hallucination

I actually do occasionally go to the front page for navigation and to check the news I post, but I voted 'straight to the forums' because that's always where I go first (New posts or Chaos forums). --hallu

This weekend only! A very special RAPTURE map by our own Wobit. This might by your only chance to play it, so better stop by while you still have your clothes on! It's sure to send you to 7th Heaven! Those Left Behind will just have to keep playing. Darn! Warzone will still run for all the war-inclined among you on Sunday at 5pm ET. Luckily it doesn't count as 'work' from my understanding.

In honor of this weekend's extra super awesome Shindig in the Sky ™ we're having a very special map by Wobit! Rapture!!! It's sure to sweep you off your feet, out of your clothes and send you straight to 7th Heaven! So better check it out as it may be your last chance to play it...or not! League marquee matchups this Sunday: Sterling vs. Assassins 3pm Nguyens vs. The Dark 4pm Don't forget Warzone on Sunday at 5pm ET Also, if you happen to be taking classes, a professor kindly create a Rapture FAQ http://spoonbot.com/wordpress/?p=168 -hallu

Mystery player kent is so hot was hotter than kentasaurus and everyone else to become Master of Chaos! Can he bring his rainbow sparkle unicorn power to bear on the competition again today?!?!?! Or will he incinerate in kent's hotness? 5pm EDT TODAY in Chaos/League SVS zone -- the oldest and toughest zone. Everyone is welcome to play! Also, Warzone has been having excellent games -- subspace's original and best flagging game every Sunday at 5pm ET in Chaos zone.

I had a priv arena setup with the 1998 CD settings -- I've now made it public as ?go svs98 Have fun! --hallu

Sadly, not at the moment unless you are remoted into the bot server. Long story about why that has been and still is in that situation... I should enhance the bots so that you can see past reset info in addition to current reset info. Briefly the commands to do that are: .playerstats gets status for the named player for this reset. If name is blank, it gets your own stats. .squadstats ditto .eligible ditto for all members of the named squad .winners will get last reset's individual winners .squadwinners will get last reset's squad winners --hallu

That was the ship changes from 1998 to 2003 (likely by 2002, and maybe by 2001). Let me make this clear: Ship settings have not changed since 2003 -- those are the same ship settings that people have been playing for almost 10 years and are playing today. I think it illustrative that the settings have not changed and yet certain people jump to all kinds of wild conclusions about all the "terrible" changes to those settings when the fact is those settings have not changed in in close to 10 yrs. --hallu

I've changed bonuses so that non-toy bonuses are accessible at any time, as I mentioned above -- so use FullStatus any time to get a fully outfitted ship (without extra toys). !help bonus has the details. Also, thanks to those that pointed out Prox was not being given with the FullStatus bonus. Via that feedback I was able to track down a long standing bug in Merv core and fix it, so FullStatus should work 100% correctly now. If not, or if you find any other anomalies, let me know. Thx. --hallu

General update: As a preface, and in case it wasn't clear, the reason why I chose SVS 2003 settings is that they, along with Chaos-Bot enhancements, were a very successful set of small changes to SVS 1998. These changes were made because of observed problems with the SVS 1998 settings and also to strengthen Chaos' connection with League play -- both zones being the foundation of SVS play, it is important to have a similarity of settings so that players may learn in Chaos and advance to League, but also so that League players can easily come to Chaos to practice their skills or try new things. Also, it appears that some people have the misconception that settings haven't been changing since the inception of the game. Lastly, I am committed to keeping Chaos true to it's roots which included a significant luck factor, but I am also for trying things out in an experimental fashion, observing the result, and making changes based on actual data -- hence the Chaos-Bot change yesterday to try and alleviate some of the low pop scenario problems -- I would be very surprised to not see more tweaks and refinements to the current settings and Chaos-Bot behavior. I was wondering when someone would bring up the 'safes are now too hard to get to for something as simple as a FullStatus bonus' I was thinking of differentiating bonuses so that non-toy ones are usable any time. The non-toy list would be: FullStatus, antiwarp, xradar, and tuneup (does anybody really use this?). Being able to grab a burst or other toy out of thin air while under attack is not a good idea. This has been proposed and talked about before. My biggest problem with it is that this would no longer be "Chaos" but DZA... FullStatus bonus is what you're asking for basically. There are big problems for Chaos game design with very low populations (1-3 ppl) - there is no way around the fact that it IS a duel -- a two way or three way. Please note that Chaos-Bot is now affecting start bty -- you start with 75 or 65 bty in these situations -- that's a LOT and you should have a pretty strong ship. If not, you can 1) roll the dice again by recycling to another ship 2) green some 3) use FullStatus to get a full ship. Green amounts and distribution I expect to change -- thx for your feedback. In general, what I'd like as a format is: greens too many/not enough @ # of players; or greens too tight/too spread out @ # of players. Several players have mentioned the flag with upgrades as being problematic at very low pops. I agree -- it's too big an advantage at those very low pops. FYI it was included now because it was a part of SVS 2003. There are several possible solutions for this, but I might just remove it for now. --hallu

http://ssc.ssgn.net/lostpassword/ Not sure why it's directly linked from ssgn.net home... --hallu

