Topic: Some enticement to get the Feds back on DOE (Read 10376 times)

FPF_TraceyG · « **on:** April 01, 2003, 02:15:56 pm »

Well, fellow Alliance members, DOE is looking bad for us. The Feds in particular are having a tough time of it, and it seems like I'm the only one on the server at times. So, we need to do something fast, we only have a few days left.
So, I'm going to make the supreme sacrifice and offer a reward for any Fed or Gorn player that reaches 100,000 prestige by the end of the campaign. For one night only, I will spend the evening with the lucky Fed or Gorn, on a borrowed friend's webcam, wearing just my birthday suit. Yes, thats right, I'll do a strip, right down to nothing, for any Fed that can reach 100,000 prestige by the end of the campaign. And whatever happens afer that, well, it depends on my mood...
So get on the server and start fighting for the Alliance!! This is a one time offer only (and its just for one night by the way, coz I'm that kind of girl).

FPF_TraceyG · « **Reply #1 on:** April 01, 2003, 02:18:28 pm »

You didn't think I was serious, did you??

Maxillius · « **Reply #2 on:** April 01, 2003, 02:24:41 pm »

also known as, "What happens when the evilness of NW is combined with the penchant for bastardly behavior of J'inn, with the sense to make everyone on the forums think she's got the body of Angelina Jolie"

I bow before your greatness, oh Master Bastard!!! lol

Kroma_BaSyl · « **Reply #3 on:** April 01, 2003, 02:42:20 pm »

I'll do one better......I am going to spend one night naked on a webcam with every fed or gorn that has an account already and doesn't reach 100K.

Kroma,

PS, Romulus here we come.

FPF_TraceyG · « **Reply #4 on:** April 01, 2003, 02:47:40 pm »

Quote:

also known as, "What happens when the evilness of NW is combined with the penchant for bastardly behavior of J'inn, with the sense to make everyone on the forums think she's got the body of Angelina Jolie"

I bow before your greatness, oh Master Bastard!!! lol

That's Mistress Bitch, thankyou, get it right!!

TOCXOBearslayer · « **Reply #13 on:** April 01, 2003, 07:03:53 pm »

Figures... I get on and guess who is NOT on?

TraceyG........

FatherTed · « **Reply #14 on:** April 01, 2003, 07:09:05 pm »

Do all these great offers apply to Feds who happen to be flying Bruce for this campaign?

KRolling · « **Reply #15 on:** April 01, 2003, 08:15:58 pm »

And what would you do if it was another girl???

I mean a straight one???

ACK!!! No offence, but ACK!!!!

KRolling · « **Reply #17 on:** April 01, 2003, 09:24:31 pm »

Would TraceyG strip in front of another female if they had won??

Maxillius · « **Reply #18 on:** April 01, 2003, 09:34:01 pm »

ohhh I get it......

<borrows the Rolling Pin>
BASH
<out icky thoughts.. out!!!>
ow.... where am I?
THUD

FPF_TraceyG · « **Reply #26 on:** April 02, 2003, 07:06:41 am »

We must do something about your dress sense too, Kim. White does suit you though, but I can see I'm going to have to take you clothes shopping. Now where did I put that Federation lingerie catalogue...

Karnak · « **Reply #27 on:** April 02, 2003, 09:12:46 am »

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It so appears that the Feds are being hunted like poor little deers out of existence.

