Starfall: Starcrash or made in heaven? [summary of current impact AND concepts for improving the game with Starfall included in the mechanics]

A big thank you for the effort and willingness to introduce new content. Great to see and its encouraging for the future of the game.

I think there is a nice concept at birth here, however, in its current format imho its basically a game killer.
In short:
1) there is nothing here for lv80 players. (unless you think its skins)
2) below that, the rewards are almost worthless, with the exception that the early levels 40 to 50 or so, probably appreciate an opportunity to acquire more manuscripts as a bonus every week.
3) The single biggest issue though, is the massive amounts of xp to be gained, in a very short time, for very little effort. For me, it has changed the whole perspective of what is worth doing and basically made almost all other activities in the game, pointless. It also totally devalues “level” and negates the need to experience the wider game. You can accelerate level so quickly now, just from doing Starfall, and yes, it requires some economy building, but quite limited and the game is awash with resources for lower levels, too much so in all respects, not just for Starfall. So now, is the game just “lets all get to lv80 in double quick time and know very little about any of it”?

I can see what the devs were thinking of in essence with some of the changes around resources/production chain/economy as part of the package and that's an idea that needs expanding on. However, the game is perhaps way more mature than they appreciate and for most players its a very small hiccup.

How to make it better?

1) Kill the XP amount to a reasonable time/effort relationship compared to other game elements, unfortunately if you do that, all of Starfall becomes a waste of time/effort/resources for what else is on offer from it, so that would need to be revamped.

I believe what most lv80 players want from new content is brand new adventures, buildings and possibly production as well as always wanting new land.

You have with the skins birthed a concept for Starfall to lead to a “crystal kingdom”. As a package, the shards could be used with “crystals” to produce “crystalline blocks and planks” in new productions and then used to form new crystal buildings. New adventures and scenarios like “crystal forest and crystal cave” could be introduced with shards and/or crystals in the loot for those who prefer to gain shards/crystals from that type of activity. Perhaps a new plot of land can be allocated just for “crystal city”? I am sure you know how to introduce such things as shard pits and crystal pits and “resource packs” for gems for those players who want to build without the other activity.
Obstacles:
a) There hasn't ever been any indication that new land is now even possible, too much of a change to get and maybe devs think it needs to stay as a limiting factor to “manage within”?
b) There hasn't ever been any indication that new adventures can be created and would be coming any time soon?

Simplest way forward in light of obstacles a) and b)?
I) Restore relevance of “xp level” and give lv80 players new content. Also take the opportunity to rebalance resources in entire game at the same time as follows:
II) We know you can add new buildings. Add some “crystal buildings” that are either locked to lv80 and/or make them inordinately resource hungry to build that has almost the same effect. What buildings? Shards to crystals forge? Crystalline block maker, crystalline plank blender, a crystalline spire residence, say 3000 like water castle (needed to free up some building land, maybe it needs also to go on water itself? Whatever you do, do not introduce more storage capacity. Crystal buildings might also stimulate more interest in winning crystal skins (and I am in complete agreement with those that have already said they want a “full set” of “any theme” to be interested in hardly any skins in the first place)
III) Resources: shards as a minimum from starfall so now lv80s might do it for the buildings, until any new ways of shards is introduced.
IV) Crystals, forge them from shards and coal and ores.
V) Combine crystals with pinewood planks and hardwood planks and exotic but use say 10k p/w plans with 5k h/w planks and 1k exo wood planks with a tiny amount of crystals to make a tiny amount of crystallised planks.
VI) Combine crystals with say stone, marble and granite for crystallised building blocks
VII) Crystal buildings, use grout and magic beans and magic stalks and the crystallised building blocks and planks. Use large quantities of beans, then stalks, then grout
VIII) Basically suck up tons of the resources sitting in stars and give meaning to continued low level productions and value back to them even for lower levels. Players might also be more interested in revisiting some existing adventures for the earlier resources. And more value to lower levels helping guild with ls. Wouldn't surprise me that even if you set an input of say 1 million pinewood planks, as one method of making sure high levels only could make crystal buildings, that would still be a tiny drop to the long term players?

Anyway, just concepts, devs would know the numbers.