Crafting choices...

[Deleted User - 3932582]

...overwhelm me. What to pick??

So much for removing janky recipes...

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I don't have a picture, but my last batch was four different 5x relics and the rainbow unicorn I had already made. lol

As for yours, if I need enchantments in a hurry, or an IM specifically, I would craft that one because 3 enchantments in 4 hours could be very useful during an event.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

As for yours, if I need enchantments in a hurry, or an IM specifically, I would craft that one because 3 enchantments in 4 hours could be very useful during an event.

I hear you. Except we're not in an event, and even then you need to luck out and be on this exact quest And IM specifically?

I think I am all set for the next couple of years

Relics are probably even slightly worse than coin rains, as you can try to farm vision vapors with coin rains, and then disenchant them to recoup some of the costs, while extra relics are entirely useless once crafted. But I'd never do that as that drains catalysts. On the other hand, relics recipes at least useful to some in early game to raise boost levels, while coin rains... yeah.

 

[The Unbeliever]

Relics are probably even slightly worse than coin rains, as you can try to farm vision vapors with coin rains, and then disenchant them to recoup some of the costs, while extra relics are entirely useless once crafted. But I'd never do that as that drains catalysts. On the other hand, relics recipes at least useful to some in early game to raise boost levels, while coin rains... yeah.

...except that for early/mid game players, crafting your CC required relics is a good way to avoid running dry on those relics, since it's also typical that early/mid game players won't earn as many relics either during those tournies. (which are every 2 and a bit months for a specific relic to boot!)

I always craft the scrolls relic pack, since that's the hardest damn tournament, yet I need scroll relics to craft CC's.

 

[Black watch]

Yeah, wow... nice options....
And I especially like the fact that I can sometimes get lucky and actually craft a pet food now... if I'm lucky... At the rate I'm using my food... I'll be watching my pieces sit on their hands... like me.
INNO, bring back the bloody pet food for Christ's sake!

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

You've got to be kidding me - here is another refresh just 2 cycles later (the one in-between was equally unimpressive with 3x 2 tile culture buildings, just didn't take a screenshot):

Someone really things that I am in desperate need of coins or something

 

[DeletedUser19458]

oooh ... such choices to choose from!

 

[Black watch]

Yeah, the parade of crap is just mind boggling.
Someone please tell me why the pet food was reduced when so much more needs it to work.
What's the rationale behind that?
If you make pieces for your game and require you clients to feed the bloody things, well then, let us craft the stuff to feed them. It's not like we're getting pet food for free.
As usual, INNO puts a few things in that were nice, but then screws up most of it with some real stupid choices. I just don't get how they come up with this... Are they really trying to piss off their clients?
You would think they'd want happy people playing their game.

 

[DeletedUser20951]

I'll join in on the chorus of crafting horror cries. I have been consistently receiving useless recipes at a much higher rate than I did before the change, and I'm usually able to check nearly all of the offerings every day with both of my cities. My overall crafting has tanked, as there's just not much worth crafting that comes up now. Woo.

 

[DeletedUser23318]

I think I am in the minority here, but I have had decent luck with the changes *Knock on wood*. Pretty much still get a lot of Pet food options (Exception while the tourney is going on they do appear less), and a fair amount of portal profits and some other goodies. I think maybe 1 in 3 or 4 rotations I might get a list of stuff I don't want to craft.

 

[The Unbeliever]

Yeah, the parade of crap is just mind boggling.
Someone please tell me why the pet food was reduced when so much more needs it to work.
What's the rationale behind that?
If you make pieces for your game and require you clients to feed the bloody things, well then, let us craft the stuff to feed them. It's not like we're getting pet food for free.
As usual, INNO puts a few things in that were nice, but then screws up most of it with some real stupid choices. I just don't get how they come up with this... Are they really trying to piss off their clients?
You would think they'd want happy people playing their game.

Ever since the Phoenix event, it has seemed like the Elvenar devs are trying to purposefully kill off the entire game IMHO...

- Spire of Eternal Stupidity
- RanDUMB quest lines
- Giving away too many grand prizes and then calling the players cheaters
- Gakking all over the Crafting feature
- Upcoming Fall event is a giant clusterfeth of 2-3 constantly repeating quests. (ie: scout a province 3-4x in a row?!lol)

This is getting more and more frustrating to play every day.

 

[Black watch]

INNO has a disconnect with their players...
Some boardroom somewhere has people sitting around it crunching numbers and not paying attention to the actual product they've produced and run.

