"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....
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?Originally Posted by Koumpounophob
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.
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
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.
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.
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;
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.
- 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.
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/f...00-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.
Last edited by fishslice; 22.05.14 at 21:37.
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
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
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.
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.
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