AltMeta Help Desk

http://altmeta.kryofx.com/
from GalCiv2 Forums

Please report any questions or problems with the AltMeta here.

The intent of this thread is to provide a single place for the reporting of any and all AltMeta problems. The usual disclaimers apply. The AltMeta is Kryo's personal part time project that is neither supported or endorsed by Stardock.

All AltMeta problems will be dealt with in a timely manner however everyone must realize that there are hundreds of us and only one Kryo. From my own personal experience support will almost always be quicker than anyone has a right to expect, however on the off chance that it isn't please be patient. There's no need to repeat a request. Every request will be noticed. No request will be forgotten. You may not receive acknowledgement that the issue is being worked. You may not even receive notice that the issue has been corrected. But you can be absolutely assured that the issue will be corrected.

Thank you for your support.

[edit]
The new AltMeta has moved.

All sig banners and links will be automatically forwarded so this change should be totally transparent. However, there is one aspect of this move that will result in a change.

Previously, all characters that were in the top 100 official MV empires were automatically included in the AltMeta as long as they had any submitted games. This meant that any characters not in an empire or in an empire not in the top 100 have previously been excluded from the AltMeta. This was done primarily for bandwidth considerations. This wasn't a very big limitation since any character not in an empire could form their own empire and being in the top 100 official metaverse empires only required a total score of about 32K.

With the move to new hosting this is changed. To be included in the AltMeta will still require membership in an empire, but only those empires currently listed in the AltMeta will be automatically included. Any new empires will need to be manually added to the update list. All that's required is for any member of the empire to ask to be included. To ensure the quickest response it's best to make such a request to this thread, but this isn't absolutely required. All requests to be included in the ALtMeta will be honored regardless of where they're made. All in all this is an improvement since it removes any score requirement on the inclusion of new empires in the AltMeta.
[/edit]

metaverse
254,392 views 104 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yea, finally a place for all the "the Altmeta is X posts".

Go mumble.

Remember allow 2 - 5 years for a reply
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Please ignore TheGreatEmperor's 2 - 5 year comment. He's just trying to be funny even though it may not come off that way. As I said most problem reports will be handled quickly. In many cases I've made posts at the Core about an AltMeta issue and the issue has been fixed before I finish editing my post for spelling. This kind of response will probably be far more common than occasionally having to wait a bit. I'm just saying if it happens that the response to your issue isn't instantaneous then please be patient.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
how do i get the alt xcore to show under my posts(new on pc and my score is a little better yay)
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
When you go to your Characters page on the AltMeta Here On the left side under your character's portrait is a button that says "AM Forum Banner". You'll get a little popup , just choose your background and hit update. Then copy and save the html code given. Just paste that code at the bottom of your post to show it   . I'm afraid there is no automated way to display the banner (yet). I keep mine in a notepad file on my desktop for easy access along with other often pasted URLs and such.

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I submitted a game on May 2nd, and the resubmitted the same game yesterday (you get one chance to do this) after milking it for score. The official metaverse updated my score for the game, while the AltMeta didn't.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes, the altmeta doesn't record resubmissions at the moment. If I can figure a way to do that without having to reupdate *every* game a player has ever played each time their score changes, I'll add it.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The OP has been updated to reflect a change resulting from the change in AltMeta hosting. The short version is that due to technical reasons, the automatic inclusion of new empires into the AltMeta can no longer be supported. New empires wishing to be included in the AltMeta will need to request to be added. This request will be automatically granted.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Currently my rank in the "new AltMeta" (http://altmeta.kryofx.com/) is 9th. This is consistent with the "old AltMeta" (http://altmeta2.thegalacticcore.com/) however my "new AltMeta" banner currently shows 8th while my "old AltMeta" shows the correct rank of 9th.




Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Also I just noticed that the Activity rank differs in these two sig banners. I assume the "old" sig banner is correct here. I also noticed when I went to the "new" AltMeta to check this out there is no Activity Rank in the character details screen that corresponds to the activity rank listed in the sig banner. There is an Activity Rank in the character details page but it seems to be the All-Time number which in my case is 588th. I have no clue where the 322 (or 326) come from. Are these my current activity rank based on my six month submissions. This is what I would assume it to be but this should be listed somewhere in the character details page.

