I promise, I did not want to comment… But now that I have to wait for the little green bar to go up so I can continue my harvest mhhhh hahahaha…
First of all:
I’m very thankful to Microsoft for making me fear any system change and for teaching me to think 20X before any new update… (my slc cabinet is old but it holds up and I won’t change it (ecologic reasons ^^).
secondly:
the work invested on slc by the creators and scriptwriter is just remarkable and I can only have gratitude for that given all the good moments and friends it brought me (Hi tessy ). So don’t take things personally. I have a lot of respect.
We all have the choice to turn around and risk having to join hades (that will please satanic vision) or face with acceptance what is coming.
It reminds me of windows in many ways… Arbitrary decision, where some people feel trapped by the hardware expenses and refuse to leave even if they don’t like it anymore. or quit and move to linux. It doesn’t concern me directly hahaha I only had 2 stat at +23…but if there is no option to continue to increase my energy significantly… The game is “finished” (maximum production attained) and therefore no need to buy trees (I like trees). (and I have both linux and windows by the way). This is how I feel, maybe it is interesting for you to know…
If one day I am asked if slc is a good result… I will answer yes, unbelievable, they made 95 98 xp…and 7. I will never compare slc to vista be reassured. But don’t forget (arbitrary and personal advice) that with 8 of 11 or (God forbid) 12…the attendance will decrease maybe… or increase with fake avatars that serve as energy statistics hahaha…we would think we are in Europe ^^
With love diligances and thanks
Your devoted Mathilde adviser and cook of nameless
P.S.
Was designed to make public debat interresting reflexion only.
not designet to creat hate or other negative energy
Created also for all the thank you I never say.
Not designed to say thigs are wrong…who know the future and who really know wath is good or not?
I got my stats by doing alchemy and compassing my butt off. I built up my meter so I could compass longer without sittng around or pick fruit in a faster time because I have time limitations.
I didn’t get any points from fertilizer. NOW - I’m knocked back to 100.
Yes, yes - I know this is beta and you have the power to do this - but this was nothing but God Mode type penalty - with no warning and no consultation. What’s the point of working myself up for anything if - over night - it all gets wiped to the ground.
I understand that some of you will feel unfairly treated and that some of you have built your characters a certain way.
And I understand some of you enjoyed the benefits of having characters with such high stats, which meant that you could do many more things with your time.
We must all remember that we built this game around the concept of being a ‘Survival’ game, requiring you always to eat and drink to stay active. The game was initially designed around 100 of each stat. The ticker timer was based on a character running out of thirst/hunger in 8 hours, energy in another 8and health in another 8, making it a total of 24 hours worth of life:
Yes, this was hardcore for some, and then we enabled different races with strengths and weaknesses to their Primary and Secondary stats.
We built into the database a table with a maximum stat cap of 18 at the time. However, making that work got lost in translation, and the cap never came into effect. So this feature is two years old, laid dormant, and never made active as intended.
In the focus of pumping out products, coming up with new ideas, working, and going on vacation, we focused on bringing you all these new things. But unfortunately, we didn’t focus on watching our player progression in the database, so we saw characters get to 800+ on primary and secondary stats when it was too late, as this was never an intention of the system.
I understand those who got to those levels have gotten comfortable with them, and it’s daunting to think that you have to go back and start over. But know now that this was never an intention to allow in the making of this system.
On the brighter side, the caps are not 18 across the board; they are +15 based on your base stat, so you can still hit over 25 on some stats, depending on your race.
You can all expect that when we have released our final products and are happy with where the product line and features stand. We will be going through all races, all stats, all progression, all professions and everything else and ensuring that we are balanced fairly across the line before we give our tick of approval and change all our products to v1.0.
There won’t be any surprises there. Expect it to happen, and you will remember that this game is in development, and instead of worrying about such things, you will enjoy playing within your communities. Just be happy that we did not decide that everyone would start over at Level 1 Colonists having to work their way back entirely, as that’s common in games under development.
Please continue to understand the above fact. I know it is your choice to support us or not in progress, to put up with the good times and the anguish. Whether or not our choices mean you would be a patron doesn’t affect our decision-making process; it’s as simple as whether or not you enjoy SLC and wish to support us in the process, giving you a few extra benefits as listed in the tiers.
I will also mention that what I do for a living outside of SLC has nothing to do with how I see development (nor is it anyone’s business). This system was created with a vision and will always follow that vision. I always look into how it will work in my sim creations in a large community with multiple players taking on specific roles without using alternate characters to do the mundane tasks. We have some extravagant communities already in our game that are doing just that and loving working together as active communities having their economies, lores and stories.
I wish you all the best over the festive season and thank you for your continued support.
