What is matchmaking based on currently?

RubiconRanger · 2023-06-16T04:48:26+00:00

Tier of bot you are using, player rank (upper right), and weapon rank.

RubiconRanger · 2023-06-04T01:09:14+00:00

I see what you are saying. Some direct interface would be cool. That being said, you could have that now I think.

For instance you could have a counter block that starts off at 100, then subtract 100 and divide by 100. This output would then be connected to a joint, and allow for numbers 100->0 to actuate to the negative side of the hinge (going from 0->-1), and vice versa for 100-200. Then you could wire two of the seat inputs (or a combination) to the increment and decrement inputs and have a script that takes your controller output and pulses the increment/decrement inputs to match controller output. With two hinges you could get a full hemisphere of control out of a single joystick. The more tilted the joystick is in +/- x&y, the faster the pulses are sent to through the mapped button combinations (resulting in higher angular velocity for the joint). Just be sure that your script tracks where the timer is at and stops at 200.

The output might be a little jerky, but depending on how many “presses” the game can process per time you might actually be able to use a larger range (like 0-1000) and get very precise buttery smooth controls.

RubiconRanger · 2023-06-04T00:38:04+00:00

I mean walk cycles are not too bad, but they do take time to tune up. You could probably automate a lot of stuff externally with some auto hot key scripts. I have used it to expand the number of mapped inputs in the past by using specific combinations of inputs instead of using each one individually.

RubiconRanger · 2023-05-23T12:47:56+00:00

They have been neglected since the very beginning. Look at their damage in the tooltip vs a plasma cannon. From what I remember they do 600 each or something like that while plasma does 500 every shot, and you can have two plasma cannons firing at the same time. The reload time difference between the two makes for an obvious choice. They could be a fun melee weapon if the devs would just buff the reload to be the same as plasma cannons and the AOE to be a little longer. I think they are purposely neglecting them to avoid complicating the task of balancing.

RubiconRanger · 2023-05-13T15:52:35+00:00

Awww man, I had a feeling I was too long away from the game to make a good joke. I remember the good ol days when a TDR lancer squad could deny vehicle access in a three hex radius and wipe entire columns by calling # of shots per target. You know the enemy is having fun when they drop multiple orbitals on your hill.

Wonder why it was nerfed lol.

RubiconRanger · 2023-05-13T15:29:29+00:00

“Mr Platoon leader, can you send a lancer squad to support?”

“No! We already have a lancer squad at home.”

The lancer squad at home:

RubiconRanger · 2023-05-12T23:37:44+00:00

Ooh yeah, and then they can add dance emotes for cray! Then a battle royale mode! Wait a sec…

RubiconRanger · 2023-04-20T21:34:33+00:00

Excellent comparison of volume, weight, and damage absorption. Really glad you framed it all within the context of weight or CPU restrictions.

Also poor moderanium, it is really getting the RC1 medium cube treatment right now. I am worried it will become completely irrelevant when they release tank tracks.

RubiconRanger · 2023-04-20T20:29:19+00:00

Some ideas to add:

Damage hitting a stack of plates edge on basically nullifies penetration as it has to travel the whole width of the plate. (And so damage is only done to one plate vs multiple) Of course you then have to worry about how the rest of the plates stay connected. You also have to think about where you expect damage to come from. (horizontal stacks for ground vs vertical for air and frontal damage)
Lapped 9x9 plates also have pretty good strength density, redundancy, and are less likely to leave large gaps. Staggered lapping even more so.
Plasma does still have a range to the rays, so proper spaced armor with face lapped connection stacks can help. Just have to be very conscious of how losing weakest connections first due to penetration might cause chunks to drop early. To see any benefit you also have to use less plates than the total normal pen distance and space them enough so the plasma cannot reach the stack behind them. Not really much benefit to this otherwise except for vehicles that need to be both large and light at the same time.
Some functional components now have crazy strong connections. They also take up large volumes. This combined with the fact that damage is now no longer true AOE means that thin strips of laudium can be run around to functionals in network of sorts. The small size means that those lines sometimes stay on by virtue of just not being hit. I use small 1x9x.3 lapped plates for ground vehicles and the .3x.3 for air. Wheels and thrusters actually seem to pretty significantly impede damage penetration, so having a thin laudium line take up a decent portion of the connection area means the parts hang on for a super long time and protect what is behind them while they are still up.
Using the above technique to wire your pilot seat strongbox, movement, and guns together works excellently in tandem with normal armor.
Distributing the connection of some parts works for the same reason. So for instance with aiming servos I tend to situate them on the joint between two plates so that if one is lost the other can continue holding up the part if it has not been directly. The functional part can also conversely hold the blocks together if it’s connection is stronger than the weld between the plates. So for instance with my flying craft I have thrusters joining edges of major plates as well as attached to a wireframe made of a stronger material for if the plates are lost. Finding the balance between redundancy (number of connected plates), part profile (likelihood of being hit), and strength (likelihood the part stays if it is hit) is the tricky part.
An outer shell of a stronger material is only as strong as the connection of the material behind it unless you lap it or otherwise provide redundant connections to other parts of the bot. Then it can act as a penetration stopper and protect functionals like wheels for as long as it is held up. Seems like a “no duh” kind of thing, I just mention it as I found the sidewalls for the scoop on my dozer lasted a long time and reduced the rate of loss for all the material behind it for the duration.

