DeletedUser22931
Guest
I'd like to know when the Neighborly Help system being used in Beta is coming to the rest of this game.
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Your Elvenar Team
DeletedUser4194
Guest
It will be announced when it is ready in the Release Notes that come with every update 
DeletedUser22931
Guest
......................'k
DeletedUser5194
Guest
But can we get some idea as to when it might be? In my fellowship, there are some who have it and others who don't. On the save server! And based on what people have said, it's been this way for over a month.
It's a great feature and I would love to have it for everyone on PC!
It's a great feature and I would love to have it for everyone on PC!
DeletedUser20539
Guest
I agree with Lanthum. Its a very nice update to the system and we all would love to be able to use it
Mykan
Oh Wise One
It is reasonable to expect it sometime after the holiday period. The devs won't put out a new feature at a time when they are on holidays or short on staff. They need to be available in case a bug appears.
The same thing happened recently with a different feature. They need a bigger population than beta to test certain features, so a small group on live gets an early release. I can't recall the time gap for the prior feature but one would hope Jan is when the rest of us see it.
DeletedUser22931
Guest
I think it is part of the reason you find so many vacated cities.
It can take a good half hour to return neighborly help to everyone, including the Fellowship
Sometimes i have to just skip it cuz i don't have time to sit around waiting for each and every screen to load for every city.
This new neighborly help system needs to be implemented as soon as possible.
Goddess knows this game is already slow enough as it is. Time to streamline a good game.
It can take a good half hour to return neighborly help to everyone, including the Fellowship
Sometimes i have to just skip it cuz i don't have time to sit around waiting for each and every screen to load for every city.
This new neighborly help system needs to be implemented as soon as possible.
Goddess knows this game is already slow enough as it is. Time to streamline a good game.
DeletedUser10563
Guest
I agree Sparky. Some folks in my Fellowship have had this option for well over a month but not all of us have it and we still have to opt out and go to mobile just to do visits that don't take a lot of time to do. I am not sure why they update some servers and don't bother with others. This seems to happen with all of these sorts of upgrades and to be honest as an AM it can be quite frustrating trying to keep up with the info on all of this. My opinion on this is you put it out to all or non. But the question is what takes so long to get all. Seriously....you cant tell me it takes months to add one feature to all servers.
Enevhar Aldarion
Oh Wise One
No, the people who get the new stuff to try out are chosen at random and there are some players on each Live server who have it. And there were a couple of glitches/bugs that were discovered when those players got the feature that apparently did not show up on the Beta server.
DeletedUser10563
Guest
Enevhar I understand the few who are chosen at random to try a new feature out.. I really do. But that boat has sailed and glitches have been addressed. This feature has been out to the "random" for some time now.
DeletedUser4194
Guest
Indeed it has been out for a while, and it will continue to be tested and tried until it is deemed possible to implement in our live servers, or not
DeletedUser10563
Guest
Fairy thank you. But I think best practice would be to work on one upgrade before handing out another. Version 1.96 will be out this week and I just think that they should catch up on past upgrades before handing out more. Just a thought.
Ashrem
Oh Wise One
Elvenar, like most active online games, is almost certainly a rapid deployment environment. People are constant working on features at different stages, with code introduced when they think it is stable; tested on their alpha server; deployed to their beta server a week or two later if nothing crops up, then deployed to live a week or two after that if there are no serious flaws discovered on beta. Tasks are assigned out according to priorities set by the designers, not the programmers, and are interspersed with bug fixes. Art is on a completely different timeline, and needs to be fixed in size and shape before any code related to it can be touched. The improvements in the bi-weekly releases, have probably been worked on for anywhere two to twelve months, while bug fixes are typically turned around in two weeks if at all possible. Code that has a schedule, such as the Winter event, the Valentines event, the Spring event, the Summer event etc, etc, etc, must be completed on time. there is no room for discussion on that point. Code to add improvements which are not part of the core timeline of the game can only be worked on when team members have spare time. The spring event isn't going to be delayed so that someone can try to get code for a new help version. Those have to have a lower priority than events and new chapters.
