Feedback Loop Reply
Topic: City Project
Dear Community,
First off, we would like to thank you all for the insightful, enlightening, and detailed feedback that has poured in through this new version of our Feedback Loop, as well as during the interesting AMAs in May!
With great enthusiasm and anticipation, we devoured every single word you shared with us. The conclusion is that while the majority really like the idea of the City Project, our discerning community members observed a few areas that demand further attention.
Hold onto your seats because we are excited to not only address your feedback but also promise you some balance changes inspired by your invaluable input.
In fact, it is not just a promise. It is a reality, as we have prepared some balancing changes already and guess what? You get to witness them firsthand next week!
So, stay tuned for the upcoming Product Care 6, which is just around the corner.
But first, let’s dive into the heart of the matter – the answers to your feedback!
Please note that we summarized most of your feedback and questions into a fusion of insights, for many of you expressed similar sentiments. After all, what you truly crave are the responses.
Feedback:
One of the biggest bothers that many of you came across was that the contribution points needed to unlock bonuses get really high, really fast, leading to nobody contributing/playing the city project anymore after Era 1.
Reply:
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Thank you to everyone who had an eagle eye on the contribution points and sent in this valuable feedback!
We also were made aware of this imbalance relatively fast after the City Project launched on the Fast Forward game worlds. Not only thanks to you all for forwarding your observations but also due to our observations when evaluating this new feature.
Therefore, we have rebalanced the investments significantly, as you will see next week already! Costs will be reduced significantly, and you will need a lot less money in later eras for one point.
Feedback:
Following up on the biggest bother comes its little brother, the exchange rate of the contribution points for money. Many of you pointed out that, similar to how many points are needed to unlock a gate, how much money is needed to even exchange it for a contribution point increases too fast. While in the beginning, the amount of money needed is still humane, due to one point getting more expensive as we move through the eras, the price also got rather high in too little time.
Reply:
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Good news, this has been rebalanced already as well. You will get to experience this together with the other Product Care 6 Updates!
Not only did we reduce the money costs per contribution point in eras 2 to 6, but we also took another hard look at the exchange rate for using vouchers to contribute to the City Project. This means the contribution points you get for using some vouchers have been increased, and the amount of money needed for a contribution point has been lowered for eras 2 to 6.
Feedback:
Some of you gave feedback that you did not like the fact that the bonuses were hidden and only got revealed if you managed to unlock and activate the last bonus.
Reply:
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For now, we plan to leave the bonuses hidden like this. It is not set in stone yet, but we might ask about this in a survey sometime in the future.
Feedback:
We read a few times that some of you think that the bonus for waiting times should be expanded beyond the industries that are connected to the city, which unlocked the bonus. You’d prefer it if the bonus was simply applied to all players in the city.
Reply:
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When we developed this idea, we wanted the bonuses to benefit the specific city, not necessarily for the players to just use it anywhere outside of the city that unlocked it. Therefore, we currently have no plans to change this. We are aware that the cities don’t have all industries, the bonus is still good for the city though.
Feedback:
Some of you were worried that the City Project bonuses were not unlocked on the Fast Forward game worlds due to their 4x speed.
Reply:
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The speed of the game world was not really the problem, as the money you earn, the duration of bonuses etc, is scaled to fit the speed of the game world. The issue was more likely what has been mentioned further up already, with the balancing of cost per gate and the exchange rate not being optimal.
Feedback:
Many liked the fact that the choice of your hometown now needs to be thought of more carefully due to the 24h ‘block’ before you can change hometowns again. Someone even said it needs tactical thinking and gives some nice adrenaline!
There were also some that did not really like this or specifically felt that it should not be a full 24h on faster game worlds.
Reply:
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The main reason why the limit of 24h was made is for not being able to hop from city to City and picking up some special bonuses which were meant only for the player whose home city it is. Same as some of you players pointed out, the fact that you cannot change home cities anymore as often as you like without constraints, we feel this adds a little extra challenge and planning. Something that should be right up your alley!
Feedback:
We read a few times that you guys would really enjoy it if we would offer something in the same style for landmarks on the [Steam over Europe] game worlds.
Reply:
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There is an idea in the pipeline to give a special bonus also for landmarks. However, we are not quite there yet, so, unfortunately, we can’t give you an estimate as to when we will be working on this.
Feedback:
Some complained about ‘‘losing’’ their contributions once a city levels up and the bonus was not unlocked. It was mentioned that there should be a refund, at least in money.
Reply:
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The contribution is never 100% lost, as you still get prestige for whatever rank you make by contributing. Therefore, we have decided not to introduce refunding.
Feedback:
Someone specifically felt that the exchange rate for the research points was too low and should be worth more.
Reply:
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We made the exchange rate for the research point not that exciting on purpose. The idea was that you guys would have something to do with leftover research points at the end of an era. Therefore, we currently have no plan to adjust this.
Feedback:
We read a few feedbacks with players being a bit upset by the fact that you can gather prestige points by contributing to the city projects. The worry was that wealthier freehaulers could control the city bonuses while the activation should be controlled by city members. If there were no prestige rewards for contributions, they would not contribute and, therefore, would also not care about the bonuses.
Reply:
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While we can understand that this might be a worry, so far, we did not notice this happening. The whole idea was that everyone could contribute and get something from it. ‘Wealthy’ freehaulers would do it for the prestige, city members would do it for the bonus. The freehaulers are helping the city unlock bonuses. It even has a ‘levelling effect’ where the more the city members contribute, the more the freehaulers must contribute to get more prestige, making it even easier for the city to unlock more bonuses!
Feedback:
Following up on the feedback above, some players felt that the bonuses should only be applied to those that contributed and not to everyone. They feel that if you can only benefit if you also contribute, then more would contribute.
Reply:
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We are sorry to say that those that gave this feedback didn’t really understand the goal of this feature. The feature is meant to be for everyone. The goal is to be selfless and help out the little person, the newbie. To do something nice, even if you might not benefit from it, because maybe you are not online when the bonus gets activated, or you are not interested in the reward. Of course, you may contribute to benefit yourself, but where is the harm in others benefiting from it too? This feature is for team spirit!
Feedback:
We heard from a few of you that you don’t like some of the bonuses that you can benefit from. They are too weak, too short or just not something you are interested in.
Reply:
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We understand that not every bonus will be everyone’s piece of cake. This brings us back a bit to the goal of the City Project, which is to benefit those that might not have as much as others. While you personally might not care for Waggon vouchers or happen not to be online when a specific bonus is running, this doesn’t mean that someone else might not be happy to get some extra Waggons or someone who just happens to be online will really enjoy benefiting from an activated bonus. Sometimes you will have a golden moment cause all the stars align, and you get the perfect bonus at the perfect moment; sometimes, you might have a bonus that might be nice to have but ultimately not needed in the specific situation you are in.
Most bonuses come in different tiers, so they have 3 different durations and even different %. This means that a bit of luck is needed to stumble upon a higher tier of bonus with the longest duration and the most %, and a bit of bad luck is needed to stumble on a bonus that has the shortest duration and the lowest % at the same time.
The chances are setup like this:
- Middle durations 50%
- Low durations 25%
- High durations 25%.
The durations are scaled to the speed of the game world, as follows:
- Fast Forward (x4): 2/4/6 hours
- 2x speed: 3/6/12 hours
- 1x speed: 6/12/24 hours
With all this said, we do have some more bonuses up our sleeve that we are considering adding to the City Project at some point; we don’t have a fixed timeline for this yet, though. This would include an idea of rewards that are beneficial specifically for players who contributed.
Feedback:
One of you pointed out that the bauxite aluminium balls chain for Manchester on SoE is named ‘Dublin’, and therefore you can’t use the bonus with it.
Reply:
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That specific industry might be a bit closer. However, Manchester actually has its own in the south. It’s closer to Manchester, while the one mentioned by the player is closer to Dublin.
Feedback:
And as final feedback from you guys, some wrote that they feel like the City Project is just a feature to allow prestige hunters to directly ‘buy’ prestige.
Reply:
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While yes, they can get prestige in a seemingly easy way, the idea is still that while doing so, they are benefiting a whole city by unlocking bonuses for them.
We are sure that with the upcoming balance changes, you will be able to give the prestige hunters a run for their money 😉
We are eager to hear what you think about the balancing changes, so don’t forget to give the City Project another try after Product Care 6 has been applied!
Your Rail Nation Team