Some good suggestions here. I'd like to throw in a few of my own:
* bare minimum: prevent, or at least strongly reduce the likelihood of, Rugged work and Research Notes going to a plot you've uncovered once (or more); so far, I have lost 8 tiles of work on two plots I've uncovered and, to top it off, CURRENTLY my rugged work is hitting one in EACH of them.
This could work with the "choose to reset" version Gaia proposes, or just by tweaking the RNG—a RNG tweak could also reduce the ability to farm for items that are supposed to be rare, like genes (or an Ancient breed...), without making it difficult to renew plots for things like armor that are probably supposed to be more common
* on the subject of getting more resources: perhaps in addition to turning in Research Notes, you could turn in thematically correct items? So 10 Rusty Pickaxes + 10 Pickaxe gets you an extra Rugged turn, or 40 Glass Shards (farmable!) another Precise turn?
* allow all the work to be done at once? Like, you muster a certain amount of resources, then click a "Work the plots" button that sets them all to work at once. Then at least the randomness isn't also combined with having to click buttons every 10–15 minutes for several hours and I would probably find RNG problems more similar to Pinkerton giving me a handful of sand versus an Ambush.
* the higher your level, the more resources you get, especially if higher levelled plots will have more tiles please TT_____TT
These suggestions aren't for implementing alone, but because I understand the admins are trying to make sure the site balance isn't disrupted because you can easily acquire genes etc:
- if rebalancing is needed to make things less easy after implementing some of this, maybe make the work take longer? I am honestly not enjoying being on a 15-minute or 10-minute timer for this; randomizing the time might make up for removing some of the other randomization, and would make the ! when one is uncovered more appropriate. :P
- another potential way to rebalance, if tools become much easier to come by: rarer items have significantly more tiles, or gain more tiles each time they're earned. Right now the biggest plots have 50 and the smallest have 25. If an Ancient breed has 500 tiles, it might keep Arlo from turning into an Ancient Egg farm while releasing the userbase to earn familiars and apparel in a time more commensurate with Baldwin. (tbh I find Bogsneak eggs a little too easy to brew, but they still take 25 times longer than the shortest activity, Transmuting, not just twice, and cost 65k rather than being free)
- Donate Treasure to the Guild to muster more resources. To prevent rich users from totally dominating this would either have to have a long cooldown (cf Baldwin) or get significantly more expensive as you stack it (cf lair expansions) each day. So 500 treasure gets you one more resource, 2,000 treasure two resources, 50k ten more... etc. or every 12 hours you can pay 7500 treasure to have another Muster session. The admins do say they're always looking for more treasure sinks.
- Limited time plots, like the current Sweetheart stuff, could help divert people away from farming for genes and other valuables. Say for the duration of them event you can dig some small plots awarding Familiars and Apparel as an alternative to adding them to Swipp, Baldwin, or the Marketplace, or for NotN some more Thunder Lizards sized plots.
I think, as a mercy, you get to choose which set of plots the work gets done on, the only set we have right now being Thunder Lizards, if this isn't the case then PLEASE do not implement this, I do not want to miss out on dinosaur gear or whatever else is coming out to end up drowning in, I dunno, Lovesong Doves and Brokenheart Doves.
Some good suggestions here. I'd like to throw in a few of my own:
* bare minimum: prevent, or at least strongly reduce the likelihood of, Rugged work and Research Notes going to a plot you've uncovered once (or more); so far, I have lost 8 tiles of work on two plots I've uncovered and, to top it off, CURRENTLY my rugged work is hitting one in EACH of them.
This could work with the "choose to reset" version Gaia proposes, or just by tweaking the RNG—a RNG tweak could also reduce the ability to farm for items that are supposed to be rare, like genes (or an Ancient breed...), without making it difficult to renew plots for things like armor that are probably supposed to be more common
* on the subject of getting more resources: perhaps in addition to turning in Research Notes, you could turn in thematically correct items? So 10 Rusty Pickaxes + 10 Pickaxe gets you an extra Rugged turn, or 40 Glass Shards (farmable!) another Precise turn?
* allow all the work to be done at once? Like, you muster a certain amount of resources, then click a "Work the plots" button that sets them all to work at once. Then at least the randomness isn't also combined with having to click buttons every 10–15 minutes for several hours and I would probably find RNG problems more similar to Pinkerton giving me a handful of sand versus an Ambush.
