I hit my 3 year reward the other day and all I could think to myself was... so I have been playing 3 years just to have the basic commodity of terraformers essentially removed for me ? Does someone at rank 500 who auto-ranks somehow deserve them any more than I do for npc farming for an hour or so ? Is the game supposed to END at this rank and restart at rank 1 or something losing all my work and investment ??? Your unwillingness to change the pre-existing npc max ranks tells me so.

If you've been listening most of the affected people are still waiting for shall we call it a more "complete" solution to the problem. I know I waited a whole 2 months at rank 2200 and did not get the satisfaction I wanted and so I sighed and continued onward terraformer-less, but still unhappy. Now my unhappiness has slowly grown into anger that needs a voice and no one else is willing to say anything but by the way we are all tired of always apologizing for our disappointments and having to keep our mouths shut to a person who won't even talk to us anymore. Why do you think people started another forum where they could speak freely? This used to be an open community, an open communication - even if it was not all positive it was honest and we all lived with it. Do you realize people are less upset about your actions than your inability to explain WHY you are doing this to us and the game? Are you tired of operating the game that you just lost the motivation? We have stuck with it this long, well most of us, many are leaving never to return and you could have saved them man. You could have saved them...

I am a paying customer even the portion where I pay CTP to have someone else install base components I have CAUSED $500 to be injected into your pocket in the last few months (and even the portion I have purchased directly for GL is more than I paid for any other game I have ever owned) so damn it I get to say my piece instead of fade into nothingness and quit and give up because I LOVED the game for so long that I care about it enough to even be mad:


(1) The rank 2200 npc spawn rate combined with its mixed drops means you're not getting many terraformers at all, or at least it's pretty unsatisfying most of the time for the 3-4k energy it takes to kill it. I think all or nearly all of the affected players agree upon that point.

(2) We have assumed incorrectly that you would "deal" with the problem shortly with "future npcs" : one stronger version with the same spawn rate to replace each of the major lost types, each with the same drop set. But we both know that's not true, is it ? We all know you can roll out a batch of npcs if you want to for this, or you can just adjust the max ranks on the existing until you do. The one that exists wasn't even planned for it was forced into existence by an angry mob. It is not even a placeholder it is an appeasement. Nothing is planned. At least I haven't heard anything.

(3) After numerous reports on the cloaking issue (some recent), we all know there is a bug. And since you have not fixed the above, how are we to replace those 15x artifact planets when they are stolen from this bug? This leaves the position that high rank player's planets and AP must decay over time and that cloak doesn't work as advertised. Would appreciate some kind of report of monitoring (this is not hard to do in PHP) of the scan v. cloak rolls (cloak > scan = fail, or fail/success rolls). We are particularly interested in the ones around 20,000 scan/cloak where it's not adding up. Please just say something as the problem continues.

(4) Due to the rank 2200 npc's 6000 cloak if I want to see it I have to see all the other elites/bosses from cloak 2000-6000 some of which cannot really be dealt with if you are not in a top 50 legion. Since I am busy helping new players and none can see it, and it's not realistic to solo these, I have to just leave my scan off and so it's not realistic for me to farm for the rank 2200 npc after I have done a tactical purge. I doubt that affects all the rank 2200+ guys but what can I say I like helping low ranks and I want to play the game my way. I think it would have affected Namalak though as he upgrades bases too. Well actually there is nothing really left to do BUT npc and upgrade bases at this rank so I guess it kinda DOES affect some of them after all.

(5) Also we need more help on the new player retention I suggest putting a Wiki link next to Forum sounds dumb but it's buried in "Help" menu and I have yet to see a single new player actually realize there is a wiki who hasn't been told about it.


Anyway, it is the two main sets of problems which bothers me every single day that I wait for a fix, or perhaps just some meaningful answer. As a development problem both of these are trivial and the coders around here know it and have already called the bluff. I just man I wish the OLD DAN the guy who used to love the Indie game he built, where is that Dan ?? I don't hate you, I miss you is more accurate. You are missing in action around here on the key community issues and your monthly active users are dropping from the high AND the low end of the ranks in game and none of us want that trend to continue.

Though I do not have the same problems yet, I agree that we need more activity, Mr. Montgomery. We need fixes to these extremely well-known issues that keep coming up time and time again. We need you to communicate with us on why you are doing what you're doing with the Dark Mass-Carrier instead of simply continuing the T.O. Troop Carrier, Blade Harvester, and Dark Arms Carrier's rank range.
Dan, please, this is not an attack on you, but rather a plea to listen and communicate with the playerbase. Please listen to this plea.

Please tell me the irony of the date of this thread isn't lost on everyone....