Well, enough of that. I am here to turn all this Fed mush into muscle. My name is Lord el-Karnak. That's Karnak to you Fed weaklings. I have been brought here as an ISC advisor to the Fed war effort. Now, you are going get off you butts right now and fight. You are going to stick it to those lying, no-good, double-dealing greenie weenie Rommies. We are not going to go lingerie shopping. We are not going to do anymore social chit chats. We are not going to do anymore more moaning and groaning about how the missions are so hard. You are going to get into that captain's chair and if that lousy slacker of an engineer of yours does not have your photons and warp engines at 110% efficiency I am going to personnally rub him out. We are not going to have all this wasteful "innocent before proven guilty" crap form of Starfleet justice. You either perform or you are taking a walk out of the airlock to "take one big leap for mankind" without a spacesuit. You are going take that ship of yours and put some black streaks from enemy fire on the oh-to-clean angel white hull of yours. I want to see you on that Rommie's tail at range 4 with over-loaded photons and ram those magic photon where they belong. Right up that pathetic Rommie's butt. And, another thing you are all gonna operate as a team and focus on the appropriate part of space that your leaders tell you too. I don't want to see anyone doing his own little shopping spree far away from the attack point. I want to see DVs falling in droves in one hex not 10 or 20. I want to see 10 DV shifts in a hex per half hour. We are not going to win by having our poor bastards dying for our cause. We are going to win by making those Rommie bastards die for their cause and we are going make that Jinn bastard do a face-plant in every asteroid field we can find.

Any questions?

*shock and awe in the troops*

Except for dumb know-it-all recently graduated Starfleet Cadet. "You are so full of..."

*zap with disrupter pistol and no more cadet*

"All right then. Dismissed."

Ps. I gotta finish my taxes for the ISC IRS but after that you are all dead, dead.

SSCF Hooch · « **Reply #31 on:** April 02, 2003, 02:03:55 pm »

What are you all saying here? You mean you really want us ugly, cheating, "over populated, too many Feds", let's them leave, to really play with you all, I'm touched.

You like us again?

I will logon latter and see if this is true. Also, it might be nice if those who normally fly Fed were doing so. (hint)

Hooch

TheMaverick · « **Reply #32 on:** April 02, 2003, 02:38:02 pm »

Hey we never said that! We still hate you, you dirty cheating, swarming, monkeys! We just get bored with so little targets.

Gumby · « **Reply #39 on:** April 02, 2003, 06:53:08 pm »

Gosh Tracy, bet you never thought a simple little April Fools gag would generate so much interest did ya.............. But then again, most of us are degenerate men...... (males sorry)

Karnak · « **Reply #42 on:** April 03, 2003, 09:20:59 am »

IMHO, I don't think there is anything anyone can do to entice more players to DOE until there is a fundamental change in mission script design philosophy.

Basically, the AI is overdone effectively shutting out newbie, rusty and not-so-good players from the game. I don't blame many players from staying away. The special missions are taking way too long and pop up too frequently. They should be restricted to neutral hexes or just home hexes or just enemy hexes. Or, a combination of the above two on the above three. In my experience, people only want to do long missions (ie. plus 8 minutes) for PvP. If it's against an AI many players may get agitated cuz they think their time is better spent looking for PvP fights which is the most popular reason for playing SFC2 in the first place. In addition, over-long AI-only missions hamper the abilitly to implement proper dyna strategic play cuz it takes way too long to flip a hex relative to IDSL and AOTK. In effect, strategic play is neutered. Compared to IDSL which had similar opening numbers to DOE, there was 10 ten times the mobility in terms of hex munching in the same space of time.

Mog · « **Reply #43 on:** April 03, 2003, 10:06:38 am »

Somewhere in the .gf files is a setting to allow many more mission options available to players. At least I've seen that in OP, not so sure about EAW. I haven't looked at EAW .gf files since I did The Aurora Continuum's server, back in the early days. Now if this can be found in the EAW files, and used, players could be offered anywhere from 1 to at least 4 different mission options.

As to what Karnak and J'inn have said above, I also tend to agree. I think my opinions on ai missions are fairly well known by now

I'm definitely in the PvP camp, and I view missions (especially those that take a while) against the ai to be almost a waste of my time, whereas a long one against a player or players I find extremely fun (and if it's an enemy heavy unit that i'm engaging, worthwhile strategically too).

