The Energon Pub

News Credits: 7 · by **alldarker** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 2:56 am

So... In the last weeks I have been encountering hardly any Decepticon resistance AT ALL. Just a very few small pockets of insurgence which are often easy to eradicate.

My fellow Autobots: I'd say that the end of the Heavy Metal War is near, and the Decepticons have been vanquished!!!

Rejoice! ALL ARE FINALLY ONE!!!

by **Jack Hallows** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 1:17 pm

for those that were there, the war will never be over...

by **Insidious** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 2:30 pm

I would be hard-pressed to disagree, what with all the Autobot insignias cluttering up my "Your Recent Missions" feed as of late.

by **darksabrz** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 2:47 pm

I confess to having my own theory about why that's the case -- mostly, I think the Decepticon players are outnumbered at least 2:1, if not 3:1. It's rare to see the Decepticon side of a mission get many characters, while the Autobot side routinely seems to fill up rather quickly. Probably doesn't help when the low-level Decepticon players run into "level 3" and "level 4" Autobots that should easily be at least level 5, if not level 6, by their XP alone, but won't update except to get the most killing power within that lower-level range... and I know of at least 2-3 Autobot players who have made their career off doing exactly that.

It can be frustrating, especially when you know that there's such an imbalance there to begin with, for Decepticon players to put in characters when they're pretty well assured that they'll get very little for their trouble except a stasis-lock repair bill to eat away at the energon, and if they're lucky, maybe a teensy bit of XP. The RNG gods don't seem to like me much, though, because most times in that situation I get no XP at all and lose energon for trying to help out the Decepticon side... and I've already past the point of not bothering in some missions at all because of the sheer imbalance.

by **Insidious** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 3:11 pm

Hah, well, I toss my boys in to missions with no concern whether they'll win or lose. It's usually just a distraction inbetween posts on the rpg anyway. So if you see my name tracking at the bottom of the site, it's a safe bet I'll have my 'Cons in missions helping yours and anyone else's

I'm actually surprised I've stuck around this long. Goes to show what an addicting little hobby this can be if people can stick with it and build their guys up. I almost have one level 7 on my team, lol.

News Credits: 7 · by **alldarker** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 2:54 am

It's sort of funny to know that the situation which Darksabrz describes used to be exactly the other way round, a couple of years ago.
Back then, the Autobot's always seemed to be heavily outnumbered by the Decepticons in exactly the way Darksabrz describes it now for the Decepticons.

I really wonder how that switch-around has been made possible... Have the people who choose the Decepticon side less motivated?

by **Phaze** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:15 am

alldarker wrote:It's sort of funny to know that the situation which Darksabrz describes used to be exactly the other way round, a couple of years ago.
Back then, the Autobot's always seemed to be heavily outnumbered by the Decepticons in exactly the way Darksabrz describes it now for the Decepticons.

I really wonder how that switch-around has been made possible... Have the people who choose the Decepticon side less motivated?

i blame borderlands 2 for my reduction in game time :lol:

I'm not worried about being outnumbered its just like it was back in the day being an autobot talk about your de ja vous.

News Credits: 226 · by **Burn** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:04 am

alldarker wrote:I really wonder how that switch-around has been made possible... Have the people who choose the Decepticon side less motivated?

I think you'll find it has less to do with motivation and more to do with moving onto other things that are actually updated.

Phaze wrote:I'm not worried about being outnumbered its just like it was back in the day being an autobot talk about your de ja vous.

So ... you're saying it's all your fault?

by **Phaze** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:24 am

Burn wrote:
alldarker wrote:I really wonder how that switch-around has been made possible... Have the people who choose the Decepticon side less motivated?

I think you'll find it has less to do with motivation and more to do with moving onto other things that are actually updated.

Phaze wrote:I'm not worried about being outnumbered its just like it was back in the day being an autobot talk about your de ja vous.

So ... you're saying it's all your fault?

Probably

I've been out numbered in every faction i've joined started with the autobots then to the predacons and finally the cons.

News Credits: 7 · by **alldarker** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:10 am

Burn wrote:
alldarker wrote:I really wonder how that switch-around has been made possible... Have the people who choose the Decepticon side less motivated?

