The Gathering of the Phoenix Cults

[Deleted User - 4343124]

I think what is happening is that Inno pays the bills by selling diamonds. Consequently, they can't give too many away for free so cutting back on wishing wells. They also need to have something special for people to spend diamonds on so they are trying to establish a new (lower) normal for event buildings so that diamond buildings can really stand out. It's hard to sell magic houses if event buildings give as much or more than the diamond buildings so it looks like they are really cutting back on how much pop the event buildings give. Maybe what they are finding is that the big players mostly already have all the diamond buildings they are going to buy and the money is in selling diamonds to smaller cities that want to become bigger more powerful cities faster. Consequently, it doesn't pay to to be offering too many really awesome event buildings. So what we're seeing is a move to focus more on the little cities more so than the bigger ones.

Going back to the issue of diamonds I suspect that Inno had really hoped that the Spire would result in more diamond purchases. By making the fights hard enough that many people would have to cater I think they imagined people buying diamonds every now and again to keep going and that there would be peer pressure within each fs to encourage folks to push further. They recently removed a bunch of diamonds from the individual chests and moved them to the group chests both to make it harder for some people to get through without buying diamonds and to increase peer pressure from those who reach the top to unlock the top group chest. Hopefully it is working because ultimately if they don't sell diamonds there's no game. Consider buying some diamonds even if you don't need them to just support your game developers. Is $5, $10, $500 really so much to put into something you really enjoy doing? The majority of diamonds I've purchased have been more as a donation than for anything I particularly wanted to buy. I feel guilty being a complete freeloader.

I see a lot of newer players buy up a bunch of magic workshops and residences, realize they either have to A) continuously spend in order to upgrade those residences and workshops or B) be in a 10 chest FS. They tend to quit the game not long after. There are only so many new players Inno can pull in and if they can't retain them then that's an even larger issue.

As for everything else, I was buying diamonds to support Inno because at the time, I saw they were caring for their whole player base and not just a minority. That has now changed and I have subsequently stopped spending. Before, the increasing amounts of diamonds it cost to get expansions seemed fair- especially with the ability to work towards getting wishing wells (though I know more advanced cities are able to clear the event quests quickly, that's not the average player experience as far as I understand). Patience and a few diamond purchases could get you there. Now it feels like a greedy cash grab.

Also, it's not like they cut back on wishing wells, there are no wishing wells available to earn. Sure, they could bring them back, but for now, it's not in the game. Putting pressure on players like this makes them less incentivized to pay or even play. Why pay for a game that is actively making the experience worse? Yes, Inno is a business and needs to make money, but the service they provide is to entertain. If someone served you a bad meal and expected you to pay for it, would you?

 

[DeletedUser23452]

I think what is happening is that Inno pays the bills by selling diamonds. Consequently, they can't give too many away for free so cutting back on wishing wells. They also need to have something special for people to spend diamonds on so they are trying to establish a new (lower) normal for event buildings so that diamond buildings can really stand out. It's hard to sell magic houses if event buildings give as much or more than the diamond buildings so it looks like they are really cutting back on how much pop the event buildings give. Maybe what they are finding is that the big players mostly already have all the diamond buildings they are going to buy and the money is in selling diamonds to smaller cities that want to become bigger more powerful cities faster. Consequently, it doesn't pay to to be offering too many really awesome event buildings. So what we're seeing is a move to focus more on the little cities more so than the bigger ones.

Going back to the issue of diamonds I suspect that Inno had really hoped that the Spire would result in more diamond purchases. By making the fights hard enough that many people would have to cater I think they imagined people buying diamonds every now and again to keep going and that there would be peer pressure within each fs to encourage folks to push further. They recently removed a bunch of diamonds from the individual chests and moved them to the group chests both to make it harder for some people to get through without buying diamonds and to increase peer pressure from those who reach the top to unlock the top group chest. Hopefully it is working because ultimately if they don't sell diamonds there's no game. Consider buying some diamonds even if you don't need them to just support your game developers. Is $5, $10, $500 really so much to put into something you really enjoy doing? The majority of diamonds I've purchased have been more as a donation than for anything I particularly wanted to buy. I feel guilty being a complete freeloader.

I have spent money on the game. I quit spending money on games when they are no longer fun.
I think people spend the most money when they enjoy playing the game.
If your entire game design is trying to get people to spend money, with no regard for player enjoyment, or the game design is peer pressure to force people to buy diamonds. I think that game design will eventually fail.
I am not going to spend money to buy diamonds to support a game developer when the game is no longer fun ie....the prizes suck or I don't like the game.

