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It's like six freakin' sectors out of over two thousand.
You're not dumb, and I don't like to think you disingenuous... but that's one of the two. People who live in Grey wish to camp those 6 sectors because that's where the traffic is. Nobody, surely not traders, ever goes to the other 1,994 sectors. And the reason nobody cares about Helios is because there have never been more than a thimble-full of 'em to hunt; which is why the only people in Helios B-7 are the Goddamn heliocene miners. [Edit]What Tumble said.[/Edit]
Anyway, my earlier post, while of a bitter tone, was actually supportive of your calls. It's both your game and your business--your goal is not, and should not be, to please either vets or noobs, but rather to keep and grow your paying player base. None of us will always agree with each and every one of your calls, and some of us will use a caustic tone even with those we respect. But I think most of us know that when the decision has been made, the debate is OVAH.
But I'm still not forgiving you for fucking up Metana. Not that you care :)
You're not dumb, and I don't like to think you disingenuous... but that's one of the two. People who live in Grey wish to camp those 6 sectors because that's where the traffic is. Nobody, surely not traders, ever goes to the other 1,994 sectors. And the reason nobody cares about Helios is because there have never been more than a thimble-full of 'em to hunt; which is why the only people in Helios B-7 are the Goddamn heliocene miners. [Edit]What Tumble said.[/Edit]
Anyway, my earlier post, while of a bitter tone, was actually supportive of your calls. It's both your game and your business--your goal is not, and should not be, to please either vets or noobs, but rather to keep and grow your paying player base. None of us will always agree with each and every one of your calls, and some of us will use a caustic tone even with those we respect. But I think most of us know that when the decision has been made, the debate is OVAH.
But I'm still not forgiving you for fucking up Metana. Not that you care :)
People who live in Grey wish to camp those 6 sectors because that's where the traffic is.
That's reasonable enough, although there are still all the other choke points (Ukari->Latos, Latos->Sedina, whatever). I've also had people argue this subject with me from some sort of "grayspace fundamentalist" basis, rather than from the standpoint of piracy and chokepoints, which only confuses things more (and frustrates me). Anyway, Ukari, Helios and Latos are ripe for the "foggy reef" treatment, to create more diverse traversal situations. One of them might make for an interesting test case.
But I think most of us know that when the decision has been made, the debate is OVAH.
To a limited extent that's true.. if we spend the time to change or implement something, we don't usually want to immediately go alter it again. Especially when the signal-to-noise ratio on legitimate criticism vs not-very-legitimate can be.. challenging to decipher sometimes. But, on a design level, the number of things I view as "cast in stone" are really small. Plus, it's easier to come back to something after a few months or a year if someone says "this is not working for X reason" and prepares a sound argument. That always goes a lot further with me than an embittered tone and somewhat confused rambling about ex-developers who haven't been around in five years.
Getting back to what.. I guess (?) was the core issue:
I can move all the turrets back inside the border, with the exception of Arta and Pyronis.. which of course have them on both sides (Ukari L2 and Helios B7, which have stations anyway), being Capitol systems. In those cases alone I won't budge, the newbie systems need their defense.
I can't wait for someone to inevitably complain that it's harder to fly into nation space now that the turrets are on the inside, or something like that. Sigh.
As another aside, tangential but relating to the core (?) issue of pirates tracking prey.. the addition of sensor buoys to the game could also have a major impact, without actually moving anything (but I'll move the turrets anyway). That could be a whole other.. process, laying a buoy that's close enough to a WH to pick up everyone who comes through and where they go (assuming they jump within range). Then monitoring that data as part of the Hunt. If turrets (station, capitol, whatever) were programmed to shoot them if seen within range, laying them without getting shot or losing the buoy could be kind of interesting.
Anyway, that's another ball of wax, but just an example that it's not all about moving turrets or whatever, it's really just about looking at the issues that crop up and finding the best total gameplay solutions ("intercepting traders is now more difficult").. not just to balance today's situations, but also to fit into the ones that are coming.
As for Metana, I have other plans for Itani space..
That's reasonable enough, although there are still all the other choke points (Ukari->Latos, Latos->Sedina, whatever). I've also had people argue this subject with me from some sort of "grayspace fundamentalist" basis, rather than from the standpoint of piracy and chokepoints, which only confuses things more (and frustrates me). Anyway, Ukari, Helios and Latos are ripe for the "foggy reef" treatment, to create more diverse traversal situations. One of them might make for an interesting test case.
But I think most of us know that when the decision has been made, the debate is OVAH.
To a limited extent that's true.. if we spend the time to change or implement something, we don't usually want to immediately go alter it again. Especially when the signal-to-noise ratio on legitimate criticism vs not-very-legitimate can be.. challenging to decipher sometimes. But, on a design level, the number of things I view as "cast in stone" are really small. Plus, it's easier to come back to something after a few months or a year if someone says "this is not working for X reason" and prepares a sound argument. That always goes a lot further with me than an embittered tone and somewhat confused rambling about ex-developers who haven't been around in five years.
