Amnesty/Tale 4

Teppy: ---
Teppy: Welcome, all!
Teppy: Well, it's been quite a Tale.
Teppy: Experimented with the idea of Shards, which actually worked out well...
Teppy: Though I'd love the numbers to be higher of course...
Teppy: But the percent of newbies joining the shard has been about 45% last I checked, compared to ...
Teppy: About 24% here.
Teppy: FWIW, 45% is really high, industry-wide, 24% not so much.
Rabble: How many of them are alts? And aren't you getting the 45% number from people who've player hours on Bastet?
Brucette: I suspect that some are just joining the top one on the list.
Teppy: These figures are % of those that log in and stay 2+ hours.
Sprocket: How about making the "secondary" shard have significantly different play experience? Faster techs, different map or something like that. Could be a test bed for experiments..
Teppy: Maintaining multiple codebases is hard. It's set up so that I can write stuff like if (Tale==4 and shard="B"), but that can get nasty.
Dionysius: the splitting of the tale into two shards had a very negative impact here. too many people left as a consequence. the cost to us was high
Teppy: We did lose some to the new shard of course, and that hurt the population here.
Teppy: Right now there are 523 paying account here, and 332 on Bastet.
Kabasto: so basically you're doing 50 billion if then statements rofl
Khatzepsut: a no level restriktions for skills/techs server would be nice
Tammie: i rather enjoyed it for a while gave me a nice vacation for a while, but then i got bored and came back
blondie: we lost people before the shard....
Teppy: Before the shard, we had about 850 paying accounts, IIRC.
Justin: supports the "no levels" idea!
Kaayru: silly question, but what will bastet become when T5 starts?
Teppy: Bastet is a parallel world to this, so Bastet will continue.
Nissim: 523+332 is not far from 850
Teppy: Right. Though at the time we were losing maybe 10-15/week.
Rabble: We had 941 on Jan 20 when Bastet was announced. 850ish on Feb 20 when it went live. So we now have combined population = to the split day
Kabasto: well we shouldn't have much of a waiting for tests slowdown in T5 since sami won,tests should all already be coded
Teppy: A bit lower than that Rabble - that number counts GMs, press accounts, etc. The numbers I'm giving are paying accounts.
Rabble: At the same time, the *active* population on both shards is well under those figures. The census is the trailing indicater. People usually quit playing long before the /quit
Teppy: Right.
Teppy: Anyway, I think some aspects of the game work better with a lower population - the whole Dunbar's Number hypothesis seems right. But of course lots of the game is coded for a higher total population.
Teppy: So I've done a couple things for Tale 5 to make that work better.
Teppy: Certain things that are population dependant like Acro (Bastet is having a hard time with that Test) now scale.
Teppy: So for Acro, it gives more moves/person initially based on the population.
Kaayru: will you open more shards for T5?
Teppy: Yes.
Teppy: Research costs will scale, though that part of the code isn't in yet.
Teppy: I've lowered costs for certain difficult techs like Raeli Ovens and Gemcutting.
Pascalito: wow, the scaled research was a proposal that was voted away on the ballot...
Teppy: It's not totally straightforward, here's why:
Teppy: Certain things scale by their nature. I'm thinking of Resins for one: fewer people grabbing resin from trees means more resin/grab.
Teppy: For Raeli Pottery, the 10k of each type of resin is just too high - creates a longer bottleneck than it should.
Barek: Yeah, as much as I like less work on research, it is one of the prominent goals. As soon as most research is done, people seem to loose interest.
Pascalito: Still less due to diminishing returns over time
Teppy: Yeah, and the amount/grab is based on the square root of the time before the last grab, so that further complicates it.
blondie: just gimme a cornucopia, i won't tell ;p
Orrin: And removed the horrible silver req for casting!
Teppy: Yeah, beta is a good way to ID those types of bottlenecks.
Tammie: problem with that theory of less people gathering = more resin per gather relies on the last one grabbing it renicking it
Jaby: You don't seem to doing much marketing for T5. Were the efforts around previous Launches ineffective?
Teppy: Paid ads tend to not generate enough additional subscribers to cover the cost of the ads.
Teppy: I track the acquisition cost of subscribers to each particular ad. Usually I see stuff like $45/new subscriber.
Jaby: wrt the silver: Bottlenecks are fun, and I wish there were more. THe silver, however, was too hard.
TheMazeEcho: less people in the sahrd = less trees nicked also
Orrin: well in that thread, can I suggest modifying Advanced Metallurgy not to require all known metals? It seems odd that a tech that only requires iron, copper, tin and zinc to use needs stuff such as platinum and gold to research
blondie: what's up with us not getting emails? i've been playing since t1 and always give my email...but no newsletter, or hardly ever :(
Teppy: Oh, yes - if this happened, email me at teppy@egenesis.com and tell me! The consultant that did our email system fucked up - I've since fired him and worked with someone else to get a mail system going...
Teppy: I need to then send you a test message and see why that address didn't get it.
Teppy: I need as many examples of email not getting through the new system as possible, to debug it.
Dionysius: can you tell us what went wrong with wine flavours this tale? we never found some of the flavours, i believe
Teppy: The wine system is done in a way where not all flavors show up every Tale. The flavor map is "interesting", but that's one bad property of it.
Teppy: So often I'll have to make adjustments to the code to not require certain flavors.
Brucette: Teppy's language in a public chat has just changed the games rating!!
Shebi: Why were there some of those wines on teh notebooks then?
Teppy: Because the notebooks were code that I hadn't reviewed prior to the Tale's start.
Teppy: ATITD has about ... counting ... lines of code now.
Teppy: 340,000
Jaby: in what language?
Teppy: Babelscript, an in-house language.
