GUIDE: How to find exact figures on play/heart ratio and play/repeat play ratio

[wexfordian]

Hi there folks, sorry for the long post (skip the the bold text for the short version)
I have recently built 2 survival challange levels which got me thinking about how people play survival chalanges vs. regular levels.

As a survival challange is generally shorter and the main aim of it is almost always to attain the high score people generally have more attempts at your level than a regular level where the main aim is usually to reach the scoreboard.

This changes the way the play/heart ratio and makes finding out the amount of "unique" plays (amount of people who play you level not the amount of times it has been played) impossible as say for an extreme example your survival challange level is played by 100 people who replay 5 times to achieve the high score and after every one of the 100 give you 5 stars and a heart (We can always dream )

Your stats would be:
Stars: 5
Plays:500
Hearts: 100

Now on your regular level the same 100 people play and say they restart/replay once as they have died or want to go for a higher score. At the end they give you 5 stars and a heart.
The stats on this level would be:
Stars: 5
Plays:200
Hearts: 100

This of course appears to have a different play/heart ratio but in fact it doesn't. Both levels were played by 100 people and hearted by 100 people.

OK. Now a work around I figured out for this is that once you decide to publish the level play the level once and get to the scoreboard with a score of zero. Now if your level is a survival level its easy, simply hit the try again button and you'll be brought straight to it without scoring any points. If its a normal level you may want to publish the level with a temporary second score board at the start first and play it. Once you have hit the scoreboard go back and delete the scoreboard and publish over the level.

If you do this then you can check your score on the level details.

So forexample if you are in position #50 then 50 people have played your level. Now your play count may say 100 plays but now you know you have had only 50 people actually play it with the average person playing it twice.

Not groundbreaking info I'd admit but a nice little tip all the same I think...

EDIT: As Risen pointed out this doesn't take into account people who never make it to the scoreboard.

[Wyth]

Ohhh now I get it. That's quite funny . This is a good way of figuring it out. One con though: if someone plays the level, scores points and returns to pod. A day later said person comes back: he plays again and can score again. This will count as another play but he won't be able to heart it again. So this only takes care of people who replay IMMEDIATELY.

[wexfordian]

Ohhh now I get it. That's quite funny . This is a good way of figuring it out. One con though: if someone plays the level, scores points and returns to pod. A day later said person comes back: he plays again and can score again. This will count as another play but he won't be able to heart it again. So this only takes care of people who replay IMMEDIATELY.

Well not really as only the highest score is kept on the scoreboard so if said person was to beat their high score there would still only be one instance of that person on the scoreboard. The play count would go up but you still get to see how many individual players played your level thus being able to determine what percentage of people heart you level and how many times it is replayed.

[Risen]

It only works if people actually finish the level, though.

[wexfordian]

It only works if people actually finish the level, though.

Good point. So it only really works for survival challenge levels where everybody fiinishes it. I'll add it to the OP.

[Risen]

Yeah, it'd probably work great on survival challenges, or possibly some really easy levels. But hey, knowing your plays/finish ratio might be interesting too. It might help you gauge how difficult your level is, or how interesting it is to play.

Actually I don't know about the interesting part... because if it's not interesting at all people will get bored and quit... but if it's really interesting, people will play it over and over... either way, you'll get a much higher number of plays than finish scores.

Two other points that might be of use, now that I'm thinking about it more..

One, take care not to ever play your level and finish it, or you'll ruin your ranking

Two, it will be most accurate if you republish your level so that everyone but you is forced to get at least some points, otherwise you won't know how many people also finished the level with a score of zero.

[wexfordian]

Actually I don't know about the interesting part... because if it's not interesting at all people will get bored and quit... but if it's really interesting, people will play it over and over... either way, you'll get a much higher number of plays than finish scores.

lol

I don't know how many times I've just quit out of some pointfest level or one that just tries to fill your profile with worthless pics and objects

[RangerZero]

lol

I don't know how many times I've just quit out of some pointfest level or one that just tries to fill your profile with worthless pics and objects

Dear God yes the objects. When there's too much objects in the way I'm simply quiting the level and rating it "needs work". Seriously.

I also hate photoboot. Jeez people, can't you stop putting them? I DONT WANT A SOUVENIR lol. If I am THAT flabergasted by your level I can always take a picture myself with the in-game tool...


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[RAINFIRE]

I GET IT... cool idea because this could be quite helpful to some people.

Cheers!