more space needed soon

[Koumpounophob]

hello BB and everybody else.
I'm sure it's been mentioned countless times before but, it's been awhile (and I couldn't find one without going waaaay back (but didn't feel that well about bringing such old posts to the front))


we are really starting to need some more space.
people who have spent hundreds of thousands of gems on this game probably bought all the extra licenses that you can.
if you've been playing for a long time, you'd have even more licenses from events.

I haven't been playing that long. but I have 340 licenses.
I have a ton of Nobles and watermills, not to mention I've been putting up improved storehouses to give me more storage space (and this gave me a heap of more licenses to build other stuff with)
I probably have like 525 buildings on my island, and I'm sure others have the same, and some, maybe even more than that.
and in the future, I hear birds singing about even more licenses up for grabs.
I'm only level 43 and thus don't have gold towers nor epic workyard. but honestly, I wouldn't even know where to place them, the epic one I don't have room for, regardless of placement.

from the looks of it, if we don't get more space soon, it's getting too expensive to play the game, because of the stuff that you need to purchase for gems, in order to cut down on space needed for buildings. nobles would probably be a place people will cut down and get frozen manors instead. but getting 40 of these will be in the area of 1 milion gold coins if not more. or purchase for gems, which is still a heap or two, of gems needed to be invested, even more since drop chance is random on getting them.
another place is the improved silos to cut down on silos already placed, still like 1 million gold coins, and another heap or two of gems.

as I see it, the game is moving into a state where people who have spent thousands of real bucks on the game, are now being forced to spend even more, just because they bought gems to begin with, just to get buildings that does a better job, so they can replace the stuff they already have, just because space is scarce.
I don't think the free playing players have this problem. but I've seen a lot of people who has.
I don't really care if we got a mountain pass which is basically only suited for spamming it with buildings that don't need a storehouse, it frees up space on the rest of the island.

after maintenance an earthquake could happen which created xx new sectors. (or something)

else maybe we should be able to get a new island, pretty much like in "Anno 2070" (Ubisoft game). where space and resources are limited on each island (like they are here in TSO), so you have to expand to nearby islands, mostly for other more exotic resources, but also for space. and needing to have transport ships to transport goods between islands.
this could introduce pirates to the game that attack your transport ships 1-2 times a week or something, where you would need warships to protect your merchant fleets. (just perhaps without submarines and aircraft carriers (a bit too high-tech in my oppinion))
not saying that it had to include Bismarck class warships, but maybe up to some small cruisers and/or destroyers.

and then invade another island, like you took over your beginning island, sector by sector.
of course the new island would have all sectors occupied, so you land your troops in enemy territory.

the new island could maybe give the same amount of space but only get 5 licenses per sector (licenses would have to be limited on this one, else you would just get the same scenario sooner than later (I need space))
and the islands should of course not look like eachother, should be a completely different layout and all.
and then all the future licenses that BB decides to give us, we would apply to the new island (instead of us having xx spare licenses, but no space to place new buildings)

anyways, the point is: "please give us some more space, one way or another. we really need it"

thank you so much for all your time.

best wishes - Koumpounophob

[Steve1077]

They mentioned rock removal a few months ago but nothing came of it, after that we got improved silo which gave us a bit more free space and now we will be getting lvl6 farms that can give us more space, at a huge cost in gems, a simple way of giving us more space is to let us buy another 20 floating res or another couple of recycling plants could help, or even a few new building like bakers that have windmills built in freeing up space that double the production of normal bakers, so many simple options

[stefanceltare]

I prefer a solution that also extends the content of the game for past lvl 50 players like a new island or at least 2-3 new sectors with bandit camps...

[Dorotheus]

It's all very well asking for what you want, but it would be nice to see some reason of why you want it. Given the current development of the game what would more space allow you to do which you can't do already. If it's just more of the same you need to justify why you need more. Failure to do this does not provide the developers a incentive to provide you with what you wish for.

In case your wondering level 50 with both space and licences to spare.

[Koumpounophob]

Steve, I'm not sure how much space those demo guys would be able to actually give us. since most of the mountains are for mines (and thus won't be able to bombed away anyways)


stefanceltare, if you need something to do at level 50, or something more to do, make a suggestion of it. if you can't think of what you would like to be added,
I don't think it's fair for you to put that burden on to the developers to think of something. they can't know what you would like to see in the game.
I would say: "think of something", and pass that thought on to the developers. could be you would convice them to add what you've come up with.


