HWS 7.X.X Patch | After Party | Golden Globe & Homeworld 100% dynamic | New Surface wipe logic

HWS Announcements
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Hey everyone,

while we (still) have the highest population and even more with 200+ player on both servers I still feel a bitter taste that it has not got the full potential out of it.
Not even speaking of tons of feedback I got after only 3 days via forum PM, mail and Discord - some rude, some friendly.

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It is of course early but especially because it is early an idea of mine should go the early road and should be tested from now on carefully.

Prime / No-Prime Time meaning

This is already a big part of Armageddon and is now also part of Homeworld and Golden Globe.

During the prime time (EU = 5PM - 11PM & NA = 11PM - 9AM) Homeworld and Golden Globe will now have a destructible surface.

During the no-prime time they will have an indestructible surface.

The surface however will reset always at the end of the prime time so while it is indestructible it should increase performance for building “the normal” way, like in no holes or other terrain changed ways.
In prime time however you can start your crazy drill skill builds.

Why?

The main problem I saw all over the place last season was that during the no-prime time farmer could get millionaires while being AFK. It was no risk, it was no challenge to get gold. During PvP then, all the changed terrain caused additionally bad performance.
This should be changed now to the better.

Of course it means that some spoiled people can’t get rich so fast and easy again but that is good.

Details

So I know it is quite complex now and I see already some failing in understanding even the basics but these two hotspot Planets have a deep history and only the brave and smart guys can try their luck there with 100% potential.

Let me write down all the details of the following server restart to give you a status quo you can refer to it later:

  • Golden Globe has indestructible terrain during no-prime time. Destructible terrain otherwise
  • Golden Globe has the same resource crust attributes like last season (gold at top and bottom layer)
  • Homeworld has indestructible terrain during no-prime time. Destructible terrain otherwise
  • Homeworld has no Erestrum, Zascosium, Neodymium and Pentaxid as resource crust because Desertworld, Lavaworld, Iceworld and Waterworld have them
  • Meteorites and Deposits on both planets are reduced for performance & gameplay reasons
  • Golden Globe and Homeworld will have a surface wipe with the start of the no-prime time duration (EU = 11PM, NA = 9AM)

New surface wipe logic

As some have experienced already we have a new surface wipe logic. It is very important that you understand and spread the word about it.

At the moment a surface wipe means the same as before EXCEPT that the deposit % values are not refreshed anymore!

So if you see a deposit on a surface wipe planet telling you 1% it is probably wrong and in fact it has 100%!

We have to do it this way now because we also implemented the surface wipe on starters every friday now. And because we do that we had to exclude the World.dat to be removed. That file stores the % values of deposit. BUT it stores also PDA waypoints and Trees etc. (and I DIDN’T want to have Trees in the HWS Info Center or Rocks in a POI so you are trapped! This was also the reason I had to remove the PDA waypoint to the HWS Info Center)

It is a total stupid system and a pain in the ass we have to go this hacky road but it is as it is.

Just for your information.

Other final notes:

I know the “Basic Survival” PDA mission needs some love. Will be done along the way but with low prio.
Additionally the “Deposit Hunt” PDA mission is now complete and can be played.

From here on I will observe how it goes now. Alpha 8 / HWS 8 should be then “complete”.

RexXxuS

P.S.: I know that the prime time of NA is four hours longer than the prime time on EU. Maybe we can change it in the future but for now it is as it is because of the different timezones.

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So ok, what was the original question ahead of this post ? „We have many players on HWS, how can we attract even more players ?““… correct ?

The answer is easy : meaningful gameplay.

At the moment everyone collects gold for OCD 7 + Garage ships… this is a meaning. Another meaning would be „meaningful PVP“… right ?

CV battle has no meaning with the current warp-out and all-CV-have-same-weapon-loadout… right ? May change with the stargates.

HV/SV battle on PVP hotspots has no meaning as well. GG is haunted by big factions in size 1,49 brick SV who are hunting miners. Bases are pointless, we had extended discussions about that and 100% of the veterans confirmed this.

So, not to just complain, what are my suggestions for a player explosion on HWS ? (I talked to many who left and asked for their reasons) :

  • make bases super super strong by instant hit turrets and 30% more range
  • allow all CV guns on planets
  • allow CV landings on PVP hotspots
  • decrease max size of CVs to 1 in PVP.

Here are some facts from the interviews :
„Why should i build a base on GG ? I love PVP, but 20 exploiter SVs kill my base in 2 minutes“
„I built a cool invader CV with docked HVs, why cant i land on GG ? The major factions have a forest of base towers and i am not even allowed to land a small CV“
„Why should i summon a combat HV on GG ? I cant evacuate it when the size 1,49 brick SVs of the major factions come in. My combat HV is auto-doomed“.

