Hello fair Elyrians,
There was recently a discussion in the #domain-and-settlement-selection Discord channel that looked to deserve being brought to the forums for laying out of points, community awareness, and studio awareness on concerns.
Specifically, this relates to the decision to extend the server selection period as can be read here and two concerns that arise from this.
Depending on how selection timers are calculated for those who have locked later, it is hypothetical one could move their selection timer ahead of what would be possible by those who had locked by the original deadline of April 22nd. Say if one had gained Influence since the 29th, locked their server, and their timer was then calculated based on their influence at the time of locking their server and could still be moved forward.
Those who have not locked by the original deadline of April 22nd have gained an advantage in a few ways,
- They've not locked in by the 22nd and suffered no penalties for such as was implied they would.
- They are able to lock their server with more information than those that locked going into the 22nd via knowing which slot each Kingdom is now locked into on each server.
- They've suffered none of the various minor opportunity costs that come from server locking while keeping all of the benefits.
Those points being what they are, I personally do not see them as major or a cause for concern at this time. For #1 it would be concerning if this is indeed the case of things but it is only hypothetically possible and could be mitigated with historical data on influence.
For instance, one could lock their server past April 29th and their timer could be calculated based on what their influence was on the 29th. Then any influence they have gained since then and gain until DSS could be applied towards their cap on how far forward their timer could be moved per their tier with of course any excess past the cap doing nothing for their pick timer. In this way, anyone locking late would affect their peers only in the same manner they would have if they had locked in by the 22nd anyway.
My concern with this is if the historical data on all user influence from the 29th is not available this solution is no longer viable. In such a case I believe those locking late should be placed at the end of their tier's selection window and pick compared to one another there. While I feel the above would be the best solution, in either case, to address concern #1 even then I do not see the concern as all that major, to be a serious practical issue it will need,
- A domain holder to have not locked into a server by the 22nd.
- A domain holder to lock in while this grace period is up and not once again miss the deadline.
- A domain holder to gain enough influence so as to go past their hypothetical timer cap.
- A domain holder who in turn can capitalize on the forward time they've thus accrued by being available to pick their domain or settlement near when their selection time can start.
To my thinking, the number of cases where all four of these conditions apply will be small especially for higher tiers where the amount of influence required to move one's timer to the cap is likely already significant.
For #2 it is indeed true that those who did not lock by the 22nd have gained an advantage in some areas but I see those as all well worth the benefit the game and community gains from title holders picking domains they are more likely to enjoy and the simple compassion of not punishing a fellow Elyrian for missing a button click that they forgot or did not realize they needed to make.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree or feel differently? Please keep your posts constructive where possible! (If there was a thread for this and I missed it my apologies)
