Please improve the leaderboard page on the website

Posted by: MCroft

Please improve the leaderboard page on the website - 08/24/06 09:16 AM

The #1 spot is occupied by someone who has been playing 1123027 hours, or since the 1870s, producing an average of 1200 babies an hour. Only 17 of these miracle babies have died.

The top 13 slots are occupied by the same user name

The top 16 slots are occupied by users with populations above 92 by several orders of magnetude.

Here's what I'd like to see:
If these are test users, clear 'em out. Send 'em to a page on your test server.
If these are regular users who've cheated, weed 'em out.
Hours played > hours since the game was released? invalid data, report not accepted.
Population > population max? Invalid data, report not accepted.
Flag in report says "test copy"? Report sent to test server list.
Duplicate report? Replace the old one.
Any value negative? Invalid data, report not accepted.

I'm happy to compete against real users, but not so much against not-real users.
Posted by: Rifster

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the website - 08/24/06 10:14 AM

Nicely Worded.
Posted by: danalmillan

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the website - 08/24/06 11:50 AM

I would have to agree whole heartedly! I think that the only way for us to know who has the best game is to make it fair based only on the game as it is now being played.
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the website - 08/24/06 11:54 AM

I agree, too! We're very aware that the stats aren't what they should be.
Posted by: ArthurAdministrator

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the website - 08/24/06 01:18 PM

As always the stats will require a good bit of massaging before they are even a little reliable. We'll start to see which exploits and oddities are emerging and try our best to correct them.
Posted by: MCroft

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the website - 08/24/06 09:48 PM

OK, I certainly understand that. However, I hope we don't have to wait for "perfect" before we get "better." Having beaten hard (once!), I'm looking to see what I can still do, and one thing is "aim for the leaderboard".

So, yes, when you get a chance, clean up the bad data so that it doesn't discourage people.

Thanks,
Michael
Posted by: kimmar

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the website - 08/25/06 07:57 AM

Where the heck is the leaderboard anyway? I can't seem to find it.
Posted by: MCroft

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the website - 08/25/06 09:09 AM

it's linked from the VV homepage
Posted by: cathryndarkwind

sending and receiving statistics - 08/25/06 09:18 AM

I am a newbie to the posts (and yes, I cheated in my first game) However I am ready to try without that. My question is this...my "send and receive statistics" won't work. I've tried online and offline. Is it because I am in "easy" mode? My thanks for your help.
Posted by: Kaimi

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/25/06 09:21 AM

It has to do with the servers getting really busy, sometimes mine will go thru in a couple seconds, at other times it takes several minutes.
Posted by: kimmar

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/25/06 05:11 PM

Thanks MCroft!
Posted by: Ellen2132

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/28/06 05:52 AM

Quote:

.... my "send and receive statistics" ....




where do I find this????
Posted by: Izzie

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/28/06 11:05 AM

My game locked the first time I tried it. I agree that it needs to be cleaned up though. I looked when I started my first game to get a rough idea a few things. I can't say I would be interested in trying to get on it. Top dog stuff isn't what I'm into personally. But the confusing data combined with the screenshots on Big Fish left me very confused as to what a normal population is supposed to be.
Posted by: Ellen2132

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/28/06 01:02 PM

Quote:

Quote:

.... my "send and receive statistics" ....




where do I find this????




never mind, found it myself.
Only one problem; when I push the refresh-button, the game (and my computer) freezes.
Any one any idea why??
Posted by: Cetta

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/28/06 02:05 PM

My stats won't work anymore either. Everytime I click on refresh stats it freezes my computer and I have to shut everything down. And, I've waited for a loooong time to see if it would go thru.
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/28/06 02:09 PM

The situation described earlier in this thread still exists: the stats server is overloaded, and we're working on migrating to a new server. See Arthur's post for more information.
Posted by: istara

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/28/06 07:53 PM

I was a tester, but my current villages (I have an Easy, a Normal and a Hard) date from the same time the game was released - 973 hours of gameplay. I have never time travelled with these villages. So I wouldn't like to be "cleared out" if possible, as I have spent a lot of time and effort keeping these villages going manually, doing breeding sessions several times a day to keep an even spread of villagers, and creating new doctors when required.

I found that today I can't update my stats at all, it just says "Are you online?" (and I am). The stats are clearly a bit glitchy, because a week or so back one of my villages fell from 11th in food production to 21st, in a couple of hours. And also I am 6th in terms of the number of secrets discovered, when with 16/16 I should surely be 1st (along with about a gazillion other people by now!)
Posted by: CarlaAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/28/06 09:29 PM

We had to temporarily freeze the stats this morning, to do some work on the forums. We are getting ready to move the forums to another server and hopefully speed them up.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Carla
We are also looking at ways to improve the stats....
Posted by: Rand

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/28/06 09:31 PM

So, if I try to refresh my stats, the computer won't freeze up?
Posted by: Ellen2132

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/29/06 06:12 AM

If I play my game on full screen, then my computer freezes whenever I want to refresh.
If I play my game on windowed screen, it won't. Sometimes it works, sometimes it says that it failed because i'm not online (which I am!)
Posted by: MCroft

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/29/06 08:15 PM

Quote:

I was a tester, but my current villages (I have an Easy, a Normal and a Hard) date from the same time the game was released - 973 hours of gameplay. I have never time travelled with these villages. So I wouldn't like to be "cleared out" if possible, as I have spent a lot of time and effort keeping these villages going manually, doing breeding sessions several times a day to keep an even spread of villagers, and creating new doctors when required.