Dorotheus, that's actually a good statement. (but honestly think I've covered it already, for my own reasons anyway (the others, not so much)).

the reason why they are giving us more licenses, is so we can get a better economy. which can't be done if we don't have space to place the buildings.
what good is having 20 spare licenses to you if you can't use them? "theoritically I could build 20 more buildings, got the licenses for it. I just don't have any space".
pointless to have spare licenses then, in my oppinon.

a thing I forgot is that you can get 15 more building licenses from the epic section in the merchant (for 1300 beanstalks). I'm not even sure I have space to place 15 more buildings.
and if "The Birds" I heard singing are right, we get 5 more licenses in the not-so-distant future. that's 20 buildings, which I'm still not sure I can place.
and for the look of ones island, one might want something to give a spice, to its looks, like castles and witch towers and such. I've seen a few people having about 10 total of castles and witch towers and the likes, and some might have more.
with all the buildings you can get that don't need a license, along with all the licenses that you can actually get, we're starting to actually need space, in order to actually be able to use the licenses that we have.

what purpose does more licenses have if you can't use them because you literally, have no more space to build upon?
basically they could just give us infinite licenses, we're still limited by space, so what reason is there to limit licenses if space is really the buttom line to what we are able to do on our island?
only logic in my head is do to the free playing players, to limit their expansion. but eventually (however this may take like 10 years to accomplish) they too will run into a situation where they need space, if BB keeps handing out licenses of course.
the thing just is that the people who are paying to play (basically that's what some of us are doing) we've just gotten there sooner.
if we are meant to be limited by space, why limit licenses as well? (except in the case of the free playing players)

I'm not saying we should have a new island and the access to just as many licenses, that would be foolish, since we would just get the same problem (and pretty quickly too).
I'm merely asking for the space, so we can put to use, the licenses that we already have.


why do we have to throw maybe 300€ or more into the game, just to replace stuff that does a fine job as it is? just so we can use what the game actually gives us, like licenses?
we're limited on licenses, so we purchase more licenses just to be limited on space. we then get free licenses, that we can't use since we got no space to build upon.
what good does more licenses do, if we don't have space to use them on?
what purpose does that have?

"I would like another storey on my house"
"of course sir, here you go, 1 building license"
"the ground won't be able to withstand the extra weight though"

kinda pointless to be able and allowed to add another storey to the house, right? I would rather not have the license to begin with.
with a license I can't use, I feel like I'm missing out on a better economy (however little this may be).
I've paid for most of my licenses. don't find it all that fair to now just be limited by space instead, and have extra licenses. rather be limited by a game mechanic (licenses), then by the design of the game (licenses), and the latter, I feel I'm very close to bumbing into.

thank you so much for your time.
best wishes - Koumpounophob

[Thejollyone]

I think the various ways you can obtain licenses is just that, a different way you can get them. You don't have to have the max amount, they have given those options for those who do not wish to buy or spend gems.

[stefanceltare]

I already made a suggestion, didn't I? Add a new island (or at least few sectors) with bandit camps. Obviously these new camps would be tough to kill and should take some significant time. Each sector should be an achievement of its own. Thus you add new content (quests) and new island space.

What exactly did i put on the developers back?

[Smiffy2204]

I've recently reached lvl 50 and have found that its not enough... I want more lol. If the rock removal is still on the drawing board why not develop it for 50+ players but limit it (let us remove a couple per level). Provide a way to convert star coins into xp to keep them in them in the game. More licenses could be given as reward for reaching lvl 60,70 etc and/or more floating residences,a lot of xp would be needed to reach these levels so make some high xp adventures and add more challenge to the game. How about some new buildings available at these levels too

Gardener: remove bushes/dead trees/swamps etc (make it movable)
Fish farmer: x3 compared to fisherman hut but no deposit needed like the deer stalker
Donkey breeder: reduce transport times (limit 1 per building)
Paladin hut: new military unit uses 10 army spaces but deals 100r damage (limit 1 or 2 per player)
Improved mill: x3 compared to normal mills
the list of possible additions is endless with so many of us at or near the current level cap it would be in bb's best interest to raise it and provide more to keep us in the game

so that's more space, more licenses to use the space and 50+ content everything a tso addict needs :)

