Topic: Spare parts on EW  (Read 2244 times)

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Offline FPF-DieHard

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Spare parts on EW
« on: May 09, 2006, 09:03:27 pm »
Any chance of getting these lowered to something reasonable?   30 Spares and a cruiser will make PvP a joke.
Who'd thunk that Star-castling was the root of all evil . . .


Offline Herr Burt

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Re: Spare parts on EW
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2006, 10:44:51 pm »
Any chance of getting these lowered to something reasonable?   30 Spares and a cruiser will make PvP a joke.

It's possible that this could happen, since I'd intended to do it originally and somehow didn't get it done in the final shiplist.  (Grrr!)

What are your suggestions for what they should be reduced to?  What numbers of spare parts on the ships, and what number in the shiplist to make that happen?

I can take a poll, and if the players like the idea then we could put it in.  I'd do this since it was part of my original concept for the server.  But since this is a midserver change (even if it is one I meant to make before we went live) I won't force it on the campaign if players don't want it.

I agree though, it would make PvP much bettr if you didn't have 30 spare parts.

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Offline Riskyllama

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Re: Spare parts on EW
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2006, 11:13:23 pm »
30 parts does allow for some pretty extended engine doubling.
Everything is sweetened by risk. ~Alexander Smith

Offline Dizzy

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Re: Spare parts on EW
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2006, 12:37:55 am »

I can take a poll, and if the players like the idea then we could put it in. 

Nah, just do it. Like you said, it was already planned. You cant let polls dictate the course of your server. The weight of it not being changed more negatively impacts the server than if it were. If you had to reason it out, that reason outweighs any to leave it as is. ;)

Offline Barack Beard

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Re: Spare parts on EW
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2006, 02:17:17 am »
Even with 30 spares getting blown up by ai missions with frustrating regularity. 

Offline Dizzy

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Re: Spare parts on EW
« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2006, 03:55:01 am »
Thats because u rnt arming ur probe! I always make sure mine is charged...  ;D

Offline Lieutenant_Q

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Re: Spare parts on EW
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2006, 09:21:02 am »
I haven't been blown up yet.  ;D  I had to run away once... those R-FLGa4s are quite a surprise when you aren't expecting them to drop a Plasma Frieghter!? as their Pseudo Fighter!
"Your mighty GDI forces have been emasculated, and you yourself are a killer of children.  Now of course it's not true.  But the world only believes what the media tells them to believe.  And I tell the media what to believe, its really quite simple." - Kane (Joe Kucan) Command & Conquer Tiberium Dawn (1995)

Offline Bonk

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Re: Spare parts on EW
« Reply #7 on: May 10, 2006, 10:07:35 am »
I haven't been killed by AI yet either... as usual with Herr Burt's servers you just have to think a little more (why I like them).

What are your suggestions for what they should be reduced to?  What numbers of spare parts on the ships, and what number in the shiplist to make that happen?

Damage Control column.

A Damage Control value of 2 corresponds to a 10 spares maximum.

My usual implementation of DieHard's spares formula is to copy the Damage Control column to the first column in a new workbook in excel, in the next column I use this formula: =IF(A3="","",IF(ROUNDUP(0.5*A3,0)-1>2,ROUNDUP(0.5*A3,0)-1,2)) and copy it down the list, then I copy the second column and paste it to the third column as values, then copy that column into the destination shiplist overwriting the existing Damage Control column.

This will provide all ships a minimum of 10 spares, leave currently blank entries blank and reduce the damage control of larger ships according to ROUNDUP(0.5*DC,0)-1.

See the attached worksheet which does this for the current EW client side shiplist. (third column is the one to use to overwrite the values in the shiplist) If you use this to overwrite the serverside damage control column, be sure to delete the number of rows from the top that correspond to the number of donors removed first.

This only needs to be done serverside, but I usually do it for both on my custom servers so I can use the same shiplist serverside and clientside (using the appropriate donation scheme) However, for The Forge and UAW I have only done it serverside so that the clientside lists out in the wild can be used to login. (the server stores this info in the damage blob for each ship serverside - so it does not matter what the client list says... I'm not 100% about mission AI though... I think it is generated from the serverside list too)

Sound about right DH?

Clear as mud HB?  ;D

EDIT: though I think perhaps the adjustment should be a little less radical for pirates, considering the cocaine rule... I've been finding lots of spares pretty handy... however, there's lots of spares floating about on the AI ships free for the plunderin! Arrrr!  ;D
« Last Edit: May 10, 2006, 10:38:05 am by Bonk »

Offline Herr Burt

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Re: Spare parts on EW
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2006, 10:46:11 am »


Ooooh!  Thanks for the worksheet, Bonk.  I wasn't looking forward to doing this line-by-line.



EDIT: though I think perhaps the adjustment should be a little less radical for pirates, considering the cocaine rule... I've been finding lots of spares pretty handy... however, there's lots of spares floating about on the AI ships free for the plunderin! Arrrr!

Yes, that was my original philosophy, to encourage the "atmosphere" of a pirate plundering and living off the land.   I wanted to reduce the number of spares, make them a little more expensive than normal, and leave all those cargo boxes floating out there for pilfering.  (They're handy for saving money, and for when you need more spares *during* the battle.)  I just dropped the ball in getting the number reduced on the shiplist.

I've got a stack of legal paper all written over (diagonally, of course!) with design thoughts on this server, all scratched out, re-written, and overwritten.  It was *supposed* to be a nice check-off list.    I've really got to learn to be more organized.  ;D

-Herr Burt
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Offline Bonk

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Re: Spare parts on EW
« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2006, 10:54:37 am »
Perhaps a formula more like:
=IF(A3="","",IF(A3<3,A3,IF(ROUNDUP(0.6*A3,0)-1>3,ROUNDUP(0.6*A3,0)-1,3)))
would be appropriate then...

Will leave blank entries blank, leave values of 1 and 2 as is and otherwise provide a minimum of 3 or ROUNDUP(0.6*DC,0)-1 for larger values.

Dontcha just love nested Excel IF_worksheet_functions? Ack!  ;)
« Last Edit: May 10, 2006, 11:19:10 am by Bonk »

Offline Bonk

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Re: Spare parts on EW
« Reply #10 on: May 10, 2006, 11:43:26 am »
Also, changing this in the shiplist now will not affect ships currently owned by players, as that information is already stored in the damage blob of their ships in the ship table.

This will only affect new characters or ships purchased form the yards after the change to the shiplist is made. To affect ships already owned by players you'd have to edit all the player owned ships in the db, which would be a real bitch.

So I'll be keeping my starting ship for a while yet... ;)

Offline Riskyllama

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Re: Spare parts on EW
« Reply #11 on: May 10, 2006, 11:25:51 pm »
has this been changed now?
Everything is sweetened by risk. ~Alexander Smith

Offline Herr Burt

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Re: Spare parts on EW
« Reply #12 on: May 10, 2006, 11:27:06 pm »
has this been changed now?

Yuppers, matey.  The King will have his every penny.

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Offline deadmansix

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Re: Spare parts on EW
« Reply #13 on: May 13, 2006, 04:40:33 pm »

OK with the freighters from the depths of hell, 10 parts are in fact way to low, given the fact that the damn things can travel 31 and a pirate cant there is no way even if you have every thing turned off to get away also if you pick up the parts you don't get to keep them so where is the advantage in that as you lose what ever you pick up over 10, seriously 10 for the missions are way to low.