We have uploaded a whole new batch of code to the beta server and reset the game. Most of the changes are internal and should not be noticed by anyone playing the game.

The critical changes everyone should be aware of are:

Sector Nova has been removed. You can no longer use the Nova Bomb to reduce sector defenses, damage ships and damage planets from another sector.

Sector Defense fighters use 10 times the energy everyone is used to. This means you can only have 1/10th the number of fighters for sector defense that everyone is used to placing. This change was made because the Sector Nova was eliminated. The amount of energy each fighter needs will be adjusted as people play-test the code to find the appropriate setting.

Ship Missile replaces the Sector Nova. This is a missile that can be used to target a ship in another sector. It basically is the replacement for the Sector Nova. You can carry up to 5 Ship Missiles on any ship. The ship missile has been disabled for the next couple of days as some kinks still need to be worked out. It looks like the missile will be an energy feedback weapon based upon the defending ships power or shield tech level and the amount of power availible. In otherwords, the larger the defenders power or shield tech level coupled with the amount of availible power the more damage that is inflicted. So using the missile on a small ship or ship with low/damaged power or shield tech or little energy will do very little damage.

Planet to Planet traderoutes are now working.

There are many other small changes to the game code and many bug fixes. Everyone starts with a Pioneer and 1 billion in cash. The universe is a small one of only 2,000 sectors.

Thanks and have fun testing.

Fortune favors the brave.

And watching AAT for the past 4 years I must say that the removal of Sector Nova's has to be one of the largest changes that the AAT staff has attempted.

I love it. Finally - I can be rewarded for developing a 5 Planet door sector that I sink weeks of cash into with a reasonable amount of security without the worry that someone with one quarter my score or resources can come crashing through my gate within just a few hours.

Well your not 100% protected there is still A & R Dont forget you will still need alot of col and energy to hold up fighters... I've been workin on a spreadsheet to determine what my energy needs are for x amount of fighters... its pretty tough so untill you can get a bit of colonists don't expect to have a bill fighters floatin in your sectors.

I said a reasonable amount of protection. Not total protection.


Newbie Feature Alert:
Instead of people having to work out of the math with pen and paper, why not have each planet have a little read out that says - X Fighters supported.

It would be pretty easy for the game to look at the energy being produced by a planet, then dividing that by the variable to support a fighter and give a nice straight answer as to how many fighters can be supported.

I know in the past that question came up quite alot, I can only imagine that it will come up again.

well...the lazy part of me says I would like to see something TELL me how much SD figs can be supported, then again, if that happened, it'd be too easy...wouldn't reward people that spend the time to figure things out.

I will say, that if that change is made, then their needs to be a thing that says how much organics a planet needs versus how much they are producing. again, easy enough if you want to spend the time to do some figures, but would make it way easy for newbies if changed...

now, to address the original post...

first off, I think that 2000 sectors is way too small to test anything. I mean, sure, you can test some of the attacking code, but you won't be able to find optimal numbers for SD energy usage, because no one is going to have the ability to even get anything setup before getting attacked. part of this also stems from the fact that you give large amounts of money to start (meaning a decent attack ship can be purchased off the bat) yet you still have limitted turns which doesn't allow a builder to even get started. with 2000 sectors and low turns, everyone needs to be an attacker starting off, which means, what are we attacking?

second off, I am really excited about removal of the nova bomb. I have spent dozens of hours setting up perfect gateways (two or three layers of blue/green sectors each with as much SD as they can support) only to have someone roll in with novas and take the cluster in a matter of an hour or so...

You really don't understand much about testing anything do you?

We have been trying different galaxy sizes and even different starting ships in the different beta games. Each one is different to test different things. Each reset will have something different in how it is setup to test different things.

If you are just going to continually bitch about things maybe you should AVOID the beta completely because you really are not helping.

PJ, how about you STFU? I mean, god man, I made ONE negative comment about the reset, and ONE positive comment. I also piggybacked another player's suggestion with a reply about his idea, and bounced a related suggestion out there.

I don't see why the hell you think I am over here bitching, I simply said that you mentioned trying to TWEAK THE ENERGY NUMBERS FOR SD, yet you put into place a system that will not give you anywhere NEAR accurate results. the effect of changes to the SD system will not be felt in a small galaxy. period. I'm sorry to break it to you son, but it just won't happen. you'll be able to simulate early-round SD, but thats not even in the vicinity of how things will play out in later stages. if you are trying to use people to "play-test the code to find the appropriate setting." you need to find the settings that will work for all stages of a round. otherwise, your going to have results that make the final code flawed, which will only be noticeable after a few weeks of playing, and by then its too late to fix.

but, alas, I guess I'm the only one on this site who tries to think about everything at once. and if this particular reset isn't supposed to give feedback on the optimal energy numbers for SD, then why bother even posting it in your announcement? atleast not without saying you aren't testing it this reset?

infact, why the hell don't you post a list of items to test when you reset the beta server? I know thats what we do when we are beta testing our games. we have a list of everything that the beta-testers should focus on, and that list changes each time we have a new beta version released. oh, thats right, probably too organised for you.

Let's see, look at your pattern of posts. Since you came back it has been nothing but bitch about one thing or another.

