Dear taxi drivers, today we want to talk about the latest updates.
You probably noticed that some time ago, we took unpopular measures, which, in the opinion of some, can be called "tightening the screws". It is about these very screws that we would like to talk today.
Sit down comfortably, the dialogue (and for now only - a monologue) will be interesting.
Everything that the Administration does, from the text of the news to global changes to the project, is aimed exclusively at the development of the project.
But, as you know, development is not only an improvement or addition of something, but also the
opposite - getting rid of and abandoning something.
Sometimes, to cure a bone that has healed incorrectly, you need to break it again.
Not a single person in the world can claim that all of his actions have always been exclusively correct and did not contain even a hint of an error. And neither can we.
We boldly declare that we are not perfect and can make mistakes.
But this is what distinguishes us from many faceless and weak-willed clones - this is the desire and strength to correct mistakes.
One of these mistakes is the excessively significant bonuses that tuning and pumping provided.
We want to draw your attention to this.
Balancing bonuses from pumping and upgrades (tuning)
Our task is to ensure that the project does not just exist, but develops from day to day.
This cannot be done by introducing only something new, sometimes you need to change the old so that the new can
breathe deeply.
Unfortunately, the bonuses that tuning and upgrading provided turned out to be very significant.
This is well illustrated by the situation with bus orders. On average, an order for a bus should be completed in about 8 hours. But, thanks to upgrading, many buses complete an order in 40-60 minutes. Of course, in such a situation, no orders will be enough, no matter how many there are. Some taxi drivers managed to "pay off" the bus in the first two or three weeks. Of course, the owners of the Bus really like this, but unfortunately, it negatively affects the stability of the game as a whole. Therefore, there were not always orders for buses, as promised. Now with the introduction of these updates, this situation will be corrected.
We have reduced the bonuses from tuning, which gave a bonus to the order price and reduced the execution time.
We understand that users bought upgrades with a certain effect, and now this effect has suddenly become different.
Therefore, we have provided a choice to our users!
If you want to return money for upgrades - you can do this on the tuning page
of a specific car.
The funds will be returned taking into account depreciation, depreciation takes into account the time of ownership of the
upgrade.
On the first day of owning an upgrade, you will get back 100% of the upgrade cost.
On day 75 - 50%
On day 150 - 10%.
You can also save your upgrades, then their bonuses will be updated in accordance with the current upgrade store.
Changing car upgrades
Here we also had to change something to maintain the balance of the game. We reduced the bonuses that taxi upgrades gave.
If you don't like it, you can get back 100% of the funds spent on
upgrades.
You can do this on the taxi upgrade page.
You can also keep your upgrade, but the bonuses will be adjusted to the
current upgrade bonuses.
The cost of upgrades and some upgrades has increased, so we advise you to approach the question of choice carefully (return the money or leave).
On the sore subject - energy
Energy is a tool for fighting bots.
In recent months, bots have become very active. We have tried dozens of methods
to identify the impudent ones, and none of them turned out to be 100% effective.
We selected those who pressed "hidden" buttons, but the bots quickly learned not to
press such buttons. We analyzed the frequency of requests for orders, identified thresholds and limits beyond which there could be bots.
But over time, ordinary users also began to fall under our protection.
That is why you could see that the board of shame has not been replenished with new users for a long time.
As a result, we came to an unpopular decision - to introduce a limit on taking orders in the form of energy consumption.
We received a huge amount of feedback, in Vcontact, in reviews, in all sorts of forums. People were indignant! The administration is "tightening the screws!", "time to get out of here!", and the like. Everyone was shouting that this is not just bad, that this is almost the end of the project, because they introduced "energy consumption when taking an order!", forgetting to mention that this energy is restored for free.
Time passed, the shouts died down, and what do we see?
If before the introduction of energy consumption, users took on average 300,000 orders per
day, then the next day after the introduction - this amount was
290,000 orders per day.
Yes, some people started using abilities and goods from the store less, and some did not use them at all.
In absolute values, the introduction of energy does not limit the taking of orders by taxi drivers in any way.
And all because the consumption and restoration of energy are calculated in such a way that at the maximum level you can take about 140 orders per day.
Agree that not every taxi driver takes such a number of orders?
This means that the restrictions did not affect such a large number of users, and if
they did affect someone, then this is only good. After all, thanks to such a restriction, ordinary
users who do not sit on the site 24 hours will be able to take orders more freely.
