Improvements & Fixes

[Corey[OSX]Burton]

Hey everyone!

I know this is a bit of a big read, but hear me out.

Cyber-Wars has been around for quite a long time now, I know I've been playing on-and-off for nearly a decade. In that time I've seen many new features implemented and I've also come across numerous problems (some of which have been fixed and others which are still present). I'm really interested in seeing some positive changes around here and the first step that needs to be taken is to work out what you - the players - think, want, or have noticed. This includes bug reports, disabled features, ideas you'd like to see implemented or thoughts on current features (or even suggested features by other users).

To get the ball rolling, I thought I'd share a few examples off the top of my head:

Bugs first:
1) Daily challenges are broken. They do not always pay out and previously (potentially fixed now) pay out multiple times. As far as I recall, this is tied to specific daily challenge types.
2) When you try to "go hacking" and hack with insufficient energy, no prompt is given and it appears the features is disabled.
3) Some of the documentation is missing features or details that new players have asked about (such as the Donator requirement for the Theta facility). An update to this could be useful, as well as some sort of tooltip system from the UI.
5) Disabled features (such as NPC fights) are disabled due to known bugs, but it would be nice to see a return of these broken features.
6) ...and if not, perhaps it might be worth removing the link from the city. Clicking on something to find out it's disabled feels like a bit of a waste, especially when (I can't remember if this is correct, actually) there are features missing from the city that deserve a place.

Now, improvements:
1) After getting daily challenges, it would be nice to be able to click the number and quickly see what challenge the unique challenge is counting.
2) The market average is inflated well beyond the normal means of making money in the game. The average system, listing fees and minimums all serve their appropriate purpose, and so a potential solution here might be to use the market average to multiply the in-game methods of earning money in proportion. Balance here would be difficult to achieve, but if done correctly this could solve the problem.
3) Are the current caps (eg. max servers, max scouts) sufficient? Having higher and harder-to-achieve goals could keep players interested by continually giving them more to do. The impact on newer players should probably also be considered here, however.
4) Consistent daily log-in bonuses. I don't have any vision for how I see this implemented or working, but the idea is that it would keep players logging on for rewards and increase the chance for continual activity.

That's all I've got off the top of my head, but I hope this gets the ball rolling a bit. The more discussion that takes place about existing features that might need some tweaking, things you've noticed that are broken, or idea that you'd like to see implemented, the better.

Now before I go, I'd also like to clarify something. Although I'm staff, I don't have any part in the development or maintenance of the site. My role is to assist and enforce the site rules. This means I can't personally promise that any of these suggestions will actually be implemented, but I have had a few small chats with Andi (the man who is in charge of these things) and am aware that there have been some behind-the-scenes changes going on. So while I can't guarantee that changes will be made, I can say that now is a good time to voice your opinion on these things and make way for some positive changes.

Let me know what you think about my suggestions (perhaps my ideas are terrible? ) and suggest your own here!

Edit: Fri, 17 May 2019 06:35:31

There has been some discussion about this topic in chat. As the logs will eventually vanish there, I've copied anything related to this discussion so far and put it here to keep better record:

Note: if you'd like your posts removed from this post, send me (ID: 10137) mail and I'll happily remove them.

[OSX] Meeples - 09:11:52
Everything that you've had in your post is pretty much the main things I've noticed. However, getting rid of said 'hitlist' and replacing with a "bounties" would be a way to add some fun to the game

[OSX] Meeples - 09:13:37
Someone sets a bounty on a particular player and has to hack them X amount of times for a certain time period (like a keep player dead for this long basically) and the rewards are something the person who set the bounty chooses for a fee lie the market. and maybe a few random daily bounties that are system generated.

[OSX] Meeples - 09:13:52
*like

[OSX] Meeples - 09:15:24
I thought of this when I was getting hacked by DrOz contantly to where I couldn't do anything. So, by having a said bounty, a person that can hack him could take the bounty if they deemed it worth the reward and boom. that player helps another player stay alive long enough to do something. but of course, the game needs probably a few more active players for it to work.

[OSX] Meeples - 09:17:32
Also, A better reward for hackers/netguards who win for the top 5.. What's the point of my team winning? I get an extra 10 ec's compared to the losing team? winning isn't worth much more than the losers.

[OSX] Meeples - 09:18:00
So, win away hackers and get your ten more ec's. not much of a competition.

