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 don't know about anyone else but I feel like removing the caps on all of this has undone the "repair vs replace" change that went into effect. I'm not getting 5x as many items than I was previously, I'm able to get enough wood in a day to nearly make a house which was the same as before, I'm making MORE money with selling plants than I was before. There's now MORE of those items you were trying to restrict flooding into the market now. On top of it being annoying that there's random half greyed out images in my villagers list now. WHich I do not like but that is probably not going to matter after I get used to it.
The issue I've had with these changes is that poof one minute things are like they've been since the beginning and BAM all in one week major overhauls completely chagnig the way the game has to be played without warning.
I'm here to tell you that, if as a new player this was happening, I'd peace out. You need to drastically rethink how you implement large gameplay altering "improvements". Changing things after the huge influx of omg I'm leaving and omg could we have gotten a warning please feels like placation instead of helpful.
From what I saw, most people would have been okay with the changes made yesterday IF THERE HAD BEEN A HEADS UP and an ability to pick which ten.
It is bad business, and yes I'm considering this a business because you ARE trying to if not make a bit of a profit, make ends meet, to radically overhaul things with absolutely no forewarning. People were FAR LESS critical (from what I saw) of the tax because that went into effect AFTER A WARNING. What happened to that policy?
Bandaid ripping doesn't really work with changes like these.
I feel like the "don't think about how it effects you" seems like you're basically inferring that we're all being selfish and that we really don't get to have a say and that makes me wonder why you wanted beta testers if we're not supposed to give you any kind of feedback on your implementations.
Again, mostly fine with the changes, NOT okay with how they were implemented.
When did the construction costs go up so sharply? It's had a negative effect on how timely I can create pots, stables, and houses. Those items have become radically expensive, and it's going to be hard for new players to get started due to this.
As a beta tester, we're sort of supposed to tell you what works and what doesn't. This set worker thing, is not really working for both economy and gameplay wise. In a game where people would want to invest in villagers, it actually hurts your game than it does good. You should actually listen to the community on each update, otherwise there's no point in beta testers if you are not going to listen to them (thus making them not recommend your game and making you lose money). If you plug in the protection quotient with the set as worker mechanics, it would 100% make the game unbearable (Kind of is, but pretty much the nail in the coffin).
Beta Tester =/= New player. Sorry you asked for beta testers, not new players otherwise your game would've been an open beta. Heck have this be an Open Beta, it would fix the demand and supply thing quite well.
Actually even if you put that rule there, it doesn’t prevent people from selling their accounts. In reality, it seems more like a desperate attempt at keep your players in like an abusive relationship. So yes I think this ‘game’ is more of an abusive relationship now. Thank you for giving me a reason to potentially not recommend this game to friends who were interested in (and could’ve spent money on it too).
So quit disrespecting what little player base you have left and listen to your beta testers please.
I agree that announcing that changes are going to happen instead of randomly implementing them would probably be a very good idea, but I am also partial to the idea that you should discuss potential new ideas with us few remaining beta testers as well and get feedback about how to improve it (or whether or not it should be implemented in the first place) before it goes into place.
Right now a lot of users are angry that you've changed major functions of the site without letting us know first. And instead of allowing us to play the game as we please, it seems like you're pushing us to use certain functions (repairing vs building and a villager having one job vs switching jobs, for example) instead of just letting every player play the way they want as long as it's not hurting other people. So many of us would prefer it if equal focus was put on both/all aspects of something instead of trying to shove down our throats that we should do it a certain way because the way the site functions makes it easier.
A good example is that I have 13 villagers. One for each of the 10 jobs, plus 2 extra explorers and 1 extra warrior to take advantage of the previous cap on explorer turns per hour and the warrior turns per hour. Now my crafter, alchemist and tailor who I didn't use very often anyway are not working and thus useless, and if I want to be able to use them then I have to swap them out for someone I do use often and wait a whole flipping day to get my useful villager back again. I plan to swap them out for one of my explorers and once they're doing crafting whatever turn them into an explorer until I can swap them back for the regular one but that's just a huge pain in the butt and a completely unnecessary set of steps to take in order to make a costume or whatever else.
Oh, "When considering future changes we make, please do not consider how it affects you as a beta tester."
So, I'm pretty sure its our job as beta testers to consider how changes you make affect us.
also a comment about the changes and everything- a huge complaint was that there was no warning for this, and like others have said, a lot of people dont follow the changelog. i dont feel like itd be a bad decision to just make the changelog update to EVERYONE and not make it opt-in. it seems like a weird thing to make opt-in, anyway? the updates arent really obtrusive :9
Not sure how to say this without potentially sounding rude, so I'll keep it brief with a note that I mean no disrespect. In the same vein as asking your players to consider the health of the game, I have to ask that you not dismiss your players' concerns as simple greed or discontent. I'm not saying you are--and in fact the change to how the 24 hour wait works suggests you are in fact listening--I'm just expressing concern at the wording in this news announcement. There were some very valid complaints about the recent changes that didn't have anything to do with disregarding the overall health of the game. Just the opposite, in fact. I'll end with a huge thank you for the continued updates, and a wish things work as expected! Very much looking forward to the upcoming features.
thank you for including your justification for the recent changes in this post, every little bit of communication of intent helps! I'm personally excited for the changes, and I can't wait to see how they play out!
oh protection quotient will get updates? i'm excited to see that feature getting updated! my warriors are definitely ready for that!
good to see a more extended newspost about a lot of these things. hopefully we'll start seeing less "im leaving forever" and more "i'll come back once beta is over and things have stabilized"