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@Devs: Cancelling Reputation Projects
twoblindmonks
Member Posts: 255
I don't know about anyone else, but I think the ability to CANCEL a reputation project should be hot-fixed into the game. Tonight. It is, in fact, such basic functionality, that I consider it a 'bug' that it is not currently a feature on Holodeck. Furthermore, the feature should refund all resources spent in the project. Resources should only be nonrefundable once a project actually commences its countdown (which you should have to click another button to start, not have it start automatically once resources are all full). I expect this in the next few days, and it is quite frankly inexcusable that it has not been patched into the reputation system, as the system is broken without it.
No questions, no excuses, just do it.
No questions, no excuses, just do it.
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Pay no attention to the dates and titles under my name at the left! I am a Career Officer, Lifetime Sub since launch, was in the Beta. Having problems with my forum account.
Pay no attention to the dates and titles under my name at the left! I am a Career Officer, Lifetime Sub since launch, was in the Beta. Having problems with my forum account.
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They've said repeatedly that they are working on it. There are some coding hurdles that have to be overcome, as well as some logistical and potential exploit issues that need to be dealt with before they can add that feature. As awesome as some of their coders are, they can't just wave a magic want and fix it, no matter how much QQing you do.
Pay no attention to the dates and titles under my name at the left! I am a Career Officer, Lifetime Sub since launch, was in the Beta. Having problems with my forum account.
I mean, I want it too. But demanding it gets done "tonight" and to "expect this in the next few days" is just going to cause stress and anger over ... a game?
Not to mention, players have been demanding this for weeks if not months already :eek:
Humbly speaking, I'd rather they spend the time to complete the KDF faction.
Good luck with your demands!
with how crazy and interconnected the code is
... but if you make a mistake you are more likely to spend real money to make the problem go away. You might be short the 64K dilithium you need to finish the mistake so... boom! zen purchase!
so the Overlords took it out.
Eisaak
The anti-exploit part is as simple as this: You can only cancel unfunded projects.
But as we all know, our Devs would rather design a crappy system so they can claim to be fixing it in the future than get it right in the first place.
It's not a question if they can cancel a project. They can. The problem is much, much deeper.
They didn't plan for it.
Mechanism Problem One: The project management tool is universal, and used in all aspects of the game. To enable a cancel feature, they would need some mechanism to return the assets used in that project. There in lies the problem: they have no method to refund assets spent.
Assets spent were never properly tracked. Given the size of projects and the number of contributors, the dbase would be immense.
Mechanism Problem Two: Cancelling a project means that anyone who can contribute can also cancel. How would you manage players randomly (spitefully) cancelling Starbase projects?
One reasonable solution might be that only unfunded projects can be cancelled.
Herein lies the biggest problem. This is a cloud-based game with thousands of participants, spread across hundreds of instances all interacting. The updates to the databases occur in 'almost' real-time, accounting for disconnects, interruptions, and the usual garbage the internet throws at them.
Even under the most OPTIMAL circumstances, there would be no way to 'uncheck' a project effectively without creating potential errors and conflicts. It simply creates to many possible problems.
It is a fundamental design flaw and easily solved by STOP CLICKING BUTTONS RANDOMLY.
My Two Bits.
Admiral Thrax
a solution would be - let us cancel rep projects, but resources are lost
- no cancelling for fleet projects
:confused:Sorry if the big text ubove is offenceive:eek:
Flyer
Why would canceling be tied to permission to contribute to projects instead of managing them?
Really, there's no need for refunds. I don't care if I lose everything I've spent on it so far. Even then it would help if you accidentally pick (or the game decided to do it for you) the wrong project.
As for "Admiral Thrax" people don't intentionally click the wrong button, for example this happened to me simply because of server lag. The solution in the short term is simply add a dialogue before commit.
"Are you sure you'd like to slot 'project name here'" or even "type "omfgiwantdisprojectz" to confirm selection" as they already do when you want to delete are star ship.
The idea that they couldn't have introduced preventative measures is even more of a joke.
#2311#2700#2316#2500
Always funny to see when Johnny Random knows how "easy" it is to code something into an existing and running program. You really don't know **** about how easy or difficult it is. Comments like these really show big your lack of knowledge on the subject is.
Agreed. People who think this should try running a Minecraft server sometime. Then, switch to Bukkit. Then, install CommandHelper. Then, try to automate every administrative task you can think of (anti-griefing measures, protection zone creation or claiming, fast-travel mechanisms, etc.) so that you don't have to be present. It's do-able, but you'll fast learn how interdependent and complicated the code can become.
Just as an example, my INCREDIBLY SIMPLE, UNCOMPLICATED permissions checks are currently 58 lines of code, and keep growing as I add more functions and options. And that's for an incredibly simple game with virtually no overhead, almost nothing to manage/track, and comparatively very few players.
Canceling and refunding reputation projects is a lot more complex than that.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
The only projects you should be able to cancel are the ones you haven't committed resources to, if you have committed resources and then change your mind, well tough, suck it up, take responsibility for your choices and finish what you started.
If you jump into a swimming pool from the high board, you don't get to change your mind halfway to the water.
As for imperiously demanding that this be fixed, right now, good luck with that attitude.
Yep. The game is infallible.
http://i.imgur.com/mweP8jV.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WFKHK9u.jpg
It's always players' fault. Anyway, I find it pretty incredible that they didn't add project canceling right from the start. At least they had one in the duty officer system.
Sure project cancellation should be an option, for projects that aren't started, but cancellation and resource refunds for projects partially completed should not be an option, it would be just another example of people wanting the game dumbed down because they don't want to take the time to think about what they are doing.
This has happened to me way too many times.
It's probably easy to simply not refund points spent in a cancelled project. But as soon as you offer that as a solution you will find another issue - someone in a "position of power" has a chance to ruin the hard work other fleet mates put on a project. The larger the fleet the bigger the problem might be. Not to mention the potential havoc leaders who do not want to leave quietly can cause.
Here is another potential issue - it offers an exploit where you can get fleet credits without having to grind fleet marks, DOff's, dilithium, etc. simply by filling up whatever you have in abundance, cancelling the project, and doing it again.
So there are two examples the dev's are faced with, I'm sure there are lots of others the devs have identified as well. Implementing the change in the code probably isn't as difficult as determining it's total impact in gameplay.
Join Date: Sept 2008
"Holographic tissue paper for the holographic runny nose. Don't give them to patients." - The Doctor
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
Currently they might add projects that cost dilithium which would be really bad for smaller fleets. Or they could empty the fleet bank.
Locking the canceled project slot for 20 hours could work if they feel that would be an issue. Besides I don't see how canceling could be used to abuse your personal reputation system.
It's hilarious when Freddy Random (you) think you know anything at all about me. Like, at all. So, in the future, keep those kinds of opinions to yourself.
Pay no attention to the dates and titles under my name at the left! I am a Career Officer, Lifetime Sub since launch, was in the Beta. Having problems with my forum account.