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i should put this in the suggestions but i think its silly having all the bots explode would it be possible if they just crashed and the npcs cleaned up :D you could also take part in the "cleaning" up as soon as this thing is bug free and goes on the test server i want to see this or something like this on the test server :)
oh and after 15 or so minutes they can just explode
oh and after 15 or so minutes they can just explode
Thanks spidey and omega! You actually managed to crash kourier completely. I'm looking into why that happened; in the meantime, please don't kill the Levi. Any testing you can do short of that would still be helpful.
always a pleasure to help by crashing things mom ;]
Greetings!
Sorry for the lack of updates this week; I've mostly been stuck on some hard-to-reproduce bugs. I'm pretty sure they've been squashed now, and I've finished my list of things to add/polish before release. With your help and a little luck, the new Hive will go into production on monday! You'll need to use the development server instead of the test server this weekend, because the test server has compatibility-breaking changes in place. You get to the dev server by prepending "dev:" instead of "test:".
Things that have changed since Sunday:
1) Mission description and rewards are now Ion Storm aware!
2) Stronghold asteroid ring in place
3) "X destroyed, Y to go" messages come at larger intervals where there are more bots
4) Various mission-messages are more polished/appropriate
5) No rewards for kills outside the mission sector
6) No more leftover bots (though when the humans win, the NPCs will hang out for 2 minutes)
7) No more double-hive after levi-destruction bug (causing overlapping missions)
8) Hopefully the hard-to-reproduce levi-destruction related crash is fixed
9) Rewards tweaked to a first approximation of fair (per-bot-type rewards coming soon- feedback welcome)
Stuff that could most use testing:
1) Multiple people taking the mission (grouping, various messages)
2) Kill the levi
2a) make sure the hive respawns in 30 minutes and that the respawned hive works the same as the initial one
2b) the non-stronghold missions should end in favor of the humans and the hive bots should all blow up within a minute
3) Ion Storm transitions (make sure rewards are raised/lowered appropriately when storm starts/stops during mission)
4) Causing one side of the skirmish to lose while not part of the mission (with and without other people taking it)
I'm also looking for feedback on the numbers of bots on each side for each difficulty level and how many can be lost, etc.
Thanks to all who read this far! I'll see you on the dev server!
Sorry for the lack of updates this week; I've mostly been stuck on some hard-to-reproduce bugs. I'm pretty sure they've been squashed now, and I've finished my list of things to add/polish before release. With your help and a little luck, the new Hive will go into production on monday! You'll need to use the development server instead of the test server this weekend, because the test server has compatibility-breaking changes in place. You get to the dev server by prepending "dev:" instead of "test:".
Things that have changed since Sunday:
1) Mission description and rewards are now Ion Storm aware!
2) Stronghold asteroid ring in place
3) "X destroyed, Y to go" messages come at larger intervals where there are more bots
4) Various mission-messages are more polished/appropriate
5) No rewards for kills outside the mission sector
6) No more leftover bots (though when the humans win, the NPCs will hang out for 2 minutes)
7) No more double-hive after levi-destruction bug (causing overlapping missions)
8) Hopefully the hard-to-reproduce levi-destruction related crash is fixed
9) Rewards tweaked to a first approximation of fair (per-bot-type rewards coming soon- feedback welcome)
Stuff that could most use testing:
1) Multiple people taking the mission (grouping, various messages)
2) Kill the levi
2a) make sure the hive respawns in 30 minutes and that the respawned hive works the same as the initial one
2b) the non-stronghold missions should end in favor of the humans and the hive bots should all blow up within a minute
3) Ion Storm transitions (make sure rewards are raised/lowered appropriately when storm starts/stops during mission)
4) Causing one side of the skirmish to lose while not part of the mission (with and without other people taking it)
I'm also looking for feedback on the numbers of bots on each side for each difficulty level and how many can be lost, etc.
Thanks to all who read this far! I'll see you on the dev server!
Good to see that Orson is getting a workout these days, momerath. :P
Actually "dev:" now points to Oolon, which was test/Zarniwoop for a while. Test/Zarniwoop is now a new box which is identical to the production server so we have fewer surprises when releasing.
Had a mess about on dev:
The hive missions are now working well , a few small observations.
Tried A11 mission from corvus . worked well. A minor point , the corvus mining taurs and oruns stop mining when full, but then just sit there . They do seem to jump out when the sector is cleared .
