[SIZE=2]<AppocoAway> Good Evening, and welcome to the lastest installment of Creators Hour
<AppocoAway> We've not got too many announcements tonight
<AppocoAway> I know people are waiting to get back to beta, or trying to destroy that irritating evil planet that hurt them
all round before ticks stop in havoc on Friday
<AppocoAway> I will say that the beta is coming along quite well
<AppocoAway> we've yet to finalise stats or a score formula
<AppocoAway> and we're still discussing with the alliances a final alliance limit
<AppocoAway> did Marv or Assassin have anything to say?
<Marv> only that the beta ticks start again after CH
<Assassin> not really. Hello perhaps?
<Marv> it is fully reset
<Marv> so feel free to go saign up to get ready, i shall make sure everony has the correct res / tech stuff etc...
<AppocoAway> here they come
<Marv> and hello to all those getting the urge to suddenly join
<AppocoAway> oooh, one other thing. We're not sure about the state of the portal. We'll keep you updated as to
exactly what's happening, but we might just be signing up as normal on the server for now.
<Marv> oh and please dont nick talk etc..its just anoying :-)
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 1): <Roid> when do we hear bout the roundname competition?
<AppocoAway> I've been spending all day copying the names out of e-mails, actually
<AppocoAway> we have something in the region of 270 submissions
<Marv> appoco has quite the fan club this round
<AppocoAway> we'll shortlist these, and by Friday or so we should have a poll up for the round name
<AppocoAway> It's a lot better than last round, where we almost forgot about it
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 2): <[2]Narnia> other games give there members a reward if there game wind MPOGD can we get 100k
resources or something per planet if we win, that will motivate us more
<AppocoAway> I think that winning without resources does show
that it wasn't essential (even if I know some people voted a
lot more than others)
<AppocoAway> This isn't a question we really have to come back
to until christmas
<biffy> but needless to say we were thankful for all your
efforts
<AppocoAway> yes, we must have got quite a few players from
that
<AppocoAway>
<biffy> yeah
<biffy> tho i cant help but feel half the new planets were
just farms for you and Cin
<AppocoAway> it was quite nailbiting on the final day, so close before that final push put us well into the
safety region
<AppocoAway> Cin never attacked!
<AppocoAway> he spent all round stealing 1:1's incoming
<Marv> i never got inc or attacked
<Marv> everyone attack me next round
<AppocoAway> you were too small
<Assassin> (this isnt time for a convo)
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 3): <Rec_Edge> Why does the TIme have to be 24 Ticks before we can exile new planets?
<AppocoAway> this is a question from last CH
<AppocoAway> quite simply, it's a bit unfair if someone signs up and before they've even signed in they're
exiled from the galaxy
<AppocoAway> especially with the amount of our e-mails that managed to get classed as junk mails by hotmail
<AppocoAway> so, they need a bit of breathing time to at least say they're a world class PA player
<AppocoAway> and how active they'll be and how they'll win the round for you
<AppocoAway> before you exile them out of the galaxy
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 4): <Vikman> Any chance we see an ally fund and tax system for next round? <Vikman> If yes, how will
it work?
<AppocoAway> We might see an ally fund system, depending on how much I can code between now and the weekend
<AppocoAway> I got quite far with making one, but then unfortunately it broke and I can't work out why
<Assassin> youll have to show me that
<AppocoAway> so potentially, we can have a basic alliance fund
<AppocoAway> I don't think a tax system will be happening for next round though
<AppocoAway> (I am, however, trying to fix it so that we don't get those irritating news items in the MoD's news
every time someone breathes on the fund. I know how much I hated them when I was MoD!)
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 5): <Zubrok> what is the limit for buddy pack size
going to be in round 17?
