Hovercraft Battles

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

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.

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.

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

Vogt wrote:

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

If it's around 9 pm EST, I'd be able to make it.

I'm free at any time.

so uh...Zion vs Sieges + Bayamos?

Is the decision going to be made upon rank compatibility?

oh and Sieges means 6pm MCT

NeoExcidious wrote:

so uh...Zion vs Sieges + Bayamos?

Is the decision going to be made upon rank compatibility?

oh and Sieges means 6pm MCT

Yeah. 8:00 PM CST is OK 

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.

I'm available, but if the Machines want it, I agree that they should take precedence. They haven't had a battle in some time on Recursion.

- Void

I can't make it tonight.

Lyr

Why are none of the Machinists or Merovingians present?

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.

Omega0 wrote:

Why are none of the Machinists or Merovingians present?

((I was late tonight because I went out for dinner with my family rather unexpectedly.))

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.

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.

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.

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.

Vogt wrote:

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.

I may Try to make this one ill have to see how the schedule is.

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.

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?

im free all day monday should be good for me.

NeoExcidious wrote:

Ok. So what time will it be then?

I guess it will be at 6.

I will be there, possibly.

Things may crop up later and I may not attend. If I do not show up an hour prior, you can exclude me.

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

I hope to make it.

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.

Participation is going down because:

1. Population has decreased.

2. These need to be better-advertised.

3. Despite the fact that it's been advertised when these take place, up until recently, I've had no idea where they took place.

Better advertising of the fact that this exists, would be a great way to get new participants.  A few members of my faction attended to observe with me last night, while we watched the match and familiarized ourself with how it was done.  We'll likely be participating much more often, and I'm sure others would too, if they knew about it.

For the most part there's also a lack of Machinist presence on Recursion - at least the kind of Machinists who get involved with these. I haven't seen the Collective in a battle in a while, though it seems that Lyr still posts about whether or not she'll show up to these. There are also a lot of Familia Grigori people who show up at each battle, but none of them battle. Are any of them interested, Sieges? I think the system could use the numbers.

The Machinist side seems to have taken a slight hit. There don't seem to be any Cypherite participants around anymore. Yasamuu's gone. Bayamos is on all three possible instances, which is good, but he's pretty much alone, spare Starschwar, Mathalos, and Eval, none of which I've really seen in a while.

And... Well, there are no Merv participants outside of Recursion.

If participation is on the decline, my opinion would be that it would be a better idea to increase cross-server battles and reduce the number of server-exclusive battles. This ensures everyone a chance to battle whenever their org's number is pulled. This would be especially handy for Zion, the organization with the highest participation rate (mostly on Recursion, since Omega is across the board and there's Nubious for Vector, though he rarely makes it, no offense) into using alts or fielding few ships, rather than giving established and budding captains the chance to participate.

((the tl;dr version))

There's barely enough Mervs/Machinists to field opposition to Zion across all three servers while almost all of Zion's numbers come from Recursion. We might as well make all battles cross-server and held on Recursion in order to get new operatives to participate in filled battles rather than ones with larger and larger holes.

TekMon and Noxton have expressed a desire to join in, but last night, they both got out of work late and thus missed the grace period after the scheduled time. Wire393 has had nothing but criticism for the hovercraft battles. I don't think SenaDe has studied the rules, but I'll talk to him about it. Also, things tend to get slow population-wise the week before a major holiday, so it didn't surprise me that the Machines didn't show up.

(It's true. Had it been any other day this week, I wouldn't have been able to show up, either. Although I can say that despite being out-numbered and out-ranked, yesterday's battle was a lot of fun. And I do hope that even if cross-server battles do not continue, that ranked battles do, especially since some of us are getting up there in the points.

Sure, that leaves any side that's not Zion at a bit of a rank-disadvantage, but there's really no substitute for smashing Fen to death.  

