- Has the minigun been modified in any way since 135?
Nope
- Why do mini vary so much in power from server to server?
Power variation in minigun is due to a bug (or at least bad design) in the original minigun code. Minipower is greatly dependant on tickrate and at the default tickrate of 20 power can be either devastating or weak.
- What IS tickrate?
Its the servers fps (frames per second). Tickrate determines how frequently a server updates its actors and sends the updated info to players.
Read http://www.clanvikings.org/tnse/utstuff.html for a thorough explanation. Pls note that his minigun diagram is incorrect though. It still illustrates the jumps in power although the actual variations in power are much larger than the graph indicates.
- Is the TIW mini that was used during 136 betas identical to the one used in clanbase?
Nope, the clanbase minigun would be significantly weaker than the std minigun at tickrate 20 (assuming tick stability) and it removes the lockdown effect completely.
With the latest revision of the leagueas TIW minigun we added a slight tickdependancy. During the tests it appeared that with a fixed bulletcount per second the mini would still become somewhat more powerful compared to other weapons (could be increased lockdown at higher trs or just that efficient miniusage is more dependent on frequent updates). So to counter this the bulletcount decreases slightly at higher tickrates but without the big jumps of the original mini.
In the end TIW was dropped cause ppl couldnt agree on what the power of the new mini should be.
- How powerful is the original mini?
When ticks are > 50 ms (tr 20) you get 1 bullet/tick
when ticks are < 50 ms (tr20) and > 30 ms (tr 33) you get 1 bullet every second tick
when ticks are < 30 ms (tr 33 ) and > 21 ms (tr 47) you get 1 bullet every third tick
and so on.
An approximated formula for minipower is tickrate / [74/tickdelta] where tickdelta is the time between ticks (i.e 50 ms for tr 20) and the [] means the expression is rounded to nearest integer value. As tickrate approaches infinity bullets/sec will approach 13.5.
This assumes a rocksolid tickrate. Even on systems like win2k or winxp where ut is best at keeping tickrate there will be a slight deviation from the formula that grows when tr approaches a threshold.
The script sleeps 80 ms between each bullet but UT uses a slightly incorrect tickdelta for tick/timer functions so the sum of tickdeltas over a second is approx 1085 ms. Thats why the 80 ms translates to 73,5-74 ms.
- And the TIW minis?
The Clanbase mini (CB12.u) is set 12.1 bullets/sec. It has no lockdown and the bullets do 1.5 point less damage on average (8-13(x1,5) instead of 9-14 (x1,5)).
The leagueas minigun maintained lockdown and bulletdamage. The formula we used in the latest attempt was:
K + exp(L * (lasttickrate-20) ) * J) bullets per sec. If tr was lower than 20 it would cap to K+J
this would yield K+J bullets at tickrate 20 and approach K bullets as tickrate increased. The slope of this graph is steeper close to K and L determines how fast the graph approaches K.
Theres another thirdparty TIW mini (TIW.u) that yields approx 13.5 bullets/sec without removing lockdown and changing bullet damage.
- But if the original mini depends only on tickrate how come minis on two different tickrate 20 servers can be very different?
The variation in ticks is a major factor in minipower (i.e tickdeltadelta)
Example 1: A server running at a stable tickrate 20 with 50 ms between each tick would give mini 20 bullets/sec
Example 2: A server running at tickrate 20 but the 10 first ticks at 55 ms and the 10 last ticks at 45 ms would give mini approx 15 bullets/sec
Example 3: A server running at tickrate 20 but every second tick is 55 ms and the remaining are 45 ms would give mini approx 10 bullets/sec.
Example 4: The theoretical worst scenario at tickrate 20 would be the first 19 ticks taking less than 70 ms and the last tick taking the remainder of that second. Then youd get a single bullet/second.
While Example 4 would result in major warping it is unlikely that you would be able to notice any difference between examples 1-3 in terms of general lagginess unless you can sense pingvariations as low as 10 ms.
Tickrate 20 is extremely vulnerable to scenarios like this because it lies exactly at the threshold between its most and its least powerful bulletoutput.
Operating system is the main factor in tick stability but CPU load will cause an increase in tickdeltadelta as well. Even long before a CPU is close to full load and long before youll notice lag effects like players warping it may affect the minigun dramatically.
- How do I tell if TIW is enabled on a server?
You can tell if the builtin LeagueAS tiw mini is enabled by using the consolecommand "istiwminienabled". It works without admin access.
For other miniweapons you can try using the consolecommand "getweapon minigun2". This wont work for 3rd party TIWminis (but will work for the LeagueAS one).
- Will TIW ever return?
It is possible that we may give it another try in a future leagueas beta.
Nope
- Why do mini vary so much in power from server to server?
Power variation in minigun is due to a bug (or at least bad design) in the original minigun code. Minipower is greatly dependant on tickrate and at the default tickrate of 20 power can be either devastating or weak.
