The Energon Pub

I remember many moons ago when V2 was being discussed, and the great debate revolving around it.

"Should there be a character reset?"

Many people were divided. Some were all for it, (the bulk of those being newer players who wanted a chance to be on the same level as the "veterans") some were firmly against it, (those who had spent many years building their characters up and many hours clicking links to deploy their bots) and those who just didn't know which way to go.

Personally I probably fell into the last category. I didn't like the idea of losing 5 odd years of playing but I also figured it might actually be good for the game as those 5 years had seen many bugs and glitches cause abnormalities along with many changes that may have affected things (energon glitch anyone?)

But then it came down to us not really having a choice when we lost all the data (though I kinda like the idea of starting a conspiracy theory that it was OS doing it intentionally and he used Ryan's problems as an excuse ) and you know what? Data loss has worked out good.

The forums are full of life, competition is fierece, and people are generally having fun again!

I'm no longer one of the top players in the game, but thanks to life changing direction, that already happened before the reset.

I WISH I could play the hours I use to as i'd love to be in the top ranks as it would be a great challenge. But at the same time, I don't miss the days of waking up early, sneaking on at work, staying up late at night, and generally giving up a social life just to stay ahead of everyone else.

I don't miss the days when I could calculate how many battles I had to win and how much xp I had to generate in x amount of time to catch up to sprokitz.

Now I can just sit back and actually enjoy the game again. I'll never be the top player I use to be, but at least i'll be having fun.

And the other benefit is i'm now able to use the team I was building for V2. Finally some of those kitbashes i've done can actually be displayed in this forum and actually be on topic. Plus it's actually given me motivation to work on others as I now have a chance to bring some brand new characters to life again.

But never forget the classics, you never know when the Freaks will return.

So those are my thoughts, feel free to add your own!
And if I can be bothered, I might even use this thread as an article for B.E.L.

"Why data loss might be a good thing?"

Burn wrote:I'll never be the top player I use to be...

well, at least you have good news for us

i fell into the veteran camp very quickly around level 2, which was about the same time the "dreaded R" cam into my little world.

at the time i didn't want to lose my precious XP names and alts.

but since OS took over/ i cracked the maths i've found the reset becoming less of a issue. the alts and names i still feel strongly about, but the xp's just a way of keeping score, and like Burn said i've finally got an excuse to cycle n some new characters

i found i was dreading V2 even more than the reset, haunted by MechG, and hearing the little tidbits got me worried, all the little bits added together made V2 so different it wouldn't be HMW at all (which was kinda the point), and when it came so woull V1 end...


and also i was running out of useful upgrades, it's never great to think do i go for rank or skill? do i really need either?.

I'll agree that things are more lively around here now. Looks like I'll have to drop the "I killed HMW GD" sig as it doesn't seem relevant any more. Lets just hope this renewed enthusiasm lasts.

Kind of ironic really. OS starts sporting a "I killed HMWGD" sig and then ends up reviving it.

he can't do anything right!

DAMN YOU OMEGA SENTINEL!!!!!!!!1111!!111ONEELEVEN111!!!

Oddly, I was all for the reset when it was first mooted, although I had a few things I wanted to achive, I was confident I could do it before the planned date, I was happy with what i had achived and was looking foward ot the new chalenge.

Since then however, my team got way better than I ever dreamed it would and I got some new, altogether more grand, targets.
I was very much enjoying the game just before it died, which also didnt help. Add to that the fact money has gotten tighter, so I had had to take more hours at work, which means less time to have a social life and play hmw (and the social life *will always* win over HMW), I feel that I an no where near as well equiped to achive my position as I was last time.

In short, I was never more against the reset than when it happened.
Admitedly, part of that could be the suddenness, I never got he chance to record my team's final position for prosperity.

But ahh well, milk happens and there's no point crying over spilt ****. Let the mechanical bashing continue!

Didn't mind the reset, although I hardly touch the game the last couple years until now. I look at this as a chance to do things differently then the first time I played seriously.

Starlock wrote:I look at this as a chance to do things differently then the first time I played seriously.

Boy the fun come backs I (and no doubt many others) have for that.

Burn wrote:

Starlock wrote:I look at this as a chance to do things differently then the first time I played seriously.

