Some "State of Diplomacy" Stuff

[Aruspex - SOE]

I posted this over at vgtact.com, but I wanted to loop in a couple of the other sites I frequent so the word gets out:

"A few quick notes as I drift off to some sleeps.

There are a lot of valid concerns here. I'm willing to face the music on these issues, so do not feel like you need to pull punches. You _will_ get better response out of me if you're constructive - and so far, even the "worst trolls" have had some constructive criticism in there.

I'm working tonight on a little device we're calling the "Altar of Kaerellun" - which allows you to trade information for cards, adventuring items, prestige items, etc. this should help relieve the bank slot pressure while we expand our content.

The deck lockouts/civic dip lockouts and such went in before the patch notes. That was a simple slowdown in the patch note pipeline, and I see it's since been corrected. We're doing another change that I'll tell you about right here so you will be prepared when it happens (in case the patch notes don't update within a couple hours of the servers coming up when they get patched in Smile ):

- Starting in the next code patch for the game (I'm not allowed to reveal our patch schedule for non-content stuff), you will not be able to parley with an opponent more than 50 points greater than you in Diplomacy.

This goes with two other fixes, which are:

- You cannot gain more than one skill point in a single parley.
- The time in which you are locked out on a win with a single NPC on a single specific conversation is increased.

As we tweak the AI for our decks, we watch player response closely. When you have a group of testers who know the game inside and out, the only way we can truly understand the difficulty of the deck is 1) math, and 2) look and feel when they hit Live. We have folks doing the math, and we have folks doing the look and feel thing - and then we watch how it plays.

The level 50 deck thing is my top AI/deck priority while we work on coding in new functionality for the AI to be able to handle more situations in parley. It is not the only thing we are working on.

As we put in low-level content, we also have resources allocated to putting in some upper-mid-range stuff - the sort of thing that shows you what you can DO with Diplomacy. I'll give some hints in the next weeks, but we're saving the proof for the pudding.

In all my experience with MMO communities on both sides of the looking glass, I have never seen a more enthusiastic, inspired, and motivated team than the one I have the honor of working with. Coupled with the outstanding and the gratifying response of you, the players, this system is a diamond in the rough. If it wasn't for you guys, it would never be shaped into the amazing thing that it is becoming.

o
A"

[Ysharros]

Clearly you are only masquerading as human and never actually sleep. All hail the Great Old One!

Thanks for the update! Diplo continues to evolve in new and interesting ways, and you're creating a whole new class of addiction from what I've heard in chat.

I got all irritated at the new adaptive decks in the last few days, but I'm not sure, now that I'm calmer, that they're such a bad thing - the good, and greater appeal, may outweigh what I currently perceive as the bad (mainly not being able to fine-tune a deck against an opponent anymore). Diplo when tired is not a good idea. ;-)

[Ceyllynn]

The level 50 deck thing is my top AI/deck priority while we work on coding in new functionality for the AI to be able to handle more situations in parley. It is not the only thing we are working on.

i'll start off here.. and hopefully get Wumdaorf to also after he gets off work.

mine is 47 (varan shaman)
wum's is 77 (varan warrior)

2 or 3 patches ago, the various guys around Derogar's post, were easy you could beat them about 80% of the time.

yesturday (jan 31st) they became all but impossible. they are throwing out a lot more 5s and the timing is killer... we've both tried a variety of card setups but to no avail and the faction hits are starting to become killer.

for him it's now about an 85% loss, for me about a 95% loss... he is far better at diplomacy than i am having played it all through beta.

i thought the decks should be harder, definately, but it seems to have gone from one extreme to another.

ps diplo is evil and addictive.. i love it!

[sorkvir]

First off, I love diplomacy. I was never a 'card game' buff, but this has added a fun, time wasting, addictive game.

I think the most frustrating part of diplomacy is that the NPC's don't play by the same rules. Often, in fact, most of the time, they play cards that give them 2~3 influence but doesn't give us any inspire, demand, etc.

Its frustrating because a level 50 NPC can beat a lvl 85 diplo just because they have what I call a 'cheater deck'. They beat a good strategy because of better cards.

Although after one or 2 parleys, you can develop a strategy against them, its the intial learning (and subsequent faction hit) that makes it bad.

Sorry for the ramble. Early and not enough coffee yet. Thanks for listening!

[Fyrestrom]

Its even better when they play cards which they don't have enough expression to play.

[Aruspex - SOE]

Originally Posted by Fyrestrom

Its even better when they play cards which they don't have enough expression to play.

Fyrestorm, if you can provide specific NPCs, conversation and cards, I can look into the decks quickly and see if adjustments need to be made. I've already cracked the seal on NPC decks tonight, so I've got them in my brain now.

o
A

[Ceyllynn]

Originally Posted by Aruspex - SGO

Fyrestorm, if you can provide specific NPCs, conversation and cards, I can look into the decks quickly and see if adjustments need to be made. I've already cracked the seal on NPC decks tonight, so I've got them in my brain now.

o
A

a friend did the diplomacy horse quest today.. got as far as veskals(i believe), and discovered he couldn't complete it with the changes.

[Ysharros]

Originally Posted by Ceyllynn

a friend did the diplomacy horse quest today.. got as far as veskals(i believe), and discovered he couldn't complete it with the changes.

That one was tough even before the change, since iirc the chap is at 75 skill and at that point most new diplomats are ~40. But it was challenging and doable. Haven't tried it since - these diplomats scare me now!

[Doddy Curumehtar]

Originally Posted by Aruspex - SGO

- Starting in the next code patch for the game (I'm not allowed to reveal our patch schedule for non-content stuff), you will not be able to parley with an opponent more than 50 points greater than you in Diplomacy.

Hmm. I hope you can come up with an immersive way to do this. I don't like being told 'no' without a good reason!

[Fyrestrom]

Originally Posted by Aruspex - SGO

Fyrestorm, if you can provide specific NPCs, conversation and cards, I can look into the decks quickly and see if adjustments need to be made. I've already cracked the seal on NPC decks tonight, so I've got them in my brain now.

o
A

Sorry I can't recall off hand, it was a few days ago and I bugged it. If it happens again I will make sure to post it as well as /bug.