OK, let's look at some specific things.
VU9.4 (some say 9.0) Mindark changes the balance managing system so smart playing becomes irrelevant, and only the lucky lottery winners are allowed to profit.
Incorrect. MA has "adjusted" loot balance quite often, in terms of what drops from which mob, etc. (I.E. argo used to drop muscle oil, but that was quickly changed.) But I think once you analyze it, the loot distribution has more to do with player actions than MA's. I'll explain later. However suffice it to say that smart playing is still profitable.
Some of the higher end players start cashing out.
Meaning others are buying.
(Again, explained later.)
VU10.0.0 Mindark/FPC decide to release this very beautiful new gfx engine on us without properly testing it.
No, they tested it. They simply did a poor job of it. As I said in my VU10 comment thread, I was also unhappy w/ the amount of problems in the initial release, (so we are in agreement there) but I knew they would be bringing in many patches. So far they have been.
The update includes only half of the gameplay functionality,
Which they told us about before implementing it. It's not like they sprung it on us. We didn't install VU10 and go "WTF? Where is MF or team hunting or our apts.?" If you understood how interwoven this economy is, you'd understand that was a warning.
and it seems that the balance manager has again been tweaked.
Tweaked mostly by us, the players, and by MA/FPC but only in that everything isn't implemented atm. Let me explain this interwoven economy as it relates to VU10 so far.
* No Mindforce
Result = Market for MF chips, nexus, sweat, mind essence, Etc. is down. Also reduced travel speed (no tp jumps) = reduced activity.
* No Team hunting
Result = Less high maturity mobs being hunted, reducing the items they drop, making MU on them higher
* Higher computer requirements
Result = Many players (more than you think) being pushed out of game until they can afford better computers, which also reduces the amount they can deposit.
* No apts
Result = Little if any haircutting/body sculpting, thus reducing prices on hairspray, etc.
* No beacons
Result = spaceships & beacon runs were a huge source of robot res, used for making certain faps and other items. This huge reduction in res has forced the crafting cost of those items to increase ~4-5% in res cost, although they are selling for roughly the same cost, thus crafters are profiting (and able to spend) less. (Although robot res sellers are profiting more, so that evens out.)
* No pets
Result = fruit, whip, sweetstuff, nutrio bars, etc. all reduced in price.
* Gray furniture
Result = Although clothing is the major focus for painting/textures, furniture and other (C) items did help increase demand for paints/textures. Now those industries are also lagging.
No face masks, plus many other things I can site. All of these have affected major (if underappreciated) sections of this economy. Many folks who have relied on those industries have stopped playing atm, so we lose their activity/decay as well. However, note these are all simply missing pieces that will come back eventually. As they do, those economies will rev back up.
In response to the sudden reveral of cashflow, Mindark releases the Second Golden Age, promising improved and elite weapons to be made available to the committed veterans, and casual players alike.
The casual players get Pixie, the committed veterans who already have the elite weapons and armor receive their SGA counterparts.
Absolute rubbish. DOA loudmouth, imp fap, mod fap, and many more "uber" items dropped to quite "casual players" (meaning they did not previously posses those types of items.)
Yes, many items have been looted by uber players. What's the problem?
More players quit in disgust over the SGA farce.
Folks have quit (and come back) after every major VU so far. You weren't here for the footguard/armor decay debacle or the amp nerf, or the skill nerf. Trust me when I say many folks left then too, but somehow those worked out in the end.
Qetesh's land areas are ruined,
The mountains are way over used, I agree. I suspect they were intended to "herd us" in our journeys as we were forced to gather all our TPs, LAs, and landmarkers again. But yes, they went overboard.
Jolana's account is locked and threatened with deletion over a nonexistent scam.
While that situation occurred due to a technical error by MA which allowed certain folks back into this Universe, account locks were required while tracking the movement of the items in question. Jolana was hardly the only one. Those that are truly innocent get their account released eventually.
David from FPC's response - Your perogative.
Poor choice of words aside, MA/FPC's official attitude has always been that we (the players) are free to come and go, buy in and sell out, as we wish. Some folks are in a holding pattern, and others are doing "business as usual". FPC has offered many events over the years to "increase sales" so to speak. SGA was always planned as another and we all knew that. That the economy was so poor before hand made no difference. (Though I personally would have preferred for them to wait 2-3 months before doing it, but it was their call.)
Yes, MA/FPC's history of lacking communication is legendary, but the players insistence on over analyzing their comments is also historic. However, it is true that those two facts are interrelated.
Reread David's quote again, then carefully read his signature.
