Fair Play Inc - Prize Table / Feedback / Updates

[TomUjain]

Hello guys,

Firstly I want to thank everyone who has shown support and faith in FPI and its ideals - FPI will always do what we feel is best for the community at RenX which leads me to the main purpose of this topic.

Players.

I feel that many of the issues we face stems from the small community, and, ideally -- I would like to see several full servers as I feel having one dominating server, be that mine or any other is unhealthy in the long term. Over the last few months FPI have had a system in place where players have been incentivised to play via the points system, which allows players to 'exchange' points for 'prizes' -- my hope was that this would give people more motivation to play.

However, I've had only 6 people come forward to claim a reward, and I feel that this money could be better put elsewhere. Thus I will be removing the reward points system as of today and instead putting all of the monthly prize budget into full RenX marketing with the overall goal to atleast double player count by the end of this year. I would also like to have specific ads to bring in new coders and developers with the end goal to help bulk out the dev team.

This budget will be roughly £40 a month for adwords and £40 a month for YouTube, If anyone would be willing to donate to help with the advertising I would be extreamly greatful. I will publish the full data for everyone to see here. Just note that this 'project' won't go live until the following month (Aug) but this is something in the pipe line. Until we go live, I will not be excepting any donations.

What I need in the meantime

• Several 30s trailer videos to be posted on YT
• Ideas for a 'landing page' where the ad link will take the person to

 

I welcome your input and ideas and will be checking in every now and then to listen to what you guys have to say

 

Outdated Info

Spoiler

 

Point exchange Table

(contact me if you fit the quota below and wish to 'spend' said points -- please be aware they will be removed from your server stats) Please note that we have a monthly spending quota, if we go over this quota - you will have to wait until the following month to redeem points. When redeeming higher tier prizes (1mil and up) you must provide your full address to me via forum, email or discord and send the required postage via PayPal.

How am I funding this? How do I earn points?

I have been asked how I am funding this to clear up confusion - I have allicated a monthly budget (coming out of my pocket) in order to pay for the contents below. If prize withdraws go over the monthly budget, anyone wishing to withdraw points must wait until the monthly budget (funds) resets the following month, so please bare that in mind. In theory, I would like to use the 'score' you get in game as the currency thus encouraging players to play more -- however point farming is a concern; thus, for now points will only be awarded by mods during special events and recorded here. In the longterm, however we hope to allow players to earn points via playing ont he server naturally.

Please ensure you have read all the rules -- see this thread for a full detailed list. Igorance of the rules is no excuse!

 

 

Item of the week:  Metro - Last Light - 19,000 server points

 

• 5,000 points -  Redeem 1 free itunes song (between £0.30 - £0.75)

• 10,000 points -  Redeem x1 random steam card

• 15,000 points - Redeem x2 random steam cards

• 20,000 points - Redeem x3 random steam cards

• 25,000 points  - Random steam CD key (£0.80 - £15.00)

• 30,000 points - Free paid for Google / Apple App on app store (£0.20 - £1.00)

• 35,000 points - Redeem x1 full set of random steam cards

• 45,000 points -  Redeem x2 full set of random steam cards

• 50,000 points - Redeem x4 full set of random steam cards

• 55,000 points -  Redeem x5 full set of random steam cards

• 60,000 points - Random steam CD key (£2.50 - £25.00)

• 90,000 points - Pick of 1 game from list (valued at £3 - £8)

• 100,000 points - Pick of 1 game from list (valued at £5 - £10)

• 120,000 points - Free 2 month netflicks subscription

• 140,000 points - Pick of 1 game from list (valued at £10 - £15)

• 160,000 points - Pick of 1 game from list (valued at £15 - £20)

• 180,000 points - C&C full saga (worth £35, inc all C&C and Red Alert games and expantions)

• 300,000 points - £5 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 400,000 points - £10 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 500,000 points - £15 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 600,000 points - £20 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 700,000 points - £25 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 800,000 points - £30 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 900,000 points - £35 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 1,000,000 points - £40 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 1,100,000 points - £50 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 1,200,000 points - £55 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 1,300,000 points - £60 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 1,400,000 points - £65 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 1,500,000 points - £70 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 1,600,000 points - £75 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 1,700,000 points - £80 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 1,800,000 points - £85 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 1,900,000 points - £90 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 2,000,000 points - £95 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 2,100,000 points - £100 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 2,200,000 points - £105 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

• 2,300,000 points - £110 steam, amazon or Orign voucher

 

Regarding the server (Fair Play Inc)

Is called 'Fair Play Inc' and will be 98% vanilla gameplay, the only difference being --  several 'mods' have been written up to try and make Ren-X less stressful to play. These mods will focus on enhancing gameplay while still keeping the core intact.

