Knowledge Base Contest Finished
Posted by Mat on 24 Oct 2016, 8:56 pm
After encountering a number of hurdles, the Knowledge Base Contest has been finalized and we are thrilled to have a new batch of player-written entries in our new Knowledge Base. We thank all of the members who participated in the contest, and congratulate the winners! There are some grand prize winners (who received the Spiny Mouse) we would like to invite to contact us for their PayPal prizes.
Second, the moderation team had a meeting and have made some additional changes to the rules and infractions. Most important is that moderators have noticed a need for different infraction point levels for sexual content violations. We now have three levels of infractions to address different levels of violations so that players who make a sexual comment aren't immediately permanently banned for violating the rule, and instead the punishment better fits the infraction. We also split the "exploitation" infraction into two, the new one being a lesser infraction, per moderator suggestion.
We have also introduced some new rules, which you can review on the rule page:
- Don't post frightening or sickening content. Frightening content is defined as graphic real life photographs or photo-realistic artwork indistinguishable from a photograph depicting violence toward humans or animals. Please note this rule isn't intended to police Painties, and exists because of issues with players posting graphic photographs in the forums to disturb others.
- Players may not use the reports function to file false reports about others. Players may not file multiple reports on the same issue, or contact multiple moderators, to have another moderator review the report when a report has already been resolved. Escalation of a report may only be done by contacting Admin-Deinmaar. This rule was added because we have had instances of players reporting others multiple times to get them in trouble despite no rule-breaking behavior having occurred (a form of harassment, unfortunately).
We have also clarified a handful of rules:
- Don't sell, or attempt to sell, your account, items, villagers, or any other Furvilla content (this does not include Painties) for real money. We have clarified this includes attempting to sell account contents.
- Doxxing is defined as posting the personal information of others, including their real name, address, location, IP address, school, real life photographs, or anything that may compromise their privacy. This is not allowed. Previously, this rule stated that posting personal information of Furvilla members is not allowed, and this clarifies a person does not have to be a Furvilla member to be protected under this rule.
Last, here are a couple of general updates:
- The Paintie Team is currently interviewing a new potential Paintie moderator. We are looking forward to potentially adding this new person to the team and are working toward training them for the opening.
- We will be testing the Protection Quotient feature (that was turned off in early beta testing) soon. Please make sure your warriors are prepared for testing as we will be turning it on and adjusting factors as necessary.
- The majority of the features that have been released in the last couple of weeks (such as the Giving Tree and Quests) are not complete yet. While you are welcome to play around with them in the meantime, we will not be formally announcing them until the features are complete with all of their art and rewards. The Quest feature, for instance, will likely be getting its rewards in late November after the Plush feature has been complete.
- We have heard a lot of your criticism regarding the changes we have made the last couple of days. While we understand your concern, we feel that your goals and ours are unfortunately not aligning. Our goal is to ensure a healthy economy for the game and fixing supply issues that have cropped up in the course of beta testing. We are studying the economy of the game and ensuring that any problems in supply and demand are addressed prior to the game opening (and there have been many, as you may have observed from most materials having no value except to sell back). While we know that our decisions have not been popular among the beta testers, we feel they are important for the health and longevity of the game when it releases, and the ability of the players, upon the game's release, to be able to enjoy their game experience. Please remember your job as beta testers is to test features and help us simulate the game's economy post-release so we can identify supply and demand issues, and not to play the game as if it were already released.
When considering future changes we make, please do not consider how it affects you as a beta tester. Please think as if you were a new player in the released game economy, and whether these changes will allow you to make money off the items you collect and craft by ensuring they require time and effort to achieve. The purpose of restrictive changes in the game's design is to ensure that supply isn't wildly outstripping demand. Players will not be able to sell their items if every player is capable of making them in excess.
Thank you!
I agree tenfold with Azzie - Using such a small userbase in a closed beta where most people can self-sustain (or be incredibly close to such) is not a way to measure how the economy will work upon release.
