First of all, welcome to Allegiance!
I have to disapoint you deeply on your 'noone here can understand what I'm talking about game development/general programming' statement
In fact, there are numerous people playing this game (and reading those forums), that are quite profficient at code production. Hell, there are still some original Allegiance developers around! I too have some knowledge about general apps development and, surprise surprise, I do understand what your code is supposed to do. I do not understand however, how can you even begin to try tutor anyone about Alleg code, when you haven't even seen one line of the actual code.
This is also where your 'I am ueber l33t self taught programmah!!1!' statement fails. Sadly, no real and somewhat expierienced coder/developer would state, that any change in application the size of Alleg is easy pie. If anything else, my personal expierience with refactoring and adding functionalities to existing applications tells me that. I am pretty darn sure, that if you changed that, that change would affect several other methods somewhere.
As for your initial post, I feel the need to clarify some things you seem to misunderstand:
QUOTE So far as newbies... from what ive seen alot of vets here are killing their own game. I see comms booting newbies in HANDFULL AMOUNTS because "they were sitting in base". I havent been booted like that but maybe the comm should consider "hmm maybe he is trying to figure out what the difference between his missile choices are or what ship to take". I myself enjoy learning the game and reading articles about how to fly better but the fact is some people would rather not play at all if they couldnt learn the game by playing.[/quote]
Newbies are mostly booted for not doanting their money to the commander or moving constructors/miners. That happens, but is unavoidable. The comm needs every little bit of cash usually (i literally saw games lost, because the team was 2 credits short of buing a bomber for base D). Cons and miners have the tendecy to die where they are sent by newbies.
As for basesitting, sure, boots for that happen, but seldom. Commanders are usually to busy to notice that someones name is always in red under f6.
Newbie servers are meant for figuring out the most basic stuff.
QUOTE Think about the game you are playing people. most gamers are blood thristy want a quickly rewarding game where they can repetitively throw themselves into a crowd of enemies. This game on the other hand has a little more of a learning curve because of strategy physics style combat and simulator properties. So allready we are playing a game here that only 1 out of 3 of the new players you see are going to stick around instead of high tailing it back to a 1rst person shooters. some vets seem to be striving to make it 1 out of 5.[/quote]
Yes, this game is not Quake In Space, CS or such. It's learning curve, compared to, let's say CS, is like climbing Everest compared to climbing flight of stairs. That is the main reason that only 1 out of 10-15 newbies sticks around. We know that. It's not very surprising, there aren't that many people out there who are willing to actually put time and effort into learning how to play a game.
Most of the vets are doing whatever they can to keep as many newbies as possible here. Hell, we even have schools for newbies! Have you heard about Cadet program? If not, there's a link on the main page. Next session starts in two weeks, you might want to apply;)
QUOTE vets and comm need to stop and ponder "am i losing this game because of MY noobs? or because of the vets kicking in my whiney comm hole from the other side" and i have a thought that these same types would be devistated if only vets that could stand toe to toe with them remained so why boot the only easy kills?[/quote]
Not true. Commanders know exaclty, that newbies can't and won't be major asset to the team. If comm sees a useful newbie, he's quite happy, but when he sees a newbie flying in circles in a fighter or trying to gatt down his own garrison, he's not surprised.
QUOTE I made a small list of changes that would allow newbies to lean more on those patient, tolerant and willing to explain. Keep in mind these changes would effect new players only.
#1 a newbie channel in game chat for the abundance of in game questions we are bound to have (muteable)[/quote]
You are free to ask questions on team channel. Don't be surprised if they are left with no answer while a game is going. People tend to get busy. Save them for after the game in that case. Besides, TeamSpeak is waaaaay better for learning. Get it, use it, love it.
QUOTE #2 disabling the assignment of commands from anyone but comm by default unless changed in game to be commandable to new players.[/quote]
Well, this is where your inexpierience is coming out. Nothing to be ashamed of though.
Anyway, each player has the power to command other players (they can obey or not) and drones (those always obey). There is a very good reason for that: commander can't be everywhere. In many situations, players on miner defence have to micromanage them into safety, veteran players leading galv runs call the target for the whole galving party, etc etc. Comm is physically not capable of doing all that, especially in bigger games.
QUOTE #3 team wide chat should be muted by default except for comm[/quote]
No, it shouldn't. Allegiance is all about communication. Not only pilot-to-comm comm-to-pilot, but also pilot-to-pilot. There are many situations where that is needed, play more and you shall see. Besides, commander has no chance of reading all the info coming from all his pilots and broadcasting it to the rest of the team. No way in hell. Too much typing, too much hassle. Comms are very busy with things they have to handle already. They have to let the team handle some stuff on it's own.
QUOTE #4 new players should get paid more with a locked donate so the comm is compensated for the lack of rank and is more likely to appreciate noobs[/quote]
Uhhhh I really can't see why that should be implemented... That would be a huge gameplay change and I can see clearly how easily that would be abused. Besides, unnecesary code changes are bad bad bad.
QUOTE #5 ships that can take down structures must be enabled either by team or by person for newbie players[/quote]
They already are. Commander has to approve purchase of such ship. He's able to see who is asking too, so there is a control mechanism already in place.
Now a few suggestions. First of all, join next session of Cadet. It's an eight weeks long course that teaches the basics of this game, next session in about 2 weeks. In the meantime, read the crash course on www.allegacademy.org. Try and actually learn something about the game (and community) before you start posting anything more than questions /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />
Last tip: calling anyone, that has been in any community longer than you an 'idiot' (or some such) makes you a target. Try to avoid that or you shall not gain any respect and your reputation won't make it out alive.
Good luck.