I am not at 2200 yet, but from what I can see I gain more terraformers/rank now than ever. I min shot most NPCs on my bt, except for the new elites/bosses so I rake in a lot of NPCs if I devote an entire rank to NPCing, 1300+ sometimes. That's usually 3-5 terraformers for me. A rank 500 might get 1/rank maybe .5/rank.

The reason for the mixing of the NPCs into one is to dilute the drop rate and the min hit is to make it so you kill fewer NPCs/rank. I don't like it personally, much rather there were more fix ranked NPCs to dilute the old matched ones. I mean really if he wanted to keep the # of NPC/rank killed he can change the formulas so it takes more hits, not fewer to kill the same NPC as you rank. So instead of 1 or 2 super high min shot NPCs, you have thousands of +1 hits here and there. You spend more energy killing the same 1000 NPCs, and the rate you kill is slower due to more hits being needed, but the # of terraformers/rank remains the same. Just my 2 cents.

As for the cloak issue. Personally I have never lost a 15x+ art world. I cloak them beyond the unlimited artifacts so most people can't even see them as explorers. I understand that most of the planets "scanned" that shouldn't be were never even close to the max. Which is a bad idea, because unless you have it max cloaked, cloak is pretty much a waste, but that also seems to be a bit of a range for this error, go above it and you won't have an issue.

It's not difficult to go past 22k nowadays, with the new ctl item and the % cloak mods. Plenty to be stolen or bought if needed. Passives, a +1600 structure and a few easily repeatable structures. Not sure why people have difficulties thb, but not really concerned myself.

I do however agree, you should be able to play with low ranks and still do everything, but the cluster is just not a solo NPC. The rest you can, but they are pains to do so.

Careful where you take this one guys...

Thanks for the warning, but as it is right now, in our view anyway, it is merely a call to Dan to communicate. Honestly, it would be fine with me if he said he was just busy, and so he couldn't spend much time on GL. I understand that RL > GL, and if that's the case, it is understood.

i do agree dan needs to speak out to us i have made multiple complaints tickets 1 of a guy leaving homophobic comments on my ships comm that were uncalled for another same player making comments about my mother who had died only a few years ago to cancer.. others were about small issues about the game i had came across and not a single response from dan yes making a complaint about a player dans response should be thank you i will look into this as it is private for dans outcomes and thoughts on what should happen as for the other complaints at least respond back saying thank you for the information and heads up about the issue i will look into this...

instead i got nothing no reply once so ever i have looked on forums every day to see if he even posted in forums about the issues to inform others that they are being looked into if anyone else had the same issue so i agree with 100% dan needs to please speak up..

as for the npcs i would like to see new upgraded 1's by time i get to rank 2200 and some others we no longer see after a certain low rank be added back in or at least there drops would like to see some taken away it annoying hitting these certain shadlin npcs with a single shot yea nice exp but annoying they show up the most lol...

hopefully dan reads this and takes it to heart and speaks to all of us in the game again...

although i will say keep up with the new badge mods and the new lab stuff everyone is liking them some of us hating to hunt for the lab print but we all know that is game of chance looking forward for the new updates though and hopefully a more out spoken dan

lol, ok? Is that a threat, or some kind of ominous warning? who is violating what Forum rule here?

Also, glad to see someone else agrees that cloak is broken sometimes - I get beat up if I ever try to mention it myself.

One more thing, I think one good reason why the terra former shortage is "built-in" to the game dynamics is that Dan wants us to buy GP to get terraformers.

Terraformers are way overpriced. QSE I can see it since the drop rate was cut in 1/3 you can't get all rifts anymore just farming that I am aware of (it was barely possible before). It's not built in it's just an arbitrary limit from long ago that's now affecting people when he thought no one would reach over 2000.

Anyway, it just seems like months of silence pass until someone gets pissed enough, starts a riot, a few people get banned, and MAYBE something gets accomplished. That is the GL forums in a nutshell. If it doesn't get to that point then nothing happens around here.

That's a pretty sick system IMO, but I guess not enough people care or are affected by the aforementioned issues to reach critical mass. Every day I want to scream but screaming is prohibited. Try to diplomacy but nothing. Want to quit but invested too much time and money into it.

No respect. None. And no offense to Mr. Hawking but with you around I think he cares even less about addressing the forum because he's outsourced dealing with the forum to you. However we apparently brought that on ourselves when we asked for a moderator so I can't blame you for anything. I just do not understand his motivations anymore... and I don't know why he ignores us so much. It really makes me sad and upset.

I wish there was a direct way for the player base to prioritize features and bugs and push for stuff to get done.