White Knighting for INNO and saying buy diamonds or there won't be a game isn't doing anyone any favors.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I think people spend the most money when they enjoy playing the game.

They spend money when they are enjoying something or when they are OCD completionists and become obsessed with having everything, AKA whales. A lot of games survive for a long time after the fun runs out because of those whales. But if a game is fun, but does not do things that retain the big spenders, then it will still fail, because the players in it for the fun are either small spenders or are the ones who make lame excuses for never spending money on a "free-to-play" game.

 

[Deleted User - 1178646]

I think what is happening is that Inno pays the bills by selling diamonds. Consequently, they can't give too many away for free so cutting back on wishing wells. They also need to have something special for people to spend diamonds on so they are trying to establish a new (lower) normal for event buildings so that diamond buildings can really stand out. It's hard to sell magic houses if event buildings give as much or more than the diamond buildings so it looks like they are really cutting back on how much pop the event buildings give. Maybe what they are finding is that the big players mostly already have all the diamond buildings they are going to buy and the money is in selling diamonds to smaller cities that want to become bigger more powerful cities faster. Consequently, it doesn't pay to to be offering too many really awesome event buildings. So what we're seeing is a move to focus more on the little cities more so than the bigger ones.

Going back to the issue of diamonds I suspect that Inno had really hoped that the Spire would result in more diamond purchases. By making the fights hard enough that many people would have to cater I think they imagined people buying diamonds every now and again to keep going and that there would be peer pressure within each fs to encourage folks to push further. They recently removed a bunch of diamonds from the individual chests and moved them to the group chests both to make it harder for some people to get through without buying diamonds and to increase peer pressure from those who reach the top to unlock the top group chest. Hopefully it is working because ultimately if they don't sell diamonds there's no game. Consider buying some diamonds even if you don't need them to just support your game developers. Is $5, $10, $500 really so much to put into something you really enjoy doing? The majority of diamonds I've purchased have been more as a donation than for anything I particularly wanted to buy. I feel guilty being a complete freeloader.

This might be so true,
I was so amazed when we had a "rebalance" of "old event buildings" because the were too powerful.
I somewhat agreed, since the start of events each event buildings got more and more powerfull, which on the long term would be unsustainable as you pointed out.
The crazy thing was, the first thing we got afther that "rebalance" was setsm and those were insanly powerfull, forget diamond mana/seed buildings as you set would do 3-10x that building for free.
So that one thing I expected them to understand due to the "rebalance" immediatly went down the drain.

 

[LisaMV]

I think what is happening is that Inno pays the bills by selling diamonds.
... Consider buying some diamonds even if you don't need them to just support your game developers. Is $5, $10, $500 really so much to put into something you really enjoy doing? The majority of diamonds I've purchased have been more as a donation than for anything I particularly wanted to buy. I feel guilty being a complete freeloader.

I came to this conclusion last month - goodness, does paying $0.33 or $0.67 a day for all this enjoyment seem like too much? For me right now, it is a lot of money, but I have decided to pay a bit every month in thanks for all their hard work, and for offering it to us for free.

 

[Darielle]

At day 26 on Beta, there hasn't been a single building I want. Not the grand prize, not one of the dailies is interesting to me. I'm glad newer players are getting to pad out the old phoenix's, but Inno has lost me. Normally I'd be done by now. Instead I've stopped pursuing the quest line with about 900 essences. And even told my fellowship I'm taking a break. I've only logged in a few times this week, and couldn't even be bothered to reset all of my productions.

Aww I'd be really sorry to see you go. You have no idea how much you've helped me.

 

[Ashrem]

I think what is happening is that Inno pays the bills by selling diamonds. Consequently, they can't give too many away for free so cutting back on wishing wells

Oh yes, poor Inno, with revenue of only 208 million dollars last year.

https://www.pocketgamer.biz/news/72548/innogames-fy19-sales-208-million-dollars/

 

[shimmerfly]

....not one of the dailies is interesting to me. I'm glad newer players are getting to pad out the old phoenix's, but Inno has lost me. Normally I'd be done by now. Instead I've stopped pursuing the quest line with about 900 essences. And even told my fellowship I'm taking a break. I've only logged in a few times this week, and couldn't even be bothered to reset all of my productions.

I'm also finding less and less to keep me interested and not playing nearly as much. Not collecting my productions as much either. I would hate to see you leave the game entirely so please don't make it a long break if you decide to do this. You know how much we all still miss Soggy.

