Game Development: World 15

[TheServant]

Well, at least to anyone worried that they're falling behind by not using container expansion, perhaps I can ease your minds slightly by saying that exceedingly few people have used container expansion at all thus far. Apart from what seems to be 4 people just testing the mechanic out on a single container, it has seen zero use thus far. If you feel that other people are getting ahead by using it, that isn't happening yet, at least.

My brother in Christ, why do you give attention to this matter? I'm sure you are aware they are clueless fools.

[springyb]

Well, at least to anyone worried that they're falling behind by not using container expansion, perhaps I can ease your minds slightly by saying that exceedingly few people have used container expansion at all thus far. Apart from what seems to be 4 people just testing the mechanic out on a single container, it has seen zero use thus far. If you feel that other people are getting ahead by using it, that isn't happening yet, at least.

Tragedy has struck in the Hearthlands, dear developer. I am a great and powerful pvper and I was locked into a battle with a sprucecap most foul. As our fight played out, it was clear from the beginning that I had the upper hand and would claim victory over his dried squirl tails. Then, suddenly, the afore mentioned tragedy happened. My opponent revealed himself for what he truly was, pay to win scum. He ran to his rowboat and revealed his crate with a couple extra storage slots. I was immediately struck dead by his ability to move 4 extra stacks of reeds across water.

I have no idea how to combat this plz nerf

[loftar]

My brother in Christ, why do you give attention to this matter? I'm sure you are aware they are clueless fools.

I think that's an exaggeration, but also when it comes to game design, there's a case to be made that perception is reality when it comes to these things, and I do hate to sour the minds of people who otherwise enjoy the game.

[Audiosmurf]

My brother in Christ, why do you give attention to this matter? I'm sure you are aware they are clueless fools.

I think that's an exaggeration, but also when it comes to game design, there's a case to be made that perception is reality when it comes to these things, and I do hate to sour the minds of people who otherwise enjoy the game.

At least for me, my main concern is the issue of the precedent that this potentially sets, as VDZ has said the ability to purchase a gameplay benefit for real money an arbitrary number of times is worrying. While everyone saying "It's just a few slots what's the big deal???" is also correct, I already find the pay to win monetization implemented distasteful, and If there were ever a shift even further towards Salem's "Buy tools buy curios buy stats, etc" style of monetization I'd drop this game immediately out of principle.

[loftar]

At least for me, my main concern is the issue of the precedent that this potentially sets, as VDZ has said the ability to purchase a gameplay benefit for real money an arbitrary number of times is worrying.

Understandable, and while anything I say may come across as nothing more than "trust me bro", I do want to say that we do share this concern, and that even this change is something we've debated back and forth over several years. It is only because we've found it to be a mere convenience that we allowed ourselves to add it.

[VDZ]

He ran to his rowboat and revealed his crate with a couple extra storage slots. I was immediately struck dead by his ability to move 4 extra stacks of reeds across water.

18 extra stacks actually, assuming a rowboat with two double-expanded crates.

But I'm about to get into a situation where the difference is very notable: I'm planning to move to a place across a whirlpool. Manually transferring items back and forth a bazillion times is infeasible so I intend to hearth over with a cart, and due to whirlpool mechanics I can't travel back from the new location to the old location, so anything I leave behind is lost. With normal crates, I can bring over 7*15=105 slots worth of items plus my inventory and equipment. But for the low, low price of $8.40, I can double-expand the 7 crates to bring over 168 slots worth of items instead! Or, from a glass half empty perspective: Not paying $8.40 forces me to leave 63 slots worth of items behind, which I will no longer be able to retrieve again. This feels bad. I refuse to engage in P2W bullshit out of principle, but I can see someone else feeling the need to pay real cash to not lose in-game progress here.

[Kaios]

Well, at least to anyone worried that they're falling behind by not using container expansion, perhaps I can ease your minds slightly by saying that exceedingly few people have used container expansion at all thus far. Apart from what seems to be 4 people just testing the mechanic out on a single container, it has seen zero use thus far. If you feel that other people are getting ahead by using it, that isn't happening yet, at least.

If you look right after your question in response to my post, I made a reply. Not easy to miss I thought but considering everyone else replied to me saying exactly what I just said I suppose it's understandable.

[loftar]

With the addition of new items the majority of them also tend to include discovery LP and adding on this an increase from subscription and verification it doesn't really take all that long to net a large amount of learning points in a short amount of time. Have you taken such factors in to consideration in relation to things such as the cost of rage, theft, vandalism, etc.?

That's a fair point. I'm not sure if it matters, given that it's not exactly as if we "tuned" the time-to-get-to-rage to some particular value to begin with, but it might be worth thinking about.

[Dawidio123]

With the addition of new items the majority of them also tend to include discovery LP and adding on this an increase from subscription and verification it doesn't really take all that long to net a large amount of learning points in a short amount of time. Have you taken such factors in to consideration in relation to things such as the cost of rage, theft, vandalism, etc.?

That's a fair point. I'm not sure if it matters, given that it's not exactly as if we "tuned" the time-to-get-to-rage to some particular value to begin with, but it might be worth thinking about.

Please do not make rage harder to get, it will make it based on quest rng even more so than now. You can go dozen quests in a row and get nothing useful, or you can get lucky and get like 20k lp in a couple of quests. If you want rage to be slower to get, nerf early questing or just remove lp (and ql increase) rewards from it.

Edit: To summarize my point, you can never have proper timegates in a game that has a system such as questing. Where depending on your rng you can easily jump way ahead in progression.

[Audiosmurf]

With the addition of new items the majority of them also tend to include discovery LP and adding on this an increase from subscription and verification it doesn't really take all that long to net a large amount of learning points in a short amount of time. Have you taken such factors in to consideration in relation to things such as the cost of rage, theft, vandalism, etc.?

That's a fair point. I'm not sure if it matters, given that it's not exactly as if we "tuned" the time-to-get-to-rage to some particular value to begin with, but it might be worth thinking about.

I personally miss when things like day one rage were an anomaly and not just How The Game Worked. Broadly speaking, the lack of a proper early game I don't think is a good thing. Being able to have yeomanry and place a claim after having been spawned for like 5 minutes takes the "accomplishment" out of placing a claim, for example.