store track ON LINE

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > store track ON LINE

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

g0del posted:

Bort was upset because epic plasma consoles were actually adding more damage than epic spire tac consoles. People were switching to the science version of the Scimitar and getting higher DPS.

Yeah, that's what I mean. Since the meta is entirely focused around damage, having good Sci consoles meant that a variety of ships were suddenly useful. Tulwar, Sci odyssey, science vessels in general, etc. But Bort is a sperg, only tac consoles should do damage, so gently caress having fun and useful options it has to be done ~properly~ :spergin:

# ? Aug 5, 2015 08:04

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# ? May 30, 2024 20:26

Korgan: Feb 14, 2012

Asimo posted:

Yeah, that's what I mean. Since the meta is entirely focused around damage, having good Sci consoles meant that a variety of ships were suddenly useful. Tulwar, Sci odyssey, science vessels in general, etc. But Bort is a sperg, only tac consoles should do damage, so gently caress having fun and useful options it has to be done ~properly~

And god forbid you point that out anywhere else, you'll be drowned in the idiots who still haven't realised the game is circling the toilet, shouting you down in defence of their buddy Bort who comes talk in their reddit sometimes

# ? Aug 5, 2015 09:01

Bloodly: Nov 3, 2008; Not as strong as you'd expect.

Asimo posted:

Yeah, that's what I mean. Since the meta is entirely focused around damage, having good Sci consoles meant that a variety of ships were suddenly useful. Tulwar, Sci odyssey, science vessels in general, etc. But Bort is a sperg, only tac consoles should do damage, so gently caress having fun and useful options it has to be done ~properly~

Meh. If I'm understanding right, it just means everyone 'in the know' is running Plasma. Which if anything, pigeonholes the players worse, even though being the Biggest Damage seems to be Plasma's thing what with all the boosters and things tied to it via the Romulans. Now if every rep(as a 'for instance') had a variant console and such(maybe Sci, maybe Eng) that did similar tricks, that would be something, but that's not very likely at this point.

I can appreciate not having one option(Plasma) be the One and Only, even if I can disagree with how it's been done.

Perhaps I am being too apologetic. But then, I've always used things like Tetryons and Polarons and other cheap and 'not-the-best'(Which makes them cheap in the first place).

Meh.

Bloodly fucked around with this message at 09:31 on Aug 5, 2015

# ? Aug 5, 2015 09:17

MikeJF: Dec 20, 2003

Except Antiproton is the best.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 09:50

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Bloodly posted:

Meh. If I'm understanding right, it just means everyone 'in the know' is running Plasma. (...)

They actually "fixed" that a while back. The embassy console plasma damage boost only applies to non-weapon plasma damage now, so stuff like eject warp plasma or whatever. So every weapon is equally good now, except for antiproton which is more equal than the rest.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 12:14

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Fixed in the same sense that you take your dog to the vet to get "fixed" to avoid unwanted puppies.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 13:16

Morglon: Jan 13, 2010; Safe and sound, detached from reality.
Just like your posting.

Fixed in the same way they fixed the Neverwinter economy after all those zero day exploits that didn't ruin everything from the start, honest.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 14:40

DonDoodles: Aug 18, 2010; by general anime

DancingShade posted:

The height for me was the gassing of old drozana.

People screaming about their laptops melting down because of the particle effects

This. The gassing of old Droz was probably some of the best times I've had in this game, sadly, though I wasn't around for bridge of death. The DS9 changeling cleansing is a close second.

I also thought the system sounds thing was pretty fun cause pubbies were genuinely bewildered and frightened by all the red alerts, screaming, and ship explosion noises on ESD.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 15:01

Aleth: Aug 2, 2008; Pillbug

The Voth shockcannon barrage we had going on Droz was great for a few days, kept the place shaking constantly.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 15:09

g0del: Jan 9, 2001; Fun Shoe

Bloodly posted:

Meh. If I'm understanding right, it just means everyone 'in the know' is running Plasma. Which if anything, pigeonholes the players worse, even though being the Biggest Damage seems to be Plasma's thing what with all the boosters and things tied to it via the Romulans. Now if every rep(as a 'for instance') had a variant console and such(maybe Sci, maybe Eng) that did similar tricks, that would be something, but that's not very likely at this point.

I can appreciate not having one option(Plasma) be the One and Only, even if I can disagree with how it's been done.

Perhaps I am being too apologetic. But then, I've always used things like Tetryons and Polarons and other cheap and 'not-the-best'(Which makes them cheap in the first place).

Meh.

You're not understanding it right. Before the plasma-doping fix this spring, there was a weird interaction where the embassy science consoles would only add really high damage if you were running tactical +beam consoles (not the standard ones which add to a specific weapon type) and something other than plasma for weapons. When cryptic 'fixed' plasma-doping, they changed it so that the consoles added plasma explosions no matter what kind of weapons you're running. And the plasma explosions caused by epic consoles were really big, and when combined with a crith and critd boosting build (like a romulan tac) you could get insanely high crits. As in a single plasma explosion doing 130,000+ damage straight to hull.

