Changes to house list and salaries

jasonrohrer · 2013-06-18 00:25:54

I'm testing out a few server changes.

First of all, any houses with $0 that have not been re-edited are hidden from the list. This means you can no longer dump stuff in a broken house by dying, and you can't vandalize a broken house.

Second, I've changed the salary cycle from once per hour to once every 10 minutes. The pace of change in the game world can feel glacial sometimes.... hoping this will turn up the heat a bit, when money builds up on houses 6x faster.

bey bey · 2013-06-18 08:24:43

Fair enough, cash flow seems to be adressed, even though there are still one or two "milking stations" that you can visit every 10-20 minutes to fill up on cash, but it's probably for the best.

nathan · 2013-06-18 10:09:27

bey bey wrote:

Fair enough, cash flow seems to be adressed, even though there are still one or two "milking stations" that you can visit every 10-20 minutes to fill up on cash, but it's probably for the best.

Agreed. Some people leave their house on default settings, and since they never quite hit zero, they're listed still and still make money. Maybe Jason could make the game so if you leave the house on default, it doesn't get listed.

jearr · 2013-06-18 11:01:42

The increase in salary is huge. It definitely has encouraged me to login more. It also helps recover from robberies really quickly.

Last edited by jearr (2013-06-18 11:05:56)

colorfusion · 2013-06-18 11:13:47

nathan wrote:

bey bey wrote:
Fair enough, cash flow seems to be adressed, even though there are still one or two "milking stations" that you can visit every 10-20 minutes to fill up on cash, but it's probably for the best.
Agreed. Some people leave their house on default settings, and since they never quite hit zero, they're listed still and still make money. Maybe Jason could make the game so if you leave the house on default, it doesn't get listed.

Houses like this will be dealt with eventually by someone killing the wife.

nathan · 2013-06-18 15:39:38

The problem is, now, there's only a single page of houses. Mine is sixth, it seems, and it only has about $800. This may be because of the small number of people playing the game actively, as v9 makes it quite easy for any hose to get to $0.

bey bey · 2013-06-18 16:26:56

I think I objected to the standard house state at some point, but then again, at the current state of things, every place one can get some cash dripping into the game counts and killing the wives in those houses would severely hurt the community.

Hum, considering that I have a fully repaired house, I might just kill those spouses so nobody can afford 26(!!!!!) ladders to reach my 7000$ (!!!!!!!!!) safe as has happened before, curiously...

largestherb · 2013-06-18 18:14:41

bey bey wrote:

Hum, considering that I have a fully repaired house, I might just kill those spouses so nobody can afford 26(!!!!!) ladders to reach my 7000$ (!!!!!!!!!) safe as has happened before, curiously...

i think it comes down to not having much else to do in the game.

and when presented with a house which is 'do a magic dance or push these buttons in the right order a certain number of times,' the lack of blueprints and the curiosity to see what lies beyond those trapdoors/grids/powered doors/layers of concrete, wood, steel and pits is a very compelling force. the sense of achievement* is worth more than the game dollars.

*achievement in the castle doctrine appears to be a mix of joy of accomplishment and delight in violating someone's hard work.

jasonrohrer · 2013-06-18 22:11:14

We currently have 16 listed houses. All but one is in a still-interesting state.

The rest of the list would have houses with $0, or houses that people were artificially pumping up with tools. So, I think it's good that those houses aren't available anymore. What we are seeing in the list is a more "real" portrayal of the current state of the world, free of historical baggage.

bey bey · 2013-06-19 02:22:56

largestherb wrote:

bey bey wrote:
Hum, considering that I have a fully repaired house, I might just kill those spouses so nobody can afford 26(!!!!!) ladders to reach my 7000$ (!!!!!!!!!) safe as has happened before, curiously...
i think it comes down to not having much else to do in the game.
and when presented with a house which is 'do a magic dance or push these buttons in the right order a certain number of times,' the lack of blueprints and the curiosity to see what lies beyond those trapdoors/grids/powered doors/layers of concrete, wood, steel and pits is a very compelling force. the sense of achievement* is worth more than the game dollars.
*achievement in the castle doctrine appears to be a mix of joy of accomplishment and delight in violating someone's hard work.

I get this feeling, that was why I am still curiously intrigued with v8 - it did produce quite a lot of this kind of feeling, this feeling of achievement at unlocking those things. I can send you my map via msg or something if you want, largestherb.

