January was the first month I was able to watch games closely. Last year I was writing my book and didn’t have much time to police things. Last year was filled with a few people causing trouble on the site and making things fairly miserable for most players. What I saw this month is that these players where not showing any indication of stopping even though I had asked and warned. These guys had even been banned before and had pleaded for another chance only to screw it up again. The result? A tough month for me but I’m happy with the outcome:
| 1st | Linch | 245,045◆ | ↑5,994 / ↓3,296 | 245,045◆ / 8◆ |
| 2nd | montecarlo | 231,337◆ | ↑6,434 / ↓3,410 | 239,783◆ / 4◆ |
| 3rd | kam|k? | 188,463◆ | ↑6,801 / ↓3,296 | 188,463◆ / 0◆ |
| 4th | yellowfin | 183,872◆ | ↑5,851 / ↓3,337 | 187,947◆ / 122◆ |
| 5th | dasfury | 170,993◆ | ↑6,442 / ↓2,920 | 180,508◆ / 467◆ |
| 6th | vicsf | 142,848◆ | ↑5,708 / ↓3,296 | 151,357◆ / 0◆ |
| 7th | nexon | 141,361◆ | ↑6,612 / ↓3,337 | 144,730◆ / 80◆ |
| 8th | JeremyS | 114,629◆ | ↑5,943 / ↓2,776 | 119,082◆ / 604◆ |
| 9th | Vohaul | 112,004◆ | ↑5,071 / ↓2,776 | 113,113◆ / 0◆ |
| 10th | Snews88 | 111,897◆ | ↑6,222 / ↓2,941 | 115,517◆ / 343◆ |
This month also pushed me to add a new feature for Feb. KDice now detects if you are teaming up with certain players and restricts you from sitting with them for the rest of the month. Early tests showed this would only affect around 1% of the players. I’ll keep my eye on it. It will definitely create a new dynamic.
Also new for Feb:
- Flag sync bug is fixed
- The flag is now bigger and more noticable
- Table size is now show in the Change Table dialog
- Table size gets slightly bigger at each different level
- Starting dice variance increased
- Moved back to zero sum for the upper tables – this also means January’s scores may need to be adjusted along with career stats. I’ll probably wait until the end of this month to see where things should go.
- Stats on leaderboard that require a minimum # of games use the average # of games played per player as the minimum instead of 5. At the end of Jan the average games was 60 (yes, 800 games is excessive)
- Better leaderboard stats!
- Most Wins – top five total 1st place wins for the month
- Most Dom – highest average dominance share for the month
- Most Aggressive – highest number of attacks vs defends
- Most Defessive – highest defends vs attacks’
- Refill dice are in the message log at the end of each turn
- Luck table more accurate… should fix the 49% luck average.
Also, members now get 2500 points to start the month and there is now a 3 month member option for $10.
Finally, you probably noticed by now that there is a KDice blog. I probably won’t have much to say during the month so I encourage people to apply to be a writer for the blog. If you think you have something interesting to say on an ongoing basis send me an email and I’ll create an account for you.
February 1, 2008 at 9:37 am
First, thank you for all your efforts. I just started playing last month and having a developer who regularly interacts with his peeps is fantastic.
Secondly, I’d like to apply to be a contributor to the blog. I am very new to Kdice and it may be nice to have someone learning the ropes post semi/oddly/maybe frequently. Let me know.
February 1, 2008 at 9:44 am
Like a d-bag I forgot to email you……
February 1, 2008 at 10:08 am
Sweet changes! I can’t wait for the new month competition to start. And if I fail my exams I can blame Ryan.
February 1, 2008 at 11:03 am
Dev blog, great idea. As you say, stuff gets lost on the forums. I’ve been away for a few months so it was interesting to come back and see the changes.
> Table size gets slightly bigger at each different level
That’s going to be a nice touch I think.
I must be being thick though as I can’t work out how to get to my profile and find my old friends list??
February 1, 2008 at 1:49 pm
congrats on your blog. nice update.
i feel that the game and the forum have been taken control by a certain group of players and the situation seemed to be quite out of control. i find coming and playing with these people no fun at all. i don’t know what the solution should be other than banning them. please be more strick and stern with these people. they took the fun away from the game.
thanks and good luck on your book.
February 1, 2008 at 4:49 pm
A++ Blog will read again. The updates sound really nice way to keep trying to make the game better.
February 1, 2008 at 5:05 pm
The kdice is a great game, but it was funnier before with elo rating system don’t you think so Ryan? In this new system you lose all your points at the begining of the month, so it is really sad, me myself I have gained 8k points just yesterday, so I have to beging with 0 again? It realy looks no sense for me, i think points or rating must be preserved somehow. I think many will agree with me
February 1, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Thank you Ryan for the updates! I see you’ve added 2000 points for members! Would you accept a Burger King Crown card for payment?
February 2, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Umm, the flag sync bug is still not fixed. Just so you know it… I flagged on my turn for 3rd place and the server gave me 4th.
February 3, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Hey Ryan,
Nice touch with the blog. I just don’t agree with 2500 points for members if this is a competition… as the game is it’s just a matter of time to collect points and basically it gives members about one week head start on a month’s worth of competition. it’s just not sportsmanlike to do that, giving a competing edge.
Anyway, i understand you’d like to have contributions but maybe you can offer something else rather than points. give members access to additional stats for example.
February 4, 2008 at 12:21 pm
why new maps are all so small? It sucks!
February 12, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Hi there. Great game you’ve got. I’d be interested in you blogging a few articles about the development.
February 14, 2008 at 1:32 am
can’t understand why you don’t keep the scores rolling. would generate far more continuous play. the end.
March 8, 2008 at 1:45 am
I just wanted to say I have really enjoyed this game. Thank you.