7 Likes
Never said location equals a well oiled guild? But footfall income is all about a prime location, not just location. To make it prime you need to put the effort. Yes someone can out plots next to a hub and yes you can make your remote settlement a prime location. It’s all about effort of making a location useful.
Edit: added example.
So as you know I started Black Light early on, I get a comfortable amount of footfall per day which gets distributed via request baskets to the settlement and verbal agreements for trades. Now I created the town in the middle to nowhere, no portals no nothing just me and @Zina as we grew PS built their hub next to us, we created our own portals shortcuts, hosting merchants, and now Hubbit network, next spleef events my footfall will only grow. I picked a bad location that I made it in my eyes prime with myself and friends efforts now I get money based on that effort. Every single beacon no matter where they are have the potential of earning lots of footfall so I don’t think "location"is really an issue just the effort someone puts towards it.
4 Likes
This update is awesome! All the social pieces are in place now and the guild system seems poised to grow.
Delaying the release of some guild buffs is incredibly wise. Until the AoE->rocks->xp loop is looked at, guilds essentially have infinite endeavor generators. Also do you want xp buff food affecting endeavor rate? Since you’re creating a new currency this is your chance to set its destiny right. Once the genie’s out of the bottle there’s no putting it back. I suggest capping endeavor until you have more data. You can always raise or remove a cap. You can’t take back ppls endeavor. Guilds will literally have years worth of endeavor stockpiled after the first month.
As for the footfall increase, I will warn players now that an influx of money will only stimulate the economy if costs of goods do not scale proportionally to the influx rate. If you see someone raising their prices because of the footfall changes, they are trying to exploit you. Price is still set in this game primarily by effort to gather the item and footfall changes do not impact that directly. It’s possible that more footfall puts more AoE tools in more hands and prices actually lower further due to influx of materials with no change in sinks.
To that end, I hope the devs are considering more material sinks related to the guild buffs. I think the helix recipes could require something like Power as well, with the need to craft incredibly expensive helix coils that only many players can collect materials for.
3 Likes
I’m not specifically calling you out for this as I see many pro-footfall people say this, but what exactly does this entail? The most beautiful build in the game isn’t “useful,” for example. To be “useful” by the current game standards, that basically means be a portal hub to all 48 worlds, or be a shopping district. Both of those take a large investment of time/resources, and maybe they would be good guild projects, but if you can’t form your guild until you have your “useful” thing and you can’t make your “useful” thing without a Guild, that is a Catch-22. Plus, the existing infrastructure in the game (Hubbit, PS, Ultima, etc) and the nature of human habits (I would wager most of us have specific portal path we take to get anywhere we know we are going) make it unattractive to build another of those. So, it’s not that it can’t be done, but for most players it doesn’t make sense to. Should they just not be able to participate?
Yes and no. Every economy is affected by it’s money supply, and an expansion of the money supply should create some inflation, but do beware of people using “inflation” as an excuse to raise prices 10-20x.
2 Likes
Who wants to sell me guild machines for my 1 man guild? I’ll pay in coin… lol not a joke… ill end up doing this.
1 Like
Everything starts with your own desire, if you put the effort is like human nature others will follow if they share the same goals. FYI - updated my reply with a perfect example.
Edit:
Correct me if I am wrong but guild doesn’t cost nothing is only the buffs that cost coin and XP. Meaning is a form of choice of opt in/out base on if you want to.make coin/XP to purchase the buffs.
Another great update! Really like how you guys always manage to sneak in little bits of responses to community concern in the bigger features… reducing death penalty as a guide buff is a pretty clever way to kill two birds.
I know this might be asking too much but is there any chance of having acces to guild chat offline?(should suggest it if this is remotely possible)
1 Like
I’m sure this wasn’t your intent, but your example proved my point. You became something of note because PS picked your city to host it’s network. Now, maybe they picked you because you were a cool spot (I do like Blacklight, no shade there or towards your effort), but do you really think that you would have grown like you did without the premiere portal network in the game funneling almost the entire game population to your doorstep?
I am currently experiencing the same thing, but in much smaller scale. My settlement is now the home of the Sorissi Hubbit hub, and I have seen a spike in footfall ever since it was put in. I progressed in the game because out of game I know the two streamers that run that network. I’ll take it, but I’m under no illusion that I did anything to “deserve” that extra money/exposure.
