Chapter 1-5 Adjustments

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I tried to start new cities and all I got was the old tree ...

Yeah, it is still a random thing and not every new city. One person in my Beta fellowship said they had to start nine cities before the ninth one had the new research tree, so even there it is still random. I have not seen any changes yet from the Beta testing and it sounds like the version on the Live servers is exactly the same as what we have on Beta. So just another case of Inno saying "here is something new to test out and give feedback on" and then they never tweak it at all.

 

[Maeryn]

I tried to start new cities and all I got was the old tree ...

You’ll need to start a new account, all worlds will have the same tech tree.

 

[Maeryn]

Yeah, it is still a random thing and not every new city. One person in my Beta fellowship said they had to start nine cities before the ninth one had the new research tree, so even there it is still random. I have not seen any changes yet from the Beta testing and it sounds like the version on the Live servers is exactly the same as what we have on Beta. So just another case of Inno saying "here is something new to test out and give feedback on" and then they never tweak it at all.

Inno should’ve tweaked it, I having to run mm spells constantly just so I’ll have enough goods to either do research, spire or tournament.

 

[Cleo7311]

Now Customer Support claims that those in Ch 2 can enter the coming Adventure - maybe? Wonder how many other gotchas are lurking to make new players give up? Boos & hisses for these 'minor' changes. Until now active players could be well on the way to a working Golden Abyss by Ch 4 - not any more.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Now Customer Support claims that those in Ch 2 can enter the coming Adventure - maybe? Wonder how many other gotchas are lurking to make new players give up? Boos & hisses for these 'minor' changes. Until now active players could be well on the way to a working Golden Abyss by Ch 4 - not any more.

Players with the new research tree have a research in chapter 2 they have to do before they can even join a fellowship, and further into the chapter 2 tree, there is a separate research to complete before they can participate in the FA. Crafting in the MA cannot be done until researching it in chapter 3, so chapter 2 players will not be able to make vision vapor for badges until then.

 

[Maeryn]

Now Customer Support claims that those in Ch 2 can enter the coming Adventure - maybe? Wonder how many other gotchas are lurking to make new players give up? Boos & hisses for these 'minor' changes. Until now active players could be well on the way to a working Golden Abyss by Ch 4 - not any more.

You know the bit I of learning about how many factories are needed to actually have goods for everything that happens in chapter 3 well that’s been pushed back to chapter 5. With tournaments being delayed til chapter 4, you’ll only have half a cycle or maybe a bit more to gain relics until you hit guest races.

Sadly, I’m doing the new tech tree on live and I’m looking at being parked in chapter 5 for quite awhile. I’ll have to some how either double the amount of factories I have(no space) or wait it out until I get enough of a buff to move forward into guest races without running on empty daily.

 

[Cleo7311]

I have a fairly new member who started before the changes. She is currently in Ch 4 - Has a Golden Abyss at Level 8, active in tournaments for weeks. Under the new rules, she would be barely unlocking tournaments and Ancient Wonders both. That is the effect of these 'minor' changes. And yes, if we ever get all the details, the early chapter suggestions will need to be completely redone. Or rather 2 sets of advice - one for those who started their first city before the changes, another for all those who started after the changes.

Right up there with the infamous Adventure when someone loaded garbage into the level maps - that Adventure was cancelled after a few hours of chaos - took several weeks to start a new Adventure after that fiasco.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

You know the bit I of learning about how many factories are needed to actually have goods for everything that happens in chapter 3 well that’s been pushed back to chapter 5. With tournaments being delayed til chapter 4, you’ll only have half a cycle or maybe a bit more to gain relics until you hit guest races.

Sadly, I’m doing the new tech tree on live and I’m looking at being parked in chapter 5 for quite awhile. I’ll have to some how either double the amount of factories I have(no space) or wait it out until I get enough of a buff to move forward into guest races without running on empty daily.

I am not sure how you are running your city, but in my little Beta city with the new research, I am near the end of chapter 6 now and I never built more than 4 of any of my boosted factories, and only have 3 of each out right now. I did not even join a fellowship until chapter 5, just to see what it would be like. It was maybe 3 months old when it moved into chapter 6.

 

[Maeryn]

I am not sure how you are running your city, but in my little Beta city with the new research, I am near the end of chapter 6 now and I never built more than 4 of any of my boosted factories, and only have 3 of each out right now. I did not even join a fellowship until chapter 5, just to see what it would be like. It was maybe 3 months old when it moved into chapter 6.

I have been participating in things and not strictly just doing the tech tree.

