Some ramblings about projects as they stand today. :)
I loved projects initially. They were the first real sense of community play we got in the game, and it was awesome. I made a ton of friends and had a blast. As with all things, there is a honeymoon and then reality sets in, so some of my disappointment can be taken with a grain of salt, but I think that projects can still be improved.
Can haz bug fix, plz?
When doing a task for a project, if you dialed yourself in for Max or for a number, n, of work units to contribute, when the task is complete, the project is not aware of this and lets you keep shoveling away, draining your energy. Also, gthe sound of the tool continues and clicking Stop results in an error that it can't be stopped (so, you X out of the project to move onto the next work unit) I'm fairly certain there is a bug filed for this already, but this bug really ... bugs me! >:-D
The metal ingot contribution quest...
I didn't think this was a good idea when it was created and I think even more strongly now that it's a problem. Whenever it comes to bulk contributions, some folks are hoarders and will just dump in 250-500 of something (planks, beans, ingots - been there, done that). So, a problem is that the window to contribute ingots is small. Also, not every project asks for ingots. Last, it's getting more and more difficult to know when a project is in progress and needs something - this will be more difficult when Help goes away. I get the point of the quest - allow folks to learn how to donate, but perhaps the quest could be more general (donate 10 of something you make to a project) and then a different quest for whatever metallurgy skill gives you the current quest.
The size of bulk contributions....
I don't know the reasoning behind the larger amounts for products. If I had to guess, it might have been to encourage more people to contribute or to draw out the completion time (the first one ever went by in a flash as I recall!). I don't think this is working, if that was the intent. There are some things projects ask for that are just too easy to hoard. For those that most people don't hoard, in this last test I saw very few people going out to collect certain things and I saw a lot less group-harvesting.
For example, Guano. I believe at least twice last week, projects asked for Guano (500? 250?). For the first, two of us contributed over 80% of the guano by trekking off to the caverns. The other one, I started off to collect it and then realized I'd rather spend my time doing anything but, and the guano was quickly filled thereafter. So, I don't think asking for huge quantities of something is getting diverse players to contribute. If that's the goal, then the quantities need to be upped to 5000 or more, which would encourage teams to be formed to go get the stuff. Planks are another example - you ask for 500 and that's the first thing to get filled up.
Some of this ties into an old horse I'll beat again, about whether to limit certain contributions to players of a certain level (so, if it asks for 500 cherries, only levels 1-5 can contribute). I know this was vigorously lobbied against by many, so I expect the same resistance to my suggestion. :) But I don't think it hurt anything when the tasks started being limited by level (only those with Tinkering V or MCI can donate work units, for example). Although, maybe the lower levels have better things they ought to be doing than worrying about projects... so.
Community Building
This is what was awesome about projects, but less so these days.. and with no Help channel and more people, this might degrade even further.
At first, we all were gathered round the projects and it was all a real communal effort. Who will go get what? Let's make a gathering party. Who has this?
This still happens, but less so and in a much more diffuse way. It gets frustrating being half way across the world gathering items only to have people who aren't on the New Streets channel or who are and who just aren't communicating, come along and fill the contribution up. In a sense, that's fine, but in another I felt just very solo the last few projects and it wasn't as much fun as the earlier times. I wish there were a better way to organize contributions or to learn about projects.
Projects are the way for players to 'build' the world, but it's really all programmed, still. We can't vote on what street we're building anymore, and projects build out at the spirits whim, not players. An idea nagging at me, which I'll throw out there, is to have players form their own team through building permits. Something like... someone gets a permit, get 50 players signed onto that permit and then petitions the bureucrocs to build out something in the Meadows or wherever. Then, that team goes out and builds the thing. More community, more coordination, more fun fun fun. I dunno, it's base idea for others to say 'ugh, sucks' or flesh out.
Trophies
I like 'em, have a few pieces of 'em but... I dunno. I keep feeling that a project achievement could be more cool than this, which sort of encourages people to not work together but to do it all themselves. I just haven't sorted out what that might look like. Maybe others can.
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At any rate, my feedback on projects so far is that I liked them better when there was more community coordination and engagement, I enjoy them less now that we can't choose the outcome of the street, and I'm tired of the projects asking for the same combinations of things time after time. I've starting making my own 'quests' to replace working on projects, because the last few just haven't been very fulfilling. The pity is, I grew to hate them before the game was optimized, and now that the game is optimized (yay!) so that it's at least playable, I found myself bored/annoyed with them. Also, it feels like they shifted from communal happenings to more random solo people who happen to be at the same spot doing something.... it's just a lonely feel.