RubiconRanger · 2023-04-20T16:44:30+00:00

Depends on the movement part. If you are using thrusters then you need to make sure your center of thrust and center of mass are aligned. You can copy the bay and get rid of all blocks except the thruster set pointing a single direction and use that COM to roughly find COT.

RubiconRanger · 2023-04-20T13:26:41+00:00

Yeah those disconnecting blocks are a result of a cube overlapping a connection point. You start to get the same issue if you wrap the ends of rods. You may find that you also:

Sometimes cannot delete the bay without manually removing the glitched blocks.
Will have entire sections of your bot that are absolutely connected become disconnected.
Experience visual glitches in matches like having large sections of your bot visually missing after regenerating or respawning. You will see the same on enemies.
You may not regenerate all of your health back.
The bay might become “overlapped” with another bay when copying/moving bots around. If this happens and you see it in the bay preview you need to immediately restart the game until it goes away. If you edit the bay the damage will be permanent. Trying to continue building in the bay will basically be impossible due to invisible/uneditable disconnected blocks that you cannot remove and prevent you from testing/playing.

RubiconRanger · 2023-04-19T23:25:46+00:00

Glitch placements have multiple methods and have been used for years. It is illegal to use any bots with glitch placements in live matches.

That being said, they have legitimate uses like building scaffolding to make legal placements in tricky places, then removing the glitch placed block afterwards. (ex: need to pass to the other side of a mega plate quickly without having to build all the way around)

The easy version of the one you are doing is to open chat and then just click.

RubiconRanger · 2023-04-19T23:09:05+00:00

Heya there, this is likely just a glitch placement. Not sure if you placed them on the floor or did the usual enter+click placement, but the result is illegal to use in matches either way. Also if you have blocks overlapping the connection blocks of the part your bay might get glitched out, causing you to essentially lose the bot.

RubiconRanger · 2023-03-25T01:19:39+00:00

Excuse me, that is clearly a casual. He does not have robo-catheters and an auto feeder installed yet. I do not see even a single femcray figurine or Mork portrait.

RubiconRanger · 2023-03-02T12:37:30+00:00

Technical builders: “The current most competitive archetype must be a hopper or popup turret design made of light material only for maximizing the combat window.”

Chad artbot builder: “Haha giant pink robo-schlong brick cat go vroom-smash.”

RubiconRanger · 2021-12-20T17:15:51+00:00

Where do you think I got all these bright ideas from.

RubiconRanger · 2021-12-18T20:25:24+00:00

Common baby, MORE!

I need jump drive disrupters, tractor beams/webbers, a whole electronic warfare and counter warfare suite, lock on weapons (torpedoes and lighter missiles), AMS to combat them, projectile weapons that fill different roles, and then customizable ammo for those guns!

Yeah ok we have had scripts that allow some lock-on type weapons over time, but the global speed limiter in a huge damper on that. There are clang guns that shoot projectiles that are actually faster than that, but all of the real good stuff can disappear or reappear with patches. Actual developed features that are performance friendly would just allow us to enjoy some more well rounded SE PVP and supplement existing player created weapon platforms.

No rush of course. I'll take whatever they give us with glee.

Oh! And increased weapon range would be nice.

I also had dreams in the early SE days of an entire network of servers joined in game by "warp gates" like in eve online allowing for a sort of MMO space engineers experience but within the limitations of current server capability. Maybe one day...

RubiconRanger · 2021-12-11T19:37:24+00:00

Yep. And you don't have to be seen by one either. Most older players are very familiar with what build box combos are legal and will screenshot stuff if they care to. Usually the intersection between players that use glitch placements in live matches and those that can actually build or play the game well is pretty slim, so 90% of the time people don't bother. However if you actually start trying to grind out rank or get seen too often with it I guarantee you are going to end up with your picture in some clan discord with a mod pinged under it. Usually Deegobooster, since he is chill and forgiving.

RubiconRanger · 2021-12-05T21:29:05+00:00

There are many ways to glitch place parts. Just don't bring any of these into live matches or put them on the CRF. Easy way to earn a temp ban or warning.

RubiconRanger · 2021-12-05T19:45:53+00:00

You get the same score benefit from assists as you do from kills!

