PTR Changelog 2017-03-06
-
As I understand it, the intention with the longer period of the zone is to give a more realistic chance at survival for the individuals spawning in these areas. The main intent seems to be to program a mechanism which would allow respawning veteran players to set up shop in the main zones of the map with a good enough time to prepare.
Realistically, this won't allow someone to spawn in the interior of an alliance due to the quantity of available nukes, but it might allow someone to establish on the fringes of existing alliances or in deteriorating areas of the map.
Defense is still pretty solid in this game and as the recent R33t4rd show exemplified, you can make it quite costly for someone to take your position if you had a good time to prepare.
It's an interesting choice, but it doesn't seem intended to solve the frustration of established players (us). It seems more intended to help mitigate the impact we might have on the unlucky new players spawning in the current internal novice areas.
Additional development/enhancements in this subject would be justified imho.
-
Would still be nice to know what the minimum requirements are for such an area.. I always tried to avoid free 2x5 or 3x4 areas (but without taking sk-rooms into account). Don't know if this is sufficient to escape the "choosing process"..
-
Greatly appreciated feature!
May we go a little further by adding a reclaim period before walls appear? I mean a warning period informing neighbors that this area will become a Respawn area. During this period, each player can reserve some rooms to avoid some usual troubles (next GCL target, usefull path ,...).
I also think, you better have to fully automate, as much as possible, this task so you can provide us with clear guidelines on this process.
-
GCL4 is a pretty low value, with some luck its easy to reach in the first playthrough in a Novice zone.
Could the GCL requirement be increased or can it be dropped altogether as requirement ? Not having a room limit is already a significant incentive to choose blue instead of green.
I fear that the blue zones will become awfully crowded after a while with still fairly new players. After all, Novice zones can only contain <4 GCL players, so the aggression levels there will drop.
Additionally, it feels weird that having a higher GCL becomes a drawback.
-
You should have it so you spawn some around the edges every now and then as well.
Just a few.
-
What’s the logic of having these respawn areas last longer than the novice zone ones? I was actually thinking the opposite would be useful- instead of existing for ~20 days have them exist for ~10. That way the biggest disruption these zones cause (the lack of an ability to path through them) won’t result in several weeks of grief for existing players.
The period should be long enough to allow a GCL 4+ player to claim and develop all available rooms and prepare to defense them when the walls fall. However, in inner areas it will probably be shorter than at the borders.
May we go a little further by adding a reclaim period before walls appear? I mean a warning period informing neighbors that this area will become a Respawn area. During this period, each player can reserve some rooms to avoid some usual troubles (next GCL target, usefull path ,…).
Alright, what if we introduce a new small feature - when an inner Novice/Respawn Area is being planned, controllers are signed with the system message (sign user =
Screeps) showing the warning message. 24 hours in advance. If you manage to reserve some of the rooms during this period, the area is cancelled. The sign message cannot be erased by your creeps until the controller is reserved. What do you think?Would still be nice to know what the minimum requirements are for such an area.. I always tried to avoid free 2x5 or 3x4 areas (but without taking sk-rooms into account). Don’t know if this is sufficient to escape the “choosing process”..
I can’t seem to understand the question. If you claimed some rooms in an area, it will never be transformed.
Not having a room limit is already a significant incentive to choose blue instead of green.
But the need to compete with established strong players will push a lot of new players back from theze zones.
You should have it so you spawn some around the edges every now and then as well. Just a few.
We’ll be experimenting with different blue zones placement when this feature is out.
-
> The period should be long enough to allow a GCL 4+ player to claim and develop all available rooms and prepare to defense them when the walls fall. However, in inner areas it will probably be shorter than at the borders.
Is there a need for that? What's the balance or end goal? For border rooms the longer time makes sense, as they aren't going to disrupt things, but I would really appreciate a shorter time period near already active players.
> Alright, what if we introduce a new small feature - when an inner Novice/Respawn Area is being planned, controllers are signed with the system message (sign user =
Screeps) showing the warning message. 24 hours in advance. If you manage to reserve some of this rooms during this period, the area is cancelled. The sign message cannot be erased by your creeps until the controller is reserved. What do you think?The problem with this is that moving in to some locations requires using jump rooms due to the limit on claim distance. The area I wanted to move into I couldn't reach, so I built up a room in range to it specifically to launch claimers with. The same issue is going to come up when requiring reservations.
