Base balance and other such matters

[Cannon]

In preparation for the next update, changes to the base, jumpdrive and a number of miscellanous features are being tested.

Bases

The base commodities usage has been revised, in short the updated behaviour is:

• Bases use more repair commodities like hull panels, robotics and basic alloys
  
• Bases use less shield fuel commodities because the shield will turn off automatically.
  
• Players cannot dock at bases if the shield is up
  

More commodities used per day for maintenance (from ~8 to 10k) but base takes damage more slowly (level 1 base can survive ~60 hours without repair). Base manufacturing and construction are slower by 1/3 but use the same quantities of goods.

The shield will automatically deactivate after a random period of time in the range 1-16 minutes and docking whilst the shield is up is blocked to all ships. A base administrator can manually activate or deactivate the shield using the /base shieldmod [on/off] command. A manually activated shield will remain up for one hour as long as there is sufficient fuel.

The fuel usage rates are:
Deuterium - 5 units per 16 seconds.
H-Fuel - 4 units per 16 seconds
MOX - 3 units per 16 seconds
Gallic Fuel - 3 units per 16 seconds.

This means ~15k/day to ~27k fuel used per 24 hours if base is being blockaded and constantly attacked.

Weapons platforms take damage when the base shield is up and are destroyable although they will be respawned automatically after 15 seconds.

Shop management changed to a better UI. The /shop newgoods command has been removed. Base administrators can buy and sell goods to their base without restriction and newgoods mode no longer needs to be enabled.

Minimum and maximum stock levels can now be specified and the base will not sell goods if the stock level falls below the minimum and will not buy goods if the stock level exceeds the maximum level. Goods can be removed and jettisoned to free up space or prevent any more of the particular good being sold to the base. [EDIT: For the record, the UI breaks after about 45 items..up from the previous broken limit of 30. This will be a job for tomorrow.]

The base status web page has been updated and now includes the base description. See here http://discoverygc.com/server/base_status.html

Hyperdrive

Fuel usage remains the same. The drive is not usable less it is mounted. In the previous version in could be used and this was a bug. Also now, a jump into any of the 3 restricted systems: New Anglia, New Cambria and Bastille will result in ship death. This is primarily to stop people complaining to admins to be let out.

Cloaking Devices and Mobile Docking

I'm still working on these and they both should be rebalanced and available in the next update.

Update 5

It's in progress and will be released before the end of this month.

That's all for now. Have fun.

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Proud member of "the most paranoid group of people in the community"

Old Avatar #2 | Old Avatar #3

[Fifty.]

Bases sound more stable in that upcoming update. Good job !

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[pitockm]

well Done!

[Tommeh]

I am quite interested to see how snub and gunboat cloaks will be rebalanced, and perhaps mk 3 cloaks on cruisers :)

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[mwerte]

Weapons platforms take damage when the base shield is up and are destroyable although they will be respawned automatically after 15 seconds.

What is the reasoning for this? If the shield is up, the base is under attack, and it needs its weapons platforms to defend itself.

Also, with the new fuel decreases, a base can remain shielded for a very, very long time. Assuming that the maximum amount of time is used per each "shield up" encounter, a single 5k transport can supply a base with enough fuel to live through 227 consecutive attacks. Times 16, and that's 60 hours worth of attacks, or 2.5 days. From a single 5k. If the median time that a shield is up is 8 minutes, that's still 30 hours.

*Note; it's early, and I was never the best at math, so please check my numbers

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[Cannon]

What is the reasoning for this? If the shield is up, the base is under attack, and it needs its weapons platforms to defend itself.

It didn't feel right for weapons platforms at 5000 meters from the base to be covered by the shield. Also given that they respawn, it doesn't really matter - and if the shield is up, the base can't take damage.

Also, with the new fuel decreases, a base can remain shielded for a very, very long time.

My sums come to a different conclusion. EDIT: Ah, I've made a mistake in the first post and have updated it.
Deuterium - 5 units per 16 seconds.
H-Fuel - 4 units per 16 seconds
MOX - 3 units per 16 seconds
Gallic Fuel - 3 units per 16 seconds.

This means ~15k/day to ~27k fuel used per 24 hours if base is being blockaded and constantly attacked.

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Proud member of "the most paranoid group of people in the community"

Old Avatar #2 | Old Avatar #3

[Friday]

The ship management commands represent an excellent way of managing base inventory.

Furthermore, setting public display of base infocards allows for bases to advertise their services and commodities.

For clarity, how does one access the Shop Management UI?

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[kikatsu]

*claps*

When I saw how much time was between updates 3 and 4 I was wondering how long update 5 would take to get here... not long at all it seems!

Excellent.

[Hidamari]

The base commodities usage has been revised, in short the updated behaviour is:

• Players cannot dock at bases if the shield is up

I cant say i honestly agree with this, people should be able to dock and leave whenever they want to just like with every other base in the game.

Using the Bowex "Kings Cross Station" as an example

This station is in a location where it would most likley have been build should it have been a normal station placed by the original freelancer creators, and that is at a point close to the main artery of bretonian space at the New London to Cambridge gate.

Its location means that everyone that comes past the station will shoot at it out of curiousity, hostile or not, "oh a base.. pew pew pew.. its got a shield.. i'll be on my way" which happens at least 10 times or more per day every day. there are only 6 base admins from the command of Bowex and none of us can be around every second of the day to turn off the shield because one of our guys cant land until it goes down.

please do not do this, its fine for pirate bases hidden several 10's of K off the plane, but not for lawful corporations for the above reasons.

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[Goddess Astra]

Hidamari, the shield turns off automatically after 1-16 minutes. It should be fine.

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