[Koumpounophob]

Jollyfog, if you don't use the licenses that is available to you, you're limiting your own progress (sorta (you'll need more resources to get all buildings level 5 (which will take longer))).
the more buildings you have, the more you produce. and thus, the more you get, that you don't need, which means you can sell it, and get some coin, which you can use to purchase something you might not produce enough of. (or upgrade something)
if you can have 100 farms, but only build 75, you're missing out on wheat you could sell. (that you could use to upgrade the farms, giving more wheat to sell, giving more coin, which means more upgrading, etc)
you are simply limiting yourself and your economy, by putting up a barrier.
but theory wise you're right, you don't "have" to have all licenses. but it's highly recommended. (you don't "have" to eat breakfast every morning. it's just recommended)
it gives more income, even if it's not coins from the beginning, you can turn it into coins, and then use that coin to purchase something nice for yourself.
do you think it's "okey" or "fair" to penalize those that get both the free ones and the paid ones? giving them licenses that they can't even use anymore, do to game design being, (in my oppinion) flawed?

stefanceltare, I fail to see you've actually suggested anything, since I believe I covered both your "suggestions" in my opening post. but feel free to correct me on this.

Smiffy, your idea on the board is pretty good. but it might bite itself in the tail at some point.
how many licenses would you suggest are given out per 10 levels? 10? because then at level 70, you will need more space (even with rock removal)
more floating residences would be helpful on making some more space. however, water where you can place them, are also pretty limited, at least from where I'm standing.
to me it just doesn't seem like it frees up that much space.

good job on the buildings.
gardener - at this point, if it's only moving it around, you'd still need space to move it to. and also, you wouldn't get more space (maybe a better solution to really optimise the space, but that's kinda it, as I see it)
fish farmer - good idea. however this would increase the need for more space. even if you don't just add them to your current fish production, and actually replace those you got, with these, you free up licenses which would be used for something else. you're basically just adding buildings to the islands.
donkey breeder - so this would be like an addon for all buildings? or do you mean like a passive buff that automatically applies to all buildings, just be having it placed somewhere on the island?
paladin hut - this will totally make the game easier. (if new adventures are made that actually needs them, it will make all other adventures easier (think of an adventure that mainly has last strike units. you would then be able to send an army worth 100 recruits and 240 crossbowmen, or 340 units, on a vet. seems a bit.. too much to me.
improved mill - this would increase need for more space. it would free up needed mills, but one might want to tear down "x" mills and replace those mills with bakeries instead, so all in all, this would just increase the production of bread, and not free up space on the island. pretty much same story as the fish farmer.

we have the licenses available, we just don't have the space needed to make good use of them, if any.
which is pretty much just all I'm asking for.

thanks again for all your time.

best wishes - koumpounophob

[Smiffy2204]

rock removal would add 30+ spaces gardener probably double that (if he can also clear reeds it would make more space for floaters) yes the mills & fish farmers would increase available licenses but would decrease space needed by 2/3 I'm pretty sure that u could use the extra licenses up in those 100+ extra spaces. paladin would take time to build like any other unit but limiting it would mean using it a strategically not just on every camp. donkey breeder would be a building to produce donkeys for use in other buildings maybe have them return to it for food n water every 6 hours or so (reason to keep the building), some players could tighten up production chains a bit or get rid of a few storehouses with them.

There is never a way to please everybody & there will always be those who massively over do it but this is settlers a game about balancing resources which includes space (example: don't build 500 deer stalkers at the expense of the rest of your economy as you will never have enough space)

Also this game hogs bandwidth etc something fierce adding islands or extra sectors would be a game breaker, better to optimize what we already have

[Thejollyone]

"do you think it's "okey" or "fair" to penalize those that get both the free ones and the paid ones? giving them licenses that they can't even use anymore, do to game design being, (in my oppinion) flawed?"

I think it's fine to offer players in a free-to-play game the option not to have to spend real money, that certainly isn't flawed, and was my point....

[Jimmian]

the reason why they are giving us more licenses, is so we can get a better economy.

To what end? If you've built all the buildings and balanced all your production... you just want to make more stuff, to sell it and have more gold? Then when you get 10 million gc or whatever, you'll come back here whining that you have nothing to spend it on?

