game mail from yesterday:
Zenith Wrote:The top 4 in the competition are extremely close. I'm talking 2 or so full AP refreshes worth of points apart. {dayute} was ahead of everyone by a significant margin until the free hospital card was handed out
How is it possible for one player to be ahead "by a significant margin" when all of the top 4 were using all of their AP towards the competition? How is it possible for that same player to be "extremely close" to the others after spending considerable time in the hospital?
Zen said she tried to make it as fair as possible, but intentionally or not, this contest is skewed in favor of lower level players.
are you saying that all 4 players were up from 12:00 server time using every single AP point on the competition? for like 36 hours?
In comparing with others in our gangs, for the most part, all the points average out over a period. There is correction built in for ap capacity due to level...the only thing i am not sure about are the bonus levels. They may have a slight advantage. That would be a good question for zen? I think she tried to make it fair and equal for all levels in that it was only a competition for level of activity and that everyone was on an equal and balanced playing field. Thanks Zen for giving us something to monopolize all our time....I really needed it. I may have to start looking for a good divorce attorney soon
. Ill give my wife your email and you can explain it to her....lol. No shes cool, seriously, we appreciate the effort you make for competitions like this.
Imo, I like the contests, but I do see the need for some sort of way to hide your rank in the competition.....but obviously the competitor needs to see his/her rank to know where they stand.
matt5250 Wrote:are you saying that all 4 players were up from 12:00 server time using every single AP point on the competition? for like 36 hours?
Gepetto and I have burned practically every available AP in the contest, yes. I can't speak for the others.
practically? or every AP. have you made sure to never let ur AP cap out since the competition started? have you not done a single crime?
cause if you have done any of this there is room for someone to be ahead.
there is always the X factor too! say you get 3 shooting points for every 1 AP you use. Then one of your AP uses you get 3.15 Training 50 AP, this might give you an advantage.
matt5250 Wrote:practically? or every AP. have you made sure to never let ur AP cap out since the competition started? have you not done a single crime?
cause if you have done any of this there is room for someone to be ahead.
Chalk it up to a cap out here or there and the randomness factor if you want, but when a guy who has been offline for 6 or 8 hours passes one of us up, something's wrong.
Gepetto did some sort of analysis and presented it to Zenith as well but I am not going to try to explain his work. If he wants to chime in, he will.
mtngti Wrote:matt5250 Wrote:are you saying that all 4 players were up from 12:00 server time using every single AP point on the competition? for like 36 hours?
Gepetto and I have burned practically every available AP in the contest, yes. I can't speak for the others.
note the word "practically". the former leader in the contest used EVERY available AP for the first 2 days. I believe, until Zen corrects me, that you guys are wrong in your assumption that the contest had a lean towards the lower players. Why was anyone above lvl 20 even in the top 50 if that were so?
edit: corrected "not" to "note"
I will admit that I have no hard evidence to support my theory. I will just say again that if someone has passed me after they spent hours offline, or hours in the hospital, and I have just capped out a time or 2, something is wrong.
Gepetto's analysis has more to do with refresh rate vs. max AP.
Zenith's level-based point corrections have been figured based on max AP, but we all know that we refresh AP at a certain rate for a few levels at a time.
Soo, a character who is at the beginning of a certain refresh rate is going to gain more than someone 2 levels up, with the same refresh rate. Fair? Not really. It's a small problem, maybe or maybe not quite related to what I've been noticing, but it adds up over time.
Well, I know for sure that Dayute was up for hours and hours and hours doing this competion. Anyone correct me if I am wrong but doesn't your APs go up even in the hospital???? I was sending Dayute groups of stims constantly because PULLO (oops, how do I edit his name off here LOL) was constantly hospitalizing him. I chose not too put it in the forum either and only said I gave two because I know he would have hospitalized me once again for doing so. Had Dayute continued to play I would have continued sending the stims to him. The only reason he was offline long was because of hospital times and whatever other RL issues came up. I have seen Gepetto offline and possibly Vor also. 99% of the time I was online I saw Dayute either online or away letting some APs refresh. Why do you think he attacked pullo to put himself in the hospital? Easier to use one or two stims for your hospital stay than having to use a dozen or more because somebody put you there for over 2 hours. I see how some higher players want to win by obliterating others. If I was loaded with cash I would have gone to higher members and bought attack contracts on many others. But I didn't so I couldn't. For everyone who made this contest great I say thanks much for the enjoyment. For the others who want to steamroll everyone else I say TSK TSK TSK. Shame on you.
As far as rankings next time (when or if there is a next time) I agree with leaving the rank list off and only showing your own ranking during this. I still say thank you Lady Zen for making this game enjoyable even though others like to ruin it. GOOD THING this game doesn't reset like many others I know. HEHE
Oh well, time to put the targets away, clean up my shooting area, and go back to training and crimes.