Thoughts on the current trend

And no doubt there are other things that will get nerfed... prices in the economy will change.. even our currency may still change. It could be in R33 all that gold we have will be copper and we'll be lugging it around. and then finally one day we'll hit 'balance' and you'll be making money again. They're not going to get it all right at the pace we like.

 

One thing to bear in mind with the development teams mission statement:

• Open Development: Players help shape the game by giving feedback on monthly early access releases, videos, weekly updates, blog postings, forums, chat, etc.

That was taken from the steam description of the game. We, as players (investors even) should be told about all the changes so that feedback can be given. If we don't know about the changes how can we see them as being an improvement or detriment?

 

I would rather see the economy change based on our style of gameplay, not due to some nerf. It's supposed to be a player driven economy, quoted directly from Portalarium themself, but this is not player driven, this is player forced.

 

once again he tells us about lesser changes and leaves out Bigger ones ? that doesn't make seance to me.
as a crafter it takes 20 silver to make 5 ingets to try for one master craft. of coarse that may blow up and or you might mot get what you want so you have to plan for about 5 chances. that takes a long time in Hilt at old levels and now it's crap. i can see how they may want to lower the amount of taming collars but it's hitting crafters so hard

 

Another thing I have to add, Portalarium said earlier on, you can choose your path, play your own play style and they will not punish you for that. Perhaps not in the exact words but that's basically the easiest way to describe it. If you want to fight, you fight, if you want to craft, you craft, if you want to gather, you gather. To gather, you have to fight, to craft you have to gather, which you still have to fight. If you want to fight and not gather or craft, you need money to buy resources. If you can't make money from killing stuff because of the extreme costs you are forced to gather and craft your own goods to cut back on that expense. Now you are gathering and crafting rather then fighting. It can go on and on. Sadly, nerfing drops from kills and nerfing mining has killed that completely. If a person is forced to be a fighter, gatherer and crafter then they are self sufficient and don't need anyone else. Boom, instant economy crisis. Nobody will buy from anyone if they are self sufficient and do it themselves.

 

Balancing the economy will take month, if not years. In my eyes we have some mayor problems, but to fast-change them extreme often leads to problems (like the OP told himself). On the other side let't take Bowen's mind set and just keep in mind that the time of balance will come, so stay calm and drink tea

To come to the point of mining: I think mining is the fastest gathering method in the moment (you get a lot in nearly no time compared to hides, cotton or especially wood) and the prices for the ores are still very high because of the demand of them, so to balance this will be a tricky one. Still, If I can go to Etceter and get with nealy no effort 150 gold and 100 iron per walk and have nealy zero risk down there (lvl 1 & 2) something is going wrong ... and that is the amount I still get there, even after the nerf. Only time will tell how to fix that ^^

 

We are more than players and investors. Until the game is officially launched, we are play testers. This is what we all agreed to when we gave Portalarium our money. Play.. give feedback. We don't need to be told "there's a mine over there".. if we play and find the mine.. we can give feedback. But what if we don't find the mine you ask? Then either they need to make the mine easier to find.. which is also useful information.. or we'll be giving feedback on other things.

No one player can give feedback on everything. Just as the devs can't be expected to report every single change that's made every release. There's just too much there to give a detailed report on.

 

There is no complete economy in place yet to be driven by players and it there won't be until all features are in place and reasonably balanced. How can you have a player driven economy without a complete and functioning economic system?

 

A good development team DO document every change. Its the only way development can happen within a large team so these notes are there, they just choose not to show them to the community who it effects

 

i'm giving my feed back and its not great.. clearly you don't mine for master craft.

 

We're not investors, that's a legal term that does not apply here.

But as far as giving feedback, our relationship with the developers is that they MAKE the game and we PLAY the game and provide feedback. We don't direct them how to make the game. They don't tell us what feedback to provide. It helps greatly if the feedback we provide is actionable and objective. Just as it's helpful for the developers to communicate what the intended goals of the game development is for the design and implementation.

It's a collaborative process, but because they're the ones with 30+ years game development experience, they're the ones that ultimately get to decide what direction we go in. Our feedback helps them make those decisions.

 

Let's see how it all comes together then when everything gets balanced. (But by all means continue giving feedback in the meantime). Just understand the current state is not the end state and balancing is part of how we get there.

 

Spoken like a true politician. You tell us how we're supposed to establish an economy with the current way things are going. Give us the answers. If release is as near as they are talking, something better be in play before release or you will get people who will come into the game for a month and then quit and this is if you don't lose half of your customer base that are backers for this game.

I thought it was our job to make sure things are ready for final release to the public. If this is the case we need to work together, rather then constantly having to adapt to extreme changes. Again, i'm not completely disagreeing that some things needed toned down some but again it's always one extreme to the next. If we can't get on the same page as the devs and they are asking for our feedback, what next?

Anyways, I've posted enough here tonight, I've stated my feelings on things, if Devs can prove I'm wrong I'll fess up down the road, but if' I'm right, I don't want to hear anyone complain about how the game ended up because people we too dang chicken to speak up.

 

Just speaking in terms of economy.. we can't really expect to balance half the related features that do exist when the other half still have yet to be implemented. That's part of the rub and it's much harder to see down the road when you're staring at the rear of a huge elephant walking in front of you.. so to speak (and putting it politely).

(on an unrelated note.. can't stand tea )

 

My britishness might be showing. Over here an investor is someone who puts money and time into something in order to get something out of it. In this case we spend cash, time playing, giving feedback etc in order to see a great game built for the community.

This is what we are all doing now so I see myself and many others as investors.

 

question for you Bowen Bloodgood........ do you play the game ? if so what are you doing right now ? because i'm trying to get the silver i need to make or blow up a piece of gear i'm trying to make but i have way too much time on my hands because there in nothing going on in my mine. that is why i'm in forums... if your playing the game what are you doing that gives you time to be here ?
because really it seems like you not and just reading this.... i know when i am doing things in game i'm not checking forums because i'm doing stuff (hence my low number of posts)

 

This

 

That makes sense in that context. But because it has legal implications in the States and Portalarium is a US company, the term can't be used without that clarification because it this game is not considered a financial investment. We pledged money to help fund the development of the game without any expectation of making a profit from it. In other words, we're not in business with Portalarium. So it's best to find another word to describe what you're talking about, like "fan".

 

Define profit
We profit from a better game.

 

Ouch.. No a true politician would either change the subject or blame someone else.

Well, first you start by waiting for the entire system to be in place.. which.. the way things are going won't be for a few more months. In the meantime, understand we're still testing an unfinished game.. the road is long but we'll take it one step at a time..

Adapting is part of working together, but so is providing feedback.

This too is part of the process.. sometimes it's just the way it goes.. too high.. so change it now it's too low.. so you keep changing it up and down a little less each time until you zero in on the sweet spot. I get it can be frustrating but this is what we signed on for. (Whether we knew it or not).