Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

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Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by sinewav »

It's been well over a year since I went on safari to hunt for low rubber servers. The landscape had flattened out, become more homogenous with fewer sights to see. Most of the low rubber servers have gone extinct with just a few species remaining. The most diverse and vibrant family of servers belongs to Adventures of TRON, of course. But there still exists a pair of servers from the previous low rubber review: Nexus9 and PixelParty.de. N9 gets some play occasionally, but I've never seen PixelParty.de occupied. However, it must get some play because it has evolved slightly. The cycle delay is smaller, making gameplay a little awkward. Because of this, I'm dropping my rating for this server from 4 stars to 3. However, it still seems like a fast-paced, interesting server that requires quick wits.

I only found one server with default values: IHK Server. I used to find two or three when I went out hunting, but not this time. And there were fewer imposter servers too. The servers "armagetron fun by sh" and "epic.Armagetron" have the rubber scale set to 1, but the rubber is highly modified to allow lot's of wall-sitting. The most offensive of these impostors is "TronServ (Lightcycle Battle)," which blatantly advertizes itself as low rubber. Nothing could be further from the truth with it's 60/16 ratio of speed to rubber.

Only one new species of low-rubber server was discovered on this expedition:

Applejack's Super Awesome Brony Server || Rubber: 1 -- Speed: Medium -- Trails: Infinite
The rubber is slightly modified to make grinds super easy. The grid is huge with a few extra walls thrown in. While the spaciousness in nice, you would need a lot of people in there to make it exciting. Lots of silly messages in this server. Nothing spectacular, but could be a lot of fun with lots of players. 2/5 stars.

I was disappointed not to find Shrunkland and Bebop in Harlem on my trip. I saw old tracks, but could not locate the beasts. Maybe next time.
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by delinquent »

Applejack's Brony server is somewhat influenced by "My Little Pony", and there are one or two badmins floating about. It's quite fun though.
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by Word »

what about low rubber fort? :P

If I had the time I'd start a new thread and review every single server (imitating Roger Ebert's blog, haha), if only to tear them to shreds. Then again that would get redundant after one or two posts...
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by sinewav »

Word wrote:what about low rubber fort? :P
Haha, though about that. Settings aren't very original! :P
Word wrote:If I had the time I'd start a new thread and review every single server (imitating Roger Ebert's blog, haha), if only to tear them to shreds. Then again that would get redundant after one or two posts...
Redundant because 45% of the servers are Fort/Sumo clones, 45% are nonsense HR, and the rest belong to AoT and Crazy Tronners!
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by Phytotron »

sinewav wrote:I was disappointed not to find Shrunkland and Bebop in Harlem on my trip. I saw old tracks, but could not locate the beasts. Maybe next time.
We're back, baby! Would like to get up 'Debris Field' at some point, too.
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by compguygene »

I need to re-work a few things on the hosting before I hand over the full access to you that you need for debris field. It will be it's own stand-alone server. I love the work I have seen so far on it. The hosting server that BiH, Shrunkland, and Tron Wars:Return of the Lightcycle is on is one of 2 hosting servers that I am dedicating to only Low Rubber.
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by sinewav »

compguygene wrote:The hosting server that BiH, Shrunkland, and Tron Wars:Return of the Lightcycle is on is one of 2 hosting servers that I am dedicating to only Low Rubber.
* COUGH *
sinewav wrote:The most offensive of these impostors is "TronServ (Lightcycle Battle)," which blatantly advertizes itself as low rubber. Nothing could be further from the truth with it's 60/16 ratio of speed to rubber.
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by Phytotron »

Those are two completely different servers, sinewav. The names aren't even the same. D:

Now, Tron Wars may not quite qualify as what I would consider "low rubber," but it's just a smidgen over. It's hardly egregious or abusive. It also has an old-school, pre-0.2.7.1 "sponginess" to the feel—not sure what does that (and it's not something you find in high rubber servers; that is, it's not simply a function of basic rubber value). The only thing I'd suggest changing is increasing _RUBBER_TIME, and of course my usual plea for _RUBBER_DELAY[_BONUS].

