The Bridge

pixel

8:00 AM

I am quite brave

user2334

@Blem More specifically, SciFi.SE has a history of asking history-of questions.

user2334

Besides of course History.SE, I think they're only one of maybe two or three sites that partakes in such questions

Blem

@MarkTrapp that is a pretty bad question, with that kind of questions you can do any combination of "Is Universe A canon with Universe B?" no matter how silly it sounds

pixel

@MarkTrapp I have to say, I don't think I've ever seen you chatty at this time of day

this is weird having people to talk to the moment I arrive at work

user2334

@Blem Yeah… sorta par for the course on SciFi: "there must be a canon reason for <insert movie magic here>"

user2334

8:04 AM

I mean come on, is John DeLancie not allowed to play anyone other than Q?

pixel

typecast for life

Martin Sojka

@MarkTrapp Full frontal nudity, the non-sexual, disenchanting kind. This should dispel any image of him being a superior being. ;)

Blem

just use the answer from when lucy lawless was on the Simpsons, a wizard did it!

pixel

I totally didn't notice him in Breaking Bad

user2334

@MartinSojka unfortunately, he was nude in Déjà Q :/

Martin Sojka

8:09 AM

BTW, I'd hope for more history-of tagged questions on Arqade. We have 65 years long history of video games, the people who were there to recount it are dying off. Time to make an effort and document.

Thomas T. Goldsmith died 2009, for example.

pixel

it's hard to come up with citations for stuff like that though

Martin Sojka

We're still not Wikipedia. :)

pixel

sure, but not being wikipedia has little to do with it

Martin Sojka

It does. Citations are nice to have, but not a requirement.

pixel

if you make any kind of statement on here and don't back it up you get criticised for it

Martin Sojka

8:13 AM

So put a "-1, lack of sources" on the answer.

user2334

@MartinSojka Notwithstanding the fairly vague scope of the beta test question, people treat those types of questions as an opportunity to reminisce instead of concretely answering the question. The nostalgia factor is incredibly high with gaming, too: 10 trappbucks says you ask a question about the history of FPS games, it's going to devolve into a rant about how CoD sucks and someone posting this

Martin Sojka

@MarkTrapp What beta test question?

user2334

@MartinSojka Bad answers are easily dealt with if they're the exception: but if a question is only attracting bad answers, we make the internet worse.

user2334

3

Q: When were beta releases first used in gaming?

When I first started gaming (when I was playing Commander Keen, and Solar wars), and a game was released. That was it. Some time later I noticed games came with patches, games like Diablo I. Some time later I came back to gaming and started playing Minecraft, which was in beta. I knew about the ...

history-of-gaming

Martin Sojka

@MarkTrapp We do have a "not an answer" flag for that.

user2334

8:17 AM

@MartinSojka Yes, but if a question's only getting bad non-answers, and we keep deleting them, what we're left with is still a question sitting around unanswered.

user2334

Not saying history questions are off-topic, but they seem to attract crap answers, indicating it's probably not within our field of expertise. We don't have to be everything to every gamer

pixel

ooh

my bitchy managers are away

and the big boss director of international support is in the office this week

fml

Martin Sojka

@MarkTrapp You can then always down-vote the question until it stops appearing on the front page.

user2334

@MartinSojka If we're down voting the hell out of a question, it's attracting crap answers, isn't attracting good answers… why do we need to have it on the site?

pixel

avoids joining this particular discussion ;)

Martin Sojka

8:21 AM

@MarkTrapp Because somebody might actually be able to answer, either coming new here via a web search or doing the research.

Unanswerable questions get closed; answerable but hard just need to simmer for a while and/or get edited to be better.

pixel

@MartinSojka just because somebody might be able to answer the question is not justification for it being acceptable on the site

Martin Sojka

@pixel No, that's just a justification for keeping it when it meets all the other criteria needed.

user2334

@MartinSojka If we're able to provide a good answer to the question, there's no problem: what I'm saying is that it generally doesn't happen with history of questions, particularly when it comes to gaming. That is, if you're expecting us to become a useful repository on the history of gaming, don't hold your breath.

pixel

and discussion questions that do not include citations and are littered with opinions based on memories do not fit into 'meets all the other criteria'

Martin Sojka

@pixel ... since when do questions need citations???

pixel

8:25 AM

ever since the first time somebody asked me for a citation in order to get an upvote

do we not use the same website?

oh questions

Martin Sojka

@MarkTrapp I can provide good answers for history questions regarding MUD development history (well, from the mid to late 1980ties onward at least). If I see any other question where I know the devs who worked on it, I tend to forward it to them. They are, though, so far very few such questions here.

