The problem
We’ve been deliberating on how to solve a few problems related to bees and beehives. Those two problems are:
- Beehives stack infinitely in the wild, which degrades server performance
- Queen bees are currently disappearing randomly when a tamed beehive is destroyed
There were a number of ways to deal with this issue, but we’ve settled on just adding the beehives to the store. Like with every other store item, and given the relative value of beehives, you will have to kill things to buy them. The price per hive is listed below, and will also be listed in the store:
- 10x Alpha Tribute Items(any)
Now, you might think this price is rather steep, but given that honey is actually rather valuable, it isn’t. It can be used to fish, and the loot multiplier for fishing it 2.5, and it is used to make the best kibble. These two things alone make honey far more valuable than most things in the game.
Implementation
This will serve as your one week notice of the upcoming change. Implementation will be as follows:
- Prevent wild bees from spawning cluster-wide
- Destroy all beehives cluster-wide
- Bees will only be obtainable via store purchase
The only way to get rid of wild beehives is to destroy them all, which will destroy tamed beehives. Normally, this would leave your Queen Bee hovering right where you placed the hive. Given the current bug, however, this will cause some people to lose their Queen Bees. To remedy this, we need you to do the following:
- Take screenshots of every beehive you have (one picture will suffice)
- If your Queen Bee(s) is destroyed, take a screenshot of the tribe log showing the destruction of the hive
- Submit a ticket with links to your screenshots
- An admin will replace what was lost
This will occur on 25 January 2020 at around 1500 CDT, when we have the best chance of having the most people on to snag their Queen Bee(s). Afterward, bees will no longer spawn in the wild. If, and it’s a big if, they ever fix these two issues, we will go back to having wild beehives.