These mods are

• Slightly Increased credit tick when Ref is destroyed
• Commander reminder pop-up
• Hotties / Techies carry 5 mines instead of 3
• Staff tags
• Nuke / Iron beacons disabled for players under 16; turned back on if half your buildings are destoryed
• Randomizer - to help tackle stacking issues at the start of each game
• Overmining pop up delivered to offending player to inform them they are overmining and to stop
• Repair tools are free (though you must have 200 credits to buy it)
• Ranks show up on menu
• CP floater in bottom of screen

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2018 by TomUjain

[djlaptop]

It's very nice of you to personally fund this. I look forward to playing on your server. Where will it be located geographically?

[NodSaibot]

59 minutes ago, djlaptop said:

It's very nice of you to personally fund this. I look forward to playing on your server. Where will it be located geographically?

The dedicated box is currently located in France.

[Zucadragon]

I like the idea, but I also realize that it's impossible for me to really gain points through it. I'm not the best shooter, I'm only slowly learning how to command, and despite spending whole matches just fixing and defending the base, I've never been best defense or support.

In many matches I find that one single person is often MVP, best offense AND best defense all at once, so they'd be getting a nice 5000 points while I'm looking forward to being stuck at 1000 points, having to play 5 matches in order to achieve what some others might do in 1 match.

Delete this comment if I'm just being a noob btw, but wouldn't it be better to create a specific point pot for each match? Say 1K per game per player. So in a match with say, 30 players, this is 30K. And this is then divided between the two teams.

Generally, the winning team will have a higher score, let's say for our example, that score is 27000 for team A, while the team that lost, team B only has 21K

This means that team A gets: 16875 points
Team B gets:                               13125 points

Then those points are distributed to the players based on their score, so the players with high achievements, like destroying buildings, get higher point rewards because they did something significant in the game. But players like me, who are generally spending their time healing, would still be able to get a nice amount of points when we do well with that, because I can often get myself in the top 5 - 6 players by doing that effectively.

Otherwise I fear that plenty of players feel like they will never have a chance for anything, because they either haven't been part of the game that long, or just aren't good at sniping or other such things.

This method also means that when a team really drops the ball and gets overrun really heavily, they will lose out on a lot of points, though when games are really close and exciting, this is reflected in the score as well.

Again though, I'm just a noob, so if this is all a stupid idea, just delete this comment, I just wanted to give my two cents based on how I feel I would experience this system, I don't know if there's anyone else that would agree with me on this, I know that high skill players would most likely enjoy getting heavier rewards a lot more. But I feel like lower skilled players would eventually just give up on this entirely because they're getting 1000K because they just barely never seem to reach any of those coveted Best positions and they see other players racking in large amounts of points and generally the same players again and again.

I do feel the commander should get a bonus of some sort, because they have to manage the whole team, so that's a very intense job

[NodSaibot]

7 hours ago, Zucadragon said:

I like the idea, but I also realize that it's impossible for me to really gain points through it. I'm not the best shooter, I'm only slowly learning how to command, and despite spending whole matches just fixing and defending the base, I've never been best defense or support.

In many matches I find that one single person is often MVP, best offense AND best defense all at once, so they'd be getting a nice 5000 points while I'm looking forward to being stuck at 1000 points, having to play 5 matches in order to achieve what some others might do in 1 match.

Delete this comment if I'm just being a noob btw, but wouldn't it be better to create a specific point pot for each match? Say 1K per game per player. So in a match with say, 30 players, this is 30K. And this is then divided between the two teams.

Generally, the winning team will have a higher score, let's say for our example, that score is 27000 for team A, while the team that lost, team B only has 21K

This means that team A gets: 16875 points
Team B gets:                               13125 points

Then those points are distributed to the players based on their score, so the players with high achievements, like destroying buildings, get higher point rewards because they did something significant in the game. But players like me, who are generally spending their time healing, would still be able to get a nice amount of points when we do well with that, because I can often get myself in the top 5 - 6 players by doing that effectively.

Otherwise I fear that plenty of players feel like they will never have a chance for anything, because they either haven't been part of the game that long, or just aren't good at sniping or other such things.

This method also means that when a team really drops the ball and gets overrun really heavily, they will lose out on a lot of points, though when games are really close and exciting, this is reflected in the score as well.

Again though, I'm just a noob, so if this is all a stupid idea, just delete this comment, I just wanted to give my two cents based on how I feel I would experience this system, I don't know if there's anyone else that would agree with me on this, I know that high skill players would most likely enjoy getting heavier rewards a lot more. But I feel like lower skilled players would eventually just give up on this entirely because they're getting 1000K because they just barely never seem to reach any of those coveted Best positions and they see other players racking in large amounts of points and generally the same players again and again.

