Meridian's Spring 2021 Alpha test feedback - OPEN DISCUSSION ENCOURAGED!
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After consulting with our members and our leadership Council, @Bardikens and I drafted the feedback below regarding the Spring 2021 Alpha.
If there are things you selectively agree with, please be sure to identify them and co-sign. If there are things you disagree with, please let us know what and why.
We admit we don't have all the answers and are looking forward to open discussion and spirited debate from those who agree or disagree.
What we like and why
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The tech tree: it provides more to city management than just sheer maintenance; you may select a "direction" of your city - e.g. banking and commerce by selecting banks and marketplaces, a crafting hub by selecting blacksmithing and engineering, or walls. We like that there are more branches in the tree than there are tech points to unlock them. We also like that the layers mean that cities can't plop down and erect all available blueprints in a matter of hours as was the case in previous tests; this encourages more longevity.
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Storehouses: provides in-world place to store goods that isn't a wagon or chest; it is purposeful, immersive, and helps occupy space in the city instead of cramming resources in a hundred scattered carts.
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Walls: they looked cool, added a sense of security by erecting a defined border, and required many resources.
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Cities as capitals of entire regions: this is a step in the right direction towards setting up cities as political hubs instead of randomly placed congregations in the middle of the wilderness.
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Reduced number of claimable cities: in previous tests, cities were too common and too easily claimed, thus significantly reducing the inherent value of owning one. In this test, cities felt more valuable and impressive.
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Knowledge sharing system (once fixed): it allows players to party up without being penalized.
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Open PvP conceptually: We appreciate the risks associated with playing on Syndesia. Though we hope that the criminal element will be meaningfully constrained in size and activity, we like that actions and movement carry with them the risk of attack or death. This makes player mobility much more thoughtful and meaningful.
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Jails with playtime sentences: we believe that real-time playtime sentences are the only remotely viable way to effectively deter griefing and ganking on Syndesia.
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Distinctions between guild members, citizens, and residents: Untethering cities directly from guilds and adding layers to city participation affords opportunities for cities to be more politically complex and dynamic as opposed to an Albion Online system where cities are owned directly and entirely by guilds and are synonymous.
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Regions are asymmetrical in size and resource wealth: Region asymmetry is realistic and immersive; not all real estate is equally attractive and makes region selection consequential.
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Cart theft: We appreciate the risks associated with carelessly leaving carts around unprotected. This will hopefully discourage attempts to circumvent building storehouses by storing resources in dozens of haphazardly strewn carts.
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City upkeep: Conceptually, we like the idea that cities require constant effort to maintain and aren't perpetual and don't run on autopilot.
What we didn't like and why
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The tech tree: Very basic commodities were hidden behind layers of tech advancement, e.g. the marketplace. This is both unrealistic and delays, if not outright deters, commerce which should be one of the first aspects of any young city. Though the number of possible branches in the tech tree is greater than the possible points achievable, both numbers are close enough that cities aren't really specialized and can effectively be self-sufficient.
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City size: Cities, defined for our purposes as the public space within the four walls, are entirely too small. Dropping from 256x256m2 to 160x160m2 is a drastic reduction. Whereas in previous tests cities felt like thriving communities where citizens lived, worked, and congregated, now they feel the equivalent of gas stations (both in size and function).
Cities are now places where all citizens go for a specific reason before returning to their homes outside the walls. This may not seem like an important change, but in our estimation it radically altered the feeling of the city.
Moreover, even if we wanted to place residential plots inside the city, the available real estate was so sparse that it was prohibitively expensive. -
City prestige: Conceptually we like this idea, but its execution hints at future problems. City prestige should involve the construction of buildings with both utility and aesthetics as well as number of citizens and residents. Our fear is that people will cram statues into every available spot to min-max prestige. While this may not be entirely avoidable, steps should be taken to encourage cities to resemble actual cities and not a min-maxing shrine.
