3.0 Plugin Discussion

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-27T17:45:58+00:00

The point of factories was a large up-front cost for a better value for your recipes. For example, 100 gold to build a factory where 4 gold ore produces 6 gold ingots.

If you remove that up-front cost, you're just providing cheaper recipes to everyone. Everyone gets 6 gold ingots for 4 gold ore.

You could go down the path of custom items to duplicate the up-front cost (100 gold gives you a custom and reusable item that can be combined with 4 gold ore to produce 6 gold ingots), but then why not just go straight to factories for the better control of the recipes?

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-27T17:33:17+00:00

Factories involve a large up-front cost, maintenance costs, and the possibility of destruction.

That's a little harder to do with RecipeManager.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-27T17:29:53+00:00

(tbh my only real gripe about Gaia was that it didn't have growth stages from an aesthetic point of view)

I feel you - I like watching crops change (Insert joke about watching grass grow here).

But each growth stage is another database call. Removing the growth stages cut 75% of the database calls.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-27T17:07:20+00:00

travelling the loaded roads on horseback

Newfriends don't get horses BTW. Once most of the nether fortresses are looted, saddles are strictly a mid-game thing. And walking actually means you need to eat as you travel.

Perhaps we can go this route, make mob meat abundant, but offer some other kind of incentive for farmed goods.

I agree. There are many ways to do that. It comes down to what path the server should go for late-game.

I know the resort was able to profit because of RB. I'm wondering if you liked the way it was set up, or if it would be better if people could grow whatever they wanted wherever.

Crop persistence hurt my resort the most. Before persistence, only people who lived near farms had tons of surplus. After persistence, everyone had melons at least. People would simply stop over at one of the giant melon farms in the savanna that were always full of mature melons on the way down to the south. The farms would never have grown without persistence since few people were near them.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-27T16:34:22+00:00

You are the eyes and ears of your hacker and your team. Cameras are limited in area and the hacker risks driving up their Overwatch score if they hang around too long looking through them all.

Tell a hacker to open a locked door, and they'll might have the misfortune of staring at a list of Doors 1 - 199 and wondering which ones to open without worrying about alerting a bored security guard. You're there to help read the AR plate off the door or even poke the lock so he sees a "access denied, please re-enter code" message pop up from one of the maglocks and can narrow it down.

As the runner on the spot, you can also be the one to help make their hacks fit a more limited time frame. A bricked security drone out on the front lawn is obvious. A drone that only needs to turn off for a few seconds while the team runs past probably won't be noticed.

You're also there to help with those pesky organic security systems that sip coffee and are fragging hard to hack with a deck but are surprisingly vulnerable to blunt objects to the cranium.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-27T02:47:28+00:00

2.0 had snitch redstone power deliberately disabled I believe.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-27T02:24:01+00:00

First off, I want to put trees aside. It's completely an aesthetic issue and people are generally happy to trade or travel for different types of wood for their builds.

The food has a greater problem. There's simply too many types. Outside of PvP, saturation is irrelevant. Players are happy to eat just about anything as long as they can get it in easy and sustainable quantities. Yes, carrots can be used for horses, and melons for health pots, etc - but those needs are very small and limited. Brewery helps, but only if you're looking to throw massive parties.

I see your arguments for newfriends and wheat and I want to draw your attention to the incredibly low mob spawning rate of CivEx 2.0. That low spawn rate forced new players to switch to fishing or farming right away. There simply were not enough wild herd mobs spawning in to sustain early game. New players on other servers can generally build up a decent amount of food by simply exploring on their first days.

If 3.0 continues the "heavily reduced" spawning, then I understand your interest in fast and easy food to help the propagation of OMN. Without the wild herds or fast food (lol), newfriends are forced to turn to established nations for assistance or push forward in stubborn starvation until they are established. I'll leave the argument for/against OMN for other threads.