* the higher your level, the more resources you get, especially if higher levelled plots will have more tiles please TT_____TT
These suggestions aren't for implementing alone, but because I understand the admins are trying to make sure the site balance isn't disrupted because you can easily acquire genes etc:
- if rebalancing is needed to make things less easy after implementing some of this, maybe make the work take longer? I am honestly not enjoying being on a 15-minute or 10-minute timer for this; randomizing the time might make up for removing some of the other randomization, and would make the ! when one is uncovered more appropriate. :P
- another potential way to rebalance, if tools become much easier to come by: rarer items have significantly more tiles, or gain more tiles each time they're earned. Right now the biggest plots have 50 and the smallest have 25. If an Ancient breed has 500 tiles, it might keep Arlo from turning into an Ancient Egg farm while releasing the userbase to earn familiars and apparel in a time more commensurate with Baldwin. (tbh I find Bogsneak eggs a little too easy to brew, but they still take 25 times longer than the shortest activity, Transmuting, not just twice, and cost 65k rather than being free)
- Donate Treasure to the Guild to muster more resources. To prevent rich users from totally dominating this would either have to have a long cooldown (cf Baldwin) or get significantly more expensive as you stack it (cf lair expansions) each day. So 500 treasure gets you one more resource, 2,000 treasure two resources, 50k ten more... etc. or every 12 hours you can pay 7500 treasure to have another Muster session. The admins do say they're always looking for more treasure sinks.
- Limited time plots, like the current Sweetheart stuff, could help divert people away from farming for genes and other valuables. Say for the duration of them event you can dig some small plots awarding Familiars and Apparel as an alternative to adding them to Swipp, Baldwin, or the Marketplace, or for NotN some more Thunder Lizards sized plots.
I think, as a mercy, you get to choose which set of plots the work gets done on, the only set we have right now being Thunder Lizards, if this isn't the case then PLEASE do not implement this, I do not want to miss out on dinosaur gear or whatever else is coming out to end up drowning in, I dunno, Lovesong Doves and Brokenheart Doves.
Still undercaffeinated.
sorry for the confusion, i missed the button to claim a plot and hurt my own feelings XD
sorry for the confusion, i missed the button to claim a plot and hurt my own feelings XD
Nuzlocke (on hiatus)
[quote name="Sylvandyr" date="2022-02-16 09:13:40" ]
Even something like forcing RNG to heavily favor plots that haven't been unearthed before would be helpful. That way a person's first run would be less frustrating, and the odds would even out after everything's been unearthed once.
[/quote]
I am personally not a fan of this. Especially since there are items that only have a use once (familiars, vista) and items that have multiple uses that can be wanted more than once within the same digsite (genes, apparel, scene).
Additionally, I might not want or like all the items within the digsite.
Hypothetical: I don't care for familiars, but I love the apparel. I might want to dress multiple dragons with the set. If I uncover it once, I don't want my random pickaxes to then have an even smaller chance to land on it. I'd be forced to uncover everything once, before having an equal chance at it landing on the plots I want, and it gets even worse if I want it three times or four times, because I have multiple dragons I want to cover in the set. And that's not even counting the fact you can't get a complete set when you uncover the plot once so you /have/ to uncover it more often just for a single complete set.
Basically what it comes down to is as long as it is random, weighted or not, resources are going to be wasted on plots people are not interested in. So while weighting might seem to solve an issue, it just introduces more issues, and doesn't solve the problem properly.
Sylvandyr wrote on 2022-02-16 09:13:40:
Even something like forcing RNG to heavily favor plots that haven't been unearthed before would be helpful. That way a person's first run would be less frustrating, and the odds would even out after everything's been unearthed once.
I am personally not a fan of this. Especially since there are items that only have a use once (familiars, vista) and items that have multiple uses that can be wanted more than once within the same digsite (genes, apparel, scene).
Additionally, I might not want or like all the items within the digsite.
Hypothetical: I don't care for familiars, but I love the apparel. I might want to dress multiple dragons with the set. If I uncover it once, I don't want my random pickaxes to then have an even smaller chance to land on it. I'd be forced to uncover everything once, before having an equal chance at it landing on the plots I want, and it gets even worse if I want it three times or four times, because I have multiple dragons I want to cover in the set. And that's not even counting the fact you can't get a complete set when you uncover the plot once so you /have/ to uncover it more often just for a single complete set.
