Wild West - POLL: Reset - Hate the Changes or Love them?

Its been 9 days since Wild West reset and I have picked up from in-game comments as well as forums that the changes may not have been taken with as much enthusiasm as was hoped - I count myself in with this. In this thread I will be talking about the reasons I disagree with many of the changes made in the reset and why.

What I ask of you readers is to read this (it is quite long, but i'd appreciate you reading it), make a response to the poll, and leave a comment with whether you hate or like the changes made in the reset, and why. - If you did NOT experience what Wild West was like before the reset, please don't enter the poll, but feel free to leave a comment.

The changes made in the reset are as follows:

• All shops redone for new economy

• Houses changed to renting
• Chest glitches should be fixed

• Drug process times changed

• Drug field respawn time lowered
• Size of drug field lowered

• Added player tracking (nearest bandit, player, and team member)

Source: https://www.brawl.com/threads/56443/

ECONOMY:
My main reasons for disliking the changes to the economy is how reducing drug selling prices, and increasing the buy prices of everything else has change the gameplay completely. Drug selling prices have all been reduced by more than 1/2 and increased the prices of virtually everything else. Yes, people were making money way too easily, and I agree items needed a slight increase, maybe double at a max, this is just too far.

Lets take a look at what was the standard kit before the reset, the kit that if you were wanting to be OP, you'd have. This is comprised of the following:

Guns

• T-Gewehr - 16000
• Winchester Model 1894 - 7200
• Mauser C96 - 3800

Ammo

• 64 x Shotgun Ammo - 1280
• 64 x Pistol Ammo - 640
• 64 x Sniper Ammo - 960

Armour

• Diamond Helmet - 5600
• Diamond Chestplate - 22000
• Diamond Leggings - 15000
• Diamond Boots - 6700

Other

• 16 x Medicine (Healing Potions) - 320
• 5 x Splints - 400
• 5 x Bandages - 400
• 32 x Bread - 1280

Sources: https://www.brawl.com/threads/56443/page-2 | https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zcuaSAIIqJmHRmU8s9jBxKby7-q4tdGSVaz0gyMPvjM/edit

Now, this is my choice of gear and I know it is similarly others. You ideal kit may be slightly different, but before the reset this is what most of the people had in big fights, give or take a few items. Regardless, the total price of ALL of this is 81580. Now, that is quite a lot, especially since they reduced drug selling prices. But this is without context, let me show you this in another way. We all know (to should do) that Drug Processing makes more more money faster than mining. (Yes the factors of sheriffs arresting you if you drug process have to be taken into account, but remember PvP is enabled in mines so there is a fair risk when mining too). So let me show you what 81580 looks like in time.

Now, to save me showing you all the calculations for each drug, this is how its calculated:
Selling Price / Processing Speed = Profit per Second
(81580 / Profit per Second) / (60 x 60) = Time in hours to make 81580

Drug Processing

• Weedgrass - 2.7h
• Poppy - 3.2h
• Coco - 2.8h
• Shroom - 3.6h
• Tobacco - 4.2h

So at a minimum it would take 2.7h of processing at Weedgrass to generate enough money to purchase Diamond armour + Guns + Ammo + Potions + Food + Extras. To me, thats quite a long time, and does not include the time for harvesting drugs, running to drug dealer, getting sent to jail, getting killed etc. But lets assume you got this money and purchased all of this. Great! You now have good gear! But wait! A sheriff can 1 shot you in this armour, they can also arrest you and you get sent to jail and lose everything. Before the reset, buying all this cost about 20000. This was a reasonable price for people, so they bought it. This opened up the main fun of the server - The big fights. Team VS Team, Players VS Sheriffs, you name it! With a lot of people being able to afford this gear, it made the game much more fun and allowed the competitive side of the game become apparent. When going top rebel bases, or mines, there was always the chance there would be an enemy diamond there. The sneaking, the battles, the chasing/running - It really gave Wild West a 'spark' - WarZ players were also playing the game cause they were used to it and enjoyed the game (combo-ing is disabled meaning WarZ players don't have a huge advantage). But 9 days in, and I haven't seen a single diamond player, a single person with a T-Gew. Why? Two main reasons: A - it takes a lot of time to get the amount of money needed. B - I don't think people are prepared to pay so much on something that they can lose so easily to sheriffs (There has been a video recorded by Nuery that proves a sheriff can 1 shot a full diamond - I will add the link when I remember his channel name) . It is because of this that Wild West has seen a drop in players, a drop in fun, a drop in that special 'spark' it used to have.

Solution?
Make money easier to get by raising drug prices, or, preferably, lower the prices of Armour, Guns etc. Also make sheriffs less OP so they can't 1 shot a full diamond.

RENTING:
Now what is this all about? Well, it seems that before the reset people were developing huge amounts of money that was not intended. It also meant all the houses were being purchased and there were none left, so they added renting instead of a 1 time purchase which is known as a 'money bin'. This means that to stop people making a one time purchase and then just developing endless amounts of money, players had to keep paying a weekly rent. I've heard many complaints about this with people saying to make it a 1 time purchase again, and some saying make it a monthly rent. It could be argued that since you can pay your weekly rent 4 weeks in advance you are effectively paying 1 months rent. Regardless, the problems I see behind this are: A - Possible loss in interest in the game temporarily/going on holiday. You may want to take a break from Wild West for a bit... but wait! If you have a house, you have got to keep playing to get enough money to pay for rent. Yes, if its a team HQ, the the rest of your team can also pay for some of the rent, however maybe your a solo player, your team doesn't want to pay etc. B - Another problem that arrises is... whats the point in having a house. Before the reset many people needed them to store all their armour, guns etc. However now that no one buys these anymore, what have you actually got to store in your house. Maybe a few swords, some heads, maybe some potions, but to be honest, not a lot of stuff. C - This is kind of linked back to point A but anyhow. I know some people don't like the fact that they have to constantly play the game in order to keep their house. Buying a house basically gives you a commitment to the game that some people can't keep up with or just don't want to have. With a 1 time purchase, they can buy a house, and rest easy that its never going to disappear.

Solution?
Put it back to a 1 time purchase, and if we run out of houses, the builders can just use their favourite commands: //copy, //paste. (World Edit commands for those who don't recognise them)

PLAYER TRACKER:
Well, my views on this are mixed. It used to track the nearest player to you meaning it was hard to actually sneak up on someone without them knowing. However recently it has been changed to a ROUGE tracker, and a Bandit tracker (points to highest bounty within 3000 blocks) which is ok in my opinion. I am just mentioning this point incase any of you want to leave a comment about it.

DRUG FIELDS:
Drug respawning times reduced, however less drug plants at fields. Why? Whats the point in reducing the number of plants. All this does is make people able to farm less unprocessed drugs that before. Again, another way in which its harder for people to make money - Nothing further to say, comment on it if you wish.

SUMMARY:
The changes made in the reset both take out the fun from the game (the fights, armour, money etc). This is having an impact on player counts because people don't find it as fun. Less players also means more fun, so less people player and so on and so on. Yes, sometimes player counts are pretty high, but now way near as often, or as high as it was before the reset - even at weekends (Yes, some people had easter holidays/spring break so had more time to play Minecraft, but even at weekends, the players isn't like what it used to be). In short - I feel Wild West has lost its 'spark'.

THANK YOU
Thanks for taking the time to read this (I know its very long). Enter the poll, and leave a comment as to if you love or hate the reset, and why. If you think I missed anything, feel free to ask me to add things, or just leave a comment. These opinions are mine, you may agree with them, or not, i'm creating this so you can have your say - And once again, if you did not play Wild West before the reset, don't enter the poll.

Thanks, Eil

 

Some MOD changed my poll choices to different things - Grrr

 

I said virtually all prices where increased, never said they all were. The majority of the fun of the game lay in diamond fights (heard this from a lot of people) - You say its meant to be more challenging, and at the beginning I do say that it should be, but this is too far. The majority of people don't want to process for up to 4.2h to get a set of diamond + guns. If people where getting houses too easier, increase house prices, don't make getting money really hard.

I should also point out that at writing this post, the player count is 11 - just after the reset at this time it was 40-50 (people got bored, or didn't like the changes - pretty obvious to me).

Kindly change the 3rd Poll option to "I don't mind the changes too much" - What you have made it doesn't really sum up the question I am trying to ask.

 

As you will see in my post, //copy, //paste (then add the new houses to the plugin) its not as if the map is short of space :/

 

Exactly - In my post I have shown clear calculations, and the fact is, no one wants to spend 3-4h processing JUST to be able to buy diamond + guns. This is why the funs gone. (remember to vote in the poll)