The Energon Pub

If you have any ideas about how to save HMW post here!

NO nonsense! Just straight up ideas!

I say upgrade the server's RAM by 2 GB!!

How about asking for 1 time donations from everyone to help out with the upgrade cost.

Evolution Prime wrote:I say upgrade the server's RAM by 2 GB!!

lol, friggin Prime.

Ok on a more serious note, get rid of all the extras we don't need. Eliminating Battle Beasts would be a start. Its a fast way to up your energon but it really isn't needed. I don't know how much we need to have ranking per alt mode either. I'm not sure how much that takes up but it doesn't affect the game. Its just for personal use or reference. Just a master list of high scores updated every day at a minimum will be fine with me. We also probably don't need the Robot Modes unless they are going to actually have a tie into the game at some point. I know some like the minicons and others don't. They could be looked at being eliminated as well. At least they have a purpose in the game so they would be one of the last things I would look at getting rid of them.

I was actually happy with earlier versions of the game. They game was fine with me without all the extra bells and whistles. It is like a car with all the upgrades as possible. It is nice to have them all and it looks cool but in reality the stripped down version can do you just fine.

The title is a bit excessive, since I really don't think HMW is in any real danger of going away permanently.

But it's the thought that counts.

ranger wrote:How about asking for 1 time donations from everyone to help out with the upgrade cost.

The AWC did this at one time. I set up a PayPal account for the AWC to donate to Seibertron to help cover the costs of a new server. I tried to spark interest in it but it was a point when things were going along slow.

I think that this could be done again, though we don't have to set up a large account like I did.

• Cut down on missions - In other words, wipe what there is. Define a set number of mission brackets with level 0 being the only single level set of missions. Minimum mission numbers is 4-6. No tag teams or triple threats. All up there will be 48 missions for the generator to pick.

• Mission generator put on "player push" only. Missions will ONLY be generated when a player finds none available. This will stop random unnecessary missions being generated

• Revert back to two factions - plain and simple, there are not enough players to justify the extra resources needed to maintain four factions.

• Have the high scores update daily (at a quiet time) instead of hourly. Worse case scenario if that doesn't help, it gets removed entirely.

• Remove Battle Beasts. No one wants it anyway now that we have better ways to waste energon.

• Toss Alpha Strike out as a Mod. Seems a waste of resources having his name at the top when he does nothing.

Over to Tammuz who will fill in the gaps I missed!

Evolution Prime wrote:

ranger wrote:How about asking for 1 time donations from everyone to help out with the upgrade cost.

The AWC did this at one time. I set up a PayPal account for the AWC to donate to Seibertron to help cover the costs of a new server. I tried to spark interest in it but it was a point when things were going along slow.

I think that this could be done again, though we don't have to set up a large account like I did.

I would be willing to give a few $$$$

At the minute, I think eliminating armour and its calculations would probably help. One less thing for the game to have to compute in each battle log would ease the burden.
In addition, the high scores update hourly. If this was daily instead, that's 23 less computations per day.
Cutting the number of missions would force more players into each, keeping the number of logs down. If there's a valid mission to enter, don't generate a new one - keep it so that missions are only generated when a player can't find a mission s/he is able to enter.
Have the Bots/Maxis and Cons/Preds brought back to two factions. If possible, let the beast players retain their faction symbols, but if there's only two sides as far as the mechanics go, that's less missions being generated too.

EDIT: Damn you cuddlebuttons!

Caelus wrote:The title is a bit excessive, since I really don't think HMW is in any real danger of going away permanently.

But it's the thought that counts.

u wanted it generalized well... its generalized take it or leave it

I really think that Donations are a bad idea, and here's why I think this:

This game is nonprofessional, nonprofit, and basically a sideline to the site that Seibertron uses as a draw to bring people here and keep them here. We can dicker over HMW's status in the hierarchy of seibertron.com all we want, but ultimately, what's important is that it's not a professional endeavor.

Nevertheless, almost everytime the game goes down, glitches, etc., we get inundated with players demanding that the game be brought up, demanding that this or that get fixed immediately, demanding that we get more programmers, demanding that the game be given top priority over everything else on the site.

Essentially, a lot of people treat this as if it were a game that they had invested money in, as if Seibertron had a contractual obligation to them to keep the game running at optimal condition 24/7/52.

Now, what if those people do invest money in the game? Unless they invest enough money to hire a team of full-time professional programmers and a couple of additional servers, the game will continue to fall short of their expectations, and will probably continue to occasionally fail. Or hell, something catastrophic could happen to Ryan in RL - it's unlikely but bad luck happens to all of us - forcing him to cut back or shut down the site.

But if some players have sunk money into the game, even if it's just a $5 Donation with no contractual obligation, they will now believe even more strongly that Seibertron has an obligation to them, that HMW is their right, etc. Even if that didn't result in successful legal action against Ryan, it could still result in lots of bad feelings, and basically a lot of Ryan getting his rep dragged through the mud.

On that basis, I'd rather shut down the game than take the risk of accepting donations.

Additionally, we can also debate the legality of the issue - hypothetically, if the monetary donation is not required to play, and Ryan doesn't make a profit off the game, he's in the clear.

Hypothetically.

But we do live in a country where burglars can successfully sue a family for accidents that occur while robbing the family's home. Such aberrations are rare, but possible. Especially if Hasbro can pay for a better lawyer than Ryan can (which is a given) and Ryan doesn't keep absolutely flawless records of his finances.

And while I do believe Hasbro would turn a blind-eye to the game, they have, in the past, been called on similar things by third parties (who shall remain nameless) and pressured to take action.

