Patch: Feb 15th, map updates, ace tweaks, bug fixes

[lamster]

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Feb 15th, 2010

Aces can only level up in multiplayer, single player skirmishes and bot kills don't generate XP

Updated ball maps (thanks Maimer): ball_core, ball_football, ball_grotto, ball_labyrinth, ball_lostcity, ball_mayhem2, ball_planepark, ball_snow

Fixed a few bugs

[Mt.Vesuvius]

cools updates on the ball maps

[Pieface]

Thanks for this, now the servers should be populated as normal.

[_micro]

A big Labyrinth change!!
I liked the old one! Can't you make this one Labyrinth_2, cause it's way different!!!

[carstairs]

Repopulating the servers makes up for kicking me from the game.

Much-needed update.

[gemigemi]

Very very nice map updates. I had been gathering a list of things that need fixing in the maps in my opinion and this update fixed most of the stuff. The Labyrinth especially was in need of a remake and this remake seems to be a very good one. Not missing the old map a bit.

lostcity still doesn't seem like fun at all. I think a larger remake is needed there.

mayhem2 has a very open goal area for long shots, which I don't really like.

Other than that, nothing to complain, at least without giving a good playtesting to all of them with full teams. Also, football might be playable now, cheers to that.

[idk]

I must agree with _micro! Because of the more opened areas its a lot harder to defend, i can even score from the ball spawn...

[r87]

Hey I don't know if this has been covered, but I had a thought regarding ace.

Saw that Eth dude level up to Ace 2, and he said that your perks reset *again*. If this process continues for 10x60 levels, I think a lot of clan / competitive players could have some major problems on their hands regarding how they are equipped for matches.

Am I right or is there something I am missing?

p.s. Labyrinth is amazing, Lost City is meh, cave or grotto(i get them confused, whichever you changed) is super duper.

[gemigemi]

Originally Posted by r87

Saw that Eth dude level up to Ace 2, and he said that your perks reset *again*. If this process continues for 10x60 levels, I think a lot of clan / competitive players could have some major problems on their hands regarding how they are equipped for matches.

Am I right or is there something I am missing?

Yeah, that's exactly how it goes, full reset every time.

I've seen similar systems in other games and it has been very nice in some of them. The thing where this fails in Altitude I think is that once you start leveling you get 3 of the planes to good functionality in about 5 hours, while the two last planes take 15-20 hours of playing to get some perks unlocked. And then you reset everything again. So basically anyone playing Loopy, Bomber or Explodet can continue playing with minimal effect, while those who use Biplanes and Mirandas are screwed. (depends on your perk choices of course, but generally speaking)

A similar system is in the game Madballs: Mabo Invasion, for example. Once you get everything unlocked you can lock them again to advance in ranks. The major difference however is that each character skill and each item is leveled up individually. This means that you can unlock your personal favorites quickly and then proceed with the rest when you have time. Tbh a similar system would be great for the Ace ranks, ie. make each plane have it's own 12 levels so you can level up the planes you want quickly to not have downtime for leagues etc.

[Pieface]

Originally Posted by r87

Saw that Eth dude level up to Ace 2, and he said that your perks reset *again*. If this process continues for 10x60 levels, I think a lot of clan / competitive players could have some major problems on their hands regarding how they are equipped for matches.

Am I right or is there something I am missing?

Yeah, they reset again. I think it was basically designed to be similar to Prestige systems in many other games, in which the same thing occurs. If it's a problem to be a level 3 in a clan scrimmage then you probably shouldn't go Ace before the game.

Eth's already gotten to Ace 2? He must have played nonstop since the last patch... I'm still at level 27 or something. :\

[blln4lyf]

Nice changes to the ball maps, but why keep woods the same, that map currently sucks, imo...and most others it seems.

[gemigemi]

Originally Posted by blln4lyf

Nice changes to the ball maps, but why keep woods the same, that map currently sucks, imo...and most others it seems.

Is it an official map at all? Seems like it isn't as it's not bolded in the server config tool like the other official maps.

[Jacques Strap]

IL|FU had Ace 2 and level 56 this afternoon. Has anyone seen people that are a higher level than him?

[r87]

Originally Posted by gemigemi

Is it an official map at all? Seems like it isn't as it's not bolded in the server config tool like the other official maps.

It does play on the official servers, so...I think so?

[Sarah Palin]

Great update, thanks for patching the cheat (I refuse to call it a loophole cuz, well, loopy player here.... ).

