Feedback on Being an Elvenar Newbie

[Henroo]

For those who say that they loved the events when they first started, so did I. I started two years ago during the halloween event. Next week will be my 2 year anniversary. But I don't recall any quest that said I had to have a certain tech to complete one single quest that was at least 15 difficult (by newbie standards) techs away from where I was. That simply didn't occur when I started. Look back and tell me it occurred when you started, and that you didn't mind one bit.

You are correct in this. Looking back at your original post, I assume you are talking about a quest which required a player to deposit points in an Ancient Wonder. And this quest would indeed be impossible for a ch 1 player or a early ch 2 player. I am SURE there was no quest like this in my first event. I stared playing the game in the middle of the Valentine Event. I never ran into a single quest which was an impossible roadblock. If I had, I would remember.

 

[Darielle]

I agree to a point. The thing is the game is complicated. One thing you do early detracts from another because you only have so many resources. But you don't know how the one thing will impact another and when. So you are very tempted to do as much as you can as it presents itself and thus, often find yourself struggling for things you need.

For instance, the game presents quests. Event, chapter, and the repeating ones. If you are new you don't see or understand the relationship between how each impacts the game and thus, what you can skip or ignore for now.

Ditto for how much you scout things or not.

To make it easier I'd suggest, as you do, that events be postponed until you reach a certain size. Chapter, score, expansions, research -- any of these could be used as a measure. The overall effect would be to make the game simpler because you wouldn't feel like you had to keep all the balls in the air at the same time when you only have one hand! (Yes, you can juggle with one hand, but it's not easy or pretty).

Another thing, and something the OP said that would make sense is to stop increasing the cost of KP when you are required to purchase KP. The true cost of buying 1KP is 10 more coins (or whatever you use) for each KP you buy after that. So forcing a player to purchase KP at the very beginning makes the cost to them of that KP expensive. A 1KP purchase adds, say, 10 coins to the future costs of each KP. Thus, if in the course of the game you buy 10,000 KP, you are really paying 100,000 coins because you purchased the first 1KP. In other words, all things being equal, you would have saved 100,000 coins if you hadn't been forced to purchase that first KP. And it just multiples each time you are then forced to buy another, and another, and another....

So two ideas. Restrict the introduction of events until some point is reached where the complexity of the game is better understood and the players can better determine what they MUST do verses what they CAN do but can also skip. And, make the forced purchase of KP not increment the KP costs.

The first idea I'll leave alone for now as it seems pretty straight-forward. The second might take some coding as, at this point, there is no way to tell why the person is purchasing KP. Thus, it might need some way of notifying the system that the purchase is to be applied to a particular quest?

Just my response.

AJ

Thank you AJ. The only thing I would add is that it doesn't add 10 coins ... it adds 500 coins to each additional kp for a brand new player right off the bat. And telling a player to buy 8, 8, 12 and 2 kp in chapter 1 is downright silly, when they're drawing 9 coins from each house. But I'm not criticizing your number; I know it was merely an example and your comments make sense to me.

I was coming at this post trying to project how a new player would feel. They wouldn't know what they should do and what they shouldn't. I've known many new players who didn't know how rare diamonds were and spent them on something totally wrong, and wound up with 20 hour enchantment wait time in the MA because they didn't save the diamonds to upgrade the MA. I've known players disenchant items they didn't realize they'd need. So I was merely trying to put myself in their shoes. For me, the beta test was annoying but unimportant; I have the city I want to play in and that's fine with me. But I do feel bad for those who have absolutely NO decent tutorial from Inno on the value of diamonds, the proper way to look at quests and events, etc. What Inno really needs is a basic newbie tutorial that covers a lot of these things.

Thanks for the responses, everyone ... even those who disagree with me. It gives me a broader insight.

 

[Darielle]

I honestly do not remember how long chapter 1 took me. But like you it was probably a matter of a few days. But I can tell you I finished the first 15 chapters in 18 months or less in 3 worlds . Currently parked at the start of ch 16. *MAYBE* I could beat that time if I ever started a new city and joined a REALLY good FS from the start. But I joined a totally new starter FS in 1 world and started a new FS the same day I started my city in another world. I probably lost some progress in these cities cause in addition to growing my city I was helping to grow the fellowship. On the other hand, I started a city and started a fellowship on the same day. And I grew it from nothing into 10 chest status in 11 months. Probably my single best accomplishment in this game so far.

You are certainly far, far more than the "average" player. I've had two years next week and I am only in chapter 15 in one city. But I consider myself a "more than average" player, logging in a minimum of 4 times a day and usually more. I think the "average" player would log in 3x a day or less, in which case they would take longer than you or I to finish the first couple of chapters. I would estimate (just my own belief; I won't dispute it with anyone) it would take 3 weeks for an "average" player to finish chapter 2. For a casual player, maybe a month. Therefore, if they get this quest during their first couple days, they would effectively be blocked from the rest of the event. I just don't think that's the way to hold onto new customers.

