Server rebang

[Dan Magaha FIRAXIS]

As I'm sure you're all acutely aware, things are mondo busy around the office lately... also I gather some of you have been trying to login but the server was down. In what little spare time I have this week I'm hoping to have time to write a script that will check every hour to make sure the TW server is up, and if not it will bring the server back up.

I probably won't get to the server rebang until the weekend. If someone could be the pointman on coming to consensus about what game settings you want for the next game, please do so by Friday night and email them to me then. The only constraints I'm going to put on are that:

1) The game will be a tournament game. Single, double, or triple elimination, it's your call. But I think we need some way to declare a winner in these games, so it's got to be a "last man standing" kind of thing I think.

2) There will probably be some kind of daily time limit put on, very similarly to what we have now. That can be adjusted easily enough so if it's a problem, we can fix it.

3) I am also working on a nifty little script that will analyze the game's logfile and keep track of people logging in and out, and so on. Besides holding scoring data and being able to tell me who's been blown up the most, this will eventually also tell me who's been logging in with dupe IP's. The policy will be that dupe IP offenders or AE's will be immediately banned, no questions asked. This should tend to even things out a bit.

Any other aspects of the server are open for your requests. Let me know what universe size you want, port regen rate, etc.

Thanks


Dan

[yin26]

Cool. Thanks, Dan. I wonder if we could take that blind warp out of the game?...lost my ISS because of that (well, because of my own stupidity, but blaming the game makes things easier). Thanks.

[aeturneus]

Dan, you are the man. Thanks for contributing your hours to our good time.

Yin, blind warps are a really useful tool. You simply have to be sure that there is nothing in the sector that you are warping to - the easiest way to check is to fire off an ether probe. The only real risk if you e-probe first is that a limpet mine is in the sector, since limpet mines are undetectable by e-probes. I lost several ships to blind warp before I learned to e-probe first, but with appropriate caution it works splendidly when you forget to deploy figs.

I think we should go with a double elimination in this game, since single elimination will knock me off the first time I hit a nav haz with no figs or shields (don't laugh! it happened in the last game :P) and I deserve a second chance. Three or more would make eliminations an extremely rare event, and the game would probably drag on a bit, though I'm not totally convinced about the need for eliminations at all.

I am in favour of adopting a no-corp backstab rule, which would ultimately mean that once you form a corp with someone you can't leave it. I don't think you should have to declare corps at the start of the game. I think we should have a maximum of two players per corp in order to disburse experience a little more evenly across the corporate world.

I like the current settings for the starting of the game - 1 merchant cruiser, 100 figs, etc. - I don't like the idea of starting with a planet. It clutters up the universe and I will probably end up just destroying it and building one in a more appropriate location, and if everyone does this we will have lots of little nav haz sectors which would be annoying.

We need to somehow enforce the rule that registration in the forum is mandatory, because that is the only way we can hope to monitor dupes at the start of the game. Does anyone have ideas about how Dan could do this?

I think the statistical settings of the game have been decided by the polls:

5000 sectors
2 players per corp
Photons enabled

correct me if I'm wrong.

{Edit} On a closing note, does anyone think the number of colonists on terra should be increased by at least 2x-3x? I think they are a little too scarce to make colonization possible.

[burbel]

Let me try and get all the stats I can think of in here:

Sectors : 5000
Players per corp : 2
One-way warps : 5%
Port regen : 20%
Turns per day : 600 - 800
Hours per day : 2 - 3
Colonists regen on Terra : significantly higher than now
Photons : enabled
Ferrengi : less agressive
Stardock : visible

I would agree that the current starting specs are fine.

Possibly no attacks allowed in the first 5 days?

I would personally vote for 3 eliminations - I tend to die easily!

[MarkG]

Originally posted by burbel
Players per corp : 2
One-way warps : 5

you've got to be joking!
the above combination means that a couple corporations will get lucky(or be very prepared with a good plan) and get the one way waps

and with 15-20 people or more, how many 2-player corporations will there be?