Emmylou: and can you please tell us how to reproduce carrot and pepper seeds its been bugging me?
Teppy: Hmm, that's one thing that will have to wait for Bastet Amnesty.
Teppy: Was one ever reproduced? (Is there an achievement for it?)
Pascalito: We realize it is huge, but could you pay a little more attention to dev calls please? (remembering how mutagens were bugged and stopped us from continuing for about 3 months)
Orrin: there was
Vixsin: yea
Tammie: we did repro pepper seeds but couldn't figure out how
Orrin: Nesbaneded's Melon Event (remember that petition?) released the location, but we never found it. Not helped by catastrophic failure on the part of EWBC who carpeted the place
Tammie: wouldn't it be easier to just make all flavors available then?
Teppy: Well, it's not just a matter of saying they're all available. I could just assign them to different squares without regard to rarity...
Teppy: That would eliminate the hunting/mapping aspect.
Teppy: So though it's more work make changes to the code when flavors are unfindable, it makes for more interesting play.
Yerbouti: I don't suppose you have the numbers on high fumeology, gastro and (ahem) beer tasting?
Teppy: I can do that. Amnesty is a perfect time for oddball stats, and this game is full of them :)
Teppy: Gastronomy: Zowee reached 70.
Teppy: Zaniac 66
Teppy: 49 M:Lazybum
Teppy: 49 M:Myn
Teppy: 49 M:Stevehotep
Teppy: 51 M:Arame
Teppy: 52 M:dedenav
Teppy: 52 M:Delfin
Teppy: 52 M:TheMazeEcho
Teppy: 54 M:bortox
Teppy: 55 M:Fez
Teppy: 56 M:Taffer
Teppy: 57 M:akc2
Teppy: 59 F:nourbese
Teppy: 62 F:RosieRazor
Teppy: 66 M:Zaniac
Teppy: 70 F:zowee
Teppy: Those are all the ones 49+
Sheeba: please correct the hashing of names I try to sign and it says \i have or someone similiar so often and that retards my getting points
Teppy: Hashing is by definition impossible to make perfect...
Teppy: Hmm, maybe I'm only counting part of Gastronomy...
Pascalito: ummm, i have 75
Brucette: no it isn't, I have Gastro 64
Jimbly: I'd love to see some stats on Pirates... did many people take all 777? Who had the highest average doubloons/round and what was it? =)
RosieRazor: My gastronomy is 115
blondie: you missed at least one gastro :S
bcoastaldawn: my gastronomy is 77
Teppy: Yeah, one sec.
Teppy: Trying to find where in the code it writes the actual number to the screen.
Nissim: can you take this offline? I am sure there are other aspects that people would love to hear for the limited time of amnesty
Teppy: Yeah, this one is hard.
longshanks: btw, I thought amnesty included a Welcome Back period, was that not the case?
Teppy: I hadn't announced it that way, I think I did that before...
Teppy: I can open it up.
Nissim: can anytzhing be planned so that the pace of the tale is not dying in the middle ?
Teppy: I think with new Techs rather than Tests that will happen...
Teppy: Orchestra took me ages to code - I *really* should have tech-vetoed that Test.
Teppy: It turned out I had to write a low-level sound mixer for that Test.
Dionysius: what did you mean in the newsletter by "the results of the "Sway" social science experiment that ran during most of the Tale. "
Teppy: Ah, yes!
Teppy: Ok, don't know how many noticed this, but...
Teppy: When you join ATITD, about 12 hours later you (may!) get an item in the calendar that says "Thinking about joining ATITD?"
Teppy: In fact, there's a 50% chance that you get that.
Teppy: If you answer "Yes" it then asks you to enter a line of text saying what you t hink of the game, and gives a small selection of fireworks as a reward.
Teppy: The calendar item actually says something like "You, Hanid, Orrin, Kabasto, ... recently started playing ATITD"
Teppy: There's a social science experiment that this is based on, from a book titled "Sway"
Teppy: They take 2 groups of people the night before an election, and half of them are asked by phone "Are you going to vote tomorrow?"
Teppy: Most people answer "yes"
Teppy: Then after the election they call both groups to see if they actually voted. The ones asked the question vote with a statistically higher rate.
Teppy: Ok, there's another experiment...
Teppy: They say "We're polling you, your neighbor Bob Smith, your neighbor Bill Williams, ... about tomorrow's election. Are you planning to vote"
Teppy: And the results are even more dramatic.
Teppy: And Then there's a third experiment: they go door to door and have you write, rather than say, what you're going to do.
Teppy: And the results are yet more dramatic.
Teppy: So I combined those experiments:
Teppy: For those people in the ":Experiment" group, I ask if they're going to join, I try to get them to write something about why, and I share either the "Yes" (if they declined to write something) or the thing that they wrote, with other members of their 12-person group.
Teppy: The number 12 is also a Dunbar's Number result.
Teppy: When I first ran the experiment, the results were statistically significant (Chi-Square about 5.5 for the stats geeks.)
Justin: well it was a better social experiment than the T3 "plague", anyway.
Teppy: God yes.
Kaayru: did you track how long the polled players remained paid?
Teppy: No.
Teppy: Now the results are not significant, chi square about 1.0
Teppy: But both here and Bastet they've never gone negative...
Pascalito: Maybe due to alts now?
Teppy: IOW, So the experiment group has always shown marginally better conversion rates than the control group.
Teppy: Raw numbers here are 22.63% control, 24.02% experiment, sample size 2683
Pascalito: Or returning old players?
Teppy: Returning old players dilutes the results, yes.
Kaayru: what about you "who could win the lottery that would not seem like I hand-picked" message? :)
Teppy: Oh, yeah, that was a screw up...
