no Z axis, but oh well.
But the feeling of DS is gone. It doesnt INSPIRE the kind of community teamwork that it once did. In a never-ending quest to end the ability of the lone wolf pilot, DS has brought about the demise of the skill that was actually required to be a lone wolf. There may have been lone wolves, but generally speaking, when another player was on, they flew together, and lone wolf only happened in the lulls (these were days of no ai at all). I grasp the need to instill teamwork thru ship abilities, but now the ships are so limited they have lost their appeal.
It isnt just the lack of customization. It isnt just the changes in gadget levels and some of their abilities. It isn't any one thing, its all of it together.
Example; Cloak, once a truly functional gadget of electronic warfare, was changed to a gadget that needs 8 counters and 4 ships to defeat. After the days of the ecm forts, that was never ever needed in the old days. Its the overall changes. They have taken much of the fun and nearly all of the skill away.
Now, I am accused by some of only posting negative and vitriolic comments. I freely admit guilt many times, especially lately. I am not the beat around the bush type in rl. I speak plainly, and expect the same in return.
However, I truly love this damned game. I hate that I do. I have come and gone, left and returned, started and restarted Wolf, and even now, here I am. Only now, it feels like I am at the death watch of a loved one.
So in the effort to GIVE SOME EXAMPLES OF SPECIFICS, I offer the following of this morning's "fun" discoveries.
today, I bought 9 ai.
1. I can not control them? I can't send an order to ai that I purchased? This is not a wise move as it lessens any reason for me to really buy them, specifically for reason number two.
2. Of the 9, 3 were killed by the planet, mainly because I could not order them not to attack a tranny mining a high defense planet. The other 6 literally plowed the planet, taking my credits with them. They lasted MAYBE 15 minutes average. The way I see it, I got gypped by 45 minutes on average. Remember please: I am a Texan, and this is a big deal to me. I am sure F understands....
3. Of the three dreads I spawned, I got, randomly of course, a Gang, a Brood, and a Mandy. The Mandy is the only one I would have chosen. Randomness in a purchase is just simply POOR ASS customer service. Sorry, but it is. We should be able to choose what kind of ship we want within the class, and it should cost accordingly within that range.
4. I bought an AI scout, hoping it would use its scanner. Nope. Oh, and I cant order it to scout either, so you should simply remove trannies, engies, etc. Anything that does no good as a combat escort is a waste of money because you cant order it to do anything. It will auto escort, and just die. Make these ships use their gadgets. What good is a scout who doesnt scout? And if you dare say that "hey its only a couple hundred creds", man, that's same as stealin'.
5. This is one of the main things I am supposed to spend money on, especially since it is useful to augment and equalize numbers in the sparsely populated MV. This is actually one of the more important uses for creds, tbh, even though most folks dont grasp that, yet it works in this piss poor manner. The whole purchase ai situation needs to be looked at.
MI.
I honestly do not see the point in MI being what they are now. Why even have them in the game?
1. Wiping planets is bad, right? Thus no more mirving. So instead you give this ability to AI? This is beyond logical. If it is bad for the game to have planets wiped, then it is bad for the game to have planets wiped. Ok, so structures stay, but the pop is bye bye. Today I couldnt get a sy back online before the stupid MI came and knocked them off again 2 mins later. How is this anything but discouraging? You log in, you are alone, and you cant get a sy 2 systems from the front. Think of what a nub is going to face in this. And the simple answer is NOT to send them to the scens. If so, than rank lock the MV ffs.
2. After having to chase off a Longhead, a fight that took five minutes of nearly dying and fighting for energy because you cant catch them, I earned 7 friggin' points of pres. Yeah. If that is supposed to be fun you should take up watching paint dry.
3. Once upon a time, AI dropped the rarest, even unpurchasable enhancements. This made them at least somewhat logical to fight against, and even invade their systems. Now, their systems are a complete waste of bandwidth. The enhancements, despite certain mods and devs saying otherwise, no longer drop, or the chance is SOOO low that they no longer do. Many people left due to this. The ai are too powerful and have absolutely zero payoff for fighting against. I only see people engage them to save their planets.
4. Now, an IDEA that may work better, lest I be accused of only throwing out fir and offering no water; Why not remove the systems or at least shrink them, and then run random daily events that spawn them in the MV. Tone them down some, and make fighting them worth the effort. Add better chances to score a big hit here and there. You would be suprised what everyone seeing a rare drop does to moral. It fires everyone up. It would also give the ai some freaking atual purpose, other than to disrupt gameplay, and actually help the MV come a little more to life.
Construction
1. I like that we can now repair structures. This is a totally logical addition to the game. However, why does it take 4 times longer to repair a structure than it does to build it from scratch. Could be this is a bug. If it isnt, you should just say it is and fix it. Trust me on this.
