Project Eden (WIP massive random scenario)

Discussion in 'Scenarios' started by ravien_ff, Jun 18, 2018.

  1. ravien_ff

    ravien_ff Rear Admiral

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    Sure, why not. It's an advanced easy start. Go crazy. :D
     
    #1781
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  2. Myrmidon

    Myrmidon Rear Admiral

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    ...and enjoy the loot! ;)
     
    #1782
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  3. skshroyer

    skshroyer Ensign

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    I decided to poke my nose into a class 4 mining site to see what could be found. I was shocked to find magmacite asteroids. The thing is, I've tried SV laser drills (CVs can't warp in), epic hand drill and voidium hand drill and nothing seems to be scratching it. I'm not seeing dropped ore, ore in the 32k container controller, messages about storage being full....just can't seem to mine any ore out of the asteroid. Any ideas?
     
    #1783
  4. ravien_ff

    ravien_ff Rear Admiral

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    Magmacite is very tough. You need to focus the drill on one spot until it mines a chunk.
     
    #1784
  5. xerxes86

    xerxes86 Commander

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    I don't think it needs to be fixed. I did this one on Haven a few days ago, and they were all coming at me. It might be something with his set up.
     
    #1785
  6. Myrmidon

    Myrmidon Rear Admiral

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    Thoughts?

    Screenshot from 2021-08-13 16-59-52.png
     
    #1786
  7. stecph

    stecph Lieutenant

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    CULTISTS: I am playing Reforged Eden, on the beautifully made Mire planets are the Cultists. In 2017 Ravien announced that one could save the captives.
    How? you can set some of them free, some ask for materials to contact their people etc, but apart from this, nothing happens...what's the trick?
    As I mentioned, searching "cultists", only brought back the original post from Ravien.
    Thanks for the help.

    PS. I have wrongly posted this on the Reforged Eden forum previously, Vermillion kindly advised me he had nothing to do with any cultist:)
     
    #1787
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  8. ravien_ff

    ravien_ff Rear Admiral

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    That's all you can do with them atm, just give them stuff. :D
     
    #1788
  9. stecph

    stecph Lieutenant

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    Really?? These cheap people!!! They are on their own, I'm leaving, I'm taking off, I leave them thinking on their lack of gratitude in their lousy cells!!
    Thanks for the answer and for telling me who they really are:)
     
    #1789
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  10. skshroyer

    skshroyer Ensign

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    Anyone know why I appear to be slightly off kilter (in game, we won't get into real life)? At first I thought it was my space station so I used setrotation to level it out, but if I use O to level my ship with the playfield, then the station is now off kilter to the ship. In essence, I settle myself down level to the floor then turn of my jetpack and start rotating 20ish degrees...just enough to make getting around the base annoying. I'm not even sure what to check

    If it matters, the space station was level with me in god mode prior to using setrotation....so apparently it's me that needs the setrotation command
     
    #1790
  11. ravien_ff

    ravien_ff Rear Admiral

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    Gravity generator on a nearby ship probably.
     
    #1791
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  12. skshroyer

    skshroyer Ensign

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    well, now I feel like an idiot. That was it, I had my carrier parked vertically so I could reach all the ships via wifi and the gravity was still on. Thanks again ravien.
     
    #1792
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  13. Taski

    Taski Ensign

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    Good day! I'm sorry for the possibly stupid question, but: is it possible to use drawings from the vanilla version in your script? Or has a certain rebalance been carried out and other drawings are required? I can't find an unambiguous answer anywhere :упс: To clarify: the drawings in the workshop that come with the mark RE - are they for Reforged or Project Eden?
     
    #1793
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2021
  14. dichebach

    dichebach Captain

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    I suspect that few people who might read this or respond will be receptive to what I have to say, but I want to put it down anyway, just for posterity if nothing else.

    Empyrion Galactic Survival is a _SURVIVAL_ game. A "game" is an activity in which challenge or obstacles must be defeated in order to avert defeat and in some cases attain "victory." A survival game is a game in which defeat is not-surviving, and victory is surviving.

    Vanilla Empyrion likely fits the definition of a "survival game" relatively well, but also fails to sufficiently challenge or engage many users (especially experienced ones) simply because (a) the depth of the content is relatively minimal; and (b) the challenges to surviving are also too light.

    Reforged Eden is a "mod" to the game that seeks to rectify these two problems with vanilla Empyrion, i.e., (a) to expand and augment the content so that game play and exploring all the various systems within the imaginary world is more engaging; and (b) the challenges to surviving are higher. The mod does this remarkably well. However as a result of constraints imposed by the nature of the game application itself and the nature of the changes made in the mod/scenario, as well as specific choices made by the developers about the values to assign to particular parameters, the mod also comes across as too punitive to many users. Many server admins turn off or modify many aspects of the mod; in fact, I don't think I've ever played on any server where the version that was being run was strictly "vanilla Reforged Eden."

    My concern is that: with the scenario reaching a state where it is nearly "fully-featured" and with patterns of challenge and game play rather well established, projected and anticipated future directions of development for the scenario are going to increasingly undermine the popularity of the scenario. I raise this issue because, I'm not certain if anyone else has perceived this, nor if my speculation is valid or accurate; but if it is valid or accurate, then that means that the mod is on a trajectory of either incipient or impending decline and that to me would be a terrible shame. Reforged Eden is in most respects (to me) "what Empyrion should be." I would like to see many or most of the design elements and features of the RE mod/scenario become incorporated into the vanilla game (although with the recognition that the vanilla game does need to offer a mode of play which is substantially less punishing in order to provide an entry point for new users). Perhaps my view of these matters is unique, but I don't think it is. I have spoken to, or listened to (on Discord) a dozen or more users who have complained (and in many cases "ranted") about their frustrations with the seemingly random deaths that occur not-infrequently with RE. Over the course of the past couple years, playing on a half-dozen different servers, I've observed a dozen or so players who came to the mod interested in learning all its intricacies, engaged in commentary indicating that they were attempting to wrap their heads around it and master it, but then progressively expressed frustration, and discontent, and then eventually just stopped playing.

    I'm framing this topic broadly and vaguely at this point because I think it reflects a philosophical position by the scenario makers, i.e., that the primary mission of the mod is to make the game as "difficult" or "hard" or "challenging" as possible. I agree that increased challenge is a primary strength of the mod and that striving for a "better" balance of challenge is a meritorious mission for the mod. But I fear that there is a disconnect between what is perceived as "difficulty" or "challenge" by the developers of the mod and what some or perhaps most prospective users perceive as a challenge.

    There are many specific examples we could discuss which exemplify this putative discrepancy, and of course it deserves to be said that: it is THEIR mod, so any of us who don't like it exactly how it is can basically just see ourselves to the door . . . that is necessarily the end-point of any impasse in discussion or commentary. Ravien and Vermillion are under no obligations to do anything for anyone other than themselves, so please do not misunderstand any of my commentary as reflecting such a misplaced expectation. Rather, I'm trying to offer helpful feedback which I suspect will assist you guys in achieving your broader goals with your mod/scenario, i.e., for it to be popular, and widely used.

    The specific example which prompted me to jot down this missive was as follows: playing on Ashe Reforged server, Omicron start, zero deaths (I strive for as few deaths as possible, it is my play style). Warping over to some of the other planets in a cheapo SV to get some Neo and Titanium. Warped in and out twice yesterday without mishap. Today warp to Beta III or IV to get Neo and when I warp back, my warp in spot is on top of a Zirax defense station. Boom, game over man.

    I respawned at my home base on Omicron and logged out to post this. I'll probably continue playing on that session and just move on, but it dawned on me that it is this "type" of experience (though not strictly this specific type) which is ultimately the biggest threat to the poularity of the mod: random death. For many users the experience of the mod comes across as "Empyrion Galactic Death Simulator" instead of "Empyrion Survival."