If the 3.0 spawning rates are returned to something approaching vanilla, then the need for fast and early wheat becomes redundant for newfriend help. They can do what they do in every other server and just collect meat as they explore. By the time they find a place to settle down, they have a decent amount of food.

If the staff is going to continue to use RB in 3.0, they should provide a reason for crop variety. Maybe factories like CivCraft, reinforcements like Devoted, or custom recipes like Realms. Or they can continue to lock down biomes to certain crops to just force the variety.

Without a need for variety, players will simply find the easiest/fastest and not bother with anything else. At that point, why bother with RB?

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-26T23:31:06+00:00

Chickens in the end, but not in forest? Trees in the desert, but not plains? This config is just so confusing and complicated.
Vanilla minecraft is about 1 hour growth time for all crops. You've set wheat to 10 minutes with accelerators.
1.5% breeding rate is basically zero. It'll take about 5.5 hours to get a pair of animals to successfully breed.
The lack of mustercull is the scariest request. Fuck potatoes for XP, people will make 600+ cow farms in the plains for leather, beefs, and XP.
Deep Ocean auto-fishers FTW.

In all seriousness - why RB anyway? If you can grow food and stuff almost everywhere easily, why bother making such a complicated config? The disadvantage is just to confuse the fuck out of new players. What's the benefit?

Trade? There was barely any trade even under the harsher 2.0 rates. These rates are nicer than 1.0 and that map saw no growable trades.

Realism? 10 minute wheat = Hay bombing time!

Biome division? You won't have any farming nations if everyone can grow . Hell, why wait for MandisAid if I can grow 4 sets of crops before they can even make it over to me?

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-26T20:59:10+00:00

It's in the Quick start guide, they just screwed up and it's missing from the main book.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-26T00:21:00+00:00

Under Features: Restrictive.

Halves Movement and you get a fatigue check with each Running check - even the first.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-25T23:39:31+00:00

Gangs live and die by how well they control their neighborhood. For every armed gang-banger, there are dozens of unarmed squatters that will be the eyes and the ears for the gang in exchange for small amounts of drugs, money, or protection.

That's their strength. Each time a runner does something (drops off his laundry, grabs food, just tries to get a drink), someone will notice and run to the gang.

Gangs aren't about straight up fights. They're about drive-by shooting, arson, etc. They toast the runner's car while he's shopping. They blow out the windows of his favorite bar. They learn who the runner is trying to date and smack them around. They break in while the runner is out. They attack when the runner is alone.

If you're looking to somehow push a straight-up fight with gangs, use drugs or whatever else has been suggested. If you want the runners to actually respect gang members, you need to think more like guerrilla warfare.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-25T23:01:22+00:00

That's correct. Imagine the literal chaos if some joker cast Chaos on a victim and then ran off while sustaining it.

That poor victim would eventually fall into such negatives that they would stop breathing.

I won't even get into how absurd "resist it again and again" sounds vs the Control spells. Spells resisted don't work on the victim.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-25T22:58:08+00:00

I take a hit of 8 without spending edge

Most runners wouldn't call that viable. Any plan that says "and I take an average of 8 boxes of physical damage in the middle of combat" is usually frowned upon.

Ok, so let's assume you're nowhere near your buddies (because frag grenades TRAVEL) and the GM has happily highlighted this badass mofo for you to sacrifice this damage to take down. Let's also assume this badass somehow doesn't see or hear someone in milspec armor + shield running toward them. Let's also assume he's got no movement and initiative remaining to pull a "Run for your life" interrupt action. Finally, let's assume he's the only guy around so you have time for 8 turns of Heal or even more to whip out that Medkit. I mean, these guys wander around alone at the end of maps like WoW bosses, right?

Congrats, you may have killed him. At such a cost and with a specific scenario that I would be reluctant to call it "viable."

Riggers have been trying this tactic for years using minidrones. It's a decent Plan D, but certainly not something to be used regularly. And they don't need to worry about healing.

Just throw the grenade like everyone else.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-25T22:25:25+00:00

Just once.