I think you'll find it has less to do with motivation and more to do with moving onto other things that are actually updated.

Updates really shouldn't matter to people with OCD :lol:

It's not like this game ever saw any updates in the last 5 years... It's just annoying to see interest in HMW at an all-time low. I guess with players now pulling ahead so far, it's become a complete illusion for anyone even contemplating joining the game to catch up.

Asides from a real update, the thing that would most likely improve interest in the game from new players (while probably killing any remaining interest from existing players) is... a complete reset!

by **darksabrz** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:44 am

Believe me, I remember when it was the other way around, and SNAPCASE was one of the most high-profile Decepticon-to-Autobot moves at the time. I suppose it does take spells.

For me, it's like I'm still starting all over again, especially since before the crash that formed the last reset, I had at least half of my 12-mech team over the 10M XP mark... and that took me something like a year and a half or thereabouts to achieve. My top character now is slowly edging towards 1.6M, and then only because I'm trying to keep all my characters in fairly close proximity to one another (and my bottom six are anywhere from 200K-300K back from that mark). Just difficult when you can't get the XP because the lower-level missions aren't worth it, and the 1-11 missions are usually (not always, but usually) dominated by high-levels of both sides.

News Credits: 2 · by **-Soundwave-** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 10:40 am

See what happens when I get distracted? Bots think the war is ending. Geez.

News Credits: 226 · by **Burn** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 2:53 pm

alldarker wrote:Updates really shouldn't matter to people with OCD

There's other reasons too. But such a discussion might upset someone.

News Credits: 3 · by **Name_Violation** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:38 pm

Sustain wrote:See what happens when I get distracted? Bots think the war is ending. Geez.

ya know?

by **_Anshin_** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 7:29 pm

Well, I have purposely been playing less of my 8/9 level characters and leveling up my 5-8 characters. The only character in constant play for me is Darq. I haven't leveled him only because I like to have him see some action. Most of the 7-10 and 9-11 missions are empty for him. I will be glad to level him to 10 if it will get more players out there.

As for the players on sides being outnumbered it is true that there are more active bots than cons. The cons that play use to play much harder and with longer play times. Having a job that wakes you up at 1 am to restore a server or working 18 hours a day to build a network allows me to pretty much play all hours. In fact I despise the job I'm at right now due to the hours of useless support I have to maintain. My average work week is 68 - 72 hours a week.

I am willing to say though that if playing my higher level bots will help with xping the lower cons I'll go back to my primary 6 instead of my secondary six.

News Credits: 226 · by **Burn** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 7:43 pm

Not levelling up when you could easily do it (and by easily I mean being able to have 3-4 stats past the necessary point) has always been regarded as cowardice in this game.

But you're just not playing those characters so it's not a big deal.

The lack of high level 'Cons is because N_V and even Potentate stopped playing (roughly the same time ... interesting

) and a major lack of level 11 'Bots for the lower guys to feed off.

by **_Anshin_** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 7:51 pm

Nah, I usually level all my bots up. Darq is the only exception to this, but once I got him to the point to level to 10 everyone kind of stopped playing. Right now about 2/3rds of his xp is either 1,000k wins from empty 9-11 missions or 800 7-10 missions.

My primary group right now has been Nyteshade who is about 4 points from 10 and then the rest of my 8-5. The only one I can actually level to a new level would be Darq and that pretty much takes me out of the 6-9 missions and destroys most of his Xp.

News Credits: 226 · by **Burn** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:13 pm

Yeah there's no point levelling up TOO soon, like I said, if you can do 3-4 points into the next level, do it.

Plus anything past level 10 you're putting into pointless stats anyway so you don't have to worry about balancing. It's all about the carnage and the ridiculous scores ... which just aren't happening at the moment even though they could be.

by **The Potentate** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:35 pm

I wish I had more time to play! Took a new job back in May and its occupied a lot more time than I ever expected. Still pop in when I can though.

Im willing to Level Nosferatu up to 11 if it would help the game at all. Exodus and the rest are as high as they can get for now!