What about being able to pay resources to unsign it? Send over a creep with 1000 energy or 100 ghodium and spend that to clear out the signatures, and if enough rooms get flipped *or* any of the rooms are claimed then the system can cancel converting it over.
-
Is there a need for that? What’s the balance or end goal? For border rooms the longer time makes sense, as they aren’t going to disrupt things, but I would really appreciate a shorter time period near already active players.
Respawn areas don’t make any sense if you are not able to gain a foothold there.
The problem with this is that moving in to some locations requires using jump rooms due to the limit on claim distance. The area I wanted to move into I couldn’t reach, so I built up a room in range to it specifically to launch claimers with. The same issue is going to come up when requiring reservations.
What about being able to pay resources to unsign it? Send over a creep with 1000 energy or 100 ghodium and spend that to clear out the signatures, and if enough rooms get flipped or any of the rooms are claimed then the system can cancel converting it over.
If you want some area to be cancelled and you are dedicated enough in your intentions, then you have to find some way to reach the area and reserve it. If you can’t do this, then your plans are considered abstract/irrelevant/non-realistic, and we’ll open the area.
Just a resource cost mechanic is not enough here.
-
> Alright, what if we introduce a new small feature - when an inner Novice/Respawn Area is being planned, controllers are signed with the system message (sign user =
Screeps) showing the warning message. 24 hours in advance. If you manage to reserve some of this rooms during this period, the area is cancelled. The sign message cannot be erased by your creeps until the controller is reserved. What do you think?This would be awesome! This is the missing piece out of this whole system which will help mitigate a lot of the "concern" of veteran players. An excellent idea! When can we have it?
-
If you want some area to be cancelled and you are dedicated enough in your intentions, than you have to find some way to reach the area and reserve it. If you can’t do this, then your plans are considered abstract/irrelevant/non-realistic, and we’ll open the area.
I agree, If you really want the area you’d already be moving there. We were already underway to the area which sparked this area in the first place. A 24~48 hour heads up (we got families/work, 24 hours seems too little time, especially in this game).
I can’t seem to understand the question. If you claimed some rooms in an area, it will never be transformed.
It’s a question so that you can prevent this:
From happening, with minimal effort.
-
When can we have it?
In the same patch on March 9.
A 24~48 hour heads up (we got families/work, 24 hours seems too little time, especially in this game).
You’re supposed to automate this process with all rooms that are important for you, since the sign message can be read programmatically.
-
Sounds great!
I hope you'll be able to automate the respawn areas creation, it's a big balancing challenge to allow veterans to block some unacceptable locations but also forcing them to accept new neighbors when cleaning whole sectors.
What I was thinking is an automate process where you sign (or add a status as suggested by Dissi) a larger area when available since X days. Then allow players to reserve some rooms during 1 or more days (some couple of days sounds more reasonable to me). After this period, you check manually or automatically if the area is still coherent and mount the walls if this is the case. The amount of reservable rooms may also be limited but this is probably more difficult to implement. The point here is to automate to avoid players criticisms about admin behaviors ( this debate is way too much individualized, we need rules working for everybody) and to create larger areas so even if some rooms were reserved the area can still spawn under some conditions.
-
>You’re supposed to automate this process with all rooms that are important for you, since the sign message can be read programmatically.
Yes, that's exactly what I had in mind when you made the proposal. It would be quite easy to integrate into my existing observer/scout logic and automatically reserve rooms I need in such areas. It's gonna be great.
-
"But the need to compete with established strong players will push a lot of new players back from theze zones. -- Artem"
I do not understand what you mean here.
This is what I'm afraid of:
1. new player starts, joins a Novice zone
2. never gets seriously attacked, so very slowly (with pre-boost code and limited experience in battles) reaches 4
3. gets wiped by an established player once Novice zone drops
4. is forced to start in a murder zone and suddenly has to deal with a greatly increased game difficulty.
5. after several bad restarts, quits the game.
Basically, the difficulty increases (even more) steeply then today.
-
According to our data, most new players spend 2 months to reach GCL 4. This is more than enough to be considered an established player with understanding of the game mechanics and the PvP aspect. Not all blue zones will be placed in inner sectors, some may be created as a newly opened sector at the borders, so that everybody has a chance to find a suitable place to respawn.
-
Sector E5xN3x:
-
Just wondering about the other end of this. I'm GCL 7 and I would never spawn next to Dissi.
I don't think it matters how good your code is, if you spawn there you die.
This really raises the stakes when you are GCL 4+ and you get wiped out because you will probably never be able to get a good start ever again.
