[CHANGES ] Levelling Station & CXP Usage

[TemujinCalidius]

Thanks for your input Satanic,

@Satanic.Visions

I would like to say that, as a Farmer in the system, I applaud the Dev’s fix of the Composter Bin CXP gain “exploit” but was it really an exploit or was it more an intentional oversight? By your own admission, you failed to address this CXP “exploit” and instead, chose to create and release products to increase revenue streams.

We chose to release products not to increase the revenue stream but to keep our player base happy with the constant push for new material.

The current project that we have been focused on (the beds and furniture crafting system) is not one made to increase revenue, as it’s simply a change to what’s already existing, although we will have one new station to put the pieces together.

The following areas we are working on include

• brewery reform and butcher reform,
• marketplace reforms, and

None of the above increases our revenue, as they are changes to existing stations and products, and these take months of work to complete.

You’ve misinterpreted my meaning of pushing new products and features. And I will take this time to let the community know (some already know), that I’ve made $0 from developing this game with Drakkhis. Every L$ that goes towards my portion of the commission Drakkhis and I have agreed on still sits on my avatar in L$ and has never exited Second Life to form any real value in my real life. The money on that account has only been used towards charity events and any developmental needs, such as new script purchases and full-perm purchases that will help Drakkhis and development. I’ve put more than USD 10,000 of my money into the system and not made anything back in return, and I never expected to make money out of the system for my pockets.

When it comes to Patron support, that money goes 100% towards Drakkhis’ work for everything he does for us. I still pay all server costs (database, websites, forums) out of my pockets and not out of any Patron funds or product sales.

So please understand that when I say pushing products, new ideas and new features, we do it for you guys and not for my pockets.

I take offence to anyone thinking otherwise, and for someone to comment, “just someone working a full time job away from SL and making arbitrary decisions on a knee jerk reaction,” is just plain insulting.

I admit this sudden change on CXP should have been communicated with you all first. Drakkhis suggested I make a post about it before making the change. And looking back, it would have lessened the sudden frustration, but it is a needed change.

@Satanic.Visions

So speculatively speaking, your actions or lack thereof, knowingly fostered and perpetuated this exploit and by turning a “Blind Eye” you saw the Farmer Class grow to become the most popular class and no doubt noticed a dramatic increase in Composter Bins sales and an increase in Pig sales at your CXP market which would of been clearly indicated in your database. But as long as the $$ were rolling in, you choose not to act on this “exploit” and allowed it to persist and watched as a hybrid Farmer/Warrior class evolved. But hey, what is done is done!

I’m glad you prefixed this statement with speculatively, as I’ve answered above most of this. However, I wouldn’t go as far as knowingly perpetuating or turning a blind eye. We have not had the time to sit and watch the database, and we do not see sales on the CXP store either. We rely on our players to let us know when something isn’t quite right and try to fix it, as we have.

Not going to comment on $$ rolling in, as that’s not who Drakkhis and I are. The last thing on our minds is making $. I set store prices to a certain amount to cover Drakkhis’ work. He’s been doing this for us out of the goodness of his heart and the love of this idea that is SL Colonies. There’s no getting rich from making an RPG game in Second Life. If that’s what we wanted, we’d be in the SL Fashion industry and Mesh Bodies. They are very different markets.

@Satanic.Visions

Moving forward, Farmers have been left with a vapid class that offers ZERO incentive to level and frankly there is also little to no money to be made in the market when offsetting the costs and time of energy consumption / regeneration, and harvest turnaround times. And now the “Stat Cap” which I think is a huge mistake, has even further eroded any leveling incentive. My farmer is level 25 and has really nothing to show for it except multiple ways to grind low CXP which is available at level 1, and minor increases in stats.

That is not a fair comment here. You’ve come into the game when composting was a thing with loads of CXP. Farmers are ‘still’ overpowered compared to the other professions. There’s already been plenty of discussion on these forums about how we can make further changes to the farming profession by splitting the role to balance things. Here are a couple of those posts:

Farmers splitting into a Peasant class?

I think and agree a peasant/colonist profession/class, perhaps could be someone who gains a CXP as a laborer, gathering reeds for baskets, clay for pots and jars, … maybe, if you want to get fancy, split CXP with farmers if they help harvesting fields… To the point of Farmers loosing CXP to a possible Artisan profession, I think it could be counter balanced in the growing of bamboo/sugar cane for cane-polls for Fishers, and possibly also industrial/newspaper-parchment for the “News Stand” idea…

Candle maker profession

A candle maker could be useful and interesting, using beeswax and twine found when foraging the insects category. They could also be a bee keeper producing their wax so they have more to do than just making candles. Candle making tho has a few stages that require a few different ingredients and tools/stations. Also, blacksmith could make lanterns that require candles, so the candlemaker buys the lanterns and put candles in them, producing a wearable/rezable lantern to use or sell.

