#1 Player on Harandar is leaving(for now, or forever)

[Deborah M]

Why do they hate advanced players so much, I mean this can only be pure hatred. it makes absolutely no sense otherwise if anyone who creates the balance and has half a working braincell he/she would notice this ain't right.

Just a theory for part of the reason they practically destroyed the tournament for advanced players. The bunch they have now managing & developing the game have made it pretty clear how invested they are when it comes to the Spire. Some genius thought it was a brilliant idea to put magic buildings into the Spire. After all, if players win magic buildings then players are beholden to spend diamonds to upgrade them every time they open a new chapter. That seems like good revenue stream planning if, and only if, players do not have enough blueprints to upgrade them for free. Going back to before the Spire, they wanted everybody to be invested in the Tournament so they added blueprints to chest #10. I think that kind of backfired since it was a great motivation for a whole lot of Fellowships to become 10 chest fellowships. If smaller players could not win their pro rata share it was no big deal since larger cities easily made up for any shortfalls and everybody in the Fellowship got all the prizes including the blueprint. Now, using the assumption of an even 6 months between new chapters, advanced players can upgrade 26 of their magic building for free. I can vouch for the fact that I had to spend $100+ every time I upgraded my magic buildings at the beginning of each chapter. Right now I have 25 magic houses and 12 magic workshops. That means I only have to spend $50 max on upgrades after using my blueprints. Multiply that by how many times they anticipate them being upgraded for future chapters and they have cut themselves off from a major portion of their potential revenue stream, especially from advanced blue cities. In essence, I'm thinking they brought a Mauser to bear on a problem when a squirt gun would have sufficed. Surely they could have come up with some straight forward solution, like maybe cutting off blueprints at a certain level, rather than destroying a whole lot of investment into AW that helped in the Tournament and any pleasure from a major aspect of the game. It would not have been popular but I would bet it wouldn't be anywhere close to being as hated as the Tournament changes they implemented. Alas, they blew up the Tournament for all advanced players IMO.

Putting on my Accounting hat, and with no access to their real data, that is all I see as any kind of answer to the "Why?".

After reading the stats from @CrazyWizard above, I am disappointed to see the need to get my stored factories back out. It will take way too much to offset that level of troop losses so I have no doubt I will have to supplement with some catering. Sadly, catering quantities are already crazy high so *big gulp* I hope I can meet the huge anticipated increases. I'm thinking that will still be near impossible with the huge imbalance in the Trader. I am already buying basic goods every time I collect supplies Now what I need is for Teleport spells to go up for sale

 

[ajqtrz]

While I agree that the game changes may be motivating some players to leave, it is unlikely we can influence or reverse such changes from occurring. That said, we also need to consider the players, themselves and some of the choices they might have made early that led to their leaving. These are just my opinions and have no statistical basis of which I am aware. I'm just, to some degree, "guessing."

In general a fundamental reason long term players leave a game is burn out. This is usually expressed as the game has become a "job." As a person plays and triumphs (in their opinion) in a game they receive a sense of accomplishment. This is satisfying and motivates them to further accomplishments. Having mastered the game they wish to continue in the mastery. But a couple choices they have made may interfere.

First, if they are playing on too many servers and trying to keep up with too many cities. They may be number one on one of those cities, but if they are unwilling to let some cities go they will start running a "rat race," and that, in the long run leads to burn out.

Second, they started game X and the changes over time have led it to be game Y. In other words, it has changed so significantly that, having mastered X, they are frustrated with the Y they are now required to play. If they spent all that time and money mastering X they may not have the energy to master Y. In fact, it might just be easier to go play a different game completely. This second might be the fault of Inno, but, in general, games are sort of required to change and add content exactly because those who have mastered it want the new challenges -- though some do not.

Third, real life issues can interfere with even the most successful player's gaming. Maybe it's just they've become involved in other things and don't have the time. They may want to continue but the stress of doing so means .."it's becoming a job."

That's my take on possible player issues.

AJ

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

I said this today in a different conversation: I am also very aware that #1 person on my world, Elcysandir, apparently left the game. This is someone I played with for at least 2/3 of the time since the beginning of the game. He repeatedly said that the game was becoming way too much like a job. I am very mindful of the fact that he was a rock star in both the Spire & tournament for all these years.

I also recently lost another years long friend in the game that was always top 10. I believe both of them spent more $ than me. It really, really stinks that they changed everything so suddenly with the recalculations punishing top players for having spent lots of $ and having/doing those things which were the spoken goals according to Elvenar. Add the stupidity of the last chapter with spending days collecting 15 minute productions on the guest race along with rumors of the next guest race being even worse and now they have top players/top spenders saying enough is enough. Both left in February so I'm thinking not long after they finished chapter 17. I know I spent a few weeks not wanting to even log on. At this point I'm just glad I decided to say 'not me too' so I pulled back to the things that I loved about this game to begin with. It is more important to me now than it ever was that I remember how much I enjoyed the pretty things I have gotten along the way because of Elvenar's wonderful artwork. After all, it is a city builder game, not a war game.

