In space, no-one can hear you click every once in a while

November 21, 2014 6:31 PM

Orbits are hard [SLFridayTimeWaster]
posted by slater (162 comments total)

1199 - My nice peaceful circular orbit was intercepted by some yahoo who was on his way to Alpha Centauri. I suspect this is a typical result. It's crowdsourced Kessler syndrome.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 6:42 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I wonder if you get more points the further out you are, unclear so far.
posted by Carillon at 6:44 PM on November 21, 2014

This is hilarious. Also I'm confuse. All that matters is the timing of my click, which adds thrust in the direction of the grey dot further on my path? Mouse position is irrelevant?
posted by Nelson at 6:50 PM on November 21, 2014

I celebrate the heroic efforts of the brave space pioneer "fuck u moosux"
posted by zippy at 7:01 PM on November 21, 2014 [3 favorites]

I see you, "zippy mefi".

Is there some hacking going on? A couple of names seem to take the lead a *lot* more often than they should be.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 7:09 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Get high, stay high. Works in sailplanes, works in voar.io. (926)
posted by tss at 7:13 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

GRRRR
posted by Quilford at 7:14 PM on November 21, 2014

No instructions? I don't even get this, what am I supposed to do?
posted by drinkyclown at 7:17 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

These orbits seem to decay *very* quickly.

Also, there's a steady stream of people doing *clickclickclickclickclick* ballistic launches straight into the crystal shell.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 7:17 PM on November 21, 2014

Things started getting a bit stale, but then this huge rogue moon swept in and really shook things up.

Also, I love how when your targeting dot overlaps with the leader, it says in all caps "TARGET LOCKED".
posted by cyberscythe at 7:19 PM on November 21, 2014

WAIT THERE'S ANOTHER GODDAMN PLANET SAILING PAST
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 7:20 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

When you click, you thrust in the direction you're going.
posted by Pronoiac at 7:20 PM on November 21, 2014

Onya Mefi4Life
posted by Quilford at 7:21 PM on November 21, 2014

THATS RIGHT
posted by Quilford at 7:23 PM on November 21, 2014

The lower your orbit, the quicker points add up.
posted by Pronoiac at 7:25 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

balls.
posted by Quilford at 7:25 PM on November 21, 2014

That was me Quilford! Hey!
posted by Carillon at 7:29 PM on November 21, 2014

The lower your orbit, the quicker points add up.

I'm p sure it's just the faster your speed.
posted by Quilford at 7:29 PM on November 21, 2014

That was me Quilford! Hey!

YOUUU
posted by Quilford at 7:29 PM on November 21, 2014

Booya!
posted by Pronoiac at 7:32 PM on November 21, 2014

I was just getting the hang of it, leading for a bit (1813) and then got run over by pronoiac...
posted by yuwtze at 7:34 PM on November 21, 2014

You get more points the closer in you are.

That was fun. I even got to be leader for a bit. best score: 2000 points. 6 leader kills in 26 crashes. the game seems to be thinning out a bit though.
posted by jepler at 7:36 PM on November 21, 2014

> The lower your orbit, the quicker points add up.

That makes a lot of sense. Not only is it hard to keep a tight orbit, you make an easy target for people launching from the surface.

There's sort of two phases for the game for me: first, try to crash into the leader, then if I live long enough, try to not die. Crashing into the leader kind of makes me feel like a jerk, but the game keeps track of it, and I have an instinctual urge to make numbers go bigger. Plus, it's really challenging trying to get the orbits to sync up.
posted by cyberscythe at 7:37 PM on November 21, 2014

I was just getting the hang of it, leading for a bit (1813) and then got run over by pronoiac...