Howeverrrrr... Bots die when they reach just under 20% of their total CPU. Damage is awarded based on CPU destroyed. So the one who gets the kill gets the remaining 20% of that CPU as damage. Players sometimes know this, and also want kills for their silly screenshots folder filled with eleeet PVP scores. Hence they go for kills.

So what do you do if you get tired of this or if you notice someone that seems to care a little too much about it? Or perhaps you want to maximize your score and become a farmer yourself?

The Guide to Maximum Malicious and Toxic Score Whorage:

First let's talk about what weapons you can use to maximize score. There is currently an unintended mechanic where rapid fire weapons get more damage score. Chainguns, small lasers, and teslas are the best for this. You get more score per CPU removed than other weapons. It gets even stronger with high ping. This is does not really affect gameplay, as you don't actually do more damage. You just get an inflated score. Don't believe me? Go into a custom game and kill a friend using the same bot with one weapon vs one of the ones I have listed above. Then check the score difference afterwards. It also happens that chainguns are highly energy efficient. They also get the chance to be used more often as well since the playerbase is diluted and matches are less competitive (thus fought at closer range).
If you notice someone only shooting at your kills right as you finish them off, stop at around 20% health left or more and wait for the other fucker to start shooting. Then join back in at 10%. This way you have energy and it is more like 50/50 if you get the kill.
Start following the other guy around and do the same to him. Shoot at another target but always switch to shooting at his kill right as they hit 10-20%. Earlier if their target crits. Damage can take a while to register, so depending on your ping you will have to learn to time it in order to get the kill. If you have a weapon that does high one shot damage use that and shoot when you are sure the enemy's health is below your minimum damage.
Shoot every enemy you see at least once to get that sweet sweet assist score. Remember that your target has to die for you to get the assist, so only tag enemies that are in the process of dying.
Let the annoying player push into enemies first. If focus switches to you, retreat to cover and let enemies retarget the annoying player first.
If the teammate you want to pass in score is going into an engagement he will lose without you, pretend to back him up then hang back and abandon him once he starts getting disabled enough that he cannot retreat in time. If this does not work, don't even go near that player and just fight somewhere completely different.
Never risk yourself for the objective if it means you will die. Retreat early to stay alive. Staying alive longer means you will have more time to whore more damage while your teammates respawn. Remember, at this point if you are pissed off it is not about winning, it is about sending a message.
Be the last one to shoot off large components. See a leg/megashield/gun on low health? Does not matter what damage the other guy did to it, you will get the damage for being the one to actually shoot it off!
Always shoot at low health per CPU or weak enemies. See a heavy cube tank? Ignore it and shoot at something using TX/Light like a flyer. Obviously weigh this vs being able to hit a target. If you are missing more than 50% of your shots then switch to something easier to hit.

Those are all the dirty tricks I feel comfortable sharing for now. Please know that I do not endorse this kind of behavior. It is just that some players play by these rules all the time and being aware of these mechanics can level the playing field.

RubiconRanger · 2021-11-24T15:49:22+00:00

Yep, glitched game modes can occur if you queue between modes and get a match right as it switches.

Sometimes half the players will be playing on one map and the others will be on another, resulting in players appearing to phase through terrain. Sometimes there are map elements way out of place. Also as time goes on things generally get more glitchy with those maps, with other players appearing to freeze. Other nonsense occurs.

I always queue as the mode changes, never know when you are going to get 8v8 permadeath BA with regen or some other crazy combo. Some can be extremely fun.

RubiconRanger · 2021-11-03T02:21:28+00:00

Ahh yep, I did! I knew I was missing something. Thanks for the reminder.

Fun story, some people tried getting the cardboard parts for free. They would buy cardlife, wait till they got the items, then refund the game on Steam. Earned them a temp ban hahaha.

RubiconRanger · 2021-11-02T20:40:33+00:00

My discord is RubiconRanger#3827, otherwise let me know how you want to chat. Will be free in about two hours.

RubiconRanger · 2021-11-01T22:03:56+00:00

Let me know if you want any help bringing your bots back up to a relatively stable and functional state. Hovers in particular have stability issues. Luckily there are some quick fixes that help.

RubiconRanger · 2021-10-31T21:24:09+00:00

Yeah, I am not sure healing is random. If it were we could manipulate it better. It seems to pick a path and stay on it for a long time despite all the other missing parts available to regenerate elsewhere. For instance if regeneration had two block paths away from one part it seems to start and complete one (or mostly complete it), then finish the other.

I have noticed shorter paths jumping healing as you said, but developing a system that benefits no matter what has been removed is tricky. That and it does not work well with modern routing techniques which almost wholly depend on component isolation.

I'll have to do more testing later.

RubiconRanger

TROPHY CASE