Bomook

Very Nice. One of my hallmates last year had a room like yours. He put an entire table in the space next to the door, for all his architecture stuff. Mine's I'm planning on having 2 window fans blowing in, and 2 blowing out during the summer Or... have the door open, and have 4 window fans blowing in. $$

I have classes, fool.Though if you'd like to walk across the quad, my room for the coming semester is going to be quite large. I meant more like when we get to school, but before classes start. I don't think I'm going to be playing during classes . Nice room. I got a big room too, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still in Pritchard .

I do apologize for that, though I still think the chaos arena is still a plausible solution both for people who don't know which items do what or for planning what kind of build to use for their ships. Basically, I just meant that the cheap money sink items in that arena should be excluded. I'll probably play when D1 and I get back to school .

This sounds more viable. Perhaps every 10 kills, but only starts after reaching 30 kills or something? That way it's more of an accomplishment as opposed to spam, that people will stop reading after a while. Of course. I don't forget anybody.

The negative afterburner idea is interesting, but it's impossible. It simply is not possible to make afterburners make a ship go slower, so, as Brain said, there would be no reason not to just tape the shift key down. With that, there might as well be an actual item that just does it with stats instead of afterburners.

The top players and squads is cool. I personally think the every 5 kills message thing is clichéd and boring though.

Mine was just an aside that cheap items or powers are no excuse for keeping someone on staff. Not having played in the zone, I did not mean to imply that it is currently the case in HS, but if and when it is the case, it should be properly dealt with. That's all I had to say.

To clear things up, the "toys" talion is referring to are probably the unique items and abilities found only in HS, that normal players can't utilize without buying. The mechanics of basing that are transferrable are the basics of flagging that are universal to Subspace, such as finding flags, hunting flag carriers, neuting, dropping flags, switching bases, running, etc. etc. Suggestion: Add a chaos arena where everyone has infinite money for testing whatever they want. Things such as supers, shields, arena messages, cheap stuff, etc. should be disabled. Ignore anything I mentioned that doesn't exist anymore.

I agree about the flag thing. It would make the flag game slightly longer, but is a negligible change. I don't agree with abolishing private freqs, but I do like the concept of awarding people for participating in the flag game, even if they don't win. I think there should be a formula based on percentage of time spent playing during flag game, amount of times the player killed members of the winning team, and how many flags the player's held. This way, players who've just been playing in the center killing don't get much money, but players who still have participated in the flag game but haven't won can still get something. I agree in general though, we should have other options as opposed to forcing players to play for hours to earn money before they can even become compe!@#$%^&*ive.

There should never be interest. This will widen the gap between the rich and poor, and continuously inflate the economy, which, again will be of especial benefit to the rich. The loan system I like. Also, I kind of like the idea of losing money when you die, but of course this should start at $0 for people with little to no experience points, and scale upward from there, with an eventual cap, of course, or a logarithmic curve.

I completely agree. Except this is a temporary test. Any mods currently abusing the usage of the weapon should be punished, but other than that, it's not a problem.

You're !@#$%^&*uming that the weapon will always be overpowered. During the period that people will still complain about it, yes, which is why I said the players are misunderstanding the situation. When it is underpowered in testing, people won't complain, and when it is balanced and introduced into normal gameplay, no one will complain. But of course, you already know that. I apologize if, when I said that "Mods abusing the usage of this weapon should still be reprimanded accordingly by the smod/owner" that I implied that anyone using the weapon is the same as abusing it. People testing or using the weapon are fine, but abusing, no: there is a difference. Just reminding you and D1 that you should still keep an eye open for abusers.

As D1st0rt said, this is a testing weapon. Balance testing in a separate arena is not a viable choice, as the weapon needs to be put into natural gameplay. It kind of sucks for the other team, but there's nothing wrong with testing weapons in flagging for one team: it's an independent variable. As a courtesy, though, the mod(s) with the weapon should switch to the losing team next, to balance things out. The point is, it's not intended to be used as some lame reward for staffing, it's just a temporary balance test. Since it's temporary, I see no problem with it for the most part. Mods abusing the usage of this weapon should still be reprimanded accordingly by the smod/owner. The players are misinterpreting this weapon and overestimating the gravity of the situation. But also to the staff: keep in mind there is a tendency to listen to, side with, and defend each other more than the normal players, even if they may be right sometimes.

If the guns are there just for testing, then I see absolutely nothing wrong with it. But if certain staffers intend to permanently use the cheap items, then yes, that's bad. I do agree with Kilo that *genuine* staffers receive nothing from their jobs besides grief and stress, but I do disagree that staffers should be allowed to permanently keep a stat advantage over other players (i.e. better weapons, prizing, etc.) I don't see how an advantage is the correct form of reward for staff, anyways. If a staff member loses interest in the job, he/she's still not going to adequately perform his/her job. Better items will keep him/her online longer, but that's about it. "Rewards" such as self-granting, which have little consequence are better, since they allow staffers to reach the same ship, just faster. A better ship that has otherwise unattainable stats kills balance and is a different story, and depends on the cir!@#$%^&*stances.

