Realms - Activity, System Changes, and Applications Reopened

[Llir 6787]

 

Hey all!

 

It’s been nine months since we decided to put Realm applications on hold. Earlier this year, @squakhawk began a process of consulting with community leaders and working towards a series of updates to the Realm Rules with the Administration and Implementation teams. These were completed over the summer, and a key pillar of these changes is the reintroduction of activity check requirements. With our 1.20.6 update I completely scrapped our previous activity data collection plugin, replacing it with a brand new plugin that collects easier to use, more in-depth data. Recently, @Crunchiest_Leaf was brought onto the tech team and using his big brain, he has created a system to visualize this data so we can properly evaluate activity requirements. With all the pieces in place, we are now ready to release the updated Realm rules, which are available here, and reopen Realm applications.

 

I know activity checks can be a controversial subject, though they are important to ensure that the realms our server provides can flourish and active roleplay hubs can be found. The system we are introducing will be more fair, balanced, and accurate than what we had last map, though feedback is always important with systems like this. Please leave any comments on this thread, or feel free to message me on Discord and we can set up some time to chat with the team.

 

Cheers,

Llir | Technical Administrator

 

FAQ

 

How will activity checks work?

 

A few things to note about activity checks. Activity is collected every few minutes with 3 key data points: what region players are in, what realm online players are a member of, and the total number of online players. For each realm, two stats are calculated from this: this percentage of online players who are physically in their realm, and the percentage of online players who are members of their realm. This means that you will still contribute to realm activity, even if you are outside of your persona’s home realm, provided you have done /realm join (this is very important, only 47% of players are currently registered to a realm, so many realms are currently losing out on this metric when members are outside of their tiles). The final activity of a realm is calculated from an average of these two statistics. This activity will be compared to the requirement, which is now 2% + 0.5% per core tile.

 

How will Realm Leaders see their activity?

 

Realm leaders will be able to view how well they are passing checks with /activity stats activity, which will compute your activity over the last three weeks - though you will not be given an exact number. To prevent the issues we had last maps, where nations were in constant competition to get the highest numbers, and an overall gamification and toxic culture around activity data, we will not be sharing exact percentages. Instead, you will be given one of four messages depending on if you are significantly exceeding the requirement, just above the requirement, just below the requirement, or significantly below the requirement. The risk of losing tiles or realm status will only occur if you are regularly (3 consecutive weeks) significantly below the requirement.

 

When and how will enforcement begin?

 

We have been collecting this data since early September, though we will not be enforcing it for one month’s time, so realms who are not meeting their requirements will have the opportunity to get things in the green, and members will be able to do /realm join. After this grace period, the Implementation Team and Administration will be reviewing and, if needed, adjusting the requirements should they turn out to be too harsh before enforcement begins. Realms will be contacted and be required to uncore tiles to meet the requirement, or potentially be dissolved should they not even meet 2%. Any realms who have to uncore tiles as a result of the initial round of enforcement will receive a 100% refund of the cost.

 

We also have data for lair activity, and although there is no hard activity requirement for lairs, Story Management now has this data and will begin removing dead lairs (lair leaders can invite members to set their affiliation with /realm invite, nationality on /card can only be seen by yourself and mods).

 

What if I’m in the wrong realm, or don’t have a realm set?

 

You may run /realm leave after you have been a member of a realm for at least 2 weeks. After this, you may do /realm join or be invited to a lair. For extraneous circumstances, you can make a /modreq (please include an explanation, the relevant persona, and desired realm affiliation).

 

If you don’t have a realm set, you are considered a member of whatever realm you are standing in, and your activity is counted 100% towards that realm.

 

How will Realm Applications be reviewed?

 

We are reintroducing subjective review of applications, and increasing the base requirements to establish a Realm to 10k mina and 25 signatures. Applications may be submitted at any time, though we will not be accepting any until after the one month grace period. We don’t have an exact target number for how many realms we want, though the high number of realms seen earlier this map appears to have been a negative towards player longevity, and this will be heavily considered on any new applications.
 

Realms System - Full Changelog

 

Realm Establishment:

• Realm establishment now requires 25 signatures instead of 15.
• There is now a base fee of 5k mina to establish a realm, in addition to land acquisition costs. This means if you are given land by an existing realm, the fee is 5k mina, or if you are starting fresh, it is 10k mina.
• Realm applications will once again be judged subjectively. Exact criteria is not available, though pre-existing roleplay, unique / new cultures, and/or inability to integrate with an existing realm will be some factors considered.

 

Activity Requirements:

• Base activity requirement is now 2% for all realms.
• Each additional core tile will increase this by 0.5%.
• The calculation algorithm has been adjusted as explained in the announcement post.
• AFK-farming will now result in a blacklist for your account(s), where you will no longer be tallied towards any activity requirements.

 

Tile Dispersal / Downgrading:

• A partial refund of 50% of total costs will be provided when a realm downgrades / disperses its tiles should it have owned them for at least 3 months.

 

 

[_Elrith_ 3483]

You are one of the seven serpents of the end of days

[indiana105 3935]

LOWER UPKEEP COSTS.

