[eJSF] The Gap and the Cap. What step?
Fanaxidiel
Hello friends,
let's try together to analyze "the days of Mayhem", as it was widely considered a test on a possible game development that should help new players to be able to "make the difference" again.
The first step to review something is setting some "criteria" which should guide the overlook and the judgement.
I guess that we can generally use two main criteria to see if a game development is really goo😛
the GAP and the CAP.
- The Gap is what increases some players' chances to make the difference because of some specific reason (they struggled more, they paid more, they are more intelligent or else..). If you don't have a gap, you can't ask to the players to struggle to create it or fill it up. So a gap is needed.
- The Cap is what puts a limit to the differences between players, and gives more chances to the new players to make the difference too. If you don't put a cap, sometimes, the gap goes too far, and discourages some players from playing.
Erepublik has, as everyone can see, a problem of excess of Gap, since the new players can hardly make the difference on a battlefield, and the other modules of the game are secondary in respect of the war one. So there's a lack of interest in growing up an account, because the Gap can't be filled anymore.
The Days of Mayhem tried to create a different situation, substantially putting a Cap to the strength of developed accounts. The ability to divide strength was a little sop for the old players, who had to chose how to distribute skills among several terrains. The changes in strategy that this could have implied were too complicated to be fully disclosed in a few days, and, as the title of the event stated, we have seen a few days of real chaos.
First of all it's nice to recognize that the admins tried to do something for the "not-so-developed" accounts. This step should have been taken a long ago, but nevertheless it's a good step, and I personally thank them for taking care of the newer plyers. We have to notice, anyway, that the event wasn't well balanced and that many players actually stopped fighting. This also brought a huge fall in the markets, especially talking about Q7 weapons.
More in general eRepublik needs a solution on the long term, that can help new players to make the difference despite of the gap and the old ones to save their benefits for struggling and spending so much for their accounts. A fair solution wouldn't delete all the efforts of the old ones, and wouldn't prevent the new ones from making the difference too.
My proposal for the future is to create some Mayhem rounds in every battle. There's no need to make it complicate😛
it could be some recurring round, as it's for air battles, assigning 22 points the second round, the sixth and so on. The hit would be based on capped strength and the epic battles (like it should be in the air ones) would be made with a total amount of hits and not of damage. All the players would have a chance and even the lower strength players would be interested in packs and candies, since they would have the chance to rule a battle, win a BH or anyway be helpful for their country. The strategy would require a bigger coordination to have the proper players online at the right time, to win some round. The players with older accounts would still have many rounds where they would challenge each other, and win medals, but they would enjoy their gap for 1/3 only of the total points. Terrains have showed to complicate the battles, maybe too much. They're not essential to this proposal.
This solution would probably help Plato too, in three ways:
1) he would enjoy new customers from the lower strength players' crowd, who would start buying the packs, being finally be able to make them worthy to be bought
2) the new customers would increase the overall competition and force the old players to increase their efforts
3) there wouldn't be high internet traffic peaks (don't forget that Plato is relying on AWS Servers, which means more resources used, more money to pay) since different players would join different epic battles
I don't pretend to have a solution. But I'd like to read some citizen's feedback about this idea, hoping that the renewed admins' interest for the new players won't harm the old ones, making it possible for us all to rebuild together our community and enjoy many years more in the new World.
Have a nice game!
Comments
[eJSF] The Gap and the Cap. What step?
Bring order to the chaos!
erepublik.com/en/article/2654049
Please read! (and maybe v+s+c...)
I agree with some Mayhem rounds in every battle, it will be ok for newbies and old fags also.
(insert smart comment here)
vote
V 🙂
Nope, just nope!
Why?
Cause no matter what you add to the current module those d4 tanks will ruin it cause they have MAVERICK 🙂..
Delete the bloody pack and leave divisions to the player they belong to!
Change?
Add 3 terrains for 1 round of the battle! And you can pick(daily reset or other way to chose from) just 1/3 terrains to fight in!
D4
+1round = 5 points
+3 terrains
+to win you need 2/3 terrains won
+all 3 terrains will give BH
Got it?
No need for Maverick and there will always be a plenty of battles!
