Topic

What items do you love & hate to see on projects?

This past test, we had a couple projects that required over 1000 raw loam each, and I couldn't help but thinking "Great, we got rid of notes and card-carrying qualifications and replaced them with something equally difficult to gather up!"

Seriously, though, it got me thinking.  What are you favorite (and least favorite) things to see on a project list?

Posted 19 months ago by Krikket Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • I like seeing things that any player can contribute such beans and planks.
    I liked how it advanced recently so the work portions occasionally required higher level skills like Gardening 5 or Tinkering 5 even though I didn't have them. 
    In these ways, there is something for everyone.

    I like all the blocks and bricks that have been needed as I suspect most players have more advanced skills now.

    What I do not like is repetitive, simultaneous project requirements for the blocks and bricks as well as for their separate components---fireflies, loam, talc or the barnacles, etc. and then those darn plain crystals (talc and fireflies) being needed on top of that!

    The ones that required the poor, hog-tied piggies gave me a grin even though it was work.
    Posted 19 months ago by JW Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Was there more than one project that needed hog-tied piggies? I thought it was just the Tower project that needed them?

    I don't hate anything for showing up in project requirements, but I do heave some long sighs when I see loam or loam related items needed.
    I look forward to the project phases that require cooking and drink-making - I find those fun though they probably use up half my inventory each time!
    Posted 19 months ago by Millie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • No matter what I have it is the wrong thing.  If I have raw materials, they want blocks.  If I make blocks they want raw materials.  If I have Mining III, they want Mining IV.  My favorite items are those that I have and skills that I can use.  Each project is different though and there is usually something I can contribute.  I am finding less and less that I can help with these past two tests.  I contributed 3 loam to the last project.  I had none of the other items and only two of about four of the skills.  Travel to get items takes too long and it is too expensive now to teleport.  I went all the way to the swamps to get fireflies this test but they were not needed by the time I returned.  I could buy auction items but I'd rather not buy what I can get myself. 
    Posted 19 months ago by Brib Annie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Millie - The first project I saw asking for piggies was in Alakol so there have been at least two projects asking for them.  There was also at least one project asking for currants.
    Posted 19 months ago by Brib Annie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Millie--Yes, there was one in Alakol before. If I had a map, I'd tell you the street. jdawg, or other kindly devs I didn't talk with, gave us two new streets instead of one for all the trouble (or overpopulation) when it finished. He may have been kidding, but we did get 2 streets at once nonetheless.
    Posted 19 months ago by JW Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Oh yeah, I remember the two streets. Not the pigs though. Maybe I was asleep for that part :p That was a fun project!

    Ty Brib Annie and JW :)
    Posted 19 months ago by Millie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Loam (and loam-related materials) would probably be ok if it didn't come up so very often. People would have a chance to hoard and collect or whatnot.

    I too enjoy the idea of the food-making requirements. I might not be able to make anything myself, but I can ask around and contribute ingredients if I have any.

    You know what might be fun? Music blocks. Not the super-rare ones, mind you - the green and blue set, I think, are fairly readily available. A smallish amount of a specific number. 'Keeping up the morale' kind of work stage, possibly paired with 'party' drinks (I have no idea what those might be) and snack trays? No-no powder optional. (Has no-no powder ever been needed for a project before? Would be nice to have an alternate use for it...)
    Posted 19 months ago by DiddilyPuff Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @DiddilyPuff -- Nono powder was used on a project just the other day...

    I don't like when Loam shows up. Why? Because it's incredibly hard to collect them-- people go and plant trees, and unless you can kill the trees, it's hard enough already to find patches to dig from. :(
    Posted 19 months ago by Jessabelle Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Brib-I've been in the same boat. I spent this test buying new bags and reorganizing my stuff so that now I have boatloads of stuff to help at projects. Sadly, I'm sure that I will still not be able to help next test. It's always something. This was the worse test ever for me.
    Posted 19 months ago by Holly Waterfall Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i always like the food phases - they take a lot of work and running around but they're attainable and don't fill super quick (whereas someone always seems to have 1000 planks in their bag!)
    Posted 19 months ago by lucy jane Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The loam and other large, difficult requirements slow down the rate at which we complete projects, which means that we don't run through the supply of streets as quickly.  Unfortunately, empty patches are incredibly scarce.  During this last test, while walking through Alakol, Groddle Heights, and Shimla Mirch, I only found one or two.  Even if people weren't planting trees for fun, we'd still be facing a plethora of tree-planting quests.  Changing quest requirements, being able to dig in our garden plots, and raising the number of lumps of earth or loam obtained per dig would all help to solve this problem. 

