Saturday - What's the Dev Team up to?

[Airlift]

Here's a quick rundown of what we're doing:

Issues Fixed - Saturday

We fixed many of the issues that were blocking gameplay. We're assembling a patch now and running it through its paces for distribution TONIGHT (Saturday).

In about a half-hour (7:45pm Central), the servers will go down for an update. (See Patch Notes for details of what we've fixed.)

Approximately 30-60 minutes after the servers go down, we'll bring them up again with the fixes in place.

Issues We are Still Examining

a) Looking into a situation where you don't end up getting xp for a base cap that has tons of people at it.

b) Fixing "autorepair should consume NTUs...but currently does not"

c) Examine gameflow on the Lattice to determine what changes/modifications may be needed. (This is ongoing. No changes will occur immediately. We have to gather data first.)

d) The Delete character bug.

e) Investigating reports of a Memory Leak in the client.

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New Experience System Details

Many folks don't fully understand the new experience system, so here are a few details about it in an "Example" fashion so that it makes more sense.

But first, a few changes are coming:

1) Many folks reported that they "got no xp for a capture after fighting all night to win the battle". After further examination, we think there's a slight design flaw in our system in that the "unique kill count" doesn't start until the hack occurs. This can result in situations where you fight for 30 minutes to get a hacker into the base, but end up with no enemies left to fight at the base after the hack...thus resulting in no capture experience.

Thus, we're going to extend the "kill count timer" to include the 10 minutes previous to the hack. This loosens up the system to allow hacks to happen after a major battle, while still counting the "unique kills" before the fight.

2) Additionally, some players are getting no xp because they only made 3-4 unique kills. Thus, they get no cap xp message and think "hey! The system is bugged!" So we're going to change the system to give XP for anywhere from 1-20 unique kills. If ANY friendly kills a unique player in the contested SOI, you'll get 5% of max XP for the capture. If 20 unique enemies (or more) are killed then you get 100% of the max XP for the capture. It scales linearly between those end-points.

Now...the examples below assume that the fixes above are already in place (should happen very soon). I'll explain everything else with that in mind.

Here goes:

1) If you're an individual (not part of a squad), then you just have to be present during the 25 minutes before the hack is complete and the base capture occurs. During the time that you are present, the game is counting "UNIQUE" kills that occur within the SOI around the facility. Outside the SOI doesn't count. "Unique" kills means *different* people....not the same guy over and over.

NOTE: YOU do not have to personally kill those "unique" enemies. You just have to be PRESENT while they are killed.

2) Why "unique" kills? Basically, if there are only two guys defending the base, then you don't get much in the way of xp for taking that base (two unique folks would be 10% of max cap xp...see above). If you bite off a big challenge, then you get big XP. Bite off a small one and you get small XP.

3) Squads help you in regards to "unique kill count". Basically, we keep track of all the unique kills that were viewed by ANYONE in your squad in that SOI during the 25-minute window. Basically, this benefits squad members because they can be in and out of an SOI and still accumulate "unique kill count" if at least one of their squad members is there. Thus, it's easier for squad members to get to the max capture XP. (And remember...xp is now shared across the entire continent for squad members.)

4) This also applies to resecuring a facility. The system is almost exactly the same for resecuring as it is for hacking in the first place. When a base is hacked by the enemy, a "resecure timer" is started. All the kills you were present for the 10 minutes prior to that enemy hack, and all the kills until your Empire actually rehacks (thus resecuring the base) are counted as "unique kills" toward the maximum resecure XP. This "resecuring" xp should be a huge incentive for defenders since you now get xp for doing base defense (which didn't happen previous to this change).

Make more sense now? In a nutshell...big fights give big cap xp. Small fights give small cap xp. Defenders get xp for resecuring a base.

And, of course, in addition to capture xp, you also get all the xp for the actual kills...and that's not limited by "unique" numbers. So all-in-all, you can wrack up an amazing amount of xp if you a) get into a large squad and b) go into large battles, whether on offense or defense. If your style is to play with smaller squads and go to smaller battles, you'll still have fun...but you'll receive smaller XP because you're taking smaller risks.

NOTE: You and/or your squadmates can freely go in and out of the SOI during the 25-minute window. But kills are only added to your "unique kill total" when you or your squadmates are actually in the contested SOI.

Okay...that's BEP...what about CEP for captures?

The system works exactly like BEP awards, but there's a modifier based on your size of squad.

Basically, take the amount of xp that would be received using the BEP system described above. Now multiply the CEP gained by a percentage based on the number of folks in your squad. A two-person squad gets 10% of the max CEP for its leader, whereas a squad leader with 8+ members gets 100% of the max CEP. (Scaled proportionally in between those numbers).

Therefore, large squads net max CEP for their commander. Small squads net less.

NOTE: There is no limitation to the number of commanders that can gain CEP in a single SOI. It's only limited by their squad size.

ALSO NOTE: Capture xp now has *NOTHING* to do with who hacked the building. There is no reason to kill friendly hackers.

LAST NOTE: You, or at least one of your squad, MUST be in the SOI of the building AT THE TIME OF CAPTURE (or resecure) in order to gain BEP or CEP.

[Elian]

Yeah- they took em down a little early, so maybe they'll put em up a little early ? :

I hope they get rid of the kill someone close and crash bug. heh, is that not the most annoying bug in the beta?

[Ginzue]

Yay, sounds like good stuff for us commanders...

[Jakal]

Hmm this is the first time the new exp system has been explained to me. I dont like it at all. If you have a 10 v 10 battle for control of a base that takes a long time you deserve as much exp as a 100 v 100. This is just limiting the options a player has to shoose to fight in smaller battles on continents other than cyssor.

[SuperGlue]

why should you get the same exp for a large battle and a small battle???

I think the new exp system is gonna be good, after a few small tweaks and some feedback it should really be good.

[Angelos]

With the new lattice system, it should prevent most 10 vs 10 battles, which you would be better to find on a free game like SoF2. This game isn't worth playing if it isn't 50 vs 50 or more.