I've upgraded Chaos-Bot to also adjust start bty and attach bty along with freqsize and other green settings. Probably on the generous side now, but we'll see via actual usage. Bot will announce settings as it changes them. Feedback plz. Reminder: if you have a slow ship as a neg, don't forget about afterburners! Wb is identical to league. Yes most ships still have SVS CD 230 rotation, but everything else matches league. I've actually meant to try the 260 base rot as I don't think it would affect things very much, and then league players could prac with the exact same ship specs. As I said though X and AW costs are higher, and will remain so -- I think it brings diversity into play and forces the player to make more strategic decisions (i.e. leaving X and/or AW on all the time is not a strategy) --hallu

Just to be clear, this is exactly what Chaos-Bot has been doing since 1999 to counteract problematic low population scenarios with SVS settings. It's a question of degree, not a question of something new. The fact is that there are many MORE greens at low population levels than with SVS CD settings... Thanks to both of you for the feedback -- and to others that have been giving constructive feedback in the zone. I consider these settings to be in a test mode, so let's have fun working them out. I was able to green up a full ship in about 1 minute with 1-2 people in. Escaping Kyo to do so is another matter -- yikes! Yes I agree that at very low populations greening could be easier. The original Chaos zone game design was never for those low numbers of people -- 2 people is a duel and needs to start on a more even footing to avoid the scenario Jenn experienced -- but Chaos is not a duel arena. On the other side there are abuse scenarios if greening is too easy. Also, please keep in mind that if you choose to go to a solo freq when there are several people playing, you will lose the key advantage of team greening. These settings are really about encouraging more team play. You have the option of going solo, but you'll have to green for a while when you die -- that's the same as it always was in SVS. I think I need to add start bty as a variable to the population settings for Chaos-Bot -- keep greens low-ish, but in very low populations, give people a head start. E.g. start with 75 bty up to 3 people; 50 start for up to 6 people; then to 30 bty after that. This will of course require testing and may not work as desired and a different course of action will be needed. --hallu

So would I Not technically feasible due to the number and dispersion of players in the zone. --hallu

The SVS weekend event/test run brought up many interesting factors, including: Lower bty start and less than perfect ships encouraged team play via team greening. Larger freqsizes encouraged more team play and swarming. Fewer greens meant people fought over those available. Anything that emphasizes team play in Chaos is good. The settings changes we made to SVS while I ran the zone in the early 2000s did not affect game play in a huge way. Chaos-bot was created to try and deal with the occasional low population scenarios of too few greens, and too many people on a single freq chasing out all the other people. Here are the other changes to SVS CD settings [and my assessment of the play impact]: --wb rot at 290 to match league [almost negligible] --all ships at 18 thrust (to match league) except wb (19) and jav (17) [minor but good releveling of ship strength] --burst dmg at 350 instead of the insane 515 (appeared that only one person noticed that the bursts were super powerful with the SVS settings) [affected tunnel rats most] --bullets -- exact damage + 212 dmg at lvl3 bullets (matching league) -- (some ppl noticed this) [major change, but one that is critical to allow league players meaningful practice in Chaos] --lower % of 'luck' greens: super, warp, engine shutdown [the greens we had consistent, major complaints about] --repel speed and time to match league (4200 v 5000; 295 v 225) [minor but does affect things, again to allow league players prac] --rocket speed to match league (4500 v 5000) [intermediate effect, again to allow league players to prac] --single rabbit flag w/upgrades Things retained from 2011 settings: --the shark -- the SVS shark was designed by marketing people (not Jeff/Rod) and not user tested *at all*. It killed the spider. If the spider needs to be stronger, let's address that rather than replacing it. Greens & Freqsizes: Even though Chaos-Bot was extremely successful at raising the population when first deployed in 1999, it was designed for a higher overall population. My observations over the weekend have lead me to slightly rethink the speed with which larger freqs appear and the green distribution pattern. I've run some tests on some revised settings for Chaos-Bot to change the freqsizes and green settings (in fact, with a new algorithm to calc some of the settings), and will deploy them for this Reset and continue to observe how they play out in the all the extremely variable circumstances possible in the zone. Please give feedback (e.g. "too few greens w/6 ppl playing"; "greens too tightly spaced around the center w/8 ppl"; "I came in and there was a 4 person freq turreting and chasing everyone out"; etc.) Bonuses: I agree with many people here (the 'no bonus' sentiment) -- I do not like bonuses that materially affect game play -- i.e. buying toys in the middle of fighting. Expect to see this continue to be changed or eliminated in the future. For this Reset, we'll go ahead with the previously announced trial of the new bonus prices, and the restriction to only redeem bonuses when in safe. http://forums.ssgn.n...post__p__274386 Please keep in mind that nothing here, or in life, is permanent. Constructive feedback welcome. --hallu Edit: good suggestion from Nightwasp to rename FullShip bonus to FullStatus

