Abandonment and Decay
Some kind of decay is needed for the new style buildings. The data load keeps getting bigger and heavier, with no relief. Also, it is possible for one person to maintain a ridiculously large empire, something that was expicitly not supposed to happen. If possible, the mechanism for decay should not penalize players who cannot log in for a while. Something must be done; the smaller servers are getting overwhelmed.
There is a finite amount of server resource available. It must be managed and shared by all players.
One way to keep the servers running smoothly is to eliminate data that nobody is using. A big contributor is buildings that get constructed then forgotten or abandoned. Those buildings chug away, doing their work forever, even if their emperor never comes back.
Several strategies have been tried over the years to do this in a way that is fair and works with the way people play the game. We are about to experience the carnage of yet another attempt. If anyone is going to rage quit, now is as good of time as any.
This is how buildings will decay, once this code is fully enabled. The update today does not destroy any buildings due to abandonment. Abandonment will be reported in city reports as a negative to morale, to give people time to make adjustments.
Buildings that are not incorporated into a city are subject to abandonment and decay, the same as buildings in cities or bases. There are no reports to show the abandonment status of unincorporated buildings.
Abandonment
A building can become abandoned.
Once a building is abandoned, it is subject to decay. Decay is disabled in this update.
Cosmopolitan
Buildings get a morale penalty after no avatar on line has visited their system in a while. Shouldn't they be happy when an avatar comes to visit?
Cities get a morale boost when their system is visited by an avatar on line. For one day after the visit, a '+1 Cosmopolitan' morale boost will appear on the report.
Some kind of decay is needed for the new style buildings. The data load keeps getting bigger and heavier, with no relief. Also, it is possible for one person to maintain a ridiculously large empire, something that was expicitly not supposed to happen. If possible, the mechanism for decay should not penalize players who cannot log in for a while. Something must be done; the smaller servers are getting overwhelmed.
There is a finite amount of server resource available. It must be managed and shared by all players.
One way to keep the servers running smoothly is to eliminate data that nobody is using. A big contributor is buildings that get constructed then forgotten or abandoned. Those buildings chug away, doing their work forever, even if their emperor never comes back.
Several strategies have been tried over the years to do this in a way that is fair and works with the way people play the game. We are about to experience the carnage of yet another attempt. If anyone is going to rage quit, now is as good of time as any.
This is how buildings will decay, once this code is fully enabled. The update today does not destroy any buildings due to abandonment. Abandonment will be reported in city reports as a negative to morale, to give people time to make adjustments.
Buildings that are not incorporated into a city are subject to abandonment and decay, the same as buildings in cities or bases. There are no reports to show the abandonment status of unincorporated buildings.
Abandonment
A building can become abandoned.
- Building abandonment begins three days after an avatar on line was last present in its solar system.
- Exception, every building is immune to abandonment, in the supersector (3x3x3 sectors) centered on the home building of any avatar on an active account. Empire of the active avatar is not a factor. This is only signaled once per day so don't bother running around declaring new homes everywhere.
- An avatar whose account status changes, becoming active or inactive, may take up to 24 hours to register the change of account status.
- There is no extra benefit to overlapping the home supersectors of multiple avatars.
- Abandonment appears as a negative morale modifier on the city report.
Once a building is abandoned, it is subject to decay. Decay is disabled in this update.
- Up to three abandoned buildings in a city will decay at each city report cycle. Decayed buildings are listed on the city report.
- Unincorporated buildings on a world will decay. This goes unreported.
- When a building decays due to abandonment, it is completely destroyed.
- Probability of an abandoned building decaying increases as the negative morale modifier increases.
- Decay conforms to city build rules so bases will decay before cities, on any given world.
- A city report with decaying buildings is marked with a highlighted icon.
- The final city report from a decaying city does not expire in the mail queue. It is marked with a highlighted icon.
Cosmopolitan
Buildings get a morale penalty after no avatar on line has visited their system in a while. Shouldn't they be happy when an avatar comes to visit?
Cities get a morale boost when their system is visited by an avatar on line. For one day after the visit, a '+1 Cosmopolitan' morale boost will appear on the report.