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

[DeletedUser12428]

I am a new player,and perhaps I should have checked out the forums before creating an account but I did it the other way around... and now I see a number of threads about how unhappy the player base is, I'm wondering if I should even start (and if the answer is no, then you'll find yet another abandoned early city... and if I'm understanding correctly, because there are diamonds on the account it'll never go away.) I'm a Forge of Empires player and decided to try this for something different visually, but now I'm not sure if I should invest the time.

 

[SoggyShorts]

@SelennaHawk
There are plenty of good Fellowships that will take a new player, and once you are in a FS you can basically ignore players(or lack of players) on the world map and it won't really effect your game.

 

[Ashrem]

I am a new player,and perhaps I should have checked out the forums before creating an account but I did it the other way around... and now I see a number of threads about how unhappy the player base is, I'm wondering if I should even start (and if the answer is no, then you'll find yet another abandoned early city... and if I'm understanding correctly, because there are diamonds on the account it'll never go away.) I'm a Forge of Empires player and decided to try this for something different visually, but now I'm not sure if I should invest the time.

Nobody knows how many people have quit, and when and why. Try it for a few days. You're more likely to enjoy it if you join a fellowship.

 

[DeletedUser7370]

I'm a Forge of Empires player and decided to try this for something different visually

The artwork is definitely wonderful in this game. As Ashrem said no one knows why people have quit. We can only look at a few things and speculate. I started this topic as a speculation about a pattern I started to notice. Mostly I wanted to see if other people thought the correlation I was spotting could be causative. It is a fun mind game while waiting for a building to finish.

 

[SoggyShorts]

now I see a number of threads about how unhappy the player base is

It should be pointed out that these forums act as a complaints box.
As an example a few months ago we had a rebalancing of our Ancient Wonders, and out of 16 wonders, 12 got a big boost, 2 kinda stayed the same, 1 got a little nerf, and 1 got a big boost for late game players with a big nerf for early players.
Well over 90% of forum posts were about the 1 wonder that got nerfed for early players.

 

[DeletedUser2870]

Well...SOME people left messages either with their FS or on the forum on why they quit.
But most don't.

Personally, I must say the graphics are really nice, but knowing what I do now I would definitely not start playing anymore and thend to give a negative advice if friends ask...whereas a year ago I was still actively getting friends to participate.
And the graphics are very good, but for me not so good as to warrant being constantly frustrated and insulted by the devs/customer service

 

[DeletedUser3686]

I have one main city and a few I've started in other worlds but haven't been active in as much.

As an experienced player (Wood Elves in my main), starting the new cities winds up being a bit boring and frustrating. There's a lot of basic mechanics of the game that you can't do and they take a while to get through. My biggest complaint would easily be the supplies issue, there's never enough. I really don't feel like sitting around doing collections every five minutes; it's tedious and not fun. It's also easy to get stuck in the game early on without anywhere to spend KP. Unlike in Forge of Empires where it's very easy to join random guilds to get blueprints to get an early start on getting a Great Building (they're sort of similar to Elvenar's AWs), it's not as easy to get a head start on this in Elvenar to have a place to sink your KP for when you get stuck.

Starting new worlds in FoE ends up being fun sometimes, but I've never had fun doing it in Elvenar for some reason. When I first started playing Elvenar it was during an event and that made it easier and more interesting of a game because there were some better buildings I got early on that had quick build times and made it easier to progress. Started a new city for the fall event and am finding it's a lot more fun than starting cities when there's no event going on.

That said, I think some adjustments perhaps need to be made to keep the game more fun for new players. Maybe a special "new player" event that unlocks and needs to be completed within 14 days or something. I dunno.

 

[Ashrem]

Offering a few instants for supply replenishment in early chapters would make life smoother for new players.

 

[DeletedUser2870]

Yes, exactly, and especially for starting players.
But I still feel that the first 10-15 minutes seem ok, as you keep busy, then comes the drop and suddenly there isn't anything to do anymore, or no supplies to do anything with, which is really annoying.
Also, though the first 2 chapters are easy to go through in way of gamemechanics and challenges, its extremely booring since one is either waiting for enough gold or enough supplies or for the builders to become available, with really not much to do in between.
And yes, the 5 minute-runs might help, but apart from it being very tedious to have to do them, it also is nearly impossible for anyone who has anything else to do. Like work, or a family, or sports or a social life or whatever.
Personally, I feel the game only really gets to be fun in/after chapter 3, but its a serious mindgrinding effort to get there.

 

[Jules 2]

I have opened a couple of cities accidentally in my time, not done anything in them, but have asked for them to be deleted. Nothing happened and they are still there on my opening screens. 'Cities you have played in'. You know the one

 

[DeletedUser3949]

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.

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.

I have a city in one of the servers that has been idle for over a year. When I first started I created an elf city on Win and a human city on Elc. A few days in I realized I didn't have time to play both so left the Elc city alone (and have for over a year) while I play daily in the Win city. Inno doesn't remove a city if it's part of an active account. Which is stupid.

 

[DeletedUser12390]

I inadvertently created a city some months back and didn't notice it for a period of time. Apparently I brushed the "start in another world" button at some point and it went unnoticed. Once realized, I opened a support ticket thinking I could get it removed. "It'll go away after 30 days of inactivity" was the paraphrased response so, having an active diamond account I replied that it likely wouldn't. I was told not to worry about it. "Well'" says I. "I don't want this world to appear on my registry so can you delete that?". I just got a nope, sorry answer on that one. Who can do that for me I asked. "Don't have an answer but I'll find out and let you know" When they did let me know it was that they didn't know. My speculative assumption is that there are so many automated systems in place that support folks either cannot or are not authorized to circumvent them. Just like players in my neighborhood whose city banners say something like "no longer playing". Why are they still around after months and months? Yeah, I know...Diamond accounts. I probably know the answer to this but why can't a diamond account city be deactivated?

