Except it's not accessible to new players...

I'd understand if these drops were being caused by something every player had equal access to, like some form of voting crate/voting reward, event prizing, stuff like that, because new players actually have a chance at those. Honestly, then I wouldn't even mind, because yes the server is hard and yes we should fix that.

I'm not sure how selling star crates affects that however since new players have already had the option of buying ECD (which has a guaranteed return) to bypass the grind. While some new players would be willing to gamble I'd wager that most will simply (and nearly all would be better off) buy ECD/EXP and use that to buy star tools.

 

Again, I'll reiterate what I said, it's my personal opinion, not the server's opinion. Andrew handles everything regarding the donation features, and that's not something I have any modicum of control over.

 

A star tool isn’t meant for a new player to grab right off the bat though. When I first joined I thought of it as some godly tool that only a select few had- that gave me motivation to keep playing and gather money to eventually get myself one. But now they are dropping left and right and their importance has dropped with them (as shown by their price)

 

Interesting to hear that perspective, from the people I've seen their reaction to star tools (when they were new builders) is that it's something overpowered and not worth playing when there is no way to get it unless you grind for weeks. The lack of players willing to grind is something I'm interested in (actually researching it for a thesis project in uni titled "The transition of players in MMO's from long term rewards to short term rewards") and it's why we're slowly moving towards more "short" term games like VMR.

 

I mean if this is really what we are aiming for let's give everyone free water placement, raise the price of all crops including chorus & hey why not double the money from mining and fishing while we are at it. The truth is it is about the money and iirc Andrew said as much himself (at least he is honest). Like everyone else I appreciate the server needs donations but I would ask at what cost to the economy. Honestly though, less bs and more honesty would go a long way, making out like crates have been introduced to make it easier for new players is complete rubbish.

 

While it's great to hear we are slowly moving towards "short" term games, I think it's important to remember what has actually kept players here in the first place and it's not the "short" term games. VMR has been imo a huge flop thus far with very little people bothering to even play. To give you an example a total of 6 people have sold something in the current week of vmr.

 

That is interesting... I’ve noticed that as well at times

 

Those new players just had a limited vision on only getting the best items first. As a builder, I was always looking for ways to make money, which one was the best, etc. When I first found out about star tools, I was already looking at which one I could save up for. I started off from just fishing (max rod) for a few minutes each day and I'd bring in 10 nstars a day. When I lagged out and died, my rod despawned so I took out a loan and tried farming for a change. Later, I even took on some end farming and got my hands on my first star tool as a resident. If the star tool had been any cheaper, I wouldn't consider getting it as much of an achievement as I now do.

 

Correct, VMR was not targeted at the current userbase. VMR was in its idea, a simple test platform to test the network. Then Nicit thought it into a game :p

 

Making things short term will then cause people to get bored and quit anyways. I fail to see how the server is making star tools more accessible to new players, they still can’t buy them and their value has been cut in half! I always hear from new players about how much they love the community here. About how close, friendly, and helpful people here are. This wonderful community already made obtaining star tools easier ages ago by 2 methods. You can either rent star tools, making it easier to obtain your own cause you now have use of one. Or by buying a star tool on a payment plan, because most people want all the money upfront. Currently the people buying star keys are then selling the stuff they get from them at an upfront only price, so new players still come to the people in the community who have a star tool rental business or payment plan business. The star keys are not helping the economy, it’s just making the rich more rich and destroying the value of something that is keeping the interest in new players. What I hear a lot from new players is how they have to buy /tpa or how they only get 1 home. Many new players have joined and realized that they have to spend real money or a large chunk of in-game money for everything, so they leave.

You guys need to find an even balance here and I really do think that replacing star keys with nstars and then putting star keys in the star casino would work out much better. It will drive the prices of the star tools back up, but remember that players can always rent or buy star tools on payment plans... so they are still easily obtainable with minimal effort.

 

100%

 

I like the idea of replacing the star key with a chest with nstars. Why not the person have a random shot at getting like 200-1000 nstars from a single chest with varying amounts of luck involved. like 50% chance at 200 and 10% at 400 etc (obviously these are sketchy numbers i just made up, by no means should they be followed)
Still an incentive to buy it cause you can just sell the nstars right away but it slows the process of getting a star tool so easily

 

Again, I have zero influence over features, their contents, and availability - Andrew handles it

 

I didn’t exactly mean that. I meant just sell nstars like they sell ecd and xp. Different amounts for different prices. What you buy is what you get. Mainly because nstars are becoming rare, everyone is buying them and spending them at the star casino because it doesn’t make sense to buy/save them for buying star tools at the star shop, it’s cheaper to buy the star items people get out of crates now. My idea was to make getting a star tool a bit more rare while giving another option to replenish the nstars market... because let’s be real, the nstar market is in the shitter too because the the casino. I think making it so you can win different amounts of nstars for 1 set price is just a baby steps. None the less, your idea is a step in the right direction and I do like it. I think either idea would be nice to implement. :)

 

They already sell nstars since you can convert xp directly into nstars at the starshop

 

I know and the xp market is suffering. Currently the star tool market, the nstar market, and the xp market have all 3 taken huge hits. This suggestion asks to remove star keys from BuyCraft. Doing that I think will help the star tool market, but not the other 2. So I was just throwing it out there to offer more options to help with the nstar market thus taking the strain off the xp market. Trying to find balance is all.

 

If star crates are helping players skip the grind why don’t we just remove the luck from it? May as well assign usd values to every star item and let players personally select them. Then at least some new player won’t waste $60 on a star shield and be pissed off and leave or chargeback.

OR

Stop making the server 100% pay to win and money driven. I remember when keeping the economy balanced was actually seen as an important thing and item values were changed and adjusted to keep everything level and fair. We probably cannot grow/keep players because of how big of a joke the ‘hardcore economy server’ has become. Pump in some usd and all the sudden you are a top player

 

1000% agree.
I remember hearing that money wasn't an issue for keeping ECC up, so why should star tools be pay to win?