I'm only looking at the unreasonable records. I'd think that just clearing out obviously bad data (records 1-16) and de-duping 29-30 would go a long way.
Posted by: CarlaAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/30/06 07:39 PM

Barbara and I are currently working on this and hopefully we will be done before the end of the day. Stay tuned. We already deleted a bunch of cheaters from the leaderboard.
Posted by: CarlaAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/30/06 08:23 PM

*UPDATE ON THE STATS*

The stats should be fixed. Still some duplicate names, but the most important thing is done: we got rid of the cheaters.
It should work now.

http://www.ldwsoftware.com/vv_win_scores/index.php
Posted by: MCroft

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/30/06 10:15 PM

w00t! I am now 59th. I've still got a ways to go to even reach 50th, but now it's more like a level playing ground.

Thank you, Carla & Barbara.
Posted by: jerryb

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/30/06 11:58 PM

nce to see the stas were updated, but sadly they are alrady almost totally fake. Simple math shows the stats are still being played around with by cheaters
Posted by: MCroft

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/31/06 03:05 AM

Really? I assumed the first one was fake and the ones with unreasonable hours played were people who had messed with their system clocks & it was otherwise pretty clean.
Posted by: Layla_77

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/31/06 12:28 PM

I'm not sure what I'm doing incorrectly... I've looked through a lot of the forums, but I haven't been able to see how to fix the problem where you just don't connect, ever. It sits there forever after I refresh and then when I cancel it asks me if I'm online. I'm on broadband, of course I'm online! Grr...
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/31/06 12:31 PM

The server migration hasn't happened yet, so you could be experiencing the results of server overload. We hope to have that corrected soon.
Posted by: Ellen2132

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/31/06 06:24 PM

I am sorry, but I still believe there are a lot of cheaters on the leaderboard.

I can not believe that people who have played less then 200 hours had over 1000 baby's born.
Also the number of events can not be correct with a lot of people.
And how the **** can you have a max population of 101??

I appreciate it that you have cleaned out the leaderboard, but as far as I am concerned your cleaning could have been more thorough.
Posted by: IBteri

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/31/06 07:19 PM

Yay I am number 50 Mom
Posted by: CarlaAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 08/31/06 11:14 PM

Sorry guys...we are still trying....
Posted by: jerryb

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/01/06 01:32 PM

Since you are using babies born as the basis for the ranking you should be able to have it do a check of babies per hour, if it is unreasonably high the stat doesn't get accepted, that does of course making an educated guess as to what is reasonable.

Such as my game has been going for 959 real hours with 836 babies born, thats just .87 per hour average. While it would be possible to get higher average it can't be much higher unless there are a lot of disasters wiping out the bulk of the population, after all you can't have more babies after you reach a population of 90 until someone dies so that and the fact you have to improve farming before you do too much with the poopulation or everyone starves keeps a limit on the number of possible babies per hour ratio. You would just have to develope and keep secret what the actual number is to reduce the cheaters.

Also a check of real hours played would get the system clock cheaters off the board though that would be more involved to keep it advancing so as not to block legitimate players.
Posted by: bajantara

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/01/06 02:00 PM

I still challenge the premise for using babies born as the ranking factor. If you finish a game with 25-30 people, in order to "rank" in the stats you then have to start on a breeding spree. Yes, they may be only pixels, but they're FEMALE pixels, not BREEDING COW pixels!!! grrrr
Posted by: she

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/01/06 02:13 PM

Too true
Posted by: istara

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/02/06 01:04 PM

I suppose one thing that is kind of unfair/misleading is the fact that people have their games on different speeds. I don't mean timewarping, but having your game on Fast will give you much higher results than someone on Normal or Slow.

The other issue is that the Leaderboard doesn't really give new players a chance to get on it.

Looking at that Leaderboard - the majority of the results on it looks suspicious. I have three villages of the same age, all on fast, the only difference being Easy/Normal/Hard. They are all on pretty much the exact number of Twins, Triplets, Events, and so on. Yet on the Leaderboard, the events and hours played do not appear to correlate.

I am also curious about the 101 village population. That would require several sets of triplets being auto-born (ie generated in the log files, and appearing when you start the game) at once. I suppose it could happen, but it seems a very rare chance.

EDIT: I have attached some screenshots of my stats for reference. I have never timesurfed with these villages.

What you will notice is that the villagers die much younger on Hard/Difficult level. Therefore there is more "room" to have more babies, and so more have been born in this village than the other two.
Posted by: she

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/02/06 06:04 PM

Hi All,
Hate to complain.... But I cannot "send and receive statistics". I have the game and this website on, and even Outlook just in case, and all I get is "Could not connect. Are you online?" Well, at least it's fast now.
Posted by: jerryb

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/02/06 10:45 PM

Those numbers show there is not a significient difference in babies born on the different levels. .99 Easy , .97 Medium and 1.03 Hard. No where near the 5 and 10 per hour some of those stats show. While there could be some differences based on mass deaths due to some of the random events it isn't likely to be much.
Posted by: Debala715

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/02/06 11:12 PM

Quote:

Hi All,
Hate to complain.... But I cannot "send and receive statistics". I have the game and this website on, and even Outlook just in case, and all I get is "Could not connect. Are you online?" Well, at least it's fast now.




