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Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
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Solutions
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These things are the minimum needed to be done, if the update is going to have the possibility to be positive for many Minigames - if they aren't done, then there's no point even pretending it's done to attempt to help them.



While the Minigaming Hub, focussing all players, from every World, in one place, may be a good idea, they should not all be playing in the one place .

It is fine, and good, to gather folks in one place to group up for Minigames, but once they are grouped, they should be able to choose (and that is very important ) where they play.

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Choosing the instance they play on - It's no use just giving them a list of -insert random thing here-, without them being able to tell the ping and population (the expected performance, therefore) of the options they're choosing between.

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Having instances arranged so that there are enough options to chose between, and so that they run at a reasonable level of performance (don't clump them on one server, don't put them on crowded servers, don't have them on one continent, don't restrict which ones each Minigame can choose from).

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Making sure that people can see whether there are folks playing each Minigame, from the Hub, regardless of what shard (or World) those people are playing on.

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Giving the option to choose your own teams and setup - even if the default is randomised teams. This will allow people to play with friends, or permanent-team members; allowing competitive play at all levels, and giving the opportunity for tornaments.
Most importantly, it will also allow veteran players to make the teams more balanced for newcomers (a fair proportion of experienced players are very concerned with giving newcomers the best possible experience of the content, so allowing them to, is important).

06-Jan-2018 04:22:10 - Last edited on 06-Jan-2018 04:42:48 by Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
•
Removing the massive incentive to AFK (which is disruptive, and even preventitive of any actual play - it causes a self-amplifying problem, with one person AFKing ruining everyone's game, causing them to AFK, too, and then you have many times more people going on to AFK in other games, disrupting it for other people, and converting them into AFKers).

This is a very important issue for Minigames, in general, regardless of whether they get grouped or not.. but grouping will cause the problems it makes to be utterly unavoidable, no matter how much effort players put in to compensate for it.

It is unfair that players are already forced to put in many times more effort to even organise a playing game, than they have to to just turn up and AFK. For some Minigames they have to essentially hide away from any labled servers, or Spotlights, in order to play legitimately - this cuts them off from newcomers, and means they find it harder to meet up or know of eachother's existance, in the first place.

What's more, when they do finally get to playing , they often get fewer rewards while actively playing, than they would do if they were AFKing - this is completely unacceptable, as it undermines the use of the content. (and this isn't even counting the rampant, AFK-able Boosting, that goes on).

The fact that they've refused to ever change many Minigames' reward-currency allocation-systems to reward playing over AFKing, is responsible for the fact that most footfall is not from people playing it - the very thing they think justifies not changing it.

(if you painted over a roadsign every day, and then said people were ignoring the sign (which they only do because they can't see it when it's painted over), so there's no reason not to paint over it, then would you find your arguments justifiable?)

06-Jan-2018 04:25:57 - Last edited on 06-Jan-2018 04:42:12 by Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Once reward is linked to participation, and performance (less emphasis on win/loss, more on 'score'), then people will at least have a chance to experience playing the content, and it will also reduce some of the other major problems, or at least make player-run solutions to them easier, or even possible.

Tension between different levels of experience will still be present, but will be reduced. The solution to problems will be more along the lines of helping newer players to learn the Minigames (and they will have a direct incentive to learn more, instead of a constant pressure to AFK and gain even more points than players, rather than play and get even less than other players), rather than to manipulate them into losing, and farming off them.

Games will be possible, they will be more fun, and there will be more incentive to have balanced teams (which benefits the most people).




Anyone wishing to AFK still, will have 2 options:


-•- Don't go to the content, and purchase any purchasable rewards from those who are actively playing.


-•- Pay some of the best players to allow you to leech off their playing - this has a benefit for all players:
- Those wishing to AFK for rewards can still do so, and gain fast rewards.
- While doing so, they are not disrupting or preventing games (or enjoyment) for anyone .
- High-end players get a reward (the gp), that is sustainable, and doesn't require extra reward development time.
- Most of the high-end players likely to take advantage of this, are the more mercenary ones, who don't tend to appreciate playing games with new people, this will keep them separate from such new people, so neither group causes problems for the other.