The way the unlock system is set up - the order of items unlocked - seems arbitrary to me, I'm not sure I see the rhyme/reason behind it, and now that everyone is proceeding through the levels again it might be time to revisit it.

[r87]

Originally Posted by Sarah Palin

Great update, thanks for patching the cheat (I refuse to call it a loophole cuz, well, loopy player here.... ).

The way the unlock system is set up - the order of items unlocked - seems arbitrary to me, I'm not sure I see the rhyme/reason behind it, and now that everyone is proceeding through the levels again it might be time to revisit it.

Flak tailgun @ level 47 is

[eth]

Originally Posted by Jacques Strap

IL|FU had Ace 2 and level 56 this afternoon. Has anyone seen people that are a higher level than him?

IL|FU and Vesuvius are both abusers. They got their ranks by sitting in their own servers farming bots over and over and over. They aren't in the race for ace any longer as far as Im concerned - keep it legit.

Thanks for the patch, again.

[Jacques Strap]

Originally Posted by eth

IL|FU and Vesuvius are both abusers. They got their ranks by sitting in their own servers farming bots over and over and over. They aren't in the race for ace any longer as far as Im concerned - keep it legit.

Thanks for the patch, again.

FU stated that he farmed noobs, not bots, but I disagree with him there. There is no way to keep the race for 10 ace honorable as there will be tons of people camping in the "OMG FUN BOUNCY BALL 10 VS 10!" servers and killing noobs all day long.


Altitude is gonna be kinda like RuneScape or WoW for a while where people will be spending ungodly amounts of time trying to gain levels.

[Death Rod]

Originally Posted by eth

IL|FU and Vesuvius are both abusers. They got their ranks by sitting in their own servers farming bots over and over and over. They aren't in the race for ace any longer as far as Im concerned - keep it legit.

Thanks for the patch, again.

I did see a ton of bot farming server, they would bomb them. Poor bots

[[Y]]

Originally Posted by eth

They aren't in the race for ace any longer as far as Im concerned

There's a race? o.o


What I find completely ridiculous is the fact that everyone is hating and looking down upon me as if I'm some sleazy hobo in a dark alley just because I "farmed". I mean, if I knew there was a race, I wouldn't have done it, but it's not like I'm gaining a gameplay advantage by, as eth says, abusing (the system, i guess). Nor do I go into every populated server and type "HEY NOOBS LOOK AT MAH SYMBOL ITS SO MUCH BETTER THAN YOURS". Seriously, guys. It's a picture next to your name. Who cares if mine is different that yours?

I'm not going to apologize for what I did, even if it's apparently considered a major criminal offense by the Official Angry Mob of Altitude.

Lam and Karl should feel free to reset my level or inflict whatever punishment they feel is appropriate, though.


edit: Jacque- I didn't state anything as far as I know, and I would know because I'm me.
edit: My vaporID if any of you guys need it for bans and whatnot-- b95d5a5f-a8cc-43d7-82c5-98cce9767295
edit: There is still potential for abuse by farming goals. Lam and Karl you guys should fix that somehow.

[skyjestr]

Originally Posted by Jacques Strap

There is no way to keep the race for 10 ace honorable as there will be tons of people camping in the "OMG FUN BOUNCY BALL 10 VS 10!" servers and killing noobs all day long.

I agree. I like how we now have a goal beyond level 60, but why not have some kind of relative ranking scale based on your performance?

[Evan20000]

I admit, at first I was ticked too, but now I gotta take a step back and say "Who the **** cares". It really doesn't matter in the long run, this is just a good show of how superficial certain members of the comminity can be.

[Mt.Vesuvius]

Originally Posted by [Y]

There's a race? o.o


What I find completely ridiculous is the fact that everyone is hating and looking down upon me as if I'm some sleazy hobo in a dark alley just because I "farmed". I mean, if I knew there was a race, I wouldn't have done it, but it's not like I'm gaining a gameplay advantage by, as eth says, abusing (the system, i guess). Nor do I go into every populated server and type "HEY NOOBS LOOK AT MAH SYMBOL ITS SO MUCH BETTER THAN YOURS". Seriously, guys. It's a picture next to your name. Who cares if mine is different that yours?

I'm not going to apologize for what I did, even if it's apparently considered a major criminal offense by the Official Angry Mob of Altitude.

Lam and Karl should feel free to reset my level or inflict whatever punishment they feel is appropriate, though.

i second that

[Sarah Palin]

Well gee if you protest that you don't gain any gameplay advantage, and that badges don't matter because they're just a graphic next to your name, then... why or for what did you spend hours bombing bots.