Boy the fun come backs I (and no doubt many others) have for that.

I chose to take the high road and look for the bottle of turps, rather than reply.

Tammuz wrote:he can't do anything right!

Man that's the truth. I hate that OS guy. Everytime he does anything it starts a trend in the opposite direction.


I relayed all of the messages of gratitude to our old, dead hard drive and it wanted me to say "your welcome" to everyone.

Omega Sentinel wrote:

Tammuz wrote:he can't do anything right!

Man that's the truth. I hate that OS guy. Everytime he does
anything it starts a trend in the opposite direction.

There's bound to be a way to use this to my advantage.

Jeep! wrote:

Omega Sentinel wrote:

Tammuz wrote:he can't do anything right!

Man that's the truth. I hate that OS guy. Everytime he does
anything it starts a trend in the opposite direction.

There's bound to be a way to use this to my advantage.

oh dear...

Right, for starters - OS has never bought me a pint. Also, OS has never paid my rent. And, while we're at it, OS has never dug up the foundations of my house and replaced them with giant springs.

That should keep me occupied for a while.

Omega Sentinel wrote:I relayed all of the messages of gratitude to our old, dead hard drive and it wanted me to say "your welcome" to everyone.

aha! Communication with the old hard drive which means you COULD have gotten to the data but instead chose to use this is as a convenient excuse for a reset.

I'm onto you Omega Sentinel ... you and your pretty little doggy ...

Burn wrote:

Omega Sentinel wrote:I relayed all of the messages of gratitude to our old, dead hard drive and it wanted me to say "your welcome" to everyone.

aha! Communication with the old hard drive which means you COULD have gotten to the data but instead chose to use this is as a convenient excuse for a reset.

I'm onto you Omega Sentinel ... you and your pretty little doggy ...

I sense a Martin Scorsese film in the works

Unfortunately I couldn't afford him.

So I got you Uwe Boll instead!

Burn wrote:Unfortunately I couldn't afford him.

So I got you Uwe Boll instead!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Burn wrote:

Omega Sentinel wrote:I relayed all of the messages of gratitude to our old, dead hard drive and it wanted me to say "your welcome" to everyone.

aha! Communication with the old hard drive which means you COULD have gotten to the data but instead chose to use this is as a convenient excuse for a reset.

I'm onto you Omega Sentinel ... you and your pretty little doggy ...

As someone who's job occasionally is recovering data from failed hard drives, yes if you can talk to it usually you can force it to give you what you want. I think the only times that I've had a complete failure was of course with my own personal hard drive and my fathers hard drive.

does that still work after the server company tells you to format it though?

yup
the gaems fun for me again

Silverbolt wrote:

Burn wrote:

Omega Sentinel wrote:I relayed all of the messages of gratitude to our old, dead hard drive and it wanted me to say "your welcome" to everyone.

aha! Communication with the old hard drive which means you COULD have gotten to the data but instead chose to use this is as a convenient excuse for a reset.

I'm onto you Omega Sentinel ... you and your pretty little doggy ...

As someone who's job occasionally is recovering data from failed hard drives, yes if you can talk to it usually you can force it to give you what you want. I think the only times that I've had a complete failure was of course with my own personal hard drive and my fathers hard drive.

What about a salt-water bath in roughly a millon gallons of Gulf brand water?

Tammuz wrote:does that still work after the server company tells you to format it though?

Actually as long as you don't over right the drive after formatting it is still recoverable. If the drive spins then chances are you can get data off of it. If the computer can't find it, or you hear it try to start and stop hard like it hit something it usually means its done. Mine I couldn't get anything off of because the control board of the hard drive was fired. So after that lesson I now have a second hard drive onboard and every week my primary hard drive is mirrored to my secondary.

As for the water, probably screwed, but the hard drive would be only one of the many problems with that PC then.

A lot of net games do periodic resets to avoid cruft building up. I'm thinking of o-game, a space empire/spreadsheet simulator type of game; it got popular around here the last time HMW was down (the time before the crash). Each iteration of the game is its own universe, they even keep several running concurrently (instead of ending old ones). Maybe we should pick a date for the next disk crash in two or three years?