[OSX] Meeples - 09:18:47
Why not bring it up to winners get 100... and losers get 60 or 50

[OSX] Meeples - 09:19:39
That's probably the most simple fix, as all you gotta do is change a number in a code.

Override - 10:00:16
I think a great way of getting and keeping new players is to have a functioning subreddit

I do like the idea of increase weekly rewards. It even be interesting to see it being tied closer to contribution. Perhaps 10 as a base value and then an extra EC per 50 kills, capping out at a maximum of 100. It really rewards activity and it's such a small increment that it could be enough to drive players to get "just one more reward", especially combined with the daily hacking challenges. It's also worth noting that if someone was trying to get to the maximum reward amount, it would push them to a minimum of 4500 kills. That's is close enough to 5000 to make that extra 500 kills seem really appealing to m, though it does likely affect the simplicity of the original idea.

Edit: Fri, 17 May 2019 11:49:01

[OSX] Meeples - 20:21:12
Good. I can't remember but if we comment on the post it shows our comment, I didn't want my idea to take away the main post from the intro area so all could see it as they logged in.. so updating it like that was awesome.

[OSX] Meeples - 20:27:16
Rewards definitely seem to be what people want but another question would be, is it due to the market being so high that everyone wants to sell and never buy? then also, with all the rewards, would it drive prices down? or keep it going up due to supply and demand.

[OSX] Meeples - 20:28:58
I have never seen EC's so high in this game ever. When I first started playing years ago, ec's were 30-40k and quickly rose to 600k. (I helped make it so high by buying low and selling higher, oops.)

[OSX] Meeples - 20:33:12
Also, I'm glad you like the idea of weekly reward change. and your idea was definitely something I like as well, I just didn't know how to approach it. but I feel like there isn't competition with the current simplistic state for the teams, but also the more kills people get, it is generally the more ec's wasted. So a way to replenish those heavy hackers on the team would keep them motivated to continue, of course you can't replenish all their ec's but a quarter of ec's used would probably be beneficial.

Corey[OSX]Burton - 21:34:25
The biggest thing that lead to my period of inactivity was lack purpose once I reached the point I'm currently at.

Corey[OSX]Burton - 21:35:43
Leveling takes a long time and I'm looking at 80+ levels before I can be somewhere practical again. The only interaction that takes place for me at the moment is to ensure none of my meters max out.

Corey[OSX]Burton - 21:36:39
Energy goes to hacks, capacity gets used when it's substantial, intent gets used when it's above 10. Spam ops and scouts get used when they're available and money gets deposited when it's not in the bank.

Corey[OSX]Burton - 21:37:36
And daily hacks, plus the unique challenge (if I get one that pays out).

Corey[OSX]Burton - 21:39:30
Before I had maxed scouts and servers I had to decide where to best spend my cds. Did I want one now or to wait for 10? What about the market, do I buy things there? or hardware? There was a lot of strategy involved. The same goes for IQ and Hacking Skill. Which do I level up? Which will prove to be more valuable? Do I go for a short term victory, play the long game, or go for some combination?

Corey[OSX]Burton - 21:40:57
Another factor that's lead to this situation is the market prices and I think that's because they've completely eclipsed all in-game methods of earning money. When I had 70 energy before, I had to seriously consider whether the 700,000 cds was worth it (along with the risk of being jailed) in contrast to leveling or training.

Corey[OSX]Burton - 21:41:45
Then there are the features like the NPC fights, too.

Corey[OSX]Burton - 21:44:01
I think I would be happy with more of a variety and more frequent rewards. If there was a task that could get me an energy charge that took half an hour, I'd probably take the time to do it because I'd feel like I was accomplishing something. I was really dedicated to maxing my server count when it was lower, because the additional income allowed me to buy more from the market.

Corey[OSX]Burton - 21:45:43
Now the market's pretty much useless unless I sell something first. The amount of money things are selling for isn't necessarily too high on it's own, it's just that it doesn't feel achievable in contrast to the rest of the game.

Corey[OSX]Burton - 21:46:45
There's the chance this could be affecting newer players too. Nobody wants to start a game at level 1 and think it's impossible to catch up to anyone else, or at least get a foothold. Beyond that, getting new users is easy enough, but keeping them is another story.