I do feel the commander should get a bonus of some sort, because they have to manage the whole team, so that's a very intense job

The system is definitely still able to be finely tweaked, but all the special points (Best Offense, Voted MVP, Most Kills, etc) will only be awarded in the monthly matches.

I do believe the rest of the points will only be coming from public matches. You can see your points using the !rank command. All of these points will come directly from the in-game points you have at the end of a match. I think it is a fair system by mostly using the in-game points, as points are acquired from doing (mostly) everything. As you said, it can be easy to get high on the matches leaderboard if you're contributing to the team. Killing people, damaging buildings/vehicles, repairing infantry/buildings/vehicles.

I may have interpreted your message wrong, if I have, let me know and clarify.

[roweboat]

This is shaping up to be pretty awesome @TomUjain !!

 

I don't have as much free time to play these days, but look forward to this servers progress!!

 

We will need to promote this heavily if we want it to be successful =)

[Zucadragon]

40 minutes ago, Sarah! said:

The system is definitely still able to be finely tweaked, but all the special points (Best Offense, Voted MVP, Most Kills, etc) will only be awarded in the monthly matches.

I do believe the rest of the points will only be coming from public matches. You can see your points using the !rank command. All of these points will come directly from the in-game points you have at the end of a match. I think it is a fair system by mostly using the in-game points, as points are acquired from doing (mostly) everything. As you said, it can be easy to get high on the matches leaderboard if you're contributing to the team. Killing people, damaging buildings/vehicles, repairing infantry/buildings/vehicles.

I may have interpreted your message wrong, if I have, let me know and clarify.

No, I think I actually understood the system wrong, I thought what you described above was the only means to get points, if points mostly come from matches, I'm pretty happy with that!

[NodSaibot]

41 minutes ago, roweboat said:

This is shaping up to be pretty awesome @TomUjain !!

 

I don't have as much free time to play these days, but look forward to this servers progress!!

 

We will need to promote this heavily if we want it to be successful =)

I'm glad you're excited! TomUjain, myself and others have worked a lot on this recently and we hope it will make a positive change in RenX.

 

25 minutes ago, Zucadragon said:

No, I think I actually understood the system wrong, I thought what you described above was the only means to get points, if points mostly come from matches, I'm pretty happy with that!

Glad to hear that I clarified that for you.

[TomUjain]

Hey guys

Just a quick reminder that we are going live tomorrow (1st May) the server will be open pretty early, and the tournament will start around 7pm GMT (London) -- the details are above; but to summarize it is basically an open pug match with small prizes.

To keep things fresh and exciting I have also been playing around with other ideas - the main one being 'Mini events' to keep things fair, should an admin wish to host a 'mini event' (will go into details below) they are not allowed to be playing phyiscally but may join the team as a temp. Mini events are all about creativity and will net you a small reward; here are some examples;

• Answering a riddle / question correctly
• Finding a hidden tank on the map
• Destroying X building / capturing X
• Planting a beacon at X
• Humvee / Buggy racing
• Hide and seek games

Just a reminder, the 'mini events' are here to add spark and be fun; they are designed to not take away from the match and are optional. Any mod login and host their own version and offer rewards such as tanks, credits, items or even points. Over the next few months we'll be testing this in game. This will be all from prospective; we won't be awarding mammy tanks like candy, and this is not an excuse to abuse power. Most rewards will be small aka 250 - 500 credits; a free 'tier 2 tank' etc... etc...

Edited April 30, 2018 by TomUjain

[Madkill40]

RenX Discord or will you be using your own discord channel for this?

[TomUjain]

Thanks to everyone who played tonight.

In regards to some of the comments made here; as Serah pointed out -- you must screenshot and send the comment to us, if you don't do that -- or fail to bring it to our attention how are we supposed to help? The community is small, and we do not have eyes and ears online 24/7 thus it is so important that you guys help us out if/when something happens. I humbly request that you not 'name and shame' in public i.e. the forums, please email us the screenshot in private via discord or here. Weather the 'banter' is a joke or not does not matter to me; screaming out aggressive comments like 'go kill yourself' will get you into trouble, so please refrain from doing it. Such comments achive nothing, and is not healthy for you or the community.

During my spare time, I will read through the server log and monitor anything said, but I can't catch everything.

Fair Play is still a new concept, and thus a few kinks will have to be ironed out over time. You will get people who try to troll, thinking they are safe behind IP masks and fake names, for now, perhaps but there are ways to catch you (let this be a firm warning to anyone considering it) systems can be put in place to lock out anyone IP spoofing, and a system can be put in place to only allow steam users to join just to list two examples.

