Hyperspace population inflation must be stopped

[»Axe Demento]

Hey if got an idea

bring more people in to each of your zones however how you can.

Or create a common zone currency ie people and they you can post what one person in worth in your zone vs the others.

 

i guessing chaos person = .25

hyperspace = .0.5

the otherzones somewhere between 0.01- and 1.00 person.

 

I'd love it only to show the number of people playing not including spec players or bots I cant kill

 

 

Either way have a great NEW YEAR!!

 

...Axe

[Hakaku]

But you see CZ/PB/EG are not sharing arenas just to inflate their population on purpose, it is a bug and side effect of sharing their arenas.

You do realize Powerball runs on an ASSS server, right? This means that they've actually gone out of their way to inflate the population to match the side-effects of the other zones. PB only has 4 or 5 people in its zone, it's reporting 118. That's what, a 2300% to 3000% increase?

 

As much as I hate Hyperspace for also choosing to do this, someone did flat out admit in the last thread that PB had done this to give the zone a competitive edge. This pretty much indicates that arena sharing wasn't done for the sake of adding functionality, but rather to unnaturally inflate the population count, compete with Trench Wars (which also inflates population with bots), and use the feature inclusion as an excuse.

 

Hyperspace has demonstrated that the tactic works. And pretty much everyone in the last thread was dead-set against arena sharing, especially with the population inflation and skewing. No one has demonstrated that the feature brings anything to the game. Hyperspace did state it would stop if other zones did, but so far, only DSB has chosen to resolve the issue on their end.

[PoLiX]

Or maybe perhaps since the bug does have the side effect of giving the other zones an inflated population, PB felt it wasn't fair that their pop should inflate those zones? Not right, but seriously, everyone would rather look at this being the motive, and not the true motive of the people originally behind the idea. The fact we wanted to share our population, and allow our players the ability to hop around the zones just by the arena list. Something many (including myself when I don't login as sysop) use and enjoy on a daily basis. So nice to see when EG is running an event I enjoy, and I'll hop over there to play it, and then back to chaos pub to continue where I left off.

[spidernl]

Or maybe perhaps since the bug does have the side effect of giving the other zones an inflated population, PB felt it wasn't fair that their pop should inflate those zones? Not right, but seriously, everyone would rather look at this being the motive, and not the true motive of the people originally behind the idea. The fact we wanted to share our population, and allow our players the ability to hop around the zones just by the arena list. Something many (including myself when I don't login as sysop) use and enjoy on a daily basis. So nice to see when EG is running an event I enjoy, and I'll hop over there to play it, and then back to chaos pub to continue where I left off.

 

You also have to be honest and admit that you're gaining at most 5 seconds over esc+q, [down arrow], [enter].

 

I'm sure people find this arena sharing useful, but it's also very obvious that it's being done to boost population. I believe ways to get around the issue that don't need subgame binary "access" have already been proposed, so why haven't the "people in charge" in TW/EG/etc done anything? Maybe because they're rather happy with the inflated population?

[Solitron]

Haha, I was actually surpised when randomly jumping on continuum the other day seeing the spoofed 1000 pop on HS. Priceless Brain! I must say I find this funny. I do agree though, someone had to be the rebel at some point and shine a light on the shady pop tactics out there.

 

GL Brain, I may just jump on HS randomly here and there to contribute to the cause.

 

EDIT: Looks like it's gone now. Awww..

Edited December 27, 2011 by Solitron

[»Axe Demento]

What i like about zone sharing is your still in the game and you get a ship right away without quiting to the menu. I haven't check yet to see if you keep your bounty when you go from zone to zone for a period of time. Population sharing good..... Population inflation bad.... (Franken-axe voice)

 

Oh yeah.... come play in choas

 

...Axe

[Dr Brain]

EDIT: Looks like it's gone now. Awww..

 

The +1000 only shows up when there are people actually playing the zone. If they're all in spec it'll just report the population normally.

[Solitron]

Ahh, gotcha.

[dezmond]

so why haven't the "people in charge" in TW/EG/etc done anything? Maybe because they're rather happy with the inflated population?

Keep TW out of this, cause we are not part of the pop inflation boost.

[PoLiX]

Or maybe perhaps since the bug does have the side effect of giving the other zones an inflated population, PB felt it wasn't fair that their pop should inflate those zones? Not right, but seriously, everyone would rather look at this being the motive, and not the true motive of the people originally behind the idea. The fact we wanted to share our population, and allow our players the ability to hop around the zones just by the arena list. Something many (including myself when I don't login as sysop) use and enjoy on a daily basis. So nice to see when EG is running an event I enjoy, and I'll hop over there to play it, and then back to chaos pub to continue where I left off.

 

You also have to be honest and admit that you're gaining at most 5 seconds over esc+q, [down arrow], [enter].

 

I'm sure people find this arena sharing useful, but it's also very obvious that it's being done to boost population. I believe ways to get around the issue that don't need subgame binary "access" have already been proposed, so why haven't the "people in charge" in TW/EG/etc done anything? Maybe because they're rather happy with the inflated population?

 

Except I can't monitor what arenas are open from being on the main screen. The system is dynamic, not static. Sure I could leave, goto eg, esc+a, nothing going on, go back to chaos. Or I just do esc+a and see if anything is going on. I like it, many players like it.

