Forums » General
...Hive Update?
So, the hive update was planned for...like 6 months ago? Something like that? Any word on when it's going to get put into the rest of the universe?
never!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
More like 4 months ago, and it's pending those "certain other gameplay mechanics" that they've been keeping us regularly updated about.
From the News
"Thu, Aug 11, 2005 incarnate
The Hive has been loosed on Sedina. This is the first-generation Hive, it still exhibits some problems we're trying to solve, but it shows where we're headed. There's a sector crash sometimes when the Leviathan is killed, there's also some trouble respawning bots when they die, trouble with bots who repair the leviathan, and a few other things. However, the problems are sporadic and it was decided that we would release anyway, rather than further delaying while we tracked down these intermittent problems. You may also notice a message when entering a Stronghold sector that says something along the lines of "cannot load weapon_capitalcannon.dfs".. don't be concerned about this, it's not an actual problem and the message will be removed in a future release.
The Hive is spawned in a randomly chosen "empty" sector in Sedina, and from there pushes outward to occupy and defend other sectors, mining resources from them. When the Leviathan is killed, the entire system is cleared of bots within a short period of time, and the whole spawning process begins again in a few hours (see http://design.vendetta-online.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hive for more information).
Again, this is only a first-generation Hive, we'll be tying the expansion into a lot of other areas of gameplay. Along the lines of.. mining resources become more relevant, mining in Hive sectors becomes problematic because of the Hive presence, local mining corporations post missions to clear sectors of the Hive or overall bounties for fighting the Hive, the addition of Epic drops by the Leviathan and other special Hive representatives, etc etc. All wrapped into a major addon that completely changes how the "Player vs NPC" combat structure works and what bearing it has in the universe.
We're also doing a lot of work on the underlying "intelligence" of our AI, trying to make more adaptive and interesting combative NPCs. This will also play into the role of the Hive, as well as non-Hive NPC traders, NPC military, and other areas. The ability to hire/use NPC wingmen and traders is a desired goal from this.
So, for the moment, have fun with the existing Hive. Fight it, post tactics on the messageboard, watch as we try and make it more difficult. I am not going to add certain things, like Leviathan-killer Accomplishment medals, Epic drops or things of that nature until certain other gameplay mechanics are in place. I don't want to issue special missions to people who have killed the Leviathan, for instance, until killing the Leviathan is actually kind of difficult (right now it's too easy, I think). Storming a Stronghold was envisioned as something an entire Guild would need to do, potentially with Capital support, and it's definitely a lot easier than that right now.
From the News
"Thu, Aug 11, 2005 incarnate
The Hive has been loosed on Sedina. This is the first-generation Hive, it still exhibits some problems we're trying to solve, but it shows where we're headed. There's a sector crash sometimes when the Leviathan is killed, there's also some trouble respawning bots when they die, trouble with bots who repair the leviathan, and a few other things. However, the problems are sporadic and it was decided that we would release anyway, rather than further delaying while we tracked down these intermittent problems. You may also notice a message when entering a Stronghold sector that says something along the lines of "cannot load weapon_capitalcannon.dfs".. don't be concerned about this, it's not an actual problem and the message will be removed in a future release.
The Hive is spawned in a randomly chosen "empty" sector in Sedina, and from there pushes outward to occupy and defend other sectors, mining resources from them. When the Leviathan is killed, the entire system is cleared of bots within a short period of time, and the whole spawning process begins again in a few hours (see http://design.vendetta-online.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hive for more information).
Again, this is only a first-generation Hive, we'll be tying the expansion into a lot of other areas of gameplay. Along the lines of.. mining resources become more relevant, mining in Hive sectors becomes problematic because of the Hive presence, local mining corporations post missions to clear sectors of the Hive or overall bounties for fighting the Hive, the addition of Epic drops by the Leviathan and other special Hive representatives, etc etc. All wrapped into a major addon that completely changes how the "Player vs NPC" combat structure works and what bearing it has in the universe.
We're also doing a lot of work on the underlying "intelligence" of our AI, trying to make more adaptive and interesting combative NPCs. This will also play into the role of the Hive, as well as non-Hive NPC traders, NPC military, and other areas. The ability to hire/use NPC wingmen and traders is a desired goal from this.
So, for the moment, have fun with the existing Hive. Fight it, post tactics on the messageboard, watch as we try and make it more difficult. I am not going to add certain things, like Leviathan-killer Accomplishment medals, Epic drops or things of that nature until certain other gameplay mechanics are in place. I don't want to issue special missions to people who have killed the Leviathan, for instance, until killing the Leviathan is actually kind of difficult (right now it's too easy, I think). Storming a Stronghold was envisioned as something an entire Guild would need to do, potentially with Capital support, and it's definitely a lot easier than that right now.
Unfortunately, like half the stuff Michael and Andy are doing right now touches on how the Hive works, and how it interacts with other aspects of the game. The point of just having "one" Hive was for testing and tuning purposes.. and we're still sorta testing-and-tuning. But, I expect that we'll be able to expand things pretty shortly.
For what it's worth, there were several major snafus that happened over the last few months that were.. good to have limited only to a small area of the game.
For what it's worth, there were several major snafus that happened over the last few months that were.. good to have limited only to a small area of the game.
Is 'pretty shortly' a longer or shorter duration of time than Soon™?
Just Curious. :)
Just Curious. :)
Yes!
ROFLMAO "YES" pretty specific for an answer
*cough*can we have a few less bots in the convoys soon(TM)?*cough*
Pending fixes to reduce network load of convoys, I've reduced the range of bots per convoy to half of its previous value. Feedback about whether that is enough or too much is appreciated.
thanks, much appreciated,
I think perhaps the bigger problem is the tendency for convoys to all just sorta appear at once. B8 will often have 4-5 convoys come through in a span of minutes, and then nothing for a while.
I think perhaps the bigger problem is the tendency for convoys to all just sorta appear at once. B8 will often have 4-5 convoys come through in a span of minutes, and then nothing for a while.