Fellow rangers (trackers) heed my call!

[MatronDeWinter]

cA Department of the Census

[cA] has christened a new addition to its research department.

As you may know, we are leaders in the field of in-game research, awardees of several research grants, and developers of propietary training measures in various studies. Recently several openings have been made available to fellowship candidates holding a Doctorate (GM) in Tracking.

As a fellow of cA you are not guarunteed admittance to the guild. You will work alongside the cA research team on a new project to better the shard as a whole and broaden the minds of fellow players. This may be considered an unpaid internship, but your work will be widely respected throughout the lands. The data collected in this excercise will help players of all templates/styles.

This is NOT a player-ran or shard event, rather, this is a call for individuals to help develop a dense population map of the shard that can be scaled to emulate various times. Why a dense population map? People looking for people may refer to this data to better allocate time, and thereby have more time to enjoy the game. People looking to stay hidden will benefit by learning uncharted and unpopulated areas where they can go about their business. An overall hypothesis is that with broadened knowledge of population density, the server (players rather) will adjust to more evenly distribute throughout the lands. One other possible outcome is the localization of social settings, players may find new places in which to socialize. It's really a win-win scenario.

The goal of this study is to measure the deviation between two spaced yet concurrent studies. Applicants must be able to..

Track with a level of Grandmaster (applicatants with 75 will be considered)
Log in-game and perform a simple procedure at a key point three times a day.
This routine will be constant for an entire real-life week.

The data collected at the end of the term will be evaluated and compiled with time-organized online data to create a population map of sosaria. If you are interested in lending a hand, please post your Track skill, and availability in this thread, or alternatively, via pm directly to me.

This study is scheduled to begin on Monday, Feb 1. The timeslots may be variable, though I will try my best to schedule this in a fashion acceptable by all participants.

Thank you for your time.

[Pristiq]

I'm in. (tracking's high 80s or something; gains a little bit every few days.)

[BlackFoot]

ill start macoin a guy up

[Hicha]

All your hidden base are belong to cA.

I'll macro up a guy if you need additional help.

[DarkWing]

All your hidden base are belong to cA.

I'll macro up a guy if you need additional help.

i'll take a crack at this!

[Wise]

i have a 90+ tracking, I am down

[Mikel123]

I'd suggest sticking to GM Trackers; it's an easy skill to GM, takes maybe 2 overnight sessions. And in my experience, there is a tangible difference between 100 and 75 tracking.

Anyways I have a GM tracker I'm happy to donate to the cause.

[MatronDeWinter]

Great, Great, Great! Getting a good response for this study! Might need a few more people to lighten the load, those who can participate, please pm me your tracking skill (as it will be on Sunday night) and your availability throughout the week.

Thanks!

Edit: I should also clarify, I was getting some responses from people under the impression that this is PK-focused. The idea is to more evenly disperse players and create a shift in the hunting hot-spots. I know these hotspots are "hot" for a reason, but I can assure you, there are TONS of great spots that nobody ever goes too. I'd like to see a more even population as well as analyse the trends in idling (where people "hang out").

I know somepeople firmly believe that to be truly T2A era-accurate we should cut off some of the map, to better mimic the population of T2A. This study will aide the overall research relating to population. I am a firm believer in limiting everyone only to certain areas to promote player-interaction, but I realise the innaccuracies in that. I would love to find a suitable alternative that could be created/enjoyed by the players, without begging for staff interaction.

[Faust]

It would be kind of neat if this type of data was compiled during world saves being placed in a world map that could be viewed on MyUOSA.

The only downside to this would probably be a very slight impact on performance during the save periods.

The only key difference between the two is complete accurate data on a consistant basis, where the player generated system above would have to be kept up non-stop by players. This could make the map inconsistant in the future unless it's maintained for obvious reasons.

Very good idea though.

[Arcott Ramathorn]

I am a firm believer in limiting everyone ...

Please No, This was the mantra of the last shard i played and it consolidated its population alright...on other servers. Im just glad we dont have to worry about that happening here, Thank you Derrick.


On another note, Is this plan to "out" peoples out of the way hunting spots? I know you said this isnt a pk-centric project, and ive always loved CA's exploits because of that tradition, but i cant imagine another tangible use for it other than for pks to figure out more hot spots to ghost. (see what i did there i rattled the people who are passionate about ghosting into having an opinion...now if i could bring up housing overpopulation too this thread will fill up quick!)

[archaicsubrosa77]

Is this going to also include player establishments, density of housing, places of heavy overland traffic etc eventually in the future?

[Mikel123]

I have a UOAM file with the location of every house bigger than a 7x7 on it.

I'm constantly surprised at how quickly things change, but it's a real good approximation of the current shard.

I highly suggest people do this. It takes 3-4 hours, but is tons of fun exploring the shard, and it's worth your time if you sell your knowledge of house spots (and/or IDOCs).

[MatronDeWinter]

Okay,

Faust,
I really like that idea.

Arcott,
Dont worry, I'm a nobody. Besides, a change like that would NEVER happen here, it's not accurate. I just meant that the balance between total landmass and players should have a certain ratio to promote social interaction. Imagine if the server only held 10 players, what are the chances of ever seeing another soul.

Archaic,
Yes, good to see you looking ahead. I want to create a base map with this study and see where it goes from there.

Still need a few volunteers.