Messages posted by: BotFodder

Hey Dru, not that this is like, important, but I have LW 5 and one thing I've noticed is:

My shield and assault rifle aren't always magical ... and if they are, they aren't always positive!

I'm guessing either their not supposed to be covered by the LW 5 stuff, or it would be harder (since they are the start weapons) to get them to be covered by the LW 5 stuff. And, admittedly, the only reason why I want my Assault Rifle to be positively magical is so I can throw it (unless it's like healing or something).

As for my comments on the flak and RL - well I have a huge post over on Mystic's thread about the triple and flak 5. To summarize - RL 5 would just kill me faster (the only time I hold on to my RL is when it's a healing weapon), and taking the flak 5 away totally isn't, IMHO, a good option. I would rather (if they must be) they either be non-clonable (and make all +5 damage weapons that way) or have the %*+ value dropped a % point or two. For more of my ramblings on this issue, see:

My post on the "+5's and triple dmg" thread.

320 wrote:

Szlat wrote:

I agree with the others who say make it a double not a triple, or make it eat adrenaline faster, or make it occassionally break.

Personally, I think a double that eats adren and a triple that runs on a timer would be better. But, if that were the case, we'd have nice camping problem on our hands.

If you're gonna choose to have the triple break, you'd have to make it a one use - no turning it off (which, if you haven't figured it out yet, is the trick everyone's talking about). Now maybe I'm just not as good as the others (or as good at it as others) but I actually do run out of adren even on titan waves. And to be honest, even though I get more adren from titans, I tend to use my triple more on Warlords, who I still find slightly more of a problem than queens or titans. Yes, titans do a lot of damage in one shot ... but the warlords tend to fire off quite a few rockets that tend to track me quite well. Put a couple of them together and I'm toast if I don't have some decent weapon(s) to deal with them with. Titans, on the other hand, don't move much, and the rocks (if you see them) tend to be more easily dodged, IMO.

Someone mentioned (probably in another thread - this topic has been mobile) dropping the damage weapon + to 7%. Even 8% wouldn't be bad, and when you think about it, might be enough for someone to go with a +6 rage at 10%*+ over the +5 damage at 8%*+.

I'm not so sure making them non-clonable is the answer. In another thread (as well as other discussions), Dru has indicated he wants to foster team play, particularly between classes. The fewer the number of clonable weapons you have, team play would suffer, IMHO.

I can tell you from my days as a Mud Admin, balance isn't an easy thing, particularly when you introduce new, very wild variables to a game - the wildest of which can be the players themselves. People *usually* get better at the game as they progress. The question can become: When is it an issue of imbalance, and when is it an issue of just having a bunch of good players on? And do you adjust monster strength for those good players at the expense of new players (or even new characters)? I can also tell you that simple math, while occasionally the starting point, isn't always the solution. Cudos to Dru for not getting too burnt out.

As far as the double/triple thing is concerned, I'm guessing the idea would be to make the things that spawn triples that time out (and probably give them a shorter time than the doubles are now) and make the doubles the things that pop out of monsters? That might be an option ...

Dru, as much as I might get drawn and quartered for this suggestion, now that I think about it, the trick to making the triple rarer might not be so much to make it to where it doesn't appear as much, but make it to where when someone dies, it doesn't drop out of them (this suggestion goes doubly so for the Loaded Artifact people). I mean, the vultures that decend every time someone (particularly someone with LArt) dies ... the horror!

Basically, I think that might be the option for *all* non-breakable, multi-use artifacts, for both regular and LA players. If they can remain throwable but not DoD (Drop on Death), that would make them the commodity that they probably should be, while not horribly impacting any team play they might foster (since you could still give it away). Oh - is there another than the Triple that fits that description (no-break multiuse)?

So, to summarize:

Yeah, things could be changed. But not drastically! And probably not all at once, either.

Mystic may be making a mountain out of a mole hill - but everyone has an opinion.

so *that's* how the list code works in the forums!

I can also write a lot when I put my mind to it.

Rule #15: On wave 16, the only thing worth using a Flak cannon on are Titans. Everything else (and occasionally Titans too) will dodge anything slower than a Mini, unless wedged into a hall or doorway.

