Feedback on the State Streak gamemode After Completing a 147 Streak Game
Hello,
I had raised some feedback not long ago about the new state streak gamemode (which I got to start by saying despite the issues I'm about to bring up, I am having a lot of fun with it), and it has definitely improved significantly since then. Also since then I have managed to successfully complete a 147 streak game (alongside failed attempts of 55 , 74, and and 43 as my goal was to get a 100 streak), and going through these long sessions I believe I have experienced a good chunk of the game to give some possible feedback (which I will list here). If any of these issues are out of your control or would require too much "deconstructing" (couldn't think of a better word) to fix then I understand, these issues are not particularly game ruining and the mode is still very fun to play. Anyhow, here are some interesting things I encountered that I thought would be worth tweaking or looking into
1. Gen 1/Blurry Locations: Unlike most in the GeoGuessr community, I like to be dropped in a good blurry location here and there as it gives a every place a chance at representation and provides an interesting challenge. However, they still appear far too frequently to the point where it can get rather annoying at times
2. Frequency of Major Cities/Urban Locations: This could be solely because I just wasn't lucky enough to get these locations, but as I was playing I began to notice that some major cities were favored more than others. When comparing all my longer runs I noticed that some cities popped up on more than one run, or even more than once on the same run (like Albuquerque, NM), some were only seen once (like Los Angeles, CA) and some were never seen at all (like Colombus, OH and New York City), and oftentimes spawns in major cities tended to favor residential areas or city centers/downtown areas (nothing inherently wrong with that, it does add to the challenge of the game, but Downtown areas are often very cool to explore and it would be cool to spawn in them a little more often). I understand that the US is a massive country and I may just may not have had the right odds with my seed to get in those cities, but it may be worth looking into
3. Washington DC: I have "spawned" in Washington DC on a few instances, but every single time it was a location on the Maryland/DC Border and it seems that those are the only DC locations as I have already gotten repeats of those locations at least a couple time. It would be amazing to get to explore America's Capital by getting location spawns deeper into the district, but if it's not something that is possible then it may be worth removing DC as a clickable option altogether as spawning on the DC/MD border has caused numerous issues for numerous people
4. State Spawn Frequencies and Behaviors: If I remember correctly the location picker for both Country and State Streaks are based on having equal odds for each state/country to be picked so bigger countries (like Russia and the US) and states (like California and Texas), do not get priority to be picked. However I noticed that some states are picked 5+ times while others are hardly ever picked at all, and when a state does get picked it sometimes has a heavy bias as to where in that state you will spawn in. Listed below are some of the spawning behaviors that I noticed:
- Alabama gets picked a good amount of times, but it is usually always in the Northern part of the state
- Alaska is a sparsely populated state so it is understandable that a lot of the locations there are gonna be rural, but I have only spawned in a city once and I have yet to spawn in Anchorage (the state's biggest city)
- Arkansas gets picked at a pretty normal pace, but when it does get picked it just about never spawns near the central area of the state (where its biggest city, Little Rock, is located)
- California gets picked a little inconsistently
- Colorado is picked semi-frequently but also has a recurring theme of where in the state you spawn (either in Denver or the middle of nowhere, hardly ever in between)
- Connecticut is picked incredibly frequently for a state of its size, and when it does get picked it is almost always in the inland north of the state (not in the coastal regions where most of the population is located)
- Delaware is almost never picked
- Florida is hardly ever picked (especially for a state of its size), and it seems to have a strong bias towards EPCOT in the Walt Disney World Amusement Park
- Georgia does get picked a good amount of times but the game has a tendency to avoid larger cities and towns in favor of more rural areas
- Hawaii gets picked a good amount of times but almost always either spawns in the rural island of Hawaii (also known as "The Big Island") or on the freeways on the island of Oahu (where most of the population lives), only once have I been dropped in a location that wasn't one of those two. I have also yet to spawn in Honolulu (their biggest city)
- Illinois spawns has a heavy rural bias and I have yet to spawn in Chicago
- Indiana spawns are pretty balanced when it comes to urban vs rural but the game almost always avoids the southern part of the state
- Kansas is hardly ever picked and when it is, it is almost always in the eastern part of the state, I have yet to spawn in Wichita and Topeka (the state's two biggest cities)
- Kentucky gets picked a good amount of times but the game tends to avoid more urban areas
- Maine is picked very frequently for a state of its size, and the game also tends to avoid more urban areas
- Maryland is rarely picked
- Michigan spawns seem fine for the most part, but the game tends to avoid Detroit (its biggest city)