    My limited comprehension is that the warp in points (as well as POI spawn points) are a problem that is not addressable by changing parameters in the config files, and that the problem arises primarily out of the fact that the way playfields are generated in RE is different from the way the vanilla game generates these things . . . . (please do correct me or clarify if I do not have this properly characterized). In sum: it is not fixable without either (a) altering the source code (obviously a matter up to Eleon not any of us) or (b) piggybacking new functionality into the existing app through the API. All of my experience in programming has been in C++ (not C#) and I have never written an application to "plug in" to an API, so I cannot say that I "know how to do such a thing." But I do have the foundational skills to make figuring how how one might do such a thing and doing it (if it is possible), and I would be willing to give it a try if you guys can point me in the right direction to get oriented with how your mod works and how the API works. Going forward, this could be a stepping stone to expanding the scope of your mod to address many of the pervasive problems that limit your ability to tailor it to your ideals and undermine its appeal to a broader audience.
     
    #1794
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  15. ravien_ff

    ravien_ff Rear Admiral

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    The warping into a Zirax POI is also present in vanilla. There is no easy way to prevent that. Would require fixing from the developers by not playing players within a certain distance of a POI upon warp in.

    We do listen, I myself read almost everything on discord and the forums about the scenario.
    There are some things that aren't properly balanced (like the plasma Zirax which vermillion is changing). Other things aren't balanced right just due to time constraints (I work full time and have weird hours).
    And many problems are just Empyrion being Empyrion and there's no feasible way for us to fix it in a scenario (like the issue you encountered).
    But so far as problems that we can fix, we're usually pretty good at fixing it.


    Of the 3 RE servers I've been following, all three use reforged Eden with few or no changes to the scenario. Some add their own custom content on top of it but they all try to keep the core of the scenario as intact as possible.
    But this scenario is built for sp and small group play first, so it doesn't surprise me when larger public servers change things around to meet the preferences of their community. That's a good thing. I have no problem with that. That will happen no matter what scenario they use.

    I take all feedback and try my best to weigh it all. But I'm not going to sacrifice the single player experience or the spirit of the scenario. Project Eden has always been about raising the difficulty ceiling, and reforged galaxy has always been a difficulty enhancing mod. Combined it's going to be downright brutal at times.
    If people want to customize it to fit their preferences then all the more power to them!
     
    #1795
  16. imlarry425

    imlarry425 Captain

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    I may be wrong but it's my understanding that RE (and Reforged (and Eden)) are scenarios and not mods per se. They expand on templates (new playfield types etc.) and altering the configuration (modified costs/damage/etc.) within the supported framework of the vanilla game. I don't think the scenario deployment mechanism even supports including mods as part of the manifest (which is probably a good thing from a Trojan Horse perspective!)

    An easy way to understand the nature of the magic is to start a pair of vanilla and RE scenario games and then look at the contents of the subfolders under the two resulting save games with a specific change in mind (i.e. "What changes were required to fry an egg?")

    These mechanisms were created by the official game devs to facilitate easily making changes to behavior at a config vs. code level; for scenario devs the risk is that underlying data structures may be retired or modified with each release and break things.

    The mod mechanism involving DIY code and the official callbacks that invoke them isn't something (currently anyhow) that RE depends on unless it's getting done by individual server moderators putting together an ala cart sort of thing.
     
    #1796
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  17. GoldDragon

    GoldDragon Captain

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    They are modifications of the original game, therefore, they are “mods”.
     
    #1797
  18. imlarry425

    imlarry425 Captain

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    I suppose it's semantics- in this game the development team has included documentation (see: \Steam\steamapps\common\Empyrion - Galactic Survival\Content\Extras\Modding Doc) that describes "mods" which are deployed in the Mods directory (see: \Steam\steamapps\common\Empyrion - Galactic Survival\Content\Mods) and differentiates that from scenarios (published in the Steam library manager) which are changes to templates and configuration.

    Generally speaking being precise about usage is contextual ... "when in Rome." You can use the generic term like they are synonymous but in this context they describe very different things- the post I was replying to was specific about using compiled code to modify the game.
     