Tried E 16 from corvus ( levi secter) worked well, liked the arklans and denteks :-) Only thing was it it grouped me on my own . Seemed a bit laggy with that much cargo about . Would it be possible to have fast cargo timeout in hs sectors ?
Tried I 10 from XX ( In a storm ) . Mission worked fine , sector cleared .
One thing that I noticed . The oruns and 'taurs mine the correct ores for the targeted roid composition , but the roid temp stays at 10 K . ( ok, I know I'm the only one daft enough to have checked that )
I would still like to see a greater variety of bots about , and a variable cash reward per bot based on bot difficulty .
Are HS missions going to be avavilable at variety of stations in the fullness of time ?
Anyway , good progress, hope to see them on the main server soon .
Ecka
The hive missions are now working well , a few small observations.
Tried A11 mission from corvus . worked well. A minor point , the corvus mining taurs and oruns stop mining when full, but then just sit there . They do seem to jump out when the sector is cleared .
Tried E 16 from corvus ( levi secter) worked well, liked the arklans and denteks :-) Only thing was it it grouped me on my own . Seemed a bit laggy with that much cargo about . Would it be possible to have fast cargo timeout in hs sectors ?
Tried I 10 from XX ( In a storm ) . Mission worked fine , sector cleared .
One thing that I noticed . The oruns and 'taurs mine the correct ores for the targeted roid composition , but the roid temp stays at 10 K . ( ok, I know I'm the only one daft enough to have checked that )
I would still like to see a greater variety of bots about , and a variable cash reward per bot based on bot difficulty .
Are HS missions going to be avavilable at variety of stations in the fullness of time ?
Anyway , good progress, hope to see them on the main server soon .
Ecka
momerath: fine, Oolon then. ;) Where's that name from?
"Oolon Colluphid is the author of several books on religious and other philosophical topics. Colluphid's works include:
-Where God Went Wrong
-Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes
-Who Is This God Person Anyway?
-Well That About Wraps It Up for God
-Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Guilt But Have Been Too Ashamed To Find Out
-Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Sex But Have Been Forced To Find Out"
Perhaps. Thats my guess. Hurray Wiki!
-Where God Went Wrong
-Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes
-Who Is This God Person Anyway?
-Well That About Wraps It Up for God
-Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Guilt But Have Been Too Ashamed To Find Out
-Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Sex But Have Been Forced To Find Out"
Perhaps. Thats my guess. Hurray Wiki!
Yes, our hostname scheme is "somewhat obscure characters from the Hitchhiker's Guide series." I say somewhat-obscure, because the better known characters are way overused as hostnames on the 'net.
Returning the thread to the actual topic now, I hope.. please keep testing the Hive! Thanks.
Returning the thread to the actual topic now, I hope.. please keep testing the Hive! Thanks.
Hi all,
Testing in Latos this afternoon. Though I did see some missions being advertised with storms, one in H13 persistently wasn't advertised as being a storm mission, even though it was (and moved from small, to critical over the course of several missions, none of the time being advertised as having a storm, even though the storm was persistant throughout).
I did notice that the raptor is really useful in the storm. Trying to find the Queen in anything else is a pain - maybe big ships should show up anyway (or at least have a way of finding the Trident, which is normally next to the Queen).
As to difficulty, it's too easy. I was by myself (plus NPCs of course), and when the Queen is present there is a single consistent tactic that worked everytime - get a Ragnarok, equip with swarms, and kill the Queen. She just sits there undefended shooting at the Trident, making it real easy to take down her shields. With the exception of Storm missions, I could win within minutes of taking the mission. I do wonder why none of the NPCs bother with this tactic...
This is probably a long term thing, but Hive tactics need to include defending the Queen. Possibly a swarm of bots around her, fending off ordnance and attackers.
Trident tactics: I thought it would be cool to sit in one of the Trident's turrets and shoot the Queen after I'd taken down her shields. However, the Trident places itself such that it's directly facing the Queen, and none of the turrets can be brought to bear on her.
Finally, I did notice that it was sometimes a big sluggish in the Critical missions, especially those in an asteroid field. Are the dev servers slower?
Sam.
Testing in Latos this afternoon. Though I did see some missions being advertised with storms, one in H13 persistently wasn't advertised as being a storm mission, even though it was (and moved from small, to critical over the course of several missions, none of the time being advertised as having a storm, even though the storm was persistant throughout).