NO REGRETS
posted by Pronoiac at 7:41 PM on November 21, 2014 [3 favorites]

I was up in the 1700s after a few minutes of confused clicking and crashing. *shakes fist at Mmeeffi*
posted by tchemgrrl at 7:48 PM on November 21, 2014

Haha, I killed metafilter.com
posted by Quilford at 7:53 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Okay; that was fun. Got to be leader a couple of times, too - once on a really strange eccentric cloverleaf-thing I managed to plot using a gravitational assist from that passing planet. (Traveling the opposite way as everyone else makes you hard to hit.)
posted by fifthrider at 7:55 PM on November 21, 2014

I've got to say, there are few things more pleasurable than that TARGET LOCKED text
posted by Quilford at 8:01 PM on November 21, 2014

This is what it looks like when your orbit intersects with the leader.
posted by cyberscythe at 8:04 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I started trying to hit the asteroids, it's tougher than it looks.
posted by RobotHero at 8:11 PM on November 21, 2014

Yeah I don't know what that was but now i can't live without it.
posted by allthinky at 8:14 PM on November 21, 2014

Dang it Quilford, that was me!
posted by Ministry of Truth at 8:31 PM on November 21, 2014

GRIPHUS
posted by Quilford at 8:31 PM on November 21, 2014

That was fun. I made it to the leader position a couple of times. Entertaining! But also goddammit Vader get that stupid death star out of the way who gave you a license you hack?
posted by Scattercat at 8:32 PM on November 21, 2014

Hitler and Mefi Cunt have crashed into each other.

Okay then.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:39 PM on November 21, 2014 [11 favorites]

That was great, "Mefi [gendered slur]". I was just about to go someplace else.
posted by tigrrrlily at 8:40 PM on November 21, 2014

I was honored to have been killed by Cortex.
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 8:43 PM on November 21, 2014

And Metafilter is in the lead!
posted by vverse23 at 8:43 PM on November 21, 2014

Goddamnit, I had just target locked onto cortex
posted by Quilford at 8:44 PM on November 21, 2014

I was just in the lead. Now Cortex is.
posted by Ministry of Truth at 8:44 PM on November 21, 2014

I am enjoying this game, questionable nicknames aside.
posted by cortex at 8:46 PM on November 21, 2014

Congratulations to Cortex leader of..

doh. nevermind
posted by Hicksu at 8:46 PM on November 21, 2014

SO IT IS CORTEX :O
posted by Quilford at 8:47 PM on November 21, 2014

Killed by Metafilter. Poetic justice.
posted by vverse23 at 8:51 PM on November 21, 2014

Woo hoo!
posted by Pronoiac at 8:51 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I think I was the leader 5 different times without dying.
posted by Pronoiac at 8:54 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I think I died 5 different times while you were the leader.
posted by vverse23 at 8:55 PM on November 21, 2014

Clearly we should be space pirates and aim to kill any leader without MeFi in the name
posted by Quilford at 9:10 PM on November 21, 2014

I just killed cortex. I don't care if it's really him or not, the TARGET LOCKED came on when I was halfway across the screen, and it was glorious.
posted by axiom at 9:12 PM on November 21, 2014

BIWINNING
posted by Quilford at 9:13 PM on November 21, 2014

binooooooooo
posted by Quilford at 9:13 PM on November 21, 2014

Has cortex killed Metafilter.com yet? This should happen.
posted by Quilford at 9:15 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I've crashed into asteroids several times now, and they don't seem to be getting any closer to the Earth.
posted by RobotHero at 9:18 PM on November 21, 2014

Oh no, I switched computers and now I think I'm in a different instance.
posted by cortex at 9:19 PM on November 21, 2014

Whoa everyone disappeared.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:23 PM on November 21, 2014

Yeah. I was leading >:< and it wouldn't let me click!
posted by Quilford at 9:23 PM on November 21, 2014

Yeah, that just happened to me too Quilford. Only the second time I was in the lead, and I could only helplessly watch my orbit degrade.
posted by Flunkie at 9:25 PM on November 21, 2014

was doin' great 'til hitler ruined it for me
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 9:25 PM on November 21, 2014

Yeah, sometimes my thrusters break and I can't do anything. Also sometimes when I die I get switched over to a different space ship, rather than having to blast off again. Seems there are a few bugs in this game, but I like it anyhow.
posted by axiom at 9:25 PM on November 21, 2014

Ouch... killed by Ebola
posted by Flunkie at 9:27 PM on November 21, 2014

Is it just me or is this thing glitch central at the moment?
posted by Quilford at 9:31 PM on November 21, 2014

Reminds me of the second computer game I ever played, back in 1977 - a version of Asteroids written in Assembler by a friend and played on a TRS-80.

