mind you, some changes to parameters that qualify disqualify realms from being released could possibly be more useful, while requiring less programming work.

I think the problem, pre moderating system was mainly having realms to do with just being a cluster of towns and ruins on a single island, more then it was having fine tuned/crafted realms.

The star system might actual be more impactful in distinguishing these realms as i'd assume realms of low/low quality (ones that currently don't pass through moderation) would be rendered lower 1-2 star ratings, while i'd imagine the realms that just pass the current moderation queue would see your typical 3,3 1/2 ratings.

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Otherwise, one problem with moderation currently is that their isn't really a good indication of what bits and pieces your missing. One example was I associated tags to all of my encounters, thinking that this was needed by default. I then was confused that i had tags which weren't being used, thus needed to be removed...i mistook these for flags and had a bit of confusion which eventually was cleared up.

Likewise, things such as organization of realms and putting them together in an easy to digest way (for moderators) might have to become a base requirement (in other words your realm should be invalid, when checking, before going through the submission/moderation process)

I'm generally leaning more towards making things more open source (i.e letting the designers and community sort out the good from bad) while letting off a good load from the moderators and just having that job for sorting out the major problems in submitted realms (foul language, gold farms, etc.)

with that, the suggestion for 'report issue to realm designer' as well as a 'report issue to moderators' with the ability to pull realms temporarily to fix problems & a harsher punishment for putting nasty stuff in your realms, would probably ensure that you avoid alot of the ugly stuff.

That said, most of this would require less work, and could even be handled post update (no coding...well apart from the the report buttons, which use the same code as async notifications would with some modifications) It might be worth uploading a mini update, mid month for this alone anyways, as realm design might be a big draw (or expectation) for the influx of players.

Otherwise, advertising the realm tools as "cooperating with snapshot" that involves QA and is treated like official snapshot approved content might be the way to deal with it to limit the false expectations going into the whole thing.

I was reminded of an issue with the star system earlier. It's an issue which was brought up in a couple of posts in the past (when the star rating system was first implemented).

..If, after completing a realm, the player skips the rating screen their failure to rate the realm is counted as a 'zero rating' vote. It's not uncommon for a player to accidentally skip this section and not rate the realm (thus lowering the average rating of the realm)..

Therefore the rating system isn't very reflective of the quality of the realm, especially if you also consider that good realms, with decent difficulty levels, are often down-voted by players who are unable to complete them.

..One suggestion in the past was to make the realm completion screen non-skippable without submitting a rating, so that the action of rating the realm is the final button you have to press to exit the completion screen.

rating is subjective. You might like it, I might hate it. I feel that the rating sytems adds nothing to the game or influences if a player plays a realm or not.

I would suggest scraping the star ratings.

It was probably a good idea back in the day when it was envisioned that there would be so many realms that it would be hard to choose which one to do so having a ratng system might help with that but the reality if far from that ideal.

Also if you rerun a realm and try rate it if you hadnt previously, then it doesnt stick. So you got one shot to rate it and if you dont then you wont ever be able to. Again scraping it would not be a bad thing. Come to think of it you cant sort the realms by rating anyway (i think) so its not really useful.

gary wrote:rating is subjective. You might like it, I might hate it. I feel that the rating sytems adds nothing to the game or influences if a player plays a realm or not.

I would suggest scraping the star ratings.

It should be scrapped or expanded to be more informative; i.e. Players rate more than just the Overall Realm experience such as Story, Battles, Map Design etc. However, in my opinion, there are more important issues with Realms that should be fixed first.

Farious

Farious wrote:

gary wrote:rating is subjective. You might like it, I might hate it. I feel that the rating sytems adds nothing to the game or influences if a player plays a realm or not.

I would suggest scraping the star ratings.

It should be scrapped or expanded to be more informative; i.e. Players rate more than just the Overall Realm experience such as Story, Battles, Map Design etc. However, in my opinion, there are more important issues with Realms that should be fixed first.

Farious

My preference would be to see it expanded.

I like the realm rating system from a player perspective, I'm quite casual in terms of my engagment to playing realms, so it's good to have a system which lets me choose the 'best' ones. I can see also that it's a way to help new players get a good first impression.

I would like to see more meaningful feedback as a designer however, be it from further rating categories or a small text field.

Mazy wrote:I was reminded of an issue with the star system earlier. It's an issue which was brought up in a couple of posts in the past (when the star rating system was first implemented).

..If, after completing a realm, the player skips the rating screen their failure to rate the realm is counted as a 'zero rating' vote. It's not uncommon for a player to accidentally skip this section and not rate the realm (thus lowering the average rating of the realm)..

Therefore the rating system isn't very reflective of the quality of the realm, especially if you also consider that good realms, with decent difficulty levels, are often down-voted by players who are unable to complete them.

..One suggestion in the past was to make the realm completion screen non-skippable without submitting a rating, so that the action of rating the realm is the final button you have to press to exit the completion screen.

Couldn't you just ignore the zero ratings when calculating the average?

SpiteAndMalice wrote:Couldn't you just ignore the zero ratings when calculating the average?

Yeah that would be better. If the lowest you could rate it was 1 and highest was 5 ..then any 'non ratings' could be overlooked.

I think I reported the ability to skip the rating screen as a bug way back when, but I guess it's more of a UI design issue really.

..In the meantime, to compensate for all the unintended/accidental down-votes that realms receive, I always give every realm 5/5 no matter what their actual quality because realms are player made, the realm creator would have spent many many hours/days making it..

..this alone kinda warrants 5 stars, just the fact they were prepared to invest that amount of time in to it.. plus down-voting realms would just discourage creators making more realms, which is the opposite of what is needed, I want new realms popping up every week or so!

Some realms may be better designed or more enjoyable but I still think they all deserve the same rating because I don't think it's possible to mess up the realm creation process, no matter how the realm is staged it still contains an explorable map with a bunch of battles to find and conquer, so on some level all realms 'work' and are completable.

There are a handful of re-playable realms that are re-playable for different reasons, if it were possible to leave feedback/notes on a realm (rather than a star rating) then a player would be able to highlight some of the good things pertaining to each realm..

..for example, some are great for farming g0ld (or items from shops), these realms could be tagged as 'Gold Mines'. Other tags which could be used.. 'Co-Op' 'Tutorial' 'Humour' 'Lore-Rich' etc. .. Co-Op realms are highly re-playable.

I find the realms which feature high levels of mercs to be the most rewarding (because they are the most challenging), the battles almost play out in such a way as to replicate the difficulty curve you would associate with Xcom (or any good SP game in general) i.e, up against it, difficult at the start, but then progressively easier IF you do the right things, turn the tide using superior tactics (but remaining difficult if you mess up tactically).

..Those kind of realms show glimpses of what a proper CR SP campaign could play like.. IMO there is still a massive opportunity to tweak (or overhaul) the SP and make it a more appealing 'wizard Xcom'/rpg style game.

Also, If items in towns/shops were randomized all realms would be re playable, a big aspect of the realm experience is picking up new gear, it encourages grind. Random item drops would be even better for this and improve the SP experience immensely, this is something that really needs to happen at some point (if the SP is ever expanded/reworked).