Yeah, I get the same thing.
Posted by: Rand

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/03/06 02:19 AM

Quote:

Quote:

Hi All,
Hate to complain.... But I cannot "send and receive statistics". I have the game and this website on, and even Outlook just in case, and all I get is "Could not connect. Are you online?" Well, at least it's fast now.




Yeah, I get the same thing.




Same thing here.
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/03/06 09:00 AM

If the server doesn't respond, you'll get that error. It's a problem at the server end, not with your game or computer. We still have a lot of work to do to fix the stats situation, including additional procedures to prevent bogus stats from appearing on the leader board. Unfortunately, it's not likely to be resolved in the next few days, since it's a holiday weekend in the U.S.
Posted by: istara

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/03/06 09:54 AM

That's a relief - thought it was just me! I'm dying to upload my new statistics, one village just had three more sets of twins born!
Posted by: trishthedish

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/04/06 11:48 PM

carla, i keep trying and i am online but it keeps asking me if i am online...i am always online..thanks for getting me in tonight...i love the game....trisha
Posted by: Rand

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/05/06 02:41 PM

Just got my stats updated!!!!!! Thank you Carla and anyone else who had a hand in this.
Posted by: Trin

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/05/06 03:00 PM

ooh I'm going to go and try now...fingers crossed
Posted by: Trin

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/05/06 03:13 PM

Yay!!

*doing the happy dance*
Posted by: Rand

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/05/06 03:17 PM

Hope I can get on leaderboard soon.
Posted by: Ashen

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/05/06 04:48 PM

I was wondering, how correct is this leaderboard, if someone may know?
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/05/06 04:53 PM

You should have another look at the leader board. Arthur has made a few adjustments in the last few minutes.
Posted by: Megan

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/05/06 06:00 PM

I too could not update for days, very frustrating and now...and there I am #1! For now..

I think I will go faint now...
Posted by: shannonroserpb

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/05/06 06:07 PM

Where is the leaderboard?
Posted by: LoriAnn

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/05/06 06:13 PM

wow the leaderboard looks nice!
I just went and updated and it took about 2 seconds that was greatt
Posted by: Ellen2132

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/05/06 06:40 PM

Thank you for updating the leaderboard.
Now it looks like a good board without any real cheaters on it.
Maybe some day I will be on it
Posted by: CarlaAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/05/06 07:25 PM

Here is the link to the leaderboard:
http://www.ldwsoftware.com/vv_win_scores/index.php
Posted by: jerryb

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/06/06 05:41 AM

All right, those nummbers on the leaderboard are believeable now !! Thank you for fixing it, hoepfully those of us don't cheat the system can have a realistic goal to shoot for ... I made it on at #14
Posted by: jerryb

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/06/06 01:35 PM

One idea that you might consider for the future since it would probably take a game update so if you code a sequal (hint hint lol) would be to have seperate boards based on game level so if a game is being layed on easy the stats would connect to the easy leaderboard, normal to the normal leaderboard and hard to the hard leaderboard.
Posted by: Felice

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/08/06 01:27 PM

fabulous!
Posted by: sbradbeary

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/09/06 11:06 AM

It would be nice to be able to see the Leader Board based on different areas....i.e. Babies made, hours played, oldest villager, etc.
Posted by: jerryb

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/10/06 04:19 AM

That would be a nice step in the next improvement to the leaderboard. Shouldn't be that hard to set a search feature that would show that. I would like to see most mushrooms collected. That would put it by people that are actually spending time playing the game instead of just letting it run forever after completing all 16 puzzles.
Posted by: dudeman

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/11/06 02:14 AM

Quote:

That would be a nice step in the next improvement to the leaderboard. Shouldn't be that hard to set a search feature that would show that. I would like to see most mushrooms collected. That would put it by people that are actually spending time playing the game instead of just letting it run forever after completing all 16 puzzles.



I agree with you
Posted by: jerryb

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/12/06 02:49 PM

While the leaderboard is much better then it was people will always find ways to cheat on it. Usually by playing with their system clocks though I am sure a few have cracked the code to write their own stats in which is why there were some really odd numbers for awhile. It has a couple of suspicious entries again, nearly 2 babies an hour is hard for me to believe since you can't do too much with population until you get the tech points up to improve the food source without starving your people.
Posted by: pcic57

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/14/06 12:41 AM

What mode do you have to be in to get on the leader board? Easy Med Or hard?
Posted by: bajantara

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/14/06 12:59 AM

any one will do
Posted by: Bare

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/15/06 11:43 AM

Only problem with rating the leaderboard by the number of babies is that the top leaders will always be on top unless they delete their game. I do not believe there's a way someone starting new can pass 1148 babies (#50's number right now). Yes, it's a perk for long time players, but it doesn't give new players an incentive to honestly try.
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/16/06 03:57 PM

How would everyone feel about having the scores "disappear" from the leader board after a certain period of time? There are a number of ways to do that, but the goal would be to make the leader board contain entries from people who are actively playing the game, rather than those who are just letting it run forever and making more and more babies.
Posted by: Ellen2132

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/16/06 06:19 PM

Quote:

How would everyone feel about having the scores "disappear" from the leader board after a certain period of time? There are a number of ways to do that, but the goal would be to make the leader board contain entries from people who are actively playing the game, rather than those who are just letting it run forever and making more and more babies.




