Boomslang Review 1

001 Well, since the code all seems to work.... Kudos :)

Thanks, although to give credit where credit is due a lot of that is thanks to my testers: Catechism, Fleet, Fulcrum and Fusillade specifically. And of course there are still bugs to be found, here and there. Fulcrum found one just today where when a shatter attack is pulled to level 0 it causes the victim's armor stat to stop working! Nasty. I invite everyone to keep their eyes out for bugs that we missed and post them to bb 17 when you find them, please!

002 Boom's a cool guy, he really knows his stuff. I worry that the combat system will be a bit too complex, but it looks amazing, and I am sure it will become second nature soon. He can be very bitchy and angry at people, I'd like to see that toned down a bit, but good job, keep it up

It seems complex to us mainly because everyone is being all hypothetical about it and wondering "what happens when someone comes out of stealth and uses an area attack which also has inaccurate on it for their sneak attack but the area is a one-shot droppable ammo weapon made with demolitions blah blah blah."

The OCs, in their conversions, are probably going to feel some of thise confusion as they try to understand *everything* in order to build themselves the best way that they can, to which I can only say, ask for help (I listed some names up there of people who can help you, apart from myself) and keep it clean, keep it simple, stick to just what you MUST have/do.

But from an end-user perspective it's really not much different. A lot of the code happens behind the scenes. In Legacy, unless you had weird abilities (and most people don't) there were basically two things you did per turn: transform and attack. Now there are three, or more like 2 and a half since the new one is optional: transform, 'optionally' change your defense level, and attack. Trust me, you will not be overwhelmed by it, and if you are, well, just don't change your defense level then. :)

Yes, my patience is short. That's a character flaw. I like for things to work right. Sometimes those "things" are also people, and when they're not working right I get frustrated with them. I try to suppress it and usually it goes okay but there are times when I think to myself, the solution here is obvious, why is no one saying it? When some other person is the problem that I've just figured out the obvious solution to, this is called "an appalling lack of tact." ;) I may simply just be not very well suited to the typical MUSHer personality type, which expresses a dismaying degree of #1 and #2 on the Geek Social Fallacies list ( http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html ), and I may not be able to help that. But I am aware of it and I do try to keep it under control.

003 Boomslang can be very blunt with things when believes he is right. There is nothing wrong with this, but sometimes this can lead to stubbornness. However his heart is in the right place and from what it seems he is really working hard to get this new system implemented. Do we have an eta about when this new system is going to be implemented?

It's being implemented right now (which you probably noticed) and I'll consider it complete when all of the FCs and active OCs have been converted and the old system is shut off. This will take place in about a week.

Any OC not converted by that point will not be able to do... pretty much anything except talk and move through rooms. Not even move through rooms, sometimes. They will effectively become OOC characters. So if you have an OC, read the wiki and get cracking on that conversion app!

The FCs don't have to worry about this. In fact, quite a few of the FCs have already been converted and some of their abilities and attacks are already working in the IC areas. There will be a little weirdness until we turn off the old system though, so don't go too crazy with that just yet. :)

004 GOOD: You've been around for a while now, done various things and contributed positively wherever you go. Meticulous, detail oriented natue makes you a great fir for combat testing/advising/etc that you've been doin, and would probably translate well to charstaff if you're looking for where to go next *winkwink*. Ammo system looks neat and very well thought out, extra kudos. We all still remember your excellent run as Galvatron and Megatron, and I'm glad you found a somewhat equally prominent character in Shockwave.

Yeah, we'll see about that, if they need me when we are done with all this I'd be happy to charstaff. Cate and I are basically charstaffing temporarily already. I'm glad Shockwave finally opened up too, I had been eyeballing that guy for some time. :)

BAD: You could really work on biting your lip sometimes when in public. Sorry, but being on staff conveys high requirements of courtesy and even-handedness and you often ooze disrespect and personal dislike for others. It's a sad fact that admin-player criticism often does more harm than good. Unless handled extremely delicately, it makes people feel threatened, and the admin loses trust and credibility. If you need to vent, well, that's what the staff channels/bboards are for.

I know, I know. Civility.

