What is wrong with Elvenar, why do people quit in chapter 1?

[DeletedUser7370]

The shortest version of the answer to that question is in the residence upgrade chart.

1. 30 seconds get a L1 residence.
2. 1 minute upgrade your L1 to L2.
3. 1.5 hours to make your L2 into a L3. What the ?!

I can't even count the number of cities I have seen that have a few L2 residences and then 1 residence upgrading to L3 permanently, because the player quit. Make a smooth curve and you will lose fewer new players.

 

[SoulsSilhouette]

I think they try it and they don't like it or its an additional city that they then don't feel like maintaining for some reason.

If you could 'nuke' the city when you decide you either don't want to play the game or don't want maintain an additional city, that might work to keep the map more active.
Even if it meant that the system was sent a message to close the city down, so that it could be replaced by another.. it would be okay.

 

[DeletedUser7370]

I think they try it and they don't like it

And I am trying to guess at what those people did not like. Read my original post again. And if you happen to also think that is what they did not like then comment in that direction.

 

[Risen Malchiah]

I've played other games where the builds take a few seconds or minutes and it holds my interest. The moment I see it creep longer, I get bored. I'm not entirely sure how I managed to stick with Elvenar, especially since when I started, the tournaments and other factors that keep people interested weren't even on my radar yet. I wish I could recall what kept me playing initially, but I don't remember.

And now, if a build takes 6 hrs, I'm like "Oh, is that all? Awesome!"

 

[DeletedUser2768]

Another thought: They left the game while the residence was upgrading to L3, but forgot to bookmark the game to get back to it. I've done that a few times with a game. I've started the tutorial, or even completed it, left the game because real life got in the way, but then can't remember the name of the game, and didn't bookmark it before leaving.

 

[DeletedUser7370]

forgot to bookmark the game to get back to it

That might account for 1% of all the inactive cities at that point, but the other 99% are clearly saying there is a serious design flaw in the game.

 

[DeletedUser1996]

If you could 'nuke' the city when you decide you either don't want to play the game or don't want maintain an additional city, that might work to keep the map more active.

A nuke Button is a good idea for newbies folks that dont like to play or not going to play anymore

 

[Ashrem]

99% are clearly saying there is a serious design flaw in the game.

Your crystal ball is less murky than mine.

We know if an account has no diamond purchases or level 4 buildings on it, it goes away after a month. That implies to my crystal ball that a lot of those barely-started cities belong to players who have another city somewhere. One where they bought or are still buying diamonds.

 

[shimmerfly]

The shortest version of the answer to that question is in the residence upgrade chart.

1. 30 seconds get a L1 residence.
2. 1 minute upgrade your L1 to L2.
3. 1.5 hours to make your L2 into a L3. What the ?!

I can't even count the number of cities I have seen that have a few L2 residences and then 1 residence upgrading to L3 permanently, because the player quit. Make a smooth curve and you will lose fewer new players.

When I started the game ( not so long ago) it was painfully slow for me. I get bored easily but building the city maintained my interest on the creative side. It is still slow but I understand it better now.

 

[SoulsSilhouette]

"We" don't know anything of the sort. I have people in my hood for well over a month that hasn't progressed beyond chapter 1

 

[Ashrem]

"We" don't know anything of the sort. I have people in my hood for well over a month that hasn't progressed beyond chapter 1

You might not know it, but those of us who have been following the forums do. Any city that isn't logged in for a month is removed unless there are diamonds on the account* or it has progressed to level 4 buildings or to chapter 4 in the game. The people who are surrounding you are either alternate cities of other players on other worlds, and/or they have diamonds on the account, and/or they are in chapter 4 or later and/or they have some of their buildings at level 4

* Account, not city. So even though I haven't touched the cities I made to check something on other servers, there are still diamonds on my main account so those cities are protected.

 

[shimmerfly]

"We" don't know anything of the sort. I have people in my hood for well over a month that hasn't progressed beyond chapter 1

I had the same problem in Sinya A. All of a sudden in a few days time 11-12 new cites popped up. They sat there with nothing but 4-5 buildings...mostly identical set-up. I reported them to support and after a month or so they disappeared.
But here we are off the original subject again which was ".....Why do people quit in chapter One".