That is true, you can just opt out. But being forced to opt because even if you wanted to you can’t generate enough of one of the materials feels bad (depending on how much coin the buffs cost. If they cost like 100c each then it doesn’t matter, obviously).
2 Likes
I dont get how people are still crying about footfall, and now guilds, being more benefical to more established teams.
Of course they are.
A bigger team doing bigger things should definitely have bigger rewards for their effort.
The old “but its based on location” arguement is rediculous. Of course it is… and where do you think those locations came from? A group of dedicated players spent a hell of a lot of time building them… Im guesing it was a little more effort than the hamlets that dont get a lot of footfall.
As a solo casual player i know i wont ever get the same benefits as groups of power players… and that makes perfect sense.
5 Likes
This isn’t constructive.
And they still would with or without the only way to generate money in the game being tied to where you built your base (and in realty, being tied to where the people who got a 2 week headstart built their bases).
Haha… flagging it as if to prove your point.
Well said i reckon.
1 Like
Not sure exactly of the timeline but the city was far along before PS built there hub. However I did have a portal to their Biitula early on mainly for traveling. Starting out it was completely upaid work everyone in Black Light I guess I can be a slave driver.
@Tagris could probably give me more info.
I guess what I am thinking is coin was not important starting out but the guild system is useful and accessible before even needing coin. Once we get big enough or become a “prime” spot we had a decent flow of coin that can go into a sink like buffs. That’s sorta how I am looking at it.
Amazing how everyone who defends footfall benefits from it.
While everyone else who wants to make some tropical oasis and beautiful build gets garbage footfall because they don’t have a portal hub.
The developers seem intent on catering to the top 1% of this game.
Some of us play games to escape the oligarchy that is the modern world. I’ll continue to warn people away from this game by telling them the truth, that the updates continually screw over new players with balance changes, while solidifying the control of the top 1%, and force players into big city builds and portal networks if they want to generate passive income.
But given the recent player stats, that top 1% is soon going to be all alone in their ivory castle.
So much for the game being “Boundless” if such an integral source of income in this game is withheld from players who don’t make portal networks.
The new “Guild” update and Helix system just furthers this mentality. No room for rural players.
3 Likes
Its far from the only way to make coin. Its one of the few ways new coin is created, but that is a very different thing.
Still cant wrap my head around how people think thats not an acceptable way for an economy works. Where do you think your paycheck comes from in real life? Do you tell your boss is unfair that they started a business when you couldn’t and you should get the same salary?
Sounds a little childish to me to think thats an acceptable thing to demand. So i stand by my confusion around people crying about it.
1 Like
Now quote it all please. I don’t know who all sells in my baskets but I am sure someone who didn’t have a portal hub benefited from my footfall earn coin.(also run a shop and sell to request baskets myself so not ALL my coin came from footfall)
Edit: I would also like to clarify that coin being use in combination with XP for guild buffs is what I am defending don’t matter how you get it. It was a response to the above comments about locations(sorry if I am being steered off topic)
I started a nice little place in a nice spot away from a portal hub… thought one day “i would like more of that footfall” so i spent months mining, gathering, hunting, building (think it might be called playing the game). Built a big shop, built a big hub, invited other players to join.
Weirdly, the footfall to my small out of the way settlement increased.
Pure luck i guess.
3 Likes
Comparing the game economy to the real world one is beyond silly. They don’t come close to operating in the same way. In any case, what people are complaining about is closer to if suddenly the only way to make money was to operate a superstore and everybody who didn’t already operate a Walmart or Target got upset.
1 Like
What does that have to do with anything? IRL economies are orders of magnitude more complex than this. Obviously that conversation doesn’t happen, but it also isn’t analogous to anything happening in game. An economy needs currency generation to work. IRL that means the printing press, in game that means footfall (and deleting and recreating alts, but this is obviously not an intended primary generation vector). I have no problem with all that hard work you did all on your own generating you more revenue because you made a better store and got more customers, you should get more of the economic pie for that. I do take issue with that fact that the game gives you extra money, for nothing, because of a one time effort you made that most players simply do not have the opportunity to do (see my post about about “useful” things) AND that that extra money is the only way new currency is injected into the economy.
2 Likes
The guild allows you to join a guild that can offer the buffs without the need for you to do all the work alone? I feel like this is being looked at the wrong way because rural players don’t have to be part of a hub or settlement if their guild is already actively working together to provide those buffs to everyone.