- What IS tickrate?
Its the servers fps (frames per second). Tickrate determines how frequently a server updates its actors and sends the updated info to players.
Read http://www.clanvikings.org/tnse/utstuff.html for a thorough explanation. Pls note that his minigun diagram is incorrect though. It still illustrates the jumps in power although the actual variations in power are much larger than the graph indicates.
- Is the TIW mini that was used during 136 betas identical to the one used in clanbase?
Nope, the clanbase minigun would be significantly weaker than the std minigun at tickrate 20 (assuming tick stability) and it removes the lockdown effect completely.
With the latest revision of the leagueas TIW minigun we added a slight tickdependancy. During the tests it appeared that with a fixed bulletcount per second the mini would still become somewhat more powerful compared to other weapons (could be increased lockdown at higher trs or just that efficient miniusage is more dependent on frequent updates). So to counter this the bulletcount decreases slightly at higher tickrates but without the big jumps of the original mini.
In the end TIW was dropped cause ppl couldnt agree on what the power of the new mini should be.
- How powerful is the original mini?
When ticks are > 50 ms (tr 20) you get 1 bullet/tick
when ticks are < 50 ms (tr20) and > 30 ms (tr 33) you get 1 bullet every second tick
when ticks are < 30 ms (tr 33 ) and > 21 ms (tr 47) you get 1 bullet every third tick
and so on.
An approximated formula for minipower is tickrate / [74/tickdelta] where tickdelta is the time between ticks (i.e 50 ms for tr 20) and the [] means the expression is rounded to nearest integer value. As tickrate approaches infinity bullets/sec will approach 13.5.
This assumes a rocksolid tickrate. Even on systems like win2k or winxp where ut is best at keeping tickrate there will be a slight deviation from the formula that grows when tr approaches a threshold.
The script sleeps 80 ms between each bullet but UT uses a slightly incorrect tickdelta for tick/timer functions so the sum of tickdeltas over a second is approx 1085 ms. Thats why the 80 ms translates to 73,5-74 ms.
- And the TIW minis?
The Clanbase mini (CB12.u) is set 12.1 bullets/sec. It has no lockdown and the bullets do 1.5 point less damage on average (8-13(x1,5) instead of 9-14 (x1,5)).
The leagueas minigun maintained lockdown and bulletdamage. The formula we used in the latest attempt was:
K + exp(L * (lasttickrate-20) ) * J) bullets per sec. If tr was lower than 20 it would cap to K+J
this would yield K+J bullets at tickrate 20 and approach K bullets as tickrate increased. The slope of this graph is steeper close to K and L determines how fast the graph approaches K.
Theres another thirdparty TIW mini (TIW.u) that yields approx 13.5 bullets/sec without removing lockdown and changing bullet damage.
- But if the original mini depends only on tickrate how come minis on two different tickrate 20 servers can be very different?
The variation in ticks is a major factor in minipower (i.e tickdeltadelta)
Example 1: A server running at a stable tickrate 20 with 50 ms between each tick would give mini 20 bullets/sec
Example 2: A server running at tickrate 20 but the 10 first ticks at 55 ms and the 10 last ticks at 45 ms would give mini approx 15 bullets/sec
Example 3: A server running at tickrate 20 but every second tick is 55 ms and the remaining are 45 ms would give mini approx 10 bullets/sec.
Example 4: The theoretical worst scenario at tickrate 20 would be the first 19 ticks taking less than 70 ms and the last tick taking the remainder of that second. Then youd get a single bullet/second.
While Example 4 would result in major warping it is unlikely that you would be able to notice any difference between examples 1-3 in terms of general lagginess unless you can sense pingvariations as low as 10 ms.
Tickrate 20 is extremely vulnerable to scenarios like this because it lies exactly at the threshold between its most and its least powerful bulletoutput.
Operating system is the main factor in tick stability but CPU load will cause an increase in tickdeltadelta as well. Even long before a CPU is close to full load and long before youll notice lag effects like players warping it may affect the minigun dramatically.
- How do I tell if TIW is enabled on a server?
You can tell if the builtin LeagueAS tiw mini is enabled by using the consolecommand "istiwminienabled". It works without admin access.
For other miniweapons you can try using the consolecommand "getweapon minigun2". This wont work for 3rd party TIWminis (but will work for the LeagueAS one).
- Will TIW ever return?
It is possible that we may give it another try in a future leagueas beta.
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if mini gun power reduced it becomes SNIPER assualt witch = zzzzzzzzzz.. i suggest to those who moan learn to use both guns 
![:\](/images/smilies/submitted/smark/ohwell.gif "Oh Well :\")
We're already usin it in pugs and it makes gameplay more interesting since it forces us to rely on other weps instead of that zzzz mini(I'm not a very great fan of it btw...CRISS DE MINI FIF A MARDE!!!) So yeah give it a shot and see the improvement! 
!