Forums » Suggestions
At the request of Incarnate, this thread is for praise, criticism, and suggestions for the Dark Convoy Event.
I found the event a fun and unique experience in the Vendetta Universe. There was a massive amount of player participation with good rewards for those that could achieve them.
My only problems were the difficulty and lag. The raptors, while not a threat singularly, would attack in swarms of 10-20, and with that many LENBs firing at you it was hard to survive. This wouldn't be as big an issue if they would not gank one player at a time. Several times I jumped into a sector and as soon as I got close the raptors forgot about the player they had been targeting earlier and went straight for me. Someone else mentioned they seemed to have extremely fast turbo speeds. Someone else also mentioned the cap ships seemed to be moving very fast. The lag I encountered I am not sure if it was on my end or on the server end, but sectors would take a long time to load, enemies were jumpy, and I eventually was forced to log off.
The biggest change I would suggest is work on the raptor behavior. If they really are dropping a target to pick up another then there may be a problem depending how you look at it. For me, as a player with a poor fighting skills this convoy was very challenging, but, seeing as it went through grey space, it should be. I would suggest running smaller less dangerous convoys through nation space to help get the new players involved. Maybe for those nation convoys even throw in some national cap ships to help fight.
I found the event a fun and unique experience in the Vendetta Universe. There was a massive amount of player participation with good rewards for those that could achieve them.
My only problems were the difficulty and lag. The raptors, while not a threat singularly, would attack in swarms of 10-20, and with that many LENBs firing at you it was hard to survive. This wouldn't be as big an issue if they would not gank one player at a time. Several times I jumped into a sector and as soon as I got close the raptors forgot about the player they had been targeting earlier and went straight for me. Someone else mentioned they seemed to have extremely fast turbo speeds. Someone else also mentioned the cap ships seemed to be moving very fast. The lag I encountered I am not sure if it was on my end or on the server end, but sectors would take a long time to load, enemies were jumpy, and I eventually was forced to log off.
The biggest change I would suggest is work on the raptor behavior. If they really are dropping a target to pick up another then there may be a problem depending how you look at it. For me, as a player with a poor fighting skills this convoy was very challenging, but, seeing as it went through grey space, it should be. I would suggest running smaller less dangerous convoys through nation space to help get the new players involved. Maybe for those nation convoys even throw in some national cap ships to help fight.
I appreciated the event also, and had several observations similar to theratt.
Lag made this much less fun than it could have been.
The event would have been better if it were simpler. A single constellation with a moderate fighter escort would have excellent frame rate, and we might have killed the connie. The synth alcohol was fun, but we could have had a fun furball fighting over a valuable commodity like corvus textiles.
Our organization might have been improved. The supergroup proved to be too big to lead. Individuals didn't have much loyalty to the massive group. Next time I suggest smaller specialized groups, each with a leader. Fighter support, chainsaw group, bomber wing. We could use a separate channel to coordinate the groups. There could be a "general" that just shadows the convoy and advises the group leaders. Each group could also have a medic attached.
Lag made this much less fun than it could have been.
The event would have been better if it were simpler. A single constellation with a moderate fighter escort would have excellent frame rate, and we might have killed the connie. The synth alcohol was fun, but we could have had a fun furball fighting over a valuable commodity like corvus textiles.
Our organization might have been improved. The supergroup proved to be too big to lead. Individuals didn't have much loyalty to the massive group. Next time I suggest smaller specialized groups, each with a leader. Fighter support, chainsaw group, bomber wing. We could use a separate channel to coordinate the groups. There could be a "general" that just shadows the convoy and advises the group leaders. Each group could also have a medic attached.
Hmm i did not experienve any lag what so ever, but i did notice that the raptors were super speedy (i tried to chase one with a vulture but it got away from me and i was going 220m/s) and also the fact that capships have shields make taking them down a MASSIVE effort....i dunno what to do about it...
And as the previous two have said, it would be good if te even was split in groups, cauuse it was messy, and everyone chatting on group channel really made it unbearable..
