edit:
Curses I got sucked in by the necro poster 
KGJV wrote:QUOTE (KGJV @ Aug 31 2009, 03:02 AM) I'm bored and will have soon spare time to dev again for alleg.
I've a huge 'todo' list somewhere but i'm sure most of the tasks in it aren't
really useful for the game.
I took some time to 'think' about what would really help get better games going.
The 1st thing that comes to mind is 'game balance'. We all know there are huge balance issues and the CC team has the hard work of trying to fix them. But they're working kinda blindly here, mainly with 'feeling' more than real facts. Why ? Because they have no usefull statistics / metrics from real games. So 1st idea is to add very
detailed and useful metrics to the game. These data would be recorded for every game and sent to some huge database. From it, smart people that master the SQL queries (not me!:)) can then produce meaningful statistics to help balance the game. These datas could also help tune the ranking stats (AllegSkill).
* snip *
Take your pick ladies & gentlemen
I agree this would be very useful for help in game balance since CC Team and Friends is like a Design Engineer who has to do his work without any lab testing. It hamstrings them no matter how much up front analysis is done. Some small thing that would be caught right away and is not obvious Im going for as the example on this one. It also would maybe take some of the burden of them since the stress is showing when I read the forums.
I want to caution everyone that this information has to be processed correctly or it will lead you in the wrong direction like a shot. Noir's, "statistics" for balancing his core, while well meaning, where just another version of whistling in the dark. I'm definitely not hating on the guy, I'd love to drop the server issue back in his lap at a bare minimum
. So yeah Noir come on back.
Its not a trivial task and will require its own "team" imho including someone active and in charge. Guys like badp, Fwiffo, RedLion, FreeBeer and a few others have shown alot of interest in this area. Im aware of both Saxy and RedLion's background and they are experts in this area... or the closest we are going to get in community of this size. Make a list of things to capture, go about doing it, massage it through the correct methods, spit out the results, core guys have more information on both what to do and what effect of the things they did.
Im not being shrill or defensive KGJV but those extra statistics are not useful to AllegSkills in any way shape or forum that I can think of atm. It was probably a throw away sentence, but don't touch the statistical engine that's not the part that needs tinkering. What would be awesomesauce is to finish auto balance as done for AS, but that offer wasn't on the table
. I promise you that this is an area I have a clue and if you're even slightly interested I can talk it over with you on TS.
Same area different angle
People like achievements, people like to succed, people like to level up. Ten years ago it was general no @#(! statement, now its a need since gamers have been trained like the famous dogs and the dinner bell. The rub is that these acheivements effect the player ingame behavior and therefore effects game play. This is background for those who weren't about "in the day". The end game points that MSResearch used early days gave them the leveling up but caused all kinds of henious behavior. Newb whoring was an artform, base recap games where legion. Raise points for the bomber pilot killing a base people sat in base waiting to fly them. Drop the points no one wanted to fly a bomber anymore.
The fact the points were grind based, blindly coupled to the ranks without any statistical relevence, and player behavior was effected in adverse ways meant this was a pants on the head retarded way to run the Allegiance railroad. It works for a save the Dragon, kill the Princess level 50 time sinkers but not so much for the funny duck that's Allegiance. Its a telling point that the very same division that made Allegiance also came up with a new approach to ranks and game matching TrueSkills.
So you got ranks, fix the auto balance feature, twittle a knob or two and you have the closest thing to fair gameplay without forcing match play. Grab the stats for core balance. Use them to track and then implement an achievements system but ffs do it in a way that encourages teamwork. Hell implement matched play like the big boys do. Something so that people can have a ribbon in there sig or some such @#(!. The current statistics being recorded are already damn important to many and the base kill not reporting bug has been repeatedily reported and watched for the fix like a hawk.
I know this one isnt let's have a bell ring and a message pop on the screen that says "Well done you saved a kitten from certain death" whenever you pod Weedman but hey thems the breaks
MrChaos
