Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo

[Warlander]

@Jax Best. Advice. Ever.

Honestly, I wasn’t planning on trying it, not least 'cause I’m not a newbie there. But boy, would I love to be a fly on the wall in THAT scene!

[Das Auto]

@STD said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

@Warlander said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

@imstillhere And let’s not forget the old ploy of non-Koras (often newbies) in Kora clique scenes being used as blaster fodder while Koras did everything important in the scene, which is at least as bad as staff alts steamrolling the low-level targets. At least the newbies had a chance of being relevant to the scene the other way.

I know this is a waaaaay old post and all, but I didn’t see it at the time. It got me thinking:

Did anyone try to just pose being a completely useless terrified clump of panic and concentrated cowardice? Y’know, really, really play up how absolutely pointless even fighting was and how they were all doomed, while cowering in a corner pissing themselves? Maybe start shouting how they all should surrender because no matter what the NPCs are SO MUCH BETTER than ANYONE on their team that the only way they can win is through sheer dumb luck?

Going way over the top might’ve really put a damper on the dinos’ parade, especially if their results were claimed to be sheer dumb luck. And you’d always have the protection of, ‘well, my character’s a panic-y coward who always believes the worst will happen in a fight… they truly believe that NO ONE stands a chance against these opponents, regardless of how many are defeated with ease.’

I can confirm that I have read the logs of at least one former AoA character who did exactly this during a New Alderaanian (IE: Kora) slaughterfest. That character was completely ignored before, during, and after the event, at least IC. With only logs for reference I cannot speak of OOC activity.

There would have been no damper put on the dinos’ parade. If not completely ignored, they would have taken the chance to revel in their superiority. Though it’s a hypothetical thought for a time long passed, it would not have had the desired effect.

[SqeakyClean]

@Das-Auto you know. Its been over a year for this post. Over a year since I’ve left. I went off and bettered my life and now I’m in a great place I never thought I’d be. I got my Bleach game running locally on my home lab just a few steps away from opening.

Out of curiosity I logged in on guest tonight to take a look at the who. Only hadrix, his staff alt, and his jedi alt have scheduled events. The who is mostly made of idle people like Navi or the dinos who didn’t jump ship or their alts. Game is dead and gone. Maybe they’re hoping a reboot of the franchise will push them off again like was suggested. Either way I don’t care.

Seeing how easy it was to set up a game similar to how AoA was back in the hay day made me realize banshee isn’t that brilliant, Cujo is a manipulative self aggrandizing hack, and anyone can copy and paste or troubleshoot errors in code with the right know how.

Anyways folks, stay classy and remember…

Han fucking shot first.

[Popes]

@SqeakyClean Bleach game you say. Tell me more.

[Anony Mouse]

@SqeakyClean said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Seeing how easy it was to set up a game similar to how AoA was back in the hay day made me realize banshee isn’t that brilliant, Cujo is a manipulative self aggrandizing hack, and anyone can copy and paste or troubleshoot errors in code with the right know how.

That’s putting it mildly in both cases.

I ran across this bboard chain in my logs the other day, and it made me think of this thread. I’ve been unfortunately busy of late, or I might’ve thrown it out sooner. Anyway, for your amusement:

=======================<* 11: Game Suggestions - 67 *>=======================
Message: 11/67 Posted Author
Armor color categories Dec 04 2020 David Ironside

I think it’d be great if we could have an additional category to color armors with, specifically for Decals. Like, if you take a basic clone trooper armor, you can set it to Primary (White), Secondary (Black), Trim (<just any color>) and Decals (Republic Decals). That way you don’t sacrifice your trim for an alliance identifier. Like a first glance type thing.
===================< Comment 1 - Added Jan 31 11:09PM GMT >===================
David Ironside Commented:
Bumping this to gauge interest.
===================< Comment 2 - Added Jan 31 11:09PM GMT >===================
Nubri Commented:
Seconded. Good idea.
===================< Comment 3 - Added Jan 31 11:11PM GMT >===================
Cujo Commented:
This system was one of the last things I was able to get out of Yeti before he was taken away by RL responsibilities.

It’s not entirely what the two of us hoped it would be, but it does get the general purpose of what we hoped out there.

That said, I can rename individual categories on anything, to whatever I want them to be. So I can theoretically do that for anyone who wants it, but…

I can also just sit here and laugh at cat videos all day too.
===================< Comment 4 - Added Jan 31 11:12PM GMT >===================
Cujo Commented:
What I mean, ultimately…

We don’t currently have a dedicated coder on the game.

