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Chaotic Chat v.2
#1
Welcome to the 2nd edition of Chaotic Chat, a bi-weekly column focused on turning real community questions into real answers. With the debut of Hamburglar's Trivia event (every Wednesday @ 10pm ET) and the massive Streaks/Sprees update, it's a busy month for Chaos, so let's get started:





Question #1 - Why is the safe zone limit for streaks set at 10 minutes, and not longer/shorter? (anonymous)



A. In looking for a word to describe what streaks were supposed to be, 'streak' was chosen based on multiple definitions: Move quickly in a specified direction, MOVE, an unbroken series of events, UNBROKEN, a continuous period of specified success or luck, CONTINUOUS.



When Hallu originally conceived streaks, they were supposed to be a continuous series of kills. At the time, sitting in safe for 15 minutes was longer than Hallu would have liked, but he didn't want to lower safe time, so he left it at 15 minutes before you lost your streak. With the advent of the 45 minute safe time, a streak could be held for far too long without action. In addition, long periods of idle time make it easier to 'game' streaks. This problem of non-continuous play was exacerbated by the ultra-long safe times that we are experimenting with now. The solution was to have the bot kill the streak after a certain amount of time - 5 minutes was first tested, but that seemed a bit too short, so now we have 10 minutes.



Upon entering a safe while streaking, you're bound to notice the new warning about the time, as well as the activation of the 'stoplight' display (a small green icon in the upper right portion of your screen). With about 30 seconds before the time is up, the stoplight turns yellow/orange, and then you lose it. However, you can refresh it by exiting safe before the time is up, but don't cut it too close! The safe detection is not immediate! So just nudge out and into safe every 10 minutes, and you can keep the streak.





Question #2 - Ever notice items from your ship disappearing when you win the flag game? I just lost all 3 of the bricks I had before I jumped back in to green/flag? (Sue E. Side)



A. Not a bug, this is hard wired into the server. Win the flag game == shipreset. In a normal flag game, a shipreset is a disadvantage...not necessarily here. That's why people are re-prized, but the prizing doesn't give bricks.





Question #3 - Whatever happened to Chaos with walled off areas? Depending on number of players? (Gold Teeth)



A. It was an experiment, and here are the results: smaller areas always led to smaller populations. A significant number of players do not like to play in a confined space. So they would just leave; they wouldn't just play in the mosh pit. So that meant that everytime the map shrunk to a new smaller size, the population would shrink even more. The map would be hard pressed to size back up afterwards. And all those usual players that like open maps would stop showing up.



Chaos encompasses many playing styles and goals. Many of those styles don't work well on a small map. Additionally, a large map is newb friendly. Newbs need space to start to figure things out. If they are forced into a heavily populated melee, they die over and over very quickly, and that makes them quit. With a large map, they can fly around the edges and start to figure things out without dying every 20 seconds.





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 me a ?message (Plutorus) with your questions/observations.



Thanks for reading!

-Plut
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#2
Terrible zone
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#3
Great Zone!
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#4
gg plut
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#5
I have countless questions you can answer if you're so inclined, like:



Whose idea was it to extend safe zone timers from the already ridiculous 45 minutes to 12 hours and what was the goal of doing so? Can I have his real name and/or home address?



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?



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.



Can you please move the reset/MoC wiinner info currently displaying many player names that should all be disqualified anyway to an unused area of the zone so the center of the map can serve as something more than a large, untraversable obstacle?



If the #2 pencil is the most popular, why is it still #2?
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#6
I think Sue is right.



I remember a time before the hideous monolith in the center of the zone, the flag game when it was just the flag game (nothing extra to pervert motivation), and 15min safe times....



Yep, i think yall got some explaining to do...



Is SVS Chaos a guinea pig to experiment on at will... or does it deserve to maintain its original mission.





AFTER EDIT:



i remember we used to not have a flag game.. but like 2 flags that would give super bullets... and a shark that could cloak.. etc etc
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#7
Bring on the countless questions! Since I'd like to keep each column between 3-5 questions, I can't guarantee I'll be able to use them all, but you're a lock to get some of them answered in the next post. Thanks as always, Sue <img src='http://www.subspace.co/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='Smile' />
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#8
[quote name='Plutorus' timestamp='1345620827' post='283798']

Bring on the countless questions! Since I'd like to keep each column between 3-5 questions, I can't guarantee I'll be able to use them all, but you're a lock to get some of them answered in the next post. Thanks as always, Sue <img src='http://www.subspace.co/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='Smile' />

[/quote]



It's funny that Hallu can't get on here and explain anything to the players and has to get someone else to do it for him. Terrible leadership = terrible zone.
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#9
[quote name='Ethylene!' timestamp='1345694403' post='283830']

It's funny that Hallu can't get on here and explain anything to the players and has to get someone else to do it for him. Terrible leadership = terrible zone.

[/quote]



This not the US govt and hallu is definitely not Obama... but many entities/governments/organizations have a PR person to deal with the community and help keep the lines of communication open. I know you know that online spaceships is big enough that 1 person can not possibly do everything. Maintaining the server, updating bots, trying to keep the game entertaining for newbies/vets alike, fixing problems, etc etc. All for absolutely zero pay. For a free game. Subspace is pretty f'in cool I think.
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#10
Ethylene is terrible.
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#11
Ethylene! = zone
One of the three most dangerous people in Subspace.
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#12
[quote name='passplay' timestamp='1345836824' post='283851']

[quote name='Ethylene!' timestamp='1345694403' post='283830']

It's funny that Hallu can't get on here and explain anything to the players and has to get someone else to do it for him. Terrible leadership = terrible zone.

[/quote]



This not the US govt and hallu is definitely not Obama... but many entities/governments/organizations have a PR person to deal with the community and help keep the lines of communication open. I know you know that online spaceships is big enough that 1 person can not possibly do everything. Maintaining the server, updating bots, trying to keep the game entertaining for newbies/vets alike, fixing problems, etc etc. All for absolutely zero pay. For a free game. Subspace is pretty f'in cool I think.

[/quote]



Yeah, sure, we all believe that.
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#13
Tap tap tap...
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#14
on my chamber door
One of the three most dangerous people in Subspace.
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