 

[AtaguS]

I'm all for chipping in for a game that is engaging and fun, and certainly have. It makes sense to pay for something that I enjoy so much and I have always appreciated that Inno sets it up as a "Free" game and players can pay, or not pay, what suits their budget and style. But recently I have watched too what feels like the slow decay of an exciting game into a greedy cash grab, as @Tahata says so well. This concept that we all must be happy with what we get and chip in to keep the developers paid enough to keep spoon-feeding us crap designed to get more cash out of us...is a slippery slope in my opinion. Consumer satisfaction matters and why lower our standards?

I want to say that if Inno's idea of giving us a limited chance to convert coldfire artifacts into 2019 phoenixes was to offer that twice during the first 4 days of the event (where it would have been (nearly) impossible to convert both times without purchasing extra essence) and not again after....I will not buy another diamond. I'm all for the concept of maintaining "balance" but when the applied meaning of that word starts to feel like nothing more than spin for the "cash grab", I'll be done paying.

[Editted to add the "nearly" in front of impossible...for players with the time, resource and umph to complete every quest in 72 hours]

 

[Gandelf]

I love that we can see what the quests are going to be, and set up for them in advance. (Thanks, Beta!) However, I'm less impressed that once we're finished with them (as I am in one of my cities), that's it. Can't get any more little shiny things, except with the daily quest and a lot of luck. I think it would be nice if the quests were repeating.

 

[Crow Last Elf]

I love that we can see what the quests are going to be, and set up for them in advance. (Thanks, Beta!) However, I'm less impressed that once we're finished with them (as I am in one of my cities), that's it. Can't get any more little shiny things, except with the daily quest and a lot of luck. I think it would be nice if the quests were repeating.

I put a lot more effort in when there was endless quests as well, trying to line up all the events so that they would complete when needed. This time I'm not doing that unless I fall behind.

 

[GlamDoll]

FEEDBACK to @InnoGames ....thank you for making this event beyond lackluster! It frees up my time to look into the global catastrophe at hand.
Indebted to you...
Oh, and thank you for NOT proving me wrong...even IF I wanted to be....in regards to all my posts regarding the past 3-4 events!
But, to be fair, it's better than no event AT ALL.
Be healthy & safe.
I will not respond to anyone other than who I addressed.
Cheers all, be healthy & safe!!!!
EZ/Glamdoll

 

[Darielle]

I'm all for chipping in for a game that is engaging and fun, and certainly have. It makes sense to pay for something that I enjoy so much and I have always appreciated that Inno sets it up as a "Free" game and players can pay, or not pay, what suits their budget and style. But recently I have watched too what feels like the slow decay of an exciting game into a greedy cash grab, as @Tahata says so well. This concept that we all must be happy with what we get and chip in to keep the developers paid enough to keep spoon-feeding us crap designed to get more cash out of us...is a slippery slope in my opinion. Consumer satisfaction matters and why lower our standards?

I want to say that if Inno's idea of giving us a limited chance to convert coldfire artifacts into 2019 phoenixes was to offer that twice during the first 4 days of the event (where it would have been (nearly) impossible to convert both times without purchasing extra essence) and not again after....I will not buy another diamond. I'm all for the concept of maintaining "balance" but when the applied meaning of that word starts to feel like nothing more than spin for the "cash grab", I'll be done paying.

[Editted to add the "nearly" in front of impossible...for players with the time, resource and umph to complete every quest in 72 hours]

I guess I was lucky this morning. About 1 am I came on to collect some granite and low and behold, there was a 2019 conversion for crafting in the MA. I snagged it. Then I got up at around 6am and came on again and that one was ready to collect. Much to my shock, the new recipes had a second 2019 ready to craft. So I managed to use up the last 2 coldfire artifacts I had and got that one too. Since then I won another coldfire artifact and will surely have at least one more before the end. So hopefully I'll be able to convert another two into one regular phoenix artifact, which will give me five and possibly six 2019 artifacts out of this event. Maybe they only have them in the wee hours, I don't know, but that's when I seem to see them. Best of luck to you.

 

[KarlD]

Oh yes, poor Inno, with revenue of only 208 million dollars last year.

https://www.pocketgamer.biz/news/72548/innogames-fy19-sales-208-million-dollars/

I had absolutely no idea how much they bring in, and I have no idea how much profit they make off that revenue and I really don't care enough to try to find out. All I know is that I spend a lot of time playing and enjoying this game. I'm probably cheaper than the next guy, but still it's not unreasonable to want to support what I enjoy. The whales support it to the tune of thousands of dollars while I support them to a far lesser extent. But I play the game and I'm not inundated with ads. They don't stop the game every 5 minutes to have my watch some ad. They have support stuff that I've found to be generally helpful and responsive. So I don't feel bad about buying some diamonds every once in a while just to say thanks.

