Moonglow Zoo Decay Rate and Donation Points

[SlayerofBunnys]

Right around Christmas a benefit taming competition was held for the Moonglow Zoo on Catskills. I used my 84 tamer to compete. I was surprised to find that I could get 45 points for polar bears and 30 points for white wolfs depsite that I could get skill gains from the WWs but not the PBs. Seemed backwards.

This past weekend I noticed that the zoo had lost approx 500000 points to decay since the benefit. I thought that maybe nobody had been donating since the benefit and if I donated a few creatures per day, the decay would cease. I went through my cursed collection and got my taming up to 110 through jewels and started rounding up unicorns. The zoo level dropped overnight and I figured it was a weekly decay. I found out I was very wrong when it dropped again on Tuesday morning. I started keeping track of the levels from that point:

Time Points Delta
1/14/2014 7:23 7691167
1/14/2014 15:08 7711700 20533
1/15/2014 6:42 7707724 -3976
1/15/2014 9:32 7712750 5026
1/15/2014 15:06 7723500 10750
1/15/2014 20:01 7732250 8750
1/16/2014 4:43 7831166 98916
1/16/2014 5:26 7832166 1000
1/16/2014 12:39 7850000 17834
1/17/2014 5:58 7814750 -35250
1/17/2014 16:56 7893686 78936
1/18/2014 6:16 7897750 4064
1/19/2014 5:41 7851633 -46117

After 5 days the point total is approximately 160000 higher than the starting level. During that time the decrease total was approximately 85000 which means about 33% of the possible gain was lost to decay.

Based on this it appears that the decay rate is between 0.6 and 1.0% every other day. To me, this is extreme. A drop of 50000 points is equal to taming 100 pairs of unicorns or donating 750000 gp every two days just to stay even. Please consider maybe making it a 0.1% drop weekly or maybe set a weekly target of 10000 donation points (that would be 20 pairs of unicorns or 150000 gp). If the weekly goal is reached then no decay, if not then a 20000 point decay. Have it so the total only increases by the number of points past the weekly goal.
That way some maintence is required, but the frustrating drastic decreases would likely stop.

 

[Tina Small]

I believe the decay rate used to be much worse than it is now. According to a post Frarc made in June of 2008, Mesanna told him that before Publish 53 went in around June 10, 2008, the decay rate was 3% every 24 hours and was changed with that publish to be 1% every 48 hours. http://stratics.com/community/threads/zoo-donations.6171/#post-64770

Back in 2007 and early 2008, I was tracking and posting the zoo points for every shard and posted them in a thread in the tamer's forum. http://stratics.com/community/threa...5-april-26-2008-includes-updated-graph.47314/ . Unfortunately, I've since deleted from Photobucket the graphs that gave a visual comparison of how things stood with each shard. But the numbers are still in the thread. I'm not sure I even want to know at this point how low the numbers have sunk on most shards since then. I think a few shards still try to do a regular turn-in event with rewards given out by some generous players for the person who donated the most.

 

[MalagAste]

I wish they would update things to add new stuff to the turn-ins as well as rewards.

 

[SlayerofBunnys]

I believe the decay rate used to be much worse than it is now. According to a post Frarc made in June of 2008, Mesanna told him that before Publish 53 went in around June 10, 2008, the decay rate was 3% every 24 hours and was changed with that publish to be 1% every 48 hours. http://stratics.com/community/threads/zoo-donations.6171/#post-64770

Back in 2007 and early 2008, I was tracking and posting the zoo points for every shard and posted them in a thread in the tamer's forum. http://stratics.com/community/threa...5-april-26-2008-includes-updated-graph.47314/ . Unfortunately, I've since deleted from Photobucket the graphs that gave a visual comparison of how things stood with each shard. But the numbers are still in the thread. I'm not sure I even want to know at this point how low the numbers have sunk on most shards since then. I think a few shards still try to do a regular turn-in event with rewards given out by some generous players for the person who donated the most.

Thanks Tina for finding Frarc's post and for doing the earlier data collection. I figured I was late to the party but did not go back before 2012 in my UHall search and didn't even think about the Tamers forum *smacks self in the forehead*.

I guess my overall theme should have been revisiting older content. Over the years the game itself has had countless wonderful content expansions. Instead of everybody still packed on to single facet we have Trammel, the Lost Lands, Ilshenar, Malas, Tokuno, and Ter Mur to explore as well as that original portion that is now Felucca. With each expansion, any time spent by players on the new content by definition means that time spent on older content has to decline. New content that includes some type of rewards will always get a lot of early attention, and will then drop off as the rewards become widespread. A system that was able to survive a 3% daily loss the first few months needed to be slowed to an 1% decline in 48 hours after about 9 months. Now it is almost 6 years and at least two expansions later and the vast majority of those who wanted the rewards got them long ago. The majority of new players are going to go where the action is, and the action is often on the newest toy or reward. With something such as the zoo there are a number of older players around who remember the excitement of the competition (both between tamers and apparently between shards) at the time of the event and they don't want that to be lost forever. They are willing to spend some time and resources to keep the spirit alive, but it shouldn't be the majority of their game time. The virtue decay has been decreased, the tax on money in the city treasuries has been dropped, and I think the champ spawn title decay has decreased after further review and I am sugessting a new review of the zoos.

