Tedium is a game killer

[Mitra]

In any game there are some tedious chores, but there's a line that when crossed, gradually drives players away. The two primary sources of tedium are travel and muling. If it takes forever to do either, that's bad. Neither have been particularly bad in PG (some classes could use a speed bump), but muling has taken a big nosedive since the move to Steam because it's no longer simple to have two accounts logged in on one workstation.

Developer goal is probably to have specialization & storage isolated among characters rather than players having one character that specializes in several crafts and other characters on the account storing items for that main player. That's counter to the natural inclination of most players.

So unless I'm missing something - which is entirely possible - the options become one of the following:

1. Loading VM software on my laptop and running a 2nd machine that way. Cumbersome, but may be forced to.
2. Running two computers when I play - which means not playing in my recliner the last couple hours of my day anymore - insert huge sadface.

or

3. Devs & player community share ideas on making muling efficient again.

or worst of all

4. Walk away from the $350 we spent on PG game packages, stop playing a game we (wife & I) enjoy aside from this muling thing, and find something else. Because it is trending as a show stopper. I was enjoying a couple hours every night prior to Steam. After moving to Steam, I'm logging in to pay vendor rent & wishing I didn't feel paralyzed. I hope this can be addressed.

[Madmatx]

It's not that hard to put 8 items in the transfer box and log out, even if you have to do it several times. Heck, with Steam you don't even need to put in your password so you can do it with one hand litterally tied behind your back.

It would be nice to have more character slots but that and a larger transfer box might be a VIP bonus later on.

[Crissa]

Muling isn't necessary, but the sort at the end of a day's worth fo dungeon runs is still a massive pain.

[Niph]

Looks like option one is the way to go, if you don't want to pay for VIP features (still TBD).

[Citan]

We'll find ways to address this going forward. The VIP plan will definitely be able to help there, but we'll have other ways to make muling practical for people who don't use VIP. For instance, maybe the instanced housing system will be the answer -- park your mules in your house and dump your items on the floor. I don't know yet. It's a problem we weren't really thinking about too much before Steam, and we have aggressive schedules to keep (or try to keep...) so I don't want to try to code a complex technical answer that ends up costing us lots of development+maintenance time, or limits us in other ways... but that said, when I'm confident I can squeeze a solution in somewhere, it'll happen. I understand it's a problem for you NOW, but I hope you can bear with it for a while.

[Mikhaila]

I think a lot depends on the player. I've never considered using a mule. I started about a month ago and when i realized how many npc's had storage i started using them a lot and maxing out faction to get the most space. I dump stuff to them when nearby. And being able to access all the inventories in an area is very handy. The outpost even lets me move stuff to Lammasu up in the hills. There seems to be plenty of storage, and I say that being a tradeskill junkie and saving a lot of materials.

[IndigoBlue]

I always do crafts when I game. So there are all those pieces, plus the animal parts and misc. items that the NPC's and Job order boards want, and it's a huge lot to store!

I feel storage is actually pretty decent. But the number of slots in the Shared Storage box is abysmal. I spend a horrible amount of time logging into each of my 3 mule toons multiple times, because of the size of the Shared Storage box. And doing this every 60 minutes or so, yeesh! Of course, once I get storage up on a couple more NPC's in Serbule town, this will become a moot point.

Disclaimer: I'm new, and getting set up. Down the line, I expect to need only 2 mules.

[Mikhaila]

Second thought: I don't really feel that Muling should be a dev concern, especially not making it more efficient. You have 4 character slots to make that many characters, not as an inventory solution. Players may choose to use them as mules, that's fine and their choice, but it's not an intended way to store things.

If better storage is needed, add better storage options rather than making muling more efficient.

Maybe add warehouse space in some of the cities or even outlying areas. A player could buy 20/50/100/250 slot warehouse space and be charged a daily fee for it. Don't pay the fee and your goods are locked up until you pay up. Of course the charges will continue to build :)

[IndigoBlue]

Second thought: I don't really feel that Muling should be a dev concern, especially not making it more efficient. You have 4 character slots to make that many characters, not as an inventory solution. Players may choose to use them as mules, that's fine and their choice, but it's not an intended way to store things.

If better storage is needed, add better storage options rather than making muling more efficient.

Maybe add warehouse space in some of the cities or even outlying areas. A player could buy 20/50/100/250 slot warehouse space and be charged a daily fee for it. Don't pay the fee and your goods are locked up until you pay up. Of course the charges will continue to build :)

That's not a bad idea, but I'm opposed to daily charges. What if you get busy with RL for a few days? Weekly or even bi-weekly would be a more manageable payment solution.

[Mikhaila]

Wasn't thinking so much of having to pay it each day, but that the fee would be charged each day. Have an account at that warehouse. Each day a fee is taken out. If your account goes to zero you can't access your warehouse space until your account is caught up. Maybe add an option if you are overdrawn "Fine, just keep the stuff and call it even."

[INXS]

People use the players vendors to do that already, 41 slots max I think for a daily price.

[Mikhaila]

Interesting, but that explains why some have nothing for sale. But doesn't the price go up each day? I guess at this point some people aren't worried about money

Hmm, that might be an easy way to go it. Have a building with "warehouse workers" who hold your items. Same as a vendor except they can't sell items, simply store. Put those at places near Work Order boards such as on the Serb Docks with Fitz

[Crissa]

Wasn't thinking so much of having to pay it each day, but that the fee would be charged each day.
I'd prefer something more like the temporary containers that you can put down. You only pay when you want to access it. That way offline players aren't penalized so badly.