One Thing

[Enevhar Aldarion]

After reading all the discussion and feedback on the tournament changes, I get that at or around chapter 16, a bottleneck occurs that effectively sucks all the joy out of the game and turns it into work that leaves a bad taste in your mouth and anger in your spirit. This bottleneck seems to involve a combination of penalties imposed in the form of negative metrics that impact progression in the game and in tournaments. What I gather is that having Ancient Wonders in your city at a high level imposes penalties on you even though those Wonders are supposed to be a positive and natural progression for your city. The same can be said for expansions to your city, i.e. the more you place, the more they count against you, even though they are supposed to be a positive improvement to your progression. Also, at that point in the game, creating troops to keep up with the losses these penalties impose is nigh on impossible with or without buffs.

I am probably a mid-range player, in that I don't have all the premium expansions and maybe a little over 300 AW levels and I can fight the entire Spire and fight for about 4000-5000 points per week in the tournaments. I am also at the end of chapter 18 and impatiently waiting for chapter 19. I have been playing for a bit over 5 years of the 6 1/2 that the game has existed, so I have seen a lot of the changes. None of them have been so bad as to ruin my fun or make the game unplayable for me. I do the same amount in the Spire and tournament as I did before the big changes last year, so I am not in the ultra high-end of players that these changes impacted. That means I can comfortably do the same points now in chapter 18, as I did in chapter 15. I have accepted the changes and adjusted my play when needed and still enjoy everything about the game, except the FA, of course. lol

 

[Myne]

I am probably a mid-range player, in that I don't have all the premium expansions and maybe a little over 300 AW levels and I can fight the entire Spire and fight for about 4000-5000 points per week in the tournaments. I am also at the end of chapter 18 and impatiently waiting for chapter 19. I have been playing for a bit over 5 years of the 6 1/2 that the game has existed, so I have seen a lot of the changes. None of them have been so bad as to ruin my fun or make the game unplayable for me. I do the same amount in the Spire and tournament as I did before the big changes last year, so I am not in the ultra high-end of players that these changes impacted. That means I can comfortably do the same points now in chapter 18, as I did in chapter 15. I have accepted the changes and adjusted my play when needed and still enjoy everything about the game, except the FA, of course. lol

In what way have you adjusted your play to accommodate the changes to the metrics?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

In what way have you adjusted your play to accommodate the changes to the metrics?

Mostly just shifted to pure fighting for the Spire and tournament. Catering costs get too ridiculous when you push deep into the tournament. And if you fight and can keep up with the troop requirements, AW levels and number of expansions and any of the other variables in the formulas do not matter. That level 10 or 15 or 20 military AW, and the expansion needed to place it, helps more than it hurts. The difference in player squad size and enemy squad size in any star of any tournament province is exactly the same for me in chapter 18 and for anyone in any other chapter. Oh, and this is all with auto-fighting. I never use manual fighting, but if I did, I would probably get 1000-2000 more tournament points per week easily. I just don't have time for all that tediousness.

 

[SoggyShorts]

This is a good solid answer to the problem. Have you suggested it to the devs or had it voted on?

This and several other suggestions have been put forth, but inno isn;t interested in solutions to problems that they won't even admit exist.

 

[Fiona Selah]

Devils Advocate: Maybe they do it to slow progression deliberately? There are a finite number of chapters, and some folks buy diamonds quite regularly and therefore can blow through the chapters pretty quickly.

I too, have a hybrid city and am in chapter 11. It is making itself felt for sure. What AWs are tied to this specifically? If these impediments are removed or abated, what would you see put in place to replace them? Do you support changing the dynamics and metrics of fighting to create more challenging battles? Perhaps a choice of level of battles tied to rewards or progression? That would support different playing styles.

Question: What's a hybrid city?

 

[Dew Spinner]

Question: What's a hybrid city?