There's no angry mob, I just think it's dumb to farm. Doing Ace is prestige because it's ARDUOUS not because it takes SKILL (everyone levels to 60 eventually). Seeing someone with lots of ace badges you know they went to a lot of effort to get them. Farming dilutes the value of their work because the community knows anyone could get those badges with LESS work by farming.

That's why the devs were right to remove XP from farming.

[mikesol]

Originally Posted by Sarah Palin

Well gee if you protest that you don't gain any gameplay advantage, and that badges don't matter because they're just a graphic next to your name, then... why or for what did you spend hours bombing bots.

There's no angry mob, I just think it's dumb to farm. Doing Ace is prestige because it's ARDUOUS not because it takes SKILL (everyone levels to 60 eventually). Seeing someone with lots of ace badges you know they went to a lot of effort to get them. Farming dilutes the value of their work because the community knows anyone could get those badges with LESS work by farming.

That's why the devs were right to remove XP from farming.

FU and Vesu are still farming despite this removal =p

[mikesol]

Originally Posted by [Y]

The funny part is that he posted that comment after I played with him in one of the pubs.

Cause of course playing one Pub game means you don't farm... You hopped on pubs every once in awhile even while you spent hours sitting in a private server farming =P

[mikesol]

Originally Posted by [Y]

Ok, mike. Believe whatever you want. Because of course you know exactly what I've been doing ever since the patch.

Actually when I highlight my mouse over where your playing and it shows an IP address instead of a server and your server doesn't appear in the server list I can tell you're on a private server. If you want to kid yourself and try and pretend like you haven't been abusing the system that's fine but we all know you have - even after the patch.

I also like how when I point out the logical flaw in your statement you resort to pulling out childish statements to try and insult my intelligence over what you've been doing (note I never said I knew your method for exploiting the system - just that you were farming and exploiting it in a private server).

[[Y]]

Ohh I see what happened here. I fail at wording my thoughts >.<
I meant that I've lost interest in farming shortly after this patch.
Sry, but in my defense, it's 2 am here and all this farm drama is giving me a headache...

Originally Posted by mikesol

FU and Vesu are still farming despite this removal =p

And this post is so unlike the friendly and mild-mannered mike we all know and love. Is the smiley face with the tongue sticking out supposed to mean that you say this in a good-natured way? I just don't get what it was supposed to accomplish. I mean, what do you get by turning everybody against me?

[argonide]

Goals in empty ball games also need to be not counted I think. Also limit the xp/hour to whats actually possible by normal play so that only the lamest of lamers will continue attempting to farm.

[r87]

Just talked w/ LeKai (second person I've seen get to A2)...he says you don't auto-reset when you reach 60 on A1, so my original concern about being reset before a tourney or whatnot is rendered moot.

[Sarah Palin]

Originally Posted by mikesol

Actually when I highlight my mouse over where your playing and it shows an IP address instead of a server and your server doesn't appear in the server list I can tell you're on a private server. If you want to kid yourself and try and pretend like you haven't been abusing the system that's fine but we all know you have - even after the patch.

Vesu also had a private server that I couldn't join.

No ill-will here, I'm just posting this so the developers can figure out what the problem is, patch it, and hopefully roll back all the people who used the exploit.

[Stormich]

Originally Posted by r87

Just talked w/ LeKai (second person I've seen get to A2)...he says you don't auto-reset when you reach 60 on A1, so my original concern about being reset before a tourney or whatnot is rendered moot.

You get reset only if you click to do another ace.

[r87]

Originally Posted by Stormich

You get reset only if you click to do another ace.

Yea, he was at 59 (and I was at like 50 so kinda antsy bout it) and we weren't sure what would happen cause he didn't want to automatically lose anchor again.

Just throwin it out there in case anyone else didn't know. Though, it's probably written somewhere in big letters and I was too drunk to remember seeing it.

[mikesol]

Originally Posted by [Y]

And this post is so unlike the friendly and mild-mannered mike we all know and love. Is the smiley face with the tongue sticking out supposed to mean that you say this in a good-natured way? I just don't get what it was supposed to accomplish. I mean, what do you get by turning everybody against me?

The tongue sticking out was to imply that it wasn't a big deal but that it was worth noting. In other words there is a way that you know to abuse the system even after the patch. While it's just a silly little detail next to one's name it's frustrating that people can progress so quickly without actually playing. I know I kind of lost interest in power leveling once I realized that it's not going to mean anything because of the fact people can abuse the system so easily.

