Despite my best judgement I am going to post this suggestion, I realise it is going to be wildly unpopular with the vast majority of people who are in many ways the most influential in these forums. I am however hopeful that people will be able to see this as what I hope it will be, and that is to create an environment where the ability to build a gun is not dominated, or at the very least not solely dominated by the same people time and time again.

The Current Status

Feel free to correct me where I am wrong but as I understand it the current RIA system works as follows. At random times, every X minutes RIA's are automatically spawned at which time they are free to view in the locals. Locals are obtained by people with vision daily, or at least every other day and these are compiled so that a list of RIA's is available to people who are hitters in those families. This is more or less the same system that has been around for ages now. Whereas before they were just IA lists now they are generated by the game. Essentially what this system means is, that people can plan their wacking day, and literally only need to log in 2 mins before the shot, load the pages and refresh, refresh, refresh... Success! and log off again.

This basically means that an amazing gun can be built by literally playing 1-2 hours a day and of course races are being won. I don't think anyone is going to deny that historically hitters have been quite an elite group and people who are truly focused on it find a way to do this time and time again. The imbalance in my eyes is that these people are able to log in for a few minutes a day and achieve this. The main principal of this game has always been to me, that work put in should equal account strength. This is not the way this is functioning at present. I would like to see a balance being found where people who maybe don't have the best internet connection (like me... I don't pretend to hide my disadvantage or interest in this proposal) or who may play on their phones all day, or even people who don't get the whole refreshing system... That these people are afforded a far more realistic opportunity to win the RIA. I don't wish to detract anything from the current system as it is by far the best I have seen in the history of the game. I am just going to suggest a slight adaptation.

The Idea

I am not going to beat about the bush here. I would like to see a fair percentage of RIA's come into the game at random times during a day and be killable immediately. What this means is as follows.

• People are not able to plan for these kills
• Anyone who happens to check the locals at that time can kill this RIA
• People will be encouraged to build their info and not just be huge wack accounts that are never active in the streets or BD.
• People who spend the most time online and put in the effort to locate these RIA's will have the greatest chance of finding them

I am NOT suggesting that the current system be stopped. I repeat NOT suggesting this. I merely wish to see a split in how they are allocated. The current hitters will still be able to plan for their races and log in and refresh refresh refresh. I just don't feel that every RIA should be part of this system. I genuinely feel that this sytem will incorporate people into the game who are not traditional hitters. I believe this has been one of the MAJOR imbalances in the game historically is that newer accounts or people who don't race for RIA's for whatever reason, are unable to train a gun. They are then excluded from wars and end up dying and haven't really even been able to be a part of the process or assist in any capacity other than prowacking. (BG wacking still requires a few kills) 

I realise a lot of people are going to nitpick on the last statement. Do not focus your attention these, a few of those points are debateable and I can see both sides of the point already. Focus on the entire suggestion.

Summary

Traditional hitters are going to hate it. Crew leaders with a large number of traditional hitters are probably going to hate it as well. I am hoping that the average players (and I don't mean this in the good/bad sense but rather the people who don't have access to RIA's and don't play all the time) will support his idea as I truly believe it to be benficial to the game.

As for what a fair percentage is, I will leave that up to the admins to decide. Ideally i'd like to see a 50/50 split, but even something like a 75/25 split will go a long way to equaling this all out. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the system, and if you have any constructive criticisms please feel free to share them.

I agree. Racing has become a lucksack joke. Add some incentive for being active and looking. It'll add more to the game fosho.

Having had a long break from the game, I'm not in a position to comment on the current system in any position of knowledge. From the few attempts I've made to date, it appears as if any issues with lag/latency will have a potentially large impact on someone's ability to compete under the current system. To what extent these issues may impact on their chances, I've not yet been able to figure out... but from some of the comments I've seen to date it does appear that some are finding frustration and pain from it (there is the potential that these are just people that have given up trying too soon or are the types that will moan about any situation regardless of the details, so I've basically ignored it until I can come to my own conclusion on it).

With that in mind, I'd suggest I'm in a decent position to give a relatively unbiased opinion on it. I've always had some Success! (pun intended) with the current type system (previous incarnations at least), so I've no dislike for it. I'm also a user based in Europe, a relatively large distance from the nearest server, so understand the concerns that users in these locations may have.

Seeing both sides of the coin, I think the suggestion above is an excellent one. It genuinely rewards hard work, continual effort and the users willing to put in the time required to build an account. It also throws in an element of luck, which just adds to the fun (I can do my scanning 30 seconds before Ep's and completely miss the target due to timing). So the basic premise of the suggestion I have no hesitation in supporting fully.

I'm not sure exactly what type of balance would be required between 'set' RIAs and 'new' RIAs, but even a small number towards the 'new' may be a step in the right direction.

This is by far the best suggestion I have seen in a long, long time. I don't see any downside to it.

I really like this suggestion as hitting RIA's has become something that is based solely on luck and access to an IA list. However, I have one small issue that I would like clarified. Won't this system mean that people on info would enjoy a rather sizable advantage over other hitters?

Furthermore, considering the average account age these days, I believe that RIA's have become quite redundant. MIA's, Durdens, Rogue(Not to a great degree) are always available for people to build huge guns. So, this suggestion would mean something, in my humble opinion if the overall number of RIA's was to be increased at least to the level of someone only hitting RIA's to compete with someone who hits just MIA's and Durdens.