I can pick and choose which battles I want to fight. If I know I will win a battle but take heavy losses then I can cater it. If I have a bad troop loss week, I can cater more the next week to let my troops build back up. If I see a battle that wants coins, supplies and 1 other good, I most likely will cater that and save my troops because 2 of the 3 resources are very easy to come by. If I see a battle that wants a boat load of Mana, I will fight that one regardless of how many troops I lose. It give a player a lot of flexibility, It's the best of both worlds.

 

[Lelanya]

What 1 thing.
The Suggestion to split Notices into categories - visits, trades and other, and expand storage, like the Forge of Empires notification system, would be a single, useful, easily implemented thing.
I say easily implemented because InnoG already has this feature in another game that runs on desktop and mobile platforms.

This would be a great QoL improvement that has been requested on most Forums, at regular intervals, over years, and all they have done for us is fill in page 9 on the International server.

 

[Myne]

Question: What's a hybrid city?

It's a city that you have set up to produce enough boosted goods to trade for nonboosted so that you can cater if you choose not to fight. You have a choice of which you want to do.

 

[Fiona Selah]

I've been thinking about this. My one thing:

Spire chest rewards.

Up I go. I take a look at those three waves at the top section, or the amount I have to spend to negotiate and then look in the chest, and I simply don't want to go for it. Simply put; If what I saw in the chest was more tantalizing then I would go for it.

 

[crackie]

Up I go. I take a look at those three waves at the top section, or the amount I have to spend to negotiate and then look in the chest, and I simply don't want to go for it. Simply put; If what I saw in the chest was more tantalizing then I would go for it.

I don't look at the Spire for the individual encounter prizes just like I don't do the FA for the prizes either. I take the more "zoomed out" perspective and that makes it more enjoyable. For example, I do FAs for the team bonding and not the prizes. Yeah, all that work for evolves I don't need or an extra timer is a slap in the face. However, knowing it's the 11th hour and your teammate's little chap 4 city is still throwing farmers, blacksmiths, statues, and necklaces into the Pit after they've been doing so all week IS a good feeling. I'll happily go into battle with a player who gives it their all and doesn't quit, even if all I get is a participation prize.

With the Spire, for me, the challenge is solving how to complete the whole thing. Once I've committed my city to solving that puzzle, it becomes part of my weekly expenditure of goods or troops. I will always be able to solve the whole thing and it doesn't matter what prizes they rotate in there. Then if you have solving the whole thing in your toolkit, you might as well get an extra 150 diamonds out of it and join a Gold FS or an aspiring Gold FS, or even start your own Gold FS if you're feeling entrepreneurial! It is also sooo much easier to commit your city early game because trying to do it late game is like doing a U-turn with a tanker ship. I have a teammate doing just that with a chap 14 city. It's a commendable effort, but so much more fat to trim. Our little chap 4 cities got sustainable so much faster and now they're Spire capable from then on.

 

[The Unbeliever]

Fix the asinine Tournament/Spire formula so that it rewards progression vs. now where it actively discourages game progression.
ie: the difficulty spikes when you first begin a new chapter, and as you research technologies, the formula slightly decreases the difficulty. Adding in more expansions & upgrading buildings then allows costs to further shrink, so that by the end of a chapter, things are easier than at the very beginning.


Re-build the battle system because the current one is a dumpster fire!
Make the battlefield larger so that movement matters more. (ie: it's dumb that Dogs can almost always get to alpha strike because the battlefield is too small for them!)
Make terrain properly interactive, so that it provides bonuses & disadvantages to different troop types vs. just being an impassible barrier that automatically & ranDUMBly decides entire battles. ie: bushes could slow down heavier units, but light ranged & light melee units could get atk/def boosts for attacking from a bush. Rocks could slow everyone, but get a heavy ranged unit up there, and the high vantage could give them an atk boost. Open ground could give atk/def boosts to heavy infantry who won't be encumbered by closed-in surroundings, etc, etc...
Right now, melee is almost useless and ranged units are king.

Also, give manual battle to mobile players so they aren't so super screwed vs. desktop players.

