Neighborly Help

[DeletedUser21817]

Any chance the PC version can have a Neighborly Help interface like the Mobile version? When when you click on a neighbor in the World Map, it pulls up that small interface so you can choose to Help them easier? It's a PITA to have to go into their city each time and find "the best" building to Help with, which is what the PC version forces you to do.

Thanks!

 

[Evening Star Selene]

If I recall correctly, this is a fantastic idea that got sent to the developers already!

 

[samidodamage]

@Evening Star Selene
That is absolutely correct! It happened in April. The suggestion included a more fleshed out idea of how to make it work on browser that was slightly different than the mobile version. You can view the forwarded suggestion here:
Neighborhood Visits Browser

 

[DeletedUser21817]

Yeah, but no results or word as of July. Lots of discussion about "how" it can be done.

For now I'm using an emulator to use the mobile version on my PC when I do Neighborly Help. I shouldn't have to switch back and forth.

 

[samidodamage]

@Laeren
This is a primarily player driven forum with volunteer moderators. Just this year (March 2020) they worked really hard to develop a path for this forum to get ideas to the developers. For the devs to even look at anything, they have some very specific criteria as to what the original post must contain. What happens is someone posts an idea/suggestion, then players comment, the original poster edits the original post until it is polished to contain all the elements they want to address in the format the devs want. Then, the mods open a poll for the required time frame and everyone votes. The original post is then sent to the devs as the finalized suggestion. All of this is detailed in the Ideas and Suggestion Forum Guide at the top of this forum's main page here.
This is a one-way path. Though a couple times the mods have passed on a response from the devs (usually a 'not what you wanted, but an answer' kind of response) there is no guarantee we will ever hear anything back.
So, it's not the perfect system we would like, but it is a path. Prior to getting this, the only path to the devs was through the Beta forums. Most of us are just grateful there's a path at all here.

 

[Aritra]

I agree! I nearly always use desktop, but will switch to mobile just for NH and then return to desktop. I hope the appropriate message succeeds in reaching the devs and they can work it out. Good idea!

 

[Henroo]

^I do the exact same thing. I prefer PC to mobile for almost everything else, but when it comes time to go around the neighborhood giving help visits to all the dead players to raise gold, I switch to mobile.

 

[Aritra]

^I do the exact same thing. I prefer PC to mobile for almost everything else, but when it comes time to go around the neighborhood giving help visits to all the dead players to raise gold, I switch to mobile.

haha ...visits to all the dead players. I don't know if it is slang or if I inferred it correctly as inactive players, but it made me laugh. How do you know they're dead?

 

[Henroo]

@Aritra It is impossible to be certain 100% if a neighbor city is dead. But there are a few things you can look for which will tell you in most cases if a player is active. The first 2 are fairly obvious: 1. have you received help visits from that neighbor? and 2: Have you seen that player post trades? Obviously, if a player is giving you help visits or is posting trades then they are an active player. The 3rd criteria is not as certain. Players who are in a fellowship have a Fellowship banner beside them in the world map. In my experience very few players choose to play the game solo. It is much harder without a fellowship! Most times if you see a player without a FS banner beside them, they are inactive. Maybe they were in a FS when active, but when they stopped playing the FS booted them for inactivity. Mind you, the reverse is NOT necessarily true. Just cause a player has a fellowship banner beside their name, it does not mean they are active. Sometimes a FS will keep an inactive player on the roll. They might do it to keep their overall FS score up or they might just keep the player around to give everybody an extra help target every day.

 

[Aritra]

@Aritra It is impossible to be certain 100% if a neighbor city is dead. But there are a few things you can look for which will tell you in most cases if a player is active.

I see what you mean. I'm still playing solo but anyone in my neighborhood keeping track of trader and NH will see I'm definitely active.
It's amusing to me sometimes, there's another solo player (non FS) in my neighborhood that I see all the time in the trader (and about three others, but the one I'm thinking of occurs most often). We've never talked but we buy each others stuff often. (And apologies if "he" offends anyone, I don't actually know if it is a he or a she and doesn't matter to me which.) As far as NH is concerned, I can't really keep up (haven't tried, tbh) with who helps me, but I hit everybody once a day (learned early on it was a great revenue source), hence my current pause on the event (can't give NH as quest wants for another several hours). As my neighborhood increases, my appreciation for the mobile interface grows.
Btw, one way I might guess level of activity is recognizing event-sourced buildings (especially multiples, though personally I keep one and disenchant the rest if I won multiples). Sometimes it can be misleading because many events (and event prizes) recur annually (or more often) so just because they won something doesn't mean they got it recently, could have been a year or two ago (I'm too new to know what pieces didn't exist two years ago, for example).

 

[Henroo]

@Aritra One easy way to keep track of who is helping you back is to just look at what you receive when you help them. If you receive gold AND supplies then it means that player has given you a help visit in the last 23 hours. If all you get is gold then the player has not given you a visit recently.

 

[Aritra]

@Aritra One easy way to keep track of who is helping you back is to just look at what you receive when you help them. If you receive gold AND supplies then it means that player has given you a help visit in the last 23 hours. If all you get is gold then the player has not given you a visit recently.

I get supplies sometimes, but mostly not (rough guess, 10%). Quiet neighborhood? haha At least I still get gold!