Luck? Certainly plays a part but it's only one part.

Access to an ia list? That's something that someone can do all on their own if required. It's not as easy and requires a little more work, but it's the type of thing that can (I'd go so far as to say should, I'd never spoon feed someone until they've shown the work ethic to deserve it - though obviously a new player should be thought how to do all of the things that help generate the lists) be done as a lone wolf.

Info having a sizeable advantage? Yes and no. It certainly means having a high info profile can save you some work, but there's nothing to stop a player with a 1% info profile from doing just fine. There are ways that info can be improved (or at least I believe that hasn't changed? correct me if I'm wrong) with some work and there are ways you can do it without using the info skill at all. So it's not an insurmountable advantage at all.

Skill? I didn't see you mention this. Despite what many say and what you might read, this really does play a large part. Sure you might not be able to overcome a really horrid laggy internet connection with this alone, but even when you've got a perfect connection there's no guarantee you'll get the kill. Skill does come into it (in terms of tempo, keeping the right pace, staying at the limit but not going over it, etc.). It doesn't mean you'll get 'every' race you go for, but it does increase the odds exponentially. There's a reason that the same people tend to win many of the races, which isn't purely down to location/connection/etc.



As for increasing the numbers for the reasons you've stated, I'm not sure I understand. There's no reason why someone couldn't be shooting MIAs and/or Durden's (assuming they do want to train their gun).

MIAs can be purchased with game cash, purchased with credits or if you work/look hard enough they can be picked up for free.

Durdens are free targets that anyone can shoot at (they just require a better gun before you can start shooting them).

So if someone isn't picking up MIAs or Durden's that's due to themselves and not any flaw in the game. To be honest, the number of RIAs produced is very different to the proposal made in this thread, so if it's something you'd like to discuss I might suggest starting a new thread on that topic.

The advantage posed by info is of course not insurmountable, but it does play a part on how fast a gun can be developed. I am pretty sure you won't deny that.

Skill is important and it is essential. I do agree. The reason I didn't mention it was because I assumed it was understood. Luck and info exist only for fine tuning the advantage a hitter gets based on his/her skill.

Now, onto the reasons why I feel that the number of RIAs should be increased. RIAs simply, in my opinion at least, do not have a large enough impact on how quickly a gun can be built. Of course, it is a digression from the topic at hand and for that I do apologize but hear me out. There are, on an average 50-70 RIAs every single day. The number of Active Wackers is, according to the Game Stats,207. Lets say that only 60% of those people are racing actively and the others are simply living off the MIAs and the Durdens. That gives us 125 people actively racing. Now, assuming that the kills are spread out evenly, it gives a hitter a 0.4-0.56 chance of getting a kill a day from an RIA alone.

Considering the hitter is someone who is active enough, or rich enough IRL-wise, to buy his/her MIAs, that is 2 free kills daily. Also, a 70 man Durden spawn(on an average) comes around every 2 days. That is a 0.5 kill daily, if the hitter is around for all of them and if he/she manages a single kill. However, considering if every active hitter was around during every single spawn there would be quite a few who would go kill-less. So, lets say that a hitter gets a kill every alternate durden spawn which is 4 days. So a 0.25 wackstat is acquired daily via durdens.

With just MIA's and Durdens, a hitter can acquire, on an average a 2.25 wackstat daily. With RIAs as well, he/she can acquire 2.81 wackstat daily. I simply do not feel that this difference is sufficient to reward someone who is racing regularly.

I apologize for the digression. I still feel that this is an awesome idea and it should be put into effect. I just feel it would be better if the overall number of RIAs was to be increased alongside.

It makes it a little easier (as in less work required to do so), but I wouldn't say it actually slows it down. In most cases, people get lazy and rely on high info family to pass them names/locations etc., but that isn't required at all. There are various work arounds that can fill that gap perfectly well, if you're willing to put in some leg work.

We're on the same page regarding skill. I just hadn't seen it mentioned so wanted to highlight it in case anyone got the wrong idea (and as we've never spoken before didn't wish to/wasn't able to make any assumptions).

I haven't looked at the numbers in detail (though I'm happy to assume yours are correct for the sake of discussion), but if it's a case of there not being enough RIAs full stop (not simply related to balance between RIAs and others if this change was implemented) I retract the previous comments. That said, any change to the overall number of targets is a very difficult change to strike a balance with. It not only requires looking at the overall targets/hitter but also needs to take into account the defence, cost of defence, overall earning potential etc etc to make sure the game is balanced.

If it's too easy to train a cannon, leaders die every few days and the site goes to hell as nobody is willing to invest time into something that has no chance of lasting more than a couple of days.

If nobody can train a cannon, we get no turnover of leadership at all and the site goes to hell due to boredom and stagnation.

Trying to keep that balance in check is vital for the game to remain enjoyable. So something that needs much further thought and consideration for myself at least than the small tweak to the mechanics of the release of targets. I'm not suggesting your view is incorrect, just that I'm not in a position to know either way.

Info skills can be increased by posting in local businesses and in the streets. Since this is a RP site, I think people using the RP areas such as the businesses and streets more to see all of the RIA's would be benefiacial to the game AND encourage more effort from people who are here just to fire. There is more to this place than that.