So asking us to do a lot right now, code wise, isn’t really in our ability.
------------------------------< +bbread 11/67 >-------------------------------

And there you have it. Some thoughts of mine:

1. The fact that coded armor color changes are a thing will tell you how ridiculously overcoded the item system on this game is.

2. The last Cujo post is PR damage control: He just realized that the next to last post does not make him look hip and edgy. It makes him look like the lazy, self-absorbed prick he is. So he trots out the worn-out ‘no dedicated coder’ excuse, because actually enacting this idea might require work on his part.

3. Cujo hated Dave, mostly because Dave frequently clashed with Aryn/Sumi/Poe about her cliquishness and bullshit. So this idea was doomed from the start. So, usually, is any idea pitched by a player who isn’t one of his Chosen Ones.

4. Remember, this is Cujo being helpful. He was so helpful, it took him nearly two months before he bothered to post on the idea. That ought to make plain his view of player suggestions/opinions in general.

[Anony Mouse]

Another Cujo being dumb moment from the logs, this time on the subject of everyone’s favorite source of time-wasting boredom: Hyperspace travel times!

Now, hyperspace travel times, according to Cujo, were put in place for two reasons: To prevent people from abusing the trading system, and to prevent twinks from showing up in scenes they had no reason to be in, especially at certain times. Three players weigh in on both reasons. This was not long after the last economy was pulled out, and it was quite a while before another was coded up and put into action.

<* Star Wars: Age of Alliances BBS - Game Suggestions *>
Message: 9/43 (No System Timeout) Posted Author
Transit times Sep 18 2017 Aurra Sing

So with the Market system disabled, Trade or Smuggling runs are regulated by scene Events and RP. Is there any constructive reason to keep the hyperspace transit times the way they are? Even with a fast ship it still takes an hour of RL time to get to some systems. When people log in for RP, they don’t want to sit in a room watching the clock run down.

Yes, keep some distinction between hyperspace routes. After all, there has to be a reason to pay for that X1 hyperdrive upgrade, right? But maybe it would add to RP if the base jump times were simply cut in half?

Less time in the cockpit means more time in RP.
--------------------< Comment 1 - Added Sep 18 12:05PM EDT >--------------------
Navi Kryze Commented:
I agree wholeheartedly that the transit times as they presently exist are too long, contribute absolutely nothing to RP, and are generally pointless without a trade system. On the other hand, shorter or absent transit times would actually aid RP, partly by providing more time in which to do it and partly by removing a habitual aversion to leaving Nar Shaddaa just to avoid the annoying transit times (whether by ship or shuttle). Frankly, they’re redundant at best. Why not just get rid of them, or at least shorten them by half or more?

And while I’m sure someone will point to the ‘simulation value’ of transit times for the space system, let’s be honest here… not once in any Star Wars film or novel do you ever see anyone flying a ship by typing alphanumeric commands on a keyboard and staring at a static screen full of text and the occasional prompt. Instead, you see starfields full of planets and ships, a few targeting screens, and control yokes or joysticks. Things you definitely won’t find here, and nobody’s imagination really needs keyboard prompts to conjure up images of a souped-up Corellian freighter or heavily-armed Resistance cruiser hurtling across the stars. If you really, truly want to fly a Star Wars spaceship, there are far, far better (and more fun!) simulations out there.

And for those of you thinking these things contribute to twink control, I very much doubt that. I’m sure there are far simpler and more effective means of eliminating twink run-ins during scenes than transit times, and they likely don’t need the upkeep necessitated by a space system. And given how long the vast majority of combat scenes take, the transit times are all but meaningless anyway; with or without them, you’re most likely going to be calling for a staffer to deal with Tommy Twinksalot and his Twinkie-Toting Trio. Why deal with a frequent hassle aimed at solving an occasional problem that it doesn’t even solve?
--------------------< Comment 2 - Added Sep 18 03:44PM EDT >--------------------
Triz Dermout Commented:
I also agree with the above. With the removal of the Trading function there is no real reason to have such long times for travel. As it is folks will go to the RP rooms and RP they are on a planet rather than actually travel to go there. If you do travel then you can spend, in some cases, an hour doing absolutely nothing other than chatting on an @channel or pages or going away from the screen all together. When you add in the time to go through all the steps: prep the ship, set a heading, set a speed, wait till you leave atmo, then set the speed again, wait till you leave the gravity well, then the hyperspace travel time, set an intercept course, set your speed, then enter the orbit, set your speed, intercept course to where ever it is you are going, land, shut down…well it provides no RP what so ever and is overly taxing on the player.