Teppy: Ok, so help me remember the whole blueprint lottery thing, because I didn't write any notes and that was 18 months ago...
Teppy: But IIRC, we were going to give away 1 blueprint fairly.
Teppy: And then there was some controversy where some people didn't consider it "fair" for whatever reason.
Teppy: Does anyone recall what that was?
Yerbouti: wasn't it race to the chariot stop?
Asheara: you were wondering if there was someone you could give it to that wouldn't share it and make it look like he was a minion of wahm or something
Orrin: That was the one
Orrin: A race and a hidden in a tree
Orrin: One was via a 'hidden in trees', one via the crooked lottery and another some other way
Kabasto: i think "people" didn't consider it fair,because,if you build/makje/create it, someone will bitch and moan no matter how fair or well it's designed
Teppy: And so then I said we'd give away 3 instead, but (and I didn't mean to say this) that one of the 2 "extra" ones would be distributed in a way to create as much trouble as possible...
Teppy: It was Wahim who was behind it of course.
Teppy: I wanted to hand-pick Fee, because I thought that Wahim could corrupt him.
Teppy: But Fee was too high profile.
Teppy: It would look like I picked him.
Teppy: So I decided to give it to an associate of Fee's, but even that would be suspicious.
TheMazeEcho: Fee doesn't need corruption ;)
Orrin: No, it really wouldnt...
Orrin: Fez maybe :p
Yerbouti: sheesh it'd be less trouble to be less evil
Teppy: So what I did (or was planning to do, don't recall how much of this actually made it) was to pick ALEXKRAISEC, who had just quit but his month was not yet up.
Teppy: That way it would look like it was fair, and that a bug awarded it to a quit player.
Teppy: And then I'd just "trigger the auction again" and my hand-picked recipient would come up.
Orrin: It worked teppy
Orrin: You gave it to Kebi, who was an alt of Oni, who was living with Fee
Orrin: However, your plan there failed because Oni kicked fee out, and gave the BP to me
Teppy: A lot of work to cover up for a 3-character typo. :)
Tzalaa: ROFL
Orrin: It's now in a chest somewhere....
longshanks: I don't recall a race, I just remember some exceptionally low level person got the lottery one. if there was a race it was probably the 3rd blueprint given out.
Dionysius: do i dare ask if you have a preliminary result from the poll on t5 region names? as you may be aware, i really hate the ones that are present in beta
Teppy: Yeah, let's talk about that.
Teppy: I didn't realize that anyone would actually find this offensive, so I'm going to come up with different names.
Teppy: That's quite different than offensive things like swastika compounds or obscene art.
Teppy: Because those are player created, and are an intended part of the social experiment here. You have ways to deal with them, and just like real-life, it's a *HARD* problem to know how much power to give people.
Teppy: But region names are not something you can do anything about, and me just being obnoxious isn't the intent - it's not interesting.
longshanks: Would you consider bringing back some of the old tale's names? People still refer to "Karnak" etc, it might be nice to put newer players on the same page with the great great great ancestors
Dionysius: yes, it is different from that, because its about the whole "moral climate" we live and play within. tale egypt is a space in the imagination, and the region names were in danger of darkening our imagination, was my view
Dachannien: the poll was stilted, the only answer that seemed like it might cause you to use other names was the "offensive" choice
TheMazeEcho: yeah, Invidia looks almost like Red Sea Oasis from T2
Emmylou: can we please go back to names like karnak, khartoum etc, please?
Zeb: looks like my graphics card :-)
Teppy: I haven't come up with the new ones yet.
Teppy: BTW, I can't change it during Beta because several things uniquify on region names and changing them would cause (fixable) bugs. But fixing bugs that would only be around for Beta anyway isn't a good use of time.
Beah: Will we be able to buy otters and/or monkeys in T5? :)
Teppy: Yes to both, and Cats.
Jaby: Gripe: Default for Chat-above-head being "off" really hurts social intereactino, IMHO.
Teppy: Agreed, and I wasn't aware that was the default. I'll change it.
longshanks: you mentioned you would talk about behind the scenes on the mic auction?
RosieRazor: Cats!
Alexa: oooh cats :)
Tammie: although i have to say i do like the scrolling pop-ups that fade away and i don't have to click
Teppy: Mic auction...
Teppy: I had heard about Dollar Auctions, but had never seen one.
Teppy: There's a professor that's very fond of them...
Teppy: How they work is that a dollar bill is auctioned off, where the top 2 bids have to pay their bid, but only the top bid gets the dollar.
mala: what is a dollar option?
Teppy: There's now an online auction site that works on the same principle...
Teppy: Does anyone know the name?
Teppy: Each bid costs you a quarter or something, and so you can get a PS3 for $10 or such, as long as you're the last one to bid.
Pascalito: BidCactus = pay to buy bids, price goes up by 1 cent
Teppy: Ok, that's not the one I'm thinking of. Guess they have competitors.
Merendi: Swoop?
Teppy: Yeah, that's the one.
Teppy: I've always thought it would be fun to design an algorithm to beat that; I suspect it could be done.
Zildjan: btw....a comment about T5...the beta ability to use F3 and /warp command is so good that I think could offer some relief and limit players leaving the game after the start. ONe could imagine living that ability on but placing a limit like stats go red at using the warp more than 3 times in a hour or 10 times in a 24h RL day
Teppy: If that's the case, I'd rather just make the Navigation skill have more levels, or more travel time, or buyable travel time, or whatever. We have a bunch of very good travel mechanisms that may simply need to be used more.
Orrin: Even a power player rarely spends >12 hours actually playing, giving them 12 hrs TT/day. Do they REALLY need that much more?
longshanks: have you decided which Research Directions you will use for T5? Will you tell us any of those or will they be a surprise? And how quickly do you think we will see them?
