Feedback Request 10/03/2014 Trial Tribes (Test Server)

The Test Server is open to the public, ready to test changes for Free Trial players.

Free players can create a tribe charter and place a homestead. Once placed, free players have 1 week to terraform, build and use their homestead.

If the player abandons tribe, the tribe and all associated buildings are removed. The player can use any remaining evaluation time to place another homestead.

After the 1 week evaluation time is expired, if the player does not upgrade to a premium account, the tribe and all associated buildings are removed.

Every game day, a warning message will pop up for free players with homesteads, informing them of how many hours and minutes they have left to evaluate their tribe.

Free players cannot invite tribe members to their charter or tribe.

If you have any feedback on problems or potential issues with this system, please post below. Active players can use an alt account to help test these changes. I will reset the timers several times this weekend and will post here when timers are reset.

Important! For testing purposes only, the evaluation time is currently set to 2 hours and the update runs every game hour instead of every game day.

Note: The final panel art for the expiration warning has not been patched out.

Important additional changes to check:

1) Grass has a chance to reappear / regrow over time on public land. Currently this system has been sped up so that fast results are noticeable.

2) Tree resources (branches, twigs, etc.) can be found on dirt and grass surfaces near trees.

3) Architecture skill level requirements have been revised to allow free players to gain a basic set of Gadu schemes automatically by the time they reach 25 skill. They have also been revised in general to create more of a progression towards some of the more desirable parts and sets. Players can build parts that are 10 points above their skill level to accommodate players who gained schemes that are now revised to be higher than their current level. If parts are still out of reach due to these changes, players will need to progress further in architecture.

Are new totems placed as part of a trial account differentiated from existing legacy totems that may be owned by a trial account?

There shouldn't be any existing totems owned by a trial account. If there are that you know of, please let me know what tribe so that I can take a look at the data. You can post here or email support

Thanks!

*edit* Sorry, I think I confused my account status with a Trial. I forgot that those who pay for the game client are considered Citizens, while those who have not yet paid are actual Trials. My own account is actually only an un-subbed Citizen account, not a true Trial. If you want to delete these posts, go ahead, my bad.

I really like these changes. Especially the part about the grass and twigs.

I hope the changes will attract more folks and retain more folks! Great job.

I would say that the radius from the trees where branches and twigs can be gathered is a bit large. I'm able to collect them from a good 20-30m away from the trunk of a tree.

I am able to collect 4 resources of each type (branches, twigs, cones or seeds, and sap or leaves/needles when available) from a single spot. Not sure if it is intended to be able to gather the full 4 of each resources from one spot, as before it was 4 total of any resources present. After gathering 4, the resource icon remains available in the resource window, but attempting to gather results in a "There is not enough of that resource here." message.

Grass pulled from a spot is removed properly from the resource window and the terrain, leaving the forestry resources if available. Junk pile resources also still properly deplete, so there is no bleed-over effect from these changes.

Planting a new tree makes the forestry resources immediately available on nearby grass and dirt.

There are some spots where there is a tree and grass or dirt, but there are no branches or twigs available. Are the new branch/twig spots only available on the surfaces that have seen a "refresh" by the new system? ...and, do these spots regenerate branches and twigs after a time?

Unable to check if the old "branch" terrain type still depletes and turns to dirt after harvesting the max resources or not since it is winter and I can't see much of the real terrain, LOL.

Found an interesting display bug. On the spots I mentioned above that do not show the forestry resources near trees, running past them a bit until forestry resources appeared and then running back to the trees that lacked them, the resources showed up. If I again continued past those trees, onto say a junk pile where the forestry resources were not available, and then back to the same trees, the forestry resources did not display again.

Predictably this is an issue that occurs along the zone lines. The spot I tested was along the border of 780 (1024, 210) and 781(0, 210)

Icons near tree are all gray and don't display resource type.