Saturday 4 April 2015

Development Blog #0016 - Leaderboards and the quest for Big Data

Leaderboards
Soon, you'll be able to compete for the top spot on Wool's leaderboards.  The most awesome player will hoard the most resources, own the best stuff, and have the most bases, in the shortest amount of time.  I call this score "Efficiency".  You can join in the competition using your GameCenter login -- your scores are posted automatically.

Save Games
You can now save your progress.  When you leave the app, it automatically saves your game -- so you can continue dominating later.

UI Updates
I updated the inventory / storage screen so that it's easier to transfer resources between you and your bases.

Bugs Fixes
Things like being killed in your own base, base upgrade bugs, and cost issues are resolved.

Big Data Collection
I want to collect data on how you play the simulator.  Theres a popup asking if I can do that when you start the app.  Please let it upload -- I'm trying to collect the data so I can build a mathematical argument for raiding changes in Rust.

Looking Ahead
Having a big mass of data from the players of Wool will let me make mathematical claims about raiding.  In short, I'd like to see some way to pour raw resources into raiding tools at each tier of play, without the need for scare blueprints.  In Rust, raiding tools would look like drills, or catapults, or rams, or explosives.  These are big, expensive items that will grant you the ability to ruin someone's day.

Allow me to explain myself
This update was all about getting more people playing regularly.  I added leaderboards to make it more social, and more competitive.  I added save games so you could feel invested in the time you put in.  And I made the interface more pleasant to use.  This stuff makes the game more fun so that players will keep coming back.  I want more players and frequent players so I can collect the aforementioned data.
In the spirit of getting more data, I'll likely begin the Android version if the iOS version has enough value.


More about me
I started making WOOL back in November 2014, when raiding in Rust was non-existent due to some crazy wall health regeneration.  I'm so passionate about games like Rust that I'm willing to continue to put countless hours into making them more fun for me to play.
But things have changed.

I moved to China at the start of March, 2015 to pursue my lovely girlfriend Ving.  She was an exchange student from China studying at my Canadian university.  We fell in love, so when she had to leave, I went with her.


The only problem with this plan
Is that the closest Rust server is in Hong Kong.  That's 300ms away!  It's unbearable to play Rust with that amount of latency.  Now, in order to get my Rust fix -- I work on or play Wool.  


I hope you'll read my blogs as this story unfolds.
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