On Fairness

Sadly, all the problems we've faced were predicted by the early persistence doomsayers. Like you, I think it would be great if it we got a new wipe at launch. And, also aware it will never happen, nor would I advocate for it now as so much money has changed hands after persistence for trading rewards.

On track for the OP, a lot of game stopping bugs (log in issues, crashes, and what not) do make it unfair.

Yes, many changes are significantly unfair for those who couldn't take advantage of some of the pre-change designs.

Broken land rush is a distinct example of unfairness. People being able to take advantage of massive wealth increase prior to tweaks, and the ability to out earn those who are now much lower level and unable to get up to producing the same wealth due to being gimped on level progression affects the potential lottery results by being able to purchase significantly more tickets, among other things. People with more in game wealth are able to buy with gold and resell for real world currency which could be considered unfair. Many more examples can be given. Ultimately, it has nothing to do with fairness or unfairness. Its the unfortunate choice to go persistent when we should not have and were nowhere near ready for it.

One of the key aspects of customer service is that sometimes, people need to vent and feel like they are being heard. Even if nothing changes, the fact they were able to get it out makes people feel better (cathartic release). Notice most of the threads and people who post most use the argument that the devs aren't listening/responding/etc. One of the best things the team did was create the Bug Brigade so that at least in one area people are hopefully getting quicker feedback. If people feel their concerns are being listened to (i.e. validated even if disagreed with) that resolves many problems. Trying to shutdown people and belittle their opinions regarding what's fair or not (the shut up and play mentality some devs and players constantly express), isn't going to resolve anything in the long run and will just cause lots of resentment by those who feel wronged (whether justified or not).

 

I don't know, perhaps a small virtue boost for all as we didn't know the consequences for some of the actions and they were not intuitive. However, I'd hate to see someone that spent hours looting shops for resources to salvage/craft and GM their crafting in record time and then on release have zero or better virtues.

 

I can agree on this. But this does need to be looked at.

 

Persistence this early into alpha does cause problems for balance but I think it may have been done to keep the player base interested in testing the alpha. There's no dedicated Alpha testers that I am aware of. That usually falls on the development company which is done behind closed doors but due to the way the game is being developed its done in by the early access players.

 

Grapes for wine

 

One of the many problems with the current virtue as written by Lum is that there are supposed to be hard choices, but they are never intuitive, explained, nor able to be avoided in some instances. This forces us to have to randomly guess what the devs think is right and wrong. The looting of the bodies to get out of an opening scene was one example. The current broken AI logic of the fauns continuing to attack after the controlling Satyr's are dead, being another (self defense being a hit to virtue, wtf). They try so hard to not let us know anything so that we can't game the system, but all it does long term is make it impossible and extremely frustrating to play to their expectations when they don't give a valid clue on how to pursue that. Yes, there is the Oracle, but it doesn't give anything helpful other than listing one thing that was either right or wrong. It doesn't give clear guidance on how to get back on track once you fall off. (sorry for the off topic tangent rant, this just frustrates me to no end)

 

I think you've come closest to the way I feel about the issue. Unfortunate? Yes. Fair or unfair? Not relevant since none of the changes will stop my long-term success.

 

but there's already more than enough whine here...

....

 

Not unfortunate. It was a choice. Early backers could have placed a home at persistence but held off playing until final release. That we did not was our choice. It is possible to play on the QA server a good amount of time otherwise.

 

Sorry but LMAO

 

It should be possible to do detective like quests so one can ferret out the "truth" & solve the case. I remember this quest in KOTOR where you had to figure out who was the murderer based on witness/suspect accounts and what the databank droid could verify.

 

I think there is a quest involving arsonist/child-murder case in Ardoris right now.

 

Really? Great ! I'm one of the deco thieves @Alexander was talking about - time to expiate my sins

 

Players who can mine and gather in all scenes pour resources and gold into the economy with no risk and at a far higher rate then me.

It causes desirable items to cost more as there is more gold but it remains relatively centrally with players that took early and often advantage of early imbalances.

Exploits should of been rolled back in Early Access to ensure testing remains true to the intended state of the game.

I don't think the current situation is fair at all and the impact of power play is being downplayed. Many powerful players i an sure great others fairly and ate a boon to the game but looking at the situation by numbers alone i think it's very fair to come to the conclusion that the state is very divided between players that did and did not gain from early imbalance.

What you do with that conclusion is another issue

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who can see that sort of thing going on in the way people act about this stuff.

 

In one of the dev streaming session, they told us that they have the ability to selectively roll back individuals instead of the globally roll back on everyone.

Also, there are already botters/exploiters who got banned or suspended along with their progress wiped off. The eliminated assets turned out to be 20% of the overall circulation.

 

This head start wasn't announced until January of this year. It's hard to argue that people paid good money for a headstart when the game was being funded for nearly 3 years prior to the final wipe announcement. Up until that point, there was no distinction between final wipe and launch.

Further, the cost for this headstart appears to be somewhere around $5, the difference in cost prior to final wipe and after final wipe. Money, in any amount, is mostly considered a good. However, if you meant good as in a large quantity, I think the argument is faulty.

None of that is to say I disagree with you, I just quibble with the reasoning.

 

The RMTers and their customers would have an aneurysm if they did a wipe now. And then there are all the other players who have been playing on the assumption the game will be persistent - they would have a legitimate gripe about it.

Although I think early persistence was a terrible idea, I think a wipe at this point would also be terrible.

Yep - a headstart wasn't promised at any pledge level I ever saw.

 

They've talked and written at points about an optional wipe for storyline come release since the story will be completed then and people might naturally desire to enjoy the completed story. Not sure if the virtue system is tied directly into that.

 

Except for the early backers that couldn't get in because Unity was glitched and didn't let a number of them in. Or does not having a stable launch option for the game fall under it being by choice?