There’s still work to be done in the profession. But before we hit the hammer a little more on the farmer role, we will look at making other professions, such as the Brewer and Butcher, more exciting and more involved simultaneously.

Viewing the role breakdown in our main store, you can also see the imbalance. For example, people choose to play as a farmer more than any other class because of the number of things they can do in that profession and the simplicity to level stats in that profession, earning its CXP compared to other professions’ grind requirements.

In saying that, it doesn’t mean we have to make the grind harder for the farmer to be aligned with the others. It may be a matter of making the grind easier for the other professions to come in line with the farmer and then increasing/decreasing the grind to be more straightforward/more complex among all professions as the player base continues to grow.

@Satanic.Visions

With this new leveling system my next level will cost me 13000 CXP and at 10 CXP a pop, that’s 1300 tasks I will need to accomplish in order to reach the next level which will enable me to increase 1 stat by 1 point…adding a whole new meaning to “Pointless Grind” LOL!

Stat caps could possibly result in the onset of boredom for a high percentage of players: We like buffing our stats and dressing our virtual dolls - LOL!

I feel your pain. If grinding and CXP are your purpose in the game.

@Satanic.Visions

Yes some will argue its all about the “RP”, but from my observations and experience, it appears that very few players Roleplay within this system: During my month or so in SL Colonies, I have had only one in-person full on RP engagement with just one other player. And as for Chat, its void most of the time be it RP or OOC chatter!

That’s another problem we are solving. Our target market is RPG sims and roleplay. Our target market is not farming and grinding. Yes, farming and grinding and feeding players on that addiction could generate significant money for us, but those players can use G&S, DFS and all those other systems for that purpose, and on top of that, they can sell their end products for L$ and make something out of it.

We’ve chosen RPG sims, as that has died off in recent years in Second Life. Even the GorSL (Gorean RP) sims have all but died out. And we’re targeting that market area to build RP communities focused on lore, storylines and community interaction.

Don’t misinterpret this, either. We aren’t looking to ‘create’ the RP, as in, we aren’t going to be the ones providing the lore, storylines and rules - that is left to each individual sim to create. And if some sims wish to create their own RPG and link their stories and RP between zones, that is also purely up to them.

Yes, we will lose some players. Those who like to solo farm but not RP and love to grind and considered power players, and I am okay with that - as that’s just not us or our market. If you/they are bored, they will leave, but RPG sims and those focused on actual RP will slowly come in and build communities that will interact with each other - I have no doubt about that, and that’s my true vision.

@Satanic.Visions

BTW your linked Progress Signs are not registering the correct amount of seeds. 100 seeds reads 10 seeds, 50 seeds reads 5 seeds and 10 seeds reads 1 seed. Why has this not been corrected?

Because this is the first time anyone has bothered to let us know of this fact. Thanks for letting us know.

As an experienced beta tester of AAA games, you would know that bugs require bug reports. This is one of those things that have yet to be reported. Probably because it is such a minor little thing that the majority of our player base does not wish to waste Drakkhis’ time just yet, while we complete the works we have planned to have our full list of promised products before polishing everything up to get out of beta

@Satanic.Visions

Another area requiring attention is the economy: 248 coins for a feather!! Really? And its from your store LOL!

We do not run the main market in the store. Players place their items in there and ask for their prices. If someone wants to try to sell a single feather for 248 coins and someone is willing to pay that extravagant amount, that’s their choice.

We do not set the price/value for a particular market. It is player run entirely. You do not feel 248 coins is the value for a single feather (nor do I, considering they are easy enough to get), but someone might, or perhaps the person selling it, thinks it may be worth that much to them.

The market in the main store is not stocked by us, not seeded by us and not controlled by us in any way.

@Satanic.Visions

Now PVP is something very few players will opt into so I think the addition of a Champion Class is the way to go. Each Colony gets one Champion and Champions battle each other for individual titles and Colony perks along with bragging rights.

The Ranger class was created purely for it, and they have more benefits (and will have more) when used in PvP and Dungeoneering. In addition, their damage abilities with weapons are higher than any other profession, as their ranger level is considered on top of Strength and Dexterity to increase base weapon damage.

@Satanic.Visions

And finally as a player in SL Colonies it is indeed my prerogative to chose how I support the system. I have supported your system with a modest inventory investment along with the occasional purchases of coins at your ATM so I could actually afford to buy items on the market. But I am now going to express my dissatisfaction regarding the Stat Caps and Farmer class by closing my wallet. Hopefully this will only be for a short period of time because A: I like spending Lindens and B: I want to experience your sims and system quests

As is your choice and everyone else’s choice. Money is not our objective. I’ve made nothing and will continue to make nothing in terms of monetary. However, we will continue to receive satisfaction from creating this game and seeing where we can get it to go, and we will continue to enjoy doing so.