Kerham
Elite
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2006
- Posts
- 4,892
- Location
- to the moon and back
- Society
- Project Y
- Avatar Name
- Kerawan Kerham Maddahy
Dear MindArk, I am very unhappy with the tedious, meaningless, boring clickfest mining has become.
When I started playing, mining was an entire adventure. Buggy and misconcepted aswell, but if mining skills were giving more loot, it was worth having them.
You ruined this first when you introduced amps. That was not a problem during the booming 2007-2010, but now is an obvious one. Amps are the only thing keeping together mining and crafting, but in same time you let ingame so many levels for gamblers that the economy is flooded with worthless materials. Amp crafting itself, because you intentionally made it a losing proposition, only has a meaning at very high levels, like amps higher than lvl 10. Everything else is a lossy grinding. When you will change, because you will change it, the current paradigm of primacy of turnover, and gamblers will lose motivation to use lvl13, we will have another domain of crafting dead. Just as is tailoring, furniture, the intersection of crafting and landplots (which itself died right after appeared) and vehicles (which are great, but they don't really decay so there is no real market for them). You managed to somehow save weapons and components, but failed to provide proper motivation to hunters, so ArMatrix crafting is dramatically down compared to the starting moment. Melee ArMatrix is a failed proposition from the beginning and what could have been the mindforce branch is also dead.
(Forgot to mention here that you shafted so many people who upgraded maddox 4, ep41, mk just 2 and looking forward to when you will shaft people who upgraded armours.)
All these are each in its own merit reasons why there is virtually no markup in mining and, in order to keep some of it alive, you implemented the current system of switching on/off various resources at will, rendering depth and skills virtually useless. Why should I keep using a high decay high depth finder when I am finding still same lyst and melchi as a two days beginner? For the random once a week rugaritz which is eaten away by the decay of the finder itself?
Why did you removed the small satisfaction of "out of ordinary" robot beacons and made them craftable, undesirable and too common? Why did you removed ul amps from mining "out of ordinary" finds and moved them exclusively to webshop? Your CEO in latest interview proclaimed that EU is not a pay-to-win game, but removing features and items from the game and making them exclusive to webshop is exactly that.
How about making mining fun, interesting, challenging and rewarding? Hoping that someone in your team will read this, I will list a few thoughts here, maybe something useful can come out of them:
- Maybe implement a pet specific for mining, with no buff, thank you very much. It should be an alternative to extractor and of course to not be spawnable in lootable pvp. It should start with an economy comparable to re-105 and progress with leveling (leveling itself from extracting) to be comparable with 05/sga for example, to keep intact special excavators like adj, imp and mod. It should be obtainable through some middle difficulty mission accesible ingame at lvl30 prospecting/surveying/treasure or buyable from webshop but activable at, say, lvl15. The two versions should have different colours but same functionality. The decay should be paid via feeding and consumed per excavation. Ideally it should have some of that Project Entropia revolting humour (which disappeared with the new Barbie CryEngine world). Maybe a histerical small steam-punk machinery who would complain when extracting lyst. It should function offline too, sort of "tower", with programable time and decay paid in advance, for those pesky high tt lyst claims. Decay should be paid in a role-play manner, by giving ingots to the bugger, nomatter the ore or enmatter, just the tt to count as measure. The drawback should be that its function would not give extracting skills to the owner.
- Which extracting skills could become revelant through a system of industrially refining and improving ores and enmatters. So some lvl90 miner could for instance transform lyst into rugaritz while losing four fifths of its tt, while if a lvl5 miner would attempt that would lose everything, while a level10 miner would lose nine tenths. Of course, made up numbers, your wizards are better at this math. This should work across the scale also in other way around or even in small increments, like lyst to belk. This could happen in some special designed area, like a mining-themed-open-pit designed in the original post-apocalyptic style of EU, maybe in the middle of desert at Pandora, so we would also socialize. The process itself should take time, comparable to crafting reload and should be batch-able. Maybe a new skill, "Refining", could be added, which to be obtainable in a small measure from regular refining and a big measure from this new activity and should of course be the main course of the prostanding.