I agree. A good money sink too.

I can't really make any serious suggestions since I haven't been playing, but I'm thinking just de-prizing bricks (and other items, such as bursts, or just all items) when infiltrator is used is an easy solution.

You're right. It's not really the easy money that players want, but just the powerful ship so they can be compe!@#$%^&*ive. For the most part, players want to just be able to hop in, and have fun. Almost all of what I'm saying in this post is regarding the idea of free ships based on the frequency type. Some players do enjoy the fun of investing time and HS bucks into a great ship, and this idea isn't taking anything away from them. It's only giving those players who do not want to, or cannot invest the time a choice, rather then let the rich players bully the poorer ones, regardless of skill. Building up the perfect ship, and then playing with it is what makes the zone fun. I don't want to take them halfway there, because that lessens the fun. It seems we've almost flip-flopped in perspective, Brain . I both agree and disagree with the "perfect" ship idea. Yes, players do want the perfect ship, that being an invincible ship that they can get away with no deaths on (Although, I'm speaking more in context with ship settings than overall changes). Rec whoring in Continuum ruins the fun for the other players who just want to play normally, and many leave because of this. Rec whoring is feasible in games that are player-centric, such as WoW or most other MMORPG's, but not game-centric ones. In FPS's, all players are expected to die, it's not the lack of deaths that matters: it's the accomplishment of the goal. There are some players who simply do not have the time, or do not want to commit the time. As with my suggestion below, yes, you are taking those few players who do not intend to ever buy a ship halfway there, and they won't enjoy the game as much, but it's better than them just altogether leaving. The huge majority will still eventually buy and customize a ship just because of that: it's fun. This idea makes no sense. Why would anyone buy a ship if this were possible? I sound like I'm crazy, don't I? Only a little bit . Yes, it is a radical change, but it will make HS more appealing to the general population. This allows players to enjoy the fun immediately with an almost maxed ship. In terms of performance, the free ships given are only a bit weaker than a maxed ship that are purchased normally. They also lack some potentially crucial things, such as thors, cloak/stealth, x-radar, and antiwarp. Also, since the free ships are weaker, and the whole frequency is forced to use them, even if the players own better versions of the same ships, the veteran players who do own maxed ships won't use the different frequency types, and avoid playing on teams that do use them. One problem that's been plaguing HS is that new players who want to enjoy the flag game cannot, because they don't have the money to spend, especially when there are few to no players online who own a decent capital ship and want to team with the new players. The players who have spent all the time earning the money for their own ships are still at an edge, so for those who enjoy having the edge, they still do. I, however, believe that this edge should be as blunt as possible, while not sacrificing the customizability that HS is unique for. Customizability is still fun for anyone, and you can have customizability without sacrificing the fun that other players enjoy. Players will eventually want to try out the other ships, or just customize their own warbird/javelin/lancaster and buy them. Many players want to play just for fun, and/or don't have the tens of hours to spend on a ship just so they can be compe!@#$%^&*ive. I can see these players not ever really buying other ships, but so what? They're only a small percentage of the population, and the customizability and fun is still present for the greater majority of players, who will still buy and customize a ship and enjoy HS for its uniqueness. Think about it. I can see this idea not being implemented because it's too radical and big of a project to work on for what it accomplishes, but the negligible downside of it shouldn't be the reason. For everything else that Brain responded to, I'll shut up.

The terrier's niche seems to be a slower, but much stronger version of the warbird (but less effective at open combat), and also much more effective at basing. It doesn't seem to be powerful enough to fit in though. Since shrapnel is mostly a basing weapon, increasing it is fine, though it shouldn't be able to exceed the leviathan in shrapnel-spamming. Perhaps also give it leviathan bullet ROF, and/or faster bullet velocity?

The javelin (before I went AWOL a year ago) used to have the same, if not more speed than the warbird when using afterburners. The purpose of this was to give javelins the option of running, but not make them fast to the point of being uber (remember during area5, when there was no point whatsoever to get any ship other than a jav, and possibly a lanc for basing?). I do not think the javelin should be as fast as the warbird normally in any cir!@#$%^&*stance (unless, of course, it is made fragile enough to compensate). You are exactly right about bomb damage. Bombs of any level inflict the same damage at the center of the explosion. Given the same location parameters, including same bomb detonation location (which prox affects), higher level bombs will always inflict more damage than lower level ones (except in the instance that the bomb is a direct hit, in which case both levels will inflict the same damage.) Proximity bombs are better on the premise that a distant detonation with reduced damage is better than a complete miss for no damage. Higher level bombs expand on this. The last time I checked, albeit a year or more ago, the explosion radius was not that large, and the level balance of bombs was fine (l3 for long range, l1/l2 for short range).