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Trade: What trade? The previous test for all its faults had relatively robust commerce. This test did not, except, perhaps at the end when most players stopped playing. Conceptually, we like the idea of untethered resources that can be harvested by enemies or brigands or unaffiliated players. This would also, theoretically, create a market or niche for traveling merchants and harvesters.
However, these niches never manifested and because resources are now open to the first available claimant, players, small groups, and guilds avoided trade to collect the desired resources themselves; the risks and time investment involved were not prohibitively expensive.
This, coupled with the fact that food scarcity did not begin to manifest until weeks into the test and the fact that marketplaces weren't immediately available to towns, killed any reason for trade. -
Lack of food scarcity: It was too easy to collect the cereals and meat involved to maintain city ranks even for those cities in infertile regions. Food scarcity seemingly didn't begin to hit cities until weeks into the test and by that point, many of those cities had already climbed high on the rank ladder.
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Immediate residential disintegration: Probably unintended due to decay mechanics not being implemented, but residential plots should not immediately vanish upon failure to pay city maintenance.
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Walls: Though visually impressive and resource-expensive, walls were too predetermined and static. We should be able to sacrifice internal space to add or customize walls.
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Potential abuses of residential mechanic: Regional residential plots as currently designed seem utterly abusable by bad faith actors. Zerg guilds and alliances could, relatively easily, generate the gold needed to disperse their members across the map to become residents of unaffiliated cities, allowing them an unearned foothold/safe zone into that region. That foothold can be used as a way to grief or exploit that city not necessarily due to any elaborate political cunning but by cheesing the mechanics.
This, in turn, incentivizes another abuse of the system in response: patron guilds claiming all the available residential plots for their members and not encouraging solo players, small groups, or client guilds to take up residence in their cities.
This may create a system where zerg guilds abuse the residential mechanic in bad faith by leveraging their numbers and wealth and other guilds shoving out a diverse residential population in order to prevent that from happening. -
Harbors, conceptually and as implemented: Fast-travel of any kind undercuts commerce, local markets, and the costs of long-distance power projection. They were supposed to be prohibitively expensive, but are not in practice. It was relatively cheap for @Bardikens to travel from one harbor to another despite approximately 89% encumbrance.
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Global wallet and linked marketplaces: Again, this undercuts the intent behind local markets. This tech should not exist. All markets should always be local and your gold should either be on your person (and thus losable) or in a local bank or chest where it shall remain unless you physically collect and move it.
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Prison system: We don't like that bounty hunters are mechanically referred to as sheriffs and are immediately identifiable via badge like an in-game moderator. We also don't like how bounties are not local and that all a person has to do to be made aware of bounties is to sign up in advance as a sheriff.
What we'd like to see in the next test pertaining to all the above:
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Increased city size: For the reasons we stated above, cities should be closer to previous Alpha iterations in size. Every effort should be taken to make cities hubs for player interaction of all stripes, not merely convenience stations. Unless that is mechanically incentivized, players will spend as little time as possible in cities.
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An improved tech tree: For the reasons we stated above, the promising tech tree should be improved so that cities can't be entirely self-reliant.
Careful, painful choices about urban development and specialty should be made by Governors and their governments. If it is possible for cities to be autarkies, that is what most, if not all of them, will become in the end.
Trade and player interaction will only occur on any meaningful scale if mechanically incentivized. Additionally, for this reason, marketplaces should be among the immediately available blueprints. -
Asymmetrical regions: We'd like the next test to maintain region asymmetry with respect to size and resource wealth. This encourages trade, diplomacy, and warfare. Some regions should be more attractive than others, though none should be worthless.
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Food scarcity: This is the second test that failed farming and food scarcity. Region fertility should matter and should matter relatively quickly. It's not enough to implement food scarcity after cities climb to rank 15.
Those who choose to build cities in infertile regions should have to immediately confront that infertility problem and turn to commercial, diplomatic, or military relationships with more fertile neighbors to address the issue.
