That would be okay with me and probably most people I suppose, yeah, but not making this the only method of getting them.
As a new player to this game, having started after the free weekend event in February, I feel like the system that this game utilizes to reward players with plots is more than fair. I feel like a lot of people are moaning about a change that they themselves know is not currently balanced with the rest of the game. You shouldnāt get more experience making stones than you do from killing large creatures and completing meteors.
Some of you will argue that all the other experience should be elevated to the mass crafting stone level. This is a silly argument when you consider that simply fixing the stone exp brings everything back into balance.
The game needs to be profitable to sustain. You can fully enjoy the game with the price of admission. If you want to build things of grandiose scale then you can invest some cash to do so or level up the way/speed the devs deem appropriate.
The one area I feel that this negatively impacts the game is for new players. Starting out, even with just one crafting table, that experience was much appreciated. As I said though, itās so out of balance with the rest of the game. Even when playing alone as a newbie and not seeking outside information about the game, I knew by my early levels that this was easily the method to use for leveling. That to me indicates that the system is broken.
I think some other QOL changes could be implemented to help the new player experience that far outweighs any negative impacts of the stone crafting experience.
I will say that I can see some peoplesā cause for concern when they pay $40 for a game and then have microtransactions to boot. However, this is hardly the first game to use that model and it wonāt be the last. I commend Boundless for what players are provided with in terms of level rewards. I canāt think of many games that Iāve played and enjoyed this much where I felt adequately rewarded or maybe even overcompensated for leveling up.
We are all allowed our opinions. None of us are ārightā. However, I feel itās very easy to get caught up in complaining about things we feel might negatively impact how we play the game without attempting to see the greater picture.
I think the thing that sums it up best is to ask yourself if you really think crafting rocks to stones should be that great of experience that it overshadows anything else one can do in the game?
EDIT: I wanted to add that one thing that bothers me in the current plot system is having to use 3-4 plots just to prevent a plant, for instance a sunflower on Alder, regrowing the top few foliage blocks after Iāve plotted the base of the flower and built something on it. It is instances like these where I feel I donāt get value for my plots.
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Yeah. Heās not really a nice guy.
Definitely a she. And actually sheās really nice. But maybe thatās because I donāt only know her from forum posts where everyone argues and gets a little sore when someone doesnāt agree with them. Which all just blows up. Heck I know I can be a (insert choice cuss) on here some times. But if you talk to anyone thatās played this game with me or had interactions with me in game they will say Iām a really nice player and help out a lot.
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Trying not to clutter the testing thread more than it already is, so replying to a post from there, here, as it seem appropriate (hope you donāt mind, Aenae!?).
I this play this game a lot (2349 hours though Iām know there are a lot of peeps with moreā¦this isnāt a competition 
).
In a gaming session, on my day off, I will usually go mining, then crafting then building.
I will usually level-up several times during the day (I eat a lot of piesā¦) and with those cubits I will buy plots to add to my build (currently at just over 5,000 plots and growing.)
I build on these plots.
I have spent millions with the community buying mats and hammers (soooo many hammers) and I also sell coils (and was one of the first to bring coils down to a reasonable and fair price).
So, do you think it would be a good idea to limit very active players, like myself, by using an xp cap? How long would they stick around?
Also I am, like many players who enjoy such games as this, mature enough (not saying adult as sometimes the younger ones can act more like adults than the actual adults!) to decide what is a healthy amount of game time.
Is that good for the game or a productive message to send to new players?
I bought a fair amount of cubits after release to first establish my build but I have no wish to continually being buying plots. I had to leave black desert online as I was spending far more than was reasonable (for me), even though I consider it a great game (opinions may vary).
Anyway, I hope I didnāt whine too much
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Well, buying things does grant experience, right?
(Though nothing that matches the output of stones lol)
This. I mean, seriously, who would ever wanna play a game where they get punished for playing or doing the same activity they enjoy for a long time?
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Wurm Online technically had something like this, but it was to āprevent botsā from swinging a pickaxe for 12 hours or whatever. Only the craziest of minds even got their character to that point anyway. lol
But yeah, a daily XP cap would be a baaaaaaaad idea. Imagine the effects on things like hunts and just straight up gathering. Prices would go through the roof due to less supply.
I do not think buying or selling grants xp except for a few objectives.
Yeah, That was my point. Lol, sorry, I should have added a winky face for sarcasm.
Sorry also you just never knowā¦
Honestly, you right. Better be safe then sorry 
itās so simple. limit the number of active crafting machines you can earn experience from to 10ish. lower the xp gain to 1. change the pies to not reward crafting xp between logging in/out. new players could use the āexploitā, but it wouldnt be 11m exp. old players would either actually need the stones for something, or be wasting their time.
gives all the winky faces to this thread 
Interesting idea.
Since earning XP from crushing Rock is of most value to lower-level Characters, maybe instead of capping the Machines used to gain XP (which would be a pain on the server side, I imagine), howsabout making the amount of XP gained inversely proportional to the level of the Character?
For example, a Character of level 10 or less gets 2 XP per Rock crushed into Stones. From levels 11 to 20 you get 1 XP. After that, you juts get a lot of Stones you can use to refine into other things.
This way, younger Characters can earn experience from doing what low-level Characters so (playing with Rocks) and higher-level characters lose the incentive to exploit this mechanic.
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I like this idea too. Let it help the newer players.
So instead of advancing making easier, advancing will make it harder to level? it already takes 200,000xp to level after 50 and if you want these new skill sets to actually get used should we really make it take even longer than it will now to level?
Yes.
At least, using basic-level mechnisms like crushing Rock into Stone will have diminished utility for advanced-level Characters other than as a means to create other Items. Those toons already have better mechs available for advancing: mechs that arenāt available to low-level Characters.
1 Like
Ok that is not a game I want to play. I guess my thinking has been that one reason to reach the higher levels was to make things less grindy not more grindy. Why get additional skills and higher tier tools when roadblocks are put up to make these things less effective? The change in the amount of xp required to level as you moved through the game already addressed the fact that higher level players had better tools and skills. I do not think any more needs to be added.
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I would hardly classify using entry-level tools to process entry-level materials at massive massive scale to be āhigher level tools and additional skills.ā Rather, I would classify that as grinding. In this case, youāre quite literally grinding Rock into Stones.
The change proposed by the devs is to reduce XP for grinding Rock into Stones to 0 for everyone. I was proposing that the reduction be more progressive so that the change does not negatively affect those who have fewer alternatives. I think helping new players is a good thing, but I recognize not everyone feels that way.