FPF_TraceyG · « **Reply #44 on:** April 03, 2003, 02:25:32 pm »

There is a setting in the gf files to offer more missions than just 2 at a time. I'm told though, the game crash if you set this higher than 2 however. It would be nice if we could though.
Now, about these missions, which ones on DOE were considered to be too difficult? Which ones should be considered for a high turnout campaign, and what is an acceptable mission time? On IDSL, all I heard was that missions were too quick... run in, alpha strike, finish off the AI, done in 2 mins (less if you were a Mirak). Now, missions are taking too long?
The variety of skill levels you will find in people playing in a campaign are very spread out. We just can't please everyone. Making a 'medium' difficulty mission is probably the best of the both worlds, but even still, there will always be some players who can do those missions quicker than others. There will always be some players who find even the simplest of missions difficult, and others who just arent challenged by even the difficult missions. So, if then, we aim to cater for the lowest common denominator, with the view to promoting PvP, we could do it with just 3 missions: a patrol, a base assault and a planet assault, thats all you need for the strategic aspects of the game.... LOL!!! It would also be very boring as well. So perhaps we should ask everyone what kind of missions would they like to see in a campaign. Perhaps even try running two servers at once for a single campaign, the easy server, and the 'specialised' server with VC's being combined, I'm sure this has been suggested before.

What I really think though, is that a mission pack for any one campign should be synergistic, a collection of missions that are consistent with respect to each other in regard to prestige payout, difficulty levels (including AI and any strategic theme as part of thie mission), AI matching, and where and how often a mission appears.

klink · « **Reply #45 on:** April 03, 2003, 02:49:46 pm »

maybe my perspective as a newbie could be of value. the last starfleet commander-type Star Trek game i played prior to this was in EGA. the theme and interface is where the similarities stop.

The AI is tough, but not so tough that its Impossible. their conservative nature, makes for some long battles, and romulan's can regen their shields FAST... well atleast faster than I've figured out how to do in my starter federation frigate. I've got no PP so, imagine losing every mission and getting a brand new ship then trying to take on a romulan frigate 1v1. with the doubleshot bug, this makes for some wild dancing. especially trying to balance power to stay 10 ahead of the plasma, have shield power to keep the phasers from doing any hull damage, and keep weapon systems online. usually i'm turning phasers on and off to keep engine speed up.

as the double shot plasma will obliterate my systems in one pass (usually accompanied by a multiple mine problem to try and escape from), that leaves me with the high energy turn, fire and run tactic as my only real viable option. i've been trying to get this down, spike the sensor power, and try to get the ship to 'even out' before unleashing the photons. i think this is probably a pretty generic fed strategy against the AI. a couple more tricks i've tried, loading the 1 SH i have with one of those scatter pack things and dropping the 3 mines i have. these are just gimmicks and have never won the battle for me.

anyways, i usually do this act for about 10 mins, with mixed levels of succes. this success has not translated into a 'successfull mission', the result of the encounter, so far, has always been either me running to the warp line or being sucked out the hull into space.

i've not blamed the missions, i think that if i hadn't blown my PP wad on trying to secure a wingman frigate, i could resupply myself and atleast afford some decent missiles and/or fighters for the starter frigate, which would've given me the edge i need in these 1v1 AlliedpatrolB's.

anyways, DOE hasn't chased me away, i've learned ALOT and had fun doing it, despite the 0 pp. the one encounter i had with a human Romulan (Convoy Raid mission) was a blast. I didn't realize he was not an ally until the firing started as it seemed we started within 30 of each other and it was my first time doing thsi mission. i engaged very briefly so that i could get some space between us and make a clean escape, the tactic worked, i tried to just widen the gap a little by firing off some space turtles with red warheads strapped to their back... atleast i think thats what those slowass red things are that come out of my ship.

wow, long post.

FatherTed · « **Reply #47 on:** April 03, 2003, 03:39:13 pm »

Please dump the Courier mission. It's a royal pain in the arse.

J'inn · « **Reply #48 on:** April 03, 2003, 04:02:29 pm »

I would say that for a campaign set up that requires a large turn out you need to have a missions mix which is slightly easier than the DOE group. Perhaps just some tweaks, see below. Certainly some fo the Vets will get a little bored at times, but they are mostly there for PvP anyways. Also, even if they find it a little easy (not too easy mind you) they will still play.

If it is at harder than DOE levels, new players will find it too hard, and here's the key point, they won't play at all.

