Exploring aids

[Bowser]

what does sextant do?

Well, I was given an option of setting my sextant to my current location, then the next time I looked at it, it told me that I was zero units of measure away from the location.

So, I have this device, but have yet to leave the area and it reminds me of that each time I look at it.

[Razorlance]

The census of characters carrying these items is as follows

Sextant 13% [ 4 ]
Viewing Aid (binoculars, telescope etc) 71% [ 17 ]
Both of the above 12% [ 3 ]

Total Characters : 24


There are another 5 sextants and 11 viewing aids not being carried, all in different locations

Thanks Chris, I knew a dept member could get access to those figures easily.

[MakeBeliever]

Three different characters of mine have made binoculars, another has donated all the resourses to a sailor in partnership to make their sextant and telescope to aide them in sailing. There would be more around ingame if dockable towns were not so stingy and unwelcoming to sailors and actually helped them a little on resourses to get these fiddly things made, and considering you need a smelter and a workbench, masses of fiddly tools and specialised hammers, not to mention kiln for the glass and lenses, as a sailor unless you have a very helpful town at hand near you willing to let you use those kinds of machines or even make the tools needed, the chances of making them are pretty much very low for the sailors out there. So hense their rarity.

[Wolf]

Three different characters of mine have made binoculars, another has donated all the resourses to a sailor in partnership to make their sextant and telescope to aide them in sailing. There would be more around ingame if dockable towns were not so stingy and unwelcoming to sailors and actually helped them a little on resourses to get these fiddly things made, and considering you need a smelter and a workbench, masses of fiddly tools and specialised hammers, not to mention kiln for the glass and lenses, as a sailor unless you have a very helpful town at hand near you willing to let you use those kinds of machines or even make the tools needed, the chances of making them are pretty much very low for the sailors out there. So hense their rarity.

Amen to that.
One of my chars is a man of the sea, comes across a few friendly but extremely poor towns and several that do have access to all the stuff, but only let a select few get their hands on that stuff.
So he's still sticking to the old way.
Heck, so far he's even been unable to get sails and masts for his ship made because either he docks to a friendly town that hasn't got anything he needs, or he docks to a place that has the stuff, but wouldn't trade with him because he's just another sailor.

And makebeliever, I bet that zinc came in handy for one of those chars

[N-Aldwitch]

Lol I thought this topic was going to be about exploring AIDS. lol. Like talking about it.

[Joshuamonkey]

Lol I thought this topic was going to be about exploring AIDS. lol. Like talking about it.

Me too!


Could I know the exact current number of players in Cantr? And characters?

[Oasis]

You can find that information at the bottom of your turn reports, Joshuamonkey.

[Chris]

You can find that information at the bottom of your turn reports, Joshuamonkey.

Oh yeah, forgot about that!

When I started playing 6 months ago, there were 1586 players and 8404 characters. As of the latest report, there are 1356 players and 7319 characters.

[Joshuamonkey]

When I started playing 6 months ago, there were 1586 players and 8404 characters. As of the latest report, there are 1356 players and 7319 characters. Sad

That's not good!

and thanks!

Edit: I realized that my post account is a lot higher now!
And then I say some other post counts:
MakeBeliever
Posts: 241

Wolf
Posts: 241

[SekoETC]

Aren't those in public statistics?

[ceselb]

Nope, they're not.

[Wolf]

There, now I have one more post than MakeBeliever! lol....
And the post counts can be seen next to someone's post, along with the join date.

[MakeBeliever]

Who needs binoculars to see spam..lol..
And thats us the same amount now Wolfy. Just another 482 spammings we need to whip the monkey number.
mines low as i'm not into spam fritters, i like quality not quantity.

[SekoETC]

Statistics (public version) Time trends

nr_of_chars: 7306 Granted that we couldn't see the value at an exact point if it weren't the case that we have hit an ALL TIME LOW. Or at least within the recorded period. Cantr population is crashing.

nr_of_players: the bottom was 1317 a few days ago. Now it's rising a little bit.

You might think that faster traveling and these navigational aids will encourage trade between islands but in fact they will only encourage exploring further. Remember the article with achievers, explorers, socializers and killers?

Ways to emphasise WORLD over PLAYERS:

* have only basic communication facilities
* have few ways that players can do things to other players
* make building facilities easy and intuitive
* maximise the size of the world (ie. add breadth)
* use only "rational" room connections in most cases
* grant building privileges to many
* have lots of mobiles

I think we have done just that. The world is too big, ways of interacting with people are limited to talking, pointing and hitting, buildings are cheap (but people don't dare to spend much time inside because no one would miss them and they would be bored).

I think maybe building and vehicle deterioration might balance things out a bit. Also the addition of windows might help. (Edit: And since there's starting to be more and more interaction between players of different language groups, we should have some hardcoded emotes like smiles (at someone), frowns, cries, waves, etc.)

Ways to emphasise ACTING over INTERACTING:

* provide a game manual
* include auto-map facilities
* include auto-log facilities
* raise the rewards for achievement
* have an extensive level/class system
* make commands be applicable wherever they might reasonably have meaning
* have large puzzles, that take over an hour to complete
* have many commands relating to fights
* only allow building by top-quality builders

I think the wiki covers point one. When everyone is allowed to know how to make things, there's no need to ask other people for help.
There are no maps OOC but ingame there are plenty of maps available. I think the world was much more interesting when there were unexplored regions even on your own home island. Or when I started, I didn't even know which ones of my characters were on which island, I didn't know there were several islands.
The next two points, autologging and rewards won't apply to Cantr.
Extensive level/class system is what we have done with the skills.
Commands and puzzles are not related to Cantr.
We have a pretty simple combat system but lots of weapons and the numeric values are readily available to anyone in the wiki.
I think the building thing is not applicable.

[Joshuamonkey]

And thats us the same amount now Wolfy. Just another 482 spammings we need to whip the monkey number.
mines low as i'm not into spam fritters, i like quality not quantity.

I have quality too! =p
And mine's really low compared to Seko's