[Feedback] Dev Diary part 2: Science System

[PChamps]

Really? You choose to get to level 50 knowing full well there's nothing after that yet, then everytime BB try to introduce something the first 'group' that moans is the level 50's. ANY content added is usually for all levels - level 50's included.

You have to level to improve, level 48 for cannons, certain buildings etc. I aimed for level 50 with the under standing more levels would be added. When I started the geo use to say lvl 52 required to search for granite it was only around level 30-40 that I realised you could not get to that level yet but BB must of thought about it hence the reason it was there that is the reason i continued to level.

Most level 50 players would have spent real money on this game for gems and the impression is BB no longer want these players in the game that is why they are not going to add more levels. Thats not a good feeling and hence the reason they moan the most.

[Mystic]

Really? You choose to get to level 50 knowing full well there's nothing after that yet, then everytime BB try to introduce something the first 'group' that moans is the level 50's. ANY content added is usually for all levels - level 50's included.

The arrogance and ignorance of this comment is mind-bogling Players who reached Level 50 want to keep playing and keep getting new xp.. Its the only thing that let us show how effective we are in playing. But sadly, even a guy who logs in once per day and does an adventure once per week seems to be able to reach the EOC.. EOC should be something that you reach after years of playing, not after only one year

As an L50 player who levellup rather slowly (using easy adventures and not the ones that give massive amounts of xp) I find the fact that someone can get to EOC so fast a bit annoying. It really shows where the design of this game came from, clearly NO knowledge whatsover about how MMORPG players tend to play. But I have said it before, the design of this game is clearly lacking long term sustainability.

Anyway, this new Science looks good, but I have already found out some really weak spots. One of the weakspots is that the FIRST skill (the one that gives you 10%x3 chance of finding treasures) doesn't work properly. It even gives you treasures (hardwood, stones, marble, pine planks so far) if you don't find an deposit. And with a turnabout of 1 mins for an Jolly this is troublesome. For those with plenty of time they can find massive number of logs/stones this way, making prices go even further down. Oh well, at least for the geologists this is just fluff.. Nothing special, just something to spend some resources on.

Basically you only need one building as the rest can be bought off the market, and I am not really sure if the Science is interesting enough to dabble with it. Not what we can see for the geologist anyway.

[Harald_Villraade]

Having had a brief look at the test server, I have a few comments. First, an "important" detail: Please, please, BB, remove the huge, ugly flag that pops up saying "Find xxx deposit", when you hover your cursor over the geo alternatives. It already says so next to the icon, the flag is only useless noise.
Also, the layout in the Bookmaker where the order notice covers the production details when you´re making a book (always...), isn´t good. Neither is the lacking possibility to order more than one book at a time.

All in all, I think the science system is a good improvement. Buildings look great and supplement the others visually. It gives the specialists and each island a more individual character, and (mid-high level) players something more to do (just wait till the explorer and general trees are here, guys..!).

However, I find the geo´s skill tree a bit annoying. As mentioned above, many of the skills are undesirable because they mess up our routines, only causing confusion. Yet we HAVE to pick (at least some of) those skills to get the ones we might want. Hmm... Guess Ill save my manuscripts for when the other skill trees are ready.

Something that hasn´t been mentioned much is the economic impacts. I see this as another step to fix the once broken economy, suddenly exotic wood and even the hated titanium ore has become useful! The same with iron ore, which I for one only mined to sell, and hardwood, which has become increasingly valueless.

To the EOC debate, I´d like to point out to the lvl50s that you do come through to lower level players a bit like kids whining to their mum that they "want more candy, because I have eaten everything, and the other kids haven´t. That´s not fair!"
HOWEVER, the low level players should be aware that this (whining...) is about the only way we players can put pressure on bb to fix the most serious flaw(s) in this game. And I see no reason to let go that pressure until bb shows us that they are actually doing something about it. But like others, I think this is a step in that direction. Anyway, the whining is at bb, and as players we basically have the same interests, so no reason to bite each other.

[Tripi]

The big flag is just a header for the associated skills, e.g.



I think these will be useful, especially if some of your geologists are trained differently.

Sub-note: I think that bugs and suggestions/feedback should really be posted on the test server forums rather than here. I'm sure the development team are more focused on that forum rather than the many live server ones.

[MadMcKay]

Looks good to me - people gonna have to play clever - not just buy jewels and building licences.

[Drunken_Abbott]

at first glance, we now need a tonne more water, copper, iron, coal...the wood is not an issue as it can be increased a lot easier.

it would appear one has to stop producing bronze swords entirely to accommodate the extra production of these resources.

Copper production needs to change, it is bad enough as is, without endless copper mine, the highest worthwhile level of a copper mine is level 3
there are a heap of ways to address this, firstly far too many wheat replenishments in rewards, sizeable copper dep+ could be added (not lost skull size)
size of iron deposits in rewards could also do with being doubled

or reduce copper mine upgrade cost to a sustainable level. coal mines also to dear to upgrade given no coal dep+ in rewards

if we are to stop bronze sword production, it will take a wet week to build an army, both from training time & production of swords.

silos & watermills need to be more easily got, Epic adventure rewards should have a chance of winning them, make them untradeable if you dont want the market flooded & accessible at too early a stage in the game


This adds a lot of interest to the game, but production requirements are so out of balance & rewards from adventures are way too low

[Kotugo]

the production is nowhere near what you think, you can only produce as much as your bookbinder can use, which will likely mean you end up with 1-2 of each building with them sleeping half the time rather than being buffed. The production is so high even at low levels that prices are likely to be fairly low for all the mats apart from the completed book items which will cost a fortune instead.

If you are worried about space/production, you can probably easily get away with just building the bookbinder and then buy everything else through trade.

