Sue E. Side

As much as I want to like you and the time you invest in the zone, talking with you is like talking to a carved out Halloween pumpkin - the lights are on, but nobody's home. Not only did you forfeit my bounty, you also lost out on the gunner's who decided to call it a night, quit out with yours with no kills to speak of, and left your freq mate hanging around with nothing to do as a result. The only way you could see that particular situation, and so many others you foolishly gloat about, as a win for Chaos is if you're wishing for the zone to just die already.

Axe, whether you've come to terms with it yet or not, one reason you draw so much disgust is exemplified right there, creating stories about particular instances that are ridiculously twisted retellings of what actually happened. You spew trash like that nonstop. Fact of the matter is you, as well as your teammate, joined my freq to avoid being shot while you regreened toys, at a time when we were the only four in the zone, effectively making it pointless to hang around. You preferred killing off the zone in favor of the chance at killing a nearly 4K bounty two man turret. That is the badass that is Axe Demento. http://imageshack.us/scaled/thumb/197/axegivesup.jpg I only hopped in to play because SVS '98 settings were in effect. The culture of cowardice that pervades Chaos isn't my idea of fun, it was bound to turn me away sooner or later, especially with my playtime.

Taking into account your alternative definitions for established words in the English language, that's probably the smartest thing you've ever said about the zone. The irony is that you do more to harm the growth of the zone than any of the countless people I've seen you call maroons. It's hard to tell if that's by design or an unintentional side effect of your mental condition.

I loved it for its unpredictable nature and made sense within the context of the zone, but it was a stat whore's worst nightmare and made skimming bombs a dangerous gamble, like playing Russian Roulette each time you got hit. I remember when it got put in for a reset or two over a decade ago and it polarized the zone like nothing else.

Hoping these settings are in for longer than just a weekend. Definitely going to jump back in to play, but already hating the idea of the older, bigger version of the map with the zone population being what it is.

A few counterpoints to your argument: 1) I'm in no way, shape or form for removing all toys from freshly spawned ships. That's extreme. I am, however, all for the 30 bounty start that was in place at the height of this zone's popularity. Chances are if you started with a good stock of toys, your ship's status was lacking as an offset and vice versa. The 30 bty start made ship recycling for toys much less appealing while maintaining the need to green to improve your ship's status. It's a win/win to me. Peeling away the layer's of depth this zone had during the late 90's was a mistake. I understand the reasons for the changes that have come over the years - they were well-intentioned - but as I mentioned, in the end it was all for nothing because there's been practically no retention whatsoever of newer players. Virtually all the players in Chaos nowadays started playing over a decade ago. Let's all agree on that, at least. 2) What "skill set" are you referring to, spamming toys as quickly as possible? That's hardly a skill nor is it exclusive to any one group of players. Giving players all these fully greened ships full of toys and then continuing to shower them with more of those toys is why I think so many of the regulars in Chaos have such a hard time defending themselves and resort to running or just flat out die when they run out of toys. Like you said, it's hilarious how bad they are without specials. They might actually learn a thing or two if they spent a little more time flying around without them. 3) Fair play does not apply here at all. The sheer number of players exploiting the game's design flaws to escape death or give themselves an edge towards killing high bounty targets is unbelievably high, far more prevalent today than it was in the '90s. I'm not just talking about the obvious offenders like Gadianton, but even the (I thought) fair-natured players like Tommygun, for example. I understand that policing the zone isn't as easy as it once was, but there are other ways to discourage this kind of behavior and tweaking some settings, such as start bounty, is one way to curb that behavior. There's one player who logs in and tends to play a Javelin, constantly spamming specials and immediately recycling as soon as he's done, repeating this behavior ad nauseum, throwing thors all around the zone until he gets bored and quits. There's another, Nightmare, who plays in similar fashion, except mainly for mine repping/bursting at the L12 tunnel opening. It's completely one-sided play. Should we be catering the zone around these play styles? At the risk of sounding dramatic, if the answer is yes then I want no part of the zone whatsoever.