Teppy: There's a Research Direction Results menu now on voting booths that orders them by #yes-#no
Teppy: So my thought on the top 7 or so...
Teppy: Foraging Memory is great. I may do it by 7 correct in-a-row, but I like that.
Teppy: Portable Foodstuffs - I'll do that one.I may make the food have a somewhat diminished effect from fresh, or have some expense associated with packing up food, but I'll do it.
Teppy: Advanced Silkworm Farming, also a good idea - I like how it's not just a "free pony" reset, and I like competition for the ant leaves.
Orrin: A metal foil wrapper is a good expense, which I think was suggested
Teppy: Aquaculture is a good mid-game skill.
Teppy: Same with Herbiculture, though maybe mid-to-late game? Thoughts?
Orrin: Useless IMO. Herb seeds are worth WAY more than herbs
Tammie: i think the herbiculture should be available once we research the first tech
Orrin: If you talk to the people that did the mutagens work, we were constantly begging/borrowing and buying herb seeds
Teppy: Let me reread that one - I'm doing these from memory.
Teppy: Ok, so this isn't multiplying the seeds...
Teppy: It's just helping direct where Aqueducts go.
Teppy: Yeah, I guess no need to delay that much beyond Aqueducts themselves.
Orrin: Your seeds are much better spent helping those that are making festival roses and better vines/flax/wheat
TheMazeEcho: Orrin, for common seeds, I agree, but for rare herb seeds, i prefer to grow them for cooking.
Stevehotep: I agree,and whoever wrote the Advanced Silkworm Farming needs a pat on the back! ;-)
Teppy: The veggie genetics one is one of the few I may change a lot if implemented, or tech-veto. Here's the thing...
Teppy: There's not a lot that I can do with veggies: They can be tolerant to different kinds of pollution, and they could vary their yield.
Teppy: I could do away with the notion of "Seed Secrets" and just let veggies give more seeds the way flax does. (So seeds would not be rare.)
Orrin: Nope, useless... seeds aren't the barrier, yield, if there is any barrier, is
Teppy: Early in the Tale seeds are sought after.
Teppy: But there's another problem: I would have to code those and balance those in the next 6 days.
Teppy: Because seeds are unlocked on day 1.
Teppy: (Or day 2)
Pluribus: Redoing all of veggies is a killer. and is a tech needed day one of a telling. That is what prevented the veggie rewrite from making T4...
Orrin: As regards to doing it in the next 6 days, if you were to code yield-variations, you wouldnt need to. It would be all too easy to RP that unlock
Teppy: Yeah, but the seeds that peopel *do* get on day 1 have to have a genome. Even if you can't see it.
Pascalito: [I am willing to help testing/balancing/giving ideas if that would help; and agree on non-disclosure]
Teppy: I just have so much stuff to test and code in the next 6 days that I can't add another major iem to it, and one that could cause massive frustration when the population is highest, if I get it wrong.
Teppy: *item
Teppy: For instance, fishing still isn't well balanced.
Orrin: Keep standard seeds at tale start. Create an entirely new object for the new ones. WHen the new are ready, then a 'plague' enteres egypt, making the old seeds yield 1/2, 1/4 then 0. 'Research' is done to find new strains, and a side effect is that they can be poopulated.
Teppy: Yeah, that's a possibility.
TheMazeEcho: veggie yield is why we have bonus towers on aqueduct, doing genetics on veggies is not worth it.
Teppy: Right. And Humble Priests, and pyramids, and probably a dozen other things all tie into veggies now that I think about it.
Teppy: Ok, I think I've decided - that one is a tech veto.
Teppy: Flower fertilization is good.
Orrin: And I honestly agree with TME, I think that we'd do better elsewhere
TheMazeEcho: genetic-inclined people are working overtime of flowers, flax already
Teppy: Molecular Balance is a really cool idea. I like that one a lot.
Teppy: Resurrection of Color - we can't easily do that for compounds, but can for chests, and fences (which are new to T5.)
Coors: I still want a rare mutant black sheep for everyone to fight over
Teppy: We actually redid the sheep graphics in a way that that could happen :)
Fluclo: I like the thought of New Chariot Stops, allow the population to decide where to build a new chariot
Teppy: I do too. Certainly not at release, but that would be a cool thing to code during the Tale.
Teppy: Would have to be expensive and with some "interesting" restrictions of course :)
Khaemwaset: I agree with Fluclo.
Orrin: I detest it. We have Navigation already
Beah: Will there be possible to build out door chests like in T3?
Teppy: Not coded currently. Maybe.
Teppy: Ok, Tests - I may code some just because I like coming up with new ones. So no promises, but if you could eliminate one Test, which would you personanly like to be replaced with something that I think up?
TheMazeEcho: Retarded Pirates
Teppy: I already punted that one.
Dionysius: retired pirates
Nissim: acro
Orrin: Pirates or Plantation
Telanoc: Banquet
Tamutnefret: Demipharaoh
Zeb: Octecs ghost !
Teppy: I agree with OG
Alexa: vetoes plantation
Beah: Pirates
Orrin: banquest is an easy pass, plantation is a bloody chore, turns a game to work
Brucette: DP
Jeni: anything but formal garden
blondie: kingmaker or people want rc changed
Teppy: Kingmaker is already out, DP is back.
Khatzepsut: prophet
Vixsin: i thirded plantation
blondie: dp is not a test, but kingmaker is
Lill: plantation
Pascalito: Was it inteended to have requirements for opening Xenobotany (roses) that were simply impossible at some Universities?
Teppy: No
blondie: chains is ebiiiil
Teppy: Stressful, huh?