Summed up : Please stop HWS improvements for veterans and major factions, instead improve the possibilities of new players who are not to shy going into competition with the veterans and major faction but not yet have 50 OP garage ships and 700 trillions credits at their disposal

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@everyone sadly, very sadly we can’t do our new surface wipe method. The world.dat is too aggressive and contains the deco and deposits as well. Don’t ask me wth we have a deco.dat and area files for them then.

Anyways this means we go back the old road for all surface wipe planets BUT can’t do surface wipes on starter planets again

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Happy !:stuck_out_tongue::wink::grinning:

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i totally agree with DARK hws 7 is mainly for big factions with their wealth and the working class noob finds it hard to get on in the game, it should have just stayed meteors instead of surface gold BUT you can not go back to just meteors now as no working class noob will never compete with the wealthy, as they say in uk you make your bed you sleep in it hahahah good luck rex lol

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They may have wealth, but they do have their limits. It only takes one well determined individual to disrupt operations…

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hello taco, yes but not many groups out there and trust me if you take down a tower or 3 or even wipe them off GG, you wouldn’t even put a dent in their wallet lol

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You don’t need to dent the wallet, resources are easy to obtain either through purchasing or mining. Only need to dent is their pride; demoralization is a bigger blow than loss of finances in wartime. Both are important, however the loss of moral in the troops is harder to combat even with adequate funding.

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I cant comprehend the rush for resources incl. gold. Most in the large factions have more resources than they’ll ever use. Thats pointless, grinding/waste of life stuff IMO. They’ll get bored and leave before they even use 1/10th of their OCDs.

Gold was too plentiful last season. Some factions with 100s mills - even bills can now just spam garage ships at their enemies - yawn. There is still lots of fun to be had in this game even for those of us 2070 hours in. Its more fulfilling though to try out different aspects / origins / gameplay styles.

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It’s not really about the gold, at least not for the vets - it is about creating a PvP hotspot. Sure, it’s nice to have millions upon millions of credits, but once the gold fever wears off it is back to PvP.

My primary goal right now is changing the PvP meta into something more challenging. Right now it is too easy for people to build massive SV/HVs that can fight for 10 minutes and then … leave.

What are your thoughts? Please provide support or constructive feedback.

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the only thing is its a big faction or wealthy faction game, i dont think its noob friendly or balanced between the rich and the noob lol as i seen today a couple of peeps quit,which was sad to see when they were taken out by a massive pvp cv against a empyrion bp cv lol and they only wanted a couple of the rare resources lol a couple of days playing just to loose it all in 2 minute battle lol so sad to see them leave.i say abolish ocd and wipe everyone money lol back to the grind everyone starts on par lol hehehehehe that would be fun lmao

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I fully agree, these massive armored bricks and cubes are

a) ugly
b) takes forever to bring one down. If he is about losing he can easily escape.

This is not only valid for SV/HV but also CV. CVs should be limited to size one in PVP.

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I fought a HV in my SV that had already been a few fights. Lost all my guns, flew back, replaced the guns and came back and finished the HV off. It was a good fight, but at the same time it dies give the SV the advantage.

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Thats exactly why HVs are pointless on GG if you dont belong to ACM or RED with 5876567 repair bases that Rex refuses to grant to single players and small factions.
I can bring throw-away miners and Warp-SVs or a combat SV for some tackling, but real PVP is only possible for the major factions owning bases on GG and having 6398567 members to protect them 24/7.

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In war numbers will always win. Do not expect things to be fair in a pvp hot spot. Rex has already made things fairer for small factions vs large factions. Be quick, be nimble and be creative.

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Actually I use about 30 to 60% of my OCD every season (I have OCD 6)

There are 30mil CV’s and 15 Mil SV’s… that is 45… which is half of the 100m I average a season… for two ships. I think you all have these delusions that all hard core PVP’ers are like Oprah rich. I know most of the wealthiest people on HWS… I have only met TWO that had the 700m for OCD7. Neither of them are on NA either. And neither of them did it mining gold. They did it through trading/banking. Which no PVP’er has control over.

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@Daddystu I’m with you in most cases and caught allot of heat for it when I supported the concept for Hacking OCDs, OAMs, etc. Even listening in to the conversations of the people who have these massive amounts of gold ingots and such makes it sound like they have more than they need. I will say this though, most of those that have massive amounts of everything are also storing things for others so it’s not all theirs.

  1. They use their OCD 6+ to store Gold etc. for allies
  2. At the beginning of each season they withdraw a large portion(likely 50% or more for many)
  3. Garage Ships periodically to stay competitive
  4. End of season grind to get ready for next season

That’s really the process they go through every season in the big factions, though arguably each season those factions get a bit richer from having more people getting more effective at grinding and having more stored from previous seasons, so there’s that too. Even so, I understand where they are coming from in their love for their OCD storage and the rush for gaining dominion over the resources to make the end of season grind less grindy.

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aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh but you forget about your bank interest you rolling in it hahahaha

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So your problem isn’t with PVP’ers now your problem is with Donators? Or are you saying that you and the insanely rich traders don’t get interest?

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