Tremulous Forum

General => General Discussion => Topic started by: resta247 on December 21, 2009, 03:25:33 pm

Title: Builders in 1.2
Post by: resta247 on December 21, 2009, 03:25:33 pm
Hi,

I usually like to play the builders. I tried out the 1.2 gameplay preview and I noticed that build points are not available immediately when something got destroyed by an opponent. This is good and bad at the same time:

Good: A base cannot be re-built immediately which makes it a little bit easier for the attackers. Bad: When you leave your base to re-built it somewhere else, it can happen, that you are lacking build-points to build up a powerful defensive. Suggestion: When a whole base has been destroyed, build points should be given back quicker. When just 2-3 buildings have been destroyed, they should be given back slower.


I also noticed that buildings cannot be removed anymore. They are now marked for removal and they are instantly removed when something else is built. This is also good and bad in some situations:

Good: It makes it much easier to move the reactor (and other buildings) with one person. It also prevents people from deconning the entire base. Bad: There are situations in which you want to remove a specific building immediately. I can think of situations in which a player is stuck. But the blocking building is only removed when all build points have been spent already. Suggestion: A marked building should be removed immediately when a new one is built - even if there are enough build points to keep both of the buildings (the marked and the new one).

What do you think?


Just my 2ct.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Scimitar on December 21, 2009, 03:31:37 pm
no way man, that was at least a quarter's worth.  i agree with this.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Kriegsgott on December 21, 2009, 04:05:33 pm
build points will gradually leave the queue to become available again, at a rate proportional to the amount of points in the queue

The bp queue already behaves similarly to how you suggested.  I do believe however, that the proportional rate change should be increased i.e. faster return than current for greater amounts in the queue.  The base rate appears to be fine.

As to your second point, instead of marked buildings being deconstructed prior to using available build points, I'd prefer to include a second build point counter that shows how much bp is used up in marked buildings. Your suggestion would be my second choice.

Additionally, I've noticed that marked repeaters can only be used to build a different repeater - the build points do not go back into the central queue unless it is destroyed rather than marked.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: David on December 21, 2009, 04:15:26 pm
IMO a decon option is needed to allow removing of blocking buildings, and to get the BP back quicker when moving.  Better to decon the old than have it eaten and have to wait ages for the BP.
Removing buildings early would get annoying, but could work for unpowered stuff.

The developers know about the repeater thing, so it should be getting fixed.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: kevlarman on December 21, 2009, 05:52:50 pm
IMO a decon option is needed to allow removing of blocking buildings, and to get the BP back quicker when moving.  Better to decon the old than have it eaten and have to wait ages for the BP.
Removing buildings early would get annoying, but could work for unpowered stuff.

The developers know about the repeater thing, so it should be getting fixed.
unpowered buildables can be deconned immediately already (and iirc when they're destroyed, you don't lose bp since they weren't counted against you in the first place, but i haven't grepped the code to make sure).
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: A Spork on December 21, 2009, 06:43:31 pm
A force decon option would be nice.....
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Bissig on December 22, 2009, 01:41:06 am
On our (1.1) server you have the option to either /mark the building or decon it directly, oldschool style by pressing "e" when looking at it. I think it is called semi-marked decon and I find it to be very useful.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Paradox on December 22, 2009, 02:09:53 am
Semi-mark, as the patch is called, is perhaps one of my favorite features.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: A Spork on December 22, 2009, 02:54:16 am
Personally, I think 1.2 should default to mark, but you should be able to have a /forcedecon command(renamed as you wish)
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Norfenstein on December 24, 2009, 02:25:49 am
Personally, I think 1.2 should default to mark, but you should be able to have a /forcedecon command(renamed as you wish)
I agree. It hasn't been strictly necessary for as long as we've had marked decon, but I don't see any reason not to do it. And I suppose it'd get rid of the small annoyance of not being able to mark human structures when you're moving the reactor (because it wants to decon when there's no power but won't let you because you have a build timer).
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: David on December 24, 2009, 08:17:01 am
I'd suggest 3 commands:  /mark and /decon to do the obvious, and /smartdecon or whatever to do what happens now with the mark unless unpowered stuff.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Thorn on December 25, 2009, 01:51:20 am
What was all this stuff about mark decon deterring deconners if there is a way to force a decon anyway?
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Bissig on December 25, 2009, 04:09:33 am
What was all this stuff about mark decon deterring deconners if there is a way to force a decon anyway?

