Sass

Crude oil availability is not as much a problem as is the refining of it into usable substance. Mexico has only a slightly higher volume of crude oil but no capacity to refine it. Annexing Mexico will not only piss off veterans, seniors, and most Americans who have a conscious but would present a new crisis for which congress and Bush could again use to screw us all over.

What value is there to helping the Mexican economy? It seems to me that we've paid that price well into the next generation already by shipping jobs left, right, and center to Mexico. Help them more? Should I just give up my left testicle to save a Mexican? Feeding the rich only decreases your social status and sense of worth. I know most Americans today would not support this thing that Bush did which is already reflected in his sour approval percentage and had most Americans known about it there would have been chaos abroad. Since Mexico is so important, shouldn't we merge with Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Botswana too? After all, their poverty level is in the drink and could use a few American jobs. Oh wait - it's all about America right? Since helping our gracious neighbor Mexico would surely return the favor.

Which zone is (or was) the greatest and why? What was the most influencing factor that keeps/kept you in the ss realm?

...and I thought my name was 's!@#$%^&*'......

That's weak. Didn't you invent the idea of SIT? It's way too early to be handing off the duties IMHO

TJ - I'm surprised you used a superstar legend who suffered with a long term handicap yet managed to make it in this world further than you, I, or anyone here might ever achieve as your FAIL message. Wouldn't it have been more appropriate to post a background picture of your Paintball zone as the true meaning of fail? HAHA! (Sorry - couldn't resist!)

Nice work C.

I dunno guys - I actually think that we should let this team play out their role. If they are offering something to players, for which NONE of the posters above have anything relevant to contribute, then let their contributions and efforts be tried. Maybe it's a good thing. Btw - as for the group of people here who responded Charis - they're the nay-sayers of SS, barely ever play, they sit in spec demanding that someone acknowledge their presence. I say go for it - try it (if it wasn't an April Fools joke).

she's like what - your mom's age?

SyrusMX - you win this contest hands down! haha

Agreed. While you're making that rule, maybe you should fill out content for Hyperspace.

Hyperspace needs more control mechanisms. laf.

Maybe an example of not using the add,subtract simplicity is when you figure kinetics into it. Someone suggested (on the STF forum I think) that it would be cool to see a ship speed or direction be affected by a hit from a bomb or bullet. Bombs obviously having a larger 'blowback' effect. Like in the movies: man gets shot in the arm it; he staggers backward (or stops forward momentum) spins and flops to the floor. That might require a ton of advanced math to figure but I dont think it's as simple as if(hit by bullet) reduce speed 100.

With damage, it might be easier if we only need to build damaged components. So we can build Wings A, B, C, and D and maybe we have Dmg_Wing A1, A2, A3, (the list can go on depending on how sophisticated you want damage to appear). Sorry, on my first post i was trying to distinguish two different ideas rather than a combination of both and now reading it again I think i've only re-stated where you were headed with your idea.

hey bak, for what it's worth, I'll take a stab at this from the graphics side: -- I like how you say that one module uses a damaged image, another uses a booster image (upgrade). I definitely do not want to have to draw 40 or more new sprites just to show each combination (1 damage, 1 booster, 1 damage & booster, etc). So since ss is largely 2D, will layers work? (relying on PNG black as transparent). We'll need to be very careful about designing the base 8 ships so that the base layers are easy to cover with upgrades. This !@#$%^&*umes that all upgrades are larger than the base ships. Damage would work like upgrades do except that damage cannot be PNG black or it won't show (obvious) so if I wanted to show 'overall' damage to a ship, my layer contains a black image sprite set with damage at RGB (17,17,17) minimum. Another idea to conquer this graphics maze is to make ships from components. Ship 1 could be Hull A, Wings A, Guns A, and Thrusters A. This same Ship 1 upgrade might be the graphics for Hull A, Wings B, Guns C, and Thrusters B. (endless combinations). On the graphics side, this means that we need to create a sprite set for each component and be sure that it's centered and placed correctly. That's a lot of work for a zone owner but maybe for the new client we could produce a set of 4 upgrades for each ship and let zone owners do more if they want. maybe an XML file contains the upgrade list in order by layer placement. This is probably ideal for zones that use upgrade systems.