The playerbase is shrinking at an ever increasing rate.
For the reasons I mentioned above. Which, ironically just makes loot even worse.
Consider the loot pool as a more of a response to the players activities, not MAs. For example, had Buzz not camped those big longu, and spent so much on them, would that big hof had dropped? Would Starman's 100k beanie click have waited for someone else?
It wasn't coincidence that the dasp ATHs came so soon after so much was pumped into them via WoF. The same thing happened to the globsters.
I mention uber hofs/ATHs, but consider this also relates to overall market activity. Someone skills heavy on springs, thus keeping the eye oil market in the 102% range, not 100.5%
So with that in mind, consider that the week FPC was down for VU10 install, there was zero activity for the system to pull from. Also remember that due to many computer problems and such mentioned above that much of the player base wasn't logging in, nor playing as much.
If loot out is based directly on decay spent, and activity is greatly reduced, then what is the expected outcome of the loot? Which makes folks wait, which reduces activity, which lowers loot, which makes folks wait...
It's not MA, it's us.
Furthermore, by disabling skill chips, Mindark has created a false bottom that will be realized the instant skill chips are returned, since the glut of players leaving the game will all be chipping out at the sime time, crashing that market.
And thus is introduced the second golden age of chipping in.
If enough of these people choose the former of these options, we will have an economic crisis on our hands in the game where markup prices will be erased. For most players, the real value of their accounts is not in TT, but in the market value of their items. This would mean for those players that their accounts will be worth the same as if they were banned and deleted. This would be the essential outcome anyway with a true bank run on the game. The economics for Mindark to continue running the platform for FPC would topple over, and force them to shut down server activity.
Hardly. MU, by definition is paid by other players, not MA/FPC. They can't be hurt by MU rising and falling, they can only benefit. If you need, I can sketch out how that works.
As for many of your other comments, I'll agree that MA/FPC has made poor business decisions, and they have a lot of room for improvement. However, keep in mind they are a small company, growing faster than they can comfortably endure. They can't hire too many customer support, or game coders, (for reasons of their own choosing) so those employees are highly overworked. No wonder support is mostly canned responses. Do you have any idea how many support cases they get, especially during huge VUs like this?
Also, I suspect some of their game coders are sub-par, but they simply can't fire them, due to various labor laws.
Fifth, perhaps it is too late to put the genie back in the bottle, but the L world you have created makes it impossible for players to build and improve upon their accounts. SIB is fine, but L is ridiculous and harmful. Seriously.
(L) Items saved this economy, not screwed it up. Take your mind back to a time when everything was UL. Every ML-35 that dropped stays ingame forever. Question: How many can you comfortably drop? What about ep-41? Adj fap? DOAs? Thunderbird? Angel?
At what point do you drop so much that the MU on items are near zero? For the answer, ask any old player in the 2003 era. Or, before the amp nerf, ask any player who TT'd anything A104 and below because they dropped so much.
EP-41s went from being +300 back in '06 to being in the 1K range, despite the fact that many (L) weapons deliver much more dmg/sec.
Also, considering (L), don't forget how many of us practically lived off of korss 400(L). They were over 150%, even though thy dropped from e-v-e-r-y feff global and most bristelhog globals too.
Thunderbird UL is over 6k, even though you can get an almost full (L) set for 103%. Using that (L) armor and an (L) gun, my friend hunted Cersumon and walked away w/ a big hof that included a full TT ESI. He's not upset at the cost of (L). And those that sold them aren't upset either.
Had his only choice been to buy UL TB and a UL weapon w/ enough dmg/sec, he could never have hunted those.
Also remember that (L) had quite the impact on LG.
Both UL and (L) are needed.
Sixth, you advertise about being a place where people can invest, but once invested, change your story about whether or not the funds that were deposited into your bank account were investments or entertainment fees. It is either an investment, or a fee, but not both. If it is an investment, then you have a responsibility to your investors to protect their investments, or risk loosing all future funds from them, as well as what is left of the present ones. You may be able to adjust all aspects of the game, but that does not make you lords of the universe. Your investors are, and will always be the ones in control. This fact can only be ignored for a very short period of time. If it is a fee, then let us know, so we can stop flushing money into this game and pay $15 a month for our entertainment somewhere else.
This is indeed a dangerous place to invest large amounts of money. What place that offers as much potential income isn't? And yes, MA is the lord of this Universe. We have to remember that fully. Anything can change at any time. Invest or don't but keep that in mind, please. It's your prerogative.
I have more chance of looting SGA items while mining then I did looting DOAs or ML-35s or a full angel or tiger suit 3 years ago.
