The Energon Pub

[Psychout]

Its not been 100% decided yet, but its likely to be.

Personally, I think 10 is a better number as we wont be limited to activating them in 6's anymore (they will all always be active), but im sure a few of you will disagree.

[Tammuz]

37, it's a prime number.

[Psychout]

There will be no 'Prime' on my team.

[Ouroboros]

Hmm, I always thought there would be an increase in character slots. Too much strain on the servers?

I could live with 10, but I would prefer 12 or more.

[Redimus]

Well V2 is suposed ot be much better writern and much more effcient, so on that logic, if the server can handle 12 on V1, then V2 should have no problem with more.

[Omega Sentinel]

Well V2 is suposed ot be much better writern and much more effcient, so on that logic, if the server can handle 12 on V1, then V2 should have no problem with more.

That is true (still can't go unreasonably high though). It has been coded to handle a range of maximum characters and I'm leaning towards keeping it at 12 but we do have flexibility.

[Kaijubot]

I know I'd have a hard time deciding which characters to lose if it was any less (and I'd be rather unimpressed at having to choose).

[Me, Grimlock!]

If you do'nt put this in, I'm threatening to eat all your houseplants.

They are plastic

You're bluffing. Either way, now I'm eating your houseplants *and* all the freon in your fridge. Just for insubordination.

You've been Grimlock'd!

[Name_Violation]

i don't know about anyone else but being labeld a traitor wouldn't matter to me.

i would like the label coward for people who don't do missions for a couple of weeks. an incentive to not let your account go inactive for too long.

but then again who would really care about a few letters of text under their name?

if people like the idea of the traitor thing what about (former faction name)defector, betrayer, traitor, renegade, or rebel, based on where they left. predecon renegade, or autobot rebel, decepticon betrayer sound cooler to me...

than again whats in a name?

[Wheelimus Prime]

wtf, i stop spamming the HMW:GD and everything goes about all this hmw2 crap i need to post more

[neutralstate]

Well V2 is suposed ot be much better writern and much more effcient, so on that logic, if the server can handle 12 on V1, then V2 should have no problem with more.

hmm... i think that might not be true. i was almost convinced by it but on closer analysis i think OS might need to trim down on the number of bots per team.

I think one of the big issues a free game like HMW faces is server disk space. Even if V2 is trimmed down to be more efficient, this only affects the size of the base program on the server. IF HMW bots are to have more features, then no matter how streamlined the new program is, it cannot overcome the increased space required by the new features incorporated into each bot.

To see what i mean, consider the maximum disk space one player occupies in HMW1. Assuming each stat (which ranges from 0 - 10) takes up 1 byte, then an approximation of the number of bytes each player takes up is b * m * 1, where b is the max number of bots, m is the number of skills / stats per bot and 1 is the space needed to store each stat. If HMW2 implements one feature, like say a new skill like "Explode" (sorry, couldnt think of anything better ), then m increases by 1, for every player there is on the server. Since this increase in disk usage is multiplied by the number of players on the server, it will quickly outstrip the space saved by the streamlining of the main program itself.

So sadly.. i am prepared to lose a couple of bots for HMW2

[Redimus]

Well V2 is suposed ot be much better writern and much more effcient, so on that logic, if the server can handle 12 on V1, then V2 should have no problem with more.

hmm... i think that might not be true.

That is true (still can't go unreasonably high though). It has been coded to handle a range of maximum characters and I'm leaning towards keeping it at 12 but we do have flexibility.

Should read the posts that arnt in red too!

Also, you clearly dont relaise how ineffcient and poorly writern the origanal HMW was. And whilst Glyph and OS have done their best on this code, it is still basicly the origanal code, which means it's still basicly knackerd. I never knre Vir (origanal programmer, he was before my time) but it seems pretty clear he was no profesional.

[Omega Sentinel]

I never knre Vir (origanal programmer, he was before my time) but it seems pretty clear he was no profesional.[/color]

He was a professional. HMW was just never designed with longevity or expansion in mind. Most of the things people wanted to add to the game pretty much require a new game.

But in HMW2 the processing time is cut by a large percentage and the logs take less than half the space of this game. Add to that the fact seibertron has a huge server and the new game has very large resources to expand from this game.

[Name_Violation]

so are we gonna have to make all new bots? is hmw2 just gonna be an update or a whole new game?

just trying to figure out if i'll need to start over or if our existing accounts will just be upgraded

[Wingspan]

I suppose that would be one request - can character names transfer if nothing else? Naturally, if no, then at least we'll be prepared. Also if no it means some names may free themselves from inactives.

But, per posts fair earlier (which I'm not digging up right now), no XP or history will cross-over. Everything's new. Our Seibertron accounts will not change but their access to HMW II will be allowed when it's deemed ready.

[Name_Violation]

does that mean hmv 1.8 (the current version) will no longer exist?

[neutralstate]

Well V2 is suposed ot be much better writern and much more effcient, so on that logic, if the server can handle 12 on V1, then V2 should have no problem with more.

hmm... i think that might not be true.