- Void)

EndlessVoid wrote:

(It's true. Had it been any other day this week, I wouldn't have been able to show up, either. Although I can say that despite being out-numbered and out-ranked, yesterday's battle was a lot of fun. And I do hope that even if cross-server battles do not continue, that ranked battles do, especially since some of us are getting up there in the points.

Sure, that leaves any side that's not Zion at a bit of a rank-disadvantage, but there's really no substitute for smashing Fen to death.  

- Void)

(You know what I pictured with that?  I saw this little black sentinel shooting through my huge hovercraft like a bullet, my hovercraft shuddering in mid-air... hoverpads shaking and flashing on and off, then my ship crashing straight into the ground.  Quite epic.

You're still a butt, though.  ))

(I think I did it some justice.)

- Void

((Like others have said, this may not have been the best week holiday wise to have the battle.  It was fun nonetheless.  I know we had a lot of people observing the battle last night, so hopefully some of them will be joining us in the coming battles.))

I agree with Neoteny's post. If participation/server is dropping, i think we should have more cross-server battles, not necesarily no rank restriction ones, although, the high ranks deserve some from time to time.

Void's suicide bomber sentinel (like in Reloaded/Revolutions) tactics work from time to time apparently, and Sieges was not any less able this monday. I can say I'm impressed with how well they did given the odds.Regardless, I wouldn't leave out of consideration that RB and Fen will get their revenge soon

Sincerely,

Cpt. NeoExcidious of the Seeker

I apologize for being preoccupied due to the holidays but I do not expect to miss the next battle.

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.

I would love to see them keep going, even if it just ends up being battles between us and the cake eaters.  ((And I'm only one point away from Rank 3...  *glares at Void and grumbles*))

I honestly can't get enough of the hovercraft battles.  It plays a very important part of MxO for me, and my faction has taken a lot of pride in our success with these battles.

I know it doesn't seem like a lot of people are showing interest, but I promise you that more people will start signing up.  I know a lot of our newer members have taken great interest in these battles, and they'll be signing up for them.  I'm also pretty sure Sieges is generating interest amongst her members in Familia Grigori.

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.

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.

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.

####Incoming transmission

####Hovercraft Neo's Hope

To: EPN and Zion hovercraft captains

Greetings:

In light of the challenges that face us in this war, EPN and Zion continue to work together as we deal with the uncertainty of the future.  It is therefore prudent that allied hovercraft captains be given the chance to test their skills in a training situation under the prevailing conditions typically present in these battles, including the granting of ranks.

EPN captains will form one team; Zion captains the other.

Vogt shall be present and will oversee this event.

EPN and Zion hovercraft captains are respectfully requested to indicate their interest in participation by leaving a message at this location. Captains from all instances are invited to attend.

The battle is scheduled as follows:

Date: Sunday, January 25th,2009

Time: 4:00 PM MCT (Pacific)

Location:Syntax instance

###End transmission

I'd be down for this. (Timing is just an issue because I am really busy with school right now.)

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.

This is a reminder for today's battle.

Well, fiddlesticks.  For some reason, I thought this was at 6pm MCT, not 4pm MCT.  As such, I probably won't be there as duties beyond my control have risen in the Real.

Blargh.

Fen wrote:

Well, fiddlesticks.  For some reason, I thought this was at 6pm MCT, not 4pm MCT.  As such, I probably won't be there as duties beyond my control have risen in the Real.

Blargh.

EPN won. Only one person showed on each side.

Congratulations to Steelle for reaching the rank of Faithful.

My sincerest apologies for not being able to attend.  I was really looking forward to this.  Sorry I couldn't make it.

Apologies in that I couldn't make it either - it turned out to be a very hectic day and I'd actually forgotten about it until now.

((Wouldn't have been a good situation since I had to make an emergency run during the timeframe of the battle and probably would've ended up forfeit, anyway. I'd still enjoy something like this in the future, but it just seems that the day didn't work out for a lot of us.))