Replacing the gate guard

[Takkhardian]

OK, so I have a question about the gate guard: how is it that players can become the gate guard? In several of the games, my squadron mates and I keep buying, equipping and upgrading a Cybervex VII so that, if we need to, we can go back and buy rations. Rations!

But some yahoos keep swapping themselves with the gate guard, and they of course aren't as tough, so get killed, and everybody starves because no one can buy any food!

I suspect that there is a "hidden feature" in the game whereby players can camp out by the HQ for a certain number of days, after which they are either swapped out with the gate guard or a clone of themselves is taken for the gate guard. Is this true?

If so, what is the point, other than wasting people's time and money? The only thing I can think is that the character in question may get the fantastically more powerful equipment with which we equip the gate guards we buy. Is that true as well?

[Dustin]

Can you show us what the frontier log says during midnight maintenance?  Maybe there's a hint in there...

[Tarix]

To be a little less obtuse ...

Once the gate guard is dead the players in the complex will begin to defend the complex.  If you want the gate guard to live you need to upgrade him, outfit him with good weapons, and give him a lot of money or a lot of medpacks.  In fact both would be really good.

[Takkhardian]

You see, the guard doesn't get killed until after the player switches with him...and the player who has been doing the switches was always camped outside of HQ. The displayed Maintenance Logs don't show any of this, thus my question.

But it seems more like a bug because the last time it happened I hunted down the camp of the player who'd done it and saw that he didn't have the high-end equipment that we'd given the guard. So there'd be no percentage in it, except to waste people's resources. So my question remains: is it a bug, or a feature? And in either case, how does it happen?

[Tarix]

So my question remains: is it a bug, or a feature? And in either case, how does it happen?

Bug.  On what BBS is this happening?

[Takkhardian]

Bug. On what BBS is this happening?

I only play on yours: bbs.operationoverkill.com. Most of the games have reset now, so it hasn't happened on the current games, but on the previous expert game.

[Tarix]

I only play on yours: bbs.operationoverkill.com. Most of the games have reset now, so it hasn't happened on the current games, but on the previous expert game.

Okay, let us know when you see it again.  I'll save those data files and track that one down.  Sorry about resetting those without backing them up.   I just wasn't thinking.

[dgbehrends]

This is happening again in the current Journeyman game.  The player Mercury who is camped outside of the base is being swapped in to replace the gate guard when the hydrites attack.  His stats are good enough so that he has defeated the hydrites each of the last 3 or 4 nights.  What is peculiar about this is that each time he fights he has full health and after the battle sequence it says that the gate guard used a medpack.  So I'm wondering if its just the name that is messed up and it really is the gate guard doing the fighting.

I would hate to give the gate guard a trignet only to have it wind up in Mercury's hands

[Dustin]

This is happening again in the current Journeyman game.  The player Mercury who is camped outside of the base is being swapped in to replace the gate guard when the hydrites attack.  His stats are good enough so that he has defeated the hydrites each of the last 3 or 4 nights.  What is peculiar about this is that each time he fights he has full health and after the battle sequence it says that the gate guard used a medpack.  So I'm wondering if its just the name that is messed up and it really is the gate guard doing the fighting.

I would hate to give the gate guard a trignet only to have it wind up in Mercury's hands

When I view the roster of recruits, Mercury is indeed listed in the Wastelands, but when I venture out of the Complex, he is not shown on the sector monitor outside.  This may be intentional, but I can't recall.

[dgbehrends]

but when I venture out of the Complex, he is not shown on the sector monitor outside.  This may be intentional, but I can't recall.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that statement.  By sector monitor do you mean the 3x3 viewfinder?  In order for him to show up you would need to know his location.  So you hunted down the oracle, got lucky with the questions and went to the spot she told you and he wasn't there?

[Dustin]

but when I venture out of the Complex, he is not shown on the sector monitor outside.  This may be intentional, but I can't recall.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that statement.  By sector monitor do you mean the 3x3 viewfinder?  In order for him to show up you would need to know his location.  So you hunted down the oracle, got lucky with the questions and went to the spot she told you and he wasn't there?

Yes, I mean in the 3x3 viewfinder.  If a person is camped on that location, or if  equipment is there, a symbol of ** should appear.  Then, you press 'I' to investigate the person's camp.  From there, you can do all sorts of dastardly deeds (or good ones, too).

[dgbehrends]

OK, I gotcha.  So you were looking to see if he showed up on top of the complex.  My experience with the complex is when you exit, you always end up on the North side of it, when you come in from the south and answer no to the question you end up on the North side.  But entering from the North side and saying no still puts you on the North side (on certain maps that can be frustrating).  Not sure about East/West.  I've tried to teleport right on to the complex and it says there is some electrical interference with that location and it doesn't let me.  So Yea, I haven't seen a camper camped on the complex ever.  I think this BUG might be more than just a name swap since the HP listed for Mercury is 31 and the Gate Guard has 35.  And I was wrong before about it saying the gate guard applies a medpack.  It actually is Mercury doing that, he also got a vaccination for poison.  That seems like a tough feat to accomplish when you are supposedly no where near the complex.

[Mercury]

i find this to occur when someone upgrades to a level six or seven gate guard: instead of being as described in the gate guard description, the next log in the gate guard copies the likelihood of the badest dude around. sometimes, that dude aint so bad.  it might be programmed, but I think its a bug.  the gate guard me has nothing to do with the real me, post cloning, that is.

[dgbehrends]

Ok interesting.  In the journeyman, I just gave the gate guard some silencers.  They showed up in your(clone) pack.  See if you have any silencers in your pack the next time you log in.  I'm guessing you may have already tried this which is why you know its a clone.

[Mercury]

I will do this later today.  I think once I was in a real jam and someone else (without really meaning to help me) gave the sentry guard some medpacks.  I think I then had the medpacks and was basically "saved".  However, perhaps I already had some medpacks all along and just imagined that I was short a few.  I meant to experiment with this but never got around to it.  If the bug is eventually fixed, it shouldn't matter.