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Oct-25-2004 11:41

Everyday, the treasure hunts seems to be a "top 10 agencys" contest. Both in terms of participation and winning. It is always the same agencys competiting. A few smaller and newer ones may compete but they always had this partern: they are newly formed, are eager to try the hunt but after awhile when they realised they can't win, they all just give up. The hunt may be based a large part on luck but a 12 members agency with more favors surely had a better chance than a 4 members agency. For these agencys, paying for the information is as good as a donation. I was told that only winner get the fame points. So i had a suggestion: how about awarding fame points to those who had gain percentage towards the hunt too. Eg. in a 500 fame pts hunt. winner gets the full points while agency that is 20%, gain 20% of 500 divided by 4. This way, the winner still win much more pts then agency who got 80%, they win only 0.8*500/4= 100 pts. I felt this could encourage the smaller agency to play the hunt as there is a reward for it. They may not win the hunt but with the potential fame pts gain, they will want to gain pts to compete against other smaller agency. Thanks.

Nov-18-2004 18:52

sure it got alittle frustrating at times to lose when only one key away from winning, just to see it won by someone else, and it wouldn't have mattered who, still we were determined. Determination is what it takes and not getting discouraged in this game. A quitter never wins, or a winner never quits...right? Things seemed to be looking up for Lone Wolf. We started climbing in rank form number 20, to our final rank of 7th place (when we dissolved it). Over a period of time, one by one our agents couldn't join us in the hunts, and soon we took it upon us to solve their cases, as well as our own. They allowed us to use their passwords, so we had to solve three cases for each of them to get their next favor, and if you've never done this, or you have, then you'll know that this is alot of hard hard work, and very taxing. We tried to keep all agents exp. pts up, and/or money, but it was taking a toll on us. Then we thought about hiring a couple of new agents that might help, which turned out one was in college, another was moving away, so we wound up with more cases to solve...lol. Eventually, out of desperation, M.Zane and I agreed to merge with a new agency "Star," to lift the load off of us. We gave all of our equipment to help them. We were excited about it, but quickly things changed and we found ourselves doing the samething we were doing at Lone Wolf, and if not more. Due to the stress we'd been under for such a long time, we both left there. M.Zane had always said how much she desired to play in an agency who had agents playing in her time zone, and she was blessed to find "Starsky and Hutch," and those team players. I'm so thrilled for my sweet friend, and that she's found a great agency such as this. I've always gotten aquainted with Skyler there, and I think he's a great person.....con't

Nov-18-2004 19:08

lol, I also got aquainted with Skyler/Director there,& found him to be a friend. I've loved this game since the day I fist found Sleuth, and I've probably spent more time here than I have doing anything else. However, since my health has declined & personal reasons, I had thought about taking a sabatical for awhile, but I just couldn't stay away. I know I've been teased by my buddies here, jstdkn, jojo, and a few others have teased me about not being able to stay away, and it's the truth. I really love this game. There's not a better game than Sleuth on the entire internet, for those that loves solving mysteries. Well, I fully intended to leave, but instead, I opened my spouse and I the penthouse and placed our four agents in there. To all agent's that's belonged in a competitive and top agency, and to leave and be out on the board solo and try to solve cases the old fashion way, well FORGET THAT...hehe!! I thought I'd come back and try to solve a few but it was too hard, so to make things easy, I stuck our agents in the penthouse, called "OMEGA." Now that I've been doing that a week or so, I've found it difficult to solve cases there without the aid of a banker and barber contact. In fact, I'm quitting more cases than solving..hehe. Well, I'm actually putting those cases on Agent_007, in hopes I'll get either the banker or barber for Texan, then I'll retire or put 007 back on the board. Well, to make a long NOVEL/story shorter..lol, the thing about being in an agency alone gets boring when you can't chat with team mates. Last night, I almost give it up for good, but with the support of my spouse he told me to hang in here, so I am. Anyway, I love my little get-a-way place, and great friends here. Ta Ta.

Nov-18-2004 19:25

PS: Reading back through my message, I stated: "A quitter never wins and a winner never quits," and if it hadn't of been for my health, regardless of the amount of cases or load, I would have stuck it out and never quit. For sure, after all the hard work in trying to reach the top and finally reach 7th place. If I had of known that I could have put Lone Wolf up for auction, which Ben said only one agency he knew of had done this before, I would have done that to keep Lone Wolf on the board, but I didn't know this before we dissolved it and lose those beautiful trophies we had won...(DaRu sadly wipes the tears from her eyes, as she continues typing)well, what's done is done, but in my heart....LONG LIVES LONE WOLF. This is to all of the new small and large agencies, YOU CAN DO IT TOO.

Nov-18-2004 19:40

I still think the lost library book, lost keys, lost dog, etc. would be fun for agencies with new people, fewer people, fewer points, whatever. And sure, win ribbons for the trophy case! And toss in a few fame points, perhaps. (That's controversial, I know)

And I encourage new people to join existing agencies! You can learn an awful lot that way, and many agencies (including ours!) are often looking for eager players. I'm a director now, sure, but that is relatively recent. I would have had far less of an idea of what to do to be a good director (which I think I am, she said modestly), if I had not seen Orbitrux in action from the very beginning!

We also have our newest players to thank for our recent treasures - schmunchkins, Raquel, Sebastian, Stanz and jenwin are working their tushies off!

Nov-18-2004 19:54

I think that Moonshh's idea for a different style of hunt is a fantastic one. When I was in a smaller agency I would have jumped at a chance to do a hunt like that. A ribbon would be a great reward!

Nov-18-2004 20:36

Hey, Delvin, no need to hide. I see a great talk here. No hard feelings, no ones mad. Obviously something needs to change, or needs to be considered. Moonshh's idea of levels isn't so bad. Put it with the growth idea, hey, doesn't sound bad at all. No advantage, just exp.

What do I know, I'm new and imaginary. I still think Delvin should come out of hidin'.

Nov-18-2004 21:39

I will preface this by saying that I may be a bit biased as I am in the Reapers agency, so anything I say should be construed with a grain of salt.

In regards to treausre hunts and the like. I would hate to see anyones status jeopardised by fewer hunts available to the ones who worked so hard to get there. However, I think that there is room for other options as well.

The Reapers are a very special case in which the agencies first goal is to take on newbies and show them the ropes. But the group suffers in the fact that it is mainly made up of newbies and has a much harder time finishing up hunts because of that fact.

Was it the Reaper's choice to take on newbies and sacrifice the fame to be helpful? Yes, and I think it is a noble one.

So in that light, is there room for options that do not neccesarily combat one faction against another? I am not saying that the treasure hunt should be eliminated by any means, but there could be options where an agency gets some sort of group case to work on it's own.

Granted I do not know how difficult that would be, but it is a thought. This way, the friendly competition can continue along with a group being able to work together to solve crimes as a unit without the stress of getting rocked by the big kids.

Again, just a thought. (ducks and covers) Fire away!

Nov-19-2004 00:33

Well said Doc!

Nov-19-2004 02:18

Why are you guys so against building an agency that is able to win treasure hunts, like everybody else who does, did?

People are talking about some kind of an unfair advantage.

1. Every agency, including most of the top 10 had to compete with just as many agencies to get in to the top 10. With exception of Chicago and Kitten.
2. There seems to be an impression that it is easier for established agencies to recruit. This is not the case, statistics show that over the past months most new agents built their own agency (with someone else need be), or joined a new agency.
3. That it is easier to win treasure hunts with more experience points. No, absolutely not. It is about the amount of favours you get.
4. That larger agencies get more favours. True, but realistically the size of an agency says nothing about active players. Most treasure hunt winners those in and outside of the top 10 will say not all members were online were the won it. Sometimes going as low as 1 or 2 people playing, when they did. Most of the time with no more then 4-5 people playing.

Now here are the reasons why agencies win treasure hunts:
1. Tactics are used, in order to get them. Frankly without tactics, and just playing at random chance, you will not win treasure hunts. And, I think everybody should put their OWN thinking cap on as to what those tactics would be.
2. Agencies with people whom have two characters, to which they can switch back and forth to.
3. Agencies with a couple of people whom are absolutely die hard players, and absolutely relentless.
4. Agencies that manage their agency in terms of A) Who is allowed to stay and get hired, B) what goes in the equipment locker, C) what is done with finaces, D) real management is done of the agency AND the treasure hunt, E) recruit aggessively if required.

Nov-19-2004 02:22

And I think we have a clear answer here why agencies win treasure hunts. Those that do will find out they do and have done all of the above, those that don't stand a chance find out that they don't.

I think we can see enough proof on the score board, that also newer agencies have a shot at winning a hunt. Ever since the beginning of Sleuth up until today.

If you want to have an easy ride, then join an agency with a director whom does the work for you. If you want to be a director, then work your agency like the directors do that do win treasure hunts.

Frankly, pride would have stood in my way as a newbie to get easy treasure hunts, not everybody was able to compete in. There is much more pride, building your own character, your own agency. Put the work and the patience in. Instead of expecting a free or cheap ride, as a new agent or agency. Then when you do get in to the top 10, you know it is labour?

Keep in mind most agencies in the top 10, have done so in 3 months or so. By doing a LOT of work.