- We could also have some mining-specific and also general buffs obtainable through recipes of ores and enmatters, but not as crafting. Maybe a specific refiner (or NPC, as the Arkadia Sal'diresh keys) and the cost should be higher than the one from webshop boxes. Also some mining-specific pills obtainable only through this could be great, like enhance pet extraction speed (for the above mentioned walking monster) or, why not, enhance chance to loot this or that type of material.
- Maybe implement a new type of tool, like a preliminary prospecting tool, which could give hints about the area: wether it has better tt output or a certain type of mineral temporary availability. It should be avatar-bound as effect (so streaming on twitch would make it irrelevant for spectators), should cost a decent ped to buy and activate, should have a chance to fail and the draw-back would be that it would limit something. So if there is better tt output, then maximum amp lvl2 can be used or if a certain mineral availability, a limit on the number of claims. Such as its use to be considered strategic and mining without it to be just as viable.
- If you implemented these greed-infected mining strongboxes, maybe implement keys craftable in game, at a cost higher than in webshop. Say, 300%. So if going rate is 50 peds for a strongbox, a craftable key would be 30 peds, so all options would appeal to someone. Because right now if I loot a mining strongbox I would feel bad to sell it, but I would feel honestly disgusted to be forced to deposit and I guarantee I will not. I prefer a sort of alternative which is viable at least from a role-playing point of view. Putting back ul amps in ooo loot itself would be decent too and I am honestly revolted you did this. You are breaching the core promise of Entropia, that all activities will always be open to all participants, nomatter if they deposit or not.
- Maybe implement also some mining-specific instances as an alternative ooo. Some short funny instance in a spiral (ha) shape, where maybe you would have to activate the correct combination raw-refined of few materials. Or maybe a short mining mini-game where you must find a few claims in an instance at no cost and no tt reward. And then the instance to finish with a loot chamber which to give a fixed 50 ped tt loot, like old robot ships with a global. "This avatar has examined the lost pockets of Rattex and found loot worth 50 ped". Part of the loot could be recipes for mentioned pills, could be maps (in a dreamy better EU with a better mining) of special ores which would expire in a given time (say 48h), bound to that avatar but maybe in some areas with big mobs, so he would also need to call some friends. Ofc, instances shouldn't be available in lootable pvp.
- Maybe implement a mining epic mission with an estimated time of completion of like 6 months, with a ped sink here and there of some 2k in total, but which in the end to give as prize an adj excavator or something (in that dreamy better EU with a better mining) comparable. It could have classic "bring me 10 peds of this resource" sinks, but with pauses between them, to be spread out. It could have a requirement to global on a planet-specific resource on each planet (but not indoors, thanks), like the divine thing. It could have episodes of prospecting specific areas etc. Prospecting which in that dreamy better EU could be saved on maps of specific ores and sellable between avatars, maybe this maps section connected to the mentioned preliminary prospecting tools. From a graphic point of view, some simple vectorial-based gradients (which would also fit in as roleplay) should do.
- Which brings me to the next point, maybe buy and integrate ingame LBML? (Together with an ingame map of mobs, MindArk, wtf is SO hard to get pinpoints to ACTUAL spawns when we get a daily??) Is great that Ido thought this and I must thank him, I wouldn't have mined again without LBML, but I find it shameful that a community member thought at something which the company itself could have done easier and faster, already having all tools required.
As someone who plays EU "as is", based on its core promise of a virtual reality economy, I honestly feel lied and left aside. I feel the game is focusing on a meaningless waste of time for players like me, while pushing everyone towards unchallenging simple gambling.
I find it dangerous that the two main directions of success now are "risk as much as possible as often as possible" and "play 10 minutes each 1,5hrs and if there is no igni, log out". Just as dangerous as the bleak perspective of crafting, which is as interesting and appealing as a prostitute with moustache.
That's all I thought off. I really hope somebody in your team will read this and I really hope you do know what you want to do with mining, because right now the mining-crafting ecosystem is barely breathing. And I believe you prefer a vivid active community of players, not one of exclusively explosive gamblers in a 3d casino. (Or so I hope, because believing should be sustained by reason, and reason shows you did everything in your power over the past year to curb player strategical possibilites of succes and increase gamblers' participation and impact as turnover. You WILL arrive in this style at a point where 3d casino remains the only option becase 3d casino customers will be the only ones left.)
