Feedback: May Fellowship Adventures

[rvtdragon1]

why does the clock go from 5 days to 4 days 23 hours. What happened to that other hour?

 

[Ashrem]

why does the clock go from 5 days to 4 days 23 hours. What happened to that other hour?

It never shows minutes. It actually went to 4:23:59:59

 

[rvtdragon1]

Thank you. I keep forgetting Elvenar time. So it will count down and complete the 4 days 1 hour then count 4 days 59 minutes.

 

[DeletedUser5800]

There should be a way to remove the whole thing without leaving and rejoining the FS, every time I leave it stresses everyone out before I get back in.
Improving the FA is like doing surgery on a corpse, they were garbage to start with and they always will be. The End

 

[The Unbeliever]

There should be a way to remove the whole thing without leaving and rejoining the FS, every time I leave it stresses everyone out before I get back in.
Improving the FA is like doing surgery on a corpse, they were garbage to start with and they always will be. The End

If they would just port over the basic Guild Expedition template from FoE, the FA's would be a helluva lot more fun, and everyone would also get some actual, honest-to-god decently usable prizes...

 

[DeletedUser12171]

Last FA, the "FA is for diamond players" argument was thrown up. Unsurprisingly, the notion lingers and is mentioned once again. I take a balanced view to this - those who can spend money will have a "trump card", if you would like, but by no means is a "no spending" group out of the race. Also, many competent FSs have a mix of diamond and free players, and even diamond players range from "I spend money for everything" to "I spend selectively". So the "FAs are for diamond players" argument doesn't cut it with me.

Now, "FAs are for big FS" - I beg to differ and would rather say that FAs are for FS that have great communication and team unity. FAs are more about planning and coordination than anything else. It can be an indicator of the state of things in your FS. Only the ones who score high on team-centric values will do well in FAs, should they decide to participate.

Bottom line, let's just sit back, relax and enjoy it for what it is - a little excursion the FS can either take or not without any big repercussions.

Edit: it seems that the quest cycling (stalling) bug has been fixed. That's a good fix, though to take out cycling altogether would be even better

 

[Deborah M]

Funny thing is that I have not even seen a sale for badges yet. Are they not capitalizing on that this time? It seems really strange to me!

 

[DeletedUser5800]

If they would just port over the basic Guild Expedition template from FoE, the FA's would be a helluva lot more fun, and everyone would also get some actual, honest-to-god decently usable prizes...

I don't play FoE so I'm not sure if that is true or sarcasm but either way.... sure.

 

[hvariidh gwendrot]

first time adventure for me disclaimer: seems these adventures could be done with 2 players a path and a coordinator assigning who will do what badges when and get them finished in time for the flag .. as far as fellowships winning more because they pay more .. well duh, unless we get a spending cap like pro sports that's just how the world of online games work..not really

 

[SoggyShorts]

So the "FAs are for diamond players" argument doesn't cut it with me.

I wouldn't say that beating diamond players is impossible, but success in the FA comes from 5 things

• number of participants
• activity
• communication
• space
• diamonds

Diamond spenders have a clear advantage in the last 2 since diamond buildings are more efficient than regular ones.
That said, the prizes for a top 3 finish have never blown my hair back, so I think it's an acceptable way for inno to reward their supporters.

Now, "FAs are for big FS" - I beg to differ and would rather say that FAs are for FS that have great communication and team unity. FAs are more about planning and coordination than anything else.

The fact remains though that a FS of 12 active players has to do double the badges per player that a FS of 25 active players does.
If you mean "big" as in advanced rather than # of members, then that is also a factor since more advanced cities have more expansions.

 

[Ashrem]

Funny thing is that I have not even seen a sale for badges yet. Are they not capitalizing on that this time? It seems really strange to me!

Maybe too many people figured out that buying badges is no cheaper than making them with diamonds, and when you make them you get the supplies and goods from doing the production runs. Buying badges gets you nothing but badges.

 

[DeletedUser12171]

I wouldn't say that beating diamond players is impossible, but success in the FA comes from 5 things

• number of participants
• activity
• communication
• space
• diamonds

Diamond spenders have a clear advantage in the last 2 since diamond buildings are more efficient than regular ones.
That said, the prizes for a top 3 finish have never blown my hair back, so I think it's an acceptable way for inno to reward their supporters.


