Aceflyer

I think that's actually the point of Transwarp and its main advantage over ID Drives - namely, being able to ?tw safely at low energy. (The other advantages of ?tw as opposed to ?id are much slighter and do not, in my opinion, justify a price tag over 6 times that of ID Drives.) However, I do agree with Zephoid b that persons possessing a TW P!@#$%^&* can use it in an incredibly lame manner as he has described. I think one way of solving the problem is to introduce a slight delay - maybe a twcool of 3000 - so that people can't 'TW bunny' rapidly and consecutively like Aquarius and got bounty? did. If a significant twcool time is not introduced, persons possessing a TW P!@#$%^&* can basically spam ?tw and can become basically invulnerable while centering. (Especially since one can ?tw from ANYWHERE in center...) To head off a potential counter-argument, ?tw without a delay is not 'analogous to having a summon lanc on ur team' at all, because summon lancs are large, relatively slow-moving, and very killable ships with a definite, easily determined location (you can only get summoned to the lanc's position, and not to anywhere in center or into another sector even). ?tw generates exit vectors randomly and there is no 'summon lanc' to kill to block that route of retreat. Furthermore, while a summon lanc is not always reliable or instantaneous (especially if the summon lanc is turreting and other people are spamming the summoner) and not always completely safe (the summon lanc can be near death when you get on it, whereupon you could lose your bounty), ?tw is completely reliable, instantaneous, and risk-free. To summarize, summon lancs are not lame, but ?tw can be. Hence, in closing, I respectfully submit that adding a short, but significant, time delay (maybe 3000?) will reduce overly lame 'TW bunny' behaviors with TW P!@#$%^&* while preserving one of the chief advantages of ?tw (i.e. being able to use it safely at low energy) over ?id.

I cautiously endorse that idea, or some derivative of it, as a good one to test out sometime. It seems to preserve both the advantages of having 'infinite bricks' while still preventing 'brickspam'. However, I note that even an idea that is good in principle may fail in practice due to unforeseen consequences... As a matter of fact, I can see one way of 'abusing' that system right now... Teams will simply set up shop bountying around D1's Hardware Store. And members with the "Brick Regenerator" will simply drop a brick, fly through the Hardware Store, buy a brick, fly out, drop it, and repeat at a rapid clip. There will effectively be a resumption of brickspamming around the Hardware Store - which would be lame as well as inconvenient (say, for people who actually want to visit the Store). So yes, the idea might work well in basing and generally, but it would potentially spur the formation of a "Zone of Lameness" around the Hardware Store! Maybe this particular problem could be remedied by making bricks purchasable at a remote Store, say at a "D1's Hardware Outpost" in Sector 8. (Bountying would not make much sense at such a remote (from center) location.) However, I'm not sure how many would endorse this variant of the idea, since it would make buying bricks even more inconvenient and time-consuming than it already is. (Paying a visit to Sector 8 generally takes significantly more time and effort than paying a visit to the lower-left corner of center, except for people with ID Drives or TW passes.)

But as the great Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi once remarked, "...a great many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view." Who are we to impose our standards of "right and wrong" on other people, who may have different standards of "right and wrong?" Who are we to say that our standards, our laws, our values are better, period? Note that I'm not trying to condone or defend anyone here. I personally find violent acts like wife-beating abhorrent. I am simply pointing out that it is arrogant to presume that our standards (of "right and wrong") are inherently superior to the standards of those other people.