(The FIRST computer game I ever played was a version of Hamurabi written in FORTRAN and played on an IBM 1130.)

Now, back to the conquest of space ...
posted by Autumn Leaf at 9:36 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Aww I had a really good reign then it buttsed me up
posted by Quilford at 9:38 PM on November 21, 2014

We broke it.
posted by Nelson at 9:40 PM on November 21, 2014

In space no one can hear you WAHOOOOOO!
posted by hot_monster at 9:40 PM on November 21, 2014

Okay I've been playing this for 4.5 hours no nope nope
posted by Quilford at 9:40 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Well, it seems to have been invaded by eight year olds.
posted by Flunkie at 9:43 PM on November 21, 2014

Well, it seems to have been invaded by eight year olds.

Yeah. Makes me think it was posted on Reddit somewhere.
posted by Quilford at 9:45 PM on November 21, 2014

Alright. I'm taking my mefi name offa this now that Hitler's here.
posted by onehalfjunco at 9:49 PM on November 21, 2014

Do we have a Godwin in there yet?
posted by Autumn Leaf at 9:50 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

No sign of EthicsInJournalism either.
posted by cortex at 9:53 PM on November 21, 2014

I guess I'm proud that I ended the long and illustrious reign of clownpnis.fart.
posted by vverse23 at 10:02 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Ugh god the worst part it works on mobile. Hope me! I can't not play.
posted by Carillon at 10:17 PM on November 21, 2014

Hey, guys, there's a red... uh... thingy moving toward the green thingy. Red thingy...moving toward the green thingy. I think we're the green thingy!
posted by Auden at 10:38 PM on November 21, 2014 [11 favorites]

Amazing.
posted by Carillon at 10:50 PM on November 21, 2014

So does anyone get why you sometimes become unable to boost?
posted by halifix at 11:50 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I seem to lose boost whenever I become the leader. I drift until I crash or someone hits me.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 12:09 AM on November 22, 2014

I noticed that I can get a ship into orbit, refresh the page, and launch another one, and so on...

If anyone got hit by one of a small army of ships named LowOrbitDebris, that is just me roleplaying.
posted by Hicksu at 12:10 AM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

it took me awhile to realize I wasn't actually playing...
posted by ennui.bz at 4:39 AM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Anyone figured out who this is by? The whois record names a "Matheus Valadares" of Salvador, Brasil. But that name is common enough I'm not confident to take that any further. The code is pretty straightforward, canvas rendering and WebSockets for the network. First mention on Twitter was Oct 30, seems to have gotten popular on /v/ about a week later.
posted by Nelson at 7:17 AM on November 22, 2014

My assumption was that Jed Kerbal developed acute acrophobia and decided to dip a toe in game dev.
posted by cortex at 7:22 AM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

I can only imagine Jed Kerbal codes on a computer discarded by StrongBad.
posted by gc at 7:28 AM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

When you're the leader you can really see players aiming to kill you. How do they do that?
posted by rocket88 at 7:31 AM on November 22, 2014

For two glorious seconds in my retrograde orbit I was the leader. You could almost hear me cackling as I smashed into the rogue planet that entered the system.
posted by gc at 7:35 AM on November 22, 2014

Is there any strategy to avoid intersecting orbits? Clearly to boost up to leader you need to inject into a quite close circular orbit and have a lot of luck. Then when close to 1000 points boost out to a circular orbit. Or does it just take 4.5 hours of persistence? ;-)
posted by sammyo at 7:52 AM on November 22, 2014

Someone going by "Dick Joke" just got 2700+. I'm in awe.