Even moderately fertile regions should struggle to create surplus and not without dropping farm plots inside the city, eating up valuable real estate and a tech point. As an aside, farm plots should be of neutral or slightly negative prestige if dropped inside city limits. -
A tweaked bounty system: Syndesia should be a place where criminals can succeed if they are appropriately cunning and swift. But systems should be created to keep the ganking/griefing element, which has directly contributed to the death of so many sandbox MMORPGs, to a minimum.
We propose that bounties be local. Victims of crimes should have to create a bounty by going to a local prison and accepting a "do you want to report this crime" snapshot. Those bounties should then have to be directly sought and accepted by bounty hunters. Bounty hunters should not be identifiable with any in-game badge or icon. If you are the target of a bounty, you should not be able to suicide your way out of prison. Bounty hunters should have to investigate and seek out their targets based on the coordinates and name provided by the system-generated snapshot.
Perhaps Governors and Vice Governors should be able to contribute to a bounty reward from city funds to incentivize bounty hunter activity and lawfulness in their region. -
No fast travel of any kind: Again, this undercuts Fractured's intent as a complex, deliberate, effortful sandbox that requires prioritization of time and cooperation with others. It would help neuter trade, logistics, and warfare by making it easier to cross vast distances, even if only in one direction.
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Claimable plots outside cities such as inns and homesteads: this would be attractive to solo players or small groups who don't want to live inside or attached to a city. Similar to what was in previous tests, you could have scattered plots throughout the continent where homesteads or inns could be created.
Inns could be safepoints for travelers (valuable in the absence of fast travel) and their hearths could eliminate both fatigue and poisons and enable skill memorization.
Perhaps these inns could trade with cities or merchants to stock up on certain adventuring supplies like food and mounts and bandages.
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I agree with almost every point. The only one where I disagree is on the fast travel. Harbors are very important and should be kept. What can go away though, is being able to transfer a cart with them.
On a related note, one of the fears I had for this test has indeed manifested. With ingots and boards becoming light items, trading them has become too easy. You no longer need a cart. This was supposed to be countered by making them weight a lot, so you couldn't carry a lot of them, but currently they are 1kg each. They should be at least 15kg each.
One final note: we didn't have food issues in the start of the test, because there was the possibility to gather wild wheat (and there was also the starting town wheat exploit). After that was removed, gathering food has become much harder.
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One final note: we didn't have food issues in the start of the test, because there was the possibility to gather wild wheat (and there was also the starting town wheat exploit). After that was removed, gathering food has become much harder.
We were just pointing that out as something to keep an eye on in the future. Outside of a few ranks to get off the ground, food scarcity needs to be pretty much instantly an issue. It still may be, but I think it is worth noting nonetheless.
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I agree with most of this as well. Unlike spoletta, I'm even on board as to making harbors and other forms of continental fast travel a no-go. Harbors in my opinion should really only be for moving from one continent to another, and that's it. As each planet will have 3 continents, there does need to be a good in-game method of transcontinental travel, but coastal travel shouldn't be included, unless they actually have to take the voyage on a schedule, and the ship can be attacked by Sea Trolls and Kraken and things like that. Make it risky in its own regard or leave it out.
City size definitely needs to be bigger, potentially, but I feel that some of it should be 'roped off' in game until a city makes sufficient rank to expand that far.
As far as Food Scarcity goes, I think it is important to remember that Crop Rotation is part of the agricultural aspect of the game. If you plant a batch of let's say Wheat at 150% potential yield, every time that patch gets below 50% irrigation, that percentage should go down, AND once harvested, that plot should barely be able to sustain Wheat until a rotation crop has been planted there. Each crop type should have 1-2 crops that it rotates with, and even something like Clover, that doesn't give you anything, could be used to reinvigorate the soil.
I wholeheartedly agree with regards to Marketplaces and Global Wallets. Marketplaces should be a starter building, and Global Wallets should at most encompass a Nation and it's allies' banking system, not the whole continent/world/galaxy
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Thanks for the feedback so far, everyone. Looking forward to discussing these points at length with many of you!