 

[crackie]

I wonder how the new tech tree affects people’s desire to join a fellowship. I feel like if fellowship is hidden behind a tech wall and they get accustomed to playing alone, then they might just think the game is a solo type game. Of course, it can be played that way, but having a FS changes a lot of dynamics. Having tourney alone changes the ease of acquiring relics for all those event quests. Ultimately, I think it’s a move backwards if established FS stops taking in sub-Chap5 cities if they can’t really contribute to FA, Spire, and tourney so they have no incentive to take them. Then new players get steered to new fellowships who may not know how these things affect them. We will have a generation of new players that may not be properly guided and pick up many “bad” habits bc they don’t know better.

 

[Cleo7311]

Well said crackie. Worse, if the difficulty has increased enough, a few months from now, people will start asking - "why are there no new players?" With not enough time in beta for most to reach Ch 5 before it all went live, there was essentially no useful testing. With no complete description available, experienced players cannot give useful advice except that elvengems, etc. may be useless to them.

 

[Maeryn]

I find it strange that I seem to be the only one with a negative opinion on new tech tree then again I appear to also be the only one who joined a fellowship in chapter 2 partook in a fellowship adventure and have managed to fully participate in the event and somehow managed to get a lvl 10 nimble. It does leave me with the impression that inno didn’t design the new chapter 1-5 with anything more than completing research in mind.

 

[Yavimaya]

I find it strange that I seem to be the only one with a negative opinion on new tech tree then again I appear to also be the only one who joined a fellowship in chapter 2 partook in a fellowship adventure and have managed to fully participate in the event and somehow managed to get a lvl 10 nimble. It does leave me with the impression that inno didn’t design the new chapter 1-5 with anything more than completing research in mind.

You are not the only one with a negative opinion of it that I have noticed from other people's comments. I myself do not have one of those new cities but I definitely do not like the sounds of it and am grateful I started mine before that!

 

[Lelanya]

My Win FS took on the two friends who joined on the same day to play together and they got different tech trees. The new tech tree has been uploaded to my Discord server. It looks a lot like the old tech tree, except it has the Wonder research from chapters 2 and 3 moved into Chapter 4, so there are 3 blocks there, at the beginning, middle and end. They have new research:
Neighborhood - mid chapter 1
Fellowship - early chapter 2
Fellowship Adventures - mid chapter 2
Crafting - mid chapter 3
Tournament - early chapter 4
AWs all through chapter 4 as above
Spire - early chapter 5

One important change is that the player with the new tech tree has not received cycling quests and consequently has a  lot less gold than the other player.

 

[Maeryn]

@Lelanya it’s not just a lack of quest cycling that causes the new tech tree player to have less gold and supplies it’s also the rewards from the quests they do get. Half of the quests rewards are a small amount of diamonds, spells and troops.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

@Lelanya you forgot to include on your list that crafting in the MA is a separate research done in chapter 3. You no longer get to craft as soon as you build it.

 

[Lelanya]

@Lelanya you forgot to include on your list that crafting in the MA is a separate research done in chapter 3. You no longer get to craft as soon as you build it.

Yep . I am on my phone atm, will fix that, thanks.

 

[Mirai]

It doesnt come mucht later.

The chapters are much more condensed, which means you fly trough the first few chapters.

the new chaptter 5 is finished in about the time it took you to chapter 3 before.

This is not actually showing to be true in practice, from what I hear, and comparing to the three cities I started before, but I will keep taking notes and endeavor to bring possibly useful feedback, questions, and reflection -
One happy note, i found a good fellowship in beta! That makes worlds of difference, too.
The boardgame event is delightful: I'd love a standalone version of it...

 

[Mirai]

I think it’s been stated more than once that Inno doesn’t believe that the first event someone does that they can complete the quest line. It was totally possible if you were determined to complete under the old tech tree this one will have an early stopping point if crafting isn’t unlocked.

That makes sense; this has actually added to my sense of accomplishment as I grow, all the incremental "I can do this much more, this time" steps were a little frustrating the first time while at the same time very pleasing in what I did get through; and added something good each event further in. Mind you, I've been playing just a few months and my first event was excavations with donkeys in early Spring. I finished upgrading the evolving seahorse-racing building a few days before the end of the event, pretty easily, and was able to pass that on to smaller team mates: you'll be stronger next time. It's like setting the goal to get a little farther up the Spire, and fight in more of the Tourney tents before catering, each week (for me). Little steps make it fun for me.

 

[Cleo7311]

Just got the random hint banner - Join Spire in Chapter 3 - Not any more, or maybe, maybe not.