    Now that most testers have acquired higher-level skills, I'd rather see more powders (usually there are only about ten required), more crystals (people go to gather ingredients for them and miss out on the opportunity to actually donate them), and fewer phases which require both a plain ingredient, like loam, and a finished product, like a block, which requires the plain ingredient.  Yes, it slows progress, but it also frustrates players and discourages them from project work.
    Posted 19 months ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I love the food phases. They feel less repetitive because you need to have and assemble the ingredients, and my Glitch definitely tends towards cooking, so I can participate more than when mining and engineering skills are needed. 
    Posted 19 months ago by Sheepy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Backdoor phases: There is something extremely fun about doing paperwork while folding flaps of no-no in the waiting room.
    Posted 19 months ago by Yaya Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks, Glum, of everything, the most annoying thing on projects for me is any project which wants 1500 loam and also 100 bricks or blocks or whatever it is that also requires loam.  Of course, that does slow the whole thing down precisely because it is a scare resource (and increasing the loam you get from a dig will make it go faster, which it seems the devs are trying to avoid).

    I keep going back and forth on the 'fix', but if you make it easier to get a resource, then you ruin the 'slow it down' factor.  That's why I like the idea of some sort of project management, with a contractor who obtains a permit and get a crew together.. although that change would bring up the 'I never get in on projects' factor - at least now, anyone can - in theory - contribute to a project.

    Maybe it would be good to use projects to open blocks in housing quarters, so that at any given time there are 3-5 more projects going for simple things like housing, rather than for complex things like new streets.  

    What really gets under my skin around projects is that more and more, many people just fall asleep fall under the project, waiting for more industrious or wealthy glitches to fill up those hard-to-obtain items.  It still flummoxes me to arrive at a project that needs crystals or loam or bricks and see 15 people waiting around for the work to open.  If all 15 of those people would coordinate and TP out to get loam or flies or whatever, projects would be a lot more fun (because trust me, gathering parties are one of the more interesting things to do in game and the way I've added most of my friends).

    But no, people are reluctant to leave because work *might* start while they are out (this has happened to me, it kinda sucks, but then you have the product for the next time).

    Also, the impromptu coordination makes for some chaos - people have dropped boatloads of some product into my bags that I already have plenty of or stuff gets dropped on the ground to be picked up either by someone just passing through (so, lost product for the project) or by someone who doesn't have the other things needed (but maybe I do).  Then the machine can only be used by one person at a time... maybe that person shares the blocks, maybe they don't.  Few want to leave a machine near a project anymore because someone might disassemble it for fun and drama... which leaves a machine owner out of work units since they likely will dissemble it once works starts to fend off poachers.  Ugh.

    So, here is a thought I've been mulling over in lieu of forced coordination....

    - Longer times between both projects and phases.

    - First phase: all the raw materials needed for the next phase, in ridiculously large quantities.  Believe me, 1500 loam can be finished over a weekend, as we've seen, perhaps even over just two game days.  How about 150,000 loam. That may seem counterintuitive, but I think very large numbers can:
    ---- encourage more passers-by to be able to throw anything into the project
    ---- provide the delay the devs need
    ---- encourage more teams of players to coordinate gathering parties without much fear of being scooped by someone else
    ---- encourage this behavior by awarding 10 loam to all players digging in groups of 3+ every random time.  so... I have a group of 5 players and we start a party chat.  We dig a few patches and the game awards us all 10 loam on the 4th dig (based on the people in the party chat and the people who just mashed the dig button).  Maybe we get the other 10 loam on the 3rd dig or the 8th dig - keep it random to keep us hooked.
    --- no work units at all in the first phase

    -Second phase: take the raw materials that you got from the first phase and make things out of them, be they bricks, blocks, awesome pot meals, whatever.  So, each player can come into say a project room, take out up to n units of whatever raw materials is in the room and use machines in the room or tools they have to create the complex things needed and *only* those things.  So, I can't just go into a project room to take all the cherries to go make my own fruity juices for use elsewhere and I can't leave the room with the product I took.  In fact, only my toolboxes work in this room, my other bags cannot be opened.  My only choice once in the room is to select items and then start creating them and then donate them to the project - in fact, as they are made they just go to the project, they cannot leave the room.  No frog will deliver to me in the room.  I get extra XP for being in the room!  There are no work units for this project or raw material gathering.... the work units are creating the actual complex items the projects wants in the room and the raw materials were gathered last time.  You can leave the room to refuel yourself and then re-enter to keep making things.  And no, sparkle and sneezing powders cannot work in this room, since you have no access to the bag they are in. ;-)

    - Third phase: strictly work units at varying degrees of skill set.  In very large quantities, again, to slow things down.  Like on the order of 500,000 grinder crushes.  Maybe 15 types of work units, unlocked in phases.

