Topic: Re: One Happy Kitty - D.O.E.

[jimmi7769]

I still can't get the Fed drogues to do much of anything.  Though they to serve as a decoy which Rom AI just love to unload their Plasma on(all of it) which is nice.

Also, on a planetary assault I had a Pirate Cruiser added to my fleet which was a droner.  I remember this had been disscussed as a help for the Lyrans in planetary assaults.  Is this a carryover from using the Lyran UI??  Or does everyone get this??

 

[FatherTed]

Had a mission in neutral space and got a Lyran CL as an AI ally. Bad craziness.  

[NuclearWessels]

Quote:


Also, on a planetary assault I had a Pirate Cruiser added to my fleet which was a droner.  I remember this had been disscussed as a help for the Lyrans in planetary assaults.  Is this a carryover from using the Lyran UI??  Or does everyone get this??

 

Ick and yup - that'd be a side effect of using the Lyran slot for Feds ... there is also a possiblity that some of the defense missions will generate Lyran shipyards etc for the Federation player to defend

dave
 

[Kortez]

I have had a different experience.  The average matchup in my frigate is a CLC.  So far I have managed to get off the map, once with 4 power and another with 5 power.  Then I get to spend all my money on repairs.

I am not happy with the matchups.
 

[Maxillius]

Me too.  A WER will spawn a Heavy Command Cruiser (CB or CCH), a SKE will spawn a CL+, but a BHR will spawn a FFB???  If I can get my Battlehawk back I'll pp farm in that.

[FPF_TraceyG]

Can people make a note of which missions they are in, when they are having mission matching problems.
The patrol missions I wrote use BPV as a base for generating AI ships with a random modifier and a difficulty modifier.
Dave's Missions are similar I think.

[J'inn]

That's weird.   In fighting the Gorn I have had fair match ups.    FFs draw FFs (an occasional DD).  DDs draw DDs and an occassional CL.

Granted the DDs and CL drawn have been of the tougher variety.  
 

[NuclearWessels]

Just got on this morning, but I've found the matching pretty decent so far, flying assorted smaller Gorn ships.

I only ran into one really tough matchup when flying solo - my CL+ vs a R-KVL in an EnemyPatrolA.  It took a good 45 minutes, but I do love my S-torps  All of the coop missions I've been in so far have been on the easy side of reasonable.

Love the new patrols Tracey -  the taunts are a nice touch!

dave


   

[Gumby]

Quote:
Can people make a note of which missions they are in, when they are having mission matching problems.
The patrol missions I wrote use BPV as a base for generating AI ships with a random modifier and a difficulty modifier.
Dave's Missions are similar I think.  

 While i was on last night (sun) I ended up in a couple missions where I (in an SKA) was given two other DD companions against 3 CL's from normal to Battlecruiser variety.  Although it was doable if I didnt do anything stupid.  Which happened often enough.  1 out of 3 times i manager to pull out a win, 1 escape and 1complete spanking.  Although all 3 were at the cost of my ai escorts.  The way I look at it, it makes me a better player cause im learning (relearning)  Although one thing i didnt exactly enjoy was getting drafted into a mission while im sitting in a FFE waiting for a new ship.  It was not going well, but as i was trying to make a last stand after the drafter was quashed, I ended up chasing the enemy off the map, winning the mission, only to find that my connection had been lost.  Guess i should count my blessings....    All in all, im having fun, and thats what really counts.  Thanks Herr Burt!

 

   

[DH123]

Missions are perfect now.  Difficult, but winable.  

Flying a SPA I typically run into a CLC, CB, or BCG in the one one one.   Makes for and Interested fight that's never a cakewalk.  

[Green]

Agree w/ DH.  

No I do not win every fight and need to run 1-2 out of every 10 if going solo.  But they are a great challenge.  And if you wing-up then you can run sub 3 minute missions even as a rommie.  Tho I admit, the PP payoff is around 50-75, but it does allow a concentrated effort to make a change in the strategic map, you've just got to accept you won't make much in doing so.

btw - Tracey I like the "aid an ally" title for missions where you are drafted.