I think that's a great idea.
Will it also be possible to have a leaderboard where you can select your selves if you want to have it ordered by babies, or food, or techpoints?
Posted by: Bare

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/16/06 10:44 PM

Quote:

How would everyone feel about having the scores "disappear" from the leader board after a certain period of time? There are a number of ways to do that, but the goal would be to make the leader board contain entries from people who are actively playing the game, rather than those who are just letting it run forever and making more and more babies.



That would work. I was thinking when I wrote what I did that there really was no good/easy solution to the problem. If it bothered many people someone could archive the past months (6 months, whatever) of the winners.
Posted by: Tabbyca

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/17/06 01:15 AM

Why not have two leaderboards. One for the over all leaders and another for the monthly leaders?
Posted by: Rand

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/17/06 06:57 AM

I think that is a very good idea!
Posted by: jerryb

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/22/06 07:13 AM

Any method of updating the leader board is pointless until you can find a way to stop the cheaters, at least the top score admits to being a cheater There are several there that are not believeable again.
Posted by: phaylen

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the website - 09/24/06 01:15 AM

I have a "okay" button and a "Refresh" button where I can see my statistc compared to others.

I see no button to submit mine. It's been asked in this thread a time or two but no one answered. Where is it?
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the website - 09/24/06 01:18 AM

The "Refresh" button in the game sends your stats to the server, where they are compared to other players' stats. The results are displayed in your game and posted to the leader board, if they're high enough.
Posted by: phaylen

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the website - 09/24/06 01:25 AM

WOW! Thank you for that speedy answer. You've definitely made a fan out of me
Posted by: sfrose

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 09/24/06 04:40 AM

Quote:

How would everyone feel about having the scores "disappear" from the leader board after a certain period of time? There are a number of ways to do that, but the goal would be to make the leader board contain entries from people who are actively playing the game, rather than those who are just letting it run forever and making more and more babies.




I also think this is a good idea.

Someone mentioned having the leader board count mushrooms, since that would prove someone is actively playing. Howeverm, it is very easy to turn one mushroom into 10. So it wouldn't be a good test.

OTOH, ordered by the number of events might be better. As far as I could tell, an event is scheduled for a random later time. When that game is opened and the time passed, the event is displayed and a new event is scheduled. So if someone stays away from the game for several days (even if on pause or slow time) only one event will occur when they return.

This would mean that people have to open each game on a regular basis in order to get the higher "event" numbers.

Though there is probably a way that a cheater can increase these numbers as well.

Though maybe the solution should just be that the leader board is cleared each month.
Posted by: MCroft

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 10/01/06 09:09 PM

As someone suggested, I'd like to see an "all time" and "this month" leaderboard. I've seen this on a lot of boards (although usually (it's 'today' and 'all time').

I'd also like to see the sort order be selectable by clicking on columns.

Also, there's some issue with the refresh. I have 1022 babies made, and it tells me I'm 43rd when I refresh, but that's not the 43rd entry on the list, or even enough to hit the top 50.
Posted by: Danielle2343

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 10/02/06 02:01 PM

I would love to have control over what stats I can see Like if there were headers that you can click onto see the *oldest villager* or *points* ,*Puzzles solved*, *twins*, *triplets and so on. That would be great feature and I think it would be well used and apprieciated!!!! Anyone agree??? ~~ Danielle
Posted by: froggymorning

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 10/18/06 03:39 AM

How do you send and receive statistics? I can't find it on the menu, it isn't in the help or in the read me file.
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 10/18/06 08:59 AM

Go to the Puzzles screen and click on the Statistics button. You'll see your game's statistics, and clicking on Refresh will send your stats to the server and display your stats ranking.
Posted by: irishmaura

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the website - 10/18/06 02:47 PM

I just don't get the stats/leaderboard!!!

My stats on one of my games are as follows:

Real Hrs. Played 1329
Babies Made 1227
Food 27216858
Cures 3909 (no GC in this village)
Mushrooms 50
Max.Pop 91
Eldest 98
Events 61
Twins 59
Triplets 12

When I click the refresh button it tells me my rank is 49 for babies made, 31 for food, 45 for cures,49 for events, 50 for twins, all the other are over 50 except puzzles solved.

I've looked at the leaderboard, and surprise suprise, I'm not listed at 49 (I didn't expect to be, but that's beside the point).

Why does my "stats" tell me I'm ranked 49, but the leaderboard doesn't!

Why is there only one person listed per ranking place, with all the people playing this game, surely there are at least several people with the same abount of babies made at any given time?

Which brings me to another question, as I look at the leaderboard now, position no. 49 gives babies made at 1847,
hours at 2148,food 4 million, pop 92, events 91.

So why does my stats board tell me I am at 49 when I obviously have far fewer babies made, less hours played but with way more food?

I usually post my thoughts and experience of this game in the Real Arcade forum. But I've said quite a few times in that forum that the stats board is a mess and by this I mean it is misleading and nonsensical.

There are some things that seem "upside down" to me, and by that I mean, for example, Max pop at 91 (still using the stats of this one of my villages) and is ranked at 999,surely, if you legally managed to get over 91/92 in your village without cheating, your ranking should be shown at 1 or 2, as when puzzles are solved. Food gathered is off kilter as the GC magically restores crops. Although in this particular village of mine, the GC died, and my food gathered is over 27 million (what can I say except they are super little farmers, so proud, haha!)

