Discussion TLOPO Q/A Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
What are the team's plans/goals with the weapon balance in TLOPO if any? What is the decision making process that leads to the final iteration of a weapon with regards to how easily attainable it is and how much damage it can produce?
 
Does weapon damage properly calculate and does the damage stat have an actual impactful scaling at all? It really seems like weapon type (AKA Broadsword over cutlass over Sabre ) matters way more than the actual attack stat of the weapon
 
What are the team's plans/goals with the weapon balance in TLOPO if any?
This will be visited more once we are out of Beta. We've had discussions regarding certain weapons being too strong or too weak; however, we haven't gone much beyond that. We do wish to make the game more difficult in the future.
What is the decision making process that leads to the final iteration of a weapon with regards to how easily attainable it is and how much damage it can produce?
First, our content team makes the weapon and creates a "rough draft" version of the weapon card with the stats. Then, the weapon is placed on our Quality Assurance (QA) server where we have testers take a look at the weapon. Our testers look at everything about the weapon, the drop rate, the effectiveness of the weapon-- whether or not it needs to be "buffed" or "nerfed". Based on their feedback, the weapon is then adjusted and further tweaked. After this stage, we release it to the public and note things that we are seeing in the community.

In regards to testing the drop rate, unfortunately, it is hard to test the drop rate on our Quality Assurance server due to the sample size. Our QA testers are a small group compared to the size of the community. This won't be as big of an issue down the road once we create our previously mentioned public testing server.
 
Does weapon damage properly calculate and does the damage stat have an actual impactful scaling at all?
It does to my knowledge. The damage stat, or attack, is basically a percentage increase to your damage. For example, a weapon with ninety-five attack will do 95% of the base damage of the weapon.

It really seems like weapon type (AKA Broadsword over cutlass over Sabre ) matters way more than the actual attack stat of the weapon
Yeah, it'd be really cool to make more powerful sabres (for example) down the road. Unfortunately, POTCO set up a system where sabres were weaker (in general) compared to other weapons. You'd think a weapon like the broadsword would be weaker considering its AOE abilities. The team will probably revisit some of these concepts down the road.
 
It does to my knowledge. The damage stat, or attack, is basically a percentage increase to your damage. For example, a weapon with ninety-five attack will do 95% of the base damage of the weapon.


Yeah, it'd be really cool to make more powerful sabres (for example) down the road. Unfortunately, POTCO set up a system where sabres were weaker (in general) compared to other weapons. You'd think a weapon like the broadsword would be weaker considering its AOE abilities. The team will probably revisit some of these concepts down the road.

See thats what I thought but when comparing Thunderspine against several broadswords (including the tree branch with 0 attack) the damage bonus difference per combo without critical strike was less than 1k... I made a thread about it with some more information
 
Does TLOPO utilize moderators in-game and if so, what brings players and moderators together to resolve issues a player may be experiencing? Also, can it be shared as to what a TLOPO moderator is supposed to do - in-game officially (i.e., what are their specific responsibilities for them to be given such a title)?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Does TLOPO utilize moderators in-game
Yes, of course.

what brings players and moderators together to resolve issues a player may be experiencing
If a player brings something to our attention through a report, a whisper, or whatever other medium, we investigate it.

Also, can it be shared as to what a TLOPO moderator is supposed to do - in-game?
This is extremely broad, it depends on what is going on. I can go through several scenarios that are common.

1. A report for chat infractions:
In this case, the report appears in a queue that the moderators have set up. A moderator then claims the ticket (report) and investigates the issue. This typically consists of checking the players logs and looking through to see if the logs violate our TOS. Typically, it's very black and white. If the player violated our rules, they will either be warned (with a moderator kick and email), or they will be muted. Their infraction history determines if they will be warned or muted. The ladder is here: https://piratesforums.co/threads/revisions-to-tlopo-moderation-policy-8-25-2019.28849/ . Sometimes, there's gray area and the moderator will need to determine the context. They will ask fellow moderators for their input and often go to the scene to see what's going on.​
2. A report for exploiting:
In this instance, a moderator will claim the ticket, just like they do with any other report. However, in this case, they will check the logs and also go to the scene in-game to see what's going on. Exploiting is usually very easy to see, the moderator will then take the appropriate action. I'm also including "autoclicking" under the exploiting umbrella- they're treated the same. In all cases, the moderator has to check it out in-game. I will say, most reports are typically players reporting fellow players for "afking" or "leeching" on their ship. In this case, we obviously don't take action. The captain has the boot feature for this reason.​
3. Moderation of events:
Typically with game events held by the the team, we will have moderators there to ensure it doesn't get out of hand. We do this as well for the community-held storytime events as well. Storytime typically doesn't need as many moderators, one is generally sufficient. For story time, the moderator enforces the rules of storytime by kicking players who repeatedly speak out of turn or interfere with the storytelling by other means. For TLOPO-held events, it honestly depends on what the rules for the event are.​
4. Name/comment approvals:
These are entirely done outside of the game. Moderators have a queue where they approve/reject names and comments based on our guidelines.​
I think this covers it all for the most part. Feel free to ask more about it if you have any more questions.
 
