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!
The protection quotient is meh to me, as I can't use my warriors. If I use my warriors, I can't use the other important villagers. I haven't been doing much in the site recently because there's nothing to do after such a limitation. Some people will probably not be affected, but others who have a lot of villagers, well... not sure. I haven't been earning or doing much from having a limited amount of workers, and I am forced to focus on a few careers instead of looking after a big village like before.
I haven't had any issues because I am not likely to ever expand beyond the default number of villagers, stables, etc. However, even as someone who isn't overly affected by the recent changes I'm appalled at the lack of communication between admins and the userbase. Communication is of critical importance, IMO, especially at this stage in FV's development and to keep making changes that have widespread affects on how people are able to play the game without giving them any warning of it (and in the case of new features without giving any explanations of how things work) is deleterious to creating a positive environment. Springing things on us and then having to backtrack in the wake of user panic is not helpful for anyone. Talk to us. Warn us. Explain things. Please!
Thank you for the post! It's good to see what's going on now as well as what's ahead. I'm looking forward to the Protection Quotient update a lot.
My next thoughts are more directed at fellow users, and less at the staff.
I'm having difficulty with a lot of the comments saying that the recent updates will only make it harder for new players. I was under the impression that the amount of wood a Construction villager needs to make something scales up with their skill, because the amount of wood required has to do with the durability of the object built. To test this, I just started one of my new villagers in the Construction career, and it takes 70 wood to build a house, 30 wood to build a stable, and 10 wood to build a stable. That amount is a lot lower than what we started with when the wood price was static, if I recall correctly.
I suppose a significant issue right now is the intent of the staff conflicting with the desires of the users in a lot of ways....but particularly regarding quality versus quantity in terms of structures. Most users want a lot of structures at once, so they can /do more/ at once, which conflicts with the staff's "repair rather than rebuild" approach. Perhaps we should be talking about that, instead of continuing to argue the same points and failing to listen to each other.
If I'm honest, I've found that this game makes it astonishingly easy to build things and make money. I'm far from a high-level or abundantly wealthy player (I've been busy with life offline, so I've not been playing much) so take that as you will, I suppose. I still believe that having difficulty increase with a user's level is a good thing.
And they have a point with "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." That's not an attack on people who've voiced complaints. It's not trying to say anyone is being selfish. What's being said is that we, as beta testers, need to understand what our role is and adjust our frame of mind to fit it.
Try to keep an open mind, and remember that (as with anything else) a lot of changes are going to be required before the site is able to arrive anywhere near a final product. Yes, it's important that the staff listens to us—but we need to listen to the staff, too.
Hi FV Staff- I am thinking like someone new to the site when I say you shouldn't enact major changes without letting the userbase know. I am saying that when explaining these changes you should maybe try to not sound so condescending.
I mean- I promise you, whatever you do is going to annoy someone. That is the nature of the beast. So learn how to be gracious, or at least silent, and try to think about the difference between petty complaints and valid criticism.
Guys, you need to listen to your beta testers. That's what we're here for.
the recent changes would just make it even more difficult for a new player, though. god forbid a newbie want to get into animal husbandry or herbalism, because anything more than the default ten slots will cost them a bloody fortune. and when plants cost more because people can't make enough of them, then medicine is going to cost more too, and newbies are going to be stuck with sick villagers for ages, because they won't be able to afford to heal them. i feel like the construction costs especially are extremely backwards. with an effective limit of ten villagers, why are houses so relatively cheap? someone in ah or herbalism can use dozens of stables or pots- in fact, they're basically necessary to ah, because you can't do much of anything with only ten stables. but why bother with stables or pots, when you can build a whole new house instead, for only 3-4 times as much as one of the others? when you're driving away the vast majority of the userbase who -know- that this is a beta and there are going to be issues, exactly how well do you think it's going to work when it goes live?
:( well in any case thank you for officially clarifying/justifying these changes, looking forward to the protection quotient changes.
The problem is, I AM thinking about this game as if I was a new player. And I'd be running for the hills. At first I said that some of these changes were making it too hard, but now it just seems like they are making things overly complicated.
The problem is, none of these changes make any sense from an economic standpoint. You want to stop a flood of resources into the economy, yet you make it so that a person could have 10 explorers? That just makes the problem worse.
The problem is you CANNOT find supply and demand issues when you only have 200 or so active people who are all pretty much self sufficient at this point. Everyone has everything they already need (or did, anyway). You're only fixing things on the surface level, and not actually finding the fundamental flaws with the game itself.
Just an idea for the workers, Maybe give us a chance to purchase more worker slots. 20 slots maximum. Players that have more than 10 villagers spent alot to get those villagers for the convenience of the work they did. And with the maximum of only 10 workers, basically just throws the hard work people did to get those extra villagers,
Mods. These changes are going to make it more difficult for the new placer to progress. Idk how you guys play it, but some of these changes are gonna severely damage the gameplay mechanics. You've almost made it too difficult for a pet site :/
Idk how many of you are talking in command positions up there, but when a large group of people say something sucks you should probably listen to them. FV is already getting bad enough rep as it is, and this kind of talking down and ignorance is just making you guys look worse as well as the site.
You are just fuelling that fire even further tbh. Beta testing is for communication and improvement. If you didn't to do that then you shouldn't have opened the site for it at all.
Case closed.
Now I'm going to take my hoard of explorers and find me some things.