Too Hard: sucks

Hard: Fun for the Vets but makes it unplayable for newer or those not so goods "ahem"

Moderate: Fun for most all. Some super vets find it easy. Some pure newbies still can't play.

Easy: Vets find it mostly easy. However all players are able to play. Vets lean more to PvP and the overall strategic picture as opposed to the easy for them tactical picture.

Too Easy: Dullsville.

So for the large campaign you have two practical choices IMHO:

1) Somehow get the missions to show up well mixed AND have the PP payout correctly.

or

2) Set it up for "easy" level.

For example:

CW 1 - CW 6 would all have been "Easy" level due to the mission scripts. (Stock Taldren) They all had large turnouts. Yes, we had more players then but the point is everyone could play and have fun.

AoTK was all over the board.

4 powers - Hard to Too hard.

DOE - Moderate

Also IMHO, D2 is about overall strategic play. The tactical battles (AI or PvP) are just a small part of the larger picture. Now the tactical part has to be fun and interesting. But if you focus too much challage on the tactical part you overwhelm the strategic part.

Players want to be able to log on and feel they have accomplished something within at most an hour.

This gets to missions times. Which I consider completely different from mission difficulty.

I think DOE is fine. People are just in shock at how slow it is to fly a plasma boat. I imagine a lot of snickering coming from the Rom and Gorn vets.

As for the DOE missions. I think Tracey's are fine in all respects. Dave's add flavor and I like that. However due to the number of AI you face in his missions both difficulty and mission time go up. I'd like to keep them and have the PP payoff jacked up a ton.

That way people can choose. However, that gets back to setting them up so that one mission doesn't appear 90% of the time. Right now the courier mission is popping up as the only choice a lot. That creates a real problem in mission balance.

As with most things, it is very complicated. There is no single right answer.

Everyone should say thank you to those that write missions and set up servers. It's a convoluted nightmare.

After you say thanks, you can kick them. <snicker>

Mike H · « **Reply #49 on:** April 03, 2003, 04:23:30 pm »

Now that the "rust" is diminishing, I do find most of the missions quite challenging, although there are a few that are just way over the top. I don't like missions that require some kind of "trick" in lieu of solid tactics, and I think there are a couple missions on DOE that fall under that category.

While I like the challenging missions, I think PP payoff leaves a bit to be desired. If this campaign were going to run for, say a year for example, then I'd say fine. That would give the average player enough time to work his/her way up to a top-notch ship. Is this campaign going to run that long?? If the answer is no, then the average player is going to get disinterested really quick. The average player can't spend the 8 hours a day necessary to get a heavy or dread in a reasonable amount of time (week or two?). I can put in a few hours at a time, 3 or maybe 4 days a week. At that rate, I will have a garbage scow by year's end!

Again, if I knew the campaign was going to run a LONG time or roll into another episode (with PP carried over), then I am fine with the way it is. Otherwise, some tweaks are needed.

Cheers,
Mike

FPF_TraceyG · « **Reply #52 on:** April 03, 2003, 07:22:46 pm »

Ok, so if we get the 'standard' patrols to show up more often, with a sprinkling of specialty missions just for interests sake, we might get something work?

By the way, despite being able to set a mission to only appear in neutral space within a script, its actually the server gf settings that largely determine where a mission will appear. Set them incorrectly and 'enemy' missions will appear in allied space. Also, as Dave will tell you as well, no one, BUT no one, has ever been able to get neutral missions to only appear in neutral space. On DOE, the NEutral patrols I wrote are written to only appear in neutral space, but as everyone has seen, they turn up anywhere. Thankfully, the allied space and enemy space settings within a mission script appear to work, provided you have the right gf settings.

There also appears to be a setting within the mission script that 'appears' (I use the word tentatively) to change the frequency or probability that a mission will appear. Typically for base assault and planet assault missions, this is set higher so that they appear on bases and planets instead of other missions.

FPF_TraceyG · « **Reply #53 on:** April 03, 2003, 07:23:51 pm »

And to think this all started up as a April Fool's thread... LOL!!

