Is Elvenar Losing its Popularity?

[Tauriel Dragonwood]

I was asked by one of my neighbors if Elvenar is worth playing anymore. I said, “Absolutely” but he’s not convinced because…

His city has been moved several times, each worse than the previous place he was moved to. He was unaware that in his Settings there’s an option to uncheck "Allow Automatic Movement to Better Position." This is a good reason for joining a fellowship. Archmages are very knowledgeable and can help their members understand the many features of Elvenar.

The place he’s been moved to on the World Map has very few players that are active and he can’t trade.

I think the reason he’s seeing less and less people playing Elvenar on his World Map
is the game devs have been lax at getting rid of inactive players and should move
those who still play this game to a more active world. To be moved, make sure
“Allow Automatic Movement to Better Position” is checked.

He didn’t like it in the past when the game devs changed the battle system and took most of his culture away to balance the game but he continued playing, hoping Elvenar would get better. Now he’s frustrated with events he can’t finish because the quests demand too many encounters, goods, etc.

Building sizes changing from horizontal to vertical baffle him. Is this really necessary?

Land expansions are becoming less and less on the research tree and fighting in Very Hard provinces is not possible so he’s forced to use up all his provisions negotiating or go broke spending diamonds.

The treasure he finds for appeasing the spirits in the Spire of Eternity are great but the costs of Convincing is too high.

Elvenar is more competitive now. Because of the Ranking System, players look for an active guild to win rewards and trophies every week.
Smaller guilds trying to recruit members suffer because of this.

Players don’t communicate as much as they used to. I’m not sure why this has changed.
Maybe because many people are playing Elvenar on mobile devices, instead of computers?

I’m interested to find out if Elvenar players still enjoy this game or did it lose its magical charm.

 

[StarLoad]

That is a lot but only three questions but from my perspective, I will answer as best as I can.
YES,
YES,
It is possible, yes

Forget the neighborhood and trade in your FS, that should always be your priority.
Nobody likes change, usually, but we are after all humans and we are made to adapt and we are good at it, Look at 2020 and see how we adapted.

Since the game is a city builder then the shape-shifting makes sense and allows for change to happen naturally.

I don't know what chapter the player is in but if after chapter 6-8 there is no reason to be seeing Very Hard. I have not since chapter 4-5, and almost all mine are Very Easy. Also, it sounds like the player is not setup well for fighting, from low-level barracks or lack of AW's. Again depending on the chapter.

Spire prizes are great but again a mix of fighting and convincing should not be an issue except as already noted about the fighting setup and chapter.

Personally, the ranking is not a big deal for most players, IMO, just look at how few get to gold on the spire every week.

Lastly, there is a lot going for the mobile version but I doubt it makes for fewer communications now, before there was nearly zero from the mobile so really it is more than before IMO.

Edited to fix the run-on nature of my answers

 

[Aritra]

For those inclined to the TLDR: yes, Elvenar is worth playing (IMO)

IMO, this is a bit of a questionable place to make this inquiry... (but, where else, right?)
I've been led to believe the participants in this Forum tend to be a bit different than the general player base and can only represent general player base so much. It also contains much lament (or outright complaining, however you choose to look at it sometimes) about they way the game has [allegedly] declined, as described by many who have been around for years.

As for myself, I've been here just about a year and a half and I am still happy. I currently have my first city in chapter 11, which I played for over a year before starting my second city, which is in chapter 3 (I am a very active player, but move slowly through chapters). For my first six months in Elvenar, I played solo and had very little contact with anyone (which was fine by me). I joined the Forum and eventually joined a great fellowship (as recommended by a friend I met here). I do not regret my first six months solo (I feel I did just fine), but I cannot deny that my city would have grown faster with the perks of fellowship participation. With my second city, I joined a fellowship right away. Maybe I've been lucky, but in each city I found a great fellowship (full and active) and my neighborhoods have been decent (first city moved once, I think, and don't think second one was moved at all). Joining a fellowship (active and with variety of city ages) will solve many challenges new players face. Trading help and guidance is extremely helpful from these relationships.