    Anyway, it's just a rough idea, but I think this enables players to drop in and out of projects (so that no one feels left out and happenstance is maintained) and it lengthens the time to complete a project to a large enough degree that pillage becomes less of a desire (it's going to take two weeks to finish this thing even if we poisoned every tree in the land because of the sheer volume of raw materials needed) and it encourages group work (which is fun). 

    Go ahead - critique!
    Posted 19 months ago by zeeberk Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Zeeberk: this is an interesting idea.  We'd need to be able to eat during the second phase (not all of us are on the no-no), so we'd need a supply of food available, a temporary suspension of hunger while in the room, or a set energy deduction once we go into the room, with admission denied if people don't have enough energy remaining.

    I'm glad that you mentioned sparkle and sneeze powders.  They cause action to stop completely, and seem to cause lag after they've stopped working.  Some ways to fix this: limit the affected area to only a few inches away from the sprinkler, stop the powders from freezing the action, limit the number of lifetime uses per person, or just get rid of them all together, since they're only funny once.
    Posted 19 months ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm totally cool with Loam, barnacles, etc. i don't think projects need to be fast. I'd just love to see a little more diversity so that the "world's" stocks can replenish a bit. When you have multiple projects that all have a phase that needs (a) raw loam (b) barnacle talc (c/d/e) blocks/bricks that require barnacles/loam it just becomes too much and if you're not in the mood to go digging for 2 hours you just stop caring.

    You could do something equally as obnoxious like 1500 Loam / 500 Hard Bubbles / 500 wood tree beans / 1500 poops / 2500 guano in the same phase and it would take plenty of time to do, but the diversity would mean people have some time and a choice on how they might like to contribute, rather then the monotony things have become.
    Posted 19 months ago by Another Chris Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Glum - I was thinking you could just leave the room to access your bags for energy.  The items in the room just can't come out with you (they never go into your bag - you just 'mark' somehow in the room that you plan on using them - if you don't use them within x period of time the 'go back' into room inventory).  So, that was my thought as to how to get energy.  I still think you should be using energy within the room (else why leave?).

    The powders are only funny once, or maybe at parties.  They completely interfere with the ability to use the keyboard at all, so no actions, no typing, no menus work. If someone button mashes their sneezing, it sucks - you can't even teleport away because you can do nothing, you are trapped - oh, you can close the browser.  I suggest that this be considered a bug, because it totally and 100% brings gameplay to a full stop... it also sucks up memory (thanks flash), hence the lag.  I've had to do full reloads at projects because of powders... only to be met with a long load time for the street and then another person sprinkling the powder.  Maybe put a 50% energy and mood usage on both sparkly and sneezy powders (or performance tune them). ;-)
    Posted 19 months ago by zeeberk Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't mind the length of projects at all, I'd just like more variety in supplies, like AC said!
    Posted 19 months ago by lucy jane Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I know the competition aspect is fun, but it strikes me that if the devs want more cooperation in the project, and if we really want to get teamwork going, then making the trophies more of an automatic thing (you get it after contributing X quite enormous amount of time/product/whatever) would encourage that.  Right now, where there's an incentive for being one of the top five contributors, that can be a _dis_incentive for just mucking in, collecting and delivering goods rather than being the one to contribute them to the project itself. 

    If they're going to have money as one of the things needed, it should be some idiotic amount - hundreds of thousands, even millions.  We all know how easy it is for upper-level players especially to make several tens of thousands of currants in a fairly short period.  Both times I've been at a project where money was one of the requirements, it was finished within seconds.

    I've really enjoyed the cooking ones, especially when there's a balance of some things that anyone can make, like a cheese plate, and other things that only someone with high-level cooking skills can make.

    I hope that eventually we can organize our own, or like Zeeberk has suggested, have projects for building houses or town halls or whatever as well as streets and be more involved in the planning and recruiting people for them.  