When I started playing, mining was an entire adventure. Buggy and misconcepted aswell, but if mining skills were giving more loot, it was worth having them.
You ruined this first when you introduced amps. That was not a problem during the booming 2007-2010, but now is an obvious one. Amps are the only thing keeping together mining and crafting, but in same time you let ingame so many levels for gamblers that the economy is flooded with worthless materials. Amp crafting itself, because you intentionally made it a losing proposition, only has a meaning at very high levels, like amps higher than lvl 10. Everything else is a lossy grinding. When you will change, because you will change it, the current paradigm of primacy of turnover, and gamblers will lose motivation to use lvl13, we will have another domain of crafting dead. Just as is tailoring, furniture, the intersection of crafting and landplots (which itself died right after appeared) and vehicles (which are great, but they don't really decay so there is no real market for them). You managed to somehow save weapons and components, but failed to provide proper motivation to hunters, so ArMatrix crafting is dramatically down compared to the starting moment. Melee ArMatrix is a failed proposition from the beginning and what could have been the mindforce branch is also dead.
(Forgot to mention here that you shafted so many people who upgraded maddox 4, ep41, mk just 2 and looking forward to when you will shaft people who upgraded armours.)
All these are each in its own merit reasons why there is virtually no markup in mining and, in order to keep some of it alive, you implemented the current system of switching on/off various resources at will, rendering depth and skills virtually useless. Why should I keep using a high decay high depth finder when I am finding still same lyst and melchi as a two days beginner? For the random once a week rugaritz which is eaten away by the decay of the finder itself?
Why did you removed the small satisfaction of "out of ordinary" robot beacons and made them craftable, undesirable and too common? Why did you removed ul amps from mining "out of ordinary" finds and moved them exclusively to webshop? Your CEO in latest interview proclaimed that EU is not a pay-to-win game, but removing features and items from the game and making them exclusive to webshop is exactly that.
How about making mining fun, interesting, challenging and rewarding? Hoping that someone in your team will read this, I will list a few thoughts here, maybe something useful can come out of them:
- Maybe implement a pet specific for mining, with no buff, thank you very much. It should be an alternative to extractor and of course to not be spawnable in lootable pvp. It should start with an economy comparable to re-105 and progress with leveling (leveling itself from extracting) to be comparable with 05/sga for example, to keep intact special excavators like adj, imp and mod. It should be obtainable through some middle difficulty mission accesible ingame at lvl30 prospecting/surveying/treasure or buyable from webshop but activable at, say, lvl15. The two versions should have different colours but same functionality. The decay should be paid via feeding and consumed per excavation. Ideally it should have some of that Project Entropia revolting humour (which disappeared with the new Barbie CryEngine world). Maybe a histerical small steam-punk machinery who would complain when extracting lyst. It should function offline too, sort of "tower", with programable time and decay paid in advance, for those pesky high tt lyst claims. Decay should be paid in a role-play manner, by giving ingots to the bugger, nomatter the ore or enmatter, just the tt to count as measure. The drawback should be that its function would not give extracting skills to the owner.
- Which extracting skills could become revelant through a system of industrially refining and improving ores and enmatters. So some lvl90 miner could for instance transform lyst into rugaritz while losing four fifths of its tt, while if a lvl5 miner would attempt that would lose everything, while a level10 miner would lose nine tenths. Of course, made up numbers, your wizards are better at this math. This should work across the scale also in other way around or even in small increments, like lyst to belk. This could happen in some special designed area, like a mining-themed-open-pit designed in the original post-apocalyptic style of EU, maybe in the middle of desert at Pandora, so we would also socialize. The process itself should take time, comparable to crafting reload and should be batch-able. Maybe a new skill, "Refining", could be added, which to be obtainable in a small measure from regular refining and a big measure from this new activity and should of course be the main course of the prostanding.