So rules of thumb for intercepting the leader:

If they're in front of you, coast and let your orbit be inside theirs.

If they're behind you, boost and make your orbit outside theirs.

Your place to strike is just inside and behind them - wait until you think you'll just pass in front of them, then boost outward.

Ships behind and outside the target are little threat. Same for ships in front and inside the target.
posted by anthill at 8:03 AM on November 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

I briefly thought when the rogue planet came in that you were supposed to orbit around that and then it takes you away to Frog Fractions 2.
posted by RobotHero at 8:04 AM on November 22, 2014 [4 favorites]

Ah well, I got to 2163 as JebKerman, I'll take it.
posted by anthill at 8:16 AM on November 22, 2014

I love it that every so often you'll see someone immediately shoot straight out of the planet at ultra high speed directly towards the edge. It's either (1) Someone who has never played before, or (2) Someone who has played A LOT and is SICK OF THIS FUCKING GAME

Also, from now on, I intend to explicitly try to take out the leader whenever the leader is not labeled as being from Metafilter.
posted by Flunkie at 8:24 AM on November 22, 2014 [3 favorites]

Also, from now on, I intend to explicitly try to take out the leader whenever the leader is not labeled as being from Metafilter.

You bastard, you killed Bill Kerman.
posted by eriko at 8:52 AM on November 22, 2014

Doh! And the first leader I killed (since instituting the anti-non-Metafilter plan) was labeled as from Metafilter. Sorry, stabos|mefi (or something like that)!
posted by Flunkie at 8:56 AM on November 22, 2014

This is why NASA can't have nice things.
posted by eriko at 9:04 AM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Hey, if NASA doesn't like it, they should rename themselves "NASA|MeFi".
posted by Flunkie at 9:05 AM on November 22, 2014 [3 favorites]

Killed by Kanye West.
Killed by butts.
Killed by RaptorJesus.
Killed by SHITPOOPDICKS.
Killed by This guy.
Killed by swag.mov
posted by maryr at 9:50 AM on November 22, 2014 [3 favorites]

Ha, super fun. Needs a retro-burn so you can park yourself in a lower orbit as you zoom by the planet.
posted by ctmf at 9:58 AM on November 22, 2014

This would be even better if you could brake in a similar manner too.
posted by Carillon at 11:09 AM on November 22, 2014

Now I'm imagining a strategy game where you're a country on the planet. You can choose to build satellites, anti-satellite missles, or bomb defense missles. Satellites can drop bombs. For each satellite you build, you'd have to choose the fuel/bombs ratio it's going to carry, then steer it into orbit and maintain the orbit (which would decay over time) like this game. Every maneuver costs fuel, and when you run out, your satellite crashes. You can have as many satellites simultaneously as you can control/afford.

The player would have to manually trigger a bomb at the right time for the non-powered bomb's orbit to hit the target.

Anti-satellite missiles would accept the target, wait, and launch at the right time. There would be a delay between missile launch detected and impact. If the satellite maneuvered between the time the launch was commanded and the impact, the missile would miss. (But still force the satellite to expend fuel in the maneuver.)

Everything costs money: satellites, weapons, defenses, etc. You'd make money based on the country's size. Smaller country, smaller income, harder target. Instead of taking damage from bombs, you'd just lose money. You're out when you have no weapons, no defenses, no satellites in the air, and no money to buy more.

Nobody would be able to tell anything about any opponent except for being able to see satellites in the air. You could bluff about everything else - money, defenses, how those satellites were armed. Maybe a super-expensive unarmed spy satellite could tell you those things.

A nice feature would be to be able to directly transfer money from player to player, so extortion and collusion would be in the picture.

This might be more fun to imagine than actually play.
posted by ctmf at 11:15 AM on November 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

This would be even better if you could brake in a similar manner too.

yeah, I long for either rotation or retro-rockets.

Also, I want to hear some death screams.

still: addictive.

