announcements

Thanks to all who participated in the August 2012 Q&A! There were 38 votes on 7 questions from 12 people. Here are my responses, in order of question popularity:

1. (+8/-1) "how far off are tournaments?" - Spazz

Tournaments! This is probably the most-requested feature lately and the good news is that it is the next major project I am working on. The design is mostly fleshed out at this point and I've began preliminary coding work. To get you excited, here are some features it will have (disclaimer: some of it may change as the project evolves):

• Trophy awards for individual bots, including platinums.
• Trophy awards for clans, including platinums.
• Historical results on your bot profile.
• No level-adjustment formula. High-level bots rejoice!
• You won't be logged out while the tournament takes place.

I've historically been pretty bad with time estimates, but I'm aiming to have tournaments done by the end of the year.

2. (+6/-4) "captcha captcha captcha, do you still intend to replace it?" - Angelo

I currently have no plans of replacing captcha. Thinking long-term though, greatly decreasing its frequency and/or only using it in special circumstances isn't entirely out of the question, but that's really far down the road.

Also, I did some forum searches and wasn't able to uncover anything where I said I was planning on replacing captcha, though I say a great number of things and so this is certainly possible.

3. (+2/-0) "P2 W2 Trophy for collecting all trophies ("Paradox") Rather than doing an All for One style trophy, perhaps it could be broken down in to sub categories where the player is awarded a trophy for completely each sub type." - Nosferatu

This was just meant as a joke trophy I think, since in order to obtain it, you would first have to obtain it, thus the paradox.

As for your suggestion, that would require the game to know trophy groupings, which is actually something I want to do to improve the UI for them since right now it's just this mess of random trophies in a list. So I'm not against it, but there'd be some preliminary work to get through first.

4. (+2/-0) "Would it possible to have Manic Cranium's durability raised to 1200, to put it on par to that of the armor in its class, such as Troll Shoe, Raven Caw, & Satans Claw?" - Nosferatu

This isn't an unreasonable request, but my blanket response for equipment tweaks has been that I didn't want to change what bots2 had (just yet). For what it's worth, the durability on Manic is in line with the other unique helmets in its defense range. Only at 225 req str do you start to see 1200 durability helmets (Manic is 192).

5. (+3/-1) "Will Crystallized ArmoUr ever be Americanized? (drop the extra U)" - Draoi

Proubably nout.

6. (+4/-3) "Do you have any plans on making trophies for "top loosing" equivalent to the "top winners" trophies already in game?" - Mithrandon

Not really. Losses was intentionally left out of the HoF, as was the HoF rank in bot profiles.

7. (+2/-2) "I think if you changed Desert Boots to something more fun, like Dessert boots(how I read it in my head), a lot more people would enjoy this fantastic armor." - Draoi

This sounds like a sweet idea for a tasty browser extension.

8. (not from official Q&A) "Will freaking remain possible for the life of Bots4?" - Xplode

Almost certainly. This somewhat heated thread contains my views on the subject.

9. (not from official Q&A) "will the energy system remain as it is? so whores have been replaced with dumpers and you no longer play the majority of your time on your main bot?" - Xplode

I imagine the players that spend a lot of time on non-main dumper bots are mostly the ones coming in at the top of the energy rankings each month and that this does not represent the majority. That being said, I do think it would be better for the game's long-term success for this to not be necessary to be a top player.

 

I noticed my two ideas were shot down, most disappointing. However, as long as the clan competition is based off fighting(and winning(or losing if you dump)) against other bots, the game will be 'broken' in the sense that players will create bots to battle against.

If you wanted to kill dumping, you'd have to take measures to make it better to attack with your bot.(THIS MEANS BUFFS) Even then, players will make bots to attack at or above their level.

 

The payoff for attacking with your bot will have to be substantially raised, because as it stands now trophy points on your "main" bot are not limitless where as you can make an endless amount of dumpers. Dumpers might not be as easy as attacking with your own bot, but in the end it's lot more practical.

 

1. (not from official Q&A) "Will freaking remain possible for the life of Bots4?" - Xplode

Probably not. This somewhat heated thread contains my views on the subject.

I'm confused. You say probably not, and then relate to that post. In that post you seem to favor keeping it. Could you elaborate a bit more?

 

Wow, I totally butchered that response. I was answering "will freaking be removed" in my head, to which the answer is "probably not". I edited my response. Thanks for pointing that out!

 

Thanks, for answering, and for the answer itself :)

 

so after all those people that bitch and moan about freaking just get on with life in bots because its here to stay

 

it's*

As in yes, it is.