Source: Know several people with >> 2mm cities who did quit recently.

Can confirm what @Deborah M is saying. Penalizing progress, especially for the largest cities, was the primary reason. And mind-numbing Chapter 17 was the final straw.

 

[Deleted User - 1178646]

Just a theory for part of the reason they practically destroyed the tournament for advanced players. The bunch they have now managing & developing the game have made it pretty clear how invested they are when it comes to the Spire. Some genius thought it was a brilliant idea to put magic buildings into the Spire. After all, if players win magic buildings then players are beholden to spend diamonds to upgrade them every time they open a new chapter. That seems like good revenue stream planning if, and only if, players do not have enough blueprints to upgrade them for free. Going back to before the Spire, they wanted everybody to be invested in the Tournament so they added blueprints to chest #10. I think that kind of backfired since it was a great motivation for a whole lot of Fellowships to become 10 chest fellowships. If smaller players could not win their pro rata share it was no big deal since larger cities easily made up for any shortfalls and everybody in the Fellowship got all the prizes including the blueprint. Now, using the assumption of an even 6 months between new chapters, advanced players can upgrade 26 of their magic building for free. I can vouch for the fact that I had to spend $100+ every time I upgraded my magic buildings at the beginning of each chapter. Right now I have 25 magic houses and 12 magic workshops. That means I only have to spend $50 max on upgrades after using my blueprints. Multiply that by how many times they anticipate them being upgraded for future chapters and they have cut themselves off from a major portion of their potential revenue stream, especially from advanced blue cities. In essence, I'm thinking they brought a Mauser to bear on a problem when a squirt gun would have sufficed. Surely they could have come up with some straight forward solution, like maybe cutting off blueprints at a certain level, rather than destroying a whole lot of investment into AW that helped in the Tournament and any pleasure from a major aspect of the game. It would not have been popular but I would bet it wouldn't be anywhere close to being as hated as the Tournament changes they implemented. Alas, they blew up the Tournament for all advanced players IMO.

Putting on my Accounting hat, and with no access to their real data, that is all I see as any kind of answer to the "Why?".

After reading the stats from @CrazyWizard above, I am disappointed to see the need to get my stored factories back out. It will take way too much to offset that level of troop losses so I have no doubt I will have to supplement with some catering. Sadly, catering quantities are already crazy high so *big gulp* I hope I can meet the huge anticipated increases. I'm thinking that will still be near impossible with the huge imbalance in the Trader. I am already buying basic goods every time I collect supplies Now what I need is for Teleport spells to go up for sale

actually blueprint was also a moneymaker, it's the sole reason it still exist.

When RSS was introduced people pointed out the could no longer upgrade there 26 expected premium buildings anymore as those buildings became larger than 10 squares.

Blueprint still exist because they pointed out they bought 26 premium buildings because they could upgrade them for free, if they could not upgrade them they would not have bought them.

That's why they reintroduced blueprints back into the game for premium residences.
So while you spend less now, many others have spend more because they bought those buildings instead of ignoring them.

 

[Deborah M]

That is why I said once we reach a certain level. I understand training newer players to develop spending habits down the road. I was only talking about advanced level players who would and did buy large number of magic buildings. Speaking for myself, and I know there were others who bought as many or more, I had 44 magic residences. Blueprints were a real $ saver when they came out and continue to be. Anyway, I’m probably trying to make sense of something that simply does not make sense. I’ve just never seen any business model that purposely chases away high spenders.

 

[Gladiola]

It would make sense if Inno makes the most money out of players during about the first six months or even one to two years of gameplay.

Say 100k players start Elvenar in any given year. 50k players drop out on the first day and never spend any money. 25k players stay on for their first week and of those roughly half or 12.5k players buy diamonds in amounts ranging from $5 to $200. Some of those players become regulars and pay amounts between $5 and $100 a month. If there are 10,000 players who pay $5 and 100 who pay $100, the revenue from the players who don't spend as much money is 5 times the revenue from the players who spend a lot of money. Therefore it's rational to develop game mechanics in such a way as to retain those players. It probably would be a good strategy to introduce something that would also engage the higher-paying players, and perhaps they have and people are not complaining about it on the forum because they are so busy doing whatever it is.

 

[CrusaderMichael]

"#1 Player on Harandar is leaving(for now, or forever)"

First off... I am NOT on Harandar.

And second... I have NOT even left the game.

#1 Player is here to stay. No more tall tales about me... thanks.

 

[The Unbeliever]

Source: Know several people with >> 2mm cities who did quit recently.

Can confirm what @Deborah M is saying. Penalizing progress, especially for the largest cities, was the primary reason. And mind-numbing Chapter 17 was the final straw.