I don't mean to sound super critical, it's just that as the VV isn't a "scoring" game as in arcade style games, what exactly is the stats/leaderboard supposed to reflect? As correctly pointed out in this thread, leaving the game on isn't really playing it, but will increase real hours "played", food gathered/cures is really down to the GC, so what is the most important things to people in the game and how should they be measured? Is it longevity, mushrooms, multiple births??

The leaderboard should probably have separate tables/rankings for each item, I don't see any other way to make it clear and relevant to the participants.

I love this game, first time I've played a real time game, and am absolutely looking forward to VV2 as everyone else is, so I hope that the stats/leaderboard will become more relevant and part of the game, and not just something to moan about, and goodness, with the length of this post, I've become a right moaning minnie, haha!!

Thanks for taking the time to read this and

Best of Irish,
Maura

P.S. I really hope I get to test the new VV2 game, haha!
Posted by: TheVillageIdiot

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/18/06 05:34 PM

You need to view the leader board as "all time high" leader board. I believe the stat screen on the program only ranks you against other running games at the time. I'm not sure what the cut off time is (1 week??), but if you have a game and have not refreshed the stats in over a week, they will not be included in the game stat screen when others click on the refresh button. Does that make sense?
Posted by: irishmaura

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/20/06 04:15 PM

When I posted the details of the stats page of my game, it had just been "refreshed". I was one of those when I first got the game, that the stats always froze the computer when I clicked the refresh button so I stopped updating for quite some time.

In the last two weeks or so, I tried again and it worked very well, so I update regularly, at least once a day, so that's not the problem, but appreciate the input.

That village I've used as an example currently ranks me at 46 for babies made, still way short of what's on the leaderboard totals shown. I can only assume that the link is between hours played and babies made. My rank of hours played is over 100 so a long way to go.

One question though, are the names listed the names of players individual villages or are they user names??

Best of Irish,
Maura

Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/20/06 04:30 PM

The names on the leader board are the names that people have typed into the player slot in their game, and have no direct correlation to user names on the forums. Sometimes, forum members will use their forum name on their game, but I wouldn't count on it. For example, I most often use variations of my dog's name when creating new players!
Posted by: jerryb

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/23/06 12:27 PM

The leader board is not much use. Since the game is in real time some players adjust thier system clock to make the game play faster and it blows the stats way out of whack. From the numbers that have been shown on the leaderboard from time to time it is pretty clear some people have cracked the game code and just thrown any numbers in there they wanted.

Maybe a second leaderboard that would only measure how many hours the game has been open rather than letting the game just run continously would give more realistic numbers as the current leaderboard is totally unbelievable most of the time.
Posted by: Village_Monk

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/23/06 12:58 PM

My hours played has me ranked 2nd, but current leaderboard setup i dont show up on the board because my babies is only around 100 something. sigh.
Posted by: bajantara

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/23/06 01:40 PM

You and me both, Monk. I finish my games with about 26-30 people and I hate having anyone die, so I stop my games at that point. Left to us China would still be an under populated country.. lol
Posted by: Village_Monk

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/23/06 01:44 PM

i meant my babies made rank is 100 something not my actual babies. I've made over 700 babies in that game.
Posted by: bajantara

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/23/06 01:48 PM

Ahh.. in that case I'm likely totally alone at the bottom of the baby stats. Mine is a totally dependable 999 rank..
Posted by: ArthurAdministrator

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/31/06 09:31 AM

We purged the stats completely, and we are trying a new filtering script that Barbara wrote. She'll monitor it and see if there are add'l ways to tweak it and make the leaderboard more satisfying.
Posted by: Village_Monk

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/31/06 09:37 AM

i wondered why i jumped like 100 spots in some of the stats, so when they start refreshing again i will probably go back up tp 200 in most everything lol
Posted by: Ellen2132

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/31/06 11:42 AM

I have games started on august 1st, september 1st and oktober 1st, but only the one started in oktober is making it to the leaderboard. Very strange !!!!
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/31/06 11:57 AM

That's because of the changes I made to the stats script. The leader board had become sort of a trophy case for long-running games. Anyone who had recently started playing had no chance at getting on the board. It will not be possible now to get on the leader board simply by having a game running for a very long time.

There are still changes that I'd like to make, but this is at least a small improvement.
Posted by: Ellen2132

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/31/06 12:38 PM

Oké, I understand the reason why.
Maybe you should start the leaderboard fresh at the first of every month, and make sure everyone knows, by naming it a monthly leaderboard, or something like that.
And maybe it is possible to keep an "alltime scoreboard"
By the way, I do look in on my villages every day (twice) just to make sure my "babies" are healthy and there are doctors and "breeders" and events are happening
Posted by: eyeshigh

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/31/06 01:07 PM

I'm # 1!!! yeah!!! lol

apparently two of my games haev me ranked #1 for real hours played (only 50 hr differnce between the two)

:P
Posted by: Danielle2343

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/31/06 02:31 PM

On my stats it says that I am #2.... But it's not showing on the board!! Any reason??
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 10/31/06 02:42 PM

What you see on the stats page in your game shows how you compare to everyone that has submitted stats to the server. What's displayed on the leader board is only the stats that meet certain criteria.

I changed those criteria yesterday. See my explanation and Arthur's post on the previous page in this thread.
Posted by: morganandtonic

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 10/31/06 04:17 PM

How are the high scores posted...is it directly throught the send/receive stats? If so, I cant seem to find mine since they are higher than what is posted.

