We’re announcing two major changes that will affect plugin creation and management: new limits for certain draft attributes and the official deprecation of privileged codes.
1. New Limits for Draft Attributes (Power, Water, and Influences)
To streamline moderation and ensure a balanced in-game economy in regular game modes (Easy, Middle, and Hard), we are implementing limits on certain draft properties, specifically power, water, and influences. Note, that power and water output was already capped by the building's size, these new limits additionally cap the value output based on monthly price.
These limits are designed to ensure that a plugin's utility (like power generation or water production) is reasonably justified by its monthly price and size.
- Implementation Timeline: You may have first observed these changes in beta 1.12.30. Based on community feedback, we have since relaxed some limits in 1.12.31 to reduce impact while still achieving our balancing goals.
- What this means for your plugins: If your plugin's property (e.g., power output) exceeds the new limit for its price point, the game will automatically cap that value.
- Checking for Limits: If your draft property gets limited, the game will log a message in the out.txt file. The log entry will clearly state the limit applied, as seen in the example:
Code: Select all
[BuildingDraft] limit $dsa_office00 (public) supported influence MANAGEMENT: 500 -> 377
Based on our analysis, the majority of plugins currently available on the plugin store should remain unaffected by these changes.
Regardless, we ask you to review and update your plugins that are represented by the magenta dots on the attached chart. These are the plugins most likely to be capped by the new limits.
Influences act per tile. This means a larger building with the same influence value will have a total influence equal to `width * height` times that value. A base influence value of 100 is considered quite high; for context, almost all native buildings use values smaller than 200. You may consult public game assets for exact values.
We've opted to apply these limits now as a less invasive measure compared to suddenly setting the monthly price based on power, water, and influences. While both approaches can affect existing cities, this method is easier to fix and prevents cities from suddenly having massive, unexpected spending due to overpowered plugins.
- For Regular Players: If you are a plugin user and notice a broken plugin as a result of these changes, please report it to the plugin creator so they can fix it.
- For Creative Players: For players who enjoy a creative sandbox environment, the Uber mode should always bypass influence requirements, meaning such OP plugins aren't needed.
The use of privileged codes is now officially deprecated and will no longer be granted.
We strongly recommend that all creators migrate their existing privileged code implementations to the newer, more robust require privileges model as soon as possible.
We appreciate your cooperation as we work to maintain a balanced and healthy ecosystem for all TheoTown players.
The TheoTown Team
