New look for the battle arena

[george moromisato]

Also spent some time improving the AI's behavior around walls.

[JohnBWatson]

That is just magnificent.

[Xephyr]

I get the feeling trans is starting to take on a new look. It might be time to update the HUD a bit.

[Song]

If the arena's getting overhauled, it might be a good opportunity to work out some kinks in the old arena questline as well... Stuff like:

-Getting trapped in the arena until you run out of fuel if the enemy can't damage you, and you can't damage the enemy (most commonly happens with bad ammo management if the player is using an ammo-weapon. Not common, but it happens. Currently, the crowd gets bored far too easily and is very easy to game....but it should be possible to 'draw' a match if neither side is winning (IE: inflicting lasting damage) after a while.

-Likewise, the ability to game the system is somewhat problematic. Unfortunately, you usually have to do it, or the crowd gets bored almost instantly. Or at random. I've been shouted at for taking 10 seconds to kill something, but applauded for one-hit-killing things with an overlevelled howitzer I brought back from Ares space for a laugh. It's not vital (since it does work. It's just a bit eccentric), but with the new wall-AI it would be cool to see a revamp of what the crowd likes and expects to make the battles more exciting for the player as well.

-I can't quite remember what it was, but there was a problem raised a while back with the BM portion of the questline....maybe what happens if the BM station dies before Katami is captured? I dunno. If that thread can be found there were some reasonable ideas floated about changes to the questline.

-Making the entrances obvious (that sneaky side-entrance evaded me for about a year and a half after I started playing, although the redesign should make that nice and clear since it's an armored belt now), and making sure that stray shots can't exit the arena at the end of a match. I don't know how you've implemented entry and exit (Best way [from an IC perspective]) would be docking ports on the inside and outside, plus a teleport....which in-universe would be a set of dry-docks and airlocks that lets ships be moved through the big armor belt (or flown around it), but the old system had one flaw which really should be fixed: the entrances open the instant the match is over. That means that under certain circumstances, projectiles that were in flight at the end of the match can exit the area, and potentially damage or destroy ship/stations outside the arena. It's a very rare occurrence, but in the interest of immersion, it should probably be removed.....it would make no sense for the arena to allow that to happen.


But that redesign is looking fantastic. The old arena was showing its age, and the new one really does look like a proper attraction.

[bzm3r]

-Making the entrances obvious (that sneaky side-entrance evaded me for about a year and a half after I started playing, although the redesign should make that nice and clear since it's an armored belt now)...

I am very, very embarrassed to say that I still haven't played the Arena because I haven't been able to figure out how to enter. I always skip the Arena...and I just chalk it up to my laziness that I haven't been able to get in...

[JohnBWatson]

-I can't quite remember what it was, but there was a problem raised a while back with the BM portion of the questline....maybe what happens if the BM station dies before Katami is captured? I dunno. If that thread can be found there were some reasonable ideas floated about changes to the questline.

That's currently marked on ministry as a future priority. There's a thread on how to fix it out there somewhere, but I wasn't able to find it.

[Ultimate Chicken]

Oh gad I LOVE that.

Looks so much better than the field barriers.

[Aeon Blaze]

New arena looks very cool. Can't wait to have a go.

[Song]

-I can't quite remember what it was, but there was a problem raised a while back with the BM portion of the questline....maybe what happens if the BM station dies before Katami is captured? I dunno. If that thread can be found there were some reasonable ideas floated about changes to the questline.

That's currently marked on ministry as a future priority. There's a thread on how to fix it out there somewhere, but I wasn't able to find it.

Cool. Wasn't sure about it myself: I've never been able to get past the front page of the Ministry to actually check anything.

[pixelfck]

Looks really nice!

~Brigand

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

That looks great!

[catfighter]

Ooh, nice and sleek! I look forward to pinning opponents up against it.

How is the wall going to handle autons? Currently the autons will follow you, but forget to accommodate for corners and get stuck until you turn around and fly back the way you came (although I'm sure that is getting fixed) but the real problem has always been actually getting them inside the Arena. It has always been tedious to make autons wait, get one to follow me a short distance away from the station, then give the engine a single kick and attempt to aim straight through the door while drifting sideways to properly align the auton. If there is a physical open space the autons would need to be programmed to file through; if teleporting/airlocks, they would need to be transferred through with proper accommodation to make sure that they don't end up right inside the walls. Also, mule autons would have to be handled differently than the rest because I'm fairly certain that most people don't attempt to drag the things into heated combat.

I personally like the airlock system the best, and if it is used I have an idea that I've been messing around with. The airlock would have to be accessed from a dockscreen, so I was thinking it should go something like this from the outside:

(You are docked at the illustrious Rigel Battle Arena...blah,blah,blah...)
-Information[
(You are in the visitor's information center...)
-Arena History
-Advice{What you do, how to win, etc. randomly selected}
-[Back to Main]
-Enter Arena
(As you enter the Arena airlock system, you are stopped by an official who asks what ships you would like to bring with you.)
-Bring all autons and wingmen
-Bring only autons
-Bring only wingmen
-Bring all wingmen and autons except for mules
-Leave all ships in drydock{ships disappear; when you exit, they are respawned with all damage and conditions}
-[Back to Main]
-Undock

The place to dock would have to be an obviously marked portion of the wall which was accessible from both sides but without the possibility of the player's ship targeting the port on the opposite side. However, this would mean that the dockscreen would have to be modified or interchanged with another depending on which side of the wall the player was on. An alternative I also considered was to have two stations, one for the inside and one for the outside. Then the inside one would have the dockscreen below:

(You are docked at the illustrious Rigel Battle Arena...blah,blah,blah...)
-Information
(You are in the gladiator's information center...)
-Arena History
Advice{What you do, how to win, specific combat-related tips, etc. randomly selected}
-[Back to Main]
-See Mr. Katami
([History lecture, combat tips, etc.]{more in-depth and relevant than vague tactics described in info center})
-Ask for more advice/history
-Ask a favor{something like free repairs if he likes you enough or you have high success rate}
-[Back to Main]
-Enter Combat
-[same as before]
-Dock Services
-Refuel
-Repair/Replace Armor
-Repair autons/wingmen{only available if they were brought with you}
-Install/Remove Devices{cheaper to work with weapons/shields, more expensive for anything else}
-[Back to Main]
-Exit Arena{respawn autons/wingmen}
-Undock

Another thing that would need to be handled is civilian traffic. It has only ever happened once, but somehow a civilian ship managed to fly straight through the door and get stuck on the wall inside the arena. It got hit by a stray shot and I got the "Watch your fire!" message. I suspect this would become extremely annoying if the Arena were to spawn the entrance directly aligned between a station and the coreward Stargate (if it were left with a physical break as an entrance/exit).

[StealthX051]

Quick, totally unrelated question, is Transcendence locked at 30 FPS?

[Aury]

Quick, totally unrelated question, is Transcendence locked at 30 FPS?

yes

[StealthX051]

Alright, thanks.