9 replies to this topic

[Angel of Annihilation]

Here is a post by our community manager Niko Snow.

Niko Snow, on 14 August 2013 - 02:03 PM, said:

It's easier to test and adjust this way: By first reducing the overall reward, we can observe the telemetry of how much less players are making overall during this period of time and thus make better judgement on the value of future rewards.

This also helps reduce the possibility of over-shooting our adjustments and giving away too many rewards. In such a scenario, we would have to nerf those rewards permanently and be left with much upset from any players who had grown accustomed to those greater reward levels.

In our current development: We can confidently counter frustrations with the current rewards implementation with the knowledge that more rewards will be coming, similarly to when rewards were previously adjusted last year.

Your other concerns should be addressed in future communications from the Dev Team on the upcoming rewards.

OH BOY THIS I HAVE A REAL PROBLEM WITH!!! LET ME EXPLAIN WHY:

I have a current active premium subscription running right now that COST ME REAL MONEY. I started it right before the last patch. Right now I am earning about 40k less per match than I did when I bought the premium subscription. I play on average at least 20 matchs a day. 20 x 40,000 C-bills x 30 days = 24 million C-bills I am BEING SHORTED while you reduce C-bill earnings for your test.

SO....I take it I am going to be getting a lump sum of 24 million C-bills at the conclusion of your test right? I mean instead of using the test server like you should be to determine the reward adjustments, you have decided to devalue my premium subscription while you test the economy so I deserve compensation right?

Seriously, this is total BS. I can understand making a mistake but if your intentionally testing the economy by doing a massive reduction in C-bill earnings then ANYONE who has an active premium subscription deserves some sort of compensation even if it is an extra 7-15 days of premium WHICH COSTS YOU NOTHING TO DO.

I was planning on renewing my premium subscription when it was done but unless I see some sort of compensation for the loss of C-bills my REAL, HARD EARNED MONEY was supposed to buy me, I am not spending an additional dime on this game.

CAN I REITERATED THAT I AM REALLY FRICKEN POed right now!!!!

Edited by Viktor Drake, 15 August 2013 - 01:05 PM.

[DaZur]

I believe the economy and the game / server are independent of each other aside from game-play, the economy is "global", thus the economies are not unique.

Additionally, even if the economy was able to be segregated, the limited exposure during narrow window the test environment would be difficult to extrapolate into real-world metrics...

I share your concerns and do appreciate your points of frustration though...

Edited by DaZur, 15 August 2013 - 07:28 AM.

[Nik Van Rhijn]

Plus they seem to be able to run the test server only in short "bursts" with presumably a limited population.
yet another nail in the coffin. Once again they introduce something with the balances to be introduced "later". from my reading of the posts we will be told about them on 17th September, but they won't necessarily be introduced then.
Does not compute.

[Angel of Annihilation]

DaZur, on 15 August 2013 - 07:26 AM, said:

I believe the economy and the game / server are independent of each other aside from game-play, the economy is "global", thus the economies are not unique.

Additionally, even if the economy was able to be segregated, the limited exposure during narrow window the test environment would be difficult to extrapolate into real-world metrics...

I share your concerns and do appreciate your points of frustration though...

And this is exactly why I am upset. We have a test server so why isn't thing tested fully on the test server. There were tons and tons of posts of people complaining they couldn't make the limited time slots for testing 12 vs 12, hell I am unemployed and had trouble making the time slots. If they would have opened the test server for a couple weeks or even a couple weekends, they would have plenty of data to analyze.

Also how many matches do they need to realize there is something wrong with their calculations. I know it only took me about 3-4 to realize there was something wrong with my earnings and maybe a total of a dozen to determine just how much I less I was making on average and this is without having access to the backend data PGI has and their were hundreds of players on test for the limited times 12 vs 12 was active.

I mean how hard is it to take the data from those 100s of players and probably several thousand matches that took place during each test period, average up the per player earnings then compare it against earlier pre-patch data?

Devs look at the data.

"Hmm earnings pre-patch 140k average for a win. 90k average for a loss. Earning post patch. 100k for a win, 60k for a loss. HEY GUYS WE HAVE A PROBLEM....Maybe we should look at this before we go live with the reward changes?"

Really hard to do that right?

Apparently.