"Never attribute to malice that which can easily be explained by simple stupidity."

I highly doubt the Elvenar devs are working off of some evil master plan to force many/most of the long time players out of the game... rather, I think they're just a bunch of late sipping elitists who have zero clue how their own game works, and don't give a flying feth about the ramifications of new ideas/systems they put in place, because they believe their geniuses and we're just a bunch of clueless dopes.

How many times over the past couple years has the players base pointed out within literally minutes of new style of event and/or system being complete bunk?
Have they listened? Nope, of course not. They just turn a deaf ear to very obvious problems/un-intended consequences of their "ideas" and just blindly trample across the live servers with the same garbage mistakes the Beta community pointed out 1000x over.

 

[Hob-nob]

I'm probably a little above average in my city build. I'm ranked #19 in F world, have 269 aw levels (which is on the low side for where I'm at I think). I have however bought every premium expansion up to chapter 17. Now I can buy premium expansions and not place the ones earned through the levels and it won't hurt my city quite as much. Well forget that. Couldn't they have been a bit less obvious in the money grab? The fs I'm in gets gold in the spire each week and every time instant gained is used for troop training. I do not use feeder cities, have slowly built my city through the years to where I was proud of the accomplishment, and spent thousands of hours working on it trying to make it better.

Now I'm not the greatest fighter in the world. I have watched some of minmax's videos and some on gems but have not made a study of it, so I have a basic understanding of which troops to use and I'd say I'm about average there too or maybe a little below.

I get 20 providences completed in the tourney each week. If I really really push I have gone to 32 but that is catering a couple and 0 troops left.
I'm constantly crafting supply, coin, and time instants. It would be nice to craft aw instants (something I want to craft) but I need to save the cc's for things to help my tourney and spire play. (by the way my spire play is catering only as I save my troops for the tourney)

I have not posted on here a lot because I don't want to come to the forum and just rant but I am seriously at the point of quitting. I love the game, am in an excellent fs and sometimes I think - ok the tourney isn't that important - but at other times I think it is so unfair. I have 63 tourney providences open. I know that because my fs used to have little competitions against groups within our fs to see who could rank the highest (something we can no longer do) and I cannot get past 20 now before I'm out of troops. I'm not asking for the ability to clear 63 under the new system, and it wasn't something I did regularly under the old but when a LOT of effort is going into just 20 and I don't see any way to get past that without destroying everything I've built it is very very discouraging.

If I go to the next chapter it gets worst so why would I? I'm struggling now. It makes no sense.

Sorry for the long post but that's my story.

There is a serious imbalance in a game that all about balance.

 

[Lelanya]

Where has Timon gone?? He used to keep things balanced for all players.

 

[Deleted User - 1178646]

Where has Timon gone?? He used to keep things balanced for all players.

Well he wasn't great if you ask me, so I hoped with a new one we would be better of.
God I was so wrong, it could be way way way worse lol

 

[Lelanya]

Well he wasn't great if you ask me, so I hoped with a new one we would be better of.
God I was so wrong, it could be way way way worse lol

Hon I almost said, I know some of you didn't respect him.. but he would not have left us in this current mess! Lol

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Where has Timon gone?? He used to keep things balanced for all players.

Didn't he quit almost two years ago now?

 

[DeletedUser27581]

He is still there and has been in several videos. I think he left for a bit but has been back since at least sometime last year.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

He is still there and has been in several videos. I think he left for a bit but has been back since at least sometime last year.

Maybe I am thinking of the other one that always did the videos and Facebook Lives with Timon?

 

[Deleted User - 1178646]

Didn't he quit almost two years ago now?

Inno-games has many games, he left elvenar but not the company, it seems he is again involved in elvenar. how much I don't know
The big question is how involved was he in the new tournament formula,

He was then replaced by a guy with a red beard if I remember correctly.

That said.
For all we know it could be his screwup after all.

 

[Deleted User - 1178646]

Hon I almost said, I know some of you didn't respect him.. but he would not have left us in this current mess! Lol

I am not 100% sure about that, the SS BS was also his.
This is that same thing magnefied by a 1000.

and as I said 1 post earlier, it might be his screwup afterall, as he indeed did return at least in some capacity at elvenar.
Also the spire was most likely designed when he was still in control of balance. it's about a year and a half or older now.

I assume the "new guy" might not have had time to be involved in it.

 

[Lelanya]

I distinctly remember him saying he didn't like the Fire Phoenix.

 

[DeletedUser20010]

I distinctly remember him saying he didn't like the Fire Phoenix.

The Fire Phoenix is my favorite thing that came out of the minds of elvenar. I really hope they don't "recalibrate" it like they did with the sorceress.

 

[Deleted User - 1178646]

I distinctly remember him saying he didn't like the Fire Phoenix.

Who Timon?

He "balanced" it. so how could he not like it?