[burbel]

OK, first, my apologies, for the one way warps I intended 5%.

As for the corp limit at 2, I think that was mainly to allow
the single players to remain competitive with the corps,
and to allow for people to form partnerships in the game.

But, in an elimination game, I would think that folks would
want to group up, if nothing else than to combine their
protection.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by burbel
OK, first, my apologies, for the one way warps I intended 5%.

oh ok

As for the corp limit at 2, I think that was mainly to allow
the single players to remain competitive with the corps,
and to allow for people to form partnerships in the game.

if w're going to allow alliances between corporations it will be the same thing in the end...

instead of big corporations we will have big alliances of corporations and with unlimited number of corps per alliance...

[King Thor]

Hi Dan

Would you like me to email you? The Major stats have already been decided by the polls I guess.

5000 sectors
so we should have around 600 turns a day.
Photon Torps. Enabled
2 players per corp.

I think there should be around 800 ports to begin with , and a max of 1000 ports.
Since there are a lot more ports we could have a port regen rate of around 18%-25%
Say 20% or so.

Max Planets should be about 500 I guess, so we never have to worry about running out of planets.
Terra colonist regen rate should be around 5000-6000 a day.

[Solarwind]

These are my stats tht I'd like to see:
5-6000 sectors
7% One way warps (lotsa bubbles out dere)
3 corp members(that way the newbies can have big corps, but not too big).
That's all the original stuff I can think of.

[Swissy]

Three traders per corp seems to be what is used in tournaments I have seen at other TW sites. This does allow one or two vets to hook up with a newbie. Other settings do not matter to me.

[Urban Ranger]

With 5000 sectors I reckon we need about 1250 ports to start with a max of 1500 or so. Otherwise we end up with large areas with no ports. With such a large number of ports and around 20 players I suggest we put a 10% cap on port regen rate. This forces players to go around more instead of just sitting around a cluster of ports.

Other thoughts:

1. No backstab rule.
2. No attacks within the first 7 days.
3. Only pre-registered users are allowed to play.
4. Max player per corp should be dependent on number of players we have. 2 if 20 or less players, 3 if 21-30, and so forth.
5. No secret or public agreements between corps and/or individuals.
6. No personal planet at start.
7. Ferrengi more agressive.
8. Rebang date in a couple of weeks to allow more time for pre-registration.
9. Time limit: 1 hour for every 200 turns, to give a chance to players not using helpers.

[Garth Vader]

Most tournament games are played without the Ferrengi because it would really suck to get knocked out because you had the bad luck to run into the Ferrengi a few times.

So if they are in the game they should be less aggressive.

[Urban Ranger]

I reckon having an aggressive Ferringi in the game forces players to be more defensively minded. A good player shouldn't keep running into them at any rate

[burbel]

Actually, I don't know if I agree with the no backstab
"rule" and the no secret alliances rule -- the first seems
to go against most multiplayer games that I normally plan
on, and the second seems to be *really* hard to find
and prosecute.

Also, if we're going to do so many deaths and you're out,
I would hope that the Ferrengi would be disabled. While
this would ruin any hopes I had of getting a citadel ,
I think it would make it fairer by only making kills by fellow
traders (or maybe blidn t-warps) counting, and eliminate
the random chance of encountering the Ferrengi.

Just my .02

[King Thor]

I am against the rules for no backstab and no secret alliances as well. Rules like these create a very narrow and simple environment, that is not nearly as enjoyable as a proper multiplayer enviroment. Secret alliances, and betrayal are a part of the game and unavoidable.

As far as the Ferrengi go, I say we leave them on a default setting. The Ferrengi in this game were very aggressive, the normal Ferrengi dont attack you unless you attack them, or stop their attempt at boarding you. They also mind their own business if you appear well armed. The Ferrengi in this game, however, attacked you without question and every single time.

Besides all that, this isn't a tournament game. Tournament games are for the purpose of testing player skill against each other. The standard game pits you against the game AND the players.