Second Age vs Firefly's Vision

This World 5 forum has been closed following the world closure.
cyckuan
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2012 3:29 am

Second Age vs Firefly's Vision

Post by cyckuan »

This post is directed at Firefly.

CURRENT AGE

There are many causes of strife in this game world. Most revolve around limited resources such as, capital positions, stewardships, flags etc. Sometimes ego is involved. Sometimes people fight over resource stashes and AI (shock and disbelief but I have seen it).

Eventually, Houses and factions, blessed with the good fortune of having a healthy leadership, will rise and unite the warring factions. The strong will naturally cherry-pick the strong. Forces of natural selection in this game will push out those who lack in political guile, military prowess or simply willpower. Ultimately, One House, will triumph over others. This is inevitable because the odds begin to stack more and more against those already behind in the military and political race.

We end up with World 5 in its current state today.

SECOND AGE

Second Age magnifies the military aspect of the game because it enables completion of timed attacks within a shorter time frame. Attacks completed whilst a player is offline ... will nearly always succeed. In other words, it gives those with less political restraint and awareness, a bigger shovel to dig their own grave or a longer rope to hang oneself.

Allowing more factions in the same House will most certainly accelerate this political and military arms race. It will allow one House to dominate the world faster than ever before.

Resetting capitals and political positions is only a temporary measure. Because most of the political structure of a House or faction, is already well-established and meta-gamed. We use Teamspeak, Mumble, Ventrillo and Raidcall to name a few, to stay in touch with one another, and sometimes this can span more games than just Stronghold Kingdoms. Over more than 365 days, many of us already have established reputations.

Bottom-line, unless there are deep divides and busting tension within the ruling House (beyond the means of the current Leadership to hold together), the same House is likely to rise like a Phoenix immediately after Second Age resets.

FIREFLY'S VISION

It feels like, Firefly wants the game world to "end". They are essentially giving us the means to kill off one another faster. Why speed things up?

Instead of more cards that are essentially tweaks of existing ones, why not extend the life of the game by enriching it e.g.:
1. Expanding the game world so massively (e.g. include all of Europe), that one House cannot truly dominate an entire World because of logistical constraints (It does not have to be one persistent world as long as there is some way of traversing the different realms, regions or continents e.g. border gates, checkpoints ... essentially portals.)
2. Adding more content ... more variety in the range of castle blocks and unit types
3. Allowing interception of units on the move, armies, monks, merchants etc.
4. Adding in counters to interception, armed guards protecting merchants and monks and use of stealth etc.
5. Adding in village view-range bubbles. Why should a player all the way out in a remote corner of Ireland be able to see what is going on in Scotland? Limited view range adds in a whole new dimension to the gameplay. It forces us to maintain and harden our borders.
6. Adding in AI that is so tough and aggressive that entire counties can become AI-controlled, forcing players to work closely together to push the AI back

Also, putting myself in the shoes of a new player, why would I choose World 5 over say a younger world, like World 7? Is there no self-sustaining design-driven mechanism to grow the population of a world instead of just allowing it to dwindle and die?

Stronghold Kingdoms is a great game. Like many of us, I just want to have a feel of Firefly's vision and where it is heading with the future development of this game.


(Also, before one of my previous threads was locked, this was the discussion I was wanting the thread to lead to. Just my opinion. I can see Firefly wanting more to rise up against a dominant House using the Glory Round Victory Announcements. Continuous strife keeps the game world alive. But it would do itself greater service to expand the game world significantly and enrich in-game content.)
King Zach IV
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:43 am

Re: Second Age vs Firefly's Vision

Post by King Zach IV »

I would love to see all of these ideas in Stronghold Kingdoms. The AI thing would make players be more aware of inactive players if AI can take it over. The borders is a very good idea. Their should be a way that somebody can send you a report of the area that they are in ( by the ways of a informational scout coming to your village not instant deliver like sending reports ).

I would also love to see the worlds enlarged or connected to other servers, like the different language servers.


You are a genius.

With the AI part Maybe when one of those advanced enemies spawn in your base and take over villages they can vote for themselves and take over parishes, once they do they can move to different parishes just like other players would.

This would make me and more members of my faction a reason to play more. I would be so excited if firefly adds this.
Adawulf
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2012 11:36 pm

Re: Second Age vs Firefly's Vision

Post by Adawulf »

That was a good analysis. Thanks Cyckuan I enjoyed reading it. But your section on "Firefly's Vision" sounded like your own vision and suggestions. They were good suggestions and I agree with them, but I'm interested to hear what you think Firefly's vision is and I have my own theory on the subject.