Note that after a couple of mini rounds hit them, most wave 16 monsters may dodge.

Rule #16: Your starting health, no matter how high it is, is insufficient to keep you alive through wave 8. Find the keg, get vamp (and regen), something to get you higher (and keep bringing you back up in health). Medics will work exceptionally well for this purpose.

Corollary 16.1: When seeking a Medic's assistance due to low health issues, regen (especially level 2, doubly so when vampirism is also available) will have you at your starting health (and thus seemingly out of danger) by the time you find said medic. It may require some convincing of said Medic that you still need their assistance.

Rule #17: Rage Weapons, while wonderful items, require some sort of balance. One suggestion is to use a vamp mini with a rage flak, and watch your health carefully. Be sure to apologize to generous medics, as they will not get xp for healing you up from rage based damage.

Corollary 13.1: Dealing fatal damage to the individual in front of you does not prohibit a Titan's rock from dealing fatal damage to you as well.

As much as I love the flak +5 (and link and mini 5), perhaps the % of extra damage could be adjusted to be more in line with the other weapons ...

Most are 1 or 2% more damage per plus (with maybe one or two types of weapons doing +3% - energy and inifinity, I think). The exceptions, of course, are the "damage", vorpal, and rage weapons, which all do 10% extra per plus. Now from what I understand, all the other weapons were once higher in what they did per plus. Perhaps, (rather than any raising of monster level), the damage, rage, and vorpal extra damage per plus should be reduced to 5% (and with rage, the damage you take should be reduced to 5% as well). Or, if monster levels are upped, the other weapons should be increased in what they do per plus.

However, if the damage weapons are made * weapons (whether the damage they might do is dropped or not), then there are a few * weapons (poison and maybe vampiric, most notably) that are * that should probably not be.

I have noted that it's more of a thing now, wanting a flak 5; it's the best weapon that can be cloned (and admittedly a damn good weapon) and all it really takes is for someone to have any plus flak and a LA player on for the flak 5 factories to start producting. But that's also part of the teamwork thing that Dru is trying to foster, I'd say.

It's possible that the chance of a triple popping out of a monster should be reduced (I saw two pop out of a bunny once - it was funny enough, but that I was using a vorpal shock would have been ultra funny if I had actually vorpaled the bunny). But personally I already consider myself lucky to find one, and it's usually only every three or four maps, and usually well into the map.

Caz, and or whoever:

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now if it just didn't take forever to download them.

mmik, directed at me.

Which is why half the time I don't bother to ask that someone turn off auto taunts. I just ignore and shoot.

la_bomba wrote:

Okinesu wrote:

Sometimes I shoot people to get their attention, though...

Besides, half the server who has your skin shoots you before they realize you're a friendly.

I don't so much shoot him any more as just get plain distracted when he flashes by. Kind of a:

"What the -?! Oh, it was Oki." Occasionally followed by a *smush!* from a rock.

Something I might get banned for some day ...

If someone has auto taunts on, and I ask them to turn them off, and they don't (usually they don't respond at all), I go through the process of putting them on total ignore, and then (hoping they at least hear all the annoying auto taunt themselves) shoot them every chance I get.

Now I'm torn, since I'd be able to kill those idjits outright and fix auto taunts easy. But then if FF is on, it'd be worth having AT on. But then if you start hearing someone's AT, you'll stop shooting, and maybe give that Titan enough time to throw a rock at you.

Invasion, with 20+ players, is not good for friendly fire. Different playing styles, and the random popping up of monsters dictate that you might do just as much damage to your team mate as you would the monster that just popped up behind him. And if you *don't* shoot, someone might just complain about why you didn't.

At the very least, it would create more issues with the relatively cordial atmosphere we currently have.

I think it would be interesting to see for special days, like April Fools day. I mean, infinite deemers for the nali are all fine and dandy, but I think FF (or better yet, 50% chance of doing 200% damage FF, if it were easy to code), would be damn funny. For the day. After that, ixnay.

A logical, acceptable answer. I wouldn't have wanted LW 6 without some major hoops anyway. Thinking about it now, even level 100 and 50 pts for purchase limitations seems weak - maybe level 300 and 100 pts, when you have nothing else to spend it on ...