I agree with Neptune171. The new Transwarp is very cool and Uber - thanks muchly to Aquarius for the l33t graphix and to you, Dr Brain, for the ?tw programming. However... with no intention to offend, I wanted to let you know that there are a few issues to work out with it (which you might already know)... Flag-carriers should not be able to ?tw. Additionally, if there is a Lancaster sitting in the Hub and a flag-carrier F7-attaches to the Lancaster (hence cir!@#$%^&*venting the disabled ?tw command for a flag-carrier), the flag-carrying ship should be killed by upon entering the Hub. (Otherwise, incredible lameness could result... such as staying and winning the game in the Hub's safe.) (I presume summoning still does not work in the Hub.) Maybe an actual safe zone should be set in the Hub, to prevent people from using special items such as fields, brick attacks, or point defense to kill while in the Hub. An actual safe zone would also prevent people from preserving bounty while sitting in the Hub safe (which is actually 'pseudo-safe' atm and supposed to be 'completely safe' according to Rareitanium.) It should be made so it is impossible to warp out from inside the Hub, just like one cannot ?id or ?jump from inside the Hub.

I agree with CP 100% basically. But I'd like to amend (to 3vil's statement) that I do not think it would be a good idea to be able to buy bricks without going to D1's Hardware Store. Because if you could buy bricks anywhere, you'd get brickspam again in bases by rich players (and even not-so-rich players, since a few hundred a pop isn't all that unaffordable to even the average player who doesn't care about saving up) who would just brick, buy, brick, buy, etcetera. The current scenario where you have to go to the store to buy a brick makes bricks powerful, specialty items that are, similarly to fields (which cost a thousand a pop and require you to go to the store in Sector 8 to buy) only used at the right time, and not just spammed indiscriminately.

Not really; Spiders, as the heavy gunner ship of HS, are the only ship with access to the heaviest Gun, Disruptor, just like Leviathans, as the heavy bomber ship of HS, are the only ship with access to the heaviest (L3) Bombs. Giving Disruptor access to other classes would destroy the Spider-Leviathan balance and would also result in Spiders being nerfed rather badly relatively speaking. Of course we all want Pulse Laser Spider in bases and Disruptor Spider in center, but life's not perfect and we have to accept compromises. Personally, I put Disruptor on my Spider and use it exclusively for centering, and have outfitted a Weasel for basing operations.

I agree that it would be nice to have racist remarks banned - not that we have a lot of racism in HyperSpace, mind you, but it'd still be nice to just explicitly ban it altogether especially as HS has already gone so far as to ban cussing completely.

Nice. I look forward to seeing what you cook up for TW.

Haha well said! There's really no reason to use swear words in HS, and I agree that the ban has made the HS zone feel 'nicer' overall than some of the other zones.

The point is it's imbalanced - TW pass at $1000000, is way overpriced considering how much other FTL engines cost - Jump Drive only $50000, Summoner only $100000, ID Drives only $150000. As far as laming in the TW hub, unfortunately laming's always been a part of Continuum in general and HS in particular; and dramatically overpricing TW just so there's no laming in TW doesn't make much sense, since those would-be TW lamers would just go lame somewhere else, e.g. safelame or mine jumpgates. That said, I agree $25000 for a TW P!@#$%^&* is too cheap. Still, TW isn't really that convenient - e.g. from center safe you still have to fly to one of the corners, just like with a jumpgate, except you can fly to one of the corners without a jumpgate too. I think pricing a TW P!@#$%^&* at $50000 would make sense as TW is comparable to Jump Drive overall... Jump Drive is more flexible, but TW is a bit quicker. and Jump Drive is restricted to a few ships only. (TW Token could be cut down to say $500, which still isn't dirt-cheap but is more reasonable than $1000.) As it is, with TW P!@#$%^&* costing $1000000, the TW network is effectively unused, which seems like a waste of a valuable HS resource. As far as having a lanc in the TW hub, that is a viable tactic, and one I myself have used in the past when being lanc for a bad team battling an Ignescent-occupied base; however, that tactic is very uncommonly used for several reasons: one, it's insanely boring for the lanc flyer to sit in the hub and do nothing; two, the lanc flyer gets no money during the whole ordeal (where getting money is one of the main rewards from the basing experience) due to being far away from the action; three, if the attacking team starts moving into the base, it becomes impractical to have the lanc in the hub, and the lanc would have to move into the base anyway. So the tactic while sound at first glance (free TW rides for everyone!), isn't really that useful in practice.