This of course killed PVP again because that's enough damage to one-shot most player ships.

But I think Borticus killed it because it was really easy and required very little. Add epic plasma consoles and run BFaW, instantly add a bunch of DPS. You didn't need to change any other equipment or abilities, it was automatic. And as Asimo pointed out, it was making a bunch of science ships useful, and we can't have that.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 15:58

Technical Analysis: Nov 21, 2007; I got 99 problems but the British ain't one.

It was a way players could, for relatively cheap, make drat near any ship do decent enough damage for endgame content. We can't have that because we need them buying our next ship pack thinking it might boost their DPS even a little.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 16:08

TheCosmicMuffet: Jun 21, 2009; by Shine

Antiproton is what the catboat people think is cool. Don't use it. Even if it's better. Or maybe especially then.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 18:10

Technical Analysis: Nov 21, 2007; I got 99 problems but the British ain't one.

Just use whatever weapon you want. Go by color.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 18:12

MikeJF: Dec 20, 2003

TheCosmicMuffet posted:

Antiproton is what the catboat people think is cool. Don't use it. Even if it's better. Or maybe especially then.

Yeah, but Klingon Satan thinks antiproton is cool too.

Technical Analysis posted:

Go by color.

Polaron it is.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 18:42

Largepotato: Jan 18, 2007; Spurd.

Pink beams in beta were good fun too.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 18:57

TheCosmicMuffet: Jun 21, 2009; by Shine

I liked tachyon because of the wavy look and because I self-identify as a crystal spider monster.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 19:02

Infected: Oct 17, 2012; Salt Incarnate

Always TOS phasers for the screech sound effect.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 19:02

Soviet Commubot: Oct 22, 2008

RIP /powerhue, you were too beautiful for this world.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 19:04

g0del: Jan 9, 2001; Fun Shoe

Soviet Commubot posted:

RIP /powerhue, you were too beautiful for this world.

It's sad how much emergent gameplay Cryptic has removed over the years. No more pink beams, no more chain explosions over ESD, no more bridge of death. They ended killing NPCs on ESD/Qo'nos, and I'm pretty sure they stopped the D'Deridex console trick which made DS9 so fun. They even killed cover shields on Risa.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 19:14

TheCosmicMuffet: Jun 21, 2009; by Shine

Or, for example, the thing with the plasma consoles on science ships or whatever you guys were talking about.

Fake edit: Contraband farming still basically works, though.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 19:16

DonDoodles: Aug 18, 2010; by general anime

g0del posted:

It's sad how much emergent gameplay Cryptic has removed over the years. No more pink beams, no more chain explosions over ESD, no more bridge of death. They ended killing NPCs on ESD/Qo'nos, and I'm pretty sure they stopped the D'Deridex console trick which made DS9 so fun. They even killed cover shields on Risa.

Caved in to the disco ball opt-out, killed the snowball knockdown effect.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 19:24

DarkMalfunction: Sep 5, 2014

Going by looks, Chroniton Dual Beam Array wins every time.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 19:31

hakimashou: Jul 15, 2002; Upset Trowel

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow the adventures of Commander S Naomi Scott (Callsign: Concubine) at her public broadcast log, updated whenever she can be bothered.

^

A pubbie signature from elite dangerous forums.

Space and vermin, why are they connected?

# ? Aug 5, 2015 19:50

hakimashou: Jul 15, 2002; Upset Trowel

DonDoodles posted:

Caved in to the disco ball opt-out, killed the snowball knockdown effect.

All that stuff is just the funny emergent content.

They also killed spergy emergent content like console crafting and it's popular supply chain of strange/powered alien artifacts and rare particle traces.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 19:52

TheCosmicMuffet: Jun 21, 2009; by Shine

hakimashou posted:

Space and vermin, why are they connected?

Because the best way to make money in lowsec is ratting?

# ? Aug 5, 2015 20:02

Siets: Sep 19, 2006; by FactsAreUseless

I was browsing Twitch the other day to see what kind of numbers this game got. Not very high. I did however find a gem of a channel.

Was some dude in his 50's who was streaming STO. He had a webcam and a bluescreen set up to make it look like he was on the bridge of the Enterprise. Furthermore, on his stream, he seemed to be using an operating system that had been completely overhauled to be an actual LCARS interface. He would click through all kinds of nonsensical menus that weren't even labeled as anything more than random letters and numbers to get to various files that I assume he must have memorized in his head where and what they were. When he finally got around to playing STO, he just kind of walked around in silence in the social areas. Never said a word on his webcam. Never said a word in-game. Just walked around whatever space station he was at in silence. I stuck around for at least 10 minutes in the interest of science to see what the gently caress was going on. He never did anything else. It was a truly horrifying experience. :ohdear:

# ? Aug 5, 2015 20:07

DonDoodles: Aug 18, 2010; by general anime

Siets posted:

I was browsing Twitch the other day to see what kind of numbers this game got. Not very high. I did however find a gem of a channel.