I won't bring down the iron hammer on people who are willing to accept a warning and move on; but if I see this becoming a bigger issue overall then I will have to start looking into DRM systems to stop it.

Bottom line is this: For a first day, I think everything went pretty well, a few issues were to be expected but I do want to emphasis how important it is to screenshot any account you come across and send it to us - I did notice a bit of swearing and cussing, but was willing to turn a blind eye as long as it is not directed at a player, exceptionally if that player is new. swearing over and over with no concept though is something I ask everyone to refrain from, short outbursts are understandable but not when every other word is in poor taste 

 

Edited May 1, 2018 by TomUjain

[Sn4ke]

@TomUjain have only been playing a single match on FPI yet, but it was on of the best Xmountain matches I had in a long long time. Nod lost Ref/strip due to SBH spy with ION, but solo-nuked BAR successfully.

Nod had field control (therefore - CRATE control) for most of the time, but they never tried to rush a GDI building until GDI grinded to Elite/HEROIC. GDI won with two rocket rushes, the last one an APC-taxi-rocket-rush

two questions though - what are the crate settings (esp. in regard of Bradley APC there seem to be at least... four M2 LT on every map at any time... )? and which maps got an increased mining limit?

[TomUjain]

Thats awesome DarkSn4ke

We are all about providing a healthy, fair -- and fun playground for the community; and something we are working so hard to push to the front of the table.

As with any new server, there are several glitches and errors that need to be ironed out; the mines were incorrectly set, which will be addressed next patch (very soon) the Ref tick mod will also be reduced, but not turned off. Is a bit of controversy regarding the ref mod; the reason behind it is to allow a team to still play (somewhat) with some funds, rather than non. New players joining with no ref shouldn't not be waiting 5 - 10 mins for a basic unit. It is also about gameplay; which should not come to a grinding stop because a building is lost, gameplay should be free flowing and fun. Naturally we can't get everything right first time and things will have to be tweaked and fine tuned over time to get the perfect community server.

I'm not 100% sure regarding the crate spawns, Serah would know more about that and is something i'll ask about tomorrow (unless she beats me to it and posts here tomorrow )

I did notice a few people request for mods to reset the map; just want to point out that the only time are mods / admins (inc myself) allowed to use powers is for maintaince or to address a glitch -- under no other reason can our powers be used. This includes force changing a map, we are also here to set an example -- if you do spot any staff overstepping their mark then bring it to me...if you think I am overstepping my bounds then take it to the other admin Goku.

 

 

[Ryz]

Nice experience sofar! Active mods / people on IRC at the moment and server runs smooth.

Played a few games and one of them was the same Xmountain @darksn4ke here above was on. Not too sure about the 2 credit tick if ref is down, cause Nod could basically replace inf. without a problem. Since there was no strip Nod lacked ranged and pushed GDI back sometimes, but that game could have lasted hours the way it was balanced right now. Nod was too weak (no strip) to make a big push but too strong to lose and get backed down in their base. I noticed you guys are also checking into this. 

Also like the server is without mods like map changes with turrents and stuff. I have respect for every serverowners work but I also have my own preferences. This feels more like Ren-x should be (besides the quick money, but that might also be a matter of taste).

Keep up the good work!

[TomUjain]

Thanks Ryz!

we tried to keep the server as Vanilla as possible; the ref tick mod will probably be the only mod we use unless we get a huge demand for something else. There might be another mod in place regarding the point score system to make it easier to exchange points (see first page) you earn on this server via playing, but everything else should stay the same.

 

[NodSaibot]

4 hours ago, DarkSn4ke said:

@TomUjain have only been playing a single match on FPI yet, but it was on of the best Xmountain matches I had in a long long time. Nod lost Ref/strip due to SBH spy with ION, but solo-nuked BAR successfully.

Nod had field control (therefore - CRATE control) for most of the time, but they never tried to rush a GDI building until GDI grinded to Elite/HEROIC. GDI won with two rocket rushes, the last one an APC-taxi-rocket-rush

two questions though - what are the crate settings (esp. in regard of Bradley APC there seem to be at least... four M2 LT on every map at any time... )? and which maps got an increased mining limit?

