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It is time we had a conversation.

Aug 11, 2018 Thalassin link
Recently, yesterday, we had a client update released. Bugs were fixed and that is good. Well it seems something that was not a bug was “fixed”. Up until yesterday we could use command line commands to modify the turn and pitch of the ship. Personally I thought this added a great deal of game play options to the game.

These options were well received by all players of the game with the exception for a toxic cadre of players. Those players are most assuredly responsible for the removal of the options that added interesting elements to the game and then removal of the options that were included originally in the API were unfounded.

Incarnate, you have failed to see the point of those commands that you removed. They allowed guild owned assets including all capital ships to be used by all guild members. This is an option that has been asked for for years, and you have been too busy to implement. So we, the players, used API commands give to us and did it without bothering you. Hours of work went into making this and now it is gone.

It is pathetic that a toxic small number of players can influence the devs to change what a rest of the game wants. Frankly, it is downright  infuriating. They’re tactics are nothing short of meta gaming and are making players quit. I suggest that you bring back these commands so we can have guild owned assets operating again. Thank you for your time.
Aug 11, 2018 Knauf link
heh
Aug 11, 2018 Phaserlight link
Up until yesterday we could use command line commands to modify the turn and pitch of the ship

Be careful of assigning an unwanted change to a hypothetical "toxic small number of players". The devs have a clear vision for what the game should be, and it may not always line up with your opinion. The player as pilot is a fairly core tenet, and a group of commands that may allow piloting by script would seem to go against this.

The change may not even have anything to do with what you think it does; it could be an effort to further mitigate spotter bots, for example.

Anyway, I suggest stating why you don't like the change (which you did) but leaving speculations regarding the precipitating reasons out of it; that usually isn't helpful, especially when it involves other community members.
Aug 11, 2018 i82blikeu link
> VO 1.8.468 includes:
> ...
> - Fixed issue with certain forbidden console flight commands working on Windows.
> ...
> ...
> ...
Aug 11, 2018 genka link
Dear Incarnate,
Recently, about a decade ago, we released a client update. Bugs were fixed, and that is good. Well it seems something that was not a bug was “fixed”. Up until about 2004 we could use command line commands to turbo backwards while charging up the battery. Personally I thought this added a great deal of game play options to the game.

Turboing backwards was well received by all players of the game without exception.

Incarnate, you have failed to see the point of turboing backwardss that you removed. Turboing backwards allowed players to escape pirates, warp without sitting around, turbo forever and annoy people that didn't know how to do it. This is an option that has been asked for for years, and you have been too busy to implement. So we, the players, used API commands give to us and did it without bothering you. Minutes of work went into making this and now it is gone.

It is pathetic that the intended rules of the game can influence the devs to change what a rest of the game wants. Frankly, it is downright infuriating. They’re tactics are nothing short of meta gaming and are making players quit. I suggest that you bring back these commands so we can turbo backwards again. Thank you for your time.
Aug 11, 2018 Whistler link
I removed the references to specific players. You can't level accusations here.
Aug 11, 2018 incarnate link
Hi, I'm mobile right now with limited time to respond. But..

Autopilots are forbidden. This isn't new, this is super well known. As is.. why it happened.

It seems pretty odd to build some set of expectations around something that is well-known to be explicitly banned.

Anyway, I'm all for supporting evolving and improved gameplay. Better to have some autopilot "feature", with specific limitations, than to have some weird hack that is only effectively usable by a small cross section of players.

So, if you want to post some next-gen mechanics to Suggestions, I'm all for it.

But, if you want the rest of the players to take it seriously, you may want to better acquaint yourself with why this was banned in the first place. Otherwise, you'll probably get more sarcasm.

I'm locking this for now.
Aug 12, 2018 incarnate link
Incidentally, after re-reading the OP: this had absolutely nothing to do with any cadre of toxic players. In fact, the whole process of discovery was very low-drama.

These commands had been locked out on all platforms. They were only still possible on Windows through a compiler-specific programmatic oversight. We corrected that oversight.

People lately have a tendency to ascribe a lot of nefarious background or conspiracy to situations that have none. Literally, we just fixed a bug. No big deal.

Why on earth would we want to allow autopilot on Windows, but not every other platform? Did anyone even think about that? That would be bizarre. It would make about as much sense as disabling strafing from everywhere but Windows.

Aside from that.. obviously, autopilot is a banned concept. We used to have these commands everywhere, and their usage got out of hand, and the general player base wanted them gone as much as the I did. It was subverting the game mechanics in a way that wasn't beneficial.

If we want to go down a road someday where everyone competes to write the best bots, and their bots all fight it out, that's fine.. but that should be specifically defined gameplay with limitations of scope, that is well documented and clearly available to all.