hallucination

I took care of it... odd collision of letters there --hallu

Ok I made them optional. btw "the game" didn't change except for the flag carrier weapons - no change in game play at all - only graphics and sounds. --hallu

It never was gone. ?go dza Also, you are free to ?ignore Axe Demento --hallu

Hi SP wb - we had 120+ pilots in the zone every Sunday during league matches the past weeks. We've been hitting 20+ pilots in Chaos in the evenings, which is still pretty darn chaotic at times. JP/WZ etc is played after league matches on Sunday - around 5pm ET. ASWZ happens sometimes at 8pm ET Sunday nights. Come on by. --hallu

This is a post I wrote over a year ago for the other zone sysops when I thought there was a good chance at uniting them to try and create a place that we could help retain new players. None of the zones do that now - TW used to in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, the major sysops couldn't agree on how it was going to be run, and the effort didn't happen (yet). The post was reposted by Red_X on the TW forums a while back, so it's been public, but I thought I would repost it here for anyone to see and reference. It is long - I did not write it as a PR effort, but as a full throttle backgrounder for what I think is needed to get new players to stay in the game. To me, the effort is not dead. There are still many possibilities to start retaining newbs again. --hallu ================================== The Newb Effort To reverse the trend of the downward spiraling Subspace population, we must create a situation where new players can immediately have FUN and want to discover the depth of our classic and beloved game. How can we do this? I. Declining Population Subspace has been losing population for several years now instead of growing. Why? Failure to retain new players. We get many new players coming in every day but almost none of them stay. Why? ALL zones are now inhabited exclusively by multi-year vets, so a newb (meaning a *actual* brand new player) goes 1-10 (over and over), and as any sane human would, leaves. Did this always happen? Why is it different than in years past? Yes. There is no "newb" zone now. In the beginning, everyone was a newb. Alpha was an _enforced by points_ newb zone. Chaos was enforced by points intermediate zone. Later, TW was the newb zone from about 2000-2005-ish, when it had a population of about 600. Since then, TW has gradually transitioned to what I call a "mature club." This is a common pattern -- I've seen it happen in more than one sports club irl. Chaos has been a "mature club" for many years now. Why do we lose close to 100% of newbs? The problem stems from a lack of separation of skill levels. Once players are 3 skill levels apart in playing ability, NEITHER player will have fun (unless they are in a noncompetitive, teacher-student relationship). These two players in a situation that is supposed to be competitive, the lower player loses constantly (and doesn't really understand why; not enough experience/knowledge), and the upper player wins easily; too easily. In a "mature club" the new player is driven out, and the older, veteran players stay. The vets say they want new players, but their (understandable/rational) behavior drives them away. In the longer run, the vets will sporadically leave also, creating a slowly spiraling downward population where the club slowly dies, or asymtotes down to some static, low activity level. This is where we find ourselves with SS today. And this is why I say advertising won't help us atm. Any new players coming in will go into the existing zones and die repeatedly to vets and leave. Some vets even relish killing the newbs over and over and driving them out. Before we start to advertise in earnest, we need a place for newbs to go and have fun. II. Retaining New Players How can we retain these new players? And when I say new players, I mean *brand* new. If the person has been there a week and/or is playing regularly, they are not new; they are intermediate; they are already captured. We need to focus only on the actual new players; capturing them, and getting them to the point where they can start to compete in the easiest arenas. In any video game, you get about 1-5 minutes to capture a player. Usually within 1 minute the player is either having fun, or wants to leave. I've tried a number of things to get players to stick it out in Chaos until they are competitive (which is approx 2-3 months of daily play; 1 month for the exceptionally talented - historically Chaos only gets players who 'graduate' from other zones). I've tried spending hours with a new player over a series of days, showing them the skills, getting them to understand energy management, etc. Doesn't work. I can get a very few to stick around for a week or three, but that's it. Most still leave within 5 mins after dying a few times. I've thought extensively about a handicapping system for chaos/svs. I have some very interesting/cool ideas, but every handicapping system I've seen irl has sucked and can be gamed -- and I think we have even more challenges making one work within an anonymous video game. My handicapping system is more suited to a new zone, not to a legacy SVS zone. Several of the zones already have a "newb arena" of one sort or another. All failures... This is not an easy thing to 'get right' -- a newb does not want to read text, or just fly aimlessly around. They want to get in and play, understand what's going on, and feel in control. The only thing I've seen work is for a new player to be brought in by a friend who holds their hand for those dozens of playing hours while they learn. But that is extremely rare. I tried to revive this team oriented behavior by recreating squad stats and Reset Winners in Chaos hoping that would spur squad leaders and members to recruit and train people. Hasn't happened in 1.5 yrs -- not nearly enough anyway. The solution is for the club operators (the sysops) to enforce a separation of skill levels -- at first at least. Allow the vet players to be teachers if they want (most don't, really). How can we do this? We need an Alpha again. A zone/arena where newbs are _forced_ to go at first, so they can: 1) play other similarly skilled newbs (only!) 2) get training from helpful vets 3) have fun, feel powerful and in control immediately! III. Why Do Newbs Stay? What do newbs want when they come in? 1) They want to have FUN, feel in control, and ideally, powerful 2) They want to understand the basics of what's going on; it's ok to die if they understand why it happened 3) They want to "win" which usually means "kill someone" early on. If they can't win, they should feel like they could if they play a little better -- AND they understand what the 'little better' means. IV. How to Give Newbs this Fun How can we supply this? Side note: Vets understandably don't recall what it's like when they first entered the game. It is absolutely overwhelming for newbs -- explosions, the chat, walls, bombs, ships flying around, the spam, the bewildering array of icons and controls.... What's important?!?!? Energy? wtf is that? 90% of the time, newbs won't talk to me _at all_ which is mostly because they don't even realize someone is trying to talk to them -- what is green text anyway?!?!? We need to make sure that only a minimal set of 'important stuff' (aka the stuff they want to do) is assailing the newb when they first come in. A relatively empty/quiet arena is an advantage here. There are a number of ways to go here, and we need user testing (I'm big on actual data, not what ppl imagine new players will do) to see what works best. One way is to have a series of arenas with tasks to help the newb learn the minimal basic skill set. Another way is to have it all within one arena (can it be separated sufficiently?) We'll need to do some creative thinking and testing here to find what works for most newbs. Again, actual interaction/play is CRITICAL. Reading or listening to a vet describe what to do is not good enough. They need to start 'doing stuff' right away (#1 2 and 3 above). V. SS Skill Set What is the minimum SS skill set? Here is a task analysis of the ss skill set. Please comment about it -- I'm sure it can be improved. 