- We could also have some mining-specific and also general buffs obtainable through recipes of ores and enmatters, but not as crafting. Maybe a specific refiner (or NPC, as the Arkadia Sal'diresh keys) and the cost should be higher than the one from webshop boxes. Also some mining-specific pills obtainable only through this could be great, like enhance pet extraction speed (for the above mentioned walking monster) or, why not, enhance chance to loot this or that type of material.
- Maybe implement a new type of tool, like a preliminary prospecting tool, which could give hints about the area: wether it has better tt output or a certain type of mineral temporary availability. It should be avatar-bound as effect (so streaming on twitch would make it irrelevant for spectators), should cost a decent ped to buy and activate, should have a chance to fail and the draw-back would be that it would limit something. So if there is better tt output, then maximum amp lvl2 can be used or if a certain mineral availability, a limit on the number of claims. Such as its use to be considered strategic and mining without it to be just as viable.
- If you implemented these greed-infected mining strongboxes, maybe implement keys craftable in game, at a cost higher than in webshop. Say, 300%. So if going rate is 50 peds for a strongbox, a craftable key would be 30 peds, so all options would appeal to someone. Because right now if I loot a mining strongbox I would feel bad to sell it, but I would feel honestly disgusted to be forced to deposit and I guarantee I will not. I prefer a sort of alternative which is viable at least from a role-playing point of view. Putting back ul amps in ooo loot itself would be decent too and I am honestly revolted you did this. You are breaching the core promise of Entropia, that all activities will always be open to all participants, nomatter if they deposit or not.
- Maybe implement also some mining-specific instances as an alternative ooo. Some short funny instance in a spiral (ha) shape, where maybe you would have to activate the correct combination raw-refined of few materials. Or maybe a short mining mini-game where you must find a few claims in an instance at no cost and no tt reward. And then the instance to finish with a loot chamber which to give a fixed 50 ped tt loot, like old robot ships with a global. "This avatar has examined the lost pockets of Rattex and found loot worth 50 ped". Part of the loot could be recipes for mentioned pills, could be maps (in a dreamy better EU with a better mining) of special ores which would expire in a given time (say 48h), bound to that avatar but maybe in some areas with big mobs, so he would also need to call some friends. Ofc, instances shouldn't be available in lootable pvp.
- Maybe implement a mining epic mission with an estimated time of completion of like 6 months, with a ped sink here and there of some 2k in total, but which in the end to give as prize an adj excavator or something (in that dreamy better EU with a better mining) comparable. It could have classic "bring me 10 peds of this resource" sinks, but with pauses between them, to be spread out. It could have a requirement to global on a planet-specific resource on each planet (but not indoors, thanks), like the divine thing. It could have episodes of prospecting specific areas etc. Prospecting which in that dreamy better EU could be saved on maps of specific ores and sellable between avatars, maybe this maps section connected to the mentioned preliminary prospecting tools. From a graphic point of view, some simple vectorial-based gradients (which would also fit in as roleplay) should do.
- Which brings me to the next point, maybe buy and integrate ingame LBML? (Together with an ingame map of mobs, MindArk, wtf is SO hard to get pinpoints to ACTUAL spawns when we get a daily??) Is great that Ido thought this and I must thank him, I wouldn't have mined again without LBML, but I find it shameful that a community member thought at something which the company itself could have done easier and faster, already having all tools required.
As someone who plays EU "as is", based on its core promise of a virtual reality economy, I honestly feel lied and left aside. I feel the game is focusing on a meaningless waste of time for players like me, while pushing everyone towards unchallenging simple gambling.
I find it dangerous that the two main directions of success now are "risk as much as possible as often as possible" and "play 10 minutes each 1,5hrs and if there is no igni, log out". Just as dangerous as the bleak perspective of crafting, which is as interesting and appealing as a prostitute with moustache.
That's all I thought off. I really hope somebody in your team will read this and I really hope you do know what you want to do with mining, because right now the mining-crafting ecosystem is barely breathing. And I believe you prefer a vivid active community of players, not one of exclusively explosive gamblers in a 3d casino. (Or so I hope, because believing should be sustained by reason, and reason shows you did everything in your power over the past year to curb player strategical possibilites of succes and increase gamblers' participation and impact as turnover. You WILL arrive in this style at a point where 3d casino remains the only option becase 3d casino customers will be the only ones left.)
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