Thanks everyone. It's with great pride that I leave you, both allies and enemies. My years within the Machine organization will be remembered forever, thanks to you.

I'm all ok with how things are going on so far Neoteny. If you need help, I can provide you some.

For those interested for the files, please send me an email adress. I'll try to send you whatever I can.

Neoteny wrote:

EDIT: Just a slight error I just noticed - I think my ship should have 35 XP, not 36, as I was disabled during the battle. Additionally, Omega, Void, and Tekmon had their XP correctly incremented, but Sieges' hasn't been changed.

Yeah, the database crashed during the update process. This will be corrected.

Thanks for the kind words.

Tonight was the last official Hovercraft Battle, and Zion won.

Thanks to everyone who put efforts into it. Dedication across all organizations showed me how devoted you all are. What started as a vague idea ended up being a very good product overall. Despite the time required, the mistakes, the rule workings and the irregular participation, you were there, and I appreciate it. My only regret is in not being able to allow a maximum number of operatives to participate, for obvious restrictions.

Like I said earlier, the program is now yours. If you need the website, the database or the files, I can offer them. Same thing for my expertise on how to run them.

I give myself about a month before leaving public life, so if anyone is interested in setting up a project of some sort, I'll be glad to help. Countless hours went into it, and it's with great pride that I now step down.

I would then suggest Zion versus Merovingians, on Recursion, at 5 PM MCT, or 6 if it can accomodate someone better.

Procurator wrote:

Yeah. That timing is one of the reasons I haven't been taking part in the hovercraft battles.

I could host a battle earlier today, but I'd rather not interfere with another important event. It's always difficult to make sure everyone will be ready for it.

I'm still not sure of the format for tonight however, since I don't know for sure who are interested, apart for Fenshire, Neoteny and Sieges.

I'd like to inform you that the last possible window of opportunity for a ranked battle would be tomorrow, Tuesday the 9th.

I've recently announced my upcoming retirement to the Syntax Machinists. If anyone is interested in discussing about how the hovercraft battles program could continue, please contact me.

Neoteny wrote:

I also wanted to know if you would or wouldn't be adverse to the use of this system in an unofficial sense (well, still carrying over the stats, but not requiring your time as coordinator, unless you'd like to) down the line. There are certain events I would like to carry out using this system.

I will leave everything to those who want to use it, and will probably be able to help if it is needed.

Yasamuu wrote:

It would be neat if we could have some kind of Commander Lock-like battle again.

We did have a 3-way battle not too long ago. Participation wasn't what I hoped, with one whole side missing.

Neoteny wrote:

Will this program be at all impacted by certain changes in the air?

Looks like it. I am ready to host one (or two if things go well) last battle. Any suggestions?

EPN won. Only one person showed on each side.

Congratulations to Steelle for reaching the rank of Faithful.

This is a reminder for today's battle.

Neoteny wrote:

If it's the same as it has been, you pretty much just need to PM Vogt through these boards and tell him what standard configuration you'd like. Your XP will then be reset.

I had to do this before my first hovercraft battle because I had a one hull ship and realized that it wasn't going to work very well.

Exact. Or you can create a new entry if you have a new ship, and I'll then delete the previous one. Rank points cannot be carried in these cases, just like organization changes.

I know that for some, time can be a problem. We did have battles at various hours of the day and even during weekends, and there's not a single timeframe that will accomodate everybody. The evening time period looked to accomodate a good share of the participants, so this is why battles are then. And it is also because it is accomodating to me.

With other battle coordinators, it could be possible to offer a more varied schedule. But as a one-man affairs and with the programs to my disposal, I cannot cover all the possible times people would like battles to be held.

Fen wrote:

Ultimately, though, it comes down to what you enjoy doing, Vogt.  If you enjoy running these games, then keep running them.  But if they're just a pain in your rear, then stop.  I'd hope that you enjoy running them as much as I enjoy playing in them.

I do enjoy them. I just don't enjoy being disappointed by lack of participation.

Hello again. As the new year begins, it's time for me to question, yet again, if it's worth continuing overseeing hovercraft battles. Participation is at an all-time low, and just the fact that I'm questionning myself again about it in the last months make it difficult to be over enthusiast of how things go. I do know that there's a shinking, but still solid core of participants who consider hovercraft battles as an important part of their activity.

I'm sure you are aware as much as me of the current situation. This is why I think that a certain discussion is in order.

Zion won, in a 4 vs 2 battle against Merovingians. No one showed on the Machine side.

I doubt that such opportunity will show up again. Participation is going down.

Am I right in saying that there are still no machines interested in this battle?

NeoExcidious wrote:

Ok. So what time will it be then?

I guess it will be at 6.

I am sorry to inform you of this, but the battle scheduled for Sunday will have to be resheduled Monday, at the same time. I hope this won't cause any problem.

I would also suggest to start earlier, since it's sure that this battle will take a little while. Any objections?

Omega0 wrote:

If I were to participate, would I have to use my Recursion ship, or could I use any of my three ships?

Yes, you can select your ship.

NeoExcidious wrote:

Vogt, given your replies at this battle and your posts previous to it, i figure the next battle will be the cross-server one and it will be the last one of 2008. So when will that be? I'm guessing before X-mas? No rush, just curious.

Yes, I meant to post about it. It will be this Sunday, at 6 PM MCT. It will be held on Recursion. It will be open to the 3 sides, with a limit of 4 participants on each side. This battle is made mostly to give a chance to veterans from all horizons to have a chance to fight against each other. Since it's open to all instances, I'd prefer if sides would discuss among each other to field their sides. I'd rather have a consensus.

NeoExcidious wrote:

Vogt wrote:

Zion wins.

Congratulations for NeoExcidious for reaching the rank of Lieutenant, to Omega02 for reaching the rank of Operative and to Neoteny for reaching the rank of Captain.

Vogt, as much as I would like to be a Lieutenant, it is Omega02 that was given that promotion (well deserved tbh) and I received the rank of Operative.

Right, sorry for the mix-up.

Zion wins.

Congratulations for NeoExcidious for reaching the rank of Lieutenant, to Omega02 for reaching the rank of Operative and to Neoteny for reaching the rank of Captain.

Yes, it is for 6 PM MCT. And we'll need a contestant, either Machines or Merovingians. Machines didn't have a battle in a while there, so if they can make it, it would be better.

Zion has mentionned their interest for tomorrow's battle on Recursion. Are the Machines or Merovingians interested in participating?

Yes. I'm actually thinking of having a cross-server, no rank restriction battle. That will probably be for the last battle of the year.

NeoExcidious wrote:

guessing battle wasn't held. is vector going to have another chance or will it be the next server in line?

Probably not. We couldn't have a battle either Monday or Tuesday, so Vector will have to wait. Next battle will be on Recursion. I'm aiming for Sunday evening.

Change of plans, it could occur on Tuesday. If it can result in having a battle actually held, then I'm all in.

Omega0 wrote:

Vogt wrote:

I'd say Vector next Monday. Machines vs Zion, at 6 PM.

Is there any chance we could change this to Tuesday?  I've been the only Zionite present at the last three battles on Vector, so if it stays on Monday, it will probably be cancelled.

No

I'd say Vector next Monday. Machines vs Zion, at 6 PM.

Omega0 wrote:

I agree with you, to an extent.  However, there were many times when people got free XP and their opponents never announced their intention to show up to a battle.

This is because this is a new rule. It allows to make sure no one loses time showing up to a battle that won't actually take place. This results in a reduction in the occurence of default victories, but yes, they are still bound to happen. They were very frequent at the start where I didn't know yet which organizations were committed to participate, and which ones didn't care.

Bayamos is right. In the Recursion battle, no one from the Machine side mentionned their interest to participate in the battle. The battle was then cancelled, and no rank points are awarded.

For yesterday's battle, someone on the Zion side did mention that they would be there. The battle was then held, but no one showed in the end, and this is a default victory. Showing up to a battle and not having one is a sad situation, especially for me. There's no reason why I would punish those that made the effort to show up, regardless of rank. As it has always been, default victories provide 2 rank points to the side that showed up, and in that situation, I don't really care about captains' ranks. I won't enter into a war of What Ifs, thinking that if one captain would show up, a higher ranked captain would not be able to join, or stuff like that.

Making the captains and I lose some time is frustrating. Don't expect me to punish those that made the effort to show up. We're in a situation where these battles risk to be even more rarer that they were before, so we must give full incentives to people to participate.

Syntax. Indeed, no Zion nor EPN. I remind you that Cypherites and EPN captains have no limits in joining the battles for their associated organization anymore, and in consequence will not have battles scheduled only for them anymore, unless a special situation occurs.

Machines won by default.

2 out of the 3 last battles scheduled actually did not happen.

Starting from now, conflictual actions will be resolved by an Energy roll, like before, but the difference is that the winner will decide if he or she acts first or last. This is mostly applicable when ramming a ship that is repairing, multiple chains of rammings, or ramming a ship using an EMP where one of the two ships has 1 Hull left.

The next battle will be Monday, at 6 PM on Syntax. Machines versus Zion.

I do like the proposition. I did think about it a long time ago, but changing rules that have been used since a long time can be complex. This solution would definitely be extremely advantageous for ramming strategies with a good combination of Hull and Energy, but I think that a variation in strategies isn't bad, especially with the current plague in stalling techniques. I'm interested to hear what others have to say about it.

Zion won.

Yes, it's ok for me.