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slifka
Team:  Rank: Main: Frown Level: 1687 Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:00 pm Posts: 23
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 Anni Augs for bases We are still using the same old antiquated T18 augs on T20 bases and having to deal with T21 and T22 ships which are outclassing the bases.
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| Wed Jun 18, 2014 9:35 am |
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yclepticon
Dev Team
Team:  Rank: Officer Main: yclept Level: 2002 Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:47 am Posts: 534
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Re: Anni Augs for bases I've reproduced for you a post I recently wrote regarding our plans for rebalancing bases. If Annihilator base augs make an appearance, it will be at least a uni after the following changes are made so that people have a chance to adjust. yclepticon wrote: The replacement cost of base gear pieces can add up if you lose a bunch of them at once. This is why I plan to put in affordable alternatives to current base gear, operating at 80-90% power but much more easily replaced. Players who are on a budget or who are not extremely confident in their defense configuration will be able to use cheap, replaceable gear instead of the current stuff. This even includes things like Hydroponics and tier 3 extractors (although in the current plan the cheap versions will be sticky so you can't pack them at uni end).
To help new players get a feel for what a properly geared base looks like, I'm even planning to put in a line of base kits that come decked out with lower tech gear (and even some rudimentary augs). So for an appropriate price you could receive a T16 kit that comes with full T14 base gear pre-equipped, for example. It wouldn't be nearly as good as a customized base but it'd be a lot better than what most new players come up with on their first few tries.
I am also reworking the balance between Station Mastery and the other trade skills. Without actually changing how strong Mastery bases are, I am moving some of its bonuses to the base gear itself, which brings non-Mastery bases closer in performance. Instead of doing 7x more DPS, Mastery bases will do more like 2x DPS over non-Mastery bases with the same gear. When you consider that there are usually at least three times as many industry kits as defense kits in a galaxy, this means that players (especially those with less resources) will get a nice bump in galaxy strength from this.
Finally, I am scaling the strength of all bases up considerably. The current draft would increase base DPS and Shield Regen by a factor of 2.5 and Shield Bank by a factor of 10. I also plan to further buff some of the lower tech base gear that's currently pretty useless. While these numbers are subject to change, the point is that PvB will become more challenging. There have been many recent posts from players who simply don't have confidence that they can build a PvB-secure galaxy anymore. While a minority still claim that it's possible, clearly the strength of bases has eroded far too much compared to players.
_________________
Hi, I'm Anil, a long-time player turned developer. You may know me in-game as enkelin. I am Star Sonata's lead content developer, which means that I run weekly dev meetings and make sure that any proposed changes to the game receive proper review before going live.
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| Wed Jun 18, 2014 11:05 am |
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urzaserra256
Team:  Rank: Peon Main: urzaserra2 Level: 4871 Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2005 1:34 am Posts: 673
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Re: Anni Augs for bases The cheap gear even if not as effective and sticky will be a big deal, even the cheap extractors will be nice. Theres been times ive found good commods in isolated galaxies that i would like to extract but the cost of station gear/extractors turns me off from extracting, same with colonies. This combined with the prebuilt stations would be really nice, maybe we will see more non team space exploited and maybe even fought over?
I agree that making a galaxie resonably secure against pvb is a problem, right now i have no confidence that i could without spending billions of credits per galaxy and still not be confident.
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| Wed Jun 18, 2014 11:13 am |
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slifka
Team: Rank: Main: Frown Level: 1687 Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:00 pm Posts: 23
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Re: Anni Augs for bases Thanks yclepticon for reposting that, us working folks have a hard time keeping up with a lot of stuff. While those sound like good steps, it just seems to me that it would be easier to just make a set of Anni Aug BP's that say are made from 1 achilles and 5 adonis ( or whatever, could be any combo of them ) and make them available in FM for the first Uni, or some special gal where killing the boss drops a set and your locked out for a week.
just my thoughts
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| Wed Jun 18, 2014 6:24 pm |
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yclepticon
Dev Team
Team: Rank: Officer Main: yclept Level: 2002 Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:47 am Posts: 534
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Re: Anni Augs for bases It might be easier in terms of amount of dev time required, but I am not interested in a bandaid solution. Going by the current power curve on base augmenters, base DPS would only go up by 15-20% with this change. That is nowhere close to how much needs to be rebalanced in order to bring PvB back to where we want it. And yes, I am aware that DPS is not the only stat that matters but this example makes my point clear.
_________________
Hi, I'm Anil, a long-time player turned developer. You may know me in-game as enkelin. I am Star Sonata's lead content developer, which means that I run weekly dev meetings and make sure that any proposed changes to the game receive proper review before going live.
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| Wed Jun 18, 2014 6:57 pm |
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uhmari
Team:  Rank: Director Main: Uhmari Level: 430 Joined: Sun May 25, 2014 2:18 pm Posts: 256
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Re: Anni Augs for bases *cough* ... Rework database... *cough*....
Sign, if only the newbie devs would listen...
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| Thu Jun 19, 2014 11:05 am |
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biggee531
Team:  Rank: Director Main: Biggee Level: 3017 Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:27 pm Posts: 659
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Re: Anni Augs for bases uhmari wrote: *cough* ... Rework database... *cough*....
Sign, if only the newbie devs would listen... You're pretty much asking for a forum ban at this point, but that's probably what you actually want so that you can post on your blog "look at the admin abuse in this game!!!!".