Blem

goodmorning @pixel

pixel

morning @Blem

Blem

have you not had your coffee?

pixel

I hate coffee, especially when its made like sludge

Blem

8:27 AM

no one likes coffee, but we still have to drink it

Martin Sojka

@pixel I ignore such requests. If I have a source, it's in the answer. If not, it's not.

pixel

and today the coffee pot is full of sludge

@MartinSojka you're arguing about a category of vague questions that will always be full of 'I remember this as...' and has a far wider scope than identify this game

Blem

we use one of thous where the coffee for each cup comes in its own package

pixel

oh we have filter coffee

but the guy that makes the coffee in the morning has no tastebuds

Martin Sojka

@pixel Rather, "I programmed/designed it like this ..."

pixel

8:29 AM

@MartinSojka belongs on gamedev

Martin Sojka

@pixel ... why would that be? GameDev doesn't need questions where the answers recount the history of some piece of code or an algorithm.

pixel

why not? The most comprehensive way to learn dev would be to see how a particular method of achieving something evolved over time

and if game dev doesn't why does game playing need it?

Martin Sojka

@pixel This involves lots of works in a spreadsheet, mostly. Nothing to learn from it, besides how to stay awake staring at rows and columns of numbers.

user2334

@MartinSojka We pretty much discourage them after finding most of them don't really do well here (here's some background). That said, if you really think the situation is different now and you have the means to provide good content, consider asking and self-answering a few history-of questions to set an example

Martin Sojka

@pixel Because "gaming" encompasses the history of it, same as "sci-fi" encompasses the history of sci-fi ...

pixel

8:33 AM

@MartinSojka by that justification, all game-dev questions are legit on arqade

@MartinSojka and marketing questions, random idea questions, general musings, random speculation, evil, death, decay, war, peace, etc

Martin Sojka

@pixel Nope. Check GameDev once in a while; most questions there are of the sort "How do I do ....?"

pixel

You can't say SE site <X> is about <Y> therefore all <Y> questions are valid

Martin Sojka

@pixel How is any of part of the history of gaming?

user2334

@MartinSojka So are most questions on Gaming. Either GameDev or Gaming could have history-of questions. Programmers.SE fields questions about the history of programming.

pixel

@MartinSojka by the same reasoning, most of this site is "how do I do <X> in game <Y>" just worded differently

Martin Sojka

8:38 AM

@pixel No, but some subjects (like gaming, sci-fi, languages, culture, programming in general) work in a wider temporal context; they have a history, which shapes the current and the future. Contrast that with purely goal-oriented sites like SO, GameDev or Travel, which are all about solving current problems.

pixel

Arqade is a goal oriented site

people come here to find out how bad they are at games and get solutions on progressing further through the current big games on easy mode

Martin Sojka

@pixel gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/pac-man

pixel

I see your 6 questions

and raise you 532

gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/achievements

Martin Sojka

No matter. A single question is enough to disprove your assertion.

pixel

or 2550 - gaming.stackexchange.com/search?q=%22how+do+I%22

and that 2550 is only the specific "how do I" ones, we're not even including "what if" or "where is" questions

Martin Sojka

8:42 AM

@MarkTrapp I don't like answering my own questions, especially when I know the answer before I post the questions. Seems kinda masturbatory to me.

pixel

and, as demonstrated with a lot of old questions, many questions that don't fit in the format of actually needing help get closed shortly after being edited for being not constructive or off topic

Gaming Topics From Outside

8:53 AM

0

Q: No sound in Family Farm game

I bought Family Farm for Linux, game is running smoothly, but with no sound. I have read somewhere, that it's normal on 64bit systems, but I run 32bit Ubuntu. Moreover, there are many no-sound bug-reports in Ubuntu Software Center, but no fix on the internet. I have tried this one, but it doesn'...

sound games

Martin Sojka

Meh, just one question from the "favoured tags" list in the last 24 hours and it's one I can't answer, just comment. Oh well, back to work.

badp

9:37 AM

@LessPop_MoreFizz yeah, that's what happened. To be fair the original tweet was also angry, but jeez. That was two months ago. Get a perspective.

pixel

9:51 AM

zzzZZZ

Rilgon Arcsinh

10:32 AM

0

Q: Installing Regnum Online on Ubuntu?

