Frequently Never Asked Questions

...nevertheless, some questions and answers anyway.

Why "Bob"?

I wanted to give it a new name without putting too much distance from Eddie. After all, Bob has the same purpose as Eddie. So a name like "Eddie II" was not original enough because Bob is a completely new piece of work.

Eddie and Bob are both common and simple names to remember, so I thought it funny to name it Bob. Hopefully it will catch quickly in the AE community.


- Spire Original Bob Creator
I didn't like the idea of getting rid of Bob. Bob is something I've always used whilst playing AE so the name is staying!
Why am I doing it?

Bob was created to replace the original statstics service, Eddie, and to replace a feature that AE didn't have. I've always used Bob and although there are other statistics services out there now, I jumped at the opportunity to keep Bob going as it's been a part of my AE experience.

I intend to improve on and add additional features to Bob and "RockyMoon.com" in general over time.

Where does the data come from?

Bob connects to the ranking pages of each server multiple times a day and records the data shown. The data is processed and stored in a database.

Why are not all players listed?

Only the top 1000 ranked players and guilds are listed on the rank pages. Any player or guild that has never reached rank 1000 will not be listed. You may also see players or guilds that you cannot find in the rank pages. In this case, it is possible that one or more statistics (level, econ, fleet, tech, or exp) reached at least rank 1000 for a limited time. Bob would record the data, but then the statistic may have dropped again off the rank pages.

Some other publically accessable pages allow Bob to track some statistics, but not all, for players who are not in the top 1000 ranks.

Why are there gaps in the chart?

Any time a statistic drops below rank 1000 you will see a gap in that chart. See "Why are not all players listed?".

When Bob collects the data, it is completely automated. Sometimes Bob might decide he doesn't want to do it or something beyond his control might prevent him, like an internet outage, a change to the AE website or something I break when updating the code. There are a few reasons. As Bob collects data multiple times during the day, chances are any missed data would not really be noticed as only the last data collection is kept for the current day.