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Changes: I Said No Power Tools!

If you haven't already heard, major changes to the XP Policy were implemented today by James and detailed by Atra in this news post. I highly recommend you read it prior to proceeding with my own report, because the two are intertwined and changes made to the I Said No Power Tools! Trophy are as a direct result of the aforementioned changes to the XP Policy.

Alright, now the gist of it.

With the "XP thresholds" (that is, the required XP amount) for member ranks having increased, we found ourselves forced to adjust the XP thresholds on the trophy for the crafting system to account for that; mainly, because the Trial of Acquisition is now a part of this trophy, lightsabers are intertwined with member ranks, we have "bonus" carbon nanofiber set to be granted at member advancements up to Equite 4, and all that has to come together and mesh well or it falls apart.

So without further ado, here are the changes we've made. The XP Threshold (OLD) column is what the previous values required per trophy level were required, the XP Threshold (NEW) column is what the new values are going forward.

You'll notice immediately a) the thresholds have increased, and b) that the first dozen and a half ranks are all over the place; this was an unfortunate result of the way the Journeyman and Equite are now threshold-ed for XP, but throughout the entire trophy, we tried to stay true to our original formula and mentality while (once we hit level 13) rounding to the next 500 XP to try and make the new numbers as uncomplicated as possible.

It is important to note that like with anything else, anything that you have already achieved is yours to keep and will not be taken away from you. You cannot go down in trophy ranks, only up. These changes may have increased the span, but the amount of trophy ranks themselves and the amount of carbon nanofiber you can net for the crafting system remains unchanged. It just takes a little longer to get there.

Upcoming Systemic/Administrative Changes

Not long after the crafting system beta launched, we released a member survey on what we and James had implemented looking for feedback on things that members felt needed to be improved/tweaked on the administrative/crafting side, the premise of the crafting system, the trophy and carbon nanofiber, etc. While the trophy is going to remain unchanged for the time being (aside from the obvious XP threshold shifts above) as it is working as intended, there are going to be some changes made to the crafting system coding when the Regent Staff gets to the front of the line for valuable JamesTime. There are a lot of things that James has on his plate (as usual), so there is no timeframe for these changes but they are something that we are trying to make happen prior to major releases of craftable items (next in line are craftable droids and armor).

Some of the things that have been discussed and James is going to try and do, though nothing is guaranteed (for obvious reasons), are:

• A "buy all" mechanic to purchase all crafting materials at once directly from the crafting recipe, while retaining the ability to purchase them manually if that is something the member wants to do
• Some additional filter options for the Crafting Recipes page
• The total cost of all the necessary crafting materials appearing on each recipe so a member knows the total cost they're getting into prior to crafting the item, although in nearly all cases the cost should be roughly 70-80% of a purchasable version of that item (if there is one, if not, then we are going to formula what the cost of a purchasable one would be, and use that metric to determine the cost of the materials we will put in that recipe)
• Changes to the coding logic used by the stores (i.e. buying items) to show a single entry per prototype, with an option to enter or choose how many multiples you wish to purchase of that item at once. This change benefits not only the crafting system, but the stores, clans (who are forced to refresh the page multiple times to buy a multitude of a single prototype lest the stores be filled with twenty instances of each), and possessions as a whole. This will eliminate glitches or entry error in item stocking on the staff's administrative side as well, as manually stocking and creating stock rules for the system to follow will be replaced by simplistic checkboxes of "yes, this item should appear in X store".
• System dialogue/UI improvements when an item has been crafted or you are on the crafting page for a greater dopamine hit, though the finer details of these changes and what we're looking for have yet to be properly discussed and that is why this point is the very last on the list.

While there are other changes that have been explored or will be explored later down the line, these are the major ones that we have identified and given priority to. When any changes to the system are made, I will detail them in full at that time, but I wanted the membership to be aware that we are listening to feedback re: the crafting system, and working to make things more enjoyable for everyone whether they are just getting started with possessions and crafting, or have been around for the 8 years that possessions has been a thing James and Evant blessed us with.

