The Saga of The Restoration Spell..

[SoggyShorts]

There was a promised feature with a date attached delivered by that date, that is the HTML conversion.

Not really a feature though is it? Certainly not one I saw asked for. Switching away from Flash before it stops getting updates was pretty much forced on every Flash game that exists.

• Taking 2 years for RR implementation is pretty rough regardless of setbacks caused by adding mobile.
• Making no meaningful improvements to FA quest cycling in 18 months is inexcusable.
• Ignoring the "broken shards always full" for over a year is kinda sad.
• Doing nothing on the browser to improve visits ever is ridiculous.

I recognize that my own bias means I give inno zero credit for things like bug fixes for bugs I didn't know about, or for changing anything that didn't affect me personally, but they are certainly 0/4 on the most asked for changes. Maybe 0.5 out of 4 because of mobile visits, but playing on my phone in front of my computer is pretty lame.

IMO a gaming company should always devote a little time to player requested improvements even if they are less important in the Grand Plan just to garner goodwill.

how many people are really sitting on a pile of blueprints with no other use except for when that patch comes around?

Pretty much everyone in my fellowships.

 

[Pheryll]

• Taking 2 years for RR implementation is pretty rough regardless of setbacks caused by adding mobile.
• Making no meaningful improvements to FA quest cycling in 18 months is inexcusable.
• Ignoring the "broken shards always full" for over a year is kinda sad.
• Doing nothing on the browser to improve visits ever is ridiculous.

This is a good list of symptoms. Shall we address the underlying cause? The Elvenar staff is having extreme difficulty in coding. There are many ways for this to happen, but I'll put my theory out there and I would love if someone could disprove it.

Elvenar hires a considerable number of third party groups to implement their major features.

The lack of ability to make any quick or easy fix is because of a cluttered code system that the regular Elvenar coders would have to tenaciously examine, lest they cause a whole slew of irregular problems by adjusting some code. A newly made system without all the clutter of multiple groups would work much better for them, which is why they say coding is easier for the mobile app.

The staff does not announce ahead of time when new features are scheduled to arrive. For the HTML where a date was announced, Timon did actually say "I'll have to kill you" if an earlier date in 2018 were announced. The Elvenar staff can have developer tools all ready long before they know when content is going to be released, as the group showcasing the tools will then have to go through their messy code system and find a way to implement these tools.

Large amounts of rebalancing changes are made rather quickly. Data for culture buildings can be changed for a large number of buildings. What is "safe" for the Elvenar coders to modify can be done in great volume.

New systems are announced but end up lacking components of what was there before, without the Elvenar staff initially knowing what would be missing. Large number of examples of this as part of the mobile development. For the chat system fix remember the loss of /who and /w.

If my theory is true, then not only would it explain why these symptoms pop up, but also there would be a different approach for feedback than what is typical for most other games. In many ways, we should expect that things that would not be easily able to be adjusted from a developer's toolset are probably not going to change at all unless a group comes in to fix something related. The coders can try, but often their efforts will end up unsuccessful, with the possibility of something being adversely affected, if they cannot figure out or isolate the code in question.

 

[hvariidh gwendrot]

i understand how code on top of bad code even done with the best of intentions to "patch a fix" kills a game due to cascade failures, seen it happen before, but they nerfed the game and created the problems without a workable solution, then left everyone in the dark till folks like me got tired of waiting for an answer and started asking what the heck..nothing wrong with being human and making a mistake, leaving the clientele in the dark and from what i can tell hoping the questions just go away is what seemed inappropriate to me

 

[SoggyShorts]

Elvenar hires a considerable number of third party groups to implement their major features.

Inno games has over 420 employees if they are hiring out for major content, I'd love to see a breakdown of what those people do.
I always assumed (based on nothing) that at least 5-10% of a game companies staff can code. If so, that's 4-8 full-time programmers just for Elvenar? No way...

When I first found this game and for quite a long time afterward I seriously thought it was an indie crew of 2-3 people, and then after I understood that it was a branch of inno games , I still thought it was a side project that only 4-5 people worked on.
You and @hvariidh gwendrot must be right, and the underlying base code is such a disaster that implementing any changes is like playing in the middle of a house of cards.