That is true (still can't go unreasonably high though). It has been coded to handle a range of maximum characters and I'm leaning towards keeping it at 12 but we do have flexibility.

Should read the posts that arnt in red too!

Also, you clearly dont relaise how ineffcient and poorly writern the origanal HMW was. And whilst Glyph and OS have done their best on this code, it is still basicly the origanal code, which means it's still basicly knackerd. I never knre Vir (origanal programmer, he was before my time) but it seems pretty clear he was no profesional.

yup, point taken. i actually also read wad OS said, i was just pointing out that the addition of new features causes the space used up to increase linearly ( O (n) ) wrt to the players in the game, whereas a optimization in the code causes a constant ( O (1) ) reduction in space taken, so if there are many new skills and stats in the new game then it might not be possible to have the same number of bots again, from a theoretical stand point.

i am not sure about the actual processor usage and efficiency of the program itself though. however i don't think processor usage affects the number of bots one can keep, disk space is more of an issue in that sense, so efficiency of the program itself doesn't really ( i think!) affect the number of the bots one can keep.

just my 2 cents i might be way off!

[Starlock]

Well V2 is suposed ot be much better writern and much more effcient, so on that logic, if the server can handle 12 on V1, then V2 should have no problem with more.

That is true (still can't go unreasonably high though). It has been coded to handle a range of maximum characters and I'm leaning towards keeping it at 12 but we do have flexibility.

12 is a pretty good number overall worked for this version. Going by this version if it were to have more 18 would be a maximum that look good coming from a faction where getting all 12 in cr chamber at one time it be quite handy. Of course don't know the limitations of activating in V2 and other features unless it uses a similar 6 activated type.

I still lean towards the idea of being able to earn/buy character slots. Have the 12 given character slots to everyone and if want more they have to unlock them by doing something a bit more difficult like achieving certain X xp on character/team, mission score, win streak, top score repeatedly, give OS a spongebath, be part of missions that conquer territories, kill x of each faction, etc.

[Burn]

so are we gonna have to make all new bots? is hmw2 just gonna be an update or a whole new game?

just trying to figure out if i'll need to start over or if our existing accounts will just be upgraded

It'll be pretty much the same as what happened a few months back with the reset.

Everyone will start from scratch, you'll have to create new bots etc etc.

Your forum account won't be touched. Just the in game stuff.

Before people jump up and down, as was explained a few pages back, the current HMW database can NOT be imported into HMW2's database, plus it's best to have a fresh start for an entirely new game anyway.

[neliz]

HMW, like any good online game needs auto-balancing. if a team wins too much because all the "top" players are lumping together then the next round some of those players might see their allegiance changed. Just to balance the game and give everyone a fighting change, not just one group of people who take HMW a bit more serious than the rest.

[Loki God Of Mischief]

HMW, like any good online game needs auto-balancing. if a team wins too much because all the "top" players are lumping together then the next round some of those players might see their allegiance changed. Just to balance the game and give everyone a fighting change, not just one group of people who take HMW a bit more serious than the rest.

So basically you want something implemented to stop teamwork because your faction sucks at it compared to the other three?

[neliz]

So basically you want something implemented to stop teamwork because your faction sucks at it compared to the other three?

Thanks for the bash and no, playing the game with the same group of people isn't teamwork, it becomes teamwork when every week you find yourself with new players on the battlefield and a way to communicate with them has to be integrated.

It's called balancing. Something I hear a great deal about here but nobody attacks the cancer at its root.

[Chaoslock]

HMW, like any good online game needs auto-balancing. if a team wins too much because all the "top" players are lumping together then the next round some of those players might see their allegiance changed.

Sorry, but I had to imagine this... So, basically, than in All Hail Megatron, Megs would point to Devastator, and say: "He's an autobot from now on, kill him!"

Or Bush could just half the american army, and say to them: "from now on, you're with the talibans"


I think real wars doesn't work that way, but, I could be wrong

[Psychout]

HMW, like any good online game needs auto-balancing. if a team wins too much because all the "top" players are lumping together then the next round some of those players might see their allegiance changed. Just to balance the game and give everyone a fighting change, not just one group of people who take HMW a bit more serious than the rest.

When HMW V2 was originally announced aaaaaaages ago, before it was abandoned/postponed for reasons that now escape me, the idea was that there would be an 'alien' entity (Quintessons in that case) to act as a balancing influence and harass the leading team allowing the others to catch up, helping to create an 'endless' game.

Its not been discussed for this version yet, but the idea hasn't been forgotten. A game like this with 4 uneven 'teams' will always have certain factions at a disadvantage and i'm certain an attempt will be made to try and level the playing filed as much as possible.


Chaoslock does make a good point, but we don't want the second great war for Cybertron to end in 6 weeks, do we..?

[neliz]

I think real wars doesn't work that way, but, I could be wrong

I think it was clearly defined that HMW is not a real war, but it's a bunch of bits on the internetz somewhere.