I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

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1575 days, 11 hours, 3 minutes ago

I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at the Change Log that Big Beefer's maintaining. There are some interesting additions:

> Captcha added at sign up

That's great. Fewer bots screwing up the MvM games :)

I checked the Game List, and the MvM games are still showing a large number of droppers (of the last 6 MvM games, all started after this change, 4 show 11, 10, 12 & 11 open slots, and the other two are on turns 1 & 2). With only a few players, these games are more difficult for the Midshipmen than they should be, and the Mentor will usually win.

What's next to reduce droppers in MvM games?

As a general point, I also saw an MvM game where the Mentor was playing as a Crystal. This is JUST WRONG. While it's necessary to eventually train the Midshipmen on how to handle the more difficult races, they should start off with something that a complete novice player has a chance of defeating. The Mentors should NOT be allowed to be Birdmen (maybe), Crystals, Cyborg or Privateers.

> New custom game settings - extended alchemy codes, bdX, and gsX must match

It would be nice to get an official description of these custom game settings, so that we can properly document them.

Also, if the "gsX must match" is what I think it is, it would be useful to make that part of Standard and Melee games, and possibly even Classic games.

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I believe we need better communication between the developers and the documenters. I've written about this before and seen a changelog created, but that's not enough. When the UI changes, those changes need to be documented. If the documentation editors don't have proper information, we can't do the job the way it should be done.

Before there was a full-time developer, this wasn't too much of an issue. With Big Beefer fixing bugs and enhancing the code, we're getting behind, and often we don't know what changes are required. If Planets.nu want's good documentation, the management needs to realize that good communication between the developers and the documenters is essential to that goal.

1575 days, 9 hours, 42 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

Yes it would be very useful to be told what is going on.

Nothing new on the new tenacity.

The new friendly codes are for all new games presumably and will not be back dated.

But what actually do they do?

I also see in the game design is showing "in development" is the Crystal web immunity. Giving the options of having all web immunity, non crystalline web immunity (this is a crystalline player laying in another non crystaline player id to increase web mine hits, but this method does not drain 25 a turn), or just immunity to your webs.

A big change for team and melee games!

A lot of player requests are being worked on but a description on how they actually work would be good for everyone.

1575 days, 9 hours, 28 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

Hey we have minimum tenacity on private games!

1575 days, 9 hours, 19 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

Where is the change log?

Thanks.

1575 days, 9 hours, 15 minutes ago

olegboleg

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

@whisperer: why not birdmen?

i chose birdmen because its "not that powerful"(!), if you take the cloaking away... and cloaking is gone thanks to full visibility.

1575 days, 9 hours, 7 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

Who would suggest that a Mentor playing the Birds has an advantage?!? They are a weak race to being with, now the midshipmen have full visibility, even when you are cloaked. I'm playing the Birds in a Mentor game and all I can do is build stacks of Darkwings to ward off heavy carriers.

1575 days, 9 hours, 0 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

http://planets.nu/#/howtoplay/changelog

1575 days, 8 hours, 50 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

On the FCs, for documentation purposes:

- the extended alchemy codes are nad, nat, nam. Read as No Alchemy XXX. So every 6 supplies create one of the each of the other 2 minerals, ie. nad with 6 supplies onboard makes 1 Tri + 1 Moly

- bdX works just like mdX, except for beaming down money instead of laying torps.

- gsX must match means that when using gsX to give a ship to someone, the receiving ship (the one with the clan on board) must set the same gsX code for it to work.

These are all only available in custom games, and there are no plans to include them in any system created games.

1575 days, 8 hours, 42 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

Great and good to know ... but the separation in system and custom game could be explained in more detail.

Why only in custom games?

I think this increases complexity for players without any reasons. May be you can set a fixed date, when these additions will go public in all games?

1575 days, 8 hours, 37 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

Why no Birds? I was thinking that some of their abilities could easily confuse new players, but I also listed that as a "maybe".

@Big+Beefer,

Thank you for the information. I'll put it into the docs when I get home. Any feedback on better communication? It would really help us do a better job keeping the documentation up to date.

1575 days, 8 hours, 22 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

@Frostriese

I think because the standard game fanatics who bemoan any changes in their vanilla game and cry and weep at is changing their game (but I bet some of the vanilla fanatics would allow the gsx must match codes :-) ).