 

[Ashrem]

INNO has a disconnect with their players...
Some boardroom somewhere has people sitting around it crunching numbers and not paying attention to the actual product they've produced and run.

You realize the forums are an echo chamber? There are tens of thousands of players who have never visited the forums and don't care what anyone else thinks because they enjoy the game.

Inno certainly seems to be disconnected from the 100 or so regular voices on this forum. I'm not so sanguine that reflects a general disconnect from the player-base. The sample here is too small to know if it actually reflects the attitudes of players.

 

[The Unbeliever]

You realize the forums are an echo chamber? There are tens of thousands of players who have never visited the forums and don't care what anyone else thinks because they enjoy the game.

Inno certainly seems to be disconnected from the 100 or so regular voices on this forum. I'm not so sanguine that reflects a general disconnect from the player-base. The sample here is too small to know if it actually reflects the attitudes of players.

I would say it's not too far off...
How many of us who come here regularly also hear/read a large number of similar complaints from our Fellows who don't post on the forums? (for various reasons)

In my E-world city for example, I'm the only one from my fellowship of 23 other fellows who read/post on the forums.
BUT!
The attitudes towards what Inno is doing to the game are all fairly similar.

So I do think it's fair to say that there is more and more of a disconnect from the playerbase in general.
Not enough to worry Inno's bottom line by any means, but it seems like more and more of the long time players are just getting fed up with all the gak still polluting the game, (ie: battle system imbalances, refusal to address the quality of life issues, new content being frustrating as hell, etc...), and either "taking a break", or else leaving altogether.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

OK, it's the last one, I promise

The next refresh had a few buildings (Traveling Merchants, Mana Sawmill) - not something I would craft still, but at least that's something that could be useful for someone...

 

[Ashrem]

I would say it's not too far off...
How many of us who come here regularly also hear/read a large number of similar complaints from our Fellows who don't post on the forums? (for various reasons)

In my E-world city for example, I'm the only one from my fellowship of 23 other fellows who read/post on the forums.
BUT!
The attitudes towards what Inno is doing to the game are all fairly similar.

So I do think it's fair to say that there is more and more of a disconnect from the playerbase in general.
Not enough to worry Inno's bottom line by any means, but it seems like more and more of the long time players are just getting fed up with all the gak still polluting the game, (ie: battle system imbalances, refusal to address the quality of life issues, new content being frustrating as hell, etc...), and either "taking a break", or else leaving altogether.

I don't know if it's far off or not, but fellowships are no less of an echo chamber than the forums. Any fellowship that wants to be competitive at all has at least one person participating in the forums. It's all the same type of players. Players who are happy don't come to the forums and complain about it. Inno might or might not be disconnected from their player base, but there is nothing about the forums that provides useful evidence either way. Inno has won awards for the quality of their player metrics, so unlike us, they actually know how many people are logging in, buying diamonds, what their players are doing, what they like, and what they don't like. It's easy for us to forget that the majority of players have no idea that tournaments and fellowship adventures even exist. None of them were affected by the inability to have accurate quest lists, because they never new quest lists existed. They don't know when the next event is coming or what it will look like, and won't until it either pops up or they get an email from Inno.

 

[Black watch]

You may be right Ashrem, but I will point out an example that could be quite telling.
The FA's were marred by a seriously bad interface that drove a massive amount of players away from participating. People far and wide complained about it-loud and clear on the forums and within their fellowships. It was no secret that INNO needed to fix it and yet it took them forever to do so.
When they did, look at the immediate response. It crippled their tourney scheduled to come out on that week. People want the game to be better and proof was in that response.
However, it's possible that we're talking apples and oranges, I just hope that that FA interface situation is, and was, a wake up call for INNO to pay attention. If we are a minority, then judging by the posts and responses, I think INNO is getting a damn fine grouping of intelligent answers to what are common game problems the players are having. They would be wise to address them.
How many more "Soggy's" are going to leave before they do... There are several very high ranking players in my provinces that have quit lately. That's never good.
Trading in my area and within my fellowship has slowed dramatically and players are logging on fewer times during the times I'm on. I've heard plenty of complaints and have no answers for the new players...
But if you're right, then we can expect INNO to sit on their hands and reap whatever rewards they are getting and I'll be playing something else in the future.