I think the firefly vision was crafted by the accounting department. Once they figured out that new worlds generate more income than old ones, some guy said "hey let's figure out how to phase out old worlds and force players to move to new ones, so we can make more money" And the result is the 2nd age.

The most obvious statement by firefly that really showed their true colors was when they said they would be locking entry into the old worlds for new players. Part of the 2nd age announcement included a "feature" that prohibited new players from joining 2nd age worlds at a certain point, thus insuring the slow death and decay of those worlds. Then they said that once a world population drops to a certain point it would be permanently shut-down. That, to me was a dead give-away of their intentions. Like a very obvious tell in a poker game. From that point on I became convinced that this whole thing is a marketing scam designed to milk us poor gamers for as much cash as possible. I wouldn't mind if the new features were interesting, fun and didn't destroy previous investments in the game. I'm all about capitalism when it comes to games, but this is different.
Adawulf
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2012 11:36 pm

Re: Second Age vs Firefly's Vision

Post by Adawulf »

I agree Master Merlin. In my opinion the solution is a boycott. It's more $$ they hope to earn with the new rules, and the only thing that will ever make them change their minds is less $$. I admire the folks who quit in protest, or at least promised not to buy another crown. I'm proud to say I joined the H9 crusade, and since the 2nd age announcement I have not spent a single crown nor played nearly as often.

As players our best means of influencing things is wallet power. We can complain here on the forums but money talks and its doubtful if the folks in charge even read these forums. If you want to get their attention, refuse to buy crowns.
King Zach IV
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:43 am

Re: Second Age vs Firefly's Vision

Post by King Zach IV »

DavidSpy wrote:Ok, let me start off by saying I'm not a big fan of the second age either, I believe it could have been better implemented and in the past I was adamant in my hate of the proposed Second Age, so much in fact, that I signed a petition against it.
I was the 6th person to sign :)
Bernhard Bernfried
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2013 3:22 pm

Re: Second Age vs Firefly's Vision

Post by Bernhard Bernfried »

It is quite obvious that a player who invested, say, a year of his time and a ton of money into the game and just looses that all because firefly shuts down the world, won't just start over again. I saw complete Houses quit and move onto the next game.

If Firefly would manage to keep worlds alive by adding new drives, then these players would keep spending money and playing the game. There were proposals how to achieve that, and its actually not that hard.

World 5 is running for over a year now, and my faction just brought a new wave of recruits in.
The guy with 60 alts called "bernd something"
Adawulf
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2012 11:36 pm

Re: Second Age vs Firefly's Vision

Post by Adawulf »

I plan to stick around just for curiosity sake. This game is hard enough already for a casual player like me, the 2nd age will make it nearly unplayable. Just the super-charged AI castles alone will be enough to keep me in rubble.
Ajr568
Posts: 411
Joined: Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:00 pm
Location: Regina, Canada

Re: Second Age vs Firefly's Vision

Post by Ajr568 »

Question about second age, if I delete a building that is maxed, will I need to re-donate everything if I decide I need that guild later on and re-place it?
The worlds do not die because of Firefly opening new worlds, the worlds die because the players on those worlds let them.
User avatar
metroman
Posts: 883
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2010 11:02 am

Re: Second Age vs Firefly's Vision

Post by metroman »

Bernhard Bernfried wrote:It is quite obvious that a player who invested, say, a year of his time and a ton of money into the game and just looses that all because firefly shuts down the world, won't just start over again. I saw complete Houses quit and move onto the next game.

If Firefly would manage to keep worlds alive by adding new drives, then these players would keep spending money and playing the game. There were proposals how to achieve that, and its actually not that hard.

World 5 is running for over a year now, and my faction just brought a new wave of recruits in.
LOL! It took World 1 over 3 Years to make it to the Second Age...
User avatar
metroman
Posts: 883
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2010 11:02 am

Re: Second Age vs Firefly's Vision

Post by metroman »

Ajr568 wrote:Question about second age, if I delete a building that is maxed, will I need to re-donate everything if I decide I need that guild later on and re-place it?
Yes if it's removed from the Parish, it'll be as if it never existed.
Locked

Return to “World 5 Lounge (Closed)”