Basically what it comes down to is as long as it is random, weighted or not, resources are going to be wasted on plots people are not interested in. So while weighting might seem to solve an issue, it just introduces more issues, and doesn't solve the problem properly.
Big support for manually resetting plots! That would allow players some control over what they want to dig beyond one tile at a time. To deter farming a certain item, maybe all plots would be reset once you uncover the whole digsite. Meaning the only way to continually harvest one item is by leaving two sites open and never using pickaxe / notes, which is really slow.
I’ve been lucky and I wasn’t aware some people were getting as low as 1 tool a day! Support for the minimum being raised. I don’t agree with getting guaranteed number of tools or more ways to get tools though. Arlo items have already become quite common after only a week. In a month or so I bet things will be very cheap to get on AH, so if you don’t want to wait a few days to dig up something you wouldn't have to.
Personally, the notes has been the biggest disappointment. I tried the guild feature once - never again. 8 notes is not worth 1 glass. 3 notes would be more reasonable. Now I’m kind of forced to make friends, even though I don’t know the people on my friends list. And the selling notes thing just feels icky all around to me? People were paying 20kt a note, which is at most 4% of a digsite when the items aren’t worth more than 100kt. And anonymity meaning no guarantee of compensation if you “sell” notes to someone. Feels like bad vibes for sellers and buyers alike
Big support for manually resetting plots! That would allow players some control over what they want to dig beyond one tile at a time. To deter farming a certain item, maybe all plots would be reset once you uncover the whole digsite. Meaning the only way to continually harvest one item is by leaving two sites open and never using pickaxe / notes, which is really slow.
I’ve been lucky and I wasn’t aware some people were getting as low as 1 tool a day! Support for the minimum being raised. I don’t agree with getting guaranteed number of tools or more ways to get tools though. Arlo items have already become quite common after only a week. In a month or so I bet things will be very cheap to get on AH, so if you don’t want to wait a few days to dig up something you wouldn't have to.
Personally, the notes has been the biggest disappointment. I tried the guild feature once - never again. 8 notes is not worth 1 glass. 3 notes would be more reasonable. Now I’m kind of forced to make friends, even though I don’t know the people on my friends list. And the selling notes thing just feels icky all around to me? People were paying 20kt a note, which is at most 4% of a digsite when the items aren’t worth more than 100kt. And anonymity meaning no guarantee of compensation if you “sell” notes to someone. Feels like bad vibes for sellers and buyers alike
I also think the tarp idea suggested earlier is a good suggestion. The staff could limit it to 3-5 tarps, depending. Of course, a lot of it depends on how the staff wants items balanced with Arlo. Do they literally want a 1:1:1:1 etc ratio (more or less) of all items in the system? Or do they want/is it better for the market and supply and demand to create the ratio itself?
I also think the tarp idea suggested earlier is a good suggestion. The staff could limit it to 3-5 tarps, depending. Of course, a lot of it depends on how the staff wants items balanced with Arlo. Do they literally want a 1:1:1:1 etc ratio (more or less) of all items in the system? Or do they want/is it better for the market and supply and demand to create the ratio itself?
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If writers are supposed to "show not tell," why are we called "storytellers" and not "storyshow-ers"?
Support, I saw several very interesting points brought up through the thread and in the first post ^-^
Support, I saw several very interesting points brought up through the thread and in the first post ^-^
She/Her
Lover of WangXian and HuaLian
[quote name="Gaia" date="2022-02-18 06:06:04" ]
[quote name="Sylvandyr" date="2022-02-16 09:13:40" ]
Even something like forcing RNG to heavily favor plots that haven't been unearthed before would be helpful. That way a person's first run would be less frustrating, and the odds would even out after everything's been unearthed once.
[/quote]
Basically what it comes down to is as long as it is random, weighted or not, resources are going to be wasted on plots people are not interested in. So while weighting might seem to solve an issue, it just introduces more issues, and doesn't solve the problem properly.
[/quote]
Ah, I see. For your use case, it doesn’t solve the problem. For me, I only care about uncovering Arlo’s plots once each from a completion standpoint, so it actually does solve my problem without introducing issues for my personal use case. (I plan to save resources for the next plot once everything’s uncovered.)
