Topics

16

Suggestions Corner / 4 easy fixes to make cRPG better.

« on: October 17, 2013, 02:41:56 am »

Ok, so I've thought up 4 things that should be easy/quick to implement that I think would make c-rpg even better. Most of them have been mentioned at some point, but I would like to remind the devs about it, and hear you opinions.

1. LEADERSHIP CHAT

Give the person with the highest Win:Loss ratio on each team a special Leadership coloured team-chat. (Like, purple or bright green)
With this he can issue commands, and the players would be free to follow them or not. One can argue that players would refuse to follow etc, but I think this would only be true in the beginning. Once a commander has developed trust with the players and an outstanding W:L ratio people will start following him. If they will not follow a commander, his W:L ratio will naturally worsen and another one will be no.1

Of course, players that can "carry teams alone" will have an advantage, but I think it's ok if the commander is also a hero! Over the long run though, autobalance will take care of his W:L ratio, and only his commands will be there to shift the balance back. (A cool additional feature would be that the commander could give away command to the next on the list if he has to go etc. )

Reason:
I do believe we can have tactical battles like in the old days when there was proximity based XP. Often one could see the effectiveness of charges and interesting teamplay going on. I think this would also lead to an awareness of teamplay among the players that we haven't seen much of yet.

How?:
Start to track the win loss ratio's of all players, the only true measure of their battlefield effectiveness and teamwork. Each MAP nominate the leaders of both teams after 10 seconds of the first round. *Would be awesome if it was a full screen message to both teams. Players should be able to tick a box on the website if they would like to be leaders.

To me this doesn't look like a lot of work for a dev, and could be worth testing in c-RPG before M:BG anyway. Ozin? you busy?

2. REMOVE HX
One can ask a moral question here: Do the class substract or add to the overall "Fun For Most" of cRPG?  I think HX leads to most fun for the HX, and is generally too detrimental to other classes. He also doesn't fill a vital need on the battlefield that can't be replaced by HA, which is a more active class with higher shots per minute, lower accuracy and lower damage, though probably higher dps. Point is, the HA needs to sacrifice more than the HX in terms of points and armor.

In general, I think most players agree they are lame. Lame to fight and lame to die from. They also seem a bit lame to play, but what do I know. Not everyone likes to melee.. Overall I think they are detrimental to c-rpg, as well as OP.

HX battle features:

(click to show/hide)

* High accuracy
* High missile speed
* Speed bonus to ranged, aka very high potential damage
* choose battles
* Bumping, aka mad powerful teamwork ability
* Bump shooting
* Bump slashing
* Slashing with speed bonus
* Armor doesn't slow down
* Hold fire indefinitely
* Cav+Melee+Ranged in 1
* Ninja cav

+ certain features that slow down the game:  Slow reload, leads to low risk, extended playtime. Primary weapon unsuited to kill aware enemies. All these leads to a likelyhood of unnecessarily delaying rounds.

How?
Simple, remove reloading of crossbows on horse in the weapon attributes.

3. GIVE RANGED FULL POINTS FOR HITS
Lately I've seen ranged with staggering K:D ratios but low points. I think a buff to their points would do two things: 1. Give them valour, 2. show everyone a more accurate estimation of their effectiveness on the leaderboards. I think archer-hits do slightly more damage per hit than melee strikes in most cases, so why not give them full points for it?

How?
I'm sure devs knows how to do this! probably just a parameter somewhere and thus a 3 minute job.

4. INCREASE CROSSBOW WEIGHT
Skilled crossbowmen already drop their ranged weapons for melee. I think this is a reasonable tradeoff for their ranged abilities. They can always pick them up again. Besides, many bows are already heavier than xbows, something which doesn't make any sense realistically.. (If that's an argument) I also think it fits nicely thematically, what crossbowman would fight with his heavy crossbow on his back?

17

Suggestions Corner / Give award for winning "The Map". XP? Gold? Could be incentive for teamplay.

« on: September 06, 2013, 01:55:15 pm »

So here's how many maps play out:

Team 1 wins a couple of rounds, then get stomped for the rest of the map. I sense this might have to do with a sneaky feeling of defeatism hovering in the back of players minds. Very often people just want the map to be over once they loose their X.

