Devs cannot be trusted. Wish Machine Trap.

[cool skill]

I don't care about communist ToS. There are devs who are genuine and ones who simply do things that set of scam alarms. Loot boxes are already a shady practice that are even banned in certain countries.

But regardless if you agree or not about these devs, I would like to warn everybody about this Wish Machine. Because a multitude of users have lost tons of Starchrom without permission or realizing they were losing Starchrom.

The shop section is fine. Clear list of items with clear prices for them. You click what you want, and it will show up for you to decide to purchase.

The game section is a whole different story. Apparently the tutorial is supposed to show up for low level. But for many, including myself, it did not show up until much much later towards the end of the second section. Long after you can just build a Wish Machine in your base with no clue how it works.

It is perfectly fine to agree to pay to gamble, and lose your shirt. However, this Wish Machine is designed for users to pay without realizing they're paying. Trolls will say otherwise, but the evidence is clear.

The first time I used the Wish Machine, I checked everywhere. I mean everywhere to find out what the fee was. Nothing. No fee mentioned anywhere. There is a 'Play' button that will start the game with no fee indicated. But there's no way in hell the game will just start if I click 'Play' unless something comes up showing any fees and options to proceed or exit right? Wrong.

The game just starts. OK there's a riddle quest in the game to shoot road signs. You click, it starts, and you shoot as many road signs as you can. Because you do not want to miss any.

So here in the Wish Machine, you click 'Play', and what happens? Gophers show up going up and down. And you are so caught off guard expecting some directions or some explanation on how to play, with information on fees. Bu there's no information. And you cannot even tell if the game just suddenly started. So each gopher you're not hitting may be like missing road signs that you're supposed to hit.

As gophers are going up and down, user trying to figure out wtf is going on, there is an extremely vague note at the bottom that says "Smash it and spend 500 XStarchrom to receive the reward."

WTF does that even mean? Whatever it means, the closest interpretation would be that you can choose to spend 500 Starchrom later. Perhaps after smashing as many as you can? But nobody can tell or has time to figure it out wtf "all your base are belong to us" means. When the game looks like it has started and you have to now try to hit as many gophers as you can as fast as you can.

No indication of fee has shown up. Or any sort of agreement to pay a fee. Just to be clear, the initial presumption is that directions/fee will be shown prior to clicking 'Play'. Nothing. Maybe something will come up after clicking 'Play'. Nothing, game just starts. OK so now what? Maybe a fee I can choose to pay will show up after the game is over. But who has time to figure it out? When gophers are going up and down. And most likely you have already missed out on hitting some. So you have to compensate by hitting as many as you can as fast as you can. Then maybe afterward it will have info on a fee.

Except as your hitting the gophers, Starchrom is getting drained from you. Your Starchrom is showing on the top right with small indication every time it is reducing. But you cannot see that if you are completely focused on making sure to hit the next gopher on time. Not realizing you're losing Starchrom with every single hit.

Anybody who thinks this is not intentionally designed in a way so misleading that exactly this will happen to a considerable amount of users = extremely naive. They could have put the fees and directions at the beginning before you even click 'Play'. They could have had something come up when clicking 'Play'. So you are clear on how to play and decide to proceed or exit before a single gopher shows up. No. As soon as you click play, the game immediately starts with gophers going up and down.

Many users have already complained about losing thousands of Starchrom. Not because they knew they were paying to gamble. But because they did not know it was being drained while they were playing the game. That gave no indication of fees.

And some users have even given evidence that this was not even the original design. Originally, there were two buttons. 500 and 5000. So you choose which you want. And an additional screen comes up so you can decide if you want to proceed with paying it or cancel. So wtf happened to that?

Why is this designed with no information whatsoever anywhere that beginners can see clearly before clicking 'play'? And clicking 'play' the game just starts with no confirmation to proceed with information on fees. And an absurd note at the bottom intentionally written with dementia? It is very clear and obvious that the devs want users to play this game without realizing they're losing Starchrom for every hit.

