Update: Building Height Adjustment - Fixing The Exploit

Hey everyone,

As recently mentioned in our AmA, we intend to tackle the building growth exploit, by setting a building height restriction which will cap the number of empty properties that can be visible in a building. This fix will be released today.

If you missed that AmA, please take some time to watch it here or alternatively you can view all our responses here

What does this mean for tall buildings with lots of empty slots?

Simply put, all buildings will now have a limit on how many visible empty apartment slots it can contain. The limit on empty apartments is based on an algorithm that attempts to make the building vacancies look natural. 

This means buildings that are taller than the “default height”, will see empty apartments removed and the building height reduced to either the default height or default height plus empty slots as per the algorithm, if there are still enough occupied apartments to fill the default height.

What does “default height” mean?

When a collection of buildings are added to the map, they are not all the same height. Even unoccupied, there are buildings that are taller than others. These unoccupied building heights are the default height of the building. A building should never be smaller than that height

Example of “Default Building Height”

How quickly will the building adjust?

If the selling of a property is determined by the rule to exceed the maximum amount of empty slots that can be in that building, it will shrink instantly. This is the same for buildings currently containing empty apartment slots above the maximum empty slot limit. Once the update is applied, the adjustment will be instant.

What if the penthouse is empty?

If a building is already at its maximum number of empty slots and the penthouse becomes empty,  that penthouse shouldn’t be removed, another empty slot should.

As we mentioned in the AmA, this exploit only occurs when users group together to exploit the reservation process, to grow a building without ever having to spend metacoin. This gave a false representation of popularity and user investment within a building. 

With this fix in place, buildings will more accurately represent the community and user investments contained within them. Once this and improved player to player trading is established, it will make the other upcoming features such as multiuser metaverses, private clubs and utility buildings, a lot more valuable and enjoyable.

We look forward to sharing more on those features very soon. Until then, we’ll see you in the Infiniverse!

You Multiverse Team