Topic

no projects, next short test. see what happens.

On the next short test, don't open any projects. See what happens. Particularly re: trees, patches, forum "complaining", resources etc.
I dont think there has been a test yet in BETA like this and it would be interesting to see the effect on game play I think. Especially since I assume once the game is complete an open, projects won't be on 24/7.

Posted 19 months ago by Mimi Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • There won't be projects when the game goes live...that's just a testing thing. I mean, it's opening new streets, and I don't think players will be opening new streets when it's live.
    Posted 19 months ago by Cupcake Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Why wouldn't there be new streets after the game goes live?  Every MMO I've ever played is always opening new areas. 
    Posted 19 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • yeah.. i'm putting my money that there will be new projects when game is live too.  Maybe not as often, or maybe they'll be tougher... like tower.
    Posted 19 months ago by RainyRain Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You're right - I was mistaken, sorry :)
    Posted 19 months ago by Cupcake Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Maybe the devs like the projects and like how it makes people group together and stand for something they believe in.  imho, projects have spawned the most community oriented play (and talk) of anything else i've seen in the entire game.  People will always have different motivations and ways of carrying them out. Figuring out how to live with each others differences (politics) is the human condition and will never go away.  Trust in the devs that they see what is going on and will tune things so as to make everything as painless as possible for everyone's gameplay. But also keep it in the back of your mind, that withot controversy everything would be boring, and we might not have anything to talk about.  I think they have already fixed the issue of losing every tree in the world with poisoners guilt.  After that, just play how you want.  I for one enjoy this world, and I like to dig and donate as much as i like to plant, pet and harvest.  Is it possible that the dirt might always come from under trees, and might always be requested in large quantities by projects. People will have to deal with it in their own heads someday.  I love tree's as much as the next guy, but IRL i still live in a wooden house.  Tree's are a renewable resource in this game.  Projects imho are a BIG part of this game.  Once every skill has been learned and every quest completed, what else will we even do besides projects?  Projects opened up the tower... and now i'm just rambling

    *STEPS OFF OF SOAP BOX*
    Posted 19 months ago by IxÆoN Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It would be great to limit the projects and all for the next test so we could just play. But the purpose of all this IS to create problems and "break" stuff. The crashes and lag need to be fixed up. If these things happen repeatedly when the game goes live then it will turn people off. The tower is most likely what caused this last situation so we will need to revisit that despite its issues to see whether they've been eased or not.
    Posted 19 months ago by Holly Waterfall Subscriber! | Permalink
  • if they took out projects they may aswell close the game cause it will get pointless pretty fast otherwise
    Posted 19 months ago by Hootaholic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • all i meant was for a short test - no tests to force people to try out other things - we hear in the forums all the time of the problems and issues related to projects and less and less about other areas. are the other areas problem free? i don't know, i'm not sure anyone knows.

    i am not anti project at all, i just think it would be interesting to have a short test without any to see what develops - a short test so those who mostly project won't get bored - but a chance for the devs to see what it will be like when projects aren't going 24/7
    Posted 19 months ago by Mimi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Maybe it is just me, but the "controversy" seemed to be in pretty limited areas. I spent PLENTY of time in the G Forrest and Meadow and ran into very little project overflow. Seemed like it was very very easy to be involved in things that had nothing to do with projects. "Forcing" people to do other things is very much against the open sandbox game design. There are already plenty of things poking people to try other things (quests and the like). I might like more quests and more ways of getting them but shutting off part of the game to make people try stuff is kinda draconian.
    We are (I am guessing) at a fraction of the amount of players that will be in the game when it goes live. Projects let the world scale up and it will end up being significantly larger than it is now. Distances will be much larger and projects will be further and further off in the "frontiers," meaning you will have to make more of an effort to get involved and that they will have less of an impact on more established areas. (The ability to have multiple teleportation points will have an interesting effect... but that is for another day.)
    I do hope there is the occasional massive project in the middle of things (along the lines of the tower opening) because that DOES disrupt things. It makes it feel like things are HAPPENING, an event. That is exciting.
    Also, there really have been test without projects. And, yes, folks found stuff to do.
    Posted 19 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • sure, why not?

    i'm all for temporarily shutting down projects for a test and see what sorts of activities "endgame" players come up with to keep busy.
    Posted 19 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Lord B - forcing people to do other things may be against sandbox gaming, but it's completely in the spirit of beta testing. It's actually an easy way to test the effects of street projects, not only on global resource distribution but on player attitude, community harmony, and entertainment value. Can you quantify the often heard statements of 'street projects make the game more interesting / entertaining / competitive / hostile'? Some people have the missed conception the 'win' in this game is street projects (it's not, there is no 'win')... wonder what all those folks will do if a test had no projects going on. Other than stretches of 'waiting', I don't think we've had a test without completing at least one project since Jan (even the micro-test finished one). So what would the harm be in shutting them off for a test, other than we don't add to the over 400 streets we already have for a few hours?
    Posted 19 months ago by Travinara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't see the point in doing this unless the devs are intending to have no projects available for long periods in the future, and would like to see how that impacts the number of people interested in playing the game.
    Posted 19 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I certainly see no harm. None at all. But I'm not sure what is gained. At least not with the limited amount of players right now.
    If the idea is to see if they current batch of players during a short (say 24 hour or less test) will go do other stuff, the answer (I am guessing) would be:
    Some would.
    Some would just not play that day.
    I'm not sure the game is large enough to get a good sense of global resource distribution.
    But, sure. Why not? Heck I'm shutting down all street vendors except ones that sell un-harvestables/make-ables (mushrooms, honey, etc) just to see what would happen to process in auction. I'm for cutting gem probability WAY down for a bit to see how that affects current flow, forcing people to turn to gardening and sales and not just buy everything. All for testing.
    It is is weird the "discount" between project-ers and non-project-ers... because IN GAME I saw none of it. It all baffles me a bit and wonder how much its a very few squeeky wheels on both sides.
    Posted 19 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Don't forget as this game is only open for short bursts,everyone is cramming as much in as they can.When this game goes live,it will go at a slower pace,then maybe just maybe the great divide will diminish also. :)
    Posted 19 months ago by Joos Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hehehe, thought I was the only one thinking there was something awkward about the gems. I've had to resort to *gasp* selling my gems, with the new limits on donations I wind up with a surplus of gems and music. I'm all for thinning down the vendors (as I've stated elsewhere). I think we've reached a point of good diversity within the game and could sustain some of those changes.

    I do believe street projects will be an ongoing thing, but I don't believe we'll be getting them at the pace we have been. I agree the world will infinitely expand and 'project areas' will spread farther apart, and we may have several going at a time. I'm not saying test not having projects just for the sake of testing it, there is valuable information missing about how players will handle 'dead time'. Unless the number of streets (and active street projects) expands at the same exponential growth rate the player base does - there will be times when there simply are no street projects.

    As for the short bursts, since the beginning of beta (almost a month ago now folks) we've been seeing close to 40% up time.
    Posted 19 months ago by Travinara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • As the player base and the world itself expands, it will become harder and harder to put your hands on a project, I think. Or at least put your hands on EVERY project, as some people tend to do. 
    I think personal house projects and smaller group projects (group halls) will be a nice way to obtain the project type of atmosphere without having to deal with the pressure of expanding the game world all the time. 
    And when you want to, you can probably hang out at the edges of the world and project hunt as well. I'm for all styles of play, really. This game doesn't have to have a set definition of how to play it.
    Posted 19 months ago by Jhennauchan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think I can tell you what most project workers would do during project-down time: horde stuff for the next project.
    Posted 19 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink