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6/5/06 Hive Update
Greetings,
I've just released a few more fixes and adjustments for the new Hive. More causes of the mission not ending, or ending for no apparent reason have been found and fixed. Hive and human reinforcements now take some time to arrive; this should make the missions more dynamic and fun, and also prevent them from ending too quickly due to the human NPCs dying off too fast. To clarify: the condition for mission success or failure, as with the Border-Skirmish mission, is one of total losses. Either side will retreat if their total losses exceeds a preset amount. Different sectors have different levels of importance to the Hive and the humans, and therefore different allowable losses before retreat. For the Hive, this ranges from 1 to 75 in non-stronghold sectors; the amount that XangXi commits is proportionate and listed in the mission description. For the skirmish in the Stronghold, the humans will quit when they exhaust their reserves, but there is no victory unless the Leviathan is destroyed within that time.
All of this is provisional- something simple that makes *some* sense, and allows the major gameplay elements to work together in a fun way. In the future, the victory/failure conditions, force-determination and other things will be made more realistic as both the Hive and Humans get real economies.
The focus right now is on making it work reliably and not being frustrating. Please use the "/mission bug short-description" method of reporting, and/or post in this thread.
Thanks for your patience and input!
~Michael
I've just released a few more fixes and adjustments for the new Hive. More causes of the mission not ending, or ending for no apparent reason have been found and fixed. Hive and human reinforcements now take some time to arrive; this should make the missions more dynamic and fun, and also prevent them from ending too quickly due to the human NPCs dying off too fast. To clarify: the condition for mission success or failure, as with the Border-Skirmish mission, is one of total losses. Either side will retreat if their total losses exceeds a preset amount. Different sectors have different levels of importance to the Hive and the humans, and therefore different allowable losses before retreat. For the Hive, this ranges from 1 to 75 in non-stronghold sectors; the amount that XangXi commits is proportionate and listed in the mission description. For the skirmish in the Stronghold, the humans will quit when they exhaust their reserves, but there is no victory unless the Leviathan is destroyed within that time.
All of this is provisional- something simple that makes *some* sense, and allows the major gameplay elements to work together in a fun way. In the future, the victory/failure conditions, force-determination and other things will be made more realistic as both the Hive and Humans get real economies.
The focus right now is on making it work reliably and not being frustrating. Please use the "/mission bug short-description" method of reporting, and/or post in this thread.
Thanks for your patience and input!
~Michael
Sounds awesome. As a newer player to this game, but not to online gaming in general, I have to say that I'm astounded by the dev team's commitment to this game and the speed of change.
Keep up the good work!
Keep up the good work!
Well this deserves at least ONE Ale, Michael. :)
Most excellent. We really appreciate it. :)
workin' great!
I really like the idea of making the messages a bit more prominent though - I did one of the missions tonight, and I actually finished it when everyone warped out - I didn't see the message though, because there were still a few bots in sector.
Defenitely can't wait to see some massive Hive wars in the future around some of the Capital sectors :D
I really like the idea of making the messages a bit more prominent though - I did one of the missions tonight, and I actually finished it when everyone warped out - I didn't see the message though, because there were still a few bots in sector.
Defenitely can't wait to see some massive Hive wars in the future around some of the Capital sectors :D
Yey devs! And Michael, I have one question for you:
Have you fixed it so bots don't automagically respawn? After the last release, the bots in Sedina were acting like they weren't in Sedina. You'd shoot one, and it'd respawn immediately somewhere else in the sector.
*NOTE* Not the same exact number, but the same type. Just like it behaves in the rest of the universe.
-Calder
Have you fixed it so bots don't automagically respawn? After the last release, the bots in Sedina were acting like they weren't in Sedina. You'd shoot one, and it'd respawn immediately somewhere else in the sector.
*NOTE* Not the same exact number, but the same type. Just like it behaves in the rest of the universe.
-Calder
Calder:
3rd sentence of the first post: "Hive and human reinforcements now take some time to arrive"
Each ship takes one minute to be replaced after destruction, and only one can be in-transit/under-construction at a time. So, for example, shortly after the mission starts, you kill 2 bots in quick succession; 1 reinforcement would arrive in 60 sec, and the other in 120 sec. The replacement bots' types are from a random distribution for that territory-type. Eventually, reinforcements will be called or constructed realistically, using limited resources, but the mission dynamics would remain pretty much the same (ie reinforcements being in a queue).
3rd sentence of the first post: "Hive and human reinforcements now take some time to arrive"
Each ship takes one minute to be replaced after destruction, and only one can be in-transit/under-construction at a time. So, for example, shortly after the mission starts, you kill 2 bots in quick succession; 1 reinforcement would arrive in 60 sec, and the other in 120 sec. The replacement bots' types are from a random distribution for that territory-type. Eventually, reinforcements will be called or constructed realistically, using limited resources, but the mission dynamics would remain pretty much the same (ie reinforcements being in a queue).
so if you wast all the collectores really quickely, the guardians and assaults wouln't respawn untill all the collectors are gone?
or is it a priority queue so guardians and assaults will returne more quickely than collectors?
or is it a priority queue so guardians and assaults will returne more quickely than collectors?
