Gradual opening of novice sectors



  • I don't know if this has been brought up before, but a brief scan of other topics hasn't yielded any matching results. I'd like to propose an improvement to the newbie sectors. 

    Currently, newbies are confined to their 4x4 cells, with a + of walled-off rooms separating them from three other 4x4 cells, separated from the rest of the world by a 10x10 wall around the whole sector. Once a new player has conquered their 4x4 cell, whether that takes 4 days or 20, they're cut off from any further expansion opportunities until all the walls open. Then they have to deal with the older players in cell blocks closer to the center of the map, while being unprepared by their experience in their 4x4 cell block to defend against another player on a similar footing.

    What I'd like to propose is that the walls in a newbie cell block open gradually. The inner walls remain for half the duration of the novice protection time, allowing novices in their 4x4 cell blocks to fight for dominance amongst themselves... but then, after giving enough time for each 4x4 block to have a clear dominant player (or not), the inner walls open and introduce the players in the cells to their neighbors.

    This would allow the more dominant players in each cell block an opportunity to further expand, and test their scripts against other players who rose to dominance in their own 4x4 cells, before they meet yet more dominant players in the world at large. I think it would be a good thing, and prepare novice players more for the world outside their little 4x4/10x10 blocks.


  • Culture

    If you're confident about your code you should respawn in the non-noobie zone.

    The noobie area used to be 1 big open area and a single player would completely dominate it. that isn't fun for other players. Now you first play for control of smaller areas. When you win you can have some time to build up defences and improve overall code. If the rooms would keep opening up it would be bad for people who won't have a huge amount of time to work on their scripts.

    All parts of the real world, with exception of portals, are available in a noobie zone. I don't think your code can be fully implemented in the 30 noobie-day time.



  • It's already sink or swim out there. Once you've dominated a 4x4, if the inner rooms open you have a chance to text your code against other players who dominated their 4x4 before the other players in the world at large come hammering at your door. 

    As you said, it's unlikely that your code can be fully implemented in 24 noobie-day time, and players who have their code figured out are going to dominate their 4x4 anyway and displace the players that haven't yet fully implemented their code. Those players will likely move to a new 4x4, and have another period of time to implement their code and dominate their 4x4, or not. Having the inner walls open and being introduced to other players that also rose to dominance in their 4x4, or not, gives you a chance to refine your scripts against other players who are on the same level as you; they have their code implemented, but it hasn't been refined against competition yet. And it gives you some further experience with scripting before the outer walls open, and your code needs to, at that point, be perfect. Or, it's not ready yet, and you get crushed by the world outside your 10x10, and have to start over again in another 4x4. 


  • Culture

    You're acting like this game doesn't have a respawn mechanism, and it also seems obvious that you're not using the simulator (with it's ability to emulate attacks) to it's full potential.

     

    People get better at this game over time. Dissi had to respawn, as have I. It's just part of the game. You seem to want a system where new players can spawn once and then get babied into being great players, but that doesn't make any sense.



  • +1 Interesting proposal. I'm just coming out of the novice area tomorrow, but have not had any real action for the past 2 weeks. Would have been interesting to deal with a fight during this time.


  • Dev Team

    This actually makes some sense. We'll try to implement this scheme in the recent novice sectors. Thanks for suggestion.



  • I actually thought that's how it was gonna work in the first place when I saw the 4x4s.. ^^