Some gameplay adjustments.
The past week I worked at some little adjustments in the game system, as well as adding 3 new potions (Invisibility, True Sight and Poison Antidote).
Some of the adjustments included making some combat spells more expensive to cast, but have a greater effect based on the caster's level.
Some people liked that feature, but many didn't, and as usually, they do not give it some time to see how it works, but bitch before they even try it. Some complained the spells are too powerful. Some complained they are too expensive. Some suggested a 'compromise', making them less powerful and expensive (as if I just slapped the formulas together without giving it a lot of thought).
A simple request for feedback resulted in over 225 posts, in one day. For more info, you can view the thread http://www.eternal-lands.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26840 here.
I got frustrated and decided to return the spell system to what it was before this tweak: boring, not very useful, but easy to level up. This should teach the players to actually give the new changes a chance, rather than shooting them down before they try them out for a while. For me, it doesn't really matter, I am OK with both the systems, but I believe that, ironically, it's against the mage's best interest to revert it to what it was. And I say it is ironic because the mages complained the most about how hard it is to level the magic skill now that the spells require more ingredients and mana.
A similar problem occurred with some potion changes, where I made a few weaker potions slightly more useful, and now people are complaining that higher level potions are useless. So I am going to revert those potions to the previous levels as well. Again, I don't care too much about that, it was just an experiment which failed.
Some other changes were relatively well recieved, because most of the people wer enot affected by them. Such as, for example, the newbie helper will heal newbies for free, up to level 17 (exclusive) attack.
I wanted to write more about those tweaks but I didn't sleep one minute last night, so I am up for about 34 hours, which makes writting any coherent though a challange.
Some of the adjustments included making some combat spells more expensive to cast, but have a greater effect based on the caster's level.
Some people liked that feature, but many didn't, and as usually, they do not give it some time to see how it works, but bitch before they even try it. Some complained the spells are too powerful. Some complained they are too expensive. Some suggested a 'compromise', making them less powerful and expensive (as if I just slapped the formulas together without giving it a lot of thought).
A simple request for feedback resulted in over 225 posts, in one day. For more info, you can view the thread http://www.eternal-lands.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26840 here.
I got frustrated and decided to return the spell system to what it was before this tweak: boring, not very useful, but easy to level up. This should teach the players to actually give the new changes a chance, rather than shooting them down before they try them out for a while. For me, it doesn't really matter, I am OK with both the systems, but I believe that, ironically, it's against the mage's best interest to revert it to what it was. And I say it is ironic because the mages complained the most about how hard it is to level the magic skill now that the spells require more ingredients and mana.
A similar problem occurred with some potion changes, where I made a few weaker potions slightly more useful, and now people are complaining that higher level potions are useless. So I am going to revert those potions to the previous levels as well. Again, I don't care too much about that, it was just an experiment which failed.
Some other changes were relatively well recieved, because most of the people wer enot affected by them. Such as, for example, the newbie helper will heal newbies for free, up to level 17 (exclusive) attack.
I wanted to write more about those tweaks but I didn't sleep one minute last night, so I am up for about 34 hours, which makes writting any coherent though a challange.
posted by Radu at 9:31 PM
7 Comments:
People always have to bitch about change, its practically human nature. If you want to listen to the advice of someone who constantly reads you blog, give it a period of time for testing, and then try posting the topic again, just as you did for cooldown (hey, people complained and its already part of the game now).
I don't think this will teach players anything: since it is only human to fear changes, most will be actually happy to have the "known" things back.
As to the thread - you asked for feedback, you got feedback. Next time I'd suggest to wait a while before asking for feedback to ensure that people _did_ try it; probably players would have started their own "feedback"(bitching) threads anyway, so no need to ask for it. And just lock that thread when you start to feel sick about it.
I think that the basic ideas behind these changes were good, but, with all due respect, I don't think any single human is able to see all implications in an environment that grew so complex; it would be helpful to plan such changes with a broader range of players (I'd consider your moderation team a fine choice) who are trustworthy to not use their knowledge for their own gain (like buying cheap vials up front).
Oh, sent the last comment too early (pressed the wrong button) :-)
There was one thing I wanted to add: I am sorry to see that it went so bad. It would be very sad to see all that work and thoughts be lost. It's the programmers fate that your work is never appreciated, however hard you work and think, don't let them bring you down. I hope you wake up with a good idea and are able to shake off that frustration - a good nap often does that to me. I'd be happy to see things added back in, maybe in a more iterative and incremental way - more steps with fewer changes each and some finetuning in between.
Thanks for your hard work and dedication!
Please let the new stuff be and dont revert it only because of this ignorants. Didn't we all bitch like hell about the cooldown? It is still in game and nobody is bothered. The spells need to be level independend, it makes no sense if someone who just learned life drain can cause the same damage like someone with magic level 100. Don't know about the potion stuff...
Please think about it again.
I think all of the ideas were good and people are just afraid of change, aka pkers afraid that someone might be able to kill them without the high a/d lol. i would say leave it, and in a couple weeks to a month you wont hear any bitching ^_^
Thanks for the comments.
They make sense, but if I do that then the enxt update people will act the same way, and so on. I am kind of tired of working my ass off for an update then hearing a lot of negative feedback.
Removing the things I consider good for the players (such as the extra mana from those potions, or the extra healing ability) might deter them from doing so again.
If you give people the opportunity to bitch they will. If every one's quiet, that's when you should be worried.
I think you should give it another try. I didn't feel people where against the changes but more so it needed adjusting, without really knowing. Nobody got to spend much time or put as much thought into it as you. So all opinions were based on initial reaction to the changes.
Good, bad or indifferent is how all change is met. Doesn't mean the change reflects the opinions.
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