Winter Round: FAQ
 

There's a few questions around about this round, so i thought I'd answer them here. If you have any more questions you'd like to ask, let me know and I'll answer here.

Firstly, I'd like to state that as this is a bit of an experimental setup, there may have to be some intervention during the round. We will try and keep this to a minimum.


1) Are private galaxies 8 planets, or 8+8 (8 late joiners) ?

I didn't really make this clear, apologies.

Private galaxies are capped at 8 planets. They can have people signing up to join them at any time during the round, as "late joiners", but you have no late join system comparative to the recent "main" rounds.

2) Galaxy X:Y has more than 8 planets. Howcome?

The galaxy is a "public" galaxy. It has a maximum of 14 planets. If additional planets try to join a random galaxy and all existing galaxies are full, new galaxies WILL be created. If this becomes problematic, we may look at another solution.


3) Will there be a shuffle?
There is no planned shuffle to move players out of galaxies. However, some/all galaxies will be moved around to shuffle the clusters and make sure they are all complete.

4) I can't complete the quests as I can't join an alliance
EDITED

Alliances are now in the game. The majority of the alliance tools are also available.

5) What URLs can I access the round with?
http://winter.planetarion.com
http://xmas.planetarion.com
http://mini.planetarion.com
http://66.116.124.64

6) What is "Present Power"?
For those of you familiar with a "Capture the Flag" setting, it's very similar. After protection, every galaxy will receive one asteroid, a "present", randomly allocated to a planet within the galaxy. This asteroid has the same chance of being captured as any other (e.g. if you get a 25% cap, you have a 1 in 4 chance of stealing it).
A galaxy's "Present Power" is based on the number of presents it has.

The formula for your own present:
5*score_of_owning_planet/1000

The formula for presents of other galaxies that you posses:
1*score_of_owning_planet/1000

There is also the traditional planet / galaxy rankings.

7) Seriously, what's with all the names?
It's Christmas :D

8) Is this a normal round? Will there be an EoRC or prizes?

This is not a standard round and so there is no planned EoRC or prizes at the end. It's a very experimental round!

9) How do I see where the presents are?
On the galaxy page, there will be a list of the presents captured and which planet they are on. A complete list of all presents and their location is available in the "misc" section of the universe page.

10) Is the "Present Power" score cumulative?
No,
if someone captures your present 1 tick before the end, they gain the score and you don't. It means that you can never assume complete victory.

You can lose and recapture your present and re-gain the full score. Other presents are always the same amount.

11) Is queuing going to change with the faster ticks?
No.

12) Will the scan tree be changed / completed / etc?
No.

13) Will there be smaller clusters?
This will be considered in the shuffle. The shuffle will take place with the "present allocation" on Saturday morning.

14) What are the dump files going to be?
winter.planetarion.com/botfiles/planet_listing.txt
winter.planetarion.com/botfiles/galaxy_listing.txt
winter.planetarion.com/botfiles/present_listing.txt
winter.planetarion.com/botfiles/user_feed.txt

Re: Winter Round: FAQ
 

Can you remove the donation limit rule please? I like to abuse it to the max. I.E. still only to planets under the gal average score, but no limit as to how much/often.

Re: Winter Round: FAQ
 

I take it #scans aren't taking part this round?

edit - will there be an open source sandmans available for this round...

I would welcome a responce from androx :)

Re: Winter Round: FAQ
 

@Paisley

I hadn't even thought about the Christmas round, with it coming up to Christmas I'm even busier than normal with work. I'll see what can be done.

At the minute we have a bot supplied by Will, but there is another bot apparently in the pipe-line that ell and ali were sorting out....I shall poke Ali to find out where it is.


As it stands there WILL be scanners in the private channel (#scans.priv) who will send you back requests if you "/msg #scans.priv !request x:y:z scantype" and also if you use the request function that was in place last round, supplied by Will. Check the channel topic for details.


So, if your looking for a scan, try #Scans!

mPulse

Re: Winter Round: FAQ
 

Neither had I, the tools backing my "bot" for #scans will need to be reset for tonight. :p

Last I heard (a week ago), Androx had "got the core done" so hopefully it's not too far away.

Don't worry about what the topic says too much (at least while my bot's in use, I have no idea if I can change that topic) -

• "!request" isn't required (even naturally-worded requests should usually be recognised)
• to request multiple scans, several coords and/or scan types per line may be used
• if taking advantage of either of the above for AU scans, probably best to use "au" or "adv..." instead of just "a" for correct detection
• if not bothered about anonymity, requesting in #scans works just as well as "/msg #scans.priv ..." (pming me does not)
• to cancel requests, just include the word "cancel" or "delete" on the same line as the coord(s)/type(s) no longer needed

Since I only spent a few hours on a Saturday afternoon linking my existing tech securely into #scans, the bot doesn't ever reply to requesters in pm - scans appear in the public chan when a scanner does them.

Re: Winter Round: FAQ
 

http://winterkia.cthq.net/index.php

for the winter round

Re: Winter Round: FAQ
 

http://apprime.lt is running the winter round with a full tick history!

Re: Winter Round: FAQ
 

Apprime
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unless it is open to all its pish

Re: Winter Round: FAQ
 

I'm pretty sure that's because the planet pages aren't actually made, rather than some secrecy faggotry.

Re: Winter Round: FAQ
 

You're not paranoid if they really are all after you.

Re: Winter Round: FAQ
 

What Shev said. (I've been saying that since the beginning..?!) You can look at the code and see for yourself, it doesn't get more open than that! Anyway yeh, I hope to have most of the missing stuff completed over the course of this round.

Re: Winter Round: FAQ
 

I just noticed that all questions asked in this thread were answered in updates to the first post. Pro.