Cyrene Dynamic Upgrade Map Discussion

[Kris | Cyrene]

O-hoy,

I'll break this down like the last post:

When you say "without ANY growth", do you mean going up a level or a one percent increase on the progress bar? I am assuming very much that you do mean no change even in the rounded percentage figure presented on the map.

The latter, if the XP bar does not increase in percentage.

If you plan to update the map every 3 weeks or so, then potential decline areas would have approx. 3 weeks' notification that missions may become inactive. That's not very long for counter missions based on a mob there (or area mining resource mission?), that will see even fewer people active there if the mission is made inactive. Will an area recover to active again just by crossing over to the next percentage point of progress?

I think it could be reasonable to increase the decline rate to double what was planned (6 weeks instead of 3 weeks) if necessary, although I think that should make it more severe if an area slips into decline.

As it stands now, yes, if the area again gets enough activity to move up a percentage point then it would be move out of decline.

For the 1st update we won't have any sort of decline (there isn't anything to put into decline so to speak). So if there is any decline it wouldn't have any warning until the 2nd map update and we'll keep an eye on it from there.

My suggestion to active Cyrene citizens is to maybe set up a player activity log per area to just note a cycled ped rate (no long-winded text). Tracker may not be up to providing such turnover data, I dunno...

Just as an FYI the progress isn't based off PED cycled (not that using PED cycled is a bad way to track it, just not the way we track it) we will track it by:
Mobs killed
Missions completed
Resources mined
Player activity

However, that does mean that an area ticking over could manage (at the longest) 100 cycles of warning+ok+warning+ok status before going up to level 1 (without going into actual decline either), which would be over 10 years at 3 weeks per info update. This is if I have understood correctly that the second update without ANY growth actually kicks the area into decline (1 warning, then decline). NOT that I expect this - just wondering about the sizes of the possible timeframes.

This is where we have a little leeway. If an area is going on with no progression for a very long time / other areas are really flourishing then we (as developers) have the power to sort of "push" that area into the next unlock OR we can figure out why the areas is doing so poorly and improve it. Either way, there are options that we can take.

The best way to integrate the map in the game? Well, a long time ago at a place called New Oxford there were art galleries and even video screens streaming a video - none of which caused any RAM problems on my computer back then. IF that can still be done these days, then at the simplest a large picture or set of area pictures on a wall could be updated. Please be careful about memory drain, memory leaks and lag issues, though (I would love MA to solve the current problem once and for all, by the way!).

A nice suggestion, I'll look into this. Thank you.

Oh, P.S. - the META unlock areas have to be counted differently, surely? Otherwise there is a serious risk that they will go into decline.... please tell us a bit more...

Yes, META Unlock Areas will not be reverted as they function differently.

Are we talking about something like the AUD where we get a percentage of taxes on a landarea? While i will probably buy a bunch, you shouldn't think it will change investment of the players a lot long term. I have loads of the arkadia deeds, but i am not there a lot because i don't like the lack of content there has been in the last 6 months.

No, it's my curse of over simplifying things: I was referring to Land Deeds (shops/apartments/land areas) and not anything like CLDs or AUDs (I wonder though, if we did have them, what the acronym would be).

I think we all would be really interested in some more detailed information about how it works. I would love it if you could share some more. Especially if with the current playerbase we have a chance of unlocking anything/everything or if you're doing maths based on a playerbase 10-50 times the current size (like you can get after hard launch).

I can't really reveal all the math behind it, but the short version is that the players that play on Cyrene are the curve that we will be 'grading" on and we'll be using that when calculating it out. I'll quote myself from above:

we (as developers) have the power to sort of "push" that area into the next unlock OR we can figure out why the areas is doing so poorly and improve it. Either way, there are options that we can take.

I hope that answered some more questions =)

Cheers,
Kris

 

[jetsina]

Thanks for the very helpful answers!
Ahhh, so an area has to be in lvl 1 or more to be able to decline. Ok, then it is HIGHLY unlikely that an area that manages to go up a level straight away would not even get 1/100th of the activity in the next period.

Yes, I realise that as mission counting is involved, the same players cannot repeat 1-time missions - and if the bar is set low for upgrading to level 1, then that element of calculating activity may fall away quickly. However, the Cyrene non-dailies are generally for quite a large number of mobs I think...

Oh, I guess there may also be some exponential curve in the activity requirements, but even so, an area that goes up a level quickly will not be remotely likely to face decline I would imagine.

Still, you have provided very nice answers above - and I guess the players can just play and see how things have moved along in just a few weeks' time when we see the first map update.
But as you know, I like to look ahead at what I can forecast and try to prevent problems before they actually have a negative impact. In this case I think it is an interesting increase in information for players - I welcome that!

 

[Kris | Cyrene]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to post an update.

I wanted to put out the newest update to the map this week but the reports were missing some vital information on them and I am waiting to see what data can and can't be recovered.

I hope to be able to update this map sometime next week.

Cheers,
Kris

 

[sluggo]

Thanks Kris, it will be interesting to see what our work so far has panned out for us.

One thing, the pan jungle? there really are no teleports nearby or well, bases to do crafts and stuff in that 'zone' that could help boost it, unless I missed something. Maybe we can get something there? Something for all places that are upgradable really so that folks who may have an interest in one section can do 'stuff' there to help it.

sluggo

 

[AxeMurderer]

nice to hear. Hope next month bring dynamic map and hard launch

 

[Let]

Is this coming anytime soon?