Yeah, I never touched the crate settings. They're pretty terrible default. Reduced drop rate of bradley from .5 to .1

[Sn4ke]

8 hours ago, TomUjain said:

New players joining with no ref shouldn't not be waiting 5 - 10 mins for a basic unit. It is also about gameplay; which should not come to a grinding stop because a building is lost, gameplay should be free flowing and fun.

can't share this point of view. if people actually do something useful (attacking enemy units, repairing buildings OR - the best imo: repair team mates) & try to get some crates.... you don't have to wait 5 minutes to buy a Gunner or LCG. also... using FREE inf can be the best thing to do under such circumstances. next best option: Officer / Chems [anti-inf - long / close range fights] and rocket soldier [anti vehicle & probably the most cost effective rush unit]

• if the own team Refinery is dead, you'll get an increased base chance for money crates (+ time increase probability) - even with 100% vanilla settings. (not to mention the possible chance to get a free 1k unit, spy, tank etc etc.)
• killing enemy units, even if it's just free INF grants both cash & decent amount of VP (unless you're within your own base volume)
• repairing friendly vehicles OR infantry units gives you a constant credit & VP tick

Edited May 2, 2018 by DarkSn4ke

[TomUjain]

You raise some good points DarkSn4ke, the mutator can be turned off if needed; although I would like to know what the rest of the community thinks about it first -- weather it should be lowered or turned off completly.

 

[CrazyJose]

19 hours ago, Ryz said:

Nice experience sofar! Active mods / people on IRC at the moment and server runs smooth.

do you know their IRC address?

[Madkill40]

21 hours ago, TomUjain said:

New players joining with no ref shouldn't not be waiting 5 - 10 mins for a basic unit. It is also about gameplay; which should not come to a grinding stop because a building is lost, gameplay should be free flowing and fun.

This is why the tick rate when the refinery is destroyed was increased from 0, perhaps the Harvester dump is the only thing the refinery should be good for? However this puts down the importance of keeping the refinery alive in-general.  The reduced tick rate upon refinery death is also why captured silos were introduced into some maps. 

[NodSaibot]

4 hours ago, CrazyJose said:

do you know their IRC address?

irc.elitekamikazeteam.com #RenX

 

Our Discord is also located at https://discord.gg/X9rsRzr

Edited May 3, 2018 by Sarah!

[Madkill40]

6 hours ago, Sarah! said:

irc.elitekamikazeteam.com #RenX

 

Our Discord is also located at https://discord.gg/X9rsRzr

Fairplay Inc is just EKT in-disguise?  

[NodSaibot]

Just now, Madkill40 said:

Fairplay Inc is just EKT in-disguise?  

It's managed by EKT members, Goku & I. All staff members are EKT clan members. However, the person paying and overseeing it is not EKT.

Edited May 3, 2018 by Sarah!

[Madkill40]

Just now, Sarah! said:

It's managed by EKT members, Goku & I. All staff members are EKT clan members. However, the person paying and overseeing it is not EKT.

Ruddy freeloaders!

Izkwl tho, to know EKT is still kickin'

[NodSaibot]

If anyone would like to contribute to our server mutators, feel free to check my GitHub page with all of our mutator code on it. I will post issues for currently in development features and bugs. Feel free to fork, then PR the mutator with an improvement or new requested feature. 

https://github.com/sevans045/FPI

Almost forgot the link.

Edited May 4, 2018 by Sarah!

[TomUjain]

Updated list.

[djlaptop]

I've been enjoying playing on the server! A couple pieces of feedback on the custom mutators (which are overall GREAT, btw) and settings.

1) Bots. They're controversial, some people love them and some people hate them. But when the server votes them out, they die but immediately new ones spawn in their place. I had my gameplay absolutely WRECKED just now due to friendly bots. One blew my stealth cover, one detonated mines I was defusing, and a pair of them handed tanks to the enemy right in their base.

I understand the need for bots to even out the teams, but when they're voted out they should stay out.

2) Seems whenever you buy a tech/engineer, your default weapon becomes remote c4 instead of the repair gun. If you quickly swap to an engineer to repair a building under attack, this leads to you tossing a c4 at your feet rather than repairing. Not only does this delay the repair but it also costs you a valuable remote c4 while a building may be under siege.

3) While I understand the "no beacons before 16 players" rule, as per another thread I would love to see an exception made when your hon+air or wf+bar are destroyed. Once you've lost all means of production, there aren't many ways to launch a counterattack. Beacons are one of the things that still give you hope you can turn around a game. Otherwise, once you've lost those buildings you basically just want to hasten your loss to move on to the next map.

Thanks again for the server, I really enjoy it, and Goku/Sarah are doing a great job with it as well.

Edited May 12, 2018 by djlaptop

[NodSaibot]

I've looked at the default weapon thing for the engie, the reason it happens is because we have our own repair gun class. I'll look into implementing a fix tomorrow (maybe). And I'll probably add a building checker as well for super weapons. And I think someone changed a setting to bots are automatically added, I'm not sure.