1) Where am I? Identify your own ship. Put all newbs in the wb at first 2) How to fly? Arrow keys 3) How to start to control flight? Pick up greens or flags or fly through openings. --this marks the first minute -- newb should have picked stuff up within the first minute 4) What is a wall? What happens when I hit it? e.g. Navigate some passage. --some players will be happy to fly around and get a feel for controls at this point. But many will not. They will want to start to try and kill stuff. 5) How do I shoot? ctrl to fire bullets; tab for bombs; --now a player could go against another new player, or a bot, or a sacrificial lamb of some sort. 6) Why did I die? The concept of energy management. --here is a critical juncture in the learning process. In one shot kill zones, the answer is obvious because the game design has been simplified. In the more advanced zones, where it takes concerted dmg to kill someone, it is not so obvious, but completely critical. The answer is actually the same -- your energy went below 0. I've had some success training newbs in this by giving them energy view in a dueling box. Then having them shoot and watch their energy go down. Then close bomb a wall and see what happens to their energy (critical for zones with prox bombs). Then shoot another player and watch their energy go down until they die. I'd like to give newbs energy view at this point, but we have to make sure that wiley vets can't abuse this to get energy view in a 'real' arena inside the hosting zone. 7) How do I kill? Energy management again. --If we deal with #5 well, this is a non-factor -- they already know the answer. At this point conveying to them that vets are _very_ good at this, is important. This helps the newb understand why they died but the vet did not. At this point, the newb is fully ready for combat against similarly skilled players. They may wish to return to the basics to figure things out further; ask questions of the vet/teachers. Have them do many duels now. Side note: We want the vet/teachers to have prestige; certainly within the newb arena, but also within SS. Other vets should be thanking them for their time. Maybe giving them the title of Sensei? Ideas here? How to repel? shift ctrl --this is the most powerful, and powerful-feeling toy going. Now, we're post Newb.1, and into Newb.2 - if they are still around, they are having some fun and can be captured as long as they're not dumped into the 'deep end of the pool' for a while. 9) What is the square in the lower right? Radar. --how to get the bigger picture. At this point the question of screen resolution comes up. The Sensei should help them get the best resolution (bigger is better in general). 10) How to attach/turret? F7 --this is a critical thing to learn early. It gives the newb a sense of team, and can help a new player learn how to aim and shoot, and conserve energy without worrying about flying. That is the minimal set. Now I'll list the remainder of abilities/toys in approximate order of importance (def needs improvement): 11) Thors 12) Rockets -- powerful! 13) Bursts 14) Portals 15) Antiwarp 16) Greening -- maybe this should come earlier. 17) ?status -- relate it back to greening 18) Cloaking 19) Xradar 20) Bricks 21) Bouncing Bullets 22) Prox 23) Flags -- remember that newbs won't be up to flagging for a while, so this can come later. 24) Bounty 25) Decoys 26) Concept of bomb and bullet levels 27) Balls and passing; Goal scoring. That about covers the entirety of SVS sans bot cmds. I am not trying to address in-game tactics (yet). VI. How do the Newbs get to the Right Place? How can we get the newbs to the Newb-Only arena? Every zone will need a bot to identify new players, and quickly (~5-10 seconds) *sendto them to the newb arena. How does the bot NOT send vet players there? Several things can be done to not send vets there: 1) If the nick has never been seen before by the bot (or is marked as a Newb in the DB), they might be a new player. 2) The bot will have a command: !vet which will prevent the bot from sending the new player, and permanently mark that name as a vet. Vets will learn this command very quickly. 3) If the player does a ?go quickly, they must be a vet -- mark them as such. 4) If the nick has >50 hrs usage, they are a vet. 5) If the player belongs to a squad, they are a vet. #2 above is the ultimate fall back for vets to not be bothered. What happens if a vet goes to the Newb-Only arena? A bot there should do similar tests to those above to prevent malicious vets from chasing off newbs. If a player comes in, and immediately starts fighting and killing the other newbs, they are a vet. Spec them. The Sensei's should be able to ID vets from their play and *spec them and such. VII. Newb Arena Staffing and Location All SS zones should try to provide Sensei's to staff the newb-only arena. We do not want this to be a single zone effort. I view this as an SS-wide effort that can help us all. I do not want to own this, or be in sole charge of it. I will do what I can to help get it off the ground, but I think it absolutely needs a person completely dedicated to this effort (which I cannot do -- I have too many other irons in the fire). It makes the most sense to me to house this inside TW. I understand some people's reluctance to do that, but TW is under new management, and I think is more open minded about the health of the game in general. To me, if I see 600 ppl in TW again, I'm going to be seeing 100+ in Chaos again too. I don't want people having a zero-sum mindset about this effort (i.e. your zone gains a player, means my zone loses a player -- a negative and false way to view most of the world's systems). We must all agree and be sure that it is not just a training area for TW play alone. If we can all get hooked up on the arena sharing system, then it doesn't really matter where the newb-only zone is hosted. All active arenas will be easily, and equally accessible. VIII. Promotion and Advertising Once we have the newb-only arena up and going and having some success, we can start to advertise and have it make a difference -- the new players that come in will have a much greater likelihood of having fun and sticking around. I see this being the precursor, and also dovetailing with the SSBR effort, which is one version of the PR side to revive the game. IX. Conclusion Ok that is the core of the idea. I'm sure there are many improvements and refinements we can make. Perhaps some of this unworkable. I've probably forgotten some major items. My sole concern is to get more ppl playing this great game in all its myriad forms. Thanks for participating. Open for comments!!! --hallu

