CVC Survivor Ratings and Leaderboards: Survival Tip # 18

There was a point when the Leaderboards received zero respect from me. I dislike any system that is so easy to manipulate through cheesy means that I pay it no true heed. And while the game remains just that, a game or a source of fun and amusement, the Leaderboards within the system have made some serious improvements to actually have value in my opinion. Where before I would look in amusement at the Top Safehouses as a meaningless title, I now view with all seriousness the work and effort of the members within these houses and what it actually means.

Within the old system a Safehouse merely needed to have members willing to pour real money into the system. Get your Safehouse to level 8 and then dump mass amounts of supplies within the Safehouse storage until your number is bigger than the biggest Safehouse on the list. It meant nothing other than a pissing contest of who spent the most money. Zero effort in the game and in all reality it was possible for a Safehouse of one person at level one to be the top Safehouse on the list if that one person was insane enough to spend the money to do it. While many of us realized that this was the broken situation it was the debacle of particular Safehouse’s rogue member that really brought it to the front in many people’s eyes. She exposed just how valueless this list was, along with also exposing an exploit that was being used and resulted in trouble for more than a few including herself.

The new system, however, actually gives some weight into the efforts that one spends on their character. While money spent can still play a factor it is not the same as what was displayed before due to the more complicated calculation in values. Safehouses, Strongholds and Top Survivors are all rated now by the CVC Survivor Rating. So how is your CVC Survivor Rating calculated and what does this mean for your Safehouse or Stronghold?

CVC Survivor Rating is calculated by the sum of your level and skills, not including the Energy and Stamina skill. For example: At the time of this writing my CVC Survivor Rating is 155. That’s my level at 28 plus Hunting 15, Scavenging 27, Trader 28, Healer 28 and Duel 28. Ideally if I maxed all my skills I would have a rating of 168 however since my Hunting is half of what it could be and I haven’t maxed out Scavenging my rating is lower than the maximum.

Stronghold and Safehouse ratings are the sum total of all the members CVC Survivor Ratings. I am therefore contributing 155 points to my personal Stronghold. Strongholds and Safehouses have been separated into two different lists.  What does this mean for the Safehouse or Stronghold I belong to?

If your group cares about their position within the Leaderboards you are responsible for aiding with that value. Every member that does not max out their skills lowers the value of the Safehouse or Stronghold’s potential. Many Safehouses and Strongholds will not be concerned about this however those who consider themselves elite are going to start paying attention to their member’s stats. While Terry Fox will not be among those to chase after members I would predict that some of this has already occurred in some Safehouses and Strongholds and created divides among members. Those who formerly were on the top of the Leaderboards will continue to want to remain there. Overall membership will contribute and aid to the rating because ultimately this is a numbers game and a level ten with five points in each value is still worth more within the group than kicked out of the group.

I’d like to use this to encourage those who have let some stat fade off, especially those like healing and dueling, to consider the challenge you are presenting to yourself in showing your value to your community or gathering. It brings little benefit other than bragging rights, so consider for yourself the value of such kudos and if they mean something for you. And for those pushing members that have slacked in some way I would urge you to remember that ultimately this is and always should be a game to have fun and enjoy.

Source of information: wiredl0ve at the following posting, Global Chat, PAL conversations, confirmed within my own stats and Leaderboard position.

Scavenging – The Basics: Survival Tip # 13

Keeping in mind that every day we see brand new players joining the game I decided to do another basic tip and trick set this week. This week I’m featuring the basics to Scavenging. There is a potential exploit that I’m still doing further investigation on as I don’t know if it’s a bug or intentional. This information might be published at a later point under future postings on advanced tips.

First thing to understand that scavenging affects you “Scavenging Skill”. Your current skill level as well as the progress towards the next level can be seen in two places. First is in your Profile page where your Scavenge skill is listed along with a yellow bar representing how far you have progressed through the current level. The second location is any area you have investigated. On this page the button you will press in order to scavenge displays your current level and the progress as a yellow bar.

In order to scavenge first you must go to a location. You do this from the main page by selecting the “Investigate Nearby” button and select a location off the list. Once you have come to a location you will want to select the Scavenge button. Each location can only be scavenged by you once an hour. If the location has been scavenged within the last hour a timer will appear both on the pop up before entering the location as well as on the button to Scavenge within the location. When the button says “Available For Scavenge” you will know that you’re able to scavenge at this location.

