The following is the log from ingame global chat, while skathi decided to answer questions of FE community. Skathi - FE Developer Tiggs - FE Game Master
<[Skathi]> if you guys are interested in answers i can gve you some info
<[Skathi]> The dev budget is based off of markept place sales
<[Skathi]> if there is no sales there is no dev
<[Skathi]> Thats kind of the bottom line
<[Netrilus]> Ah yes the cap, what's up with 55, why not 100?
<[Skathi]> Raising the level cap all that, takes money
<[Krazee Steeve]> This may seem like a stupid question, but have GamersFirst actually considered advertising the game?
<[Skathi]> Whne the bought the game they spent a lot on ads
<[Skathi]> with 0 return
<[Skathi]> we used to do shows and everything
<[Skathi]> nothing
<[Skathi]> it is a total catch 22
<[Valerias]> does advertising cost a lot?
<[Skathi]> adertising is ridiculous
<[Skathi]> and if i have the money i would rather invest in in the game
<[Skathi]> the only investing we are getting is players buying items
<[Krazee Steeve]> Realistically, how much a year would you need to really develop the game?
<[Skathi]> ive never made numbes public
<[Nikki Burngrave]> maybe icome can go up if you got a list of items players wanted and sold them on the market?
<[Skathi]> im not comfortable releasing things like salary
<[Quantrill]> more than the clothes items generate
<[Skathi]> clothes make the most money
<[Skathi]> when we've done other things players have asked for it hasnt given the money pack that we put into it
<[Pantastiic]> Ofc but investment is a matter a faith somehow, like for reasearch. We cant expect the population to be back as it used to be right now
<[Skathi]> it is a matter of faith
<[Skathi]> and for that reason i dont blame anyone for not supporting the game finacially while still playing it
<[Skathi]> we're free to play
<[Skathi]> thats how it goes
<[Skathi]> thats not going to happen
<[Skathi]> we are a 5 year old game
<[Skathi]> i mean from you guys
<[Valerias]> surely must be ways of promoting the game without spending heaps of money?
<[Thepunishergp]> But don't forget, if there will be any investors, then what about advertising ingame as a cause from that?
<[Skathi]> advertising in any form costs money
<[Skathi]> even on the web
<[Pantastiic]> APB did go offline a few months after its release, G1 gave it another chance. would be the same thing here
<[Skathi]> well we kind of did that when we were purchased by g1
<[Glynis Oreilly]> Skathi any hope of getting a game card for FE? I'm not having any luck using Karma Koin cuz I'm from Canada
<[Skathi]> i dont have any info on game cards
<[Skathi]> you can i can differ in that pantastic
<[Quantrill]> steam made the game hard to find unless looking for it
<[Quantrill]> for awhile could not find it without a name search
<[Skathi]> yeah i get that
<[Skathi]> sadly steam is out of my control
<[Pantastiic]> Anyway for the advertising part, it would be wya more efficient if it was made by players and eventually supported by Dev team, like a signature.
<[Skathi]> if players wanted to do that the devs would be willing to be a part of it
<[Skathi]> and we've put that out there before
<[Thepunishergp]> Well, the game isn't bad at all as lots of say. I'm back from a retirement of some months, and the game still looks great, it's different than other games that I played
<[Skathi]> there are things i would like to improve, and we are working on it
<[Skathi]> just at a pace no one is really fond of
<[Trojan Warrior]> making an item that unattunes your gear would probably sell a lot skathi but that probably a dev issue too
<[Skathi]> we've talkined about unattuning
<[Skathi]> but it costs more then it would make
<[Trojan Warrior]> a lot of people would buy them tho
<[Skathi]> they would
<[Skathi]> but we mae money of off things being attuned
<[Skathi]> and they could only work on cosmetic things
<[Skathi]> cause we need to attunte to take weapons out of the economy
<[Skathi]> sorry guys im trying to answer everything and deal with the bug i logged into look at
<[Pantastiic]> But more cosmetic (clothes ..etc) and more dyable items would definitely boost your sales
<[Skathi]> now that the holidays are over we can do more fun cosmetics
<[Kayla Burnett]> Skathi please isolate the boots from the custom dress and sell them as one piece :D
<[Hikari Haro]> I will buy the boots from the wedding dress if it were available
<[Pantastiic]> Would it be a huge work to end up having old/current items being dyable like weapons (Shards, Lunatic...).