Enjoy sitting around a campfire, doing nothing in SL. Or perhaps in a bed crafted of fine woods that take 25 energy to cut down. If you EVER get to make a bed, maybe enjoy lying in it with cotton sheets dyed red or blue. Just enjoy waking up in the morning in RL, coming to SL, then cutting 4 trees down then going to bed. Well, we all stated our displeasure with your decision, but you seem steadfast. Good luck to you. I promise not too snicker too loud seeing you all at a campfire or sleeping in a bed while in SL where you came to be productive, have fun, and do something. Sweet dreams. What a farce. And enjoy my lindens.
Thank you for your dedication to your game! I offer this feedback and ask these questions as a player (former as I may be) and someone likewise building a game/dream/vision.
SLC’s tag line is “Rule your own Empire - Lead your own Life!” and I admit, the connotation of creative freedoms and the system that – at the time-- seemed to support those creative freedoms, was why I joined and started playing (because those were what I was looking for in a metered system.) That tag line does very little to suggest the game is supposed to be a “survival” game… “conquering” game, yeah, but not “against-the-clock survival” as you have described it in your response to us… or, am I alone in those thoughts? If I’m not alone, are you guys going to consider a re-brand of your tagline to more accurately portray the intent some of us so clearly missed?
I also wonder, assuming you’re able to view the activity of the players, how many players/characters were building their characters in the same/similar way— which is to say, how many of your players were increasing their stats one at a time, energy probably top among them?
Did you look into that before making the decision (and we energy-stat-builders were a small percent of the playerbase?), or, because the original intent of the game was “survival” you made the executive decision to use the moment as opportunity to do the course-correct and get it back to its original intent? Or… considerations I’ve not yet made?
Thanks for your time and answers, should you choose to answer me.
Thanks for taking the time to write your post and if I may, I will add my 2 cents worth
First and foremost, thank you for your efforts and dedication to SL Colonies. I also understand that as a seasoned gamer and Beta tester of AAA games, I fully understand that your game is in a Beta Phase and as such, buying into the system acknowledges there will be changes to the game mechanics throughout the game’s development and beyond: Balances to classes and fixes to bugs and exploits will be an ongoing process. I also know the Devs will never be able to make the entire player base happy with their changes just as we are seeing now following the Farmer Class Nerf and “new” leveling structure.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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!
In my opinion, you need to immediately rebuild the famer class. Here are my suggestions for a farmer’s skill tree perks:
1: Increases for planting and harvesting speed
2: Reduction in energy requirements for planting and harvesting.
3: Crop growth speed increases
4: Crop yield increases
5: Increase in potency in stats of crops
6: Access to new seeds/crops (like recipes for other classes)
7: Increase in fertilizer potency which provides more potent crops and quicker growing crops and perhaps required for use with specific higher tier crops
8: Scale CXP gain based on complexities of processes instead of blanket 10 CXP for each task. For example: A famer should get more CXP for planting a Large Field using up 100 seeds instead of getting the same 10 CXP when planting a Small Field and only using 10 seeds. 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?
Another area requiring attention is the economy: 248 coins for a feather!! Really? And its from your store LOL!
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.
And as far as your comment about being “Happy” you didn’t implement full character resets, yes of course there is much gratitude there but you also know that had you done that you would of risked the potential of a mass player exodus from the system…
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
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.
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.
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:
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.
I feel your pain. If grinding and CXP are your purpose in the game.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Yes I am well aware of bug reporting procedures but as someone new to the system and seeing that there are 36 farmers, I thought for sure the issue must of been reported. Guess I am I the only one to use those Progress Signs? LOL
Not everyone uses it, as they consume too much LI. And that for those who pay rent for small installments becomes impossible. However, I myself notice small details that should be corrected, but since they are details that do not interfere with usability, it is not worth “complaining” now. I really appreciate the hard work of the staff, especially Drakkis bleeding to finish the furniture station. The time to refine things in detail will come…
Please keep in your view that… the whole system allows that there are yes, solo farmers, and we are happy! This flexibility should always exist! The other farm systems are like playing dress-up with dolls! I surrendered to SLC’s “medieval?” theme, I would prefer modern themes, but the system is bigger than that!
Long live and prosper the SLC!
I’m just going to say… I assume & accept you two are ignoring me is because I decided to leave your game and or the questions I ask you guys just don’t want to answer. I’ll sign out and poof from the forums now. Thanks for the learning experiences.
Thank you for correcting me, I was not ignored. Thank you! Thank you to Jeqoo for bringing it to my attention in world, I had logged out and not seen it.