And as the previous two have said, it would be good if te even was split in groups, cauuse it was messy, and everyone chatting on group channel really made it unbearable..
I should mention that I experience huge amounts of lag during the event, even when I was in a different sector than the convoy. Also, while in the same sector as the voy, I was averaging about 0.5 fps after I had turned all the graphics settings to their minimum values. My computer isn't the best, but it's usually able to at least hold its own in modern games.
I think a couple of tridents instead of the two constellations would have worked better. Those things seemed to be awfully hard to kill.
The cap ships warped around a lot after jumping in and sector load times got pretty but it was playable.
Otherwise I had fun.
The cap ships warped around a lot after jumping in and sector load times got pretty but it was playable.
Otherwise I had fun.
I think the current setup would have been much more workable if it hadn't been for the uber-raptors, as others have said. I lost a valk to a huge swarm of them, right after dropping out of turbo. I knew they were behind me, so I was going to turn around and dodge and take some of them out, but all of a sudden a massed wall of lenb fire appeared, and my computer froze up. When I had control again I was back in the station, one valk down.
While the, as I think Ecka put it, swarm of bees tactics were demonstrably quite effective, they were also effective at disabling computers, and that's not playing fair. :P Even if there hadn't been quite as many, so eventually we could have run through them, that might have helped. As it was, I had to log early because of dinner, but it also wasn't all that fun to be mobbed like that.
P.S. What were the stats on those Raptors, by the way? It'd be interesting to see exactly how they differed from what we expected, and what we experienced.
While the, as I think Ecka put it, swarm of bees tactics were demonstrably quite effective, they were also effective at disabling computers, and that's not playing fair. :P Even if there hadn't been quite as many, so eventually we could have run through them, that might have helped. As it was, I had to log early because of dinner, but it also wasn't all that fun to be mobbed like that.
P.S. What were the stats on those Raptors, by the way? It'd be interesting to see exactly how they differed from what we expected, and what we experienced.
It's been awhile since I configured those raptors, but they're probably a normal variant (with law enforcement neutron blasters). I could be wrong though, we do have some buffed ships for strike force usage and such. I don't think the Raptors are though.
They might have unlimited powercells.. I'd have to look. I doubt the engine or ship mass are anything unusual.
Anyway, duly noted on "keep it simple". I was trying for something "grand and impressive", but it sounds like I went beyond the abilities of a lot of people's computers. For my part, leading the convoy, I never experienced lag or framerate drops, and my machine is a few years old (but was quite fast in its time). I also have a somewhat ideal internet situation, being only like 5ms from the servers, and my cable provider also provides transit bandwidth to our colo (so basically on-net).
Lots of ships and crazy combat are pretty bandwidth intensive, too. We had a pretty big outbound spike for running that event. That can also be tough on distant connections.
I did have my internet connection completely drop out at one point, for about 15 seconds, that sucked :). Some issue upstream, it happened a few hours after the event as well.
If people have any other ideas, please post. Some were complaining about the rewards.. I thought the unique cargo was pretty cool (and it is valuable, if you wait for the stations demand to go up), but having some sort of badge or some such would be good as well. We don't have simple mechanics for doing that sort of thing yet, but it's something else we can work on.
In a free-for-all situation like this, handing out XP is just unrealistic. We aren't tracking what everyone does, and if we spend that much development time we'll just roll it into scheduled gameplay (which is fine, but I'd also like to find a reasonable rewards setup for "unique" type events so people don't feel cheated or anything).
They might have unlimited powercells.. I'd have to look. I doubt the engine or ship mass are anything unusual.
Anyway, duly noted on "keep it simple". I was trying for something "grand and impressive", but it sounds like I went beyond the abilities of a lot of people's computers. For my part, leading the convoy, I never experienced lag or framerate drops, and my machine is a few years old (but was quite fast in its time). I also have a somewhat ideal internet situation, being only like 5ms from the servers, and my cable provider also provides transit bandwidth to our colo (so basically on-net).
