Toulan Suggestions | General Discussion

[Heidi Stassinopolis]

would it also be possible to convert [Metal Residue] into [Shrapnel

There are usually orders on Caly AH for metal res at over 101% and if you really want shrap then a lot of people sell it for 100.5% so I think this is the way to do this already

 

[Jalia]

In Nahar City, the Corbite Trading Company teleporter is quite a way from the televator to the shops. Could the existing televator be moved closer? It seems a bit illogical to have the two so far apart. I often like to do a bit of shopping if I'm waiting for a new task and I'd like to increase my available shopping time

Edit 04 March 2023: And it's been moved. Thank you, that's far more convenient

 

[John uncguy43 Williams]

I would like to make a suggestion related to the Baraka armor obtained from the CUHOF Caves.

Recently, I came to Toulan to farm a set of M Baraka armor for my avatar. In the first night, I spent ~5k PED and got back ~4k PED. In chatting with various members of the community, I've learned that TT returns in CUHOF instances average 80-90% and Loot 2.0 rules do not apply there.

I am not angry about the TT returns - that is not the purpose of my suggestion. However, I provide that context here so that Ant can know where I am coming from. Further, it is helpful context for me in determining whether I want to continue farming for the armor set. Knowing one's cost is crucial to making informed decisions.

So, I spent/lost $100 of real money the first night and obtained one armor piece....a F piece that my avatar can't use.

Now, I'll have to go through the headache over the next several weeks of trying to find an avatar that will trade with me for an equal Tier 0 piece, which will probably not be easy. Instead, I propose that VirtualSense implement a terminal where avatars can trade M for F pieces or F for M pieces of equal TT value. That mitigates the extra time waste of what is already a very costly process for committed players.

As I said above, I do not mind paying the implicit cost of farming a full set. But the added time cost of farming the right sex set makes it feel like a fool's errand and I will not proceed trying to farm pieces unless a change is made here.

Thanks for your consideration!

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

Thanks for sharing your info with me in the game in PM and then coming here to post so that Ant can see your suggestion at my request. He reads all feedback / suggestions and assesses everything to consider whether viable or not, or if it's something that could actually be accomplished based on the development process. He however does not respond to the posts, but if he finds something that is doable, then he will give consideration to it and maybe something that will turn up in a future VU, but there are never any promises.

I also shared the EU Discord discussion about the CUHOF (and other universe) instances so that he is aware of that as well.

 

[GeorgeSkywalker]

Would it be possible to make it easier to land on Toulan? currently the problem is when in space I find it very difficult to get the prompt that asks you do you wish to land. I end up going up and down around the whole area on the edge of space before I find this prompt.

Perhaps the landing area could be enlarged so that it covers a vast stretch from western edge of planet to the eastern edge along the space boundary? (which is the case with all other planets and landing a non issue)

Apologies if this has been raised before.

 

[Vonny]

[QUOTE Would it be possible to make it easier to land on Toulan? currently the problem is when in space I find it very difficult to get the prompt that asks you do you wish to land. I end up going up and down around the whole area on the edge of space before I find this prompt. ][/QUOTE]

The easiest way to fly down to planet is start at entrance to spacestation, use align horizontal to line-up your ship, and then fly due north. I agree though that this needs to get fixed, Toulan is the hardest planet to land on and we shouldn't need to aim away from where we see the planet in space to land on it.

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

Unfortunately, it's a space issue, and space is MA's domain ... the problem with the Toulan planet entry to land has been there for a very long time and it was reported, but it has never been fixed ... it's nothing that we can do regarding that, and it's not an option to expand the landing zone at the Citadel.

We have an actual waypoint that we give people in the game to use that makes it easier to land on Toulan, but other than individually giving someone the waypoint, there's really no other optimum way to make sure that everyone gets the message other than in chat.

If you fly to the Space Station, align your ship horizontally, and then fly due north as Vonny suggested, that works too.

 

[GeorgeSkywalker]

Ok, thanks for reply DME.

Would it be possible to share the waypoint here?

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

Ok, thanks for reply DME.

Would it be possible to share the waypoint here?

Yes, of course, and sorry I didn't add it earlier in my post ...

Toulan Planet Entry -
/wp [Space, 85591, 81634, 130, Waypoint]

If you copy that waypoint as is and paste it in your chat log in the game and click on enter, it will place a waypoint on your map.

