READ ME Ideas and Suggestions - Read before posting - as of 06/23

[helya]

There have been some internal changes in how we are handling suggestions.

Our Community can forward ideas we'd like to see implemented and they will be added to a list of suggestions from all of the different markets. A Community manager from each market will then vote for only 3 of the listed suggestions bi-weekly and the top 3 Suggestions with the highest total vote value are then added to the game design priority list.

This means that we'll have feedback much sooner about the ideas that are being worked on, but also that they will need to be very appealing to also earn votes from other markets. Ideally, we would like to be able to forward 1-3 suggestions per week.

Ideas that were not in the top 3 can be forwarded a second time in a future voting cycle should they not be selected and our community decides they'd like to try again.

In order for our community to be better represented, please give some thought to your suggestion before posting it.

• Is it realistic? Does it bring added value? Does the Development Team have to change too much to the existing game? Can the Development Team time be well spent on another suggestion?
• Will it benefit players from all markets and all stages of the game?
• Be flexible about your idea and open to criticism. Not every idea will be 100% perfect at the moment it is posted, but by discussing it together, we can come to a workable and realistic end result that is more likely to be voted for.
• When discussing, try to focus on the current suggestion made by the Orginal Poster. If you have a separate idea or suggestion, open a separate discussion for that particular concept.

POSTING YOUR IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS
It is strongly suggested to use this format when presenting your idea :

• Thread Title: Make it short, clear, and descriptive with the appropriate prefix
• Details: Give a summary of your idea
• Explain more fully what the idea is and how it would work.
• Do not clutter the idea. Remember this is what will go in the list of suggestions from all markets, it is important to keep in mind you are selling the idea to them and not the people who will be discussing the idea and concept within your thread.

Optional/ for discussion purposes only

• Benefits / Pros: Include why your idea would be beneficial. How will your idea help the gameplay for everyone, and not just you? What problem(s) would it resolve, if any?
• Downsides / Cons: Include why your idea may negatively affect the game or the players. Will it require extreme implementation effort? What is a workaround, if any?
• Miscellaneous: If there are questions you have about the idea that you wish others to help with, consider putting them in a post right after the initial post to help stimulate discussion in a desired and constructive direction.

Not all ideas will conform exactly to the pattern given here, but please follow it where you can.

*Remember, if the idea is something you feel should be expanded upon and the Original Poster is no longer active in maintaining the discussions and summary, please reach out to a Moderator. They will close the original thread and redirect to the newly established one. Alternatively, someone can take charge within the same thread and maintain the summary of the discussion and poll choices.*

PREFIXES
To be able to categorize your ideas in an efficient way, please apply the corresponding prefix to your idea when posting it:

Battle: barracks; battle screen
City: city-view; construction; building characteristics; culture; new buildings
Communication: in-game communication; message system
New Game Features: completely new and/or game-changing ideas
Quests: quest characteristics; new quest lines
Research: research tree; new research ideas
Trader: filtering trades
User Interface: notifications; buttons; in-game links
World Map: scouting; finding players; neighborly help
Forum: for forum-related ideas
Other: anything that doesn't fit in the other categories,

DISCUSSIONS
When discussing ideas, we should not discredit other people for their ideas. If you disagree with an idea, or if you believe it wouldn't be great to have the suggested feature in Elvenar, that is of course not a problem, but you should phrase your replies in a constructive way. Treat others' ideas the way you would want yours to be treated.

Once the discussion comes to an end, please reach out to a Moderator or tag them within the thread to open a poll in order to have the idea processed.

POLL
To make sure the ideas we forward are a community decision, the following process will be followed:

• The Moderator will open a poll in this section. They will also make sure that in the opening post, there is a short description of the Idea (as well as in the Thread Title) and all detailed information is included in the rest of the in-depth description in that opening post.
• The poll will run for 14 days.
• During the poll, the discussion can still continue if anyone feels they have something valuable to add.
• However: No alterations can be made to the idea as it's stated in the opening post, so please refrain from coming up with new ideas at this stage.
• Any idea that has more “IN FAVOR” votes than the “NOT IN FAVOR” votes at the end of the 14 day voting period will be forwarded.
• Any idea that does not meet the requirement of the poll, will not be forward. This will avoid forwarding ideas that are not supported by the majority of the community.

FORWARDING

• If an idea meets the above-mentioned criteria, the thread will be marked as "Forwarded"
• If a forwarded idea is selected in the above voting system, the thread will be marked as "Considering"
• If the idea does not meet the criteria, it will be rejected and the thread will be moved to " Ideas and Suggestions Archive ".
• All other ideas will be moved to "Ideas and Suggestions Archive" as well (duplicates, unrealistic ideas, etc).

Please keep in mind that this does not mean that suggestions that have been forwarded will also be implemented, they must be selected as one of the top 3 bi-weekly ideas.

THE IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS ARCHIVE
To keep the forum section easy to navigate for everyone, the Elvenar Team will be archiving threads that haven't had an activity for more than a month on a regular basis. Also if an idea is just a complaint or certain to not be implemented, it will be archived as previously stated. In the latter case, the Team will try to give an explanation of why the decision to archive the thread was made. Should you have questions about why a thread was moved or just to clarify any confusion, you can of course always reach out to any of the forum moderation staff.

*NOTE* There are some ideas which, though many agree would make life easier, have been categorically ruled out by the Development Team since, if they were implemented, they would change the essence of Elvenar.

• Rotating Buildings - For starters, this ability will take away from the essence of the game. Can you imagine how easy the game will become if we can simply rotate the buildings' like puzzle pieces to fit as we wish? Additionally, design-wise, it is not possible making this a definite No.
• Storing Buildings - Players can utilize the Teleport Spell, available through the Spire, to gain the ability to store buildings. There will not be a feature outside of the spell to store buildings.
• Universal Artifacts - Unfortunately, universal artifacts have been ruled out by the Development Team because it would be too easy for players to hoard the items and save them for a desired evolving building. The effect would defeat the point of events in general because an evolving building can be maxed when obtained. This was also publicly discussed in a Facebook Q&A. Regardless, they are aware of why the players seek this and will keep investigating the problem it is trying to solve.
• Limiting trades to Fellowship only - Excluding your trades for other players would not be an option as the trading system is an important component in Elvenar.
• Teleporting Ancient Wonders - This affects too many things to be considered at this time.
• “Like” button in the lounge - This was intentionally deactivated 12-22

If we hear of more ideas that are often suggested, and we already know that they won't be included in Elvenar, we will add them to this list for your convenience.

Kind regards,
Your US Elvenar Team

Updated 06-19-2023

Hello humans and elves,

Your suggestions and ideas are always appreciated to improve our game. However, as of now, we won't be able to send forward all your ideas and will disable the creation of new polls for the reasons the German CM mentioned.

We are still able to emphasize the most discussed topics in our community and we still read and pass along your feedback this way, but we won't be forwarding more complex suggestions for the moment since the old poll system is being reviewed.