And all newbies(people up to xxxxx str) should get extra terrain for training(to gain strength faster)!
Though I didn't understand perfectly your proposal, I thank you for the comment, but I guess that Maverick pack won't be removed. It's a source of income for the admins, so it's unlikely that they will remove it. Giving to the new players some possibilities in battles where the strength is capped has maybe a bit more chances to sort good results.
3 terrains running simultaneously instead of 1 like we have now!
You can fight in just 1 from the 3 of them!
If one side wins 2 of 3 they win the round and get 5 points!
Same as now just a lot more place to win some gold and to be important cause you can pick just one terrain and fight in it! So no matter how huge tank you are, you will need at least 1 more friend to win the other terrain so you can win a round!
That would bring some strategy back to the game cause you would need some coordination for fighting and 1 men could not do anything alone 🙂
If they keep the Maverick, i doubt that this game will raise again! It will just keep falling deeper and deeper!
BTW capped str means nothing when most of them have Legend ranks and 10% bonus for lvl 100!
I understand better your idea to use terrains to make the rounds more hard to win and the BHs more easy to take, and that can have a sense, though it's a lot different from my proposal to cap the strength just for 1 round over 4. Rank is important but doesn't change your maxhit so much, especially considering that, since capped rounds would give a lot less rank, most of the tanks would fight in ordinary battles, to rank more, to get true patriot and still with good chances to win their BHs...
I agree that the MAVERICK pack should be modified.
i'm a simple man i see bosnia cs and i press vote
Votado
No, simply No.
Micro-managing enthusiastics left the game long time ago. It would be a hell of a problem for the fews remaining to cope with and will only increase the third-party scripts revenues.
The Cap instead is an easier solution and widely uses in permanent's server based browser game. Just remove the 8 rounds system, the MAV and put a couple packs more for Visa players.
A generally applied cap wouldn't be welcomed from many players who struggled a lot in the years to achieve their results, and would be considered nothing less than a theft of their efforts (me included, and to be true I am kinda sick of in-game thefts LOL). That's also because in the other games where a cap is implemented, it's a rule that all players had from the start. Also Maverick pack isn't fair of course, I don't like it and I would remove it if I could, but it "sells" a lot, and Plato doesn't go back on those choices (like he didn't with Infantry Kit that started a whole generation of supertanks in the lower divisions).
A round-based cap, instead would keep supertanks away (why should somebody fight where he gets almost no rank and no true patriots in respect of ordinary battles?) and would give a more protected space for less developed account, at least in my opinion! 😃
Thx for the comment and for the endorsement!
voted 🙂
MAVERICK PACK means that you do not need a new, young players. As long as this will not change it nothing will help new players - and they will not stay in the game.
In either situation or proposal of implementing mayhem in permanent status, the fact that maverick will not be removed makes it all useless.
It's absurd to find new ways for the little players and keep that pack active and it is counterproductive too.
One big mistake they made is using strenght caps as static numbers they thought would work. They should've used strenght limits as percentage of the strenght of the strongest active account. Also for big amounts of str, they should have made another div with the elite players and a bigger str limit to terrains. And not allow players to max out all terrains.
And to make it spicy. And not have a time to be online to fight in certain terrain, ALL terrains should be in every round (except air) and who wins the battle over more terrains, wins the round. This way, whenever you are online, you can fight in every battle and still have your damage count.
Pffff...go away xD
No, I'll come to get you. Wait and see 😃
I didn't think the event was so bad
It had bad and good consequences, like almost everything has. Implementing Mayhem in a permanent way with changes and restrictions, could anyway start a new mechanism of renewal in the community.
I fully agree with your Gap and Cap analysis but the solution as far as i'm concerned is pretty simple...
