Vacationed Accounts -- Land Leak

[windhound]

Its funny Sevz.
I sent each of those players nicely worded PMs explaining what I was doing and why. 

Hey you three.
I'm getting ready to introduce a new 'feature' that will mostly affect your accounts.
Between the three of you just about a million acres has been taken out of the game in about three weeks, well done I must say.  Previously at-will vacationing, even with a decent bit of land, wasn't a huge deal in reg, but you three have made it one. 

Vacation is intended as a means to protect your empire while you are physically away from a computer.  Apparently that's not how its being used in your cases.

I'm instituting a land leak that will take a small percent of your land (.1%) each turn cycle, which will get dropped to the land farm.  This will occur until your land reaches the average of the top 10 or you leave vacation.  Last I looked the average in the top ten was 60k, so that's a pretty big drop for you three.

I think I'll put it in place Wednesday evening, so you have two-ish days to break vacation if you'd like to keep your land.

Any questions just ask
Cheers
~windhound

None of them have yet responded, and Pippin was online earlier.
Sevz, you're the only one with something negative to say about it.  Snare said it wasn't necessary, but that doesn't explain why its a bad idea (other than it adds a ton of land back into the game, which will make it trivial to break him...  I get it). 

So Sevz, please state plainly why land leak is a bad idea as I've implemented it.
Those players did not "earn" that land.  They did not scout every acre.  They rounded it up and took it out with them.
None of the rest of their horde is being touched, just the land that they stole from the rest of the game.  Should they like to resume play they're more than welcome to login and start from 60k or so...  honestly it'll probably level off around 80k, the average top ten land goal is recalculated each turn cycle, so as more land is added back into the game the average will go up and they'll lose less.

Again, if those three don't feel like playing anymore that's fine.
We'd love to have them back ofcourse, but no harm no foul if they never plan to login again eh?

If Pippin, Ryu, or Shoot would like to post their thoughts I'd be more than willing to discuss it.
Sevz, you're not offering anything other than "oh god you're making changes I don't like stoppit naow."

[Sevz]

I dropped land because I needed ratio and I stole a single run's worth of cash... The farm should have been clanned, and I will code it to do so automatically after exams so that it stops being forgotten in the reset. These issues are simple to deal with if people would just talk about them instead of making life as difficult as possible for everyone involved.

The one time Shoot made balance suggestions I agreed with most of them, and I will be coding some of them when I have time. The one time he mentioned a bug to me, it was resolved within the week. I have no idea where he gets this idea of me as difficult to work with (actually I know exactly where, heh),  but if he actually talked about it instead of being as melodramatic and passive aggressive as possible, everything would be worked out in short order.

I'll even happily aid him back the cash I stole if he asks for it, it wasn't even a lot...

I can read between the lines here, people must treat you better than you treat them or you will ignore their suggestions. It's still the only way things get done around here, brown nose the admins or leave.

Windy i'm not making any suggestions here because history shows when I suggest something you deliberately go in the opposite direction. Do what you want. Redwall has been a failure for many years and you both act like it's not your faults. Poor admins breed poor communities.

[Shadow]

What part of "I will be coding some of Shoot's suggestions when I have time to do it" are you having a hard time with? Whether he is around or not, he made some good suggestions, particularly an better method to the market tax that is currently in place which will serve the same purpose while not penalizing players as much.

I can read between the lines here, people must treat you better than you treat them make actual suggestions or you will ignore not be able to act on their nonexistent suggestions.

If Shoot has a problem with what happened, he could simply tell me about it instead of leaving in a huff. I've already said that I will deal with the issue he brought up by coding the land farm to clan automatically when it is created. I will do this whether or not he decides to come back because it's a good idea. I'm sorry that I annoyed him, but it was the result of a mistake.

There is literally no issue he has ever brought up that hasn't been dealt with or will be dealt with when coding time arises. The only exception is suicides on reg, for which there is still no viable alternative that I can see, except for moving 3.0 to reg. Again, I have no idea why he thinks I am unreasonable to work with, all my interactions with him have been quite productive.

[windhound]

Windy i'm not making any suggestions here because history shows when I suggest something you deliberately go in the opposite direction. Do what you want. Redwall has been a failure for many years and you both act like it's not your faults. Poor admins breed poor communities.

Cop out and completely untrue.

The patch is coded and tested, its going in this evening unless there's a good reason why it shouldn't.  The only reasons for the lag between coding and implementation is to give those currently on vacation a chance to come out and play fairly and to give a window for further discussion.
By your admission it's unlikely that the players most affected are going to return to play.
If you have a recommendation state it now or forgo any further whining.

Again Sevz, all I've heard from you in this thread is that the patch is bad and I'm an awful admin.
No recommendations on how to do it differently.  Also, protip: calling me a bad admin is not a good way to get me to agree with you.  Its just not.