Just for fun, what does 420 employees look like?
800 hours per day writing in various languages = 100 people 11 per game
800 hours per day on graphic design = 100 people 11 per game
800 hours per day on marketing = 100 people 11 per game
200 hours per day ______ = 25 people
200 hours per day ______ = 25 people
200 hours per day ______ = 25 people
200 hours per day _coding?_ = 25 people
160 hours per day counting money = 20 people

When a handful of guys make a game like Grim Dawn or Path of Exile, I just can't wrap my head around inno games.
Imagine...Blizzard only has 10x as many employees. BLIZZARD.

 

[Deborah M]

@SoggyShorts One thing seems apparent. They are not working themselves into an early grave like so many of us in the U.S.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

• Taking 2 years for RR implementation is pretty rough regardless of setbacks caused by adding mobile.
• Making no meaningful improvements to FA quest cycling in 18 months is inexcusable.
• Ignoring the "broken shards always full" for over a year is kinda sad.
• Doing nothing on the browser to improve visits ever is ridiculous.

My complaint about the Restoration thing is that they neutered all those buildings when they were nowhere near ready to implement it.

I have no idea what is meant by the FA quest cycling issue. I have never had any problems cycling through the repeating quests during one.

Only being able to ever hold 10 broken shards is dumb and annoying, though I have been lucky to not lose more than one or two shards because of it.

Visiting does not seem to be a problem to me on the browser version, except when a player wants their builder buffed and they then hide it away somewhere.

 

[SoggyShorts]

I have no idea what is meant by the FA quest cycling issue. I have never had any problems cycling through the repeating quests during one.

Many players build extra workshops during the FA. So if you have say 20 WS making groceries (enough for 4 farmers badges) then you have to

• cycle through the quests, declining 14 in a row,
• collect 5,
• hand in quest
• cycle through the quests, declining 14 in a row,
• collect 5,
• hand in quest
• cycle through the quests, declining 14 in a row,
• collect 5,
• hand in quest
• cycle through the quests, declining 14 in a row,
• collect 5,
• hand in quest

Dedicated players or those between chapters like I was last FA can add over 100 workshops to their city.
This is a garbage system, and there have been at least 6 very good suggestions for ways to improve it.

Only being able to ever hold 10 broken shards is dumb and annoying, though I have been lucky to not lose more than one or two shards because of it.

Advanced players lose 5-10 or more per week every week

Visiting does not seem to be a problem to me on the browser version, except when a player wants their builder buffed and they then hide it away somewhere.

Have you done visits on mobile? They are 20x as fast. The browser version should have the same system. Especially since we asked for it on browser over a year before mobile was even invented.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

@SoggyShorts

Yeah, I see that with the FA stuff. I am still not sure why they even added them to begin with, not being worth all that much usually.

And yep, I expected that about the rune shards from higher level/more competitive players.

Yes, I have done some visiting on mobile, but I like the three chests from visiting on browser, especially during an event when getting an extra enchantment or relic or two has helped me greatly.

 

[DeletedUser2959]

@SoggyShorts
I like the three chests from visiting on browser, especially during an event when getting an extra enchantment or relic or two has helped me greatly.

We could have the FS/Notification visits with the mobile interface on browser, then you can just go to the world and visit some neighbors for the chests.

 

[SoggyShorts]

@Enevhar Aldarion & @wtfever
The best fix for chests IMO is to have them appear in YOUR city when you get one.

 

[Deborah M]

@Enevhar Aldarion & @wtfever
The best fix for chests IMO is to have them appear in YOUR city when you get one.

Great idea! But wishful thinking

 

[edeba]

Tried out the new restoration spells in beta today...

 

[hvariidh gwendrot]

@edeba would you provide more details please, i'm not beta but i saw that they are nerfing blueprints to half power now ???

 

[Pheryll]

Here is what has happened in Beta

Tournaments now have 11 Restoration spells divided among lower tier chests, instead of just the last one
The conversion rate for blueprints to restoration spells is 1 blueprint for 10 restoration spells.

Here is what was announced but has not taken place yet:

Squad size rebalancing in tournaments.
User interface and display improvements for tournaments.


Before getting frustrated, people should come to grips that RR is only a small part of a tournament fix project. The difficulty of getting the 10th chest now may be much easier than getting the 10th chest later on when the entire fix has been completed. I have seen suggestions on Beta for even trying to limit RRs to the 10th chest. There is a bigger picture to this that many are ignoring. I understand that there is a devaluing of the free upgrades to magic buildings here, so now magic buildings will on average be costing more diamonds to stay current. I also understand that without spending any diamonds you can go a lot further with this system by restoring the creme de la creme event buildings.

