Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo

[Jennkryst]

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

I just want a better Star Wars game with some crunch to it and that doesn’t allow minors. None of which exist right now.

Someone remind me to start poking the Evennia code with a stick again.

[SpaceKhomeini]

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

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

Like any game with obscenely ancient legacy characters, maybe it’s time to just wipe the slate?

Or quit, which is what sane people seem to be doing. That works too.

I don’t regret quitting. I just want a better Star Wars game with some crunch to it and that doesn’t allow minors. None of which exist right now.

Unfortunately the crunch aspect is my weakest area, I have plot and characters ready to go. And in spades.

Isn’t that always how it goes?

[Coin]

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

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

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

Like any game with obscenely ancient legacy characters, maybe it’s time to just wipe the slate?

Or quit, which is what sane people seem to be doing. That works too.

I don’t regret quitting. I just want a better Star Wars game with some crunch to it and that doesn’t allow minors. None of which exist right now.

Unfortunately the crunch aspect is my weakest area, I have plot and characters ready to go. And in spades.

Isn’t that always how it goes?

You can make FS3 function for Star Wars with like… barely more work than @blu and @Roadspike put into Savage Skies.

[Roadspike]

@Coin I actually think that Star Wars is one of the few universes which could really be well-served by some additions/changes to FS3. Last time I was looking at it, I figured that it would be really good to add/change/carefully balance the following (at least) to make it really feel like Star Wars:

Force Boosting Stats in combat
Deflecting/Redirecting Blaster shots (check for Blasters only?)
Force Powers (listing, defenses, non-attack uses, attacks)
Armor = Unnecessary but useful, definitely not overpowering.
Permissions to use gain skills (Control/Sense/Alter/Lightsaber).
Permissions to use armor/weapons?
Racial bonuses.
Balance between autofire blasters/grenades and Jedi with lightsabers.

I’ve tried to do most of those things with base FS3, and I was not very successful with it. It’s doable, but the balance has to be done very, very carefully, and there’ll definitely be some kludging to make it feel close to Star Wars.

[Jenn]

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

@Coin I actually think that Star Wars is one of the few universes which could really be well-served by some additions/changes to FS3. Last time I was looking at it, I figured that it would be really good to add/change/carefully balance the following (at least) to make it really feel like Star Wars:
I’ve tried to do most of those things with base FS3, and I was not very successful with it. It’s doable, but the balance has to be done very, very carefully, and there’ll definitely be some kludging to make it feel close to Star Wars.

Ok. Considering I knew absolutely nothing about anything related to combat 6 months ago, and factoring in that I’ve never seen any of the Star Wars movies all the way through from a start to an end, and considering it’s been six months and I have a brain made out of swiss cheese… I understood WAY more of that than I should have. And I blame YOU entirely, Spike.

[Krautistanian]

Why do I log on there to check stuff anyways. Every login I lose stuff. Lost gear due to their announcement, fuck it. I log in to check the grid and BBPosts. Well, I can read BBPosts but am in the old guard lounge, since they decided I am too inactive to be allowed to keep my old characters, apparently.

I don’t know. I shouldn’t care, but being moved there kind of felt like a punch to the gut. I don’t do anything there. I won’t do anything there anymore because I have no reason to frankly return there anymore. I had a great time but I feel unwanted there. I mean, I know Cujo made his decision last year and I had nothing to return to, but it feels sobering. It feels sad, somehow.

I’ll miss AoA.

[STD]

@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.’

[SpilledBeanz]

@Krautistanian

I’m sure this happened for two reasons.

The first being that they clearly chose to punish inactive players rather than view them as possible future/returning players. A huge mistake that completely ignores the fact, and it’s been a fact for decades, that most players cycle in and out of activity. Also a huge misstep because so many aoa players value the things they’ve collected, and losing them raises a pretty big barrier to ever even wanting to come back to begin with. Forcing people to mush never works, and that’s more or less what they’ve decided to have as their policy. Play, or else.

The second being that you are here, and you’re very identifiable, and aoa staff have shown themselves to be petty enough to forcibly remove people from the game simply because they’ve commented in this thread.

It is sad.

[Krautistanian]

@SpilledBeanz True. It came relatively out of nowhere, since I didn’t comment for months, but it is a reason, I suppose. And it is indeed sad.

They seemed proud to get players after their reroll and now… they killed the game again, probably hoping to be able to seamlessly reroll once more. As they did when Episode 7 came out.

[Warlander]

@STD Never heard about anyone trying that. IMO, it’s pretty clever. Since it’s never happened to my knowledge, all I can do is speculate; sorry I can’t be more helpful here.

If a new and well-liked member of a staff-favored faction did it, I could see them pulling it off and getting away with it. Maybe more than once.

Someone else doing the same thing might be accepted as a running joke character. Don’t know what they’d do to the player/character if that didn’t happen, though. Winding up with permanently nerfed dice rolls just to keep the ‘loser’ losing comes to mind, since they have no problem spoofing dice rolls for even less reason.

Since cowardice goes against The Way, I doubt such a character would be accepted among the Koras. They might even kill the character themselves. Which, since the Koras are the faction most likely to benefit from such trolling, would probably get a character ostracized or killed for nothing.

[Jax]

@Warlander Don’t waste your time, find a better place to rp.

[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.