News Credits: 226 · by **Burn** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:36 pm

N_V and The Potentate return on the same day ... and they disappeared around the same time ... :-?

by **darksabrz** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 8:50 am

Your characters, Anshin, have a valid excuse -- I admit, I have two rather expensive level 3s right now that are top-end and just stockpiling XP, but the only reason I have them there is to have a basis for potentially dual-tactics play (Takedown is a Heavy Assault Vehicle, Piranacon a Sea Monster); both are dedicated rammers, but I want the XP to make a go of potentially opening up Strafe and getting a bit of Firepower as well.

I admit, I'm a little impatient, but mostly because I'm in that "tweener" stage, as it were -- I'm still considered low-level in a sense (I personally consider 0-4 low-level, 5-7 mid-level and 8+ high-level), but I'm wanting to get into the mid-level/high-level play more. And I can't do that when I have to contend with characters that have 6M+ xp and could make really good level 5s, if not low-end (upgrade-wise) level 6s with plenty of room to develop, but are only using just a tetch over 4M in their builds at best to make high-cost builds and stay in level 4 to whore XP. Personally, I think it's like Burn put it -- they're being cowards who are afraid of being in higher-level play because they think they won't be able to do nearly as good as they are by whoring XP off low-levels with their "uber-build".

Edit: Case in point -- http://www.seibertron.com/heavymetalwar ... r_id=91445. 4.2M build, 5.5M total XP. Well more than enough to be a top-end level 5 with Avoid in the mix, but refuses utterly.

by **_Anshin_** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 10:23 am

Well, let me know what hours you play and I'll try to put in characters that are your level or a level ahead of you into your missions if I see them so that way you have a greater chance of siphoning off. The only thing I can honestly say I have enjoyed about the lack of con participation as of late is that my character performance and team performance has gone up a few points. I would honestly trade it though to be back in and around last year Dec. when Potentate / N_V / Bristleback / Icon Jade / Wrath / and the others played so much that I could walk out with a 200k loss every hour and still make a million or so XP a day per bot. Right now I'm lucky if my team breaks a million a day.

News Credits: 7 · by **alldarker** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 12:31 pm

_Anshin_ wrote:(...) I would honestly trade it though to be back in and around last year Dec. when Potentate / N_V / Bristleback / Icon Jade / Wrath / and the others played so much that I could walk out with a 200k loss every hour and still make a million or so XP a day per bot. Right now I'm lucky if my team breaks a million a day.

Even now high gains are still very much possible, even without some of those players you mention. Some of those high rollers have already been replaced by newer players, allowing for comparable scores. Although a million XP per bot? I severely doubt that has yet been possible: only the top ten were ever able to consistently rake in that much XP.

by **_Anshin_** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 8:46 am

alldarker wrote:
_Anshin_ wrote:(...) I would honestly trade it though to be back in and around last year Dec. when Potentate / N_V / Bristleback / Icon Jade / Wrath / and the others played so much that I could walk out with a 200k loss every hour and still make a million or so XP a day per bot. Right now I'm lucky if my team breaks a million a day.

Even now high gains are still very much possible, even without some of those players you mention. Some of those high rollers have already been replaced by newer players, allowing for comparable scores. Although a million XP per bot? I severely doubt that has yet been possible: only the top ten were ever able to consistently rake in that much XP.

Darq/Anshin/Warblade/Nyteshade where consistently able to do that when they were in full play. Darq does that still daily as long as I have the time to deploy.

As for players replacing them, they are few and far between. Most of the new players and consistent players I see are around the lvl 4 - 6 are which is why I have changed my team deploys to include Encryption, Seraphim, and Backlash.

by **Insidious** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 10:21 am

7 of my 12 are currently chopping their way through the lv4-lv6 weeds.

I don't know if this is data that could be collected and maybe added to the XP minigame or not, but would you be able to post like little updates regarding what trends you're seeing in terms of level deployment?

Like you mentioned, you've been deploying your level 4-6 based on seeing more of those active here recently, and I know someday I will probably do the same. Right now my tactic is pretty much just my top six get first dibs on missions when I sign on, but if I knew there were a glut of new level 1s and 2s slogging their way through I'd probably switch up and activate my lower levelers first just to help offer some more interesting mission results. Just a random thought.

Your posts in the XP minigame thread have sort of become akin to a little HMW newspaper for me. Who's trending up? Who's trending down? "Ooh, he made a lot of kills this week" etc etc