Lots of ships and crazy combat are pretty bandwidth intensive, too. We had a pretty big outbound spike for running that event. That can also be tough on distant connections.
I did have my internet connection completely drop out at one point, for about 15 seconds, that sucked :). Some issue upstream, it happened a few hours after the event as well.
If people have any other ideas, please post. Some were complaining about the rewards.. I thought the unique cargo was pretty cool (and it is valuable, if you wait for the stations demand to go up), but having some sort of badge or some such would be good as well. We don't have simple mechanics for doing that sort of thing yet, but it's something else we can work on.
In a free-for-all situation like this, handing out XP is just unrealistic. We aren't tracking what everyone does, and if we spend that much development time we'll just roll it into scheduled gameplay (which is fine, but I'd also like to find a reasonable rewards setup for "unique" type events so people don't feel cheated or anything).
i think for the next one laying off the on the respawn rate of the raptors would help. it was near impossible to coordinate a bombing run while keeping the raptors busy
we do have some buffed ships for strike force usage
Which is complete crap.
Which is complete crap.
Inc said that giving XP is unrealistic. I think that as a general matter, XP should be granted for cap ship and escort kills earned. No different than bot hunting. Perhaps escort kills in corvus systems should give corvus faction too.
I liked Inc's perspective on the "Grand" Dark Convoy. If I were running it, I'd win too win too!
I liked Inc's perspective on the "Grand" Dark Convoy. If I were running it, I'd win too win too!
I loved the dark Convoy.
From Brazil, had little lag when 1st met convoy, later again when raptors spawn. Overall, ver funny!!!
Pros:
-Big convoy requires group effort
-Big Event
-Big furball
-Convoy did not followed straight line
Cons:
-Convoy split.
-Trolling on a important event like this. There should be imposed a truce sometimes. Maybe its the universe, but I still dislikes it...
Suggestions:
1) PERIODIC. Every weekend.
2) Mission from many stations on gray: Attack main Itani->Serco Convoy.
3) Pplz can join from any facction, either as trader, escort or pirate.
4) Bots auto-complete/leave all sides to keep balance. At station stop bots can join/leave.
5) Merchant ships and capitals should keep formation, cents at center, then moths then caps. target pattern.
-Background story: Due increase in pirate activity, the trade guild decided to adopt a heavy convoy, and is inviting merchants and fighters to join convoy, leaving Jallik and heading to (Pyronis,Initros), via (Dau,Bractus).
-Convoy path jumps on more than one station per system. At station NFZ, locat guard bots come to help. So convoys stops at stations, some bot ships leaves/joins. (NFZ rules normal)
-Convoy speed it the lowest present ship speed. likely 160
From Brazil, had little lag when 1st met convoy, later again when raptors spawn. Overall, ver funny!!!
Pros:
-Big convoy requires group effort
-Big Event
-Big furball
-Convoy did not followed straight line
Cons:
-Convoy split.
-Trolling on a important event like this. There should be imposed a truce sometimes. Maybe its the universe, but I still dislikes it...
Suggestions:
1) PERIODIC. Every weekend.
2) Mission from many stations on gray: Attack main Itani->Serco Convoy.
3) Pplz can join from any facction, either as trader, escort or pirate.
4) Bots auto-complete/leave all sides to keep balance. At station stop bots can join/leave.
5) Merchant ships and capitals should keep formation, cents at center, then moths then caps. target pattern.
-Background story: Due increase in pirate activity, the trade guild decided to adopt a heavy convoy, and is inviting merchants and fighters to join convoy, leaving Jallik and heading to (Pyronis,Initros), via (Dau,Bractus).
-Convoy path jumps on more than one station per system. At station NFZ, locat guard bots come to help. So convoys stops at stations, some bot ships leaves/joins. (NFZ rules normal)
-Convoy speed it the lowest present ship speed. likely 160
From Brazil
So much becomes clear.
Trolling on a important event like this. There should be imposed a truce sometimes. Maybe its the universe, but I still dislikes it.