I wonder how it's able to keep the number of ships orbitting in such a narrow range (usually 30-49)
posted by Auden at 11:48 AM on November 22, 2014

Also, I want to hear some death screams.

In space no one can, etc, etc.
posted by jedicus at 1:01 PM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

OK, having had some success at anti-non-Metafiltering, I think I'm done for the day. Or at least for a few minutes.

Ten leader kills (since the start of the anti-non-Metafilter program), nine of which were non-Metafilter labeled (the other being an accident). My proud, glorious moment was the last one, wherein my leader kill put Dankerbal|Mefi in the leader spot.
posted by Flunkie at 1:25 PM on November 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

Just got murdered by Plate of Beans -__-
posted by A Bad Catholic at 2:01 PM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh no, I did it again! And it was Stobor|MeFi again!

I'm so sorry, Stobor|MeFi.
posted by Flunkie at 2:43 PM on November 22, 2014

I'd like to nominate this for the "most fun thread to follow along without having followed the link in the FPP" award.

If this award doesn't exist, I'd like to nominate it for creation.
posted by seyirci at 3:08 PM on November 22, 2014

"killed by Apollo 13"

Well, darn, failure was an option after all.
posted by eriko at 4:24 PM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

I have been killed by Scotal Shits.

Twice.
posted by KingEdRa at 4:31 PM on November 22, 2014

This is entirely more fun than it has any right to be. Encourages griefers without making anyone else feel like they're invested to the point of griefing being a complete game-ruiner. Well done.
posted by spitefulcrow at 4:43 PM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Okay, "Frozen Sucked" is an excellent griefer name.
posted by eriko at 5:52 PM on November 22, 2014

Ugh. I kinda want high score boards and teams and chat and being able to flag offensive names and multiple channels, yet I know it's fun as it is.
posted by Pronoiac at 6:27 PM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Needs some achievements, Twitter score sharing, and maybe some sort of paid upgrades. $1 for a shield that protects you from each attack.
posted by Nelson at 6:47 PM on November 22, 2014

Nemesis highlighting. (Enemies, not the planet.)
posted by Pronoiac at 6:49 PM on November 22, 2014

Yay I am Dankerbal|Mefi based on this post, which lead to this.
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 6:50 PM on November 22, 2014

<whacks Nelson upside the head and crashes into his ship>
posted by Reverend John at 6:52 PM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Just discovered that if you hit tab you get the current score rankings.
posted by Reverend John at 8:27 PM on November 22, 2014

Aha! Press tab to show the leader list.
posted by Pronoiac at 8:38 PM on November 22, 2014

Timing! I was just looking at the source code.
posted by Pronoiac at 8:39 PM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

You can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel.
posted by Pronoiac at 8:54 PM on November 22, 2014

You can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel.
The annoying thing is after zooming, your screen is centered on your ship, rather than the earth. Is there a way to recenter the screen after zooming?
posted by yuwtze at 9:07 PM on November 22, 2014

Paphnuty appears to have escaped Mefi HQ's secure detention facility and found himself a rocket ship. I have to admire the tenacity.
posted by cortex at 10:10 PM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's hard to read the code; it's minified, so more than slightly obfuscated. I don't see a way to recenter, except dying.

While the score tracking is done on the server, I think the light circles mark scoring zones. I just busted out a stopwatch. These are rough estimates, but in points per second:
* innermost: 10
* next: 4 or 5
* 3rd: 3
* last: 2
posted by Pronoiac at 10:25 PM on November 22, 2014

Also, sometimes if you click right after you die, you come back where you were? And I haven't been able to work out how to force a resync, to get it to respond to clicks again without dying.
posted by Pronoiac at 10:27 PM on November 22, 2014

R.I.P. Cortex killed Metafilter.com
posted by Ministry of Truth at 10:30 PM on November 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

