I can make 11 million EXP farming stone. A byproduct of mining…that some people don’t even want.
So if you aren’t mining/gathering stone…you aren’t leveling effectively…want skill pages, cubits or anything else? Well stone will get you there in 1/8 the time.
How could we raise the EXP rewards to honestly compete? Explore a planet get 20 million exp?
It is the only outlier. Why change the entire game because one block is not functioning within parameters? Just nerf it and move on…the rest of the game is working fine. (Although, I still do support Rocks to Stones being an instant craft if worth no exp now! Would be nice).
I don’t disagree that it’s out of balance. But to net 0 xp from the stone is not the answer. A lot of creative ideas in this thread already. I’m fine with modifications and reductions. But do we stall the game content to fix this minor thing??? Leave it as is and move on to something more fun. It hurts no one.
I just picked a random day. Your question is a trap. You are trying to use ‘break’ as a term that is required. I am not a dev, I was speaking flippantly.
I will amend my statement if you would like to be specific.
“Game Breaking Exploit” to “An exp exploit that throws off Game Balance for leveling as intended, using ‘other activities’ as ‘intended’ to provide a baseline for the exp curve across the game”
Of course it was a trap! Because your premise is absurd! This went on and on for ages, and hurt absolutely no one ever - and if it continued, it would continue to hurt No One Ever.
YOUR LEVEL DOES NOT AFFECT ME. And someone might argue that your plots COULD, but we’ve seen griefing from groups with plots, and we’ve seen griefing done with single plots. THERE IS NO PLOT REQUIREMENT FOR BEING A PAIN IN THE WAZOO.
I haven’t seen a single solution that doesn’t just take from somewhere else. Someone else’s gameplay or style. It is tough to be sure.
I am grateful that people are offering other solutions. And it is awesome that James is listening and trying to find the right approach.
No matter how it is changed, it is going to have an impact…just hope it doesn’t splash further into other activities (like changing food buffs which effect other activities)
Thats all up to the players, it had zero efdect on me and still does that others are eons ahead of me in levels. Ut was a very boring task, some xp made it feel worth it.
Just wrong thing to do, to balance a game that hasnt really brought anything new since launch, and again, did not notice other peoples levels or what they did with their time, devs need to elaborate on wtf.
personally I never got 11 million xp from doing this, never even used any teaching food until this weekend. If the problem is the amount of stone then fix the source of the stone. 3x3 aoe tools created all this stone so should that be nerfed? Because if this goes through then the furnace or bricks are the next exploit. We can chase every mechanic that players us to keep the game from being agonizingly slow.
The other point I want to make is I have certainly not read all the reviews on steam for the game, but the ones I have never say the game is too easy, but often say it is too grindy. So do we continue to suggest ways to reduce grind or just let it continue to get worse.
Unhealthy game mechanics lead to burn out. Having massive people leveling through crafting tables isn’t fun…it is crafting table simulator?
We have had people in our guild quit because they get burnt out.
There is a balance to how fast you level, where you get exp from…but this isn’t a game designed to sprint.
But I see that even saying that, with your view of the game…I doubt it will matter. You have many critical thoughts on the game, that we have chatted about.
When one piece of the game is out of balance, forcing players to use it as a means to advance…it is negative for everyone. Not because ‘I am better then you with more plots’ but because Boundless isn’t supposed to be , log on , get 5k rocks, log off and come back tomorrow.
Again, I know you are critical of the game in general as it relates to flow and building. I don’t know if my point will resonate with you.
But why even give other exp? I mean, I can get 11 million from rocks why gain 100 from exploring? Why gain 400 from killing a monster? We can all be rock crafters…give in to our rock overlords haha
Trust me, I don’t like the idea of grinding out 200k stones - that’s why I never did it. I’m no fan of grinding, even when the benefits are plain to see.
But I’d like a lot more space to build than I’m allowed through what seems to be the devs’ current design philosophy.
As we try and nerf everything else…it just splashes over and hits other things.
Nerf 3x3 impacts all mining and gem gathering. Nerf Pies…impacts anyone that was using EXP pies as a gatherer to up the EXP there. Nerf Crafting tables so they don’t do 30x crafting so no one can get that many? That impacts all recipes.
The problem is the rocks. Just nerf them and it has the smallest impact.
Plots for builds (big builds) are so desirable that people (ignoring buying plots of course) are willing to fill up 200 crafting tables just to get there a little faster…and then burn out…because amazingly…that isn’t fun to do over and over.
There are many things brought up related to this.
At its core. Rocks give too much exp. They just need to be nerfed.
That doesn’t mean other exp options shouldn’t be reviewed…overall balance changes can’t happen or other improvements.
Reducing Stone to Rocks 0 exp isn’t “fixing the game” by any means. I agree with you there.
Too much grind also leads to burn out so where is the happy medium. And I am tired of the game is not a sprint statement to try and make grinding feel better. My 2 alts and main were level 18, 19 and 47 on Friday. I do not think as someone playing since launch I was trying to sprint. I was happy that when I gathered rock I needed for my build I got xp for crafting it to stone. So now it is better that it takes me even longer to play the game by the rules and level?
I disagree that nerfing rocks fixes the problem. It moves the problem to another mechanic. And when the coin machine appears all the rock will be converted to coin anyway and might break the economy. I think at the core, the game takes too long to level and doing so is boring or players would not feel the need to employ this method to level.
The problem as I see it isn’t even attached to XP numbers… It’s that I feel like the rewards for XP and leveling are rationed out too tightly. People don’t fight over grains of rice when everyone is having spaghetti for dinner. People don’t turn to what we can both agree is a mindless, miserable activity, when something that’s actually more enjoyable fulfills their other needs.
Imagine if you were able to award me XP - and, by extension, Cubits - by upvoting one of my builds! What kind of a weird world would we live in then?..
We would live in a world where the large guilds could organize their members to exploit this mechanic. Sometimes I think we players can be too smart for our own good.
why gain 100 from exploring? Why gain 400 from killing a monster? We can all be rock crafters…give in to our rock overlords 
haha