Join us in our Fellowship Adventures!

[SoggyShorts]

With just over 2 days remaining on Beta,
1st stage completed: Less than 100 FS
2nd stage completed:Less than 40 FS
3rd stage completed: Less than 14 FS

 

[DeletedUser5800]

With half the vote in so far in the big FS we have a majority vote to ignore it and I don't think I'm holding a vote in the smaller FS, asked for Mage input on just telling them, "It's a trick, don't look at it, build your cities until the next Event." which is what I told them last time.

...but, but, but Kp Instants!... No, just do a bit more in the next 4 tournaments for those same Kp and stop looking in there!

 

[The Unbeliever]

So far the consensus in all of my Fellowships is to give this a pass. Some of us are actually hoping that if enough Fellowships say "NO!" it might convince Inno that they really do need to address the issues and rather than making the Fellowship Adventures more difficult and time consuming, they should actually make it more playable, less tedious, and come up with some rewards that are equal to the amount of work that players put into the FA. The joking suggestion on one group was "Let's see... well, for starts they can give everyone an extra free expansion so we have room to build some of the buildings we need to do all the badges. Then they should award us one hundred diamonds for finishing the first path, two hundred for finishing the second and three hundred for finishing the third." Then everyone burst out laughing at the idea that Inno would actually do something like that!

What they really need to do if they want us to pay any attention at all anymore to FA's is;
1. Follow the same system that makes Guild Expedition's so successful in FoE...
(ie: you play as an individual with you pts + number of cleared encounters going towards an overall team goal)

Encounters can be a mix of fighting, making some various badges (no 1/2 day productions or spell requirements!!), and/or some that are a mini 'negotiation game' encounters.

2. Offer more prizes across the various Waypoints on the map.
This is where the situational stuff like Travailing Merchants, elemental codices, event decos, instants, etc...
Leave the 'final chest' at the end of each stage as a %-based chance at some various buildings from a previous big seasonal event.
(ie: an 'Easter Chest' w/5% 1st grand prize, 10% pop/culture building, 25% burning egg, 25% phoenix sculpture, 35% 20kp's)
Sure, your chances at a good building are much smaller, but there's still a solid chance of getting *something* most players would probably find a use for!

3. Remove the asinine 'top 3' prizes altogether, as the system is beyond bent in favour of only catering to the top dozen or so fellowships full of diamond players.
Those really, really desirable prizes should be a possible reward for EVERYONE who can clear all 3 stages!
Again, you don't need to make it a guarantee - just a %-based chest that gives a chance at 3-4 really desirable prizes, with the 'default' being something like 40kp's + a couple big time instants.


Do something more like the above, and a helluva lot more people would show some interest, since there's more to gain individually, while still keeping an overall team-oriented play style.

 

[Risen Malchiah]

@The Unbeliever Well thought out with one exception. I would hate to get all the way to the end only to get stuck with just a few KP.

The notion of putting smaller prizes throughout the map is a great idea. This would give smaller fellowships something for partial completion and provide incentive for more competitive fellowships to do more provided they're interested in that extra prize. But, in its present form on beta, I doubt there would be anything to make this trainwreck palatable.

 

[Mykan]

@The Unbeliever
Your first suggestion sounds more like tournaments. I am not familiar with the FoE model. I understand FA is a different style of event.

I completely agree with your second suggestion and have previously suggested this. I think they need more rewards to reward fellowships along the way, whether it is better end of round rewards and/or things for each step that are collected as a group. If they do some for each step or certain steps it encourages people to try for more than a single path and be selective about what they want and how they get it.

3. Remove the asinine 'top 3' prizes altogether, as the system is beyond bent in favour of only catering to the top dozen or so fellowships full of diamond players.

This however I disagree with. The top 3 fellowships have to work their tails off to get in that position, some fellowships rank points is rubbish so they deserve a decent prize. I do think however the prizes drop off too steeply and there should be more rewards for at least the top 50 fellowship if not the top 100.

 

[DeletedUser6189]

@The Unbeliever
This however I disagree with. The top 3 fellowships have to work their tails off to get in that position, some fellowships rank points is rubbish so they deserve a decent prize. I do think however the prizes drop off too steeply and there should be more rewards for at least the top 50 fellowship if not the top 100.

I agree that having the top fellowship prizes is important. I also think it's horribly wrong to characterize the top fellowships as just full of a bunch of diamond players. My fellowship came in 9th last time (sat as high as 5th during the FA) and we have only one or two diamond players. And when I say that we have a few diamond players, I mean that a handful of us have bought players once or twice ... PERIOD.

Regardless, the prize drop off is pretty terrible. The time instants are decent and all, but I'd like either more of them or some other prizes as well. And especially because they changed how they do the longer Events (making a number of "double points" days throughout the event), getting the grand prizes is not the rare thing that it once was. This time, I would get the chance to replace my event buildings with ones from a newer chapter ... but otherwise, there just isn't a point to it.

How about bringing back some grand prizes or big items from events a REALLY long time ago? Like maybe offering Wonky Walters or some of the old Halloween stuff or something like that?

Anyways ... has anyone actually heard an official announcement yet that this FA is even happening? My fellowship has been getting ready, but I'm worried that it's just not going to happen this week after all.

