Topic

A few questions

1. Why can we kidnap (pignap?) pigs, but not chickens or butterflies? Is there really any benefit to capturing a pig versus hatching one yourself?

2. Is there an overcrowding limit on chickens? I know there is for pigs and butterflies, but haven't heard any mention of chicken overcrowding, and have seen a bunch of chickens in one area without any issues.

3. I've heard of people complaining when someone shares a rock that they were mining. Is this really an issue, or this more of an "in the before time, in the long long ago" sort of thing? Because it seems to me you would want more people mining the same rock you were, since you get extra materials if someone has helped in the mining. This is a mechanic I really enjoy, as it encourages teamwork and gathering parties, rather than simply hoarding everything for yourself.

Posted 16 months ago by Mahkia Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • 1.  I am not sure.  I do know that the Devs already have one game that involves catching pigs and I saw a Demo of another so that may be why they made pigs catchable. 

    2.  This is a problem as i see it.  We can now release chickens which may add to the madness.  Also, quests and/or achievements call for multiple hatching of animals which also contribute to the overpopulation.  Chickens now have a limited life in Ur before going to a "better place".  IMO, they are not going to that place fast enough!

    3.  Yes, the mining complaint is an old one and should not be the problem it once was.  Some people though,still complain about others not mining an entire rock and leaving a small bit behind.  This can be a disappointment if you need the ore.  You can finish off the rock but if you need more you will have to wait for it to regenerate or find another.
    Posted 16 months ago by Brib Annie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • 1.  Yes, would love to be able to capture the other animals as well...not sure why we can only capture pigs.

    2. Agree, the chickens aren't dying fast enough...but then again, they were only supposed to 'move on' once people had interacted with them enough...it's clear that people get their chicken squeezing done at home, so they don't seem to be squeezing many in the streets...

    3. I know some like helping others to mine.  I personally don't like people helping me to mine since they end up getting half the rock I've mined (or more if they have a faster computer or higher level skill set)...the one or two helper ores I get don't balance out for me.  I know they've provided us stats that since it then takes less time to mine the rock 'with help' if we together mine the next rock, we end up with bonus ore which is actually more for mining the two than if we tried to mine one on our own.  

    Okay, great...but if I'm mining for a specific type of rock, and there isn't another in the area, then essentially that person that 'helped' me just took half the ore from me...and now I have to spend time looking for another one of those rocks.   It's probably not a big deal in some locations, but in others it is a pain.  Also, if I'm mining for a specific type of rock, and I have an earthshaker activated, and someone 'helps' me when it is the last type of rock in the area, I've just lost the effect of that drink having to run off to get to the next one, and have essentially wasted my drink.  So, yes, it can be annoying in some instances to 'have help'. It's best if people ask if you mind if they help first before just jumping in and assuming that everyone wants help...but that is common courtesy in most situations.  

    For the most part, when someone jumps in without asking, I just move on to another rock and mine alone, usually mumbling under my breath because I know many think they are being nice and helpful (like the ones who leave the nubs of rocks not realizing rocks don't regenerate until mined completely).  If they join me again...I usually just change streets...I don't find mining to be a social activity since you rarely have time to chat while mining especially if you are trying to 'speed' mine while on an earthshaker buff.  I think it would be different if we were friends and wanted to go out on a mining expedition together...in that case, yes, it's social, and cool that we have that option to work together to mine...but for strangers to 'help' me without asking if I want the help, well, that's just annoying to me.  But I'm pretty much known for my anti-social views, and yes, I know it's odd that I play a 'social' game ;).
    Posted 16 months ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes, chickens have a limit too; they get sad if too many are in the location.
    Posted 16 months ago by larky lion Subscriber! | Permalink
  • 1. my guess: the devs wanted an excuse to draw a hog-tied piggy

    2. I find the issue of overcrowding annoying. Not the argument- the whole concept. I think that if an area has a certain amount of animals, no more should be able to be put there. maybe that limit is 10 or 15. too many animals slows things down and is frustrating at times. I hope they change it.

    3. I agree with b3achy for the most part. For me, mining is a way to "escape" from the social aspect for a bit. you go in a cave and hit a rock- very soothing. But then someone comes along and merrily starts chipping away with you. I groaned when they made it that way. some of my therapy was taken away when they changed it. I also have changed rocks when someone started mining with me. I've had the same person follow me and mine with me after I leave. It's irritating and it needs to change.

    IMHO, of course :)
    Posted 16 months ago by bored no more Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like mining with others.  I feel that your house is the place to do stuff alone.

    (That said, I won't follow someone to another rock if they haven't at least said hi.)
    Posted 16 months ago by larky lion Subscriber! | Permalink
  • b3achy: "but if I'm mining for a specific type of rock, and there isn't another in the area, then essentially that person that 'helped' me just took half the ore from me...and now I have to spend time looking for another one of those rocks."

    I helped someone mine yesterday for the first time ever, and I didn't notice that I received any ore at all. So perhaps this is, as Brab Annie said " the mining complaint is an old one and should not be the problem it once was"?

