Development Cycle Archive

i like the 50m idea, but i also like the idea of high ranking officers to be able to declare themselves and others

i agree with kiffen, while covert we should be able to attack overt enemys, which would result in instant tef or overt status. its that way now with npc's. i as a covert rebel can attack a imp npc at will the same should apply to pc's. and allowing players to go overt without a recruiter while being 256k away from any enemy payer or structure will keep sneek attacks from happening. if they dont notice the red dot approaching they get blasted. i dont like the tef system do away with it instead of tef just use overt, at least this way we can tell if we are attackable. there is nothing worse than healing a person with tef and getting it too then out of nowhere you get blasted. however if it was overt you can see that and have to make a decision if you heal them you go covert too then attackable. the key is that you would know about it.

I think the idea is good so as to prevent recruiter camping or other abuses. I think, though, that no matter how it is implemented, the actual change from covert to overt should not be allowed to occur within a specific distance of a member of the opposite faction who is eitherovert or covert (with a TEF). The minimum distance should not be closer than the maximum range of any weapon, so at least 64m and probably a good deal further. Thus, delcaring overt could occur at anytime with whatever mechanism you wish to employ, but the actual change would not occur until the declarer was out of range of any opposing faction member that they would be eligible to attack or would be eligible to attack them.

So whether the declaration was with the recuriter or within a specific distance of the recuriter, you would only immediately convert toovertif there were no opposing faction members (eligible to attack or be attacked) nearby. If there were, you would have to move out a specific distance before the declartion would take effect. Of course, when the change occurred, a message should appear letting you know that it took effect.

This would prevent recuriter camping, especially if you did not have to directly interact with the recuriter, because even if you successfully declare, the enemy cannot attack you. It would also prevent a bunch of coverts from surrounding an unexpecting overt who unknowingly wandered within 50m of the opposing recruiter and suddenly going overt on him.

I think even better, you could declare overt at the recruiter, but again it would not take effect immediately. The declaration could set a flag that would trigger the coversion only once the declarer left the city proper. Something like, "You have left Coronet, and, by the way, you are now overt." This way, no matter how you declared, you could not do what was pointed out earlier as problem where you could move in a bunch of coverts who suddenly become overt and ambush everyone.

Dear Dev team

First i would like to thank you for the strides made in the coutinous effort to better the game. I understand that it's not easy to get the 100% effectiveness you guys are looking for. I have been playing this game for nearly 3 months and each patch both big and little seem to be pushing you goal to make a great quailty game come true. I love the fact that you guys addressed the BE class and really made the a class worth exploring. I speak of that because at one time i was one, but bailed on it because of the issues you have now addressed.

Well i have something i think needs to be looked at. I hope people well back me up on this and im going to copy this a paste it everywhere i can make a post. My main issue at the momment i think is major for the game play and frankly super easy to test out with no major problems other than making ppl mad who do this.

I would love to see a change in the PVP game style in the area of Overt/Covert status. Today Oct 12 a group of people used this common tactic to ruin alot of people's day. One Overt and his crones in covert status guard the recuiter. Some poor person goes Overt to take on the guy and before he know is he has 5 ppl on him. Then there is a pitched battle off and on and before you know it there is 20+ ppl all who are covert with TEFs waiting to pounce on anyone stupid enough to go Overt. Yes i said 20 ppl and i have the screens shots to prove it. I know PVP is a sticky thing and ppl cry about balance and blah blah. However I cant see how this issue of the TEF and the Overts/Coverts was meant to be like this.

IMHO Overts should only be fighting Overts. If people are to whatever to go Overt then they shouldn't be able to particapte in the action. No healing, No fighting, just Nothing but watching. I saw people including myself get killed by more Coverts acting on a TEF than any Overt killed me today. So Coverts are just that Covert. Not to be heard from seen or acting on behalf of there leaders. If people feel that they need to bully a town all day using this tactic which was done, and told to CSR on the General Chat then i think you guys have not allowed your vision for the Overt/Covert aspect of the game to come out. Please take this post seriously for it's a shame to have a game experinced ruined because of this problem.

Thanks alot

BTW the server was Tempest and the location for this was Naboo city Moeina. Imps were using the tactic stated above. Quickly followed by everyone else becuase if you go Overt your as good as toast

I would also like to add i dont understand why cant it be a player radial choice if you go Overt as long as you are in town. This way you can delcare yourself anytime you want, but this would allow ppl who are running around declared outside the city limits some haven from a guy just going declared and killing you. I am also in favor of if you die a msg asking you if you would like to keep you Overt Status and you clone in Overt status if you want to. I think the whole TEF is allowing grief players to really have a field day.