The question has to be asked, why did you buy the licences before you needed them? If you hadn't, you'd have all those gems to spend on optimising your production, which is what you really should be doing rather than just demanding more space to build more buildings to make more stuff to get more gold to... see above.

Basically, as has been pointed out already by others, space isn't necessarily the issue. I'm lvl49 and have loads of free space on my island, and still have 110 licences available to buy for gems in the merchant. I even have some flowers and statues prettying up the place. Am I the richest lvl49 around? Absolutely not, but I have enough to keep me going, with a little extra trade and a little extra to trade at a reduced rate or share within my guild. To date I haven't spent a penny playing TSO for a variety of reasons. If BB were to tighten things up, fix the ridiculous bugs and introduce expansion content for the capped players that is actually worth doing and has a reasonable lifespan of more than just a couple of months I might consider making a financial contribution in the future, but not right now. DOZENS of players have made excellent suggestions for new lvl50+ content but all we're offered so far is granite pits (!) and exotic nursery (!!)... THAT'S what should go on the developers' backs. Ignoring the player base and introducing rubbish content that nobody wants, isn't worth the cost, and which is basically unaffordable anyway unless you buy more gems than you (literally) know what to do with. They seem perfectly capable of thinking up this new 'content' - would love to know why they don't just let the players do the thinking for them (a lot of it has already been done, even), we'd all be much happier.

Nobody made you spend real life cold hard cash buying hundreds of thousands of gems except yourself and your own impatience. So, you've reached the top and had to stop and THAT'S what's bothering you (with apologies to The Jungle Book), not the lack of space, really. Except you're not even at the top, you've 7 more levels to go and you're still here complaining. Wouldn't like to hear you when you've been lvl50 for a year and have nothing to spend the star coins/beans/beanstalks/millions of gc you've accumulated on and even if you had, you've STILL nowhere to put it.

What did you GAIN from buying the gems? In real terms, nothing at all - you said yourself that you just got to the glass ceiling quicker than I could have done and I find myself asking, again, to what end?

Personally, I'm leaning towards suggestions along the lines of stefanceltare's - there have been many made over the months. New buildings in the form of shipwrights, sailmakers, chandlers... whatever. So you can build yourself an armada and go in search of new lands to conquer and/or establish trade routes, so instead of warships you'd build merchant vessels. Availability of these different ship types could be lvl-based as the existing buildings are, and the trade routes could introduce new resources into the game that aren't in the form of lag-inducing collectables which you can't even queue up to make something useful. Don't have room for the shipwright? Well, that's where strategy and optimisation comes in - you have to make some tough decisions on which buildings you're prepared to sacrifice in order to access the new content or improve your production chains so that you don't actually need as many buildings of a certain type as you have now.

[Koumpounophob]

Smiffy, about gardener. you (and I quote) "(make it movable)".. moving stuff around doesn't give more space.. if you move your furniture around the house, do you get a bigger house? does that, somehow, bend space so that there is more space in the house, or opens a door into another dimension and thus giving access to more space? sure don't work that way for me.
to make space, you literally have to clear the object, just moving it around won't solve this.
I don't see I can remove 30 rocks on my island. most rocks are mountains, as I see it. and they are mostly used for mines. so unless a mine becomes a hole in the ground, I'm not following this, sorry.

the fishermen may take only 1/3 of the space that you normally use for your fish chain, but fish is an easy way of getting some coin, so if they don't replace their fish chain, but merely adds to it, you have a worse situation than before, because you've added more buildings to the equation, instead of them havein 10 fishermen, they now have 13+. so that's 3 squares more that are needed than before.
if you add a new building, that building will take up space, regardless of it being 1/4 of a normal building (even if it's 1/4 of a flowerbed). adding enough = no space available, even though it only takes 1/4 than usual.

even if the paladin took 1 week to build, a normal general would still be able to hold a force worth 290 recruits. or 100 recruits and 190 other troops. you might as well give the general his own personal xp count for his kills, and give him access to a skill that increase his troop limit by 10 for every level, and then add 10 levels to that skill. pretty much the same you're suggesting, just with easier access.
the martial artist would get a troop count of 310 instead of his limit of 220. against a "last strike" camp, that's just too easy. doesn't add "strategy" to the equation, just severe amounts of damage to the force that the general holds and unleashes with it. the mma has already made the game easier, I see no reason to buff this fact.

