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Contracts
Hello..Not sure if it is just me but it seems that when I contract an assassin/champions, the contracts are hardly ever getting taken care of. Not sure if I am getting unlucky and crappy assassins chosen, or if this is common.
Wanted to see if anybody else had any thoughts, ideas, or solutions to be implemented on this matter, as well as anything else in the mark system.
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Comments
Basically the problem is that inactive people or people that are basically inactive are getting contracts for the Ivory mark.
Penwize has cowardly forfeited the challenge to mortal combat issued by Atalkez.
I don't think players should be allowed to pick their Marks, I think the system that determines whether someone is active enough to be assigned a contract should be re-evaluated and made stricter.
The idea and implementation are good ones, the thing that doesn't work is when contracts are assigned to 'active' Marks that are only active enough to be assigned contracts, but have no desire to complete them.
Cascades of quicksilver light streak across the firmament as the celestial voice of Ourania intones, "Oh Jarrod..."
@Carmell: Or they're getting contracts on people with totally different playing schedules, people with Veils/Hoods when they don't have one (which makes it harder, but not impossible, to complete contracts), or on targets who themselves aren't very active.
Results of disembowel testing | Knight limb counter | GMCP AB files
I got one on my alt (that was a writ for Sartan) and completed it, haven't gotten another in the last 2-3 weeks.
I've had two since the system went in, and one of those was cancelled almost immediately after it was taken out.
Results of disembowel testing | Knight limb counter | GMCP AB files
I've noticed that it seems like receiving a contract and having it cancelled basically screws you out of whatever 'rotation' there is for contracts, where it would ideally insert you much higher in the queue than prior.
It might do this, but it doesn't feel like it.
Cascades of quicksilver light streak across the firmament as the celestial voice of Ourania intones, "Oh Jarrod..."
Isn't there a some sort of mark ranking system based on number completed? If not, maybe there should be? It would get reset every RL month, and Marks who are more active (not just actively but actively completing contracts as well) would get more contracts than someone who is semi active or simply isn't completing contracts.
I had someone tell me today that they are getting contracts and they only log in a couple times a rl month. Basically said they should probably quit mark to stop getting contracts.
@Kresslack There are rankings, but I'm not sure if the system has been around enough for it to have really made a difference yet. I can only see the Ivory rankings, but there's a lot of grouping with people on similar ranks. My ranking has been taking huge periodic hits where I've had old contracts expire on targets I never really see.
I think @Makarios said you needed to have logged in in the last few RL days to get a contract in the other thread about them, but I could be wrong. If people who are logging in "a couple times a rl month" are getting contracts then something might need to be looked at.
Results of disembowel testing | Knight limb counter | GMCP AB files
This already exists. Those who are higher ranked from completing contracts have a higher probability of receiving new contracts than those who are lower ranked (either from contract decay or failure), the probabilities and whatnot are a system that isn't disclosed.
Cascades of quicksilver light streak across the firmament as the celestial voice of Ourania intones, "Oh Jarrod..."
I'll resubmit an idea I submitted when the system first came out, that I think would help several issues at once:
Factor in the amount of gold offered for the contract. Have "free" contracts more likely to go to lower ranked marks, and have contracts with very high amounts offered go to marks that are consistently completing contracts.
This kills quite a few birds with one stone, if you think about it. One of which (which I haven't heard mentioned, but bothers me a bit) is that with the current system, it almost seems a little stupid to offer any gold on top of contracts, since you have no way of knowing or influencing who will get it. There's no way I'm going to offer 20,000 gold, on top of the ~5k needed to hire on someone, but if I know that offering 20k will not only influence my mark to try much harder, but also increase the odds of getting a better mark assigned, then I'd definitely consider it.
@Ernam I'm pretty sure that's already put in place regarding the gold factoring into what 'level' of Mark you get.
Also, I think I've gotten at least 10 contracts. Granted, I'm also heavily active and have fulfilled/failed all of them
That'd be awesome. Haven't heard anything on it, and I'm a stickler for reading announces.
But if it was sneakily put it or I just missed it, then big thumbs up either way.
I have yet to have much luck with getting contracts fulfilled. I just decided not to hire anymore.
I think another part of the problem, and an understandable one, is that people don't want to use this new system because of how ineffectual it is by design early on. It's a system that, given RL months to play out and a lot of contracts to distribute, would raise up those who complete them most efficiently and slowly drain the points of those who are barely active or fail them regularly.
Unfortunately, given the low odds of getting a contract completed successfully in the new system before all that has come to pass, a decent amount that would normally hire are simply saving their gold, keeping the system is the early stages of progress. I don't blame them, it's perfectly reasonable to not want to be one of the people dumping gold into the system to eventually make it work.