The fact remains though that a FS of 12 active players has to do double the badges per player that a FS of 25 active players does.
If you mean "big" as in advanced rather than # of members, then that is also a factor since more advanced cities have more expansions.

Maybe I should say that "anyone can FA but not everyone can win". Which is fine by me. A little competition doesn't hurt, and may even be good for those seeking to improve their fellowships

Furthermore, it's not compulsory to participate, and the prizes are not exactly to die for. Those who think it's not worth it or that they are not ready can simply give it a pass

 

[SoggyShorts]

Maybe I should say that "anyone can FA but not everyone can win". Which is fine by me. A little competition doesn't hurt, and may even be good for those seeking to improve their fellowships

That's fair.

Furthermore, it's not compulsory to participate, and the prizes are not exactly to die for. Those who think it's not worth it or that they are not ready can simply give it a pass

I've never been a fan of the "If you don't like this part of the game, you can skip it"
If you're only playing part of a game, you are not getting everything the game has to offer. Simply ignoring a portion of the game can't be better than improving it to make it more universally enjoyed.

Player: "The ________________ isn't very enjoyable because _________"
Dev1: If you don't like the _______, don't do it.
or
Dev2: We recognise your issue, and are working towards resolving it, or improving this feature.

I know I like the second Dev's answer better.

 

[DeletedUser12171]

That's fair.

I've never been a fan of the "If you don't like this part of the game, you can skip it"
If you're only playing part of a game, you are not getting everything the game has to offer. Simply ignoring a portion of the game can't be better than improving it to make it more universally enjoyed.

Player: "The ________________ isn't very enjoyable because _________"
Dev1: If you don't like the _______, don't do it.
or
Dev2: We recognise your issue, and are working towards resolving it, or improving this feature.

I know I like the second Dev's answer better.

This is all fine and good, except that the FA is inherently a competition, which means the playing field was always going to be skewed. So if a person says "I don't like the FA because I can't compete against better organized/more advanced FSs" then I'm sorry but that's what competitions are about. I don't think there's anything unfair about or that it's a letdown to have to say "the prizes are not worth it so I'm not going to play", or "my FS is not ready so we'll skip this time and go for the next", or even "we can't compete with the top but we'll see what's the best we can do"

Short of making FAs in the style of a MOBA where everyone gets the same starting stats, I don't see how FAs will be a level playing field for all. Why should it even be?

 

[SoggyShorts]

I think we are talking about 2 different things now.
The competitive part of the FA can (and imo should) be completely ignored by 99% of players. The rest of it is what should be improved. The quest cycling, communication tools, tracking etc.

The linkage between the two is unfortunate, but it is possible to mitigate it.
For example: just like with tournament ranking, the devs could give ranking points to fellowships, and possibly individuals for badges, but make all of the non-stage prizes based on point thresholds.
Giving smaller instants to the entire FS for completing a pit level or map spot is also an option.

The biggest difference between the FA and tournaments is that no matter how much you improve in the FA, if someone else does more, you can't win. The tournament by contrast is a direct reflection on what you have done. In the FA it even matters what server you play on, and which world on that server. 1st place on RU1 means 40,000 points, but on US5 only 20,000?

Better imo would be 20,000 gets you first place prizes guaranteed, and every 1,000 more points gets you some instant. This gives players and their FS goals that are obtainable.

 

[kctanzen]

I am hopeful that the speedy production buff happens at least once every time a FA rolls around, preferably with some kind of consistent timer .. begins x hours after the event starts for instance. With planning and communication, this would allow folks that want to put in the effort to look ahead and get a nice jump on some of those longer build requirements while still leaving a challenging aspect of the spell requirements in place, each path requires some of those if I recall.

 

[DeletedUser12171]

I think we are talking about 2 different things now.
The competitive part of the FA can (and imo should) be completely ignored by 99% of players. The rest of it is what should be improved. The quest cycling, communication tools, tracking etc.

The linkage between the two is unfortunate, but it is possible to mitigate it.
For example: just like with tournament ranking, the devs could give ranking points to fellowships, and possibly individuals for badges, but make all of the non-stage prizes based on point thresholds.
Giving smaller instants to the entire FS for completing a pit level or map spot is also an option.

