SVS Subspace Forums

Welcome to Chaotic Chat, a bi-weekly column focused on turning real community questions into real answers. Thanks to you, this chat continues to flourish, so keep those questions coming! This week, we've got 5 great questions, from yobbo, lightbender, and Sue E. Side. If you're playing the drinking game at home, take a shot when you see the word "wildly":





Question #1 - When will we see a return of the "power-up" version of the flag game - the version where there is one flag that gives level +1 bullets and bombs? (yobbo)



A. There have always been mixed opinions on this version, but it is a possibility for a future reset. In fact, it's a topic that's worth more discussion - check out the forum for a brand new poll on the +1 flag game!





Question #2 - What are the differences between current chaos and true SVS settings? (lightbender)



A. In short, not much. Besides the Shark, there are very few real, material changes compared to SVS. The Shark and bonuses are new. And there are now wildly more greens than SVS, with a lower % of warp, super, shields, shutdown, and burst greens, with a few more thors.



Most ship settings are almost identical - the vast majority of the changes occurred in the 1998-2003 timeframe, with very little change since then:



- Warbird reduced to 290 rotation vs. 300 SVS

- All ships (except wb and jav) have 18 thrust instead of 17 SVS

- Terrier fire rate now much faster, increased to 25 vs. 30 SVS (all others except shark are currently 24)

- Lanc bombs bounce twice

- Bullet damage is 212 (matches league) vs. 400 SVS -- this has been this way for many, many years

- Burst bullets now 350 vs. 515 SVS (wow, 515!!!!! instant death)

- Anti-warp radius increased to 1200 vs. 1000 SVS

- Dynamic freqsize (since 2000)

- Repel speed reduced to 4200 vs. 5000 SVS

- Repel time increased to 295 vs. 225 SVS

- Banner points reduced to 1000 vs. 5000 SVS



You can see the current ship settings @ [url="http://chaos.subspace.co/?page=zonesettings"]http://chaos.subspac...ge=zonesettings[/url]



Super sneak peek: there will be a true SVS weekend (or longer) in the not-so-distant future!!





Question #3 - Why is there even a flag game in Chaos to begin with? (Sue E. Side)



A. Chaos has had a flag since 1998. It has at times had a power up, other times not. Jackpot style flagging was introduced in the mid-2000s. Chaos gets it's name from the wildly differing game goals that various pilots have - not from any random nature in the settings. Chaos has always supported a wide range of playing styles. Adding various types of flag games/mini-games gives people more choices about how to have fun the zone. However, flagging should never become the predominate game goal in Chaos.





Question #4 - What's the point of giving away 55-60 greens for a 0 point flag win? (Sue E. Side)



A. The first goal was to give a solo player something to do while waiting for others to show up to play. We often see players enter, see no one playing, then leave only to have a second come in within a minute and do the same. If the first player had stuck around for a minute, we'd have a seed of population that might grow. So, by collecting flags, you get to boost your greening power a little to spur interest.





Question #5 - What are the jackpot multipliers anyway? (Sue E. Side)



A. With the real stats being kept by the bots, the flag reward can be anything rather than the very limited version the server code allows. Currently, the jackpot (which accumulates from killed bounty) is split between however many people are on a freq AND playing at the time of the win.





And that's a wrap! You can help make this Q&A a regular feature to the forum, so please feel free to message me in-game, or drop a ?message (Plutorus), or even post your questions below.



Thanks for reading!

-Plut

gg once again plut!

You forgot one of Sue's questions. I'm pasting it here so you can answer it for the Chaos community...



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.

[quote name='Ethylene!' timestamp='1346601220' post='283943']

You forgot one of Sue's questions. I'm pasting it here so you can answer it for the Chaos community...



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.

[/quote]



The longer it takes to answer this question the more it makes it look like it's all true.

[quote name='Ethylene!' timestamp='1346715470' post='283971']

The longer it takes to answer this question the more it makes it look like it's all true.

[/quote]



I can't say for certain but I believe this has been referred to subspace legal. The rumors I am hearing is that this is potentially on the magnitude of Cloud trying to get the NAACP involved to allow the use of N-bombs in online spaceships.



If I hear anything else I'll post asap.

[quote name='passplay' timestamp='1346718877' post='283972']

[quote name='Ethylene!' timestamp='1346715470' post='283971']

The longer it takes to answer this question the more it makes it look like it's all true.

[/quote]



I can't say for certain but I believe this has been referred to subspace legal. The rumors I am hearing is that this is potentially on the magnitude of Cloud trying to get the NAACP involved to allow the use of N-bombs in online spaceships.



If I hear anything else I'll post asap.

[/quote]



Your reply speaks volumes and pretty much confirmed what I alredy knew. I won't be holding my breath waiting for you to "post asap"

From Sue E. Side

Quote: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?

I have a question.



Why do so many of the regulars avoid conflict?

I would understand it if these people were going for kill/death ratio... but they aren't. They really, really aren't.