And to add, the updates are hard to deal with because WE are used to the old ways. New users wont be mad or run away because they never had the old ways we had. New users will not be upset, but beta users will because we had the old system while new players will have never known it. that's why they say "View it as if you're a new user"
Tbh I just...want warnings before hand. I've already adjusted to the new working thing, I just panic with no warning. Removing the caps was fine imo, I wish collecting animals was uncapped too but eh. raw material shouldn't be hell to get, uncapping warriors and explorers isn't bad? Because you can turn that cheap stuff in to costumes and all that stuff. Those are base items, you need a LOT to make the good stuff. Same with meds and potions, seeds make plants and plants make meds/potions and to keep you from seed growing to hard, pots lose a point each harvest so that seems balanced for the faster seed gain. The increase in wood needed to do stuff? uncapped explorers and warriors help yet again. I actually think it's pretty balanced now once put together. I was mad at first, but it's actually running smoother for me now. I'm upset 11 of my villagers are now "workless trophies" but oh well.
I think people are thinking wrong. We are supposed to be viewing things as if it was there all along, I complained a lot at first too but I see it actually is all pretty good now. Test them as new and forget the old system for a moment, you might get to like it. Use mixed jobs, make all 10 explore then warriors then husbandry to collect ect and return to basic jobs when ready to make meds potions ect. I keep one husbandry, one herbalist during my explore grinding (seed build up is scarry) and the rest I cycle. It's kinda fun to mix it up. And when the site opens December, everything not selling will start selling as the site gains new users. So those "common items" will be important because people will want weapons, potions, costumes, and all that. Us beta users have most of what we want, so obviously not much is selling rn.
Surprisingly, the rule for filing false reports wasn't already implemented... Were people doxxing others here?
I'm going to be blunt: this is not how beta testing works, you have to communicate changes to your beta testers AND listen to their feedback (BOTH positive and negative). Some players of this game probably have years of experience in Pet Sites, other stategy-management games or even real-life management, so it's safe to say that they know what they're talking about when they give feedback. Other players are far less experienced and might not know much about what works best in game-economy and such, but at the same time they need to be listened to and actually receive proper info about the changes because they're the majority of your userbase. In general, the whole player base NEEDS to be listened to, otherwise failure is inevitable (and you lost a third of the online userbase already).
Talking about the change directly, I find that removing the cap on professions and putting it on active villagers is not a smart move. That way, people will get a team of 10 explorers and get so many resources that what's already cheap will get cheaper and what's already pricey will remain pricey (ain't nobody gonna waste a chance for easy money). A better idea would be to readjust the drop rate of Wood (currently it's the material with the highest request, especially due to the increase need of it for more skilled workers) so that people will have enough of it without crashing the economy connected to it.
In general, I liked how advanced users (who earned their 10+ villagers) could sustain their own little system between their villagers and then sell completed product at non-inflated prices (keeping prices from becoming too high and actively helping people out), but now it's practically impossible.
Also, it's sort of a low blow to those who had dozens of villagers and paid for their slots, this change practically made them waste money and resources on something that can't do more than just "sit there and be pretty".
Now all they need to do is disable the stalls of all of the users that have completely quit playing so I stop buying things from people who don't play the game anymore, glad they have noticed the problems with the economy though, can't wait for their solution
Well, I guess these are some good updates. But they might be too much for people who hate reading XD but besides that, they actually don't upset me this time like the updates normally do. Now all I need to figure out is what the heck is with my villagers and how to use it XD
Oh also, forgot to even mention.
You're trying to fix the economy in a closed beta game, where everyone has gathered plenty of resources from being here since July. The game has around 200-300 players playing at a time. This is not a good way to tell how the economy will function once the game is launched.
These are important updates but can we take a moment to appreciate that TEP species in the thumbnail
I think that one of the reason that I, and numerous others, were so unhappy with these changes is the lack of communication. I still feel that this "workers" change is unfair to those of us who paid a lot of FC to unlock new villagers which are basically now useless (although I do appreciate removing the 24 hour waiting period on an activated worker). Not to mention how having uncapped Explorers and Warriors will effect the market.
However, the most annoying this is that it sometimes feels like FV's staff don't want to listen to their beta testers. People had to jump through hoops to finally get an "idea development" board on the forums after weeks of not being allowed to talk about suggestions, improvements, or ideas at all, and then when FV does implement these (huge) changes it's just done without any prior announcement or opportunity for the players to voice our opinions or concerns about it before it happens.
This is what makes it so frustrating.