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Dizaka

Balancing Advisors
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Everything posted by Dizaka

  1. @Player of 0AD but what you had in splash you lost in mobility. Cata-heavy armies could be outmaneuvered. As a cata-heavy army the disadvantage was you had to know when to unpack and not do it too early or too late. Very few players could manage catas. Most cata armies started appearing 16-18 mins into the game and that is only if you intentionally went cata. Also, only 2 civs could do it (Rome/mace) due to arsenal/encampment as other civs would only be able to do it in the 20-23 min mark. Also, catas are a good anti-snowballing measure. Finally, they can be easily countered with cav. Catas are not much worse than champ cav ...and with current metal availability plenty counters and better alternative strategies (e.g., champs) than catas.
  2. @LetswaveaBook Alexander the Great (Macedonian) and Romans used it on infantry formations. I'll get historical references later as on mobile. But more than 'shattering' for debris damage they were intentionally used on infantry formations. Maybe it can be unique to Macedonians and Romans. #savemacedonians
  3. Catas weren't too OP. It was just a different strategy. If someone went mass catas they weren't mobile. This means instead of attacking a strong point - the cats mass - then attack and destroy their base (packing/unpacking, chasing were impossible with catas. To play catas well you either forced enemy to come to you by attacking a base or played slow with walls). Afterwards destroy the catas and the units defending them. Rams can't attack people and can't destroy farms. It's unrealistic imo. If a person got Infront of the barrel and get there is no reason why they wouldn't sustain damage. If a farm is an object with structures on it then there is no reason why a the structures on the farm cannot be destroyed by a ram. Additionally, if a catapult-ball were to shatter on impact and soldiers were nearby no reason why soldiers should be immune to such damage. @Player of 0AD yes there is a range difference. However it wouldn't prevent archers from killing a cata. However, that range difference currently makes it possible for catapults to stealth-kill a base. Imo, decrease range and add splash and make catas harder to kill for archers.
  4. It conveniently happens when you're enjoying yourself. 9/10 times it's likely intentional. For @2 I don't think people, in general, appreciate things that make stuff easier or protect them as you do not notice those things. Therefore, you tend to underappreciate them. Conversely, people definitely don't appreciate things that create agony and make it known. Therefore, a lot of effort that has been put into DDOS prevention goes unappreciated (e.g., password games, user1 taking time to read my pms and those of others, etc). Mainly because ddos isn't an issue until it is an issue. @Angenwho implemented password protected games has a great idea on a whitelist that ties in with buddies list and makes passwords unnecessary. I really look forward to the alpha that has that feature as more people will be likely to use it as password don't 'flow.'
  5. There lies the problem. You want community to grow and not put barriers in front of that growth. Putting up barriers discourages growth. Hence, a good number of ideas, including mine, are bad but could/would work. Basically, as a moderator, user1 is between a rock and a hard place. Currently, no tools. However, even if there were tools (e.g., private chat) they may make the lobby dead and discourage others from joining 0ad.
  6. @Ceres The data packets are different kinds depending on what DDOS person wants/orders. Person who does it has specific, but not granular, control of the kind of data being sent. They have done DDOS using ICMP messages and other types of data/messages (e.g., NTP). I do not believe that they are a programmer but rather someone sitting in lobby using a service. The DDOS attacks seem to happen during time slots rather than at will. Suggesting that 'orders' are made but that is speculation. When, as a host, you use a service that provides 1 port over an IP address shared by multiple users the attacker would modify to specifically attack the individual port (e.g., hosting using a 3G /4G provider or through service provided by many ISPs in Europe, not US). So whoever is doing this is actually investing time in doing it. It's not automatic. When they get bored they get bored as seen by recent lull. It's also unlikely 1 person doing it but different people over time and over-lapped time.
  7. Batch training is questionable. With batch you lose on resource gathering which is important early game. Additionally, with the implementation of auto-train there isn't too much of advantage until it comes to large batch training.
