I sure hope my code works better for you than it does for me!

This unannounced radio silence is really a bit distressing. The actively communicating devs have been one of the key strengths of this game and losing that would absolutely be a setback.

"wait 17 days and kill a bunch of novices" - who exactly are you aiming to help here?

I am asking this very sincerely - those novices aren't going to get a great experience, especially those spawning for the first time. They'll have 20 days to get attached to their base and then have it ripped away from them.

"It is why no rules exist yet" and then a few sentences later "And since Sergey was strictly following the rules".

Are you talking about the rules that don't yet exist?

This is getting to a standoff nobody needed this Sunday. Why can't the dev team just admit that this time Sergei made the wrong call, next time he'll do his best to not create contentious newbie zones. Clear out the newbie zones there for now since they aren't actually offering any protection - "wait 17 days and kill a bunch of novices" - and look like a group of devs that are attentive to their community.

At first I thought that Tedivm was overreacting a little, but then I saw that the timer is for more than two weeks! This is a pretty severe upset to be hand delivered to a single player, especially one who has been as sharing as Tedivm.

I think it's important we think about what the state of the community is. We have a couple dozen very dedicated individuals who are spending their time and money in not just _playing_ the game, but making it better for others. It's a sandbox game - that's what happens under ideal circumstances.

Even if this novice zone was good for the newbies - which I would like to contest, too - it wouldn't be right for the community as a whole. What this sort of aggressive zoning does is that it creates a rift between the devs and the community. With the new Power Creeps update coming up, this is something I would certainly wish to avoid. 

It may feel wrong to put the plans of the senior ahead of the needs of the junior, and I get that. But we need to realise that the junior are actively benefitting from the services provided by the senior members, like the League of Automated Nations that allows them to see where they are spawning and determine whom not to piss off. It's like trickle down economics, except that it actually works.

Furthermore, and quite importantly, what do you think those people spawning there are getting out of this? By putting up novice areas next to people who you *know* are going to steamroll them a couple weeks later, you are giving them a false sense of security. I'm not saying life on the edges is easy, but it's considerably safer in the long term than spawning in a high value area that is on someone's "to colonise" list.

And if you are going to say that those central newbie zones are for more experiences players to gain a foothold in the centre... well frankly, then you're just throwing away the argument about helping the noobs.

If you are facing an influx of new people, it would be better to either open up in the genuinely desolate regions (if there are any) or just open up a new set of Sectors on the edges. These new sectors will be welcomed by noobs and emerging players alike. Most importantly, *nobody* will be pissed of - something that surely helps maintain Dev-Player relations.

To conclude this little essay of mine: I propose the newbie zone be lifted (or at least reduced in lifespan) and there to be a change of policy when it comes to opening up these newbie zones next to experienced players. They upset the veterans, invite newbies to locations they cannot survive in, and the benefit they provide could easily be replaced with a simple opening of a new sector or two.

I hope you will take these words into account as you continue to work to make Screeps a better experience for everyone.

Best regards,

DoctorPC.

If you are at controller level 5 and exhaust all your safe modes, it appears that you can regenerate them by not upgrading your controller, thus degenerating it back down to 0, and then re-engaging upgrades.

While some regeneration for safe modes may be desirable, this is probably not the intended way to do it.

I need this. I like to hand these notes

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ph4fm7555tb751q/exterminationNote.png?dl=0

out to my victims.

After implementing automatic noobkilling, (https://www.dropbox.com/s/0oplmijebkh5qal/NoobSwatter.png?dl=0) I have been unable to consistently provide them.