The Energon Pub

[Redimus]

Since it's a new game and new code, I'd wager a no, another start from scratch.

Which would mean that everybody has to work on their overall ranking all over again.

Too bad those who cram in loads of hours endlessly now would just wind up wasting their hours.

Dude, I've suspected for a long while He was still working on a V2, and I had no delusions about the eventual reset it would bring. I still wanna do the best I can.

With your attitude, what's the point of doign your best in V2? Eventully V2 will end, or you will die, or something, and then it will all have been for nought, so why bother?

Oh yeah, I know, cuase it's fun to do the best you can!

Last version, I finished in 16th place in the rankings, this version Im reasonably safe in 16th place, so my target is to try and get myself up to a higher ranking before the reset. That and to get as high up the level ladder as posible.

[Jeep?]

Why do these things always come out when I'm gone?
Maybe that old rumour about me being OS is true.
If it is, I love me.

[Lord Gothika]

We wub ooo OS

[Venomous Prime]

We wub ooo OS

I'm scared for my life

[Sharpwing]

Awesome

[Omega Sentinel]

Here's a teaser before the trailer. There is a help system built into the game. There will be little vector sigma icons by everything with help information available.

Each weapon will have information on it in the help system and this is the help screen for one of the basic level 0 weapons:

[Darth Trader]

Nice! Thanks for the updates OS.

[Chaoslock]

Here's a teaser before the trailer. There is a help system built into the game. There will be little vector sigma icons by everything with help information available.

Each weapon will have information on it in the help system and this is the help screen for one of the basic level 0 weapons:

WOW.

[Wingspan]

A rewrite from scratch is always challenging but also can be extremely rewarding; at 60% there and being able to answer like you did and share an actually shows forethought to a good end goal.

Short version: Pretty picture and funny OS talk make me think V2 be good.

[Black Eyes]

Here's a teaser before the trailer. There is a help system built into the game. There will be little vector sigma icons by everything with help information available.

Each weapon will have information on it in the help system and this is the help screen for one of the basic level 0 weapons:

Thats KICK@SS!!!!

I love all specs!!!!

So using weapons will cost energon? ....very interesting

I can't wait to see more

[Venomous Prime]

That's actually pretty neat looking. A step up from the current weapon system anyways. I can't wait to know more about it

[Tammuz]

Here's a teaser before the trailer. There is a help system built into the game. There will be little vector sigma icons by everything with help information available.

Each weapon will have information on it in the help system and this is the help screen for one of the basic level 0 weapons:

i'm gonna have so much fun.

[Omega Sentinel]

i'm gonna have so much fun.

Sarcasm? Its a hitpoint-based system so the maths aren't as complex...Figured you would hate that

Honestly, with the added attributes of the weaponry, my hope is that balance will come more from toggling attributes than having to change the math in the game engine (as long as the hitpoint setup is properly designed).

[Tammuz]

glad to see your not letting personal prejudice affect what's best for the game.

it's all the same to me, i've always viewed the game as hit point based anyway; that % figure is just fluff. i do get all tingly for a maths problem, and having cracked everything in this game has kinda taken the fun out of it, though that you haven't designed in balance form the gound up is a little disconcerting.

but the thing is OS, if the mechanics are bad, they need to be changed, if the raw numbers are bad, they need to be changed, toggling attribute is what i did to balance the weapons, and they balance, except from brawling becuase the mechanic screws it over.

the current weapons are actually easy to balance becuase they're so simple, having a bajillion attributes makes things alot more complex than the 6 or so we currently have, and will require alot of tweaking if your going for a trial and error approach

course the recharge seems a little odd, if that turns, or seconds its horrifically long, unless battles are going to be much longer affairs.

[Omega Sentinel]

glad to see your not letting personal prejudice affect what's best for the game.

No personal prejudice. I just understand that some people have a genuine dislike for me and that won't change so I don't pander to it. I've always been here to make a good game. Making a few people miserable is not worth giving up contract money to work on this for free so that has never been my motivation.

it's all the same to me, i've always viewed the game as hit point based anyway; that % figure is just fluff. i do get all tingly for a maths problem, and having cracked everything in this game has kinda taken the fun out of it, though that you haven't designed in balance form the gound up is a little disconcerting.