White Knighting for INNO and saying buy diamonds or there won't be a game isn't doing anyone any favors.

LOL. I like that term "White Knighting". That's a new one on me. I'll hafta add it to my repertoire. But you're right. My White Knighting isn't likely to change anything and the intent of my post wasn't to change anything. I don't even know why I included that part about supporting the designer because it distracts from the original point of my post which was just to give my interpretation of what was happening. In a way it implied that I endorsed the idea of ignoring the big players in favor of the little ones, but being an advanced player I don't wish to be ignored.

I really have no clue what the best solution is. I just hope Inno can figure out a way to bring back a certain balance that I think has been lost. For instance there was a time not long ago where a mid size city might be able to be #1 in the tournament. Now you can forget about it cuz the bigger cities are so powerful that they can do 6 rounds of 60 provinces without breaking a sweat. Well maybe not without a sweat, but no smaller city can compete with that by not having enough provinces.

 

[DeletedUser25586]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I'm hardly getting any of the buildings. And I'm going for the highest valued chests. I feel this has been a waste of time.

 

[Chrizty]

In 2019 I picked the fire phoenix and evolved it to 10 with 3 artifacts left over,,, When I started playing the spire I put out the storm phoenix evolved to level 3.
With this event its now evolved to 7, and I still have one old artifact to go in the quest line, and 2 new artifacts in inventory waiting to be turned into the old,
so hoping to get a few more new to turn into old,,,if not in the event maybe the nest FA? with any luck Ill have 2 phoenix's evolved to 10! crossing fingers!
Happy Girl here!
With that being happily said, It would be nice if Inno would offer something really good that's worth a lot of fragments in the crafter so I can clean out my inventory

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I'm hardly getting any of the buildings. And I'm going for the highest valued chests. I feel this has been a waste of time.

Unfortunately, that is just the randomness of these events. In the last event, I got very few daily prizes, even from the bigger chests. In this event, I have gotten many more daily prizes from the same chests with the same small chances as last event. And it has been this way with all their events using this chest system.

 

[Crow Last Elf]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I'm hardly getting any of the buildings. And I'm going for the highest valued chests. I feel this has been a waste of time.

Some people go for the purple chest because you have 30% chance (the highest) to win in a single chest. But that chest is not the best to win the daily prizes when picked repeatedly.

Here are 2 guides which describe which chest are best for winning the daily prizes...
Elvengems and MinMax gamer's chest strategy calculator

Choosing the Red,Sea Green, Bronze and Gold chests when you can should help you win the daily prizes more often.

Edited to add: I've participated in 2 events with chests and twice it took me 1,400 of sky essence (event currency) to get one daily prize. It evens out eventually... Good Luck!

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

In 2019 I picked the fire phoenix and evolved it to 10 with 3 artifacts left over,,, When I started playing the spire I put out the storm phoenix evolved to level 3.
With this event its now evolved to 7, and I still have one old artifact to go in the quest line, and 2 new artifacts in inventory waiting to be turned into the old,
so hoping to get a few more new to turn into old,,,if not in the event maybe the nest FA? with any luck Ill have 2 phoenix's evolved to 10! crossing fingers!

I was not paying close attention to things last year, or not expecting Inno to keep the artifacts to scarce, so when I finished the 2019 event with 10 artifacts, I put out both the Fire and Storm and made them both level 6. Then I got the two artifacts from the July 2019 FA that came after that, and put both of those into my Fire, giving me a level 8 Fire and level 6 Storm. Fast forward to this year's event and the 3 2019 artifacts maxed my Fire at 10 and made my Storm 7. Two conversion recipes later and my Storm is now 9 and I am waiting on one more recipe to make the artifact to max my Storm. My next decision will be if I even bother with either the Aureate or the Coldfire at all. How many extra artifacts I get from this event and the next FA will determine that. And how long we have the conversion recipe available will make a difference too.

 

[AtaguS]

Maybe they only have them in the wee hours, I don't know, but that's when I seem to see them. Best of luck to you.

I check last thing at night and first thing in the morning to avoid missing one in the night. No luck so far but I am hopeful. I have 4 CF artifcats lined up and a dozen catalysts rearing to go...if a chance to convert shows up I'll be ready!