Cascades of quicksilver light streak across the firmament as the celestial voice of Ourania intones, "Oh Jarrod..."
I've had a few contracts. Completed one successfully, failed one and had one expire. I still have three in my pool, all for people I never see logged on.
Perhaps those who don't wish to complete their contracts should no longer be marks? I think there should be a ic 10 month rule. If the contract isn't done in 10 months it fails. 3 failed contracts loses your status as a mark. @Tecton
This already exists with the Mark ranking system, if your rank gets low enough, you're ousted from the marks and refused re-entry.
We also had a ranking decay when the system was first put in, where marks would have to complete contracts to maintain their position. The issue there was that there were not enough contracts coming in to support the drain. We're still pondering tweaks and changes though, maybe we will put it back in, just at a slower rate.
Why not make it so a mark has to agree in order to get a contract? Declining it would be the same as failing it, so declining would not help you at all with rank, and if you didn't accept it within a certain period of time, you'd automatically decline.
I only say this because I haven't been playing Terra for a long time (but apparently log in for one minute at a time often enough to not be officially "dormant") and last time I logged in to check messages, I had gotten -six- contracts while I was what I would consider "dormant." I ended up quitting the mark to keep this from happening from now on, but I don't think a city should suffer because a player like me -doesn't- bother quitting mark. It'd be fine if not being around forced me to decline contracts and declining too many forced me out of mark, imo. Then it's me who suffers and not a bunch of random people trying to contract marks.
I have to agree that its a major problem. Out of the twelve or so contracts I've had 2 were completed, 4 failed, and all except 4 decayed, and those have been stagnant for a month or so. By the time a contract is completed-if it even is- I have no clue what I even hired for anymore. So when you can't fight the games top ten combatants yourself it kind of urges them on towards unfairly attacking people since there will be no repercussions.
Declining contracts shouldn't affect your rank. It should just put the contract back into the pool and assign it to another mark. Otherwise there's a good chance marks will take contracts they probably shouldn't simply because they're trying to maintain good rankings. A side-effect of that would be that there are some individuals who would never get contracts placed on them because no marks will take the contract. Reasons for that could be RP (organization/city/order reasons why the can't take the contract - which are being fixed as they come up), veils and/or the target has a propensity for being inactive or never leaves ship/city/etc. and is near-impossible to get to, broken class mechanics (hello, Sylvan?) make the target pointless to engage 1v1 thus requiring less savory tactics to complete said contract, etc.
Losing mark rank for declining contracts would effectively help hide those issues because I think most people would not "back down" from contracts in fear of losing mark rank. Plus it seems unfair when the system is essentially RNG. You might be a really successful assassin or champion because you got a bunch of contracts on easy targets... Then the RNG gives you Lothiacs and Tiracs and Dunns and your ranking goes to shit with a quickness.
We did change it recently so it looks at your activity, rather than how long it has been since you've logged in, so if you're just logging in to check your messages once a week, you will have a much lower chance than someone who is plays 20+ hours a week.
I think that's a fine side effect, tbh. I imagine it would be something like:
A contract has been assigned to you by the (Quisalis|Ivory) Mark, please visit <org denizen> to accept the contract.
You wouldn't get name, you wouldn't get hirer, you would get nothing besides "you have a contract available." If you don't accept within 7 RL days or you refuse, you lose the 8 points that is standard with failing a contract. Your incentive to continue accepting contracts is that you -will- lose points for not accepting. As for taking contracts that you have no chance with, I think that's just part of the system in general. You could be randomly assigned a contract you have no reasonable chance of completing as is, so you either accept the loss or you try to be clever enough to kill the person anyways, you know you have the contract, they don't.
Assuming you weren't informed any specifics about the contract before accepting it, there would be no difference in assignment than currently, simply an 'are you dormant' check. Additionally, the original message would ideally be delayed a random amount between 12-24 hours, this way you could prevent:
clan OOC tell Hey who just hired someone? I want to know if it's on someone I can't kill.
The random delay would enable a lesser penalty for declining as well, so someone who's 'dormant' will slowly lose rank, but slower than someone who is actively failing contracts? Dunno if that should be a thing at all.
Cascades of quicksilver light streak across the firmament as the celestial voice of Ourania intones, "Oh Jarrod..."
Should allow Transmog and soulcage to complete contracts also imo
Negs
Transmog and Soulcage -should- complete contracts. They should also have unique deathsights for when they're triggered.
It's silly for two factions to have 'do-over's.
Cascades of quicksilver light streak across the firmament as the celestial voice of Ourania intones, "Oh Jarrod..."