the donkey breeder would then be massively placed like other stuff. depending on the limit of donkeys supported by it. if it can support 5 buildings, then you would probably build like 30 of them, so all buildings is under the influence of it. that's quite some space needed right there.

you are right, someone will overdo it.. then just make everything have it's limits, so that the game mechanic "over-do-it" can't be done or achieved.

and I'm yet to encounter a place where it states that it's a game about balancing resources. this is my ever first settlers game. so unless people tell me this, how am I to know? I've been recommended to overproduce something, so that I would have an income of something, that I could just sell, and wouldn't be wondering if I could afford to sell it to begin with.

not sure what you mean by hogging bandwith.. I only have a 10/1 Mbit download/upload connection (and that's even below the standard of today), and I'm still able to see movies on the internet, have a video call on skype counting 2 people, and of course, play this game. and I didn't have a bigger problem with lag than what I always have. at least I didn't notice a difference.
the problem as I see it, is the servers, if they will be able to handle the stress. but I've put enough money into this game that a new server could have been bought (maybe not one that could complete an infinite loop in 5 minutes, but something pretty fierce)

I can only see 1 reason why one should be concerned about the data streaming, and that's if you're paying for the data you stream.
and then I wouldn't even recommend playing a game online. or at least only your average flash games.

the only problem I see is the latency of the game and the loading times when first entering the game after logging out, and even that, isn't that terrible.
a game shouldn't set it's standards after the low end users.
a game should set it's standards after the top end users. (and if you're wondering, I'm not even a "top" user (at best I'm "above average"))

else make the game downloadable and just do an intregrity check of the downloaded files (what do you think the MMO's do with their data?). but that shouldn't even be needed for this game.

thanks for your time.

best wishes from here

[Koumpounophob]

"do you think it's "okey" or "fair" to penalize those that get both the free ones and the paid ones? giving them licenses that they can't even use anymore, do to game design being, (in my oppinion) flawed?"

I think it's fine to offer players in a free-to-play game the option not to have to spend real money, that certainly isn't flawed, and was my point....

it's not flawed to give the people who are actually paying for the game, something that they can't use?
free playing players: here you go, gift for you..
the paying people: here you go, something you can't use, but here it is anyways....

seems highly illogical to me, that the people who are actually making sure this game will even continue to exist, are being handed something, that to them, is worthless.

[Koumpounophob]

To what end? If you've built all the buildings and balanced all your production... you just want to make more stuff, to sell it and have more gold? Then when you get 10 million gc or whatever, you'll come back here whining that you have nothing to spend it on?

The question has to be asked, why did you buy the licences before you needed them? If you hadn't, you'd have all those gems to spend on optimising your production, which is what you really should be doing rather than just demanding more space to build more buildings to make more stuff to get more gold to... see above.

Basically, as has been pointed out already by others, space isn't necessarily the issue. I'm lvl49 and have loads of free space on my island, and still have 110 licences available to buy for gems in the merchant. I even have some flowers and statues prettying up the place. Am I the richest lvl49 around? Absolutely not, but I have enough to keep me going, with a little extra trade and a little extra to trade at a reduced rate or share within my guild. To date I haven't spent a penny playing TSO for a variety of reasons. If BB were to tighten things up, fix the ridiculous bugs and introduce expansion content for the capped players that is actually worth doing and has a reasonable lifespan of more than just a couple of months I might consider making a financial contribution in the future, but not right now. DOZENS of players have made excellent suggestions for new lvl50+ content but all we're offered so far is granite pits (!) and exotic nursery (!!)... THAT'S what should go on the developers' backs. Ignoring the player base and introducing rubbish content that nobody wants, isn't worth the cost, and which is basically unaffordable anyway unless you buy more gems than you (literally) know what to do with. They seem perfectly capable of thinking up this new 'content' - would love to know why they don't just let the players do the thinking for them (a lot of it has already been done, even), we'd all be much happier.

Nobody made you spend real life cold hard cash buying hundreds of thousands of gems except yourself and your own impatience. So, you've reached the top and had to stop and THAT'S what's bothering you (with apologies to The Jungle Book), not the lack of space, really. Except you're not even at the top, you've 7 more levels to go and you're still here complaining. Wouldn't like to hear you when you've been lvl50 for a year and have nothing to spend the star coins/beans/beanstalks/millions of gc you've accumulated on and even if you had, you've STILL nowhere to put it.