But yeah, interaction between classes is good.

Just need more LA players out there. These days there seem to be fewer LA's than medics.

I'm off for a couple of days, doctor's orders. I've got some tendonitis (or something along those lines) and he has me on alleve, a brace at night, and ice.

Hopefully this weekend I'll be GTG.

You'd get:

All positive weapons, at max +

Requirements/cost:

Level 100 (150?) and 50 pts

Honestly after LW5, there wouldn't be a great need for this, but it would be cool, since LW players cannot in any way max their own weapons.

I'll have to just pick one eventually - as I haven't really kept track of my score (only my xp, and I've stopped doing that) ... and don't have a screen cap, unfortunately.

But I have to relate this experience I had yesterday - that amounted to my best and worst game ever ...

We were playing (I think) DM-DE-Osiris2. Decent map. I started out with a range 9 flak - think it was given to me (Thanks MeatMedic?). Didn't expect to last too long ...

Made it through wave 12. Had a solid hold on first place at well over 700 points. Was happy - figured I had lasted longer than I would have usually with a rage flak - especially when I was using the triple from time to time with it.

Died on 13. Figured "Well, it was fun while it lasted, but the only way I'll keep that up is with at least a shock 10 vorpal or a flak 5." Lo and behold, I start 14 with a vorp 10 shok and someone's handing out flak 5s. I'm only momentarily thrown off with my good luck - I head out, into the open area, ready to kick some titan butt ...

Mystic claims he doesn't know what happened ... but I'd say at least 3 players died to something resembling a deemer, and I don't think Mystic died. I, of course, was one of them.

Okay, all hope is not lost - the flak 5 should still be out there, and hey - Jackaroo says he has my vorp shok.

15 begins and I start out with a +4 inf flak. Don't want it to go to waste, so I offer it to people. Newbs that unfortunately don't know where the flak is, and for a level that tends to be easier than the ones before or after, it was a rough wave 15 ...

I do a decent job of defending myself on 15, didn't die, but don't think I struck many killing blows ... Jackaroo has been using the shok and is creeping up on me. Amazingly, I'm still in first ...

Dump the inf flak between 15 and 16 - need that 5 bad. Get my vorp back, get the 5 flak. Run away from the flak, and promptly get stepped on by a titan. Squish. I don't mean rocked; I mean, he dropped down from a passage above and behind me, and squish.

Mystic took the time to laugh at me via text chat. Gee, thanks.

End the game with 715 pts. I think Jackaroo made it to 745.

Mystic was doing well last night, btw. From what I can tell, while playing DM-Plunge, someone rated a kicking and the last thing I saw was "Mystic signs on as an admin" and my UT2K4 froze. Hard. Had to kill the process. Others report having to reboot, or GPFs. From what I saw, Mystic was the only one that survived, and it was wave 16 when I signed on. I think that rates at least a record of "Most players crashed." Probably something like 21 or so at least. Does it change a player's textures or skin when they become admin? Skin issues have been known to crash UT before ...

Then he forgets he's admin and votes for a small map (the one with the three green goop pits and the two main rooms), and since he's admin, that's where we end up. 20 - 23 people on - by wave 16 there was some evil lag or low frame rates. Surprising for such a small map. Probably had to do with the number of folks on. Elevators killed many - me twice.

"It's not my fault!"

That doesn't mean we still don't want to amputate a few fingers.

EDIT 2/21/06: Added new high score image: 981 - but it was a small ONS map so I dunno how valid you'd think it is. Most of the score was probably from the fact that I was first on for a while. Everyone else had to download the map.

http://scuba.lib.usf.edu/images/highscore.jpg
http://scuba.lib.usf.edu/images/highscore-stats.jpg

Honestly if you can't port it over, it'd be nice to save the $50

The most Titans on a screen at one time? It's hard to get an exact count but there are at least 40 I'd say and possibly close to 50.

Poor Caz - he ran and he ran and he ran but he couldn't out last them, couldn't get to the deemer, and couldn't dodge the rocks.

Get other weapons.