- Minnesota spawns also seem to be fine, maybe look to see if the southern part of the state is getting representation
- Missouri gets picked rather inconsistently and almost never in the northern half of the state
- Montana is picked incredibly frequently, especially considering most of the state is borderline empty
- Nebraska gets picked a good amount of times but the game tends to avoid the bigger cities as well as the southeastern region of the state
- New Hampshire spawns tend to favor more rural locations
- New Jersey is mostly fine, but the game tends to avoid the Northeastern part of the state (which is where a good chunk of the population lives)
- New York: Always put in upstate New York (and hardly ever in the more populated areas of that), I have yet to be put in New York City or Long Island
- North Carolina gets picked a good amount of times, but it's almost always in a rural location or just barely outside a major city
- Ohio gets picked a good amount of times, but almost never in a major city
- Oklahoma spawns has a heavy tendency to put you in Oklahoma City, one of the few instances where a state may need to more rural and smaller town locations
- Oregon gets picked a good amount of times but also tends to favor the western part of the state (and not really the major population areas of that state), I also have yet to spawn in Portland (but I always spawn just outside it)
- Pennsylvania seems about fine, except the game seems to avoid the Greater Philadelphia area (where most of the population lives)
- Rhode Island gets picked a good amount of times, but the game always spawns you North, Middle, and South parts of the state but does not put you in East, West, Northwest, Northeast (where most of the population is at), Southwest, and Southeast parts of the state
- South Carolina is picked a good amount of times but tends to favor more rural areas
- South Dakota gets picked a good amount of times and the spawns are pretty decent considering the state is sparsely populated, but some more spawns in the state's bigger cities would improve it
- Tennessee gets picked a good amount of times but when it comes to major cities, the game appears to almost put you just outside it, and not actually in it
- Texas is hardly ever picked (especially for a state of its size), and the only locations the game seems to pick is the region around the game's southernmost point and the City of San Antonio (other major cities like Houston, Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, and El Paso seemingly absent)
- Utah gets picked a good amount of times but the game tends to favor either towns north of Salt Lake City (never the city itself or the towns just south of it), very rural areas, or areas within range of a state border
- Vermont gets picked a good amount of times but the game tends to pick more rural areas
- Virginia is rarely ever picked
- Washington is almost fine, but the game puts you just outside of Seattle and not in it
- West Virginia's locations are pretty rural heavy
- Wisconsin is rarely ever picked, and when it is it's always very rural locations in the northwestern part of the state near its border with Minnesota
These are just the issues I have noticed, there could be other issues with state selection and spawning that exists and that I just haven't noticed yet.
This concludes the extent of my feedback for now. If any of the issues above were already fixed before the time I post this, I apologize in advance and I will keep testing the game out to see if anything feels different, if any of the above issues are actually a nonissue and it's just a matter of me needing to play the game more to find the solution, then again I apologize in advance, if any of the above issues are outside of your control or would cause an extensive amount of work to be worth fixing, then I understand. If you have any further questions feel free to ask and I will try to get an answer to you as soon as possible and if you prefer to discuss this matter somewhere else (like email), I'd also be willing to do that. I hope my feedback provides any insightful ideas that can go towards further improving the game (which I will continue to play),
Thanks for reading
PS: Linked below are my four long streaks that I used for reference
147 Streak Game: https://www.geoguessr.com/results/LBLx96cLVujdfRP3
55 Streak Game: https://www.geoguessr.com/results/bzue2luJjm1O6F2j
74 Streak Game: https://www.geoguessr.com/results/b3eXADLUsBVnNOjk
43 Streak Game: https://www.geoguessr.com/results/BD3ddVe8sAygk7N9
I had raised some feedback not long ago about the new state streak gamemode (which I got to start by saying despite the issues I'm about to bring up, I am having a lot of fun with it), and it has definitely improved significantly since then. Also since then I have managed to successfully complete a 147 streak game (alongside failed attempts of 55 , 74, and and 43 as my goal was to get a 100 streak), and going through these long sessions I believe I have experienced a good chunk of the game to give some possible feedback (which I will list here). If any of these issues are out of your control or would require too much "deconstructing" (couldn't think of a better word) to fix then I understand, these issues are not particularly game ruining and the mode is still very fun to play. Anyhow, here are some interesting things I encountered that I thought would be worth tweaking or looking into
1. Gen 1/Blurry Locations: Unlike most in the GeoGuessr community, I like to be dropped in a good blurry location here and there as it gives a every place a chance at representation and provides an interesting challenge. However, they still appear far too frequently to the point where it can get rather annoying at times
