<Appocomaster> Good evening, everyone :-)
<Appocomaster> Welcome to the latest CH
<Appocomaster> we're meant to have a global, but it appears to be missing, so on to the announcements!
<Appocomaster> Firstly, we'd like to let everyone know officially that Kal has returned
<Appocomaster> (you can find him in 1:1, if you didn't spot him)
<Appocomaster> he's not taking his place back as project manager, but rather helping with the code and server issues
<Appocomaster> this is partly due to Kloopy's health and lack of time currently for Planetarion, and although we're hopeful he'll recover and be able to spend more time with Planetarion, Kal has more knowledge and experience than myseslf in many areas and is filling in and "tidying up" the mess that I've created left to my own devices :-)
<Appocomaster> Moving on to something which will probably be quite popular
<Appocomaster> we're going to host a world cup of our own, probably over June/July, to match up with the 'real' world cup
<Appocomaster> Entry will be free, and a prize has been donated for the winner
<Appocomaster> the central idea is obvious that galaxies of different countries are made up
<Appocomaster> and play against each other in speedgame-type conditions
<Appocomaster> I'll create a thread after CH so we can discuss it
<Appocomaster> as I'm sure there's varying opinions as to how it's going to work :-)
<Appocomaster> Finally, don't die of shock but we're getting some advertising sorted
<Appocomaster> we'll let everyone join :-)
<Appocomaster> well, there's a few more people :-)
<Appocomaster> I think it's about finished
<Appocomaster> so, yes we've kindly been donated some advertising and someone has volunteered to do graphics (more on this later)
<Appocomaster> for banners
<Appocomaster> so we'll hopefully see an increase in incoming players
<Appocomaster> anyway
<Appocomaster> on with the questions :-)
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 1): <AndroX> is there a relay channel like in the old times for when #planetarion is full during the CH ?
<Appocomaster> unfortunately, the amount of people in here never quite reaches enough to make the channel lag etc, so no
<Appocomaster> if we get more than 600 people in here at any one time, then maybe we'll see a return :-)
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 2): <Rec_Edge> Why does the TIme have to be 24 Ticks before we can exile new planets?
<Appocomaster> by the way, questions to CH_Bot -> use /msg CH_Bot question
<Appocomaster> The galaxy and exile situations have been discussed a lot recently on the forums
<Appocomaster> the reason they're given 24 hours
<Appocomaster> is really to show they can be active and are interested in the game
<Appocomaster> before people exile them
<Appocomaster> There's currently a thread by Banned (Jester) discussing new ways of forming galaxies and exiling people
<Appocomaster> http://pirate.planetarion.com/showt...ad.php?t=190843
<Appocomaster> and a thread on how to keep people interesting in helping new players http://pirate.planetarion.com/showt...ad.php?t=190844
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 3): <Misty|nekoed> will we finally see the controls in place for people with more than 1 player on the same isp back in place ?
<Appocomaster> Assassin?
<Appocomaster> over to you :-)
<Assassin> If this is regarding the issue of a coding exception system... then tbh i would find it doubtful
<Assassin> tbh
<Assassin> i am going to try and get a version coded for somthing basic
<Assassin> for now though we will have to keep using the old fashioned email me or speak to me on irc
<Assassin> and we will flag it
<Assassin> about covers it
<Appocomaster> is that a .nqp? :-)
<Assassin> may as well carry on spamming
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 4): <LiNoGe> next round on the fleet Screen can we have an extra option of Anti Destroyer etc so it saves time moving every ship seperate
<Appocomaster> I've heard this a few times, actually
<Appocomaster> we do have this option
<Appocomaster> just not on the drop down menus
<Appocomaster> I'll try and add it, as it shouldn't be *too* difficult
<Appocomaster> but if you just click say the "de" next to Chimera (in the "target" column) then you can move things via javascript
<Appocomaster> I was convinced that it was faster to do things via the drop down boxes, but this isn't true
<Appocomaster> so we'll try and adjust that, but there is an option atm :-)
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 5): <Phil^> is the passport ever going to be finished?
