[Miles]

The following was posted today in DPS channels by Spencer (SOB):


Rules For Uploading to SCM Tables – 6/25/2022 Update

Given recent events and drama in Prime, I am going to clarify and update some rules.

These rules are directed towards the top of the space tables and will not have an impact on all but a handful of players / teams that compete for records at the top of the tables.

I understand that not everyone will like the video requirement for “top of the table” runs on some maps, but with the combatlog file being a simple text file, it is needed to make sure uploads at that level are valid.

I would also add that having VoDs of runs will help others learn how runs were done or how playing at a high level with a coordinated team is. This is something that can help get new people interested in the scene, and it is nice for self-improvement as you can see where you messed up and fix those issues.

All VoDs can be posted in videos

Hive Space Elite (HSE)

Trimming is only allowed after the “Borg Queen Octahedron” Kill line.

It is quite straightforward as to when HSE is completed due to the final phase having a single enemy. As such, video recording of HSE runs is not required. But it would be very nice and beneficial to others who want to get into HSE if you could record any record setting runs to show people how they were achieved.

Infected Space Advanced (ISx)

NO TRIMMING ALLOWED. The entire map must be dead, and you will upload the final number you have when the map is over.

Any ISA run over 1 Million DPS and any ISE run over 2 Million DPS will require a video recording of the entire run to prove map completion and to reinforce the Trimming rule.

Video Recordings must have the Real Time Parser on screen and show the map completion / choice of marks pop-up window.

- In Left-Right runs, any member of the team can record.
- In Split runs, anyone on the side with the Main DPSer can record.

The player recording may not end the combatlog before map completion via turning the combatlog off, hitting analyze in SCM before map ends, or via leaving the map.

The number you have uploaded should be very close to the number shown on the real-time parser in the recording. If you upload a record where you have loads more DPS than the real time in the VoD shows, then it will be investigated and removed if deemed too suspicious.

------

Once you upload a record that meets the above VoD requirements, you will have 72 hours to post the video in videos . Failure to do so will result in the record being removed.

Direct link to the post: https://discord.com/channels/2843419...43190901751819

[Three of Seven]

[Jestersmith]

Only a few people in UFP are near this at present. I don't think we need to make it a requirement for fleet boards. If someone is hitting the higher-end DPS and breaking the 1m and 2m marks when running to show on the SCM Boards will have already had to have verified this to show on the league already. The only thing this will do will mean that if any fleet member breaks that 1m and 2m mark and they are removed after the 72h then it will be removed from fleet position also.

As anyone who attends the fleet events knows our runs are aimed at having fun doing content members would struggle with, it is a social environment where builds can be discussed and advised on regardless of level or ability be it a starter build or a high-end one we will endeavour to help as best we can.

[darthnovawave]

I went back and read the Discord drama that lead up to this, as I have access to that discord channel. Apparently someone had spent months researching the various roles and the "best" way to fulfill each role in a premade team, then sat down and wrote elaborate keybinds and gear needs for each role that reduced things down to the point you just had to tap the spambar without worrying what to trigger when. It reduced a run to passing out files to the team and each just had to make sure they flew to their marks and continue to tap the spambar on queue. A lot of people cried foul and even that it was automation that violated the terms of service for STO.

This "video recording of the run" requirement is intended to allow these top of the list players to vet each others runs and somehow weed out anyone that might be trying to trim their logs or otherwise cheat the system to climb higher on the charts. Apparently it is acceptable to abuse Cryptic's systems all day long to make your DPS numbers extreme, but abusing things on the SCM side is crossing a line (outside the already commonplace log trimming for HSE runs).

I have some pretty solidly strong builds myself, but this kind of extremism in my personal view is going beyond just trying to be really good at the game, and instead is more about chasing mathematical optimization, where the math just happens to derive back to the game. I'm all for being "good" at the game and I personally try to set up builds that are decent for any and all maps, not hypertuned builds that require loadout switches to be "good" every time I change TFOs. I don't really have any interest in spending the time or money on the optimization chase (I do data science and data engineering for work, so I look to STO and other pasttimes to take a break from all that), but at the end of the day it is a game, and if reducing the game to mathematics and scripting is really your idea of fun and what it means to really be "good", then go have fun. The challenge with that though is that it makes it difficult to make sense looking at a league list where you measure up depending on which of those 2 definitions of "good" you choose to subscirbe to.

Since most of the players chasing the extreme top of the list are also the ones who push the "Tactical > Science or Engineering" captain crowd and, I've found it more fun to play my sci and eng mains when it comes to parsing, and hold the 12th place spot for ISA on both the Sci-only and Eng-only SCM lists, and am in most cases well within the top 40 of such players for ISE and HSE too even though I may only run a handful of elite runs at most in a given month. Meanwhile, even though my Tac main is able to crank out pretty much the same DPS numbers as the other 2, I don't even crack the top 50 and on ISE in particular I'm not even close to cracking the top 100, and when you look at the raw, unfiltered tables my best records regardless of captain type are similarly lower on the list because of the Tac table. All 3 are more than capable of holding their own on a team for every map in the game, and I know there are a few tweaks I could make that would help me climb the charts even further, but I don't have the time, energy, or willingness to open my wallet to chase the math game to ever have to worry about this video "proof" nonsense. I'll gladly read suggestions of gear or piloting changes that could improve my personal results further, but trying to make myself a "human bot" in a "team of human bots" in this or any game to be the "best" isn't my idea of fun.

[Miles]

I have some pretty solidly strong builds myself, but this kind of extremism in my personal view is going beyond just trying to be really good at the game, and instead is more about chasing mathematical optimization.

I don't really have any interest in spending the time or money on the optimization chase (I do data science and data engineering for work, so I look to STO and other pasttimes to take a break from all that), but at the end of the day it is a game

Exactly that; it's a game and we just need to have by playing it. Not trying to find ways to "beat it".

[darthnovawave]

Spencer just allowed a 6 million DPS ISA record to go through this weekend. Apparently someone got a group together and basically one-shotted an entire ISA run with a Thalaron Pulse with a couple people running CSV boats to do cleanup. Even though Thalaron Pulse is a slow attack, it apparently generated over 100 million damage (the vast majority of which was overkill), and with the heavy CSV support the run was over in about 18 seconds, giving that 1 big burst of damage a small denominator to keep it inflated.

This is over the same weekend that 2 months of records were wiped from the league tables because Cryptic finally corrected the SRO boff trait so that it wasn't also giving the BRO and RO buffs at the same time. It is hard not to see this as something of a double standard to worry about policing an issue that was giving a little extra crit chance and crit severity to slightly inflate DPS, yet give a thumbs-up to massively exploiting a loophole in the way data logging was designed to post a record several times the previous record. Again, it is a case of gaming the parsing process instead of showing how good you are at the game itself. It is one thing to try to improve your gear or piloting to improve your personal performance, but the league boards are moving deeper and deeper into hyper-engineered team environments and exploiting every loophole. It just amazes me the amount of time and energy some players put into this game trying to game the system in these third-party tools instead of just enjoying the game itself.

[Miles]

It is one thing to try to improve your gear or piloting to improve your personal performance, but the league boards are moving deeper and deeper into hyper-engineered team environments and exploiting every loophole. It just amazes me the amount of time and energy some players put into this game trying to game the system in these third-party tools instead of just enjoying the game itself.

I totally agree.

[Bridger]

With the game having becoming extremely slow with new content and a flood of repeating events of course people are trying to find ways to have fun in other way. Also no one forces anyone to participate in parsed runs.

[Bridger]