What did you GAIN from buying the gems? In real terms, nothing at all - you said yourself that you just got to the glass ceiling quicker than I could have done and I find myself asking, again, to what end?

Personally, I'm leaning towards suggestions along the lines of stefanceltare's - there have been many made over the months. New buildings in the form of shipwrights, sailmakers, chandlers... whatever. So you can build yourself an armada and go in search of new lands to conquer and/or establish trade routes, so instead of warships you'd build merchant vessels. Availability of these different ship types could be lvl-based as the existing buildings are, and the trade routes could introduce new resources into the game that aren't in the form of lag-inducing collectables which you can't even queue up to make something useful. Don't have room for the shipwright? Well, that's where strategy and optimisation comes in - you have to make some tough decisions on which buildings you're prepared to sacrifice in order to access the new content or improve your production chains so that you don't actually need as many buildings of a certain type as you have now.

no offense, but I doubt you are getting what I'm saying to you.
people like me, who are spending our life on bread on this game, is the true reason why you're even able to play. if noone payed for this game, there would be no game to play. it would be taken off, pretty fast (and you're welcome)

I think we might (just might) go into a difference on understanding "optimising". an optimised economy to me, is not an economy that has a production value of near "0" in production in 12 hours. to me it's something that is well on it's way of actually being able to withstand adding a new building to the chain, upping production value.
if you mean the production should be at or near "perfect", an optimised economy is pretty much impossible to accomplish do to walking distance and lack of space to proper place your buildings. you would need much more open space to cut down on unneccecary walking distance.

you always have stuff to purchase for gold, unless all buildings are level 5. and if they were so, I'd probably just be done with this game and move on to something else.
else the only thing to do, is hoarding ressources.

and who said I didn't need the licenses?

see my point? you could have a better economy, you just choose not to. I simply ask the question why?
I'm in no way in a hurry to reach level 50, but if I could have a better economy, just by spending 1½ hours of gameplay, I would do just that.
and I would be able to do that, if my island wasn't filled to the brim with other buildings, making it literally, impossible to put much more stuff in there. yet they keep giving us things that enable us to place more stuff onto our islands, just not the essential space needed for making use of it. it's pretty much like giving all settlers a tank, but we can't afford the gas for it. (then what purpose has the free tank? (I'd rather just not have the tank))

you think I've reach the top? lawl... I can't reach the top, because they've made an impassable plateau in the middle of the way there.

what I've gained from the gems in real terms? nothing... what do you gain from playing a computer game, in real value? nothing.. there are only a select few world wide that ever got something out of video games, and they are the ones being sponsored by companies.
only the peak of the top, get something out of it. the rest get none. of course we get none. they've made the effort to make something, they got something. I think that's what we're paying for, to get something out of it.. what we get, are eg. licenses that we can't use to anything, because we can't place any buildings at all, on our island..


I wouldn't call it "strategy" to have to tear down 2 buildings to build 2 other buildings. at best, that's a compromise, at least in my book.. you should really try Anno 2070, think you would learn something by it, there, you need everything! and as you progress, you need more of the basic stuff, like tea (amongst others). you simply can't "cut down" anything, cause then you can't progress anymore, cause you need that thing you just removed, to be able to progress...

and again "so that you don't actually need as many buildings" that's limiting your own progress.. I'm not arguing about that they need more content for level 50's. I'm just saying that you can easily run into situations where things need to be done, and I'm merely suggesting, that this, is an area where improvement can be had. that I've got licenses to spare, and no spare, that's not fun. to push your licenses to the brink. getting exactly what you want/needed and 0 licenses left. that's the key for me. to have 10 licenses that you can only throw out the window, that's pointless. even more, giving us more licenses to throw out the window. that's not helping anything for anyone that are in the same situation.

I'm starting to think that your "optimised" production is having just what you can use yourself, with as few buildings as possible. that's pretty much what I get from your last few lines of text.
you think that's what companies do? cut down on production when they are doing great and have a great product? I doubt that. I think they would set up shop somewhere else as well.. but if you want that process to have a high end purpose. then we can call for economic world domination, control the worlds different currencies, by having 1 epic company expand it's borders all across the globe.
I can't say what a real company aim for. but cutting down on buildings, sure don't seem like one of them.. "Grundfos" (pump manufacturer) I've seen grow up since I was a kid, they've pretty much conquered the town in which they are based, has factories in several different countries. does that sound like they are "optimising" their production by "cutting down on buildings"? sure don't to me.. but feel free to correct me on that.

thanks for your time.

[fishslice]

I bought all the shop available license packs early on in my playing days and used them. Even without buying the ones for stalks in the Epic Shop Section or buying the event item ones previously. I have 335 Licenses and 40 available that are surplus to my requirements. Granted I can get that down into the high twenties by building all the iron mines but as I currently have 535K Iron Ore / 207k Iron Bars / 347k Iron Swords those extra few iron mines really aren't a priority for me.

What really winds me up is yes it was my decision to buy those packs but that decision was based upon me wanting to develop my island and the information available to me at the time - I was very much for PVP. Much of this information was based upon the Dev Diaries in the first 18 months of the game and back in those days BB even gave an indicative timeline for instance;


April 2012 BB announced that PVP is in progress / planning, June 2012 BB restated this as Estimated for the end of 2012 / 1st quarter of 2013.
November 2012 BB announced the Level 50 cap would be increased. Incidentally the Geologist interface used to show Granite Mines being searchable at L52.
Also in November 2012 it was again restated that PVP was coming. A brief summary of its key features was given, pictures of new PVP related buildings and even an in-game screenshot.
In May 2013 BB again brought up PVP. In fact it got its very own Dev Diary and stated how it has not been cancelled, is very important to them and in fact currently have several different versions of the PVP feature - NOTE: Not several different views, thoughts or opinions but actual real versions....... Their words quoted below.

PVP is a very important feature that is still part of our agenda/plans. PVP was delayed and pushed back a few times but it has NOT been cancelled. PVP is an extremely important update to our game, it is not something we take lightly, a variety of ideas were exchanged regarding its design, they were discussed and evaluated. We experimented a lot during the design process.
We currently have several different versions of the PVP feature.
Right now, we have to decide which version suits TSO best in terms of game play, balancing and from a technical standpoint. Remember that each complex feature needs an intense testing phase. At the end of the day, these are the reasons why we cannot give you a date right now, but PVP is still on the roadmap.

I could go on about broken promises re the demolition crews, new generals available for star coins etc but people can view all the Dev Diaries here >>> http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/forums/300-Dev-Diaries

I do accept that BB caveats all these things with comments like the below.


Please keep in mind that the final version all things mentioned above can be different and that the dates are estimations and may differ.

The features have to fit our needs in terms of quality and technical aspects and they have to pass several test phases (one is the pre-staging test you’re welcome to participate in).


Nonetheless, I STRONGLY believe that we, the playing and paying community deserve to be treated with more respect than has been shown to date.

We are customers of a service and many of us have paid for that service. It is these payments that provide BB with the technical capability to host this game and allocate resources to develop the game. They have consistently told us what we can expect - nowhere have I seen BB say we will get bigger islands or new islands (nice to have granted) but I have seen BB repeatedly tell us about content that we will see. Yet content announced more that 2 years ago is still no further forward than it was when it was but a whispered vision on the lips of the no doubt long departed developers.

Its been asked for a few times recently BB so please, please, please provide a Dev Diary update that is open and honest and has the courage to say "These are the list of things that we said we was working on but have now scrapped, here's the list of the stuff that we will continue to work on and here's the 5 most frequent game playing community suggestions that we absolutely refuse to work on when we can spend time thinking up even more absurd collectibles to design".

If you wanted to be really progressive you may even consider starting a BB Feedback thread where BB developers actually feed back on the suggestions that many better people than me have spent a lot of their own time proposing and designing.

At least that way we can stop asking for updates on enhancements that have been stated as been in development but wont ever see the light of day or asking for stuff here in the Game Suggestions area that will never been adopted.