Adding donations to the equation is just really, really risky.

If you guys really want to show your appreciation for the game, fly to Chicago and buy Ryan a beer.

Anyway, that's my personal opinion. It could be Ryan feels differently. I don't know.

Burn wrote:• Cut down on missions - In other words, wipe what there is. Define a set number of mission brackets with level 0 being the only single level set of missions. Minimum mission numbers is 4-6. No tag teams or triple threats. All up there will be 48 missions for the generator to pick.

• Mission generator put on "player push" only. Missions will ONLY be generated when a player finds none available. This will stop random unnecessary missions being generated

• Revert back to two factions - plain and simple, there are not enough players to justify the extra resources needed to maintain four factions.

I like these ideas as well, especiall about the mission generator being on a "player push" to generate them. I also like it better when it was just Bots vs Cons. If you want to be a Maximal or Predacon, just pick the animal alt modes.

I get what you are saying about donations there, Caelus. I would only be used as a last ditch effort. To me it would be a free will offering of sorts. I'm sure none of us would want to get Seibs in trouble over a game. Some of us do take this too setiously, though. While I like playing the game, I understand it is just part of something bigger. Afterall, this is a site about Transformer, not a gaming site.

If the Beast Factions had been available from the beginning, I think we might be okay.

But as it is now, the Beast Factions each have, what? Two dozen players each? With no way of adding new ones. We still don't have our own alt-rotation or missions to obtain Armor (if that function is still in play).

It was great to be on the leading edge of what looked to be a new faction with lots of promise, and the four-way split was going to make the v2 Map system much more interesting, but since the new factions have been more or less abandoned... I think we'd all be better off to go back to the 2-Faction split.

And hey, creating the Maximals and Predacons was 90% about finding out if additional factions were possible. In that respect, they were a success, and have served their purposes.

Would be great if we could choose faction icons for our teams though.

The Maxis and Preds could always be re-instated some day in the future, but I agree that for now they're a bit unecessary.

Caelus wrote:Would be great if we could choose faction icons for our teams though.

Surely that would be easier to code than coding for the four separate factions?

Jeep! wrote:

Caelus wrote:Would be great if we could choose faction icons for our teams though.

Surely that would be easier to code than coding for the four separate factions?

Unfortunately, the real question is:

Would that be easier for Mkall to code than coding for the four seperate factions was for OS to code?

Speculating ways to speed up the game is great and all, but I don't know if it'll be of much use. It's very difficult to say which features of HMW use up the most server resources from the outside looking in. For example, cutting the beast wars factions or battle beasts gambling could speed up the game, but if that only makes up %0.5 of HMW's server load it'd be more bother to remove than it's worth.

Obviously, the upgrades we'd want to make would be to the code that makes the most difference, and to know what's taking the most time to process we'd need statistics/data that we the players can't really have... I have some experience programming... but given how most of the game calculations are hidden from view I can't even imagine what the guts of the game really look like.

Caelus wrote:

Jeep! wrote:

Caelus wrote:Would be great if we could choose faction icons for our teams though.

Surely that would be easier to code than coding for the four separate factions?

Unfortunately, the real question is:

Would that be easier for Mkall to code than coding for the four seperate factions was for OS to code?

Ah, but the real question at the minute could be: Would it be easier for someone here to help Mkall do it, since quite a lot of players here have programming backgrounds and they could pool together to hammer something out?

Though it was Fun being a Predacon I wouldn't be against merging the factions back into the two con and bot with the hope that maybe one day in the future it can be worked out. One thing I would like if it did happen was adding the alts for the Preds and Maximals into the generator for everyone to still use.

The mission idea is good one too.

First Gen, Crazzi, (and anyone else not contributing) seriously. Keep your petty smack talking out of this thread.

I'm sure Mkall and Ryan would appreciate not having to wade through tons of useless posts just to find a few ideas that may be do-able and helpful.

Come on folks, if you really value this game and want to see it continue, keep it on track. Please.

Burn wrote:First Gen, Crazzi, (and anyone else not contributing) seriously. Keep your petty smack talking out of this thread.

I'm sure Mkall and Ryan would appreciate not having to wade through tons of useless posts just to find a few ideas that may be do-able and helpful.

Come on folks, if you really value this game and want to see it continue, keep it on track. Please.

I'd say Ryan upping the RAM by 2GB is right on track. And Im sure MKall is trying to get HMW going without sacrificing anything in the process.

Besides, it was working fine, Ryan took it offline to post the gallies and and the RAM. And if I recall correctly, MKall has a thread for ideas in his War Journal HERE!

So save your blasting me for something you do 10 out of 11 posts.

Before everyone sticks a fork in the Beast factions, maybe it would be possible to keep the factions in name (you can be Autobot or Maximal, and Decepticon or Predacon), and just have the Maximals and Autobots enter missions on one side and Decepticons and Predacons enter missions on the other. The extra Beast faction forums can be folded back into the G1 factions, but we'd keep the faction insignias and, if it doesn't use up too much resources, maybe have a different (more beast heavy) alt selection.

Just a thought.

Actually, as a Moderator, I have to agree with Burn.

I was going to turn a blind eye to a half dozen off-topic posts, but if it continues it will become a serious problem and I'll have to issue warnings, etc.

And no one wants that, right?

So, a zinger here or there is good for morale, but let's not let this go the way of the other two threads.

Edit: I was going to resurrect the old Smack-Talk Thread and move the irrelevant posts from here to there, but i can't find it!

If someone thinks they can find it, go for it. You won't get in trouble for necro-bumping on this one.