Wow, turning on the leaderboard makes things way more interesting and tactical. I've learned a lot from watching the behaviour of other good players and generated a pretty good strategy: stay in close orbit until you get 300-400 points, then start zooming out. When you're in the top 5 players, get to a safeish orbit (but still inside the asteroids) and wait for the other guys to die...
posted by adrianhon at 11:17 AM on November 23, 2014

Turning on the leaderboard has made me change my tactic from "Hunt for the leader if non-Metafilter" to "Hunt for the leader if non-Metafilter and I'm not currently the top Metafilter" (i.e. if the leader is from Metafilter, great; if I'm the top from Metafilter, great (even if I'm not the leader); otherwise hunt the leader).
posted by Flunkie at 11:34 AM on November 23, 2014

"Killed by penis"
posted by octothorpe at 11:47 AM on November 23, 2014

I usually go with an initial tight circular orbit, which picks up 400-ish points before having to maneuver again. Get killed a lot, but at that point, there's not much invested. Then, I give it a bump, wait, and then another one at perigee again to make a highly elliptical orbit that still passes close to the surface. Still picks up a lot of points as I go by the planet, and it seems like the crashes drop way off. Even though I'm still going through all that traffic, collision is a lot less likely at the higher speed and sharp angle I'm making. And it's a lot harder to hit for the griefers.

I still can't decide if a big fat circular orbit is what I want to do when I get in the lead. You're kind of helpless then, because any maneuvering might take you out of play, and you're getting points so slowly.

Is the death star survivable at all? I got stuck for quite a while oscillating between the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points completely by accident once, but I'm not sure if there is any actual intentional strategy that can be used.
posted by ctmf at 11:47 AM on November 23, 2014

I think the death star ends up killing everyone.

Clearly strategies are dependent on the amount of traffic. I've often tried to do my tight circular orbit but get killed too frequently due to too many ships; in those cases I find it better to be more patient at a wider orbit.
posted by adrianhon at 11:53 AM on November 23, 2014

This is very addictive. Why didn't I see this thread until now? I could have wasted the whole weekend.
posted by octothorpe at 11:59 AM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

The death star is survivable, yes. It's difficult (for me) and you have to get lucky, but it can be done. When you're getting sucked into the center planet (which is typically when the death star is way out there) just drift out to your peak (where you're stopped for a moment) and click; that will push your peak a tiny bit; drift out to it and click again. Keep doing that. Eventually you'll probably go around the planet.

When the death star is in close, try to orbit both of them simultaneously until it drifts away again.
posted by Flunkie at 12:31 PM on November 23, 2014

George Clooney was killed by LEO DEBRIS

I survived several near misses with the death star, but the crystal bubble got me in the end.
posted by inpHilltr8r at 4:56 PM on November 23, 2014

There are like half a dozen LEO DEBRIS ships at any one time.
posted by octothorpe at 5:06 PM on November 23, 2014

I feel like someone has written bots that spam SAM suicide ships.
posted by anthill at 7:28 PM on November 23, 2014

I was so excited just now to have stumbled into TARGET LOCKED that I didn't even notice it was mwhybark I was blowing up. Sorry, man!
posted by cortex at 10:09 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

When you hit the death star, it moves a little. You can pound it back out into deep space that way. When it is on it's way out, that is when you can make your move to take the lead because most players have 100-200 range and the leader is typically in the 300 range, tops. Easy to become leader if you time your respawn just right with the death star leaving.
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 4:53 AM on November 24, 2014

Monkey0nCrack: "When you hit the death star, it moves a little."

Which is why the other thought I had when it first showed up was Now Is The Time To Forget Our Petty Squabbles and Band Together to Save our Planet from Annihilation.

But I've never actually seen one where it did crash into the planet, so maybe it is just a randomizer to change the rules for a little bit and probably wipe out the current leaders.


It is very unusual as a game that it's impossible to destroy the leader and become the leader. Because you destroy yourself. So you're forced to choose for yourself, what is your goal here? To survive or to destroy?
posted by RobotHero at 10:26 AM on November 24, 2014

This game is rather addictive, isn't it? Patience is key, if being leader is your thing - you have to build your points while letting others try to take the leader down - or just let the leader eventually destroy themselves...