Finally, add in a 6th unit type - Cavalry, that would give high movement, decent health, but lower hitting power. Make them counter to Heavy Ranged & Light Ranged units, while being hosed by Heavy Infantry & Mages. (...those pointy sticks & magic fireballs makes ponies weep!
They'd be an effective disruption unit, but would typically require supporting units to avoid auto-losses.
(...and no, this is most definitely NOT! because I just want to see spiky knights, elves on sea horses, headless ringwraiths, and wolf-riding gobbos in the game!)


More event mini games.
From FoE, we've gotten the 'shuffle board game' for both the May + Winter events and the 'tomb/haunted circus tent digging game' for the Misty Forest event. But I'd love to see either the St. Paddy's event mini game added to the Carnival event, OR, the newer Wildlife event mini game added to the Fall event.

Especially with the Leagues system from FoE now being implemented, it'd be nice to have an equal spread of event mini games that reward actual skill vs. just praying for RNG luck from the typical "choose these 3-4 chest options and hope for the best!"

Now I will say, unlike in FoE, at least the devs here HAVE FIXED THE SUFFLE BOARD STYLE MINI GAME!!
(...seriously, you want to know what event hell is like? imagine the "reshuffle" being hidden among the rest of the items, and there's 18 of 'em vs. 16 so you have even lower odds of ever winning a daily prize, let alone multiples of one you might really like!)

 

[Myne]

The tournament formula is 1st place, easily. Having player cities peak in chapter 15 when the game goes to chapter 19 is crazy.
My proposed solution for chapters 16+ would be something like
If the cost to do the spire went up by 30% at the chapter start and your production went up by 36% spread throughout the chapter:

• 3x merc upgrades each a 12% increase over chapter start
• 3x training upgrades each a 12% increase over chapter start
• 3x barracks upgrades each a 12% increase over chapter start

then yeah the start would be rough, but you could cover that by either saving up first or while you wait to unlock/place settlement buildings you could fill your city with extra troop/goods buildings.

By the end of the chapter, costs would be up to 130% and troop production up to 136% over chapter start
A small reward for progress, and a challenging journey to get there but a desirable one.

But how would we word that for a suggestion to the devs?

 

[SoggyShorts]

But how would we word that for a suggestion to the devs?

We don't.
It's been discussed at length for a year with multiple similar proposals over that time. Inno's position that it is working as intended has not changed.

 

[Myne]

We don't.
It's been discussed at length for a year with multiple similar proposals over that time. Inno's position that it is working as intended has not changed.

So there is nothing we can do and the point is moot. Is that it?

 

[DeletedUser29768]

So there is nothing we can do and the point is moot. Is that it?

Pretty much. I don't think making a suggestion on the forum is going to get us anywhere, at least. Better to move on to more promising areas.

 

[Myne]

Pretty much. I don't think making a suggestion on the forum is going to get us anywhere, at least. Better to move on to more promising areas.

Suggestions??

 

[Dew Spinner]

So there is nothing we can do and the point is moot. Is that it?

It's very hard to convince the Devs, when they don't see a problem in the first place! If 106 pages of severe complaints about the Tournament Penalty Formula don't convince them, then what will? And that thread is well over a year old!

 

[Myne]

It's very hard to convince the Devs, when they don't see a problem in the first place! If 106 pages of severe complaints about the Tournament Penalty Formula don;t convince them, then what will?

The only thing I can think of is if it gets in their pockets, honestly.

 

[Dew Spinner]

The only thing I can think of is if it gets in their pockets, honestly.

That's very true but the Devs have decided that New Players who don't KNOW how they are penalizing progression will spend money and Older Players who do KNOW this, won't spend money, so they only are concerned about the young and dumb.

 

[DeletedUser29768]

Suggestions??

I personally would like to see more variation in the event formula. As things stand now, the Misty Forest event is the only one that uses any creative mechanics; the rest are just the same old grind of opening chests and hoping for favorable RNG so you can get the prizes you want. I don't have any concrete suggestions right now (I'll give it some thought); just anything to make it less braindead!