Also if you are covert and you heal a player that is Overt you should automatically become Overt and be a big red dot on the map. If you are going to get involved in the fight at any level you should make you know to your enemies and friends alike.

I think the thing that bugs me the most goes something like this. Players X Y Z are throwing down. Big fight chaos all around then FLAME. What happen??? Oh a dude witha TEF just cooked me i didn't even know he was in the fight.

Happens more times that people who use this tactic care to admit. It's my strong belief that if you are going to have a PVP aspect to the game. Then it should be head to head not head to god i hope that blue dot beside me doesn't have a TEF or im dead.

I got every confidence that you guys in the Dev Department will get it all strighten out as soon as you can agree on a something that fits.

Glad i don't have to make this call.

Eawik Someg Guild DEF (Defenders of the Force)

Tempest

CH 4 4 1 3 / Pistoleer 0 3 4 2

Looks like there are 3 basic versions being suggested (not counting ones saying leav it as it is.)

The 50m radius Declare

The Heirarchy Declare

The Free Declare

Most people seem to like the 50m declare idea, and it would be the easiest code wise to implement, so I think regardless of future improvements, this will be implemented.

The Free Declare seems to have drawn fire because it allows groups to walk into a town and then let them open fire. And I tend to agree with this as being a problem.

The Heirarchy Declare seems to be the best for the game in the long term and the most interesting to me personally. My variation on the higher ranks being able to recruit would be this:

Only Declared faction members can allow other faction members to declare. A player can only declare people of ranks equal to or lower than him/herself (so when you get to the top rank you can still declare peers.) You can only go covert back at town after the Timer for Covert Status expires. This would make it dangerous to move to an enemy location with only one person declared because if he got killed before the others could be declared they'd have to go back to town. The only thing I havent come up with is how to allow Faction attacks in remote places on remote worlds.

We should be able to go overt at any time, any place. Just implement a timer before it goes into effect to prevent people from moving armies to a battle "safely" and then all going overt at once.

I think a 15 min timer would be sufficient.

The biggest problem is people knowing where you have to declare and spawn camping, or people knowing how you have to travel and camping star ports/shuttle ports. Being home based in Kaadara / Naboo requires me to travel to Keren Naboo and return via the shuttleport or the starport which can be frequently camped.

Being killed before your screen loads is B.S.

THIS WOULD BE AWESOME!!!

running exploit analasys..... ..... ..... ..... ...... ...... .......

Only thing I can think of would be reverse campers waiting for an enemy to run by the recruiter, but if you are overt you should be prepared for a fight any second, and it would seriously help camping, since it's hard to target a waiting enemy while you are using recruiter.

conclusion:

Do this!!!

As long as the button isn't constantly up and blocking view, since some recruiter zones would cover the city.

-- YP

I think that a /declareovert is a very good idea, but i would like to see it as anytime, anywhere to help others, or to lay traps for raiding parties or something like that. I honestly dont see why i have to talk to a recruiter to put on st armor. I can understand it for getting things like personell support and what not.

Just as a side note i think that sandtroopers should be the norm on tatooine, swamptroopers on naboo. I think that sandtroopers should cost less on tatooine be slightly better, but do worse in non-sand enviornments( not tatooine). Also on tatooine swamptroopers cost more, be slightly less effective.

Lastly, what about being able to get personel support and weapons from non-recuiters maybe something like spawned camps. Just throwing that out there

You can do this through some high ranking officers. Player bases can also help, but those are really expensive.

My favourite solution to declaring overt is free declare with a timer for attacking . And the necessity to see a recruiter to go undercover again.

I imagine it could work like this:

You are undercover, come upone some faction enemy and decide to fight. So you chose to /declareOvert and a timer starts ticking until you're allowed to attack (maybe 15 seconds). During this time you are red to your enemies and can be attacked. Getting attacked, immediately sets your wait timer to 0 and you can join the fight.
Additionally you should be able to build up your attack queue so the attack fires as soon as the server ticks to 0, this will keep lag in check a bit
IMO Healing should be allowed immediately after /declareOvert without a wait.

Having to see a recruiter (or getting killed) in order to become covert again IMO is a way to prevent becoming overt lightly.
One should stand up for his actions

I think the solution I proposed does not take away the ability to launch a surprise assault on the enemy faction, yet does not allow for getting first shot too.

Making it easier for people to become overt is a great idea. The easier the better.

Next step after that, give people more reasons to be overt.

I have no problem with it been easyer to go overt. The only problem that I have is the hour wait to go covert. I mean if your try "hide" yourselfthe enemy then maybe but come on an hour. You know maybe 1/2 hour or 15 min but not an hour.