Architect Archive

So instead of frustrated and drunk, I've just woken up and rambling... oh well. =)

Not having fun means not wanting to play which easily translates into not playing at all which leads to SOE not getting our money. So you'd think they'd pay attention to stuff like this. Keep us actually playing and all. And they have! Shuttle waits are down from 10mins to eiter 1min or instant. I can't cook dinner while waiting but instead I'm at least playing. That was VERY smart. So what's the non-fun points while doing arch? Most for me have to do with time consuming tasks, like shuttle waits used to be. Tending harvesters can take a long time, just because I have to tend to a harvester farm. So many resources required rather forces arches to make these farms to even make the profession viable. What makes farms viable is that the resources we use don't need stats. If all our resources required stats, farms wouldn't be very good since the decent stat shifts aren't as frequent as say an ore shift. But this is getting off topic and rambling. Time consumption via tend harvesters and a merchant one, relisting stock after it expires are easily my 2 annoyances in the profession that gobble up my time and thus make me not want to play. A 3rd one relating to all crafting professions tho, is the transferring of objects for example in factories. Try transferring, one at a time, 100 items from an output to an input hopper. Now do that for 10 factories. Now do that every day at LEAST once, sometimes twice. Then you'll get the picture. Easiest solution has already be presented in the click-shift-highlight type thing in windows. Any means to transfer multiple objects at once is a HUGE help and not just to crafters. This could easily make playing in general just a little easier or less of a pain

Easily summed up as dev attention. I've seen problems/bugs/concerns expressed in this forum go unanswered or acknowledged for over a year. How is that possible? Is it so impracticle for someone to come in even ONCE A YEAR and say, oh wow didn't realize that was a concern. It's noted tho and we're discussing it... AND then actually get a response in a TIMELY manor. How many jobs can you have where you can ignore a problem in the workplace for a YEAR and not have the boss go, so what the hell have you been doing then? Cause that's what it's come to. You have people in place for dealing directly w/ the players and on the other end your own people that deal w/ the devs. Communication between there should include some form or another so players can express an concern and a dev, who was passed the info on the problem/concern, can come into the forum and give some kind of statement w/ some substance. I understand covering your arses and not wanting to say something only to eat the words later... but it's just as easy to say, well we just changed our minds too bad. At least it'd be interraction and that's the personal touch this game needs. Player says X, corr passes to PR, PR passes to dev, dev gets around to posting saying X is noted, not likely cause of Y and Z, and then a week later comes back and says X is viable and getting more attention or X is confirmed a no and now dead on our end, sorries. If something can be fixed, and in no way adversly effects the gameplay of others, then why not do it? If you're concerned about security risks, dupping, etc... then just do it right!

It comes down to pleasing the populace. We're a stupid mob and when dealing with a stupid herd of customers, you give them what they want and the peace will be restored. They'll go about their daily lives with a level of content and you get to collect your paycheck. My advice to restoring the peace, the Friday feature should have a PS at the end saying which old bug was fixed and which new item was introduced into the game. Fix something broken(old) and give us something new. Doesn't have to be huge, but it'll gain momentum as people see the continuous influx of fixed/new stuff and the populace will start to calm. Keep going with the big publishes for conent/fixes/nerfs/upgrades, but there's no reason just one guy can't fix a small problem a lot of people are annoyed about and then in that same week look up the details to make a schematic for a plant seen in cities but not craftable yet, and release the schematic. Even if it's an npc we buy limited use schematics from, just don't make it loot. That becomes annoying. People like easy, sure. You want us to interract with other professions when making stuff, well we do. We make it, they buy it. That's the deal.

For anyone that actually read everything, I appreciate it. I especially know how annoying long winded paragraphs are but I really don't have the energy to condense it. Plus if you got a thought, you might as well run with it and I think I did a few marathons above, hehe. To the devs/SOE, stop thinking big/radical before you kill the entire game. You've already cut off numerous limbs and only enjoyment we'll get from game now is paying for it on a street corner. Relax, do 10 small things outwieghs 1 big thing any day. Trust me. And always, always bend over to kiss the arse of the customer... cause the wallet is usually in the back pocket anyways. =)