<Appocomaster> yes!
<Assassin> ....
<Appocomaster> or i'll have to yell at some people
<Appocomaster> we have a few people working on the code and design
<Appocomaster> and they've assured me it's nearly finished and there's only a few issues left
<Appocomaster> so I'm hoping that we'll be ready for next round
<Appocomaster> (which, I admit, is almost exactly what I said this time last round)
<Appocomaster> but this round it should happen :-)
<Appocomaster> I look forward to seeing it finished as much as you
<Appocomaster> for those that don't know, the passport system is something like as follows:
<Appocomaster> basically, you sign up ONCE
<Appocomaster> to www.planetarion.com
<Appocomaster> using this account, you can register for games on the beta server and game server
<Appocomaster> and post articles on the forums
<Appocomaster> and all sorts of wonderful things
<Appocomaster> it stores your credits
<Appocomaster> so no more issues about changing e-mail addresses
<Appocomaster> in general, it'll help to unify things and give a continunity between rounds.
<Appocomaster> (sp?)
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 6): <Phil^> what is the status of pa-n?
<Appocomaster> that's post Passport :-)
<Appocomaster> when we've finished the passport, we'll do the game
<Appocomaster> as I think you'll admit it's a slightly bigger project
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 7): <zokka> Will you consider making scanning easier by allowing options for mass scanning? For instance tick boxes next to each planet in a gal and you would tick the ones you want.
<Appocomaster> we're hoping to make scanning a bit easier, yes
<Appocomaster> It's possible the MoW will recieve this as a "special feature"
<Appocomaster> but scanners want it generally, so we'll see :-)
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 8): <[BIG][Virus]> i like the layout how it is, its easy to use, but maybe change is good, will the ter def stats be toned down because they where extremly strong this round?
<Appocomaster> Terran aren't overawingly strong, really. Most people object to Cathaar
<Appocomaster> we'll see how things stand at the end of the round :-)
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 9): <Phil^> When will i be able to use a gal banner without it being stretched out of proportion?
<Appocomaster> next round
<Appocomaster> it's on the todo list
<Appocomaster> I think that myk is taking it to task
<Appocomaster> we'll see how it goes :-)
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 10): <CutTooth> I don't know if you have been asked this on not, but is there any chance that when you jpg and see a prelaunched fleet it could give you some inidcation of the length of prelaunch such as (+3). Even if its only from the tick prelaunch is set it would be quite useful
<Appocomaster> no
<Appocomaster> I don't know how the other admins feel?
<Appocomaster> I personally don't like it too much, because it's a bit meaningless
<Appocomaster> you can change the prelaunch in a couple of seconds
<Appocomaster> it'd be just as confusing, I think
<Assassin> indeed
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 11): <AndroX> Why isn't there a Job vacancies section on the forums, so we - the community - can see what kind of people are still needed to help planetarion out?
<Appocomaster> oh
<Appocomaster> sorry
<Assassin> lol thats ok i was just agreeing
<Assassin>
<Appocomaster> actually, this is a good idea
<Appocomaster> part of the problem is that we've had a few people in the last couple of months volunteer with the best of intentions
<Appocomaster> but who then realise they don't really have enough time to do too much
<Appocomaster> we need someone who has no life, like myself :-)
<Assassin> lol
<Appocomaster> and even I'll have problems come september, when I do a masters degree
<Appocomaster> the major issues are normally things like advertising and graphics though
<Appocomaster> if anyone is willing to supervise getting Planetarion advertised for free, like on mpogd, please feel free to drop me an e-mail at appocomaster@planetarion.com :-)
<Appocomaster> I really don't have time to sit and look for ways atm
<Appocomaster> and neither do the rest of the team
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 12): <Idler> How about introducing a form for protect the leader, where you must protect one planet from being roided down to a said number of roids, the alliance who runs out of awake players first, loses
<Appocomaster> I don't think it'd be quite "awake players", but I can certainly see this as a variation of capture the flag
<Assassin> i like it
<Assassin> sounds good
<Appocomaster> one issue would be perhaps if the galaxy who's "target" planet drops below x roids is allowed to access their accounts
<Appocomaster> and continue taking down other galaxies
<Appocomaster> it's certainly another speedgame-type idea though
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 13): <Phil^> are there any plans to bring back pa merchandise?
