Hey everybody,
Following your discussions and concerns over the weekend with regards to our recent XP farming communication, we sat down with everyone involved and evaluated all of your feedback, and we’d like to clarify some things.
Why are we implementing these changes? Many have attributed these changes to reasons relating to microtransactions, but this is not the case. Ultimately, we want the intended audience of Story Creator Mode to be as happy with the feature as they can possibly be, and right now narrative content is being sidelined. After receiving strong player and creator feedback since launching the tool we felt some further regulations were needed, for the following reasons:
- Visibility of quality quests was a serious issue for our Story Creators.
Shortly after the launch of the tool, the recommended Stories in-game and on the website were flooded with XP farming quests, which buried the creative content. Consequently, we were approached by the Story Creators themselves to help their Stories gain visibility, and by players who were complaining about the availability of Stories created to entertain the player.
- Potential game breaking loadouts
We fear levels gained through playing farming quests could create an imbalance; as players level up enemies can match their level but their gear may remain the same, leaving them in problematic position.
In the context of our upcoming adjustments, we ask that players keep this in mind when starting any XP farming quest.
No player ban.
At no point did we say we would ban players from the game for creating XP farming quests. We will be sanctioning players by hiding their XP farm quests from the website and recommendation system, and if reported they will be removed, in order to let quality quests shine through.
Below you’ll find some clarification on the adjustments that we’re planning following the feedback and discussions we’ve seen over the weekend.
In an effort to reduce the impact on the visibility of Stories created for entertainment, we’ll be introducing the following changes:
- Stories that are too short to provide a minimum quality of narrative will be automatically hidden from the website but will still be available via shared links.
- Implement further solutions: We're currently looking into adjusting how XP is being distributed, and have been since launch. We will give more details on this at a later date, and once we're ready to test the changes, we're counting on your feedback so that we can adjust accordingly, as we have since launch.
- We will not be manually removing Stories reported as exploits. If Stories are reported as exploits by more than 20% of players they will be automatically removed by our moderation system, as is the same for any kind of report.
This thread remains open so that you can provide us with your thoughts and feedback. This is one of the major benefits to remaining in open beta while we address these issues. As always, we are very grateful for your overwhelming support for Story Creator Mode, hopefully we can continue to work together to make this tool the best it can be.
- AC Community and Development teams
It would be helpful, please, to have further clarity. These are some questions that came to my mind:
1) You will be using your automated moderation system to determine which stories are available via searching on the website and which ones are available only via having elsewhere learned the link?
2) The criteria that the automated system will use is based on whether or not the story is “too short”? Too short in terms of average play length? What IS that length?
3) Does this mean that ALL stories are initially on your website until there is an average length of play that, if too short, shuttles it over to the “shared link only” area? How many plays before an average length is deemed to be accurate?
3) Should Creators be concerned that if others think their story might look too much like a “farm”, then they had better make sure they are short enough to not fall under a wider audience of reporting? In other words, are longer form farms the ones now most likely to be completely removed?
4) Whether for exploits or other reasons, when is the 20% criteria for story removal applied? If just 1 out of the first 5 plays results in reporting, is the story automatically removed at that point?
5) Since you will have an area of “shared link only” for farms, what is the point in having those stories STILL subject to total removal for having them reported as farms?
6) Is it possible for a Creator to publish directly into that “shared link only” area to try and prevent the story from going into an environment where its exposure can lead to that 20% reporting as a farm and, thus, having the story removed altogether?
Thank you.
I rather doubt that. And I don't believe that you would honestly tell your playerbase if it was the case.Originally Posted by FredEx919 Go to original post
You won't be able to farm XP if a quest is giving little to no XP, right?Originally Posted by FredEx919 Go to original post
The word "exploits" should not be said by a company who sells exploits for real money. You sound hypocritical.Originally Posted by FredEx919 Go to original post
In my opinion the best way battle this and give players the ability to farm and have quality quests, is to let the creator decide the category of the provided content. story quests will be visible and farming quests will be visible if the player wish to see them (a drop down menu that will organize the content).
Something like this.
I think that ubisoft should go the way CDPROJEKT red did in the witcher 3 and give minimal XP for killing stuff.
Yes. They still will be on the website, just not display in the search engine.Originally Posted by MidasMagoo Go to original post
I won't divulgue the algo we're using for three reasons :Originally Posted by MidasMagoo Go to original post
- It's mine and I love to keep my little secrets
- We're still in beta, it can evolved pretty much every day (and it will)
- It's mine
First, there is a typo. You should read it as [20]%, meaning that this criteria is subject to change as we improve the tool. About the "when", same thing as above : it will be adjusted depending on the results we have.Originally Posted by MidasMagoo Go to original post
For the same reason that any others stories will be removed : the community didn't want it in the website. Like we said, it will be automatic, we're not going to remove them by hand.Originally Posted by MidasMagoo Go to original post
No but I like the idea.Originally Posted by MidasMagoo Go to original post
No, thank you. For realOriginally Posted by MidasMagoo Go to original post![]()
Just for clarification: Will the stories automatically removed after the [20]% or more reporting, still be available via links, or will they be removed altogether?
I'm looking for clarification, because it may stop the people who want XP farms from continuing to complain about their removal. I think they will be happy as long as they can share their stories by other means, and we creators will be happy because our stories with actual content will receive more exposure.
I’m quite certain Ubisoft is saying that reported stories will be removed completely and become unavailable by any link while “suspected farms” based on the algorithm will be moved to “shared link” status.Originally Posted by TechGladiator Go to original post
Somehow, [20]% dislike equals “the community” doesn’t want them while [80]% like counts for naught.