[Fluf]

Well I was 0 for 7 last night.  Lost 3 ships.  And left with 600 prestige. Not fun at all.  My very first missions was my SKA vs a G-CCH in a nebula.  28 mins later I came out with half a hull, 300 in repairs and supplies.  No fun at all.  I probably wont be back.

[FatherTed]

My only complaint is that the payoff can be pretty stingy in a coop. In some missions, I've had bonus prestige deducted, even if though I completed the mission.  

[FPF_TraceyG]

A note about bonus prestige. Its calculated as a 'reward' for what you do during the mission ie destroying ships etc. Its also weighted by the total BPV ratio of opposing sides. This means, if you draft a friemd into a mission, and only have 1 AI opponent, you've probably got roughly a 2 to 1 advantage, and therefore, will only get half the bonus prestige. Here is a run down of the calculation.

For every enemy ship ship you get:
Internal Hits: 10% of BPV
Forcing to Disengage: 25% of BPV
Destroying it: 100% of BPV
Capturing it: 150% of BPV

This total is then multiplied by the fleet strength ratio calculated as follows:
Total Enemy BPV/ Total Allied BPV.

The more you are outnumbered, the more bonus prestige you get. Even just damaging several ships if you are heavily outnumbered can generate quite a lot of prestige. It can also be seen that where the opposite is true, ie. where you heavily outnumber your opponent, you're prestige is going to be reduced.

For allied ships, a negative modifier is applied. That is, you loose prestige for taking damage, being destroyed, again according to the above calculation. For allied ships other than your own, this modifier is halved, however, so you don't loose as much. Again, this figure is further modified by the fleet strength ratio, in this case it is calculated as:
Total Allied BPV/Total Enemy BPV

For example:

3 Allied Ships: Total BPV = 300 (say 100 each)
1 Enemy Ship: Total BPV = 100
In mission, you destroy your opponent but two of your ships take damage.
Bonus prestige calculation:
100% of 100 * 100/300 - (10% of 100 + 10% of 100) * 300/100 = 100 * 0.33 - 20 * 3 = 33 - 60 = -27.

In this example, whilst you won mission, you lost -27 points in bonus prestige. Why? Because you outnumbered your opponent 3 to 1, yet still two of your ships were damaged. Conversely, you can loose a mission against superior odds, but still rack up quite a lot of prestige if you managed to damage or destroy a few ships before disengaging for instance. Imagine a daring destroyer captain harrasing an enemy fleet taking pot shots and damaging a few ships before getting killed.

As a last note, the bonus added for damaging/destroying enemy ships is multiplied by 5 if your enemy is a human player. The negative modifer is not mulitpled by 5, so no need to worry there.

[FatherTed]

That's all fine and well, but then the "Intercept the Courier" Mission is screwed. Ran it about 5 times today: 2 coop and 3 solo. 4-5 missions, I(we) killed the courier and left, and were given a grand total of 50 points each time. Needless to say, you're likely to get shot up getting to the courier ship, and that's all you get for achieving the primary objective?

BTW: the first time I ran it was solo. Killed all the AI except the courier, took minimal damage, and was rewarded for nearly half an hour of effort with a -50pp total, and 100 taken off my glicko. It's a different mission, but it's showing up about 40% time I take a mission in neutral or enemy hexes. That's a lot of grief for a mission that may or may not affect the dv.  

[FPF_TraceyG]

I don't know how the Courier mission's prestige is calculated, need to ask Dave about that one.

[SOSNero]

Well I had a hard time of it at first.  I then teamed up with DH123 and we had a ball.

Definetely noticed the PP bonus Tracey taks about.   In one mission we got 450 bonus each.

The courier one is screwed.   We were out numbered, killed everything and still got a very low bonus.   THe others seem okay.

Fluf:

Never fight Gorn in a nebula.  It means death.  LOL.   They have more Ph1s than you and can phaser boat you to death while their hull can take your pounding.   Also,  I have noticed that in nebulas I tend to draw really tough AI.  Is this my imagination or on purpose?

Also,   Fed Ai is easier than Gorn AI as long as you don't run into Fed fighters.   I did once.  Died soon there after.

Personally I like the server.  It is fun and the missions seem to work.   However, some are having a really hard time.   Maybe thought should be given to lowering the difficulty just a tad.

My only regret tonight was that no GDA blood was spilled.    Ah well,  you can never have a perfect night now can you?