@spoletta said in Meridian's Spring 2021 Alpha test feedback - OPEN DISCUSSION ENCOURAGED!:
I agree with almost every point. The only one where I disagree is on the fast travel. Harbors are very important and should be kept. What can go away though, is being able to transfer a cart with them.
For discussion purposes, could you expound on why you regard harbors as important and why you'd like to keep them?
On a related note, one of the fears I had for this test has indeed manifested. With ingots and boards becoming light items, trading them has become too easy. You no longer need a cart. This was supposed to be countered by making them weight a lot, so you couldn't carry a lot of them, but currently they are 1kg each. They should be at least 15kg each.
Yes, this was one of my concerns about the test as well, before it launched.
One of the aspects of Fractured that positively distinguishes it from a game like Albion Online is that the system takes the size and volume of most materials into consideration and won't let you pack 7 metric tons of material in your invisible backpack.
By making ingots and boards light items, it is indeed too easy to gather, transport, and trade them, which undercuts the deliberative and complex nature of trading.
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@GamerSeuss said in Meridian's Spring 2021 Alpha test feedback - OPEN DISCUSSION ENCOURAGED!:
I agree with most of this as well. Unlike spoletta, I'm even on board as to making harbors and other forms of continental fast travel a no-go. Harbors in my opinion should really only be for moving from one continent to another, and that's it. As each planet will have 3 continents, there does need to be a good in-game method of transcontinental travel, but coastal travel shouldn't be included, unless they actually have to take the voyage on a schedule, and the ship can be attacked by Sea Trolls and Kraken and things like that. Make it risky in its own regard or leave it out.
100% agreed. The only way I'd personally be willing to accept transcontinental fast travel in any form is if it's risky and unreliable.
City size definitely needs to be bigger, potentially, but I feel that some of it should be 'roped off' in game until a city makes sufficient rank to expand that far.
I'm open to that. @Bardikens, thoughts?
As far as Food Scarcity goes, I think it is important to remember that Crop Rotation is part of the agricultural aspect of the game. If you plant a batch of let's say Wheat at 150% potential yield, every time that patch gets below 50% irrigation, that percentage should go down, AND once harvested, that plot should barely be able to sustain Wheat until a rotation crop has been planted there. Each crop type should have 1-2 crops that it rotates with, and even something like Clover, that doesn't give you anything, could be used to reinvigorate the soil.
Honestly, I can't say much with respect to the specifics of crop management and rotation.
But our Master of
TradeFields, @OlivePit, might be able to weigh in on this specifically.I wholeheartedly agree with regards to Marketplaces and Global Wallets. Marketplaces should be a starter building, and Global Wallets should at most encompass a Nation and it's allies' banking system, not the whole continent/world/galaxy
Though I'd be much happier with global wallets that are confined to nations, I'd honestly prefer not even that. One of my constant refrains is that game players, if given the option, will always seek the path of least resistance.
If global wallets are eligible for nations, I think it will inspire the proliferation of nations and thus undermine the political dynamism of Syndesia and the game as a whole.
This would be a bad thing and something that is a frequent killer of other sandbox MMOs; it adds further incentive for consolidation and suddenly, instead of continents being a diverse patchwork of various nations, states, and empires, it becomes hegemonic or duopolic.
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@Alexian said i
- Claimable plots outside cities such as inns and homesteads: this would be attractive to solo players or small groups who don't want to live inside or attached to a city. Similar to what was in previous tests, you could have scattered plots throughout the continent where homesteads or inns could be created.
Inns could be safepoints for travelers (valuable in the absence of fast travel) and their hearths could eliminate both fatigue and poisons and enable skill memorization.
Perhaps these inns could trade with cities or merchants to stock up on certain adventuring supplies like food and mounts and bandages.
So many great points in this post, @Alexian! Thanks for taking the time to put it together. I agree with most of what you lay down here - with the @GamerSeuss proviso about harbors/boat travel being used for intercontinental travel, and at a certain level of risk.