If you paint a bulls-eye on your arse, don't complain when someone lights you up.
Repeatedly.
So much becomes clear.
Trolling on a important event like this. There should be imposed a truce sometimes. Maybe its the universe, but I still dislikes it.
If you paint a bulls-eye on your arse, don't complain when someone lights you up.
Repeatedly.
I only experienced lag once. I was jumping to Sedina right in the middle of the capital ships with raptors on my tail and I activated the jump but no cutscene was triggered so I could move around and everything when I noticed the jump effect was actually triggered and moments later I appeared in Sedina. Other than that, lag wasn't really a factor for me.
The trolls were out during this event and I was capped (although I was in a moth - I was only a jump away from the battle and I was pked by someone in my own group) right at the beginning which decreased my thorough enjoyment of the event a lot since I was homed in Dau (Not enough faction to buy anything decent in Gray Space) and the bomber-type ships aren't the greatest for long distance runs.
I suggest that if the event is "official" as in run by you guys, there should be an efficient means deal with Trolls that doesn't rely on you dying, coming back to kill said troll, then dying because you aren't in the type of role you wish to play in for the event. One such couter is having faction-specific battle groups earlier on (rather than at the end) which would fire on those who fire on other players repeatedly. Perhaps a TPG battle group to make it non-major faction aligned. Or have players involved in the mission be immune to fire from other players. If they stray too far from the mission area for too long, their immunity will be removed until they get back into the fight. While immune, their own weapons fire won't damage players and when the immunity is removed there will be a period of not being able to damage other players with their weapons.
As mentioned the large group was a bad idea. What made it worse was that people weren't all homed in the same place for various reasons so the time to regroup varied greatly. If you weren't fast enough, you missed a lot of semi-organized bombing runs. Smaller more specialized groups would be beneficial to such an event.
Being that events like this will be developer ran and not necesarily automatic (like CTC for example) having a mission of some sort that players who wish to participate in the event can take. Based on the above suggestions in this post, they would be asked after taking the mission what kind of role they want to play and be auto-joined to a group after deciding. This way, players would have a more clearer object of where they need to go, what they need to do, etc.
As a further suggestion, having a non-aggressive battle group following along with the Dark Convoy could serve as a mobile staging area. People could home on a HAC or Constellation and "buy back" the ship that they had previously or purchase a new ship from a limited selection of ships and weapons pertinent to what the mission requires the most... So if the mission needs more bombers than only bomber-type equipment is available. I know currently you can't purchase anything from the capital ships and I don't know what lengths you'd have to go to implement such a feature, but it would only be specific to the event being run and not really a universe et-al feature. Since the battlegroup staging area will follow the convoy/mission objective in another sector, players involved don't have to worry about ignoring the mission for a few minutes so they can jump ahead and set their new home.
Even though this was a first time thing, I think it went alright. Now we have some sort of idea on what to expect so we can plan ahead a little on where we should stock items, what faction we should up a bit before the event starts, and maybe coordinate some sort of strategy with group members provided we're given some more info on what it was all about. I liked the "complexity" of it and it was fun to see what was happening, even if you were just leading them around. I thought they were going to go straight for Itani space at the end but no, they hit Edras K-10, then you spawned Serco/Itani/UIT battlegroups.
And speaking of which spawning such things may need some tweaking for next time. They spawned with aggression towards eachother. The Itani Teradons were just hitting the Serco HAC, but when Serco finished the Itani off, the headed for the UIT HAC. Now come to think of it, I guess the Teradons may have accidently made themselves KOS with Serco due to friendly fire (they -did- seem to be trying to hit the swarm of Raptors surrounding Incarnate).
All in all, awesome, mostly fun (minus looong wait times to rejoin the battle) and exciting to see what the future brings.
The trolls were out during this event and I was capped (although I was in a moth - I was only a jump away from the battle and I was pked by someone in my own group) right at the beginning which decreased my thorough enjoyment of the event a lot since I was homed in Dau (Not enough faction to buy anything decent in Gray Space) and the bomber-type ships aren't the greatest for long distance runs.