I would, of course, prefer the option to manually reset plots. However, I don’t know if the devs will actually do it. It would be helpful if they did, though.
Gaia wrote on 2022-02-18 06:06:04:
Sylvandyr wrote on 2022-02-16 09:13:40:
Even something like forcing RNG to heavily favor plots that haven't been unearthed before would be helpful. That way a person's first run would be less frustrating, and the odds would even out after everything's been unearthed once.
Basically what it comes down to is as long as it is random, weighted or not, resources are going to be wasted on plots people are not interested in. So while weighting might seem to solve an issue, it just introduces more issues, and doesn't solve the problem properly.
Ah, I see. For your use case, it doesn’t solve the problem. For me, I only care about uncovering Arlo’s plots once each from a completion standpoint, so it actually does solve my problem without introducing issues for my personal use case. (I plan to save resources for the next plot once everything’s uncovered.)
I would, of course, prefer the option to manually reset plots. However, I don’t know if the devs will actually do it. It would be helpful if they did, though.
I do agree with the first dig through RNG prioritizing plots that haven’t been uncovered yet but do feel there still needs to be a way to avoid having things reset (for people who are complitionists and want to see the full artwork, for those who don’t want to dig up multiples of something they can only use once, etc)
[quote name="@Sylvandyr" date="2022-02-19 05:05:15" ]
Ah, I see. For your use case, it doesn’t solve the problem. For me, I only care about uncovering Arlo’s plots once each from a completion standpoint, so it actually does solve my problem without introducing issues for my personal use case. (I plan to save resources for the next plot once everything’s uncovered.
[/quote]
Are you aware that future digsites will require a minimum archaeology level in order to access and work on them? If the next digits is level two you shouldn’t have an issue but if the next digsite is level 5 you might end up having to spend time digging in the current one before you can access the new site when it’s released. I’m not saying hoarding for the next site is a bad idea, we just don’t know yet how minimal levels would go.
I do agree with the first dig through RNG prioritizing plots that haven’t been uncovered yet but do feel there still needs to be a way to avoid having things reset (for people who are complitionists and want to see the full artwork, for those who don’t want to dig up multiples of something they can only use once, etc)
Ah, I see. For your use case, it doesn’t solve the problem. For me, I only care about uncovering Arlo’s plots once each from a completion standpoint, so it actually does solve my problem without introducing issues for my personal use case. (I plan to save resources for the next plot once everything’s uncovered.
Are you aware that future digsites will require a minimum archaeology level in order to access and work on them? If the next digits is level two you shouldn’t have an issue but if the next digsite is level 5 you might end up having to spend time digging in the current one before you can access the new site when it’s released. I’m not saying hoarding for the next site is a bad idea, we just don’t know yet how minimal levels would go.
[quote name="@DragonSage" date="2022-02-19 05:20:06" ]
Are you aware that future digsites will require a minimum archaeology level in order to access and work on them? If the next digits is level two you shouldn’t have an issue but if the next digsite is level 5 you might end up having to spend time digging in the current one before you can access the new site when it’s released. I’m not saying hoarding for the next site is a bad idea, we just don’t know yet how minimal levels would go.
[/quote]
We'll see once we get there! If I have to farm more experience, I can do it then. At the moment, I feel like I'm more constrained by resources than by time. That's a good point, though.
Ideally what I want is the ability to manually reset plots (that would also solve my issue of the first run-through better than forced RNG, which I mainly suggested as a cheap alternative) - I just get a bad feeling that the devs don't actually want to do it. I hope they seriously consider it, though. It would help a lot of people.
Are you aware that future digsites will require a minimum archaeology level in order to access and work on them? If the next digits is level two you shouldn’t have an issue but if the next digsite is level 5 you might end up having to spend time digging in the current one before you can access the new site when it’s released. I’m not saying hoarding for the next site is a bad idea, we just don’t know yet how minimal levels would go.
We'll see once we get there! If I have to farm more experience, I can do it then. At the moment, I feel like I'm more constrained by resources than by time. That's a good point, though.
Ideally what I want is the ability to manually reset plots (that would also solve my issue of the first run-through better than forced RNG, which I mainly suggested as a cheap alternative) - I just get a bad feeling that the devs don't actually want to do it. I hope they seriously consider it, though. It would help a lot of people.