The only issue I will see is with extra hardwood logs needed as most people probably don't have high hardwood production.

[Drunken_Abbott]

i have tried to answer twice and lost the post...argh


Im L46

i have 1 x L4 i smelter
iron ore is 1 x L5 buffed or 4 x L2 & 1 x L1 unbuffed
i dont think i could sustain 2 L5 iron mines constantly on the reward deposits.

i dont produce steel or steel swords due to the heavy resource demand
i have to buff iron prod to cover wheel prod for the stupid guild quest demands

copper is a joke, it is too expensive on tools to run a L5 mine let alone the incessant replacement of them.

most players will be wondering where on earth they can fit another heap of wells

coal mines are another drag on tools, upgrading them is ridiculous price, i was hoping to increase coal prod to stop having to mine it at all.

the game is gradually going from a self paced game to requiring a ridiculous level of buffing to meet demands or else finish the game in 20 years time. either resource demand needs to drop or ease of supply needs to improve, this game is quickly becoming unplayable or at best undesirable to play.

silos, watermills, recyclers, deerstalkers are too hard to come by, they should be in the rewards of epic advs similar to white castle odds, make them untradeabble so the market doesnt get flooded & too easy to get for lower level players.
Endless copper mine should be either attainable in some very difficult way or copper mine upgrade cheaper to allow for L5 upgrade.

you can guess from the copper prod i havent bought gems, I am opposed to this method of charging (beta or not), i would be happy to pay $5-10 per annum for game access, but the gems are borderline taking advantage of gaming addicts similar to casinos with gambling addicts. I find this method of charging socially unethical. That is just my opinion, and many will disagree, and i accept some are in a position to spend Euro 1000 on a game, some think they can afford to spend like that but come retirement age find out they shouldnt have, & some are addictive by nature & spend what they shouldnt.


I guess i have a few key points to make...

(1) GAMEPLAY the concept of science addition is great, adding complexity to the game is great...making it more cumbersome is not, this whole building buffing is an arduous element of the game, perhaps like older settler versions, switch on or off food usage to increase prod to varying levels. It is becoming more & more necessary to buff just to meet basic resource requirements as the game progresses, people should be able to play this game for a few hours a day rather than having to replenish & buff morning to night. Please make the game more automated... such as making silos watermills easier to get to eliminate the replenishment tasks, I'm not sure how BB can figure replacing wells day in day out as a pleasurable gaming experience. This game does not get harder as it progresses, it just seems to move from being tedious to cumbersome. I believe the game can still be turned in the right direction & be more oriented towards special events than the daily grind of deposit replenishment. I dont think PvP is a necessary drawcard if the rest of the game is made fulfilling enough (I might draw fire and brimstone for saying that). So far for me this game is a huge step backwards from Settlers 7, in gameplay & graphics (though graphics are of very minor importance)

(2) RESOURCE DEFICIENCY getting & using resources is way out of line, its easier to get granite than gold for upgrading buildings, iron usage is far too high in steel & swords (or simply increase iron rewards..double if not treble current) also reward & XP ratios from harder adventures are way too low. id rather do witch of the swamp than almost any of the harder adventures for both XP & rewards ratios & its not even the best one of the easier ones. Copper is a mess as stated above, wheat deposits, should be replaced with coal or copper or all 3. The guild quest resource drain would not be such a pain if the items were easier to continually produce on a sustainable level. I do note there are improvements in the new geologist skills to replenish (random) ore before depleted, if it were possible to target specific resources then this would be a superb enhancement.

(3) L50 players...hard to say really, every game must have an end...its just a loose end here. Maybe special adventures for L50 players only with no XP but big rewards like endless copper & friary & lots of ornamental stuff. Maybe here is the place for PvP L50 players only, they all pay say 500 coin each, they go to an island, who ever defeats the most camps/highest XP takes all the entry fees & maybe an ornament or the likes. Rankings are a tough one as there is a massive disparity between gem buyers and non buyers, so wont reflect the most efficient player very well. I think the revenue structure for the game is a negative not just on what i said above but also on the ranking hall of fame aspect & also on the clear efforts to make the game as tedious as possible without driving people away to encourage gem buying. annual fees of course may reduce total players, but give an incentive for the game makers to keep improving the game to keep & grow the revenue base. Perhaps have the first 6 months of game play free to attract players.

[Incassa]

hi, i really like idea, and love new buildings, but like others have some questions, what with numbers of building licences, what if someone have his/hers island completely full of buildings and no more space on it... did person like this need sacrifice whole production chains he/her develop over the months to place new building or maybe he/she can expect some extra space? Do we can expect some new quests, adventures connected somehow with new skills?

[inanna]

at the moment i m testing the new stuff on testserver were i m level 50.
we are testing there some new stuff out like making books.
making books need a lot of time , cost a lot of goods to have all the buildings and what give it us as extra?
not a extra level so that the level 50 could go on the normal server.
i m happy that i m a very slow in making progres in level up else i was ages ago also level 50.
and yes i didn t spend any real coins.
are the new buildings the best option to make the game more fun?
it seams to me that i wouldnt go for it on the normal server because it doesnt give so much extra's
renaming your generals (that is only a playingtool)
and the extra's you winn with the geo's isnt that good that i will invest into all those buildings.
what do we get for the invest ? you must wait ages before you get the books where you could do something with .
and then you could use them on geo's where you winn some time and you get some extra goods into your mines.
lool in place of 740 copperore you could get 800 copper maybe
that is where all the players are waiting for loool that little bit extra?
do something with the real money that you 've get and make a nice new thing like a adventure for only level 50 were they could get only nice goods or the pvp were everyone is speaking about on a Island for only level 50 where they could get only goods in place of xp
i hope you will do something with that advice .
lol else i must do my best for not become level 50 else it will become boring

inanna