Yerbouti: NOT BANQUET sheesh one fun test please
Kabasto: rememberance,people entering mid tale likely won't be able to complete that one
Orrin: They're not 'impossible'.... you could do them, but it'd need a ton more mutas
Khaemwaset: rethink the harmony tests
Hanid: tests that involve groups working together
Orrin: We're only lacking 2 hitpoints to do them actually ;)
blondie: banquet is cool for a lot of people
Teppy: I like Banquet a lot. The "Test" itself is trivial, but all the stuff leading up to it is really the Test.
Fluclo: For me, Pathmaker, since trading is very poor on ATITD and I can't cut gems (or mine huge diamonds)
Pascalito: Orrin, at the point when required, we had no way of having 64+ genes in a lily!
Yerbouti: plantation is just as bad as tupperware parties though
Zeb: and orchestra needs some changings
Teppy: If Orchestra returns, it will be greatly simplified. No more tuning instruments, goofball score system, schedule stuff.
blondie: hexa looks awful
Teppy: Really? I love the look of that one.
Tzalaa: and plantation is impossible
Orrin: I like. orchestra is a *real* art test, keep it, but loose the complicated gubbins that's not needed
Nissim: hexa is nice
TheMazeEcho: hexa is great :)
blondie: sorry, i;m just not a thought test person
Teppy: That's why there's 7 :)
Tammie: and i agree with what Khaen said harmony shouldn't be so individual imo the discipline itself implys people working together not competing
blondie: plantation is not so bad but it is a pain
Brucette: hexa's are extremely hard to see the graphics
Orrin: Plantation is a job
Teppy: Bureaucrat is a job.
Teppy: Who does like either of those Tests?
Teppy: (I think they're both great Tests, though from a "design beauty" POV, not necessarily from a "fun to play" POV.)
Orrin: *listens to the wind*
Brucette: Tests are not all supposed to be easy
Orrin: Oh from an idea PoV, they're good, form a play PoV, they suck, badly
Pameow: hehe I like seizing burs!! keep that one :)
Teppy: I wish there was a way to make it anonymous.
Teppy: *Then* Bureaucrat would be the best Test in the game. (Again, design POV.)
Orrin: Running all that distance to tend even 7 plantations once per day, the social pressure of *having* to be at a computer once per day.... too much
Hanid: Fountain and gardens are really fun
Teppy: I'm nuts about Fountains.
Yerbouti: plantation is no problem at all to the owner but a constant pain to their workers
Tammie: yes fountains are fav art test for many
Tzalaa: I like gardens, fountains, shrooms
Zeb: personally i like the " complex crafting" in the game ( and dislike the social interacting ;-) )
blondie: hm,, LB i'm not a big fan of, a lot of wasted passes there, even if it can be an interesting ceremony
Justin: yeah pyro is great too!
Orrin: Can we do a population-check on group activities? I'm thinking Remembrance here...
Justin: not keen on beetles tho. (i KNOW i'm gonna get shouted down on that one!)
Emmylou: i love all the body tests we have at the moment :D
Orrin: That test with low population and once the initial rush passed, it was a nightmare
Nissim: rememberance was great
Teppy: Oh, let me share with you the notes I wrote when implementing Pirates.
Teppy: BTW, I've started to think of Legacy Leadership Tests like Spinal Tap drummers.
Teppy: - When 7 are left, Captain must win 3 votes. Expected value for everyone except the captain is 129.5. Captain should offer 3 people 130 each and keep 387 for himself. This is an interesting case because of the unfairness paradox.
Teppy: - When 6 are left, Captain must win 3 votes. Expected value for everyone except the captain is 155.4. Captain should offer 3 people 156 each and keep 309 for himself. This is an interesting case because of the unfairness paradox.
Teppy: - When 5 are left, Captain must win 2 votes. Expected value for everyone except the captain is 194.2. Captain should offer 2 people 195 each and keep 393 for himself. This is an interesting case because of the unfairness paradox.
Teppy: - When 4 are left, Captain must win 2 votes. Expected value for everyone except the captain is 259. Captain should offer 2 people and himself 259 each. Everyone gains time.
Teppy: - When 3 are left, Captain always offers one of them 389 and the other 0. (Expected return is 389 vs 388.5 if they reject)
Teppy: - When 2 are left, the non-captain should always vote to reject the offer. (Expected return: 777)
Orrin: No-one gains time ever, because you miss the next round
Teppy: Yeah, with slightly longer times between rounds, the above would all be correct though.
Brucette: In reality, everyone complains when they don't get their 111
Teppy: The "Unfairness Paradox" is another social science oddity...
Teppy: Put 2 people in rooms where they can't see/hear each other. Give one of them $100 and tell him to divide the money any way he'd like with the person in the other room. If that person accpts his offer then they each get the money.
Teppy: If the person rejects the offer, then the experimentor keeps the money.
Teppy: The rational thing to do, for the person who isn't in control, is to accept anything. $1 is better than nothing, right?
Teppy: In fact, many people (and I don't recall the numbers) reject offers less than $50, or reject what they consider a low offer, say $10.
Teppy: So there's this notion of "fairness" that's hardwired in people, and it's irrational for the indiv=idual. Evolutionary Psychologists have explanations.
Teppy: *individual
Teppy: Let me get the name of that book - this is one of the most fascinating books I've ever read...
Teppy: Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman
Teppy: http://www.amazon.com/Sway-Irresistible-Pull-Irrational-Behavior/dp/0385524382
Rahu: Not really a T4 question, but will the T5 beta be opened to more than just paid players and people with codes?
Teppy: I can give you a code. I don't want to do an "open" beta with cornucopias because newbies will expect that.
blondie: teppppppyyyyyy! how about stats!