With today’s population of RP’ers in today’s MU* worlds the chances for folks twinking to get somewhere when they shouldn’t be are slim to none due to their experience and should it happen that can be easily handled with a one to one basis. No need to punish everyone that may not even be a problem.

Anything more than 15 minutes is just wasting the players time and chance to RP, in my opinion.
--------------------< Comment 3 - Added Sep 18 03:50PM EDT >--------------------
Cujo Commented:
We’re not going to drop hyperspace times, because we intend to have a new Market System someday. We just don’t have it right now.

RP Rooms over travel?

We’re fine with that. IF you want to go to an RP Room to say that you’re on Corellia, rather than fly your ship TO Corellia… go for it. No real harm in that at all.

Someday we hope to get a new Mission System up that will inspire people to actually travel the hyperspace lanes again.

Its just not right this moment.

• Cujo

The players raise some good points: There’s no trading to regulate. And combat scenes are, in fact, so long that transit times really wouldn’t make any difference to twinks. They’d be there by the second round, even with the one-hour transit times. And transit times on AoA were excessive by most standards, which meant that wasting time in hyperspace was wasting a lot of time in hyperspace.

Cujo’s Reasoning: We’re supposed to get a new market system someday, if I can get a coder worth having, and changing transit times now means I’d have to change them back once we get that system, and I don’t want to do actual work once, let alone twice. No, I don’t care that transit times waste huge amounts of potential RP time for people who don’t trade. Who cares about players, anyway?

It’s not hard to tell that this guy doesn’t RP. If he’d really wanted to address trade abuse, he could’ve upped the loading lockdown times. Long hyperspace times punish anyone who travels, regardless of whether they trade or not.

Using RP Rooms instead of traveling?

Cujo’s Reasoning: Despite the fact that I really want players to jump through the hoops of using the enormous grid that only exists for the sake of the bragging rights of having the largest grid out there, I realize that there’s really nothing I can do to stop you, other than badmouth you to staff and my Chosen Ones.

Transit times were actually so long and wasted so much time that people regularly used the RP Rooms to avoid travel, particularly for pick-up scenes. And this was before ship wear and fuel made flying a ship anywhere a serious pain in the wallet. And pointless waiting when it came to travel didn’t confine itself to hyperspace: There was a tram system on Coruscant that made you pay for the privelege of pointlessly waiting 3 minutes per trip to go anywhere on the planet. The First Order’s flagship, supposedly the first starship on the grid and which was too sacred to be changed, ever, had over 30 rooms, complete with decks connected by turbolifts that also took three minutes to use. This flying maze was so confusing that FO players, who early on were stuck on the ship, would RP in the same few rooms for weeks on end to avoid getting lost in it, which would mean wasting even more time trying to find everyone again.

Speaking of huge wastes of space? Yeah, Cujo really did try to put nearly every world that appeared anywhere on this grid, especially if he could dragoon someone else into descing it for him. Many of those off-the-beaten-path worlds consisted of a grand total of one room. Less than 5 percent of this overblown grid was used on a regular basis. I suspect there’s some of it that’s never been used at all to this day.

And staff definitely was not okay with players using the RP Rooms to avoid travel, particularly to locations that actually existed on the grid. It was something that caught plenty of bitching on Public. This was despite the fact that almost nobody would log on early (or the day before) to fly to wherever the next event was going to be, which meant holding up the event by 30-60 minutes almost every time for players to fly to the location.

But Cujo doesn’t RP, so nobody important was being inconvenienced. Who cares about players, anyway?

[ThisGuy]

I remember it being worse for anyone that didn’t have a ship as they’d have to navigate the game’s byzantine transport network.

If you were lucky the planet you were one had a direct route to the event location. If not, you’d have to got to an intermediary location and hope there was a direct route from there. If you were really unlucky you’d have to make several stops to get to the event, sacrificing time and in-game cash to get there. It was comon to see people asking how to get from one location from another in the public chat.

Eventually people with ships would ask on on the main public ooc channel if anyone needed a lift to the event location.

Speaking of the grid, there were relics of the old grid (from before the timejump that happened when TFA started) that never got removed in the timejump. The apartment I used was still there with the same password. The shop a friend made was still there with the same name. Descs weren’t changed. Part of me wonders if there’re still there in the same unchanged stated. Other locations I used to go to were still there, unchanged.

[Jax]

@ThisGuy Aoa was kinda like one of those places on Tiger King. It was Shoddy and Shady as hell. The owner and a chunk of the staff was nuts but everyone one was having a good time or so it seemed. Then you start peeling everything back you find sexual harassment and abuse.

