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[qan]

This is generally true for those who are already insured in the US, but isn't true for those who are uninsured. (That's around 10-15%. That number also doesn't include those who only have catastrophic coverage with deductibles of several thousand dollars,...

[qan]

Very well-said, Eph.

After stepping outside the western world for half a decade, it was incredible to return to see how much has changed in such a short time, though it's been ramping up slowly for quite some time.

We're now in a...

[qan]

If you take a look here: https://trenchwars.org/index.php?v=downloads

I ripped 1250 tilesets (though some duplicates) from a huge trove of maps. Might find something that you like. You could always keep your current one and use another for accents,...

[qan]

If it were better balanced, though, it wouldn't be a matter of punishing playing a 10. 10s could get more playtime as well. It's not something for this season by any means (and I understand it derails discussion somewhat, so I'll leave it be for now) but it's...

[qan]

And therein lies a very big problem. If playing a 6 star generally isn't viable, that's a clear indicator that linear ratings are broken....

[qan]

Yep, this is the point of creating a formula that maps star levels to actual skill levels. You don't need to change the stars themselves. Just have a formula that translates what it means to be a 10 star vs a 6. Right now we use a linear formula. If the linear...

[qan]

You've missed the point here, and if even you have missed it, I'm sure everyone else has as well. Nothing needs to change with ratings or how they are done. How those ratings contribute to the makeup of a team is what's at issue.

It's far too...

[qan]

New name is a decent low-tech solution. Could be standardized by using the same name + a tag such as (spider).

[qan]

I talked to an old friend who's got his math PhD and he recommended I play around with a formula along the lines of this to arrive at real star value. A value that accurately represents a player's skill that is extracted from their star value. If you don't...

[qan]

Yep, as Rab quoted -- that analysis still stands. Subs and switches get tricky if forcing star caps. We're always doing league botwork last minute as we change all the rules, which is absolutely insane, but also kind of the norm due to it all being volunt...

[qan]

One reason that star values are flawed is purely mathematical. The relations between star values are not accurately quantified. This becomes increasingly obvious as you assign lower star values, and is why using values <6 results in imbalance, especially...

[qan]

a2m+ Should be all clear, sorry about that....

[qan]

Ideas still brewing, TSL may not be the way to go, all input noted from all sides. Let's get this figured out. I'm busy to the point of mental exhaustion, didn't get the break I thought I would, another couple weeks of pure hell and then I should be OK. The...

[qan]

L4 was only introduced when ballpower came into existence, as you can only reach L4 via upgrade. So holding the ball during ballpower and firing will give you the rather devastating power of L4.

Current L3 bombs are a bit slower than the traditional...

[qan]

Yep, there's pretty heavy throttling in-game from the days of dialup.

I did package the Steam version with a variety of editing tools a bit ago. It might also be worth adding every zone's current LVL/LVZ package, if they'd be willing to provide...

[qan]

Steam Workshop could be used for this sort of stuff. Or just upload into the image section in Community.


To download every map + LVZ on the server, head over here:
https://trenchwars.org/index.php?v=downloads

(Used to...

[qan]

For TSL to work, we need to carefully rethink the algorithms and their intent.

S1 and 2 worked because they produced high-quality matchups most of the time (despite not running on a more advanced algorithm for picking basing teams, such as Rab's)....

[qan]

To say "something isn't a clear-cut case of cheating" isn't to say "it's a case of cheating, but just not one that is clear-cut." It says nothing on whether or not it was cheating. That's what's at issue here.

Many people knew...

[qan]

The difficulty with making a call here -- which was done by the current active Head Sysops of TW, namely myself and Wirah -- is that a precedent has already been set that this is not cheating, but rather a bending of rules, and a bending that has been done...