I think you mean Terrihorrifrackballisticsexpialatrocious

I have all the old forum info as it was the day the stats/forums became unavailable to the outside world. Keep in mind though that the forum data was lost at various points from not being backed up (which should now no longer be a problem with the new host) so it's sadly not a complete history. That data is in the db now, but installing the OLD forum software with the proper version was a major headache when I had to rebuild the server when it crashed hard in June of 2010 - iirc I had hack some of installation procedures to get it to work (it was an old version of the forum software back then). Thanks for mentioning your interest. I have a very long list of things to attend to for everything to be in good shape, but that bumps the priority of that one a tad. If I do get it installed, I'm not sure I want people posting new stuff there, or if we should keep all the board stuff here now... btw, in case you didn't see, Caerbannog has access to the scheduler and the games are posted for the weekend. I've always seen the stats as being a critical thing despite many people professing to 'not care' I did a lot of work to get the stats available via the bots while the web not accessible, but the website is a far better interface for that sort of data. We can hope that helps to revive things, but I am considering some radical changes to the pub arena if things don't pick up. As always I'm willing to listen to suggestions. --hallu

Closing this topic - new topic here: http://www.subspace.co/topic/26906-chaos-and-league-stats-site-back/ Ideas comments, etc. please respond there. Thanks! --hallu

I'm very happy to announce that Chaos Stats are finally back! Chaos Stats: svssubspace.com/index.php?page=ChaosN League Stats: svssubspace.com The league page is bit slow atm but I think it can be sped up significantly. The Hall of Fame page there is particularly slow, and I already know to make that much faster. --hallu

