Colonies even less valuable than before

I had a colony for a short time between the feature being released and the maintenance this week. I got Iron every 6 hours (not much to be fair, and not enough to make the cost of taking it worthwhile but that's a different thread). Anyhow, every six hours the colony would pump some iron out into a bucket. I could come along at any time and collect what was in that bucket. If there were two cycles then I'd get two lots of iron, and so on. I took a new colony after the maintenance and now the collection is much less player-friendly. When the 6 hour cycle finishes, the next one doesn't start until I've collected the resources from the previous cycle. Before I could come to my island the next day, say 15 hours after I'd seen it last and there would be two lots of resources waiting to be collected and the island would be well into the cycle for the next one. Now, I go to my island and there's one to be collected and the next cycle begins at that point.

Why did this change? Why make the new feature even less useful at a time when there are already big questions about it's value?

I've complained about this elsewhere and have just realised something - you don't actually end up with less resources.

If you are away for more than 6 hours, I think the resources continue to accumulate on a pro rata basis. It's just that the collection button can only be pressed once every 6 hours at most.

The timer is on the button, not on the accumulation of resources. Don't ask me to explain why.

If that's true then that is some terrible UI design. The timer is on the yield not on the button. I suspect that you are right, having watched it some more and it would explain why you can get resource amounts that aren't straight multiples of the advertised yield.

I didn't meant the timer was physically on the button, I meant it was on how often you could press the button.

On reflection, it's to stop you clicking every 5 minutes to get 1 unit of a resource. Guess that would cause lag...

Where are all the colonies with interesting rewards like granite, exotic wood or titanium? Im not going to fight over coal or hardwood.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gerontius

I didn't meant the timer was physically on the button, I meant it was on how often you could press the button.

On reflection, it's to stop you clicking every 5 minutes to get 1 unit of a resource. Guess that would cause lag...

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Yeah I understood you and I agree that it's probably why they designed the system that way. The feedback via the UI is wrong however for that. Here, I spent two minutes in Paint and fixed it. You are welcome BB.