[isupreme]

On 5/5/2018 at 9:24 AM, TomUjain said:

2) Seems whenever you buy a tech/engineer, your default weapon becomes remote c4 instead of the repair gun. If you quickly swap to an engineer to repair a building under attack, this leads to you tossing a c4 at your feet rather than repairing. Not only does this delay the repair but it also costs you a valuable remote c4 while a building may be under siege.

 

I am glad someone brought this up.     Happier still to read that a fix may be forthcoming.

[NodSaibot]

24 minutes ago, isupreme said:

 

I am glad someone brought this up.     Happier still to read that a fix may be forthcoming.

I've known about it since I was working on this specific feature, just too busy to fix.

Edited May 12, 2018 by Sarah!

[TomUjain]

13 hours ago, djlaptop said:

I've been enjoying playing on the server! A couple pieces of feedback on the custom mutators (which are overall GREAT, btw) and settings.

1) Bots. They're controversial, some people love them and some people hate them. But when the server votes them out, they die but immediately new ones spawn in their place. I had my gameplay absolutely WRECKED just now due to friendly bots. One blew my stealth cover, one detonated mines I was defusing, and a pair of them handed tanks to the enemy right in their base.

I understand the need for bots to even out the teams, but when they're voted out they should stay out.

2) Seems whenever you buy a tech/engineer, your default weapon becomes remote c4 instead of the repair gun. If you quickly swap to an engineer to repair a building under attack, this leads to you tossing a c4 at your feet rather than repairing. Not only does this delay the repair but it also costs you a valuable remote c4 while a building may be under siege.

3) While I understand the "no beacons before 16 players" rule, as per another thread I would love to see an exception made when your hon+air or wf+bar are destroyed. Once you've lost all means of production, there aren't many ways to launch a counterattack. Beacons are one of the things that still give you hope you can turn around a game. Otherwise, once you've lost those buildings you basically just want to hasten your loss to move on to the next map.

Thanks again for the server, I really enjoy it, and Goku/Sarah are doing a great job with it as well.

 

Thank you both for the feedback; I have noticed this as well -- and am sure Serah will look into when she can. In regards to the beacon limitation; it is open to debait on if we should lower/raise the number -- but we feel overall that the beacon becomes pretty biased when the number of players falls very low, and this (from what I can see) is reflected in how the community feels about beacons in low player matches.

I have an update of my own to share with you all.

 

I have decided to streamline the points table and focus on digital only prizes, with a 'weekly' item that will change every week/or two. I have done this to avoid any complications as non-digal goods need to ne shipped and this opens up a lot of potential problems.

Furthermore, the move to focus on digial only goods and cut the prize table to 2.2 mil points -- has cut the monthly budget allicated to 'exchanges' in half, which means money is left over for promotion -- which will now have its own monthly budget.

So to sumarize: Digial only products in the prize table, expensive reedemed products removed -- money saved on those products will be used for game promotion instead and/or server upgrades.

[NodSaibot]

22 hours ago, djlaptop said:

I've been enjoying playing on the server! A couple pieces of feedback on the custom mutators (which are overall GREAT, btw) and settings.

1) Bots. They're controversial, some people love them and some people hate them. But when the server votes them out, they die but immediately new ones spawn in their place. I had my gameplay absolutely WRECKED just now due to friendly bots. One blew my stealth cover, one detonated mines I was defusing, and a pair of them handed tanks to the enemy right in their base.

I understand the need for bots to even out the teams, but when they're voted out they should stay out.

2) Seems whenever you buy a tech/engineer, your default weapon becomes remote c4 instead of the repair gun. If you quickly swap to an engineer to repair a building under attack, this leads to you tossing a c4 at your feet rather than repairing. Not only does this delay the repair but it also costs you a valuable remote c4 while a building may be under siege.

3) While I understand the "no beacons before 16 players" rule, as per another thread I would love to see an exception made when your hon+air or wf+bar are destroyed. Once you've lost all means of production, there aren't many ways to launch a counterattack. Beacons are one of the things that still give you hope you can turn around a game. Otherwise, once you've lost those buildings you basically just want to hasten your loss to move on to the next map.

Thanks again for the server, I really enjoy it, and Goku/Sarah are doing a great job with it as well.

If half or more (roughly) of the TOTAL buildings on the map are destroyed, you can purchase beacons. This will come into effect starting now.

A temporary fix for the remote c4 issue is live.

Edited May 13, 2018 by Sarah!

[TomUjain]

I know this was touched upon earlier, but for reference -- the ion / nuke beacons appear to be disabled, the server seems to think we have below 16 players regardless of how many are online.

