duplex
08-10-2009, 01:37 PM
Closed Beta Report
Part 22
There are two note-worthy revisions in this week's development update. One is a revision to in-game hacking and the other one a complete overhaul of how money is earned.
Hacking Revision
Security barriers can now be hacked by multiple players. A few more changes had to be implemented to make this work properly. An alarm can be triggered in 2 ways:
(a) the hacker hits an alarm node
or
(b) the hacking process could not be completed before the alarm time runs out
Now, if multiple players have started a hack and event (a) happens, the other hackers working the barrier can continue their hacks, but only until the first alarm time runs out. This was implemented to avoid that players on the other side of the barrier intentionally trigger an alarm to make all current attempts fail.
In case of event (b), all current hacking attempts are aborted.
Let's assume someone started a hack and another player started a hack a few moments later. The current alarm timeout will not be reset by the second hacker, which means it will be more difficult for him. If someone triggers an alarm before the end of the alarm timeout, the other one can continue and only one alarm sound will be played.
Faction Payouts
Before yesterday earning Universal Credits (UC) was achieved by completing objectives. The money would be received from the faction's account immediately without delays. The problem was that a faction (especially the larger ones) could barely avoid bancruptcy, because everyone would just try to complete as much objectives as possible and the faction's daily expenses would easily surpass the income. After weeks of losing money all funds would be depleted.
This has all changed now. Earning money is now directly linked to the profit your faction made. Instead of Universal Credits (UC), players are now rewarded so called Faction Credits (FC) for completing objectives. On the screenshot below you can see the new stat right above the usual credits in the character window.
http://www.fomportal.com/downloads/fomscr_cb22_001_tb.jpg (http://www.fomportal.com/downloads/fomscr_cb22_001.jpg)
These Faction Credits will be evaluated daily to calculate your personal earnings. Basically it works like this:
A faction has a daily income and daily expenses, which either results in a daily profit or loss. If there are profits, all members of the faction who have earned faction credits will receive a share of that profit.
The faction manager now has a new tab called 'Settings', which is going to hold all kinds of faction settings that faction leaders can adjust. The first new setting is the so called 'Faction Credits Payout Factor' (see screenshot above). This factor defines how much of the daily faction profit is used to pay all the faction members who have contributed to the faction's goals.
At the end of each game day, all members who have earned Faction Credits (FC) will receive their share of the profit. A payout factor of 100% means that the entire profit is used for payout. Values above 100% mean that additional money from the current faction funds is used for the payout. This option can be used temporarily to reward faction members for their good work, but should be watched carefully so that the faction funds won't be drained too much.
A safety mechanism will automatically reduce the payout factor when the faction funds sink below the border of 1 Mio. UC. This is to make sure the faction leadership will notice when their financial situation should be improved.
There will only be a payout at the end of the day if there was an accumulated profit of at least 50,000 UC. If the profit is lower that 50,000 UC it will be stored to be considered for next payout.
If you have gained Faction Credits (FC) and there was a payout at the end of the day, you will receive a 'Payout Report' via mail. On this screenshot you can see the contents of such a report.
http://www.fomportal.com/downloads/fomscr_cb22_002_tb.jpg (http://www.fomportal.com/downloads/fomscr_cb22_002.jpg)
The report lists all the values that were used to calculate your share of the faction profits to make this entire process more transparent for you.
In this example FDC made a profit of 138,903 UC. The payout factor is currently set to 90%, which means that an amount of 125,012 UC will be split between all members who have gained faction credits since the last payout.
This day a total amount of 218,318 FC was collected and I collected 3,320 FC of that. Therefore my earnings are calculated as followed:
My Share = (3,320 / 218,318 FC) * 125,012 UC
My Share = 1901 UC
Since the payout factor can be changed by the faction leader a faction is now able to manage their finances much better and the economy is under control.
