Fuel Distribution Monitoring (Water and Land)

[Erock]

Maps like Apps, Tron and Castles, after a fair amount of activity on land, the fuel and equipment annoyingly amasses in the water making the land almost to unplayable without proper maintenance. With this in mind, could there be a more efficient way to set a varying but land-friendly distribution ratio of fuel/equipment boxes between the map's land and water allowing high activity to be maintained for longer periods? IMO, not every map should have this (especially not Iceland, d6, desert, rocks, etc), but I think it would be effective in the aforementioned maps with lakes/oceans that soak up a disproportionate percentage of boxes during/after periods of high activity.

I'm not proposing that the land always has a majority of the eq/fuel because it would make for a nearly impossible rank-up situation without desertesque mobs from bfs most popular times, but instead a distribution rate that would always keep the fuel/eq reproducing on land at a steady (20-30%), fixed (30%), or varying (15-30%) ratio of the map's total fuel/eq at any given time. It would allow the map to be more playable under lengthier conditions of high activity as well as help stabilize the activity level (maintaining it at a high number) because players will not be as quick to quit out and do something else after dying because finding a ferry then filling with low ers (or whatever the case) or driving/teleporting all around the map's land areas trying in vain to find a screen that isn't empty or damn near it is less enticing than simply waiting for the map to change.

[-Kirby-]

I think that land dryness in water-heavy maps is another one of those issues that is falls under what has quickly become my favorite catch-all for any perceived problem in this game: the issue described wouldn't exist if the maps were as active as they should be.

For example, Appaloosa Land under ideal conditions probably features an atmosphere that looks something like:
- 20-30 players doing whatever they want on land
- 10-20 players doing whatever they want on water

That said, I think it remains unknown / to be seen if there are truly any flaws in the fuel/eq spawning algorithm, however it works. The concept of "map maintenance," I believe, is something that has arisen in our time due to the lack of natural maintenance that would occur if there was simply more activity.

What might be more friendly for today's climate (and possibly in the future) is a system that distributes fuel based on the number of people playing, and perhaps shifts/spawns more fuel/eq to the land if there are less people playing than there should be.

[SW]

Need more raids on water.

[Erock]

Need more raids on water.

We are going to need fleets of ferries.

[Jordann]

Need more raids on water.

maybe you need to put ferries in all the lakes then.

[Erock]

I think that land dryness in water-heavy maps is another one of those issues that is falls under what has quickly become my favorite catch-all for any perceived problem in this game: the issue described wouldn't exist if the maps were as active as they should be.

For example, Appaloosa Land under ideal conditions probably features an atmosphere that looks something like:
- 20-30 players doing whatever they want on land
- 10-20 players doing whatever they want on water

That said, I think it remains unknown / to be seen if there are truly any flaws in the fuel/eq spawning algorithm, however it works. The concept of "map maintenance," I believe, is something that has arisen in our time due to the lack of natural maintenance that would occur if there was simply more activity.
What might be more friendly for today's climate (and possibly in the future) is a system that distributes fuel based on the number of people playing, and perhaps shifts/spawns more fuel/eq to the land if there are less people playing than there should be.

.

[Erock]

I don't think distributing fuel based on numbers is a safe way to go about it right now or in the future because activity is not a lock to suddenly increase to levels we all desire; we would see a more gradual rise and SW would be able to fix the distribution if it were to be a problem before the newer players became aggravated by it and quit.

The compensation for expected activity spikes is not even my main issue with the player number determining the fuel/eq spawning algorithm. The amount of players in game should not be the major variable for eq/fuel spawns on land b/c if there were a large number of people playing, where the majority of them were on the water and the rest were pphing around the edges of the water, then the land would flood and make it impossible to kill anyone without 30+ players on one target. Essentially, the number of players cannot be an accurate variable for distribution b/c how the land/water is used by the active players never follows a consistent pattern that in game population determines. The algorithm presents potential to create overly eq/fuel soaked land.

a distribution rate floor (%) would ensure that the eq/fuel would always have at least x percentage of the total eq/fuel distribution on land to maintain a consistency that would fluctuate and retract with activity levels, but would never waiver below that certain amount. No matter the number of players in game, the water would never soak up an unnaturally vast majority of the eq/fuel b/c hours of straight land action would cause the eq/fuel distribution to hit the designated minimum percent without dipping below it, thus preventing the water from soaking up everything.