  8. @LetswaveaBook Possibility of citizen-soldier light xbow at:
  9. @chrstgtr@BreakfastBurrito_007@Player of 0AD@Gurken Khan@sarcoma@Ceres@bb_@Yekaterina Guys, 0ad already has a DDOS countermeasure and it works well. Use password-protected games. DO NOT HOST GAMES WITHOUT A PASSWORD. I REPEAT, DO NOT HOST GAMES WITHOUT A PASSWORD. Having a password prevents your IP to be shared with the lobby. Put the game password in the game name. It makes it more difficult for whoever does the DDOS stupidity. (and, if you know how, it can help narrow down the person as @bb_ pointed out) ALSO, CHANGE YOUR IP ADDRESSES weekly if you cannot do it daily. https://trac.wildfiregames.com/ticket/6136 Also, it's likely multiple randoms doing this. I do not believe it is one individual. This is not something that can be moderated and/or stopped easily. However, it's getting to the point where features in 0ad alpha are being implement that make DDOS more difficult to perform and the culprits can be narrowed down (Narrowed down by name and not by what IPs are DDOSing you). I have one instance of this, going back 2-3 months, where I changed my IP and hosted 2 games. The 2nd game was DDOSed. I do not believe I have the replays but have the mainlog and extracted names from the mainlog (made a simple python script to do it). Also, I have 1-2 instances of it happening after 3-6 games but I kept the mainlog for all games and have all names that joined. Basically, before each day I changed my IP address. I would only host games. I would not join any games. For each game I hosted that day I saved the mainlog file (and/or wouldn't restart client to continue adding to mainlog file). When DDOS would happen, only on my host, I'd stop and save the mainlog file. Then I'd change my IP address. Repeat and only host. If DDOS happened on a player joining my game I'd either rehost (usually w/o that player since their IP is compromised and they likely don't know how to change their IP address), if player couldn't rejoin, (while saving mainlog) and wait till I get hit. Below are the files, with date of game + my host IP address for those games. DDOSER here zip file is the one with 2 games. see HERE [Note: files uploading]). The person I was collaborating with is @aixo and he narrowed it down to people but to me it seemed like its randoms and multiple people doing it. This is because before A25 I had a notepad where I'd write names of people who joined games. However, you could get IP from lobby so it was pointless. @bb_ @Angen @wraitii Could it be possible, for administrative purposes, for the clients to send this data (stripped down and/or narrowed down) automatically to the 0ad server? This information, before being sent, could have private information hashed/removed by client. Based on "interactions" and "changed IP addresses" rank each player on probability of being a DDOSer. It could be used to map and narrow down the people who do this. Players then could "limit observers to clean players" or something along those lines.
  10. Isn't it neeeneeeneee, neeeneeeneee, neeeneeeneee? Nm, apparently I have some minor hearling loss.
  11. Athens has a hero that gives armor bonus and attack speed bonus when in a formation. Other than that nothing explicit. Mostly indirect advantages that you learn of while playing. When playing with eles the battle line formation puts eles up front and healers behind them. Good for getting the right units up front since enemy only attacks nearest unit (unless they micro rear units). Battle line formation is bad with siege rams. Puts siege rams, like elephants, up front. However siege rams can't attack units. So they becomes expensive self-blocking structures. Box formation surrounds healers with archers who are surrounded with pikemen. Only issue is the hero is on the outer edge of the formation.
  12. May make going just citizen soldier viable versus champs. That'd be interesting in a way if there was the "champs" and the "citizen soldier + priests" strategies for endgame. Mounted priests would be fun.
  13. 1 in a 1,000,000,000,000 chance?! ;/ Would multiple healers stack with aura? Curious.
  14. I believe reducing costs by 50% for upgrades (the equivalent of Mauryas civ bonus) would be good. A 50-65% cost reduction for the actual priests too. I'm not sure however what should be done with Maurya civ bonus and/or the hero that reduces temple costs, increases upgrade speeds, and construction speed. Farmers have injuries in the field. Also, morale in doing the same mundane task. Healers take care of injuries and increase morale by singing the Wololo and Neeneenee folk songs in the fields. Back/front could be a tradeoff. Do you want healers helping eco or the military, which is more important, etc. I was thinking a bow snap mid pull and kills the archer equipped with the bow. Sometimes, 1 in a 1,000,000 , your whole archer army does that. Or a skrimisher being crazy and impaling themselves in the back of the head and dying. Or a slinger launching a rock into their own face.