Often I find myself being motivated by some kind of honor to win the last round if the map goes 3:3, and I think this motivation could be strengthened by giving some kind of reward mechanics.

My suggestion is to give another incentive for who wins the map, that is the team that wins the last round before map change.

Ideas:

1. Give a text shoutout to the team that wins the map that could be like:  RED TEAM WINS THE MAP. (OR GREEN TEAM LOST THE MAP/BATTLE)
2. Give a small bonus of XP, multi or Gold to the players on the map-winning team.

I believe this idea would create a higher goal other than players personal Multi, as the team SHARES a long term goal.
I believe this could lead to more and better teamplay.

18

General Off Topic / Small favour, need a rare subtitle for Der Zauberberg.

« on: May 27, 2013, 02:24:49 am »

May I ask this wonderful community?

I wasn't able to find it online, but it might be included in torrents found at rare film sites like Karagarga or PassThePopcorn.

So I need english subtitles for:

"Der Zauberberg" aka. "The Magic Mountain" from 1982 directed by: Hans W. Geissendörfer

So if anyone bothers to do a quick search I owe you one.. I only need the subs, I have the film.

PM me if you find it! Ty!

t

19

Suggestions Corner / Have regular Double XP events on Sundays.

« on: May 13, 2013, 01:00:39 pm »

Title says it all really.

Could be a good way to lure old players back in the game

It's not that a double xp Sunday is suddenly going to make a lot of players lvl 35 and 36 either. It's also not a very aboozable for the XP farmers. I'd think they have other methods.

What you think?

20

Suggestions Corner / Democracy now! Set up balance and equipment committee by players, for players.

« on: February 28, 2013, 10:22:41 am »

So here's a crazy idea

Since I believe that shaking up cRPG now and then is a good thing, not a bad thing, keeping the mod and community alive, here is my idea:  (And it would take away workload from the devs after a small initial period of teaching and adjusting!)

* To create a group of 3 players on Election that are responsible for balance changes and introducing new equipment to cRPG.

* Devs would teach 2 capable, stable and trustable membesr of the community HOW to implement these changes. These persons cannot be in the committee, as they are simply doing as the comittee decides. These people must be technically savvy and have the power to reject item additions based on technical and aesthetical grounds. These 2 people are simply the doers, without any balance power. Whenever 1 becomes inactive, the remaining one can teach a new one.

I suggest a self governing comitee of 3 standing players and 3 backups.

It would work like this:

(Suggestion for a charter)

1. All members are on Election every 6 months.  (to keep people motivated enough, but still stable and long enough to get things done)
2. Any member can Veto a balance or equipment change. (To make sure the changes are small and conservative)
3. If anyone becomes inactive, the backup will take his/hers place, or if backup is unavailable, there will be a new election.
4. Any changes are publicized every 1st of each month, and implemented 1 month later. (Months warning before any change)
5. At all time, at least 1 member should belong to NA and 1 member to EU. (Different metagame) There cannot be more than 1 member from a single clan.
6. The committee should strive to have good communications with the players. (Perhaps have a sub forum)
7. The goal of the committee is to make cRPG more fair, better, more alive, and to relieve devs of workload.

Asking devs as much as players here, what do you think? Bring in your ideas and additions. Anyone schooled in making charters here?

21

Game Balance Discussion / Make prices of weapons, armor a factor the latest market prices.

« on: January 06, 2013, 12:57:41 am »

(click to show/hide)

I think I have proposed this one before.. but I think it was before the market appeared.

Thus reflecting their popularity and counterbalancing their eventual OP-ness.

I'm not a communist. I don't believe that Paul the Teknokrat and Fasader the unbalancer can ever guess the perfect pricing of a weapon or piece of armor. They might come pretty close to fair play by doing weapon stat adjustments, but the actual value of a weapon or armor depends on the current and ever-changing metagame.

How does it work? A crude example:  (Should average prices of the last 30 days)

- Let's pretend Danish Greatsword has fallen down to from 1mill average to 750. Upkeep of the weapon will fall down to a 3 quarters. DGS users have more money to put into armor.
- At the same time Longsword has suddenly surged in popularity and is now going for 1.5 up from 750. Longsword users pay more upkeep.