Wanted to highlight that last suggestion and amplify. In tests so far, I've found there is almost always a dwelling constructed near the entrance to combat hot spots, with a hearth sometimes set to 'public' use. Those kindly souls deserve recompense, imo.
My house, this test, had a public hearth and even a public chest - with food, bandages, herbal remedy, rope and old gear available to any stranger wandering in nekkid cuz they got mobbed or ganked or whatever.
I saw a post (was it GamerSuess?) about a 'tip jar' feature some other games have coded in - adding that to my home, or to one of the hot spot 'recharge' dwellings - would be a sweet way to enable & reward generosity without putting a price tag on everything.
Thanks again to everyone putting in their two bits to improve an already cool game.
- Claimable plots outside cities such as inns and homesteads: this would be attractive to solo players or small groups who don't want to live inside or attached to a city. Similar to what was in previous tests, you could have scattered plots throughout the continent where homesteads or inns could be created.
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Yeah, I didn't have much time to post, so I had to go with the short answer.
I used a lot harbors this test. They are my biggest money sink so far. They are really good for group content, when you organize to go to some very distant place to explore an area or hunt a legend. Most of the players of this game have a work and many times a family, If you have to travel 30 minutes to go there, then some activites become outright impossible. I feel that the current implementation of those is fine. They are quite costly, you use them only for important events.
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@PeachMcD said in Meridian's Spring 2021 Alpha test feedback - OPEN DISCUSSION ENCOURAGED!:
So many great points in this post, @Alexian! Thanks for taking the time to put it together. I agree with most of what you lay down here - with the @GamerSeuss proviso about harbors/boat travel being used for intercontinental travel, and at a certain level of risk.
You're welcome! And agreed.
Wanted to highlight that last suggestion and amplify. In tests so far, I've found there is almost always a dwelling constructed near the entrance to combat hot spots, with a hearth sometimes set to 'public' use. Those kindly souls deserve recompense, imo.
My house, this test, had a public hearth and even a public chest - with food, bandages, herbal remedy, rope and old gear available to any stranger wandering in nekkid cuz they got mobbed or ganked or whatever.
I saw a post (was it GamerSuess?) about a 'tip jar' feature some other games have coded in - adding that to my home, or to one of the hot spot 'recharge' dwellings - would be a sweet way to enable & reward generosity without putting a price tag on everything.
Thanks for adding a personal anecdote to emphasize the importance of this recommendation.
As we know, many Fractured players advocate for gameplay loops that aren't overly attached to cities and guilds. And though I believe that cities and regions and the content they generate are the most important/endgame content in Fractured, I think it would be nice to offer solo players and small groups the option to claim and run homesteads/taverns/farms outside cities throughout the land as waystations, rest stops, and points of interest.
Perhaps they would still owe some sort of tax or maintenance fee to their region/reigning city, but allow for quasi-independence.
Thanks again to everyone putting in their two bits to improve an already cool game.
Agreed! Thanks, all. Keep it coming!
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On harbors, what if you could select slow travel, at a much cheaper cost? That way you could move a lot of goods efficiently (which is historically and realistically accurate), but not instantly (which isn't).
The way I see it working, you cart/wagon your stuff to the harbor, select slow travel, and then you get an in-transit timer on the toon (maybe in the hours, depending on how far it is).
Since we all get more than one toon, at that point you just switch to playing on a different toon while you wait for the voyage to finish.
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@spoletta said in Meridian's Spring 2021 Alpha test feedback - OPEN DISCUSSION ENCOURAGED!:
I used a lot harbors this test. They are my biggest money sink so far.
There definitely need to be money sinks to help with inflation, so I have no issue with that aspect of it.
They are really good for group content, when you organize to go to some very distant place to explore an area or hunt a legend. Most of the players of this game have a work and many times a family, If you have to travel 30 minutes to go there, then some activities become outright impossible. I feel that the current implementation of those is fine.
