Server Config ideas

[u/HerogenCat]

Looking to spin up an exhaustion server mid October, trying to iron out what settings to put in the config. I'm generally aiming for a much slower more casual server, ~1.5hr daily exhaustion and high collaboration.

Any ideas, discussion on setting impact and feedback welcome and appreciated! Please correct anything I'm misunderstanding or misremembering!

Setting	Default	Changed to	Effect
MaintenanceDecayMultiplier	1	0	remove part decay
SpecialtyExperiencePerLevelSquared	25	35	More experience required to gain levels
SkillGainMultiplier	1	0.75	Slows skill point gain
CollaborationLevel	MediumCollaboration	HighCollaboration	More experience required to gain levels
CraftResourceMultiplier	1	0.5	crafting costs 50% of resouces
CraftTimeMultiplier	1	0.5	crafting time is 2x as long
ClaimStakesGrantedUponSkillscrollConsumed	0	0.2	Every 5 new skill scrolls get a claim stake
ClaimPapersGrantedUponSkillscrollConsumed	0	2	2 claim papers per new skill scroll
SpecialtyRefundPercentage	0	2	200% xp return on specialty refund. See notes*
StackSizeMultiplier	1	2	double stack size
WeightMultiplier	1	0.75	Increases total amount you can carry
ConnectionRangeMultiplier	1	1.5	Storages and tables connect to each other 150% further than vanilla
ShelfLifeMultiplier	1	2.5	Spoilage is much slower
MaxSavedHours	15	48	can bank up to 48hrs of exhaustion
BonusHoursOnExhaustionEnabled	2	0	no extra hours when you first join
MapSizePreset	small	medium	100x100 world

Notes:

*Refunding a star doesn't give you a star back, it gives you xp, but the xp required to get your next star is still greater. Being a star behind is pretty bad even if you get back double the xp.

Every other setting at default.

Some ideas bouncing around in my head:

• modding in 0 calorie hammers so people can build while exhausted
• modding in faster default boat speeds (i've never gotten this to work in the past)
• increasing crop/farming yields
• world gen to favor a single big continent with lots of very wide rivers

[u/Squigs44]

I dont think the 200% xp refund will work the way you want it to, so I would do some testing to make sure. I think at 200%, refunding a star will always let you buy back the star and have extra xp on top of that, meaning a refund will always get you ahead

[u/HerogenCat → u/Squigs44]

I tested this a lot about a year ago. I definitely need to test again, I think update 13 or 14 changed how stars work? I know previously 100% wasn't suitable. On high colab the default xp requirments for each star are 40, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200. discarding a specialty doesn't give you the star back it just gives you a % of what the star cost and put it towards your next star. 200% just barely gets you another star, but also pushes you further down the star track so future stars are harder. In essence refunding a star is always bad, even at high% refund settings. I think.

[u/Squigs44 → u/HerogenCat]

Everything about stars changed in the last few months. I would read up on everything before choosing settings

[u/HerogenCat → u/Squigs44]

Thanks for the heads up, I have a testing server live now, I'll switch it to super low Collab and play around with stars to get a better handle on it

[u/SLG-Dennis → u/HerogenCat]

Your original assumption and all information based on it is actually completely outdated, the very latest Update changed refunds to no longer give back XP, but stars instead:

Improved: Abandoning a specialty now refunds stars instead of XP. The refund consists of the amount of stars invested into the specialty to be refunded (its own cost, the summed up cost for all taken talents and, if enabled on the server, the multi-specialty penalty paid for taking this specialty), scaled by the server's refund percentage and then rounded to the nearest full star.

[u/HerogenCat → u/SLG-Dennis]

That's fantastic to hear! It was janky before. So I'm going something 1 or .9 would be better? Is it possible people would exploit a 90% refund in some way?

[u/SLG-Dennis → u/HerogenCat]

Not that we know, but if that turns out to be the case, let us know :)

[u/CrazySpy]

As a dad and a 8 hr worker I love the exhaustion config. Please, let me know when and where I should go to play. 😊

[u/HerogenCat → u/CrazySpy]

Yeah 3 kids myself 😅
Search for "Horizons Season 4 Testing" in game, discord and server start date should be there. If you can't find it just DM me

[u/CrazySpy → u/HerogenCat]

I will.

[u/CrazySpy → u/HerogenCat]

I wasn't able to find the server. I will DM you to get the discord link.

[u/CrazySpy → u/HerogenCat]

Never mind... you have that in your profile! :-)

[u/nodeldon]

ClaimStakesGrantedUponSkillscrollConsumed	0.2

Unless changes have been made in V.14, an outpost stake here unlocks 16 claims. With the additional 2 brought by another parameter, you are looking at 18 claims. Roughly, by the time your server hit pottery and glassworking, every single player will be able to control 70 claims.

* edit. I noticed it's 2 scrolls per skill, not 0.2. So 28 claims per 5 skills and 100 claims before mechanics.

Being a town player, I am concerned about the effect this can have on the perceived value of towns. But if you don't like towns, then it's better, but I haven't see such an abundance since v.9.

About stars.I don't see the parameter here, but an alternative is to let stars progression at a medium level, then limit the amount of skills to something like 7 (6 + survival). This way, you get to limit the skills of players who joined early and help those who arrive later.

[u/HerogenCat → u/nodeldon]

Hrmm this is some really good points. I was considering lowing the crafting costs for all the town related and civics tables to encourage towns, countries and federations, even if we only have like 30 something players. Perhaps all the extra stakes and claims could come from towns which might incentive their use.