Highlights:

- Damage from critical hits is calculated after the gun mod and Precision Fire bonuses are applied
- Archon hasn't taken a look at the gun balance numbers in a while and may be open to a rebalance
- There might be a scheduled chat time with Archon later next week
- I didn't get chatbanned even once!



26 Mar 2011 - 16:05:52 PDT Archon: Hey Skyrates.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:05:56 PDT Archon: Anyone online?
26 Mar 2011 - 16:06:05 PDT Vincent Blake: hi
26 Mar 2011 - 16:06:07 PDT Kalin: nope
26 Mar 2011 - 16:06:15 PDT Vincent Blake: i'm not actually here
26 Mar 2011 - 16:06:42 PDT Burrito Loco: None
26 Mar 2011 - 16:06:52 PDT » Vincent Blake is invisible
26 Mar 2011 - 16:06:58 PDT » Zabrak! flees from Archon's banhammer
26 Mar 2011 - 16:07:40 PDT Zabrak!: Archie, is crit damage calculated before or after gun mods and/or Precision Fire?
26 Mar 2011 - 16:07:56 PDT Archon: It should be after
26 Mar 2011 - 16:07:59 PDT Archon: afaik
26 Mar 2011 - 16:08:13 PDT Zabrak!: After both?
26 Mar 2011 - 16:08:45 PDT » Burrito Loco believes this is correct
26 Mar 2011 - 16:09:18 PDT Archon: Yes, that should be the case.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:09:29 PDT Zabrak!: Hm, interesting, thank you
26 Mar 2011 - 16:09:42 PDT Zabrak!: Also thank you for your thousands of hours of work on the game
26 Mar 2011 - 16:10:34 PDT Archon: Hehehe thanks. Hasn't been thousands lately, or fewer things would be broken. :T
26 Mar 2011 - 16:12:00 PDT Zabrak!: Any idea when will we get back the pages that list individual skylands' inf totals broken down by the top 20 skyrates there?
26 Mar 2011 - 16:12:17 PDT Burrito Loco: Or just dailies?
26 Mar 2011 - 16:13:58 PDT Archon: I wasn't aware that they were down.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:14:16 PDT Archon: You might want to msg Taft.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:15:06 PDT Zabrak!: Currently crits ignore silhouette and AC; would you be open, and would it not be too challenging, to make them only ignore one or the other?
26 Mar 2011 - 16:15:12 PDT Zabrak!: Currently they feel overpowered
26 Mar 2011 - 16:16:25 PDT » An-Zu was reading, I have to agree with Z!, but if they ignore something, make it AC
26 Mar 2011 - 16:16:27 PDT Archon: All the balancing is done based on them ignoring both.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:16:59 PDT Archon: They are very powerful, but the idea is that you have a 5% chance each shot of being overpowered.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:17:11 PDT Zabrak!: It's not 5%, though
26 Mar 2011 - 16:17:15 PDT » An-Zu points at flaks
26 Mar 2011 - 16:17:19 PDT Zabrak!: Different gun types have different rates
26 Mar 2011 - 16:17:28 PDT Archon: Right, that's true.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:17:39 PDT Archon: I was thinking of the old d20 system.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:17:51 PDT Zabrak!: Basically flaks are the weapon of choice because you have to have something that penetrates both AC and low-sil
26 Mar 2011 - 16:18:27 PDT An-Zu: autocannons being last, like they always have been.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:18:45 PDT VainBob: I think LA's & Howies still have their place
26 Mar 2011 - 16:18:50 PDT Zabrak!: I'm thinking of proposing a rebalance of either plane/gun stats or the damage equation, and I'm trying to figure out which approach would be easiest
26 Mar 2011 - 16:18:53 PDT Archon: True enough. I was balancing for DoT, with the expectation that the plane would be in a player's sights.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:18:56 PDT Zabrak!: As there's not much balance now
26 Mar 2011 - 16:19:05 PDT VainBob: for instance I'm using LA & flak combo
26 Mar 2011 - 16:19:24 PDT An-Zu: even MG's are useful
26 Mar 2011 - 16:19:25 PDT Zabrak!: Crithoses are always more valuable than straight damage/accuracy
26 Mar 2011 - 16:19:30 PDT An-Zu: but flaks are straight better
26 Mar 2011 - 16:19:51 PDT Archon: I've always liked autocannons myself, but that's cause I like seeing series of small planes go pop.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:20:05 PDT Archon: And ACs should be crithoses as they're balanced.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:20:07 PDT An-Zu: try to take one on against any of the airships
26 Mar 2011 - 16:20:19 PDT An-Zu: then do it with a mg