<AppocoAway> It's not going to change from this round
<AppocoAway> we're going to leave the galaxy structure largely
unchanged
<Marv> i think they have worked well this round
<AppocoAway> The major complaints with the system this round
were the inactive exile system and the fact buddy pack
members couldn't exile
<AppocoAway> we're going to allow buddy pack members to exile,
and probably be galaxy exiled too
<AppocoAway> and the inactive exile will probably only be on
free planets. If it touches paid planets, they'll have to be
extremely inactive, due to the fact they're a paying customer
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 6): <Trutec> possibility of speeding the game
up?i.e 2 ticks an hour maybe? i can think of many pros and
cons.. just wondering
<AppocoAway> This has been discussed but the main issue is
that at the moment, you have time to (just about) sleep and
still be active enough to get incoming
<AppocoAway> half hour ticks would make the game shorter, but
you'd have to be twice as active
<AppocoAway> it's too slow for a speedgame, and too fast for a
round that you can live with
<AppocoAway> going the other way, 2 hours would probably make
people die of boredom
<AppocoAway> an attack would take the whole day
<AppocoAway> I can't see 1 hour ticks changing in the near
future
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 7): <[FC]Razgriz> Any clue to what the offical
alliance member limits are going to be for R17?
<AppocoAway> I'm currently discussing this with alliance reps,
as well as looking at the forums
<AppocoAway> the general view is to have a lower limit of 60-65, with either an upper limit of 80 or a limit on
how many members count towards score. Possibly the former is more familiar and easier, but they all have their
strong points
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 8): <[FC]Razgriz> What will be happening with the buddypack exile rule? Anything new, or going back
to R15 rule?
<AppocoAway> answered this :-)
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 9): <Dude> is there anything being changed to try and curb the xp whoring that seems to have taken
over pa?
<AppocoAway> We've got quite a few questions about this, I have to admit
<AppocoAway> I know a lot of people are concerned about it
<Assassin> indeed
<Marv> they are still coming in on the subject of xp
<AppocoAway> we are going to try and tone it down
<AppocoAway> the 2 options we have are 1 changing the score formula, or 2 changing the xp formula for capturing
roids
<AppocoAway> I think that XP should still be a valid way of playing, but at extremes I dont think it should
perhaps be quite a "round winning" option
<AppocoAway> I'm going to try and modify the combat engine over the next couple of days to see if an xp formula
such as roids capped*10*(target value/your value)*(remaining fleet/total fleet sent)^1/2 works
<AppocoAway> it would certainly make attacking and losing most of your fleet pretty useless, as you'd lose a lot
of XP
<AppocoAway> and it's possibly the best option
<AppocoAway> the original idea I had worked for end of round values to some extent, but was really horrible for
low xp
<AppocoAway> and a lot of people have problems with including a cross product of value*xp and how score was a
lot bigger than value, and that does cause issues for large values
<AppocoAway> we'll try and announce it for when we open signups :-)
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 10): <Dude> can i have a free credit if i annoy the bot enough?
<AppocoAway> no
<AppocoAway> CH_Bot might get very cross though
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 11): <Clouds> The alliance limit didn't benifit
most alliance's this round, 55 was too small for an
alliance. It was too small to have members covered with
defence. If possible, could you maybe enlargen the alliance
limit, maybe to 70? In previous rounds, I think the alliance
limit worked well with 80 max (if in the top 5). Having it
as 55/60 is too small in my openion.
<AppocoAway> we've sort of covered this
<AppocoAway> we will be having a slightly larger lower value
<AppocoAway> but then the smaller alliances do suffer, as
people migrate to the larger alliances
<AppocoAway> it's very difficult to come to a situation that
suits everyone
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 12): <[FC]Razgriz> do you really like it? Is it,
is it wicked?
<Marv> yes
<AppocoAway> we're loving it, loving it, loving it
<Marv> yes I am.
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 13): <Clouds> For r17, please could you turn down
the XP Whoring. Its getting really stupid how the game is
played, especially after this round (r16) where you cannot
attack a t10 planet due to their value being so low.
<AppocoAway> yes, we know
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 14): <HellKicker> can we have some fancy celebrity
to advertise for PA please? I'd really like seeing britney
in a tight "I love PA" top!
(make it white, so we can
pour water on it)
<Marv> shes fat :s
<AppocoAway> Assassin?