LQ: "so if you wast all the collectores really quickely, the guardians and assaults wouln't respawn untill all the collectors are gone?
or is it a priority queue so guardians and assaults will returne more quickely than collectors?"
Momerath Said: "The replacement bots' types are from a random distribution for that territory-type."
I don't suppose your reading skills are any better than your typing skills...
or is it a priority queue so guardians and assaults will returne more quickely than collectors?"
Momerath Said: "The replacement bots' types are from a random distribution for that territory-type."
I don't suppose your reading skills are any better than your typing skills...
<I>For the skirmish in the Stronghold, the humans will quit when they exhaust their reserves, but there is no victory unless the Leviathan is destroyed within that time. </I>
Well, been having some trouble with the stronghold mission. Basically, once the levi dies, the hive reinforcements keep on comming, but warp out of the sector almost immediatelly - it is nigh impossible to catch them. Even if shot, they just keep running and warp out. The human reinforcements just sit there. Tried shooting a few of them, I keep getting the friendly kill warning but the mission never actually kicks me out as threatened. The human casualty count keeps working, after a few xang xi kills I got the "admiral is sending in reserves" message and some 5-10 kills later also the "we cannot lose this sector" message. And the "dont let the scum..." ... and the "our reserve forces are nearly exhausted" message...
lol looks like we did a pretty good job taking the levi. Pitty all those poor xx pilots had to die afterwards in the name of science... mwahahahaha.. O
..Ok, it is late and I am tired...
... and the "if we cannot turn this immediatelly... one last rally message". I do hope it will be a one last rally...
It was... about 10 XX NPCs later, I get the mission accomplished message, ~70k cash and 4k combat...
... wait... that means I actually shot ~60 xang xi NPCs for that reward... aargh... the nightmares to come...
--anyway--
The mission ended only after all the xang xi reserves died. Then, since the levi died at some point during the mission, xang xi won.
Trying to let the time/hive reserves just run out did not help by the way. Afaict (from looking at UL for a coupla minutes) the hive reinforcements stopped running by somewhere around the we cannot lose this sector message, maybe earlier. No help, neither was jumping in and out of a sector.
Well, been having some trouble with the stronghold mission. Basically, once the levi dies, the hive reinforcements keep on comming, but warp out of the sector almost immediatelly - it is nigh impossible to catch them. Even if shot, they just keep running and warp out. The human reinforcements just sit there. Tried shooting a few of them, I keep getting the friendly kill warning but the mission never actually kicks me out as threatened. The human casualty count keeps working, after a few xang xi kills I got the "admiral is sending in reserves" message and some 5-10 kills later also the "we cannot lose this sector" message. And the "dont let the scum..." ... and the "our reserve forces are nearly exhausted" message...
lol looks like we did a pretty good job taking the levi. Pitty all those poor xx pilots had to die afterwards in the name of science... mwahahahaha.. O
..Ok, it is late and I am tired...
... and the "if we cannot turn this immediatelly... one last rally message". I do hope it will be a one last rally...
It was... about 10 XX NPCs later, I get the mission accomplished message, ~70k cash and 4k combat...
... wait... that means I actually shot ~60 xang xi NPCs for that reward... aargh... the nightmares to come...
--anyway--
The mission ended only after all the xang xi reserves died. Then, since the levi died at some point during the mission, xang xi won.
Trying to let the time/hive reserves just run out did not help by the way. Afaict (from looking at UL for a coupla minutes) the hive reinforcements stopped running by somewhere around the we cannot lose this sector message, maybe earlier. No help, neither was jumping in and out of a sector.
Yea- there are clearly some odd things going on with the Hive-Mind, which is responsible for handling the destruction of the Leviathan. I'm debugging it on the test server now. The non-stronghold skirmish missions seem to be working fine, but can sometimes be borked by whatever is going on with the hive-mind. What *should* happen to when the Levi dies is that all Hive bots retreat and the humans win any ongoing missions. Hopefully I'll have it working as designed later this evening.
Will the death of the Leviathan still cause the spontaneous combustion or malfunctioning of surviving Hive bots in the system? I kinda liked that.
hmm, tried hive hunt this morning. After killing a few hive bots, they started doing their pop-in, run away dance again. Killing the bots before they jumped no longer gave any mission rewards, and the xang xi bots just sat there... maybe somebody popped the levi right then? If so, the mission still did not end, and I did not feel like slaughtering another ~100 xx bots to find out if that would help.