Fluf · « **Reply #57 on:** April 04, 2003, 12:40:49 am »

I agree with you JInn 100%.

Tracey's missions are fine so far except for the occasional imbalance. Daves missions are tough, take too long and dont give enough PP for the fight, although I enjoy them.

I can tell you flying Rom for my first time in D2 makes me feel like a total newbie. So I can understand where they come from and how they might react to coming onto a server like this.

Ive lost 16 ships, 5 to PvP and the rest to AI. That is nuts. I just got my glicko out of the negatives the other night and its around 500 now.

Unfortunately, with the mission they way they are now, it doesnt lend to the strategic or tactical D2 I enjoy more. Im like Jinn. I want to log on for and hour or two and see what I've accomplished. Flying Rom, that can mean a whole 2 to 4 missions sometimes, as they can last 30 mins, especially against a Gorn. Yes I have flown a few 3 min missions. But they are rare. I dont want to spend all my time doing missions to lower a hex by 2 to 4 DV in and hour. I want to hex munch, make the enemy react and get in some PvP. I have seen a battle on the Fed border for 3 hexes last 3 days now. Not much strategy there.

Missions must be made enjoyable, and the hard ones should be made to reward the pilot with some good PP if he survives.

Oh, and dump the Courier Mission. I have personally lost 6 ships to this mission, just trying to kill the courier and run. All for a lousy 50PP. Its the worst mission in the bunch and shows up more than 50% of the time.

Soreyes · « **Reply #59 on:** April 04, 2003, 02:09:27 am »

I don't know Fluf. Im a compleat newbe as to flying Gorn. In fact at one point I was down to flying a FF Escort with only 98pp left. Then a little light went on in my head. I then started to fly and fight better. Now Im up to a G-DD+ with over 2000pp.

About the Courier missions.Well I have flown 4 of them. I won 2 and lost 2. In the one's I lost.I killed every thing but the Courier.I ended up losing 50pp per mission. (Hey when the Plasma hits the Fan tha Courier kinda gets lost

)
The two that I won, I collected 300pp for each mission. On one of those missions I had a L-DWD as a AI wingman. Boy did that ship kick some Rom Butt

I forgot who it was out there flying the Rom DN. All I can say is I found you at one point. And as the band "A Flock Of Seagulls" would sing. "And I Ran, I Ran So Far Away"

Mog · « **Reply #60 on:** April 04, 2003, 02:59:32 am »

I've always been a supporter of flying different races whenever possible. It gives people insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the other races. Now that people have tasted what it's like to be a plasma player, as opposed to say a drone race player, perhaps we can move closer to the understanding that the community has been trying to reach regarding mission times and BPV balance. Methinks Scip, your server has helped a lot in that regard - increasing BPV of carriers to account for fighters etc is a very good move imho, and should be done for all shiplists.

Another thing that has come out of this server is that it has shown people that flying the smaller ships can be fun (least I hope that's been shown hehe), and that small (non drone using) ships can be competitive in PvP.

The small amount of time that I've been able to spend on DOE has been entertaining, and for that I give you my thanks Scippy

I even flew Fed for a bit myself, lost an NCL+ to Warsears and Fluf, but got some measure of revenge with the DDL soon after

Sadly, I'm now getting CRC errors on missions and no matter what I try, cannot solve this problem. So, for me, it has come to an end. Good luck to both sides for the remainder of the campaign

TOCXOBearslayer · « **Reply #62 on:** April 04, 2003, 04:48:46 am »

LOL..... I don't mind the courier mission either.... just wish I had known you can capture the courier....

Heard on the voice comm some one lost the mission when the captured it.... I guess you need to capture it then SD it?

Also, PvP was a big time PP bonus. I only had 4 this server.... first against one of the SPQR guys (in a HC) where I ran like a screaming child in my F-FFG

Second against Fluf (R-NHK?) with my F-BCF (I won that one, nanner-nanner-nanner). Then that SneakyRom guy

in another NHK (we both disengaged after beating the snot out of each other). Then last night wtih Athena. (another NHK heh-heh) I only paid attention to the points gained against Fluf and the bonus was 1016 PP

Oh well.... anyways... Last night I squared off against SOS-Athena in her R-NHK. Tough fight but I won in a sense since she left the field. Luckily she wasn't the courier.

