March Madness Fishing Tournament

[cutler121]

[quote name='Yoshi' date='04 March 2010 - 09:41 AM' timestamp='1267695718' post='55714']
If you go into the astral plane from the GGG, and then the equipment box for the bait shop, then click on any of the pages, when you go to leave to the astral plane, it takes you to Willow's shop.

Oh, and when you reset the account, you took my striped lure away
[/quote]


Got it, that is fixed now as well, you will now reenter the astral plane correctly in loreroot.

Also I didn't change any of the lures only added the money back in to your account so it wasn't negative anymore.

Cheers,

Cutler

[Yoshi]

Yeah, I actually just realized that the lure was on the pole, and that when I sold the fly fishing rod, it also got rid of the lure :/

[cutler121]

Yeah it is a good idea to combine a basic hook, with your pole if you are going to sell it.

Cheers,

Cutler

[Yoshi]

Perhaps add in a popup box when selling a rod saying something like:



"Your [u]fly fishing rod[/u] currently has a [u]striped lure[/u] attached to it.
Are you sure you want to sell it?"

YES/NO

Edited March 4, 2010 by Yoshi

[cutler121]

Just an update on the fishing competition, there are three WP rewards being sponsored for this competition. One will go to the top scoring individual. One will go to the top scoring person from Loreroot and one will go to the top scoring person from Marin Bell.

There will also be 2-3 premium creatures given as rewards to the top scoring individuals who do not receive a WP.

At present Mighty pirate (with over 13 hours played so far), Aelis and *burns* are in the top 3 positions. The top loreroot and marin bell scorers will begin to be announced on the Tournament rankings page later this month. There will also be a countdown to the end of the competition on that page so it will be possible to track who is currently slotted to win a WP and when the competition will end.

If no loreroot or marin bell people compete in the competition, those WP's will be forfeited.

Cheers,

Cutler

[cutler121]

One more change to the fishing system to make it less random and more logically solvable. I made it so that there will be one square initially visible that has no fish next to it. That will give all of you fishermen a chance to start clicking without having to worry about clicking a fish by accident and letting it get away before you have any information about the location you chose to fish.

Cheers,

Cutler

[cutler121]

The first week of the March Madness Fishing Tournament has now passed and I thought I would put up some stats for people to see how things are progressing:

Here are the current top few players:

Contestant (Money Earned, Time Spent Fishing) Land
Mighty pirate (3707,26h 21m) Golemus Golemicarum
Aelis (2866,11h 30m) Lands of the East
*burns* (1184,9h 50m) Golemus Golemicarum
Pazur (519,9h 12m) No Homeland
Cless (213,3h 4m) Marind Bell
Firsanthalas (78,3h 57m) Loreroot
Yoshi (68,2h 38m) No Homeland

As you can see from this currently noone from Loreroot is placing in the contest (except Firs) so that WP is currently not up for being rewarded.

There are 3 weeks to go for the competition so it is still anyone's game.

Cheers,

Cutler

[cutler121]

Half of the month of March is now over and the fishing competition is moving forward nicely.

Just to update the contest some. It seems clear that there are two types of MD fishermen, the casual fisher (earned <100 pennies) and the hard core fishermen (earned >1000 pennies). For the competition, to be eligible for a WP reward, I am setting a minimum cutoff of 1000 earned pennies. At present there are 5 people who have achieved this minimum cutoff: Mighty pirate, Aelis, Pazur, *burns*, and Cless.
This doesn't mean that that they will all earn WP only that they are eligible for them.

Nice work everyone who has been actively competing and hopefully the casual fishermen have been enjoying the fishing experience as well.

Cheers,

Cutler

[cutler121]

The month of march fishing competition is almost over.

There are only four more days until the competition ends.

If you are one of the people in the top positions you still have a little bit more time to overtake the top contenders.

Also when the competition is over I would like to hear from people what they thought about the integrated fishing system as a continuing part of MD. I am open to making changes in the system or removing it completely if that is what people want.

I also had some ideas for additional types of integrated game systems which could be added to the interactive inventory. Before I spend any time on those types of possibilities though I would like to assess what people felt about this one first.

Cheers,

Cutler

[cutler121]

The month of March Fishing Competition is now over. Overall people fished just over 4,900 times earning a total of 20,371 pennies for a total of 130 hours of continual fishing. That was a huge amount of time and effort to be expended fishing with the first place finisher Mighty pirate by far spending the most time 37h 43m in total and earning 8759 pennies.


The following people have earned a reward in the competition:


Mighty Pirate
Pazur
Aelis
*Burns*
Cless
*Clock Master*


To receive your rewards, post a response to the following questions and I will reveal what the final rewards are and who won the WPs.


Questionnaire:

1] Should the fishing system be a permanent part of MD? If so, would additional games add more to MD or just distract from what MD is all about?

2] How was the progression of upgrading the poles/lures with regards to catching fish and earning pennies? (Was there anywhere which seemed to take particularly long or was very easy?)

3] Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the fishing system?

4] Should there be more items / fish / extras included? If so what should be added and what would it do?

5] Overall what was your impression of this quest?