2. Frequency of Major Cities/Urban Locations: This could be solely because I just wasn't lucky enough to get these locations, but as I was playing I began to notice that some major cities were favored more than others. When comparing all my longer runs I noticed that some cities popped up on more than one run, or even more than once on the same run (like Albuquerque, NM), some were only seen once (like Los Angeles, CA) and some were never seen at all (like Colombus, OH and New York City), and oftentimes spawns in major cities tended to favor residential areas or city centers/downtown areas (nothing inherently wrong with that, it does add to the challenge of the game, but Downtown areas are often very cool to explore and it would be cool to spawn in them a little more often). I understand that the US is a massive country and I may just may not have had the right odds with my seed to get in those cities, but it may be worth looking into
3. Washington DC: I have "spawned" in Washington DC on a few instances, but every single time it was a location on the Maryland/DC Border and it seems that those are the only DC locations as I have already gotten repeats of those locations at least a couple time. It would be amazing to get to explore America's Capital by getting location spawns deeper into the district, but if it's not something that is possible then it may be worth removing DC as a clickable option altogether as spawning on the DC/MD border has caused numerous issues for numerous people
4. State Spawn Frequencies and Behaviors: If I remember correctly the location picker for both Country and State Streaks are based on having equal odds for each state/country to be picked so bigger countries (like Russia and the US) and states (like California and Texas), do not get priority to be picked. However I noticed that some states are picked 5+ times while others are hardly ever picked at all, and when a state does get picked it sometimes has a heavy bias as to where in that state you will spawn in. Listed below are some of the spawning behaviors that I noticed:
- Alabama gets picked a good amount of times, but it is usually always in the Northern part of the state
- Alaska is a sparsely populated state so it is understandable that a lot of the locations there are gonna be rural, but I have only spawned in a city once and I have yet to spawn in Anchorage (the state's biggest city)
- Arkansas gets picked at a pretty normal pace, but when it does get picked it just about never spawns near the central area of the state (where its biggest city, Little Rock, is located)
- California gets picked a little inconsistently
- Colorado is picked semi-frequently but also has a recurring theme of where in the state you spawn (either in Denver or the middle of nowhere, hardly ever in between)
- Connecticut is picked incredibly frequently for a state of its size, and when it does get picked it is almost always in the inland north of the state (not in the coastal regions where most of the population is located)
- Delaware is almost never picked
- Florida is hardly ever picked (especially for a state of its size), and it seems to have a strong bias towards EPCOT in the Walt Disney World Amusement Park
- Georgia does get picked a good amount of times but the game has a tendency to avoid larger cities and towns in favor of more rural areas
- Hawaii gets picked a good amount of times but almost always either spawns in the rural island of Hawaii (also known as "The Big Island") or on the freeways on the island of Oahu (where most of the population lives), only once have I been dropped in a location that wasn't one of those two. I have also yet to spawn in Honolulu (their biggest city)
- Illinois spawns has a heavy rural bias and I have yet to spawn in Chicago
- Indiana spawns are pretty balanced when it comes to urban vs rural but the game almost always avoids the southern part of the state
- Kansas is hardly ever picked and when it is, it is almost always in the eastern part of the state, I have yet to spawn in Wichita and Topeka (the state's two biggest cities)
- Kentucky gets picked a good amount of times but the game tends to avoid more urban areas
- Maine is picked very frequently for a state of its size, and the game also tends to avoid more urban areas
- Maryland is rarely picked
- Michigan spawns seem fine for the most part, but the game tends to avoid Detroit (its biggest city)
- Minnesota spawns also seem to be fine, maybe look to see if the southern part of the state is getting representation
- Missouri gets picked rather inconsistently and almost never in the northern half of the state
- Montana is picked incredibly frequently, especially considering most of the state is borderline empty
- Nebraska gets picked a good amount of times but the game tends to avoid the bigger cities as well as the southeastern region of the state
- New Hampshire spawns tend to favor more rural locations
- New Jersey is mostly fine, but the game tends to avoid the Northeastern part of the state (which is where a good chunk of the population lives)
- New York: Always put in upstate New York (and hardly ever in the more populated areas of that), I have yet to be put in New York City or Long Island
- North Carolina gets picked a good amount of times, but it's almost always in a rural location or just barely outside a major city
- Ohio gets picked a good amount of times, but almost never in a major city
- Oklahoma spawns has a heavy tendency to put you in Oklahoma City, one of the few instances where a state may need to more rural and smaller town locations
- Oregon gets picked a good amount of times but also tends to favor the western part of the state (and not really the major population areas of that state), I also have yet to spawn in Portland (but I always spawn just outside it)