I'm fairly new to Ubuntu (or Linux for that matter) so please bear with me. I just installed Ubuntu a day or so ago and went looking for an MMO for it. I am using Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit and I downloaded Regnum Online from this page. Fast forward to me who just finished downloading the 700mb or so ...

game-installation linux

Possibly better suited for AU?

Mad Scientist

@RilgonArcsinh agree, there is nothing game-specific in that question. It's purely a linux permissions thing

pixel

my third disgusting coffee of the day was the one that made me wake up

Rilgon Arcsinh

@MadScientist Should I flag it with the moderator attention freeform flag, suggesting migration to AU?

Mad Scientist

@RilgonArcsinh I already did that

Rilgon Arcsinh

(AU isn't one of the options in Flag -> Doesn't belong here -> Off-topic)

Oh, okay :)

LessPop_MoreFizz

10:50 AM

@RilgonArcsinh Yeah, we don't have a user migration path to AU (or anything that isn't meta) because in general, it just wouldn't be used enough and would probably result in more bad migrations than good ones.

Martin Sojka

In general, people are usually quickly catching up on where to ask what. I don't see many computer game questions on RPG or BoardGames either, despite the potential for confusion.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@MartinSojka Yeah, but people who migrate still do stupid things like asking to migrate all kinds of questions to gamedev that don't belong there.

pixel

morning @LessPop_MoreFizz

Rilgon Arcsinh

11:08 AM

@LessPop_MoreFizz Ah, okay. Makes enough sense to go on.

LessPop_MoreFizz

11:20 AM

@pixel mornin'

pixel

11:57 AM

oops

blown my cover, sitting here watching youtube, start laughing out loud

Martin Sojka

"Why are you laughing?" - "Oh, I just read <insert jerky co-worker's name>'s code for the first time."

pixel

you know if I had thought of that it wouldn't have worked since I don't read much code on a day to day basis

I used the 'customer sent me some SQL they were planning on running against their database' alternative

hopefully they don't ask to see it

Martin Sojka

7

Q: Worst SQL Ever

What is the worst SQL query you've ever seen? What made it bad?

sql database

pixel

meh if they asked I would just write some terrible SQL with cursors and important stuff missing from the where clause

Martin Sojka

I like this one:

5

A: Worst SQL Ever

In a posting to the comp.databases.informix news group - a genuine working Informix table (which I do not recommend using): CREATE TABLE VIEW ( DECIMAL CHAR(30), NOT INTEGER NOT NULL, SERIAL DATE NOT NULL, NULL CHAR(1) NOT NULL, INTEGER DECIMAL(13,...

pixel

12:06 PM

I am reading it atm

Martin Sojka

Reminds me of a DB design by a customer which uses hyphens for database and field names.

LessPop_MoreFizz

Tony Scott jumped off a bridge. :(

pixel

who is tony scott

Martin Sojka

@pixel Director, of films like "Crimson Tide." Younger bro of Ridley Scott (you might have heard of him).

LessPop_MoreFizz

@pixel Director of Top Gun among many other films.

And yeah, Ridleys little bro.

pixel

12:09 PM

ok

still none the wiser if I'm honest

I'm assuming 'Crimson Tide' is a movie as well

LessPop_MoreFizz

@pixel Yup.

Also True Romance

Taking of Pelham 123

Beverly Hills Cop 2

Days of Thunder

pixel

honestly, I'm looking at this list of movies and the only ones I've heard of are beverly hills cop and top gun

and I haven't seen either of those

Martin Sojka

@pixel Yeah, US nuclear submarine gets unclear orders before they are cut off from communications, not clear if nuclear war already started or not, and the CO (Gene Hackman) and XO (Denzel Washington) battle it over if they should launch the nukes as per the last order received or not.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@pixel Producer on Prometheus?

pixel

haven't seen prometheus

Rilgon Arcsinh

12:12 PM

@MartinSojka Oh god, this makes me want to dig up this thing I saw on another forum that is some sort of eldritch SQL horror

LessPop_MoreFizz

@MartinSojka How does that question not have a historic lock

Martin Sojka

For the record, I consider "Crimson Tide" to be his best film, and the music score (by Hans Zimmer) is just awesome. Nightwish even made a version of the main score.

pixel

so many things I don't know

Rilgon Arcsinh

Hrm

This thing is so long I think it would break chat, I'll put it in a pastebin

LessPop_MoreFizz

@RilgonArcsinh Nah, chat copes with big copypasta well.

