Lower the Rubber

[LOVER$BOY]

Even so, I always notice a lag jump between values. That just goes to show that LAG can make life very miserable.

[Overrated]

Are you asking to make it 1, 2, 3, 4? Somewhere in between? I'm willing to experiment with like, 2.5-3 area, but not sure if any lower.

Said this before, but it wouldn't satisfy Concord's desires.

On the Low Rubber Fortress server:

Just playing on it last night in an actual match. The current settings allow a defense to box for a very long time. Although not viable in smaller situations (1v1, 1v2), it's perfect to give your attackers time to attack, while the opponents can do nothing but maybe hole. And even that's iffy because of how much speed you actually are getting from doing the box.

One issue I have is no room for error on any side (which is kind of your goal to reduce error). That's just inhumanely possible to not have an error at some point. If defense leaves any small tunnel on a straight edge, they can easily be cut by someone with speed and they have no possibility to "defend" their zone. Some of the more fun things to do is be an escape artist, this pretty much takes it away since the smallest mistake means you're dead.

Lag is a major impact, considering it pretty much kills you at any point with this low of rubber, attack and defense alike.

If a defense step defs, well, the rubber regeneration that is going on makes it so you can pretty much stay in that tunnel forever with the right precision.

Centering is possible, but it's really limited when you realize the defense can essentially bottle it up with no more double grinds.

Sumo'ing in a fort environment is actually viable with this. I was able to maze around a bit without any issues aside from the less room for error and no possibilities to fix a mistake. As far as in sumo, not sure, seems like it could work, but again, no room for error.

Overall, I just see this as more deaths occurring for no reason, lag having major impact in matches (even though it has before), and positions useful now being essentially taken out of the game. Seems silly to me, but I think it could work more around 3 rubber, since that keeps everything in tact and adds room for a little bit of lag, and for error.

These settings are fun in a non-competitive environment, but I'm not sure how they'd be in a competitive one.

[Phytotron]

The static setting value.

OK. So it's still true, then, that within a given server/config, if TIMEBASED 1, then rubber will behave the same at all speeds. If SPEED is 15, rubber will take the same amount of time to get used up whether you're going 15 or 50.

I played a bit the other night in Gene's "Low Rubber Fortress" server. As he noted, that combination of rubber settings is exactly like that of Shrunkland (and BiH, if I recall), except for MINDISTANCE (I use 0.001, if I recall). ("If I recall," because both servers are down at the moment and I don't have configs on hand. ) The base speed in Shrunkland is 10, while it's 30 in Fortress (and I'm assuming SPEED_FACTOR is the same in both), and indeed, the rubber is touchier in Fortress. I think 2 might be a good value for that speed; would probably correspondingly bump up _TIME a tad, too, maybe to 1. That's assuming _TIMEBASED remains 1.

However, as I mentioned earlier, if _TIMEBASED 0 and _TIME 10, I'm personally not too awfully bothered with _RUBBER 5 at _SPEED 30. I don't especially care for those settings, myself, but again, if this, then that. All these settings work in concert and you have to find the right harmonies. You can't just simplistically say LOWAR TEH RUBBAR or MOAR RUBBAR! That doesn't mean anything.

'Course, you all could split the difference and do something like _TIMEBASED 0.5, _TIME 5, and _RUBBER 2.5-3. That's assuming you keep the speed and whatnot the same.

And I always encourage employing CYCLE_RUBBER_DELAY, but I know that would be rejected by the "WE HAVE 2 DOUBLEGRIND OR FORTRESS IS RUINED 4EVAR!!!!!!" crowd.


By the way, Gene, you say it's based in VA, but it's apparently in Europe somewheres.

By the way, everybody: Make sure that when you're reporting on your findings that you specify the server you played, since there are currently a few different ones up, presumably with different settings. Ppotter and Overrated each did, but make sure it's clear. You all don't want any conflation.