But there is something gratifying about that "Target Lock" message...
posted by nubs at 10:47 AM on November 24, 2014

This game is so great. At first I just wanted to desperately hunt the leader. Then I got better at flying and would try and hug the inside edge of the first tier and get to be the leader then flee to the edges. Now my new favorite thing is to keep people honest, and treat my ship as a missile. I only ever click once, but if you practice you can get really good at nailing the ships who set up a tight, stable orbit and ride it to 600 points every time. I wish there was a stat for net points destroyed or something, because it's so satisfying to destroy someone in third who thinks they're safe slowly building up in the first tier.
posted by DynamiteToast at 2:07 PM on November 24, 2014

<crosses DynamiteToast off my "no mefi kill" list>
posted by Reverend John at 4:18 PM on November 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

- no apparent way to invoke the leaderboard on iPad sans keyboard
- "$SHIPNAME and $SHIPNAME have held hands" - is that new?
- desktop browser experience hides and then shows ship names, iPad browser does not
- inverting colors on iPad is pretty cool
- as of today it seems to me that the deathstar appears less frequently than last night

- any tips on entering a tight regular orbit from a long irregular? best i seem to do is thrust at approximate perigee to reset into a more-regular orbit and spiral in.

- Finally, what is the significance of the leading dot on one's projected orbital track? my brain seems to understand it but I can't put it into words.
posted by mwhybark at 4:24 PM on November 24, 2014

It is very unusual as a game that it's impossible to destroy the leader and become the leader. Because you destroy yourself. So you're forced to choose for yourself, what is your goal here? To survive or to destroy?

It's like the Tour de France: Is a member of your team in front? Yes? Great! No? Kill the leader^*.

I call on all patriotic MeFites to do their duty in stopping the non-Metafilter menace.

*: I may not fully understand the Tour de France.
posted by Flunkie at 4:35 PM on November 24, 2014

Mwhybark, I think the leading dot is 1 second ahead of your current position.
posted by tchemgrrl at 5:37 PM on November 24, 2014

You can't really circularize your orbit smaller with any amount of forward thrust, since that would be trying to get to an orbit of lower energy by adding energy. You'd have to reverse-thrust at perigee. Best you can get is to thrust at apogee, which puts you in a more circular big orbit, and then let it decay. (Which I think is what you say you do, but mixed up apogee and perigee.)

That's the biggest constraint in the game - you can only add energy and have to wait for it to bleed off. If you could reverse thrust, you could drive anywhere you wanted all the time via skillful use of transfer orbits (Which would make chase-the-leader a lot more fun)
posted by ctmf at 5:55 PM on November 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm still confused as to what precisely a mouse click does. It adds momentum, I got that, but in which direction? Also why do orbits decay? Perhaps it's the friction of the ether?
posted by Nelson at 5:58 PM on November 24, 2014

I just got killed by Todd Lokken. And $5 sockpuppet is in the lead.

Team Metafilter!
posted by nubs at 6:18 PM on November 24, 2014

i looked up apogee and perigee and think i used perigee as i intended, and as I understood the definition: the point farthest from the gravitational center of the orbit. doing so tends to regularize the orbit as a big circle rather than a long ellipse.

i will absolutely note that I found the presentation of the definition confusing, I beleive via wikipedia (which redirects to a specialist-vocabulary word, a classic example of wikipedia editing obfuscating clarity). now that i think about the roots, i believe i must have experienced my classic binary dyslexia at the moment of writing, since "apex" is the top of a vertical arc.