Corey[OSX]Burton - 21:47:33
More variety in things to do and more goal-oriented rewards might be enough to keep them around. This is a pretty easy game to get hooked into once you give it a proper chance.

Corey[OSX]Burton - 22:03:54
I've been thinking about what you said about there not being enough competition, and perhaps a time-based reward might also be an interesting idea. The winning team could get donator-like perks for the week, such as access to a special training facility (either new, or an alternative way to get into Theta perhaps), a +50 IQ / HS bonus for the week that could take players over the cap (much like equipment, except temporary) which would make tasks easier to carry out, and maybe a discount on energy charge production lines. A variety of things that give them an advantage in the game, but not necessarily a competitive advantage for next week's hacking war, nor a "guaranteed win" in the game.

It's also currently easy to see which gang is in control of each district in town, but not what bonus that district provides to the gang.

Edit: Sat, 18 May 2019 04:31:23

Andi's been following our discussion and the first improvement is now live! The payouts for "Go Hacking" have been increased to make them more worthwhile in contrast to the current market prices. These may change over time while a proper balance is figured out, but hopefully this quells doubts about whether or not these requests are being heard, and also helps solve some of the concerns involving market inflation for the time being.

[[POLY] returnofthamac]

VERY well put together corey, you nailed every one of the suggestions i had and some. i REALLY like the thought of the daily login reward.

*EDIT* another thing i would like to request is to allow the ECs to be made from both the Energy Store AND the Energy Bar without having to have to go over and move energy. Also, possibly add a higher energy bar or store for donators?

*EDIT AGAIN* would also like the ability to sell unused equipment from the gang.

[[OSX] The Marshall]

So, I asked posted in the facebook CW group and asked other people what they would change. I figured if we could ask some older inactives what they'd like to change would be helpful to see what they want and expect that would possibly make them come back from inactivity.

I will edit this post with more if anymore people decide to comment.

Post one:
Sam Squanch: More focus on pvp over resource farming. Possibly a group vs group (i dont remember if it was gang or something else) thing that could have less predictable an outcome than how hacking someone is. Could be accomplished by potential buffs on unkown defenders from the group, debuffs like the viruses when attacking, but in the end it needs to be more skill and/or strategy based than how it was. A rework of the stats would help, again a less predictability thing. There are a lot of things that coulf be done that i haven't thoughg of, but in the end im sure what would be the biggest draw of both old and new players would be making the game a game instead of a chatroom with ways to brag and mess with ogher people in chat.

-- Tue, 21 May 2019 01:24:35 +0000 --

VERY well put together corey, you nailed every one of the suggestions i had and some. i REALLY like the thought of the daily login reward.

*EDIT* another thing i would like to request is to allow the ECs to be made from both the Energy Store AND the Energy Bar without having to have to go over and move energy. Also, possibly add a higher energy bar or store for donators?

*EDIT AGAIN* would also like the ability to sell unused equipment from the gang.

As far as a higher energy bar for donators, I believe it already has been done and is based off how many days you have... I have 100+ and this is my energy atm: Energy: 235/300
Energy Store: 0/500

If I had a little less than 100, regular energy drops to 275.

So unless you mean an even higher amount then I getcha.

[Corey[OSX]Burton]

So, I asked posted in the facebook CW group and asked other people what they would change. I figured if we could ask some older inactives what they'd like to change would be helpful to see what they want and expect that would possibly make them come back from inactivity.

This is a really good idea. It could also be used in the same way to gauge what drove them away.

As far as energy goes, I'm a bit hazy on the thresholds. I think it's 200 for no DDs, 250 for 1-49 DDs, 275 for 50-99 DDs and 300 for 100+ DDs. I currently have 6 DDs and 250 energy, so this this coincides with what [OSX] Meeples said. Perhaps other methods of increasing the bars could be an interesting idea, such as really expensive USB devices for equipment that raise it by 10. This could stack with donator or non donator for different outcomes.

Edit: I now have 48 DDs and 260 max energy.