    I'm new to the game and still sorting out the mehanics. But I have been involved in beta releases of games in the past, and know that stuff changes and not everyone gets all the information about the change that's occurred.

    I understand the desire to just do stuff on your own, and given the way thsi game lets us communicate I'd like to propose:
    1. If you want to help someone mine, ask if they'd like some help (which I did yesterday)
    2. If you don't want help, state it nicely when someone starts helping you (which I appreciate may sometimes be ignored)

    Last point: there is a quest which tells you to go help people mine, which will drive people to help others mine. Getting clear and respectful social interaction around this is important.
    Posted 16 months ago by Eldorian Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't spend all my time mining like some other people, but do it occasionally for the resources (and yes, I'm one of those that find it to be tedious when done for too long). So, I don't want to spend hours mining: I want to grab what I can and be done with it so I can do something that I enjoy more. This is what I noticed from "helping" on mining: One person starts mining. If they mined the entire rock by themselves, they would get 50 ore. Another comes along and "helps". The person helping gets nothing extra out of it, but they do deplete the rock faster than one person alone would have. The person that started mining gets maybe 2 extra ore out of the efforts of the helper. Maybe the helper can help out... I don't know, 3 times before the rock is gone. The original person thus gets an extra ~ 6 ore, but the rock is depleted twice as fast, so they only get 25 ore from their own efforts plus the 6 ore from the helper, which equals 31 ore--much less than the 50 they would have gotten by themselves. This is fine if you have a friend you are mining rock after rock with for an extended period of time, but if you just wanted to mine one or two rocks and be done with it, you are losing out.

    Therefore, I never help anyone mine (on purpose). I can find my own rocks.
    Posted 16 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Interesting discussion has come from my question, I see. Thank you all for your input. When I first started out and realized that you could help people mine, I tried to do it as much as I could, thinking that was the intended function, that if I were mining alone, I was hogging resources that could be shared. I never took the time to do the math, but I did notice in the forums that a lot of people don't like having mining helpers. So I stopped doing it.

    I think it's kind of a shame though that you don't get more resources for helpers in the long run. It was originally my belief, based on the way the game presents the concept, that helping was ideal. Since that's obviously not the case, I think this ought to change. That way, if someone helps you mine, you're neither one losing out on resources, but if you prefer mining alone, that's okay too.

    I'm like Shepherdmoon, though, and I rarely mine, except when I happen to need the resources. So I'm sure I have different views on mining than those who do it as a primary source of currants. :)

    As for the chickens and overcrowding, I agree that there really should be fewer animals allowed in an area. It's not too much of an issue when I'm on my primary PC, but sometimes I chill on the couch and play Glitch from my netbook, and areas full of animals make it really difficult to play due to lag. I can see this becoming even more of a problem once the game is live and there's a much larger population of players in addition to animals.

    What's the limit on chickens in a given area? Does anyone know? I wasn't even certain there was one, and I also wasn't aware chickens were intended to eventually die.
    Posted 16 months ago by Mahkia Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The limit depends on how big the area is and what/how many other animals there are, I think.

    Not that I was uh, flooding streets with chickens to get my hatching badges or anything (I would never ever do such a thing!), but I heard the residential streets near me hold about 16 chickens or so before they start to get unhappy and disappear.  To give you an example.
    Posted 16 months ago by larky lion Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I mine like a mad- well, I mine a lot. It's not so much for the pure currants of it, but for things like getting emblems (donations and the like), trading for other things I need, and the aforementioned chilling in a cave by my lonesome. I don't mind if somebody asks if it's okay, but I will admit that it annoys me when people just roll up and start mining where I am- it's especially irritating when there are plenty of other rocks to mine without cutting into what I'm mining.
    Posted 16 months ago by Djabriil Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You all really want to be hanging out in caves by yourselves, no extra cheerful face to keep you going?  So weird!  Helper miners are awesome!  (Take all that with a grain of silly face.)
    Posted 16 months ago by larky lion Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It's not so much that I don't wanna kick it with other Glitchens, but I do that *most* of the time that I'm not mining, so every now and then I wanna go off somewhere where I can do my own thang, y'know? I don't hate sharing a rock, either, I just wish people might ask whether I mind the help right then or not. Kind of a "helping where helping is welcome" scenario rather than an "of all the rocks in all the caves in all of Ur..." scenario.
    Posted 16 months ago by Djabriil Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Chickens don't "die", they go to a better place, Stoot said so.  I am waiting.

