Before the end of September, I plan to begin merging all duplicate zones in the database. A duplicate zone is any zone that has a buddy zone within about 100 meters of another zone. Many duplicate zones are at the exact same latitude and longitude in the database.
I have compiled a list of zones that will be merged. There are about 130,000 zones, or roughly 4% of the zones in the database.
UPDATED Version 3 File:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j-ZQaBLhgi_zzOdvWp8WIA3yHv_dFkJ3EYAg7j4_JUU/edit?usp=sharing
I selected the zone to keep based on a variety of criteria.
- Zones with at least 50,000 more bots than their buddies
- Zones with HQ bases that have been harvested in the past 6 months
- Zones with the most bases
- Zones with names that were similar, selecting the shorter name (Ex: "Johnston" and "Johnston Center"
However the list was created programmatically, without any knowledge of these real places in the world. If you have a favorite duplicate zone, and see that I plan to merge it, please reply in this thread, with the zone to keep. I can change which zone is the primary zone.
The goal of the QONQR zone database is to have it full of zones that are geo-political areas that have a governing body. Cities, towns, villages, large urban neighborhoods. For example: does this zone have its own police or fire department.
That was the goal. We know many zones don't fit that description. However for the purposes of zone clean up, if your duplicate zones are a resort and a town, we want to keep the town.
How the merge will work.
- Bots will be combined. You won't lose any bots across the two zones. This may result in two zones that have a million bots each for two factions.
- Zone Leader will be the single player with the most bots in the faction that has the most bots
- Zone Capturer and Capture Date will be the oldest of the captures from the two zones who is part of the faction with the most bots
- Bases will be moved into the Primary Zone. If that would result in two bases in one zone, your base will be returned to your inventory and you'll have to place it in a new zone.
Why merge duplicate zones?
This was a player suggestion. I pushed back and said, "Is this really a priority?", and several players agreed this should be cleaned up. The rules to do it are straight forward and doesn't require a major app update. The task was relatively small. Duplicate zones are annoying to most people, but a few have found a way to use them strategically.
So I agreed to put in the time. There are some very far-future features that would require the removal of duplicate zones if we ever wanted to build them. None of those features would be built in the next year, but there are reasons to remove them for possible future game mechanics.
What if I we discover later that the wrong zone was merged?
We can change the name back. To the name of the city/town/village/neighborhood if it makes sense to do that.
Please reply with any zone corrections before Sept 25th.