Rilgon Arcsinh

12:17 PM

pastebin.com/bpUHGf6S

@LessPop_MoreFizz Ah, does it? Oh well, too late :D

LessPop_MoreFizz

@RilgonArcsinh Example:

Bacon ipsum dolor sit amet fugiat flank ex turkey venison velit fatback, spare ribs tempor id. Fatback qui eu anim. Turducken pork loin enim aliquip t-bone ullamco non in tenderloin pancetta deserunt. Chicken incididunt bresaola nostrud. Salami jerky laboris in rump est nostrud irure mollit deserunt ut cillum beef ribs labore bacon.

Mollit pork loin cow, pariatur nostrud shankle ribeye rump anim venison chicken et ball tip sunt. Rump pork belly reprehenderit, exercitation tenderloin pork loin turducken t-bone occaecat shankle anim excepteur ham hock. Non do laborum sausage ut strip steak t…

Rilgon Arcsinh

That is the best filler text.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@RilgonArcsinh baconipsum.com

Rilgon Arcsinh

Yeah, I think you've linked it to me before.

pixel

wall of text hits you for over 9000 (critical hit)

LessPop_MoreFizz

12:19 PM

@pixel Wall of Meat*

pixel

the initial wall of text was sql

so text is valid

I would never be in a situation where a wall of meat could accumulate, I don't eat meat enough :p

Rilgon Arcsinh

@pixel it's an eldritch SQL horror, get it right

pixel

I have an awkwardly placed friction burn on the back of my leg, it's really getting annoying sitting down today

lol

"Google Chrome is out of date because it hasn't been relaunched for a while."

See girls and boys, you should always reboot your PC frequently, even your web browser complains about lack of updates these days!

LessPop_MoreFizz

Something something get a Mac.

pixel

Something something I have a PC that would outperform any Mac ever made something, something.

LessPop_MoreFizz

12:32 PM

And with that, I R Off to work. Later kids. Don't set anything on fire that I wouldn't.

pixel

sets @LessPop_MoreFizz on fire

have fun, good day at work etc etc

LessPop_MoreFizz

@pixel This meets the criteria.

pixel

no doubt you'll arrive at work and then idle on chat anyway

LessPop_MoreFizz

@pixel No, but I might pop my head in occasionally if I see a mention, which is what actually happens.

Idling on chat from work for me would be... borderline psychotic?

TEXTING WHILE DRIVING IS BAD KIDS.

pixel

@LessPop_MoreFizz understood, so ping you alll day every day

LessPop_MoreFizz

12:34 PM

@pixel Keep in mind, my 'office' is a volkswagen.

pixel

I didn't realise Americans still used VW Camper Vans for such work

do you drive around in a mobile meth lab?

LessPop_MoreFizz

@pixel It's a Jetta!

pixel

you have a jetta?

LessPop_MoreFizz

@pixel Not my jetta. Companies jetta. TDI Wagon.

@pixel And not a meth lab, sorry. Just field work for digital map services.

pixel

@LessPop_MoreFizz is your real name Jesse? (double reference going on here!)

LessPop_MoreFizz

12:37 PM

@pixel Nope.

pixel

did you get both references?

Jesse -> Breaking Bad (obvious)

Jesse -> Owns the Jetta -> Fast and Furious

LessPop_MoreFizz

@pixel No, because I am not well versed in fast/furious/randominsertionofnumbers lore.

pixel

me either

LessPop_MoreFizz

seriously though, I gotta get out. If I work fast, I can make it to the Giant Duck by sundown.

2

pixel

my google-fu though

"The Giant Duck"...?

LessPop_MoreFizz

12:39 PM

Big Duck

The Big Duck is a ferrocement building in the shape of a duck located in Flanders, New York, on Long Island. It was originally built in 1931 by duck farmer Martin Maurer in nearby Riverhead, and used as a shop to sell ducks and duck eggs. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. It is a principal building on the Big Duck Ranch, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. Description The Big Duck is a prime example of literalism in advertising. The building measures wide, long and tall to the top of the head. The duck's eyes are made from For...

pixel

well fine then

pixel

1:07 PM

Do we really need a 'steam browser' tag?

..in reference to this question:

9

Q: Using the Steam overlay to play music/other normal browser things

I have noticed that in all Steam games you can press shift+tab and then can use Steam to go to websites and stuff. When I was recently in a game I heard someone say they were listening to Pandora radio, but when I tried it, it tells me I need to install the newest version of Adobe Flash player...

steam steam-browser

Yi Jiang

@pixel No

pixel

People keep trying to add a second tag (browser, steam-browser, etc)

Yi Jiang

Steam is one big 'ol browser in itself

pixel

I know this

that's the approach I have tried to take with this question

but if you look at the edit history I'm being resisted

would you suggest I reject the tag edit for steam-browser and remove the tag again then would you suggest?

Yi Jiang

Rollback to 6

pixel

1:13 PM

rollback war initialised -.-

Yi Jiang

There are 506 questions about Steam? Oh, platform tags... *sigh*

pixel

one of these days I will start cleaning platform tags

after the pain and suffering I went through with audio I'm waiting for the time being though

on the up side, we've pretty much burned everything that is going to be burned by this point, and everything we haven't burned yet is documented

Yi Jiang

It would be nice if we can have something like [ps3] and [ps3-game] to separate problems exclusive to games on the PS3 and the PS3 itself, for example

This generation of consoles are getting sophisticated enough that there are enough questions about the consoles themselves

pixel

well my understanding of the way it works

is that a question about <ps3> would be ps3

a question about <game> that is only released for a single platform only has game

Yi Jiang

And a question about the game on that platform only would be [ps3]

pixel

1:24 PM

a specific question about <game> that is released for multiple platforms where the question is platform independent is tagged game

Yi Jiang

But that means it's hard to search for questions that are only about the [ps3] itself

pixel

a question about <game> specific to <platform> has both game and platform

at the moment yes

but the platform tags still need cleaning

Yi Jiang

It's not worth the trouble, methinks

pixel

well if nothing gets done about it then it will never get better will it

Lazers

0

Q: Recommend a multiplayer game for kids

We've just set up a wireless LAN in our house. Our kids enjoy games so I thought a game that they could play with each other would go down well. My kids are 6 (boy), 4 (girl) and 2 (girl). Can you recommend a game that is appropriate for them (no gore or sex), preferably with simple controls?

lan local-multiplayer windows-xp

0

Q: Do Yahoo FF yardage bonuses stack?

Yahoo Fantasy Football, let's say we set bonuses for rushing yardage at 150 - 1, 200 - 2, 250 - 3. If a player rushes for 250+ yards, does he get 3 bonus points or 6? I don't have enough rep to use a correct tag.

espn-fantasy-football

pixel

1:26 PM

there shouldn't be many situations where a game has both game and platform, there will be some but there shouldn't be so many that finding out specifics about platform shouldn't be hard

Yi Jiang

@Lazers Hmmm, 29 minutes

pixel

local-multiplayer just got targetted

BRB

oh god

somebody just linked a load of leetspeak crap in an email

I just raised a variety of questions by effortlessly reading it

Martin Sojka

You mean, people don't keep up with news and trends outside their narrow life path? :D

pixel

yes that

I am not a spambot... I just struggle with reCaptcha

Martin Sojka

Reminds me of the scene when my cousin showed the whole family her Biochemistry BSc thesis (or whatever it's called in English). Everyone in the family just skimmed over it and commented how it "looked nice." Then I get my hands on it, started actually reading it and asking questions about the few symbols I didn't understand. The "WTH?" look on her face was priceless.

Keep in mind, my last chemistry lesson was 20 years ago at this point. ;)

pixel

1:37 PM

;p

I actually do struggle with reCaptcha though

Martin Sojka

@pixel One of them is always "fuck".

pixel

that's a lie

Martin Sojka

No, it isn't.

pixel

Wait until the next time I get prompted (it will be in about 5 edits), I guarantee that typing in FUCK doesn't work.