[NodSaibot]

16 minutes ago, TomUjain said:

I know this was touched upon earlier, but for reference -- the ion / nuke beacons appear to be disabled, the server seems to think we have below 16 players regardless of how many are online.

#BlameNoOneTestingWithMe

[Ryz]

1 hour ago, Sarah! said:

#BlameNoOneTestingWithMe

I guess it would be better IF:

- Beacons are always enabled unless less then x players
- If less then X players they can get enabled after losing 'x  buildings

Now GDI suddenly had beacons in a 60 player match Nod was losing... Did just end it quicker while before we lost two buildings Nod couldnt nuke at all...

Keep up the good work!

[NodSaibot]

2 minutes ago, Ryz said:

I guess it would be better IF:

- Beacons are always enabled unless less then x players
- If less then X players they can get enabled after losing 'x  buildings

Now GDI suddenly had beacons in a 60 player match Nod was losing... Did just end it quicker while before we lost two buildings Nod couldnt nuke at all...

Keep up the good work!

function bool CanPurchaseBeacon()
{
	local int AliveBuildings;
	local int AllBuildings;
	local int PlayerCount;
	PlayerCount = `WorldInfoObject.Game.NumPlayers-1;

	AliveBuildings = CountAliveBuildings();
	AllBuildings   = CountAllBuildings();
	`log(AliveBuildings @ AllBuildings);

	if(OverrideBeacons == true)
	{
		return true;
	} else if (MinimumPlayersForSuperweapon > PlayerCount)
	{
		return false;
	} else if (PlayerCount == MinimumPlayersForSuperweapon || PlayerCount > MinimumPlayersForSuperweapon) {
		return true;
	} else if (AliveBuildings * 2 < AllBuildings && bConsiderBuildingCount == true)
	{
		return true;
	} else {
		return false;
	}
}

Feel free to contribute to the GitHub if you have suggestions. Codes messy but it works. What you describe here was the intended function of the old code.

Edited May 13, 2018 by Sarah!

[TomUjain]

I think that was the overall idea, the beacons would re-enable when x buildings went down; but it seems that some section of this code is conflicting and thus keeping the beacons turned off.

[roweboat]

5 hours ago, Sarah! said:

#BlameNoOneTestingWithMe

My coding knowledge is nill, and to be honest I'm pretty busy with other things in life these days, but since we're in the same time zone @Sarah!, if you ever need help testing something in game I have greater availability between 9pm - midnight.

[NodSaibot]

Possibly coming to an FPI near you.

[roweboat]

1 hour ago, Sarah! said:

Possibly coming to an FPI near you.

Maybe it should only show your team's rank? Either way, this looks awesome!! =D

[NodSaibot]

1 minute ago, roweboat said:

Maybe it should only show your team's rank? Either way, this looks awesome!! =D

I don't see why it would only show your own team's rank, tbh.

[TomUjain]

I noticed there seems to be a bit of a split debait about the commander buffs. Some people seem to feel they are too game breaking and need a re-think, giving examples such: as mid to late game -- combined with the VP levels, and buildings remaining static. The other side of this argument is that both sides have the option to use 'buffs' and players can easily counter if they are prepared. was wondering what you guys think on this issue? I personally don't see any problem with the commander mod, but agree it has room for improvement.

On one side of the argument:

• Buildings remain static making the buff stronger (with VP bonus) late game -- melting buildings rapidly
• No offical counter to full scale tank assault -- defensive buff protects units, not buildings
• Both buffs can be used at the same time, leading to possible balance issues

On the other side of the argument

• Well placed team work can counter a 'buffed' rush easy
• The other team has the option to use the same powers
• the buff duration is short and has to be timed perfectly
• A great tool for breaking stalemates -- or getting that final bit of damage to take out a building

Possible soloutions to this problem?

• Removing buffs (extream case)
• adding delay to buff before it starts (not a grand fix, but it works)
• Allowing def buff circle range to effect buildings (tricky to code in but would work)
• Limit the amount of people in the buff
• Reduce the damage numbers
• Allow building to level up with players (extreamly tricky to code in, and wouldn't be flawless)

[NodSaibot]

I think the point of the buffs is to allow games to close, instead of drag on for hours and hours. I don't see why much change would be needed

[roweboat]

4 hours ago, Sarah! said:

I don't see why it would only show your own team's rank, tbh.

yeah now that I thought about it more, it probably wouldn't make a difference if everyone always saw all ranks all the time. since they are already shown next to a players name when you see them.

[roweboat]

3 hours ago, TomUjain said:

I noticed there seems to be a bit of a split debait about the commander buffs. Some people seem to feel they are too game breaking and need a re-think, giving examples such: as mid to late game -- combined with the VP levels, and buildings remaining static. The other side of this argument is that both sides have the option to use 'buffs' and players can easily counter if they are prepared. was wondering what you guys think on this issue? I personally don't see any problem with the commander mod, but agree it has room for improvement.

