Hey guys, I wanted to comment on the recent changes directly here. The trend seems to be a big push towards monetizing the game lately. While this is understandable, and even commendable in some respects, there's a degree of game engagement and gameplay that's in danger of getting lost now.
Bugs:
New bugs are neat, but there's maybe 3 or 4 hours of searching (more if you can't get a damn centipede right away) before you are done here. Bug values are still quite low (less than 100g across the board) and thus it seems a waste of time to pursue them.
Suggestions:
Increase sell price for rare bugs of the day that witch asks for, while making them actually rare. Increase common bug appearance rate to improve interest and interaction, thus improving gameplay experience without greatly impacting the financial aspects of catching them.
Loot:
This one almost flew under the radar, but loot spawn rate has been reduced to almost nothing in the last wave of updates. Used to be you could fill 200 items in a few hours if you hustled... Now I'm seeing about 5 to 10 items spawn in 40 minutes.
Suggestions :
Nerfing a system into the ground might seem a logical choice, but looting was designed to incentivize players to move around the map. Killing this system outright as you have will not only reduce gameplay draw (one of the only easy activities that functioned reasonably well in spite of lag) but it will reduce interest in moving around. Rant over - return spawn rate to normal but reduce chance of rare items if reducing the income from this activity is required.
Furniture :
Purchase prices stayed the same while availability of new items and resale value over the last 2 years has been devastated. Never mind 1 and 2g resale on Halloween and Christmas items. Ew.
Suggestions :
Reduce purchase price or return resale to 50%. Remove the ridiculous inventory limit of 100 items. VIP letting you have 200 items shows that a. The issue with the system is misunderstood and b. That the limit can be edited or extended.
Bounty:
Most bounties are such a boring grind where the only solution is to stand in a corner and mash the sword button until enough baddies run into you to fill the box. Only a select few are engaging enough to be a challenge and quick enough to not just be boring.
Suggestions :
Improve the system through unique quests, combinations of baddies to complete the mission, or at very least calibration of the missions to make them take 10 to 15 minutes and not 40 minutes or more due to repetitive chasing of enemies escaping out of reach. Account for server lag. It's damn annoying.
Any others guys?