Teppy: Oki, stats...
Teppy: Let me first figure out Gastronomy.
Teppy: Blondie, what's your Gastro?
Orrin: Can I do a quick plug? We're looking for what people liked/didnt like about Events this tale, and what they'd like to see more of next tale, Please send a /chat Nesbaneded with your replies.
Vixsin: Nice, how can we request codes for beta?
Teppy: GMCall
Teppy: Ok, figured out the Gastro searching bug.
Teppy: 80 F:Amdara
Teppy: 81 M:Lazybum
Teppy: 82 M:Simon
Teppy: 84 M:MAMTeles
Teppy: 85 M:Delfin
Teppy: 86 M:Stevehotep
Teppy: 87 M:bortox
Teppy: 88 M:Arame
Teppy: 88 M:TheMazeEcho
Teppy: 88 M:Traak
Teppy: 89 M:Myn
Teppy: 90 M:Taffer
Teppy: 91 F:Dreamau
Teppy: 97 M:Fez
Teppy: 100 M:akc2
Teppy: 115 F:RosieRazor
Teppy: 117 F:zowee
Teppy: 119 F:nourbese
Teppy: 133 M:Zaniac
Teppy: Look correct now?
Teppy: Ok, most Tests passed, where the initiations are considered Tests.
Teppy: So 56 is the theoretical max:
Teppy: TestsPassed: 54 (M:TheMazeEcho)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 52 (F:RosieRazor)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 47 (M:Sabuli)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 46 (M:BlueGrass)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 46 (F:Halana)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 45 (M:Casino)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 45 (F:lilinou)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 44 (F:Ninfa)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 42 (M:Robare)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 42 (F:ruby)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 41 (M:Aghor)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 39 (M:Wampak)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 39 (M:Keko)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 39 (M:Reyzer)
Teppy: TestsPassed: 39 (M:Stevehotep)
Teppy: Interesting fact - average hours/Test passed, just by eyeballing the data, is about 80.
Teppy: Sabuli is 42.
Brucette: Interesting since Sabuli only been playing 179 days
Teppy: That's impressive.
Teppy: TME: Which Tests are you missing?
Tammie: more interesting yet is that gm's make up the top 2 test passers lol
Teppy: GMs can play Tests, but that's why GMs are not allowed to lead Monuments, run for DP, etc.
Brucette: Sabuli is impressive :)
blondie: that's impressive!
TheMazeEcho: Geb for Humble Priest, and Riddle of the Sphinx
BooBoo: do you have a stat on how many times i asked
Teppy: See, Sami was just waiting to become Pharaoh before he married you :)
BooBoo: omg omg
Khaemwaset: Teppy last telling I believe you allowed nominations for GM. Wh yhave you not done that this time?
Orrin: BooBoo, any last words to Phile? xD
Kabasto: Teppy! you married her instead of me! *runs off crying* rofl
BooBoo: big bachelorette party at the yaya guild....
Teppy: Any other stats we should do?
longshanks: Test of Marriage should include a debaucherous bachelor/ette party requirement.
BooBoo: no words for phile... i got my man
Teppy: Does anyone "know of" all discovered achievements?
Orrin: Can I repeat the request for feedback? I've got *nothing* of any use...
Teppy: How many achievements were discovered altogether?
Orrin: What events did you like best? Did you like the RP-ing events? What prizes were best? What motivated you to take part?
Kabasto: the events feedback orrin?
Kabasto: i think 109 teppy
Zatarg: 112 known in all of egypt
Teppy: Has anyone heard of all 112?
RosieRazor: (Note: I have only been a GM for like 3 months, btw)
TheMazeEcho: 112 know in Egypt, though most players only know 109 of them.
Teppy: Zatarg - you're the expert there - care to figure out what the 3 mystery ones are?
BooBoo: i think the rp events were very good, but more advanced notice to everyone to participate would be better
Teppy: I still think that RP events are the system that we've barely sratched the surface of.
Teppy: For instance, the system tracks which *player* did the best roleplaying...
Zatarg: I'll see what i can do
Tammie: i don't think the second part of my post got posted, i didn't mean it was a bad thing in fact i said after that gotta love our gm's dedication
Khaemwaset: More input from the devs and gms regardign rp events. And the great potential for teh Story did not materialise IMHO
Teppy: When someone roleplays a character, and then after the event you rate how good a job that character did at roleplaying, behind the scenes it scores the *player*, not the character.
Teppy: (We "link" roleplay characters to players.)
Teppy: So let me see who got the best RP score, one sec.
Teppy: Ok, so Sami has the lowest score. I've fired him for Tale 5.
Vixsin: lol
Teppy: Best Roleplayed:
Teppy: 496 Erol
Teppy: 486 Phile
Teppy: 456 doubletrouble
Teppy: 440 Apellis
Teppy: 424 Chloe
Teppy: 417 Het-Iah
Teppy: 410 Koray
Teppy: So those are the scores for the characters that everyone liked best.
Tzalaa: how are they scored?
Teppy: 400 is by definition average.
Teppy: So those are all the above-average characters.
Teppy: Ok, and best roleplayers:
Teppy: Best Roleplayers:
Teppy: 458 Telanoc
Teppy: 456 murtha
Teppy: 447 Orrin
Teppy: 440 Ptahiah
Teppy: 424 Cali
Teppy: 417 Seba
Teppy: 399 kokabeel
Teppy: 393 zisoni
Teppy: 372 BooBoo
Teppy: 349 Zeus
Teppy: 345 SueVN
Teppy: 335 Lazybum
Teppy: 300 Pharaoh
Teppy: That's the whole list of roleplayers.
