Reset Announcement

We just finished the longest round of TMN since it’s in my hands, and although the end was more boring than any round before, the rest of the round seemed alright. When I got home on August 15th, it took more than “just a few days” to get used to being back in the Netherlands – spending 4 weeks in Africa really changes you! The next week I continued implementing feature improvements that were on my list. I am now confident that TMN can be back after (the semi-announced) 2 weeks, so it is time to make the actual announcement!

Here are the important dates: 

- TMN will go offline on September 7th at 18:00 TMN time (GMT+2*), 17:00 in the UK (GMT+1*)

- The new round will start on September 8th at 18:00 TMN time (GMT+2*), 17:00 in the UK (GMT+1*)

- There will be no pre-registration; when the countdown reaches 00:00 you can create your account

- Properties will be dropped on September 10th or 11th (when the economy reaches 400mil and the game houses 25 hitmen+)

- Property pickup fees will be like last round; 35mil for a BF, 15mil for a BJ, 5mil for other casinos (these may be changed later in the round)

- Minimum and maximum bullet prices will be like last round, and may be changed during the round as well

- A percentage of purchased credits will be returned on September 22nd or 23rd, more info on that will be provided later on

Some changes: 

- Rankup Requirements; no more scripting to legend using crimes or GTAs or jail, but OCs, DTMs, Killing, Traveling are also required!

- A new kind of scripttest; easier to complete than (re)captchas, harder to bypass using a script - wait and see!

- Cheaper credits in the credits store; roughly 35% more credits for the same amount of money!

- No more 10% bullets loss in the Artillery Bunker!

Of course there will be some more changes, but you’ll have to find these yourself during the round. We hope to see you then!

Marc

*: Note that we are currently in Daylight Saving Time.

Looking back at the round...

It's been nearly four months since I last posted a blog post, and although that could be considered a bad thing, I actually believe this game round has been going well! We still have 100'ish players online most of the time, and 200'ish players take the time to login every day! So what's been going on this round? Here's my view on things.

Changes from last round

We made a few changes this round, and I have to say they had a positive influence on the game. Here's a summary of those changes and the effects I noticed:
- Fewer cities decreased the amount of (useless) properties, which worked well.
- Artillery Bunker still lacks documentation but is being used - especially after certain players got banned for duping while holding loads of bullets.
- International Prison with minimum jailimes worked well, and increased traveling.
- Fixed bullet minimum and maximum prices worked well, tuning these allowed us to control the economy somewhat - which is also good.
- Easier killing is mainly noticed by the players, not by me.
- Script tests failed; scripts were tuned to stop or logout whenever one was sent out.
- First-to-post activity in the shoutbox and game forum added some activity, which was nice.
- Adding scums to GMW was fun to watch, and also added some activity.

Problems

Of course this round has seen problems as well, mainly the amount of cheating is a problem. Scripters shared their scripts, some even read the TOS to avoid getting caught, and others just created 50 accounts to rank them all up slowly while avoiding bans. Another related problem is that the auto-logouts became useless to certain scripts, and there was no real way for us to stop it.

We hope to (partially) tackle these problems next round by a set of changes that will not be published before that round. The main goal of these changes is to make the game more fair and make ranking more of an achievement rather than a logical consequence of scripting. Because most of this also depends on the players, I will once more repeat that creating 50 dupes is stupid and doesn't add any fun for anyone playing TMN. It's a game, and should not be played like that.

Long round

Possibly the best thing about this round, is its length; this round has been going for nearly 4 months, and will continue for at least another month and a half. I believe this knowledge causes players to not end the round by killing all players, but also motivates people to stick around - which is good in general. Players seem positive about it as well, and activity is still alright most of the time.

The reason for this round to last until at least mid-August, is the fact that I will be out of the country for a month. For TMN this meant that no round could be started between May and July, because there's always work for me during the first period in a round. Going out of the country "near the end" of a round is less of a problem, and was therefore preferred. 

So, when's the reset? 

I will be away starting July 17th. After my return on August 15th we will decide what happens to the round. Here we have a few possibilities:
1) Throwing TMN offline instantly (not preferred; announced resets are always better);
2) Throwing TMN offline 1-2 weeks later (possibly the best option);
3) Keeping TMN online for another month (if the round is still active);

After TMN goes offline, I need roughly 2 weeks to prepare the new round. After that I am sure we will have another nice round.

Marc

TMN Launch

Some players requested additional information regarding the launch, and although it's not so easy to plan ahead at this moment (I'll be away on Saturday and part of Sunday), I'll do my best to update you guys.