<Assassin> well
<Assassin> hellkicker my deer man have you saw britney latly?
Wudnt want her in baggy clothing never mind tight
<Assassin> perhaps appoc in a dress would do?
<AppocoAway> I'm not a celebrity
<Assassin> close enough
<AppocoAway> not even in my MMC t-shirt
<Assassin> all we could afford
<Marv> tbh Assassin and his looks could go for the cute ickle kiddy look...apeal to the femaile players
<AppocoAway> moving on
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 15): <Intruder> Does PAN will still be written on Ajax?? What kind of features we should expect from
this?
<AppocoAway> We are planning to change the layout
<AppocoAway> to something slighty different
<AppocoAway> we were planning to do something like ajax, but I'm afraid that's more a Kloopy question and we
won't be concentrating on it for a while
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 16): <Intruder> Jolt will keep the current advertisement policy for new PA??
<AppocoAway> biffy?
<AppocoAway> I believe Jolt were trying to organise advertising, but the person making our adverts had an
argument with Jolt about his pay and I'm not quite sure as to the status of them
<Assassin> hes nodded off bless him
<AppocoAway> we'd welcome flashy graphics to throw onto a few nice Jolt sites
<AppocoAway> I tried to get hold of alch's old ones, but he's not on much
<AppocoAway> someone just had a great idea of having a "best Planetarion advertisment competition"
<AppocoAway> where we offer 5 or 10 credits or so for the person who advertises Planetarion the best
<Assassin> that would be a good idea
<AppocoAway> that could be quite fun, but I'm not sure how we'll judge it, or how many people will be willing to
compete. Maybe if we finally use the referrer option... :-)
<Assassin> like the old days, all those great banners
<AppocoAway> we'll see where this goes, for sure :-)
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 17): <Intruder> Will netgamers do something about increase userbase anytime soon?
<AppocoAway> out of everyone, myself and biffy are Planetarion's representatives on the NG partners channel
<AppocoAway> but I'm not sure how they'd plan to advertise the network, and haven't heard anything
<AppocoAway> the best way of advertising is usually word of mouth for things like IRC
<AppocoAway> it's why I stay away from efnet
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 18): <Intruder> Any new stuff never used we should
expect on PAN ad wise and community wise??
<AppocoAway> the issue with PAN is how far to change things
<AppocoAway> most people have ideas as to how to improve the game
<AppocoAway> and, "more people" apart, if they were more the same it'd be very easy to do development!
<AppocoAway> *all
<AppocoAway> unfortunately, just about everyone has different views
<AppocoAway> I think that we can't afford to concentrate soley on people who sleep with their computer and are
online 10+ hours a day, we have to allow casual players to get something out of the game at only 2-3 hours a
day
<AppocoAway> unfortunately, this does lead to a huge clash of interests
<AppocoAway> in many ways, the xp vs value struggle is an example of this
<AppocoAway> and there's no easy answer!
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 19): <Cowmando> for next round is BP size 5 again?
<AppocoAway> yes :-)
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 20): <Jinstarro> Will you do something to decrease the effect of xp?
<AppocoAway> yes
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 21): <banky> when is the new round kicking off
<Marv> yes
<AppocoAway> signups open on Monday, and ticks start 1 1/2 weeks after that, on April 14th
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 22): <Dav> Has it been decided if fake def will be used or not? Personally this idea sucks as it
makes it too easy for people to def
<AppocoAway> I know a lot of people don't like fake def
<AppocoAway> I seem to be one of the few people for it, most days
<AppocoAway> it will be used, and it will mean people can send defence and not be around to recall it
<Assassin> i like it. For once i agree with you
<AppocoAway> however, it's remarkbly similar to the current
"fake defence"
<AppocoAway> the idea of fake defence has been used since ..
well since I can remember
<AppocoAway> Round 6, when a group of players all went xan and
defended each other with 1 vsh with all their fi in the
other fleet
<AppocoAway> I saw lots of fleets being recalled with no more than 6 vsh defending them
<Assassin> ahh the good old cloaked days
<AppocoAway> the only thing that i'd possibly do if fake defence is being introduced is to make the mission scan
show fake defence and normal defence
<AppocoAway> so if you scan a planet, it will tell you how many fake defence fleets and how many defence fleet
it's sending out
<AppocoAway> or something similar
<AppocoAway> (assuming they don't just have some incoming fleet sent at you)
<AppocoAway> but really, everyone acts like defence will suddenly happen all the time because of a new mission,
and I'm not quite sure why
<AppocoAway> if an experienced DC can explain it to me, I'd love to hear it :-)
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 23): <Clogg|gamin> will the stats be tweaked or are they finalised?
