Theory: The center of the Eve-spawn spiral is...

BlueDiamondAvatar · 2019-01-05 05:11:45

.. the average of the location of all the births during the previous week of server time.

Ok, so I've come to this conclusion because of several different posts on different topics, and my experiences with the mega-city of San-Cal (AKA Two Bell Berry Patch, AKA Many Bell Perry Patch) on Server 2. Here's my evidence.

1) In the change log for the Apocalypse update, Jason told us that he was accidentally using, "the weighted average of recent
placements on the map" for Eve respawn from a "death of Old Age" location. In removing this bug, many of us became very concerned that folks are a lot less likely to spawn into areas with old towns. But over the last week of play, I've been in many Bell towns and older villages. The key point is - we know that the weighted average of recent births is something that Jason can and has calculated.

2) In Thudersen's excellent diagrams of the birth location for server 1 , we noticed that the eve spiral location shifted significantly after the server's were shut down for the update, but the circles still had significant overlap. None of the posters on that thread could see a logical reason for why the eve-spawn spiral had shifted in this particular direction by this number of kilometers - and there isn't any obvious logic to the shifts in the eve-spawn spiral seen when Thundersen shared data from the other major servers either.

3) Because I'm obsessed with the mega-city on server 2, I always play there (and I play a lot...). When San-Cal was rediscovered this week, I would hear the bell ringing from about 10 to 13 kilometers away from where I was living on the eve spiral. Too far to make a meaningful visi. I only played in San-Cal if I was born in the city. Since the mini-update on Thursday night, San-Cal's bells have been significantly closer, generally 1-2 kilometers away, and I made several successful treks.

4) I was born as the daughter of an eve right after Server 2 restarted this evening. Eve Worth told me that she had spawned in the heart of San-Cal. No wandering period was necessary, and she was able to start ringing the bell right away.

So I think Jason is using the average of the birth locations for some previous time period to determine the center of the Eve-spawn spiral for the next week. For server 2, this will generally be smack dab on San-Cal.

If my theory is right, we are likely to always have a major old town close to the heart of an eve spiral. But every week a new city might arise as the bast place to live and play, and shift the eve-spiral footprint as a result.

As a player that loves rebuilding and maintaining big cities, this makes me very happy. For players that love early-game play, the sheer size of the map means they can ignore those pesky bells and play in whatever wilderness they find themselves. But maybe not in the first hour after an update...

So what do folks think? Does this theory line up with your play experiences?

CrazyEddie · 2019-01-05 05:52:37

From Jason's post introducing the Eve spirals:

What happens when a server shuts down though, as it does every week during updates?
First, the death location of the longest-lineage person during shutdown is remembered. This is used as the "center" of the spiral at the next startup, and after startup, the first three Eves are placed near there. After that, a new spiral grows around that new center point

Now, there's always a chance that Jason has changed things since then (but I haven't seen a post saying so) and there's a chance that the implementation doesn't match his intention. But that's at least what is supposed to be happening, at least as of back then.

I'm not positive what "the longest-lineage person during shutdown" means. I assume it means the longest-lineage person from the current uptime instance, although perhaps it means the longest-lineage person alive at the time of the shutdown (which then kills them, I presume?).

Since San-Cal is a big developed city, it would make sense that the longest-lineage person lived and died there, and that the new spiral after the server restart would be centered there, which would explain what we've seen recently (I've seen it too!) namely that Eves have been spawning close to San-Cal.

thundersen · 2019-01-05 12:32:20

CrazyEddie wrote:

I'm not positive what "the longest-lineage person during shutdown" means. I assume it means the longest-lineage person from the current uptime instance, although perhaps it means the longest-lineage person alive at the time of the shutdown (which then kills them, I presume?).

I'm guessing that that person must be alive at the time of the shutdown, as the new spiral always seems to be centered close to the edge of the previous spiral. See for example this recent plot:

Or this one:

While it's not right on the edge, there are green dots close to the center of the new spiral. The update happened close to UTC 00:00.

Now this is of course just a hint, not proof. Maybe take a look at the code, and then try to verify your understanding from the plots?

BlueDiamondAvatar · 2019-01-05 14:19:54

Thanks Crazy Eddie and thundersen,

Ok, I started playing during the Steam tsunami, so I wasn't around for the post you linked to. That also makes sense...

So the key is which lineages are going at the time the server shutdown starts, and which is the longest. I watched the reflector reports pretty carefully last night. The reports show the number of active players slowly decreasing for the active servers, while the unpopulated servers immediately show they are Offline. Which brings up an interesting question... how would the location of the eve sprial be calculated for those servers that don't have anyone on them when the shutdown is started?

It doesn't boot off or kill any characters, he initiates the shutdown for either the odd or even numbered servers, and then no one is born on them. I guess the compensation for being in one of those doomed towns is that you might have just created the center of next week's lineages. Instead of giving birth to your fellow players, you are giving birth to future players families.

I've been avoiding playing when I know a server reset is coming, because I've played in towns where we realize we are doomed a few too many times. Now I'd be happy to - we might be building at the center of the future spawn spiral.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-01-05 05:11:45

Theory: The center of the Eve-spawn spiral is...

#2 2019-01-05 05:52:37

Re: Theory: The center of the Eve-spawn spiral is...

#3 2019-01-05 12:32:20

Re: Theory: The center of the Eve-spawn spiral is...

#4 2019-01-05 14:19:54

Re: Theory: The center of the Eve-spawn spiral is...

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