As far as building sizes changing dimensional directions, it's all part of the game. It can get frustrating, but it is one of the core aspects of the game that I like. I love the organization and implementation of new plans. Game would definitely be less challenging (less appealing) without it, IMO. Expansions have always been in short supply, and this is also by design (which is most frustrating). It would be nice if these were easier to acquire, but I'm not sure how it has changed or what change would be helpful (would be nice to remove the expansion penalty, which doesn't affect me but I've heard it complained about on other threads).

As far as battles and negotiating costs, both my cities are cater-only and designed to support it. Most of the time, my Spire negotiations are minimally expensive, within an acceptable margin. Because I cater only, I clear only the second floor weekly (not worth catering the third floor), but I am satisfied with silver rewards and have no gold aspirations. I personally enjoy the "puzzle" and find winning the encounter to be satisfying. Because my city is built for catering, I have little to no trouble with negotiating on the map or in tourney (which I contribute 3K+ in my older city, younger city still limited by fewer provinces but its contribution is growing). My advice regarding difficulty with these is just to reassess goods manufacturing so the the city can better handle both type of encounters (battle/cater). Since I have no battle experience, I do not know how these have changed but most players who battle also cater (as I understand it), so city needs to find it's own balance. This can take a bit of trial and error, and that's just the way it is (experienced players with successful hybrid cities probably have advice on this balance that I cannot give).

As far as the new League stuff, it is something I am not interested in, but it's impact on the rest of the players concerns me (game currency in particular), as discussed at length in other threads. I believe there has always been a certain competitiveness regarding ranking since this was the only PvP element (Elvenar wasn't designed to be PvP). As I understand it, the League system just raised the stakes to better satisfy players wanting a stronger PvP element and I am not sure how that has affected fellowship recruitment because fellowships interested in ranking have already always competed for the the serious/promising players.

As far as player communication changing/evolving, I have no opinion. I generally keep to myself (and am most vocal in the Forum when the mood strikes). I play on both mobile app and desktop (preferring desktop, but using mobile when convenient or for specific tasks such as neighborly help). Communication on desktop is preferred because it is simply easier to type on a keyboard than pecking on mobile, but being on mobile doesn't stop me if I want to (though you would easily assume I am on desktop at the moment because I would not have written this "novel" on mobile).

These are my opinions about the points raised in the OP based on my experience. Bottom line, yes, Elvenar is worth playing. Part of the key, I think, is accepting what the game is and not becoming disgruntled from imposing expectations on it that isn't what this is. If what this game is isn't what you want, then the game is simply not your game. Be open minded and see how it goes. Inno wants to appeal to the widest audience possible, yet, the game isn't for everyone. Don't give up but don't force yourself if it isn't for you and then hate on it to others. It is what it is, and, for me, it is still fun and very worthwhile.

[I hope I was able to communicate coherently. It's the middle of the night and though I'm a night owl, I hope I didn't get too rambly. Hitting post anyway and hoping for the best, LOL]

 

[juniperknome]

1 scouting past the chapter for the tech is the only reason to fight at hard or very hard. keep the scouting inside the chapter of research . After chapter 10 the over scouting penalty is gone. Fill in all the squad size increases the benefit out weigh any penalties . Get better at fighting. the powers at large say catering is about the same as fighting now.
There will always be about 1/2 or so of the fights with no or very few losses. an option is to cater fights with high losses and fight the easier or no loss fights and i would not cater the spire at all goods use is just silly
oh and lastly send them to elven architect. the city can be reconfigured till something sensible can be worked out no penalty in lost of resized buildings

 

[Darielle]

I was asked by one of my neighbors if Elvenar is worth playing anymore. I said, “Absolutely” but he’s not convinced because…

His city has been moved several times, each worse than the previous place he was moved to. He was unaware that in his Settings there’s an option to uncheck "Allow Automatic Movement to Better Position." This is a good reason for joining a fellowship. Archmages are very knowledgeable and can help their members understand the many features of Elvenar.

The place he’s been moved to on the World Map has very few players that are active and he can’t trade.

I think the reason he’s seeing less and less people playing Elvenar on his World Map
is the game devs have been lax at getting rid of inactive players and should move
those who still play this game to a more active world. To be moved, make sure
“Allow Automatic Movement to Better Position” is checked.