 

[MalagAste]

One thing I think hurt the Zoo was the change to taming where now when you tame something it immediately respawns. Used to be you had to remove the creature from the server therefore more people removed it by taking it to the zoo. Now they just rename it and move on to the next one that spawns. As well I've been slowly working up dozens of tamers over the years ........ ever so slowly working the skills and I will say this not ONE of my characters has EVER turned in enough stuff at the Zoo to get enough points to claim anything worthwhile in all the years the Zoo has been running. THIS more than anything is what keeps folk from caring. You can literally spend years at it without ever obtaining a reward. The "average" player who is just a casual player will never get the points that amount to anything since the goals while reasonable for a "scripter" or super gamer are beyond reach of the average player without dropping gold. I figure in the next 5 or 10 years I might actually get enough points to care but until then it seems futile.

I still do it though.... often most the folk I run into who are taming and releasing don't even KNOW about the Zoo and the turn in points. To me taming and releasing seems like a waste of time and effort....... but that's just me I guess. I figure I can work magery as well by gating myself and my 2 charges to the Zoo but I suppose others don't see it that way..... and find the time spent gating to be wasted from taming since the goals at the zoo take in my opinion FAR too much effort to ever achieve thru normal gameplay.

 

[SlayerofBunnys]

One thing I think hurt the Zoo was the change to taming where now when you tame something it immediately respawns. Used to be you had to remove the creature from the server therefore more people removed it by taking it to the zoo. Now they just rename it and move on to the next one that spawns. As well I've been slowly working up dozens of tamers over the years ........ ever so slowly working the skills and I will say this not ONE of my characters has EVER turned in enough stuff at the Zoo to get enough points to claim anything worthwhile in all the years the Zoo has been running. THIS more than anything is what keeps folk from caring. You can literally spend years at it without ever obtaining a reward. The "average" player who is just a casual player will never get the points that amount to anything since the goals while reasonable for a "scripter" or super gamer are beyond reach of the average player without dropping gold. I figure in the next 5 or 10 years I might actually get enough points to care but until then it seems futile.

I still do it though.... often most the folk I run into who are taming and releasing don't even KNOW about the Zoo and the turn in points. To me taming and releasing seems like a waste of time and effort....... but that's just me I guess. I figure I can work magery as well by gating myself and my 2 charges to the Zoo but I suppose others don't see it that way..... and find the time spent gating to be wasted from taming since the goals at the zoo take in my opinion FAR too much effort to ever achieve thru normal gameplay.

I didn't know about the respawn aspect. While I have been playing since 1997, taming is among the few skills I have never GMed. But this post made me think of two points/suggestions:

1) Rework the the creature donation table to be more skill gain friendly. As I said in my first post the white wolf would give me skill gains while a polar bear wouldn't yet the WW was worth 15 points less. If the donation points more closely matched the skill gain guides, more new people would likely donate. Have a scale of maybe 5 for rabbits and chickens up to 100 for bulls and keep the rideables and above as they are currently.

2) Have the Moonglow Zoo able to hire a few agents similar to the Agents of the Crown or create something like Zoo hitching posts. They would be located near popular taming areas and would accept donations for the zoo without the requirement of having to take the time or have the ablility to gate the animals to the zoo. A tamer with skill of 40 is unlikely to be able to gate even with scrolls. Maybe the zoo could have a gift shop that could sell Pet Bags that would donate to the zoo instead of stabling. The bags could also be recharged with the powder of translocation.

 

[MalagAste]

One thing I thought of the other day was I wish that when I rode up by the box with pets in tow since you don't normally do that with your pet it would pop up and ask would you like to donate xyz to the zoo? And you could just do it quickly without having to click your pet select "Transfer" and then target the box. It's such a pain and with my broken arm I've been having horrible difficulty targeting objects. I think a lot of people would LOVE a change like that.

 

[MalagAste]

The following ought to be added to the turn in's:

1. Boura all varieties
2. White Wyrms
3. Skree
4. Ridgebacks
5. Nightmares
6. Greater Dragons
7. Raptors

Also would like statues of some of these added to the rewards.

 

[Lady Storm]

I also think the point totals for many of the turn in creatures is very low... a Greater Dragon is not so easy to tame.

Other critters as MalagAste said should be added to the list..

 

[pumpkin_escobar]

I wish they would update things to add new stuff to the turn-ins as well as rewards.

This please

 

[Tina Small]

Thanks Tina for finding Frarc's post and for doing the earlier data collection. I figured I was late to the party but did not go back before 2012 in my UHall search and didn't even think about the Tamers forum *smacks self in the forehead*.

I guess my overall theme should have been revisiting older content. Over the years the game itself has had countless wonderful content expansions. Instead of everybody still packed on to single facet we have Trammel, the Lost Lands, Ilshenar, Malas, Tokuno, and Ter Mur to explore as well as that original portion that is now Felucca. With each expansion, any time spent by players on the new content by definition means that time spent on older content has to decline. New content that includes some type of rewards will always get a lot of early attention, and will then drop off as the rewards become widespread. A system that was able to survive a 3% daily loss the first few months needed to be slowed to an 1% decline in 48 hours after about 9 months. Now it is almost 6 years and at least two expansions later and the vast majority of those who wanted the rewards got them long ago. The majority of new players are going to go where the action is, and the action is often on the newest toy or reward. With something such as the zoo there are a number of older players around who remember the excitement of the competition (both between tamers and apparently between shards) at the time of the event and they don't want that to be lost forever. They are willing to spend some time and resources to keep the spirit alive, but it shouldn't be the majority of their game time. The virtue decay has been decreased, the tax on money in the city treasuries has been dropped, and I think the champ spawn title decay has decreased after further review and I am sugessting a new review of the zoos.

Fortunately, your individual point total for the Zoo does NOT decay. What decays is the grand total of all players' points at that zoo which is used to populate the zoo exhibits.