Yi Jiang

Heh, guess which one is the one they're OCR'ing and fill it with 'fuck'

Martin Sojka

1:39 PM

reCaptcha shows you two words (or something it considers a potential word, and a real word). One of them it'll know for sure what it is, and accept only that word as an answer. The other will be from a not-recognised-yet corpus of scanned documents, and it will accept everything there. Including, in fact, "fuck".

murgatroid99

@MartinSojka you just have to guess which one they don't know

Martin Sojka

Exactly.

murgatroid99

@MartinSojka though that's also kind of being a dick about it

pixel

neither of those words

murgatroid99

@pixel June nisamili

pixel

1:41 PM

I typed june fuck

Yi Jiang

The second char could also be t

pixel

it said DENIED

Yi Jiang

Heh

murgatroid99

@YiJiang oh, you're right, it is

Yi Jiang

Try reversing it this time?

murgatroid99

1:42 PM

@pixel domestic ttemisc

pixel

I typed in fuck ttemisc

and it said GRATS YOU ARE NO ROBOT

100%legit

Yi Jiang

Hahahaha

murgatroid99

Now that I think about it, it would make sense for them to make the word they don't know easy and the word they do know hard to read.

fbueckert

@pixel And you can ease up on your editing spree, too.

pixel

why is it always me that has to change

why don't you ask more questions instead?

why? why? why? why? why?

Martin Sojka

1:46 PM

To be fair, I only do the "fuck" trick when reCaptcha is getting silly like here:

fbueckert

@pixel Because we conform to the way the world is, not the way we want it to be.

pixel

but you are mistaken!

badp

@MartinSojka \and\bigand^\beta_{i=1}(x_i

Rilgon Arcsinh

@pixel June nisamili

pixel

bit late now

Rilgon Arcsinh

1:48 PM

I am an esper/guardian force/eidolon/summoned monster

I appear precisely when called upon, no later, no earlier

pixel

@fbueckert the fun destroyer has already been through like the whirlwind of doom and banned me from making more edits to his precious front page on pain of death...

CRY

fbueckert

@pixel Yeesh. Hyperbole much? :P

Rilgon Arcsinh

Also I am laughing my ass off at this Jay Wilson drama

pixel

It's ok though, pixel, destroyers end, is just going to continuing editing

murgatroid99

@badp I think you want a \left(

Rilgon Arcsinh

1:50 PM

@pixel astral walker or gfto

badp

@murgatroid99 without a \right-something that could be a problem

pixel

sorry, that is so 2009

badp

it seems like a normal ( would do the trick there

murgatroid99

@badp it's an excerpt

pixel

Choose something from this decade

or gtfo

Rilgon Arcsinh

1:50 PM

Hand of A'dal > Astral Walker > Starcaller > other insignificant titles

(aside from the heroic Maloriak temp-title)

murgatroid99

@badp I guess. It looked a bit big for a normal ( to me

pixel

sorry but every scrub in the game has both starcaller and astral walker these days

badp

@murgatroid99 yeah, but compare it with the x_i right next to it.

Rilgon Arcsinh

Oh, you're one of those people who judges value on how common it is

I see

pixel

no

I judge value on how asleep I can be to get it again on my 15th alt

if I can do it while afk at the door then it's not worth anything

murgatroid99

1:52 PM

@badp I guess it is kind of big

pixel

since you don't even need to pay attention to the black hole mechanics anymore it's not even a challenge

but interestingly, using my scale, Firelord is worth more than Savior of Azeroth, and Dragonslayer is worth more than Firelord

Martin Sojka

@badp I think that's actually \bigwedge :)

Rilgon Arcsinh

So, again

badp

@MartinSojka I def'ed it a few lines ago, jeez :P

Rilgon Arcsinh

1 min ago, by Rilgon Arcsinh

Oh, you're one of those people who judges value on how common it is

pixel

1:53 PM

nope, I'm one of those people who judges value based on how hard it is to replicate

Sterno

►

NSFW

pixel

while in this instance that is directly proportional to how common it is, I do not value based on how common it is

Lazers

0

Q: Will advertising for a special event increase my chances of getting mystery parts?

By special event, I mean the top-level, global events that last for days and have the flight crews and prizes. The current one has prizes that are parts for the starcraft, so I'd like to increase my chances of getting the extra parts via the mystery parts.

pocket-planes

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