<[Quantrill]> more outfits for male toons other than a reworked armour
<[Skathi]> i wish ninja was on here
<[Skathi]> cause he could answer the art questions
<[Trojan Warrior]> i agree with you about advertising skathi that would be a waste of money best thing you can do is upgrade the game when you can and that should attract more players
<[Skathi]> we ar working on it Trojan
<[Quantrill]> Biggest issue is Outpost now that less players go there
<[Summer Rosewood]> take out the panthers i would glady go bad to OP then
<[Skathi]> yes
<[Skathi]> i can lower the pathers
<[Skathi]> under duress
<[Disestablish]> pvp arena in op? :o
<[Skathi]> too many pvp areas already
<[Skathi]> splits the players too much
<[Kayleigh Stanway]> Underground City +1
<[Skathi]> heh funny you should say underground
<[Kayla Burnett]> PVP "community" is one of the things that killed this game :)
<[Skathi]> no its not
<[Skathi]> the ddos issues last year hurt the game the most
<[Skathi]> the pvp commnuity kept us aroundf when things were bad
<[Skathi]> and i will always love them for that
<[Skathi]> even when i kinda want to strangle them
<[Shiu]> Ah, PVpers we... We were mouthful at times, but i'm far from agreeing about the fact we killed this game.
<[Skathi]> pvpers did not kill FE
<[Skathi]> that is the offical DEv stance on it
<[Smilada]> teh lag kills FE, skathi :D
<[Skathi]> aint arging with hat smilada
<[Skathi]> for the new comers to the conversation i told folks this was a good time to talk about these issues
<[Skathi]> no one is whining
<[Cardmacius]> why did they change the platmaster skins i loved the old ones that looked like paintball guns
<[Skathi]> honestly Card, people hated the paintball guns
<[Disestablish]> skathi , if u kill cuddles it gets big
<[Skathi]> yes
<[Skathi]> that is because cuddles is actually a man in a suit
<[Smilada]> skathi, ever planning to implement a housing systems in this game?? please????
<[Skathi]> if the money is there we can work
<[Chantelle Barrow]> APB is doing better than FE?
<[Skathi]> apb is doing LOADS better than FE
<[Skathi]> free to pla games get their buget from markeplace
<[Skathi]> if we have the money we want to do housing
<[Skathi]> i dont begrudge APB their success
<[Skathi]> they are just a different game
<[Tiggs]> can't compare apb and fe :)
<[Raniakutty]> i like fe more that apb
<[Skathi]> My too Rania
<[Skathi]> oops
<[Skathi]> FE IS BETTER IN EVERY WAY
<[Tiggs]> No you ruin it by asking
<[Skathi]> well since im going to be muted now
<[Shiu]> Personally, I think that all we need is goals or way to interest people in what they do, I mean pvpers could enjoy pve and rpers could enjoy pvp if they had the motives, but that's my point of view
<[Skathi]> i agree shiu
<[Skathi]> we need more pvp goals
<[Shiu]> Housing seems fine but well... lots of time invested in stuff that could be invested in changing gameplay/fixing bugs
<[Tiggs]> PVP and steal homes!
<[Kranke Schwester]> WE NEED STABLE SERVERS, so ppl can actually play this nice game
<[Skathi]> Ok i havent said anything about the lag
<[Skathi]> and now i can
<[Skathi]> keep your junk away from tiggs
<[Skathi]> the lag is caused by one specific thing
<[Skathi]> and finding it has literally involved the programmers going through bit by bit and looking for it
<[Skathi]> and durring that process we have found and fixed multiple issues that we wouldnt have seen other wise
<[Skathi]> but we are still finding things to be fixed
<[Skathi]> so we have made progress
<[Skathi]> but i cant say its done
<[Tiggs]> so until it's fixed fixed, it's restarts hen the lag happens :(
<[Skathi]> ok guys
<[Skathi]> i have to bounce now
<[Skathi]> but ill be back