The full launch date and time time will be 11-03-2012 at 18:00 in the GMT+1 timezone (which is 17:00, 5PM in the UK). Before that (a couple of hours earlier) the pages you currently see will be replaced by the 'regular' pages (including login and registration page) displaying a countdown.

There will be no pre-registration, simply because there's too little time for that. From 18:00 on you will be able to register your new account.

As for properties: Properties will be dropped when we believe the economy holds enough money, and enough players meet the requirements. We believe having 25 hitmen in a game economy with close to 400mil, the properties will fall in good hands. Before that, System will hold them with reasonable maxbets, but no bullet production.

Marc

Back home, TMN offline

Last Saturday morning I arrived back in the Netherlands after a fun (yet busy) trip to Brazil, where myself and 15 others were doing research in the field of IT. The trip involved many visits to research institutes, companies and university departments, as well as some places important to the local culture and history (and beaches are part of that as well, logically).

After some rest, I pulled the plug on TMN in the evening, and replaced the game by a static page providing everyone with some information. Because of a slight jetlag (and being tired in general) nothing much was done on Saturday or Sunday.

Right now I am preparing a test environment, so we (Devious and myself, for now) can test the updated features, so the next round will have a smooth(er) start (than last round).

Some questions that were sent to my inbox have not yet been answered, so I will address those here:
* The percentage of credits that will be returned has not yet been decided;
* Properties will not be dropped before some players are ranked hitman+ and own more than 10mil;
* Property pickup fees will be there at the start of the round, but may be lowered/raised/removed later on, depending on the state of the game economy;

Marc

TMN Reset Announcement

Rumors have been around since week 3 of this round, but logically we never took those seriously. Even in early January we didn’t take them seriously, but when the economy dropped from more killings (and more after that), we had to get thinking and planning. As mentioned before; those two activities aren’t easy on me (), and consume most time. My personal planning is not so straightforward either; I have to plan around exams, projects, visits to cool countries and other occasions of extreme workload. For that reason we only had one option for the reset, but as players last year really hated me for announcing the reset early, I decided to wait with the announcement. Now is the time to post it though!

So, what’s the date? Here’s a draft of the planning I have in mind:

• On February 14th I leave the country for a warmer place
• On February 25th I return home, and pull the plug on this round of TMN :’(
• On Saturday, March 10th Sunday, March 11th we launch the next round, with improvements based on suggestions made (more on that later)

Below you’ll find a list of accepted suggestions and our own ideas:

• Fewer cities and networks
• Artillery Bunkers: keeping some bullets after you die (credits store option)
• International Prison (possibly with minimum jail-times before someone can break you out)
• Losing health on numerous occasions (OC, jailbreak, GTA) to limit scripting a little
• Easier killing of people wearing protection (this seems to have been a bit extreme this round)
• A TOS update on “duping”; we’ll be more strict
• A TOS update on “scripting”; manual script tests may return

Marc

Due to another meeting on March 10th, the launch had to be postponed by one day, and will be on March 11th.

Pre-registration, more updates

Like last year, you will be able to register your account prior to the launch. This time, pre-registration will open on Tuesday, November 1st somewhere in the afternoon (TMN time, GMT+1). From then on, the communication platform will only be accessible from http://platform.tmn2010.net.

And as promised, some more updates:
- If you use a mobile device, or a (relatively) low screen resolution, you will now be able to switch to a more mobile-friendly layout.
- The TOS has been updated: Doing an OC with another player (1!) on your IP is no longer a problem, and interacting with others on your (mobile 3g?) IP is not a problem as long as amounts are reasonable.
- Profiles are a lot more customizable now, you can choose to show or hide avatar and phone, the amount of kills on your name, all kills (including name and rank) and other statistics.
- Bankrupting a casino now makes you the owner of the casino.
- The minimum casino bet has been raised to $1000, to keep casinos at least playable when the owners are away.

Marc

TMN Launch Date!

Ouch, has it been this long?! Yes, it’s been like half a year since TMN was replaced by a boring communication platform. I am however glad I made the decision to create this with top priority, as it’s a lot better than an empty page!

It is time to end the communication platform phase though: as of November 3rd 2011 18:00 (GMT+1 timezone) , the communication platform will be replaced by the good old (yet new) TMN again!

The final weeks before the launch will be spent on the new features as well as testing features we didn’t give testers access to (for security reasons). Like last year, pre-registration will be enabled a couple of days before the launch*, allowing you to reserve your name. From then on, the communication platform will no longer be accessible from the main website, but from another link instead*

*: Information regarding pre-registration and the new link for the communication platform will be provided later.

Marc

ps. If you applied for a staff position and were rejected before, please check your e-mail inbox again. We just invited a few more players to help us during the final phase of testing.