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Forum Index » » English (General) » » Major Issues with the game
 Author Major Issues with the game
Senti-Onikawa
Admiral

Joined: September 21, 2011
Posts: 37
Posted: 2016-10-19 18:36   
Returning player trying to get back into the swing of things, and my first experience is having to rebuild ICC planets because either nobody plays that faction anymore (and for the love of all that is Holy, why keep it in the game if that's the case?) or the players that do will log on once in a blue moon. So, okay, fine. I need to get platnum engineering badge anyways, so I'm good with that. Well, except someone decided because I'm the only ICC player on, he'll jump into his ganglea and harass me. Why? "Because I got skill."

Next day, log on and no ICC planets outside of Charon and Pluto. Charon and ducking Pluto, guys. No home planet, no safe zone. Two barren planets nobody built up. Who the duck looked at the code for this game, looked at the current state of faction balance, and said "yeah, this is good?" I'm legitimately curious how you thought kicking one faction in the cockerel to benefit the others would help the game.

So, fine, 18hrs to server reset. I'll wait it out, because at least then, everyone has a chance to rebuild and establish their faction. Oh, gee, look at that. No home planet for ICC. Luth and UGTO dominate THREE duckING SYSTEMS. You're messing with me at this point, because no programmer should EVER be so incompetent. That's embarrassing, when you can't even program a simple protocol into the game that prevents one faction from being pushed out from the get-go.

But let's talk about that issue for a second. I decide to cap a planet, and I manage to pull it off in an engi. Cue to 10mins later, when I have 2 luth dreads, a dozen of their frigate-equivalents, and no support. Not only are ICC AI scripted so poorly that they don't all cluster on their only planet, but upon building several gun platforms, only two would fire at a given time and very rarely would they fire immediately at a target that passed by close enough to wave from the window. I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous. NONE of the other factions deal with this kind of bullsnap.

ICC faction AI are poorly-scripted, and it shows a lack of effort put in. Luth AI are relentless and overhwhelm players before they can even establish a decent shipyard planet. UGTO seem to struggle a lot, too, which tells me there's a clear lack of effort from the so-called "programmers" that "volunteer" their time. Really, the game has had issues in more ways than one.

Any attempt by players old and new to get the game noticed is shot down by the "developers", despite the opportunity to generate interest and get newer players to join. A clear lack of effort and passion has not only rendered the game unplayable for anyone who wants to play certain factions (Unless you're luth. WHAT A duckING SURPRISE) but makes newer players reluctant to keep playing past the first hour. What you need to do:

->Remove AI until the multitude of issues concerning them are resolved. Don't just snap out a fix, either. Test it and have a focus group of older, experienced players test it.

->Give each faction a home planet that cannot be capped. One home planet each in separate sectors would be a viable option. If you want to go one step further, make it so the home planets are pre-set for maximum output and unit population each reset, and cannot be modified by players. This ensures one faction doesn't keep an unfair advantage and other factions aren't pushed out by a relentless takeover.

->Reset the prestige of every player. New players aren't going to stay if they're constantly getting harassed by older, more experienced players who already have access to the best toys. You have enough problems retaining players; they don't need even less reason to stay. Also, a UGTO player already assured me it takes 3 weeks (at the very least) to get up to fleet admiral. That there tells me NOBODY should have a problem with a prestige reset.

->Take some goddamn ideas and feedback. You claim to love this game, right? So let your players suggest things and even offer to help out with publicity and such. Exposure isn't going to hurt this game. It will help it survive.

->Start a goddamn Patreon campaign. Seriously. You have to be ducking dense to not realize not only is there a HUGE DEMAND for space simulators, but ones with pvp and no pay-to-win gimmick. Seriously. Go open a thread on ANY forum about a space simulator. Hell, look up No Man's Sky, or Star Citizen. You are literally sitting on a goldmine of potential and squandering it.

->If the engine is so outdated an unwieldly, abandon it. Start from scratch. Transfer all the code, script, etc to a more stable, more reliable, more developer-friendly engine. If the engine is workable and only needs some adjustments, then do it.

I expect a dev to come in and say "Well, we're volunteers WAAH WAAH" or some snap. Right there, you lose all credibility as a developer, and as a programmer. If you can't handle maintaining a game that you volunteer your time to, then let the damn thing die. Hell, do yourselves a favor and bury the corpse. Excuses and whining don't do anything but drive players away and make you look bad.
_________________
\"You know, Commander, having seen a little of the 21st Century, there is one thing I don't understand; How could they have let things get so bad?\"

\"That's a good question... I wish I had an answer.\"


Incinarator
Chief Marshal

Joined: May 24, 2010
Posts: 237
Posted: 2016-10-20 01:47   
Quote:
On 2016-10-19 18:36, Senti-Onikawa wrote:
Returning player ... What you need to do:



I'll just summarize this all as "ICC is underpowered", which is incorrect.