 

[GeorgeSkywalker]

Same waypoint as above but labelled:

/wp [Space, 85591, 81634, 130, Toulan Planet Entry]

 

[ElricAmadeusBent]

Can you please tick Dunkel into a random to us, thought through by PP, area on Toulan. It is a rare desirable material that is quite valuable to both miners and crafters further promoting mining on Toulan.

 

[John Howard Michaels]

So we were in chat today discussing improvements to the game. This suggestion has always been something I thought EU, Toulan, Monria, etc. could always benefit from.

Concept: A portable or booth-style shopping area where non-shop owners can sell their wares.

Explanation: We have shop owners, which is great but not all shop owners continuously keep their shops stocked and with the right things. I travel EU constantly and I hunt, and craft mainly. What I have found is that trying to find on auction or in a shop that one specific material is hard. Granted I know I am not always going to find everything, (try finding light metal plating to make Lich armor) I need when I need it but this suggestion would give that opportunity of finding what I am looking for a better chance.
There is also the fact that people like me who don't have shops on any planet could sell what they gather while they are on that planet that way it is not left in the auction house or going to the TT machine.
These booths/miniature shops could be rented for 'XX" ped/hr. Max X hours per day. This feature would also help keep the balance of the number of people selling items down, still allowing for the auction and shop owners to sell what they would have. It would increase traffic because not only do you have more sellers and availability you have more people making ped and spending ped in that area.
Don't get me wrong my idea is not to make ped although that is a necessary staple. My goal is to improve the game.

If you need a reference idea as to how it could be set up or how it would work. Take a look at Everquest. Originally they had everybody sitting online in the middle of an area where they sold their wares and shouted it in chat. Kind of like the Trade Channel and twin peaks used to be, then they moved to a specific area where everyone could log in a character and set it to sell what they had. I liked the idea but it also created bots/alts where people left it on 24/7 my concept takes that apart and allows a user to use only a certain number of hours per day that way as many as possible can get in there and sell.

Let me know if you have questions or want to discuss more.

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

I was present when that entire discussion took place with regard to the need for having traders on Toulan, and that is something I agree with. We had a few of them at Guardian Village, but that takes dedication and time.

I can see the need for some sort of trading function perhaps at Guardian Village, but the one thing we don't want to do is take away from the booth and shop owners, or those who sell from shopkeepers in their apartments. We created the Toulan Shop Inventory Tool where the inventory lists from all booths, shops and shopkeepers are added to the database and shows where to find the items you're looking for, but the challenge is for the booth, shop and shopkeeper owners to keep up with their inventory.

We want to support a Toulan economy, but it has to be in a way that doesn't take away from those who have invested in booths, shops and shopkeepers to facilitate trade. However, these individuals have to be dedicated to make sure they continue to restock inventory.

For those who come to Toulan to engage in hunting, mining and crafting, I can see the need to be able to sell resources, so it's definitely something to think about. What the course of action is at this point I'm not too sure, but one thing I know absolutely, is that Ant and Kendra read these feedback posts and take them seriously.

Hopefully, with a bit of constructive discussion we can perhaps figure something out that will help all.

Thanks for posting this thread John Michaels, appreciate that you took the time.

 

[John Howard Michaels]

I was present when that entire discussion took place with regard to the need for having traders on Toulan, and that is something I agree with. We had a few of them at Guardian Village, but that takes dedication and time.

I can see the need for some sort of trading function perhaps at Guardian Village, but the one thing we don't want to do is take away from the booth and shop owners, or those who sell from shopkeepers in their apartments. We created the Toulan Shop Inventory Tool where the inventory lists from all booths, shops and shopkeepers are added to the database and shows where to find the items you're looking for, but the challenge is for the booth, shop and shopkeeper owners to keep up with their inventory.

We want to support a Toulan economy, but it has to be in a way that doesn't take away from those who have invested in booths, shops and shopkeepers to facilitate trade. However, these individuals have to be dedicated to make sure they continue to restock inventory.

For those who come to Toulan to engage in hunting, mining and crafting, I can see the need to be able to sell resources, so it's definitely something to think about. What the course of action is at this point I'm not too sure, but one thing I know absolutely, is that Ant and Kendra read these feedback posts and take them seriously.

Hopefully, with a bit of constructive discussion we can perhaps figure something out that will help all.

Thanks for posting this thread John Michaels, appreciate that you took the time.