The click adds energy to your orbit at a right angle to the center of your orbit in the direction of travel at the moment the program recognizes the input. that's distinct from the curvature of your projected travel path, and so it only alters the curvature a bit at a time.
posted by mwhybark at 6:27 PM on November 24, 2014

Someone with both swastikas and a Metafilter reference in their name would present quite an ethical dilemma.
posted by tchemgrrl at 7:06 PM on November 24, 2014

Wait, how do you turn on the leaderboard? I tried hitting every key and couldn't get it to appear.
posted by octothorpe at 8:16 PM on November 24, 2014

Oh duh, I guess that I'd tried every key but "tab'.
posted by octothorpe at 8:21 PM on November 24, 2014

my right angle stuff above is just wrong, because it does not describe the thrust angle when the ship is launching or heading nose in to a crash. so never mind.
posted by mwhybark at 8:54 PM on November 24, 2014

You should get credit for a leader kill if they hit the outer ring and you are the closest ship to them and within (some small percentage) of a collision when they made their last thrust. 'Cause on more the one occasion I've driven someone to the edge.
posted by Reverend John at 11:08 AM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

If I could have one change it'd be notifications if you target lock more often, because that's the most exciting part of the game. Maybe have symbols showing who's top 5 at any moment and if you lock onto them?
posted by DynamiteToast at 12:18 PM on November 25, 2014

I assume the thrust -- actually more of a step change of momentum, as it seems to be instantaneous -- is at the tangent of the (current) orbit; i.e. in the direction you're currently traveling.

I'm wondering if there's any special tweaking to enforce clockwise orbits, or if they're simply a consequence of the initial vector on takeoff being skewed slightly to clockwise? It is possible to enter a stable counter-clockwise orbit after being gravity-assisted by the moon, although it's hard to avoid head-on collisions for long.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 4:41 PM on November 25, 2014

this has been tickling my head due to voar.io - sadly it appears to be unplayable on non-keyboard devices.

nope, actually a pretty flawless tablet implementation! Cool!
posted by mwhybark at 6:32 AM on November 26, 2014

oops, typoed the closure tag.
posted by mwhybark at 6:54 AM on November 26, 2014

Full of griefers today: a whole bunch of "Death" users auto-clicking.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:31 AM on November 26, 2014

I took "Death" to be a single user running a bot hack, but I also thought it was an interesting variation on the game mechanism. Just think of it as all the accumulated orbital debris.
posted by mwhybark at 4:36 PM on November 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Seems to be dead? Was fun while it lasted :(
posted by slater at 6:33 AM on December 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

aw, that would be a shame. didn't someone upthread grab the code? i rummaged the itunes store for an app clone, but none showed. boy would i dig that.
posted by mwhybark at 11:31 AM on December 7, 2014

poking around, I learned that "voar" is portuguese for "to fly" so I 'm guessing the coder is brazilian or portuguese. Maybe it's Miguel.
posted by mwhybark at 11:35 AM on December 7, 2014

I'm pretty sure the creator is "Matheus Valadares" of Salvador, Brasil, as I noted in the whois data above. There's an active GitHub account with that same name for Matheus28, whose profile lists another domain name m28.io which has the same whois registration. He has a WebSocket server, which is a component that this game could use. I didn't see any trace of the game on GitHub though.
posted by Nelson at 1:03 PM on December 7, 2014

Yeah, I still have the HTML and JavaScript, though it's been minified. It looks like I didn't get the images. I'm afraid I lack the time to do anything with it. Suggestions?
posted by Pronoiac at 6:14 PM on December 7, 2014

Pronoiac, I corresponded with Matheus. He pulled it down because the ad revenue did not cover server costs. He gave me permission to make a clone, I beleive with the intent to authorize a recoded version for app-store release, but did not explicitly release the code for rehosting. Without knowing what his bw costs were I can't predict the costs of rehosting.

I will follow up with you via MeMail and then we can seek clarification from him. I think the idea of an app clone has strong merit.
posted by mwhybark at 9:35 PM on December 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

Heh, I just emailed him, and then saw this message, because my timing is excellent.

I'd wondered if it was cpu-locked on the server, but looking at the code more, I think I was wrong before; I think the browser computes a lot. I'm a bit surprised it was pricey to run.
posted by Pronoiac at 10:10 PM on December 7, 2014 [1 favorite]