Hello, I've been playing skyblock for a little over a week now and I have generally enjoyed the experience. However, there is one problem that is preventing me from enjoying the game at its fullest potential. I am going to be structuring this by addressing my complaint, and then filtering into my suggestions/solutions for how to optimize the player experience.
The Progression Lock
When beginning the adventure of cubecraft skyblock, the quests and time requirements to progress are very short and sweet which allows for the player to feel like they are actually working to accomplish something. However, this feeling of pushing the extra step to get ahead to complete a few more quests is basically destroyed by the time the jungle island is unlocked. The dreaded 4 hour sapling growth time was a punch to the gut being that it was only the 4th island out of 9 total. When I saw that time limit, obviously I was set back because it basically meant I couldn't really progress until I waited at least 2 cycles of 4-hour sapling growth. Unfortunately, this system of waiting for saplings (along with ore generators) only grew more intensive as the birch and savannah islands were unlocked. The birch island at the maximum efficiency of sapling production would still require at a minimum of about 2-3 full days of waiting around for enough wood to grow while the savannah (acacia) wood takes about 4-6 days at best to progress. I personally find that having to wait around aimlessly for trees to grow is the equivalent to watching paint dry. Now you might say "Hey Harry, that's why we have side quests and you technically aren't limited to just waiting for wood and ores" and to that, I would say yeah I was one step ahead of you. There is only so much you can do with making mob grinders or expanding your farms. In order for the cubecraft skyblock experience to prevent burnout, there needs to be changed to how people can go about waiting around. Without further ado...
My Suggestions
Of course I do not want to tell y'all how to run your server, but I think these suggestions will kill player retention on skyblock at greater numbers. I believe all of my suggestions could be very realistically implemented while maintaining the non F2P aspect of Cubecraft.
1. Social Features
I believe that adding social aspects would HEAVILY Increase player satisfaction. I think one thing about human nature is that almost all of us are or can be driven through some sense of competition. Whether that comes from a variety of different leaderboards (Money, Island ranking system maybe, hell it could even be for statistics like who has mined the most cobble or farmed the most potatoes) or an auction house ( might be tricky to prevent bypassing of current islands, however, the value of the items from more advanced islands would be worth more, balancing out the problem) or even the ability to visit someone's island. I find it an issue that there is no sense of other people being on the server when you are on your island. Skyblock on bedrock is averaging 6000 people, but unless you are in a condensed skyblock hub there is no way to communicate with others. I think adding global chat when on islands could also be a valuable addition as it would begin to create a community and give something for the player to do while being in a gray zone. Next, I think the skyblock economy is wayyyyyy to socialist. Right now, there is only public (server run) shops and a set currency, making the player feel marginalized, but I feel that adding player shops along with visiting could be a very good way to create competition and a functioning server economy, rather than a concrete method of doing everything. The game in its current states basically wants you to conform to the path it chooses, but I think players should be given more freedom to play skyblock how they want to play it. If this post is actually taken seriously into consideration, I would be happy to expand my thoughts and go into more specifics at a later date.
2. Automation
Okay, I play on bedrock, I know that there is bugs with redstone and duping, but there has got to be a way to implement some kind of automation into the game. I know some of the other servers have automated "minion" type things that can only be bought with IRL currency, so I know its possible for some kind of automation to happen. I know cubecraft wants to be original, but with the progression locks that you guys set, it makes it incredibly difficult to keep up with everything without setting alarms and timers to get maximum production rates. In theory, I know yall would just hope that you make the game entertaining enough so that people don't care about waiting 2 weeks to get enough dark oak wood to progress, but I would seriously look into how long people actually play the game and how far they progress before quitting or being less inactive. I have an auto spider farm, I have a mob grinder, I have an auto cacti farm, but for the actual time-locked things, there is nothing that a player can do. Like the social features, I know this could possibly "disrupt" the balance that seems so crucial for the server to be in control of, but I really think that this post should give yall some genuine insight to how players feel.
3. BETTER SIDE QUESTS
ahem, DON'T TELL ME TO MAKE 100,000 COOKIES AND CALL THAT ENOUGH AND DON'T TEASE ME WITH THE 2,000,000 REWARD WHEN I DID THE MATH AND YOU ONLY MAKE 500K PROFIT BECAUSE IF YOU JUST SOLD THE 2500 COCOA BEANS AND THE 5000 WHEAT IT WOULD COME OUT VERY CLOSE TO EVEN. okay, so now that my mini-rant is over :) I would love to see more meaningful side quests in 2 ways. Firstly, side questions that actually lead to some meaningful outcome in the first place (COOKIES ARE TRASH), and secondly, there need to be better rewards. XP bottles are insufficient for a quest that takes me multiple hours to complete. I feel that side quests are thrown in as a little chore to do rather than something to do in your free time that is actually meaningful.
Conclusion :)
I know that cubecraft is well beyond capable of performing all of the things I suggested in this thread. However, just because they are possible, doesn't mean they should be implemented. It would not be surprising to me if multiple if not all of these ideas have been pitched before, and were turned down. All I know is that coming from a player's perspective, this is how I am feeling in the current state of the game. If any staff member could comment or get in touch with me further to explain why any of these features are not a part of the game I would really appreciate it. In addition, as I mentioned earlier, I would be happy to expand my ideas further if any of them catch the eye of the lovely developers ;)
-Harrydude
The Progression Lock
When beginning the adventure of cubecraft skyblock, the quests and time requirements to progress are very short and sweet which allows for the player to feel like they are actually working to accomplish something. However, this feeling of pushing the extra step to get ahead to complete a few more quests is basically destroyed by the time the jungle island is unlocked. The dreaded 4 hour sapling growth time was a punch to the gut being that it was only the 4th island out of 9 total. When I saw that time limit, obviously I was set back because it basically meant I couldn't really progress until I waited at least 2 cycles of 4-hour sapling growth. Unfortunately, this system of waiting for saplings (along with ore generators) only grew more intensive as the birch and savannah islands were unlocked. The birch island at the maximum efficiency of sapling production would still require at a minimum of about 2-3 full days of waiting around for enough wood to grow while the savannah (acacia) wood takes about 4-6 days at best to progress. I personally find that having to wait around aimlessly for trees to grow is the equivalent to watching paint dry. Now you might say "Hey Harry, that's why we have side quests and you technically aren't limited to just waiting for wood and ores" and to that, I would say yeah I was one step ahead of you. There is only so much you can do with making mob grinders or expanding your farms. In order for the cubecraft skyblock experience to prevent burnout, there needs to be changed to how people can go about waiting around. Without further ado...
My Suggestions
Of course I do not want to tell y'all how to run your server, but I think these suggestions will kill player retention on skyblock at greater numbers. I believe all of my suggestions could be very realistically implemented while maintaining the non F2P aspect of Cubecraft.
1. Social Features
I believe that adding social aspects would HEAVILY Increase player satisfaction. I think one thing about human nature is that almost all of us are or can be driven through some sense of competition. Whether that comes from a variety of different leaderboards (Money, Island ranking system maybe, hell it could even be for statistics like who has mined the most cobble or farmed the most potatoes) or an auction house ( might be tricky to prevent bypassing of current islands, however, the value of the items from more advanced islands would be worth more, balancing out the problem) or even the ability to visit someone's island. I find it an issue that there is no sense of other people being on the server when you are on your island. Skyblock on bedrock is averaging 6000 people, but unless you are in a condensed skyblock hub there is no way to communicate with others. I think adding global chat when on islands could also be a valuable addition as it would begin to create a community and give something for the player to do while being in a gray zone. Next, I think the skyblock economy is wayyyyyy to socialist. Right now, there is only public (server run) shops and a set currency, making the player feel marginalized, but I feel that adding player shops along with visiting could be a very good way to create competition and a functioning server economy, rather than a concrete method of doing everything. The game in its current states basically wants you to conform to the path it chooses, but I think players should be given more freedom to play skyblock how they want to play it. If this post is actually taken seriously into consideration, I would be happy to expand my thoughts and go into more specifics at a later date.
2. Automation
Okay, I play on bedrock, I know that there is bugs with redstone and duping, but there has got to be a way to implement some kind of automation into the game. I know some of the other servers have automated "minion" type things that can only be bought with IRL currency, so I know its possible for some kind of automation to happen. I know cubecraft wants to be original, but with the progression locks that you guys set, it makes it incredibly difficult to keep up with everything without setting alarms and timers to get maximum production rates. In theory, I know yall would just hope that you make the game entertaining enough so that people don't care about waiting 2 weeks to get enough dark oak wood to progress, but I would seriously look into how long people actually play the game and how far they progress before quitting or being less inactive. I have an auto spider farm, I have a mob grinder, I have an auto cacti farm, but for the actual time-locked things, there is nothing that a player can do. Like the social features, I know this could possibly "disrupt" the balance that seems so crucial for the server to be in control of, but I really think that this post should give yall some genuine insight to how players feel.
3. BETTER SIDE QUESTS
ahem, DON'T TELL ME TO MAKE 100,000 COOKIES AND CALL THAT ENOUGH AND DON'T TEASE ME WITH THE 2,000,000 REWARD WHEN I DID THE MATH AND YOU ONLY MAKE 500K PROFIT BECAUSE IF YOU JUST SOLD THE 2500 COCOA BEANS AND THE 5000 WHEAT IT WOULD COME OUT VERY CLOSE TO EVEN. okay, so now that my mini-rant is over :) I would love to see more meaningful side quests in 2 ways. Firstly, side questions that actually lead to some meaningful outcome in the first place (COOKIES ARE TRASH), and secondly, there need to be better rewards. XP bottles are insufficient for a quest that takes me multiple hours to complete. I feel that side quests are thrown in as a little chore to do rather than something to do in your free time that is actually meaningful.
Conclusion :)
I know that cubecraft is well beyond capable of performing all of the things I suggested in this thread. However, just because they are possible, doesn't mean they should be implemented. It would not be surprising to me if multiple if not all of these ideas have been pitched before, and were turned down. All I know is that coming from a player's perspective, this is how I am feeling in the current state of the game. If any staff member could comment or get in touch with me further to explain why any of these features are not a part of the game I would really appreciate it. In addition, as I mentioned earlier, I would be happy to expand my ideas further if any of them catch the eye of the lovely developers ;)
-Harrydude