I suggest that if the event is "official" as in run by you guys, there should be an efficient means deal with Trolls that doesn't rely on you dying, coming back to kill said troll, then dying because you aren't in the type of role you wish to play in for the event. One such couter is having faction-specific battle groups earlier on (rather than at the end) which would fire on those who fire on other players repeatedly. Perhaps a TPG battle group to make it non-major faction aligned. Or have players involved in the mission be immune to fire from other players. If they stray too far from the mission area for too long, their immunity will be removed until they get back into the fight. While immune, their own weapons fire won't damage players and when the immunity is removed there will be a period of not being able to damage other players with their weapons.
As mentioned the large group was a bad idea. What made it worse was that people weren't all homed in the same place for various reasons so the time to regroup varied greatly. If you weren't fast enough, you missed a lot of semi-organized bombing runs. Smaller more specialized groups would be beneficial to such an event.
Being that events like this will be developer ran and not necesarily automatic (like CTC for example) having a mission of some sort that players who wish to participate in the event can take. Based on the above suggestions in this post, they would be asked after taking the mission what kind of role they want to play and be auto-joined to a group after deciding. This way, players would have a more clearer object of where they need to go, what they need to do, etc.
As a further suggestion, having a non-aggressive battle group following along with the Dark Convoy could serve as a mobile staging area. People could home on a HAC or Constellation and "buy back" the ship that they had previously or purchase a new ship from a limited selection of ships and weapons pertinent to what the mission requires the most... So if the mission needs more bombers than only bomber-type equipment is available. I know currently you can't purchase anything from the capital ships and I don't know what lengths you'd have to go to implement such a feature, but it would only be specific to the event being run and not really a universe et-al feature. Since the battlegroup staging area will follow the convoy/mission objective in another sector, players involved don't have to worry about ignoring the mission for a few minutes so they can jump ahead and set their new home.
Even though this was a first time thing, I think it went alright. Now we have some sort of idea on what to expect so we can plan ahead a little on where we should stock items, what faction we should up a bit before the event starts, and maybe coordinate some sort of strategy with group members provided we're given some more info on what it was all about. I liked the "complexity" of it and it was fun to see what was happening, even if you were just leading them around. I thought they were going to go straight for Itani space at the end but no, they hit Edras K-10, then you spawned Serco/Itani/UIT battlegroups.
And speaking of which spawning such things may need some tweaking for next time. They spawned with aggression towards eachother. The Itani Teradons were just hitting the Serco HAC, but when Serco finished the Itani off, the headed for the UIT HAC. Now come to think of it, I guess the Teradons may have accidently made themselves KOS with Serco due to friendly fire (they -did- seem to be trying to hit the swarm of Raptors surrounding Incarnate).
All in all, awesome, mostly fun (minus looong wait times to rejoin the battle) and exciting to see what the future brings.
I suggest that if the event is "official" as in run by you guys, there should be an efficient means deal with Trolls that doesn't rely on you dying, coming back to kill said troll, then dying because you aren't in the type of role you wish to play in for the event.
Turn on FF restrictions for event-groups maybe?
Turn on FF restrictions for event-groups maybe?
Or have players involved in the mission be immune to fire from other players.
Sorry, you've mistakenly wandered into Vendetta Online.
Hello-Kitty Island Adventure! is over there.
Sorry, you've mistakenly wandered into Vendetta Online.
Hello-Kitty Island Adventure! is over there.
Lecter, while in general I am completely against turning FF restrictions on... for some situations/missions, it makes sense to keep people from shooting one another; this is one of them. Taking a multiplayer mission with a group goal, then destroying your group just doesn't make any sense (and doesn't enhance the game experience for anyone...). As with escorts, if you want to destroy your group, you should leave the mission (granted, escorts don't have FF restrictions, but they do boot you from the mission). Maybe booting from the mission for friendly fire would be a better solution... but I can imagine accidental friendly fire being a problem, hence FF restrictions make the most sense.