    I play solo most of the time though I do enjoy playing with someone when I get a chance.  Unlike many people, I have never had a mining problem.  I can only recall being "helped" once.  I moved on to a new rock and was not followed so I guess I am lucky when it comes to mining.  I agree with Bored, mining is therapy, you can get your rocks off while swinging that pick.  Chickens make me nuts and Butterflies are joining that Club.  Swinging my pick gives me release from the aggravation.  OK so it's a virtual pick but there is just something about that sound of metal on rock that brings relief.  My Alakol home has a rock wall but I cannot use my pick on it so i must go out into the world to mine.  maybe in the future there will be some homes with minable rocks in an underground.  Just think, if you have both kinds of gardens and rocks to mine you may never have to leave home.   Hmmm...  Nah, I love to get out and about.  I am not that far gone yet.
    Posted 16 months ago by Brib Annie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yeah, they go to the animal retirement amusement park when they get sick of us messing with them :)
    Posted 16 months ago by larky lion Subscriber! | Permalink
  • That can't take long... :)
    Posted 16 months ago by Djabriil Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "I think it's kind of a shame though that you don't get more resources for helpers in the long run. It was originally my belief, based on the way the game presents the concept, that helping was ideal."

    that is the truth. the developers designed coop mining to be beneficial, present the concept as beneficial, and it IS beneficial.

    with the bonus chunks you get more chunks per unit of energy expended. period. don't let any of this talk about "not getting 50" confuse you. you get more chunks per energy expended, every time no matter the conditions. you also finish rocks more quickly and so can move onto the next rock more quickly, so don't worry about "not getting 50", since you'll be mining 2 rocks in the time it would take you to mine 1 on your own.

    there is a reason the developers highlight this benefit by way of a quest.

    you'll notice that the people complaining about help tend to be older players who formed some very difficult to break habits and attitudes before mining was changed. they also try to dismiss the bonus chunks [as well as nub finishing benefits] using some pretty cumbersome logic.

    and at any rate, nobody "owns" a rock just because they happen to be mining it.

    so don't worry about asking people to mine "their" rock. or, more accurately, the public rock they happen to currently be picking away at. i do it all the time since the coop adjustment and have never once received a complaint. if anything i receive thank yous!

    if you run into one of the handful of holdouts, don't sweat it. there really aren't that many of them left anyway, they just tend to be pretty vocal. if they complain, just back off and leave them to their solitary grumpiness.

    just to reiterate .. by cooperating you get more chunks per energy expended, every time no matter the conditions, and the way the game presents the concept is accurate. the devs aren't trying to mislead you.
    Posted 16 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Having a mining helper sort or irked me at first (OMG you are stealing mah sparkly!), but now that my skill level is higher I tend to get more gems (sometimes multiple payouts if someone is helping). Who doesn't like that? And now that I've figured out where all the sparkly is hiding I don't mind at all.
    Posted 16 months ago by Saraphim Subscriber! | Permalink
  • interesting hypothesis saraphim!

    i wonder if the chance of getting a gem is by mining action, or by chunks mined.

    if it is by mining action, it makes no difference, but if it is by chunks mined, that could be a bit of a boost.

    when i am coop mining with someone i typically drop a rubeweed in their pack and tell them to munch it to get more gems [i harvest more rubeweed than i can use myself], so in that situation the coop mining for sure leads to more gem production : ]
    Posted 16 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Since it tends to be a different number of chunks every time you mine a rock...maybe?

    I need to try Rubeweed though...I'm too lazy to get my butt down to the community gardens but I'm also interested to see how much of a difference it will make.
    Posted 16 months ago by Saraphim Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Actually I wouldn't mind a mining helper. I can make all the Earthshakers and Flaming Humbabas we needed. Could do something like @larky lion's Peat Parties. :)
    Posted 16 months ago by Fokian Fool Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The issue with #3 is not an issue of Ore/Energy but more an Ore/Minute. I hardly ever go mining without using an Earthshaker since it is so energy intensive to mine. If someone else comes along and starts mining the same node that I'm on, now the rock will be gone more quickly, I'll get less ore from it, and then I have to spend more time finding the next rock to chip at. The more time I spend between nodes the less efficient my Earthshaker will be, and that is where my costs are. That being said, I personally try to mine during low-pop times and zones, but if someone is mining a shiny while I'm drunk on Earthshakers I'm not going to pass it up.
    Posted 16 months ago by Skwid Subscriber! | Permalink
  •  there is just something about that sound of metal on rock that brings relief.

    Agree Brib.

    @stri, yes, technically if there are LOTs of the same rock, then you get a bit more...however, in the scenarios I stated (only one type of that rock in an area (and maybe you really need a certain amount of ore to make something) or as Skwid stated it, 'drunk on Earthshakers' and mining the last rock in an area), it can be annoying to 'get help'.  Frankly, if someone asked if they could help, before jumping in...I'd be less annoyed and would rarely say no...it's just polite to ask before assuming...but you are right they are public resources, they don't have to ask (but to me, it is rude, and it's the rudeness I find most annoying than the 'help')...which is why I try to find deserted streets to mine on since I prefer it to be a solitary pursuit since I'm typically not socializing with the person that feels they need to 'help' me mine...especially when they approach me without saying a word...I do plenty of social things in the game, and to me, socializing includes talking/chatting...if you are approaching me when I'm in the middle of doing something, and you don't say a word to me and just start doing it, it doesn't make that activity social, in my books.  IMO, they did adjust it so you don't get totally screwed out of resources now when someone 'helps' you like before...but that doesn't make it a required social activity now.  But we all play the game differently...some like helpers, others don't...it's just best not to assume that all players want help with mining, IMO.
    Posted 16 months ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink