<Appoco[CH]> 21:00 on my PC, so as good as any
<Appoco[CH]> Good Evening (or as good as it can be 0-0), and welcome to Creators Hour
<Appoco[CH]> this will be slightly more relaxed, unless we get some serious questions
<Marv> seriously th game is naff, the orange people arn't playing well and the stripey ones are lazy when they get the ball = boring
<Appoco[CH]> serious questions are welcome and will be dealt with as usual :-)
<Marv> but appoco talking = exciting
<Appoco[CH]> soooooo
<Appoco[CH]> there's no real announcements
<Appoco[CH]> please submit more world cup teams
<Appoco[CH]> at the moment, uk have 6 and the other groups have 1-3 teams
<Appoco[CH]> if you're in rest of europe / rest of the world, SUBMIT A TEAM!
<Appoco[CH]> you're likely to get into the final :-)
<Appoco[CH]> even if there's just 3 players
<Appoco[CH]> you can find more people as "substitutes" for the final
<Appoco[CH]> anyway, on with the questions!
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 1): <Igloo> can i have kloopy for a weekend of passionate drinking?
<Appoco[CH]> Kloopy, we need your input on this
<Appoco[CH]> I think that it was meant to be the weekend the question was asked
<Appoco[CH]> Kloopy?
<Marv> I want a weekend of passionate drinking with Igloo :-(
<Appoco[CH]> well, apparently Igloo wants any excuse to get Kloopy
<Appoco[CH]> but he seems to be afk sorry
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 2): <Sparks|bf2> what is Appoco wearing
<Appoco[CH]> er
<Appoco[CH]> boxers, jeans and a t-shirt with "champion" on it
<Appoco[CH]> because it was cheap
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 3): <Ma****> is Appocomaster really Spinner's love child ?
<Appoco[CH]> no
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 4): <SilverAce> how old are you?
<Appoco[CH]> 20
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 5): <SilverAce> when were you created?
<Appoco[CH]> oh
<Appoco[CH]> this is meant to be ch_bot
<Appoco[CH]> ch_bot is about a year old
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 6): <^MiNi_D^> how many chavs does it take to fit a light bulb?
<Appoco[CH]> none
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 7): <^MiNi_D^> According to "The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" what should you always remember?
<Appoco[CH]> don't panic - which is what sven should remember :-)
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 8): <^MiNi_D^> When is Planetarion going to be free AND unlimited?
<Appoco[CH]> I don't know - Jolt are apparently busy doing something, but I'm not sure it's going to be that. I don't quite know what you mean by unlimited - maybe more planets? I'm not sure
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 9): <^MiNi_D^> Why are there no sexy "marketing" ladies in the Planetarion team? like the ones EA take to gaming events!
<Appoco[CH]> Marv, your question :-)
<Marv> Well
<Marv> The thing is, we need to get Planetarion to some events
<Marv> to advertise etc..and ofcs with this in mind, we can dress igloo up and parade hm around
<Marv> [21:06:41] -Igloo- i will be a sexy ladie for you
<Marv> and thankyou PistNBroke for your offer
<Marv> SHould Planetarion hit it big while I am still around I shall organise some hot lady stuff to dance about the server
<Appoco[CH]>
<Appoco[CH]> we'll get Jolt to sort out a live webcam
<Marv> indeed
<Appoco[CH]> ok? :-)
<Marv> 1 lady for each server
<Appoco[CH]> lol
<Appoco[CH]> 3-4 servers!
<Marv> indeed
<Appoco[CH]> girlfriends, apply to appocomaster@planetarion.com with pics
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 10): <Assassin> Whats happening with an exception system next round? Dont suppose the coded one will be up at all?
<Appoco[CH]> not for next round
<Marv> well i feel as marketing manager it should be me that has that hard tast of looking at them all ;-)
<Appoco[CH]> we'll try and keep closer track on all those sharing IPs
<Appoco[CH]> more announced when it's finalised, but we're going to try and better structure things on the admin side
<Appoco[CH]> and make it easier for those signing up to inform us that they're really trying not to cheat :-)
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 11): <Assassin> Whos bright idea was it to have this in a worldcup game?
<Appoco[CH]> mine
<Marv> his
<Appoco[CH]> I forgot there'd be a game on
<Appoco[CH]> but it's not too exciting atm
<Appoco[CH]>
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 12): <Smudge> Will Assassin not being on PA Team mean he actually plays a decent round?
<Appoco[CH]> Cin will probably still beat him
<Appoco[CH]>
<Assassin> pfff
<Appoco[CH]> Cin loves stealing all the incoming ships
<Marv> lol
<Appoco[CH]> Assassin ranks his chances low too ^^
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 13): <Assassin> who you think will score first in the football game?
<Appoco[CH]> Holland - on GD I have them to win 3-2
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 14): <NitinA> Seems theres a trend among PA Team ive coined "Pulling a Phil" where PA team leave the team and join 1up. Assassin being the latest person to do this, I was wondering what his role in the future of MH/support/pa team was? (he still uses pa team bouncer etc atm)
<Marv> He is still in the support team
<Marv> and has retained his #planetarion op
<Appoco[CH]> the support team have no influence on other parts of the game though
<Marv> indeed
<Appoco[CH]> I don't think it was his original plan to go to 1up, and to be fair, 1up is one of the better alliances around at the moment
<Marv> so basically he doesnt do anything anymore except ask awkward questions and make a general nucience of himself
<Appoco[CH]> I don't know how active he'll be either
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 15): <rain> why is choosing team mates for teams like 'rest of europe' or scandinavia or whatever other than own country posible? do you find it fair for country teams? i'm talking about worldcup btw
<Appoco[CH]> they're identified in those groups
<Appoco[CH]> if you had a team of uk players in the "rest of europe" team, it'd be a bit silly :-)
<Appoco[CH]> but grouping scandaniva and so on together, there's usually quite close links
<Appoco[CH]> the rest of europe, in theory, has as many players as most other areas - if not more
<Appoco[CH]> unfortunately, they all seem to be looking for a team instead of joining one
<Appoco[CH]> I know a few people were asking on the forums
<Appoco[CH]> if you all get together / talk to fellah etc who were organising one, you should be able to find another one
<Appoco[CH]> we grouped them together to make it easier to play with friends and to make the numbers fair "in theory", I guess
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 16): <[ENG]PistNBroke> Who is heading up the multi huinters now? are multis going to be allowed?
<Appoco[CH]> I am
<Appoco[CH]> and no, they're not
<Appoco[CH]> the discussion sparked by Jester (I believe?) on the forums about multiple users was, to my point of view, not aimed at the near future
<Appoco[CH]> but as much exploring the idea and the reasons behind not allowing it
<Appoco[CH]> and if the issues had changed
<Appoco[CH]> However, most people still just automatically think "multiple accounts -> cheating", so I can't see it changing in the near future
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 17): <rain> how many races will next round(18^^) have?
<Appoco[CH]> 4
<Appoco[CH]> though actually, thinking briefly about the code, I can't think of a *huge* reason why we can't have more races/ ships
<Appoco[CH]> I did fiddle with races for the world cup
<Appoco[CH]> it isn't too bad
<Appoco[CH]> I wonder about fleets as well. I get bored easily :/
<Appoco[CH]> The question should more be is it worth changing, and why?
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 18): <rain> will alliance fund still exist for next round, and if so, whats changed?
<Appoco[CH]> yes
<Appoco[CH]> we're still discussing issues about it with the alliance reps as much as anything else
<Appoco[CH]> but there's been issues exposed about it
<Appoco[CH]> related to this, we're removing the 'production/value bug'
<Appoco[CH]> (on this subject)
<Appoco[CH]> you won't be able to produce ships during the tick
<Appoco[CH]> the planned way of fixing the fund is to limit donations into the fund
<Appoco[CH]> we're also exploring alliance tax - the issue is more how it's implemented and who controls how much is donated and who donates.
<Appoco[CH]> I originally rushed ahead and coded it so it's planet side, but then anyone can chose when to turn it on/off and it means the HC have to do a lot of monitoring
<Appoco[CH]> so it might fall more to HCs, or a mix of both
<Appoco[CH]> I don't know :-) we'll see on Monday!
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 19): <Misty> will havoc next round be a complete restart and will the hunters be online like this round ?
<Appoco[CH]> I'm drafting an overview of things like havoc to standardise it more
<Appoco[CH]> as has been pointed out once or twice, there's no real standard, just a rough custom
<Appoco[CH]> however, we might let the closings slide - it's hard to keep up with all the zik activity
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 20): <[HOL]Kieker-Jan> how much is true of the rumour that jolt is talkin to a certain person to sell planetarion?
<Appoco[CH]> it's false
<Appoco[CH]> Jolt have told all interested recent buyers that the game is not for sale
<Appoco[CH]> this has been confirmed by all interested parties that I've spoken to, as well as on the Jolt side as well
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 21): <ToxicMonkey^MZC> Is 97 a prime number?
<Appoco[CH]> I don't know
<Appoco[CH]> no
<Appoco[CH]> er
<Appoco[CH]> yes it is
<Appoco[CH]> 3,5,7,9 don't divide it
<Appoco[CH]> :-)
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 22): <Smudge> will there ever be a possiblity of hiring a spare server for private speedgames?
<Appoco[CH]> there's not really t he interest, I think, at the moment
<Appoco[CH]> there's also a discussion going on about how much these people should see in the way of admin tools
<Appoco[CH]> we should, hopefully, have 3 servers running games in the near future
<Appoco[CH]> the portal server hasn't been capable of running games for a while
<Appoco[CH]> but it'll be rebuilt in the near future
<Appoco[CH]> we have a shocking amount of stuff on there - most of the stuff on it was setup by Spinner/Mit/Karm
<Appoco[CH]> and hasn't been touched since
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 23): <Smudge> with myk coding and kloopy hopefully coming back to health soon, can we have some form of webcams for them a la the old days at the old office?
<Appoco[CH]> Kloopy might have more time in the near future, but he'll be job hunting soon
<Appoco[CH]> I'm not sure if he's stated for sure he's definitely on the up
<Appoco[CH]> these things really do take time, and I wouldn't like to rush him back - his priority is his job
<Appoco[CH]> myk has had some rl family-related issues
<Appoco[CH]> also, some party/beer/computer issues
<Appoco[CH]> but I'm still doing a fair bit of the coding, and do posses a webcam
<Appoco[CH]> unfortunately, I'm not really willing to set it up at the moment.
<Appoco[CH]> as I'd forget it was on :/
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 24): <NitinA> Ever since the loss of the real "creators" there seems to be no "master architect" or "master plan" for directional development, but rather only a
little bit here, a little bit there, which doesn't "improve" the game but rather "patchs" new things in. What direction does PA team see the development of planetarion going, say, in 5 rounds?
<Appoco[CH]> basically, Kal is coming up with all the 'deep stuff' - the defining purpose, the point, the aims
<Appoco[CH]> and then I translate that into a game
<Appoco[CH]> with help talking to members of the community about ideas
<Appoco[CH]> I do realise that in the recent past, we've not really had much in the way of new big features apart from the alliance fund
<Appoco[CH]> which was nicely abused!
<Appoco[CH]> we are adding featuers
<Appoco[CH]> *features
<Appoco[CH]> but they're more allowing ease of game play in some areas - this round it's scanning and alliance fund / attack / etc
<Appoco[CH]> we do need a few new features, preferably not those too abusable
<Appoco[CH]> and I think that's what I'm going to be doing on my laptop in scotland :-)
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 25): <^MiNi_D^> Does it ever occur that most ISPs make users pay for static IP addresses and therfor hunting by static IP is relatively useless?
<Appoco[CH]> no
<Appoco[CH]> we have a database of all IP addresses, and we track by other methods too - IP isn't the only way we search
<Appoco[CH]> also, IPs are always assigned to an ISP
<Appoco[CH]> if they're all BT, especially if they're very similar, it seems fair that it's the same connection
<Appoco[CH]> we won't give too much away
<Appoco[CH]> but I will be coding more tools this round :-)
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 26): <Misty> would u rank holding a CH during WC match above or below trying to start a rond on valentines day ?
<Appoco[CH]> below
<Appoco[CH]> it's not a round start - that's more compulsory, in some ways
<Appoco[CH]> actually, it depends. I'm not sure how many people have girlfriends
<Appoco[CH]> it's really those who have girlfriends vs those who like football
<Appoco[CH]> I'm not sure.
<Appoco[CH]> I'd still say below - it's only an hour
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 27): <Smudge> during the world cup speed games, will special roids be used as galactic footballs?
<Appoco[CH]> no, although that's a tempting idea
<Appoco[CH]> it's not really the aim of the game
<Appoco[CH]> we're not turning it into a CTF game
<Appoco[CH]> though we could use a similar basis in the future
<Appoco[CH]> specificially for CTF
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 28): <rain> wanna bet ally fund will be abused again?
<Appoco[CH]> I'm sure they'll try
<Appoco[CH]> it's my duty, as new head of multihunting and as head developer, to see it's useful while not being abusable.
<Appoco[CH]> It's a damn sight easier than the support planet issue :-)
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 29): <Assassin> Ive heard latly PA Team is secretly using the 'Support team' as an undercover for an actual alliance recruiting agency. Is this true?
<Appoco[CH]> totally. We're the front end for the secret alliance Legion, which has members in all sections of the community and is soon to make a resurgance to victory!
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 30): <rain> whos working on next round's ship stats?
<Appoco[CH]> atm we have one or two people making stats - I know Gate's thread has been discussing how to improve this round's stats, but someone's taken Round 13 stats and
modified them (mainly Zik, as they were subvert previously)
<Appoco[CH]> I need to spend some time when there's a bit less happening going over them
<Appoco[CH]> but there will be a set ready for Monday :-)
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 31): <[HOL]Spykes> Will England win the world cup without Owen?
<Appoco[CH]> of course
<Appoco[CH]> (seriously, it's not looking too good)
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 32): <SilverAce> how much do u (apocco) get paid?
<Appoco[CH]> I don't!
<Appoco[CH]> no one does
<Appoco[CH]> I have to confirm rumours of chocolate gifts
<Appoco[CH]> and Jolt might be refunding money for me to get decent internet in Scotland
<Appoco[CH]> so I'm around more than an hour a day in august
<Appoco[CH]> but none of us have official wages at the current point in time
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 33): <Markb> Will there be a PA based solution to the registration of the multitude of channels that seem to be required for an alliance?
<Appoco[CH]> I need to talk to JeeKay
<Appoco[CH]> we were discussing something to sort it out, but it never got finalised for him to code
<Appoco[CH]> it's drifited into the background in the past
<Appoco[CH]> *drifted
<Appoco[CH]> it was going to be for all 'organisations'
<Appoco[CH]> allowing a public channel and a few private channels
<Appoco[CH]> unfortunately, #public and #private are taken
<Appoco[CH]> it needs to be further planned, but maybe for round 19 or so it'd be possible :-)
<Appoco[CH]> no earlier than that, and probably later
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 34): <SilverAce> even though there is probably only a max of 2-3 teams per WC region (besides uk) .... will the "only attacking in your cluster" still be enforced?
<Appoco[CH]> well, this is open to debate, certainly
<Appoco[CH]> it's going to be quite boring for those who only have 2 people in their region
<Appoco[CH]> at least they can get some sleep
<Appoco[CH]> seriously, sign up!
<Appoco[CH]> grab some friends and sign up, it's worth it
<Appoco[CH]> you could yet be in the final
<Appoco[CH]> Spykes: are you Assassin's clone? don't spam my bot ta
<Appoco[CH]> <Assassin> A responce to Misty would be, most people who play Planetarion dont actually have girlfriends to matter for Valentines day.
<Appoco[CH]> a reply to the earlier question
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 35): <[HOL]Kieker-Jan> is it possible to add the "hidden"feature in journalreports?. so we can brag with out battlereports without giving away our coords
<Appoco[CH]> I admit this might be helpful
<Appoco[CH]> I know some people go through them looking for co-ords to try and find intel
<Appoco[CH]> I doubt it'll happen for next round
<Appoco[CH]> but I can see the issue with it, and tbh I thought that was the best thing to hide co-ords for in scans when ph8 was coding that hide co-ords function
<Appoco[CH]> i'll todo list it :-)
<Appoco[CH]> (and hope we don't lose the todo list when we reformat the server )
<Appoco[CH]> does anyone have any more questions?
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 36): <SilverAce> true about the sleep ... but would it be possible - barring last minute mass sign ups to maybe narrow down the teams by just one region or let
them all fight it out (besides uk) for say top 5 spots? (especially for those of us who have arranged to have saturday/sunday off and play with friends etc :/
<Appoco[CH]> tbh, it's probably worth discussing on the forums
<Appoco[CH]> I'll make a list of the number of teams and those teams i think should be signing up
<Appoco[CH]> (I think there's 1-2 more due - AUS and Wishmaster's teams)
<Appoco[CH]> .add <Misty> will u have a pa closedown for the cup final ?
<Appoco[CH]> oops
<Appoco[CH]> wrong channel
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 37): <Misty> will u have a pa closedown for the cup final ?
<Appoco[CH]> no
<Appoco[CH]> but it's a good time to launch attacks
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 38): In the world cup games to come, sci get a bonus of 10%, so why is the research bonus not taken from the figure stated before it is applied and infact taken from the original 16 ticks (as opposed to 14 for HCT 1)?
<Appoco[CH]> Research Time
<Appoco[CH]> Total modifier = Engineering bonus + Laboratory bonus + Racial bonus (for example 15+20+10=45)
<Appoco[CH]> Final time = Original time * (100 - Total modifier) /100
<Appoco[CH]> from the manual
<Appoco[CH]> I assume this answers the question
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp ]
<CH_Bot> (Q 39): <SilverAce> where are u gonna put this so called "list"
<Appoco[CH]> i'll put it on PD
<Appoco[CH]> let me write the post and i'll paste :-)
<Appoco[CH]> I won't list the teams yet
<Appoco[CH]> I might put up the team lists on saturday before the match starts - lets keep to the sterotypes :-)
<Appoco[CH]> .nqp
<CH_Bot> (Q 40): <[HOL]Kieker-Jan> Can i expect ma pa-mail for wc event anytime soon?.. been bout 4 hours now :P
<Appoco[CH]> well, it did have in size 100 font that you could click and continue, I think
<Appoco[CH]> but check your junk mail
<Appoco[CH]> it should be ok
<Appoco[CH]> think yourself lucky
<Appoco[CH]> SilverAce got over 100 e-mails
<Appoco[CH]> ok
<Appoco[CH]> we're about run out of steam
<Appoco[CH]> i'll get a log of this up soon
<Appoco[CH]> and this was far more fun than the actual football match