Might as well throw this out there after all lol. At least itâll be in james pm inbox even when it gets buried here. 
Here are a few balance changes/simplifications discussed in our guild discord.
- Modification to epic skill point cost.
Suggestion: rebalance of epic skill cost by tier level such that the first grouping costs 2 points, second grouping costs 3 points, third grouping costs 4 points, etc.
Intended impact: Allows players to unlock ability to perform more efficient actions at a lower skill cost and ability to unlock more skills per skill page.
Intended result: Reduce the feeling of leveling grind of mid to late game players waiting multiple levels to unlock epic skills they need for the progression they are attempting to achieve.
- Reduce grind of block gathering for production and building and make tools last longer.
Suggestion: Addition of drop multiplier from resource blocks and resources nodes to none resource blocks such as rock, soil, gravel, etc.
Intended impact: requires less time and tool degradation to gather the same amount of materials.
Intended result: reduce the material gathering grind for crafters/builders along with requiring less tools to be used to achieve the end result of a certain quantity of blocks to gathered (effectively increasing the use time of a tool)
- Simplify the spark/power mechanic
Suggestion: Modify spark generator to provide temporarily stored power and remove spark from crafting requirement. Generator will provide one time use power to machines and needs to be recharged the same as current spark mechanic. No change to coils suggested. If possible keep the time decrease provided by coils only. See example below intended result
Intended impact: Simplify crafting recipes that require a power source and provide players two ways of supplying power to machines.
Intended result: effectively removing the "gem wall" grind/stagnation point of mid game by allowing players to use power from generator to provide power early mid-game, a combination of generator and coil power mid-game, or all coil power late game. This will remove one of the most common stagnation points players hit that requires a large time "grinding".
Example 1: The player is early mid-game and is crafting an item that requires 400 power. They place enough peat/coal in the generator to provide the 400 power required and start the craft. The temporary power is used up, much like spark currently, and the generator needs to be recharged before the next crafting.
Example 2: The player is mid game and now has two basic coils. They are competing the same craft requiring 400 power. 200 is supplied via coils so only 200 power from the generator is required to make up the difference.
Example 3: The player is now late game with fully coiled machines for what they are attempting to craft. They have an excess of coil provided power so generator power is no longer used. Additionally as they have excess coil provided power they receive the reduced crafting time benefit.
In all 3 of these examples the player is given the opportunity to craft the item and is not "stuck" grinding gems for power coils, the recipes are decluttered by combining an overlapping mechanic, and the player is given more choice as to how they wish to supply the power for the craft.