[Koumpounophob]

Hey FishsLice

thanks for pointing to the back end of the dev diary. a lot has been promised and I see at least 50% of it, being just that, promised.
such a shame, I see a lot of good ideas on the table.

some nice ideas about the forum there as well FishsLice.

cudos.

have fun and take care

cheers
//Koump

[Steve1077]

Smiffy, about gardener. you (and I quote) "(make it movable)".. moving stuff around doesn't give more space.. if you move your furniture around the house, do you get a bigger house? does that, somehow, bend space so that there is more space in the house, or opens a door into another dimension and thus giving access to more space? sure don't work that way for me.
to make space, you literally have to clear the object, just moving it around won't solve this.
I don't see I can remove 30 rocks on my island. most rocks are mountains, as I see it. and they are mostly used for mines. so unless a mine becomes a hole in the ground, I'm not following this, sorry.

the fishermen may take only 1/3 of the space that you normally use for your fish chain, but fish is an easy way of getting some coin, so if they don't replace their fish chain, but merely adds to it, you have a worse situation than before, because you've added more buildings to the equation, instead of them havein 10 fishermen, they now have 13+. so that's 3 squares more that are needed than before.
if you add a new building, that building will take up space, regardless of it being 1/4 of a normal building (even if it's 1/4 of a flowerbed). adding enough = no space available, even though it only takes 1/4 than usual.

even if the paladin took 1 week to build, a normal general would still be able to hold a force worth 290 recruits. or 100 recruits and 190 other troops. you might as well give the general his own personal xp count for his kills, and give him access to a skill that increase his troop limit by 10 for every level, and then add 10 levels to that skill. pretty much the same you're suggesting, just with easier access.
the martial artist would get a troop count of 310 instead of his limit of 220. against a "last strike" camp, that's just too easy. doesn't add "strategy" to the equation, just severe amounts of damage to the force that the general holds and unleashes with it. the mma has already made the game easier, I see no reason to buff this fact.

the donkey breeder would then be massively placed like other stuff. depending on the limit of donkeys supported by it. if it can support 5 buildings, then you would probably build like 30 of them, so all buildings is under the influence of it. that's quite some space needed right there.

you are right, someone will overdo it.. then just make everything have it's limits, so that the game mechanic "over-do-it" can't be done or achieved.

and I'm yet to encounter a place where it states that it's a game about balancing resources. this is my ever first settlers game. so unless people tell me this, how am I to know? I've been recommended to overproduce something, so that I would have an income of something, that I could just sell, and wouldn't be wondering if I could afford to sell it to begin with.

not sure what you mean by hogging bandwith.. I only have a 10/1 Mbit download/upload connection (and that's even below the standard of today), and I'm still able to see movies on the internet, have a video call on skype counting 2 people, and of course, play this game. and I didn't have a bigger problem with lag than what I always have. at least I didn't notice a difference.
the problem as I see it, is the servers, if they will be able to handle the stress. but I've put enough money into this game that a new server could have been bought (maybe not one that could complete an infinite loop in 5 minutes, but something pretty fierce)

I can only see 1 reason why one should be concerned about the data streaming, and that's if you're paying for the data you stream.
and then I wouldn't even recommend playing a game online. or at least only your average flash games.

the only problem I see is the latency of the game and the loading times when first entering the game after logging out, and even that, isn't that terrible.
a game shouldn't set it's standards after the low end users.
a game should set it's standards after the top end users. (and if you're wondering, I'm not even a "top" user (at best I'm "above average"))

else make the game downloadable and just do an intregrity check of the downloaded files (what do you think the MMO's do with their data?). but that shouldn't even be needed for this game.

thanks for your time.

best wishes from here

Just a word on the rock removal, it wasn't just the big rocks you could remove but some of the smaller ones as well, there was a fair amount of space made after rocks were removed, not that it matters as I can't see it ever happening

[Smiffy2204]

a piece of furniture would not pop out to the garden and cut down that pesky rose bush so u can build a shed on the space would it?.. No. there are tons of places we could build but there r bushes n rocks in the way just look at s7 above your coal mines, there's a pile of rocks, flowers, bushes or an unnecessarily large mountain in every sector. so u would have to move the building around big whoop it would be worth the cost. pretty simple concept to grasp but I get the feeling you're someone that will find a negative in everything or create one if there isn't. bb could give you a whole second island which you would probably fill with license free buildings and continue to complain. I'm not gonna waste any more of my time instead I will just leave u here in your thread to await the next billy goat that wants the grass on the other side. :) have fun.

[Koumpounophob]

and you're not comprehending what I'm saying. even after quoting you..
you need to clear the space of whatever is in the way. not just move it somewhere else.

as for s7, the mountain serves as place where your coalmines mine the coal from. granted, it could be smaller, but would be strange if the mine itself, was just a hole in the ground.

but I've mentioned this already, so odds of you actually reading what I write, and not just half of it, or less, is slim.