Mar 27th 2021, 22:38:31
If you read the old thread then there isn't a lot new here. However, it does feel good to cross some things off the list!
1) NPCs should be able to retal, should buy less tech, and generally need to be improved. This is currently underway. The next phase is to improve the logging that the NPC code does to allow for better troubleshooting and testing.
2) For bonus turns, I figured out a simple hack to disable bonus turns so that will be live for a while. Express will use the changes described here once they are available: https://www.earthempires.com/...-acres-49864?t=1615481338
3) For public food issues, I've made the NPCs sell at higher prices when the market is empty. I didn't make the private market food changes (PM base to $32, replenishment to 0.25) due to NPC considerations. There are circumstances where NPCs buy food off the private market and the code doesn't check if there's available food there or not. I will look at changing PM food characteristics once the NPC code gets cleaned up.
4) I'd like to add defensive and intel allies back in a game as a way to grow the community spirit a bit and to encourage players to form positive relationships with other players. A server where most players don't interact other than farming NPCs feels a bit cold. This is still planned and hasn't happened yet because I think that NPC code didn't know if a server allowed for clans or not. Once this is added I should be able to get this change in.
5) NPCs should be visible ingame and in the ranks feed during a set, if only so that players don't waste time sending ingame messages to NPC characters. Also if we don't allow ingame alliances with bots then a player could figure out who all of the NPCs are that way. Some players already know how to identify all of the bot countries, so marking them removes that advantage.
6) Some of these changes will likely lower the maximum NW that's possible for players to attain. In some sense, this isn't fair from a leaderboards perspective. Some players will have a "best 3" number that will no longer be possible to achieve. I do think that leaderboards have their issues on a server like express where we've had over 500 rounds. It's simply impossible for some players to catch up. Adding a seasonal model for leaderboards could be a good change for express. Maybe something like each season consists of 12 weeks and the seasonal leaderboards reset every season. The leaderboard metrics would be "best 3 NW", wins, and top 10 finishes. A player could still do well even if they only play for one round a month. This would also provide a good way to crown a champion for each season which would be the player who is performing the best under the new rules, as opposed to a great finish they had years ago. I don't know how much players care about the leaderboards, but hopefully this would provide a bit of prestige and fun competition for players.
7) There should be more frequent changes to the game play rules to balance strategies and to keep things interesting. As much as possible, I would want game play rules to be synchronized with other servers to keep it easiest for players. I do think that express will always need its own subset of rules though, like buying oil on the private market for example.
1) NPCs should be able to retal, should buy less tech, and generally need to be improved. This is currently underway. The next phase is to improve the logging that the NPC code does to allow for better troubleshooting and testing.
2) For bonus turns, I figured out a simple hack to disable bonus turns so that will be live for a while. Express will use the changes described here once they are available: https://www.earthempires.com/...-acres-49864?t=1615481338
3) For public food issues, I've made the NPCs sell at higher prices when the market is empty. I didn't make the private market food changes (PM base to $32, replenishment to 0.25) due to NPC considerations. There are circumstances where NPCs buy food off the private market and the code doesn't check if there's available food there or not. I will look at changing PM food characteristics once the NPC code gets cleaned up.
4) I'd like to add defensive and intel allies back in a game as a way to grow the community spirit a bit and to encourage players to form positive relationships with other players. A server where most players don't interact other than farming NPCs feels a bit cold. This is still planned and hasn't happened yet because I think that NPC code didn't know if a server allowed for clans or not. Once this is added I should be able to get this change in.
5) NPCs should be visible ingame and in the ranks feed during a set, if only so that players don't waste time sending ingame messages to NPC characters. Also if we don't allow ingame alliances with bots then a player could figure out who all of the NPCs are that way. Some players already know how to identify all of the bot countries, so marking them removes that advantage.
6) Some of these changes will likely lower the maximum NW that's possible for players to attain. In some sense, this isn't fair from a leaderboards perspective. Some players will have a "best 3" number that will no longer be possible to achieve. I do think that leaderboards have their issues on a server like express where we've had over 500 rounds. It's simply impossible for some players to catch up. Adding a seasonal model for leaderboards could be a good change for express. Maybe something like each season consists of 12 weeks and the seasonal leaderboards reset every season. The leaderboard metrics would be "best 3 NW", wins, and top 10 finishes. A player could still do well even if they only play for one round a month. This would also provide a good way to crown a champion for each season which would be the player who is performing the best under the new rules, as opposed to a great finish they had years ago. I don't know how much players care about the leaderboards, but hopefully this would provide a bit of prestige and fun competition for players.
7) There should be more frequent changes to the game play rules to balance strategies and to keep things interesting. As much as possible, I would want game play rules to be synchronized with other servers to keep it easiest for players. I do think that express will always need its own subset of rules though, like buying oil on the private market for example.
Edited By: Slagpit on Mar 28th 2021, 0:34:53
See Original Post
See Original Post
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