Was some dude in his 50's who was streaming STO. He had a webcam and a bluescreen set up to make it look like he was on the bridge of the Enterprise. Furthermore, on his stream, he seemed to be using an operating system that had been completely overhauled to be an actual LCARS interface. He would click through all kinds of nonsensical menus that weren't even labeled as anything more than random letters and numbers to get to various files that I assume he must have memorized in his head where and what they were. When he finally got around to playing STO, he just kind of walked around in silence in the social areas. Never said a word on his webcam. Never said a word in-game. Just walked around whatever space station he was at in silence. I stuck around for at least 10 minutes in the interest of science to see what the gently caress was going on. He never did anything else. It was a truly horrifying experience.

Oh man. Do you have a name or link for this guy? An in-game @name or something?

# ? Aug 5, 2015 21:14

Siets: Sep 19, 2006; by FactsAreUseless

DonDoodles posted:

Oh man. Do you have a name or link for this guy? An in-game @name or something?

Unfortunately I did not follow his channel and I cannot remember his Twitch handle. I tried searching again just now but could not find it. When he was streaming I was his only viewer for the entire duration.

Also there is the moral quandary of handing his information over to this thread. It's one thing to pick on dumb pubbies which I enjoy and support, but based on what I saw of his stream I would feel terrible inside knowing that I might be at fault for enabling others to pick on someone who I feel is truly mentally challenged.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 21:32

TheCosmicMuffet: Jun 21, 2009; by Shine

Hey, easy does it, ok. I'm not 50 yet, but someday I will be. And when that happens, I will be too old for this grind.

MMOs are a young man's game.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 21:40

DonCorneo: Mar 6, 2008

Siets posted:

I was browsing Twitch the other day to see what kind of numbers this game got. Not very high. I did however find a gem of a channel.

Was some dude in his 50's who was streaming STO. He had a webcam and a bluescreen set up to make it look like he was on the bridge of the Enterprise. Furthermore, on his stream, he seemed to be using an operating system that had been completely overhauled to be an actual LCARS interface. He would click through all kinds of nonsensical menus that weren't even labeled as anything more than random letters and numbers to get to various files that I assume he must have memorized in his head where and what they were. When he finally got around to playing STO, he just kind of walked around in silence in the social areas. Never said a word on his webcam. Never said a word in-game. Just walked around whatever space station he was at in silence. I stuck around for at least 10 minutes in the interest of science to see what the gently caress was going on. He never did anything else. It was a truly horrifying experience.

http://www.twitch.tv/ridosaw/

I think this is who your referring to. He also multiboxes, ten accounts at a time, with all the characters named after The Addams Family and The Munsters. I watched him "solo" Crystalline Entity once. He also admitted to spending $300 on spaceships for his different accounts.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 22:04

super sweet best pal: Nov 18, 2009

Siets posted:

I was browsing Twitch the other day to see what kind of numbers this game got. Not very high. I did however find a gem of a channel.

Was some dude in his 50's who was streaming STO. He had a webcam and a bluescreen set up to make it look like he was on the bridge of the Enterprise. Furthermore, on his stream, he seemed to be using an operating system that had been completely overhauled to be an actual LCARS interface. He would click through all kinds of nonsensical menus that weren't even labeled as anything more than random letters and numbers to get to various files that I assume he must have memorized in his head where and what they were. When he finally got around to playing STO, he just kind of walked around in silence in the social areas. Never said a word on his webcam. Never said a word in-game. Just walked around whatever space station he was at in silence. I stuck around for at least 10 minutes in the interest of science to see what the gently caress was going on. He never did anything else. It was a truly horrifying experience.

You didn't take the opportunity to stream snipe?

# ? Aug 5, 2015 22:05

g0del: Jan 9, 2001; Fun Shoe

TheCosmicMuffet posted:

Or, for example, the thing with the plasma consoles on science ships or whatever you guys were talking about.

Fake edit: Contraband farming still basically works, though.

Nah, they killed the best ways of farming contraband too (orion slavers and AHK). Sure klanks can get some by doffing, but in the old days you could go to sleep and wake up to a half stack of contraband from the slavers.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 22:11

TheCosmicMuffet: Jun 21, 2009; by Shine

Killed-killeD? Because I was doing that at one point (Fleet D'Deridex d'dil) and then I heard they changed the numbers of times a whatever can affect a thing in a given amount of time, and I left it on overnight again, and yeah, it was slower, but it still basically worked alright. If I was more dedicated, I could have made a few more accounts and just kept it up.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 22:31

CrushedWill: Sep 27, 2012; Stand it like a man... and give some back

TheCosmicMuffet posted:

Because the best way to make money in lowsec is ratting?

