EXP updating every 5 mins

LotuS · Post by **LotuS** » Mon May 31, 2004 1:48 am

I heard about this in AT and i would just like to express my dislike of the idea. We got a great game and a great system going right now. LETS NOT RUIN IT by puting in little things here and there for this and that. there are better ways to stop smc hunting than puting this in as that is the motive for it as i understand.

hmm how to explain. Take a look here...

http://www.geocities.com/lotus_r00ls/hi/

As i said in that page, if we made a galaxy design something like that where neutral trading was way more profitable than racial, then more traders would move to neutrals. And to make this more feesable, there are more planet galaxies, allowing for more palces to run/hide as traders. And it allows more alliances to claim planets. basicly you would see traders parking and trading form planets which has been almost non existant the last few rounds. not to mention ports naturally change alot through upgrading. And if people raid a little they can make good neutral routes for their traders. Anyone who can keep up with a entire game and 29 galaxies of smc deserves to get a kill like that inmy opinion. and as discussed in the thread about smc hunting, if you can find exactly where someone is in 30 seconds(as was claimed) you deserve the kill. I doubt there are 10 people in this game with upto date enough smc right now to find every traders route. not to mention do the amth, find the multipliers, find it in the program ect in that ammount of time. so in conclusion. Dont change how exp updates. its lame.

Ardbeg · Post by **Ardbeg** » Mon May 31, 2004 2:06 am

You forget certain key issues lotus:

1) If you force everyone out of racials to get decent trading, then newbies are even worse off than before since the only place they can trade without vet hunters now has inferior routes.

2) Superior neutral galaxy routes will always be controlled and hunted by major alliances.

and, most importantly

3) If you make a game universe that large then you are seriously hindering interaction between alliances! (anyone remember TI?!). The goal here is not to prevent hunter-trader interaction, it is to balance it.

I'm sorry Lotus, but your post makes you come across as a kill-hungry newbie hunter who doesn't want his toy taken away from him. I have made the reasons for making hunters work a little harder very clear in other threads - you might want to read the discussions on the subject and think about game balance before you shoot your mouth off like this.

Vtreka · Post by **Vtreka** » Mon May 31, 2004 2:13 am

I think its a good idea personally. There were a couple of ideas and this one seems to be the best. There was the idea of rounding to the nearest thousand, but I think that is bad for reasons that the CPL viewing xp changes wasn't used for SMC hunting but other things as well. At least this way you can still see if there are incremental changes over time which can give you hints/clues to what a person might be up to (i.e. port raiding, running through mine fields etc.)

This way will be much better. So until such time as SMC is killed off by some other means (be it different trading formula's extra goods or whatever), I think this will be the best idea to fix SMC hunting.

Ardbeg · Post by **Ardbeg** » Mon May 31, 2004 2:24 am

The only problem I see with 5 minute updates is that a quick trader can get out, trade his turns, and be back in fed before any change ever shows up on the CPL. I still think that xp rounding is the way to go.

Travdan · Post by **Travdan** » Mon May 31, 2004 3:43 am

Ardbeg makes a good point. I hadn't heard about this suggestion before, but I don't see a single problem with it besides this: if the period is too long, then some actions will go unnoticed. This can be prevented by doing a little optimization. What is the longest amount of time that prevents hunters from identifying route multipliers via experience gain before people can start trading/clearing, etc. completely within that amount of time?

I'd say five minutes is too long, but updating exp EVERYWHERE (Current Player's List, Rankings, etc.) once a minute or 30 seconds should only affect SMC hunters.

Vtreka · Post by **Vtreka** » Mon May 31, 2004 5:14 am

I guess we could go with 1 minute (couldn't be less than that for traders on a slower connection), but then you would still have the problem of a fed trader quickly dashing in and out on fed to trade a close by port. That's really when scouts and hunting near their port and scanning should come into play, so I don't see how that could be too big of an issue if we bring it down to say 1-2 minutes.

Thauglor · Post by **Thauglor** » Mon May 31, 2004 4:53 pm

Make it 2 min for the noobs and slow connections to have chance too, and if its to much we can always lower it some later.

Freon22 · Post by **Freon22** » Mon May 31, 2004 5:04 pm

If you are going to put some type of delay update on exper, earned. Then it should be something that only new players get for a time. If I trade and get a delay on exper, update then when the hunters know I am trading I will be done and parking in fed space.

Shady_FA- · Post by **Shady_FA-** » Mon May 31, 2004 6:06 pm

i like 2 mins

z-money · Post by **z-money** » Mon May 31, 2004 7:48 pm

Ardbeg wrote: I'm sorry Lotus, but your post makes you come across as a kill-hungry newbie hunter who doesn't want his toy taken away from him. I have made the reasons for making hunters work a little harder very clear in other threads - you might want to read the discussions on the subject and think about game balance before you shoot your mouth off like this.

this is really not a necessary addendum to your post. you dont have to say stuff like this just to start fights. just something for you to think about. if you dont have something nice to say, dont say anything at all.