    I think the new teleportation features have the potential to really enhance project work, as we can pop back and forth between collection points and the project site.
    Posted 19 months ago by Tradescantia Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I love Zeeberk's suggestion of a phased project.  Otherwise, I've been pretty happy with my projects work.

    Maybe another incentive for projects work is a priority queue or discounts for housing in that area?  I'm sure that would get huge (maybe too much) participation from all the people (like me) who are falling in love with Alakol homes and the possibilities of (Yosemite-style*??) housing in Bortola.

    *Just my idea, given the landscape with huge trees and mountains.
    Posted 19 months ago by jasbo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like the idea of accumulating project status a bit at a time.  I work in an organization that is staffed 24/7.  So far, every Glitch test day has been a work day for me.  I can only play a few hours at a time.  I haven't participated in projects because it seemed like you needed to be able to devote a lot of continuous time to them. 

    I didn't have any hope whatsoever of getting even a piece of a project trophy, much less the whole thing. 
    Posted 19 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • For quite a while, I attempted to get pieces of street trophies in order to assemble an entire trophy.  I enjoyed the challenge of getting into the top five and possibly getting a reward for it.  Despite trading with a friend and looking through the auctions on a fairly regular basis, I have been unable to assemble a complete trophy.  I have maybe thirty-five pieces now, but I'm missing one piece of each trophy.  Since we're going to be reset anyway, I have mostly given up on this goal, as well as on the projects themselves, which have become tedious.  I know that a relatively small number of people do have complete trophies, but some were leftover from before the last reset, when trophies were accidentally not reset.

    If the game were to keep track of which pieces we've been given, and not duplicate pieces until we've received one of each trophy, we'd have a better shot at complete ones.  I know we're supposed to trade, but when no one actually has the piece you're missing, trading does no good.
    Posted 19 months ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I do street project in hopes of getting a trophy, that's my main goal (it hasn't happened yet, boo hoo). That's not to say that I don't like the feeling of accomplishing something as a team and contributing to the greater good, cause I do! I'm not playing a solo game here. Opening the tower was the best experience I've had during a project, players really collaborated, worked hard, and no one held back.

    So, I agree with Tradescantia on this - "I know the competition aspect is fun, but it strikes me that if the devs want more cooperation in the project, and if we really want to get teamwork going, then making the trophies more of an automatic thing (you get it after contributing X quite enormous amount of time/product/whatever) would encourage that.  Right now, where there's an incentive for being one of the top five contributors, that can be a _dis_incentive for just mucking in, collecting and delivering goods rather than being the one to contribute them to the project itself."

    I was putting so much effort into every project (for the past few months) not realizing that some stages only award you with an emblem (which I'm way past the point of needing) and the ones that offer up trophies, you'd get a totally random piece, ugh! Yes, I would like to see a better way for trophies to be awarded. Something similar to what was stated above. Because I may have saved up 100 loam (no, I don't really have that), but as of now I would profit more from using it during a phase where I miiight get a trophy piece as opposed to a phase that can really use it, and I don't think that's how it should be.

    Things in phases that I like - cooking, brick making, alchemy. Basically anything that requires a mix of goods.

    Things in phases I'm not to fond of - 1000+ units of anything that has a harvest limit (paper) or that's hard to come by because it's random (loam).

    I really do like taking part in projects. I just think the rewards (replace emblems with something else) and trophy system needs tweaking.

    Adding in - @glum pudding, what you said also sums up how I feel.
    Posted 19 months ago by Sadie the Goat Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I love contributing to projects!  I rarely can contribute much -- either don't have the skills needed or don't have the specific item  yeah I'm talking loam!!  After the most recent project I went and found a lot of patches to dig, but only got earth.  :(  The cooking was fun!  I like zeeberk's suggestions for the phases.
    Posted 19 months ago by Marla Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1000 zeeberk. I think that is a fantastic idea. I also love glum's and Tradescantia's suggestions re: trophy pieces. You get one at a set amount of donation. Then you could step aside...and feel you're not stepping on toes. I got dressed down this weekend for being excited about getting a trophy piece (I thought, mistakenly, that it was the last of them I needed for one of the trophies)...I guess because I was seen as taking away others' chances to get pieces. The second idea glum had about the game actually recognizing and giving you the pieces you still need instead of duplicates would help. I like collaborating but I also like competing. I managed to put one of the four trophies together a couple tests ago and need one piece each for a couple more and two for the fourth. I've done projects over and over trying to get the missing ones and had 19 spare bits (I gave to those who wanted them and sold a bunch for piddly: 200 each or something). But if the game gave you only different pieces each time, you could then step back more rather than trying again and again to be in the top five, and more folks could get the pieces. I don't think that would make it "easier"; they'd still be hard to get, and you'd still need 20 total. But then it would open it up to more folks. Obviously, I could step back anyway but after being so close...I'd like to finish the trophies. Having said that, although I get in the top five a lot, I also do get to a lot of projects and just contribute .8% or whatever (10 earth or something lol), mainly so I can get the free teleport later. Anyway, sorry for ramble, I love glum's, Tradescantia's and zeeberk's ideas.

