Autonomous players: city strolls, 'ding!', thanks for buffs, and a first A/B result
Autonomous players now and then take a stroll in their capital (bank, auction house, inn), announce their levels and thank those who buff them. The A/B test pointed at abandoning hopeless fights as a likely cause of part of the excess mortality: it has been softened.
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New behaviour
- City strolls: roughly every 1 to 2.5 hours, from level 8, a player takes a stroll in the nearest friendly capital on their continent, going from place to place (banker, auctioneer, innkeeper) and lingering a while at each before resuming quests. Capitals are no longer empty.
- 'ding!': on each new level they sometimes say so ('ding', 'finally level 12') or cheer.
- Thanks: when another player buffs them, they usually /thank them.
Mortality: first A/B result
Over 37 minutes and 328 deaths, three of the four tested changes have no measurable effect (-5% to +1%). The fourth, abandoning hopeless fights, is associated with 24% more deaths: moving 20 m away to make the monster give up sometimes walked the player into other monsters. Abandoning stays (the target is set aside), without the blind retreat.
Since the latest fixes, notably the safer resurrection, mortality is back to about 3 deaths per minute per 100 players, versus 5.5 to 6 before.