(Sorry to create another thread on the topic. But given its length I felt it might be better. Feel free to move it if im wrong. Im also going to try and break this into two/three posts as its much longer then the 10,000 character limit per post.)
There has been a hundred different times since I started playing elvenar, around 2-3 years ago, that I thought about creating an account on these forums to voice a displeasure, or more often a suggestion for improvement. But i never bothered following through with it. This time however, I am. But not to complain about the current Autumn Event like most ppl iv seen are. But to say Thank You for it. Make no mistake about it, its not perfect. But so much change is in this event. Most of which was a result of trying to listen to player feedback and improve the system game play. Once some balancing is done I believe these changes will be a great improvement, despite ppls current complaining. And I will go through them (or at least what i remember at the time of typing this) to explain my thoughts.
Before I get into that tho, I also would like to acknowledge the other work being done. Personally, I usually always believe that in any game or any system, improvements to the system and the UI should come before adding new content. (I know its not always as simple as that.) But in the last several months there has been notable improvements to the UI, as well as work for new content such as the spire and the work on the next chapter. On top of changes that many ppl probably wernt even aware would ever need to be done, such as the conversion from java to html5. So you guys seem to have had your hands full in working at each category of improvement. - And a special thanks to those that worked on creating the new badge collection system for fellowship adventures!! That very well may go down as one of the best improvements in my time here. With the old system, if I tried something like a brewers badge, the end result would be a legit massive migraine. Pain, pressure, sensitivity to light and sound, very sick to my stomach. and some times it could last days. Mine can be quite crippling at times. The new system really help make those issues not happen. So needless to say now, im a big fan of the new collection system! Thank You! And in addition to that, Id also like to say that I enjoy the new option for starting all the resting workshops at once. Its been on mobile, and now being tested some on the live servers. Its a feature that really does make things easier. Especially the aforementioned brewers badge! I cant wait to see that expanded to everyone and to manufacturies!
Now onto the many changes in the quests/events that we have seen as of late. First up is the never ending quests. This is probably the least complained about change that I have seen. But iv seen it none the less. - I think its a great idea to help satisfy all different levels of players. Those that like going all out and truly go all out as far as they can, meanwhile those that only like bothering a little bit can do just that. The lack of a final quest or an ending to the quest line also helps deal with the ocd type of players that feel the need to finish the entire line of quests no matter what. (Of which I am usually apart of.) Knowing that there is no end to it helps negate that fact (In my mind at least.) There is no end, so I cant get there. No need to stress out over that. Just do the quests to get the goal I wish, be it instants, or a building. Once there, anything else is optional. And I can relax more. So I believe this never ending quest system really does help meet the needs and desires of all different types of players.
Second up is the randomizing of quests. Now this one I do understand why many ppl are annoyed with. But I also believe many of those players are only looking at half the picture. Now i have heard that inno never intended for the events to have the cheat sheets from beta server to let us now exactly what is coming, when its coming, and how many is needed. But it was a side effect of testing a system in beta and then moving the same system to the live servers. Randomizing them helps put the system back to the way it was intended to be. This is very similar to the change a while back from torney rewards where they changed the kp reward to the AW KP instant of the same values. Where it solved the issue of ppl getting the torney kp reward, which would fill up there bars and stop there clock, as well as changing it over to how it was intended on being used.- I will acknowledge tho, the difference it can make between accounts. On on of my accounts i got the 9 artifacts a good week+ ago. While on my main city there is only 24h left of the event and i still havnt reached what my second city did a week ago. And both are at the same point of the game with the same number of workshops and factories. Randomness can make a big difference. And ill admit that it does make working multiple cities more of a pain.
The second part of the randomizing complaints I hear are about how it will take longer to complete quests thus we will be getting less event points. Which is true, to a degree. Quests do take longer to finish when we cant prepare for them. But thats where Inno has to rebalance the system to make the reward vs the quest vs the over all time table suitable for event goals. So that is nothing more then a balancing issue that should be resolved in time as inno sees the static's of how the events play out.
Next up, and in conjunction with not being able to prepare in advance anymore, is probably the most complained about thing iv heard all event. And that is the newest change of needing our workshops and t1 manufactories at a specific level based on our chapter. And this is one topic I feel that both inno and the player base have been in both the right and the wrong on.
People have been complaining for a long time now about the space needed to be able to build the lvl 1 ws/factory army for each event. Room is the hardest thing to find. Its hard just to get our cities the way we want them. Then we get new event buildings that are some times worth having. Then tacking on the room needed for guest races can be very trying. And now we have to somehow find even more room to make 600 lvl 1 buildings to do the event in as well?! Yea... it was out of hand.
But how do you stop lvl 1 building spamming? I really only see two options. The first would be limiting the amount of ws and factories that can be used in an event. You cant stop them from being built, so you'd have to find a way to code in that only a certain amount for each player will be accepted. And i dont even know how you would go about trying to do that. I simply dont see it happening. It would also be very confusing to many of the player base. So thats a horrible option.
So how do we stop lvl 1 building spam? Simple.. make them need to be a higher lvl then lvl 1. A much more simple approach. It kills the need for lvl 1 building spamming while making use of the buildings we normally have. No extra room needed for the quests. (Altho it remains to be seen what will happen with Fellowship Adventures.) Its a very good idea, if balanced right. So I support this completely.
The failure, put simply, was inno's not telling the player base about this change in a drastic advance. This change came as a shock to many players who had to struggle for days or more to try and get things in there city to be even capable of doing the quests. The only ones that i saw that were prepared in the slightest were those of us that follow beta players in other groups. - Even I myself only found out about it 3 days or so before the event was scheduled to start in the live worlds. And it took me every minute available to try and get my city in order to be able to participate in the event. For me personally, I needed lvl 16 manufactories. All my five steel factories were lvl 15. Which may seem like a simple fix, but it was far from it. I left them at lvl 15 for a reason. While most upgrades at that level were around 40-50 population, the jump from lvl 15 to lvl 16 was 444 population per factory. So a total of 2220 population needed for that. And I had about 18 population left... The upgrade would also change the factories shape and I was very tight on room. AND just to add to that, upgrading my residences the final two levels (for my chapter) in order to get that population would also change shape and increase the squares they took up. So I truly had to revamp and reorganize my entire city for this. - Which im not complaining that I had to change things, only that the time frame was so small in which to do it in. And I still had more time then most.
So the idea behind lvl specific buildings is a good one. Tho it may take time to decide where the line is and to balance it. The failure was not telling us in time. So i understand why a lot of ppl were complaining about this. Because to many, they were blind sided by the change.
Now that may have been the biggest issue, but it wasnt the last. There were also adjustments made mid event. Some ppl were complaining about the cap of event currency being reduced to 80. There is not a lot to say about that one. Its called balancing a new system. Its going to happen. It should happen. Everything wont be 100% perfect from the start.