He didn’t like it in the past when the game devs changed the battle system and took most of his culture away to balance the game but he continued playing, hoping Elvenar would get better. Now he’s frustrated with events he can’t finish because the quests demand too many encounters, goods, etc.

Building sizes changing from horizontal to vertical baffle him. Is this really necessary?

Land expansions are becoming less and less on the research tree and fighting in Very Hard provinces is not possible so he’s forced to use up all his provisions negotiating or go broke spending diamonds.

The treasure he finds for appeasing the spirits in the Spire of Eternity are great but the costs of Convincing is too high.

Elvenar is more competitive now. Because of the Ranking System, players look for an active guild to win rewards and trophies every week.
Smaller guilds trying to recruit members suffer because of this.

Players don’t communicate as much as they used to. I’m not sure why this has changed.
Maybe because many people are playing Elvenar on mobile devices, instead of computers?

I’m interested to find out if Elvenar players still enjoy this game or did it lose its magical charm.

If he can't finish the quests, then he's probably not very active. If he's not very active, then he will get moved to less active areas to make room for more active players in the better neighborhoods. If you're moved to a worse neighborhood, you'll probably play less because of your own unhappiness, hence, moved again to a worse neighborhood. Which of course, creates more unhappiness and less activity. (And yes, he could have prevented the moves, but I don't think he'd have been happy not being actively involved in any case.)

So bottom line to me is, if you only play Elvenar once in a while, you probably won't be happy here. You won't form the bonds needed to feel like you belong here. If you play daily and keep progressing, with like-minded fellowship members, you'll get addicted and love the game, even if you don't love everything the devs do. Heaven knows I don't love all that the devs do ... some of it drives me nuts. But nevertheless, I do love the game and wouldn't think of skipping even a day. (I'd probably have withdrawal symptoms if I tried.)

 

[Darielle]

As far as your other points, I negotiate the spire to the top nearly every week. While the negotiating costs are high, the rewards are higher. If you do what I do every week for a month, and then count up all you won against what you lost, you would find the spire very lucrative. The problem with so many players is that they try the spire, lose a lot of goods without getting anything particularly good, and then say, "Wow, I'm not doing that again!" They don't keep going for the next four or five weeks, and count that magic workshop or magic residence or the consistent diamond wins into their losses. I've been playing the spire for about a year, and until a few months ago I never fought any of the battles ... all negotiation. Since they started taking sentients I am starting to fight, but I'd say 4/5 of the time I still negotiate.

Overall in the past year, I've won 5 workshops and 8 or 9 residences. I went from having virtually no diamonds to always having diamonds available when I really need them, as I did this week when I found that I couldn't place another academy without an extra expansion. Yes, I've lost more marble, wood, silk, gems, etc, etc, etc than I can possibly ever count, but so what? I've got more where that came from. Don't you think I'm happier seeing magic workshops and residences all over my city than if I were to see 2 million instead of 1 million planks or whatever in my inventory? Yep, I sure am! The key to the spire is sticking with it and learning the strategy, which my friend Atagu$ helped me with. Sticking with it is the only way to understand the spire's value.

As far as player involvement and communication, I've never had that problem in any of my fellowships (except one, but I was only in that one for 6 days and even there at least a couple people communicated). There's always chat going, and always helpful people ready to take trades. If your friend is not in a good fellowship, then finding one is the first priority ... as long as he's willing to be a daily player. If he doesn't want to play anymore then I don't think anything will make him happy at this point. The other challenges, such as building changes, are meant to be a challenge. This is not a boring game because there is always something to have to struggle with. If he wants everything easy with instant gratification, then yes, Elvenar is not the game for him. There are plenty of those ... I don't play them anymore. This is the one that grabs my time (for good or ill, lol.)

 

[Alram]

Elvenar is more competitive now. Because of the Ranking System, players look for an active guild to win rewards and trophies every week.
Smaller guilds trying to recruit members suffer because of this.

I don't care about rank at all. I do care about free diamonds and blueprints.

 

[onebigscot]

Elvenar is more competitive now. Because of the Ranking System, players look for an active guild to win rewards and trophies every week.
Smaller guilds trying to recruit members suffer because of this.

I haven't been playing for long, but long enough to know that I will never see a blueprint. I joined a mid-range guild and I'm happy there. I've been recruited to leave a couple of times but I'm not leaving. So it feels to me like the Inno Devs don't value FS loyalty, its more important to score lot's of points because that's where the games rewards are.

I have some high scorers in my FS and friendly, helpful folks, so I get my reward from that, Inno Dev's be damned.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I haven't been playing for long, but long enough to know that I will never see a blueprint. I joined a mid-range guild and I'm happy there. I've been recruited to leave a couple of times but I'm not leaving.

In a small fellowship like yours, no, but your bigger one is getting closer, and if someone is in a full fellowship of active players, it is stupid easy for each player to get 1600 per week in the tournament. Or 20 active players getting 2000 points each. And then if you have even a few players who are more competitive and get 2500-3000+ points per week, that lets the less competitive ones only having to do a super simple 800-1200 points per week. Even a fellowship of 10 very active and tournament-focused players can do 4000 points a week each and get the 10 chests and a blueprint.

 

[Gladiola]

@Enevhar Aldarion 4k points seems like a lot. How many players on each server get 4k or more points?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

@Enevhar Aldarion 4k points seems like a lot. How many players on each server get 4k or more points?

Usually five or six people just in my fellowship get 4k+ each week. And even including the other members, we usually finish with 13 chests., or 70-75k points total. We will have to wait until the weekend to see how many on the entire server get 4k+.

And so people can visualize it, doing 5 stars in 20 provinces is 4200 points.

 

[bkbajb]

It comes down to how you play. Too many people want free items and do not like the challenges that the Dev's have given us. I have been playing for 5 years and have no intention of stopping. To be successful you have to be willing to think and adapt. I see posts about wanting free diamonds, blueprints etc. Build your city so that larger FS want you. Then you will get a BP every week. Want more BP? Why? How many do you need? If you need more then your not playing correctly. This game takes patience. Relax and have fun with it. Make mistakes, learn and go on.

 

[Darielle]

@Enevhar Aldarion 4k points seems like a lot. How many players on each server get 4k or more points?

I used to think 4000 was undoable and incredibly hard. Heck, I used to think 2K was hard, too. Now, I sometimes break 8000 and very rarely do less than four thousand (lazy weeks, lol). Last week I finished 17 on the server and I think I finished 30 provinces, if memory serves. For me, it's a combo of fighting all the early provinces and catering some of the others. Don't worry, Gladiola, you'll get there.

What I often did while I was building up to this point was just doing all the provinces I possibly could on the first two rounds and then forgetting the later rounds. That opened up a huge amount of kp on the second round, and it really helped in my research. When I got stronger, I did the third, fourth, etc rounds. The fifth round gives you a ton of KP as well. I still sometimes forgo the 6th round and just go for the kp.

 

[HonuMoana]

This game has a beautiful, but sometimes tedious complexity. It is slow-paced, but the possibilities are many and varied. I don't think most players have even plumbed the depths of what you can do with your city here.

However, all this beautiful complexity comes at a price. From time-to-time, I start a new city just to fully understand what it is like for the beginner players lately. The complexity has clearly trickled down to the beginning of the game. I think starting out is now quite challenging, much more so than in the past. You are assisted by the quests quite well, but a complete newbie won't understand the connections that make the completion of those quests most beneficial.

Finally, one of the absolute worst things was done for the noobs recently. Briefly, you could not perform Neighborly Help until you completed a tech in the first chapter, and (as if that wasn't bad enough) you also couldn't join a fellowship until completing a tech to start Chapter II. I could not believe this was instituted. It completely flies in the face of what I think this game is all about, helping others. No, instead you had to do all the other stuff, for yourself only, and then gradually be exposed to other possibilities after getting into this individual only groove. I am so glad the devs saw the error of their ways and dropped all that BS. It was ugly.

I digress, but I do think this factor is involved here. I am betting hard that we saw a whole host of noobs drop the game in a hurry because of this matter, and thus the rescinding on that nonsense. Let's hope we never see something like that again. I also think we are experiencing the long-term implications of this obvious error. Lots of folks who could have started the game happily and still be playing us are now elsewhere.