[Warlander]

@ThisGuy That ungodly horrible shuttle system is the whole reason I got a ship at all. Seriously, who wants to risk being stranded at the arse-end of the galaxy just 'cause there’s no shuttle going off-world (yes, there were literally worlds that had incoming shuttles, but none going offworld)?

But even with a ship, I still go offworld as little as possible. The coded spaceflight system is a needlessly overcomplicated mess.

[SqeakyClean]

@Popes well…

I have the entier sereitei put together. Working still on the human world and then need to put together hueco mundo. Just finding time to sit and do descs is the problem. I got dss to work only to see if I can make it function the way I want. More as a reference for rolls and abilities than a true skill system. Only reason it was broken from my source was because dahan misspelled something… Which isn’t uncommon for him. And cg is in place but needs to be set up. Using a lot of faraday stuff.

But yeah fuck AoA. Just a bad vibe man.

[Zephyr]

@Anony-Mouse

The real reason Cujo refuses to remove transit times for space flight is because of how many planets have vendors on them, and how many people are insanely obsessed with going to as many vendors as possible. Some went to so many planets that he actually has the how many planets a player has landed on in a day tracked, among many other things.

Ironically one of the absolute worst vendor obsessed people was given a staff bit and now likely has access to seeing the entire list of valuable vendor items that are on vendors at any given time. Which he had made so that he could see what was where and could remove really valuable items from that vendor if someone he didn’t like was heading there.

Dude created a system that forces players to visit vendors to get items, and then he punishes them for it. Just another of the AoA puzzles.

[SpaceKhomeini]

@Zephyr

Imagine taking this iconic sandbox people from multiple generations grew up on and deliberately extracting as much fun from it as possible.

It’s like a time gated monetized grind but with the added layer of absurdity stemming from the fact that nobody’s making money. What the fuck?

[Jennkryst]

@Zephyr NOT ONLY THAT, but there used to be a secret vendor with crazy mark-up prices… so that you could buy, say… 10 personal scanners for 2,000 each, then sell them for 25,000 each. Or some similar crazy markup.

Who needs to abuse the trading system, when you can abuse the vendor code, instead?

[Jax]

@Zephyr That explains why I never found anything good on a vendor.

[Jumpscare]

@Jennkryst said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

@Zephyr NOT ONLY THAT, but there used to be a secret vendor with crazy mark-up prices… so that you could buy, say… 10 personal scanners for 2,000 each, then sell them for 25,000 each. Or some similar crazy markup.

Who needs to abuse the trading system, when you can abuse the vendor code, instead?

That seems like a lot of effort just to set money = 9999999.

[SqeakyClean]

@Jumpscare but of course they’re so worried about properly balancing the econ system for ordinary players. /S

[Zephyr]

@Jennkryst said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

NOT ONLY THAT, but there used to be a secret vendor with crazy mark-up prices… so that you could buy, say… 10 personal scanners for 2,000 each, then sell them for 25,000 each. Or some similar crazy markup.
Who needs to abuse the trading system, when you can abuse the vendor code, instead?

That wasn’t a thing when I was staff, but personal scanners had also been long removed. I’m not surprised that they’d do that though. They also have it set up so that you can always see who purchases what on a vendor at any time, and for how much, so buying things for cheap and selling them for more had been eliminated for the most part, outside of a few instances that were unintentional and fixed. This is all outdated information by a year and a half though, I haven’t been on the game since then so who knows what other gross ways they’ve found to screw people over.

[SqeakyClean]

@Zephyr and to think. I couldn’t name that one vendor on tatooine ‘The Janitor’s Closet.’

I miss the simple days.

[Warlander]

@SpilledBeanz For what it may be worth, this hit the boards recently.

=========================<* 8: Game Updates - 221 *>=========================
Message: 8/221 Posted Author
Rise of the New Rebellion Aug 11 2024 Cujo

Greetings, all.

I’m tossing out a bbpost update on the state of the galaxy, as far as the Sith and the Rebellion elements go. The intention, following our previous time jump, was for the game to get a span of time where the clear presence of Sith Empire dominance was displayed. It had been 17 years since the fall of the New Republic, and we wanted to give a sense of hoplessness to the galaxy, that they were under that iron grip, and that the Sith Lords of this new era had refined the ideals that Palpatine and Tarkin had envisioned. We wanted to make it feel like this iteration of the Sith Empire was really pulling it off, with efficiency and intelligence. There are a lot of arguments that can be made that the Galactic Empire really screwed up in a lot of major ways, which lead to its relatively short downfall, and the desire here was to paint a more powerful edge to this Sith Empire, and give it a bit of that regal classic KOTOR-era Sith style too.