 

[Deborah M]

@Pheryll Seriously? So somehow there is info out there somewhere that Inno's plan is to screw their players who have spent and/or continue to spend a lot of money on their game? I guess I for one will not be spending another dime until I find out whether that is the plan. If it is the plan I'm thinking that will be a permanent decision I don't do business with companies who betray loyal customers who spend for their product on a regular basis!

 

[hvariidh gwendrot]

1 Blueprint = 10 Royal Restoration Spells
The most noticable change is that all existing Blueprints will be turned into 10 Royal Restoration Spells each. Of course, this also means that you will have to spend more than one Spell to upgrade a building. We've made this change to accomodate for the different sizes of event buildings that we have in Elvenar. It wouldn't really be fair if you had to spend the same amount of Spells for e.g. a 5x5 building as you'd have to spend on a 2x1 building. This way you can freely choose your favorites to upgrade and don't need to worry about paying too much since the upgrade costs are always the same per tile. In short: The amount of Royal Restoration Spells required to upgrade will be directly related to the size of the building.

A note regarding the Magic Residences and Workshops: we do not wish to change the premium prices for upgrading these buildings. It may be that you'll have to spend more than 10 Restoration Spells for an upgrade, depending on the size of the building, but we maintain the 320 Diamonds per level maximum on upgrading these buildings that is currently in place.

 

[hvariidh gwendrot]

Tournament rewards
We also want to make upgrading the event buildings more accessible for everyone. Therefore, we're adjusting the rewards for reaching chests in the Tournament. In the old set-up, you can get one Blueprint from the 10th chest of the Tournament. Since every Blueprint will be transformed into 10 Royal Restoration Spells, this also gave us the opportunity to spread out these Spells a bit. We'll start giving out 1 Spell from chest 3, and place several into subsequent chests up to 3 Spells in the tenth and final chest. This also means that, per Tournament, you'll be able to get eleven Royal Restoration Spells, if your Fellowship manages to complete all ten Chests.

 

[Deborah M]

1 Blueprint = 10 Royal Restoration Spells
The most noticable change is that all existing Blueprints will be turned into 10 Royal Restoration Spells each. Of course, this also means that you will have to spend more than one Spell to upgrade a building. We've made this change to accomodate for the different sizes of event buildings that we have in Elvenar. It wouldn't really be fair if you had to spend the same amount of Spells for e.g. a 5x5 building as you'd have to spend on a 2x1 building. This way you can freely choose your favorites to upgrade and don't need to worry about paying too much since the upgrade costs are always the same per tile. In short: The amount of Royal Restoration Spells required to upgrade will be directly related to the size of the building.

A note regarding the Magic Residences and Workshops: we do not wish to change the premium prices for upgrading these buildings. It may be that you'll have to spend more than 10 Restoration Spells for an upgrade, depending on the size of the building, but we maintain the 320 Diamonds per level maximum on upgrading these buildings that is currently in place.

Inno will not see another $ spent by me on their game. My blueprints were to upgrade 4x4 magic residences and 4x6 magic workshops. I WILL NOT SPEND MY MONEY WITH A THIEVING COMPANY! I am completely outraged by being screwed like this and I am pretty darn sure I will not be the only person who has spent A WHOLE LOT OF $$ on this game who will not stand for this

 

[hvariidh gwendrot]

so get to your next chapter and use your blueprints before this is out of beta and hits live game

 

[Deborah M]

Tournament rewards
We also want to make upgrading the event buildings more accessible for everyone. Therefore, we're adjusting the rewards for reaching chests in the Tournament. In the old set-up, you can get one Blueprint from the 10th chest of the Tournament. Since every Blueprint will be transformed into 10 Royal Restoration Spells, this also gave us the opportunity to spread out these Spells a bit. We'll start giving out 1 Spell from chest 3, and place several into subsequent chests up to 3 Spells in the tenth and final chest. This also means that, per Tournament, you'll be able to get eleven Royal Restoration Spells, if your Fellowship manages to complete all ten Chests.

Oh I am sooo glad to hear that Inno is screwing their long-term paying customers so that play for free players can have better rewards. I am beyond disbelief that they can't bother to make this game fair to both!