[NuclearWessels]

Courier is giving pretty low payouts.  Can't remember off the top of my head what the equation in that one was, but I believe it was minimal if you just got the courier and somewhat more if you got both the courier and it's support group.

dave
 

[Maxillius]

Quote:
***SNIP***
Never fight Gorn in a nebula.  It means death.
***SNIP***  

Never fight ME in a nebula.  Please take special note of my avatar  I kill CLC's and NCA's in 6 minutes.

[DH123]

Quote:
Well I was 0 for 7 last night.  Lost 3 ships.  And left with 600 prestige. Not fun at all.  My very first missions was my SKA vs a G-CCH in a nebula.  28 mins later I came out with half a hull, 300 in repairs and supplies.  No fun at all.  I probably wont be back.  

Fluf,

I [censored]-canned the server with it's original settings.  It is much better now.   The AI fights are a blast now.  In my SPA, I typically draw a CLC, CB, BCG which gives me a long but winnable fight.  Does usually take 10-12 minutes though.

Yesterday myself and Nero (both in SPA) had to fight a BCF, CB, and CA+ in an EmemypatrolB.  We had a KVL for AI support.   What a blast this mission was!  And the payoff was close to 600 each.

These missions are PERFECT now.  Use the same settings for all servers.  Great job everybody.  

[KBF-Dogmatix]

Is DoE down again?  

I finally got some time to log in and see what the dilly was and it's not on the list.  *sigh*  heheh...just lucky, I guess!



 

[SOSGuderian]

I entered the campaign last night but wasn't able to play a mission because for some reason my screen froze up and I spent all night trying to figure out what the cause was.  I saw what my starting ship was (SKA).  Is that any good?  I was thinking about buying an SPA before my computer locked up on me.


When I logged on in the early evening, there were two other Romulans on and about 10-12 Gorn and Federation players.  I hope some more of my team starts showing up or it will be a short war!    

[Losiack]

Quote:
I entered the campaign last night but wasn't able to play a mission because for some reason my screen froze up and I spent all night trying to figure out what the cause was.  I saw what my starting ship was (SKA).  Is that any good?  I was thinking about buying an SPA before my computer locked up on me.


When I logged on in the early evening, there were two other Romulans on and about 10-12 Gorn and Federation players.  I hope some more of my team starts showing up or it will be a short war!    

I was on for about 2 hours (from 23h00 to 01h00 EST) and the Roms where outnumbering the rest 3 to 1.

By the way, I deny that I was playing DOE. I deny that the Romulan Advanced Logic Enhancer chip
(Romulan ALE for short) installed on Herr Butt's system is causing any problem. It is working within
specified parameters.


SPQR Losiack
Correspondant for the Internal Romulan Information Service
The IRIS sees all

[Jem]

On the Intercept Courier Mission, I've played it solo twice and both times I captured the courier and destroyed its escorts, this netted 300 pp and 200 bonus pp. In both cases my AI help both survived.  

[Gumby]

 Well, I for one find myself getting pounded a little less often than i was.  I guess that means im learning.  Too bad you cannot direct the ai that appears in a mission with ya.  I think i might come out a little better.  For instance, i find myself doing well against one of three opponents, and it appears my ai friends are doing the same.  Then moments later as I turn my foe into plasma coated space dust, I turn to pitch in with my AI brethren.  By the time i get into the fray, I see two frendly ships exploding and two very angry CL's turning towards me.  Thinking the better of this I 180 and start to run for the border.  Unfortunately these opponents have apparently fared better than i thought and more often than not I am unable to outrun them even under a yellow alert condition.  Oh well, you live you learn.   Also....  You die you learn.  

     

[Green]

Quote:
A note about bonus prestige. Its calculated as a 'reward' for what you do during the mission ie destroying ships etc. Its also weighted by the total BPV ....  

(Edited down to save space)

Tracey, the formula looks good and makes a good degree of sense.  But there were 3 of us playing in different hulls and obviously doing different damage, taking different damage, and firing the kill shot.   However, we all ended up with exactly the same total PP.

Is it possible that the math formula you noted is correct, but the PP awarded is based only on one player, the host?  If so then if I'm not hosting I'll be asking the host to sit back and relax until I've neutralized the AI and then let them come in for the coup d' etat.