 

[DeletedUser27062]

Im not in love with the game like I used to be. I'm bored and it feels like each chapter is just the same old same old. I find it a bit ironic that this city builder game offers so little in the way of actual city building. You quickly learn that attachment to aesthetic costs you dearly so instead we jam every square inch full of rows of identical buildings and lock ourselves into wash/rinse/repeat days of manufacturing goods so we can pay for tech which allows us to manufacture more stuff. We don't even get to choose skins for our buildings or themes for our cities! At the very least Inno needs to make a ton more culture buildings players can build to add to the aesthetic pleasure of their city. But as someone pointed out you gotta either love it or leave it, no point complaining that elvenar isn't the game I wish it was.

I'm throwing myself into learning battle strategy hoping it will drive out the creeping boredom. At the very least it will give me something to think about whilst playing.

 

[Talaedraiia]

@Enevhar Aldarion 4k points seems like a lot. How many players on each server get 4k or more points?

I’m in chapter 10 and I get over 5K a week. Last week was my worst one in a long time with 4692, but I have a really good FS that will help me replenish any supplies that get low

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Finally, one of the absolute worst things was done for the noobs recently. Briefly, you could not perform Neighborly Help until you completed a tech in the first chapter, and (as if that wasn't bad enough) you also couldn't join a fellowship until completing a tech to start Chapter II. I could not believe this was instituted. It completely flies in the face of what I think this game is all about, helping others. No, instead you had to do all the other stuff, for yourself only, and then gradually be exposed to other possibilities after getting into this individual only groove. I am so glad the devs saw the error of their ways and dropped all that BS. It was ugly.

This should have been how the game was done from the start. The first chapter should be all about learning how to do your city and learning the mechanics of the game, and then learning the tournament and fellowship stuff can come in chapter 2, and then the Spire in chapter 3. I have also felt that event access should wait until chapter 2, especially since quests involving the MA cannot be done right away in chapter 1, and then new players do not feel overwhelmed and decide to quit, rather than keep going. Also, for the first six months or so, fellowships and tournaments did not even exist in the game. And the stuff you are talking about has not been dropped, but is still in the testing phase, so not every new city since that was added has even had to complete those steps.

 

[DeletedUser27062]

This should have been how the game was done from the start. The first chapter should be all about learning how to do your city and learning the mechanics of the game, and then learning the tournament and fellowship stuff can come in chapter 2, and then the Spire in chapter 3. I have also felt that event access should wait until chapter 2, especially since quests involving the MA cannot be done right away in chapter 1, and then new players do not feel overwhelmed and decide to quit, rather than keep going. Also, for the first six months or so, fellowships and tournaments did not even exist in the game. And the stuff you are talking about has not been dropped, but is still in the testing phase, so not every new city since that was added has even had to complete those steps.

I think that's an awful idea! The first couple of chapters are so rough, players need the support of their community to get on their feet. Given that so much of this games relies on the community aspect being able to join and have access to neighbourly help is crucial.

 

[Alram]

I haven't been playing for long, but long enough to know that I will never see a blueprint. I joined a mid-range guild and I'm happy there. I've been recruited to leave a couple of times but I'm not leaving. So it feels to me like the Inno Devs don't value FS loyalty, its more important to score lot's of points because that's where the games rewards are.

I have some high scorers in my FS and friendly, helpful folks, so I get my reward from that, Inno Dev's be damned.

I'm not sure what being happy in your FS has to do with loyalty.
Are you staying because you are happy or are you unhappy, but staying anyway?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I think that's an awful idea! The first couple of chapters are so rough, players need the support of their community to get on their feet. Given that so much of this games relies on the community aspect being able to join and have access to neighbourly help is crucial.

When I started playing about five years ago, I did not even feel the need or desire to join a fellowship until I was in chapter 4 or 5. And while the number is small, there are still quite a few active players who refuse to ever join a fellowship, or who make their own fellowship of one, and are perfectly happy with the game and how they play it. Right @shimmerfly ?

Also, unless someone goes nuts with completing provinces while still in chapter 1, a player would easily be in chapter 2 before they have more than a couple of active neighbors to visit. So having the neighbor visiting research at the end of chapter 1 is not a problem. As for the fellowship research, and not joining a fellowship until chapter 2, that is fair also, as I am sure that Inno has seen that a lot of fellowships will not accept a new player until they have proven they will stick with the game, instead of quitting before they even finish the first chapter.