I have all the old forum info as it was the day the stats/forums became unavailable to the outside world. Keep in mind though that the forum data was lost at various points from not being backed up (which should now no longer be a problem with the new host) so it's sadly not a complete history. That data is in the db now, but installing the OLD forum software with the proper version was a major headache when I had to rebuild the server when it crashed hard in June of 2010 - iirc I had hack some of installation procedures to get it to work (it was an old version of the forum software back then). Thanks for mentioning your interest. I have a very long list of things to attend to for everything to be in good shape, but that bumps the priority of that one a tad. If I do get it installed, I'm not sure I want people posting new stuff there, or if we should keep all the board stuff here now... btw, in case you didn't see, Caerbannog has access to the scheduler and the games are posted for the weekend. I've always seen the stats as being a critical thing despite many people professing to 'not care' I did a lot of work to get the stats available via the bots while the web not accessible, but the website is a far better interface for that sort of data. We can hope that helps to revive things, but I am considering some radical changes to the pub arena if things don't pick up. As always I'm willing to listen to suggestions. --hallu

From news.txt: The bots are back! I intend to get 4 2v2 bots up. Feedback on the boards or ?msg me about any issues or ideas. The stats site is all working nicely and almost ready to go. I'm still doing DB tuning and webserver config, but it should be available to everyone soon. --hallu

All bots up now are real -- Scores are up and count again. I have lots more to do, and there might be some server ups and downs over the next few days, but the first priority of getting the bots back for play is accomplished. Stats NOTE: I was hoping for a completely seamless transition, but unfortunately the stats (Chaos and prac stats) between early Monday morning and now were lost. At least I have things up again to finish out the Reset (Tomorrow morning!) and for more pracs and the League matches this weekend. Caer will need to reenter the games. --hallu

A new bot server is on the way. Among the gains will be that the stats website will return. I hope to have the work completed before the weekend so that league matches can occur. --hallu

It's now easier for squads to qualify for the Reset Winners! Now you only need 3 members to each get 20 kills to be in the running! Here is the announcement from the hallucitron: ========= New! Reset Winner criteria for squad members is now only 20 kills! You need 3 squad members to qualify and win! Is your squad going to own Chaos? ========= --hallu

Dueling Zone makes its return! No reps, no greens, 1 mine, no bonuses, no ranks -- just pure, raw skillzzzzzzzzzzzzz Streaks are turned on, and also, of course, stats count toward the reset! Up for at least a week, then we'll return to the normal Chaos. --hallu

From News.txt: SVS-98 Chaos!!! Starting this friday we will bring back the vintage SVS-98 Chaos Map and Settings! 30 bty start! Hardly any greens! 6 man freqsize! Downgrades! Plentiful Super, Shields and Warp greens! NO Bonuses! NO ranks. Streaks WILL count. These settings will be in until the reset at the following Wed, when the Halloween map and gfx will come in! Expect plenty of tricks and treats during the rest of October. OOoooo scary. Congrats to develop who repeated as Master of Chaos! --hallu

Thanks for all you've done Polix. I was hoping it was an April Fools prank Come back and visit. Maybe fly a spaceship. And remember, nothing is permanent... --hallu

Today I have rolled out a set of major new revisions to the bots. Please let me know of any anomalies that you see. Giving me the time and day could be helpful. Most of the changes are not externally apparent, however there are some nice new goodies already available. These features are still being developed and refined, and so, as always, feedback and suggestions are welcome. Streaks and sprees are being moved to permanent storage in the DB. This means you be able to look at your own, historic streak record, as well as the best streaks and sprees of the day, month, etc. With this rollout, streaks are completely reset! This means everyone has something new to shoot for! There will be a streak hall of fame in some form to enshrine some of the notable achievements we've seen. Feel free to give some of these commands a try: .allstreaks similar to the old !allstreaks .sprees day best sprees of the day .playerstreaks .streaks help to detail some of the cmds available Please note that going forward only 100+ bty kills will count toward streaks (easier to remember). Also, sitting too long in safe will end a streak. I tried 5 minutes, but that seemed too short, and I've upped it to 10 minutes. This is likely where it will remain. Enjoy! --hallu And don't forget: TONIGHT! Chaos Trivia Night! 10pm ET every Wednesday hosted by hamburlgar Prizes for the knowledgable!