I'm always going for kill/death ratio.

[quote name='Caerbannog' timestamp='1346854058' post='284026']

I have a question.



Why do so many of the regulars avoid conflict?

I would understand it if these people were going for kill/death ratio... but they aren't. They really, really aren't.

[/quote]



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 so glad im a bounty hunter at times like this lol



[url="http://youtu.be/3Ht5y1rX2zk"]http://youtu.be/3Ht5y1rX2zk[/url]

Hi all,



Sorry for the delay in upping the next column. I just moved, and now starting to settle in, so should be able to post sooner rather than later <img src='http://www.subspace.co/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



See ya ingame!



-Plut

Not many questions this week, so if you've got some, feel free to send them my way!



If not, we'll hold off on the next Chaotic Chat column until we get a few more.



-Plut





[quote name='Plutorus' timestamp='1348612697' post='284202']

Hi all,



Sorry for the delay in upping the next column. I just moved, and now starting to settle in, so should be able to post sooner rather than later <img src='http://www.subspace.co/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



See ya ingame!



-Plut

[/quote]

Hello all. I will post some more again to keep things moving <img src='http://www.subspace.co/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



1. is it possible to add a ?buy nightwasp to allow people to play the old school cloaker. ie your in a shark. you ?buy nightwasp you lose fast bullets and get cloak and old shark settings?



This could be fun. make it just work in safezone and put your ship at starting bounty.



2. how bout a reset with 0 bounty starts. Or if you die twice quickly you get hit with a 0 bounty start. A good in between always starting at 0 and the suicide train. Also if you kill someone twice fast would be making them a neg which would be fun.



3. how bout a .bonus king game. I know the game has bug issues but i do like it alot. Increase the countdown timer so you can't wait out the king drop. Add any quit bounties to the king game to make the reward worth something <img src='http://www.subspace.co/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> you could also add it only being playable if there are 10 people playing.



4. Will the Flag Game return to speed settings ie quick timer or can you toss it and get the power-up flag. When the flag game is the same as the points game what is the point of having the two separate games? Also i believe if you are going to try new settings they should be for the whole 2 weeks or at least in one week doses.



5. Can we get Ziggys Map again?



6. Will the Halloween map be up? tyrant is looking forward to it.



7. Any chances for Daily Champs. Biggest kill of the day/biggest bounty. Longest Lived Ship. Most points in one hour. Most kills in a hour. Something to allow someone something to shoot for if they are only going to play once in the week but for an hour <img src='http://www.subspace.co/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



8. Is something going on with the server? bots down? and i can't log in. haven't had any problems in ages and over the weekend/Monday lots of Demento problems



Have fun. now you have some questions.



...Axe

We did #2 once before and it was pretty awesome, a lot of fun. I think it was received well by many too. It was called something like "SVS98" weekend or something like that.

1. is it possible to add a ?buy nightwasp to allow people to play the old school cloaker. ie your in a shark. you ?buy nightwasp you lose fast bullets and get cloak and old shark settings?



No. One ship, one universal setup for certain things.

so you can't have something modify the basic settings of a ship? to in fact redisign it with a bonus if the buy command can't work that way.



Ie ?buy nightwasp. changes bounty to starting set. makes the fire rate oldschool. adds cloak.

if the shark basic settings restrict no cloak. make the spider modified to be like the old shark

You cant change just one players ship, if you change the settings for one shark, you change it for every shark in the arena.

so you can't mod just one ship. i thought you could in the olden days <img src='http://www.subspace.co/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> be given god powers etc

There are *ufo and *super, which if granted by a sysop make your ship quite the god mode. But the settings for those are what they are iirc and you can't add more *commands.



If there were no greens, you could start from garbage ships and ?buy stats etc. I assume this is what hyperspace does. Or use ASSS modules as extra parts for their ship via movin .lvz files.

It takes all kinds of cunning trickery to bend ss out of shape.

I've always wished players understood how ship/zone settings worked. They could answer a lot of their own questions about what is possible. Maybe that's asking too much because it kinda requires you to run a zone to learn the nitty gritty and limits of many settings... It would still be nice if they at least looked at a settings file and understood how they function, especially with what the bots can/can't do.



Sysop commands are kinda the same... you don't want to start with 0 bounty and then just green. 0 bounty = 0 speed/thrust etc = takes FOREVER to get enough stats to even make greening productive. You can start at 0 bounty and have the bots green you with exactly the greens needed... but then ploss might make it miss a couple and you get a massive spam with each new ship. Ship recycling real quick can cause doubling up depending on the prizes granted and lag.



For the record, SVS settings are much more than just what the ship stats are and the special item properties. One thing I noticed today in SVS98 settings is that the minimum downgrade energy is way higher than it's supposed to be. But the SVS98 setting currently active is probably at about 400, and it should be around 150 or something, if I remember correctly. Prizeweights seem off a bit too... but maybe I'm remembering settings for a different zone that did real SVS <img src='http://www.subspace.co/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />