Suggestions for 2021 'Quality of Life Build'

[Kitty the Hunter]

8 - Once all Village Projects are maxed, require a monthly maintenance Task for each project, to maintain it's current status. Something like the daily Tasks, only 1 per month. If we complete 100% of our monthy Task, our project will maintain it's maxed status... but if we only complete 50% or 80%, our project will drop to level 5 or 8 and we'll have to complete the next monthly task, to get it back up to level 10.

No, we work hard to upgrade our villages. It months, even years, of dedicated effort to fully upgrade a village and once completed villagers deserve to enjoy their hard-earned rewards.

 

[V]

Please create a perpetual market for gathered items, of all levels.

Why? Because...

On servers with players at all stages of the game, working to level up their characters and villages... there is a strong market for gathered items of all levels, which offers the following benefits:

1 - A strong game economy and thriving buy/sell/trade community. Where new players may interact with players of all levels/classes and guild affiliations... to earn gold, make new friends, find a guild and become part of our community.

2 - Plenty Hunting... many players enjoy combing the maps, searching for Plentiful gathering nodes... and when we find one, it's like hitting the jackpot! Because we know we'll be able to sell everything we gather, using Trade Chat or the Auction House. This keeps players Plenty Hunting, long after they have maxed their characters and villages.

3 - A strong market for Crown items... when we have a thriving buy/sell/trade community, non-CS players may earn gold to buy Crown items from Crown sellers, which is what keeps V&H from becoming a "pay to play" or "pay to win" game. Knowing they can resell Crown items to other players, also encourage CS players to make bigger purchases, so they may resell items (instead of just buying for themselves).

Conversely...

On servers where the majority of players have maxed their characters and villages... there is little or no market for low-level gathered items, which causes the following problems:

1 - A weak game economy and almost non-existent buy/sell/trade community. Where the server may seem empty, because high level players spend most of their time, within their guilds... and only interact with new players, when/if they post comments or questions in WC. Where new players become frustrated, because it's difficult (not fun, as a game should be) to earn gold, make new friends, find a guild and become part of our community.

2 - Plenty Hunting loses most of it's appeal, when there's little or no market for the items we gather... and it becomes one less activity for players to enjoy, once they've maxed their characters and villages.

3 - A weak market for Crown items... because the lack of a thriving buy/sell/trade community makes it difficult for players to earn gold. Which makes non-CS players feel like V&H is a "pay to play" or "pay to win" game and CS players make smaller purchases, because they don't know if they'll be able to resell their Crown items.

Those who have played on several different servers, know that what I'm saying is true... the lack of a perpetual market for gathered items, greatly impacts game play. If you think I'm exaggerating, then I encourage you to make a charcter on a new server and see for yourself. There is a stark contrast between US1 (where most of the player base is maxed and Trade Chat is usually empty) and US3 (where we have players at all levels and Trade Chat is almost always active). Try playing on both servers, without selling Crown items (because new players cannot resell crown items, until they hit level 40)... and you will see how the lack of an active buy/sell/trade community, changes the game.

Fortunately, I believe we can fix this issue... if the Devs will create a perpetual market for gathered items of all levels. I have some suggestions and I hope to hear ideas from others:

1 - I think everyone would like to see more items in the Charter Shop. Personally, I'd love to see a variety of exclusive Steampunk fashion, mounts, pets and toys. I think they'd go well, with the gadgets and gizmos that are given by the Ardent Society. I also think they'd be a nice reward, for those who enjoy being a Villager.

2 - Make the enchantment on Yorick's Reaping Cap (crown item), stackable with the enchantment on Yorick's Crown (charter item). So it will become worthwhile, for players to buy/earn both, as more than just fashion.

3 - Add the enchantment from Frederick's Crafting Apron (crown item) to the Charter Robe (charter item)... then change the name to Frederick's Charter Robe and make the enchantments stackable, for the same reasons given in number 2.

4 - The Experience Books in the Charter Shop, may not be used after you reach level 90. I'd like to see them be made usable, all the way up to level 95... and I'd like to see books added, for Gardening and Ranching.

Even with these changes, there will come a point where long-term players will have purchased everything they want/need from the Charter Shop.

Which brings us to my next suggestions...

5 - Add more consumables to the Charter Shop, items that are needed throughout the game. Specifically, I'd like to see Full Mana/Health pots added and I'd like to see the prices for all consumables, adjusted to be closer to current server prices. For example, Motes are already in the Charter Shop, but the price of 50 Charter Tokens for 1 Mote is ridiculous. On US3, vendors sell Motes for 90-110g/1000 and players sell Motes for about 80g/1000 in Trade Chat, while Charter sells for about 7g/1050 Tokens. Therefore, Motes should sell for about 12-15 Charter Tokens each... depending on whether the Devs want Charter prices to be more inline with vendors or the Trade community. The Charter prices for Gathering Supplies, should also be adjusted.

I tried to get a base price for Full Mana/Health pots... but they're hardly ever resold, so no one knew for sure. Scornys give full Mana refills and they sell for about 5-7g each. So, I think Full Mana should sell for about 1050 Charter tokens each and Full Health should sell for about the same? I don't believe that will greatly impact the market for crafted Mana/Health pots, because players won't want to waste their expensive Full pots and will save them for emergencies, while continuing to use their crafted pots, to top off their Mana/Health.

Not only will suggestion number 5 create a perpetual market for gathered items of all levels... it will allow the Devs to set the base value for gathered items and Charter Tokens, creating a consistent market and active buy/sell/trade community, on all servers.

But wait, I have a few more ideas...

6 - Make the Wellspring buffs more rewarding. After all, on US3 gathered items usually sell for at least 3g/350 and refines for 7g/350... items like eggs, ham, fleece and pelts, sell for even more. So, donating to Village projects is both time consuming (to grow or gather items) and expensive. Therefore, the Wellspring buffs should be worth the effort. Wellsprings already grant gathering, gardening and ranching buffs... I'd like to see crafting buffs added to increase experience, reduce cost, time and mote use.

7 - Earlier in the thread, someone suggested adding combat buffs to the Training Grounds, that will remain active outside our villages. I think this is a GREAT idea... after Training Grounds are maxed, we should be able to donate to the "Training Masters" (aka the npcs who "train" us) to receive one of their special combat buffs: increased Mastery, DPS, Experience, Expertise, Clarity, Magic Find etc. I think the process could function, the same way the Wellspring does.

These last ideas may NOT be popular... but I think they should be considered:

8 - Once all Village Projects are maxed, require a monthly maintenance Task for each project, to maintain it's current status. Something like the daily Tasks, only 1 per month. If we complete 100% of our monthy Task, our project will maintain it's maxed status... but if we only complete 50% or 80%, our project will drop to level 5 or 8 and we'll have to complete the next monthly task, to get it back up to level 10.

9 - Villagers should be required not only to log-in every 2 weeks, but to pay monthly rent (in their choice of gold or a variety of gathered/crafted items). The game will then automatically pool all the rent, into a village fund, which may be used by the Mayor, to complete project Tasks. Players who fail to pay their monthly rent, will automatically be kicked from their village and may lose their housing spot, if another player moves in... but they'll be able to rejoin their village (if space is available) or join another village, as soon as they pay their rent. The rent isn't meant to be expensive... it's more about removing inactive players from Villages, to make room for more active players, who will help complete village projects and activate buffs, while increasing the demand for gathered/farmed items.

Whew, this is a HUGE post... if you made it this far, thank you so much for reading and I look forward to hearing your feedback/ideas, to help build thriving buy/sell/trade communities, on all servers.

~ Zaphyra (aka Zap)

Another way to increase the demand for materials is to add new specializations as well as Tier II and Tier III specializations to the Charter NPC. New specializations could include a Jewelry Master or a Glyph Crafter.

Tier II and Tier III specializations would cost 250,000 and 500,000 tokens respectively and would provide additional perks to the player's base specialization. Some more detailed ideas are here and here.

 

[Mystterious]

I would suggest a buy back option on vendors so when you lag and sell something you didn't want to you have option to buy it back!!

 

[Zaphyra]

I fail to see the logic of this suggestion. It would do nothing to remove inactive players more than the systems we already have. Players already log in daily to get AS rewards and cog coins, and every 2 wks to keep their house active. Lower leveled, new players might not have the payment which would be unfair. I don't see that this accomplishes anything, but allows the presumption that other players are less valued when they are believed to be in the way of another players' or guilds' goals. Giving the mayor access to free gold and mats would be unwise and a disruption to village life with increased challenges to Mayors. Higher populations give an xp boost, we should be encouraging higher populations, not looking to kick players out. Finally, just because you don't see a player does not mean they are not active. The could be in another time zone, etc.

Thanks for your feedback, I knew this idea would be controversial... also, I never meant for the Mayor to have "free access" to the gold or mats... but rather, they would have access to a feature, which would allow them to allot resources from the village rent fund, to village projects. Mayors would be unable to use the rent fund for anything else.

 

[Zaphyra]

No, we work hard to upgrade our villages. It months, even years, of dedicated effort to fully upgrade a village and once completed villagers deserve to enjoy their hard-earned rewards.

I totally understand and I knew this idea would NOT be popular.

 

[Diddle]

Give us a bar/hamburger joint where we can buy buffs . Example, hamburger...add health,, cheeseburger...add more health, shake....add mana

 

[Diddle]

Let us craft our own rings and necklaces since we can’t get a decent one to drop. You can’t even buy a decent one from grinchta ez or the npc jewelers in shadenor.

 

[Rait]

- A back door for houses so you don't have to keep going around it to store garden and ranching harvests.
- Time stamps on chat posts so you know if the latest post is recent or from an hour ago.
- Longer display time for elder kill announcements. Ability to scroll back through these and other announcements. With large parties on PC you can't see the earlier parts of these messages.

 

[Kvaser]

Maybe a City Council who run the village, decides which project to invest in. The council choose by vote who is Major and who can be in the Council. Thereby protecting the founders who build the village. One council seat could be on vote among villagers giving others a chance to influence or give ideas. This seat is also a safety, if the members of the council has stopped.

 

[Cyndzia]

1) Maps for the zones that don't have them. I'm not sure why they are "uncharted territory" but it certainly lowers my enjoyment of the areas. I can't keep a map in my head at all, get lost easily, and sometimes lose track of where my group is and how to get to them due to lag, or death in a raid.

2) a target command for example /target Kave would make Kave my active target (should work on both players and npcs/mobs

3) an ability to set a longer time than 1 minute for crafting... sometimes I've gathered a lot and want to be able to go get a drink, or grab a snack, or go to the bathroom ie "look I'm going to smelt these 10k silver ore I can sit here staring at my screen while I do it thinking of all the things I could be doing instead and getting resentful, which leads to less gathering and makes the game seem less fun, or I can set it and still have to keep my character occupied, but I could feel free to do some rl stuff and then come back to the game and do the fun things without worrying about having wasted buffs" Character would need to stay logged in and in reach of a suitable crafting station. For people that just want it done quicker motes are still an option but for those that are okay with it not being done for x amount of time but just don't want to sit there and click every 60 seconds this would work to eliminate a pain point I think.

 

[Skap]

The only use I see for the guilds is to bring people together as a large group of friends. But it doesn't really have any fun use. As the leader of a Hispanic union in US3 we recruit people who speak Spanish, we have a village that as a union keeps us together trying to upload the stations every day, sometimes we meet to do raids but nothing more interesting. So I would like something that gives guilds a reason or function to exist, something worth joining a guild for. Something that new people want to join.
Could you put a system of achievements or missions for guild? (I read it before and I liked the idea)
Already dreaming big I would like exclusive events for guilds, such as raids but only for guilds. In my guild they ask for pvp a lot, personally I am not a fan (I hate being brutally murdered) but they could do guild competitions, with or without pvp. How to kill a boss and see which guild does it faster or simply activate a pvp (which I would never step on but my companions if xD) or with the guild missions compete to see which guild does more.

I also want to support the idea of putting more positions in the town, I know that labels can be changed and secretaries or slaves can be called in other ways but I would like more labels to lighten the burden of the mayor.
And added to this, I would like the guild leader to have a guild secretary who can also add people to the guild. Sometimes my guildmates find someone who speaks Spanish in the game and I am not available to enter the game at that time, if I could have someone else do it ... I would also like to be able to send friend or guild requests without having to be both players connected. I am someone who has his most free time in the morning (time when most of my colleagues work) and at night I am busy (time where most of them connect) so I would like a system with which to send requests without need to be both connected.

I also read the idea of being able to help with the crops or farms of other houses. There are times when I simply like to take my horse for a ride around town and I see many crops that need water or animals that want to eat, I would like to be able to help with those things.

 

[Gewel]

Village Message Board. I would like that. Mayor can delete messages if they are offensive.

 

[Aord]

Oh, one more and an important one (I already posted it in #polls section of the official Discord, but I guess it's not a permanent solution to make game suggestions):

Truly Stackable Items!

Now you can have same item in different "flavors" that cannot be stacked in your inventory. For example, take Clockwork Harvesters or Bounty Hunter Badges: there are
1) Account bound ones,
2) Account bound that can be sold for Red Dubloons,
3) Soulbound ones,
4) "No-flavor" or "regular" ones
and maybe I forgot something else.
All these cannot be stacked and occupy four slots despite the fact they are all the same.

Now I get that there are different "-bound" properties depending on where you got each particular item, but honestly I just want to unclutter my bags and vault.
So why not make us able to drag-n-drop all of these into the single pile, applying the most restricted flavor to all of them as a result (with player confirmation)?
So, for example, if I want to combine my "regular" items with "Soulbound" ones, the resulting pile will be Soulbound.
If I want to combine my "Account bound" with "Account bound that can be sold for Red Dubloons" ones, the resulting pile will be just Account bound.
Etc etc.

 

[Wait]

Dear Mad Otter Family, Thank you for taking the time to read and for the “Village Improvements that help the quality of life” considerations.
Village Projects or something else Expansion: Our village does have fully upgraded projects with an ongoing Wellspring that takes donations. The donations required. Another option not necessarily a project, or an expansion on a preexisting project, such as village and other building house structure perks, embellishments, etc. to help allow, new guild members and alts to continue to work on their skills within the village. Contributing to village tasks brings the residents together as they work together to improve the village as well as their own skills.
Suggestion for Empyrean Project Expansion: Snow covered village setting and Party Light Skies for guild events with lights confetti and disco globes?
Village projects: donation reduction– slightly reducing the amounts required for if not all, the Wellspring Project so there is a better chance at getting a buff. I feel this will add more incentive to donate to it especially in a fully upgraded village.
Community Vault Improvements and Expansions: Can we have at least one or two more sections added? We like to hold event and quest items within the vault to help out our guild mates. I am sure there are various ways that having the additional space would help out the community as well. Community vault access from both the Lakeside and Burroughs regions allowing players residing in those areas of their village to easily gain access without having to travel around.
Sabethe and her partner Chefs Jamie Olives and Jewel Child (fun names that play on actual names) I would love to see a Sabethe Quest NPC not only in the town center but in the Burroughs and Lakeside regions of the village so players don’t have to go far to do their daily quest.
In Game Mail Word Expansion– Is there a way to increase how much is allowed “word wise” in the context of the mail. This would be especially helpful with our guild mail which has a lot more communication necessary. Even 50-100 words would be so helpful.
Extended Friend List – As a guild leader with a maxed friends list, I have encountered times, that someone wanting to join the guild, cannot be added as a friend. We take our time before actually sending a guild invitation to get to know new players. I have had to switch toons to add potential new guild members onto my alts. Even another 25 or 30 would be a big help.
Block Option – Can this be moved somewhere else away from the “friend icon”? I cannot begin to tell you how many times a friend is accidentally blocked because of the close proximity of those icons and its just not me.
Town Hall Sign Expansion and enhancement: The town hall area is the central hub of the guild/community village. Is there a way to make the sign stand out a little brighter so it doesn’t blend in so much with the background? Can we add our Guild Rules (even our short version here) under a brand new tab “guild rules” – Something that posts guild rules in the town center. If not, perhaps this could be a new project to add that we can work towards getting? A tab that can be clicked on so that guild members can easily read the guild rules. This would be so very helpful! Also an additional two tabs called “Community Vault information” and “Village Nodes/Bins Information” village expectations such as how the nodes and bins are kept and how the community vault is used.