All individual rankings require 75 kills (I had this at 100 kills in the early 2000s and would return to that if the population increases more). To qualify for your squad to be ranked, you only need to get 50 (old VIE standard). hallucination> .leaders flag Chaos-Scores-Bot> +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Chaos-Scores-Bot> | Individual Points Leaders: $$$ | Chaos-Scores-Bot> +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Chaos-Scores-Bot> | Player Squad Kill Dead Ave Ratg Points Flagpts Ratio D-Ave K-Ave K/Hr AIQ | Chaos-Scores-Bot> +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Chaos-Scores-Bot> | 1) Sue E. Side zuma 379 206 127 1040 48103 597609 1.8:1 142 234 12.3 -3 | Chaos-Scores-Bot> | 2) Mr. B-Hole renegade 239 85 104 775 24748 367841 2.8:1 184 246 17.8 -4 | Chaos-Scores-Bot> | 3) Ninespike BlackFlag>> 271 288 115 836 31168 296301 0.9:1 139 182 9.5 -37 | Chaos-Scores-Bot> | 4) necro Thor 200 15 127 908 25403 195496 13.3:1 649 566 25.3 -3 | Chaos-Scores-Bot> | 5) suE e SiDe zuma 251 168 103 758 25785 145361 1.5:1 137 150 18.9 -5 | Chaos-Scores-Bot> +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Chaos-Scores-Bot> | To see your own stats, type !PlayerStats | Chaos-Scores-Bot> | The above stats are based on players with a minimum of 30 kills | Chaos-Scores-Bot> | The official Reset Winners will be based on players with a minimum of 75 kills | Chaos-Scores-Bot> | Complete Stats and info at www.svszone.com/index.php?page=ChaosN | Chaos-Scores-Bot> +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Please note bolded section above (same text contained in every .leaders cmd). Here are the stats from last reset: Rank Name Squad K/D Points Flag Pts Rating D Ave K/Hr Ratio* Ave* 1 Axe Demento http://192.168.0.91/playerbanners//Axe%20Demento.bmp renegade 996/1,351 119,926 1,136,887 1,062 119.6 8.3 0.5:1 143.6 2 Zuma zuma 1,415/645 169,452 753,395 1,169 149.8 15.6 1.6:1 139.7 3 Druid Monk http://192.168.0.91/playerbanners//Druid%20Monk.bmp Sacred Geometry 513/80 54,734 412,517 964 333.1 17.5 4.2:1 128.2 4 Mr. B-Hole renegade 365/211 44,033 396,014 980 153.1 13.9 1.3:1 138.0 5 Mog http://192.168.0.91/playerbanners//Mog.bmp Moogle 32/5 3,072 373,686 253 172.6 8.2 4.6:1 108.3 6 r http://192.168.0.91/playerbanners//r.bmp Thor 721/677 88,104 256,966 1,078 104.6 21.4 0.8:1 137.9 I know that from a flagging standpoint the number of kills doesn't make complete sense, but I'd like to see players participating in the zone to a minimal extent in order to make the Reset Winners list. --hallu

We'll have none of that in here! Whatever were you thinking? --hallu

It's likely a false positive from AVG: http://www.avgforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1281 other AVG users are getting the same warning --hallu

Chaos Zone has hosted an aswz arena for quite a while now -- ?go aswz Let me or Polix know of any probs with it. --hallu P.S. don't forget regular Warzone every Sunday at 5pm ET -- ?go 0warzone

1) It's harrassment of a player, and it's not cool. Stabby has a history of this exact thing and will be dealt with. 2) FYI, the sound spamming/lag exploit has been an issue in 4v4 league forever, and the 'fix' they have had there for the last 12+ yrs is to do exactly what Polix said -- turn off Wave Messages. It would be nice if ?ignore worked for this, but it doesn't. If you're "popular" enough to draw this kind of attention, turn off Waves. I did when I played league matches. 3) He's not spamming the zone. He's spamming you (Ninespike), personally. Perhaps you should reflect on your recent behavior in the zone as to reasons why he might have been inspired to pick you out and spam you. --hallu

Currently, 4 man freqs don't kick in until 19 pilots, 5 man at 29, so it's not much of a factor. --hallu

Yes, possible but unreliable. Sometimes you retain your bty; other times not. The exact algorithm that governs this is not publicly known (i.e. Priit and no one else knows it). It appears it is a server side mechanism -- you can close the client, and reopen it, and retain your bty (under some set of circumstances). My speculation has been that the server has a queue of retained btys -- if enough people retain their bty while you're logged out, you get pushed off the end of the queue (and start fresh the next time). Alternatively, it could be stored in the registry but that would open the door for high bty exploits, so is extremely unlikely. Right now it looks like longer safe zone time will be coming back in the future. The feedback here and in the zone is clearly in support of it. If you have valid reasons against it (or for it), this is the place to make your points and discuss it. --hallu