* Now.. a smart ass player has realised that having a LONG weapons is not so important because of the decline in DGS users and found the Long Iron Mace at 500k suddenly very viable. He has great success with it while paying pityfull upkeep. Until one day the metagame shifts so much the Long Iron Mace becomes highly sought after and the price surges up to 1mill. So does his upkeep.  (or not, keep reading)

Many of the complaints against this idea were that upkeep becomes more unpredictable, but this can easily be rectified. What if your upkeep for a weapon gets locked at the moment of purchase?

What will probably happen with this idea in place, is that less sought after items become cheaper, and players will have an incentive to try new weapon and armor combos. Very heavy armor will probably become cheaper too as the consensus is that it's not really that good right?

And we will have fewer Kuyak clones.. As the perfect upkeep+performance hole might be shifted around.

For the record.. Ninjas like me would probably have to pay the most for this idea, but I don't mind..

Eventually, upkeep of items will be closer to their actual demand and thus have a price more true to their battlefield value. (And pretty things cost more too.. )

22

Historical Discussion / Awesome stories and good reads.

« on: November 15, 2012, 06:44:31 am »

Anyone here know about great historical stories or interesting characters? I thought we could make a thread here.

I'll start:

18y old Norwegian King who went on a crusade to the holy land in y1107:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Crusade

23

General Discussion / My last post on the matter. (Please do something about Balance.) nvm patch out!

« on: October 27, 2012, 04:46:03 am »

Dear devs.

Please nerf Archers, Xbows and Cav.

Battle is nearly unplayable at the moment. The amount of the above mentioned classes has made infantry either flock to Siege, quit the mod, or joined the Cav and Archer zombie horde. It is a vicious circle growing stronger every day 1 infantry player quits/transforms.

We are loosing players fast on battle, and it seems to be mostly infantry we are loosing..

It is high time to set the 2 most boring, skill-less classes back in the back-seat where they belong, and balance the mod primarily for INFANTRY.

If you are out of imagination:

(click to show/hide)

* Nerf cav maneuver + Lance damage.  (Not too hard nerfs, with taste)
* Rework the bows, and nerf the agi-archers damage/make str-archer viable. (Make STR archer do as much damage as the agi-archer does now.)
* Buff shorter 2h+pole as longer weapons are much more powerful outside of duel.

Because we don't have that many players left, and many of them are cav and archers (!) we should give free respecs with the changes.

Balancing is a continuous process that is only finished until players/metagame develops and becomes stale. (Like now) This is when we need active balancers with fresh eyes to take a look and see what can make gameplay better.

Please hire some active balancers if Paul can't be bothered.. (i.ex Tydeus if he wants)

EDIT: Yeah I know I will get heat for this, because.. surprise surprise, eventually only cav and archers will be here to lobby for their classes!

24

Game Balance Discussion / Could we please have some statistics?

« on: October 19, 2012, 09:42:53 pm »

I would like to know what classes are most efficient when it comes down to K:D ratio in battle and for siege.

I know this wouldn't tell the whole story, since players of different skill levels choose different classes.. Perhaps we could also look at what generation players are and what classes they choose to play.

Even what exact weapons are the most popular, or K:D ratios connected with weapons would be interesting.

This could give us some clues as to what is really going on in cRPG, in stead of all these undocumented whine threads.

Give us some ammo!

25

Strategus General Discussion / Idea for solution to powerblocks forming + Drama potential!

« on: October 11, 2012, 12:28:25 am »

The problem we all know. Lack of real action in strat because powerblocks are building up, none are willing to wage an all out war in fear that a 3rd party or fragile alliances will break. My theory is that if factions had good ways to hurt each other without going all out/identifying themselves, they would do so.

Such a setup would open the gates of hell when it comes to who to trust, and who not to trust. Situations could quickly become unbearable, and force factions to go to all out war.

Idea is simple:

Allow clans or factions to create "secret" or black armies for backstabbing purposes

*To the enemy it would be impossible/hard to identify the owners of that army.
* Perhaps the combatants inside the army should also be secret, or it would often be a dead giveaway.
* Perhaps such armies should be harder/more expensive to maintain, relative to a normal army.

