I think the point was that given there appears to be agreement that there is an equal measure of both people who want colour rarity and people do not want want it within the current player-base then keeping, reducing or dropping it isn’t going to have a particularly large impact overall. Some people will become/stay happy, and a roughly equal number of people will become/stay unhappy. Following that logic, the only people that will make a real difference are the people who the game might attract in either scenario, whichever is greater.
No idea how you’d get a good gauge on that. The only logical argument I can think of is that if there seems to be equal numbers of happy vs unhappy people in the player-base now, then the chances are good that there were more unhappy people under the logic that happy people rarely leave, but unhappy people do. As such, at the very least reducing it would be the more popular outcome overall.
I wouldn’t want to be in the position of having to decide though.
I still believe keeping rarity as is WITH massive changes to goo is the best solution.
Right now goo is not a viable option, it would take way too long to make enough sprays, or cost way too much if you want to buy them (high price is of course related to how cumbersome they are to make).
Change all that in a way where it takes like 1.2 to 1.5 times of gathering the blocks and it becomes viable. Especially when all blocks can be spray painted. The code is there as I showed in a video I made on the old prototype creative mode (now called local sandbox), even gleam…
Tho perhaps gleam should be an exception but only if there is also a higher chance we actually get all the colours over a short time on public or sovereign worlds…
I honestly believe that they could open the color base up some but not completely. Kind of meet everyone in the middle. Allow for more colors to become available but still leave a decent amount that is rare.
although from a development standpoint if you look at the colors and block types that can be colored naturally with the current perm planet count it wouldn’t be possible to remove ALL color rarity.
Personally I think there are two possible solutions
introduce something else that is useful and intended to be rare. Body paints etc are an option but they aren’t really what I personally would like. Something that makes my builds etc stand out or could be incorporated into them would be great. Even if this was a unique portal surround it would be great.
keep SOME very select colours rare. I dont mean black or white etc as they are very useful but for example shadow red and a light counterpart, for example a silver or gold colour meta brick . That allows everyone to build almost any colour and substitute the rarest for something suitable .
The finer details aren’t my strong point but it could be workable
Definitely think that this is a better option than retaining some rare colours. You can just about guarantee that whichever ‘less’ popular colours you try to pick to be the highly prestigious rare blocks, it will be someone’s first choice of basic colour and they’ll be negatively affected for nothing more than an arbitrary decision.
Besides, last I read Sovereign planets don’t have any technical elements that prevents specific colours from spawning (even if the palette may have some skewing), so at any point a dedicated “rare” colour could become commonplace. I think that would upset the rare-collectors more than anything else.
I agree the permanent planets do not exist in sufficient quantity to cover every color, That would take a minimum of 255 planets and no repeats of the same color on the same material on any planet (which already has happened quite a bit). This is the reason many asked for the players that are renting to be able to select whatever colors they want. It would at least give an individual player a way to get the colors they wanted to build with, without depending on the massive player growth it would take to generate sufficient public planets for the colors to spawn naturally.
When rentals had been discussed, I think the assumption many players made was if you could design your own planet that would include the colors.
With sov planets, theoretically there are only some surface gathering plants that cannot get all colors. Color rarity will go away completely for building blocks given enough time, despite the misinformation being given out that there are gleambow specific colors.
That isn’t to say some colors aren’t hard to get with the way the planets choose colors, or that we will be limited by the popular rental choices. Gleam, the one most go back to, isn’t restricted by spawn choice at all. Any color can pop.
Rarity will go down over time, potentially disapoof altogether if the community throws enough money at it.
This won’t solve the problem for everyone, but maybe the backers that were supposed to be getting worlds a while back could choose any of the 255 colors from the beginning. That’ll open up some colors for the rest of us to choose from as well.
Not that I’ve seen… Any discussion with people who are pro-colour-rarity has, when explained, really just boiled down to a desire to have ‘things to work for’, ‘trophies to collect’ and ‘to have things other people don’t have and to show off’ as opposed to specifically wanting the rarity to be based around available colours.
I think it would be really helpful to hear, from a person who values color rarity, what alternatives they think they might enjoy. Is there a compromise they would be happy to accept?
Some have suggested runed trophy blocks, trophies, or even just decorative blocks that require specific achievements to acquire, but I haven’t seen any pro-rarity players comment on any of those ideas. I may have missed it though, since it’s not like we’re labeled with our opinions.
Envy seems a bit strong to broadly apply that label to everyone interested in achievements. Maybe validation? It is also a way to look back on past adventures.
I played Everquest 2 for many years and one thing I loved about that game was all the little (or big) housing collectibles available. There were neat trophies and items that could be placed in your house to showcase to others the adventures you had been on. It was also nice to look at them and remember those quests and adventures. These were available for all play styles and preferences. Some gear items from signature and heritage questions, raids, crafting, events, shiny collectors, and other adventures. They weren’t all of equal significance and the value was really up to the beholder.
For some that was still about validation or trying to generate prestige and envy, but for many it was just a way to visual show and define their play history over the years.
Building block rarity, as it’s implemented, make no sense to me. Having some building block types require somewhat more effort or challenge to obtain is fine, but there are other ways to showcase adventures and gaming history than artificially impeding builds and creation.
What you’re describing is an achiever. The achiever player type wants to achieve goals and get something meaningless to show off (achievement points, a trophy, a title). Achievers act on the world. They don’t care if others can get the same trophy, as long as they put in the same work/time/skill.
But these are not the player types that demand rare colors. That’s the killer player type, who wants to get a reaction out of other players. Killers act on other players. They want to have something you don’t have, but want.
Nobody wants black gleam only for himself because it shows off an achievement. People want black gleam only for themselves because they know it enrages other player, because they know it’ll be envied.