Last edited:
Yes, of course.


If a player brings something to our attention through a report, a whisper, or whatever other medium, we investigate it.


This is extremely broad, it depends on what is going on. I can go through several scenarios that are common.

1. A report for chat infractions:
In this case, the report appears in a queue that the moderators have set up. A moderator then claims the ticket (report) and investigates the issue. This typically consists of checking the players logs and looking through to see if the logs violate our TOS. Typically, it's very black and white. If the player violated our rules, they will either be warned (with a moderator kick and email), or they will be muted. Their infraction history determines if they will be warned or muted. The ladder is here: https://piratesforums.co/threads/revisions-to-tlopo-moderation-policy-8-25-2019.28849/ . Sometimes, there's gray area and the moderator will need to determine the context. They will ask fellow moderators for their input and often go to the scene to see what's going on.​
2. A report for exploiting:
In this instance, a moderator will claim the ticket, just like they do with any other report. However, in this case, they will check the logs and also go to the scene in-game to see what's going on. Exploiting is usually very easy to see, the moderator will then take the appropriate action. I'm also including "autoclicking" under the exploiting umbrella- they're treated the same. In all cases, the moderator has to check it out in-game. I will say, most reports are typically players reporting fellow players for "afking" or "leeching" on their ship. In this case, we obviously don't take action. The captain has the boot feature for this reason.​
3. Moderation of events:
Typically with game events held by the the team, we will have moderators there to ensure it doesn't get out of hand. We do this as well for the community-held storytime events as well. Storytime typically doesn't need as many moderators, one is generally sufficient. For story time, the moderator enforces the rules of storytime by kicking players who repeatedly speak out of turn or interfere with the storytelling by other means. For TLOPO-held events, it honestly depends on what the rules for the event are.​
4. Name/comment approvals:
These are entirely done outside of the game. Moderators have a queue where they approve/reject names and comments based on our naming guidelines.​
I think this covers it all for the most part. Feel free to ask more about it if you have any more questions.
Thank you. I will have to think of some more (for the in-game issue of 'bullying' and troublesome players is quite important to me). I appreciate your time.
 
Will we ever see released transparent background images of the new weapon models? A lot of people like to use those in graphic design projects like signatures.
 
See thats what I thought but when comparing Thunderspine against several broadswords (including the tree branch with 0 attack) the damage bonus difference per combo without critical strike was less than 1k... I made a thread about it with some more information
I've done quite a lot of damage testing in TLOPO and have come to what I consider very strong conclusions about how damage is calculated. Checking out this guide I made might help you under how weapon perks work and help your further tests.
 
Ahoy Teague

Has the crew of The Black Peral changed the level for a quest? Taking the Black Peral quest icon to click used to happen around level 30. I'm at level 31, the icon has not appear. What is the scuttlebutt you hear?
 
...Feel free to ask more about it if you have any more questions.
Just a few more questions, below. *Please note, I feel compelled to ask because each are relevant from a troll whom has a goal perspective (and it is from 'this perspective' which could prove incredibly challenging and/or damaging to TLOPO). As such, pretend the Allstate commercial "mayhem" guy is asking TLOPO these questions. Thank you.

mayhem.jpg

  1. So when a swarm of my (troll) friends and I gang up together on a lone player gaming TLOPO, won't the majority of us overwhelm said player enough to where less time/opportunity results for said player to report all of us guilty?
  2. So if TLOPO has not yet taken opportunity to properly notify/educate pirates (in-game) of their reporting duty, does this mean trolls like my friends and I can take advantage of players whom appear new to the game, are known to have a learning disability, or whom are naiive to the culture and gaming mechanics of TLOPO?
  3. So if TLOPO moderators rely upon a que system which creates tickets (of reports) to eventually be handled, is there a back up system relied upon in case the que system alone fails or becomes breached?
  4. So is the TLOPO que system for reports tested regularly and/or validated on the TLOPO quality assurance server? Also, when is the general player base notified of the occurrence and validity of such testing?
  5. So knowing people change their actions/demeanor once they realize they are being watched, can TLOPO moderators go "invisible" and incognito to effectively moderate a reported situation in-game? If not, why not (for trolls like my friends and myself do 'hate' to understand we could not manipulate the outcome of a TLOPO moderated scene)?
  6. So once morale, commitment, or duty of a TLOPO moderator becomes an issue, whom moderates the TLOPO moderator (in-game) to assure that moderator's responsibility justifies the titlement still given to them?
  7. So if my friends or I are close friends to a TLOPO moderator, in what ways does TLOPO assure moderation continues (unbiased) if one of us steps out-of-line while it is known this moderator remains in-game?
Thanks again.
 