Teppy: (Where "Pharaoh" is of course Sami)
Telanoc: w00t!
Tzalaa: I was looking forward to more Story, am sorry it didn't work out.
Orrin: Hmmm that speaks volumes :)
BooBoo: OOC: BooBoo ummm rp Sami's love interest was a long running roleplay...lol
runningblind: GM's seem to be addicts anyway so no suprise they pass the most
Kabasto: so does that mean you're firing yourself? or are you going with firing one of many multiple personalities? O.o
Teppy: No, just firing Sami. Teppy keeps his job :P
Kaayru: I read the following on a MMORPG.com news article posted July 16 : "The new player experience has been reworked for ATitD V and the mentoring system, not seen since version one, will be making a comeback." - will we come back to T1 mentoring system?
Teppy: Yes, and with a cool little addition.
Teppy: After a player makes citizen, (and pays for at least a month) they can build a shrine to their mentor.
Teppy: A mentor then consecrates (clicks on) the shrine, and once he's consecrated 7, passes the Test of Mentorship - nice & simple.
Tammie: actually that sounds just like the t2 montoring system!
Teppy: Was t2 shinres also?
Kaayru: what's the addition? :)
Teppy: The shrines have a little glowy lightbox effect that lights whenever the student is online.
Teppy: So if you have all your shrines lined up, you can see at a glance which students are online.
Kabasto: *points to the friends list*
Teppy: Right, but it looks cool.
Teppy: Fumeology stats...
blondie: you know it's bugged, right? cause i was built a shrine by someone and it says "blondie built a shrine for you"
Teppy: Yeah, message is reversed, I'll fix that.
Kabasto: lol i know, just givin ya a rough time, seems to be the thing to do around thes parts :p
RosieRazor: *grabs a roll of duct tape and walks over to Kabasto*
Hanid: will there be any changes in shrooms, incense, silfarming or odd weed existance in T5? pick any ones you want to answer ;-)
Teppy: Silkworms - I like the new tech idea.
Teppy: Shrooms about the same.
Teppy: Incense a couple small changes, including length of time.
Tzalaa: Teppy are there any changes to make the game more accessible for those of us who cannot see very well? Like my hubby?
Teppy: Colorblind mode in mining, though we have a simple version of that in T4.
Teppy: (Mining system is totally new, for those that hadn't heard. Much fun now!)
Teppy: Text sizes haven't changed. Chats can be made big, but I assume you've found that option.
Pascalito: Will the coloblind mode be available to all players?
Teppy: No, but you can request it.
Teppy: (If you're actually colorblind IRL.)
Stevehotep: Yes, the new mining system rocks
Zeb: are there plans to enhance the crafting system? I still have tons of paper pulp in stock......
Orrin: Ok, so far the feedback I've had is 'We want more storyline', is that a general feeling?
Tzalaa: what about other issues - fonts etc?
Teppy: Some font things are hard to change because certain dialogs don't have scrollbars, and making the text bigger would cause the ends of messages to not be displayed.
Khaemwaset: More of a Storyline that is cared for and supported by the Devs and GM's.
RosieRazor: How about Conflict Games... would you like to see these events more often?
Lousku: Options - Chat - Font size - Huge
Yerbouti: yes low vision map
Yerbouti: FONTS
Yerbouti: Map arrow and fonts
Tzalaa: That doesnt work on chests Lousku
Tzalaa: fonts for chests, fonts on Unis etc
Teppy: Ok, so you mean menus?
Stevehotep: Some people have said they can't read the uni/school names on the new map too well....maybe a simpler font on thos would be good
Teppy: I'll experiment with that - might be post-release.
Tzalaa: in SL we can change the scale of the GUI
Tzalaa: to show 125% etc
Khaemwaset: The chat line where we type... expandable plse. Especially useful for those of us who write fluent typonese and want to change long messages LOL
BlueGrass: Andd some of the names overlap echother
Kabasto: tep, is there a way to release a few beta keys to some people I have interested in joining atitd (i'll make sure to explain the warping and cornu's are for testing purposes only and will not be in the final game)
Teppy: Yeah, contact a GM.
Teppy: UI changes take a very long time to code, in general. So if you can identify the top couple things I can give those higher priority, though I definitely won't have time to get into UI changed before elease.
Teppy: *release
Teppy: Fumeology: 273 M:TheMazeEcho
Teppy: Fumeology: 267 M:MazeJr
Teppy: Fumeology: 265 F:TanisTheSlaveGirl
Teppy: Fumeology: 259 M:Numaris
Teppy: Fumeology: 254 M:bloomdido
Teppy: Fumeology: 253 M:BlueGrass
Teppy: Fumeology: 251 M:Razrdi
Teppy: Fumeology: 250 F:Panyea
Justin: minor map complaint on beta - very hard to find unis in amidst all the schools - need differentiation on the map symbol or text colour or something
Tzalaa: I'll talk it through with him and chat you later, it's okay if it is after it starts, if we know it WILL get better. Thank you. <bows>
Kabasto: actually different color for CS's,schoos, and uni's sounds like a good idea to me too
Teppy: Ok, I think I'm going to wrap up for now...
blondie: no focus stats :(
Teppy: Ok, focus stats :)
Teppy: Focus 28: F:blondie
Teppy: Focus 27: M:TheMazeEcho
Teppy: Focus 24: M:Numaris
Teppy: Focus 23: F:RosieRazor
Teppy: Focus 21: F:Halana
Teppy: Focus 20: M:Casino
Teppy: Focus 18: M:Sterling
Teppy: Focus 18: F:lilinou
Teppy: Focus 15: M:Reyzer
McArine: Beer stats?
Teppy: Ok, Beer stats :)
Teppy: (And then we have to do wine stats!)
