First I would like to say thank you to you and your team for doing such a terrific job! You have made a game where people of all ages, from all over the world can come together and have fun.
Recently you have added a new feature "Reserve Task" a few weeks back. This was a marvelous idea to help communication within a co-op figure out who is taking what. After being able to test this for some time, speaking with other co-ops and how they use this feature, come to some conclusions I wanted to share with you. I do not want any credit for this; just simply sharing an idea to some brilliant developers.
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Findings of my research:
- Co ops that are large and competitive will not even use this feature as it slows everyone down. there is nothing more to add to this as some found it to be negative in some form or another.
-Co ops that are large but not competitive in the means of doing all 16 tasks @ 130+ will use this in a wide variety of ways. Some renaming it to a "Do not dump" option to tell others not to dump it. Some use it as intended with no issues and praise the addition. The others have to apply additional rules within their co op to use it properly and not be misused.
-Co ops that are small either praise this feature or do not use it. 50/50 split.
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Suggestions to overcome these obstacles:
Use the reserve system exactly as its coded; we will just be adding one thing and then limiting 2 other areas. First a look at what the area that will be added would be located.
Below where the 12 available tasks and above the statistics button / Tasks you have done or doing. This is where 4 empty icon box's will be added. These box's are for the "reserved tasks" selected from the above 12 tasks.
In order to get one of the four box's filled, you would do exactly as you would now: Go to the task you desire. Click on the reserve task icon. And then it would move that task from the above 12 into the bottom 4. No more than 4 tasks from your co-op may be reserved at a single given moment. When this happens the yellow icon to reserve a task will be greyed out. Once taken this will begin a reset timer on the top 12's tasks, and the task reserved will moved with an 8 hour timer on the task selected to the bottom row. only that player may take the task, and will not be available to be stolen from another co op member (meaning you wont need that additional pop up box saying, are you sure) Only a Leader or Co-Leader may abandon reserved tasks by other players if a potential clog would arise.
One last restriction would need to implemented in order for this to flow properly I believe. If a person cancels the reserved task, it simply gets removed. They will not be penalized nor will their co op. This will give a sense of responsibility to the player and make us feel confident about our actions.
PRO's:
1: A co op will no longer need to add specific rules to the system. The tip for dumping tasks under 125 still applies on the wiki.
2: Reserving tasks will no longer hinder the co op as it has been placed in its separate category.
3: It allows players to reserve a task for a period of time that would otherwise be left open to the co op to decide, no more grey area.
CON's:
1: Limits a co op to 4 people out of the current possibility of 12 people able to serve a task at any given moment.
2: Would now limit the amount of time a person can reserve a task.
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I will continue to brainstorm and edit this post if additional ideas or comments get incorporated as a part of a solution/fix to making the reserve a fantastic feature everyone could enjoy.
Thank you so much for you, the reader, as well. This was a little lengthy and I appreciate taking the time to hear an idea from a fellow Township player.
Also a Thank you to the moderators of this forum, you do an incredible job keeping the communities moral up and upbeat for things to come!