Build 49

[rob]

Hello all!

We just pushed build 49. Changes include:

* Buff Valkyrie, Spectre, Hurricane; nerf Fury, Wildfire, Avenger
* Have convoys properly recover from immobilization
* Support multimember convoys
* Add flanker and more tankers to antimatter convoy
* Add baryon transport convoy
* Start and end convoys a little bit off the map
* Don't start a convoy immediately on game start
* Fix bug where the presence of multiple players could lead to multiple loot drops
* Improve server performance a little
* Cap Corsair gamma blast to 1500 hp of damage
* Fix "can't log in bug" which happened on 1 in 16 accounts
* Eliminate the pause to paint enemy icons on zoom out
* Implement long-term storage of items (2 slots per account)
* Allow protomods to be "used" to create a fireworks display
* Make z and ESC teleport you to Origin, not the closest town
* Have GCTs toss a bomb every 3 seconds at the closest player
* Upgrade GCT minion bombs
* Make enemy AoE explosions match the actual explosion radius (GCT, Watchtower)

The buffs and nerfs are detailed here: grid12.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=181&page=2#1870

Convoys are big and strong and deadly now. They don't drop much, but once we have better loot you can be sure they'll drop it.

We are making more progress on items. You can now "use" a protomod to make a little explosion, size depending on level. Long-term storage is now working; everyone gets 2 slots. Our first actual item will be a storage slot item -- use it to expand your long-term storage. Hopefully we'll have that by next week.

I made a new enemy bomb tossing behavior and added it to the GCT. I also buffed the GCT minions. The GCT is still not a very interesting enemy and I will probably dump it at some point.

Please post in this thread with bug reports and other comments. We really value your feedback. We topped up 2-week active accounts up to 5 invite codes. Use "/codes" to see them, and give them to your friends. Thanks for playing!

Rob & Tim
Jetbolt Games

[quicklite]

One word: Awesome!

Though on the topic of convoys: can't you have them alternate in strength, like super tanks? The only reason I say this is because there still aren't usually that many people online, and the old convoys were still a challenge with two. I have yet to see these new ones, but...eep

Don't get this confused with me not liking difficulty. I love the idea of really tough convoys, but there still needs to be some support for 3-man servers, as that's what things are like most of the time.

And the GCT buff is perfect <3

[hypevosa]

I think convoy numbers should be determined by player numbers, I've been calling for this sort of recognition from "events" for a long time. Especially with the corsair nerf killing even a single tanker will be rather problematic at this point with how many people play at once

[osx]

I've tried reloading but it isn't helping. Now what?

[hypevosa]

Refresh the whole page repeatedly until it updates

[Stabbeh]

Aw yeah Valkyrie buffs!

Looks like I'm gonna try out the ol' Valk again this weekend

[Ood]

osx
I've had to clear the cache on my work PC w/ chrome basically every update in order to get the client to update.
I think I've had to once or twice on my mac at home as well... Try that.

[tarbomb]

Spectre is now a very good tank, bordering on OP. Valkyrie, on the other hand, remains far too weak - might I propose a 2x vehicle damage on the shotgun?

The ESC-to-origin doesn't change anything from a tactical viewpoint, but since it keeps you safer, I'd consider it an improvement.

Convoys, as Quick and Hype said, should depend on players online. The current convoys are a good match for 10-20 players, but are way too powerful to be rewarding for a group of 3-4, to say nothing of soloing.

GCT buff is mean. The bombs are very hard to see and do a crapton of damage, and worse yet their larger radius makes circling a GCT to regen shields impossible. The trailblazer has effectively been nerfed in effectiveness by at least 50%, since the only enemies one can use for shield regen now are watchtowers, which are uncommon in a lot of regions.

On explosions: for the danger they pose, watchtower and GCT blasts are very hard to see, especially in orange-background plasmic regions. Could you brighten up the color a bit?

[quicklite]

About GCT towers: They are circlable, if only just. If you keep yourself a good distance away from the GCT, it won't be able to hit you from its bombs. The minions are a pain at the very start, but then they form into a mob and can be monitored easily. However, the main problem is standing in this position can get minions from surrounding fortresses to give chase. But then again, scouting was relatively easy earlier. It should be cooler now.

The valk feels pretty damn balanced atm. The shotgun packs a punch to be reckoned with, and the combined dps you can get from the overcharged guns and shotgun is impressive to say the least. The sceptre feels a little OP: I didn't actually think it needed a buff. It could already tank fire due to its defensive triggers and substantial health and shielding and engage at longer ranges than any other tank (aside from the hornet). Not to mention that it was the only tank that can circle and snipe at the same time (helps for some minions). Now it has a dps that surpasses a wildfire. I feel like the main problem of this tank is that unlike every single other tank, it lacks fault. The only thing it isn't awesome at is engaging multiple targets, but since it has a fast RoF, a good turn radius and turn rate for the turret, and a long range, it can hold its own perfectly well, even in its least favourable situation. My suggestion? Give its health a good nerf so that once those pretty darn good shields are down, you haven't got much time left.