Thanks!!!
Posted by: Dannny

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 10/31/06 06:30 PM

My stats update still isn't working, in PA, USA. I hope we're not going to lose any stats with this prob. My last updated consecutive ratings were: 4,2,499,1,1,1,1,2,6, and magic fish found doesn't matter - mine 7, avg 1, it's meaningless. But I've got over $4mil in the register, and I wanna keep it, please.
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 10/31/06 07:59 PM

This thread is discussing the Virtual Villagers leader board. The Fish Tycoon stats server is having problems right now.
Posted by: Dannny

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 11/03/06 08:36 PM

Thanks, LadyCFII, sorry it ended up here. I see that the stats board is now corrected on Fish Tycoon, and I now have a much more reasonable ranking. If you wish, you could delete this and my last post, along with your response. I'll look to see if the FT thread is up. -Dan
Posted by: popcornlover

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 11/04/06 01:41 AM

sooo... I can see my own stats within the program, but where is the leaderboard on this site? Got an URL for me?
Posted by: Anji

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 11/04/06 05:40 AM

No problem popcorn, here's your URL

http://www.ldwsoftware.com/vv_win_scores/index.php
Posted by: popcornlover

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 11/04/06 11:10 AM

Thank you for the reply.

When I click the link, I get "error couldnot connect to the database". ALso, when I try to update my stats, I getan error that says, "update failed. are you online? Obviously, I am online.

I have reported this error twice to tech support and have not yet received an answer. Welll... I did receive an answer once, but they sent instructions on how to download the game which I didn't need.
Posted by: arnie

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 11/04/06 12:34 PM

I just tried updating my stats and got the "Update failed" message. It looks like the database has problems again.
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 11/04/06 04:12 PM

It should be working again now.
Posted by: arnie

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 11/04/06 04:17 PM

Yup, working again!
Posted by: koshka

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 11/09/06 04:57 PM

every time i try to refresh my scores, it asks me if i am connected to the internet. also, i cannot get the link to the leaderboard to work. any ideas?
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 11/09/06 05:01 PM

I'm not having problems with either the Fish Tycoon or Virtual Villagers stats function or leader board. Are you sure that security software on your computer is not blocking access?
Posted by: arnie

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 11/21/06 04:08 PM

I'm getting the "Update failed. Are you online?" message again when I try to refresh my stats. Other programs have no problems connecting to the Internet. Is there another server problem?
Posted by: arnie

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 11/21/06 04:33 PM

Not to worry. I tried again half an hour later and it worked.
Posted by: Danielle2343

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 01/01/07 06:18 PM

Originally Posted By: MCroft


Here's what I'd like to see:

Population > population max? Invalid data, report not accepted.


I agree BUT I have had a population of 97 with out cheating. Sooooo there has to be some kind of reasonable acception. However I agree about the board not always being correct and maybe if every week we had new top 50 we could all have a chance. I have been #122 in baby population for a while and would really like to get up there!! ~Danielle
Posted by: Danielle2343

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 01/01/07 06:33 PM

What EXACTLY is the criteria for getting on the leaderboard??????????????????????????????
Posted by: Kasey323.ink

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 01/01/07 06:42 PM

You need to make more child villagers than others. ;\)
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 01/01/07 07:49 PM

It's based on the number of babies produced. In order to get on the leader board, you have to have produced more babies than the person who is at the bottom of the list.
Posted by: Cinimod

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 01/09/07 02:57 AM

Originally Posted By: MCroft

Wow it needs some work around the edges.... \:o
Posted by: Lamina

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/02/07 04:32 PM

Yea, 99 babies seems a little far fetched ;\)

I'm not even trying to compete with that board. Haven't been playing long enough.

But watch out when VV2 comes out. I'll be on the prowl!
Posted by: melizrod

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/04/07 06:46 PM

I have a max population of 101. I wouldn't know how to cheat on that if I wanted to. I think it was a combination of many deaths at once, and a bunch of twins and triplets born simultaneously. At the time I have a lot of master parents and they were mating like bunnies!! So I can vouch that it is possible.

I would like to see a leader board based on each of the statistics - not just number of babies.

Mary
Posted by: popcornlover

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 02/14/07 08:19 PM

The internet statistics within the game say that I have made 3267 babies and am ranked 17th. Obviously this isn't nearly up to even 50th place on the leaderboard. Why do my stats in the game rank me so high?
Posted by: TheVillageIdiot

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 02/14/07 08:25 PM

The Internet stats are what is considered "current" games. If you don't update your stats, or quit playing, after a certain amount of time they will fall off. The leader board is more of a high score list. Once you are added, you will not come off until you fall below 50th place. Does that make sense?
Posted by: popcornlover

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 02/15/07 06:30 AM

If I understand you correctly, I'm 17th among people who are still playing the game, but not on the board yet of all time leaders. Is that correct?
Posted by: TheVillageIdiot

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 02/15/07 04:49 PM

That is correct!
Posted by: fly

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 02/19/07 01:25 AM

Originally Posted By: TheVillageIdiot
That is correct!


That doesn't make sense whatsoever. If one is 17th in babies made in his/her stats and checked for updates, then that person is a current user, therefore should be in the top 50.
Posted by: fly

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 02/19/07 01:31 AM

Originally Posted By: melizrod
I would like to see a leader board based on each of the statistics - not just number of babies.

Mary


I'll second that!!!
And I would add, it would be a nice touch to be able to SORT the results ourselves (maybe by clicking in the category in the top row), and add other categories of ranking that are not listed, such as amount of mushrooms picked, twins and triplets birthed, people cured and oldest villager.
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 02/19/07 02:37 AM

The leader board is an "all-time" high scores list. We changed it many months ago to display only current games, and the outcry was deafening, so we quickly put it back the way it was.
Posted by: babytee

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 04/13/07 04:06 AM

where would you find the leaderboard for VV2? thanks
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 04/13/07 04:11 AM

There are links to all of the leaderboards on the left side of the forum - just scroll down and you'll see them. \:\)
Posted by: Annthewhofan

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 08/27/07 10:17 AM

I'm on the leader board in VV2 as I bought the game as soon as I recieved an email when it first came out only for the number of events though.
Posted by: BobSen

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 11/03/07 07:27 AM

Hi everyone!
As I see, after reeding all on that topic, as the game is time relative,
the players who started their games at the begining or for long
time ago, have really more chance to be on the leaderboard and stay there foreever than us new VV gamers because we will never be able to catch them back in time.
Fortunately that I play the game because I love it and my goal
is not to figure on the leaderboard.

I don't want to frustrate anybody here in this forum I'm sorry
if I did, everyone is so gentle, this only my humble opinion.
Bob.
Posted by: Annthewhofan

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 11/03/07 07:15 PM

The only way to get on the leader board is waiting a long time for those that get fed up playing the game from the beginning is if they quit.
Posted by: BobSen

Re: Please improve the leaderboard page on the web - 11/07/07 06:37 AM

I see Ann, but I think that I will not wait until that "event"
(event= waiting a long time for those that get fed up playing the game from the beginning is if they quit.)
appears to place myself on the leaderbord. Yet I have completed
all the goals in my first game (all the 16 puzzels), with only
36 villagers and about the same numbers of babys. I'm now trying
to complete the 2 next levels of difficulty and after that it's
will be all I will do, unless to see some changes in the
leaderboard politic.
Posted by: popcornlover

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/16/08 03:37 PM

I keep getting an update failed, are you online message when I try to update my stats. Also, all of my stats have been removed from the leaderboard. I worked hard for these. Why have I been removed?
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/16/08 04:28 PM

Sometimes the servers are down, and we don't catch it right away. I'll have a look at them now.

Your stats haven't been removed from the leader board by anyone at LDW. There are 2 possibilities: 1) Other people have achieved higher stats than yours, and your stats are no longer high enough to appear on the list, or 2) You have been affected by a _bug_ in the stats server code that causes some people's stats to remain unchanged after a refresh, which we haven't been able to locate and fix.
Posted by: popcornlover

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/16/08 04:46 PM

.
Originally Posted By: LadyCFII
Sometimes the servers are down, and we don't catch it right away. I'll have a look at them now.

Your stats haven't been removed from the leader board by anyone at LDW. There are 2 possibilities: 1) Other people have achieved higher stats than yours, and your stats are no longer high enough to appear on the list, or 2) You have been affected by a _bug_ in the stats server code that causes some people's stats to remain unchanged after a refresh, which we haven't been able to locate and fix.


ALL of my stats have been removed. I was numbers 1,2,5,6, and 13 on the leaderboard. Nobody has achieved higher stats than my top two games, so that cannot be the issue. I keep trying to re-upload my stats and am blocked.
Posted by: Gamemastr1

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/16/08 05:18 PM

Originally Posted By: popcornlover
sooo... I can see my own stats within the program, but where is the leaderboard on this site? Got an URL for me?


If you scroll to the top of this (or practically any) page and look to the right. You will see the Shout Box, under that you will see the smiley's, under that you will see the leader boards for VV 1 & 2, and fish tycoon.

Although reading this thread, I went into my VV2 game and did the math. I have a tribe that is over 8000 hours old. Doing the math, it is almost a year, which is correct. I joined this forum shortly after I got the game. The only thing is that today, I refreshed my stats, and they didn't change on the leader board??? Hmmm... now that I think about it, I don't think they've changed in awhile.
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/16/08 05:20 PM

I just checked all the servers, and they are working properly. You might have a look at this answer in our Support FAQ, which lists the most common reasons for that message.

As I stated before, your stats have not been removed. If you want to provide the name of your tribes, I can verify that they are still in the stats database.
Posted by: popcornlover

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/16/08 06:21 PM

Hi, I checked the link several days ago on my own when trying to resolve it. I checked it again, now, to verify that I have tried all of the FAQ suggestions. I still cannot reupload my stats. I can upload stats from VV2 just fine, but my VV1 stats are gone.

The tribe names are:

Ellen
Ellen2
science is golden
anything goes
Ellen3

A few days ago these ranked 1st 2nd, 4th or 5th, 6th, and 13th



Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/16/08 09:02 PM

It looks like you might be experiencing the _bug_ that's affecting the leader boards. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to fix it. I'm sorry that you are no longer on the leader boards. We are considering some different ways to get around the problem, but it's not going to be resolved immediately. We'll make an announcement in the forums when there's any news to report.
Posted by: popcornlover

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/17/08 01:22 AM

Originally Posted By: LadyCFII
It looks like you might be experiencing the _bug_ that's affecting the leader boards. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to fix it. I'm sorry that you are no longer on the leader boards. We are considering some different ways to get around the problem, but it's not going to be resolved immediately. We'll make an announcement in the forums when there's any news to report.


