Considering that actual xp/dust rates weren't affected by the recent update (or at most, trivially impacted by less moving), and are now being nerfed, this feels a lot like you've made an update in an effort to make the content more popular, and now that they're more popular that's being used as an excuse to nerf it.
It's a shame that the reaction to the level of popularity isn't to look into improving other aspects of mining instead.
edit: if anyone's been stockpiling dust, buy your gems ASAP! Literally cutting the banked xp in half when the update goes live.
I think long-term it absolutely is the intention to look at improving other aspects of Mining, on the same grounds we used to look at COX at its core rather than adding custom layouts on top.
That being said, that's a much more long-term solution and requires a lot more design input and back&forth, while in the short term we're seeing server performance get considerably worse as a result of the current implementation. The team felt changes were absolutely required ASAP to lessen the impact that the current version of stars are having on players - it's not our intention to go out of our way to just make a popular thing worse :(
Decent changes, Im sure plenty of people will cry regardless but this puts it a bit closer (though still more afk better ehp) than redwoods/afk fishing
Are clue geodes being added back?
I'm not sure re: clue geodes, the script running to check peoples' eligibility for them was super expensive, I think we'd have to investigate the likely impact it'd have if these changes spread people out and lessen the impact on server performance as much as we're hoping. If it looks like it wouldn't be a huge strain, I'd hope to see us re-add them
Hearing that there are plans, however far away, to address the core issue behind mining as a skill is great news.
As someone that love stars before the updates (hunting your own undiscovered stars was very rewarding from a 'I can afk longer' standpoint, etc) made them so popular, it just feels pretty bad to know I (and anyone in the same boat) am effectively being punished because the update made them too popular.
Totally understand the reasoning behind the changes themselves, and they're largely justified (Stars were probably a tad too rewarding for how afk they were even before), I just wanted to make sure you're aware of how these changes feel, even if it's not entirely rational.
We know they feel bad, although I'll say the actual change to XP/hr is tiny (and actually likely to improve for some players) and they still occupy the same space in the game. Ultimately the #1 priority with these changes is spread people apart so that a tier 9 dropping in your world isn't necessarily a death sentence.
Not a decision we're making lightly because we understand how much people like them, but ultimately one the team felt was necessary, and likely conversations we'd have had beforehand if we hadn't pivoted so quickly to make the change in light of the Duke mining nerf
Why not just invest in better servers? They've been shit for god knows how long now.
Server performance has been improving gradually, but as a player I fully agree they're frustrating at times and could always stand to be improved.
In terms of 'why not just invest in better servers': we're CMs, artists, QA, content devs etc.. We'll always push for investment in better server infrastructure while aiming to design content that isn't 'expensive' to run script-wise (e.g. clue geodes checking all tiers of clues and all of a player's inventories every 3/2.83/2.75 ticks), but we don't have direct control over that.
We love Old School and we care about the game, in the short-term if there are things we can do and steps we believe we have to take to mitigate those issues - we're going to make them, if the alternative is sitting by and hoping for results from discussions that go on way above most of us about massive overhauls of servers running a game that's so old and supporting hundreds of thousands of players.
We know it sucks, and we know it's frustrating, but for us in the short-term it's changes like this that help us meaningfully contribute to making improvements. If we as a team make a change that creates issues with server performance that didn't exist before, or exacerbate issues that already existed, then it's on us as a team to put it right in whatever way we feel we can.
I'm anticipating this might not be a super popular reply, but I feel like a lot of people will make this point and hopefully it provides a little bit of context in this particular case.
I think you should look into why people avoid Volcanic Mine
I (and others on the team) agree with this fwiw, I love VM and would love to see what could be done to retain its identity as a bit of group content with some tension but also demystify things a little and make it easier for people to get stuck in, find teams in-game, and learn the ropes
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