I agree with the need for more strategy. The more thought I have to put in, the more likely I am personally to stick around. It's hard to gauge how this could affect existing systems without tarnishing what we already have, but there definitely could be ways. Here's an idea I had off the top of my head:

Gang war results could be heavily based on the top 5 killers for that particular war. When the war concludes, gang entities fight one another. These entities have stats that are equal to the average stats of the top 5 killers. If players get 0 kills, they are not factored in to this equation, and so it's possible to have less than 5, but not more. As an example, if the 5 killers have Bus stats of 10, 20, 20, 50, and 50, the gang entity would have a bus stat of 30 for this particular fight. This could apply to HDD, CPU and RAM. A bonus 10% could also be given to the final stats per player in the top 5, to encourage team play. The amount of firewall could be based off gang level. The battle would then take place like a regular PvP battle. Additionally, if the other gang didn't get any kills, their entity would have 0 stats.

The idea is to not deviate too much from the existing method, but still introduce a small amount of strategy. Each gang would want a lot of high level players, but also enough activity to get the full 50% bonus. Gang donations would become more important, as would gang hardware (especially for loer-level players) as the stronger each individual player is, the more likely the gang would be to have a strong top 5. It could also deter single high-level players from getting the entire set of gang kills, as they'd get no percentage bonus. The end result is that when the two gangs entities fight, each gang should have no idea which 5 players are going to be used for the calculation on the other team, and simultaneously have no idea if the other team is going to get an up-to-50% stat bonus or not. Less predictable, but also somewhat susceptible to strategy.

Beyond that, there could also be an automated gang rewards systems to encourage participation. The gang leader can set an item and a value for each of the top 5 positions, which gets paid out upon war completion. This could be an energy charge, 100-500 webs (depending on the player's ranking), cds, or nothing. It's up to them.

The only other thing I can think of that could make things a bit interesting is a weekly district kick (or shuffle). When the weekly reset occurs, either all gangs get removed from their respective districts (and so they're all up for grabs), or the rewards they give are shuffled randomly to each district for the week. This could force more gangs to regularly consider district battles. I'm more in favor of the kick rather than the shuffle though, as it would also force a gang to be active in order to keep a district.

Edit: Another thing to consider could be gang-based weekly challenges, or even site-wide unique challenges where all participants are rewarded if the goal is reached.

[Override]

Gang war results could be heavily based on the top 5 killers for that particular war.

I really like this idea of having "Gang Champions". Each gang could set up rewards for their champions like free/discounted Energy Charges and help with decision making on for future gang wars. It also breeds a little inner-gang competition as each member is going to be fighting for the top 5 spot.

It would be interesting to expand on the Gang territories for Gang Wars. Like instead of people only fighting for different districts, you could have nodes in between districts that need to be captured before another gang can attempt to overtake your district. These nodes can give small benefits, and could help out the smaller up-and-coming gangs get a little bit of territory too. Think of it as the big gangs will likely hold the districts, while the smaller gangs will fight for the nodes until they build themselves up enough to try and take on a district.

[Corey[OSX]Burton]

Sorry for not replying sooner, I wanted to hold off until I had a few things to add.

I sold a bunch of my server clients and hosts today and had two thoughts. The first is that with the new "Go Hacking" values, servers aren't an extremely useful way of making money any more. The second is that a fluctuating selling rate would be interesting.

Currently they sell for 11 and 14cds each, but a fluctuating number would add another layer of strategy here. It doesn't have to be something too complex, just perhaps a range, 5-20 for clients, 10-30 for hosts (though this is based on the current values and a higher range might solve both problems), and each day at reset the numbers can fluctuate by -/+2, as long as it's within the range. This means a value of 15 could end up being any number in the range of 13-17 the next day.

Currently, I just scan regularly and when I remember to (once every week or two), I sell for some extra cash, but I do it on autopilot. This idea gives reason to actively engage, and adds an element of "should I sell, or wait?", especially when the player is looking to purchase something soon. Maybe it will pay off for them, or maybe it won't.

...instead of people only fighting for different districts, you could have nodes in between districts that need to be captured before another gang can attempt to overtake your district. These nodes can give small benefits, and could help out the smaller up-and-coming gangs get a little bit of territory too. Think of it as the big gangs will likely hold the districts, while the smaller gangs will fight for the nodes until they build themselves up enough to try and take on a district.

This could also help shift the balance of power away from inactive players. They of course could still re-achieve their dominance if they returned (if they did so when they were still the more powerful group or player), but if they're not present to notice that their nodes are being taken and defend them, then they'd end up losing their footprint for the time being. Again, this would lead to more engagement with the game itself (thus giving players more reason to stay), along with giving newer players more ways to topple absent giants (which would give those players more reason to stay, too).