[Cmdo.Delta]

No way I'm reading this novel lol.

I played wish machine twice.. Once I played the first game that garantee you the purple SCAR.. second time is because I didn't know there was a quest about the machine so I had to play again to finish the quest.. If I knew earlier I would have waited to play the first game.. Other than this, I bought my crossbow legendary.. I prefer to get what I want. The wish machine seems broken anyway so better not use it xD.

[cool skill]

NoSanaNoLife님이 먼저 게시:

So I might be wrong, because there is a TON of misinformation out there right now. The youtube community for Once Human is garbage click-bait all repeating the same basic info or just straight misinformation.

But I was told that just because a Blue Print says "Obtained from Wish Machine", and you see it listed in the G menu, doesn't mean that is the only way to obtain it.

And also I was told that you can upgrade any Blue Print to Gold, and many of them gain additional stats. The Wiki severely lacking in info.

And then lastly, you can switch out stats on armor and weapons, I forget what the mechanic is called because my server is currently down and I have to work now for a few hours. But I was advised that because of these things, It's not worth spending starchrom on the G menu (Again, unless you are really wanting a specific item from there now).

And I will once again state that I don't know these things I just said are fact or misinformation.

On a side note: Does anyone know of any actual authentic videos? I have given up on looking for building tips and tricks videos. I have watched like 20 of them, and they are all just recycling the same "THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW!" about base building, which literally is just super basic stuff or tips about base mechanics and nothing about building. The only genuine videos I have seen, is people showing how to do the tower build with spiral stairs in the middle. And now every youtuber is going to make a video about that build, all with misleading titles like "SECRET BUILDING TRICKS YOU NEED TO KNOW" with a big red arrow pointing to the tower in the thumbnail like we are that stupid that we needed a huge arrow to notice the tower in their thumbnail. And then the video is literally them just building the same thing and explaining all the basic steps it like it's super complicated. Meanwhile their loyal follows stroke their ego in the comments section.

Sorry about that rant, I had to get that out of me before returning to work. It's been festering.

Yes most YT for most games is full of incorrect information. Wherever you're getting your "I was advised", it doesn't mean anything. Both methods are dependent on your needs. The only difference is that the game method would be valid based on knowing fully how it works. The only thing invalid is the way it is designed to mislead how it works. And screw users over. This dev has not addressed this issue or done anything about it.

[Ankido]

This game is garbage, PERIOD. No sense in discussing anything. After the season is over, the game is dead. Just another one of those energy facebook games.

[Daireishi]

I lost most of my Starchrom too without realizing it. It doesn't state what the cost to play is or anything. I ended up, however, getting the gold (can familiarize to +7), combat rife and a few other things. But it was no clear, I was just like whacking moles with no idea what it was doing so I could complete a seasonal objective. Bam, 8K Starchrome gone... but I got something?

[Supreme Emperor Lord As Asriel]

You could always start a new game and start with it all back and just don't touch thewish machine until devs fix it.

[Supreme Emperor Lord As Asriel]

Make sure to delete saves, characters, etc before starting a new game.

[Supreme Emperor Lord As Asriel]

If you're unsure what things in the game mean or what they could do you can always ask THE STEAM COMMUNITY about it. With ANY game.

[Bordric]

I knew it cost starcrom before ever getting a wish machine or doing the quest.

[DarkEternal]

EvilHare님이 먼저 게시:

Just click G when approaching the Wish Machine to purchase what you want.

That would be all well and good except for the fact that the gacha part of the Wish Machine is actually the better option depending on what you're trying to get.
For example, you can pay 8k for The Last Valor blueprint OR you can spend 10k on the Wish Machine and get the BP, 25 more BP fragments to upgrade it to 2 star very quickly, more blueprints and fragments for other items, and an epic weapon, too. I got the epic LMG Squid or w/e it's called.
All for an extra 2k Starchrom? Sign me up. And I did and it was worth it. Can't wait for the Boom Boom section to open up and I'll have that at 2 star by the end of the day.
It's all about knowing how the system works and gaming it to your advantage.
For items like the Lone Wolf set that is completely RNG, then yes, you should just buy the BP's straight up. That's the best and cheapest method for getting BP's that aren't guaranteed in the gacha part.

