Messages

There ARE vets in the 1.3 beta team.

And yet 1.3pb2 was released 'broken'

Testing was never allowed to produce
results which helped online strat performance.

Any chance of leaving out thumper and ANY OTHER
items not DIRECTLY related to letting people help
you test and tweak hovercraft physics?

Keep It Simple Red Devil.

Here's a great idea ;
While you are releasing tweak packs for testing,
also release FUN packs to include your thumpers and
other anthropomorphic characters.
But do them in a different thread please.

I'm trying to help.

I do not like terrain bumps causing damage
or hindering the speed of the craft.
Why?
Because I am used to bz2 after maybe
three years playing it that way.

Red Devil, you seem to be ignoring the posts
which ask for long range for assault Blink.
That sounded harsh, sorry.
Long range would be similar to 1.2 standard Blink,
i.e. it teleports you to where your reticle is
pointing, including the other side of the map when
there is a wall. You can't see your target, but you
still blink there. This is a GOOD thing incase you
are unsure. This would enable you to blink to
pools, areas of combat, home to base, etc. This
is what I want, and I seem not to be alone.

So, let me put it this way ;
For Assault Blink I would like the maximum Range
to be not less than 600m, more like 800m

Phoenix, I have never been in a game of
Scion v ISDF 1.2 where after 40 minutes and
blink, the ISDF won by a non-Sabre-rush.

There.

In that situation what often happens is an agreed
draw by mutual frustration.

I would like to TRY blink as the two-mode weapon,
with long-range low-ammo cost in Assualt mode for
getting around the map on pool-duty and commanding,
but REMOVE its 'escape' use in combat mode. In Combat mode how about a short-lived VIR effect of, say, 5 seconds?
Some ideas.
My older ideas still stand too.

The slow-recharge idea allows 'escape' use but does
NOT allow multi-use to get around the map. Not so
good to my ideas of why the balance is wrong so far.

Yeah Phoenix I get your point about the joggle against
Sabres.
Against scouts, since most shots miss the effect could
be to even up the fight. Against Sabres however, I
don't see them suffering from scion scouts at the
moment. Against laser, scion scouts still die.
I say Try the joggle, simply because I'd like to see
the effects and would find it great fun to test.
I am biased of course, since my favourite scion
weapon is the humble scion-plasma.

As for Blink, do we agree that it is a very scionish
special, useful and appropriate for getting around the
map quickly, but we want to see its use as a
fight-escaper REMOVED ??

So as I see it there are three (of course there are more)
nice modifications to try out first ;

Nerfed Blink, either charge-up/delayed trigger
or a big ammo cost.

Scion-plasma with SLIGHT joggle effect.

Shadower damage to Def shields reduced.

Are we all thinking along vaguely the same lines ??

I mentioned the shadower/Def thing from the
weapn point of view because that is how the
game sees it. If we look at things from just
the sheild point of view we can imagine far-reaching
effects of shield changes, which is NOT the case.

Anglelwing I absolutely agree with your shield
ideas. Make the choices work properly, rather
than the lopsided current advantage to Abs.

I disagree to make scion-plasma shots faster,
the target-leading is a crucial and fun part of
learning to use scions. Even scion iongun has
a slowish shot speed and looks very scionish.
If you speed up the plasma shots you are simply
making it nearer the minigun in aiming, no fun there.

Here's another idea to even the scion-EDF balance
at the start : Scion-plasma joggle-boom-boom.
Everyone is in full scouts.
Mini/FaF eats scion scouts when it hits, and it
hits more than scion-plasma hits.
Scion plasma is a great weapon with good damage
against unarmoured and light armoured targets,
increasing the damage would just make it even more
of a turret-killer which I think would be too much.

Try this idea ;
Scion-plasma having a small joggling effect, like a
toned-down sonic/arc effect, bumping the victim.
This fits in exactly with current scion weapon effects and
would even fights up tremendously in scout-v-scout
doggyfights.
The slight joggling effect would cause more misses by
the mini/FaF EDF scouts, thus balancing without changing
and other game balances.

Gimme your serious consideration fellas.

Yeah APCs, hitting the special/Blink button
should start the charge-up and activate when
fully charged,
it could make for some very entertaining mistakes.

Oh oh, didn't mean to hit that button! zzzzZZZZZ-Pong!
Too late ...

Phoenix, Def might get used by a few commanders
just until blast Sabres are around, then everyone tends
to get Abs to be able to duel it out at max range
and deal with Gts.
With all the shield choices 'seeming' to give very
little protection against shadowers there isn't
much urge to use Def later in the game.
Upping Def shield protection against Shadowers
would give scions more reason for Def but might also
allow more Blast/Laser kills against them ...

I love the idea of a charge-up to blink,
makes sense for scions since they kind of
have to 'charge-up' to morph too.
How about 3 seconds? Enough time to
make it not the 'get out of jail free card',
but short enough to make it worth doing.

I also love the idea of making a certain shield
the only effective one against shadowers,
I had just the same idea myself yesterday,
but I couldn't be bothered to post. That
would make shield-choice a real choice ;
Abs : safe-ish from blast, hurt by chains, death by shads
or
Def : Dief from blast, safe-ish from shads.
Right now Def doesn't protect from shads enough
to make it the shield of choice.

In FE, msl-scouts got light armour. In 1.2
I think they have no armour. In FE they still
didn't get used much but I think that's only
because of their rubbish pool-killing abilities.

I found scion v scion to be a race for
maulers.
Scion defences (Spire and guardian) are
much weakers v maulers than ISDF defences,
making maulers even more effective here.
I cannot understand a scion v scion game
going for any other strategy unless one side
is dominant and wants to mess about.

I think the starting scion scout v ISDF scout
thing is not a big issue. Some years ago scions
'seemed' to have an advantage, now ISDF
are 'known' to have the advantage.

Balance issues can ONLY be implemented
after the next 1.3 is released. Even discussing
tweaks while using the current public beta will
lead to misunderstandings and could slow down
the real balancing later.
Also I suggest keeping Red Devil out of the
balancing team for a few technical reasons.

This is a computer game.
AI-controlled ships ('bots') can be made as
good as the programmers wanted. From dumb to superhuman.
Without altering BZII, they can be made far more
effective than in stock 1.2 or 1.3 using simple .odf changes.
With code changes they can be made to almost never miss,
dodge human shots, strafe quickly and pseudorandomly, etc.

Perhaps what wingflier is suggesting is that AI ships cannot
be made to behave the SAME as human ships.

Or perhaps he is saying they can't be as good, which is
complete bollocks. They can be made to outmatch any human,
it just isn't fun dying 1v1 all the time.

Maybe what he saw was DM shadower avengers on level 3
popping off missiles quickly (maybe DM image signature is bigger
than strat) , then was disappointed that lower level AI ships produced
in a strat were slower to lock on.
As far as I remember, AI ships made in a strat start at level 0 ...
is it higher in 1.3 or just that the alterations in code allow them
to aim much better?

So ... who's going to do it?
Someone versed in animations I hope,
or we could get a sliding,
"I need the loo" dash for convenience.

While on this topic, notice how the running
animation covers ground faster then the
foot movement. The oversized boots appear
to slide further than they should.
A solution to this minor aesthetic glitch
would simply be to speed up the running animation.

Listen to Mower.
He is right.

Destroy the bridge,
DO AS YOU ARE TOLD during the mission.