Ok - previous to this outburst by Cerium we were discussing several points that Ani brought up. While we should try to stick to the topic at hand, I ask Cerium to please stop responding or figure out a way to accept that other people have opinions. Beating them up through rudeness and making absurd statements like 'I'm the best, bleh bleh bleh' are worthless and unhelpful to the betterment of subspace. In your opinion Cerium you think you are better than anyone and only God himself is slightly better than your adept hand. This is a common misconception that many players make and given that you've been around since the 'advent of the weasel' you should know this by now. Obviously you are not the best and although accepting that is difficult for you, please refrain from your pompous at!@#$%^&*ude. As for the topic at hand, we have to wait and give time for this ammo system and Hyperspace to improve. I don't think much more has to be said.

Ani is right - it's obvious that Hyperspace was working ok and didn't need to be altered (except the graphics). Again, this is the trail of many other zones (radical changes) and as Brain stated, he's not doing this for the players - as disheartening as that may be - he's doing it for himself. Some players will see this and boycott Brain altogether, some will stick around. Brain's game plan will probably work out because he puts in a lot of time working on the zone and has stuck to it over the years despite population flux.

Thanks for the quote Brain. Kudos on your reply.

*chime* Generally I've found that switching things will kill a loyal pop, and if the zone was simple enough to replicate, there would be rip-offs appearing within days. We had this problem in Omega Fire when we switched the setts. Although I believed that my new setts were superior, it was my inability to listen to the loyal players and as a result we lost pop. From there OF eventually went to nothingness. After the change in setts I tried many ideas but nothing worked. We tried new events, tried having 'retro' days to entice a few of the OF vets to come back, we even found a sponsor and held compe!@#$%^&*ions in which players were given real money for winning - hundreds of dollars were dished out to save the zone. It didn't work. OF population grew because players liked the setts and gameplay. Once that changes it's like trying to get people to try your 'new' zone. Other zones have also experienced this same phenomena which Brain believes he can magically avoid. Whomever designed the ammo system probably doesn't care about his population - or has made decisions based on inexperience while riding the good times. Perhaps some new coding can improve the ammo system, but as several people have mentioned, ammo is designed for 1st person and CTF style zones - not flagging, despite what the ammo creators believe.

you're the first to have said something about it. but you're right

When was that zone created? We've had a place for ammo in the code since 2004. I think the original idea might have come from Doom or Wolfenstein or possibly real life. Also, I don't believe flagging and ammo are mutually exclusive. Regardless of when you 'made a spot' for ammo, you have not implemented it until now, correct?

Cerium, I'm afraid that you're venting simply because you may have spent some time helping to implement the ammo system or you know how much coding went into the idea. Regardless, if you actually believe that you are all that, please sit down because that notion is just laughable. Most vets in ss can play at least as well as you and most would shred you without even trying. Kindly put your ego in check before posting. As for the ammo system, I think the idea of ammo is good, but not for HS. HS is generally a flagging zone and ammo is best suited for a sniper like zone such as Bak's paintball where the original idea came from or perhaps an elim arena.

rawr - nice work on mine but can you take..3? No lego people but yes to lego blocks/plates in a futuristic space look?

I'm in IT as well NB, but I wouldn't go around stating that things are secure. As you probably already know, the outsourcing wave has hit again and although it is again failing (how many times will they try), the number of knowledgable natural born Americans is falling giving way to work-hard and win at!@#$%^&*ude that foreigners bring with them to this country. This is causing a shift in who is seen as a reliable internal resource. I'm thinking about taking a deep russian accent with me to my next interview.

Happy Birthday Doc and thank you for putting your trust in me as a map developer. I've enjoyed the contributions I could make, and hope that other players will soon be elected to fulfill that mapping role. Needless to say, I'm stepping down from Hyperspace and wish the best for the zone and players.