Dev Diary: Era Worlds & Gameplay Changes

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Sandrinelle
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2011 6:27 pm

Re: Dev Diary: Era Worlds & Gameplay Changes

Post by Sandrinelle »

Sandrinelle wrote:Hallo to everyone.

Now. Reading through these improvements / changes it looks good at the first sight.

But some issues are still untouched. A question I always asked but never got an satisfactory answer. The sweeping of the map by multicarders who really "sterilize" whole areas from stashes. What´s the use of cards like "advanced outriders" or "expert outriders" if you can open every stash there is? By doing so you will get no honor points - sure - but also destroy these points for others who could get those points. For not to say: by sweeping the ground you steal them the opportunity of getting those points. FAIR? Very doubtful. The simple answer could be: "You can´t open stashes outside of your red zone." Sure. For certain quests you have to collect things which might not show up within this zone. That´s just "bad luck" - some has to live with it. I will give you a representative example:

USA-4: A guy got his village right in the same parish. He´s now running around with the "thoroughbreds-cards" since 9 hours. He´s is not sweeping the ground - he sterilizes South-Lousiana. On top of all- I´m only 4 seconds away from picking up a stash when his 3 scouts pop out of the ground right beside this stash and - stash gone. They didn´t come from his village 2-3 inches away but were suddenly there. And they than ran from there in different directions.

So why is this still possible after years that people talk about it. It doesn´t protect honest players but scares them off.

And with such a guy around you rather prefer to raze him as soon that you can. So waiting until you´re a prince isn´t the solution. Sure - you can conquer his village. But with no slot left not possible.
The other improvements might be okay - we´ll see. The server just started. For the moment I´m not convinced that it improved the game play. But I keep on testing. Maybe it will change my mind.

Just to picture the reality for the developers - what´s going on in this game.

You start on a brand new world. You can be certain to have several heavy-carders/cashers around. (with my luck - right beside me). Chance of growing massively reduced. Those guys get to prince within a week. With about 6 villages and parishes under their control.
Some normal player (they call it here honest player) has to struggle like * to achive only the slightest progress. Most give up after only one day because they can´t get anywhere as the carders sterilize the ground.
If you still hang on and fight you slowly get of the ground. But you are far behind the carders/cashers.
As someone already mentioned it takes you about 30 days to get your castle up. Meanwhile the carder has all his castles set up completely and carries on harassing the map by sweeping every stash, wolf-liar and bandit-camp he can grab. The smaller players can only sit back and watch. No use to send your scouts or armies - they run for nothing.
In the end you have only the carder/cashers and those who spend a bit of real money. These players cling to those carder/casher who on top of all claim the reign about everything. The rule is simple - comply or die.

Summary of the situation:
The carder/casher takes it all - the smaller player looses the fun playing the game and leaves. Every change and improvement of the game seems to be in favor of the cashers and leaves the normal player outside. That´s about the announcement "free to play". And you´re wondering why it appears to us that it looks like you only want to grab money?
You leave the normal player well outside of consideration and seem only to prefer the paying customer. This way you won´t reach the wider group of players and this way will not get more to join.

Solutions that would change it a bit:
Everything outside your red zone of honor can´t be touched (stashes, liars, camps.) Leads to the smaller player has a chance (gaining points. grows and can develop) against those cashers and the game would be more balanced.
The costs to attack and raze - raising it was a good idea. Razing only as prince+ not necessary anymore. As a knight - okay.
As someone already mentioned, get this simple addon in, which checks on the IP and stops multi-accounts.
Either a balanced game for all or scrap the free-to-play in your adverts. Cause a game where you get nowhere without cashing doesn´t deserve the label "free-to-play"
And with this changes you certainly will attract more players who are also willing to spend some money on this game. For now you stimulate the opposite.
And I already hear the howling of the cashers who read this. Message to them: It´s you who mess up a very good game and kill the fun for everyone else. I know that you won´t believe it and disagree. You´re in the opinion that this game would die if you wouldn´t invest your cash. You´re wrong but probbly will never believe it. I know a game where you pay 20$/year. It´s a very good strategy game (quality equal to Stronghold) and opens a new server every 3 months - with thousands of players joining. Take this as an example how a good game will always attract new players and keeps the older one.

Sandrinelle (it´s now my 24th server)
cozbar
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2014 10:38 pm

Re: Dev Diary: Era Worlds & Gameplay Changes

Post by cozbar »

On the Hall of Heroes webpage there is listed a world 'Global Realm 1 ' , is this a planned new world?
RedHawk7
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jun 28, 2017 11:13 pm

Re: Dev Diary: Era Worlds & Gameplay Changes

Post by RedHawk7 »

Sandrinelle wrote:
Sandrinelle wrote:Hallo to everyone.

Now. Reading through these improvements / changes it looks good at the first sight.