These days, admins have powerful tools to "haha" at griefers and also, the preferred method should be configurable via cvars anyways.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Thorn on December 25, 2009, 04:17:37 am
Actually, admins had very powerful tools to "haha" at griefers back then just as much. Really no reasoning behind it.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: KillerWhale on December 25, 2009, 05:01:29 am
These days, admins have powerful tools to "haha" at griefers
Not officially, !revert isn't getting trunked for some incomprehensible reason.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: A Spork on December 25, 2009, 05:37:23 am
Why the heck not?
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Paradox on December 25, 2009, 06:43:51 am
/mark and /decon are all the commands that are needed, you dont need smartmark or whatever. That should just be basic functionality of mark.

That, or automark structures that havn't had power for a cvar configurable amount of time, eg 90 seconds
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: David on December 25, 2009, 08:35:33 am
But then how do I mark an unpowered structure?
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: mooseberry on December 25, 2009, 09:02:45 am
Why the heck not?

Because it's written poorly. Or something like that.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Paradox on December 25, 2009, 09:05:11 am
David, with mark. I probably misunderstood something and perpetuated this misunderstanding with my post.

/mark marks everything. /decon decons everything.

This is probably full of holes, so someone will post a detailed list of problems. Im posting this just before i go to bed, so...
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: David on December 25, 2009, 05:53:02 pm
The current behaviour is that it marks unless the building is unpowered, in which case it decons.  This is often what you want, and only one key, so IMO would be nice to keep.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: kevlarman on December 25, 2009, 05:55:41 pm
why would you ever want to mark an unpowered buildable? it doesn't cost any bp so marking is meaningless.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: David on December 25, 2009, 06:50:07 pm
If you have a turret that's in a shit location so need moving, but the RC is currently moving.  EG start of game you move the RC quickly, want to mark the old base (that's still in range) but no point destroying it too soon.

Lots of maps have good moves where the new base is in range of the old.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Winnie the Pooh on December 25, 2009, 08:27:36 pm
@Kev how was the unlimited telenode thing handled, then?
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: kevlarman on December 25, 2009, 08:52:54 pm
@Kev how was the unlimited telenode thing handled, then?
by goons showing up at the unlimited node and getting their whole team up to 9 frags.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Winnie the Pooh on December 25, 2009, 10:37:13 pm
by goons showing up at the unlimited node and getting their whole team up to 9 frags.

I am forming a strategy using unlimited nodes, and lazy aliens.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: UniqPhoeniX on December 25, 2009, 11:44:02 pm
What about having nodes just outside RC range, but still covered by turrets? Possibly behind the base. Wouldn't that give extra bps?
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Winnie the Pooh on December 26, 2009, 01:34:36 am
Yes. Just build a repeater and use its bp for nodes, then decon that repeater. Voila, two free nodes.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Norfenstein on December 27, 2009, 09:18:09 pm
Yes. Just build a repeater and use its bp for nodes, then decon that repeater. Voila, two free nodes.
...which will self-destruct after 90 seconds because they have no power.

/mark marks everything. /decon decons everything.

This is probably full of holes, so someone will post a detailed list of problems. Im posting this just before i go to bed, so...
Only problem I can think of is you need two buttons, but these aren't buttons you need quick and comfortable access to and you wouldn't really need decon very often anyway.