compguygene wrote:I need to re-work a few things on the hosting before I hand over the full access to you that you need for debris field. It will be it's own stand-alone server. I love the work I have seen so far on it. The hosting server that BiH, Shrunkland, and Tron Wars:Return of the Lightcycle is on is one of 2 hosting servers that I am dedicating to only Low Rubber.
That's cool. I've had it on the backburner this long, waiting a little longer until things are properly sorted doesn't bother me. On that point, would you want to maybe move Tron Wars off that server and replace it with Debris Field, for organizational purposes? Keep the three I deal with together, ya know (which would also presumably make accessing their files simpler, rather than having to log into two different servers).
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by sinewav »

Oh I see. Sounded similar as I read it.
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by compguygene »

Phytotron wrote:
compguygene wrote:I need to re-work a few things on the hosting before I hand over the full access to you that you need for debris field. It will be it's own stand-alone server. I love the work I have seen so far on it. The hosting server that BiH, Shrunkland, and Tron Wars:Return of the Lightcycle is on is one of 2 hosting servers that I am dedicating to only Low Rubber.
That's cool. I've had it on the backburner this long, waiting a little longer until things are properly sorted doesn't bother me. On that point, would you want to maybe move Tron Wars off that server and replace it with Debris Field, for organizational purposes? Keep the three I deal with together, ya know (which would also presumably make accessing their files simpler, rather than having to log into two different servers).
That is the plan. I plan to add some more to the "Tron Wars" brand.
Also, I will gladly add some more CYCLE_RUBBER_TIME, but so that I can better understand your reasoning, can you please explain why?
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by Phytotron »

compguygene wrote:Also, I will gladly add some more CYCLE_RUBBER_TIME, but so that I can better understand your reasoning, can you please explain why?
Well, you read my recent big treatise on rubber, right? Plus, we've talked about it before. And then there's your own experience. So, you know how all the various rubber settings have to work in concert to produce harmony, and that's what I'm getting at.

Now, as I've also mentioned several times, I do like a minimal _RUBBER_TIME, even lower than what you have in Tron Wars (which is 1.5, if I recall—it's down at the moment so I can't check), as evidenced by my own servers (0.3-0.5, if I recall—""). That is because, as I've also also mentioned, I like to minimize rubber as a gameplay mechanic as much as possible. Thus, from a gameplay perspective it makes no sense to me that it should matter how long it has been since the last time you hit a wall unless you conceive of rubber as some kind of armor or shield that can wear down and automatically regenerate (like it's Halo or something), which I don't. Thus, I would have _RUBBER_TIME set as low as possible so that the recovery is as immediate as possible.

However, what's essential here is that the near-immediate recovery is absolutely predicated upon a minimalist base rubber value as well. (I also don't think speed should matter, which is why I prefer _TIMEBASED 1.) Complimentary settings, right.

This leads us to Tron Wars where the basic rubber is higher than I think it needs to be. Ideally, I would reduce both base rubber and _TIME as I have in my servers. But, if you insist on having higher _RUBBER, therefore bringing rubber into it as a gameplay mechanic—something I was assuming in my original comment—then I believe you should have higher _TIME as well, to compensate.

Make sense?

'Course, if you like it like it is, by all means keep it. It's not bad.
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by LOVER$BOY »

Why immediate recovery? Shouldn't time dictate how long it takes to refill and in that time the other players have the chance to kill and gain or lose points.

Currently my settings for the fortress I run supports for only 3.5. Any lower and I'm not sure if I could call it "Fair Play" anymore. Rather "Dangerous" game play would fit in nicely.

Anyway my settings are located here if you want to check it to see for yourselves. Alpha Project - Crazy Fortress
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by Phytotron »

Seriously, man, can't you read?
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by LOVER$BOY »

""": No comment necessary here from me :"""
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Re: Low Rubber Review: Winter 2012

Post by compguygene »

Thank you for the explanation, Phyto. I am going to tinker with this server some more, once it is back up. I am really beginning to understand your preference for TIMEBASED rubber. I did not fully understand the nuance of the interplay of the rubber settings.
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