I tried someone else want to try and explain it to him? I don't like beating my head against a brick wall.

oh, so maybe you don't look at the SUGGESTIONS forum, where I have posted a half dozen or more suggestions for the game, not bitching about how it works, but suggestions for new options and stuff. I guess trying to get creative is actually a disguise for bitching. whatever. I still don't get what the F*** the deal is that you take 1/4 of a post, and have the nerve (or lack of brains) to think that is what the whole post was about. I gave you one thing I thought was wrong with the reset beta, and one that I thought was right. gee, I am bitching SOOOOO much! PJ, get a life, get over yourself, and please read/think before posting your anti-max bullcrap...kthxbye!

incase you didn't want to check, 8 suggestions, and 14 threads I've posted in without bitching. just in the suggestions forum. I've also posted in the general chatter w/o bitching. in addition to that, I have posted twice about bugs w/o bitching (once turned out to be a user-error with the IGB in a casino port, the other was the P2P trades not working). I've corrected a mistake in what tarnus had said about A&Rs, and also let someone know that the A&R code wasn't working on the beta game before they tried it (thread by oldman). I defended the new sector naming convention, which I personally really enjoy. I posted about a login problem (without bitching) and I wasn't the only one having the problem. it was a problem that you guys should have been made aware of, and I did. and I've also asked a question about how to buy a new ship (5 mins after starting the .30 code).

now, as to the things that you are considering bitching:

1.) my first post here. contained one thing I felt was wrong with the reset beta. not bitching, an explanation of my opinion. with evidence to support my claim.
2.) my first post about creating/destroying planets to get the ones I want. not bitching, explaining that it is a strategy, not a bug.
3.) my second post about creating/destroying planets yadayada. bitching? yes. strike ONE! though it still was my opinion.
4.) my first post about me dieing, due to a bug in your code. bitching, yes. warranted, again yes. the bug had been reported before, and there was no way to just "not do it" unless you didn't want people attacking if there was any SD at all. sure, some people got lucky and didn't get hit, but others were unlucky and did get hit. I wasn't the only one.
5.) my second post after the loss of my voy (reply to some other people). somewhat bitching. you and your group of imbeciles came out and made ludicrous statements about me posting the bug in the bug tracking software (which had been done days before) or making an inane analogy about a broken car and a mechanic, which had NOTHING to do with the problem (you aren't mechanics, and it wasn't a normal wear and tear item such as brake pads. its more like you being a car manufacturor and not installing brakes.) or even comparing someone losing a ship to a bug, to having a server get reset. I mean, hello! think about how stupid you all sounded with these? and PJ, yours was one of the worst. acting like I am a complete and utter moron because I don't have any reason at ALL to have a program to make screenshots into jpg's. I'm sorry bro, but I'm an IT technician, I don't get a chance to play with pretty pictures. I troubleshoot networks, I fix computers, and I make sure that websites function. not look good. if I was a graphic designer, it would be unacceptable for me to not have software capable of that, but I'm not. would I fault you if you didn't have expressscribe for transcribing audiofiles? unless you are a transcriptionist, then no, I would not call you names because you don't have a piece of software that, frankly, you wouldn't ever need.
6.) my third post after losing the voy. perhaps a bit bitchy, but again, replying to inane and ludicrous comments. people saying that I am selfish or not skilled, or whatever. thats right, I'm all of those things, yet some of the people that even tarnus himself have claimed as being some of the best in the game have either come to respect me on the field of battle (READ: had their asses handed to them on platters, then asked me to join them) or have been with me on a team, and are willing to be on any team I join, regardless of what server or version, and regardless of who's ire it will attract. I am a team player, and no one who has been on my team will deny that. I am also a skilled player (skilled enough to make the top10 on any server I want, and compete against any player in the game. maybe I'm not the best player in the game, infact, I know I'm not. but I'm skilled, more skilled than tarnus or big gives me credit for. all tarnus has to do is ask those people on the kitty that he himself listed as some of the game's better players (gabriel, who in tarnus's own words is possibly the best builder in the game. alf, who is also one of if not the best builders in the game. darksoul, who is a solid and ancient player. the master, whom tarnus said was one of the best. etc, etc, etc. all of whom respect my playing skill, atleast as much as an enemy respects a foe who has beaten him on the field of battle.)
7.) my fourth post after losing the voy. not bitching. I pointed out (in response to someone telling me to read the bug reporting guide/FAQ/whatever) that the was a single slim page for a guide, that told how to signup for an account. thats all. I had posted everything that had been asked for and that I thought was relevant. I also pointed out that everyone *assumed* that I had not posted the bug report before starting my bitching. infact, the report had been made several days before. I also responded to a comment made about my reply to the mechanic/brakes analogy. again, no bitching.
8.) my first post about losing my first planet. definately bitching. can't defend it in the least.
9.) my second post about losing my first planet. perhaps bitching, but not really. just stating that I don't like being limitted to only playing in fed space for the first few days.
10.) my fifth post in that thread. not bitching at all. I asked tarnus to check the game logs, because BIG was bitching that I was cheating, when it was CLEAR that I wasn't.


and there you have it, all of my bitching, of which there was only...SIX posts. out of the DOZENS of posts I have made. gee, I guess you are right and thats all I ever use these forums for is to bitch. moron.

Max, please keep it PG 13, I have said this I don't know how many times. We have your folks that read the forum. PLEASE KEEP IT CLEAN!!!

As far as suggestions go, yes we read them however... we have to draw a line in the sand and say, we have all this stuff to add before a release can take place or we end up putting a release off even longer. My vote is to get what we have done and then we can review suggestions and make changes for the future versions. But right now, we got to stop and get what we have fully operational before we can add new stuff.

Note, Max, from here on out if you can't keep it clean, I will delete the posts myself.

tarnus, I know you can't do all the suggestions right now. all I am saying is that PJ thinks that all I do on this site is bitch, when you can clearly see that I have made more SUGGESTIONS than I have made bitchy posts. I've also made more helpful/general posts than I have bitchy posts. (excluding maybe my last two after PJ decided to be an ignoramus...)