Gar

http://i30.tinypic.com/24o8x6w.jpg So in analyzing different bomb values, I found that Heat Reaver and Falcon Missile are almost exactly the same in every respect. You don't really need to understand all these values to see that they're all almost the same. Heat Reaver is Falcon Missile with prox. I think this is very weak in terms of design. Throw prox on an existing bomb and make it sig? We already have a very limited amount of useful bombs. In fact, looking at our available bombs more, the sig bombs follow a formula. There are three sig bombs, one of each level and scaling up in bomb energy, all with shrap. This is incredibly lazy design. Where are the interesting differences between sig bombs? Non-sig bombs have a great variety - salvo through smart bomb all have interesting differences. Why can't the same be true for sig bombs? I am certain that sig bombs were designed in this manner: Heat Reaver was the first sig bomb, a test concept, made by throwing prox and sig on a Falcon Missile. Then about 100 bombdelay, shrap, and a bomblevel was added to Heat Reaver, making Cluster Bomb. Dev thought, 'Oops, can't just make it purely better', and took away prox from Cluster Bomb. Then about 100 bombdelay, a shrap, and a bomblevel was added to Cluster Bomb, making TacNuke. Dev thought, 'TacNuke has some history to it as being powerful.' and added prox back. Then Dev thought, 'Oops, TacNuke is too powerful now', so Dev split TacNuke into its bomb and mine components, forming a mineless TacNuke and a bombless Antimatter Mines. I submit that this is ridiculously poor design, and needs reworking. Sig bombs should have each been designed separately, with a role in mind. They should not have been descended from eachother and made to be ridiculously similar. On another note, Cluster Bomb produces less shrap over time than both Falcon and Heat Reaver. Given that it is listed as a 'signature shrapnel bomb' (which is nonsensical because all the sig bombs have shrap), shouldn't it be the leader in shrap production? Only TacNuke produces less shrap over time, and that by a small amount. There's seriously no reason to use Cluster Bomb over TacNuke or Heat Reaver. If you are going for damage, TacNuke has prox, greater splash (level 3) and comparable shrap, while, if you are going for shrap, Heat Reaver has prox (which helps more shrap come out) and greater shrap to begin with. Cluster Bomb is inferior.

If he/she wanted to set up squads for the next type of tournament, then make people set up squads for the next type of tournament. Don't screw this one up for another event we won't be able to participate in...

dps = damage per second eps = energy per second (used while firing) dpe = damage per energy spent realenergy is the real energy cost of a shot once multiplied by gun level realdelay is the delay hyperspace lists (like 9 for shredder) multiplied by 10. This gets the real delay in milliseconds. 1000 milliseconds in 1 second.

http://i27.tinypic.com/2j2ur0y.jpg http://i32.tinypic.com/4jx9a0.jpg these should all be self-explanatory. note that the items listed for sublight addons don't necessarily match optimum. the maximums are in the text on the right.

http://i31.tinypic.com/bfp8is.jpg

How do you post excel stuff? I tried and it came out as garbage.

Yeah, I second that motion for a tournament that has nothing to do with squads, which by nature most of us can't form or join. HyperSpace already caters to privs - you could at least make it less obvious. I for one would like to participate, and I'm sure many people are anxious to see me possibly owned... but the excessively complicated rules of this event make me simply give up at attempting to figure out how I can even enter.

Double the money lancs get from kills made by teammates. Tada, everyone wants to be lanc. Now nobody will play real ships!

Wow, moving powerball to center is a great idea. It's easy to implement, easy to control, and will guarantee you at least some activity in the center at all times. This is a good idea. It's more difficult to powerball the more people are in the center, so it should reward more. I still think it should 'turn off' at 10 people, forcing people to expand what they're doing to the flag game (and eliminating that annoying tendency for pub members to go fight randomly in the center instead of basing, even while a basing game is going on). I was told secondary pub arenas are illegal? Is there no way to enforce this? A second idea I had for a centering idea is 'King of the Hill'. A large rectangle could be added that rewards people that die inside it. The reward for the dead person depends on how long they stayed in the rectangle, how many other people died in the rectangle during that time, and of course bounty. All this means that the longer you stay alive in the Hill, and the more people you fight off, the more you get. You also can't do it by yourself, because there's nobody to kill you.

