Actually I do not have a million stone solo build as I have not (until they announced the nerf to the xp) ever used this purely to level. I have mined where I needed the color of rock for my build or to get some other resource like coal. So unless you know everything I have built and done in the game until now, your statement is nothing but guess work and a bad assumption on how I play the game. However if you want to see a build where I did contribute stone and other materials to it, take a look at Exodus. I would think with several million prestige their actually might be millions of stone in all the builds.
I do not have or use AOE tools so again do not make assumptions about how I play the game and I will not do that to you.
edit: However if you personally think is such a bad idea then do not use it. I am not sure how others using it damages or affects your play in any way.
I think a good compromise is a fractional xp gained per X units similar to how spanners work. I think it’s every 3rd or 4th repair that gives something like 1 or 2 xp.
Make it a complete waste of time to abuse but still give xp for it for normal usage.
My current character is level 23 working of getting refined stone for my base. Needing 288 stones for 50 refined blocks isn’t horrible but getting no xp for the crafting of the stones kinda sucks.
I’ve spent money for cubits, gleam club, and I will purchase the upgrade for PS4 when it’s available. I don’t like the choice of 0 xp for the task and I do like the ability to mass craft and get xp. Personally I don’t care if it’s lowered or adjusted, but I want xp for my time. The amount I get is not what people are talking about, and I don’t personally know anyone that does. I get about 2 levels from mass crafting stone every 2 weeks. I like everything the devs have done so far, but I don’t like this 0xp thing. Frankly I think this topic blown way out of proportion, I’m still waiting for stats that prove its being abused and harms the game, and i still don’t understand how it’s an abuse in a sand box game that has no PVP. At this point it seems based on the posting from a handful of individuals that put massive amounts of hours in the game to be able to do it. The devs can do as they wish, and I’ll still like the game but from what I’ve read in the word walls being posted, most players do not want the change.
Thanks for the thread and trying to analyse the system.
This isn’t capturing the core issue precisely enough. We’ve not done a good job at explaining the issue - and when I re-read my attempted clarification I realised that even that wasn’t clear enough. So let me try again.
My original attempt:
Attempt number 2.
There are 2 exploits:
Players can collect rock, setup a crafting farm with Alt-1 - then Alt-2 does all the crafting. This means that Alt-2 can jump up many levels for minimal play time.
We have no problem with players collecting crafting XP when they have harvest materials. At the same time we have no issues with players sharing resources between their friends and alts. But I do think it’s an exploit to get a new alt to Level 50 in under 5 hours of play time. The exploit is that the alt-2 is levelling too fast.
Teaching Pies are supposed to boost XP for 30 minutes of activity. Queuing up 10 hours of crafting, taking a teaching pie, signing out for 12 hours, then returning means that the Teaching Pie is boosting XP for 10/12 hours - not 30 minutes.
Additionally - these are exploits in the systems implemented by the game. The issue is with the game and it’s systems. The issue isn’t with players. Obviously players take advantage of weakness in any system they’re playing against. Players dodge shots from creatures. They heal themselves. They search for efficient mechanism to progress. This is all part of the game.
But these 2 exploits are beyond the design and balance of the systems. They’re not intended strategies and they’re exploiting weaknesses in the system. And I think they should be fixed.
Now as I said in my original response:
I would be delighted to find a solution where XP is rewarded for all activity including crafting wood and stone. But is resistant to the above exploits.
Finally - any suggestion that this is solely about getting players to buy more Cubits is incorrect.
If this is one of the main issues, then why not let 1 char have more skill sheets? Legit all my exp is on 1 char, I got 1 alt, which is like level 20 but all that is from mining except a very small chunk. Maybe the problem is not the mass crafting, maybe it’s people having problem and disliking towards leveling alts?
I do understand your point, but I can fill up 1500 crafting tables without having to use pies. However, I always keep XP buff on in case a bug happens and XP is given. So during those 4 hrs of filling up, I use 6-7 pies. But this again, this has nothing to do with mass crafting, this has to do with the way pies work.
If the problem is exp not being given while not in close proximity, just change it so that exp is given the very instant the craft is complete. Then I could be on a t6 world mining when I get a random XP drop of 200 when a mass craft is complete, but I would always have to have a pie up.
Thank you for the Clairification. I do better understand your perspective of this. I agree it’s pretty easy, but it actually makes me more interested in playing the game. I want an alt with each skill set for all the game tasks. But after I’ve already completed the tasks to get there I don’t want to rinse and repeat it all at the beginning with a new character just to have a focused skill set. I like grinding but it’s too much to do it all again. Basically I want to add alts that are skill focused to help me build, gather, craft, explore, hunt, mine (I love pounding them rocks to my Spotify playlist). This is what keeps me excited about the game, that I can litterallly do everything. My xp gains are not huge, it is typically to get to the mid 20s so I can then focus a skill set.
I personally don’t care about the crafting times. I’m fine with an adjustment to the xp values given for crafting stone. Make it fractional of what it currently is, or adjust the mass craft quantities. Make it more inline with the refined stone quantities. Or a combination of both. But please not 0.
One idea for the teaching food I think could work, insure of feasibility on the coding side, is to have teaching food give a set bonus for X amount of XP gained. Essentially an inverse operation of how the death penalty works with the xp debt minutes the link to character level. So a teaching porridge gives a bonus of say 10% extra for the next 10k xp gained (this is just an abstract example).
Thank you for the reply, I’ll need to reread a few times before addressing the other points. The open communication from you guys is greatly appreciated.
I agree it doesn’t fix the “exploit”. But clearly a huge part of us want and “need” a way like this to fully enjoy the game. I think one of the conflicts here between the devs and players or player and players is that while some find this “exploit” an exploit, others like us find it as a solution to another problem (e.g. too slow leveling / too difficult to get mass amounts of cubits for plots etc). So if you take away this, some people will be satisfied, but some will be very annoyed and saddened.
If you take this away, you need to simultaneously give us something new, efficient to do (but this again then defeats the purpose of removing fast ways of gaining xp, as the entire point of this is to remove it). I personally think this should be polled. This has been in the game ever since I started playing at least (December) and is such a major thing to remove without at least a clear majority of PLAYERs voting for it to go.
I’m alittle reluctant of the idea that the pie expires on leaving the game. Simply because my game play can be short and frequently interrupted from home duties and kids. Most of the time I can go a full 30 mins, but there are a lot of times when I can’t. But I’m ok with the xp cap.
Edit;
On a side note, After a character reaches level 50 the additional skill points have to be used on another skill page. How about the possibility of useing up to 10 or 20 of those points to start a new alt to reduce the initial grind?
@james
I know for me it makes me feel that the devs are taking into consideration how much this has affected players, even those like me who aren’t into building feel that it was not a good thing to do.
Seeing you give more information, to clarify the reason behind the choices helps a lot to make not just better understanding, but feel that you want to see all sides; your reasons for doing so and ours for not taking away the xp. I do believe that it isn’t to force players to buy cubits, but sadly, I doubt all will believe that, but that is human nature.
There has to be a middle ground in this, the loss of xp for the builders is the major concern, at least to me. The using the pies, logging out to extend the time, that can be a problem; just please don’t punish the builders who need the xp and many didn’t even use the pies.