But even for those users who really lacked energy, we introduced new special orders that replenish energy or give the TAXI-BULL product. Limitations and bonuses essentially balance each other out.
Good news
Updated captcha in orders
We have developed a captcha that should simplify the process of taking an order. The captcha will offer to count simple math problems, or will offer to choose a figure of a certain color. We hope that you will like this captcha more than the captcha from Google.
Also, before starting work in the City, you will need to pass the captcha.
This action will need to be performed every 5 orders taken, or every 10 minutes.
This is necessary in order to complicate the life of bots that scan pages to find the best orders.
Car sale
Now, when selling a car, the cost of pumping and abilities is taken into account.
That is, tuning, pumping and abilities are reimbursed when selling a car.
During a technical inspection, these car improvements are also included in the price.
Special bonuses for promotional cars
We have developed several unique products!
- Disabling captcha in orders. Now taking an order does not require confirmation with a captcha.
- Radar - hides hack work from pages. You will only see working and elite orders.
- Reduced energy consumption. Reduces energy consumption on the car by 50%.
- Reduced fuel consumption. Reduces fuel consumption by 50%.
These products can be obtained by selling promotional taxis. Selling such a car, you will not only receive money, but also be able to choose the desired unique product!
This product can be activated on any car. All products have an expiration date of one week from the date of activation.
You can get these bonuses on the special taxi sale page.
Also, a link to this page is located next to the car sale button.
If you have promotional cars, the site will show you possible bonuses that you can count on.
Attention! Bonuses will be received in case of selling a taxi only from this page. The usual "Sell" button does not give any bonuses.
Energy Booster
We also added a new player item - an energy booster, which increases the speed of energy recovery by 50% for one week from the date of purchase. You can buy the booster on the Profile page in the City.
New type of cars
We made a special car that takes orders, but receives not money - but energy! This energy accumulates in the Energy Bank, and can be used to replenish the player's energy scale at any time.
The energy bank has a limit of 10,000 energy points, when this threshold is reached - you need to empty the bank so that the energy does not go to waste.
You can rent out such a car, and receive energy as a lessor.
The car can also be installed in an office, but there is no special
In the future, we will create an energy exchange where you can buy and sell energy from the Energy Bank. Users will set the prices themselves, and there will also be the option to choose from which account to write off/credit funds: from the Passenger or from the purchase account.
For now, this car can only be obtained through a promotion; it is not available for open sale.
Other fixes
Withdrawal of funds from the Exchange, Clicks and Taxi-Dice.
Now, when withdrawing funds to a passenger account, you will be credited with the same amount to withdrawal and Tokens. But only if you made a replenishment of these sections of the site directly from the payment system, and not through the passenger account, and in an amount no more than you made a replenishment.
Also, when withdrawing to a Passenger account from the Exchange, no commission will be charged if you replenished the account through payment systems.
This update allows you to freely use these sections without a commission for the rich.
A little bit of everything
The operation of the Qualification section has been fixed for active partners.
Now the number of visits via your link and the number of replenishments are calculated correctly.
The feedback and suggestions page has been fixed, dividing it into Feedback and Suggestions.
When passing a maintenance check that lasts more than a day, the remaining days are now displayed on the progress bar.
Other general changes and corrections have also been made.
About the rest
DDoS attacks
Recently, the popularity of the game has been harassing hyenas who want to profit at someone else's expense.
In the last month alone, we have received about three serious DDoS attacks, followed immediately by offers "to negotiate".
The game servers received about 15,000 requests per second (with standard values within 250-300 requests/sec.) .
Our team was able to quickly cope with the attacks, and allowed the game to continue working.
The average downtime (site failure) was 15 minutes.
We sent all the ill-wishers far and for a long time, and will continue to adhere to the same policy in the future.
Change in the payment mechanism
You have probably noticed that sometimes the requested funds may come not in one payment, but in two or three.
This is done on purpose, because there are a lot of payments, and our wallets simply go beyond the monthly limits.
To avoid this, payments can be made from several wallets at once.
Having received such a payment, do not worry - this is exactly how it was intended :)
Finally...
Some users believe that the Project Administration does nothing. But not everyone knows that only 20% of all changes are changes that are visible to the user. For the successful work of the project, our team has to make significant efforts every day, just so that Taxi-money just works without failures.
Stay with the best project RUneta!