Finally, I feel like I should clear things up with convoys: I did ask myself for the surrounding tanks to be introduced. I'm not saying I'm the reason they were introduced, but I feel hypocritical for opposing them, now that they exist. But my thoughts are simple. At the time, I thought flankers were basically gonna be a weak outer layer to the convoy, just to stop people from too much corsair abuse and whatnot. However, these tanks, though relatively few in number, are not weak, outer layers. They pack a pretty impressive punch, are pretty hard to kill, and render soloing convoys practically impossible. My solution would be either to randomize how many tanks protect a convoy, or just to make their health/number a variable, dependent on how many people are in the server.

[rob]

May 9, 2013 9:28:29 GMT -5 quicklite said:

They pack a pretty impressive punch, are pretty hard to kill, and render soloing convoys practically impossible.

Convoys are not meant to be soloable. They are meant to be a tough group challenge.

That said, it's easy to introduce some harder and easier convoys, and choose randomly. The easier ones will have less awesome loot of course.

A cool group goal might be the creation of a convoy killing field -- a large cleared section of map which gives plenty of time and space for killing the convoys. Also, there are many group tactics which can be perfected, such as chain immobilizing a particular victim, or cloak-sniping with quick teleport out, or setting up minefields. It could be like cavemen taking down one mammoth out of the herd, or a U-boat wolfpack sinking a Liberty ship and vanishing before the destroyers can drop their depth charges.

[tarbomb]

A cool group goal might be the creation of a convoy killing field -- a large cleared section of map which gives plenty of time and space for killing the convoys.

These convoys take a while to kill, and since they traverse the map in a random direction there's a good chance they won't cross the killing field in the optimal direction, so the field would have to be quite large. The endgame goal should be changed from 5 to 10 regions to keep up with this (and to keep up with the increased number of players too).

[hypevosa]

spectre is an OP sniper now with its damage buff. Honestly, for the hornet to have a place, the spectre needs a range nerf. Hornet also needs a slight damage and range buff to be competitive at all - if we're looking to make the hornet more enjoyable to play, it just needs a firing rate buff.

[quicklite]

May 9, 2013 10:10:26 GMT -5 rob said:

Convoys are not meant to be soloable. They are meant to be a tough group challenge.

I completely understand this. But to be frank, I just went after one with hype, and we didn't even kill one of the small things. It's testing, remember, so you simply won't have the people you need to take something like this on. That's why I suggested the randomization/variables. Because that way, you can have something to bother chasing after when there aren't many people online, and when there are many people online, you can see what a convoy is truly like.

And on the matter of 'killing fields': these are hard to do. Half the convoys I see love to chase after tiny corridors of land completely isolated from the main cleared sectors, so unless you can buy something in a city to help attract convoys (which could be cool, and should be illegal in Origin), there's a high chance that the convoy won't bother going through your killing field at all, as these tiny corridors to towns and whatnot are frankly inevitable when it comes to grid, as that's how some people play.

[gingerbear]

Putting group goals in the game is nice and all, but I doubt they would work until there are guilds (or dedicated groups) implemented. Right now you can hardly get anyone to work on the same goal, except if they are bored or it promises big riches, and I doubt this would change much in the future.

For example lets say half the realm plays hard to clear up the middle 4 sectors so they could intercept convoys. They also ask people not to explore in certain directions on the map because that would shift the convoy's way so far that it would make the previous clear "useless" in that regards. Yet I would bet you any time that within a day someone would still do that because "why would I care?", or something.

Adjusting convoys would be a nice idea. As mentioned by the others, convoy difficulty based on current activity could be a nice solution. It might lead to abusal (people log out 1-2 mins before convoy respawn to get easier enemies), but that could be countered with worse loot.

Another possibility would be if the convoy path always included emptied sectors. One would be nice, all of them would be awesome, which would also lead to an interesting group tactic: place the cleared areas as far as possible from each other to have maximum time...
Quicklite's idea to attract / repell convoys with buildings would be interesting too. (Though it could be also trolled hard if someone put all the attractors to areas hard to reach)

You mentioned being able to do minefields, yet the only mines now available are only short time living, and also not really efficient at that. I assume you have some nice ideas on how to rewamp the building system, but including then deployable towers, mines, barricades would likely help in the interception of convoys.

[tarbomb]

How about having convoys orbit the cleared area?

Easier convoys would travel inside the cleared area, medium-difficulty convoys would travel the boundary, and harder convoys would trace a path outside the cleared area, necessitating scouting to reach their position. Convoys would adjust their paths to keep up with the cleared area, so there would be no way to clear a path to a hard convoy.

Convoys would hang around for a long time (maybe indefinitely), and the difficulty would shift from killing one before it went away to reaching the convoy (for the harder ones). If a time limit were desired the convoys could regenerate their HP.