But some issues are still untouched. A question I always asked but never got an satisfactory answer. The sweeping of the map by multicarders who really "sterilize" whole areas from stashes. What´s the use of cards like "advanced outriders" or "expert outriders" if you can open every stash there is? By doing so you will get no honor points - sure - but also destroy these points for others who could get those points. For not to say: by sweeping the ground you steal them the opportunity of getting those points. FAIR? Very doubtful. The simple answer could be: "You can´t open stashes outside of your red zone." Sure. For certain quests you have to collect things which might not show up within this zone. That´s just "bad luck" - some has to live with it. I will give you a representative example:

USA-4: A guy got his village right in the same parish. He´s now running around with the "thoroughbreds-cards" since 9 hours. He´s is not sweeping the ground - he sterilizes South-Lousiana. On top of all- I´m only 4 seconds away from picking up a stash when his 3 scouts pop out of the ground right beside this stash and - stash gone. They didn´t come from his village 2-3 inches away but were suddenly there. And they than ran from there in different directions.

So why is this still possible after years that people talk about it. It doesn´t protect honest players but scares them off.

And with such a guy around you rather prefer to raze him as soon that you can. So waiting until you´re a prince isn´t the solution. Sure - you can conquer his village. But with no slot left not possible.
The other improvements might be okay - we´ll see. The server just started. For the moment I´m not convinced that it improved the game play. But I keep on testing. Maybe it will change my mind.

Just to picture the reality for the developers - what´s going on in this game.

You start on a brand new world. You can be certain to have several heavy-carders/cashers around. (with my luck - right beside me). Chance of growing massively reduced. Those guys get to prince within a week. With about 6 villages and parishes under their control.
Some normal player (they call it here honest player) has to struggle like * to achive only the slightest progress. Most give up after only one day because they can´t get anywhere as the carders sterilize the ground.
If you still hang on and fight you slowly get of the ground. But you are far behind the carders/cashers.
As someone already mentioned it takes you about 30 days to get your castle up. Meanwhile the carder has all his castles set up completely and carries on harassing the map by sweeping every stash, wolf-liar and bandit-camp he can grab. The smaller players can only sit back and watch. No use to send your scouts or armies - they run for nothing.
In the end you have only the carder/cashers and those who spend a bit of real money. These players cling to those carder/casher who on top of all claim the reign about everything. The rule is simple - comply or die.

Summary of the situation:
The carder/casher takes it all - the smaller player looses the fun playing the game and leaves. Every change and improvement of the game seems to be in favor of the cashers and leaves the normal player outside. That´s about the announcement "free to play". And you´re wondering why it appears to us that it looks like you only want to grab money?
You leave the normal player well outside of consideration and seem only to prefer the paying customer. This way you won´t reach the wider group of players and this way will not get more to join.

Solutions that would change it a bit:
Everything outside your red zone of honor can´t be touched (stashes, liars, camps.) Leads to the smaller player has a chance (gaining points. grows and can develop) against those cashers and the game would be more balanced.
The costs to attack and raze - raising it was a good idea. Razing only as prince+ not necessary anymore. As a knight - okay.
As someone already mentioned, get this simple addon in, which checks on the IP and stops multi-accounts.
Either a balanced game for all or scrap the free-to-play in your adverts. Cause a game where you get nowhere without cashing doesn´t deserve the label "free-to-play"
And with this changes you certainly will attract more players who are also willing to spend some money on this game. For now you stimulate the opposite.
And I already hear the howling of the cashers who read this. Message to them: It´s you who mess up a very good game and kill the fun for everyone else. I know that you won´t believe it and disagree. You´re in the opinion that this game would die if you wouldn´t invest your cash. You´re wrong but probbly will never believe it. I know a game where you pay 20$/year. It´s a very good strategy game (quality equal to Stronghold) and opens a new server every 3 months - with thousands of players joining. Take this as an example how a good game will always attract new players and keeps the older one.

Sandrinelle (it´s now my 24th server)

You make a lot of good points, but some of them are problems that appear in all new worlds: The heavy carders at the beginning, the captures, etc. Those are problems of every MMORPG really! If you spend more money than your fellow player, then yeah! you should be ahead!. Remember that this game is FREE TO PLAY but not FREE TO WIN.

I've been playing for a lot of time and I learned that you don't necessarily need a lot of crown to be a decent player! If you are not gonna spend crowns in cards/tokens then you WILL BE BEHIND! that happened in EVERY WORLD! The thing with this new system of Era's is that it makes starting out a whole lot harder for the people who don't card!

There are flaws with the small number of factions and the small cap of each faction, the ability to raze/be razed is useless if you don't grind for at least 100 days to reach prince, the feeling of abandonment if you don't have a house and the amount of flags it needs to build an army.

Right now in EU4, the first guy who reached Crown Prince has abandoned the game, due to constant captures/ransacks/pillages.So this game is still somewhat fair if you advance too fast using cards. In USA4, the steward of the parrish that I started, was a heavy carder and he ran the map nonstop. He hit Alderman, he got another village and in 1 hour from that he got captured, he is still playing though (but not as much as he did a week ago). I'm a Thane, just researching farming and education (not even touching military) and got in a good faction that run the county that I'm in, and I have not use any cards yet. It really depends on how you play and what are your goals for this game... If you want to be a powerhouse, run a faction and be the marshall of a house WITHOUT PLAYING CARDS, then forget it! It will never gonna happen!
Timotious
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2013 1:58 pm

Re: Dev Diary: Era Worlds & Gameplay Changes

Post by Timotious »

I just thought of a solution to end the cheating and an avenue for more money for SHK - let people have as many accounts as they want to play. This will put honest players on the same level as cheaters, SHK can sell more crowns and there will be no more accusations of cheating.

