Coercion in the game

[Over10n]

Hello, I would like to share some feedback from a game that I have been playing with pleasure for several months now. During the game, I came across various not quite adequate mechanics at this point in time, and I want to share my experience about one of them: Steel furnaces frighteningly force constant attention to the fuel level in them, and for a person who has business in life besides the game, this is unacceptable.

Now I will try to explain the reasons for this opinion about the game:
A person playing your wonderful game is in parallel in reality in which he must do real things to which his life obliges. When in-game systems force a person to change his life routine for the sake of them it is not right, the steel-making system itself is interesting and original, but it should not interfere with a person's real life and should not force a person to set an alarm clock at 7:30 in order only to have time to add fuel to the furnace. You know, it's too much, a person can have a job, family, training and hobbies in addition to the game and forcing a person to follow this unfair rule is not right, especially to punish for breaking it. I will give my example:

Yesterday I spent the day with attention to the fuel level in the furnaces for smelting steel, I had a very difficult day and in time I barely fit in the schedule given by the game creators, at night I filled the furnaces with fuel and set an alarm to be able to put fuel and get steel by the evening Today. But due to the constant anxiety of sleep, it was not my fault that I did not wake up in time, just a few minutes before the furnaces went out and all progress was reset. Such mechanics are offensive and humiliating to a person's life time, as they force and punish individuals for not following unfair rules (which do not consider a person's life time) for having other responsibilities besides maintaining the fuel level in the steel production furnaces.

The game should not interfere with real life and change it by forcing you to sleep for 7:30 hours and being at work or on a trip to worry about whether he will have time to put fuel in the furnace for steel production, the game should run parallel to real life where a person can spend and interest his free time.

Yes, you could say, "If you don't want to play, don't play." or "If you can't play, don't play." The game's creators have created a remarkable and unique game that is fun to play, but these unfair mechanics create a negative perception of the gameplay rather than fulfilling the systemic objectives of limiting the speed of in-game alliance development.

[Regulus2424]

yeah, it is universally agreed upon that steel needs a change, and Jorb even agreed with that somewhat recently, but every patch is a coinflip, so we either get steelmaking update in the next announcement topic, or we get in a year

we really should make a megathread with the most braindead, effortless, common sense changes that have been uttered on these forums and have not been implemented for years for seemingly reason, and publicly shame the developers there, although it sometimes feels like they are very selective about feeling shame, if at all capable of it

[yurez]

+
People playing in villages which have many players ( including botters) they wont feel any difference. While for 1/2 person community that is problematic.

Solution is super simple just freeze processimg time when it is out of fuel for casual players like me and many others that will make big big differenece

[Fostik]

I don't want steel to become easily obtainable.
There should be high-grade steel alternative, that require collective effort and mass production to affect production efficiency, also making it time and resource demanding process, to get best weapons, armor and tools.
And then regular steel that should be debuffed and be usable for all regular stuff, also obtained easier.

[azrid]

just buy my steel on the market buddy
its not that serious

maybe you are too dumb to run the free steel bot on your own so let me do it for you

[SlicingTheMoon]

just buy my steel on the market buddy
its not that serious

maybe you are too dumb to run the free steel bot on your own so let me do it for you

I kinda agree with this guy, but for other reason.

Things you find hard to do yourself promotes using markets, which is great in these kind of games,
markets promotes buying sub tokens, great for the developer.
As a buy business owner you for sure under stand supply and demand.
If we wanted everything easy we could just go and play Stardew Valley, this is not that kind of game.

[dUmbins]

If we wanted everything easy we could just go and play Stardew Valley, this is not that kind of game.

“Difficulty” in this case meaning: log in every few hours, do a few clicks, log out. Or run an entirely rudimentary bot that does the same. Farmville is actually more difficult.

[NightMind]

did another topic without realizing there was this suggestion. Do agree with the sentiment though!

“Difficulty” in this case meaning: log in every few hours, do a few clicks, log out.

Difficulty in this case means time commitment. Sleep less than 8 hours. Find a way to do this at work or school. Some of us have a life.

Or run an entirely rudimentary bot that does the same.

This game should not be reduced to a battle of bots. Devs did say they can't and won't fight bots and players who choose to avoid engaging with the game mechanincs, but I don't believe solving everything with bots is the correct solution either. Some of us luddites like to do things manually, as they were intended. And if you're using a bot instead of playign the game what even is the point of "playing" the game. I can respect your choice of using the bots. Please respect our choice of not using the bots

[azrid]

Don't ignore my offer.
We still have steel bars on the market why don't you just buy some?
You are playing an mmo come take part in the actual game.
Theres no reason to show respect for lone wolves in mmos.