Ok so there are really 6 things listed not four because you guys correctly pointed out build and refit times shouldn't be lumped nor should hull building and building building. As much as we hear people raise concerns tied to the chores, everyone here was surprised out how overwhelming repair/refit time was. While I don't expect a ton of changes to the top spot, the order of finish and percentages are what we will be paying attention to.
and now....
-drum roll please-
"Bacon" is not an option this time because in November WE HAVE FINALLY DECIDED TO....(CMChris appears out of nowhere...leans over and says something...and then disappears as quickly as he appeared)...Uh, as I was saying Bacon didn't make the top 6. Please vote. It is your civic duty.
Ok - The Final Four! Decide what is the thing you don't enjoy most about BP 752 votes
(Bldg) Build and Upgrade Time
2
Build times are structured with tokens so that I can roughly get a fleet of 4, or almost a fleet of 4 by the first raid, finished by the second, with flagship almost done/completed by 2nd or 3rd raid. Personally, I think the cycles need to be 4 raids long so that after I get a raid fleet done, I can then focus on building Proto fleets or defender/conqueror fleets or updating my chore fleets, before having to rebuild a raid fleet for the next cycle.
EDIT:
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In-game name: Cyanide Sandwich
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So bloody pathetic.
Look at the problem this way -- B/R/R times are inconsistent and out-of-sync with content release.
If you're going to release significant new content each month, then the B/R/R times to incorporate that tech into a player's game need to be proportional; If you release stuff this month and expect me to use it next month, B/R/R times need to only be a couple of days.
The existing times are more proportional to quarterly releases of significant new tech. If it takes a month to build a new fleet, incorporating newly released tech, the player should be able to use that fleet for a couple of quarters.
The other massive problem with the tech torrent is how it constantly pushes the power envelope further and further and further. For a brief period, you kept weapon ranges were they were, but in the stuff you've been releasing this year, the range is creeping up and up and up. That's bad.
You need to get some clever people in a room and brainstorm how to make interesting, fun, and challenging battle scenarios built around the tech you have (at any given moment). You've gotten really lazy in this regard. The mini-MegaShips, as an example, could have been a nice addition to the game, except you required us to build new tech to deal with it. Stop and take a minute and reimagine those mini-MegaShips as targets using the tech that existed prior to Manticores. How would that have changed the battle context? Could you have made it even more challenging by allowing multiple fleet types?
And the complexity! Simpler games work better. In your need to razzle-dazzle us with new shiny each month, you've made the game close to impossible to understand for the average player. You're inside the box, you live and breathe the stuff every day, you cannot grasp how daunting it would be to a newcomer to enter this complex game world.
Back in the Golden Age of the game, it was fun to play. Now, it's not as much fun. What has most significantly changed? The complexity.
It should also be mentioned that every time you come up with some clever gimmick, you have to change the algorithms to make work -- lets's face it, your history of releasing quality, bug-free code is abysmal. Every time you release new content, you introduce new bugs. Slowing down the torrent of content will give you more time to do things like (gasp!) Quality Control and testing. Buggy code is not fun.
If i only can pick one thing from the poll, then its the repairingtime.
Its not funny, if you lose your latest generation PvE fleet during a crash.
If you cant decrease the repairingtime, then you should create flagships again with a healing ability!
The Gutspill Skyfire Carrier was an awesome PvE flagship, the new PvE flagships are more...meh.
Decoding Pirateslangword "F.A.R.M." = Foolish Amateur Reaches Midgame
When ever you are answering what "players first" is or isn't on the page you are really answering your self and debating for your self to justify your actions to us in a matter that makes your decisions in your own mind be the best for the company and the players.
I can 100% relate to that as that the company I work for has the same mentality. I am working for an ISP, our main product is connectivity via fiber optics, we have a partner to add TV just to make our product a "I must have". Our mentality is "customer fist" or "customer is our boss", often the customer don't understand how a project works and thinks "I ordered internet 2 weeks ago, where is it?". They do not understand the concept off digging up the streets to cable it up etc.
As we see this wee understand that the customer is king / boss, and we understand that we need to provide more information on how building new infrastructure hangs together with permits of digging, landowners etc. We acknowledge this and are forming new ways of enlighten our customers to understand the way of a buy / delivery chain.
There is also a rule of how / when / how often an entrepreneur can dig in the same spot, in Norway that is 2 years and need to be sent in to the government for approval . Meaning that we could sell fiber optics in an area in 2016, but in 2017 the government is planning a new water line so we cant start until then. Anyhow we have learned during the years and can now provide the information at the sales point
My point is:
Players first / customer is king how ever you like it, where are you without us? Where are we without a signed contract on a fiber connection? We and you can redesign what is player first in meetings, forums or discord. But in the end of the day, the players are your bread and butter.
Screw me once, shame on you, screw me twice shame on me. Screw me a 3rd time, I use the coins I got from a ticket, but not a cent more. And there is where I am at this point.
My trust in Ki goes this far: In 6 month we see a new lead gs and new promises
Refit time is the number 2 issue. Mainly because its no longer building ships and making adjustments as the cycle progresses, you are required to build out fast in order to get the mid-cycle released upgraded content which is necessary in order to compete in the final raid of the cycle and then in the TLC and map targets. Those upgrades are not optional. Players are no longer building a fleet and tweaking it, they are basically building it twice during the cycle. It used to be a matter of building the raid fleet and then having a month or two to focus on other fleets - a defender or a conqueror, etc. Whereas now, player's shipyards will spend 3 months building and refitting the same fleet over as they accumulate the limited items that become available - when are people supposed to squeeze in FM fleet builds or work on a chore fleet they missed?
If you lower chores then we don't need as much time from the repair queue as heck, didn't have to spend hours on hours getting parts/titanium causing long damage near end..
So fix chores & content overdose to have a positive impact on repair, refit and build times.
Yes cost for baser repairs still be up there but those are not that bad compared to chore fleets.
Check out raid. Can't even auto T8 targets without massive damage while you got 100% resist (yes, 99.99999984% whatever, bottom line, its high and we still take huge repair times))
Not even Tier 99 hulls, because they don't get their stats updated to let them keep up with the times despite how rare and "powerful" they are supposed to be. They should have the standard repair modifier like everything else. Repair times are the insult to the injury of the long build and refit time.
Repair times on the pve end of things are insane.I have said it numerous times no chore fleet should take at a max 12 hours to repair.Yet somehow repair times keep escalating and so do the damages that we take.