 

[Darielle]

You are correct in this. Looking back at your original post, I assume you are talking about a quest which required a player to deposit points in an Ancient Wonder. And this quest would indeed be impossible for a ch 1 player or a early ch 2 player. I am SURE there was no quest like this in my first event. I stared playing the game in the middle of the Valentine Event. I never ran into a single quest which was an impossible roadblock. If I had, I would remember.

Thanks, Henroo ... I would have remembered it too, and I didn't get such a quest either when I started in Autumn 2019.

 

[Alram]

@Darielle

I may have misunderstood your OP.
How far do you think a ch1 city should be able to get on the questline before getting stymied?

 

[Iyapo1]

@Darielle

I may have misunderstood your OP.
How far do you think a ch1 city should be able to get on the questline before getting stymied?

A chapter 2 city with not a single building fully upgraded to chapter 1 max sitting on quest 20 seven days into the event.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

How far do you think a ch1 city should be able to get on the questline before getting stymied?

That really depends on the quests, since there is some variation from event to event, or more of one type and less of another. For some of the past events, a city started at the same time as the event could finish all the quests with good planning and prior knowledge of the game. And for some past events, unless the city is already in chapter 3 and has access to the Spire, it would be unlikely to finish all the quests. The upcoming event has a lot of buy kp quests, so that will slow down cities, just like the last event, with all the collect relic quests, did. On the other side, the upcoming event has a lot less collect vision vapor quests than before, so that is a plus for new cities.

 

[Darielle]

@Darielle

I may have misunderstood your OP.
How far do you think a ch1 city should be able to get on the questline before getting stymied?

I'm sorry I wasn't clear. I think they ought to be able to progress in the quests so that no quest takes more than, say, 3 or 4 days at most. That would mean that they could do a minimum of a dozen or so quests (out of the what, 75 or so?) and maybe even get through all the first set of quests, (the ones before the dailies). That would be enough to give them a few good prizes. I think to get stumped at quest 8 or 9 (It may be a little later; I may be remembering wrong so don't crucify me, lol) and have to wait 2 or three weeks is unfair, imho. Thanks for asking.

 

[Darielle]

A chapter 2 city with not a single building fully upgraded to chapter 1 max sitting on quest 20 seven days into the event.

Well, you know how to play! You know to ignore the regular quests in favor of the event quests. You know what to spend your diamonds on and what not to. And ... tell the truth ... you may have looked up the quests on Elven Gems to figure out how to best strategize. All of these things a newbie wouldn't know to do. If I'm wrong about that last part, then I'm wrong. I'll admit that.

 

[Iyapo1]

@Darielle
I was describing your beta city.

When you posted the OP, your city was a 1 week old barely chapter 2 city with not a single building fully upgraded to chapter 1 max sitting on quest 20 seven days into the event.
Yes I looked up the quest list to see which one you were stuck on...20.

 

[Alram]

That would mean that they could do a minimum of a dozen or so quests (out of the what, 75 or so?) and maybe even get through all the first set of quests, (the ones before the dailies). That would be enough to give them a few good prizes.

Do you think they will get a few good prizes just from spending the free daily event currency and currency drops around their city?

 

[Darielle]

Do you think they will get a few good prizes just from spending the free daily event currency and currency drops around their city?

That's a good question. I hope so.

 

[DeletedUser29768]

That's a good question. I hope so.

It made a big difference in my new city, I can tell you that. Probably accounted for half of the currency I gained.

 

[Darielle]

@Darielle
I was describing your beta city.

When you posted the OP, your city was a 1 week old barely chapter 2 city with not a single building fully upgraded to chapter 1 max sitting on quest 20 seven days into the event.
Yes I looked up the quest list to see which one you were stuck on...20.

Looks like I did more than I thought I did. I said not to quote me ... I couldn't remember, but I'm glad you pointed it out and I stand corrected. Well then, I guess what this boils down to is the fact that I think they stress out newbies too much with buy kp quests, etc. It's impossible to fully upgrade any buildings when you're trying to keep up with "what Elvenar is telling you to do." I did the quests even knowing better ... a new player wouldn't know better.

 

[Kekune]

I remember my first event. It was Woodelvenstock, back in the summer of 2018. Actually, I think I started during a mini event before the main show? I'm not certain...I do remember wondering why on earth the cool-looking fantasy city builder had an elf version of Mick Jagger crossed with Steven Tyler. And why so many show tickets would be blowing around the edges of my city. Did people just not care about their tickets? Was Mick ElfenTyler not a good singer?

I also remember looking at the quests and thinking no way could I do that many things! I didn't finish the quest line, but I did some. And it didn't bother me. I had a sense that (a) building my city was more important than completing any given quest, and (b) I was new and would do better on the next one.

I just can't imagine being a new player and thinking a game is broken because I can't do something right out of the gate. I also can't imagine blindly completing quests just because they're there. Quests are not a tutorial. Unless you're, you know, clearly in a tutorial. I've got a completionist streak, too, but it seems reasonable to expect to need to sink a little time into something to gain that capacity.

I'm not arguing either way about how events should be for new cities. Just saying I personally didn't have an issue with this as a newbie.

 

[crackie]

I feel like with old event buildings and evolves cycling through MA and Spire, the FOMO over events lessen too, though a new player might not know that.