If you think allowing players to remove over half the total land from the game is perfectly alright, well, you're entitled to your opinion.  Mine is what counts though, and I see it as extreme code abuse.
I can guarantee if Shadow had done what Pippin, Ryu, and Shoot did you'd be screeching loud enough to break glass.
Get over yourself.

[windhound]

Anyways.
The patch is active.

Code below if you're curious

Code Select Expand

    // land leakage
    //first need current average land in the top ten
    $landGoal = 0;
    $icount = 0;
    $landCheck = dbquery("SELECT rank,land,vacation,disabled FROM $playerdb WHERE vacation < '$config[vacationdelay]' AND disabled = 0 ORDER BY rank LIMIT 10;");
    while($iland = mysql_fetch_array($landCheck)){
    $landGoal += $iland[land];
    $icount += 1;
    }
    $landGoal = $landGoal / $icount;
    print "\nAvg Land in the Top 10: " . $landGoal;
    //now, just load vacation'd players
    $vacant = dbquery("SELECT num,land,vacation,homes,shops,industry,barracks,labs,farms,towers,freeland FROM $playerdb WHERE vacation > '$config[vacationdelay]';");
    while($vacanteer = mysql_fetch_array($vacant)){
    if($vacanteer[land] > $landGoal){
    print "\n , " . $vacanteer[num] . " is on vacation with too much land [". $vacanteer[land] . "]";
    $toTake = 0;
    $landMod = .001;
    $toTake += ceil($vacanteer[homes]*$landMod);
    $vacanteer[homes] -= ceil($vacanteer[homes]*$landMod);
   
    $toTake += ceil($vacanteer[shops]*$landMod);
    $vacanteer[shops] -= ceil($vacanteer[shops]*$landMod);
   
    $toTake += ceil($vacanteer[industry]*$landMod);
    $vacanteer[industry] -= ceil($vacanteer[industry]*$landMod);
   
    $toTake += ceil($vacanteer[barracks]*$landMod);
    $vacanteer[barracks] -= ceil($vacanteer[barracks]*$landMod);
   
    $toTake += ceil($vacanteer[labs]*$landMod);
    $vacanteer[labs] -= ceil($vacanteer[labs]*$landMod);
   
    $toTake += ceil($vacanteer[farms]*$landMod);
    $vacanteer[farms] -= ceil($vacanteer[farms]*$landMod);
   
    $toTake += ceil($vacanteer[towers]*$landMod);
    $vacanteer[towers] -= ceil($vacanteer[towers]*$landMod);
   
    $toTake += ceil($vacanteer[freeland]*$landMod);
    $vacanteer[freeland] -= ceil($vacanteer[freeland]*$landMod);
   
    $vacanteer[land] -= $toTake;
   
    print " Took " . $toTake . " acres";

    saveUserData($vacanteer, "land homes shops industry barracks labs farms towers freeland");
    if ($catchland)
            dbquery("UPDATE $playerdb SET freeland=$toTake+freeland, land = $toTake+land WHERE password = '------' ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1;");
   
    }
    }


Added 20k to the base land goal.

Results from the readout:
Avg Land in the Top 10: 75535.2 , 36 is on vacation with too much land [304086] Took 305 acres , 119 is on vacation with too much land [96487] Took 96 acres , 507 is on vacation with too much land [76750] Took 79 acres , 788 is on vacation with too much land [209536] Took 211 acres , 836 is on vacation with too much land [465728] Took 463 acres

Keep half an eye on the landfarm guys, for the next few days it should be rather...  plush.

[Gen. Volkov]

Good work windy.

[Sevz]

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Just because you're incompetent as an admin doesn't mean I don't like you Windy. You are respectable but I'm not going to show you any respect while you take the word of our resident gamespoiler shadow.

Understand this please. Your attitude is why I don't make solid suggestions for you to blindly dismiss. I have made solid suggestions with Shadow and he argues the point so persistently that there is no point even suggesting a great idea because if he didn't think it up it will not happen.

I have a bag of tricks, will you hear them? No. Am I willing to explain? Yes if my wisdom goes to open ears. Am I popular here? No. Do I know what i'm talking about? Yes.

That's the key. Take advice from those who know not those who want. I don't want anything I can win no matter how much you guys mess things up and i've proven that many times. Shadow wants to mould this game into something he can effortlessly dominate.

Feel free to inbox me if you wish to discuss ideas if not then remember that I don't have any intentions to discuss quality game changes in public.

[windhound]

Magnificent job dodging all my points and questions Sevz.

You are completely unable to put down your loathing of Shadow and have a productive conversation, I get that now. 
Sorry I even tried.

[Shadow]

This thread has served its purpose and is going nowhere useful. If someone wants to have a substantive balance and development discussion they can make a new thread, but I am going to hold any such posts to higher quality standards than in this thread.

Shadow
Modding