Teppy: Beer Tasting:
Teppy: 187 M:Yerbouti
Teppy: 137 M:Shiva
Teppy: 133 M:TheMazeEcho
Teppy: 132 F:hilly
Teppy: 122 F:Binny
Teppy: 115 F:murtha
Teppy: 113 M:Toldy
Teppy: 100 M:McArine
Teppy: 100 M:Keko
Teppy: 100 F:Sesnut
Pameow: Would like to congratulate you Teppy, t4 was very enjoyable, and say in the amnesty hello from AliceBlue played by myself, and MidnightBlue played by Tamutnefret. We are looking forward to seeing everyone in tale five.
Jaylenaeybarre: and the last 3 achievements are? or di I miss that message?
RosieRazor: Speed stats! hehe
Teppy: Ok, Speed Stats.
Teppy: Speed 14 M:TheMazeEcho
Teppy: Speed 14 M:OZtwo
Teppy: Speed 14 F:hilly
Teppy: Speed 13 M:Wampak
Teppy: Speed 13 M:testios
Teppy: Speed 13 M:Robare
Teppy: Speed 13 M:Nissim
Teppy: Speed 13 M:hill
Teppy: Speed 13 M:Casino
Teppy: Speed 13 M:Aghor
Teppy: Speed 13 F:RosieRazor
Teppy: Speed 13 F:nourbese
Teppy: Speed 13 F:Ninfa
Teppy: Speed 13 F:Nikara
Teppy: Speed 13 F:mala
Teppy: Speed 13 F:lilinou
Teppy: Speed 13 F:Kaiya
Teppy: Speed 13 F:Halana
jazkar: Pulse of people scores? =)
Teppy: Which score?
Teppy: (Something different from the System channel ones?)
Teppy: TME: You were close to Speed 15, right?
Khaemwaset: The stat score teppy below fumeo etc
Teppy: Pulse of the People:
Teppy: 452 F:RosieRazor
Teppy: 395 M:jazkar
Teppy: 364 M:TheMazeEcho
Teppy: 331 M:Sabuli
Teppy: 326 F:Jaylenaeybarre
Teppy: 280 M:BlueGrass
Teppy: 280 F:Coiran
Teppy: 253 F:Antilia
Teppy: 250 M:Wrongskian
Teppy: 250 M:Damascas
Teppy: 236 M:rojoan
Teppy: 230 F:fahli
Teppy: 217 M:Razrdi
Teppy: 214 F:Halima
Teppy: 210 F:blondie
Teppy: 203 M:Casino
TheMazeEcho: I'm at 14+57 speed
blondie: who built the largest obie? was it our 1k in adn, desert obie?
TheMazeEcho: not sure if 15 is at 64 or 128 advances
Teppy: server 1: Obelisk size 500 M:Stevehotep
Teppy: server 1: Obelisk size 1000 F:Halima
Teppy: Those are the two biggest.
Kabasto: hey tep, you kind of ignored this earlier, but is there a way to manually edit a .ini file to render more items on screen? (for those of us with gaming rigs that can handle the increased strain)
Teppy: No, sorry; there's 5 or so levels hard-coded into the client.
Teppy: Ok, I'm gonna go grab lunch, and then head over to the T5 beta.
Khaemwaset: And my post fro mearlier regarding player meets. I am unable to make the Pittsburgh one and more time would have been appreciated. When are you next coming to the UK/Europe?
Teppy: If you can get a good sized group together I may be able to come.
Kabasto: we shall follow, oh teppy-san
Zeb: last question: is the white sawfly implemented in beta ?
Teppy: Yes, Zeb
RosieRazor: Thanks for this, Teppy. :)
Lill: thanks Teppy
Khaemwaset: i am sure something can be arranged! :D
blondie: what about all those stats under achievements?
Teppy: Z - you around? That's your baby!
mala: yes thank you teppy
Kabasto: been following the game since I was like 16 tep, thanks again
Khaemwaset: Thanks Teppy. Anyone interested in a meet chat me!
Teppy: ---
Zatarg: Ok i have the Achievements data
Zatarg: There is a tie for number one on the "Least done" list...
Zatarg: Harvested 77777 Papyrus
Zatarg: Caught a Tiger Fish
Zatarg: and Caught a 15+ Deben Tiger Fish
Zatarg: All have only one person who has Achieved them :P
Hanid: wow
Zatarg: er
Zatarg: They have 1 person who has "Done" them and no other people who "Know" of it
Zatarg: Leeks, Grew 77777, Eggplant, Grew 7777, Flax Grew 777777 and Beat Sami in Sevenblade all also only have one achiever
BlueGrass: did they qquit after achiving them
Zatarg: I don't have the data of who achieved what... I could get it but it'll take me a while
Zatarg: And believe it or not, the Most achieved achievement is: Flax, Grew 77
Zatarg: With 5413 players having achieved it.
BlueGrass: I grew 7848 eggplant, 77999 leeks
Hanid: yes that is a shocker LOL
Zatarg: Any specific achievements you'd like to know about?
Pascalito: About the unsorted list of hybrids in inventory and chests: could you run the internal name that creates the bogus sequence through the routine used for renaming hybrids at UWorship? Cause those renamed ones ARE sorted. Would be a tremendous help.
Zatarg: I'll look into it
Tamutnefret: Perfect crystallization of octec's alloy? :)
Zatarg: 18 people did it, 1784 *other* people know about it
BlueGrass: did anyone achive more than 95?
Zatarg: More than 95 achievements? I don't have the "who did what" data right now
Zatarg: I'll try get it before the week is out though ;)
Zatarg: I can post the results on the wiki or something?
BlueGrass: cool thanks Zatarg
Zatarg: ---