Other ways to sabotage for each other without going for all out wars.
Don't have so many ideas here, but paying to sabotage cities etc. could be an element here.

Peace is just too easy in strat!

It is carebear by nature, everyone can see who is attacking, everyone can see who is participating in battles. It needs to be dirtier to loosen up.

26

Suggestions Corner / Give free untradable loompoints to new players.

« on: September 21, 2012, 03:21:42 am »

To get more new players up to speed with the rest of the field who has all the loompoints they need.

The learning curve for a new player has never been been steeper than now.

* Skill levels are higher on average than they used to be, as mostly hardcore/old-timers are active.
* Those same players have all the looms they need.
* Because of the above, most players have 32+ characters.

I suggest 2 loompoints. Then they would have some motivation to get their items masterworked too.

Discuss. Preferably in light of less and less people on the servers..

(Of course the items loomed like this, should not be tradeable either, or it would lead to instant abooze.)

27

cRPG Technical problems / Thomeks brutal test texture pack. Let me know how it works for you!

« on: July 26, 2012, 06:01:47 pm »

This solved the problems I had.

I brutally reduced all the crpg textures to 25% in height and width. Effectively making the 16 times smaller.

I feel I got a more stable game and performance boost as well. The in-game looks of things are still more or less the same, as I always played on the smallest texture setting in dx7.

I noticed that some textures were absurdly huge as well. 4000x4000 anyone? Could this be a culprit to performance degradation for some players?

In any case, try it out on your own risk!

1. Backup your textures folder: modules/crpg/textures
2. unzip:  https://dl.dropbox.com/u/486399/Textures.zip
3. replace the crpg textures folder.

Beware, even Kajas loading screens are 1/4th the size! haven't bothered to replace them, but you can take original sizes from your backup if you wish.

Let me know in this thread how it works for you.

28

cRPG Technical problems / 0 Zero ping.

« on: July 23, 2012, 04:05:58 pm »

I have greatly fluctuating ping depending on circumstances beyond my control.

Suddenly all the servers are telling me I have 0 zero ping..

I see my ping to them in the server list, but this is never accurate.

Any networking experts or people who know some remedy to this problem?

My crazy setup is:

ISP -> wifi router -> Alfa AwusXXX connected to a mac mini g4, internet sharing -> Ethernet Cat5 -> to Macbook running win7.

Router in DMZ mode for my alfa-g4macmini, all firewalls off, both on the g4 and win7.

29

Suggestions Corner / Chamber with fist causes knockdown and/or dropped weapon.

« on: July 10, 2012, 02:10:10 am »

cmp! Please

Saw poop get out of hairy situations today chambering with his fist. Well he eventually got killed on the second swing, but he shouldn't.
It just wasn't right.

I thought it would be a cool mechanic to add. It's not that unrealistic that someone would close in and somehow wrench the sword from a combatant, or knock him down.

Let's say you chamber a side swing and the opponent looses his weapon to the ground, if you fist-chamber an overhead or thrust you "pull" him/her to the ground similar to knockdown *maybe add a bit of the cav slide animation? Direct weapon stealing would be a bit too gimmicky in my opinion, but one could always pick up the opponents wep from the ground.

It would make it slightly risky to attack someone unarmed, or one could switch to unarmed combat with a real benefit.

Isn't this what you are looking for to make melee deeper? People falling or loosing their weapons on the battlefield probably happened all the time, so there is also a realism argument here.

30

Game Balance Discussion / Cav, Greatswords and bundle of stickss mod.

« on: July 01, 2012, 11:02:59 pm »

This is the current metagame of cRPG.

1. People need cav defense so they take as long wep as possible.

2. These are mostly greatswords and other long polearms.

3. People that don't want to be a GS user go ranged in some form.

FIX:

a. Reduce cav efficiency/make it harder to do.
b. Buff shorter weapons / nerf longer ones. (People complain the game is slow in heavy kuyak and DGS.. It's not slow, your characters are.
c. Less ranged, because more varied playstyles become viable and fun. (as in even the most hardcore archer eventually realizes manual blocking and fighting is more fun, if they don't have technical/ping problems)