SUGGESTION: When converting FCs for the new system, go for a completely level playing field. No reason for some being stronger than others. Start by making EVERY FC match their toy stats. The new system still allows for balance via varied attack levels, effects, altmode stat adjustments (which could be HUGE) and whatnot. Whirl can still have his 'straight 8' toy stats but low-power attacks and multiple weaknesses (as opposed to the current neutered stats and overpowered attacks which makes no sense and makes nobody happy). Ultra Magnus can be beefed up through high powered-attacks and extra ammo. Cyclonus and Scourge can have a totally kicking altmodes, Shockwave can have tons of cool effects and huge energon, etc etc. My philosophy is that ALL FCs should be more or less the same in a fight, but if someone really loves a char they can upgrade through a reasonable amount of time and effort. As things stand right now FCs are inconsistent and arbitrary and give massive advantages sometimes by accident and sometimes to those "in the know" just by writing up a half-decent application. This conversion is a perfect chance to address that.

You will be happy to hear that that's what we have done and/or are attempting to do. :) With the exception of the two leaders, I think the staff still want to keep their inflated Endurance stats.

I have just three tiers of characters in mind: little guys (tapes, minibots), regular FCs (everyone whose toy came in a box, and 80-point OCs) and the few lieutenants who sometimes lead their factions when the real leader is not around (Magnus, Grimlock, Shockwave, Cyclonus). Within these tiers everybody should be more or less able to hang against anybody else of that tier.

This may take a fair bit of finessing as far as armor, energon, attacks and such go, but I agree with you that it's worth working for.

005 Boomslang is on a lot, which is good, because it lets him see both the good and the bad and to pick out trends as they are forming. He is active and has a good grasp of what is going on in the IC world, and he knows what kind of issues players are likely to face. He is generally upbeat, energetic, and cheerful, and he has a good sense of humor. He also seems to be genuinely concerned about game balance and fairness.

I care very much about it. It's tough because nobody likes to be "the guy who is lame," unless of course they apped Tailgate or Ratbat specifically in order to play up that aspect for humor (which is often very effective). In some regards this is why I like OCs, because the OCs all start with exactly the same potential. Some of them, like Dredclaw, Blueshift, Redshift, Catechism, Fusillade and Bandit (and perhaps... myself? :D), have earned their way to becoming uber, but for the most part they are about on a level with eachother.

My desire is for everyone to be able to be the hero of their story, as long as this doesn't interfere too much with the person next to them trying to do the same thing. Nobody should feel like they are useless and unable to contribute because X is here and X is so much better. Even Rewind should be able to offer something to the Autobot cause besides just being a warm body.

Boomslang is difficult with which to argue. He tends to be extremely stubborn and blunt, and he can often be very set in his ways. However, if the other person does have a good enough argument and sticks with it, he will change his mind, which is quite pleasant, as most stubborn people never change their minds, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. I just wish that instead of doing, "Stubborn stubborn stubborn stubborn... wait, this person may have a point," he'd look at arguments for validity right off the bat. Then, he could stay stubborn at the inane arguments and not wear out the people who actually have reasonable points to make. I do have to credit him for staying firm against stupid things and for considering alternative ideas when they aren't stupid.

I don't like to "give in." I don't mind conceding an argument when I'm wrong, but I hate to just give up due to a wrongheaded person shouting at me loud enough. I can take the shouting. The trick, as you correctly point out here, is to sift the wrong from the right, especially since being disagreed with often puts people on the defensive and then they're less able to successfully make what would otherwise have been a successful argument.

Boomslang can come off as extremely blunt, to the point of rudeness or flippancy. There are times this trait serves him well, but there are times when a bit more diplomacy in his toolbox would serve him well.

Duly noted.

Boomslang sometimes hangs onto an issue after it long ago ceased being interesting or will drag out a joke until it isn't funny anymore. That's a rather minor complaint, but if he could learn to drop things before they get stale, it would be good.

