Phantom-X v1.6

[mead]

For me the outcomes were:
Phantoms: 1
Innocents: 7
The problem in all 7 games where innos won was that there were never two decent phantoms in the same game, so the outcome was determined much more by individual player skill or lack thereof instead of mod balance.

Ideas for future changes:
- Increase the bonus for phantom war. Decrease the mixed/all enemy bonus by the same amount. Phantoms who, while rushing, remain allied with the other phant should be penalized.
- consider removing from the UI the information about absolute phantom mass/energy bonus and the phantom numbers. When a phantom breaks with everyone in preparation for an attack, he usually asks in chat for the 2nd phant to pm him. When someone then claims to be that 2nd phant, he is usually asked for his number and bonus to confirm that he is indeed phantom. By removing that information from the UI, we go back to how it was in Phantom N, where you could not so easily make sure of who else was phant, giving the innos a chance to pretend and confuse the phantoms.
- significantly decrease phantom storage amounts, or eliminate it entirely.


EDIT

I've taken the liberty to make some of the above changes myself. Changelog for version 1.6b:

- Tweaked bonus table
New bonus table (old values in parentheses)

Code: Select all

Phantom Count   Allied      Mixed       Enemies      PhantomWar multiplier
-------------------------------------------------
      1          20%       24% (25%)    28% (30%)       1.0
      2          10%       12% (15%)    16% (20%)       1.3 (1.2)
      3           8%       9% (10%)      13% (14%)      1.2 (1.1)
-------------------------------------------------


For a phantom who breaks with *all* players, other phants included, the bonus should be almost the same as before.
- removed mass/energy bonus values from UI; kept phantom number and bonus percentage
- storage is not changed compared to ducks version. while i strongly dislike it, i'd like consensus on this. However, if I do a next version, it will likely be reduced to 20k mass and 100k energy. Having the equivalent of 2 T4s in storage (regular mass storage usually is around 23k-25k) should be enough.

EDIT 2: Added readme to file and made it .zip instead of .rar

EDIT 3: Removed; current version is 1.6c, see below.

[Duck_42]

Ok, here's the next set of tweaks...

Tweaks:
- Reduced storage amounts to 50k mass and 300k energy.
- Removed Phantom number from UI so that Phantoms can't use it to identify each other.
- Removed energy/mass bonus amounts from UI so that Phantoms can't use it to identify each other (Mead)
(The bonus percentage is still there.)
- Tweaked the bonus table (Mead):
Original Phantom X values in parentheses.

Code: Select all

Phantom Count   Allied      Mixed       Enemies      PhantomWar multiplier
-------------------------------------------------
      1          20%       24% (25%)    28% (30%)       1.0
      2          10%       12% (15%)    16% (20%)       1.3 (1.2)
      3           8%        9% (10%)    13% (14%)       1.2 (1.1)
-------------------------------------------------


Fixes:
- Fixed mesh for storage unit so that it will stop causing script errors.
- Changed UI code so that energy/mass dump buttons only show for Phantoms.

Phantom-X-Test-v1.6c.zip

Phantom-X TEST VERSION v1.6c

(88.53 KiB) Downloaded 275 times

[MadDogTen]

we go back to how it was in Phantom N, where you could not so easily make sure of who else was phant, giving the innos a chance to pretend and confuse the phantoms.

A huge issue with that is the Reveal Timer, Until more games stop using it, It cannot go back to the old way, When games could last an hour or 2 with people still wondering. I mean, I hate being put in the spotlight just because my plans take longer then 30 Minutes, It completely ruins the game for me (Hence the reason I stopped playing as much).

Just the other day I was in a game with Phantom X and BO (Meaning no timer), and I ended up being a Phantom. As a Phantom, I ended up getting Innocents attack each other (and my biggest threats at that), and was in the last 3 (Me and 2 Innocents). The only reason I didn't win that game is because I needed to leave (Unexpectedly), and just outed myself and hoped for the best (I don't even think they knew I was a Phantom 100% until that exact point).

I mean, that in itself changes the whole way the game is play nowadays, at least IMO. Plus, what your suggesting everywhere else only gives Phantoms less of a chance to win (I mean, If its harder for them to team up, even more so less of a chance for them to win).

I also liked knowing the amount of energy and mass I'm using, as it helped keep me toned down enough so even you were sure I was innocent, and went killing other innocents.

[mead]

I also liked knowing the amount of energy and mass I'm using, as it helped keep me toned down enough so even you were sure I was innocent, and went killing other innocents.

This is a valid concern. I'd say we make the removed UI displays optional instead so game hosts can enable/disable them in lobby.

Plus, what your suggesting everywhere else only gives Phantoms less of a chance to win (I mean, If its harder for them to team up, even more so less of a chance for them to win).

Yes. That is precisely what we are trying to do here, because tandem phantom rush is too powerful at the moment.

A huge issue with that is the Reveal Timer, Until more games stop using it, It cannot go back to the old way, When games could last an hour or 2 with people still wondering.

The majority of people clearly prefer reveal timer, which is why the vast majority of phantom games use it - even though phantom X gives the option to disable it. I dont want to speculate why other people prefer this, but personally, i hated the 2 hour long borefests where nothing happened and everyone just played sim city. For every game with interesting diplomacy, backstabbing and changing alliances, you had five that were lame, boring and ended with people lagging out after 2 hours. I consider the reveal timer the best addition to the mod since its conception. While one can argue that it somewhat encourages complacency among innocents, I don't think this is too big a problem at this time.In the other thread, some ideas how to reward less passive playstyle among innos were discussed that might make it into a future release.