This is depressingly true. When I asked whether he was going to fix the 0 disabled people spamming he same something along the lines of, if enough people care. It is a bug, the fact someone has to get annoyed enough to exploit to the point so many people are affected and then voice their opinions on it just so he might consider changing it.

I am surprised so many people still play this with the current system of change in place.

something really does need to be done though, if more was done to keep players then maybe more would stay playing and in turn be GP buyers.
i spend on GP but starting to wonder if i should with so little to look forward to other than being able to help new players or resets get going more.

the ability to build and keep good planets is one of the main parts of this game so anything that can help that continue regardless of rank is good and sorry to say, but i agree, the new NPC for rank 2200 is to rare and to much junk in the trunk on what loot can be dropped, QSE, terraformers and p fluxes should really be about the only loot from it and then it does sound like it is to rare to find.


i have spent way to much time and cash on GP to give up on this game in a hurry but i and many others i'm sure are starting to wonder as more needs to be done to keep the high ranks that in turn help the new players in the hope that they to will become long term players too and the chance to become GP spenders / buyers themselves to help keep the game alive

It's not a threat or ominous warning. It's more of a cautioning. No rules have been broken (yet), I'm just letting you guys know that this thread has been seen. Given the topic, it's going to keep our (the moderators) attention. I'm sure you all recall the last time someone "called out" Webguydan. As long as this thread stays civil, stays reasonable, doesn't get inflammatory, doesn't get confrontational, I think we'll have no problems. It's when people make threads like this and DO get inflammatory and confrontational that bad things happen to them. I'd rather not see that happening again, so I'm cautioning you guys to not let it get out of hand.

Thank you.

Yes we remember last time... It is the reason why you actually have the position you do. Or do you forget that as well?

On the topic ( which in case people hasn't realised started 3 months to the day from the last blow up). I agree Dan needs to communicate more- keep your user base happy and they are more likely to give you money. Take the new GTA game, a lot of features that players have been calling for have been implemented and it is on course to be a major sell out in most shops... Most of the issues are very simple fixes I just hope Dan makes said changes before he loses more players

So, Dan adds an upgraded version of the T.O carrier which comes around once every 500 npcs or so. He gets 10gp worth of cash for a refill, and at 2200+ you could get atleast 3 terraformers from that one refill (numbers might be a little off, but you get the point). You get 108gp worth of terraformers for 10gp~

I'm sorry, but did that honestly need to be pointed out? Higher rank players are more likely to be able to autorank, so Dan will naturally be getting ZERO gp from it, while you get the equivalent of 36gp each time you get a terraformer.

Respectfully, you got a replacement npc which drops what you were after~ Did you actually think it would be tailor-made to the demands of every rank 2200+? It was always going to be a bit crap to you because it's "not the same as before".

This reply, isn't addressed directly at yourself, but moreso the points you are posting;

I've had to point out numerous times to people, who are severely misinformed it seems, that we wanted rank range extension... not a replacement, and when we learned that we were getting a replacement(which was only because lots of us kicked up a furore of a fuss over the situation and demanded that Dan address certain long overdue fixes), we even asked Dan to keep it to just 2-3 drops(tf's/flux/qse's).

He addressed the NPC issue rather quickly, and just chucked everything into the one NPC, citing that it was because of the lack of NPC's post-2200....

Dan did say that he would do something about the drop %'s and drops once he was able to dilute the NPC pool, so the argument over that is moot, since he's already said he would at some point, its just a case that none of us know when that will happen.

As to NPC dilution... Here's an idea... if you don't chuck all the drops onto one NPC and actually extended the 3 original NPC's lost... there would have been 3 NPC's that "would" dilute the pool. There have even been around a dozen new NPC ideas posted, all of which were easy to implement as simple common/uncommon NPC's, but even those weren't introduced to dilute the pool.

Despite popular belief, high ranks do purchase GP. You see, if we had more terraformers, we would, by simple deduction, invest in more Quasi-Spacial Expanders and Reality Transfusers.. perhaps not always 1st hand, but every day on trade groups you see people offering to sell planets that have clearly had QSE's used on, and people requesting to purchase QSE's. Well we buy those up like hot cakes, because who doesn't want rings on that new planet you created, or large moons.

Lastly... "comes around once every 500 NPC's"... wow, misinformed much? Killed 5k NPC's in the last 2 days... 5 Dark Mass Carriers... 3 tf's/1 biovap/1 purifier.

Also, just to clear something up here, before anyone comes in with the whole "perhaps its to ensure, those over rank 2200 don't get stronger/slow their growth".... I've shot that pretense down so many times... not only do prohibitive costs are what slow us down, and the more planets you own, the more expensive those costs become.