[[Y]]

Originally Posted by mikesol

The tongue sticking out was to imply that it wasn't a big deal but that it was worth noting. In other words there is a way that you know to abuse the system even after the patch.

Originally Posted by [Y]

edit: There is still potential for abuse by farming goals. Lam and Karl you guys should fix that somehow.

I know I edited it after you posted. Not sure if everyone goes back to check for edits.

[Smushface]

For me, the whole issue of people abusing the system comes to this. Before I knew people were bot farming / goal farming / whatever, I had an interest in seeing who was going to be the first to get Ace rank 10, mainly so i could call them a huge nerd. Now a few people ruined the legitimacy of the whole process, ruining it for everyone else who cared. Its not really that big of a deal, just kind of a dick move.

[Pieface]

This is directed toward everyone, not just those I've seen abusing the system-

The way I see it is that the whole Ace system is really a personal way to show yourself how you've progressed through the game. Each Ace level that you gain, your Ace Stats get reset and you learn through playing to level 60 again if you've really gotten better. Additionally, if I one day get to Ace 10 I'll know that I did it through hard work and determination. Ace Ranks for me are a way to prove something to myself, not to others. Since everyone knows you can level up easily by pub-playing, bot farming, constantly scoring goals, whatever, the Ace Ranks at the moment don't prove much to other players. Will you individually feel good knowing you made it to Ace 10 by dropping bombs on bots all day? That's something for you to decide. Personally, if I earned my Ace Ranks that way they wouldn't mean anything to me.

This isn't to say that we shouldn't be thinking of ways to prevent abuse of the Ace System. Just that at the moment, the only one who you are proving anything to by leveling up again is yourself. What you decide to prove to yourself is an entirely different matter.

Perhaps something can be done about how people are currently gaining ranks, levels could be rolled back, etc. But until then it certainly does some good to take a moment and think about exactly what you are proving to yourself and others by farming, and whether it's actually worthwhile to do so.

[eth]

Originally Posted by [Y]

And this post is so unlike the friendly and mild-mannered mike we all know and love. Is the smiley face with the tongue sticking out supposed to mean that you say this in a good-natured way? I just don't get what it was supposed to accomplish. I mean, what do you get by turning everybody against me?

Wait what? Mikesol is the one making you look bad? Or is it maybe you, who decided to abuse the ace system by farming bots(and apparently, you still haven't stopped abusing, devising new and clever methods as you go along).

Also like smush said, it's not a huge deal, but it would be kinda fun to see who got #1 first, but guys like yourself and vesuvius obviously ruined it for anyone who enjoyed that. You should be reset to rank 1 and have your icon changed to a clown or some **** like that, making sure everyone knows that you're an abuser(because that's really the icon you deserve).

Anyway, it was fun while it lasted. Thanks for ruining it.

[Harmonica]

Originally Posted by Pieface

Perhaps something can be done about how people are currently gaining ranks, levels could be rolled back, etc. But until then it certainly does some good to take a moment and think about exactly what you are proving to yourself and others by farming, and whether it's actually worthwhile to do so.

I posted this in the Feb 13 Patch thread, but I'll repeat it here:
If anybody notices a member of {ball} or {ball*} farming, please report them to a {ball/*} leader -- with a screenshot if possible.

We haven't decided on a punishment yet, but I think we need to come down hard on such behavior. My vote for any player caught farming to lose their clan seat, and to be put on a "we will not play a match against you if this player is on your roster" list.

This problem needs a social solution in addition to a technical one. I hope some additional clans set up anti-farming policies.

[[Y]]

Originally Posted by eth

Wait what? Mikesol is the one making you look bad? Or is it maybe you, who decided to abuse the ace system by farming bots(and apparently, you still haven't stopped abusing, devising new and clever methods as you go along).

Also like smush said, it's not a huge deal, but it would be kinda fun to see who got #1 first, but guys like yourself and vesuvius obviously ruined it for anyone who enjoyed that. You should be reset to rank 1 and have your icon changed to a clown or some **** like that, making sure everyone knows that you're an abuser(because that's really the icon you deserve).

Anyway, it was fun while it lasted. Thanks for ruining it.

I completely understand your (and Pie's and smush's and etc.) point of view. I guess I never thought of it that way. Live and learn (from mistakes), right?

Wish I could undo all the xp I got from farming and go back to like level 46 or something when I first started.

Or is it too much bother for the devs?

P.S. eth- I've stopped farming shortly after the Feb 15th patch when I realized how stupid it was. The ace thing doesn't mean anything if I haven't worked hard for it. Legit xp only now.