What death penalty? I also agree that it would be nice to have more or better located Transwarp Gates. Also, Transwarp P!@#$%^&* might be overpriced given the convenience of ID Drives...

Kk. That does make sense.

Spider: | Extra Rotation (Utility) | Close Combat (2) (Utility) | TW Token (3) | Pulse Laser (Gun) | HE Missile (Bomb) | Nuclear Booster (Sublight Drives) | Mezon Capacitor (Reactor) | Enhanced Sensors (Computer/Sensor) | Energy Scanner (Computer/Sensor) | Energy Infusion (2 Brick) | Shock Matrix (Armor) Note: For a stronger center spider, replace Pulse Laser with Disruptor. Also, some prefer Active Camo in place of Extra Rotation. Some people prefer String of Pearls or Space Mines in place of HE Missile which I personally prefer (HE missile is more flexible, allowing both bombs to be fired and mines to be laid). It all depends on your fighting style. Note: For a stronger basing spider, replace Extra Rotation with Gravity Trap. (Or, if you have a ton of $$$, ditch the Energy Scanner - unimportant for basing - buy a converter, and then you have an extra utility spot where you can have Gravity Trap without ditching the Extra Rotation. I don't recommend this since I think that amount of $$$ can be better spent, and I do like my Energy Scanner, but hey, if you got $$$ to burn, don't let me stop you!) And replace Shock Matrix with Solid Nutronium which is stronger armor - it'll slow you down, but you don't exactly need great speed in a base. Note: These are items for a "basically good all-around" spider; if you have lots of $$$ to burn, buy a field launcher and your choice of field (for a spider which is a relatively slow-moving and large ship, I recommend searing heat for ammo). You can also buy ID drives for FTL, antideath (AD) if you want it, and heck, even a TW pass Note: Some items which are bad for spider: Never get Plasma Cannon. Just don't. Pulse Laser and Disruptor are the two weapons which are good for spiders. If you wish to become suicidal and/or annoying, you can always get Shredder... And Siege Pack is bad for spider. You can't fire those thors fast enough to do any good, and your bursts won't be powerful enough to do more than tickle really. And it eats up a precious utility spot that you could use for more useful stuff like a second Close Combat or a Gravity Trap or Active Camo. Hmm, what else - oh! Don't bother getting Brick Attack; the Brick Attack Fields it launches are too small and your spider is too slow to use them effectively. Get Energy Infusion instead - trust me. Also, don't get Phaser. It's basically a downgraded version of Disruptor, and the difference is only $15k. So if you want a weapon like that, just invest a bit more and get that Disruptor.

Gotcha. Out of curiosity, what about the way curses are printed in newspapers/magazines (e.g. f***)? Are those allowed too? (I just want to be clear about the rules so I don't accidentally violate them...)

Oh, abbreviations like "WTF" and "GTFO" for example are allowed? I didn't know that!

Ahh okay, thanks for the information. I'll keep that in mind in the future in case I sell expensive items.

Its called "keeping a good reputation of not lying." I haven't lied ever since like .... 5 years ago. that should give me *some* credibility... what about neptune? does he have no credibility? >_> I can see both sides of the argument here. On the one hand, (nearly) anyone would be upset if they lost $30k over a server error. On the other hand, just believing claims like these without any sort of indisputable, non-cir!@#$%^&*stantial evidence would obviously, as people have pointed out, set a bad precedent, as it would allow people to lie about 'losing money' all the time to 'gain' money this way. I think that in this case, neptune171 is just going to have to swallow the loss, barring any additional evidence we haven't seen yet. In the future, perhaps we could advise people paranoid about losing money to take screenshots when they make 'big' transactions like these? Would a screenshot be considered acceptable evidence of a transaction actually having taken place?