2. I loved it when the addition of upgrading was added. I was an early and extremely vocal advocate for it. HOWEVER, the way it is coded, YOU WILL LOSE POINTS EVERY TIME IT IS USED. You only get the pres from level x to level y, but get the full scrap value subtracted for the building you upgraded. This has robbed many unsuspecting people of prestige, and adds a "wtf!?!?!" feature to the game. Either make structures upgrade for full value of the structure being built, or just get rid of the feature.
3. It is not understood by the playerbase in general that building pres is a time rewarding activity. The more time you spend building a structure, the more you get from it. They put those nice build drones on their ships, and then find they dont make as much pres. It's another of the "wtf!?!" things that people discover that discourages them. Remember, they just spent money on build drones to not make more pres. Pres should be tied to building and level, not to time. This fixes the issue with build drones. Otherwise it needs to be made understood that you build faster, yes, but make less.
4. Would it be possible to lower the pres loss for scrapping? It is still the only thing in the game that penalizes a player for performing an activity correctly. I think it should be added that you have to have a build drone to scrap a building, and maybe even be at the planet for some range or other.
These are some of the things I sat and observed in the MV for a few hours this morning. I have thought really hard about this game since the other day when I read that the financial end is in trouble. I don't want to see DS die. The game still has years ahead of it if managed correctly. I dont have any idea what the staff and F has planned, but I hope they look very hard at what made DS fun once, and emulate it.
I understand if this is too critical to leave posted. From what I am told, my "voice" apparently carries the weight of 100 lesser DS players. However, I refuse to stay silent and uncritical. I still think the patient has life in it. I am just fearful of his team of surgeons.
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Pantheon
Marshal
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Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2012-04-22 13:59
I don't have time to reply in length atm, but pretty much everything you've mentioned is due to be looked at or touched. Unfortunately, no-one has the free time to spend fixing or changing any of it. Most of the stuff you've mentioned (MI/events, Construction, Ally Enhancements), requires significant time to change (in some places its not just code, it's the structures or what have you that all need changing).
It's unfortunate, but if I had 8 hours a day to spend on Ds, it'd be easy enough, but I don't, no-one does, and as a result, we do what we can, when we can.
[ This Message was edited by: Pantheon on 2012-04-22 14:05 ]
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Kenny_Naboo
Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: January 11, 2010
Posts: 3823
From: LobsterTown
| Posted: 2012-04-22 14:12
Need... more.... C++ programmers.....
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GunsOfHonor
Fleet Admiral
Joined: July 31, 2011
Posts: 191
| Posted: 2012-04-22 16:25
By no means am i a Vet of DS but i've been here long enough to know that when i used to log and on and see several Armadas on all faction going at it the 3 factions met virtually in one spot and duked it out and it was a blast so much fun so much pres rarely any rage inducing things happend but now with DS only with old vets and new guys its on as must say "lifesupport" i love this game and its one of very few of its kind and one day maybe the days where it was a blast might come back and DS would go for another 10
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Walrus of Apathy
Admiral
Templar Knights
Joined: August 07, 2005
Posts: 466
From: Dorans Basement
| Posted: 2012-04-22 19:01
Today a sizeable group of UGTO decided to attack Procyon, and as a memeber of that group my opinion is that the MI are ridiculously powerful. If a Node popped in, the battle was effectively over. There was no way our good number of Dreads, Cruisers and Stations could take out a single Node, especially all the other MI ships running around. Of all the problems with the MI, how fast they repair is easily the most annoying, my TC was utterly unable to destroy a single Legion Cruiser, even after 30-40 good Torpedo hits plus beam damage. I saw one of these cruisers go from 7% hull to 35% in 5 seconds.
I recognize that the MI are supposed to be a mysterious, powerful race, but their ability to soak up damage is ridiculous. It shouldn't take half the people online at any given time to take out 1 MI Longhead.
I pretty much agree with the rest of Az's stuff too.
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Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
| Posted: 2012-04-22 19:20
I've said I'd be willing to help.
I haven't done 3 years of -college programming-, but in what experience I HAVE had over the years, I know that I can learn a great deal by seeing how the game is already coded. Even if I did have 3 years of experience, I would have to look at the programming anyways to see what does what.
If you aren't accepting FREE help, you have ZERO room to complain about not having enough people, or having people with the free time to do anything.
You're scared that someone is going to find exploits in the code?
You want me to spend thousands of dollars learning to program, for nothing?
There's no programming jobs left out there, the market is saturated.
I'll be here with 3 years of programming experience, working at a burger joint, because I wont have any of the skills required for a real job that's actually in demand.