On one side of the argument:

• Buildings remain static making the buff stronger (with VP bonus) late game -- melting buildings rapidly
• No offical counter to full scale tank assault -- defensive buff protects units, not buildings
• Both buffs can be used at the same time, leading to possible balance issues

On the other side of the argument

• Well placed team work can counter a 'buffed' rush easy
• The other team has the option to use the same powers
• the buff duration is short and has to be timed perfectly
• A great tool for breaking stalemates -- or getting that final bit of damage to take out a building

Possible soloutions to this problem?

• Removing buffs (extream case)
• adding delay to buff before it starts (not a grand fix, but it works)
• Allowing def buff circle range to effect buildings (tricky to code in but would work)
• Limit the amount of people in the buff
• Reduce the damage numbers
• Allow building to level up with players (extreamly tricky to code in, and wouldn't be flawless)

One suggestion I liked, was to give buildings a defense buff.

What if the defense buff was changed completely? To no longer affect units, but only work on a chosen building for the same duration as it does now?

 

To me personally, I like the commander mod options, but I feel the defensive buff is one of the more useless options. Maybe I haven't seen it utilized well enough, but it doesn't feel nearly as useful as the offensive buff, apart from it being cheaper.

[NodSaibot]

 

 

well that's what they do.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Sarah!

[TomUjain]

Would be nice, but difficult I imagine as it requires messing with the buildings which from what I can imagine is no easy feat.

Edited May 15, 2018 by TomUjain

[NodSaibot]

33 minutes ago, TomUjain said:

Would be nice, but difficult I imagine as it requires messing with the buildings which from what I can imagine is no easy feat.

Never know until you try?

[TomUjain]

34 minutes ago, Sarah! said:

Never know until you try?

I don't see the harm in having the def buff effect buildings too -- if you think it can be done, and think it is a good idea might be worth looking into, otherwise we can drop the idea.

on another note...

Stacking, seems  to still be a huge issue; and although I don't think it is wise to bring down the iron hammer on 'good' players who want to play together I do believe we have to come up with some sort of system to address the issue. I understand that more experienced players get a kick out of playing together on discord, but this fun is selfish and isn't healthy or sustainable, to quote a good friend of mine;

Quote

 Most widely quoted reason for stacking is "people come here to have fun with their friends". Which seems innoceous enough (I, myself have fallen for that initially).But it implies a darker facet: selfishness. Too often it results in "people having fun at other people's expense".

because our community is small, 1 / 2 good players can easily tip the balance of the game, our solution to this was to 'randomize' teams as best we could to ensure the next map would even out the skill level, however this tactic has failed as people simply re-join, or spam swap. The result is a hailstorm of one sided slow or fast 'base locked / steamrolls' which can be over in as little as 5 mins or as long as 2 hours.

Trying to enforce a 'no stacking rule' would not only be difficult to uphold, but also be difficult to define. The other admins of FPI agree this is an issue, but we can't settle on a humane and fair way to counter this issue without it looking like we are targeting a specific set of players.

I'll forward some of the ideas the other admins have come up, as well as some of my own below.

Easy quick fixes

• Intoducing a 10m - 30m timer on team swaps (giving mods the power to move players at request to address rage quit issues)
• Giving mods the power to auto shuffle teams if it becomes one sided
• Remove 'swapping' rights from players who continue to stack; with possible triggers from the players (if enough complaints come in) -- Not a fan of this idea, but something we could try.

More in depth (harder to implent) fixes

• Team shuffle at start of each session based on score / skill (kills etc...) from last game to even out both sides
• dynamic scaling -- small buff increases to whole team based on score difference (i.e. 10k points nod, 20k points GDI would give nod small buff)
• A reward system to encourage swaps to losing team (in the form of unique units / tanks) i.e. "swap now and get a free perma 15% damage increase for this session only" (a few concerns about balance issues)

 

we can't settle on a solid tactic, but these are some of the ideas we have currently -- ideally, we don't want to default to more server modifications as this increases workload / time.

Edited May 15, 2018 by TomUjain

[roweboat]

I don't remember which game did /does active shuffling (an EA title I'm sure), based on player count, team score, personal score etc.

during an active match of whatever game it was, I remember players being auto-swapped to even out teams actively throughout the match.

It did get a bit disorienting at times, but to the health of the game and the match, it always kept things as even as possible.

 

point is, dynamic auto swapping isn't an untested idea and could work. although I'm sure many here would be against something like this.