Cheers,

Cutler


PS Once the 6 people who placed respond to the above questions I will post the rewards. If anyone else wants to respond with their experience that would be welcome as well.

[Yoshi]

Questionnaire:

1] Yes, leave it in. No clue about additional games.

2] Annoying at first, got better later on.

3] Add a way to turn off the water overflowing the squares .

4] Things are good as is for now.

5] It was ok. I gave up though, I love minesweeper, but the overflowing of the squares stopped me from participating after a certain point.

Edited April 1, 2010 by Yoshi

[Burns]

1] Should the fishing system be a permanent part of MD? If so, would additional games add more to MD or just distract from what MD is all about?
Aye, leave it up =) You already showed me some of the other things you plan, fishing is a nice way to gather coins for the slot machines

2] How was the progression of upgrading the poles/lures with regards to catching fish and earning pennies? (Was there anywhere which seemed to take particularly long or was very easy?)
T'was... annoying at first, with basic pole and basic hook it was very hard to catch anything at all, and the first lure didn't help much either...
From the 2c-lure onwards it was fair imo, a lot of work give a better lure again. Can't say much about the poles as i couldn't find much difference between the fly fishing and the spinning rod, maybe because i was already playing on highest level-lure :/

3] Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the fishing system?
slower refill? maybe i just played too much, but it goes too fast for my head <.>

4] Should there be more items / fish / extras included? If so what should be added and what would it do?
I'd add the possibility of catching baits, like worms and whatever fishies like, that would make a nice addition imo =))

5] Overall what was your impression of this quest?
It was a grinding in the end. A whole lot of grinding. But the concept was delightful, a simple little fun game that rewards something in MD, it's just that much better than opening a normal minesweeper when in need of a break

[Pazur]

1 - Keep it. I enjoy your games, so more is good

2 - Agreed that it was frustrating with the basic equipment. Even with the 60p lure and fly rod I wasn't catching many fish. Seemed to become easier with the 1c lure, as I actually caught fish for mostly successful puzzles. Looking forward to playing with different combinations

3 - Same as Yoshi and Burns. Implement something allowing the player to chose how quickly (or not at all) it refills

4 - Nothing, if the tackle box is a way to organize your inventory. No need to add more fish or lures

5 - I enjoyed it, or I wouldn't have played it so much. Definitely a grind. My fault for wanting to finish where I did. The refilling water was sinisterly delicious. Really original. And fu&$ing frustrating when I decide it's a great idea to play drunk at 2 in the morning. Nice to be able to pop into MD for 15 mins at a time and fish for a bit to reset my mind. I imagine most felt like Yoshi and gave up long before the 1c lure. A gentler beginning might have gotten many more *caugh* hooked. Yuck. Choked on my awful pun

Edited April 2, 2010 by Pazur

[Mighty Pirate]

1] Should the fishing system be a permanent part of MD? If so, would additional games add more to MD or just distract from what MD is all about?

Yes, please keep it - at least until the first players appear which play only in the Astral Plane and do not care about the rest of MD. I love small games and I play them for fun and amusement. I like the idea of contests. One month seems to be too long, I guess a week is better. I would suggest even just 3 days but recurring for some time.

2] How was the progression of upgrading the poles/lures with regards to catching fish and earning pennies? (Was there anywhere which seemed to take particularly long or was very easy?)

The progression was good. I liked the idea that you have to check for every new lure where it works best. I sold (by accident) my best lures twice because they were connected to a pole which I sold - that was a bit frustrating.

3] Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the fishing system?

I have the impression that bait could play a larger role.

4] Should there be more items / fish / extras included? If so what should be added and what would it do?

What about a "master of fishing medal" also visible outside Astral Plane?

5] Overall what was your impression of this quest?

Of course I liked it, and I look forward to new quests. What a liked most is the nice idea how to make Minesweeper more challenging.

[Aelis]

1] Yes. I think it's always good to have different stuff to try when you're kinda bored of fighting or interacting with others.

2] At the beggining it was kinda hard, but I don't think you should change that. The only thing that made me sad was the sudden disappearance of my items near the end of the contest.

3] Can't think about anything right now. I shall msg you if I think about something.

4] More items would be interesting.. I'm not sure about what, though. And I didn't have the chance to buy any extras, so I don't know if they change anything.

5] I loved it! But 13 playing hours was too much for me, I couldn't play any longer.


~Aelis

[Clock Master]

1] Should the fishing system be a permanent part of MD? If so, would additional games add more to MD or just distract from what MD is all about?
Yes I think it should be permanent part of the astral plane. It is great for killing boredom but also training your mind and your reflexes. Anyway it was fun game and i really enjoyed it.

2] How was the progression of upgrading the poles/lures with regards to catching fish and earning pennies? (Was there anywhere which seemed to take particularly long or was very easy?)
At the beginning little hard but better as we earned more and more pennies. Haven't tried many combination with the poles and the lures but it was not that hard to catch a fish.

3] Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the fishing system?
Faster overflowing? . Just kidding. That part was fun. Maybe you can add few more free items laying around the astral plane that will improve our fishing experience. Maybe you can add an option so we can make our own pole and our own lure with some of the random items.