 

[Zlin]

What about featuring player-generated art in the game? Like the shelves at Ardent Castle have books on them, some with poetry and some of canon worthy fan fiction ect.. Not only would it be additional lore for in-game it would allow the contribution of the more creative players to become part of the world. Now I'm fairly new so something like this may already be in effect, just a thought.

 

[Totokam]

Hello
I guess, like a lot of Russian-speaking people , was faced with a problem:
There is Russian translation, and, there is not - it is terrible
Sometimes I must switch language to English to understand what I need to do at quests
Sometimes translate is cutting my eyes such as ( sorry moderators ) eucalyptus condoms ( eng: eucalyptus scornyx )
Sometimes it is misleading.
I thought a long while that Rackabone’s peak is Sunkentooth because in translation it is Sunken peak.
Of course not necessary for you invest resources from you little command. The community for which this language is native can help you.For example there is at least 2 people from my guild already have responded to the my call. I am ask other Russian-speaking guilds. So, I am expect that our number will only increase in future.

 

[Xadi]

Oh! One more thing, could we also please have the local teleporters fixed on the mobile maps? Idk why, but the maps accessed via local teleporters are often zoomed weird, and edges of the map and the teleporters at the edges of the maps (where often teleporters are) get cut off and are completely unusable.

This makes giving and receiving help in difficult areas as well as with elder bosses more difficult because I have to walk the whole way. From my understanding, this isn't an issue on PC, but it is miserable on mobile.

Thank you very much

 

[Kitty the Hunter]

Hello
I guess, like a lot of Russian-speaking people , was faced with a problem:
There is Russian translation, and, there is not - it is terrible
Sometimes I must switch language to English to understand what I need to do at quests
Sometimes translate is cutting my eyes such as ( sorry moderators ) eucalyptus condoms ( eng: eucalyptus scornyx )
Sometimes it is misleading.
I thought a long while that Rackabone’s peak is Sunkentooth because in translation it is Sunken peak.
Of course not necessary for you invest resources from you little command. The community for which this language is native can help you.For example there is at least 2 people from my guild already have responded to the my call. I am ask other Russian-speaking guilds. So, I am expect that our number will only increase in future.

I don't know if the wiki accepts Russian language, but that would be an option for quests.

 

[Novha]

He leído todas las publicaciones hechas en este hilo y todos me parecen perfectas, sobre todo las que mejoran la vida para los jugadores de móvil. Y me encantaría que se agregará la posibilidad de elegir y ponerle a nuestros avatares tatuajes. Mi nuevo traje del evento de Navidad "El Ulfrik" no se si lo escribí bien, me pide a gritos tatuajes nórdicos. Sería maravilloso que agreguen esta posibilidad cosmética. Gracias

 

[Princess Unicorn]

Has this been sad yet? I'd love the option of disabling the shield showing. We can have no gloves, boots, hat, even clothes but we are forever bound to our shield and weapon unless we completely take it off