Now that's not true. I've gone level by level calculating hitpoints, weapons, armors and tactics. If the foundation of the character's attributes are not developed entirely first then the game has no foundation. You and I both know this and everyone who has been beta testing this game will tell you that has been my number 1 priority.

but the thing is OS, if the mechanics are bad, they need to be changed, if the raw numbers are bad, they need to be changed, toggling attribute is what i did to balance the weapons, and they balance, except from brawling becuase the mechanic screws it over.

the current weapons are actually easy to balance becuase they're so simple, having a bajillion attributes makes things alot more complex than the 6 or so we currently have, and will require alot of tweaking if your going for a trial and error approach

I couldn't agree more. If the core mechanics are bad they will HAVE to be changed. The fact is that there isn't another game out there like this one and I seriously started from a pencil and paper so to think we will not need to make adjustments to the engine for the first few months would be foolish. BUT, I'm hoping longterm (once we get the kinks out) we will be able to adjust objects within the game instead of the game engine itself to fix things like overamping.

course the recharge seems a little odd, if that turns, or seconds its horrifically long, unless battles are going to be much longer affairs.

Recharge is in seconds. It will all make more sense later.

[Tammuz]

it's all the same to me, i've always viewed the game as hit point based anyway; that % figure is just fluff. i do get all tingly for a maths problem, and having cracked everything in this game has kinda taken the fun out of it, though that you haven't designed in balance form the gound up is a little disconcerting.

Now that's not true. I've gone level by level calculating hitpoints, weapons, armors and tactics. If the foundation of the character's attributes are not developed entirely first then the game has no foundation. You and I both know this and everyone who has been beta testing this game will tell you that has been my number 1 priority.

Good. It's just that the only expeirience i have of you balancing the game was your Brawling nerf, Minicons, and Bot-modes, and while all were good additions, the mechanics fo how they worked was not, and that is what worries me. I'd really like to find out my fears are unfounded.

but the thing is OS, if the mechanics are bad, they need to be changed, if the raw numbers are bad, they need to be changed, toggling attribute is what i did to balance the weapons, and they balance, except from brawling becuase the mechanic screws it over.

the current weapons are actually easy to balance becuase they're so simple, having a bajillion attributes makes things alot more complex than the 6 or so we currently have, and will require alot of tweaking if your going for a trial and error approach

I couldn't agree more. If the core mechanics are bad they will HAVE to be changed. The fact is that there isn't another game out there like this one and I seriously started from a pencil and paper so to think we will not need to make adjustments to the engine for the first few months would be foolish. BUT, I'm hoping longterm (once we get the kinks out) we will be able to adjust objects within the game instead of the game engine itself to fix things like overamping.

whatever it takes.

course the recharge seems a little odd, if that turns, or seconds its horrifically long, unless battles are going to be much longer affairs.

Recharge is in seconds. It will all make more sense later.

how long are battles going to last?

[Omega Sentinel]

Good. It's just that the only expeirience i have of you balancing the game was your Brawling nerf, Minicons, and Bot-modes, and while all were good additions, the mechanics fo how they worked was not, and that is what worries me. I'd really like to find out my fears are unfounded.

They may be founded. We may have all sorts of problems when 100 people get in it. Best to be prepared.

I will say this, however, that the current game was not initially designed with "upgrades" in mind. Everything I added had adverse effects on other things because of how the code was originally written. If you remember, everyone who has looked at this thing has complained of the same problems. That's why you've never seen major additions to the current game. I'm still amazed the 2 new factions and quintessons ever worked at all in this thing.

I've designed the new game with "expansions" in mind. Similar to how you would see an expansion pack in a normal game. You just can't make changes like that in this current HMW....Now you know why I haven't touched this thing since starting on the new game. Don't want to mess anything else up and create even more work.

how long are battles going to last?

They will vary. Just like everything else, the mission/campaign/skirmish aspects of the game will be somewhat similar as far as look and gameplay but inherently they will be far more flexible.

[Tammuz]

Good. It's just that the only expeirience i have of you balancing the game was your Brawling nerf, Minicons, and Bot-modes, and while all were good additions, the mechanics fo how they worked was not, and that is what worries me. I'd really like to find out my fears are unfounded.