I feel like harbors, while you are correct in their time-saving convenience, may make long distance travel a little too trivial. If anything, I'd rather there be more diverse and exciting content in the every part of the world where you wouldn't feel the need to travel from one side of the continent to the other, except for specific reasons (exploration, siege, trade, special boss monsters, etc.) and in those specific cases, harbors as they are implemented would seem to trivialize it a bit.
Some things should take a long time to do. Travel should be inconvenient sometimes and play a role in how you decide to spend your time in game.
I would like to note here that if harbors were ever connected to systems such as actual boats, having to sail yourself, or some other means of "speeding up travel" but it not being instant, I wouldn't mind as much. It would be best if those events also allowed for counter play so that people could intervene/stop an army from getting to the nearest harbor, have pirates, etc..
They are quite costly, you use them only for important events.
As for cost, I think they are only costly if you are doing things that don't return gold, you die, or the prices adjust with inflation. Other than that, I can see with the current prices, that harbors could be utilized for pretty much everything after more money flows into the game. Since most crafted items are light (i.e. can fit in your inventory) I could see their prices adjusting to fit into harbor travel in order to guarantee delivery or something similar.
Although, the thought of "Meridian Prime: Guaranteed 1 day delivery" does make me chuckle.
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@GamerSeuss
I am doing multiple experiments with field nutrition and crop rotations.
Currently there exist good 10 day rotations that keep the nutrients at or above 100% for each crop planted in the rotation. Beans are the most frustrating at the moment but I am confident that this will pass with the introduction of more crops.
There is yield reduction and crop health reduction if not kept above the listed irrigation numbers and crops can die or have reduced yields.I have concerns about the use of warehouses. They take up a significant amount of space, hold not all that much, and are tedious to load or unload. In contrast the marketplace has a huge capacity and is very easy to load and unload from. Further the City hall has infinite storage space and is very easy to load into. The fact that carts cannot be stolen in town and that they hold more bags per square foot than warehouses, and are mobile, and tradeable (via giving another permissions) makes them far far superior to warehouses in every regard other than that warehouses are open to all citizens. If warehouses are to be a necessary aspect of the game they need to hold a lot more, have added functionality, or something. I have built 4 warehouses in our city and the process of having to load a cart from the bagging station, move the cart, and unload the cart at the warehouse is just too ridiculous, why do the second step at all? At this moment I see absolutely no reason to build a warehouse when instead you can have a field of carts loaded and ready to trade or just pile it all in the marketplace.
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@OlivePit said in Meridian's Spring 2021 Alpha test feedback - OPEN DISCUSSION ENCOURAGED!:
I have concerns about the use of warehouses. They take up a significant amount of space, hold not all that much, and are tedious to load or unload. In contrast the marketplace has a huge capacity and is very easy to load and unload from. Further the City hall has infinite storage space and is very easy to load into. The fact that carts cannot be stolen in town and that they hold more bags per square foot than warehouses, and are mobile, and tradeable (via giving another permissions) makes them far far superior to warehouses in every regard other than that warehouses are open to all citizens. If warehouses are to be a necessary aspect of the game they need to hold a lot more, have added functionality, or something. I have built 4 warehouses in our city and the process of having to load a cart from the bagging station, move the cart, and unload the cart at the warehouse is just too ridiculous, why do the second step at all? At this moment I see absolutely no reason to build a warehouse when instead you can have a field of carts loaded and ready to trade or just pile it all in the marketplace.
Yup, and this is why wagons and marketplaces and the town hall need to be reworked.
Storage buildings and warehouses should not be superfluous and should serve a necessary function. Otherwise, folks will min-max to save space and just cram things into a fleet of wagons or carts or in their marketplace or into the city hall space.
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I know I've been a rather vocal advocate for the game keeping in several of their more tedious, click intensive routines in game, but even I think that the Packaging Center is a bit much at 5 clicks to move a single bag from the station to the Cart/Wagon.
How about for City Storage facilities, the Packaging Station, the Food Warehouse, City Hall, and the Market, they are interconnected, so you can automatically move items from the Packaging Station en masse to the Warehouse, or to Town Hall, or to the Market?