My father used to say they put locks on doors to keep honest people honest - thieves will always find a way to get in. so let's cut through the BS 8-)
Elroydb
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2012 3:14 am

Re: Dev Diary: Era Worlds & Gameplay Changes

Post by Elroydb »

After coming back from a break I'm glad Firefly is not trying to hide any more that their business strategy is to cater to "whales" - the high spenders. New players and light carders have fled the game as evidenced on USA 4 - literally half the counties aren't even settled. Those that are have parishes with but a couple people

Low rank monk alts have been pretty well neutered by the faith caps and rank requirements for certain abilities but placing a top end 300k fp cap means patience and a retreat to a safe zone are no longer an option for being able to wage war. The only way to get "more" faith is to use monk cards which coincidentally an even stronger set was released requiring 50 crown pack purchases. If you wish to make war you need to stock up on these cards otherwise your faith will be depleted far too fast. (This was the reason I quit - removed from power from a state in an hour due to a heavy carder without a single village changing hands or being razed.)

The other is with the raze change to prince. That is a bit more complicated. Raze is honestly the most fun aspect of this game and the most important aspect of making war. With this reserved for only the top two ranks attempting an earlier war is almost impossible...unless you have monk cards. Pillage and ransack can only do so much. The change to which rank Pikemen are available as well as the changes to flags necessary for parish buildings mean that once again the whales are once again catered to. Pikemen are essentially the early game catapults. The only people who can get a sizable enough army of them to start raiding for flags are the heavy carders. Given that flags spawn all at the same time this is makes attack speed cards even more powerful. 100 archers and 50 pikes is plenty to take down any parish defense that can be set up at the start. Once it is broken then rebuilding it becomes almost impossible until parishes and higher capitals have had their fill. I'm watching so many players become inactive because they get incredibly discouraged by not being able to defend their parish or at least sneak enough flags to begin making defenses. 8 for a bows guild? 10 for archer recruitment and upgrades? Don't get me started on trying to build ballistae. Without a functional parish having the production for war as well as being able to defend against catapults falls short

What does this have to do with raze? Well this means that the early heavy carders are the only ones who will be in a position to make war. The first prince probably won't be happy but the first few dozen? Right as rain especially with banquet and chivalry cards and ballistae. Every one else is not nearly as effective in war until they can begin razing villages. The majority of the player base needs to go through that long boring slog to Prince so they can fight. By then? Most everyone has quit or any potential threats have been dealt with. The player base falls flat so those heavy carders able to maintain governorships and kingships

Good for being a farmer though. As long as you have a house - trying to develop a parish becomes futile once the first catapult attack rolls through and you're added to the list of good farms

The game is losing customers and instead of trying to increase the player base Firefly has instead chosen the business strategy of maximizing the revenue of those who spend the most on this game

I've enjoyed this game so much and I'm a bit sad to see the current state it is in
Timotious
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2013 1:58 pm

Re: Dev Diary: Era Worlds & Gameplay Changes

Post by Timotious »

spot on
User avatar
MiladySkye
Posts: 595
Joined: Tue Jul 01, 2014 8:38 pm

Re: Dev Diary: Era Worlds & Gameplay Changes

Post by MiladySkye »

@Elroydb I agree. In fact, I just posted in my faction thread about how requiring the rank Prince raze was a game killer for me . . . . and there are a load of other reasons why I feel people are leaving.
When injustice is law, resistance becomes duty . . .
TarraWhiteChild
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2013 2:20 am

Re: Dev Diary: Era Worlds & Gameplay Changes

Post by TarraWhiteChild »

Just wanted to chime in to say that I hope SHK does change the rules back.

SHK -- learn the lesson that the folks at Coca Cola learned when they brought out the 'new' coke - and people hated it and just did not buy it. They eventually brought out Coke 'Classic which sells really well.
greenwitch
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2012 3:44 am

Re: Dev Diary: Era Worlds & Gameplay Changes

Post by greenwitch »

These new rules are pushing players away that have played for years.
greenwitch
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2012 3:44 am

Re: Dev Diary: Era Worlds & Gameplay Changes

Post by greenwitch »

I love SHK so much that I married in RL a person I met in game.

I am an honest player I don't use Alts I try to always be the best team player.

But these new rules are very flawed.

Yes you can always keep an open village slot to be able to cap someone. But how about Reseting someone from an area. This is a WAR game The ability to Raze at Knight is needed.

So what about Ransackers ?
You take away the ability to Raze at knight so new thoughts new Strategies. Day 5 of server max ransack Cripple players from growing by Ransacking them over and over again.

Players give up leave the game.

The number of active players has dropped seriously.

I spend so much money on this game yet I look at it different now.

FireFly relook at what your doing . Launch the Classic version that we all love.

Have a no card world for those who want to not card.

But for the rest of us please let us Raze at knight again
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