- Pennsylvania seems about fine, except the game seems to avoid the Greater Philadelphia area (where most of the population lives)
- Rhode Island gets picked a good amount of times, but the game always spawns you North, Middle, and South parts of the state but does not put you in East, West, Northwest, Northeast (where most of the population is at), Southwest, and Southeast parts of the state
- South Carolina is picked a good amount of times but tends to favor more rural areas
- South Dakota gets picked a good amount of times and the spawns are pretty decent considering the state is sparsely populated, but some more spawns in the state's bigger cities would improve it
- Tennessee gets picked a good amount of times but when it comes to major cities, the game appears to almost put you just outside it, and not actually in it
- Texas is hardly ever picked (especially for a state of its size), and the only locations the game seems to pick is the region around the game's southernmost point and the City of San Antonio (other major cities like Houston, Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, and El Paso seemingly absent)
- Utah gets picked a good amount of times but the game tends to favor either towns north of Salt Lake City (never the city itself or the towns just south of it), very rural areas, or areas within range of a state border
- Vermont gets picked a good amount of times but the game tends to pick more rural areas
- Virginia is rarely ever picked
- Washington is almost fine, but the game puts you just outside of Seattle and not in it
- West Virginia's locations are pretty rural heavy
- Wisconsin is rarely ever picked, and when it is it's always very rural locations in the northwestern part of the state near its border with Minnesota
These are just the issues I have noticed, there could be other issues with state selection and spawning that exists and that I just haven't noticed yet.
This concludes the extent of my feedback for now. If any of the issues above were already fixed before the time I post this, I apologize in advance and I will keep testing the game out to see if anything feels different, if any of the above issues are actually a nonissue and it's just a matter of me needing to play the game more to find the solution, then again I apologize in advance, if any of the above issues are outside of your control or would cause an extensive amount of work to be worth fixing, then I understand. If you have any further questions feel free to ask and I will try to get an answer to you as soon as possible and if you prefer to discuss this matter somewhere else (like email), I'd also be willing to do that. I hope my feedback provides any insightful ideas that can go towards further improving the game (which I will continue to play),
Thanks for reading
PS: Linked below are my four long streaks that I used for reference
147 Streak Game: https://www.geoguessr.com/results/LBLx96cLVujdfRP3
55 Streak Game: https://www.geoguessr.com/results/bzue2luJjm1O6F2j
74 Streak Game: https://www.geoguessr.com/results/b3eXADLUsBVnNOjk
43 Streak Game: https://www.geoguessr.com/results/BD3ddVe8sAygk7N9
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I almost guessed DC in the second game, remembering what had happened in the first game -- but thought, "no, this one is clearly in MD too; it likely won't happen twice in a row." But it did!
Here are the relevant links:
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8490103,-76.9655187,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sqIjoto50CPtVrfc_eliHyA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8896978,-76.9134122,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2RI1Hn19xTtYZA7ZG4GfJw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
Thanks for listening!
Ya, here to bump for the DC/MD problem. Really enjoy the game mode, but its tough to not get silly-frustrated when this happens... Thanks, Devs!
Why is the DC / Maryland border guess not fixed? it's not right that a streak guess should be right on the borderline.
If anyone finds this - click DC, not maryland, if you further out then it looks like the whole of the road should be in DC.
It's been weeks now. Fix it.
I do not have too many complaints about it to be honest. I would have liked to be in some more cities up to now, because I just like exploring them more than all the rural wastelands. But maybe that was just me being unlucky.
I do however think we should only get rounds where you are more clearly on either side of the border. When you are 100% certain where you are, having a streak be decided by what is basically the flip of a coin is downright insulting. Especially because Geoguessr appears to get its borders wrong a lot.
Also, as my personal request: please update the medals on the left according to your current streak. I am on a 50+ streak and I'm sure that should have moved me out of bronze by now. I do not want to have to end my streak just to see that update.
@DJP: i had the exact same location happen to me earlier today. Was very frustrated because it was clearly in Maryland, but it said it was in DC. Has happened to me many times
I got burned by the horrible DC / Maryland bug to break a 113 state streak!!! The spawn is clearly on the NE side of the road which is Maryland. I wish I had read this thread earlier. I've contacted support in hopes that they'll make things right.
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions!
We are working on these border locations. In the meantime in case you have a Streak thats ended due to issues, send me the Game-ID (can be found under Activities on a Streak and its the URL of the game) to subscription@geoguessr.com and I can revive it.
Thanks!