I did notice that the raptor is really useful in the storm. Trying to find the Queen in anything else is a pain - maybe big ships should show up anyway (or at least have a way of finding the Trident, which is normally next to the Queen).
As to difficulty, it's too easy. I was by myself (plus NPCs of course), and when the Queen is present there is a single consistent tactic that worked everytime - get a Ragnarok, equip with swarms, and kill the Queen. She just sits there undefended shooting at the Trident, making it real easy to take down her shields. With the exception of Storm missions, I could win within minutes of taking the mission. I do wonder why none of the NPCs bother with this tactic...
This is probably a long term thing, but Hive tactics need to include defending the Queen. Possibly a swarm of bots around her, fending off ordnance and attackers.
Trident tactics: I thought it would be cool to sit in one of the Trident's turrets and shoot the Queen after I'd taken down her shields. However, the Trident places itself such that it's directly facing the Queen, and none of the turrets can be brought to bear on her.
Finally, I did notice that it was sometimes a big sluggish in the Critical missions, especially those in an asteroid field. Are the dev servers slower?
Sam.
Took a few on the live server, and experienced the opposite problem from Samuel. The queen must have took off for greener pastures long before I took the mission, because I couldn't find it anywhere. This made finishing the mission impossible. The mission kept re-starting, but the queen continued to not be findable.
It also seemed that the full hive missions didn't re-start the cycle 2hrs after the Levi kill. I wonder if the inability of the system to kill the queen in that sector (F10) held up the re-start process.
Additionally, the Ion storm missions I took that were correctly identified, did not in fact offer triple rewards. Not XP, Cash, or Faction.
It also seemed that the full hive missions didn't re-start the cycle 2hrs after the Levi kill. I wonder if the inability of the system to kill the queen in that sector (F10) held up the re-start process.
Additionally, the Ion storm missions I took that were correctly identified, did not in fact offer triple rewards. Not XP, Cash, or Faction.
I have been gone a while, and all these changes are very new to me. I played on production server, and took the hardest hs mission I could find (but I don't now the difficulty codes, so it wasn't that hard.) When I arrived, I could not locate the queen, and may not have ever found it, if a trident hadn't shown up to lead me to it. The trident began smashing the queen. For a player like me that specializes in single handedly killing multiple queens in a single pass (all energy rag), the trident was not only unnecessary, but I feared it would steal my kill. Also, I was at complete liberty to fight the queen at my leisure, with none of the hive bots giving serious effort to intercept me (they half heartedly tried, but where completely ineffectual). My skill as a player, was completely beyond that of the mission I took, other than it was impossible to find the queen without the help of the trident (how did the trident find it?).
My opinions:
The queen should stay closer to the main hive battle group.
The trident should stand off and be only a repair ship.
The hive should be more determined to protect the queen, sending one (or more?) assault class ships or better to kill the offending player(s).
Killing queens should be hard, but not necessarily time consuming. Please make it easier to find (multiple?) queens, but make them better defended.
(option: make the queen repair nearby hive?)
My opinions:
The queen should stay closer to the main hive battle group.
The trident should stand off and be only a repair ship.
The hive should be more determined to protect the queen, sending one (or more?) assault class ships or better to kill the offending player(s).
Killing queens should be hard, but not necessarily time consuming. Please make it easier to find (multiple?) queens, but make them better defended.
(option: make the queen repair nearby hive?)
When tests are concluded, will there be cake?
You will be baked, and then there will be cake.
My experience from testing HS missions on the production server.
1) Missions that claim to have "Ion Storm in progress" sometimes don't have a ion storm.
2) Sometimes in 'critical hive presence' missions, the Queen floats off radar making it almost impossible to find without a good pair of eyes.
3) A few times I have seen Centaurs and Orun Collectors sit in one place and not mine anything. One time in a ion storm I saw a mining beam stretched across the sector out of sight.
4) The missile turrets on Tridents only fire one missile once per sitting so I must constantly mount and unmount a missile turret to fire a missile more than once. Plus none of the turrets in the Trident menu are labeled with what type of turret they are.
5) When a Trident enters, it may or may not actively seek out the Queen.