<Appocomaster> yes, eventually :-)
<Appocomaster> I know that people want merchandise
<Appocomaster> I do myself
<Assassin> perhaps a picture of appoc on a mug...
<Appocomaster> heh
<Appocomaster> I don't think so
<Appocomaster> Kloopy had a dress picture
<Appocomaster> I think they'd do quite well, tbh
<Appocomaster> but we are planning to sort it out
<Appocomaster> (sometime!)
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 14): <Aequitas> Have you guys thought about taking xp out of the game completely? Memories of round 7 are fond ones :-D
<Appocomaster> I know a few people had ideas about this last round
<Appocomaster> however, this round XP exists and you can see that it's much lower
<Appocomaster> and you even get rewarded for defence (ish)
<Appocomaster> I think it works
<Appocomaster> you need some XP
<Appocomaster> it makes the game more interesting and invites people to attack
<Appocomaster> otherwise we're back to calculating how many hundreds of days before the roids repay all the ships we'vel ost
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 15): <Brug> i won't be there on CH, Q: possibility of making sticky threads in ingame ally forum
<Appocomaster> yes!
<Appocomaster> this is also on the todo list
<Appocomaster> and the todo list is actually getting done
<Appocomaster>
<Assassin> remind me to add exception code on it
<Appocomaster> sure :-)
<Appocomaster> we're going to do it for both galaxy and alliance forums
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 16): <koKs> Is it possible to get a confimation message when aborting a production?
<Appocomaster> I think that a few people have asked for this
<Appocomaster> and while I know that having a bit of risk in Planetarion is fun, losing 5 mil of each resource because your laptop mouse was sticky is a bit irritating
<Appocomaster> I'm not sure I've cancelled much myself
<Appocomaster> but check boxes are, I think, better than clickable links
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 17): <Fiery> Are you going to make it possible for scanners to do well next round?
<Appocomaster> yes!
<Appocomaster> Scanners are this round generally a bit grumpy
<Appocomaster> mainly because, do to a slight oversight, they're not getting so much XP
<Appocomaster> this does mean that they're smaller in score and so less of a target
<Appocomaster> but some of them are quite competitive
<Appocomaster> but in addition to a fix for the scan XP, we should see some increase in scan ability
<Appocomaster> a few search options
<Appocomaster> and so on
<Appocomaster> just to make it slightly easier to be organised with regards scanning
<Appocomaster> .nsqp
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 18): <rext> can we look in to Construction, makin it so that you can book 3 right away that way the people at work would do better as well and it help all of us thank you rext
<Appocomaster> queuing has a thread on the suggestions forum somewhere
<Appocomaster> http://pirate.planetarion.com/showt...ad.php?t=189931
<Appocomaster> I think the general opinion is that it's acceptable to have a queuing system as long as there is a penalty
<Appocomaster> well, that's what I got from the thread (and agree with)
<Appocomaster> I don't know how other admins feel?
<Assassin> well
<Assassin> i can agree to a system like that
<Assassin> as long as ofc there would be some little loss from it perhaps. Like extra resource deduction ect
<Assassin> quite a good idea
<Appocomaster> I think the opinion was an extra couple of ticks or an extra cost
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 19): <Phil^> are there any plans to take planetarion to things like i-events in the future or jolt lan gaming events?