  15. That would have been a friendly fire situation :P. The ele and healers were mine! That's makes me think. Maybe 0ad should have ranged-weapon misfires (archers, xbow, bolts, cataputs, etc). A 1 in a 1,000,000 chance to have all ranged units misfire and die to misadventure at the same time.
  16. I think healers aren't used nowadays because of champions. Champions just mow through units. It's more prudent/reasonable to go get champions versus healers, especially with the metal and food costs of their upgrades. Undying army, lol. I remember in A24 where I had 12-20 healers healing 1 elephant that was going slowly at a fort, lol. Not even archers could kill that ele. There's a point where having enough r3 healers is overpowering. Which makes Kushite r3 temple OP in a way.
  17. Coop games would be awesome. It's an alternative to 16 players games. Coop games and the ability for players (or disco player teammates) to vote on "coop players" mid-game to replace a disconnect player would be great too (and if disconnected player reconnects they can take over and/or continue with coop).
  18. I liked how catapult splash dmg prevented snowballing.
  19. Houses are capturable. Yea, you can garrison and make it harder to capture it. However, why should houses perform the function of walls/palisades when walls/palisades exist.
  20. Champ Calvary was effective back then (maybe not as as it is now). IMHO, the main issue is the availability of metal. Metal was so rare that having champ cav overpowering other units wasn't a problem since no-one could afford it. However, currently metal is inexpensive and littered all over the map. It makes more sense to go champions ASAP - especially with the faster game pace. Note: I like the current metal availability. Therefore, I think in general cav champs are OP.
  21. 75 wood houses let you micro better. For example, with Mauryas with low res you can build 1 granery (+100 wood for food gathering upgrade) + 1 house. This is just on starting resources. Allows you to research stuff earlier. Even better, with Mauryas you can build a storage point with food and decrease travel distance. With Rome, for 300 wood you have a choice with 1 granery + ( 1 house OR gathering upgrade). You are waiting for the resources to do the other thing. But it's really only for low res games.
  22. I would rank this way: New Player: OP tier: Spartans, Gauls, Romans, Iberians, Strong tier: Ptolemies, Persians, Kushites, Seleucids, Carthaginians Mediocre tier: Britons Not recommended: Macedonians, Athenians, Mauryans Advanced Player: OP tier: Mauryans, Spartans, Gauls, Romans, Iberians Strong tier: Macedonians, Carthaginians, Ptolemies, Persians, Kushites, Seleucids Mediocre tier: Britons Not recommended: Athenians OP currently are Champ Cav and Skiritai. The civ of Spartans/Gauls/Romans are in this category. Iberians (Swordsmen) and Mauryas (Cav Sword) have sword upgrade w/ r3 damage upgrade. Additionally, Mauryans have early phase Elephant stable and the worker elephant. I do not recommend Mauryas to new players b/c there is a lot happening and the civ can be confusing. Britons/Ptol/Persians/Kushites have good unit diversity, especially Kushites. In general, reasonably strong civs. Ptol/Pers/Kush/Sele/Carth/Mace all have champion cavalry so they are strong, but if/when champ cav do get nerfed I don't think some of them would be there (Honestly, I think Pers cav with +10% pop and +20% dmg hero may be up there with Rome/Gauls with champ cav ... mace also has a dmg hero for champions but noone uses mace, lol ... carthage has +30% dmg melee cav hero.). Macedonains can be strong if rushed fast p3 and go all champs. However, that is their only strategy. If that fails, however, you are SOL and likely to be easy pickings. Britons I think are under-performing. Athenians are down low since no champions can be built from Barracks/Stable. I don't know why someone would play them other than maybe to try out the formation hero and his uniqueness. Heh, Mauryan ele archers are DOA with their pop cost at least early game. Late game, if you're winning and have extra food, then maybe build them. Otherwise, Mauryan ele archers I feel are not useful.
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