It's really easy to take this position when there's a public moratorium on sharing it publicly, no? Just because there are 1-2 exceptions doesn't immediately disprove the existence of a formula.
As long as they are politically bundled all together MO would never fit in, more importantly, MO are integrated in PanO military complex and PanO society at large, just leaving while not impossible, would be highly problematic, but if they left NA2 is not their place especially politically.
I have to point out that, attempts to publicly dissect the formula and recreate it in our forums are strictly forbidden, you may discuss it and discuss what you think the formula is on bits but discussing the entire formula and attempting to recreate it is off limits.
This policy is like the only thing which makes me think a formula exists. Without one existing this policy would be super redundant.
To be entirely honest I know the formula exists because I have some experience with it, the only two things I can say is that A it is more complex than people think it is and B Gutier is adamant in using the formula and nothing else.
What an odd rule... Makes me wonder what is trying to be hidden. I assume CB would not object to the issue being examined in other forums...
Are NA2 an alliance by definition? Because that would unnecesarily restrict what can be added there. I see it more like a "misc." category.
Well, looking at Kurage it seems like CB wants NA2 to be Japan's puppets and little else, instead of an "all-you-can-fit" group for things that don't belong elsewhere.
Is it? The formula is proprietary and it is a company secret, it's their IP and they want to keep it under wraps. Understandably so, as well. Many of us work for companies who have software which is proprietary and is kept secret, not because it contains anything world-shattering (certainly mine doesn't), just because it protects the company IP from theft. People don't just bandy about codes, formulas, recipes etc in general when it's relevant to their income.
I'm not sure that is applicable here. You can't really steal a points formula for a tabletop game made by one single company. You can't copy that into other games to make money like you could copy a cooking recipe or code. I'm way more likely to believe the policy is in place for the health of the community. If we really knew exactly how it works we would only argue over what useless skill is overpriced etc. I'm pretty sure the forums would go totally toxic. Just look at this thread we are already shitting each other over a formula we don't know.
It would also be vaguely pointless to steal the calculation basis for working out an employee benefit, you couldn't really use it for anything at all. That doesn't mean that my company just hands them out. There is almost certainly a legal protection reason, but even if there isn't, I wouldn't do it anyway. And even if it wasn't for proprietary IP reasons etc, I wouldn't reveal it, because I don't think it'd be remotely good for the community or fanbase. All the discussion of the game would become arguments about the points system. Waste of time.
Considering that I've had to personally sign a binding Non-Disclosure Agreement over a pancake recipe, I must disagree. Just so I'm clear, for three years after I stopped working there, I was forbidden to discuss how a restaurant made its pancakes. I think that CB has every right to protect its IP and clearly has every right to regulate their own forums when it comes to such things. Privateer Press had similar rules regarding posting stats of models, especially upcoming releases.
Y was talking more about all the "being adamant about using the formula", especially when it's obvious they have been gaming their own formula the same way a minmaxer would game a roleplaying system to make some uber character. This is all just my opinion, of course.
People most certainly can steal it. If I wanted to create a tabletop game this points formula is one piece of the puzzle. I could tweak or improve it as I see fit. Saves time and energy, which is money. Why do companies buy the Unreal engine? I think this formula is a great engine in the tabletop world... even if I would personally adjust some numbers here and there. The formula helps others directly compete with Infinity. Why on earth would CB want to help the competition? It doesn't matter how small a piece or how unimportant others may believe it to be. Someone spent time and effort, money, designing it. Just because some people can reverse engineer it doesn't mean they should post it for the world to see. Unfortunately CB can't really stop that from happening. Disapproving of it and banning it from their forums is perfectly justifiable to me.
Why not? I get the formula and I make a pike and shot game using it as balance. There are literally thousands of hours of CB resources into getting the formula right, tweaking it, balancing it. Those hours represent hours where financial nothing else was gained. To just hand over a formula that does a pretty good job at balance, in an industry where balance has been demonstrated hard to achieve, AND its what the consumer wants would be commiting Hari Kuri and waiting for GW or reaper to cut off your head. Ill reiterate what I have always maintained, just because you cant see how math provides the solution, doesn't mean its not underlying everything, it just means that your not creative enough to see it.
You would have to pretty much steal so many mechanics for it too make sense it is ridiculous. You need a 2 different currency system (points + SWC), you need similar stats. You need similar attributtes. You need similar skills. You can't just throw this on any tabletop game. It wouldn't work unless you reall copy paste 90% of infinity. Putting points costs on units is actually the last thing you do after all other mechanics stand when you design a game. Stealing all the other mechanics which are already public for everyone to see is way more worth the money.
Except all the other mechanics are used throughout the industry. Overwatch, order pools, objective cards, CC, BS, Ph, Armor. These are all used extensivly, hacking is the one part of the game that is truely unique