Which players are controlling game content?

[richardjohns]

No comment.

[rfouasnon]

Wow , what an interesting concept .

[General Miles Avatar]

definitely not me.

[rfouasnon]

The premise is totally nuts . Somebody must have been smoking something really strong to come up with that idea . The only one who controls game content is Pete . He might listen to ideas and such , but only Pete decides what is in the game , nobody other than Pete controls the game content .

[hobknob]

In my experience it is RTG that controls all game content. However, they do listen to player comments. I make loads of comments when I see something to comment on. I would say that 98% of these comments are ignored by RTG. The most of them don't even get an acknowledgement from them.

 

Occasionally, a comment gets acted upon and a change is made. Early on there were frequent bugs, typo's and other issues that needed to be corrected. When these were found Pete would make the correction. Those that are pushing the game engine and/or those to first get a new tech are most likely to run into issues that need to be adjusted. So, it is fair to say that those most engaged are the ones driving changes to the system, if anybody is.

 

As an example, there have been numerous bugs in the system that could be exploited. One such issue was the ability to RA between armies, regardless of the location of the army. When this was pointed out to Pete he then made a correction.

 

Many issues with the game will not be easily seen by just an individual position, but might be seen when a large group starts comparing notes or when both sides of a war are able to see what the other side has been doing. I believe these groups tend to find more issues and to make more comments to the game designers than others probably make.

 

When Draco was started Pete stated that changes would be made as need to ensure game balance. So, when things are found that impact game balance then an adjustment should be expected. While it would be nice to have a complete vetting of all the changes that were made, they will not be released for review ahead of time. So, as you progress and see what is happening you will have to make your comments and see if any changes are called for.

 

So, in answer to the question - the person who finds an issue and brings it to RTG's attention could be said to "influencing game content", but never controlling. Even then, Pete will not make changes unless he wants to and is shown a problem with the game system. He has mentioned to me on occasion that there is no way to know ahead of time how players will use the game system and what will break it and what won't.

 

Happy hunting for those bugs and other issues.

 

[General Miles Avatar]

A very thoughtful and concise reply Bo

[Jemanari Public Relations]

Hmm I took it to mean he was asking which players are controlling npc's like the death machines.

[RTGPete]

Hmm I took it to mean he was asking which players are controlling npc's like the death machines.

 

Ah, those are totally computer controlled.

 

<spoiler alert> DMX forces, for example, remember when and where they sight those hated biologicals (uh, that's you guys), how much of a fight you put up, when they lose forces and how much, and a host of other things. Their actions aren't totally random, thought currently they have a very limited data set to work with so for now a lot of their fleets just move somewhere to either open up a new jump point or just to cause trouble so it might seem random. Even I don't know what they'll do next with certainty, because as time goes on their actions will be dictated more by how they react to the particulars of how things are going in this or that star system.

 

As to controlling game content, I hear plenty of suggestions and act when needed, especially in Draco, though it's pretty rare. The weapon efficiency changes from last cycle are a great example - some weapons were just way too expensive, and a few (Plasma Torp in particular) were way too cheap, which would have driven the extremes. That was caused primarily because of the scaling cost of normal --> Improved --> Advanced materials with Advanced Electronics causing the most trouble. Players who wanted to go down (what used to be) really expensive weapon lines would have been at a severe disadvantage, with no upside -- that wouldn't have been good.

[richardjohns]

i have been primarily focusing on the improved and Advanced materials in 19 slots in orfer to obtain those expensive weapons. The new changes are a direct disadvantage to me in every way with no upside. I do not want my SRP returned becuase i have tried hard to get it. However, now it seems we are going to speed up Draco in AP for those that decided to go down alternate paths. Also, the argument that you would have had to get the Advanced materials anyway counter argument is lame. So far, I think the starting players got definite advantages and hopefully, this speeding up does not make them closer to me. So far their are two groups I worry about the DMX forces who technically should be at generation five and their counterparts the now speeded up AP starting players. These starting players seem to know what to expect in Draco before it happens. I will keep watching to see what happens because I really like Pete and Russ and appreciate everything they do.

[RTGPete]

Oh, lowering the costs to research the engine lines won't have that much of an impact on action points. Even with super good engines, you still have to devote a very large percentage of your ship to get even a few AP on it. Also, even with the lowered research costs it will still take quite a long time to get even remotely good engines.

 

I'm not at all clear on how you feel you are disadvantaged if you were going for the expensive weapons -- some of them were way, way too costly to be worth using. Normalizing the costs to make every weapon line reasonably close (but not identical) in cost seems good in every direction. Spending double the industrial output to gain the same firepower as some other weapon would have been very harsh for a player who painstakingly worked his way down that tree only to realize what a horrible mistake he had made. That needed correcting, most especially to help newer players who had no way to know about that otherwise.

[hobknob]

When the Andromeda universe opened it was a completely new game. Nobody had any idea where things were going so there was no way to predict anything. In Draco it is essentially the same game as Andromeda with specific changes. Even the AP changes may not have actually changed the research paths to engines or anything else besides engine out put. Being that it is essentially the same, any veteran player with a good ANZ database can make predictions. If those predictions demonstrate an imbalance it is worth pointing out.

 

You can't go wrong researching improved and advanced materials so there is no way anybody has been disadvantaged by any changes made thus far.

As far as engines go, there are about 16 tech levels worth of engines until you get to the top of the line total Conversion engine. Assuming 1 RC on the tech with no missed turns due to other priorities it would take a normal life form 27+ years to complete the final tech. This assumes that higher end tech costs have not been adjusted up in any way and also accounts for the lack of Scientist benefit since that has gone away for the most part. That said, any reduction in research costs should be welcomed by all and will impact all the same. As I understand it there is no change to the 8 AP cap, just a reduction in costs for research. This will have a net impact on what % of mass you will have to devote to get to 2 AP and up. Instead of needing 50% mass to get 4 AP in a design you might be able to move to 45 % a few months earlier.

 

[hobknob]

One more thing.

 

The original game started with a variety of weapons. Some weapon lines ended at level 10 while others ended at level 6. It was a real drag to finish researching a level 6 weapon just to find out there was nothing beyond, while your enemy picked a different line that went all the way to level 10. Who was to know? After a while Pete made an adjustment and a number of weapons were added to the game so that most weapon lines now had a path to get to level 10 or so.

 

This latest announced changes just seems to be the next extension of that correction by adjusting the relative industrial costs of producing stuff.

 

Draco is only a year old and it will be years before anybody gets to a level 7 or higher weapon, but you can now rest assured that it will be a bit more even of a playing field.

 

Now just to speculate a bit. It would be very interesting if additional factors could come into play with these advanced weapons to make cost differences worth while. How about a weapon that ignores shields, fires faster, more often, longer range, no atmospheric penalty, etc. etc., any of these things could be used to justify and balance the system. Of course, you won't know until you get there.

 

[richardjohns]

Well at least I know the answer to my original question now.

[hobknob]