<Appocomaster> We "appeared" at the gathering (thanks to Cmd_Carl for being at that end and trying to make people aware of it)
<Appocomaster> it had limited success, but it's always possible to do similar things
<Appocomaster> I think biffy said that they're not willing to pay someone to take a server or whatever to an i event currently
<Assassin> unfortunatly
<Appocomaster> but they're happy if a pa team member turns up with it
<Appocomaster> though my PC might die a bit running a speedgame
<Appocomaster> the best idea might well be to just run it from the beta/"spare" server
<Appocomaster> It saves carrying, for one thing
<Assassin> which we have discussed before i beleive
<Appocomaster> yes
<Appocomaster> there's not any plans to attend i28 (though we might be banned?)
<Appocomaster> and I'm not sure how many LANs Jolt do
<Appocomaster> i'll have to talk to biffy
<Appocomaster> he seems to have wandered off at the vital moment, sorry
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 20): <goddy> can you lower the time we have to wait to join an alliance after leaving 1
<Appocomaster> the idea is to stop abuse as much as anything else
<Marv> i think 72 hours is a good length to prevent abuse.
<Appocomaster> it's easy to allow people to join an alliance, get them to send a fleet or do something with the fund, and then kick them again
<Appocomaster> 3 days makes sure there's no major abuse
<Assassin> i wont comment on this, as im saw as the evil member of the PA Team for stuff like this question ^^
<Appocomaster> lol
<Appocomaster> it does mean that 'merges' take some time to happen
<Appocomaster> but that also means that the alliances want to merge
<Appocomaster> I don't see it changing, really.
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 21): <EPK> would it be possible to make it so that when you scan a planet that is in vacation mode, it informs you of as much. So that alliances don't spend time sorting out an attack on a planet which it turns out is holidaying?? please...... love from EPK
<Appocomaster> yes, I think that the scan message needs to be updated
<Assassin> now thats a good idea
<Marv> i think this deserves a yes purely because he sent us some love.
<Assassin> wouldnt go that far marv..
<Appocomaster> also, as some people don't check the status of the planet before they scan, some sort of "this planet is closed / in vac mode" before you get through
<Appocomaster> Marv is yours if you send him love
<Appocomaster> i'll add it to do the todo list
<Appocomaster> though it might involve some restructuring of the scan page
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 22): <Zeke> Cant u release a round 3 version or a similar round for us to use on LANs? I mean you could pack the code with unbreakable passwords or whatever, just I would really love to play Pa speedgames more often as they are less exhausting
<Appocomaster> unfortunately, there's no versions apart from copies that people have created (afaik)
<Appocomaster> we don't have a copy of the code ourselves
<Appocomaster> you're welcome to contact Spinner, but I think he's on record as saying that no one has a complete copy of pre r10 code including a database etc
<Assassin> that is correct ^^
<Assassin> he has said it
<Assassin> several times
<Appocomaster> (most people keep asking!)
<Appocomaster> but unless someone manages to discover it sometime, then i'm afraid we don't have the code, sorry
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 23): <AndroX> What's the future for planetarion, jolt based - are they going to host it for much longer or is there a limit set?
<Appocomaster> Jolt own Planetarion (well, Simtech do technically, iirc).
<Appocomaster> There's no limit on how long they own Planetarion for
<Appocomaster> so I assume that they'll continue to host the game
<Appocomaster> I assume if the only people playing are the PA Team, they might reconsider
<Appocomaster> though we could have pretty fast ticks then ;_)
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 24): <Fiery> When are you getting rid of that awful girly heart font in the questions? They're impossible to read!!!
