Draft game Retrospective: My thoughts

[Infinity]

I am lazy to quote...


When I said I was sick and tired of being the one who is "ruining the game" I never mentioned names or pointed fingers as who people saying that are. That especially wasn't you, Edge, it was something Pickles said in this thread and numerous comments throughout this round. And numerous rounds before when I lead an alliance.

Yes, we were lucky with OPs, as we would have 5-6-7 people show up late, replace the guys that are running out of turns or time, allowing us to clear further and trigger planets further. Its how most of our OPs run.

When Page said he fixed the planet bug you informed me about, there was another bug, regarding bonds, there was no way to access the Financial page if there was a bond running, and if the bond time is done there was no way of rebonding. When I tried to notify you that the bug with structures was fixed I did not mention the bond bug what so ever, I just said that "my planets are fair game as of now", knowing that tomorrow (Sunday) you will OP and that our 1B bond is not safe.

Now here's my chat log with Page::

Code: Select all

[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:25:01 PM] <Page>	planet buildings?
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:25:20 PM] <kiNky>	yeah
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:25:28 PM] <kiNky>	what's it all about?
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:25:31 PM] <Page>	no idea
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:25:35 PM] <Page>	was playing a game
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:25:41 PM] <Page>	gonna fix it now
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:26:03 PM] <kiNky>	well, in Warlocked, we're done with building
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:26:09 PM] <kiNky>	for... 5 days at least
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:26:14 PM] <kiNky>	but you dont know that
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:26:20 PM] <kiNky>	lol
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:26:23 PM] <kiNky>	so I wouldn't know
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:27:26 PM] <kiNky>	awwww
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:27:29 PM] <kiNky>	goods icons
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [07:27:31 PM] <kiNky>	:)
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [10:02:59 PM] <kiNky>	did some testing on the bond bug that Hugh prolly mentioned
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [10:03:15 PM] <kiNky>	if there's bonded money, the Financial page is unaccessible
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [10:03:19 PM] <kiNky>	also, it's not possible to bond the money
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [10:03:33 PM] <kiNky>	it returns an internal server error
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [10:03:38 PM] <kiNky>	and the cash doesnt get bonded
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [10:49:02 PM] <Page>	ok
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:00:28 PM] <Page>	fixed that too now
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:00:31 PM] <Page>	kinda frustrating
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:00:56 PM] <Page>	planets now work the same way as players/sectors/ports/forces in terms of updating/saving data
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:10:25 PM] <kiNky>	so the thing with buildings is fixed too?
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:12:26 PM] <Page>	that is in live
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:12:47 PM] <Page>	and I've put planet buildings back to roughly what they were
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:12:53 PM] <Page>	probably not quite
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:13:01 PM] <Page>	but you guys are still ahead either way ;)
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:13:23 PM] <Page>	the bonding is fixed in beta
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:13:26 PM] <Page>	but won't be live tonight
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:13:31 PM] <Page>	as Spock has gone to bed I think
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:13:37 PM] <Page>	or isn't online at least
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:14:49 PM] <Page>	the bond money is still there and will mature on time
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:15:05 PM] <Page>	if you need it tonight I can manually transfer it
[Saturday, May 14, 2011] [11:46:49 PM] <kiNky>	I actually think it will be available once the bond is up

Right after this I messaged you, If I werent blacklisted you would have gotten the msg right before your OP and you would have perhaps changed your targets.

So it was 30 hours before our OP, there was enough time and stop calling me a bloody liar by telling that there were another 24 hours before the bug was fixed.

[Page]

The bug was fixed before you OPed but you were not informed.

That is not strictly true, the bug was that when you started a planet building you lost all buildings of that type, ie you start your 100th hangar/generator or 10 turret and you lose every single one, going back to 0 hangars/generators/turrets, and 0 CDs/shields, this bug was fixed in that you no longer lost buildings and I tried to return the buildings/defences to roughly what they were. However the cds/shields were not actually added until after FE's op which is where the confusion from the two sides appears, and hence the effects of the bug were not completely fixed until that point.

[El_Guapo]

It doesnt matter. Our planets were declared 'fair game' before FE's OP which they would have known had someone not been black listed. So let me rephrase that; The Issue was settled before you guys OPed but you were not informed.

[Edgecrusher]

The option is to blacklist people is an option given to all players to safeguard them from harassment or simply if they do not wish to speak to someone. I blacklisted Kiky for reasons that I don't feel the need to spill here, and there are absolutely no arguments why I should not have been allowed to do that. Furthermore, whether I had someone blacklisted is not an argument in any discussion, as bug fixes should be announced by an admin, not by a player, as admin messages cannot be blocked to my knowledge.
Blacklisting is an option that should be available for everyone, even alliance leaders, and given the kind of harassment I endured in the draft round, I'd say especially for alliance leaders. That Contraction busted our planets without a bug fix announcement was wrong, and me blacklisting someone is not a valid argument in any discussion about that. I would hardly call it cheating though, maybe 'rash decision' fits the bill.

In the situation we were in, Page did his best to solve the problems that were the result of a bug as quickly as possible. In doing so, he forgot to make an admin announcement, both when the bug was reported and when the bug was fully fixed. That's okay, it happens and I'm glad he fixed it quickly, but it was a mistake nonetheless. The admins acknowledged this and gracefully gave us 300M for compensation.

And yes, Page is my alliance, and it is true that he did not even tell it to me during the op, but may I remind everyone that Page the player is in my alliance, not Page the admin. Yes, that is a thin line, but even admins should be able to play without constantly be held responsible for the fact that they are an admin.

And now can we PLEASE use this thread for what it was intended for: the evaluation of the draft game.

[Incognito]

I think such a large neutral was a bit of a hindrance to alliance vs alliance interaction. Ostia was 32x23 sectors, leaving a lot of turn-wasting space. I think maybe a 15 x 15 or possible 18x18 neutral would lead to some more warp-fighting action. I know for me personally, moving 30+ sectors to get to the FE warp was kind of a killer.

[JettJackson]

I think such a large neutral was a bit of a hindrance to alliance vs alliance interaction. Ostia was 32x23 sectors, leaving a lot of turn-wasting space. I think maybe a 15 x 15 or possible 18x18 neutral would lead to some more warp-fighting action. I know for me personally, moving 30+ sectors to get to the FE warp was kind of a killer.

I think the turn wasting was actually a good measure to keep the game from being basically a 1v1 fest. I don't mind the large size of the gal, I think maybe could have been done with 2 neutrals to increase interaction and still have high turn usage.