Without a lot of husle just make the divisions based on hit power or strength rather than xps linking them to the biggest one in the game 🙂
Thanks for the comment! That is, how can we say... the old "deus ex machina", since it was proposed long ago. The main problem about this was that, to avoid the change of division, some players could stop not only to fight, like it happened for long, but also to train, which is not what Plato wants, since contract and training grounds are a good reason, for many players, to spend a few bucks. Also I guess that admins don't expect anymore a heavy "refill" of new players, so, sooner or later, the divisions wouldn't be balanced anymore (as actually is, I guess) even if there was a in/out soil mechanism to keep them numerically equal. On the other side the option you suggest was really appealing because it would have stopped the worst practice of not fighting to avoid level change. Once the infantry kit was introduced, anyway, I guess that Plato showed his choice on the point, and I doubt he will be back on this or on Maverick pack.
More in general eRepublik needs a solution on the long term, that can help new players to make the difference despite of the gap and the old ones to save their benefits for struggling and spending so much for their accounts.
you've got my vote mate ,
ps: 30 gold for ALL Hero medals ( not only SH ) so old players can have gold benefits too ( we're not just the wallet Plato ) OR remove Air battles and insert it as a terrain like Fenaxidiel wrote
Very nice suggestion to balance buyers and non-buyers, since, somehow, that would help to avoid big distances between them. Again, anyway, I guess it's not in the brains of Plato, since he still loves to sell those big gold packs which can be used to buy candies.
i hope someone read all player's suggestions , they can really give a lift to the game
I thank all players commenting, and I want to add something, without altering the original text of the article, which in my opinion wouldn't be fair towards those who commented a first version.
Personally I dislike Maverick Pack and I never bought it. Nevertheless I know many who do, and generally I experienced that Plato doesn't remove a product that sells. So, even if I would love the Maverick pack to be removed, I don't think we should ask Plato this, because this will sink our possibilities to get a real change.
Somehow, anyway, we need to achieve the result of obtaining a spot for the new players to play without being overwhelmed from supertanks. If Maverick Pack won't be removed, the only way to change the things is to create some rounds in which fighting is worthless for supertanks. Once you have 200k+ strength, going to fight like you had 40k only would make your account rank 1/5 then in ordinary battles. This would also mean a lot less help towards your next true patriot medal. Why lose rank and money if I can try my BH in an ordinary battle almost as much as I did before?
A safe spot created kicking out Infantry Kit and Maverick Pack would be amazing, but I seriously doubt that Plato would let go those two blockbusters. I guess that a way should be found to create a safe spot just "discouraging" the supertanks from monopolyzing all the rounds of a battle. This could work, or, at least, I would give it a try!
1/3 air, 1/3 normal ground and 1/3 terrain ground would be better. The big guys can hit in 1/3 and can really compete against each other and can get their TP medal. To bring it all to 1/3 would give newer players more chances.
I agree with you on Maverick and Infantry pack, however Plato could try new packs instead of these spoiling packs.
If you check my proposal, in a matter of ''points'' you'll see that all the three resulting categories of fighters will get the same importance (1/3 of the points as a total). The ordinary battles would anyway get more rounds, since a tough cut would make many buyers stop buying their packs.
If I was Plato the new pack I would introduce would be a ''community pack'' selling it for 5 euros and granting 30 evidence shouts (yellow background and stick to the top for 1 hour), 30 free endorsements, 10 referrers coming from facebook ads (Plato buys the ads, the player gets the referrer), the ability to customize the profile page for a 30 days period, massmailing capability, and other community features, like a org or a storage or a common money account to share with friends. This wouldn't definitely impact on the game mechanisms too much, but would for sure give them some earning while granting more community features.
v
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Nice analysis!
v
o7
I think the idea is good.
Although where would the battles Mayhem? If every 4 rounds there is an airbattle and every 4 rounds there is a Mayhem?
In addition both the airs and the Mayhem would give 22 points, which means that a battle would end very quickly, in two Mayhem and two airs you would get 88 points. It seems to me that it is very quick to finish a battle, it would encourage less and fewer open battles. I think a Mayhem could give 5 points as the div 4 or 10 points.
Mayhem could be the 2nd, 6th, 10th and so on. You are right about the battles ending sooner, but I think that Plato doesn't dislike this option, since they pay for traffic depending on its total amount, so less traffic is less costs for the servers. Also, Mayhem battles wouldn't be divided in divisions, since you would have the absurd that in D4 probably very few would fight there.
This game is allready dead. 🙁