Topic

Completist badge scaling by level: a good idea?

I have all my badges, but this is not a sour grapes post. (I'm sure new regions will open eventually.)

My concern is that scaling rewards for exploration according to level might encourage some folks to DELAY exploring so that they can get more for it later. I think that would be a shame.

In my view, exploration should be rewarded for being early and often. Let's get glitchen out and about in Ur!

Posted 5 months ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Hey my english is not that perfect
    "rewards now scale with levels"
    does it necessary means it "grows" the same way... or could be the opposite-scale down?
    Posted 5 months ago by Lemo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • In the end, it's a relatively small difference. I can make more than that reward within a relatively brief time, less than it'd take for me to complete the badge really. It's just a nice extra. The reward before this change was feeling pitifully small. (The Krazy Quoins contributed far more.)

    Rather than level, I would've liked to see it scale by number of completist badges already completed, though. So your 2nd badge would award you more than your 1st, and so on. But that's a relatively minor detail.
    Posted 5 months ago by Kaja Rainbow Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I had the same thought Kaja… the more of the Urth you see, the greater your reward!
    Posted 5 months ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I totally feel what you're saying, and I'd definitely worried about that as well, but the problem comes when someone doesn't do all their exploring right at the beginning and then they jsut don't feel compelled to do it later. Does anyone know what kind of ratio it scales by? I feel like if it didn't scale to much it wouldn't be a problem, because I definitely want the exploration to have good incentives, otherwise people might just move around in the home streets and never fully explore ur.
    Posted 5 months ago by Grupletruge Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Why is it a "problem"? If people are motivated by the iMG or just by the badge or not at all, what's the harm?
    Posted 5 months ago by Janitch Subscriber! | Permalink
  • the problem comes when someone doesn't do all their exploring right at the beginning and then they jsut don't feel compelled to do it later.

    There is absolutely nothing about this game that requires me to collect every badge.  It is not a problem, for TS, for me, or for you, if I don't collect every single one. 

    The problem you are trying to "solve" is not a problem.  My playing style is not your problem. 
    Posted 5 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Simmer down now, I didn't say your playing style was a problem, and I didn't say anything required anything. I simply think alot about the designs of games I play and I personally think that there are 2 sides of this story. The first is that many other things are scaled in the game, once you get higher skill sets and things harvesting and such becomes more profitable. If the same doesn't happen for exploration, lets say someone is interested in exploring the rest of ur once they've reached a high level, but they also don't get to play for very long each day and want to earn a decent amount of iMG, they might miss out on a part of the game they would of enjoyed otherwise. Which, if you didn't know, people enjoying the game is pretty vital for TS, if the game is more enjoyable more people play, and TS makes more money. As for the other side of the story, there are the people who try and break the game down to a hard science and level as fast as possible, and I wouldn't want the game to totally break so that if you wait to explore you can level way faster, that would do the same thing, people would feel compelled to wait to explore, and would instead just play the home streets, maybe get bored of the home streets and stop playing. Those are the 2 extremes of this idea, and I agree with both, so I'm not honestly sure why you are getting so defensive. I simply asked if anyone knew the ratio at which the iMG bonus scaled, so I could judge for myself if i thought it was unfair, because I think a middle ground where there is a small amount of scaling that doesn't go to far would be good for everybody.
    Posted 5 months ago by Grupletruge Subscriber! | Permalink
  • To make one last point, if everything is scaled correctly (Harvesting/exploration/etc.) it prevents the game from becoming formulaic, you can do any bit at any time and it doesn't feel like your wasting your time doing something you should've done a long time ago when it would've been worth it, or the other way around.
    Posted 5 months ago by Grupletruge Subscriber! | Permalink
  • TS has the data on how we play the game, and clearly thought that the tweak they just instituted would help game balance.  I doubt they are going to brush their hands off and say, "Ok, that's taken care of" and never look at those numbers again. 

    If the game isn't scaled correctly, you can give TS your personal feedback about how the game is working for you.  But you can't give them feedback on how it's working for me, no matter what your judgment is.  Even if you know the ratio, you have nothing but your personal experience to base your personal opinion on.  Whether or not it is "unfair" will depend on each person's playing style. 

    There are many different ways to play this game.  Some people waited to get all the badges, even when the rewards weren't scaled.  Some people will now wait even longer, hoping to maximize their iMG reward.  Others will continue to earn them as fast as they can, even if that might be a "waste" of their time. 

    So play for a while, give TS feedback on what's working for you and what isn't, but don't expect your pronouncement that a particular ratio is "unfair" to be true for anyone else.  You haven't got the data about how all the rest of us are responding to this tweak.  TS does, and that information will let them know whether we are enjoying the game and whether or not it needs more tweaking.
    Posted 5 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I never said I thought I knew anything about you or anyone else, you are really searching hard for an argument here. I was simply curious what the ratio was. Calm the heck down dude. I agree TS probably made the right decision, I'm just curious what that decision was specifically. I asked what the ratio was, said that I saw a multitude of sides people could take, and then basically fencewalked the whole time. I don't take either of these sides, I'm just playing devils advocate because the Person who made this topic was asking if we thought it was fair. I think it's an interesting topic, so i put in all my various thoughts. I did not judge your play style, I didn't try to shove anything down your throat, and you're taking this WAY personally. I don't really understand why.
    Posted 5 months ago by Grupletruge Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "The Person who made this topic" would be me. I said nothing at all about fairness. I expressed some concern about what was being incentivized and when, and proposed a possible alternative.

    My OP speaks for itself, as does my follow-up comment.
    Posted 5 months ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sorry, fair was the wrong word. I'm just gonna stop talking lol.
    Posted 5 months ago by Grupletruge Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Pascale wrote: Let's get glitchen out and about in Ur!

    Why? You'll often find me out and about in Ur. Probably more than in my house, which is just a store house. I dislike the dressing up side of Glitch, whether it's me or my house. My house is a resource and storage only. But that is how I want to play.

    However, one of the appeals of Glitch is that you can play it as you want to. It is a different experience, a different game, for everybody. If you want to decorate your house, then do so. If you want to gather supplies from the player built Home Streest then do that. If you want to roam the TS built strees of Ur collecting things, well then, that's fine too.

    I really don't believe we need a game  mechanic to force people to play in a certain way. Currently people play in their favourite way. If that majority way  isn't my way, or your way, we should just live with it.

    PS. I also think that when we get a new influx of players we will get a better balance between players in houses, home streets and in Ur. Currently the vast majority of us are old hands and a little jaded. And the novelty of the houses hasn't completely worn off. We are still exploring the new possibilities (Routes etc) that this has opened up
    Posted 5 months ago by IrenicRhonda Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm not against the idea, but I agree with WindBorn, there is always a balancing / reaction to this sort of shift. If you amp up the exploration reward, you make the early game "explore to win". This then teaches young Glitchen "Glitch==exploring" -- which will end 1000 streets later.

    Personally I have delayed picking up new streets as much as possible on this toon, simply to have an easy "line of iMG" I can tap into as needed.
    Posted 5 months ago by Sturminator i` Subscriber! | Permalink