 

TILES ARE 5K TO CORE. THIS IS EXPENSIVE ENOUGH SINCE THEY'RE SMALLER THAN THEY WERE ON ALMARIS. IT SHOULDN'T BE PROHIBITIVELY EXPENSIVE TO MAKE THE MAP LOOK NICE.

 

ANOTHER OPTION: MAKE A 'CORE' TILE ONE WITH A DEFENSIVE STRUCTURE ON IT. IT SHOULDNT COST 250 MINA A WEEK TO HAVE A FARMHOUSE THAT CANT BE SIEGED.

[Unwillingly 14058]

[PCSwift 989]

Should be even harder to make a realm IMO

make activity checks higher too centralized rp is fun rp

[ichigomaster98 843]

A great evil returns...

[Security_ 1478]

the mina gobbler gobbles up all the mina

[christman 3018]

LETS GO ! ! !

[Greehn 2646]

1 hour ago, Llir said:

I know activity checks can be a controversial subject

 no it's not

based llir, based crunchiest leaf, based squakhawk. thank you.

[Maury 411]

7 minutes ago, Security_ said:

the mina gobbler gobbles up all the mina

>:)

[Morigung-oog 3540]

Thank goodness..

[sam33497 5069]

If lairs are being integrated into the realm joining plugin/are mutually exclusive with being in realms themselves activity wise, could it be considered allowing lairs to participate in war?

 

(theres also a potential problem of coven members who are de facto members of a nation and rp there being unable to participate in war)

[Unwillingly 14058]

16 minutes ago, Llir said:

AFK-farming will now result in a blacklist for your account(s), where you will no longer be tallied towards any activity requirements.

ok I read the post

I'm just curious on this line in particular and how it will be enforced/identified. can you maybe define "afk farming" in the context of nation activity? is simply being afk, or tabbed out and doing other stuff for a little bit, activity farming? is this something we can expect people to be easily blacklisted for or does there need to be definitive proof, such as alting with two accounts in the same area? I don't know how heavily we want to punish people who loiter in cities but aren't actively RPing, since sometimes the process itself of generating RP includes simply having a presence in your city and letting people see other nametags they can approach, or waiting for people to come by and you can approach them

obvously I am speaking from a more personal standpoint here, since this isn't exactly a concern for already active, established nations, but might be for ones that are still developing or are less active than others but still want to put in the effort

[NotEvilAtAll 10135]

These activity checks will get removed again in two years and re-reinstated again two more years after that. The cycle continues.

10 minutes ago, Unwillingly said:

ok I read the post

I'm just curious on this line in particular and how it will be enforced/identified. can you maybe define "afk farming" in the context of nation activity? is simply being afk, or tabbed out and doing other stuff for a little bit, activity farming? is this something we can expect people to be easily blacklisted for or does there need to be definitive proof, such as alting with two accounts in the same area? I don't know how heavily we want to punish people who loiter in cities but aren't actively RPing, since sometimes the process itself of generating RP includes simply having a presence in your city and letting people see other nametags they can approach, or waiting for people to come by and you can approach them

obvously I am speaking from a more personal standpoint here, since this isn't exactly a concern for already active, established nations, but might be for ones that are still developing or are less active than others but still want to put in the effort

people lounging around idly is how dynamic RP (not stuff organized beforehand) happens

if people are discouraged from hanging around a location when things aren't happening then people will just rely more on planning all events on discord.






Also if activity is going to be the main realm-size limiter again what purpose does tile upkeep serve?

[wowj 5756]

43 minutes ago, Llir said:

• AFK-farming will now result in a blacklist for your account(s), where you will no longer be tallied towards any activity requirements.

 

 

27 minutes ago, Unwillingly said:

ok I read the post

I'm just curious on this line in particular and how it will be enforced/identified. can you maybe define "afk farming" in the context of nation activity? is simply being afk, or tabbed out and doing other stuff for a little bit, activity farming? is this something we can expect people to be easily blacklisted for or does there need to be definitive proof, such as alting with two accounts in the same area? I don't know how heavily we want to punish people who loiter in cities but aren't actively RPing, since sometimes the process itself of generating RP includes simply having a presence in your city and letting people see other nametags they can approach, or waiting for people to come by and you can approach them

obvously I am speaking from a more personal standpoint here, since this isn't exactly a concern for already active, established nations, but might be for ones that are still developing or are less active than others but still want to put in the effort

23 minutes ago, NotEvilAtAll said:

These activity checks will get removed again in two years and re-reinstated again two more years after that. The cycle continues.

people lounging around idly is how dynamic RP (not stuff organized beforehand) happens

if people are discouraged from hanging around a location when things aren't happening then people will just rely more on planning all events on discord.






Also if activity is going to be the main realm-size limiter again what purpose does tile upkeep serve?

AFK-Farming is referring to players being on multiple accounts/AFKing 99% of their time in a realm/tile without any activity on their account for long periods of time, this includes players using automated chat bots to generate roleplay.
-Tech Admin wowj