<Marv> they will be tweaked
<Marv> gate is doing more testing atm
<AppocoAway> I'll also look at them
<AppocoAway> most people are more happy with Cathaar
<Marv> the next beta, which start after this one is a full combat stats test
<AppocoAway> @
http://beta.planetarion.com/signup.pl , for anyone who was interested
<Marv> so post all Battle Reports etc so Gate can tweak some more and appoco can go over them
<Assassin> channel: #beta
<AppocoAway> stats are always fun
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 24): <Maverick> How about returning to the days when Eonium was used as fuel ? It meant that the
"big" people had to actually think about what they were doing, and it limits the amount of defence available
to sensible levels.
<AppocoAway> Simply because of the changes in the code, it won't happen for next round
<AppocoAway> the alternative option to changing eonium back to fuel, or adding a new resource, is to just have
say a fixed cost of resources to launch
<AppocoAway> x% of the fleet value
<AppocoAway> fuel does usually stagnate the round even more near the end though
<AppocoAway> I think there's a few discussions on the forums from a year or so ago, but I haven't read them
recently
<AppocoAway> if someone wants to bump one @
http://pirate.planetarion.com, then they're welcome to get the ball
rolling again
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 25): <pglee> i don't know how hard this will be to code but could we have like a toggable box in the
minister;s page (beside each planet, where it says upgraded/not) to put auto exile on/off for that planet.
Hence, if we have some mates who really really have to go away, we can turn off auto exile for em... but, all
the ministers must select the same option
<AppocoAway> this might actually be possible
<AppocoAway> :-)
<AppocoAway> I know that a few people have mentioned it on the forums
<AppocoAway> and I thought it looked really difficult
<AppocoAway> but in fact, it should be quite easy
<AppocoAway> I know that the rest of the PA Team are going "uh huh", because the things I code don't always work
<AppocoAway> it's certainly a possibility
<AppocoAway> I'll see if I can get it fixed in the next couple of weeks, before ticks start
<Assassin> wait till you see me code.
<AppocoAway> I think it would help
<AppocoAway> and then if we had auto exilers, it wouldn't matter so much
<AppocoAway>
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 26): <Misty|nekoed> will we finally see the controls in place for people with more than 1 player on
the same isp back in place ?
<AppocoAway> I assume this is in reference to the exception system
<Assassin> .....
<AppocoAway> unfortunately, ph8 excepted a system
<AppocoAway> and after the first round, we thought it was broken
<AppocoAway> in some way
<AppocoAway> *created
<AppocoAway> however, we never got another system sorted properly
<AppocoAway> and we seem to be surviving to a degree without it
<AppocoAway> unless Assassin wants to tell me off
<Assassin> Seems to be fine. A simple join #multihunters and tell me or email me
<Assassin> worked fine
<Assassin> for the time being
<AppocoAway> generally, we just advise people not to do stupid things like attack the same planet 10 times a
week and defend each other the rest of the time
<AppocoAway> if it's clear you're two separate people, we don't have a huge issue.