 

[mucksterme]

Yeah, the parade of crap is just mind boggling.
Someone please tell me why the pet food was reduced when so much more needs it to work.
.

Last week I had four pet food come up at once
Overall I've had no problem keeping my pet food inventory over 20 and I use my phoenix through the entire tourny

I would say it's not too far off...
How many of us who come here regularly also hear/read a large number of similar complaints from our Fellows who don't post on the forums? (for various reasons)

In my E-world city for example, I'm the only one from my fellowship of 23 other fellows who read/post on the forums.
BUT!
The attitudes towards what Inno is doing to the game are all fairly similar.

You are using the small sample of your FS to justify the relevance of the small sample of players who use the forum.

The 25 people in my FS rarely talk about Inno.

Other than comments like
Muck : Looks like a new event coming next week
Other Member: oh no that's too soon

 

[Ashrem]

You may be right Ashrem, but I will point out an example that could be quite telling.
The FA's were marred by a seriously bad interface that drove a massive amount of players away from participating. People far and wide complained about it-loud and clear on the forums and within their fellowships. It was no secret that INNO needed to fix it and yet it took them forever to do so

The question is, telling of what? Despite efforts to market Elvenar as a social game, they' have been consistently terrible at implementing social features. Chat is at best unreliable, messaging is so basic as to defy understanding (for the people who can message at all, which is nobody who plays on mobile only) and, yes, FA's are pretty awful. Two obvious possibilities come to mind.

1. The developers are incompetent
2. They still make so much money of solo players that they can't be bothered to rush anything actually social or invest much effort in it.

- Note: Spire has been added for solo play, with vague comments that one day it might be Fellowship based
- Note, Sensortower.com shows more than 90% of 12,000+ iPhone raters gave it 4 or 5 stars out of five, and it raked in $200k (net) on the iPhone app store just in the last month. If the average player who spends money in game spends about $50.00 in a month (which is an extravagantly high estimate), that means over 5,000 people spent money on Elvenar through the Apple store in August. (Based on Apple's standard commission of 30%, $200k net represents 285k in gross income)
Which of those options seems like a closer fit for Occam's Razor

 

[Black watch]

The question is, telling of what? Despite efforts to market Elvenar as a social game, they' have been consistently terrible at implementing social features. Chat is at best unreliable, messaging is so basic as to defy understanding (for the people who can message at all, which is nobody who plays on mobile only) and, yes, FA's are pretty awful. Two obvious possibilities come to mind.

1. The developers are incompetent
2. They still make so much money of solo players that they can't be bothered to rush anything actually social or invest much effort in it.

- Note: Spire has been added for solo play, with vague comments that one day it might be Fellowship based
- Note, Sensortower.com shows more than 90% of 12,000+ iPhone raters gave it 4 or 5 stars out of five, and it raked in $200k (net) on the iPhone app store just in the last month. If the average player who spends money in game spends about $50.00 in a month (which is an extravagantly high estimate), that means over 5,000 people spent money on Elvenar through the Apple store in August. (Based on Apple's standard commission of 30%, $200k net represents 285k in gross income)
Which of those options seems like a closer fit for Occam's Razor

It's telling for them... they should and do have the numbers in front of them... That FA was a huge success because they fixed the interface. A smart person at INNO would see that response and want MORE of that and address the issues players are having so they could make even MORE money.
And by the way, one of the reasons I stayed playing this game was talented, experience and kind upper ranged players that took the time to help me play better. That included reading comments from the people that posted on this forum. It's a fantastic source of support and helps make this game more playable despite INNO's short comings with their own game in all the ways that have been pointed out so far in the forum. When talented people leave, the game is diminished and people won't have as much fun and soon will look for something else to occupy their time. Money will walk away from this game... I can see this happening around my city.
There is an obvious farm city that someone spent a lot more than the $600.00 I estimated that sits abandoned. Other people have left with loads of premium buildings in their cities. Whether INNO cares about that or not, is not known, but when a boat starts leaking, it's unwise to ignore it.
Well, we could debate about INNO until the cows come home, but it won't change anything AND I believe we are basically in agreement.

Thanks for posting the stats, it's possibly the reason INNO doesn't seem to give a crap about the issues that are brought up in the forum. Perhaps one day, they will want more money and start fixing stuff or perhaps they will loose enough money that they suddenly realize the boat's been sinking and the engine just quit... who knows... I probably won't be around when they finally pull their head out.
Thanks for the post Ashrem, nice exchanging notes with you.