BlueC's old topic actually contains much insight. I think the problem that rich players can simply buy their way to victory over poorer but more skilled players is a huge one, and is driving away much of the potential population of HS. It's a radical change, and I admit, even when I first came to HS, I thought of it as a quasi-MMORPG type zone. In retrospect, for a Continuum zone I think that model is a huge mistake. Most of the potential population don't want to spend hours of tedious grinding to simply be compe!@#$%^&*ive, they just want to have fun-- now. I remember 2 years ago when Siaon and I were adamant supporters of infinite upgrades, but exponential costs, and Dr Brain repeatedly put us down because of something along the lines of "HS is a zone where you just have fun, not endlessly build your ship". I obviously see it in Brain's perspective now, and hopefully he still retains his ideal. I think new players should be given a huge !@#$%^&*ortment of free options that can make them as compe!@#$%^&*ive as any rich veteran, given that he has the skill. I'm not going to point to any particular posts (not just in this topic), but many can be dismissed as "You're just saying that because you don't know the zone" types of comments, which are true, but that in itself is the problem. If the zone is so unfriendly towards newer players, they're not going to want to stick around and wait for the real fun, and thus leave. I like this idea. I think to add to it, the squad leader or !@#$%^&*istants have the command of "?freqtype 1", making that frequency a "fighting frequency" where all freq members get warbirds and javelins (or whatever the fighter ships are) with l3 guns/bombs, maxed energy, recharge, bouncing bullets, and permanent prox, but any members who bring a lancaster into a base automatically get warped back to the center. "?freqtype 2" automatically gives everyone on that frequency lancasters with l3guns/bombs, maxed energy, recharge, bouncing bullets, permanent prox, and the maximum number of repels. "?freqtype 0" sets the frequency back to normal, with the players able to use the ships they bought with whatever they had on it. Also, since any frequency can obtain a capital ship this way, the cost of lancasters is free to be increased as well. If the spider is still the mower, try cutting the energy, recharge, and bullet fire energy in half. In terms of firing, it's essentially the same for the pilot, but the ship is much more fragile. Either that or cut rocket speed and cut max speed/thrust to be equal to what it would be if the ship had 5 of the respective upgrades (if that wasn't already changed). I completely agree, although I don't really see a viable solution for this problem . Perhaps, just slightly reduce bomb damage and make prox permanent for everyone. I know HS's stance was always "if you can't afford prox, use a bullet-base ship". I think the developers should really take into account what the players want. It shouldn't just be a weapon limited to the rich. I don't see permanent prox as being that cheap anyways. Wasn't there a plan a long time ago to allow ships in any sector (including the center) to have antiwarp on, but antiwarp doesn't affect any ships in the center. So you couldn't have teammates at the edges of sectors with antiwarp on to disable the center. Likewise, if you happen to be in the center and spot someone with flags at the edge of an outside sector, you could antiwarp him. The second part about not being able to buy certain items if you already have other items is interesting. I don't like the one-time purchase items, especially in the case of thors and repels, since this would severely limit poorer players, giving them almost no chance to stand up against richer players in a flagging match even if they do have more skilled pilots.

Personally I like neuting, but I think JoWie has a point with his suggestion. I would still prefer being able to neut most of the time, but perhaps (in general) just have one (or a few) day(s) out of the week where HS has different flag game settings? I still believe that overall, neuting is a positive aspect of the classic flag game. Being able to neut in a base and then immediately fight is a much more positive influence than the negative of being able to hide them. I know HS has tried different things like different team sizes, different jackpot award/distributions, different flag holding times, so I'm not against experimenting. With disabled flag neuting, however, the carry time for flags should be no more than 2 or so minutes. I think a better solution is, (if possible) have a module that simply broadcasts the location of any neutral flags if they are untouched for 10 or so minutes. I'm not completely opposed to disabling flag neuting, but I don't want to see it replace the normal zone settings, so I voted regular "no". Ideally, this type of thing would work better in multiple arenas, having the pubs as they always are, but putting the different settings in other arenas, so there's something for everyone's fancy. But since HS needs to build its population up again, I think it would work better to just put it on the main arena for a period of time.

WTH?! I voted for STFY Dav! Why does it say STFU Dav?!?! I want my vote back!

railgun magnet (Thanks, Dav, but I don't think I'll be coming back. I'm just on the forums because I have some free time because of summer vacation )

chauvinist TGG

Summer vacation has reanimated my corpse... kind of.