Selecting the button will bring up a pop up with three options, “Explore”, “Search” and “Scour”. Each option takes a different amount of energy and provides you with of time to perform the Scavenge activity game. It should be noted that the energy costs raise as you level your scavenge skill, however the higher your skill level the more amounts of supplies you can obtain from a scavenging. The amount of possible items to scavenge also increases as you pick harder levels. Each level can have a “white dot” to scavenge which will be an item that is not supplies but could be either MISC. Items or defense and dueling items. Recently during the Heavy Metal event Energy Drinks and Stamina Pills were also recovered which previously could only be obtained by buying with Credits. I do not know yet if these items can be obtained outside the Heavy Metal event but I expect them to only appear during special Scavenging events. The energy cost starts with a base cost, doubles for the second level and triples for the third. It is also important to note that your energy bar refreshes 1 point every two minutes. Given the numbers I’m displaying that means I need just over two and a half hours to naturally regenerate “72 energy” in order to perform a “Scour”. I’m nearing the halfway point in level range and therefore you can gauge your own costs to be higher or lower based on that information.

When you select which level of scavenging you wish to do you enter the game. At this point the game does not start until you touch the screen again. You’re left with instructions, “Grab the flashlight and move it around the area to search for loot” and “Don’t get caught by a roaming zombie!” (Seen in red boxes on example.) You have a timer bar at the top in yellow. (Seen by the orange arrow.) You also have your handy flashlight. (See green arrow.) The game’s orange arrows point to where you grab the flashlight. There are couple things to know here:

1. The zombies can pass through the flashlight portion of the flashlight as long as they are not in the light up light section.
2. You cannot drag the flashlight around by the light, only by holding the flashlight it’s self.
3. If you drag the flashlight to close to the bottom of the screen it is possible to drop it below the screen so that the light shows but you are unable to move it anymore. This can make you a sitting duck for zombies wandering.
4. If you drag the flashlight all the way to the top of the screen so that it’s off the screen and out of view you cannot get it back. However, it appears that the zombies will also be unable to find you if you’re all the way at the top. This can be useful when doing missions with large amounts of zombies where you need to grab one thing and stay safe.
5. Most of the time the zombies move around the screen making them easy to spot, however they will sometimes hold still for a time. You have to keep note of the color difference.
6. When you shine your flashlight on an object it will take a few seconds to expand until it takes shape. During that time watch for wandering zombies and that you’re not shining a light on one. If you are looking at a zombie quickly move away from them. Items collected will not be added until they move out of the flashlight and into a pile at the bottom right.
7. If you are caught by a zombie you lose everything you collected during that scavenge and the energy spent. No damage is done to your equipment or health. You are able to attempt to scavenge in the same place again as only successful scavenges provoke the timer.

There are different colored dots on the screen

• Yellowish Green – Supplies
• Bright Green – Zombies
• White – Items
• Dull Green – Money (only in Locked Doors covered below)

About once an hour you will have a chance at a locked door that appears randomly in locations. This button will appear in the newsfeed section of the location. Selecting the locked door will open the same scavenging game with a slight difference, the addition of money and possibly more than one item. At low levels these are not very profitable as lock picks cost 50 dollars per lockpick and each locked door consumes one. I believe I started to see profit in locked doors around level 10. You can purchase lockpicks in the Black Market under Equipment.

How to Add Your Avatar Image using Foursquare: Survival Tip #11

In a previous posting I outlined the benefits of having a unique avatar image, either one to yourself or one that links you with your safe house. If you have not seen that posting or would like to review it you can find the posting HERE.  I have seen people in Global Chat request help on how to show their own unique avatar images. I’m going to provide a tutorial on how to use Foursquare to do just that. There is also the option of using Facebook, however I have heard this possibility comes with more bugs than the Foursquare option and personally I do not have a Facebook account I can use the demonstrate the full steps involved. I will in the tutorial point out the option for Facebook but not provide the full steps involved in using Facebook.

Phase One – Choosing Your Avatar Image

To get your unique avatar image will take a few steps. You’ll first need to find the picture you would like to use. There are many avatar friendly sites, or you can create your own through cropping a part of an image. I recommend getting an idea of how it will appear by observing the image when it is 150 x 150 pixels in size. That will give you a rough idea as to how clear it would appear on an iPad. It will be even smaller on an iPod or iPhone which you can get a better idea at if you reduce to 50 X 50 pixels. (The size on the iPad will be smaller than 150 x 150 pixels but I feel that I can still manipulate and changes at that size while having a reasonable expectation as to the end result.)