There are three primary money-activities in HyperSpace, and the zone is set up so that money is the draw for activities. Therefore, there are only three available activities in HyperSpace. Anything else is wasting time for no real reason. 1: Flag game. 'Basing'. 2: Powerball. 3: Uncoordinated melee. 'Centering'. I think we can agree on this. Now, I have listed these activities from 'most population required' to 'least population required'. Basing requires the most people and a certain combination of events to transpire. Powerball requires much less population, but turns off (goals become zero) below a certain number of people in the arena. Centering can be done with just two people, technically. Now, we define a player's log-on habits: Player X logs on. Player X analyzes the zone for money-activity payoff. If the payoff level, in dollars per time spent, is lower than Player X's threshold, Player X logs off to try again later or sits in spec waiting. Player X will not play until the dollars per time spent is higher than his threshold when he logs on and checks. Player X will spec or log off if currently playing if a certain amount of time passes with the dollars per time spent rate too low. This general model works very well to explain a number of things. (DpTS is Dollars per Time Spent). A short list of behaviors it explains: : Generally, Powerball is only done consistently by people who can do it quickly (low time spent, as powerball's dollars are also low). : While basing is going on the population increases drastically. : When basing ends, the population drops drastically. : During basing, the team with the higher DpTS has a greater 'stickiness'; i.e. players are much more likely to stay in that team or attempt to join it. : During basing, the team with the lower DpTS has a lower 'stickiness'. People are more likely to quit it or spec and wait. : As a natural course of the previous two behaviors, the 'better' team (judged only by DpTS) eventually has more people, and thus an advantage. The advantage grows over time, as the half-lives of the players on the lower-DpTS team hit and they quit or seek other money-activities; usually centering. Note that the team imbalance will always happen unless DpTS rates are approximately equal between the two teams. This post is not intended to be critical of the current zone set-up, but the fact that the team imbalance happens makes it evident that the two money rates are not equal, and the rate at which the two teams become imbalanced shows that the difference is large. Anyway, on to my point. Due to certain money-draining additions, centering's dollars per time spent is extremely low. This rate only decreases as the population decreases. When less than two or three people are centering, the dollars per time spent rate is near zero. Unfortunately, centering is the seed by which all other population arrives. 1: Very few people center for awhile. A few others, with low DpTS thresholds, join for awhile. 2: A few people center for awhile. With slightly more people, a few players with slightly higher DpTS thresholds join. 3: Centering maxes out for a little while. Meanwhile, the jackpot increases. 4: A player from the next higher tier of DpTS rates logs on, analyzes, and sees the jackpot at just high enough to entice him to play. He joins, and collects the flags. 5: An in-between period happens, where a few people join to start the basing up. Lancasters are necessary for both sides, or basing may not begin. 6: Basing begins. Population increases over the duration. As you can see, each step is derived from the previous step. Therefore, the longer steps 1, 2, and 3 take to happen, the less likely it is that there will be a high population at any given time. Now, this long-winded explanation might be entirely things you already know, but it was necessary to point out the inescapable truth: The lack of money-activities for low-population periods hurts the zone. When there are less than 5 people in the arena, basing isn't possible, powerball turns off, and centering's dollars per time spent can be zero or even negative. The zone sits idly at step 1, as very few people melee in center. This happens for a huge percentage of each day - I'd estimate 18 to 22 hours of any given day in the current setup, the zone is trapped in steps 1 and 2. Obviously, event mods can raise the DpTS with events, but events can't be run all the time. What's the solution? Add profitable money-activities for extremely low population times; and these activities should turn off at a certain population threshold. I recommend 10 people in-zone. This turning-off is necessary to propel the zone into steps 4 through 6. I am not going to suggest what that sort of activity is in this post. The aim of this post is to convince you that something needs to be done for the 22 idle hours of the day. Counterargument 1 "But Gar, then one or two losers will just get on late at night and rack up the cash!" Yes, that's the point! One or two losers will get on late at night - and then the odd player that logs on late at night will have reason to join the arena, and have something to do! Two losers becomes three losers. Ten minutes later, another player comes by and sees this going on. Three losers become four losers. Tada! You've set the zone on a progression towards basing in the middle of the night! It might not happen, but that's alright. At least people are playing and can play HyperSpace at any time. Counterargument 2 "But Gar, this is stupid. I won't be able to do this money-activity if I am the 10th person. I won't join." Or, you will join, and start a 5 on 5 basing game, because the other 9 players will be forced to abandon the low-money activity when it turns off. If 5 on 5 basing provides slightly more cash than the low-money activity, you have incentive. Counterargument 3 "But Gar, you're stupid and know nothing!" Ok, have fun with an empty gamezone 22 hours out of the day, even if this idea could cause basing to happen at all hours.

Except a well-designed mmorpg shouldn't have classes at all... classes force people into a single specific playstyle, and, last time I checked, being forced into a single playstyle instantly becomes boring the moment your playstyle isn't useful for the situation at hand. Unfortunately, many of the ships have been forced into exactly this kind of lazy design by the new item set. That is why the vast majority of ships are warbird, javelin, terrier, and shark. These four ships are useful in both basing and centering. Remember, players have limited resources which they must allocate to best have fun. If you can only have one ship, you choose one of these. The other four ships are forced into single roles or require enormous amounts of money to be useful for more than one specific role.

lol, a bot with an anonymous owner and an absolutely untenable interest rate (43.76% would have given me 2 billion money in 2 weeks) is a guaranteed scam. I suspect the owner was never banned and instead just ran off with the money. That being said, I sold most of my ships and put in 500k trying to scam the scammer by racking up quick interest and withdrawing, but waited just a little too long and lost it all ;p