<Assassin> and yes
<Assassin> we do have the brains to spot the difference i do asure you
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 27): <LiNoGe> next round on the fleet Screen can we have an extra option of Anti Destroyer etc so it
saves time moving every ship seperate
<AppocoAway> we already have this :-)
<AppocoAway> er
<AppocoAway> yes
<AppocoAway> we have the ship names
<AppocoAway> their class
<AppocoAway> and their target
<AppocoAway> all of them clicky
<AppocoAway> so you can transfer by any of them
<AppocoAway> the only thing that was brought up recently was
the option of dividing a whole fleet
<AppocoAway> ahh
<AppocoAway> LiNoGe meant in the drop down boxes
<AppocoAway> I guess this might work
<AppocoAway> but I think most people use the clicky javascript
now :/ I know I do
<AppocoAway> if it's not too complicated, I'll see if it's
possible :-)
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 28):
<AppocoAway> ahh
<AppocoAway> .repeat
<CH_Bot> (Q 28): <^NoX^> can we have Appoco in a dress as a
game main image ?
<AppocoAway> no
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 29): <[Subh]SFlea> With the Ziks, The Pirate was a
dominant ship against FR, I feel Maras should have been the
same, but they proved to be a lot less effective, will they
be upgraded for R17?
<AppocoAway> the Pirate was effective because it was 0 loss,
basically
<AppocoAway> the Marauder got pretty mashed
<AppocoAway> as it got fired on first
<AppocoAway> we've changed the Pirate from targetting Frigates
now
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 30): <[BIG][Virus]> i like the layout how it is, its easy to use, but maybe change is good, will the
ter def stats be toned down because they where extremly strong this round?
<AppocoAway> Terran is a very problematic race
<AppocoAway> I made a post about this somewhere on Gate's stats thread
http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.p
hp?t=190182
<AppocoAway> Terran are meant to fire last and take damage before landing
<AppocoAway> unfortunately, if you die just a bit more and rely on heavy pod armour
<AppocoAway> this translates into playing for xp
<AppocoAway> and hence makes them very popular and large
<Assassin> (uve hit the hour mark btw)
<AppocoAway> There's no simple way of stopping it. I know Jester assured me that last round it was possible to
play Terran taking a value path, but I doubt many noticed.
<AppocoAway> We are trying to sort it out to some degree - Terran really need an attack combo that doesn't get
too trashed before it can fire on the enemy
<AppocoAway> but we'll see how it goes :-)
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 31): <Nitin|BDay> a question for biffy: outta curosity, why does your planet initiate a few roids
every 24h but never attack, but always grows value and do nothing else?
<AppocoAway> biffy is a very friendly gal mate. I've spoken to a few of them :-)
<AppocoAway> he doesn't like attacking people for roids, and instead sends most fleets ingal
<AppocoAway> he's quite popular in his galaxy by the end of the round, from what I can gather
<AppocoAway> and I don't think he gets that much incoming
<AppocoAway> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 32): <CutTooth> I don't know if you have been asked this on not, but is there any chance that when
you jpg and see a prelaunched fleet it could give you some inidcation of the length of prelaunch such as (+3).
Even if its only from the tick prelaunch is set it would be quite useful
<AppocoAway> The problem with prelaunch is that it can be changed right up to the tick
<biffy> yeah i most just defend my gal for the fun of it :>
<AppocoAway> if we gave some sort of time, it'd probably cause a lot of confusion as it'd be assumed that the
tick on the scan was the tick that it was going to launch
<biffy> salvage 4 t win!
<AppocoAway> heheh
<AppocoAway> biffy might be lagging :/
<Assassin> or just awoke
<AppocoAway> but that was basically my answer. I don't see why there should be a big prelaunch value, as it'd be
confusing as much as anything else
<AppocoAway> however, we've over run
<AppocoAway> so I'm afraid we'll stop there
<Marv> Just a reminder, very shortly after the end of CH ticks will start on the Beta. #beta is the place to be,
channel is +m atm while I fart about with things but it will open for discussion etc..
<Marv> hope to see you all there :-)
<AppocoAway> I'll post the log on the forums soon
<AppocoAway> and we'll take any questions that are floating around and not answered for our next CH
<AppocoAway> which will probably be sometime in the first half of next round
<Assassin> btw
<Assassin> for anyone interested, its my bday monday
<Assassin> (just for value)
<AppocoAway> (xp ftw!)
<AppocoAway> thanks for putting up with us for an hour
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