 

[Kris | Cyrene]

Hey Let,

Is this coming anytime soon?

We've been behind here as some reports came that were lacking in the information that we needed, but I think they got just about all the data caught up so I plan to upgrade this map within this week.

Cheers,
Kris

 

[Kris | Cyrene]

Hey guys,

I just updated the Cyrene Dynamic Upgrade Map here: >>LINK<<

It ended up being 7 and 1/2 weeks between the initial posting of the map and the update due to the first few weeks of reports missing data and subsequently waiting for that data to be retrieved again.

You can expect another update in approximately 3 weeks from now (the first full week of January 2015 (between the 5th and the 9th).

For now we'll keep the discussion of the map centered here.

Some things that we noticed and why we thought they occurred:

Ice Plateau and Panton Jungle - both areas were lacking in unique spawns. Since the VU the unique spawns have been added to the Ice Plateau area and we've added another TP to Panton Jungle. We'll also be focusing any event spawns in Pantone Jungle.

Ngu Volcano - this area might be too focused on only high level mobs, or it might be the way that the spawns for the Vlanwing and Protocores were when the VU launched initially. Since the VU the spawns for the Vlanwing and Protocore have been adjusted to be more separated as well as making sure that the Ancients can be spawned there as well.

Great Plains and Turrelion Desert - these zones ended up having more progress than we anticipated. The creature diversity and popularity in these areas are both high, which probably caused the additional 20% +/- of progression above the other zones.

We'll be keeping an eye on the reports that come down and adjusting accordingly, I think that now that we have many more universal ores and enmatters it will balance everything out a bit more.

Cheers,
Kris

 

[harmony]

I'm really happy with Great plains reaching 66% already, can't wait for some new pets

Ngu vulcano: Have you considered this might be because it's a terrible place to mine? You are either climbing a hill or overcome with mobs. It looks nice, and you can get some pyrite there (close to 300% markup now), but i really can't be bothered to go there, even when i know there is noone on cyrene that will kill me out there.

Also since i have no idea about how much impact i can have on unlocking the next stages as a single player, I just do what i want to do, and don't look at the dynamic map at all. If i knew for example you need at least 100 avatars to do mission X or kill 500 of mob Y for an upgrade, i would make sure i would do that for specific unlocks i like.

 

[sluggo]

That's kind of like what I am doing. I really like the idea of both a mining buff and a panelion killpoint mission so am working on the panton jungle to help buff it. Not sure how much my tiny 50 ped here and there donations really do help but I am trying. IM glad you put a teleporter and 'station' in the heart of the Pan jungle, I mentioned this before that it's a difficult one to craft for credit there. This solved that issue.

Now lets get some of these buffs and meta's honkin here!! With luck the visitors coming for the jellyworm thingie will really buff the jungle and bring it up to par with the rest and maybe even push it over.

sluggo

 

[AxeMurderer]

Thats a lot of progress

 

[krasko]

Great!
My desert has nice progress

 

[sluggo]

When are we going to see new updates to the map?
Given the christmas event, although MA did their best to screw you over, I think it should have given you a nice boost to the planet, or at least the area the event was in?

Im interested in seeing the Jungle buff with the Panelion Killpoint mission, hopefully with the small ones in there as well.

sluggo

 

[Kris | Cyrene]

Hey sluggo,

When are we going to see new updates to the map?

Right now I'm waiting for the reports from over the holidays, I estimated when the map would be upgraded:

You can expect another update in approximately 3 weeks from now (the first full week of January 2015 (between the 5th and the 9th)

Hopefully the map will be able to get an update this week.

Cheers,
Kris

 

[sluggo]

Thank you Kris, REALLY hoping we hit an upgrade point on at least one or two places so we can see what is in store for us!

Are these upgrades just going to do stuff to our little 'square' or are they going to open up the old areas back to us as well, or is that something being saved for the hard launch?

Speaking of, any eta now on the hard launch?

sluggo

 

[Kris | Cyrene]

Hey sluggo,

Are these upgrades just going to do stuff to our little 'square' or are they going to open up the old areas back to us as well, or is that something being saved for the hard launch?

I'll quote myself here from earlier in this thread:

This server will be a new staple in the Planet Cyrene world, and the other servers will be reopened and revamped later based off of other criteria.

Speaking of, any eta now on the hard launch?

We're still hammering out the details with MindArk and making sure the correct systems are in place, when there is more info we'll let it be known.

Cheers,
Kris

 

[jetsina]

"correct systems... in place" is, I think, referring mainly to mechanoids, by the way....
In terms of other progress, I think we still need better crafting chains/use of materials to craft things that are actually viable, but at least the drop rates seem to be closer to viable for the bps we already have. Dunno if closer is close enough, but ok, progress is a bit of a turtle in this world

 

[David Grayvey Gray]

Is it me or does the great plain teleport not sit in the great plains unlock area?

 

[AxeMurderer]

Hey sluggo,

I'll quote myself here from earlier in this thread:

We're still hammering out the details with MindArk and making sure the correct systems are in place, when there is more info we'll let it be known.

Cheers,
Kris

Lets hope for hard launch Q1 2015. Hammer it faster.

 

[kjellings]

lend them an axe m8