Issues with the War Improvements Package

[Indirik]

Some oddities or comments on the War Improvements Package: (The WImP? :P)


The following daily status was given for Sandalak city:

* "The peasants' morale is increasing by 0"
This should say "...is unchanged." I believe this also applies to pretty much every stat, as on BT I got a message about production increasing by 0.

* "The region's production is decreasing by 5"
The region production was, and still is, 100%. The statement is therefore wrong.

* "The independence in the region is decreasing by 1"
This text is provided in red, indicating that it's a bad thing. It seems to me like this is really a good thing, and should be green. The color scales on this one should be reversed.

* "The peasants' loyalty is decreasing by 2"
Again, this is not true, as loyalty is still 100%.

I suppose it's possible that these reports of things changing are all meant to be added together, and the net result reported. However, that's not the way the data is presented. If we tell people that "Loyalty decreases by 2", then loyalty had damn well better decrease by 2, or we're given them bad information.

[Anaris]

Some oddities or comments on the War Improvements Package: (The WImP? :P)


The following daily status was given for Sandalak city:

* "The peasants' morale is increasing by 0"
This should say "...is unchanged." I believe this also applies to pretty much every stat, as on BT I got a message about production increasing by 0.

Yeah, I think it's currently just got "increasing" and "decreasing." I need to add "unchanged" (or just leave it out, not sure).

* "The region's production is decreasing by 5"
The region production was, and still is, 100%. The statement is therefore wrong.
[...]
* "The peasants' loyalty is decreasing by 2"
Again, this is not true, as loyalty is still 100%.

I got a similar report about the previous turn. I'll definitely need to look into this, 'cause it's supposed to be adjusting things exactly the way it says at this point.

* "The independence in the region is decreasing by 1"
This text is provided in red, indicating that it's a bad thing. It seems to me like this is really a good thing, and should be green. The color scales on this one should be reversed.

Whoops! That's true. I probably just absent-mindedly made all the increases good and decreases bad.

I suppose it's possible that these reports of things changing are all meant to be added together, and the net result reported. However, that's not the way the data is presented. If we tell people that "Loyalty decreases by 2", then loyalty had damn well better decrease by 2, or we're given them bad information.

Yeah, it's definitely supposed to be that way. I will figure out what's preventing the changes.

[Anaris]

Well, whaddaya know. I go and calculate all those changes, and never actually apply them to the region stats...

This should be fixed come next turn change.

[Indirik]

Neither of my characters on testing islands received a region status report today.

[Indirik]

In the past three days, I have gotten the following region status reports:

Two days ago:
The region's production is decreasing by 4
In summary, production has dropped a little. It is now thriving.

Yesterday:
The region's production is decreasing by 5
In summary, production has dropped a little. It is now thriving.

Today:
The region's production is decreasing by 1
In summary, production remains unchanged. It is now thriving.

In that last report, the detail says production dropped, but the summary says nothing changed. I am fairly certain that it did change. Production is now 90%. That works out to the 100% it was three days ago, minus the 10% in changes listed.

Also, there is often no explanation as to why things are changing. I have a 10% drop in three days, but nothing that says "This is bad, so production is dropping." A bit more information as to what exactly is moving the soft cap around would be good. It feels odd to have perfect morale and loyalty, yet production is quickly dropping. The high taxes notice shouldn't have that kind of effect.

[Anaris]

In the past three days, I have gotten the following region status reports:

I presume these are not the entirety of the region status reports?

In that last report, the detail says production dropped, but the summary says nothing changed. I am fairly certain that it did change. Production is now 90%. That works out to the 100% it was three days ago, minus the 10% in changes listed.

Good, then that part is working properly now. :)

Also, there is often no explanation as to why things are changing. I have a 10% drop in three days, but nothing that says "This is bad, so production is dropping." A bit more information as to what exactly is moving the soft cap around would be good. It feels odd to have perfect morale and loyalty, yet production is quickly dropping. The high taxes notice shouldn't have that kind of effect.

Well, all stats should now have a "normal" level at something below 100% (85%, generally). They should now require some kind of positive motivation for going above that, and being in the high 90s should be considered "exceptional" rather than "normal".

At some point in the not-too-distant future, I will be adding more buffs—reasons for the stats to go higher than 85%.

[vonGenf]

Well, all stats should now have a "normal" level at something below 100% (85%, generally).

This should probably be explicitly announced. This is a different behaviour than in the past and the current announcement makes it seems as though only ways to keep the stats high have been added.

Generally speaking I think this is a good chance though.

[Anaris]

This should probably be explicitly announced. This is a different behaviour than in the past and the current announcement makes it seems as though only ways to keep the stats high have been added.

I agree, and I will make such an announcement. I think I also want to add in a clear message in the region report when there's nothing particular going on, but it's dropping because it's above this "normal" level.

[Deytheur]

Indeed. Lowering my production by 16% does not feel like a buff  as advertised  :-\

[Velax]

So this will result in less gold, in general, because it will be difficult to keep maximum production in all, or even most regions?

[Psyche]

That's how it seems, which is kind of disappointing.  It would be an awesome system if the regions had proportionately better economies to strive for.  This, however, just seems like it's going to push some into doing extra busy work to squeeze the last few coins out of their region or get penalized. 

I guess to sum it up, there's not a single attractive idea to this change; no incentives shown to improve the game.

[Zakilevo]

It seems I am no longer able to run a city by myself :o

[Anaris]

I guess to sum it up, there's not a single attractive idea to this change; no incentives shown to improve the game.

What the hell are you even still doing here? You're a serial multi-cheater, and not welcome in this game anymore.

[Anaris]

So this will result in less gold, in general, because it will be difficult to keep maximum production in all, or even most regions?

Probably a little bit. But then, that has been one of the common recent criticisms of our actions, that there's too much gold around.

Furthermore, while they're not finalized yet, I do have plans for several interesting ways to improve stats, mainly dependent on the Duke and Lord of a region.

Regardless of what effect it might have on gold, I should think no longer needing to dedicate so many (or, potentially, any) people to region maintenance, and knowing that regions will recover with vastly less effort after takeovers, would be worth a fair amount.

[Ketchum]

Probably a little bit. But then, that has been one of the common recent criticisms of our actions, that there's too much gold around.

About too much gold around, let me see. On Colonies island, my realm has too much gold and too little food. On East Island, my realm has too much food and too little gold. Effects from war or too much peace maybe... Sometimes it is hard for developer to balance all of these, I understand it myself, due to I am involved in development a bit in my work line.

If you balance the Production in this package, then gold and food which come hand in hand, will be affected together and balanced out according to the formulas set. How about population wise? Do we have ways to improve the population migration to our realm regions? I find it stealing population from neighboring lands a bit slow, some lands even had less than 800 peasants. Hope I not asking too much, thank you first :)