Also, there is no global economy and changes to the economy effect only one thing, how fast or slow you the individual progresses through content. We can't trade among each other. I can't sell you my used Hunchback and you can't sell me your extra AC/20.

Game also has a money based progression system. You need C-bills to get a new mech, module or upgrade. XP is just a side show.

[Unrelenting Farce]

This is one of the many problems with this game right now. I am also pissed, as I had about 12 days of remaining premium time before they patched.

(edit for clarification)

Edited by Unrelenting Farce, 15 August 2013 - 02:24 PM.

[Scromboid]

First of all, quick clarification: There is no economy in this game. There is a reward system. Economy suggests that we can trade freely between members, which we cannot do. This is more like Chuck E Cheese, where you put in real money and trade tickets back into the counter to get drastically devalued prizes.

OP has a right and a reason to be pissed. I do not and will ~NEVER~ buy premium time because PGI is telling us right now that they do not care what the value of your money is to you. They are the gods of this realm and they can do whatever they damn well please, no matter what you think about it.

Everyone with premium time during this ignorant 'test and adjust' period should be refunded their premium time for the duration of this ignorance and we should all be apologized to for their lack of foresight and the callous way they are handling this.

Lastly, the 'logic' does not even hold up.

"Hey kid. I am going to beat you to death. But to make it easier on you, I am going to hit you with a baseball bat a bunch of times first, so the punches do not hurt as bad later."



"This also helps reduce the possibility of over-shooting our adjustments and giving away too many rewards"

Oh and HEAVEN FORBID you err on the side of the players........!!

[M0rpHeu5]

Viktor Drake, on 15 August 2013 - 03:07 AM, said:

I was planning on renewing my premium subscription when it was done but unless I see some sort of compensation for the loss of C-bills my REAL, HARD EARNED MONEY was supposed to buy me, I am not spending an additional dime on this game.

CAN I REITERATED THAT I AM REALLY FRICKEN POed right now!!!!

1st I got to say thet i am a die hard hater of the CB nerf, I actualy think we were getting little CB before but when you are are paying money for a game that's still on Beta you must know that there is a rick for a masive change that you might hate.

Edited by M0rpHeu5, 16 August 2013 - 09:54 AM.

[Lunatic_Asylum]

I am happy that C-Bills were finally adjusted properly. It actually would play more if they removed the double experience bonus (I just play until I get my double experience and log off).

[sokitumi]

I activated my 90 days about 2 weeks before the CB nerf. Saw the change... rolled the yes... nothing surprises me with this team anymore. We've been "testing" the game for more than a year, then 5 weeks from launch... lets start balancing the economy? Clowns.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Namais, on 20 August 2013 - 04:37 AM, said:

This sort of thnig is why everyone went full ****** when they announced open beta with no resets. Since a year ago I've had founders mechs effectively scrapped, email addresses handed to spammers, any incentive to play a role other than nuker obliterated and now income massacred.

No backsies though - because even though it's a beta you can all still pay to get kicked in the balls every two months by inept designers. Great deal.

I don't have a problem with Open Beta not having resets and in fact I wouldn't have invested a dime in this game if I couldn't carry the progress I have made so far into release. However once they start taking money, they are at least obligated to maintain consistancy in certain matters like the general economy. I mean the economy has been the same since open beta started and then less than a month prior to release they suddenly change it drastically? W T F !!!

This is the same as suddenly deciding that the Hero mech bonus to C-bills is too high so they were scaling them back to 20% bonuses instead of 30% a month before release. This isn't something we got for free, this is something we paid real money for based on the expectation that you would always recieve a 30% bounus because.....wait for it.....wait for it....YOU PAID REAL MONEY FOR IT.

Same goes for premium. I paid real money with the expectation that what I was buying was going to be the same as what I got last month and it is not. Hell some people may have not purchased various hero mechs, other MC mechs or the Phoenix Packs IF they had known they would be seeing progression become a mind numbing grind less than a month before launch.

Basically yes you expect changes in any MMO, release, open beta or otherwise, but drastic changes are not good unless the changes are decidedly positive. Just look at SWG. That game was very strong prior to them getting greedy and deciding to drastically change the format of the game in hopes of attracting even more players. Instead the game totally failed.

Remember always buff, never nerf and if you can't buff, leave it the hell alone.

Edited by Viktor Drake, 20 August 2013 - 08:00 AM.