[FPF_TraceyG]

Quote:

Quote:
A note about bonus prestige. Its calculated as a 'reward' for what you do during the mission ie destroying ships etc. Its also weighted by the total BPV ....  

(Edited down to save space)

Tracey, the formula looks good and makes a good degree of sense.  But there were 3 of us playing in different hulls and obviously doing different damage, taking different damage, and firing the kill shot.   However, we all ended up with exactly the same total PP.

Is it possible that the math formula you noted is correct, but the PP awarded is based only on one player, the host?  If so then if I'm not hosting I'll be asking the host to sit back and relax until I've neutralized the AI and then let them come in for the coup d' etat.  

If an enemy is killed, for example, then everyone on your team gets the credit for it. Usually, the only real differences you'll find in prestige as awarded differently to different players on the same team, will be if you loose your ship, and your friends don't.

[FPF_TraceyG]

If people are interested, I can post the section of code from the mission scripts so that people can see exactly for themselves how its awarded.

[Kroma_BaSyl]

Quote:
FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY!!!   PLEASE TAKE THE AGENT MISSION OUT.   THEN BURN IT!!   SHOOT IT!   AND BURN IT AGAIN!!!    It's causing mandatories in home space that is driving everyone nuts.

Also,  a PP penalty for loosing is just plain evil.  Add to the penalty the cost of repairing your beat up ship and it just gets evilier.
With SFC2's small player base, is this much evil wise??
 

Remove the forfeit penalty while you are at it.

[Gumby]

Quote:

With SFC2's small player base, is this much evil wise??
 

 Hmmmmm....  I dunno, I think i actually like scf2 more than 3 because its more challenging and involving.  Chalk one up for that smaller player base.......
   

[Lepton1]

So far I have been lucky on the server after getting my head handed to me the first night.  I have settled into an SKL, been running patrols in nebula vs gorn and getting CL mostly, one was a cruiser with 2 S torps and 2 F torps.  That has been the toughest so far.  Took awhile to beat it but not undoable.  

As for the courier missions, I have succeeded twice in this mission of the 3 times I have run it.  All times vs gorn.  Was AI assisted in all missions by relatively good ships although the SKE doesnt do much vs gorn.  I have run only two coop mission that have been disasterous.  This makes me wonder if going it alone is better that cooping with someone who outclasses you.  This is just me, but so far I have found it better to stay away from the heavier ships.  The WER seems like a death trap to me.

While the server is certainly unique, it is getting a little repetitve being in the same ship, running the same missions.  I guess that is true of any campaign after a while.  Perhaps if I were getting my butt shredded by photons I would feel differently.  I guess it's time to get out of the nebula and give the feds a shot.

I have seen commando ships pop up a lot more than I would expect, the NCT (fed) and COM+ (gorn).  While these ships are welcome to some degree (easy to kill), they dont really seem to fit into the missions nor do they seem to be using their transporters to attack anything.  Perhaps someone can tell me if this is normal as I have not run these missions in the past nor have any experience facing AI commando ships.  

[SOSGuderian]

I had a very good time playing on DoE last night.  I now feel comfortable giving the campaign a "thumbs up."

The missions are challenging and at times, even dangerous to one's ship's well-being.    The occurance of the big carriers seems to have been cut down a bit, though I haven't captained a carrier myself, yet.  Doing so may cause those ridiculous behemoths to start showing up again.

A couple of my SOS compatriots and I had some rousing matches against our rivals, the GDA.  We got the better of them this time, but they were, in some cases, overmatched and so that is to be expected.  In every case, everyone fought honorably and had a good time.  Quarter was granted when requested.

At the risk of seeing the pendulum swing to far the other way, the Alliance could use a few more players.  Sometimes the sides were fairly even, but there was a significant amount of time last night where the odds were 2-1 in favor of the Romulans.  It may actually all even out since whenever I log in during the day, it is the Alliance that has the 2-1 odds.  Other's mileage may vary, of course.


VGG, so far!  I want a SuperHawk-K really bad, but when you're only netting 100-200 pp per mission and missions are taking 10 minutes a piece, or more, 25K+ seems like a very long way away.