So again, the past year and a half of the game was meant to let the game coast on Sith Imperial rule. I’d hope it would yield some good fun for people, to RP staying hidden, staying in the shadows, being the ones on the run, if you are the ones pushing for the freedom of the galaxy from overlords and despots.

But, this is Star Wars, and we can’t stay in a position of total control for too long.

Because of this, if the past 18 years of the IC grid would be labeled something akin to the Reign of the Sith Empire, then my hope for the future going forward would be the era of the Rise of the New Rebellion.

The Rebellion has been building up its mobile shipyard fleet, a massive Mon Calamari shipyard on engines, dubbed the Organa’s Hope. This massive fleet factory is the focus of the future for the game’s story. Being that it is fully operational now, after nearly two decades of planning, and building, it should be considered fully in-play now. With its goal being to discover safe star systems, relatively speaking, that it can hyperspace in to, release its ships out… to go grab all the resources possible, bring them in and churn out a new attack force that can then head out to engage Sith Empire forces. Being that this mobile star base is the future of the New Rebellion, and that it is fully functional at this stage of the game’s story, then those players who wish to create stories around this are encouraged to do just so. We can tell you where the Organa’s Hope is located, and what its current goals are. It will be ICly producing fleets to attack Sith Empire forces, which will give the Sith Empire players something to react to as well, as they desperately defend their regions, while also trying to find the source of this growing New Rebellion. It is meant to be a high stakes game of cat and mouse, across the galaxy.

Additionally, at this stage, the New Rebellion is meant to formally request Jedi inclusion in their endeavors again. Not to be generals in a war, but to ensure as much of the galaxy affected by this war, are as safe as possible. The New Rebellion wants the Jedi to be there to help keep civilians, and innocents, safe from the Sith, but also from the splash back of war itself.

So in summary, the New Rebellion IS in full operation now. The wars across the galaxy are meant to be amping up, with word of mouth spreading rapidly that the reign of the Sith Empire is now facing its biggest challenge yet. It is the light, pushing back against twenty years of darkness.

I hope this helps, and if you have questions, or want to create stories based on this, just reach out to Staff and we can help you do that. We are here for you to do that. If you want to decide how to shape the galaxy, this is the vessel through which you do that. We want it to be fun, and we want you all to have great stories told here.

Reach out, and we will help.
------------------------------< +bbread 8/221 >-------------------------------

I predicted long ago that the Sith Empire will rule the galaxy until the game closes, so this post came as something of a surprise to me. Maybe the influx of new players was and is a lot lower than Cujo and his pets wanted. Maybe they’re wishing for more people to show off for, and/or they’re getting sick of each other’s company.

I don’t expect things to actually CHANGE there, since the Sith Empire is the favored faction, and the most active as well (not that this means much of anything, since activity outside of scheduled events is largely dead, and there aren’t more than a half-dozen scheduled events per month, at most); over half of all scheduled events these last six months have been ‘Sith Empire and allies’ events. With ‘allies’ meaning Sith subfactions, and mercs and similar independent characters loyal to them.

But this will make it SOUND like something fun and Rebellious just might be happening. Nobody joins a Star Wars game to play a tiny, powerless Rebellion.

Something I’m sure AoA staff and favorites are counting on.

Edit: For what it may also be worth, the post doesn’t actually change anything meaningful, no matter how excitingly and enticingly it may be worded. The supposedly now-fully-operational mobile shipyard was advertised during the timejump as being on the move and largely doing the same things it will be doing now, and the Jedi have been some degree of involved in the New Rebellion/Resistance for most of the time beyond the jump. I’m sure there’s more, but this tells most of the tale. As does the near-total lack of activity from the Resistance/New Rebellion these last few months. The faction is likely losing players and on the verge of dying. Can’t have that; the Sith players need to feel like they’re beating SOMEONE, after all, not a bunch of coded NPC stand-ups.

If you know a little of the game’s history and read between the lines, this post promises only more of the same of what is already happening. Nothing has changed.

(edited because I thought of something else and didn’t want to reply to myself…)

[Ashkuri]

Cujo and Friends got rid of everybody they didn’t like or who didn’t agree with them during the Great Drama and built a utopia for themselves out of the echo chamber that was left. No troublemakers anymore!

That is now, and has been, playing out about the way everybody expected it would.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

good luck to them I hope they are having fun