It could possibly be done for the non standard games though with campaign adds as these people are more forward thinking and open to change.

1575 days, 7 hours, 11 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

Just my 2 cents on the MvM format:

Not sure @Whisperer is aware that there is FULL visibility for all players. Birds in this case are the kindest choice for a mentor to take. In my MvM game most of the midshipmen quit within 5 turns. Of those that stayed, a few dropped later due to the full visibility aspect and not being allowed to attack their neighbors. It just gets boring.

I suggest the game reverts to normal visibility after turn 25. This would allow new players to experiment with their cloaking races and have some chance against the Mentor. Secondly, I think lowering the length to 60 turns, while adjusting winning conditions, would make this more fun for everyone. The 3 or 4 midshipmen left in my game know they have no chance of wiping me out, but want to finish the game, so we'll all go through the motions.

1575 days, 6 hours, 19 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

I agree with Tom N that we should lower the M&M games to 60 turns or else allow the mentor to forfeit without taking a tenacity hit and also make cloaking normal after 25 turns.

1575 days, 5 hours, 24 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

I was looking at the changelog. What month is the 16th month? Is that like military time? Sort of a military calender? Would that make it April?

1575 days, 5 hours, 18 minutes ago

endymion

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

@ Forger I disagree. I've worked like hell to train up and coach up my allies in M v M Virgo pegasai and the three of us would LOSE if we stopped at 60. I predict we'll win with a few turns to spare with 80 but the crucial isssue at this point is time, distance, and fuel. We simply can't reach the far side of his expansion away from us before about turn 71. Note it's lizard mentor vs a Lizard, Colonial, Fascist alliance. No speedy ships in our race selection.

I'd say the same about turning off "care bear" level intell and allowing "real" cloaking. I don't know what an AI Lizard mentor would do, but a human played lizard mentor vs. OUR allied race combination and conditions would be unbeatable under the current victory conditions even at 100 turns.

Why don't you simply let the center player be an AI and make the mentor one of the races on the rim ? Then the mentor has the same goal as everyone else, and has the same impetus to actually mentor and cooperate. As a Mentor/Team Captain he or she should be able to toggle off alliance for dead or abandoned slots .

1575 days, 5 hours, 1 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

@Martinr,

> Hey we have minimum tenacity on private games!

With the old version of Tenacity, that would gave been helpful. With the new version, not so much, unless the requirement is set to 100%.

1575 days, 4 hours, 58 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

Wow. Those are nice changes. I can think of 2 more.

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(1) Team games - When you are playing your turn you pick a planet/SB/Ship. The big white info box appears on the left. At the top are the other ships at this location. You mouseover a ship and a pop-up box appears with details.

In any other type of game, the writing is white. In a Team game the writing is purple and it is very hard to read. It would be so nice if it was white like in all other games.

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(2) New game type for custom games. Probably this would be an option for "Homeworld Locations. It would be called: One Against All.

It ould set up just like the MvM games, one player in the middle and all other players in a circle. It would have at least 2 purposes. (1) It would allow custom MvM games. Such a game would be nice as all players want to be in the game. It would most likely be their second game. (2) It would allow for Ashes of the Old Empire scenarios.

The victory condition would be capture the middle home world within a Fixed Limit of Turns. Winner gets 6X points and all others get 1X. Failure gives the middle player 6X.

1574 days, 11 hours, 7 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

@Big+Beefer,

> bdX works just like mdX, except for beaming down money instead of laying torps.

What is the base unit for this? Does BD1 mean Beam Down 10MC, 100MC or 1000MC?

1574 days, 10 hours, 31 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

It's by 10s

1574 days, 9 hours, 38 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

@Big+Beefer,

> It's by 10s

For Torps, that makes sense, as ships only carry a few hundred of them at most, but for MCs? I think by 100s would make much more sense. By 1000s would usually be too big.

1574 days, 9 hours, 29 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

I'm like Big Beefer's 10's. The "bdm" function is mostly used early in the game, when cash is tight. I doubt many players are sending their early 'seed-ships' off with more than 200mc.

1574 days, 9 hours, 26 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

I believe the new FCs are now properly documented.

1574 days, 9 hours, 11 minutes ago

RE: I was a bit bored this morning, so I took a quick look at...

(apart for the typo. I think line should be like)