Yeah, I realize I'm putting my ass in the flaming line, but I'm really sick of people complaining about this system. There's a lot of mouths going off about this system, but there's quite a few people who like it as well.
Biggest complaints: I have nothing to do now. I craft curious and then log off. I have enough food for X days.
Ok, that's great. I can understand that boredom issue up until you get boatbuilding. Ant Empress ~= 7-10k lp @ 360%la. Get a boat, go look for ants. That's the first 2-4 hours at most, and that's only if you're stuck on an medium sized island like I was. It's a slower start than the last system, but after the first 5 hours it picks up if you hunt for queens and empresses.
After that, what the hell do you mean you have nothing to do? Tanning leather, hunting seeds, hunting animals, chopping trees, building a palisade, hunting for a good set of resource nodes to settle on, find an unclaimed cave, meeting your neighbours. *Find a community* There's always a way you can contribute to the group. Stop being selfish if you're living in a community and complaining you have nothing to do, because trust me: there is work to be done.
Side note... there's still grinding. Stat grind, Ant raid grind? The regular income of LP is no longer tied to chopping down every tree in sight, it's tied to finding/producing good curios and raising your INT. What do you mean you "have enough food", go plow a field and drink water. Burn through that food for the stat bonuses. There are players who have vandalism already, and I can easily see that it's possible without using bug exploits. Sure they might have to have spent the last 3 days online most waking moments, but wait... isn't that grinding? The thing that people are bitching has been removed? LP is more valuable now early on in a character's life, what you're really saying is that the game was made more difficult.
But you know what? If you didn't figure this system out on your own, that's your problem. Jorb and Loftar see benefits behind this system over the old, and so do quite a lot of other players. Player numbers online have *not* dropped since the new update. I see 700-1000 online regularly, and that's what W4 had at the end. There are ways to grind yourself an advantage without exploiting a bug if that's what you really want, you either need to figure it out yourself or wait for people to explain it to you.
TLDR; If you're complaining in the forums, it's time to grow up and realize you're not gaining ground here. This system has enough support to stay. So GTFO and leave those who enjoy it in peace.