Is it ideal? No -but it's indescribably better than the current situation where AFKing and disrupting/preveinting play or enjoyment of the content is directly rewarded and encouraged, which means no new person coming to the content can possibly like it, nor older players enjoy it.

06-Jan-2018 04:26:09 - Last edited on 06-Jan-2018 09:16:35 by Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
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Each Minigame needs unique and useful rewards* so that people will try out all of them, and have reasons to stay playing, if they find it fun.

There should be a good mixture of tradable and non-tradable rewards (even if the only non-tradable ones are the pets and proficiency-based-achievement unlocks), so that folks who like playing can do so for a sustained period, and those who don't like playing, don't have the incentive to occupy the content (or find ways to do so which are disruptive to players).

*ones that are involved in the rest of the game - like:
- Parts that can be combined for high-end Invention Materials.
- Things that can be added to boost the stats of high-end equipment.
- Useful convenience items, or upgrades to them (we know how much you like these, by how much they get pilfered from Minigame suggestion threads - can't claim coincidence, as same wording has sometimes been used in description, including gramatical errors).
- Bonus XP.
- Extensions to things like Vis Wax cap.
- D&D tokens.
- Abilities, or slightly buffed versions of them.

- Others that are Achievement-locked, behind graded (starting low, and ending very high - as you do with Bosses). These can be as simple as recolours of existing rewards, with one colour for each tier of achievement.
- Pets and Titles never seem to go unpopular, either.

06-Jan-2018 05:04:09 - Last edited on 06-Jan-2018 05:04:34 by Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
-•- Either playing Minigames needs to give the equivalent xp for playing it actively, as basic training outside the Minigames allows, or the rewards need to be massively enticing, otherwise it is impossible for them to work out as efficient play, so people will avoid doing them, even if they love playing them.. because it harms their progress in the rest of the game (and thus everything else in the game acts against, rather than with, Minigames).

This is largely group-content, and it's well known that the advantages for playing in a group have to be substantially greater than those for playing solo, in order for people to even bother attempting it.

If you make rewards link to (degree and proficiency - even if based on team) participation, then gaining reward from Minigames in an efficient way would require every bit as much skill as high-end Bossing does, so it could safely give comparative rewards.

It has the advantage that it can be played at lower levels of proficiency, or in a more relaxed way, and still obtain many of the rewards (any that aren't locked behind the higher-end achievements), but over a much longer timeframe - so there's incentive for all types of players to play it, without it being imbalanced.



A combination of the two things is best, but the xp-rate is very important, as the time taken to get rewards needs to be long enough to encourage and allow people to explore the content properly (which takes a lot longer than most people assume before trying - and I'm not referring to anything more than a passable familiarity with the basics; it is no different to Bossing, in this regard, but even more skill-based, and less influenced by equipment).

If you make the rewards take long enough to obtain for it to be reasonable, it makes them extremely inefficient to obtain - any benefits they give to gameplay are vastly outweighed by the time gaining no xp, while Minigaming.

Therefore giving decent xp while playing, allows properly priced rewards.

06-Jan-2018 05:04:23 - Last edited on 06-Jan-2018 05:23:41 by Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
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For goodness' sake, make sure there are enough Banks (full Banks, not just Deposits), and ability to Skill in the Hub.

Don't make it so people are penalised for spending time waiting around for a game, or feel they can't have fun and hang out with other Mingamers, while there.

It should feel more like the Minigamers version of Prif, or Menaphos, than a hidden away bunker, where you're gathering all Minigamers in some effort to better eradicate them once and for all.



To this end, and given it'll have to be sufficiently big, an separate (probably on a seperate server), making sure there's G.E. access there, is also a priority - perhaps even somewhere to hand in Dailies.