What was all this stuff about mark decon deterring deconners if there is a way to force a decon anyway?
marked deconstruction
Marked deconstruction has nothing to do with griefing and was never meant to. I'm sorry you thought otherwise. Admins have to be on call constantly in any case.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: resta247 on December 27, 2009, 10:21:08 pm
I also noticed that buildings cannot be removed anymore. They are now marked for removal and they are instantly removed when something else is built. This is also good and bad in some situations:

And something that happened in a game today: Player 1 marked the entire base to move into another place. Before the move took place Player 2 built an additional turret. BPs were taken from the reactor which got removed. Result: Base down, everyone confused. Nobody in a proper place to build a new reactor. Game lost a minute later.

To make the game a liitle bit more noob-resistant, reactors should be only removed when a new one is built. They should never be removed for turrets, telenodes, .... this just does not make any sense and the game could support the players in not allowing them to do such suicidal stuff.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: kevlarman on December 27, 2009, 10:25:19 pm
I also noticed that buildings cannot be removed anymore. They are now marked for removal and they are instantly removed when something else is built. This is also good and bad in some situations:
And something that happened in a game today: Player 1 marked the entire base to move into another place. Before the move took place Player 2 built an additional turret. BPs were taken from the reactor which got removed. Result: Base down, everyone confused. Nobody in a proper place to build a new reactor. Game lost a minute later.
that's impossible for about 3 different reasons
Quote
To make the game a liitle bit more noob-resistant, reactors should be only removed when a new one is built. They should never be removed for turrets, telenodes, .... this just does not make any sense and the game could support the players in not allowing them to do such suicidal stuff.
this already happens.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Winnie the Pooh on December 28, 2009, 12:31:40 am
The biggest problem I've had is when you have misbuilt something - such as an acid tube that blocks - and you need to get rid of it yet you have remaining bp. You have to use up all your bp and only then can you mark decon the tube.

So I think that things that are marked should be deconned first before any free bp is taken. After all, they are marked for a reason.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: SlackerLinux on December 28, 2009, 01:19:42 am
The biggest problem I've had is when you have misbuilt something - such as an acid tube that blocks - and you need to get rid of it yet you have remaining bp. You have to use up all your bp and only then can you mark decon the tube.

So I think that things that are marked should be deconned first before any free bp is taken. After all, they are marked for a reason.

fixed in slackersQVM 1.1 ill prob port that change over to 1.2 too
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Winnie the Pooh on December 28, 2009, 07:24:34 am
fixed in slackersQVM 1.1 ill prob port that change over to 1.2 too

Cool, but I'd like it to be in the official release =/
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: SlackerLinux on December 28, 2009, 07:42:11 am
fixed in slackersQVM 1.1 ill prob port that change over to 1.2 too

Cool, but I'd like it to be in the official release =/

there's alot of things that we want in the official release and like the rest of it prob wont make it there.

would be nice to have more 1.1 style mark decon system. maybe you could code a toggle switch on mark decon so you use 1 key to mark/unmark/decon and another to switch between mark/unmark behavior and decon behavior with a nice UI thing telling you what mode your in.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: Winnie the Pooh on December 28, 2009, 06:22:32 pm
Or we could just create a 'hold' button that will force decon something if you hold the mark/unmark button while looking at something, and just not make it apply to the rc/nodes.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: BooT on December 28, 2009, 10:31:57 pm
Also, when you've built something that's just not exactly where you want it, but it covers a little of where you want to build, you have to mark the one blocking, build it somewhere else to use bp the finally build it in the right place.
If thats the last bp, then you have to wait for it to finish, then mark it then move.

Takes waaayy too much time. I liek the idea of 2 commands.
Title: Re: Builders in 1.2
Post by: UniqPhoeniX on December 29, 2009, 01:50:59 am
Also, when you've built something that's just not exactly where you want it, but it covers a little of where you want to build, you have to mark the one blocking, build it somewhere else to use bp the finally build it in the right place.
If thats the last bp, then you have to wait for it to finish, then mark it then move.

Takes waaayy too much time. I liek the idea of 2 commands.
No, you can build in place of marked buildables, and they will get removed as you place the new one.