It seems like an easy thing to just ask a first timer if he wants to return to play upon first logout. "Save city? Yes/No"...Done.

I have to agree. Over a year later ... and all the cities in the row above me are still inactive...abandon and the gamers STILL after a year did not delete them... !! I think they only delete tiny baby cities that are inactive after thirty days. But if someone plays for a few months... and starts to grow their city ... it will sit forever. If after a year they are all still there, the gamers will never remove abandon cities.

 

[DeletedUser7611]

Can't Inno distinguish between paid diamonds and the rare won in-game diamonds for dead/inactive cities? Take away the Chapter 4 rule, one month inactivity and the City data will be stored offline but the player will lose their map spot, can be reactivated within 60 days (90) starting on day 31 of inactivity.

CH1 major problems are limited space, long built times and linear story quests. If the story quests gave paths to choose from like in Fel Adventures new players would't rq as much. Hours of inactivity and waiting is a turn off.

 

[DeletedUser]

Can't Inno distinguish between paid diamonds and the rare won in-game diamonds for dead/inactive cities? Take away the Chapter 4 rule, one month inactivity and the City data will be stored offline but the player will lose their map spot, can be reactivated within 60 days (90) starting on day 31 of inactivity.

Yes, actually Moderators and Inno can distinguish between in game won diamonds, and diamonds bought.

 

[ptparks]

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.

This may be the biggest reason. I have city names around me that are suggestive (and that's putting it mildly). Another thread in the international forum asked why it is advertised on adult websites. A quick google search brings those questions up. Inno should wake up and only advertise truthfully no matter what site they are advertising on.

 

[DeletedUser7527]

Well i for one have started a new city in the newest realm and have been there for awhile and all the cities around me have never made a visit to me nor have they even grown or had any activity in them the same buildings that were being upgraded are still the same ones day in and day out and i have been in this realm for a few months now and still no active cities around me on my map and they wont even move me and yes i have that checked for them to be able to move me to a better spot just dont understand it

 

[edeba]

When I told long time gaming friends about this game, I warned them it had an incredibly slow start. I think you really hit the problem square on...

I signed up for beta and got myself in a fellowship and I gag over the getting started process. I feel like I'm going to get kicked out of my beta fellowship because I can't get motivated to be very active there.

I was really unimpressed with the game start when I started playing and I got expansions early, but if I wasn't a player that spends money on a game and increased the game speed process, I don't think I'd have gotten far and I'm not going to spend money on beta.

I think they need a super sweet starter package... Extra builder, extra magic shop opening and an expansion and a sweet magical culture item that just increases to double the maximum culture per square available for the chapter with each chapter upgrade, or give it supplies or coin. It doesn't have to be big, maybe 3x3 or 2x5, but it never needs to be sold to make room for something better because it always automatically upgrades with each chapter and you can only ever get one and only with a purchase. I'd put all of this into a $5 purchase. And then a set of traveling merchants for $1 for all 3 at the beginning of each of chapters 1, 2 and 3. The goal here isn't money making but player retention. And then daily sign-in gifts to help out, click to collect 100 each of tier 1 goods, or 100-1000 bonus supplies or bonus coin, or bonus kp... At higher chapters these rewards are trivial, but if players can reasonably move forward with their game, retention is higher. There could be timer bonuses, get 5 bonus kp if you get a province expansion in the next 24 hours... And there could be a series of daily timer bonuses...

But seriously, the game comes to a stand still and wait easily within an hour of starting and that is dreadful to player retention.

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.

 

[Desurfur]

Dhurrin said: ↑
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.

This may be the biggest reason. I have city names around me that are suggestive (and that's putting it mildly). Another thread in the international forum asked why it is advertised on adult websites. A quick google search brings those questions up. Inno should wake up and only advertise truthfully no matter what site they are advertising on.

Truth be told , it probably has a lot to do with the ones quitting, I myself joined FOE and Elvenar through the type of links you point out. But to give INNO the benefit of doubt, I remember reading a discussion about that somewhere else a while back, something about some players may have made those adds themselves to reap large amounts of diamonds from new signups to push their cities fast forword.
I clicked those links as a lark, thinking this is more then likely bogus, but if it's interesting enough to keep my attention, then I would continue playing, so now I spend 30-40 minutes each night on both games to push my city on both games a little farther each night

 

[DeletedUser]

And those ads are also from, believe it or not, member challenges on 'certain sites'...those aren't INNO's creation. I was on the International server one night, taking care of one of my cities there, and jumped onto the forum before logging out. The thread asking "why was Inno advertising on 'those' sites" had just been posted about six or seven minutes prior. It contained a huge, full-page literally in-you-face ad, and I reported it. Then I Googled it. Interesting results, and all pointed to spoofing, and intentional misrepresentation by the creators of the ads. There was even a site that my antivirus program said was dangerous...it was trying to convince people that om.elvenar.com/ was a virus, and they could help you get rid of it. I copied the link for the Google result page and passed it along to the Mod who had deleted the thread.

You can't blame INNO for all of the wonky advertising...there are a lot of stupid people out there who do really stupid things to gett their jollies. Unfortunately, some of them wind up here.

 

[DeletedUser6368]

I hear you on that part I see it too much.
As for this game they say it is free to play so it is, but I am in Faries now I need to spend money to buy diamonds so I can produce Ambrosia needed to complete a part of the chapter, Looks like Night Essence is the same way.

FUDDLE DUDDLE!!! INNOgames.