I'd like to think these observations of a Chaos Zone diehard with a shamefully high amount of playtime under his belt will bring up some discussion about the state of the zone and whether or not changes should be made, but I'm throwing them out there regardless: Streaks/Sprees A slick addition. Added new stats for goal-oriented players, especially significant because it rewards those choosing to fight rather than run and encourages players to keep their high bounty in play. Green Settings There are just way too many of them floating around and the fact remains that prizes such as repels and bursts became repulsively easy to collect in a zone that already starts you off with a well-stocked ship. It's not uncommon for a target to use four or more repels in just a minute's time, among other defensive measures, which can grow incredibly frustrating when targets are constantly running on a map I'm sure many will agree is too large for the low population it houses. Greening used to be a neccessity once upon a time, requiring players to pick them up as often as possible, adding a layer of depth to the gameplay that's now practically nonexistent due not only to the green and ship settings, but also bonuses and flagging rewards. I miss playing with/against ships of varying speeds, recharge rates, etc. Bonuses Bonus points are either too easy to obtain or cost of bonuses too low, take your pick. It should not be this easy for players to prize themselves multiple sets of toys in a zone where they're already extremely easy to come by via greening, flagging, playing the weekly trivia game or being showered with free greens just because a zone staffer feels like it. It's been mentioned before by SuG, but these bonuses provide absolutely no downside to their use other than depleting your bonus point total and adding one, such as warping you to a random location with depleted energy after each use would cause players to think twice before abusing the feature. Flagging Let's face it, what should have been one of many game styles offered wound up actually hijacking the entire zone. If you're interested in flagging or not, chances are some or all of your targets are and you will have to deal with the consequences whether that means being hunted by a 4-5 man freq at low bounty because your name just turned red or struggling to find targets because the flag carriers choose to play it safe by removing themselves from the action. More often than not the flag game tends to contribute to the culture of cowardice that I've noticed to be unfortunately predominant in the zone since my return last May. "Keep away" became a common strategy, grabbing a flag and flying around the quiet edges of the map, avoiding conflict at all costs in a zone originally designed to bring players together. It's had a significant impact on the zone in a number of different areas such as the aforementioned cowardly style as well as increasing the number of high bounty kills and sheer volume of toys in play. Increasing the flag timer from 3 to 12 minutes has improved the game somewhat, but the bottomline remains the same: I loathe that a kill or be killed zone has become a flagging zone. Map Bottlenecks I still love this map, even after all the minor changes it has undergone over the years, aside from the reset/MoC winners rectangle eating up precious real estate in the center of the map, but I can't help thinking the flow of the game can be significantly improved with just a few minor bottlenecks being opened up, such as the O12 intersection possibly allowing access to/from all sides of the tunnel. The population numbers being what they are, we should be finding ways to imptove the flow of the game rather than slowing it down - it's already easy enough for a coward to run all day long without giving them endless tunnels to mine/brick, too. Safe Timer We recently had a 12 hour safe timer implemented for a reset and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say most opinions about the setting were negative. There was/is absolutely no reasonable argument to be made for it, just as I don't understand why the 15 minute timer of old was replaced with a 45 minute timer. The 15 minute timer not only served as a more than adequate way for people to run AFK for bathroom breaks, phone calls, etc without losing their bounty, but it added a safe camping option that no longer exists: turf wars would sometimes erupt when hunters chased targets into a safe zone knowing they had to poke their head out to reset their 15 minute timer or lose their ship/streak. Safe to say that increasing the timer to 45 mins made camping those safe zones an absolute waste of time. As an added bonus, reverting back to 15 mins could serve to remove the burden of having the bot remove/reprize anti-warp and reset kill streaks. Reset Winners If stat winners are allowed to employ virtually any means neccessary to achieve their goals, such as abusing ship changing and Esc Q to win ratio, there's no integrity and without integrity they're nothing more than personal goals - no need to dedicate a precious chunk of the map to glamorize them. There was the one incident in recent months of Ethylene being disqualified from a reset, but questions regarding that case have gone unanswered. In short, I think too much has been done to "dumb down" the zone to make the game more accessible for newer players when the fact of the matter is there is virtually no retention of those new players. Best to keep the zone as true to its roots as possible, catering instead to the oldschool vets we know log in everyday rather than the rare newbie that likely won't change his decision to stay or leave based on these settings anyway.