26 Mar 2011 - 16:20:26 PDT Archon: Well, ACs aren't supposed to be able to touch airships.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:20:27 PDT Zabrak!: ACs don't generate enough crits or base damage to be useful for that purpose
26 Mar 2011 - 16:20:33 PDT Zabrak!: Flaks do that job and more
26 Mar 2011 - 16:21:03 PDT Archon: Could be. It's been a long time since I've looked at the numbers.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:21:25 PDT An-Zu: well, you can't switch guns for each combat, so why would you take an AC if you know it is ill suited for an entire trip or 50% of the planes you're likely to be up against.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:21:46 PDT Zabrak!: If you're not amenable to changing the damage equation, I'd be happy to attempt to rebalance the numbers with your intentions in mind, if you released the full damage equation
26 Mar 2011 - 16:21:54 PDT Zabrak!: I feel I came pretty close in 2.4
26 Mar 2011 - 16:24:29 PDT Archon: To An-Zu: One of the things that never really came across in Skyrates is that you're really supposed to run from combat sometimes.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:24:46 PDT An-Zu: I get that.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:24:50 PDT Archon: By balancing the combat to the player's plane and such, we kind of got away from that.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:24:57 PDT Archon: Though I do get what you're saying.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:25:29 PDT Archon: We also always intended to let you do something to select guns mid-flight. It just got lost in all the other features.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:25:36 PDT Archon: Zab, I
26 Mar 2011 - 16:25:43 PDT Archon: Zab, I'll think about it.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:26:00 PDT Zabrak!: Very good
26 Mar 2011 - 16:26:35 PDT FlyiingWalrus: i think right now the biggest problem with combat right now is how the difficulty jumps up and down according to the randomness of what you face
26 Mar 2011 - 16:27:25 PDT Burrito Loco: Well, the magic armor definitely makes running a less common occurence
26 Mar 2011 - 16:27:27 PDT FlyiingWalrus: especially with AC being the way it is. makes fights generally too easy
26 Mar 2011 - 16:27:38 PDT FlyiingWalrus: AC being armor class and not autocannons
26 Mar 2011 - 16:27:58 PDT FlyiingWalrus: but you suddenly get a swarm with flaks and howitzers and you suddenly die
26 Mar 2011 - 16:28:22 PDT Zabrak!: I think a simple nerfing of steel to +7 instead of +12 would solve that first problem
26 Mar 2011 - 16:28:24 PDT Archon: Yeah, they really shouldn't have too many special guns.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:28:33 PDT Burrito Loco: AC plays the same magic game that maneuver used to
26 Mar 2011 - 16:28:41 PDT Burrito Loco: You get it high enough, everything bounces off
26 Mar 2011 - 16:28:46 PDT Kalin: and then there's the Fleet planes....
26 Mar 2011 - 16:29:03 PDT An-Zu: that's another point against AC's anyone flying with armor will eventually come up against planes that basically can't kill them Auto's vs AC mean enemies become useless.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:29:07 PDT FlyiingWalrus: well fleet planes are pretty much the same as other planes. other than the ring and platform
26 Mar 2011 - 16:29:23 PDT Archon: Sorry, I'm actually in the middle of some db programming, so I don't really have time to talk about all this now.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:29:24 PDT An-Zu: (some)
26 Mar 2011 - 16:29:37 PDT Burrito Loco: A'ight
26 Mar 2011 - 16:29:41 PDT Zabrak!: Schedule some time later!
26 Mar 2011 - 16:29:45 PDT FlyiingWalrus: yeah
26 Mar 2011 - 16:29:51 PDT Zabrak!: Skyrates love their devs
26 Mar 2011 - 16:29:56 PDT An-Zu: yeahhhh
26 Mar 2011 - 16:30:06 PDT Archon: That would be good. I have meetings with grad students all next week.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:30:13 PDT Burrito Loco: Whee...
26 Mar 2011 - 16:30:15 PDT Zabrak!: Any hot ones?
26 Mar 2011 - 16:30:20 PDT Archon: Though I might be able to make some time next Friday.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:30:21 PDT FlyiingWalrus: lol zab
26 Mar 2011 - 16:30:31 PDT Zabrak!: Oh wait, it's probably CS grad students
26 Mar 2011 - 16:30:47 PDT Archon: Drop me an email, and we'll try to schedule a time: archon@skyrates.net.
26 Mar 2011 - 16:31:13 PDT Archon: Nah, I teach cinema students.

You'll have to try harder next time, Zab.