-duplex
You can discuss this update here: http://forum.fomportal.com/showthread.php?t=13876
Part 22
There are two note-worthy revisions in this week's development update. One is a revision to in-game hacking and the other one a complete overhaul of how money is earned.
Hacking Revision
Security barriers can now be hacked by multiple players. A few more changes had to be implemented to make this work properly. An alarm can be triggered in 2 ways:
(a) the hacker hits an alarm node
or
(b) the hacking process could not be completed before the alarm time runs out
Now, if multiple players have started a hack and event (a) happens, the other hackers working the barrier can continue their hacks, but only until the first alarm time runs out. This was implemented to avoid that players on the other side of the barrier intentionally trigger an alarm to make all current attempts fail.
In case of event (b), all current hacking attempts are aborted.
Let's assume someone started a hack and another player started a hack a few moments later. The current alarm timeout will not be reset by the second hacker, which means it will be more difficult for him. If someone triggers an alarm before the end of the alarm timeout, the other one can continue and only one alarm sound will be played.
Faction Payouts
Before yesterday earning Universal Credits (UC) was achieved by completing objectives. The money would be received from the faction's account immediately without delays. The problem was that a faction (especially the larger ones) could barely avoid bancruptcy, because everyone would just try to complete as much objectives as possible and the faction's daily expenses would easily surpass the income. After weeks of losing money all funds would be depleted.
This has all changed now. Earning money is now directly linked to the profit your faction made. Instead of Universal Credits (UC), players are now rewarded so called Faction Credits (FC) for completing objectives. On the screenshot below you can see the new stat right above the usual credits in the character window.
http://www.fomportal.com/downloads/fomscr_cb22_001_tb.jpg (http://www.fomportal.com/downloads/fomscr_cb22_001.jpg)
These Faction Credits will be evaluated daily to calculate your personal earnings. Basically it works like this:
A faction has a daily income and daily expenses, which either results in a daily profit or loss. If there are profits, all members of the faction who have earned faction credits will receive a share of that profit.
The faction manager now has a new tab called 'Settings', which is going to hold all kinds of faction settings that faction leaders can adjust. The first new setting is the so called 'Faction Credits Payout Factor' (see screenshot above). This factor defines how much of the daily faction profit is used to pay all the faction members who have contributed to the faction's goals.
At the end of each game day, all members who have earned Faction Credits (FC) will receive their share of the profit. A payout factor of 100% means that the entire profit is used for payout. Values above 100% mean that additional money from the current faction funds is used for the payout. This option can be used temporarily to reward faction members for their good work, but should be watched carefully so that the faction funds won't be drained too much.
A safety mechanism will automatically reduce the payout factor when the faction funds sink below the border of 1 Mio. UC. This is to make sure the faction leadership will notice when their financial situation should be improved.
There will only be a payout at the end of the day if there was an accumulated profit of at least 50,000 UC. If the profit is lower that 50,000 UC it will be stored to be considered for next payout.
If you have gained Faction Credits (FC) and there was a payout at the end of the day, you will receive a 'Payout Report' via mail. On this screenshot you can see the contents of such a report.
http://www.fomportal.com/downloads/fomscr_cb22_002_tb.jpg (http://www.fomportal.com/downloads/fomscr_cb22_002.jpg)
The report lists all the values that were used to calculate your share of the faction profits to make this entire process more transparent for you.
In this example FDC made a profit of 138,903 UC. The payout factor is currently set to 90%, which means that an amount of 125,012 UC will be split between all members who have gained faction credits since the last payout.
This day a total amount of 218,318 FC was collected and I collected 3,320 FC of that. Therefore my earnings are calculated as followed:
My Share = (3,320 / 218,318 FC) * 125,012 UC
My Share = 1901 UC
Since the payout factor can be changed by the faction leader a faction is now able to manage their finances much better and the economy is under control.
-duplex
You can discuss this update here: http://forum.fomportal.com/showthread.php?t=13876