Spawn locking is not unique to the ICC. I've spent a pretty near equal amount of time as all factions being camped. The ICC even arguably had an easier time of it with their giant health and long range guns when interdictors weren't broken. I'd be very happy to see interdictors fixed to help combat this issue. Some ICC specific problem, though, it is not.

I strongly doubt that the AIs for different factions are programmed differently. I've seen all AIs of all factions do plenty of stupid things, and even the occasional good thing. I believe that the stock ICC loadouts are poor (no aux shields for instance) which contributes to the AI inferiority, but that has nothing to do with their code. You could argue the same for UGTO (stock armor) and K'luth (no ELF torps) so this isn't really an ICC specific issue. The problem is, being ICC, the AIs have less raw DPS which makes them feel less useful because they're less effective at outright killing things. This is something you sign up for when you play ICC: you trade pure killing power for the ability to tank and kite.

Quote:
On 2016-10-19 18:36, Senti-Onikawa wrote:
->Remove AI ... test it.



AI are not broken enough to warrant being outright removed, and fixing them isn't as simple as spending five minutes at a desk. They aren't perfect but I personally would've spent half or less of my current playtime in this game if the AIs weren't present. They do need to be looked at, though.

Quote:
On 2016-10-19 18:36, Senti-Onikawa wrote:
->Give each ... relentless takeover.



I have personally championed this idea before myself. The spawn gates we have now are just a shadow of this idea, since they can't make new capships and can't produce infantry. Spawn locks would be much more tolerable with this change. On the other hand, the opposing team would have some of their motivation for capturing planets removed, since they would never be able to completely clear any faction from the map. I think it would be worth the drawback, though.

Quote:
On 2016-10-19 18:36, Senti-Onikawa wrote:
->Reset the ... prestige reset.



I can fairly easily make GA within a month. I've proven this twice, and am a vocal detractor of those who complain about prestiege gain rates. Even still, this proposal is unnacceptable. Wiping the progress of a player should only be done for very good reasons, and "for the noobs" isn't one. All of us with experience with the game who didn't immediately leave would be back to the levels we were fairly quickly with nothing really to show for it aside from a horde of pissed off players who swear never to play this game again. Absolutely no.

Quote:
On 2016-10-19 18:36, Senti-Onikawa wrote:
->Take some ... squandering it.



The devs do listen to feedback. If they don't listen to a particular suggestion, that means they don't think it's a good idea. They may not always be right, but I'd put money down that they know better than most of the people who tell them what to do, if only because they realize the realities of the coding. Speaking of...

Quote:
On 2016-10-19 18:36, Senti-Onikawa wrote:
->If the engine ... then do it.



HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

This would literally be a year long project - IF we had a full team of programmers who were paid to work on this full time. Changing engines isn't something you just do. In laymans terms it would basically amount to rewriting all the code for this game by hand from scratch. You can't just "copy and paste" the code into a different engine.

Quote:
On 2016-10-19 18:36, Senti-Onikawa wrote:
I expect ... look bad.



I think by this point you've thoroughly proven you don't really understand some key things. You should try cooling off next time before you make a post. You were clearly upset when you wrote this and it shows, and it isn't helping you convince the people you're insulting to actually listen to you.

[ This Message was edited by: Incinarator on 2016-10-21 01:27 ]


_________________
I be rebuilding your planets!

Nine Arts Dragon
Marshal

Joined: March 11, 2003
Posts: 51
Posted: 2016-10-21 06:52   
lol people laming on the ICC, the ppl u can thank for that is the IIC themselves, Sheng, Mousey and other ICC players like Antoni use any shameless tactics they can think off.

and you know what thats totally fine so stop complaining.

what u need to do is what i do and thats simply hate and i mean HATE the other faction with such a burning hatred that makes u actuyally dream about killing them thats what i do.

But retention of new and returning players is a big porblem with DS currently with only token efforts made in recent years to recitfy the sitiation.
[ This Message was edited by: Nine Arts Dragon on 2016-10-21 07:12 ]
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Azreal
Chief Marshal

Joined: March 14, 2004
Posts: 2816
From: United State of Texas, Houston
Posted: 2016-10-22 09:33   
Im learning C# and C++ fast as I can.

I also have been an advocate of migrating to a new engine.

The game is open source now. Anyone with a skill can contribute. What are you contributing?
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