    On topic: I LOVE the slower pace. So much less frenetic. But my least favorite is what you all said: When project needs BOTH barnacle talc AND bricks for example. My favorite by far are the cooking phases:) And I love it now that the required things are different and not just crudites for example. As someone says, you end up spending another game day on resource collecting missions after a couple of those projects, but it's well worth it to soak up the lovely world of Glitch again:)
    Posted 19 months ago by RM Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Lots of good ideas and comments in this thread.

    To address a few:
    "simultaneous project requirements for the blocks and bricks as well as for their separate components---fireflies, loam, talc or the barnacles, etc. and then those darn plain crystals (talc and fireflies) being needed on top of that!"

    This will happen less often.  There are times when we want to slow down the unlocking of streets, but this isn't the best way to do that. There are a few phase templates that are in rotation at the moment, so you will likely see them a few more times, but we'll move away from requiring complex items AND their separate components.

    "Maybe it would be good to use projects to open blocks in housing quarters, so that at any given time there are 3-5 more projects going for simple things like housing, rather than for complex things like new streets."

    This is in the works!  We're working on ways to offer different types of projects for unlocking various game features/items/locations. Not sure exactly when this will be implemented, but it is coming.

    "encourage this behavior by awarding 10 loam to all players digging in groups of 3+ every random time."

    I like this idea!  Simply, I like the idea of hard-to-get items being awarded more often to players that are performing actions with other players as opposed to solo.

    "If the game were to keep track of which pieces we've been given, and not duplicate pieces until we've received one of each trophy, we'd have a better shot at complete ones."

    Not sure this is the exact approach we'll take, but some tweaking to the rewards is due.

    Thanks for posting this, and please keep the ideas coming.  We're listening!
    Posted 19 months ago by jdawg Subscriber! | Permalink
  • We knew you were (are) listening, but thanks for the reassurance, jdawg!

    I think it would be cool to give more power over what things a certain project will unlock. For example, have some type of voting mechanism to let project participants vote for:

    1. What the street will look like. Have 2 or 3 street 'templates' that we can choose from
    2. What types of vendor and shrines will be available. Produce or groceries?
    3. What types of resources will be availble. Sparkly or dullite?
    4. Street name.
    5. Whether it will be a housing block, or a subway block

    Waiting 20 minutes between phases is fine, but having the polls open during that 20 minutes to cast a vote would give us something to do in the meantime.

    Obviously, the control will mostly be perceived as we have no control of sceneries and things like that. But, having at least some impact or say, perceived or otherwise, would make things much more fun.
    Posted 19 months ago by Joe Blow Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Neat ideas, Joe Blow:) And yes, jdawg, we know you listen:)
    Posted 19 months ago by RM Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I had a thought about the loam shortage, what if there were a slightly higher chance of loam if you dig a patch with a partner, or group of partners? That would definitely encourage cooperation ?

    I try to prepare for the next phase in those 20 minute wait periods, either by trying to source more componants or using meditation and tinkering to get my Glitch in a fit stae to work, my thinking is you can never have too many fireflies and Barnacles lol stock up any time you can. ^^

    I like the variety of thing we can now donate to the project, I love how we can sometime complete one quickly but feel we sometimes do things too quickly to the point it loses its fun, and these things should be fun.

    When the game leaves Beta I am thinking projects will take longer simply because we wont have the skills we need, I think that will be a good thing cause we can amass items for projects whilts we level up our skills.

    So gather your Fireflies whilst you can and always harvest with a friend if possible.
    Posted 19 months ago by Faereluth Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thank you for always listening/reading jdawg! 
    Posted 19 months ago by JW Subscriber! | Permalink