This one I don't quite get, unless of course you're obliquely referring to the occasional jibe about, in which case it's more of a reminder that 'nobody has ever DONE anything about it even though it's been years now and I am sick of the complete lack of action as well as the obstruction preventing those who DO want to fix it from fixing it. A parable follows that will probably not mean much to anyone except reviewer 005 here. Everybody else is welcome to skip it. Let's say that you have termites in your walls. You don't always notice it but it's not as if they go away when you aren't noticing it. They're always there, they're just sometimes more visible (or audible) than others. One of your roommates says, "hey, I'm going to get one of those drywall injector things and some insecticidal gel and kill these termites, okay?" And everybody says "no, no, it's not a problem, termites never hurt anybody" so your roommate has to go googling and dig up a whole bunch of reasons why termites are harmful and everybody just says "oh god not this again why are you always harping on that" and argues on behalf of the termites saying that "they've been so quiet lately that maybe they're just going to be able to coexist peacefully with the structural beams of the house from now on." So your roomate says "okay well if they start up again do you promise you'll do something" and everybody says "yeah sure okay we promise." Then a chunk falls out of the living room, and your roommate stands up and says "I TOLD you so, look at that, you should've listened to me, now I'm going to go get some insecticide" and everyone says "no no wait we never said anything about that, let's just talk about the termites some more, maybe if we ask them nicely they will stop eating" and they stop him from doing anything about it again, and after a while he says "so hey did that work out" and they say "well we're just going to wait and see, we don't know if it did anything but we don't want to take action or anything like that." Then the window in the bathroom falls off the building and your roommate stands up again and says "godDAMNit what is WRONG with you people is nobody going to do anything about this" and everybody says "well okay maaaybe there is a problem, what we should do is talk to the termites some more, for now let's all just wear a sweater whenever we go into the bathroom." So what's left for your roommate to do but to keep a sense of humor and occasionally point and laugh at the folks putting on a cableknit sweater before they go take a whiz?

So, Boomslang has a few glitches that he could work on minimizing, but he's solid, overall. What will happen to him after the conversion? Will he join a different branch of staff, or will he become a mortal again?

I'll either go back to being a mortal, perform a different role on codestaff, or change to a different branch of staff, depending on if they need me for anything.

006 boomslang= What can I say, most times whenever I log in he seems to be busy testing something! For that, the impression I'm left with is he's working hard and not just sitting there eating donuts. :) And since the combat system is practically ready, I'll just go with the former.

I get to eat a lot fewer donuts now that we have finished it and are actually rolling it out. But soon there will be a break and then it's Krispy Kremes for everyone!

007 I know that Boomslang has been putting a lot of work into the new combat system, and he's very enthusiastic about it. He's also available and helpful when players have questions concerning the new combat system. What's more, as a combat tester, I really feel like my ideas and suggestions have been listened to - he encouraged discussion, and the active combat testers were made to feel like useful contributions. Sometimes he's a little over-enthusiastic and jumps the gun.

I'm glad you guys feel your time has been well-spent. I can assure you that it has because every bug you found in beta testing was one that the playerbase won't have to deal with now that we've released it.

It is true that sometimes I do end up making more work for myself than is necessary thanks to my habit of finding something that needs to be done and doing it, rather than waiting to find out if anyone else is planning on doing it eventually.

008 You've been working hard behind the scenes getting the new combat system up and running, especially now that it's so tantalizingly close to fruition! Hazard and Catechism have done a lot as well, but you've been especially helpful for me, getting my OCs set up, helping me to create my attacks and giving me lots of advice. You've been nothing but helpful to me, and to other people I've seen asking/bugging you about the new system, and I think we can expect lots more dedication and assistance in the coming weeks as TACS rolls in!

Yes you can. :) When we've got "a fair number" of the FCs and OCs converted I'm going to hold a couple seminars on the new system so that people can get used to seeing how it works, use it themselves, and get their OC conversions roughed out. I'll be posting these seminar times on board 26 when it's time for them.

009 I think you're at a disadvantage in this review cycle because most of the players are not privy to the tremendous amount of daily work you've put into the combat system testing, as well as the character conversion. Boomslang has shepherded the combat testers along, found good uses for their diverse skills, and have provided invaluable feedback and correction to bugs so that the MUSH wide roll out will be as smooth as possible. I am still in awe of your debate skills and inhumanly collected approach to most arguments (this is a compliment, really, we've seen the damage that can be done by admin who lash out in the heat of anger). Your public interactions with other players have improved since you've become admin, as well. You've always been active ICly with your characters, and it's nice to see you chat with people on public channels, too.

Thank you! I do what I can. I also appreciate your realization that typically when I argue a point I'm not actually angry and I'm not doing it to make the person feel bad, I'm trying to sort out truth from falsehood and determine the solution to a problem. I have been trying (as I noted above) to be more careful with the Faberge eggs that we sometimes have to manage, as staff, but if I have broken a few, then hopefully (to borrow Hazard's metaphor) we will make a few enamelled and jewel-encrusted McMuffins. I definitely use public channels deliberately. I don't want to be out of the loop. Staff can't judge rightly what they don't witness.

010 I have to say that as far as Code Implementor goes, things are peachy in that department. I can imagine that there is a lot going on with the changeover to the new combat system and such. Keep up the good work. I also enjoy rping with ya!

Thanks, 010. :)