<Assassin> lol
<Appocomaster> yes, the login questions are still not popular
<Appocomaster> for the record, from my experience the heart with an arrow is a * and the heart on it's own is a +
<Appocomaster> though some disagree with me
<Appocomaster> I can say that Cin has made a php login system
<Assassin> i thought it was the other way round
<Appocomaster> unfortuntely, we have to somehow add this to a perl page
<Appocomaster> maybe I'm wrong
<Appocomaster> Cin's version is far more readable
<Appocomaster> and we are looking at other versions
<Appocomaster> but I can't give a time, I'm afraid
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 25): <zokka> Will you consider giving more xp for defence
<Appocomaster> if XP for defence grows too much more, then we enter the realms of abuse
<Appocomaster> at the moment, by the time the round gets to this point it's enough to make a difference between a couple of places over time, but not much more
<Appocomaster> if it starts getting huge, people will spend more time trying to abuse it, I'm afraid
<Assassin> so 'no'
<Appocomaster> that's human nature, and people always want an edge
<Appocomaster> I can't really see it being increased, not by a huge amount certainly :-) as Assassin said
<Appocomaster> (he doens't want me to increase it as then we'd have to spend more time looking for people abusing it)
<Assassin> lets not get into that
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 26): <AndroX> After all these rounds of planetarion where players came and left - isnt it time to vote for the best pa round/stats/game on portal? And perhaps see if 'we' can adjust the game to that so we get more players (back) ?
<Appocomaster> I'm not sure that people will return because of the game looking like it did when they left
<Appocomaster> I think they're more likely to return to play with friends and to play with lots of people
<Appocomaster> A lot of people vote for their first round - my favourite round was probably my first round, round 4
<Appocomaster> though round 10.5 was relaxing for me as MISTU!
<Assassin> round 1 all the way
<Appocomaster> I was still playing in goth channels on IRC in round 1
<Assassin> long live concordium
<Appocomaster> before my time
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 27): <Smoggie> this is just a suggestion for the next round, if the option of queuing system was introduced in the next round, only allow it for constructions and for using the 'queuing system' you have to pay between 5% to 10% extra of what the cost is, also the next construction could start when the next has finished but if you don't have the resources, it gets delayed until you do
<Appocomaster> yes, we agreed with something like this :-)
<Appocomaster> constructions are shorter in the long run
<Appocomaster> anyone who's got a lot of roids and is doing HCT researches knows that
<Assassin> its bin an hour btw appoc just to remind you of the time
<Appocomaster> almost an hour
<Appocomaster> ALMOSt
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 28): <Phil^> since the beta/speedgame server is pretty much just sitting there - do you have any plans to use it before the end of this round for anything?
<Appocomaster> we're going to be using it to test code more and more
<Appocomaster> as we get more code
<Appocomaster> I'm very tempted to form a group similar to the old beta crew run by Petru
<Appocomaster> based around the PAN people, I guess :-)
<Appocomaster> as sometimes on the forums it can get messy discussing things
<Appocomaster> and we need people who won't spend all their time playing to win and look for bugs
<Appocomaster> I believe a few people at the beginning of the round picked up on the fact there were lots of bugs that no one last beta picked up
<Appocomaster> so we'll see how it goes
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 29): <TomKat> when does the next round of PA start?
<Appocomaster> I can't put a date on it, actually
<Appocomaster> this round ends June 9th
<Appocomaster> hopefully we'll have 3-4 weeks between the end of round and the start of next round
<Appocomaster> we'll see how it goes
<Appocomaster> we're on course to have another 2 rounds between the end of this round and Christmas
<Appocomaster> so the PA team will get their calendars out and start counting weeks, i guess :-)
<Appocomaster> and Kila, no it won't be June 10th :P
<Appocomaster> for a start we'll have havoc
<Appocomaster> and if we have a world cup scheduled then ...
<Appocomaster> it could be quite busy :-)
<Appocomaster> last one
<Appocomaster> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 30): <Dexter> Alliance Fund: Will there be a lockout on donating to yourself implemented?
<Appocomaster> not atm
<Appocomaster> there's an alliance log which logs it :-)
<Appocomaster> we've run slightly over
<Appocomaster> but we've done about all of the questions
<Appocomaster> thanks for listening