Aim better if you are killing your allies (you bastard) or fly better if being hit by them (blind fool)
FF doesn't need to be enabled because your teammates or yourself are trigger happy and if you can't avoid killing each other then the mission at hand deserves to beat you up or defeat you.
The "doesn't make sense" argument kinda......doesn't make sense. Can you at this moment in your country of origin, turn to someone in real life shoot them in the face and not hurt them? Exactly, FF restrictions make less sense.
FF doesn't need to be enabled because your teammates or yourself are trigger happy and if you can't avoid killing each other then the mission at hand deserves to beat you up or defeat you.
The "doesn't make sense" argument kinda......doesn't make sense. Can you at this moment in your country of origin, turn to someone in real life shoot them in the face and not hurt them? Exactly, FF restrictions make less sense.
As far as I know, only k'metreq was shooting participants ...
"The trolls were out during this event and I was capped (although I was in a moth - I was only a jump away from the battle and I was pked by someone in my own group) right at the beginning"
and few others shot down some of these who did not participate in killing just were stuffing up their moths for free.
"Maybe booting from the mission for friendly fire would be a better solution..."
Group leader can do this I think.
No FF PLEASE. Let us rule the space on our own. Lesson taken, few pilots have to play space police next time. What I saw, while pirates were taking down the voy, some VPRs (hello Strat) just were collecting the drops a jump or two past the action sector. If VPRs focus on players like k'met next time ...
Nice event. The only real lag I got was while finishing it in Edras. It was a server side lag and several players got booted shortly. All was OK after reconnecting.
I see the Raptors as the biggest problem. Reasons were stated.
Rewards and drops could be more satisfactory for such a job.
One group chat could be enough if many players quit saying useless **** there. Parsing the logs would tell us who should be muted next time - the group members can be muted actually.
!!! THANK YOU FOR THE EVENT !!!
"The trolls were out during this event and I was capped (although I was in a moth - I was only a jump away from the battle and I was pked by someone in my own group) right at the beginning"
and few others shot down some of these who did not participate in killing just were stuffing up their moths for free.
"Maybe booting from the mission for friendly fire would be a better solution..."
Group leader can do this I think.
No FF PLEASE. Let us rule the space on our own. Lesson taken, few pilots have to play space police next time. What I saw, while pirates were taking down the voy, some VPRs (hello Strat) just were collecting the drops a jump or two past the action sector. If VPRs focus on players like k'met next time ...
Nice event. The only real lag I got was while finishing it in Edras. It was a server side lag and several players got booted shortly. All was OK after reconnecting.
I see the Raptors as the biggest problem. Reasons were stated.
Rewards and drops could be more satisfactory for such a job.
One group chat could be enough if many players quit saying useless **** there. Parsing the logs would tell us who should be muted next time - the group members can be muted actually.
!!! THANK YOU FOR THE EVENT !!!
mainly the group sucked because a bunch of people in it didn't listen to a god damn thing that was going on.
and second if you insist on fly a moth and picking up cargo that was dropped from a moth that you in no way helped kill, well yes we will shoot you a lot or you could like id ask if it is ok to take it.
and second if you insist on fly a moth and picking up cargo that was dropped from a moth that you in no way helped kill, well yes we will shoot you a lot or you could like id ask if it is ok to take it.
Firstly, in an event such as this, you can't take up ownership of a kill and the subsequent cargo unless you take it first.
Secondly, I had every intention of aiding with the mission. I wanted to get kills and pickup the subsequent cargo from those kills. Whether or not I was in a fighter/bomber is completely irrelevant. A ship is a ship and this wasn't supposed to be a PVP-type event.
Secondly, I had every intention of aiding with the mission. I wanted to get kills and pickup the subsequent cargo from those kills. Whether or not I was in a fighter/bomber is completely irrelevant. A ship is a ship and this wasn't supposed to be a PVP-type event.