Ultimately if that seems complicated to you I recommend either appealing to a safe house friend for help in finding or creating an image, or going to one of the many avatar sites and picking one of the many options located there.

If you want more of a challenge I would recommend Photoshop for manipulating your image, or if you wish for the free alternative Paint.Net. (See link for free download)

Phase Two – Making Your Foursquare Account (It’s Free!)

Step One:

Go to Foursquare located at: https://foursquare.com/

Step Two:

Click on the Login Button located at the top. See the example for the grey button in the red square.

Step Three:

If you already have a Foursquare account login here. If you don’t have an account, select the hyperlink shown in the example in the red box with the label “Sign up for foursquare”. (Again, this is free!)

If you believe you have an account and attempt to login but get the following error message:

You can try again, or you can use the “Forgot your password?” hyperlink in grey. That will send you to a page where you can have Foursquare email you with recovery information to reset your password.

Step Four:

If you have signed into your Foursquare account please skip down to Step Five.

Now that you are signing up for Foursquare you have two options. You can pick to sign up with Facebook (see green arrow) or with Email (see orange arrow). Again I will not be presenting the Facebook option. If you wish to follow this tutorial select “Sign up with Email” located where the orange arrow in the example is displayed.

You’re now at the Sign up page (which also has a Login option in case you suddenly remember you do have an account.) Fill in the fields noting that your phone number is optional. Selecting the Browse button allows you to find the picture you wish to use for your avatar image. (See red arrow in example) Once all fields have been filled out click the big green button that says “Join”. (See red box in example)

Step Five:

The next steps let you tailor your Foursquare account. If you’re only interested in using this for the game, use the handy “Skip This Step” button located at the bottom followed by the “OK! I’m Done!” button on the next page. Feel free to browse your options here if you wish to use the Foursquare account for other activities.

You’ll know find yourself on the final page before your Foursquare homepage. Here you can find a number of options to download apps for your phone. Again this is not necessary for Please Stay Calm but feel free to play with these as you wish. I have not used any and cannot speak to their benefits. If you wish to stay focused on the original purpose click on the hyperlink “Continue to the homepage”. (See red box in example)

Phase Optional – Editing Your Foursquare Avatar

If you don’t like the avatar image or wish to change it later on all you have to do is login and come to your homepage in Foursquare. From here click on your name for the drop down menu and select “My profile” located at the top.

Looking at your profile you will see a larger version of the current image along with your account name and the location of where you are. (This is blocked in my example by the image of a key to preserve my privacy.) Place your mouse over the image and it will change. A black box with the word “Change?” will appear over top the left top corner. Click on the image at this time.

You will again be looking at your settings for your profile. Here you can change various set options, including the image using the Browse button. When you are finished find the big green button at the bottom that is called “SAVE CHANGES” and select it.

Phase Three – Connecting Please Stay Calm Account to Foursquare Account

This is the easy part but comes with a few possible glitches that I will try to outline.

Step One:

Go to your Profile. You can do this from the main page by clicking on the Profile button located here in the example beneath your character’s larger image. (See the HERE! Text bubble)

Step Two:

Go into your PSC Settings option. This is located between the Setup Email Security button and the CVC Survival Guidebook above your skills experience bars. (See Yellow Arrow)

Step Three:

In your settings there is a section called “Social”. Here you can login directly to your Facebook account. I do not recommend this option as I have heard from others that it is more likely to case glitches in showing your avatar image. However that option is there should you choose to use it.

You will notice there is also a Foursquare option. Click on the Login button. If this is your first time logging in you will be given a screen to enter your username (the email address you used) and your password. This will link your Foursquare account with this instance of Please Stay Calm. It is very important to understand what this means. You cannot logout of Foursquare and log back in with a different Foursquare account unless you delete the app, reinstall it and then connect using the same character name. Otherwise anytime you attempt to login you will be auto logged with the previous settings noted. This could have to do with a connection to having Game Center linked to Please Stay Calm, however this was my own personal experience this week while making changes to my accounts. I do not recommend deleting the app if you can avoid it.

When logged in you will see a green checkmark beside the setting and the login button will become a logout button.