I wish I could muster the effort necessary to log back into that game.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 22:38

g0del: Jan 9, 2001; Fun Shoe

TheCosmicMuffet posted:

Killed-killeD? Because I was doing that at one point (Fleet D'Deridex d'dil) and then I heard they changed the numbers of times a whatever can affect a thing in a given amount of time, and I left it on overnight again, and yeah, it was slower, but it still basically worked alright. If I was more dedicated, I could have made a few more accounts and just kept it up.

They've gone out of their way to make using AHK more difficult, and they put a timer on contraband from slavers making it much slower. I think you can get like 4 contra an hour now, though it's been a very long time since checked.

# ? Aug 5, 2015 23:05

Goat Pillager: Mar 1, 2013

g0del posted:

It's sad how much emergent gameplay Cryptic has removed over the years. No more pink beams, no more chain explosions over ESD, no more bridge of death. They ended killing NPCs on ESD/Qo'nos, and I'm pretty sure they stopped the D'Deridex console trick which made DS9 so fun. They even killed cover shields on Risa.

The dex console actually still does work in some areas. Such as sphere allied space or delta command space. Said console is now available to feds as well, maybe KDF too, via the exchange.

# ? Aug 6, 2015 08:02

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

You know how some of us keep saying this game was shittily coded and basically held together by spit and twine? Well..

Borticus, on reddit posted:

Borg Badness:

All Borg Ships have an ability called "Assimilate Ship" which players will recognize as the big "red borders on the screen" ability that mucks with power recharges and such. This ability was built in such a way that each tick was as expensive as creating an entire copy of your ship, complete with all ~300 powers a player ship possesses.. And each Borg Ship could do this as frequently as once every 6 seconds.

"Assimilate Ship" was recently rebuilt so that it no longer ... screws everything up. The only player-facing difference will be that if you destroy the ship using this on you, the effect will not linger for more than 6 seconds, whereas it used to run its full duration (up to 60sec) even if the caster was killed.

Crystalline Entity:

Y'know how certain abilities can trip that Re-Crystallize Buff off the CE, but only has that effect on this specific Map? That's because we were granting you an additional power effect in order to do that. And we were doing so every 1 sec. And it was being added to all "foes" of the CE on the entire map. And each time it did so, it was again just as expensive as creating an entire copy of your ship, complete with all ~300 powers a player ship possesses. Every second.

After a recent rework, it now only does this once every 5 seconds (1/5th the server load!), and only applies to Players thus reducing the impact by not attempting to add the effect to Torpedoes, Mines, Shuttles, Hangar Pets, etc. It also only refreshes every 5 seconds, instead of removing and re-applying, further reducing the server-side performance hit.

This does mean that Hangar Pets that use Tachyon Beam and such, will no longer strip Re-Crystallize buffs from the CE. We decided the trade-off is worth it.

Attack Pattern Beta:

Again, as in the previous two examples, one aspect of APB was being re-applied to players that used this power on a 1x/sec basis, which - with every tick - was that massively expensive transaction where it had to reload every single one of your powers.

This one was really tricky, and we actually had to create an entirely new type of Power just to facilitate reducing its server impact without altering its player-facing functionality. Suffice it to say, this ability can be used safely without making the servers weep. And, according to the internal testing we've been doing, there is absolutely no difference in the end-result performance of the ability, after the rebuild.

In fairness all of this is legacy stuff and a lot of it is basically in from launch and not the current dev team's fault, but holy crap. I'm positive it doesn't entirely explain the server situation now either since most of this crap was there for years and ran... as well as STO ever did, but the server lag the past month or three has been literally unplayable. And this is basic power skill stuff; look at this and think of how absolutely insane and broken every other piece of code in this lovely game must be.

# ? Aug 6, 2015 12:37

Morglon: Jan 13, 2010; Safe and sound, detached from reality.
Just like your posting.

That's just horrible. My understanding is that PWE has been pulling poo poo from Cryptic, it was mentioned in relation to man power but it wouldn't surprise me if they got rid of some hardware or didn't replace poo poo that broke.

# ? Aug 6, 2015 12:46

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Whatever percentage of server virtual machine space it runs on probably shrank a ton and only now are these fundamental issues coming to light since there is no longer any hardware overhead to absorb it.

# ? Aug 6, 2015 14:37

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# ? May 30, 2024 20:26

Lagomorphic: Apr 21, 2008; AKA: Orthonormal

They've also had a significant increase in the number of powers being reloaded every second since DR. The hackjob code that was "good enough" at launch was always going to be a problem once you try to build on it.

# ? Aug 6, 2015 15:16

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