 

[DeletedUser7370]

You might not know it, but those of us who have been following the forums do. Any city that isn't logged in for a month is removed unless there are diamonds on the account* or it has progressed to level 4 buildings or to chapter 4 in the game. The people who are surrounding you are either alternate cities of other players on other worlds, and/or they have diamonds on the account, and/or they are in chapter 4 or later and/or they have some of their buildings at level 4

* Account, not city. So even though I haven't touched the cities I made to check something on other servers, there are still diamonds on my main account so those cities are protected.

And that is design flaw as well. No crystal ball involved.

 

[Ashrem]

And that is design flaw as well. No crystal ball involved.

Agreed. The criteria as cleary inadequate to the task, and the process used once criteria are met seem hardly any better. The world probably needs a shakeup. Instead of making new worlds, they should be looking for ways to concentrate activity.

 

[SoggyShorts]

We know if an account has no diamond purchases or level 4 buildings on it, it goes away after a month.

As for why so many 5 minute cities exist, does inno still promote Elvenar through its other games as well as any partners by offering "diamonds" in that other game for creating an account on Elvenar? I believe they did that at least once over a year ago, and we had a huge rush of abandoned new cities from players that never had any intention of playing and just wanted the free premium currency for their other game.

 

[Ashrem]

Right, forgot that. It might actually be a couple of months or more. nevertheless, many will never go away.

 

[DeletedUser2870]

I think its very simple: they have some very weird advertising going on: several adds on dating sites and the like which give a whole different impression. So people following those links will just quit as soon as they see its not what suggested.

Also, the game starts with a pretty constant play, then ups pops the quest to upgrade the MH, which takes 10 minutes or so. So after 15 minutes of active play one suddenly has to wait 10 minutes. Big turn-off for many people

Then there is the problem one can't pick the world when you first start. So if I have a friend who wants to play on the same world I'm on, he gets a city on a random world, and can only start on the world of his choice when he has finished the tutorial. But after that the first city will be abandoned.
(btw, I guess that goes as well for people creating dozens of push accounts)

 

[DeletedUser7370]

Also, the game starts with a pretty constant play, then ups pops the quest to upgrade the MH, which takes 10 minutes or so. So after 15 minutes of active play one suddenly has to wait 10 minutes. Big turn-off for many people

And that human behavior was the issue I was suggesting as the cause of many people quitting in my original post. I have seen a lot of cities with an L1 main hall, an L1 workshop, an L2 residence, and a residence stuck upgrading to L3. The numbers of such cities I have seen increased when player movement started to work a little because they now get moved into my neighborhood for a month before being moved even farther out.

 

[DeletedUser7421]

I see a number of people that would maybe like to stay involved with the game, but it is truly difficult to find a good active fellowship for brand new players - and worse yet, you get 'start up' fellowships that go around and invite people and then basically abandon those new players into their fellowship morgues filled with mostly abandoned cities and little to no activity.

Also, I've just talked to a couple of people in the last few days that said they stopped playing because they got stuck early on.

And, the #1 complaint I hear from brand new to the game players is their frustration over not having enough land, and then if they stick with it a bit longer they get frustrated at not having enough population and culture and stress about having no land to upgrade the buildings to a larger size. Yes I realize this is all to 'encourage' people to buy diamonds - but even if people do buy diamonds to start with, they get sick of having to buy more and more and more and seeing the cost of expansions and builders going up so high.

I invited a friend that has played travian games with me for several years - he loved it at the start, but he ended up quitting because he said, and I quote: 'This game is a ***damned money pit' - that coming from a fellow who has faithfully spent money on gold memberships in countless travian games for years - he dumped a good bit of $$ onto this game, but quit over the cost increasing.

 

[Ashrem]

There are basically three ways a game company can get money from players.
1) Charge for everything up front (looks expensive, but is cheap if you stick it out long enough and just keeps getting cheaper (console dics))
2) Charge a monthly subscription (relatively cheap up front, but over time adds up to a lot if you keep playing
3) Micro-transactions (free up front, but the longer you play the more likely you are to give them more money than with either of the others)

Elvenar is a micro-transaction game. They are always going to be looking for ways to get money out of players. We have fixed options 1) play and pay, for the best experience, 2) play and don't pay, for a medium (and sometimes frustrating) experience, 3) Don't play.