Getting back to what.. I guess (?) was the core issue:
I can move all the turrets back inside the border, with the exception of Arta and Pyronis.. which of course have them on both sides (Ukari L2 and Helios B7, which have stations anyway), being Capitol systems. In those cases alone I won't budge, the newbie systems need their defense.
I can't wait for someone to inevitably complain that it's harder to fly into nation space now that the turrets are on the inside, or something like that. Sigh.
As another aside, tangential but relating to the core (?) issue of pirates tracking prey.. the addition of sensor buoys to the game could also have a major impact, without actually moving anything (but I'll move the turrets anyway). That could be a whole other.. process, laying a buoy that's close enough to a WH to pick up everyone who comes through and where they go (assuming they jump within range). Then monitoring that data as part of the Hunt. If turrets (station, capitol, whatever) were programmed to shoot them if seen within range, laying them without getting shot or losing the buoy could be kind of interesting.
Anyway, that's another ball of wax, but just an example that it's not all about moving turrets or whatever, it's really just about looking at the issues that crop up and finding the best total gameplay solutions ("intercepting traders is now more difficult").. not just to balance today's situations, but also to fit into the ones that are coming.
As for Metana, I have other plans for Itani space..
I can't wait for someone to inevitably complain that it's harder to fly into nation space now that the turrets are on the inside, or something like that. Sigh.
Of course it will make it (somewhat) harder to get into nation space. That's one of the arguments for putting the turrets inside in the first place.
If turrets (station, capitol, whatever) were programmed to shoot them if seen within range, laying them without getting shot or losing the buoy could be kind of interesting.
Unless you intend to double both the sensor range and jump-detection range of sensor buoys, and make them invisible on radar to PC's, that would be geometrically impossible.
As for Metana, I have other plans for Itani space..
Now this sounds promising!
Of course it will make it (somewhat) harder to get into nation space. That's one of the arguments for putting the turrets inside in the first place.
If turrets (station, capitol, whatever) were programmed to shoot them if seen within range, laying them without getting shot or losing the buoy could be kind of interesting.
Unless you intend to double both the sensor range and jump-detection range of sensor buoys, and make them invisible on radar to PC's, that would be geometrically impossible.
As for Metana, I have other plans for Itani space..
Now this sounds promising!
Lecter spewed: Anyway, my earlier post, while of a bitter tone, was actually supportive of your calls.
Hah, I was unaware that you had any other tone in which to speak, doc. Just for shits & giggles next time, try a "cheerful" tone, maybe you can make a Christmas exception.
Oh, and if the turrets are INSIDE nationspace, then things will be fired at you for the 4 or 5 seconds of the warp-in animation, carving precious evasion time away, so I think it will be harder to get through if you put the turrets inside Nationspace.
The hardest point about this game is pleasing both the hardcore vets AND the wet-behind-the-ears n00blets who are just venturing out into the world.
We do need some kind of area where the vets can play, and another area where the new players can play. We need to do something interesting in grayspace to make it more appealing to the vets, more fun than popping newbs who just left the station.
Time to focus more on the carrot instead of the stick.
Hah, I was unaware that you had any other tone in which to speak, doc. Just for shits & giggles next time, try a "cheerful" tone, maybe you can make a Christmas exception.
Oh, and if the turrets are INSIDE nationspace, then things will be fired at you for the 4 or 5 seconds of the warp-in animation, carving precious evasion time away, so I think it will be harder to get through if you put the turrets inside Nationspace.
The hardest point about this game is pleasing both the hardcore vets AND the wet-behind-the-ears n00blets who are just venturing out into the world.
We do need some kind of area where the vets can play, and another area where the new players can play. We need to do something interesting in grayspace to make it more appealing to the vets, more fun than popping newbs who just left the station.
Time to focus more on the carrot instead of the stick.
I don't make exceptions, you bloated flyover-state dweller.
Oh, and if the turrets are INSIDE nationspace, then things will be fired at you for the 4 or 5 seconds of the warp-in animation, carving precious evasion time away, so I think it will be harder to get through if you put the turrets inside Nationspace.
This is sub-ideal because, although it's harder, it's only harder based on random chance and not because of anything that will require skill to beat. All the same, considering how easy it is to dodge turrets in the "in" sector, maybe this isn't so bad.
Oh, and if the turrets are INSIDE nationspace, then things will be fired at you for the 4 or 5 seconds of the warp-in animation, carving precious evasion time away, so I think it will be harder to get through if you put the turrets inside Nationspace.
This is sub-ideal because, although it's harder, it's only harder based on random chance and not because of anything that will require skill to beat. All the same, considering how easy it is to dodge turrets in the "in" sector, maybe this isn't so bad.