So when a swarm of my (troll) friends and I gang up together on a lone player gaming TLOPO, won't the majority of us overwhelm said player enough to where less time/opportunity results for said player to report all of us guilty?
This is an extreme hypothetical. It would depend on what is being said. However, the report feature takes all of two seconds to utilize.

So if TLOPO has not yet taken opportunity to properly notify/educate pirates (in-game) of their reporting duty, does this mean trolls like my friends and I can take advantage of players whom appear new to the game, are known to have a learning disability, or whom are naiive to the culture and gaming mechanics of TLOPO?
We've reminded players that the report feature exists many times. New players may be unaware of the feature, sure. I guess writing another prompt will help. However, the vast majority of the new players are POTCO players that have just discovered TLOPO. We have an upcoming feature for our website that will have articles on how to do various things in TLOPO (sort of like a Help Center), I'll check to see if a tutorial on how to report a player will be on it.

So if TLOPO moderators rely upon a que system which creates tickets (of reports) to eventually be handled, is there a back up system relied upon in case the que system alone fails or becomes breached?
In truth, no. However, our queue system has yet to fail in the two+ years it has existed. In regards to our report system being breached, that has also never happened and I'm not aware of any attempts either. If you're aware of any security vulnerabilities with our report system, please let us know! We make every effort to ensure that our game is secure.

So is the TLOPO que system for reports tested regularly and/or validated on the TLOPO quality assurance server? Also, when is the general player base notified of the occurrence and validity of such testing?
Whenever we alter the report system, we test it on our QA server. Changes we make to the game are noted in our release notes which you can sift through here: https://tlopo.com/releases/

So knowing people change their actions/demeanor once they realize they are being watched, can TLOPO moderators go "invisible" and incognito to effectively moderate a reported situation in-game?
Yes.

So once morale, commitment, or duty of a TLOPO moderator becomes an issue, whom moderates the TLOPO moderator (in-game) to assure that moderator's responsibility justifies the titlement still given to them?
Every ban/mute/warn is logged in our system, creating a "paper trail" of sorts. In the event that a moderator acts incorrectly, we have internal procedures on how to handle that. If you're asking if moderators have a boss, yes, they do. There are Senior Moderators and a Lead Moderator.

So if my friends or I are close friends to a TLOPO moderator, in what ways does TLOPO assure moderation continues (unbiased) if one of us steps out-of-line while it is known this moderator remains in-game?
As I said above, there's a "paper trail" that would show instances of bias. Senior Moderators could look through the reports that the moderator did as well as bans, warns, and mutes. Chat logs have to be attached in all three of those categories of punishment.
 
Last edited:
Ahoy Teague

Has the crew of The Black Peral changed the level for a quest? Taking the Black Peral quest icon to click used to happen around level 30. I'm at level 31, the icon has not appear. What is the scuttlebutt you hear?
The Black Pearl Quest begins right away as you enter the game for the first time. I believe you're referring to the Raven's Cove Story Quest? If you didn't get that quest, please contact our support team!
 
To my knowledge, they've gradually been uploaded to the wiki.
Those seem to just be cutouts from the pictures on cards and aren't as high quality. For instance, here's the quality of the Onyx cutout:
1572710854453.png

And here's Barracuda's, taken from POTCO's files:
1572710916463.png

Neither of these images were sized up or down. I'd like to see official high-quality images of all the weapons like these as most of the current transparent images are fan-made and pretty low-quality.
 
Those seem to just be cutouts from the pictures on cards and aren't as high quality. For instance, here's the quality of the Onyx cutout:
View attachment 116869
And here's Barracuda's, taken from POTCO's files:
View attachment 116870
Neither of these images were sized up or down. I'd like to see official high-quality images of all the weapons like these as most of the current transparent images are fan-made and pretty low-quality.
Wiki administrators have direct contact with the staff team, they can request HD screenshots of the models at any time.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top