The Energon Pub

[Chaoslock]

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.

Thinking about faction-switching a bit further: While implemented direct switching wouldn't work because it could alienate players, maybe conscious switching toward outnumbered factions could have its benefits: extra energon, or personal alts/weapons/whatever will be available (with a time limit (months?) between faction changes, of course)

[Burn]

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.

That was more to balance out the number of controlled sectors.

We're bound to still end up with one faction having more members than others. That's always going to be a problem in this game if people are lumped into either 2 or 4 factions.

Good thing you can take the plunge and not be lumped. Mind you, that won't be an easy life ...

[Psychout]

That was more to balance out the number of controlled sectors.

Still likely to be an issue so it still needs to be looked at.

Faction switching will carry heavy penalties in game and V2 will still be the same factional-based HMW war game, just with far more freedom for those who prefer to fly solo.

Balancing issues will still have to be considered at some point down the line, ideally sooner rather than later.

[Me, Grimlock!]

Faction switching will carry heavy penalties in game and V2 will still be the same factional-based HMW war game, just with far more freedom for those who prefer to fly solo.

Maybe the penalty could be an inverse proportion to how big the need is? If there's a huge need for Preds, then I'd imagine that there would be less penalty for someone switching than if the Preds were even with everyone else.

[Absolute Zero]

The easiest and most effective way to do it, without having people swapping factions, is to turn off the ability to join a faction until the population in the other factions catches up. However, it's not popular.

[Omega Sentinel]

OK. Time to chime in.

Ah the issue of faction balance. Its haunted this game since day one. I've always said that game design and functionality cause balance issues more than a faction's population. So let's look at how it is being addressed...

1. NPCs - Staff will be able to toggle NPC characters that are allowed into missions. They will have a control panel that will allow them to say Mission X will get 2 Autobot Drones and Mission Y will get 1 Decepticon Seeker. If things are lopsided the staff can have particular missions backed up with infantry from that faction.

2. Quintessons - They will be an active participant in the game. Of course, they want to reclaim the planet so they will probably target the faction that's in control

3. Faction switching - It is possible for the user to do but it is something you have to earn to do it. It will be a slow process that you have to work for.

That's it for today....

[neliz]

That's it for today....

next class tomorrow at 9?

[Omega Sentinel]

That's it for today....

next class tomorrow at 9?

Read help pages 3 - 5 and write a one page essay on alt modes.

[Editor]

An alternate mode (commonly shortened to "altmode" or "alt mode", also known as a "trans-form" or a "transform") is a term used to describe a Transformer's non-humanoid form, whether it be vehicle, animal, or otherwise.

Some Transformers don't have a humanoid form, so in those special cases, the altmode is perceived to be the mode which is more geared towards utility or disguise while their robot mode is the one geared more towards interaction with other Transformers. For example, for the G1 characters Laserbeak and Ravage, their animal forms are their primary mode, and the cassettes their alternate modes. Even Grand Slam and Raindance, who transform from cassettes to vehicles, would be thought of as having a cassette alternate mode, as their vehicle forms -- while not humanoid or animalistic -- are at least self-mobile.

Transformers with more than two modes are usually considered to have multiple altmodes. (Punch/Counterpunch on the other hand has one altmode and two robot modes.)

In the cartoon episode "The Killing Jar," the Quintesson scientist refers to the Quintesson guard's transformation as his alternate mode, the first such use of this term in the official fiction.

The earliest recorded use in the fandom of the shortened term "alt mode" is an alt.toys.transformers post from March 1994. From the context, it appears that the term was already understood by fans at that time, as the post's author does not explain what he means.

Yes this is a stolen wiki entry, but after OS's post i felt i had to.

[Chaoslock]

[Tammuz]

okay, here's an old idea dunno if it will still work, but assuming target selection is still random and the game will continue to track individual's win rates would it be good idea/ possible to make the characters win rates proportional to their weighting in the target selection?

confused? yeah i've had a little too much caffiene

say "Gore" and "Dynamax" are in a Tag team, Gore has a 80% mission win rate Dynamax has a 55% mission win rate

keeping it simple, perhaps the game sums the win rates and the chance of targeting a particualr opponent is tthat opponent's win rate

so for our Gore/Dynamax tag team example the chance of Gore being selected as a target is 80/135 where as Dynamax is only targetd 55/135

this would have a couple of problems, it would mean high winning avoiders would do alot better, and character who win lots would hog the repairs, bit of which would prolly have a positive effect on combat.

i imagine it would be fluffed as a case of the enemey going "arg! it's Gore! forget everyone else concentrate fire on him!!!"

[Wingspan]

So long as there are additional considerations (so that a Level 0 with no Speed doesn't always attack a Level 6 with 8 Speed and always *whiffs*) the above is a very good idea. Perhaps the mission win percentage is the base and Intelligence would alter the targeting to take down the most damaged, attack high speed with tactics only, attack the lowest defenses, etc. That really makes Intelligence sound like the Dr. Evil stat.... picking on the little guy....

On to new business, is the V2 alt-mode list still going to be valid? Don't mean to spoil too much fun by digging up old-news, but couldn't hurt to ask.

[Tammuz]

yeah that would be a be a problem

perhaps some sort of sliding scale for INT so that at 0 int it's totally random and a 10int it totally winrate based

[Absolute Zero]

Why not threat based. The biggest threat isn't always the one with the best win percentage. Gore could be a inferior build to Dynamax, Gore is just in more missions where his side is outnumbered, while Dynamax has been tossing himself into every single mission, backup or not.

[City Commander]

Clearly someone was too busy playing x-cube to do his homework



(read OS's post)

[Tammuz]

Why not threat based. The biggest threat isn't always the one with the best win percentage. Gore could be a inferior build to Dynamax, Gore is just in more missions where his side is outnumbered, while Dynamax has been tossing himself into every single mission, backup or not.

becuase it very hard to build an algorithm that can accuratly identify which build is the most threatening, since that varies dramatically depending on the level, numbers and weapons, and configs themselves, and that will change as the mission plays out. going off win % is rather easy.

and it promotes playing against the number advantage rather than those that jump in becuase they outnumber the enemy, Dynamax actually gets a small advantage for all his "bravery in the face of overwhelming odds" as he'd be the lowest priority target, where as if you pull a steve, you'll end up being targeted for destruction first.

[Me, Grimlock!]

confused? yeah i've had a little too much caffiene

Or maybe I haven't had enough. Why would an opponent know the win rate of another faction's soldiers? Unless these are reputation rates...?

[Absolute Zero]

Why not threat based. The biggest threat isn't always the one with the best win percentage. Gore could be a inferior build to Dynamax, Gore is just in more missions where his side is outnumbered, while Dynamax has been tossing himself into every single mission, backup or not.

becuase it very hard to build an algorithm that can accuratly identify which build is the most threatening, since that varies dramatically depending on the level, numbers and weapons, and configs themselves, and that will change as the mission plays out. going off win % is rather easy.

and it promotes playing against the number advantage rather than those that jump in becuase they outnumber the enemy, Dynamax actually gets a small advantage for all his "bravery in the face of overwhelming odds" as he'd be the lowest priority target, where as if you pull a steve, you'll end up being targeted for destruction first.

True. It'd still like to be able to select rivals and have them be my target when I'm in missions against them.

[Tammuz]

i dunno M,g, it just seemed rather good way of making something a little self balancing, but yeah it's their reputation or something.


and yeah being able to target someone would be cool, though possibly a little abusable.

[Wingspan]

Would help in Alt-Hunts and Scalp-Hunts though.

[neliz]

Would help in Alt-Hunts and Scalp-Hunts though.

Or shut out some targets, in a tournament for instance. very very abuseable.

[Omega Sentinel]

You guys are along the right lines for intelligence eventhough you are putting it within the box of HMW1 attributes.

One thing it will do that you guys haven't mentioned is decrease your chances of being targeted. Combining that with targeting gives you statistical opportunities to "outsmart" opponents. Attributes and their functions will be listed in more detail when the preview is given.

[Redimus]

Surly, the best target is the one with the most xp no?
In theory the more xp, the better the build, so it works from that point of view, but also, it really punishes bad builds and charecters who should have leveled up already. Sure it also plays into the hands of good, high xp, avoiders, but good avoiders will do well anyway (at least at lower levels). Alternitivly, aim at the charecter with the most stats, becuase again, in theory, they should be the best/most dangerous charecter.

[Omega Sentinel]

Wouldn't it be cool if you could select what you want intelligence to target? Like using it to really make decisions in combat? hmmmmm.....

[Editor]

Wouldn't it be cool if you could select what you want intelligence to target? Like using it to really make decisions in combat? hmmmmm.....

Sounds like Mind-Taking Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeooooooooohhhhhhhhhh

Seriously thou, directed intelligence sounds pretty nifty.