Finally, another thing I noticed while scrolling through the complete lists is that you can only scroll forward and backward. I think it would be nice if we could directly jump to page n of the list without having to go through every screen.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The banners on new aren't updating any longer; I need to rewrite them to use the new ranking code.

The old activity rating was based only on users with a nonzero AltScore; on new it ranks everyone even if they haven't posted in the past 6 months.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The banners on new aren't updating any longer; I need to rewrite them to use the new ranking code.

OK. No rush.
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Banners should now be staying up to date on the new site.
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have no idea how hard this would be to implement, so feel free to disregard it...

Would it be possible to put up a little Empire icon next to a players name in the rankings? I have noticed myself clicking through to see who is in what empire and how they are doing. I think it would add touch more flavor to the inter-empire competition to see at a glance how your team is doing compared to everyone else.
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've added a new sig banner option that shows your best class rank/score/games posted. The background setting is ignored as it uses one appropriate to your best class automatically.

Sample:


Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Added.
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've added a new sig banner option that shows your best class rank/score/games posted. The background setting is ignored as it uses one appropriate to your best class automatically.

Cool new banners. I encourage folks to use them. I also want to encourage folks to focus on the type of games that they prefer. I think these class specific banners are a good way to do this.


On a separate note I'm wondering about the new process of adding new characters/empires to the AltMeta. I think I know what's going on but let me summarize just to make sure.

Initially, the AltMeta automatically scanned through the top 100 official metaverse empires and updated the stats for any active players that were members of that empire.

However, since the hosting for the AltMeta was changed, the AltMeta now runs off of a list of empires to update. Any new empire that wishes to be included in the AltMeta can simply request to be added to this "AltMeta update list". This request can be made in this thread or any other thread where Kryo will notice it (i.e. any thread).

I also assume that individual characters wishing to be included in the AltMeta could simply form their own empire and ask to have their empire included, or, if they have some strange religious beliefs that preclude them from forming their own empire it could be possible to add them to some placeholder empire or otherwise simply have their character stats updated directly. (Really not so sure about this part).

My understanding for the need for this is one of bandwidth required to do the updates. Apparently the official metaverse has a large set of defunct characters that haven't posted a game in a dog's age or may have never posted a game for all I know, but that these characters would otherwise still need to be scanned, causing AltMeta update times to get to ridiculous levels. (Again not totally sure here).

My question is, is there any way to have a mechanism in play that doesn't require folks to explicitly request that they be added but still has some kind of limitation on the length of time required to do an update?

I have no idea of the mechanics of how something like this would work, but something that automatically added any character once they posted their second game and conversely automatically stopped updating them once they have been inactive for 6 months would be perfect. I really don't know what I'm asking for here, I'm basically grasping at straws. However I think it would be a very good feature to not have to require folks to explicitly ask to be included. Any and all ideas that anyone may have in this regard would be appreciated.


Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I also assume that individual characters wishing to be included in the AltMeta could simply form their own empire and ask to have their empire included, or, if they have some strange religious beliefs that preclude them from forming their own empire it could be possible to add them to some placeholder empire or otherwise simply have their character stats updated directly. (Really not so sure about this part).


Pretty much. Any empire will do, but you do need to be in one for the altmeta to find you. This is because it uses the empire RSS feeds to determine if it needs to update the characters--scanning every character to check for new games every update would be very impractical, so it just looks at the empire RSS and compares your overall score with what it was at the last update. If it's different, it looks for any new games you've posted.

Apparently the official metaverse has a large set of defunct characters that haven't posted a game in a dog's age or may have never posted a game for all I know, but that these characters would otherwise still need to be scanned, causing AltMeta update times to get to ridiculous levels.


More or less. Scanning unaligned characters via the "no empire" empire RSS is not really practical at all for the number of active characters it actually contains. And if these players don't post on the forum to request being added, then they probably are not aware of the altmeta anyway.
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Kryo, when you get a chance, would you mind adding my newly-formed empire "The Gerontocracy" to the AltMeta? Thanks in advance.
Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hi Kryo.

Requesting permission to have my empire "The Great Galactic Shoehorn" added to the AltMeta.

Many Thanks.
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hi Kryo,

Please add "Inisfree" to the list of newly formed empires to add to the AltMeta.

Thanks!!!
Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Added.