Same could then be done for the Stone, Wood, Coal, and Ore storage facilities, they would automatically load into their given Crafting Stations in town, thus refined 'planks' need not become a light commodity.
Now, packaging stations outside of a city would still require moving goods manually into town, however, make it so you click on the 'Flat Bed/Stack' side of the packaging center and it opens up the Storage, and it stays open, and you can then drag and drop the bags into your cart or wagon until full.
Systems that work together, make sense, and add some convenience, without taking away the other time sinks that are also a part of the game in other areas. Still no Loot All buttons, No Transfer All into your inventory, but maybe a button that auto-sorts into stacks would be nice too.
@PeachMcD Yes, the Tip Jar idea was one I put forth in another thread, and I still agree with its concept. If you do something like set your house near a danger zone and set your hearth and such to usable by others, keep a chest with some basics in it for those in wayward need, etc... a TipJar is a fine way to show gratitutde to the keeper of said homestead for the roadside hospitality.
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Ports
Instead of ports being fast travel, reduce the cost and make ports safe travel. Travel by port could take as long, or perhaps half the time, as travel by horse would take, but you are safe from harm (like you are now) You would need to remain logged in to the character though, logging out while in transit would send your character back to the port of departure. -
Inns and Homesteads
I do love this idea I am just not sure about the implementation or its effect on the game as a whole. I think if the distances where greater that it might be more feasible. -
Warehouses and Storage Buildings
These building make a city feel so much more like a city. Unfortunately at the moment the make it feel like a decaying city because they are empty. I agree that the storage space and ease of use needs seeing to; it must be easier and a wagon should not compare in space. It is awful seeing all of these wagons piled up everywhere.
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I agree with most of the points said except a few like :
Jails with playtime sentences : I dont think playtime should ever be a sentence because it's similar to a soft ban. Hell, any remotely smart criminal will just always keep 6k gold in their wallet so that they don't get punished by playtime, unless those who prefer to just sit out the game and play something else or another character when they get jailed, just to save money. We should levy heavier bail instead when your karma is really low, in fact, I don't understand why there is a negative karma cap. I think if someone goes -100k karma for example, he should be ready to pay a HUGE fine if he gets caught, due to the massive amount of "evil" deeds he has been doing. ( I've talked about a system where criminals are forced to pay the bail or get friends to pay the bail instead, where they get something similar to young player status and can only remove it once they've paid their bail ).
I think the problem in this game is inflation. It is just so easy to get gold, and the amount of gold in game just increases drastically that the current gold sinks won't be able to keep up with. I propose that all gold sinks i.e, bail costs, harbor teleportation costs ( which should be more expensive ), house upkeep should all adjust their prices according to inflation rates. I.e, if the amount of gold in the world increases, then the costs of all these things should increase too.
I also don't agree with the tweaked bounty system, I think the proposed change here is easily abusable by taking up bounties against your own guild mates, etc. I also think there should be a sink in total gold, right now 50% gets paid to the bounty hunter and 50% goes to the city, I think it should instead be something like 25% goes to city and 25% goes to bounty hunter, and 50% is lost. I also firmly believe that criminals should be allowed to be bounty hunters too, because honestly, the best pvp'ers right now are all criminals and will remain to be criminals just for the fact that criminals are exposed to so much more pvp than Sheriffs, so Sheriffs on average will not be as skilled as the average Criminal.
I also believe that all residential plots near the cities should be reserved to citizens only, and can be lost when losing a city siege, this will also help to resolve the residential abuse situation @Alexian mentioned.
Like what Alex mentioned, trade is definitely a huge problem, one way is definitely to give essential tech's free to a city, like jail, bank, shrine and marketplace, for example, banks and shrine is free when founding a hamlet, jail is free when it becomes a village and marketplace becomes free when it becomes a town. Another issue with trade was that resources now are not scarce, but I think this could be the result of low population. In a higher populated server, I'm guessing resources will definitely be more scarce, which would promote trade ( along with the scarcity change Alex is promoting ).