Thanks for the reply DME. I agree I would never want to take away from investors, that's just something you don't do in any type of business. Still, those who invest have to understand there are some risks for not keeping up with their investments. I know it is not an easy sell or an easy thing to manage.
Maybe the number of portable booths could be limited to like 3 to 5 max and only for an hour at a time that way everybody has a chance but would also limit the number non non-shop/booth/apartment sellers that way not offset the investments made. Like you said some good constructive discussion is needed to look at it from all angles. I look forward to more discussion on this and hope there is.

 

[Heidi Stassinopolis]

Let me know if you have questions or want to discuss more.

I might be missing the point here but isn't this the same as people standing about at twin peaks doing private trades? I don't see the point of people paying ped to do something they can do for free unless you mean it is somewhere that they can put their stuff up for sale and then go do other things at the same time? In that case I guess that would be like the caly banks? Maybe Nahar city could benefit from one???

Honestly I watched the chat too and Toulan needs crafters who have a reason to craft (nadiras mission, promise of estate pages etc) and keep coming back. The Nadira mission is great but eventually the reward becomes minimal as the players skill increases, maybe we need a more involved mission for higher level crafters as an add on.

I used to sell an awful lot of craftables from my shop but the number of crafters on Toulan has definitely declined and I have had to alter my shop content to suit, actually having done nadiras mission a lot I am now crafting a lot more to sell items in the shop which kind of proves my point above about needing a higher level mission. It's been a bit of a win win for me.

I think Ark did a great thing when they had the gold rush crafting event (although it wasn't perfect and people had complaints about it) but while it was running I spent the entire time mining to fill AH orders and honestly it was hard to keep up the economy was booming and of course as soon as the event ended it went back to normal, but it would be beneficial if, as well as the monthly shooting mobs event there were some kind of crafting and mining events happening regularly/occasionally/whenever and that could only benefit everyone.

The only incentive for a trader on Toulan is to turn up and buy at low MU (which is bad for the low level players) and go to Caly and resell it. Personally I don't buy things to sell in the shop as it is not worth it, I used to travel to Caly to buy mining amps to sell in the shop but that required a few k ped investment which was then tied up until it all sold in order to make maybe 20 - 30 ped profit. As soon as other shops started selling amps I gave up. It seems now that mining amps are a bit harder to get again so having a few bp's now I might look at crafting them but honestly it's a lot of investment and I'm not that commited to the idea.

It has been good that Toulan has had new BP's over the years but I feel a lot of them have been too quirky or gimicky, so everyone goes mad for them at the time they come out but then the interest is lost and the resources needed drop in MU value again. I really think we need more weapons/tools/armour/equipment bps to come out over the next several VU's and that might help stimulate the economy and give players more interest and playability in the game.

The Graduate rifle is great so maybe we could start with a bp for the (L) version??? or BP's for plates? or a pre amped finder? whatever MA will allow of course.

 

[John Howard Michaels]

I might be missing the point here but isn't this the same as people standing about at twin peaks doing private trades? I don't see the point of people

I agree with you it does seem like the same thing. My point was for me or people like me who don't have all that much time to spam trade chats with what they are selling. I try to make the most effective use of my time. In real life, I do many things in a day. So for example I hunt for an hour or two on Toulan I have stuff saved up in storage. Rather than TT'ing or depositing more I want to sell my stuff. Well, it just happens that when my hunt is done I have a Zoom call for an hour or something that has to be fixed, etc. Well, I can't be sitting in a trade chat trying to sell stuff and taking a call or fixing stuff at the same time. I am good at multi-tasking but not that good. So If I had a portable stall or area where I could set my character up, put in what I am selling, and set the prices, then that leaves me the ability to work on what I need for real life and try to earn a bit of ped back. I hope that makes sense. It would be a way for users who are quite busy to try and sell stuff rather than spending some of their free game time in trade chats trying to sell. Not sure it was just an idea. I do see your point though.
I do agree the place needs more crafters and sellers, personally, I think a bit more advertising of what is on Toulan and what happens there somehow needs to get out there. I subscribe to a lot of chats and when Toulan hit the 17K on the Duhol Boss during the monthly event, one chat I had was filled with What mob is that, what planet is that on, etc. I was kind of shocked they didn't know. I informed them but still. Not saying DME and the gang aren't doing a stand-up job because they are. We as players need to talk about it more to others. Try and get more events to happen on Toulan maybe player-made events. Not sure.
I do like Monria, Toulan, and DSEC, the concepts are great just need to attract some more people.

