Game Guides Archive
Thread: GUIDE: New Data and Statistics on Imperial Crackdown Scans
IMPERIAL CONTRABAND SCANS IN AN OCCUPIED "CRACKDOWN" CITY
Abstract: In publish 6, SOE added the much awaited Imperial Crackdown to Star Wars: Galaxies. At first many players complained they were not being scanned very often, SOE later increased the scan rate to be significantly greater. We decided to find out just how often players are actually scanned, and what factors, if any, influence the likelihood you will be scanned. At this point, we were not measuring the success rate of the scans, only whether or not the player is actually scanned. We plan to measure that data in the future.
Methodology: We had members of our PA shuttle from our player city to Mos Espa, one of the "crackdown" cities that on our server is a location of frequent imperial scans. Once they arrived they would do a uniform loop around the perimeter of the city, and then return (You can see the map for the route the players used here). They would make multiple trips throughout the day (over a 12 hour period of time), taking the same route every time, and attempting to travel at a uniform speed. All players were on foot (no vehicles) using standard movement speed. After each trip, they would log whether or not they were scanned on that trip. At the end of the day, they returned this data along with the information about their character status.
Data analysis:
timetripsscanspercent
9am-12noon7128812.36%
12noon-3pm4015513.72%
3pm-6pm1932311.92%
6pm-9pm4596714.60%
sexplayerstripsscanspercent
Male124144619113.21%
Female443194213.17%
professionplayerstripsscanspercent
Smuggler263704812.97%
Other142139518513.26%
raceplayerstripsscanspercent
Human424425211.76%
Zabrak313053210.49%
MonCal181952010.26%
Wookie232743512.77%
Bothan181774927.68%
Trandoshan91091412.84%
Twi'Lek111121210.71%
Rodian161511912.58%
overall sample
players168
trips1765
scans233
overall%13.2%
Conclusions?: For the most part, scans appear to be completely random. Even Smugglers end up being approached for a scan at a rate consistent with overall results. There was one extremely noticeable pattern in the data: racial penalties. Bothan characters experienced a scan rate almost 2.5 times greater than other characters. While it is possible this is due to a statistical anomaly, the large sample size in our data set makes this extremely improbable.
It appears Storm Troopers are guilty of racial profiling. My personal hypothesis (note that is conjecture) is that SOE intended to implement a racial penalty for scans similar to the penalties found in purchasing faction related rewards on the Imperial side. However, it is only active for a single race, and was never mentioned in the patch notes. Perhaps this was never completed, or perhaps the idea was scrapped and removed from the code, but ended up being left in accidentally for one race only. Perhaps its just a strange bug related to some other game mechanic. Or perhaps, Storm Troopers just really don't trust Bothans. I'd love to hear from the Devs on this.
Message Edited by RemKoolhaas on 07-01-2004 05:28 AM
Message Edited by weller001 on 07-01-2004 03:43 AM
Master Rifleman + Master Doctor
Jedi
Only in your deepest self is the truth of what you can be, and, without a doubt, that truth is terrible to bear.
Adeptus Astronomica
The Book of the Astronomican
Message Edited by Jounar on 07-01-2004 02:55 PM
Yet again, this shows a clear lack of respect and even negligence of the Bothan community. Crippling faction costs are one thing, being harassed in a public arena more than others is quite another. This is blatant racism, is unfair and negligent and it should not stand in any game.
Message Edited by Iniaes on 07-01-2004 10:52 AM