The access either needs to be very central, or given to each Minigame's gathering point (each one should have a bank, at least), so as not to make it better to hang round some Minigames, than others.



-•- Having an alternative version of Daily Challenges, that are Minigame-only, would help, too..

Skilling and Combat have their's, which means not only are Minigames unfairly left out, but Minigmers often spend all their time doing the non-Minigame things, and end up with no time for Minigames.

Relieving that pressure, either by making so many daily things that everyone understands they can't do all of them, every day.. or by making it so you only get to do one of the three (Skilling/Reaper/Minigaming) on any one day (but making sure they are all equally rewarding), would be a good idea, too.




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Giving Minigames some actual profficiency-based Achievements in the Achievemetns System.

Currently Minigames are left out, here, too.. and where they do have any Ahievements, they are a complete joke, and don't reflect the quality, nor difficulty of the content.

There are numerous ways to easily obtain ideas for suitable achievements (and they could be tied in with the profficiency-unlocked rewards and recolours).

06-Jan-2018 05:17:31 - Last edited on 06-Jan-2018 05:40:25 by Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
•
Less paramount, and less linked to the success of a Hub, but still important to the health of Minigames, is the support of the content via other means, whether that be:



- Highscores that are actually indicitive of proficiency and deadication to playing the content (not just how long you've AFK'd/bug abused/boosted there).

Both permanent, and Seasonal, are possible (and easily linkable to proficiency) for most Minigames.



- Support for Player-Run Tournaments - doesn't have to be major, but mentions of them in official media, and providing a JMod who can hold prize-money that's donated by players, so that participants know it's real, and will be given out fairly, would help a great deal.

Having JMod participation in them, JMod v JMod tournaments, or JMod-run tournaments would be a step further, but have an even greater positive effect - it might also mean a few of the Dev Mods were more familiar with content they don't really seem to have a clue about.



- Having it so that if a Minigame is played in the last hour, it imparts certain boosts to spawn rates/resource respawning rates, or some such related thing. (this would be more effective without the Hub, to be honnest, as it could be one on a per-World basis, and encourage individual Worlds to value having Minigaming communities on them, even if they don't Minigame themselves.





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06-Jan-2018 05:26:42 - Last edited on 06-Jan-2018 05:47:21 by Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Original message details are unavailable.


Solution #1: Reward points based on activity/success. Not unlike The Great Orb Project's activity meter. This could mean that certain minigames reward Thaler at a faster rate than others but that is hardly a problem. How would activity be determined? By how many points you gain?

I wholeheartedly agree that activity should be determined by how many points you gain, however, I feel it imperative to point out that that is the exact opposite effect to the current Activity Meter in The Great Orb Project, which measures activity based not on score, but on certain unrelated actions, that can be done while AFKing, and will prevent others from playing, while that person is doing it.

(i.e: someone clicking an orb, then AFKing, which makes it very difficult to get the orb - or, indeed, impossible, if they repel it to some spots; it wastes much time, and imbalances a game, what's more it will result in the meter kicking the AFKer, if you take the orb they are hogging, thus you risk everyone getting kicked out due to the AFKer getting kicked. This means that people who want to play, either have to put up with extremely disrupted, often imbalanced, or impossible games, or risk getting kicked; it also means that people wanting to AFK (why are they in a Minigame, if they want to AFK?) either don't mind being kicked, because they're AFK, anyway, or they start deliberately sabbing, so they can AFK, often flaming any attempting players, as they do it.
As a result of this, and the point system not rewarding on orbs scored, most people turn up wanting to AFK, and out of those who don't , almost all get such a terrible experience that they give up, and turn to AFKing, too.. which makes it even harder for any left trying to play.)

So, in conclusion: very unlike he Great Orb Project's activity meter. I support the idea, though. : p

14-Aug-2018 22:36:00 - Last edited on 15-Aug-2018 04:14:31 by Yusou Bhoroi

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