Feedback Mill Changes (Part II), Producer Newsletter and Compensation

Just to add to this .... i started 6 power feed after the mill fix! like right after ......
looked at my mill a while ago .... only to find this ....

was showing 27 hours for 6 power feed at the start lastnight YET on this its says 25% done .... yet over 27 hours .... I'm getting more PO'ed by this as the day goes along .....

 

I noticed that BP are doing a sync for the Unicorn in Renzo's fair which has only been on for a day. So why can they not do a sync for those of us who bought the CR to refund even 50% of our BB's and keep the CR as a goodwill gesture ( we can hope ) I very much doubt they will do this.
They cant say they cant do this oh yes they can as they know who has got an extra unicorn and are sorting that out but because it involves their cash making venture they will say they cant.

I most add even though Im not happy, I must add my sentiments that our Mods are doing their best in the circumstances and nothing is meant in their direction.

Steve

 

This.

The details of the problems with the changes have been well described by the players who have posted here. Those problems can be solved. What can't be mended - at least not for a long time - is the loss of trust.

Thank you to the Mod team; as others have said, you are doing a wonderful job.

 

Froggy, If you notice what has been added to the new mill is the button to fully complete the order by using your bills.
That is what it is all about now they want you to purchase bill packages to use in the game and they will try everything for us to buy them but until they do restore my faith, as was promised in March newsletter, they are not getting anything

 

My experience has been that if I mill 72 hours to get 8 power feeds but cancel on the seventy second hour. I only lose 1 power feed.
I can live with that. Thanks for the bonus code.

 

Not now Cassie you dont get anything you have milled in previous 71 hours

 

yup once you hit the cancel button EVERYTHING goes back to your crops in your barn not the power feed you would have normally had

I'm sorry but this Mill issue is doing my head in i wish some one would give us a answer as to what is going on it seems there is a massive big bug .... that needs a good squish .... its been close on 24 hours now and I've yet to be able to mill 6 power feed ..... and i have both mill subscription and cloud row .... not very COOL!

 

Caution: This post might be offensive to some, so don't read this post.

For those who spent real money on the game, I feel pity for you. That's why I don't spend rm on games, you don't know what's going to happen next. Especially when the internet is 100% unreliable and when your game data might be cleared in a day.

So in conclusion, my advice is that you shouldn't spend rm.

Continuation of donkey feed story
In the end I forgot to feed my donkey. Guess what? I have one lesser donkey...
which disrupts my plan.

If bp don't change, I might leave this game. I had enough of all these nonsense. These tricks trying to make me spend some real money, but I won't.

~End of steaming.~ Thank you bigpoint for listening to my unhelpful complains which I have spend some time editing, trying not to offend others.

 

Perhaps in future, developers could give reasonable justification for their decisions. Surely there are reasons why they are choosing to make changes that end up being worse for the player than the were before the changes were implemented. I'm sure most reasonable players would be more accepting of these decisions if the choices were justified; as far as we can see, there is no reasonable explanation for the detrimental nature of these new implementations (other than a thirst for money), and it is therefore very distressing to many that they are being placed in a worse position for apparently no reason.

As a non-paying player I am largely unaffected by these issues and am happy to sit and wait with grace for my feed to mill. It is a game, and waiting longer is no skin off my nose. However I can fully understand the distress expressed by those here, and agree that the principle of the issues, whether or not they matter in the scheme of life, is wrong.

I won't be leaving the game as a result of this (it is a game after all, in spite of the issues) but BP is doing themselves no favours.

 

I was indifference to the issue of the mill because in my heart I believe that BP will do what they want no matter what the players say, but after the too many promises I thought I have to add my voice to my fellow farmer so BP might listen this time, I am not going to repeat what the others said, I just want to say a few things about how I see the situation now, first thank you for the third slot that is given free, and thank you for the bonus code for the mill subscription, I don't mind BP being generous and giving gifts to all players that's up to BP, but please don't call this a compensation, give all the gifts you want to all players but don't tell me this is a compensation for what I pay for the cloud raw, and when you say fixing, people thinks there was an error that was adjusted and it is not, what you did here is completely changing the system, according to Mir85 explanation before all the buffs from rune, cloud row and subscription were added and deducted from the base time, the adjustment you made is changing the formula that the buffs do not add but are deducted individually so the first buff only effect the original time and the next effect the new time after the first buff and so, which leads to a longer time than before, and then the decision about the feed not being partially added I think it's purpose was to prevent material lost in rare occasions like this sync which happened earlier, but the results were disappointing to the majority of the players. Lately the demands for power feed has increased dramatically so I found my self buying the largest package twice in the last two breeding events, and that was too much I found that I can't go on spending like this, while you keep bringing new animals, trees cloud rows and decorations, so I decided to reduce spending and start milling power feed, this is a game after all and it is not critical to our life, and we paly for fun, if things are going to be like this, it is no fun any more and it is easy to take the decision to stop playing, please consider that, and finally if you are not going to listen, there is no need to open threads for feed back, just go on doing what you want and see how many players stop spending or stop playing.

 

Penguilnz, U certainly do not offend me as one who has until now used real cash to buy items as it is personnel choice.
I never ever spent on games before , now I know why once they 'hook' you they never let go.
Sorry thats going off subject matter but it has come that through BP's greed.
Now are they having a laugh announcing mega Ep day tomorrow but you wouldn't expect anything else from someone that don't care about their customers

Welcome back Squiggle

Steve

 

I'm adding my voice to this discussion as well. I bought the cloud row but I don't mill powerfeed - I'm one of the ones who buys it, so I spend real money on a weekly basis. I've become increasingly fed up and disheartened by the cycle of 'do crazy stuff/apologise/promise fix/fix badly by doing more crazy stuff' that keeps getting repeated by BP.
So now I've started playing another (very different) game and once I really get the hang of that I think I'll be transferring my affections and my credit card over to it permanently.
I play games to relax, not to get annoyed. And at the moment I'm annoyed more than relaxed....

 

It will be nice to mill PF on Baha too. I like the new mill.

 

When first announcing the new mill funtions, I was very excited about it. But boy, has it all gone wrong. And it gets worse with every "fix". Not being able to get the partial ouputs really is offputting. There is so much potential feed to be lost, especially when events are going to start that require the mill. When I start milling feed for animals I have none left for, it gets really annoying. Rather than milling my usual larger batches, I have to start with one to get the stables going ... The lack of overview over your feed was not adressed at all. But thanks to the 3rd slot now I can start using the 2nd slot, using the 3rd to watch my stock.

Not really impressed right now.

PS: Thanks to the mod team, you are doing a great job

 

Thanks for letting me know mackboy. I'm gutted.

 

I know Cassie thats why alot of anger at what BP have done


Steve

 

I am sad to say that I have been feeding BPs desire for money recently, succumbing to the temptation to buy cloud rows, powerfeed, etc.

Well.. NO MORE! The comments above explain why. Too many events, too close together, taking too much real time and/or real money to complete. A general shift toward loss of rewards (stars, etc. -- more an issue for newer players, but still....) and, the biggest issue of all, completely negating the benefits we paid for with the cloud row, and then setting up supposed "fixes" that make the situation far, far worse, not better. I am not begrudging those who did not pay getting a bonus, but to claim that it is compensation.. well, no, its not. In fact, as noted above, you have just thrown our purchases in our faces, taking away most of the benefit we wanted.

I will probably keep playing, but for free.

it doesn't matter any more, that is why everyone is upset, because you don't get them and cannot use them until they are ALL done. If you cancel early, you get your ingredients back (some, at least.. there are reports of some items, like water, not being returned), but not the milled product.

 

This is the first bonus code I haven't activated immediately. Don't really want it right now...

 

Sadly, I doubt the few who are posting here are enough to change BPs attitude. Their marketing team apparently went to the old "trickle down" school of economics -- as in the only people who really matter are those spending tons of money, not short bits and definitely not freebies.

Getting some of my frustrations out playing wack a mole.....

Right now, I think if they replaced the moles with BP icons, folks might actually spend BBs

Not sure where you get the idea that this will be allowed? We can access the regular mill on Baha, but not actually mill those products on Baha.

It would be nice, but the recent changes are just making runes/cloud rows/buffs less effective and requiring us to know in advance how much, how long we want to mill each item or we will lose the lot.

 

I would like to amend my original post, with some thoughts that I have had while talking with other farmers and reading other posts.

For many, this is a game. For some of us, this is a hobby. That is how we justify the spending of real money for BBs and such. Instead of golf, or buying shoes, I farm. I have no problem with the minor amounts of money that I spend to make my hobby more fun. I do not think that I am better than players who don't, but neither do I think I'm a sucker because I chose to spend $5 a month on a BB subscription that allows me harvester functions that make game play more fun, or the occassional single purchase of BB to allow for stables, seedlings and cloud rows...

As mentioned previously, in real life, when a company suddenly changes the value of what you get for what you pay, there is always fallout. Some types of changes are prohibited by law; others simply cause users to elect to use a different company for that service. That is what is happening here. People are leaving in droves because of changes that are implemented to entice people to spend more real money. And the thing is - the people who are leaving are the ONES WHO ARE ALREADY SPENDING MONEY!!!! the ones who don't spend any money hardly have any effect from most of these changes, because they don't have the things that are getting affected. So BP is shooting itself in the foot in a large way. By doing things designed to increase spending, you are actually decreasing spending. Basic Economics 101. Someone needs to attend some Quantitative Analysis classes and see at what point does revenue decrease. I can tell you, we've passed it. There may be more new farmers joining - but they don't stay, and those of us who have been playing long term - I just passed my 4 year anniversary - we are becoming dissatisfied and leaving en masse.

As for constructive criticism - as a business owner, when I make an error that ends up giving my clients an advantage - I eat that. I suck it up and deal. With the cloud row that had a better effect that it was intended to - that was the fault of the service provider, and it should have been honored. When I announce that I am increasing my rates for the service that I provide, which I have to do from time to time, as my cost of doing business continues to climb, and I must meet my costs while allowing myself a small profit, I provide ample notice of this effect, and I make darn sure that service does not decline while price increases. Again - someone needs to attend some very basic business classes. I also recommend a business ethics course. There are things that are and are not ok to do in business, ethically. Making a profit, yes. Gouging your customers, not a chance.

I don't know why the rune plus the mill subscription gave me PF at 4hrs. All I know it, it was fabulous, and since it did that for a while, it should continue to do that. That falls in the category of "service provider erroneously provided a bigger benefit than was intended, but it was there, and it needs to continue to stay there". The loss of all goods when you cancel an action already active in the mill - that's a really horrid thing to have done, and unlike the others, for which at least there is a visible motivation, there is NO reason for that to have been done. As has been stated above, most of us have jobs and use this for relaxation. We don't need another one where we have to carefully think through how much feed to produce at one time to make sure we don't end up losing our resources.

Put it back the way it was, and people would likely accept the slight time increase. Refund all the people who bought the cloud row, take out the cloud row, and in a few months, offer it again the way it was intended to be. Be responsible business operators and be transparent, and people will forgive almost anything. But hidden changes, obfuscation and outright blatant policy changes that amount to lies - sounds a bit too much like government to me.