Ns Balance
digz
be still, maggot Join Date: 2002-05-07 Member: 588Members, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
be still, maggot Join Date: 2002-05-07 Member: 588Members, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">Take away the hard coding.</div> More specificaly, make dmg/upgrades/res into a server side cfg file that can be altered by the server administrators.
Upside:
League specific balance file.
Servers of different skill levels can be balanced accordingly.
The best balance cfgs can be shared and distributed through the community.
When/if NS becomes final, the balanced sytem can be hard coded back into the game.
Possibility for either chained/unchained chambers, co respawn times, etc.
NS can truley find a medium between co and classic.
Coders can now focus on bug fixes/additional gameplay features without worrying about balance.
Downside:
Servers at different levels of balance.
Upside:
League specific balance file.
Servers of different skill levels can be balanced accordingly.
The best balance cfgs can be shared and distributed through the community.
When/if NS becomes final, the balanced sytem can be hard coded back into the game.
Possibility for either chained/unchained chambers, co respawn times, etc.
NS can truley find a medium between co and classic.
Coders can now focus on bug fixes/additional gameplay features without worrying about balance.
Downside:
Servers at different levels of balance.
Comments
Aliens go 10%~ faster than normal
Marine do 95% dammage
Im not sure if the marines dammage is lower any more but I'm sure it was at one point
Response: Please, no...
But if the server OWNER could change the research/gestate times and cost that would still be overpowered
But If they could change the respawn times taht would be usefull
The team balance cfg is not to good idea :/
Would you play on a server that had 1 res shotguns? NO! and no one else would to, So why are you worried about idiots making superunbalanced servers? You wont be playing there, unless your an idiot that is...
Keep in mind... Pure servers CAN be run.
The idea has its merits, though, for a small playtest with the PT team/constellation, where most server admins would be responsible, and it would be easier to share information about what works and what doesn't.
Aliens go 10%~ faster than normal
Marine do 95% dammage
Im not sure if the marines dammage is lower any more but I'm sure it was at one point <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
YO has currently only one mod imo. Faster resources for aliens. Aliens get res at the speed equal to 7 players team, even if there are 8 people in team.
Just get used to the gamea nd...next thing ya know ya don't want anything changed.
Adjust damn you!!!
Aliens go 10%~ faster than normal
Marine do 95% dammage
Im not sure if the marines dammage is lower any more but I'm sure it was at one point <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
which is exactly why I dont play on Yo clan anymore...
I know only 5% doesnt seem like much but damn do you notice it in game.
Every single server admin would "balance the game" in their own little way.
It's just a bad idea, I can't explain it but the downside way outweighs the upside.
Or maybe thats because of "Idiots that don't know what the f*** teamwork is."
Getting rid of the hard coding = chaos. Pure, violent, chaos.
In the beginning you end up having a whole bunch of servers who think their version of balance is the best... most of which will be enormously unbalanced... just more fun for whichever side the admin favors. However in the long run you will end up with a handful of widely circulated "standards" that would suggest the most balanced cfg for particular situations. These configs could end up being adopted by the dev team as suggested settings for different types of servers. One for newb training grounds, one for the std pub, one for the std clan match, and then maybe some hardcore mode that really tests everyone's metal.
I wouldn't even close up the config settings into being hardcoded. Sure this would end up leaving a small community of misfit servers that just want to do it their own way, but then we already have that with the assorted adminmod plugins laying around all over the place. Fans of those servers will stick to those servers and the rest of us can play on the officially supported configs. Also, those with the customized configs could never complain about balance as their config is not officially supported.
Not to mention that allowing for multiple testbeds of balance means that sooner or later someone somewhere is going to find a really nice sweetspot and everyone will want to know what they did. It may even have balanced the game in some way that no one would have ever thought of because no one was ever really up for trying it as an "official" release.
So I see pros and cons for both opening it up and keeping it closed. To be honest though, current literature would pose that despite the pros and cons for both sides, open source tends to be much better than closed source in the long run. While configs are hardly the full extent of making NS open source, the argument would follow that having open configuration tends to be better than closed configuration.