6) The Hive in all its integrity is superior to any other faction ship. As in Hive Assaults, Guardians, and Queens have more fire power and maybe a better AI than the opposing NPC. For example, a Queen alone can knock down the shield of a Trident while the Trident is still trying to properly target the Queen. Even if a Trident does lock on and fires missiles plus a volley or two from its few cannons that have a lock on, the damage from that alone doesn't phase the shield. I have a better time hitting the Queen's shield in a Warthog with a neutron and mega-posi than a lone Trident does.
7) These new HS missions are awesome even with glitches. Great work devs.
1) Missions that claim to have "Ion Storm in progress" sometimes don't have a ion storm.
2) Sometimes in 'critical hive presence' missions, the Queen floats off radar making it almost impossible to find without a good pair of eyes.
3) A few times I have seen Centaurs and Orun Collectors sit in one place and not mine anything. One time in a ion storm I saw a mining beam stretched across the sector out of sight.
4) The missile turrets on Tridents only fire one missile once per sitting so I must constantly mount and unmount a missile turret to fire a missile more than once. Plus none of the turrets in the Trident menu are labeled with what type of turret they are.
5) When a Trident enters, it may or may not actively seek out the Queen.
6) The Hive in all its integrity is superior to any other faction ship. As in Hive Assaults, Guardians, and Queens have more fire power and maybe a better AI than the opposing NPC. For example, a Queen alone can knock down the shield of a Trident while the Trident is still trying to properly target the Queen. Even if a Trident does lock on and fires missiles plus a volley or two from its few cannons that have a lock on, the damage from that alone doesn't phase the shield. I have a better time hitting the Queen's shield in a Warthog with a neutron and mega-posi than a lone Trident does.
7) These new HS missions are awesome even with glitches. Great work devs.
i think the Hs tridents could use some turrets on the tip of the wings like a lazer or a pair of very powerfull railguns
or what would be really cool would be to make a new anti capital trident and make it have a little fin on the bottom that could have a forward firing GBoD trident should have a bit more defensive/offensive power and devs you should remove the cap gauss turrets and put some more agt/neutron rets
or what would be really cool would be to make a new anti capital trident and make it have a little fin on the bottom that could have a forward firing GBoD trident should have a bit more defensive/offensive power and devs you should remove the cap gauss turrets and put some more agt/neutron rets
Some more Hive Skirmish feedback from the live server:
# It seems all enemy ships yield 1500 credits, and at least 300 combat piloting xp, even Orun Collectors. Is this how is is supposed to be?
# The maximum number of ships lost before retreat number seems to be off by one or two ships now and then.
Other than that, it is wonderful to see some Hive action again, and most of the hive missions seems to be working better than ever.
# It seems all enemy ships yield 1500 credits, and at least 300 combat piloting xp, even Orun Collectors. Is this how is is supposed to be?
# The maximum number of ships lost before retreat number seems to be off by one or two ships now and then.
Other than that, it is wonderful to see some Hive action again, and most of the hive missions seems to be working better than ever.
Thanks, Roda, Surbius and Ion.
Was the ion-storm bug today? I released some fixes at midnight that should prevent the only cause for that I know of.
Per-ship-type rewards are coming soon; we're trying to do it in a more objective way this time.
I have a couple ideas for fixing some of the other complaints in the short term (today maybe) and obviously we have lots of long term plans to add some real depth of gameplay to the Hive.
Feedback on the relative difficulty of success in each of the small/common/large/critical missions would be appreciated.
Was the ion-storm bug today? I released some fixes at midnight that should prevent the only cause for that I know of.
Per-ship-type rewards are coming soon; we're trying to do it in a more objective way this time.
I have a couple ideas for fixing some of the other complaints in the short term (today maybe) and obviously we have lots of long term plans to add some real depth of gameplay to the Hive.
Feedback on the relative difficulty of success in each of the small/common/large/critical missions would be appreciated.
Getting closer :)
Still a couple of bugs. Ion storm recognition seems to miss changes in the sector. Took a supposed storm mission and it wasn't. Received 4X rewards though.
Also, the Queen guards (Overseers) just sat around while I got in really close to the queen and took it out. This was in the same sector that the ion storm just ended. Seemed to not even notice me for some reason.
Still a couple of bugs. Ion storm recognition seems to miss changes in the sector. Took a supposed storm mission and it wasn't. Received 4X rewards though.
Also, the Queen guards (Overseers) just sat around while I got in really close to the queen and took it out. This was in the same sector that the ion storm just ended. Seemed to not even notice me for some reason.