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uhmari wrote: When i look at uhmari, I can see clearly the problems in it
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| Thu Jun 19, 2014 11:08 am |
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lights out
Main: lights out
Level: 66
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:59 pm
Posts: 93
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Re: Anni Augs for bases biggee531 wrote: uhmari wrote: *cough* ... Rework database... *cough*....
Sign, if only the newbie devs would listen... You're pretty much asking for a forum ban at this point, but that's probably what you actually want so that you can post on your blog "look at the admin abuse in this game!!!!". why argue? you know just as everyone else does (that's not retarded ofc), that bases have needed a rework since t21 came in and the power levels of players have risen
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The Super Asshole
Bigger asshole than Wizard, The Voomy One, Blake/Pimp, Fruits, Shadowblade, Enkelin, Tobal, Hitler and O.J. Simpson combined
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| Thu Jun 19, 2014 11:12 am |
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uhmari
Team: Rank: Director Main: Uhmari Level: 430 Joined: Sun May 25, 2014 2:18 pm Posts: 256
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Re: Anni Augs for bases Quote: that bases have needed a rework since t21 came in and the power levels of players have risen Exactly  Power curve is destroying the game.
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| Thu Jun 19, 2014 11:13 am |
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biggee531
Team: Rank: Director Main: Biggee Level: 3017 Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:27 pm Posts: 659
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Re: Anni Augs for bases lights out wrote: why argue? you know just as everyone else does (that's not retarded ofc), that bases have needed a rework since t21 came in and the power levels of players have risen "Reworking the database" is not constructive, neither is insulting developers. I'm not arguing against the idea that bases are underpowered at the moment. I know they are underpowered, but it isn't because the base system is inherently wrong; it's because there wasn't new base content added alongside T21 and T22 ship content. "Reworking the database" is drivel and is essentially a troll comment. uhmari wrote: Exactly Power curve is destroying the game. The power curve isn't an issue if everything travels along the curve at the same time, but bases got left behind while player assets were pushed forward.
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uhmari wrote: When i look at uhmari, I can see clearly the problems in it
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| Thu Jun 19, 2014 11:17 am |
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lights out
Main: lights out
Level: 66
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:59 pm
Posts: 93
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Re: Anni Augs for bases biggee531 wrote: The power curve isn't an issue if everything travels along the curve at the same time, but bases got left behind while player assets were pushed forward. then again t21 left a huge power gab between t21 and t20, if t21 was nerfed or all other tech levels beefed to be in-line in the way of scaling power at the moment SS is like stairs, you have really low steps at the bottom, then the step for t20 gets really higher, then the step for t21 is rivaling a skyscraper
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The Super Asshole
Bigger asshole than Wizard, The Voomy One, Blake/Pimp, Fruits, Shadowblade, Enkelin, Tobal, Hitler and O.J. Simpson combined
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| Thu Jun 19, 2014 11:30 am |
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uhmari
Team: Rank: Director Main: Uhmari Level: 430 Joined: Sun May 25, 2014 2:18 pm Posts: 256
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Re: Anni Augs for bases Quote: at the moment SS is like stairs, you have really low steps at the bottom, then the step for t20 gets really higher, then the step for t21 is rivaling a skyscraper Exactly, and that is because of the power of items, which means they all need to be brought into line with each other. Its easier to start from stratch with the current values as a referencing point, then to nit-pick at it. Plus it will give the database the ability to be balanced and dealt with later, its sort like the improvements to questing when the swap from 1 > 2 took place. Instead of managing 10 levels of 1 items (Ethereal 1,2,3, etc) you do Ethereal 1, and a "Each tech level upgrade give this cost, range , etc improvement). Such improvements to the system will make the game easier to balance, make items more unique, and make all weapons viable for their "Effect" as opposed to "power", thus making the game about "unlocking options" not "power".
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| Thu Jun 19, 2014 11:33 am |
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biggee531
Team: Rank: Director Main: Biggee Level: 3017 Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:27 pm Posts: 659
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Re: Anni Augs for bases The biggest flaw with your argument is that without chasing after power in an MMO, the immersion or reason to play seriously suffers. You have shit retention rates in games that have progression systems based on function over power. FireFall is one of them. You need enough reasons to continue investing time into a game to counter the lack of feeling more powerful if you're going to focus mainly on a different feel opposed to feeling more powerful.
That kind of system is usually reserved for casual games or games that can afford high turnover rates, like FPS games or casual games that rely on multiplayer for fun factor. Building it as a core of an MMO is extremely difficult to do and might not pay off if your game doesn't have enough other shit to keep people feeling like they're progressing.
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uhmari wrote: When i look at uhmari, I can see clearly the problems in it
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| Thu Jun 19, 2014 11:47 am |
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uhmari
Team: Rank: Director Main: Uhmari Level: 430 Joined: Sun May 25, 2014 2:18 pm Posts: 256
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Re: Anni Augs for bases Actually, Player bleeding is done because of a loss of immersion, not power creep. This is a common mistake that people make. League of legends, and many mob based games prove this to be the case... As long as there is cooperation and competitive they game will have extremely low player bleeding (ie people wont leave).
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| Thu Jun 19, 2014 11:55 am |
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yclepticon
Dev Team
Team: Rank: Officer Main: yclept Level: 2002 Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:47 am Posts: 534
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Re: Anni Augs for bases This discussion has been derailed. Please move on to a new topic if you wish to continue talking about power creep in general.
_________________
Hi, I'm Anil, a long-time player turned developer. You may know me in-game as enkelin. I am Star Sonata's lead content developer, which means that I run weekly dev meetings and make sure that any proposed changes to the game receive proper review before going live.
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| Thu Jun 19, 2014 12:02 pm |
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