Edit: discussion moved to new thread: http://forums.ssgn.net/topic/25734-svs-2003-settings-this-reset-more/

Not in atm. Debating next reset settings now since I had announced something different (Bonus System thread). See the SVS Settings thread on this forum -- please note in particular the second paragraph of my opening post there. Many interesting things came up while the old settings were in. --hallu

<-- Master Of Chaos Aug 2010 (SSCXChaosZone) <-- Master Of Chaos Oct 2010 (DannyEmbling) <-- Master Of Chaos Dec 2010 (Okkeloon) <-- Chaos Zombies Event (SSCXChaosZone) <-- Zombie Elimination Event (SSCXChaosZone) <-- Pro League Finals - The Dark v Outlaws (FieryFire3d) <-- Laming In Chaos 2 (Okkeloon) <-- Laming In Chaos 4 (Okkeloon) <-- Ethylene! Goes Pop! (SSCXChaosZone)My linkI <-- Money Sign (toolboxybrown) <-- Big Bounty Hunted By Javs (bborg)My link <-- Subspace Continuum Chaos (MJB5989) <-- Turret Jousting From The Early 2000s <-- Turret Jousting From The Early 2000s (slow-motion) (DannyEmbling) <-- StarGuitar gets the Blackers treatment (DannyEmbling) <-- SubspaceChaos.com (fabien027) Try that... --hallu

This is an open thread to discuss thoughts about the 1998 SVS settings. A couple of days isn't long enough to really see the consequences of having them in, but it's enough to get a feeling about them. When I first took over the zone, the first thing I did was go back to these SVS settings, and work from there. I am now tempted to do something similar and go back to the settings (including bot settings) I had when I left (in 2003-4) and go from there again (which were very close to SVS settings). People have mentioned the amount greens -- thereby rediscovering why Chaos-Bot was originally built -- to dynamically change freqsizes and green settings specifically to help low population situations smoothly transfer to higher pops. Those numbers were juiced up quite a bit after I left -- I think they need reexamining. The biggest thing I noticed was the 30 bty start + not 100% ?status + larger freqsizes. These factors have a huge impact on team play. When you spawn, everyone needs to green -- and you need your teammates to help you green quickly or you risk dying. This means that team play is much more important overall -- everyone helps everyone. I've thought for a long time that squad culture needs to be revived in whatever ways possible -- the critical importance of team greening has been a missing component that we used to have here. This point would argue against freqsizes ever being 1. What did you all think? --hallu

Chaos Zone is bringing back the VIE days with *real* CD SVS settings this weekend. The original, overpowered, cloaking shark, 30 bty start, and more! It's a journey in the time machine back to 1998 when negs were NEGS!!! Well actually, not quite, but much more neg-like. Lots of players anticipating this -- should be fun! Stop by and green up for old school Chaos action and experience what it was like to play Chaos in 1998! Settings in NOW!! Also: Pro League Season 29 continues, and Warzone at 5pm ET Sunday! --hallu Edit: Feedback and discussion about the settings is of course welcome on this thread also.

Chaos Zone is bringing back the VIE days with *real* CD SVS settings this weekend. The original, overpowered, cloaking shark, 30 bty start, and more! It's a journey in the time machine back to when negs were NEGS!!! Well actually, not quite, but much more neg-like. Lots of players anticipating this -- should be fun! Stop by and green up for old school Chaos action and experience what it was like to play Chaos in 1998! Also: Pro League Season 29 continues, and Warzone at 5pm ET Sunday!

[Ed: emphasis mine] Well then don't miss the SVS settings this weekend. --hallu

Chaos Zone is back to normal operation. Thanks Polix. --hallu

Another quiz for you all while waiting for Priit to finish fixing up the biller. What is factually inaccurate in the above statement? Extra credit bonus question: what part of this statement has a greater than 99% chance of being factually inaccurate and why? Double bonus points for correcting all grammatical and spelling errors in the above sentence . --hallu

Quiz for those of you out there waiting for the biller to come back up -- how is the above post factually incorrect? --hallu

Looks like Priit is working on the biller, so scores, chats, bots are all down for now. You can play and lame about, but nothing counts toward the new reset. Hopefully he'll have it working soon, and the new reset will commence. --hallu