At the end of the day, Hallu's the one running the show and making the final decision on all the settings/features, so if you want something implemented you're going to have to convince him it's in the zone's best interest. Better to hammer home any arguments for/against changes than insults and accusations of corruption/favoritism. The message boards for this zone have always been seen as a hangout for a small percentage of the player base/vocal minority, even when it still had 100+ simultaneous players, but to that effect I say convince other players to come throw their two cents in. Silence may as well be acceptance. Back on topic: I didn't mind the power up flag over the weekend and think the longer flag timers currently in place are at least a step in the right direction.

Yeah, that's the flipside of the coin, but there's nothing wrong with that. If people want to win the flag game they'll need to chase down the carriers same way a hunter would chase down a turret or other high bounty. Worst case scenario, the lamer(s) trying to keep flags away expose weakenesses in the game/map's design that should be addressed. Best case scenario, the flag game draws in more players and the cowards that loved to play 'keep away' become more involved/aggressive.

What do you think of the current flag game's settings, Nine? The reason I dislike it is because it seems to reward cowardice in a zone that seems to have bred an entire culture of it. Flaggers tend to wait for carriers on other teams to drop their flags rather than fighting to collect the remaining flags, which is extremely easy to do with the zone settings and bot commands we have in place. Everytime I decide to play against others the flag game literally becomes a game of 'keep away', usually with Axe picking up one of the 8 flags and running off to isolated corners of the map, avoiding conflict so he doesn't lose it. It went on this way for hours one night. "It's part of the game, deal with it" is nice and all, but why are we promoting cowardly play in a zone that already has it in spades and suffers with low population? When someone logs in and sees the few players running around with zero intent on fighting do you think he'll be inclined to stick around? I think removing or significantly extending the flag timers would make the flag game a lot more involving because it forces players together rather than apart.

Ignore Demento's ideas and all will be right in Chaos.

read it again http://i.minus.com/iJN1rN4xSFnz4.png

I ask myself that question everytime I jump in to play. Some players are cowards by nature or just not very good at 2D space ships and the changes made to the zone over the months/years keep favoring those who would avoid conflict. The flag game, for example, becomes a focal point too often and even though those interested in flagging can be counted on one hand, they essentially become low bounty rabbits that would rather fly around quiet areas of the map with stealth turned on, waiting for flags carried by others to reset instead of fighting for them. I'm not fond of the flag game, especially with the population being as low as it is, but if it's going to remain its settings should be tweaked to promote action over inaction, like removing the 3 minute timer and forcing those who are playing the game to gather the flags by killing other flag carriers.

I'm with Eth on this one, too. I know the entire point was to ensure nobody could run AFK and annoy nearby ships by sitting in safe with anti turned on, but this wouldn't be an issue at all if the safe timer was still at 15 mins.

The current flag game does more harm than good and I'll gladly delve into them if anyone wants to argue it. I would much rather see the bullets + bombs level up flag make a return.

I have countless questions you can answer if you're so inclined, like: Whose idea was it to extend safe zone timers from the already ridiculous 45 minutes to 12 hours and what was the goal of doing so? Can I have his real name and/or home address? What's the point of giving away 55-60 greens for a 0 point flag win? What are the jackpot multipliers anyway? Why is the flag timer so short at a time when so many zone regulars prefer to avoid conflict? Why is there even a flag game in Chaos to begin with? Would any current flaggers, of whom I can probably count on one hand, stop playing/play less if it was removed entirely? Why is "gaming the system" (i.e. Esc Q to avoid probable death, ship recycling for more toys, killing aliased squaddies to pad stats, etc) not only allowed, but encouraged by those running the zone? Ethylene mentioned being disqualified from the reset rankings not too long ago, yet players who do exactly what he did and far more often get away without so much as a slap on the wrist despite zone staff being present. Why did Eth get singled out? I would love to know the staff's thoughts on this one. Can you please move the reset/MoC wiinner info currently displaying many player names that should all be disqualified anyway to an unused area of the zone so the center of the map can serve as something more than a large, untraversable obstacle? If the #2 pencil is the most popular, why is it still #2?