TL;DR -
i) Playtime jail is bad - force players to farm with Young player status ( or similar ), no cap to negative karma, increase bail prices
ii) Adjust all gold sinks in game to account inflation rates
iii) Criminals should be able to be bounty hunters too, 50% of bail gold should be a sink ( 25% to city, 25% to bounty hunter )
iv) Residential plots near city should be reserved to citizens and can be lost during siege
v) Lack of trade could be due to resources not being scarce due to underpopulation in game
vi) Banks and shrine should be free when founding a hamlet, jail is free when it becomes a village and marketplace becomes free when it becomes a town
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@GamerSeuss said in Meridian's Spring 2021 Alpha test feedback - OPEN DISCUSSION ENCOURAGED!:
I know I've been a rather vocal advocate for the game keeping in several of their more tedious, click intensive routines in game,
Glad to know we're not the only ones!
@PeachMcD Yes, the Tip Jar idea was one I put forth in another thread, and I still agree with its concept. If you do something like set your house near a danger zone and set your hearth and such to usable by others, keep a chest with some basics in it for those in wayward need, etc... a TipJar is a fine way to show gratitutde to the keeper of said homestead for the roadside hospitality.
If crossroad inns or homesteads out in the wild were more common, a set gold fee to use their amenities as a respawn point or to use the hearth would also help supply the maintenance cost. Inns are a business, afterall.
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@StormBug said in Meridian's Spring 2021 Alpha test feedback - OPEN DISCUSSION ENCOURAGED!:
- Ports
Instead of ports being fast travel, reduce the cost and make ports safe travel. Travel by port could take as long, or perhaps half the time, as travel by horse would take, but you are safe from harm (like you are now) You would need to remain logged in to the character though, logging out while in transit would send your character back to the port of departure.
An interesting concept, but if you're reducing the costs and the travel time compared to standard travel, wouldn't everyone or most people employ this option?
And thus you'd almost certainly starve content for non-consensual PvP/raids/highwaymen.
- Inns and Homesteads
I do love this idea I am just not sure about the implementation or its effect on the game as a whole. I think if the distances where greater that it might be more feasible.
When the alternative is traveling to cities that allow open PvP or might kill you once you get near their gate, I think the utility of inns as travel waypoints and rest stops reveals itself.
- Warehouses and Storage Buildings
These building make a city feel so much more like a city. Unfortunately at the moment the make it feel like a decaying city because they are empty. I agree that the storage space and ease of use needs seeing to; it must be easier and a wagon should not compare in space. It is awful seeing all of these wagons piled up everywhere.
100% agreed!
- Ports
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@Alexian said in Meridian's Spring 2021 Alpha test feedback - OPEN DISCUSSION ENCOURAGED!:
And thus you'd almost certainly starve content for non-consensual PvP/raids/highwaymen.
Very good point!
When the alternative is traveling to cities that allow open PvP or might kill you once you get near their gate, I think the utility of inns as travel waypoints and rest stops reveals itself.
I could agree with it but only if the hearth was limited to allowing you to regain your health. It should not include skill memorization or anything else. It would help compensate for those PVE folks that stick it out in the wild until they have a mostly grey bar and are trying to limp home. They can get rid of the grey bar and have enough health to make it home in a PVP world. No other perks should be provided though; it just makes it too easy.
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@StormBug said in Meridian's Spring 2021 Alpha test feedback - OPEN DISCUSSION ENCOURAGED!:
I could agree with it but only if the hearth was limited to allowing you to regain your health. It should not include skill memorization or anything else. It would help compensate for those PVE folks that stick it out in the wild until they have a mostly grey bar and are trying to limp home. They can get rid of the grey bar and have enough health to make it home in a PVP world. No other perks should be provided though; it just makes it too easy.
Personally, I'm open to that, but are you confident that mere health restoration and poison mitigation would be enough for folks to use inns?