 

[Littlestar b-k]

We could maybe merge the players from Toulan and Dsec/Mom/Lotus temple area by linking Toulan with Dsec and unlinking Dsec with Monria as to not allow free travel.

Just a tought, Don't shoot me.

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

I subscribe to a lot of chats and when Toulan hit the 17K on the Duhol Boss during the monthly event, one chat I had was filled with What mob is that, what planet is that on, etc. I was kind of shocked they didn't know. I informed them but still. Not saying DME and the gang aren't doing a stand-up job because they are. We as players need to talk about it more to others. Try and get more events to happen on Toulan maybe player-made events. Not sure.
I do like Monria, Toulan, and DSEC, the concepts are great just need to attract some more people.

It's appreciated that so many enjoy Toulan and want it to grow, and that they can see the need for content to help that along, but one of the things we've always been true to is that we "work in partnership with the community" and we have held true to that. We listen, we have created quite a bit of content based on community feedback, and have made changes and done fixes as well.

Ant always has several campaigns going to bring in new players, and we see the result of that in the increase of Monrian and Toulan Born, for which a few in the community have been exceptional Mentors. Plant Partners are also tasked with player retention, which is why our decisions with content has been a bit selective. We want to give new players a good start, but also create a path to help guide them with their experiences toward mid-level and higher. We can boast that we have quite an impressive player retention based on reports that we get that are not made public, but is a basis for what more we need to do.

That said, we have not been lacking in content that feeds into the higher levels (however you define that), and we will continue to do that, but as I have mentioned so many times, we have a very specific road map that is designed with intent and purpose. We want to make sure that all level players have an opportunity to engage in what we make available, and will continue to evolve in that respect. We don't have the level of content that true ubers would most likely want to see, but I have also shared many times that the development portion of our team doesn't do this full-time because of having other real life investments and work, but I am still amazed at how much they DO put out there in VUs.

Now to respond to your specific comment John Michaels ... everyone isn't going to know every mob across the universe and what location they are at, so when you were asked what mob it was that gave the 17K+ loot and what location, that would have been an excellent opportunity for you to also share the Toulan Everything Guide to help educate others about Toulan. We have one of these for all 3 of our locations ... Monria Everything Guide ... DSEC9 Everything Guide. A lot of effort went into creating these guides to help the community navigate our locations with more ease, and Shadow did an excellent job of designing them and putting them together.

We have created many resources for the community in this respect, but it seems that we find ourselves giving out these links to the same people who don't seem to take the time to make a sticky note with the links. These guides answer a lot of questions, and for those who want the Toulan community or economy to grow, I think it would go far for the community to start sharing this information so that others will get to know more of what Toulan is about. This has to be a two-way street with us working together.

With regard to MU and either blueprints or items that would help in that respect, we continue to pay attention to feedback and can certainly entertain what would fit and work toward promoting a better economy, but the community has to do their part because they are the ones who set the MU limits. It was also mentioned in the Toulan chat discussion (not by you John Michaels) that ubers need to be drawn to Toulan to help the economy, but it doesn't take an uber to hunt, mine or craft to affect what you want to see.

Regarding the issue with trading, your suggestions will be taken into consideration, but can't promise the result because it's based on variables that may or may not preclude us from following through, and this is something I've shared many times as well. As a Planet Partner we have specific guidelines that relate to content creation, and those are not publicly shared.

And in response to Littlestar's comment ...

We could maybe merge the players from Toulan and Dsec/Mom/Lotus temple area by linking Toulan with Dsec and unlinking Dsec with Monria as to not allow free travel.

Just a tought, Don't shoot me.

No shooting ... but this will never happen because we needed DSEC9 in order to create a proper new player beginners mission chain for our Monrian Born because we aren't doing any further updates for Monria based on the fact that Monria is located on the Calypso server and it would require us to work with MA's team. MA is extremely busy, and as we all know, MA has a reduced staff, so it would be quite difficult to schedule any time to work with them. We are more focused on creating content for Toulan and DSEC9 because we have full control of development.