4] Should there be more items / fish / extras included? If so what should be added and what would it do?
No I think there is plenty just as it is right now. Maybe few extra baits(MD related ) can be nice.

5] Overall what was your impression of this quest?
Well I never liked minesweeper before and never actually played it. It was same with the fishing at first, but when I did my first upgrading of the equipment it was getting only better and better and i got really hooked up on it. The idea with the overflowing was great

[cutler121]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

The Month of March Fishing Competition is now officially over.


To summarize the overall stats for the competition a total of 20,371 pennies were earned. This translates to 203 copper coins which is the equivalent of just over 20 silver coins. Very Impressive!

There were 4,901 games played in all for a total of 130 hours and 53 minutes.



With the release of the Fishing system, three lands

Golemus, Loreroot and Marin Bell

gained the ability to have people fish at water locations in the astral plane.
Due to positive feedback, this is a feature that will remain in the future. So
fishing will be a new interactive game that people can play.

To support this feature the three kings of the three lands with fishing each
rewarded 2 WPs for the fishing game competition. The first of these 2 WPs is for
the highest ranked players regardless of land affiliation and the second is to
reward the highest scoring player from each of the three lands.


So the three highest scoring players in the Fishing Competition were:

Mighty Pirate (8759p, 1151 games played, 37h 43m, Golemus Golemicarum)
Pazur (3740p, 1007 games played, 20h 25m, No Homeland)
Aelis (3594p, 614 games played, 13h 18m, Lands of the East)

These three players earned a total of 16,093 pennies or 79% of all the coins earned in the contest. They also played over 71 hours between the three of them.


The next three highest scoring people also happen to be from each of the three supporting lands and each also earn a WP.

Congratulations

*Burns* (1824p, 436 games played, 12h 50m) from Golemus Golemicarum
Cless (1403p, 379 games played, 7h 53m) from Marind Bell
*Clock Master* (477p, 246 games played, 8h 16m) from Loreroot


Overall the top 6 players earned 97% of all money made during the competition and fished a staggering 3,833 times for over 100 hours between the six of them.



For people who want to test out the more advanced fishing lures and poles, the bait and tackle shops will remain open to buy and sell fishing related items in the future and there will be additional stores and competitions which will allow the use of pennies and copper coins.

Nice work for those of you who found the "free" searchable item and used MasterB's talking worm as bait, that did help improve the fishing percentages and rewards.


So congratulations to the six WP recipients, I hope everyone had fun with the Fishing Competition.

Cheers,

Cutler

Edited April 1, 2010 by cutler121

[Pipstickz]

[quote name='cutler121' date='01 April 2010 - 05:02 PM' timestamp='1270162955' post='57390']
[b]Necrovion[/b], Golemus, and Marin Bell


*Burns* (1824p, 436 games played, 12h 50m) from Golemus Golemicarum
Cless (1403p, 379 games played, 7h 53m) from Marind Bell
*Clock Master* (477p, 246 games played, 8h 16m) from [b]Loreroot[/b]
[/quote]
I believe you made a typo

As a sidenote...There's silver coins? Oo

[Cless]

A bit late on my response

1] Yeah, I found it entertaining enough to keep in MD.

2] In the beginning, it was a bit long. Afterwards, the progression went smoothly to the next poles/hooks.

3] None I can of.

4] The amount of items seem good so far.

5] It was a pretty fun game. As I play the game, I kinda get the compulsiveness to keep playing for all the items.

[cutler121]

[quote name='Pipstickz' date='01 April 2010 - 11:12 PM' timestamp='1270163553' post='57391']
I believe you made a typo

As a sidenote...There's silver coins? Oo
[/quote]

Thanks you are correct it should be Loreroot. Unfortunately there is no water in Necrovion so no fishing.

Yes, the exchange rate between copper coins and silver coins is 1 silver = 10 copper coins and 1 copper coin = 100 pennies. My long term plans are to have more items and shops available in the future and to allow people to convert money back and forth between copper coins and silver. So fishing will be one way to be able to earn money to support your MD habit. There will also be some more interesting things to spend your money on with the next few releases I have planned. Stay Tuned!


Cheers,


Cutler

[Pipstickz]

Will there be more ways to earn coins?

[cutler121]

[quote name='Pipstickz' date='02 April 2010 - 01:48 AM' timestamp='1270172880' post='57398']
Will there be more ways to earn coins?
[/quote]

I had been envisioning a wide range of interactive systems which would build upon the interactive inventory.

For example a cooking system where you can find/buy items and then combine/cook them to make new things like cookies or more complex items. If you develop a new recipe you could then sell those items or give them away as quest rewards etc. Its just a matter of getting enough interesting things people want to buy or make and people to sell or spend time making them.

The fishing is one way new items could also be found for cooking recipes. You might need a rare fish to make certain dishes so you would need to go catch it if you want to make a rare food item.

Of course you could replace food/cook by any type of item/mix/create so what I am describing is a general way to create new items based on a recipe or set of directions.

Cheers,

Cutler