The new help system is using a different layout, which was probably sent to the artists a year ago. It then becomes a "when we have time additional feature" which code was finished about six to 10 weeks ago. Something that is going to affect every player on a daily basis has to be thoroughly tested, not just for bugs, but for what effect it has on how people play. Some people are going to be unhappy about the new help design, most are going to prefer it. They need to know if it is going to flood the game with more supplies and coins. they also need to know if it's going to have a long term effect on diamonds spending, because like it or not, the game needs people to buy diamonds, or they might as well pack it in. They needed data on how it affected play during an event, which finished a couple of weeks ago. they needed to know the effect on a Fellowship Adventure, which finished yesterday. Now they need to analyze that data. They can't afford to just throw the new help system in wide-open and hope everything works out okay.
DeletedUser5194
Guest
Ashrem, all of that makes sense. And thank you for reminding us about it! But the problem I have with that model for this particular feature is that this feature isn't a groundbreaking massive change to how the game is played. The likelihood for abuse is small, therefore, the main focus should be on bugs it will cause. And this feature has been tested on the beta servers for a long time now - and all of those testing hurdles you mentioned release and finish on beta before the live servers.
And besides all that - we have had very minimal feedback from developers on a time frame for its full-game release. It's obviously a heavily-desired feature, and one people have been asking about for a while. Telling us a short 1-sentence "it'll be in once we test it enough" isn't really good communication. It comes across more of "this really isn't important to us" instead of "we know you guys want it and we want to get it to you as fast as possible, and we are diligently working the kinks out".
Finally - I completely understand about businesses needing to make money. But I know I am not alone in my thinking that lack of communication, along with a general lack of sticking to a strict schedule for bug fixes and new feature production (absent events) actually causes players to spend LESS money than more. I've read it time and again on these forums where players who refuse to spend money until bug fixes occur. I'm glad they have developers who are focused on a direction for this game. But they also have to pay just as much attention to what they players need and request, otherwise sales drop significantly. I know my has.
And besides all that - we have had very minimal feedback from developers on a time frame for its full-game release. It's obviously a heavily-desired feature, and one people have been asking about for a while. Telling us a short 1-sentence "it'll be in once we test it enough" isn't really good communication. It comes across more of "this really isn't important to us" instead of "we know you guys want it and we want to get it to you as fast as possible, and we are diligently working the kinks out".
Finally - I completely understand about businesses needing to make money. But I know I am not alone in my thinking that lack of communication, along with a general lack of sticking to a strict schedule for bug fixes and new feature production (absent events) actually causes players to spend LESS money than more. I've read it time and again on these forums where players who refuse to spend money until bug fixes occur. I'm glad they have developers who are focused on a direction for this game. But they also have to pay just as much attention to what they players need and request, otherwise sales drop significantly. I know my has.
Ashrem
Oh Wise One
I don't think it's got anything to do with abuse, but I think you're wrong that it isn't a groundbreaking shift. Over the last few months, I am helping more often than ever before, and I am getting helped more often, with all of my large culture buildings getting helped pretty much every day, which is probably adding about 2-5% to my total coins and supplies. While that seems small, multiplied across a million or more cities, it's definitely a bump to the economy. While players might want bugs to be the focus, Elvenar is a business. And no, there is no way to test reliably on Beta what live players spending habits will be like when a feature comes to many thousands of people all at once.
I'll reiterate, while the feature has been in play for over a month, it only finished its first interaction with the beta FA two weeks ago, and the live FA, two days ago. The full event test on Live ended January Second. The code freeze for This week's Beta release was probably January sixteenth (We are getting code this week that went to Beta two weeks ago, so probably froze before the event finished). That means they had two weeks to analyze the data and decide if they want to make any adjustments and implement those adjustments. I don't think that was enough time for it to be included in this Thursday's code drop, unless all of their expectations were 100% accurate and they didn't want to make any changes. If they found a single issue that requires code changes, it could easily get pushed another four weeks, because it pretty-much-guaranteed isn't on the core development timeline. It's an extra feature to improve something that is not game-breaking the way it is.
I agree that Inno's (or at least the Elvenar team's) communication is appalling. They are by far the worst I've encountered at engaging with their community. That's a completely different issue, and I wish they'd get their heads in the game.
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