I decided to undertake this analysis primarily for my own interest but feel that it would be useful to both Blue and Red camps to view the results.

The results speak for themselves, and I am honestly a little surprised by them myself.

But here they are for you to view and make up your own mind.

These first results cover all DF games from December 2003 back to January 2001.

COMMENT on Fig 3.

As I said, I was a little surprised at the results. I could point out the terrible slide in results when Colonel and sLy first joined the squad or the kill curve rise when Born left, but I'm way too polite to do that. If we look at the Targets and Deaths lines, over all they do not exhibit extremes too much. It looks as if they stay reasonably steady over time. One could say we are killing them at the same rate as 2 years ago and that they are scoring at about the same rate. One thing to note on all these graphs is there were lots more "newbie's" coming and going in the early days (pre-TFD) so kills averaged way higher depending on the "kamikaze" skills of the newbie. The "Regs" just did their thing - business as usual.

Then I took the same ratio figures and made the following 3 graphs and added a trend line in each to show what they are currently up to. Remember Reds scores are the base line to which these results are judged. Fig 4. displays how they are doing compared to us on targets.

COMMENT on Fig 4.

Either Red are getting better or Blue are getting worse, naw just joking, if you've played for a while you should know why this trend is the way it is. Changes in Game Title and map style have targets harder to get for both sides and the quality of both red and blue map making has provided a healthy challenge to the blue hoard's.

Fig 5. displays how they are doing compared to us on kills.

COMMENT on Fig 5.

Again game Title change has affected this strongly but the over all trend (excluding current hiccup) shows some "equalizing" of the foes. Although Blue through map bias still stays one ratio unit above, i.e. they kill 2 of us to us killing one of them. (Gits)

Fig 6. displays how they are doing compared to us on deaths.

COMMENT on Fig 6.

And this is the one to warm any Red soul who has endured years of pain, They are dying easier - okay its only by a minute amount more than before but the news is good. So what do we put this one down too? Lack of morals? (They know they are wrong?), Lack of skill? (Sadly not - the buggers), so what can it be? I put it down to Red skill and those annoying sniper's (whoever they are? :D). Do I think Blue need to compensate? No! Because its not really a current trend, if we ignore data before BHD, they die about the same as we do, which is okay I think.

This analysis deals with the recent state of affairs, and seems to differ from the over all trends noted above.

These results cover BHD games only from introduction to December 2003.

COMMENT on Fig 7.

I am not going to comment much on these figures, it is understandable that in the period around November 2003, when several members of the squad retired from the ranks, it could cause a certain amount of defensiveness. But it would seem an over reaction occurred.

The following graphs break down the results to the individual criteria hopefully allowing a clearer analysis. Fig 8. displays how they are doing compared to us on targets.

COMMENT on Fig 8.

Current Target amounts achieved by Blues are higher than at any stage so far in BHD, That either means they are getting more targets lately or that they are stopping Reds from getting ours. Best guess is a mixture of both, but given that Red have achieved around 600 plus targets for each of the last 6 months - It has to be said Blue are taking more targets and more easily recently.

Fig 9. displays how they are doing compared to us on kills.

COMMENT on Fig 9.

Compared to the introduction of the contraceptive pill in the sixties, nothing has had a greater effect on the world population than the introduction of the "Notap Carpet". Even allowing for the reaction to the squad being reduced by a third the kills are on the way up compared to Red. One possible explanation may be selection of too low a K switch in recent games? Again the trend is for this to continue. How much fun this will be has yet to be commented on.

Fig 10. displays how they are doing compared to us on deaths.

COMMENT on Fig 10.

At least we can say Reds returned one favour in November this year, giving Blues enough lead to roof a new wing on the cathedral in Cologne. Actually this may indicate a change in game play I think, as more of us turn to support and harassment of the opposition. It could be a reaction to the other trends, giving Red forces some small satisfaction?

Conclusions:

Because the game versions have changed over time, some areas (like start of 2001) seem to be more extreme in results. It is fair to say that since September 2001, that Notap has been reasonably consistent in its play performance as have Red. However November and (less so) December 2003 show an increase in aggression/map bias. This can be part attributed to the loss of some key squad members and a defensive stance taken by those remaining. Excluding recent events, it seems Notap is not any harder to play than usual.

It is not possible to graph the FUN Index, but if Notap keep within the average state of play, idiots like me should be happy enough to continue annoying them by showing up with the Donkey and its load of rockets.

I hope the graphs explain a few things to some people, there are days we all get more annoyed than usual at them but they seem to be just days unless I fecked up the data big time! It's not an even playing field, but thats why we stayed while others ran away. I personally would like it a bit more level and doing stuff like this is my attempt to coerce them a little to do that. Please note Notap, this is not an excuse to make things harder, it just shows how things were.

Commenting on BHD and current play styles, maybe something's have gone a little wrong. We should ask ourselves what is to be gained from playing a game? It should be a mix of challenge, fun and good old luck and an equal mix of all. Is the purpose of hosting or playing purely to win or to have a good time with your web-mates? For me it has always been the latter. Some of the great and good players along the way who entered the MIA list left because they got pushed too far and lost the fun. It's a hard balancing act to get this right all the time. Notap try to and mostly achieve this - but sometimes the advantage of an outsider is to share the other side of the view. But when the wailing starts its always for a reason.

The essence of Notap map for me was challenge not invulnerability. Since I said that, I might as well voice my disapproval on "Med win only" maps, "out of reach PSP's" and "unsymmetrical SYM" maps. Fun is not the banned "F" word yet. Anyway Hope its been insightful to both camps. I will try and keep the analysis going for whatever Nova throw at us (assuming they allow us to blow things up in the next title ).

Excel sheet containing all data, graphs etc, is available for those willing to give me cold hard currency (€ only) to make me feel better for wasting 2 days on this stuff in the first place. A massive thanks must be given to MaBöse and all the Notap squad for their dedication to taking a bullet in the head and our comments in the neck with much patience (not always hehe) and grace (Roflmao - just kidding), anyway thanks guys and thanks also to my fellow Reds, who I know make being part of the Red machine such a pleasure.

A zipped printable 6 page word document version of this page is available for download here.