Season 4 Comes to MOBAFire! Along With a New...

[quote=Mowen][columns] [indent] [nextcol] [center][color=#ffffff][size=6]Season 4 Updates are Here![/size][/color][/center] [columns] [nextcol width=100] [img width=75]http://www.mobafire.com/images/avatars/fiddlesticks-9.png[/img] [nextcol] Hooray! MOBAFire's database has been updated to fully reflect the Preseason changes. New masteries, items, ability reworks, etc are in the database and guide ready! Give our editors time to catch up with all the balance changes though, there was a LOT in the last patch! Also give me some time to post the Patch Notes, all of this took a while k thx! Now onto some changes that should benefit authors and readers alike... [/columns] [center][color=#ffffff][size=6]New Guide Scoring System![/size][/color][/center] [color=#808080][i][b]Summary:[/b] We've changed the calculations that determine a guide's rank (top, 2nd to top, etc) when using the guide browser or viewing a champion's page. The new calculations only count recent votes towards the ranking score. [b]Context:[/b] Top guides felt like immovable objects and discouraged new guides from being written. Authors of top guides did not have much motivation to keep their guide up to date or improve its quality since it could stay at the top by sitting on its mountain of votes. This left us with some low quality top guides and jaded authors.[/i][/color] [indent][color=#ffffff][list] [*] Votes expire in 30 days[/list] [list][*] Guides will have a minimum vote threshold that is calculated based on the number of votes top guides get in 30 days, votes within this threshold won't expire when their 30 days are up[/list] [list][*] The vote threshold will take into account the most recent votes[/list] [list][*] Voting on a guide again will "refresh" your vote, changing it to new and replacing your old vote[/list] [list][*] Guide scores are still calculated using a Bayesian average so that 1 vote guides won't shoot to the top of the list, but only count non-expired votes [/list][/color][/indent] These changes will make individual votes have more impact, and guide scores will be a better reflection of their quality in the current patch. Authors that keep their guide up to date will accumulate upvotes, while authors that don't update will accumulate downvotes. You should see a lot more guide rank shifts than you did in the old system. This will be especially beneficial for Preseason and the start of Season 4 since playstyles and strategies will change rapidly. [size=5]So how will this work in practice?[/size] [color=#ffffff]SCENARIO:[/color] Jimmy just read the top champion guide that was written by Sally. Jimmy tried to find the items Sally put in her guide, but to his dismay, they weren't even available in the shop! Jimmy downvotes Sally's guide and takes his business elsewhere. Sally notices her recent drop in score, and realizes that her guide is outdated. She archives her guide until she has time to update it and preserves her relatively good score. Now Matt's guide is 1st place, and since he updated it ahead of time it is relevant and receives good scores. A month passes and Sally finally republishes her guide, which is up to date and shiny. In this time Matt hasn't updated his guide and it is no longer optimal. He gets some downvotes, which push out his previous upvotes, while Sally gets some upvotes which push out her previous downvotes. Now Sally's guide is at the top again. Meanwhile, thousands of readers have been reading guides and getting up to date information and advice. [size=5]A New Ranking System Calls for a New Guide Display[/size] [center][img=http://i.imgur.com/6FRCJzR.jpg] [img=http://i.imgur.com/4VNsOp1.jpg][/center] [color=#808080][i][b]Summary:[/b] The Bayesian percentage score has been removed. The display is now a total vote count and a bar to display the percentage of upvotes to downvotes. This is a cleaner look, and doesn't give undue negativity to lower ranked guides. [b]Context:[/b] Old guide displays were confusing as they showed a percentage score that wasn't a true percentage (upvotes/total votes). It also conveyed to browsers that the guides above are strictly better than guides below, which discouraged readers from checking out lower rated guides.[/i][/color] [indent] [list] [*] % Score has been replaced with total vote number and a visual percentage display[/list] [list][*] Guides with less than 5 votes have a "New" bar display[/list] [list][*] There are no longer different tiers of freshness, but a single green light indicator for fresh guides, a "4" for S4 guides that are not fresh, and a "3/2/1" indicator for guides not updated[/list][/indent] These changes should give a cleaner look and encourage people to browser through other guides. [size=5]Scout Points[/size] Scout points have been wiped, and are ready to start anew for S4! [size=5]Coming Soon![/size] [indent][list] [*] A "My Votes" page to track your voting history, and whether or not your votes are expired[/list] [list][*] An indicator on guide pages if you've voted on that guide previously[/list] [list][*] Un-voting (removing a vote without changing your vote to up/down)[/list] [list][*] Email reminder for guide authors[/list] [list][*] Guide contest, yes it's finally going to happen, get hyped![/list][/indent] [size=5]Closing Comments[/size] Keep in mind that we consider these changes to be an experiment. We're still tracking all voting data and can easily change or tweak the calculations. Votes will not be lost, and if torches and pitchforks come out it can be reverted. However, we're confident that this system will be better for both authors and readers, and we hope if you're not convinced right now you will grow to like the new system. Stay awesome and kick ass in Season 4, then write a guide to share your killer strats with us! 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[quote=jhoijhoi]Excellent update! Good work Mowen, Matt, Flash and the dev team. Edit: There are no Trinkets appearing for me.[/quote]

[quote=Matt]Mowen was unable to categorize them until after we launched the updated code. Will have them categorized shortly :) Edit: Trinkets fixed - the filters should be showing them properly now. Let me know if they're missing from anywhere still.[/quote]

[quote=jhoijhoi]All good now, Matt. Awesome! ^^[/quote]

[quote=Vynertje]Guides still show 'scouted' - is this just because there is a delay in the scout vote reset or a bug?[/quote]

[quote=Matt]Scout points have now been reset, but may take some time for caches to clear. However, you can go ahead and start scouting guides, the caches will catch up shortly.[/quote]

[quote=Hogopogo]Looks really cool! Great job Mowen, Matt, Flash, and whoever else worked on this and I don't know :D[/quote]

[quote=Xeronn]Changes are nice... x3[/quote]

[quote=Thatdudeinthecotton]Minor thing you're probably working on: currently on my profile page, my guides show 0% rating instead of the new system.[/quote]

[quote=Matt]Ah, thanks for the heads up! Fixed :)[/quote]