I’ve read through the entries thus far, thinking I would not comment, would not enter the fray, concerned that I might not be clear enough to avoid making things worse inadvertently. But, here I go:
I like SLColonies. I got into it, knowing it was Beta and things would change: as the development continued, as it became more complicated, as more people came into it and it became more competitive, as glitches, unintended “bubbles” happened, as new rules had to be implemented and enforced, etc etc etc. All that… And, I still like SLColonies and where it is going.
i have tried DFS and G&S. Suffice it to say of DFS, I have played checkers, but moved on. Yes, you can make money in DFS. But, it’s not what I am after. G&S, on the other hand, is well-established, complicated, things do not happen instantaneously, processes take time. I am a brewer, setting up a brewing operation that starts with branches and ends up with barrels of wine is akin to setting up an HO scale railroad system and running it. But there are few “off-ramps” for the finished products: a few recipes that include wine, collectors fascinated by the cleverness or beauty of your labeling, or the annual contest for who produced the most Grand Reserve barrels of wine (a madness that produces vintners with 100s of vineyards, worked by slaves or paid workers, in a competition where the number of barrels of GR produced from a batch is controlled by an algorithm one could neither change nor influence.)
SLColonies is, however, is a system that will force interaction. I, a brewer, need grapes; to get those I can buy vineyards, plant seeds, grow grapes, harvest, and ultimately (currently) barrel wines and vinegar. But I have to buy barrels from carpenters. For spirits I need potatoes and wheat, rice for sake. I need tools: hoes, seed bags, small jars, small baskets. I have to interact with farmers, smelters, carpenters. I have to eat and drink to maintain health – cooks. meals, beverages. Energy is expended and has to be recouped - drinks, food, potions, campfires.
An economy is being born.
Things take time: from plant grapes to barrelled wines/vinegar is 22 days, 25 mins depending on how efficient you are with harvesting. Whiskey and Vodka take 15-22 days, 3 hrs, 10 min, depending on how many fermentors you have access to. Sake takes 15 days, 10 mins.
of course, I didn’t like the Energy level being rolled back, that I had built up so I could work much longer before I had to do something about the loss. And all the other rollbacks. Across time I have learned that neither Temujin nor Drakkhis are money-grabbing, narcissistic, profiteers. In reality, they are nice, talented guys doing an astounding job of creation, something I know not how to do.
In social justice advocacy work we remind ourselves that “Hurt People Hurt People,” so that we try to avoid doing that in our pain, anger, or surprise.
So, I am staying in SLColonies, because I can see where this is going, because I can add my little input into this creation work I cannot do, because this stands the chance of being THE app, THE game, the Many on Many to be in. Because it is fun.
been off for a bit here and i see the “reset” that happened but I have a question I would like to ask for someone that does not have an account for the discord. they are a minotaur race and they got their stats reset. I understand the reasoning but their stats are now below the minimums for the race according to the docs. per the docs they should be str 13 dex 7 con 13 int 8 wis 8 char 8. this would be the base stats. but they are now str 16 dex 4 con 16 Int 6 wis 6 char 6 energy is 100, down from( from what they remember) str 25 dex 25 con 25 int 12 wis 12 char 12.; which still would not have taken them over the racial maximums. They did get a CXP refund but you cant even buy up their base stats to “racial beginning” with the cxp unless they level up their class but they are already lvl 4 in it so the reset did not reset their level. but I have also noticed this was not applied to all since there is another that is the same race and their stats remained where they had bought them to though none were above the new racial maximums. has there been a halt on the resets so that is why 2 of the same race have different resets?
Drakkhis has made a script that we plan to run tomorrow, which will reset everyone to base stats, credit enough stat credits based on their levels and credit some more bonus CXP so that everyone should be on the same page after this script runs.
I’m about to post about it, but hopefully, this will bring all races to where they should be (not beneath, as you mentioned). I noticed this when trying to manually fix some people’s stats; I have seen some races that are supposed to be EG: 8 wisdom and somehow were three wisdom and so forth.
I just had a wonderful chat with Temujin, he made me aware of some exploits that I didn’t even know about. I am now aware of alot of their concerns regarding how the game was progressing. I have been here a few months after they opened it in Beta. I now understand why they made these changes.
Yes, it will upset Many people, and affect Many people who evolved and progressed to certain levels beyond what they had ever intended.
But Speaking with Temujin, I now am confident that they are on the right trajectory. Give it time, let it evolve, and see where it goes. I always had fun in SL Colonies, and I think I will continue to do so.
I would suggest to anyone who feels they have been “ripped off”, please contact Temujin or Drahhkis and let them give it a second look.
Overall, I do understand their position much better now. Happy Gaming everyone!!!
). So don’t take things personally. I have a lot of respect.
