DeletedUser867
Guest
Category: Elvenar World Map and Neighborhood optimization.
Relevance: This proposal addresses a critical issue, and suggests an approach that is uniquely suitable for Elvenar.
Feasibility: Not trivial, but it should be easier than most of the other approaches for optimizing neighborhoods and dealing with inactive players.
Synopsis: Starting with the highest #1 ranked player, and proceeding in a clockwise spiral, walk the cities in descending rank order. Sort each city on the rank spiral, 9 at a time with the current city at the center of a 3x3 array, such that the highest underlying score is placed in the highest of the 9 ranking slots, which would be #3 in the following example with the other cities ordered accordingly. The city with the lowest underlying score would end up with the lowest rank, which would be #35 in the following example.
Spiral.jpg
Current System
While it's highly probable that there are already plans in place for optimizing cities on the world map, the details have not been shared with the Elvenar user community. The Group Merge approach that's used in FoE would be disasterous.
Details
Placing cities on the World Map, and then discovering them, is a fundamentally good idea but, given the importance of Polishing and Trading, inactive players will seriously detract from the player experience.
The proposed "spiral neighborhoods" approach would allow dedicated players to move directly uphill toward the top of the heap, while inactive players would slide downhill. The majority of the players would follow the spiral, and would approach the top of the heap at a slower pace.
As a programming convenience, note that the rank spiral locations can be hard coded. During the initial few passes there's no need to "chase" the current player with the highest underlying score. Simply start the spiral in the center of the map where the city with the highest underlying score SHOULD be ranked as #1, and after a few iterations Voila! that's exactly where they WILL be.
While the underlying score drives rank, and while there will be a very high correlation between rank and the underlying score, they are NOT the same thing. The rank of a city is LITERALLY its position on the World Map. Note that the northernmost rank in each ring is the perfect square of an odd number.
As folks moved along the spiral they would have convenient access to a different set of relics, and a few new neighbors, but by and large active players would remain near their current neighbors as the entire group proceeded along the spiral at a similar pace.
Inactive cities should be removed from the map. If the player returns they could "rent a room" in the city with the next highest score, and they would use that city as their base of operations until the next recalc, whereupon their own city would appear on the map.
Abuse Prevention
There will be all sorts of opportunities for players to use timing and the support of their local acquaintances to improve their ranking. But it's a matter of optimizing your efforts, with predictable results, rather than abuse.
The player who just got bumped into a lower ring might not see it that way, but the suggested approach is eminently fair.
Visual Aids
The intended result of the suggested World Map optimization will be that cities are smoothly distributed on the World Map, with the highest ranked cities near the center of the map. New players would start on any edge of the map, at the end of the current spiral most likely, and low activity players would drift toward the fringes of the map.
Bell Mountain.jpg
Looking at the world through HSL colored glasses is a closely related proposal for a Overview Map that's tightly integrated with both the World Map and the Rankings list.
Conclusion
Physically locating cities on the World Map will either be a wonderful idea, or a disaster, depending on the perceived fairness the neighborhood optimization algorithm. The suggested approach should be a straight-forward programming challenge as the algorithm is fairly local. From the players' point of view, they'll move toward higher ranked areas in a smooth, predictable way, and there's an excellent chance that their new acquaintances will move with them.
Penrose.jpg
We DO NOT want Climbing the Penrose Stairs to be a frustrating experience for our Elvenar players.
I'm cross posting an idea that was originally posted in the production forum at
https://us.forum.elvenar.com/index.php?threads/climbing-the-penrose-stairs.116/#post-975
because, speaking bluntly, the Beta Moderators seem to be far more organized,
and are therefore far more likely to get attention from the developers.
https://us.forum.elvenar.com/index.php?threads/climbing-the-penrose-stairs.116/#post-975
because, speaking bluntly, the Beta Moderators seem to be far more organized,
and are therefore far more likely to get attention from the developers.
Feasibility: Not trivial, but it should be easier than most of the other approaches for optimizing neighborhoods and dealing with inactive players.
Synopsis: Starting with the highest #1 ranked player, and proceeding in a clockwise spiral, walk the cities in descending rank order. Sort each city on the rank spiral, 9 at a time with the current city at the center of a 3x3 array, such that the highest underlying score is placed in the highest of the 9 ranking slots, which would be #3 in the following example with the other cities ordered accordingly. The city with the lowest underlying score would end up with the lowest rank, which would be #35 in the following example.
Current System
While it's highly probable that there are already plans in place for optimizing cities on the world map, the details have not been shared with the Elvenar user community. The Group Merge approach that's used in FoE would be disasterous.
Details
Placing cities on the World Map, and then discovering them, is a fundamentally good idea but, given the importance of Polishing and Trading, inactive players will seriously detract from the player experience.
The proposed "spiral neighborhoods" approach would allow dedicated players to move directly uphill toward the top of the heap, while inactive players would slide downhill. The majority of the players would follow the spiral, and would approach the top of the heap at a slower pace.
As a programming convenience, note that the rank spiral locations can be hard coded. During the initial few passes there's no need to "chase" the current player with the highest underlying score. Simply start the spiral in the center of the map where the city with the highest underlying score SHOULD be ranked as #1, and after a few iterations Voila! that's exactly where they WILL be.
While the underlying score drives rank, and while there will be a very high correlation between rank and the underlying score, they are NOT the same thing. The rank of a city is LITERALLY its position on the World Map. Note that the northernmost rank in each ring is the perfect square of an odd number.
As folks moved along the spiral they would have convenient access to a different set of relics, and a few new neighbors, but by and large active players would remain near their current neighbors as the entire group proceeded along the spiral at a similar pace.
Inactive cities should be removed from the map. If the player returns they could "rent a room" in the city with the next highest score, and they would use that city as their base of operations until the next recalc, whereupon their own city would appear on the map.
Abuse Prevention
There will be all sorts of opportunities for players to use timing and the support of their local acquaintances to improve their ranking. But it's a matter of optimizing your efforts, with predictable results, rather than abuse.
The player who just got bumped into a lower ring might not see it that way, but the suggested approach is eminently fair.
Visual Aids
The intended result of the suggested World Map optimization will be that cities are smoothly distributed on the World Map, with the highest ranked cities near the center of the map. New players would start on any edge of the map, at the end of the current spiral most likely, and low activity players would drift toward the fringes of the map.
Looking at the world through HSL colored glasses is a closely related proposal for a Overview Map that's tightly integrated with both the World Map and the Rankings list.
Conclusion
Physically locating cities on the World Map will either be a wonderful idea, or a disaster, depending on the perceived fairness the neighborhood optimization algorithm. The suggested approach should be a straight-forward programming challenge as the algorithm is fairly local. From the players' point of view, they'll move toward higher ranked areas in a smooth, predictable way, and there's an excellent chance that their new acquaintances will move with them.
We DO NOT want Climbing the Penrose Stairs to be a frustrating experience for our Elvenar players.
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