 

As for the other way, a directory client can't be done - Priit has blocked the SSCU/SSCX zones he hosts from connecting to directory servers (or oversight on ever caring to open it). Only ports he opened were the ones needed for the zones. After many attempts and requests, he still hasn't opened the ports for the zones to connect to other directory servers.

 

It is simple to fix it, and Priit has been notified of the issue and fix. Last time something bugged out, and we told him the fix, we had it sorted out within days. This time he is being slow about it. Dunno if it is because he no longer has the current source to the old fix with the tweaks he has done to TW, or what.

 

If you'd remember, DSB applied their hacked fix.dll to fix this problem, and the other zones would follow suit if we could.

[spidernl]

It's not much work to let a bot do what esc+a does now, though. You'd just PM it and it could report population of "linked" arenas. You could sort it by highest population and all that, too.

Same (or better) functionality for the most part, temporary fix for the population issue.

 

But, as I said before, the reason the alternatives aren't being researched is that the population inflation is, or at least was at the time of introduction, considered an advantage for the zone.

[PoLiX]

They have been looked at and discussed, but noone has the time to do it 2 or 3 times. Each zone runs a different bot core (and all have bot hosting issues as is). This is simpler, it works, and everything is done. It has a bug, sure, but everything could have some minor bug or issue.

 

Everyone just likes how it functions right now, knows how it functions right now, and uses it how it functions right now.

 

TBH dunno why everyone cares about the pop issues so much. What HS is doing doesn't bother me, and we actually had a good laugh about it when it was first done. I know I for one don't care about the population in other zones, and really even the population in Chaos or EG. I just care how many people are playing when I get in, and the zone pop is never a good figure of that anymore.

[Dr Brain]

To be clear, this is not a minor bug. This is a major bug. The biggest bug in SS, bar none.

 

Also, I'd like to point out that the same people complaining about how newbies aren't playing are the ones behind this population boost. Yes, that very same population boost which only affects newbies. Coincidence?

 

Want newbies to stick around? Maybe you shouldn't take away their one tool to find a good zone.

[Cheese]

plus its messing up the population statistics

[Static Burn]

TBH dunno why everyone cares about the pop issues so much. What HS is doing doesn't bother me, and we actually had a good laugh about it when it was first done. I know I for one don't care about the population in other zones, and really even the population in Chaos or EG. I just care how many people are playing when I get in, and the zone pop is never a good figure of that anymore.

 

Trench Wars has raised 1000s of dollars for advertising and it's really not fair for hyperspace to be leeching off their advertising efforts with their massively inflated population. The most important thing about zone populations is that the most populated zone has the highest population number. Trench wars is the most populated zone. Also note that Trench Wars isn't even involved in the arena sharing thing. The people who run SSC (sscouncil?) should be doing something about this. Get together and either:

1. make hyperspace reduce their population inflation to around +100 so they are not at a disadvantage to the zones that are sharing the arenas.

2. stop the arena sharing and all of this zone population inflation altogether.

The status quo is obviously unacceptable and should not continue.

[Cheese]

lol'd

tw hasnt spent any ad money yet

who do you think youre fooling

[Static Burn]

So? They will eventually and I hope this gets resolved before they do.

[spidernl]

"We at Hyperspace" sincerely hope this ridiculous population inflation will stop. That is why HS pretends to have +1000 in the first place. The 1000 fake population will be gone the day TW & friends get rid of theirs.

 

Hopefully it provides some extra incentive for them in the meanwhile.

[Static Burn]

let me reiterate again: Trench Wars is not arena sharing and has nothing to do with Hyperspace's reasons for inflating their population. Why would EG, PB, Chaos etc. care that hyperspace is inflating their population? When a new player (or even an old player coming back) downloads they are going to be naturally inclined to try the zone with the most population. The zone with the most population used to be trench wars, and rightfully so since they have the most players. Even with the inflation of other zones, Trench Wars is still #2 behind hyperspace. Trench Wars has lost it's #1 population ranking and gone down to #2, this is the main effect of Hyperspace's population inflation. So how is it fair to punish TW for what other zones, which TW has absolutely nothing to do with, are doing?

[Dr Brain]

The SSC bringing the threat of force against HS would be awesome. That's because there's no scenario where HS would be forced to stop without the arena sharing zones also being forced to stop (since any rationale for force that applied to HS applies doubly to them). Since I've always planned to remove the fake pop when the other zones stop, I get my way.

 

I think this is why no one has officially complained about HS, because they know it'd just wind up on EG/CZ/PB.

 

Also, HS is one of 3-4 big zones that can artifically boost its population (PB is already doing so, part of my complaint). Adding +100 to compensate is retarded, because the other smaller (and bigger, in the case of TW, as you mentioned) zones don't have that luxury. It'd just kill the game faster. Which, incedentally, is what EG/CZ/PB are doing: killing the game while trying to hold on to their dwindling player base.

 

EDIT: it's not fair. That's the whole reason I'm doing this, to show just how unfair it is, and make sure those evil zones don't get any boost from the tricks they play. The more people complain about HS, the more likely something will be done against EG/CZ/PB.

[»Axe Demento]

Just a quick comment why don't you all just post your real data and lets PLAY!

 

I don't mind the sharing. I've now even stopped into powerball to play a bit when chaos is empty at 4:30am

 

and i do like playing in game. or add a total number of SS players to the client across all the zones. IE there are 500 people playing etc.

I still would love something that tell how many people are playing not just specing.

 

 

...Axe