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  19. dichebach

    dichebach Captain

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    Fair enough. So here is a challenge for you and/or Vermillion, and really anyone who thinks that the current balance is perfect: Play vanilla Reforged Eden on a server, get to end-game and never die. Add to that: if you die without a clone chamber/med-bay to respawn in, then just consider it game over: delete the save file, or else do a cb:rest.

    I realize this is probably impossible, and that you guys would state as much, but this is how I approach the game: try to never die. The one "hard rule" I apply to myself is: if I die without a clone chamber to respawn in, then I start from a fresh seed in SP, or I do a cb:reset in MP. I think my best performance yet was surviving for a couple months of in-game days, killing a couple thousand NPCs (and around 1,000 non-animal NPCs) with zero deaths.

    To me the problem is not that it is difficult to not die, it is that dying is treated so lightly. It is frequent, but pretty much inconsequential; so much so , that many players simply use their avatar bodies like disposable lighters, burning through them and respawning at their tent, which in itself is ludicrous. Aside from being able to respawn in a ship, or for RP reasons, the fact you can respawn from a tent just as effectively as you can respawn from a clone chamber or medical bay makes death in the game a joke. It isn't your fault that the game has those features, but it undermines your intent with your mod: i.e., to make the experience more challenging.

    To me, the current balance would be pretty much ideal if there were three additional dimensions in place: (a) it was utterly impossible to "respawn" by any means other than a clone chamber/medical bay, i.e., some type of high-tech machine where a clone could actually be manifest; (b) there were real and unpleasant consequences to respawning (e.g., loss of levels, loss of XP, long-term status debuffs, etc., unfortunately the game does not afford the sort of 'regression in character development' that are used in the best RPG games which make death unpleasant; (c) clone chambers were significantly more costly to construct and maintain. I'd say that with those three features added, THEN Reforged Eden would be truly, brutal.

    We could add a couple of optional dimensions that would be neat but not "necessary" (d) multiple tiers of clone chambers, with (e.g.,) T4 offering the least negative consequences/risks of respawning and T1 being almost assured to lead to negative consequences from respawning; (e) in order to respawn, you must have a clone prepared. The time and effort and resource investment to "prepare a clone" could be anything ranging from minimal to as burdensome as was deemed brutal or challenging. Die a second time without taking the time to prepare another clone: game over man.

    Purely random deaths like the one that prompted me to post are a problem, but as you point out, that is simply part of the game. The design problem is that the base game makes death a joke and the increased frequency of deaths with your mod turns that joke into a nuisance and it doesn't really shape player analysis or decision making . . . well, it does for some of us, who for some neurotic reasons like to avoid dying, even though it is pretty much inconsequential. But most players just shrug it off, respawn at a tent, head back into the POI and grab their backpack (or even just run right in with all their gear magically on their new body).
     
    #1799
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  20. ravien_ff

    ravien_ff Rear Admiral

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    Nobody said the current balance was perfect, but Empyrion has respawn mechanics. You're not meant to never die in the game.
    If you play hardcore mode that is your choice and not something that this scenario will balance around.

    I personally rarely die, and 90% of the time it is either due to a game bug (getting shot out of a cockpit or through a wall), or I made a mistake (such as rushing into the last room of the missile silo head first like a maniac). In fact this last playthrough I have had zero deaths that wasn't due to my own mistake, even when I was being shot through the wall I still lived.

    I agree that the respawn nearby mechanic is a bit cheap, but I haven't thought of an alternative especially when there are so many bugs/glitches/etc that can kill you so quickly through no fault of your own, as you have recently experienced. It's not something that can be changed in the scenario anyway, though I believe it can be disabled on pvp playfields as a setting (Eden has no pvp playfields though).

    I cannot control people's behavior. If they want to death rush a POI and spend 3-4 times as long doing it compared to someone who doesn't die, I can't really stop them. If they want to delete their save game every time they die, that's their choice. If they choose to do POIs in the middle of a faction territory so the enemies they face have 250% damage and health compared to the same POI outside faction territory, I can't do much about that. (though in the future I am going to look at normalizing the planet levels so this doesn't happen as much anymore).

    I've read and understood your feedback.
     
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