I still hate this kind of concrete-wall-thing, and the design I did should have been interesting in v8; v9 doesn't need much complexity to seem "too hard to crack". I'd say that the fact that I felt obliged to introduce some kind of aesthetics (the corridor...) into the design shows how I feel about this kind of security by wall thickness. But then again, I don't feel like mopping up destruction all the time because my house was easy enough to crack for somebody who feels like mowing down walls... With v9, security can't be pretty.

SmokestormX · 2013-06-21 09:14:00

It seems to me now, that the houses out there right now, cannot be robbed with $2000 amount of tools, the houses are too rich. Also consequently one you build a $2000 house, int instantly robbed the moment you save and go do other things, money build up fast, but people that have over $2000 can easily buy all they tools they need to crack this $2000 weak house, so once it's passed the price of thier tools and there is profit in they come and grab it.

The list of houses were so few the only ones remaining were the expensive houses, that had been up a couple days, as It would appear the only way to actually make a house that has any chance of staying would be to log in before you crossed that profit threshold, spend your cash on finishing your house, log out , wait 10 minutes, Log in again... and that's no fun, logging in and out just to actually make a house that has a chance.

I'll wait for the next version.

Blip · 2013-06-21 13:25:43

I agree with Smokestorm; the salary is too high as it is now. I might build a house with 2000, or get some money from robberies and have a house that might cost a few more thousand. However, I rarely log in again before the amount of money in my house rises above the amount needed to simply brute-force the house, ripping through the walls and getting to the vault. Before, I felt that salary was useful; it would give me some money to build with every time I logged back in. Now, salary only serves to cause those who don't play the game often to lose all of their money due to robbers who get a net profit from simply using tools on all the traps in the player's house.

I like the 10-minutes-per-paycheck mechanic, but it would be nice to tone down the amount of money received. How about $24 for the player and $48 for the wife? This has the same amount of money hourly as it was before the change, just split up into intervals of 10 minutes.

SmokestormX · 2013-06-23 08:10:27

I also like the 10 minute interval, I think slowly reduce it until people are happy with it.

largestherb · 2013-06-23 11:07:14

'while you were away you earned $28,000'

honey, i'm home! you'll never guess how much i... honey..

*scorch marks cover the hall, you can see all the way to the dining room. your loyal dog, rover, lies on the floor with a caved in skull and traces of raw meat stuck in his teeth. your sons lifeless body lies like a rag doll thrown across the room by a toddler. your toddler is unrecognisable, the imprint of a crowbar distorts her face. you find your cat underneath a brick.*

ukuko · 2013-06-23 11:10:06

...and worse, horror beyond horror! Your beloved trapdoors.. defiled with ladders.

bey bey · 2013-06-23 11:27:50

The cat underneath a brick made me chuckle.

jasonrohrer · 2013-06-23 14:24:54

I was trying to tune the game so that there was more to do, moment-to-moment, and less stagnation.

Taking hourly net pay up by a factor of 6 may have been too much, though.

I just reduced that by half, so you and your spouse now get paid $70 and $140 every 10 minutes. We'll see how that goes.... may need to come down a bit more ($16K a day without the spouse is still quite a lot).

It's impossible to pick a game pace that's perfect for everyone.... some people like to check in every hour, some just once a day, and others maybe even just once a week.

Getting rid of death-pumping of tools into houses (soon!) should help some, because then the pace of the game will be more rigid... there be no way to "force" a house to become worth robbing by death-pumping lots of tools into it.

The Castle Doctrine Forums

#1 2013-06-18 00:25:54

Changes to house list and salaries

#2 2013-06-18 08:24:43

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#3 2013-06-18 10:09:27

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#4 2013-06-18 11:01:42

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#5 2013-06-18 11:13:47

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#6 2013-06-18 15:39:38

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#7 2013-06-18 16:26:56

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#8 2013-06-18 18:14:41

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#9 2013-06-18 22:11:14

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#10 2013-06-19 02:22:56

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#11 2013-06-21 09:14:00

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#12 2013-06-21 13:25:43

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#13 2013-06-23 08:10:27

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#14 2013-06-23 11:07:14

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#15 2013-06-23 11:10:06

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#16 2013-06-23 11:27:50

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

#17 2013-06-23 14:24:54

Re: Changes to house list and salaries

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