A recommendation on resources & the directional arrow

[trim sphinx]

We realize that there won't likely be many occurrences of this, however, if any future launch is nearly as anticipated as today's launch was, might we recommend that you have temporary increase in drops of needed materials for crafting and recipes, especially if there is a number of recipes that require a significant amount of the same resources. As for the arrow, could you remove the arrow that points the player back to the balloon while they're on a mission to search for resources back in the community, at least until the required resources have been collected?

We found it frustrating that, pulling a number out of the air, 500 players were all looking for the same resources at the same time, only to try to grab the item and see that it was snatched before you had the opportunity to attempt to collect it yourself. It's one thing if it's between a few players, there is opportunity for the item to respawn in a nearby area within short order. It's another thing when everyone in one area is searching for x number of the same resources at the same time. IF there is a way to modulate the drop rate for those times when it can be reasonably expected that there will be a higher number of players looking for the same resources at the same time, it might be useful to do that.

When we come down from our island to collect more resources for our builds, could it be possible to remove the directional arrow that leads back to the balloon and the player's home? We realize that there is now way for anyone to know exactly and precisely what a player is thinking when they go back to the central hub of the community, however, it is confusing to see it pointing in one direction when you're trying to find resources or people in another direction. IF there is a way to note that the beginning player is on a mission to meet this NPC or pick up that resource, and have the arrow point towards their target, great. If not, why have the arrow direct the player away from destination? Thanks!

[cobalt echo]

I haven't had an opportunity to watch any live streams yet, but this note makes me concerned…

Do you mean that gathering resources is competitive, aka only one person can get a given resource at a time? If so, I would strongly recommend that instead of changing drop numbers, all gatherable items are switched to be instanced (a.k.a. everyone can gather them and they will still be there for ALL other players until the item despawns). Otherwise, it's a disaster for any cooperative or cozy game because it makes you compete angrily with other people and encouranges a scarcity mindset instead of a sharing mindset - the opposite of what Loftia is all about!

For reference, Palia originally launched with a competitive gathering system where everyone on the server was competing for resources, and it was a universally derided and disliked feature - so much so that they actually ended up revamping their entire gathering system to be instanced instead.

Anyway, hopefully this is just a false alarm! But I'd love it if someone who has played the beta could confirm how resource gathering works.

[trim sphinx]

Our VOD should be up for anyone to watch, it did take us a while to signed in properly, with a couple of frozen screens early on, to finally get playing fairly straight through for a few hours (same name here as for the channel). What we found was, WHEN there is a high concentration of people going for the same few items, some would get it and others would not, then it would take a little while for new items to spawn in the same general area.

Later, as people moved on to doing other things, catching up with friends, general exploring, choosing to prioritize a different project, or just giving Loftia servers a bit of time to catch-up while so many we're trying to sign in at the same time, things got a little bit easier; however, the more common resources could still be a struggle to find.

So I wouldn't say that it was so much a lack of resources all together, so much as resource spawn timing. There were times where we could see that a few players went to gather the same item at very nearly the same time, and all got the item. It was just a reminder of when we were in our young Gen-X years, and the store had a sale on a popular item, with a line up at the door waiting for the store to open & then the mad dash to reach the display for the item in particular. Even if the stock people could get some more from the storeroom, they just struggled to keep the display full until that rush was over. Here, things are digital, so it's the same idea with different mechanisms that can be fine tuned for different capacity.

[cobalt echo]

Very interesting! I still feel strongly, though, that there shouldn't be a stock that can run out that is dependent on the number of people, because then even if the stock is very large, there's still a competition to get there before others do. I think it's much better to have resource availability based on timing - for example, resource X is in this spot for Y amount of time, and no matter how many people show up to gather it, they can all get one until the resource respawns elsewhere.

[trim sphinx]

Maybe that is happening. It's hard to say when so many players are in the same area, and your first learning the layout of the land, so to speak. Plus, in our case, we're not great at managing the POV camera with the mouse for one, nor is this our typical style of play, so it could be a user issue.

You may notice that we use the "Royal We" as we speak. It's because we area Dissociative Disorder System. We allow anyone in our System to play the game to get their perspective, often as they're co-conscious, or to watch others play the game. The ones who we the most frustrated by the situation are the younger, less skilled, and/or less patient Alters in our System.

We didn't say that we were shocked. We said that some people might find it frustrating when, at high peak times such as at a much anticipated launch, it might be more difficult to find certain high demand resource items. How the developers sort that out is up to them. It's our guess that they don't want players feeling frustrated so early on in the game. It's a point of friction that may or may not have an easy solution; however isn't that part of Beta Testing? Finding what breaks and points of friction so that they can be addressed before official launch?

[tough relic]

please move this feedback to the correct channel: #1488387962789171311
id:customize to add the new beta channels so you can see and use them.