Step Four:

This is your final step. (As long as there’s no glitches!) Click on your Avatar image at the bottom of your PSC Settings. You will see three options (more if you’re logged into more than Foursquare). The Current option is the avatar you are displaying. Please Stay Calm is the avatar you default to or your character in the game. If you’ve logged into Foursquare it appears on this list. Select Foursquare and the avatar image above will change. Click on Done and it will be saved.

Known Glitches:

1. After changing your avatar image it may take up to twenty four hours for some people to see the change.  Workaround: Be patient and wait for the twenty four hour mark.
2. After changing your avatar image it is possible that the program gets confused and loses the connection with Foursquare. Workaround: If this occurs you will notice that your image is static when you check your PSC settings where you would select your avatar image. Confirm you are logged into Foursquare and reselect Foursquare as your avatar image choice.
3. Foursquare is not controlled by the developers of PSC and can have its own issues. I had one previous situation where Foursquare forgot one of my three accounts. Workaround: create a new account. I had to delete the app and reinstall to connect my one character account to the new Foursquare account due to the auto login that PSC performs.
4. Please Stay Calm saves your Foursquare (and likely other such as Facebook) settings. You can login and logout but you cannot point to a new account. If the password changes I do not know if you are prompted to enter a new password. Workaround: Uninstall and reinstall app is the only way I know to cleanly break the connection and log back in.

Whispers – How to Send Them and How to Read Them: Survival Tip # 8

I cannot think of a day I have spent in the CVC Global chat where there was not at least one person who asked how to do a whisper, or direct communication with another person. While most who have stumbled into this site by now know how to perform this task I am going to still present a detailed explanation on the matter. The next while might see more of these simpler tips while I work on the more detail charts which are taking longer to compile.

First thing to note is that like CVC’s Global Chat (and unlike Safe House Chat) whispers cost a chat token to perform. They are still limited by a set amount of characters so messages cannot be extremely long. You can see how many tokens you currently have at the bottom of your chat window. (See Red Circle) You can also purchase more tokens using credits. (See Orange Arrow)

There are two methods of sending a whisper. The easy way (with a hidden risk) and long way which provided you do not typo has no hidden dangers. I will cover both here as well as point out possible mistakes.

The easiest way requires you seeing the person talk either in your Safe House Chat or in Global CVC Chat. When a person’s image appears in the chat list, click on their image, in order to bring up a menu of available options to choose from.

You will notice this gives you three buttons to choose from. To send a whisper you want the middle button. (See Orange Arrow) The top button will send you to view their Profile. The bottom button Blocks a fellow survivor. This means you will no longer see anything they say nor will you be able to whisper them. The biggest problem is that if you are not careful it is very easy to by accident click on the block button instead of the whisper button. Currently there is no easy method to remove someone from your Blocked list. As well you cannot view a blocked list to see who is currently blocked.  If you know their name typing into Global the following will remove them from being blocked:  “/unblock username” (without the quotations).

Now that you have clicked on the whisper icon you will see the proper text format for sending a whisper to someone. In this case Chyram is whispering Beebles. This format is also the second method you can use to send messages to people and the only way currently if you cannot see their avatar. You must type the following: “!username:” (without the quotations). It should be noted that the “:” is not required for single word names, however it is required if they have a space in their name. (Thank you, Suz and Em of Alcatraz for clarifying this for me!)

You can now write up your message to the person. When you have finished writing click on the “Post” button to the right of the message text box the same as you would for sending a message into a Global or Safe House chat.

Successful whispers will create a notification window with an Okay button to let you know the message has been sent. (See Orange Box) If you make a mistake spelling the person’s name a pop up window will alert you to this fact. Sending messages can take two to three seconds long when the servers are busy.

If you receive a whisper there are two places you can see it. The first is in your notifications that appear at the top of the screen. This will flash briefly in orange text. (See Red Box) The message will not remain there long and it is easy to miss this notification while doing other things, or if you are not staring at your screen.

However you can also find the message in the News Feed. (See Orange Box) Messages stay in this window for some time. The exact length I am not certain, however if you leave the game and come back they disappear. I have not yet found proof that messages sent to people who are not online will be received so be cautious in assuming someone saw your message if they do not respond. There is no special notification, or flashing movement to alert a person that they have received a whisper. I have on occasion not noticed for some time when someone has sent me a whisper for that very reason. Also note that there is no place to see what messages you sent and who you sent them to.

This covers all there is currently on whispering to the best of my knowledge. All information here is subject to change depending upon UI adjustments from Massive Damage.