Since i brought up the subject matter of inhibiting growth... Dan has already ensured that the next generation of players... i.e. yourself and others will be much stronger than ourselves in time, simply because you all get a head start these days with bases and base drops(thanks to scan legions being assisted by much stronger legions). Then there's the new NPC's, which mean you can make your ships much better, thanks to increased cache chances(Pevreon & DCN available for 1100 ranks simultaneously).

So much in this game, that ensures you and thousands of others will eventually make their ships multiple times better than those already rank 2k+, is all from the efforts of those that are high ranks, maybe not 2200+, but most of whom are closing in on these ranks. If we hadn't kicked up a fuss, multiple times over, you would not have so much to look forward too in playing this game. All we are trying to do with this is ensure that we can still get some fun and enjoyment out of the game, and NPC'ing for little to zero reward is not fun.

---------------------

Now onto the subject at hand.

I think all anyone here is asking for, is some knowledge to be shared by Dan, on when we might expect some post-2200 NPC dilution(even 4-5 new common/uncommon NPC's would be enough of a dilution), that would mean either the old NPC's(troop carrier/harvester/arms carrier) make a return... or another 2 NPC's are introduced alongside the Dark Mass Carrier, and we can sling the purifiers, bio-vaps and planet flux on those NPC's, and we can scrap the krionite torpedo's altogether, because lets face it, for those over 2200, they really are a waste.

I'm not going to be so unfair as to ask for them this month... heck i'm fine with them not being next month either, simply because Dan only laid out his plans for "likely adjustments" 2 months ago(which was when he started with all this new content coming our way).

I honestly do think this is a simple case of people(myself included), whom requested something, and unfortunately for us, Dan went in a different direction with the idea, than we would've liked. Unfortunately, when something like that is done, especially when it was a user suggested idea, that only affects minimal people, very few care about it, and as such little is done.

The 500 number was an "If Dan adds a perfect like for like replacement of the T.O Trooper"(forgot the name earlier, hence the confusion)

My apologies for the confusion~

There are two mechanism which are not really working here : the input and the output.

The input I have seen in successful games is player voting, ranking issues, and so forth, possibly in game as been suggested before so everyone has a vote. What this means is instead of defaulting to "I must build new content" ie a new mission or something, we can display a need for an issue to be addressed with a higher priority than a new feature. ie, "what do you think is most important for me to work on next?"

The output is simply: what is coming down the pipe. The thread(s) where that is supposed to happen are mostly dead so idk what he is working on most of the time. It used to be the Updates thread came pretty often and the coming soon was more active too. I'd like something more specific like "I started logging the scan/cloak stuff", "I cross referenced my logs with several reports in the cloak thread and here is what I found" (confirm or not with data). That should probably be in the bug thread or a sticky in this forum as opposed to the suggestion forum (which is for new features).

I don't think it is too complicated of an idea to formalize it, but it would take some work to get it working right (ie, give Dan the player directive without driving him insane )


As regards drop rates and all that, he is right that 15x planets usually get all the specials on them, a lot of them drawing out GP items directly or indirectly. I don't know of anyone that buys terraformers regularly and I don't think it's going to start just because hit rank 2200. Btw, my urgency on the cloak issue is because it's a severe bug, I sold all of my 15x because the cloak wasn't working so it doesn't affect me anymore but I still feel strongly about it. Well basically one issue is about getting the previous amount of upgrades per time spend npcing while the other issue is about holding them safely. And yes it only really matters to the people that have some or a lot of those planets but for a lot of people growing the AP is one of the primary if not primary objectives in GL so it matters.

Cloak issue reported fixed. This is definitely a step in the right direction!


Rank 2200 issue: well after some checking it looks like the terraformer yield is 40% of a TO Carrier based on drop+spawn averages on a bunch of them (terraformer drop rate is 60%, spawn is a bit less than TO Carrier like 1 in 700 vs. 1 in 500). Flux drop rate was 3 in 60 which is decent. I admit I am being greedy here in wanting 100% relative to TO Carriers, I just feel like I lost something there but it's still better than none so the glass is almost literally half-full depending on how you look at it. I don't think anyone at that rank wants the torpedoes or toxics really but I could be wrong. I think we are still missing a small % drop rate on stryll seeker (+10% scan) that disappeared around 2000 was it ? I am glad I saved a few 100 of those.

60 spawns:
36 terraformer
6 torpedo
10 biovaporizer
3 flux
5 toxic

That seems like a reasonable replacement in the end then, not too much more time needed chasing TDs. And great news about cloak being fixed in Dan's update. I think you loose Stryll Seekers around 1200 (maybe even lower...), do you think that a replacement for these may eventually come as well?