Shattered Kingdoms

There's a wide variety of data available to us, so we are flexible in this regard. For now though we're just using the COUNT value across the 24hr period.

Grep: I highly doubt that it is anything that complex!

But it really is not hard given the information that has been give to us to figure out what they are doing.

Hrm, pardon the quote tags. They're so tacky... but:





We as players can't really use count over a 24 hour period, nor do we know when the samples are actually taken. I decided to make a rather ideal model of the playercount in order to find the average in terms of a variable we could reliably get as players, the maximum player count in a day (or peak.)



This creates a curve representing a very idealistic daily player count fluctuation, finds the area under this curve in a 24-hour period, and then divides it by 24 for a very accurate, analog version of a mean player count for that day.

Basically, the mean of a sine wave is half of its range, or whatever, which is easy enough, but we wanted to understand the mean in terms of the amplitude (or peak) as a variable instead. Under this ideal situation, the peak we see when we type "count" in-game should be over twice our target mean.

Depending on whether this ideal model represents a higher or lower player activity than we can readily expect, our solution would be either above or below our goal, of course. I suspect, but cannot really confirm, that this ideal model is a higher estimate of count than truly occurs, perhaps with weekends as an exception on account of the longer and potentially multiple climaxes.

Incorrect. It's the first number. Oh, and by the way - it includes Immortals. Having more immortals online is equally useful and helpful to the game, so they are included in the goal's calculations.



So without all the sophistry: we should be able to hit a 24hr average of 25 if we're peaking at 50. Anecdotal reports of our peak during bonanzas is about 45'ish - ask around. Is shouldn't be too hard for the collective playerbase to find 5 more players - even a few ex-players might be curious about the reward and come back for a visit.



I'm hardly being secretive about the fact that the incentive is meant to both reward the achievement and encourage more players to be online. Want to find out what the reward is? Be online as long as you can this Saturday to help us reach the average of 25, then be online on Sunday to see what the reward is. It's human nature to want to know what's under the wrapping paper.



In the calculations? No ...and yes. The hours themselves don't count because they were achieved in the past, before the count reward system started. In the future such a regular player would certainly be a great contributor towards the goal. If you meant in terms of the rewards themselves... you'll have to find out on Sunday.

I wonder if this will lead to an increase in AFK and Cabal raid-AFK ganks.

I just have a question about this. Will the automatic reboots affect this new bit regarding the COUNT command. Because I know it does reset when there is a reboot?

Just under 2hrs until we know. Early feedback was that today's bonanza didn't hit the numbers of earlier weekends though, which is disappointing.



Both the reward and the calculations take the reboot into account.

With regards to the reward mechanics, they will be re-enabled (presuming we reached the goal) shortly after the MUD comes back up.

In terms of the calculations and COUNT values, we have to take all time periods into account - even those with low values. We'll monitor the sampling and if we're keep seeing an artificially low count at the moment of the reboot, we may step in and 'fix the bell curve' as our education system loves to brags about (although there would be no point making any changes if we hit the goal anyway). For now though, I'd prefer to take a hands-off approach.

PS: We don't *actually* use the count command - one simple reason is that the command is encumbered by only the number of characters that you can see, whereas the system functions we're using aren't.

Just to clarify and apologize:

My earlier comments about there being a bonanza on Saturday were incorrect - it is actually on Sunday (or today, as I write this). The accelerated XP that is currently in force is part of that bonanza.

As hinted at in my prior post, numbers were lower than expected yesterday so we didn't end up reaching our goal, however I am much more optimistic for today given the bonanza confusion.

Once again, my apologies for the miscommunication and let's look forward to tomorrow's day of rewarding enjoyment.

(coding discussion split into a new topic)

The bonanza was completed and unfortunately we didn't hit the average we were hoping for.

After further discussion we've agreed on a non-bonanza target of 20 players online for March. We hit this mark several times last month and look forward to doing so again this month.

Changes to the rewards as well as the goal target are not only likely but guaranteed, as other efforts bear fruit and to keep everyone looking forward as to what the reward might be. We'll be posting about other projects over the coming weeks - keep an eye on the Announcements forum!