I think it's important to step back for a minute and give some thought to the bigger picture. There is a purpose behind all that we do, and it's all connected between our locations. We don't put content out there just to have content, even with some of the blueprints because we were responding to feedback. When we released the Toulan estates the end of 2020, some requests were for clothing and furniture. I would like to invite you to visit the Toulan Blueprint & Items section of the forum where Shadow gave a cross link to each. It will give you a window into what blueprints we have created and what's available to craft to perhaps help the economy.

With regard to the issue with trading, your suggestions will be taken into consideration, but can't promise the result because it's based on variables that may or may not preclude us from following through, and this is something I've shared many times as well. As a Planet Partner we have specific guidelines that relate to content creation, and those are not publicly shared. We also have to work with MA-created systems on certain things, so that's a variable that can be challenging at times.

Apologies for the length of this post, but I wanted to at least try to explain why we do some of the things we do, and also invite the community to give more thought to what they can do in furtherance of boosting the Toulan economy since you have been pleasantly vocal about how much you enjoy the location. I promise you that we want to work in partnership with you to make our locations the best experience you can have, but we have to do this together.

I also wanted to mention that with regard to advertising our locations, Shadow and I publish a VS Quarterly Magazine that includes expanded information on our VU content that you can find in the Media Section at this forum, along with other media projects. A good portion of our content is also based on and inspired by lore that connects all three locations. I also advertise our Monria and Toulan events in the game chats, as well as ads in our Monria and Toulan ad systems. I can't advertise them on the global event system because these particular events are not associated with an event organizer.

The one thing that we have also been consistent with is not make an effort to "intentionally" take players away from other planets and advertise at their locations. This is something that Ant made clear in the beginning, and that our focus was going to be bringing in new players and guiding them in their experiences. We wanted our growth as a team to happen organically, and it's working.

Ok, I'll stop now because I could probably go on forever, LOL ... I will share that I am writing an article in the March VS Quarterly on the VS Team -- "Who we are, what we have accomplished in the past 8+ years, and what our outlook is on the future." Shadow and I have been working on the magazine for a while now since the PPVU was delayed, so all we need is the VU content info for us to complete the magazine and get it published. The community could help in this respect too with sharing these quarterly magazines.

We'll continue to do our best based on what we have to work with, and will appreciate any effort you put forth as well.

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

One of the things I neglected to mention is that we support our estate owners who sell from booths, stalls and shops, as well as those who sell from shopkeepers in their apartments. We created shop inventory tools for locations with estates to allow searching for items and where they can be found. Every person who is selling from a booth, stall, shop or from shopkeepers in their apartments I gave a dedicated section at the forum and initially set up their inventory list based on what they had available. Then gave them the means to update their inventory lists at the forum and upload the changes to the shop inventory tool database ... quite simple.

Toulan Shop Inventory Tool
Monria Shop Inventory Tool
Larches Green Shop Inventory Tool -- which is at the Mountain of Madness on DSEC9 with estates recently released

We also designed our Yamato warp schedule/route specifically to also support the estate traders so that they can go to each planet during the schedule and have time to catch the final summons at each location. This is not only to sell, but to get inventory to restock their shops. However, they too have to be on task in updating their shop inventories in order to make them available in the tools.

I know this doesn't help those who don't have shops and want to sell and trade, but when we did have consistent traders on Toulan, I don't think the community took full advantage of this. These players took time out of their day (whatever their time-zone) to stand at Guardian Village to provide a trading service, and as we all know, this not only takes dedication, but someone can't be in the game 24/7, so it's important to have time-zones covered.

We can't always provide tangible content to assist in ways you want because of any number of variables, but also because we don't want to take away from our estate traders, so I think it would be prudent to come together to see what you can do to achieve what is wanted. Trying to bring ubers to Toulan isn't going to solve the problem if you don't have traders, and the auction isn't always amenable to use because some claim MU is too high, even though the MU for some items on other planets is equal or a fraction different.

If any one of you has items to sell or buy or want to trade, and the trade channels aren't working for you, then give Guardian Village a shot to see if that helps. While some have said that Toulan isn't populated enough, we have reports that say Toulan is doing well, and it could be a matter of time of day, but also ... when you have MA putting out major events, a lot of players gravitate toward those.

We can also entertain the idea of adding more events, but that is something that is going to require a lot of thinking and planning. This is why we work more toward adding more mission chains and other engaging content to work toward rewards. Toulan has some missions with nice rewards, you just have to cruise through Toulan Daily Missions | Info & Rewards to see what I mean.

Let's just continue to work together to see what we can come up with that will help provide what is needed.