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Pantheon
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2012-04-22 19:53
Quote:
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On 2012-04-22 19:20, Fluttershy wrote:
I've said I'd be willing to help.
I haven't done 3 years of -college programming-, but in what experience I HAVE had over the years, I know that I can learn a great deal by seeing how the game is already coded. Even if I did have 3 years of experience, I would have to look at the programming anyways to see what does what.
If you aren't accepting FREE help, you have ZERO room to complain about not having enough people, or having people with the free time to do anything.
You're scared that someone is going to find exploits in the code?
You want me to spend thousands of dollars learning to program, for nothing?
There's no programming jobs left out there, the market is saturated.
I'll be here with 3 years of programming experience, working at a burger joint, because I wont have any of the skills required for a real job that's actually in demand.
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I don't think you understand how it works... There's nothing we need doing that requires minimal coding knowledge. It's 1-2 years worth of college/uni knowledge or equivilant. Just looking at the code wouldn't be enough.
We don't need someone going in and writing simple if statements, if it was as simple as that, we'd have this out the door by now.
[ This Message was edited by: Pantheon on 2012-04-22 19:57 ]
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Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
| Posted: 2012-04-22 22:34
Would you mind telling me what it is specifically that you need done?
Just give me an idea so I realize how clueless I really am.
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Ravendark
Marshal
Sanity Assassins
Joined: July 01, 2010
Posts: 443
| Posted: 2012-04-23 05:34
how about you guys give flutty a test or something??? now dont set it u to fail.. kay?? maybe a set of tasks, like make code for something, repair existing code. figure it out you're the more than 3yrs experienced coders.
i've seen ppl with thalent, thrown away, because they did not have the "right papers"
very dissapointing
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Azure Prower
Chief Marshal
Joined: March 14, 2006
Posts: 309
| Posted: 2012-04-23 06:48
I don't know about every one else. But logging on to see that horrible map just makes me want to log straight back out. Even the previous one the majority complained about was better.
It's simply uninspiring.
Only one way to go until you hit the 3 way 'Y' shape in the middle. Usually I like the choice of what faction/system/place I want to attack, not just who ever controls Kaus Borealis. Haven't had that option for some time now in DarkSpace.
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Talien
Marshal
Templar Knights
Joined: May 11, 2010
Posts: 2044
From: Michigan
| Posted: 2012-04-23 06:51
Long jump/WH to another system? That's what supply plats are for, seems to work fine for me.
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Azreal
Chief Marshal
Joined: March 14, 2004
Posts: 2816
From: United State of Texas, Houston
| Posted: 2012-04-23 08:08
Learning ZBrush and Maya this quarter. 3DsMax next quarter. What model creator is DS able to import? Just curious. Time for me is limited alot, but the programs are pie and I need class projects.....
ps, I own Maya and ZBrush btw, as well as about 13 adobe programs (PS, ILL, etc.), so I have access at all times to them. In other words, I have a crapload of money invested in programs, and nothing but schoolwork atm to work on them with...seeing my point...?
[ This Message was edited by: Azreal on 2012-04-23 08:11 ]
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Pantheon
Marshal
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Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2012-04-23 08:47
Quote:
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On 2012-04-23 08:08, Azreal wrote:
Learning ZBrush and Maya this quarter. 3DsMax next quarter. What model creator is DS able to import? Just curious. Time for me is limited alot, but the programs are pie and I need class projects.....
ps, I own Maya and ZBrush btw, as well as about 13 adobe programs (PS, ILL, etc.), so I have access at all times to them. In other words, I have a crapload of money invested in programs, and nothing but schoolwork atm to work on them with...seeing my point...?
[ This Message was edited by: Azreal on 2012-04-23 08:11 ]
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We accept anything that can be exported to FBX format, which is the industry standard for most games. You'll have to lookup what specific program supports it, and if it has the plugins for it.
As far as what we can use, the Volunteer page has information on that. We desperately need texture artists though.
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Azreal
Chief Marshal
Joined: March 14, 2004
Posts: 2816
From: United State of Texas, Houston
| Posted: 2012-04-23 08:56
Actually, I was intending to learn texturing specifically. We're still learning the sculpting atm, but I am working thru some tutorials to get ahead of them The classes are slow. Anyways, when I am there, Ill work something up and send it in.
Like I said, I need projects to work on for school....
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Pantheon
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Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2012-04-23 10:03
Quote:
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On 2012-04-23 08:56, Azreal wrote:
Actually, I was intending to learn texturing specifically. We're still learning the sculpting atm, but I am working thru some tutorials to get ahead of them The classes are slow. Anyways, when I am there, Ill work something up and send it in.
Like I said, I need projects to work on for school....
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Kenny has a few single textured models, he might be able to send you one to play around with texture-wise.
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