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
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