Minor Release What?

In true Noobi fashion, I woke up this morning and decided to throw together a very minor (because today we also celebrated my son's 5th birthday party and I have a lot going on) release to add a couple additional items to the system. Every single one of these items is something that has been requested. We were shown that we have a hilariously distinct lack of sciency upgrade options for Member Corvettes (yes, I know, catering to the 1% etc etc), so I lobbed some of those in as well. It isn't much, but we are working diligently on the crafting system and keeping an eye on new Star Wars media so we can continue to bring you more of that good Star Warsy content you love.

Release 05-24 contains:

• Iron Menagerie
  • Targon
• Antei Armaments
  • Verpine Shatter Rifle
  • Bokken Saber
• Synergy Starship Outfitters
  • Basic Laboratory (Member Corvette Upgrade)
  • Advanced Laboratory (Member Corvette Upgrade)
  • Experimental Laboratory (Member Corvette Upgrade)
  • Scientific Grade Sensor System (Member Corvette Upgrade)

My Goals

I have been Regent now for over three years, and out of the three Regents we have had, I am now the longest serving. I am not bragging, it has just caused a bit of reflection as I look at all of the contributions I have made as a member of this staff since I was first named Renatus' (re: Atra's) Magistrate over five years ago. Throughout my time in the job I've made my fair share of mistakes and errors like anyone else has the opportunity to, but I've done my best to shape and guide the possessions system to being more inclusive for a wider range of members by eliminating rank restrictions on some items, make it more "Star Warsy" as Evant likes to put it, but most of all ensure that every single addition that has been made so far under my tenure has been about providing the membership the possessions and possessions-related tools and systems to play whatever type of character they want, whenever they want, all within the confines and rules of our little own sandbox. I would rather have too many items in the system with a plethora that people are not using at any given time, that they may choose to utilize in the future, than not have enough or be missing portions that can be used to create really interesting characters and character types while the people who want to create those characters sit on hundreds of thousands or (in Sarin's case, until Member Corvettes launched) over a million credits.

Because I've been in the role for so long, I think now is as good a time as any to restate my intentions and goals as Regent. First and foremost, regardless of what happens, my intent is to serve as Regent until at least the end of Dacien/Bubba's term as Grand Master or I simply run out of steam (fat chance, but life likes to throw curve balls wherever it can and I am no exception). Whether I choose to serve beyond that, or if Bubba's successor decides to keep me on once they are confirmed, is not something I am thinking or worried about. That is a FutureNoobi problem.

My vision/goal is to keep doing what I've been doing since I first got Magistrate, then Praetor, then the big boss pants as Regent and continue to guide possessions through what me and Thran now view as its adolescence, making improvements where I can to make our badass little possessions system as Star Warsy as possible and keep members interested with new and exciting content to spend their hard-earned fake internet monies on - all while making as little mistakes and errors as possible while I do it.

This includes continuing to release new content coming to us from all Star Wars media, plugging away at and the finalization of the crafting system and its own content within possessions, and overall making whatever changes I feel make the possessions system more Star Warsy and more aligned with in-universe items and how they work. I am and continue to be very grateful that I am able to serve the Brotherhood in this position, and I am thankful for the continued privilege to do so. You guys make it worth it.

• If you have any questions/comments/concerns about a possession or the possessions system, or have found an error, please email us at the Regent Staff mailing list (linked below).
• If you have a canon/legends item prototype or droid/starship/weapon upgrade suggestion, please use the suggestion box (linked below).
• If you want to propose a non-canon/non-legends item prototype for inclusion in possessions, follow the Item Prototype Approval Policy (linked below) and send us the full proposal outlined therein.

Important Links

• [Log in to view e-mail addresses]
• Item Research
• Item Stores
• Item Aspect Approval Policy
• Item Prototype Approval Policy
• Regent Suggestion Box
• Item Error Reporting Baox