Kazuo Ishiguro
House of Marbles
Zzz
   |
Posted - 2007.06.16 17:18:00 -
[2]
I've been re-reading the patch notes- sovereignty data will become available via this part of the new API.
Level 4 = invulnerable constellation capital, but as things stand, level 3 is a bit more complicated. There are three possibilities:
No capital has be chosen and the countdown for constellation sovereignty is not in effect.A capital has been chosen (but not made public) and the 14-day countdown for constellation sovereignty has startedConstellation sovereignty is in effect and the remainder of the 30 day countdown (from when level 3 was first reached) is taking place.
Now, I think most people would agree that a system that's just about to move up to the next level of sovereignty is much more valuable than one that has only moved up to the same level, thanks to powerful toys (such as the cyno jammer) that suddenly become available when a new level is reached. The api dump is just a 'snapshot' that doesn't include information about the past (except by implication), so to make a useful map it will be necessary to build up a sovereignty history database mirroring that on TQ. In this respect, it's just as well that changes only take place during downtimes 
Considering this, it's a bit annoying that the choice of constellation capital is not made public until level 4 is reached, as people are forced to guess how far you are from level 4 until you achieve constellation sovereignty (from which point there are 16 days left). I suppose the best you could do is to give a little bit more influence to groups of outposts in constellations whose sovereignty is held, where one of them has been selected as capital but no-one knows which.
As for outposts in systems with level 3 without constellation sovereignty, there's no way of telling whether or not any outpost in the constellation has been chosen as capital, but it is at least possible that one has been chosen, as opposed to in a level 2 or lower system. As such, I think that an outpost in such a level 3 system poses a greater threat/influence than an outpost in a level 2 or lower system, but less so than in a system whose constellation's sovereignty has been claimed.
In order of decreasing influence:
Capital (level 4)Outpost in a level 3 system with constellation sovereigntyOutpost in a level 3 system without constellation sovereignty
The last case is the hardest to reckon, because there are three conditions for constellation sovereignty, each required for 14 days:
* Majority of the systems in the constellation to have at least Sovereignty 1 for the sovereign alliance
* Ownership of three stations (Conquerable or Outpost) in the constellation for the sovereign alliance
* One of the Outpost systems set as Capital (which requires Sovereignty 3)
If any one of these is broken, it resets the timer to 14 days. So perhaps one should look at the shortest time that any one of the three has been active for when working out the influence of an outpost in the third situation.
The remaining cases for lower levels of sovereignty are much simpler, thank goodness.
------
Spreadsheets: Top speed calculation - Halo Implant tanking |