Room signs failing to prevent novice zones from appearing



  • Interestingly enough, I don't think it says that signing will prevent noob zones.

    That was in the original discussion but it's not in the changelog or documentation.

    However it's not totally clear if that was intentional or not...


  • Culture

    It's mentioned in the documentation on novice zones. "Reserve or at least sign controllers if you don't want them to appear."


  • Dev Team

    We understand your concerns, but please take note that when we choose a novice zone to open, we don't consider players' global plans involving several sectors for many months in advance, but only the concrete plan of taking some rooms in the coming days or weeks is being considered. Thank you for understanding.


  • Culture

    I'm planning on moving in there this weekend! I literally just spawned a jump room to move over! I just signed these rooms a few days ago for the first time ever.


  • Culture

    This is really an unacceptable response. If you aren't going to work with us on this and are going to break your own documentation and rules I see no reason to keep playing this game.


  • Culture

    .

  • Culture

    .

  • Culture

    So as the above images show, this should never have happened. Your own words say so. If we can't trust you and the documents on this site it's going to be extremely difficult to play, don't you think?



  • From the pics above, it *does* look like the entire intent of signing rooms was to prevent the spawning of noob zones. I remember one of the admins clearly stating that it takes 4-5 days of inactivity to generate a noob zone (I am searching the forums for this now). As a lifetime subscription member (that helped your site get off the ground with a generous donation in your IndieGoGo) and a pillar of the community, moderating slack and the screepers GitHub, and one of the progenitors of the LoAN website that even you use for the monthly reviews, I find it incredibly unfair that you wait 2 days to respond, and then all he gets is a "deal with it." One of the reasons I picked up this game, was that everyone I spoke to said that the devs are really good at providing solutions, and listening and taking care of the community. It is unfortunate to see that this is no longer the case.



  • My apologies for the delay. I found the 4-5 days quote. Please see the below link and image. Also, no information about this exists in the documentation about this to date.

    http://screeps.com/forum/topic/420/PTR-Changelog-2016-11-25


  • SUN

    @devs:

    It's not an easy choice (for devs) to decide, if they should favor veteran players' interests, or new players' , when creating novice areas. Still, this case is clearly handled by what Artem say ('sign a room prevents it from noobilizing').

    The current situation (with a set of signed rooms being noobilized) is an evident act of ignoring game rules. It may be evaluated as disrespect to the veterans, that reduces game interest sugnificaltly.

    This issue can be successfully resolved by devs in 2 ways:

    1) respect the current game rules

    2) update the rules of rooms being noobilized

    Both solutions require the novice area in subject being removed, IMO.

    I would like our community to praise mutual respect values and I think this situation can be a good step toward it.


  • Culture

    That's not a very helpful response at all...

     

    And the rooms clearly say "Signed - 3 days ago"


  • Culture

    So after waiting two days for a nonsense response the admins have apparently washed their hands of this. I'm very disappointed that they're refusing to engage the community over this.


  • Dev Team

    > I’m planning on moving in there this weekend!

    tedivm, there are 23 more free rooms signed by you recently that are still remaining in non-novice zones. How exactly do you plan to claim these 23 rooms on this weekend? For example, do you plan to claim the entire area around E38N32 in the next week?

    Please understand, signing is just a notice for us, not a restriction. If you want to have some guarantees, please reserve.

    If some player or alliance signs the entire map with a message “I’m planning to take over this world very soon” (and it’s technically doable), it won’t stop us from creating novice areas in the game entirely. Your intentions should be not only clear, but also realistic.


  • Culture

    Show me where in the documentation it says that, Sergey.

    Oh wait, you can't, because it doesn't.

    Also, if you had asked me I would have told you.


  • Culture

    Where is Artem?


  • Culture

    Also, if you look at the map, you'll see the novice zone blocks me from accessing the other side of that sector. I can't even access those rooms you claim I can now.


  • Dev Team

    This is an interesting topic and I'm sorry that I can't participate in this discussion right now - it's Sunday now after all.

    However, one thing I'd like to say is that there is still no documentation regarding signing and novice areas. And there is a reason of this - the rules that would formally explain how signing affects novice areas opening do not exist. And I don't think they will ever exist. Signing is a mechanic to simply tell something to other players and also to game administrators, but the only rule which really restricts us is reserving, not signing. You provide the info, we use the info in our considerations. But these considerations include many factors, not only what you tell us. In other words, you cannot just tell "do not open any novice areas around me ever", we won't obey 🙂 You recommend us not to do that, and we promise to read your sign messages, but the decision is up to us. As Sergey said, if you want to have guarantees - reserve.


  • Culture

    Alright then, I'm done. Fuck this game and fuck the people running it.


  • Culture

    How can you claim there's no documentation for this when we screenshotted the documentation for this? Seriously, read this thread!