They may be founded.

did not want to hear that.

We may have all sorts of problems when 100 people get in it. Best to be prepared.

shouldn't be too hard with all the weapons stats open i won't have to take 2 years decoding the game to tell which bit of the maths is wrong.

how long are battles going to last?

They will vary. Just like everything else, the mission/campaign/skirmish aspects of the game will be somewhat similar as far as look and gameplay but inherently they will be far more flexible.[/quote]

you'll need to have a rough figure as how long battle are affects the number of shots a weapon can possibly do, way back when i showed cealus and mkall the following graph as to why so many weapons were crippled becuase they're recharge was too long;



at that time the average mission length was about 2 and half minutes so most of the recharges really didn't make much of a differece 12 turn recharges get 1 shout, as do everything that takes longer than 4 turns. but what makes thingsreally bad is that haveing basic NR attack (brawling) makes it a pain as it's infinitely better, if you look at something like Final Fantasy even the most basic attack has a recharge time. either everthing needs to be NR or be practically indistinguishable, or everything needs to have recharge/recovery time

[Ninjaburn]

First just pure w00t to you OS.

But out of geeky curiosity, what are you using to write the new system? PHP, or are you going with something new to give you more flexibility?

Also I agree with Tam that there are quite a few things broken in the existing game especially some of the background hit calculations, however those simply aren't your fault and I can only imagine how this game over the past few years is now being held together with duct tape and prayers.

[Rat Convoy]

Here's hoping the basic premise (simple, easy-to-play at work, mostly text-based game) remains the same. Otherwise, very exciting news.

OS, if you're looking for a good example of how to balance a game like this, I highly recommend you peruse D&D's 4th edition, if you haven't already. The lengths they went to make sure the numbers all work, from levels 1-30, are staggering. Problems in older versions where one character can automatically hit a foe while another similarly leveled character couldn't hit at all in previous editions were all ironed out.

[Me, Grimlock!]

This is cool news! I made it to, I think, 8th position or so in the old game, 9 millionth here. Maybe in the next one I'll make it somewhere in between.

Does the new version mean I have to make a new team of losers?

But out of geeky curiosity, what are you using to write the new system? PHP, or are you going with something new to give you more flexibility?

PHP is awesome. Nothing is better in my rose-coloured glasses. You should marry it or at least bring it out for dinner and a movie.

[Omega Sentinel]

Here's hoping the basic premise (simple, easy-to-play at work, mostly text-based game) remains the same. Otherwise, very exciting news.

You can do the "dump em and leave em strategy" or you can explore several other things your character will be able to do. Either way, it should have something for both styles of players. I've gone to great lengths to make sure the simplistic style is in there for those who want it.

OS, if you're looking for a good example of how to balance a game like this, I highly recommend you peruse D&D's 4th edition, if you haven't already. The lengths they went to make sure the numbers all work, from levels 1-30, are staggering. Problems in older versions where one character can automatically hit a foe while another similarly leveled character couldn't hit at all in previous editions were all ironed out.

HMW2 characters can go from levels 0-100. A few people have been playing on the game engine for a little while (albeit only a little more than half of it is complete) and it has been playing out very well. Some of the numbers will just need to be tweaked if we see any problems we may have missed in testing.

As far as the inner workings and details of everything, it is way too early to dive into that here. There will be more to come.

[Me, Grimlock!]

As far as the inner workings and details of everything, it is way too early to dive into that here. There will be more to come.

Just don't forget to add the line that says if someone's team is the Ineptibots then they get free Energon. Everyone else gets ice cream.

[Omega Sentinel]

As far as the inner workings and details of everything, it is way too early to dive into that here. There will be more to come.

Just don't forget to add the line that says if someone's team is the Ineptibots then they get free Energon. Everyone else gets ice cream.

Energon will be too valuable in the new game to give away. Got your back on the ice cream though.

[Redimus]

As far as the inner workings and details of everything, it is way too early to dive into that here. There will be more to come.

Just don't forget to add the line that says if someone's team is the Ineptibots then they get free Energon. Everyone else gets ice cream.

Nah, but Im sure we can aragne a free shut out!