3. Unwritten rules of conduct?

Unwritten rules of conduct?


  • You need just an option to change nickname (and avatar), that would've solved all your "predator" issues

    (I guess that might not work, like, new nickname would show on forum)


  • I agree that respawning into a newbie area and harassing inexperienced players is detrimental to the longevity of the game. I believe that newbie protection is too short.

    On the other hand, it is that short, and re-spawning to a new location has very few costs associated. If the player did not have a tower up then in less than a day they could recover their previous glory in a new location with their improved code. What I do think should be clarified and emphasized to players is the importance of their code being able to bootstrap itself from nothing-to-defenses on its own in a new room. If players have that as their goal then having to restart is simply another chance to see how well their code bootstraps a new room. That goal is under-emphasized I think, and that can lead to players thinking that starting over really means starting over, rather than 'another chance to test my code'. It's a perception thing, and I don't think the current tutorial and documents encourage the right perception.


  • It probably would be a type of trolling to continuously respawn just to attack novices in the area, but I don't think it is clear that is what anyone was trying to do. Either way, I think the protection walls are enough of a safeguard. It is true that a novice may not have adequate defense the first time, but that will be a challenge for the next time he/she respawns.

    I think the best possible conduct for a community like this is to not take attacks personally. Even if you have to respawn, you take the majority of your progress with you, which is your GCL and more importantly your code. It is just as problematic never to get attacked, because then you don't know how well your defensive code holds up, and you miss out on that aspect of the game.


  • You seem to be under the impression that getting attacked is a mean thing and getting wrecked is a huge issue. It shouldn't be though. The game is competitive, attacking and defending is a big part of it, especially early on. If you can't manage to have a tower up before the walls go down, you are doing something wrong, and its actually good to learn that as soon as possible.

    I have no idea who you are talking about but I do not believe that he or she just respawned (multiple times?) to kill more newbies - there is absolutely nothing gained by that. You don't get points for killing people, it is something you waste time and energy on to achieve some bigger goal. Goals he can't have if he just respawns again. But even if he did: so what. Be the better player. You certainly can.

    I would support newbie protection being longer, at least the very first time you spawn, not after respawns though.

    As for unwritten rules, there's just my personal list:
    * Don't take defeat personal, take it as motivation to do better, and as a learning opportunity
    * Don't be too cocky when you win.

    Whenever I wiped somebody out or cleared a room, I made sure to send them a friendly message, making sure there's no hard feelings, and giving them hints and tips on what their weakspots were and how to improve or solve them.

    But other than that... All is fair in love and war...


  • Regardless of whether the player which determined your post is really doing this, the truth of the matter is that someone can indeed make use of the mechanism you describe to engage in noob bashing.

    It does feel like specific restrictions should be placed to limit such potential abuse.

    At the same time, should such a person be identified with clarity, it should without a doubt be reported to the development team.

    The community of this game is shamefully small and it's growth should be carefully nurtured.


  • Here is a classic article that is applicable just about everywhere, although based on "street fighter", and well worth reading http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/introducingthe-scrub 


  • the truth of the matter is that someone can indeed make use of the mechanism you describe to engage in noob bashing.

    Yes, they can, but there is absolutely nothing to be gained from this and it isn't even "unfair", since that person has to respawn himself and start from scratch to do so. He has no advantage other than experience, and experience is what his target is gaining as well - very valuable experience at that. You won't get far in this game if you don't learn certain lessons early, or if you take being attacked personal, and blaming the other player.

    It does feel like specific restrictions should be placed to limit such potential abuse.

    There are. You are in a newbie zone that experienced players can't enter without restarting themselves, and you get walls that defend your room against everything for about a day. A day is more than enough time to spin up some defenses: a tower, some walls, that's very achievable IF you manage to optimize energy gathering to a somewhat useful level and organize the construction. If they do not manage to do that, they won't come far anyway. Instead of being salty about being attacked, people need to realize this is part of the game, and that they can learn from it and be better next time. Nearly everyone of the players that are now considered big went through those lessons.


  • Forgoing the OP. As I do believe a player can get a tower and walls up with the basic tutorial creeps + one repair/maintenance creep... which really should be added to the tutorial... just sayin.

    The rest of the posts... Do you actually believe you're "helping" a new player out with "valuable experience" by going and roflstomping them when they clearly don't know what they're doing yet

    Experience in a game like this is only gained from learning and understanding how the code works and how to make yours better. Popping in to find that you're dead... not exactly a learning experience
    I highly doubt most of the players who play to kill actually bothers to take the time to try and school the newbies in what exactly they were doing wrong to help them with their next spawn.

     

    Course in general, it really doesn't help that outside of throwing yourself into multiplayer, there's actually no way for you to test code outside of the sim room. And thats heavily limited by both the fact there's only 1 room, and you can't test any long running automation without leaving your machine running for possibly a few days. (something not possible for many people)

     

  • Culture

    > Do you actually believe you're "helping" a new player out with "valuable experience" by going and roflstomping them when they clearly don't know what they're doing yet?

    Here's the thing- most of us who saw this situation as it was unfolding do not believe the premise of that statement. We do not believe the person in question was "roflstomping", and that player has in fact "settled" on an area. That's why we've been addressing this more as "getting attacked is part of the game".

    Frankly, anyone who was spending their time "roflstomping" would quickly loss interest in the game due to an inability to advance or make progress, and eventually the people who were being attacked by this person will get better. As such this is really a nonissue- the behavior is easy to counter and there's no real evidence that the issue is even real to begin with.


  • I wasn't addressing the situation in the OP. I was merely pointing out that, thinking wiping out a newbie who clearly doesn't know what they're doing, is hardly a "valuable experience" as the person above me had posted.

     


  • I wouldn't do it. I can't/won't think of a rule/law/etc to put in place to stop it that would not hurt other players more.

     

    I re-spawned and immediately killed a newbie because his tower code wasn't prioritizing correctly. I sent him my tower code and explained why he died.