 

[samidodamage]

Anyways ... has anyone actually heard an official announcement yet that this FA is even happening? My fellowship has been getting ready, but I'm worried that it's just not going to happen this week after all.

I took this announcement on Friday to mean it's starting Monday:
https://us.forum.elvenar.com/index.php?threads/release-notes-version-1-46.15090/#post-90727

 

[SoggyShorts]

I also think it's horribly wrong to characterize the top fellowships as just full of a bunch of diamond players. My fellowship came in 9th last time

I don't know which server you play on, but on my worlds there was a huge difference between 9th place and the top 3. Even now on beta, 3rd place has 50% more points than 9th place, and 1st place has 100% more points than 9th place.
Buying even a few premium expansions more than your competitors makes for a very significant advantage.Magic res/ws are also almost twice as efficient as normal buildings, freeing up even more space.

 

[Ashrem]

I think no non-or-low diamond player is ever going to be happy with the FAs until they understand the top three team prizes are something you buy with diamonds. Unfortunately, understanding that means understanding that the current iteration of the FAs do not offer enough inducement to make them worth participating in. The stress of trying to maintain a top 4-20 position for a few instants is excessive.

 

[SoggyShorts]

The stress of trying to maintain a top 4-20 position for a few instants is excessive.

Not a few...one. One 8h instant, or if you're out of the top 7 then a single solitary 5h instant...you know the consolation prize when you fail while opening the 50 chest in an event? Yep that one.
So hours of effort and coordination, countless clicks, and filling every nook and cranny in your city for 6 days could possibly get you (at best) the same prize you can "win" on day one of a major event by opening the small box with the 50 keys you get for free.
I remain convinced that the team deciding on the FA prizes has never even met the team designing the major events.

I think no non-or-low diamond player is ever going to be happy with the FAs until they understand the top three team prizes are something you buy with diamonds.

This is a core aspect of most FTP games, and I can accept that some things are diamond only. Like you said though in it's current form the rest of the FA prizes make it not even worth participating in for anyone else.

 

[Ashrem]

Not a few...one.

Well, I was referring to the top 20 fellowships, which is theoretically up to 25 instants....

 

[DeletedUser6189]

I took this announcement on Friday to mean it's starting Monday:
https://us.forum.elvenar.com/index.php?threads/release-notes-version-1-46.15090/#post-90727

Would this be a Monday start though? Or a Tuesday start?

 

[Risen Malchiah]

Sounds like a Monday start to me since they usually do updates on Thursdays so the event likely starts when the update goes live. Which doesn't leave them much time to change anything from the beta (such as making it possible for most players to even complete let alone making it worthwhile).

 

[samidodamage]

After reading everything I can about the modifications coming with this next FA, I've decided I don't have the time necessary to devote to organizing and tracking this one. Since I had just sort of jumped in and did it for the first 2, I notified my AM & the other mages. Since they all have full-time demanding jobs, we sent a message asking about interest and volunteers for the coordinating. There was a small amount of interest in trying, no one was able to coordinate. Since I have a negative view of the FA at this point, I refrained from giving my opinion, but did summarize the issues for the AM and mages. What's been decided is we're going to casually do this one taking one path in each round. Whatever member puts in the first badge picks the path and the rest of us follow that path, reporting in chat what badges we're making. Everyone seems ok with the idea we may not get ANY of the prizes. To my knowledge, no one has the room to set up any WS or T1 farms (everyone except the very small cities is in the middle of a guest race), so we'll just do those wherever someone has the space. I'm interested to see how this works out. My gut tells me we won't finish the first path and that's fine with me as long as we're not stressing over it. I'll make badges and contribute where I can.

 

[DeletedUser3602]

So the game was updated to 1.46, but no FS Adventure yet...

 

[Ashrem]

A lot of us are frozen out of the tech tree and world map, so they're probably not ready to trigger the event yet. Might be considering a roll-back

 

[DeletedUser3602]

A lot of us are frozen out of the tech tree and world map, so they're probably not ready to trigger the event yet. Might be considering a roll-back

Yeah, I just got the ingame news message about the tech tree and map. Not experiencing any trouble myself but I can imagine that's why the event hasn't started yet. Every time something goes wrong when they try to start the FA, lol.

 

[DeletedUser1791]

I don't think the FA is fun, don't think the rewards are worth the effort... and even if they were worth the effort I'm already full up on buildings that I don't have room to place.

Being part of a top tier fellowship I feel a certain compulsion to go along with it, but the main thing... It's just not any fun! And this is supposed to be a game. I'd like to get back to city building and the next chapter. Need fresh content soon or I will lose interest in Elvenar.

 

[Laochra]

Of the handful of Beta FS that actually captured the Stage 3 flag, how many of those FS did it without using diamonds?

 

[DeletedUser6189]

The FA isn't even over yet on Beta (7 hours to go as of now) ... so I don't know why everyone is so confused about why it hasn't hit on mains yet.

If we follow the "7 days ... then mains" rule, it shouldn't be on mains until at least tomorrow.

And there STILL has been no announcement on mains that a fellowship adventure is even coming at all.

I'm not holding my breath.