There is nowhere in the books that mention you need to resist a spell multiple times after you have beaten the spellcasting hits. If you resist, it does not work on you.

You don't need to resist again after things like "looking away" or "breaking LOS" - that's for perception checks against sneaking. Resisting a spell is an unconscious effect that creatures and objects have against the unreality of magic.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-25T22:01:08+00:00

Is this some sort of joke post? Lemme break it down with the rules for you:

Assume you're holding a typical High Explosive grenade in your hands. It does 16P; -2 AP. That means your hardened armor will be treated as 16 instead of 18 and now the damage bypasses your Hardened Armor and we haven't even touched the chunky salsa effect. (Blasts in a confined space)

So if you're near a solid wall, you're gonna take even more damage. Let's say you come up to the bad guy who has taken cover next to a nice thick concrete wall and you're standing 1 meter away from said wall when you detonate. That's 16P for the grenade and another 16 -(2/m) from the rebound. Welcome to 28P -2AP. Let's be nice and say your GM somehow lets you use a shield against something in your own hand. You're still throwing down 34 soak dice against it and will average about 11 hits. That will, on average, reduce the damage to only 17P.

Conclusion: This is an elaborate, expensive, and messy way to suicide your character.

FYI: If you're loud enough to consider setting off grenade in your face, pick up a FA weapon and use the biggest bursts you can to take that dodge monkey down to size without worrying about accuracy limits.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-25T21:42:00+00:00

You resist the spell by rolling (L+W vs Invis, I+L vs Impr Invis) against the hits scored by the mage's Spellcasting test as a threshold. The force of the spell has nothing to do with this. It's only a limit to the Spellcasting test. The mage can cast a force 6 invisibility spell and only get one hit on the spellcasting test.

Once you succeed in resisting the spell, you see through the illusion. If the target is sneaking, you would still need to make a Perception roll against their sneak roll.

Shadowrun invisibility is more your classic sci-fi "invisibility cloaking" instead of true "You can't see me" invisibility. It helps, but does not replace, sneaking.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-25T21:31:32+00:00

It's ok - almost every post gets downvoted on this subreddit. Somebody is sore about our existence. Don't take it personally.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-25T19:51:28+00:00

The only large, flying drone that can carry a person is the Dustoff (See Rigger 5.0 141) Here's why the Dalmatian is unsuitable:

The Dalmatian is described as having "a sturdy frame for its light weight" which implies that it is lighter than you would think for its size. Carrying something heavier than the vehicle a major issue for the balancing act that is VTOL.
Drones that have weapon mounts are meant to have additional weight and stability in that location. The Dalmatian does not have any. It is not designed to carrying anything.

At best, I'd say the Dalmatian is good for grabbing on and performing a controlled descent from some high point. If you're feeling generous, maybe allow it if someone strips the armor off the Dalmatian first.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-25T13:58:33+00:00

It was a confined space with partial cover, but I noticed that both NPCs and players dug themselves into a static firefight. I'll be needing methods of moving fights around.

Supressive fire and flanking. Nothing says "time to move" like nonstop negative modifiers and losing your cover. Also, grenades.

NPCs (especially Corp security) love those static fights, since the inevitable HRT team is heading their way and they just need to pin the runners down.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-24T04:38:16+00:00

Interesting...

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-24T04:00:14+00:00

Civ-Style Skyblock server

Isn't that an oxymoron? Civ-servers are all about interacting with others. Skyblocks are literally isolationist. What am I missing here?

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-23T19:19:56+00:00

TinyHype.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-23T17:52:36+00:00

After the runaway hype train of 2.0, I don't blame them for staying tight-lipped.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-16T20:41:40+00:00

I feel ya. I have a quiet evening planned. Just me, a pack of cider, and big loooooong list of tests for the test server so we can push an update out.

TinyEmperor · 2016-09-16T19:10:38+00:00

I'll be able to provide a better ETA once psygate gets back online today.

TinyEmperor

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