The biggest difference between the FA and tournaments is that no matter how much you improve in the FA, if someone else does more, you can't win. The tournament by contrast is a direct reflection on what you have done. In the FA it even matters what server you play on, and which world on that server. 1st place on RU1 means 40,000 points, but on US5 only 20,000?

Better imo would be 20,000 gets you first place prizes guaranteed, and every 1,000 more points gets you some instant. This gives players and their FS goals that are obtainable.

I see what you mean, but I disagree about there being a need to make it this way. Tournaments are a type of "local" team event in that it rewards individual FSs' efforts (against the AI if you like). Tournaments are regular and predictable, and significantly help game progress.

FAs are a type of "global" team event that rewards individual FSs' efforts when they outperform other FSs. FAs are occasional and don't seem to run, as yet, on a fixed schedule. The rewards, summarily, are token and do not significantly affect game progress. In other words, FAs are a friendly competition because there is no real penalty for "losing". They provide a different team-based experience than the tournaments.

I prefer it this way. I'd rather have 2 different team-type activities to choose from and participate per my FS preference rather than simply playing differently-clothed versions of the same game mechanic.

 

[SoggyShorts]

FAs are a type of "global" team event that rewards individual FSs' efforts when they outperform other FSs
Tournaments are a type of "local" team event in that it rewards individual FSs' efforts (against the AI if you like).

Yes, this is exactly right.

I prefer it this way.

I do not. There is a tiny bit of RNG in Elvenar, but for the most part everything else in this game has a very clear "If I do this, I'll get that" system, and that is what I like about it. It took a lot of effort, coaching, and time to turn my FS into a 10 chest FS, and I get a lot of satisfaction from it. Knowing that there is no level of effort, skill, or planning in the FA that will guarantee the top prize does not make me (or anyone in my fellowships) want to do more.

. I'd rather have 2 different team-type activities to choose from and participate per my FS preference rather than simply playing differently-clothed versions of the same game mechanic.

I think that the FA badges are different enough from the tournament to keep it interesting, and would still consider them to be 2 completely different activities even if the competitive part that most players ignore was gone.

 

[Laochra]

Overall, I think this one has been somewhat better than previous FAs. The badge demands aren't too over the top, but not overtly easy either. The taskmasters are still jumping/swapping places, so that is still causing an inconvenience if you aren't really paying attention. I did have one city yesterday that must have glitched, because my taskmasters didn't flip places for quite a while when I was collecting & it was quite nice!
I feel bad for my members though because of all the effort and work they have put into the FA, all we are getting for the first two stages are AW KP. I understand that the FA is supposed to be ideally a recurrent event like the tourneys, but the offered prizes should be re-evaluated. My fellowships like to do the FA, just for the interaction & cooperation, but the prizes should be commensurate with the effort & time that is needed to accomplish each stage. I think they have the right idea, as far as prizes, but still missing the mark. The first two stages would be better suited to possibly a handful of timer reduction instants--which would be more eagerly welcomed than the AWKP, since we do tend to use the majority of our timer reductions during the FAs-so it would make sense to get a handful in return for the work put into each stage.
Not sure what to say about the Stage 3 event building or the ones offered for the ranking fellowships....ironic that they are all on the impending nerf list.
I think it would be nice to have an event building just for the FAs. Maybe a small 2x2 or 3x3 building that everyone can identify as an FA prize. Perhaps with each consecutive FA, they can change the color of it. We still have our little Mana huts from the first two FAs for sentimental reasons. They aren't the greatest culture prizes in our city, but we earned them as a FS & everyone knows they were from the FA.
{Stage 1: Three 14-hr, three 8-hr & three 5-hr timer reductions}
{Stage 2: Five 14-hr, five 8-hr & five 5-hr timer reductions}
{Stage 3: Seven 3-hr timer reductions, seven runes & an event building}

 

[muffy.]

what they mean with "complete all your Fellowship transactions etc." they mean that when you leave your fellowship during the FA you wont get any prizes and when you join a new fellowship DURING the FA you wont be eligible for prizes and all your badges will be gone. that's at least how i understood it.

thank you....that makes more sense