Sides were fairly even if not a bit in her favor. Courier was a WER. Her wingmen were a WER & a SEB (fighter carrying thing) while I had a BCF with wingmen of G-BC & a Fed light cruiser (DWD IIRC)..... Unfortunately, the Rom

got away......

Anyways.... thanks for the server HB, wish I had more time to enjoy it... unfortunately, I had way too many other things to do.... and I am out of town as of 1600 EST today until late Sunday night.

So I will check you all on the flip side and the next server

Fluf · « **Reply #67 on:** April 04, 2003, 04:29:27 pm »

I agree, the Courier mission can have some big payoffs. However, 90% of the time now flying my Firehawk, the Courier is a COV with +50 Marines on it. Also, Rom AI is just pitifull. So unless you fly the courier mission with a wingman, it is almost impossible. Flying a Rom frigate also gets you the the FFG for a courier ship. No way to capture.

But I have made over 1400PP in one courier mission, running with 3 live wingman vs a live Fed player and his 3 AI. We captured all the ships and ran the live player off. But the point is, the mission is showing up over 50% of the time when trying to take a hex solo. It lasts to long, is to hard and doesnt pay enought for the repairs and parts you use, if you cant capture.

Soreyes · « **Reply #69 on:** April 04, 2003, 09:38:42 pm »

OMG I just got done with another Courier mission. all I can say is WOW about my AI Wingmen. I had 2 L-BCCP's as wingmen VS R-KE, 2x R-SPA, And a R-SNB as the Courier. To make a long story short. The L-BCCP's crushed the KE And the SPA's I captured the courier, but then my 2 wingmen came over and ESG'ed the SNB to death. Total pp=800....WoW

Green · « **Reply #70 on:** April 04, 2003, 09:51:27 pm »

The Courier mission is real simple. No problem. You can get 900+ without taking an internal. This is how you do it ...

Step 1. Get SPQR Remiak and his CON+ to fly as your wing.

Step 2. Let him make sure you place the first marine on each ship.

Step 3. Get a bunch of PP.

Okay, I agree with the crowd on this one. The Courier mission does have problems. In solo, a commando ship shows up more often then naught as the Courier. But it was a blast flying the mission w/ Remiak (thanks Rem). Is it possible the Courier ship is some how tied into the number of players?

KRolling · « **Reply #71 on:** April 11, 2003, 10:06:16 am »

In the light of the new developments concerning Tracey's Pie, I think this thread needs a bump.

News:

Topic: Some enticement to get the Feds back on DOE (Read 10376 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

FPF_TraceyG

FPF_TraceyG

Maxillius

Kroma_BaSyl

FPF_TraceyG

Maxillius

SghnDubh

Scipio_66

TOCXOBearslayer

J'inn

Gumby

Soreyes

SghnDubh

TOCXOBearslayer

FatherTed

KRolling

Maxillius

KRolling

Maxillius

Scipio_66

Gumby

FPF_TraceyG

KRolling

KRolling

FPF_TraceyG

KRolling

FPF_TraceyG

Karnak

KBF-Dogmatix

Black

SSCF Hooch

SSCF Hooch

TheMaverick

Kroma_BaSyl

Mike H

Remiak

Remiak

SSCF Hooch

Scipio_66

Gumby

KRolling

TheMaverick

Karnak

Mog

FPF_TraceyG

klink

Kel

FatherTed

J'inn

Mike H

Karnak

Green

FPF_TraceyG

FPF_TraceyG

Remiak

KRolling

Karnak

Fluf

SOS_Skorzeny

Soreyes

Mog

Herr Burt

TOCXOBearslayer

J'inn

Matsukasi

Herr Burt

Karnak

Fluf

Gumby

Soreyes

Green

KRolling

Topic: Some enticement to get the Feds back on DOE (Read 10376 times)