Are you saying that all five of my games are unable to be posted?
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/17/08 04:48 AM

All of the leader board software is automated. We don't "post" the scores there - the leader board software does that. As I said, we know of one malfunction that affects some users, where there scores are in the database, but never updated after a certain point. There is also software that removes scores that are invalid.

There are over a hundred players named Ellen or Ellen with a number after the name, so I cannot tell which ones are yours without knowing exactly what your stats are. The other two are not in the database at all, which could be due to a number of things that only an examination of your stats would explain.
Posted by: popcornlover

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/17/08 05:14 PM

All 5 of the tribe names sent were in the top 13 scores less than a week ago. The top two that I mentioned, Ellen and Ellen2 were the top two on the leaderboard. They disappeared along with all the others a few days ago. Science is golden was number 4 or 5. Anything Goes was number 6. Ellen3 was number 13. At the same time of the disappearance, I started getting the "update failed are you online" message when I tried to upload my stats.

Even if my scores were not updated the old ones would still be on top of the leaderboard, they were that high. If you want to examine the stats, I can type the specifics and send you a private message containing them. It's looking to me as if ALL of my scores are no longer in the database.
Posted by: Annthewhofan

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/17/08 06:36 PM

I have this theory, if any plays all five games as I do as I like to be busy and very additive to my games. they are not up dated onto the leader board after a while, but they are still on there as the earlier dates but moving down as they don't update. Also in my theory gaving others a chanch who started the game at later dates. Then again I could be wrong.
Posted by: popcornlover

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/17/08 07:57 PM

Originally Posted By: Annthewhofan
I have this theory, if any plays all five games as I do as I like to be busy and very additive to my games. they are not up dated onto the leader board after a while, but they are still on there as the earlier dates but moving down as they don't update. Also in my theory gaving others a chanch who started the game at later dates. Then again I could be wrong.


I don't think that is what happened to me. All five of my games, very high ranked, dropped off the leaderboard on the same day.
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/17/08 08:39 PM

I would love to be able to wave a magic wand and fix the problems with the leader board, but I can't do that. The programming for it was written quite some time ago, by several different people, and we're going to have to work through the issues and come up with a workable solution. That's going to take some time. We truly would like to see this fixed. These problems are part of the reason that there's no leader board for Plant Tycoon. Until we can resolve the problems, there's no sense creating even more unhappy people.
Posted by: Annthewhofan

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/17/08 09:18 PM

Ups this is vv1 I did not noticed that. Thought this was in genoral dis I was thinking of vv2.
Posted by: popcornlover

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/18/08 07:32 AM

Originally Posted By: LadyCFII
I would love to be able to wave a magic wand and fix the problems with the leader board, but I can't do that. The programming for it was written quite some time ago, by several different people, and we're going to have to work through the issues and come up with a workable solution. That's going to take some time. We truly would like to see this fixed. These problems are part of the reason that there's no leader board for Plant Tycoon. Until we can resolve the problems, there's no sense creating even more unhappy people.


I understand that. But there are still questions I have asked that, unless I missed it, have gone unanswered.

1) I understood you to mean that my stats would age off if I were subject to the _bug_. This did not happen. My stats simply disappeared all at once, while I was still at the top of the leaderboard. Has it happened this way to anyone else?

2) Also, I'm still confused by the update failed message that I still get. Is this also a part of the known _bug_? Will this message persist indefinitely?


Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/18/08 02:18 PM

The update failed message is not part of the _bug_. The FAQ answer that I linked to earlier in our discussion lists all of the known causes for that message. The stats server is functioning properly (I just checked it and refreshed my stats successfully). Try quitting your game and launching it again, which will cause the game to establish a new connection with the server.

The _bug_ does not normally cause stats to "age" off the list (although that does appear to happen in some cases). What we usually see is that the stats suddenly disappear from the list as if they never existed, despite what may or may not be in the database. There may be several bugs involved that are compounding the effects and making it difficult to find and fix.
Posted by: laurence

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/18/08 03:19 PM

(sorry Barbara, it's me again \:\/ )
But since 2 or 3 days (and maybe more) I can't refresh my VV1 stats! I have internet with the cable and I'm always connected! I have 2 VV1 tribes ("Isola 1" and "l'île aux papillons" who is new) and for the both, it fails to update! \:\(
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/18/08 03:39 PM

I'm sorry, Laurence, but the server is working fine, and I can refresh my stats successfully (and the server is a long distance from me). If quitting the game, starting it again and retrying doesn't help, and the suggestions that are listed in the FAQ don't help, then I am at a loss to explain why you can't refresh your stats.
Posted by: popcornlover

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/18/08 06:15 PM

Originally Posted By: laurence
(sorry Barbara, it's me again \:\/ )
But since 2 or 3 days (and maybe more) I can't refresh my VV1 stats! I have internet with the cable and I'm always connected! I have 2 VV1 tribes ("Isola 1" and "l'île aux papillons" who is new) and for the both, it fails to update! \:\(


Yes, Laurence, you are having a part of the problem I am having. I've tried all of the FAQ suggestions numerous times and have restarted the application over and over. VV2 updates just fine, but VV1 will not communicate with the server.
Posted by: LadyCFIIAdministrator

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/18/08 06:22 PM

Please see the thread that I started in the General Discussion forum.
Posted by: Tmac

Re: sending and receiving statistics - 02/18/08 06:23 PM

yeap, same for me also