Build 29

[zuboki]

Not sure if this is by design, but if when victory was achieved, I lost all my current-but-not-awarded victory points. I was at 27 (+81), now I'm at 27 (+0) instead of the expected 108 (+0). I was not online at the 100th level expansion, so perhaps it was different for those players.

[tarbomb]

A few more impressions:

On the Hornet: The extremely narrow firing arc is actually a blessing in disguise. It gives a Hornet pilot the ability to point the gun at a primary target (e.g. a building) rather than having the main gun spin around trying to target the numerous minions. I can blow up a building in ~5 shots - under half the time I would need if I were flying anything else. This, combined with the Hornet's extremely high single-target DPS, makes it immensely powerful.

ulosen:

On upgrades: I'm not sure what advantage enemies dropping upgrades would have over VP-purchasable upgrades Rob mentioned in the OP. Also, making upgrades public would encourage leeching, dragging, running away from teammates, and all sorts of non-coop behavior. If any upgrades are dropped at all, I think they should be shared like shards, prisms, and lenses are now.

Defensive/speed towns: That idea sounds really cool. Perhaps they could be built with a special tank class designed for construction, giving the game some kind of class separation. On restricting TP: I like the idea, but Linkshot's idea of lvl10 is a bit high IMHO. Level 4-5 seems more reasonable at this point.

Faster pace: The problem I think isn't that the game is too slow - it's that everything (except missile minions) hits instantly with perfect accuracy. That makes killing most enemies is mostly a matter of dive in, take damage, pull out, repeat; or for some enemies: dive in, circle, pull out, repeat. It's not a very engaging system and I think that adding some form of inaccuracy (e.g. enemies missing if you change direction too quickly) or "slow" dodgable weapons would benefit the game more than just increasing the pace. (dodging weapons is actually really fun and involves quite a lot of skill in mouse-control games)

Buffed enemies: The concern, I think, with buffed enemies is it introduces separation in game between the "haves" and the "have-nots" (prisms, augments, etc.) and drives the game from the idea of a single battleground. I'm not saying that stronger enemies is a necessarily bad thing, but buffing drops and enemies creates a situation where the stronger players are all off in the bufflands fighting the buffed enemies and the newbies are clustered around Origin, and that's something that needs to be considered, especially considering the "single battlefront" goal.

[rob]

Zuboki,

That was not supposed to happen. We'll investigate.

Rob

[remm]

Okay, I haven't played this since Build 26 or 27, and I was amazed at the changes here.

The new turret aiming is awesome. My time isn't being wasted by a cannon that doesn't fire at things, and enemies are more dangerous because they too are harder to avoid getting hit by.
I was a bit shocked at the difficulty I encountered at the start, because I was no longer able to just waltz into a Enemy Building and destroy it. The first one I faced I had to back out to let myself heal before going back in.
When backing out of a battle to wait and heal, there is an annoyingly narrow band in which you have to wait in. It's bounded on the inside by the long range of the Enemy Building, and just out a bit further than that will cause the enemies to despawn/respawn because you were too far away. I hope that made sense.

Bug. Circling an Enemy Building faster than its turret can aim at you (anticlockwise direction only) will cause the turret to jump about and aim the wrong way as it tries to catch up.

I only unlocked the first 5 tanks today, but I saw the clear progression in those first few tanks. They were each better than the previous one, which was good to see. I ended on the Hercules, and had a good time reversing around the Enemy Buildings, trying to keep my ass glued to it to get a good bomb placement. I never managed to destroy any of the other structures out there.

[ulosen]

tarbomb:

On upgrades:
Main advantages would be, that the difficulty could change more dynamic each playing session and not be so static. Players would have to "feel out" which enemies they can take regularly.
Dropping those public is necessary to account for different group sizes. Large groups shouldnt get much stronger then they already are.
I don't think leeching would be a problem, because in a group players get their rewards independent from their power, so there is no real incentive to be temporary stronger then others. I see them more useful split up wisely between different types of tanks, adding a stategic depth and making skilled groups more efficient.
Like scouts get the speed bonuses, those with good shields the shieldbonuses or hp and tanks with a nice attack get the damage abilities. I could imagine tanks with a supporting function get the range upgrades.
You could also make them less desirable and shorten their duration or usefulness.

Tiles
I like the idea of tanks influencing the tiles.

Buffed enemies
the way I see it, there is a very high incentive to always join the strongest group in the game. If players wont do much damage they are still needed to pick up their drops. They could also play tanks with supporting abilities.
I also dont think the permanent personal progress of each player should make too much of a difference in actual power. It should be dominated by the town upgrades and maybe the temorary ability drops

[rob]

Nov 27, 2012 1:17:04 GMT -5 remm said:

When backing out of a battle to wait and heal, there is an annoyingly narrow band in which you have to wait in. It's bounded on the inside by the long range of the Enemy Building, and just out a bit further than that will cause the enemies to despawn/respawn because you were too far away. I hope that made sense.

Makes perfect sense. We have plans to eliminate the despawn/respawn stuff, but there are bigger fish to fry for the next build or so.

Rob

[rob]

Nov 26, 2012 20:40:40 GMT -5 tarbomb said:

On upgrades: I'm not sure what advantage enemies dropping upgrades would have over VP-purchasable upgrades Rob mentioned in the OP.

An advantage of enemies dropping upgrades is that they can be made rare, which leads to an oh-so-pleasant surprise when something drops. Just look at all the white-bag screenshots in r/rotmg for example.

It's also good to work steadily toward a goal, so currencies VPs and gridshards are still good to keep in the game. There is room for both types of rewards I think.

The loot system needs more thought put into it, which we haven't done much of recently. Soon I hope!

Rob