Yes I agree that somehow nerfing rocks+pie exploit would remove a lot of my alt system complaints. That is also a hard task to solve though. I tend to bounce back and forth btwn advocating for an alt revamp and an AoE nerf and players do not like either.
A difficult situation to be in as a designer. You gotta break some eggs.
I really donāt think that is exploit. Its the meta created by players. No matter how you change it, players will always find the best way to save their time to reach the best result.
Like bomb mining / current forge method / rock boost exp / hammer mining + brew ā¦etc
But i do agree they need to nerf the rock to stone experience.
The way to avoid players complained they need to provide more ways to gain the experiences as well.
Then everyone is happy. People donāt mind to change, but you need to give them the ability to adapt the new change.
I do understand your point. I think if the developers removed the AOE, they seriously increase the grind for materials for a lot of players. While there is a segment that does like the grind and finds it rewarding, there is also a segment that finds it boring and merely a means to an end. I would think the developers would have an easier time removing the xp pie than the AOE tools.
I do agree with @wade44423 players are smart and will always find the most efficient way to get the best result. The developers can chase these down every time they happen or focus on adding to the game.
I think this may be the most main reason cause players left.
So far devs just take out the bread found by players. They didnāt provide new food for them .
A lot of players did spend a lot time to find out those meta methods. If devs just stand at godās position and remove it without adding the replacement. No wonder players would complain that much and left the game.
While we might disagree that this is why most players left, I will have to say I think this has definitely had a major impact on player retention. I personally feel the grind and lack of content are more of the reason (which you could argue the grind was increased by the bomb mining nerf). Of course that is because they are the reasons I play less.
So anyways back on topicish maybe we can agree a class system isnāt the way to go. But most can agree the game needs more content like wearable gear and more objects to craft and character traits to unlock. For a different system to work. Right now we have to wait till over 30 ish for most things to make a character really have some worth in the game.
Soo how about a node tree system. If anybody is familiar with a node system they can be ran in several different ways but the key main thing about it is you get to choose how your character advances. You level up either put a node in character stats or learning some new Craft. At the end of the tree progression you can only unlock higher tier options by using the lower tier ones you have learned. There would be no cut off you can learn everything with one character but that would require time spent utilizing the skills on your tree to achieve higher skills on the end of the branches.
This would give sense of worth to player progression as well as fix shops from flooding the market with all of the same stuff.
(I didnāt get to read all of theseāIāll do so after work. Just thought Iād bring an idea in)
What if they had the same system, but with āsuggestedā builds?
Dungeons & Dragons Online had this with their leveling system. They have tons of feats and stats you can plug in, and sometimes itās hard to choose if youāre not familiar with it.
So, I chose my thief, and each level it gives the options to select suggested feats, stat points. Iād go through what it would suggest, then either select ok, or go back and change it. It helped without locking me into something.
Boundless could have a similar option where on each level you can choose what it would suggest for a certain build, then either ok it, or change it.
Youād prob have to select the build type each level, otherwise it is basically class leveling up.
(Ok, now Iām off to work! Joy! 
)
I think players left because for one, itās completely normal to loose a percentage of players. The ones you keep will stay and have the potential to stay a looong timeā¦ especially in an mmo. In time (Xmas is next week) more people will get the game and some will stay and some will not. One thing I know from playing, is this game is not super intuitive at first, especially if youāre a solo player. I play with friends, so I had people learning with me.
Itās an awesome game and I canāt wait to see how it grows. It will be so much better a year from now.
Umm, i really donāt want to start this topic in this thread,
but as i know a lot of players have at least 5 month to 1 year experienced left during the past 1 - 2 month.
I have played this game since June this year, so i know some alpha players as well.
A lot of my friends they no longer in this game anymore.
So its, not just new player come here and stay for 2 weeks and quit.
It more like they are losing their long term supporter. This is the thing i am worry about.
We all wished this game can grow when the wipe of the alpha world and the new universe released.
It did grow to a nice number that most people had even more expectation for the dev teams.
But after one month as we can see the population just drop like crazy ā¦
We still have a fair population in the game i agree with that.
But you can feel the population growth ratio is remain negative for awhile i think. At least month ago i can find more people around everywhere. Now only aquaās main city is really active. Our city is trying to find more players join as well.
But compare to the population we had1 month ago, it looks very sad.
Players will always figure out the meta, of course. I used to play a lot of MtG, and the phrase that would also come up around discussion of bans (canāt do nerfs to physical objects so next closest thing) would be āYouāre just banning the Aces from a poker deck.ā There is often merit to this as the margins there are a lot closer than they are here and sometimes it wasnāt clear if something was broken or merely well positioned in the meta at that moment. The exp generated by 3x3 mining, to continue the poker deck parallel, would be like pulling a gun on the table and just taking all the money. How much EXP would a single wildstock have to give, for example, for a hunter to be able to keep up in EXP generation? How much EXP would a plant need to give?
There is nothing wrong with a game having a meta, and I donāt want WS to constantly come in and nerf āthe best thing.ā But right now āthe best thingā is way out of line with everything else in the game.