[Tbob418]

Supreme Emperor Lord As Asriel님이 먼저 게시:

If you're unsure what things in the game mean or what they could do you can always ask THE STEAM COMMUNITY about it. With ANY game.

This is a great idea but while playing the game do you really want to alt tab, make a post or even google answers instead of playing the game? And waiting for an answer.

The OP's experience is what happened to me, and it's simply stupid game design unless the idea is to get ya into gambling. I was trying to figure out how wish works in game and I lost all the currency when I though I could choose or something. I still don't know how it works because I'm not touching it anymore. Point is, OP is correct.

You are coping if you think the average player will figure some of this on their own. The in game explanations for this and some other instances are borderline none existent or completely unintuitive.

The good news is that people post about it so the developers can make the game better for everyone. Turn us all into gamblers too.

[Glitchy Girl]

As indicated here - it is listed on the front page when you first start one up.

That said I'll go ahead and pass along the feedback, to make it more clear for folks!

Furthermore .... like I've said elsewhere. Let's avoiding bashing one another if we can! It kind of dilutes the point of the thread and just makes people angry at each other for no good reason. :/

[cool skill]

Glitchy Girl님이 먼저 게시:

As indicated here - it is listed on the front page when you first start one up.

That said I'll go ahead and pass along the feedback, to make it more clear for folks!

Furthermore .... like I've said elsewhere. Let's avoiding bashing one another if we can! It kind of dilutes the point of the thread and just makes people angry at each other for no good reason. :/

Thank you about pointing out abusers. As I stated it does not show any information of any fees or how it works at all, anywhere in the main screen prior to starting the game. And even after clicking start button, the game just starts with no option to agree to spend any currency. The only reference to any sort of fee is an extremely vague note. Which is after the game has already started, and implies a choice to spend after playing. Nothing at all suggesting paying while playing.

And tech support just responding with the same thing -> "a regular purchase, we are unable to process a reversal".

When this is anything, but a regular purchase. As if it was my tenth time playing knowing how it works. When I made it clear I am brand new to the game. It was my first time using the machine and I was unaware I was losing Starchrom while playing. I did not pay any of it intentionally.

5,700 Starcrhom takes over 40hrs of play. And I don't even care as much about getting it back. It is the attitude of devs not addressing or even so much as acknowledging complaints from multiple users losing thousands of currency because of the design being misleading.

DarkEternal님이 먼저 게시:

It's all about knowing how the system works and gaming it to your advantage.

Wonderful. And totally correct that there are advantages of using each section knowing how they work. However, that is not what this is about regarding the design and information available to new users who know nothing about it.

The only reason I lost thousands of currency was nothing more than checking it out to figure out how it works to find out if it was worth paying to play. With no awareness my funds were being depleted.

[kafersaft]

LMAO!

[Jo_Rocker]

workerdrone님이 먼저 게시:

cool skill님이 먼저 게시:

False. It proves that it does not state any fee prior to starting. TY for hard evidence of everything I said.

so you expected the get the prizes for free?
really?

fact is, the fee is shown before you actually start playing

x2. Who gives a s. You get some of the best weapons and gears from the machine. Unique and cool limited mods you can use in this free game. Doing beta testing for this game, attaining starcrhom is super easy. Start doing purifications and find smart ways to get it. I got so much starchrom I got almost everything the machine had to offer and ended up getting duplicates

[Tod Soldat]

Starchrom can't be purchased with real money, it can only be earned in game, even the Starchrom in battle pass is only given on the free part of it. No one is scamming you, it's not gambling, you've lost nothing