Dev Blog: New Event Resources
Dev Blog: New Event Resources & Easter 2015
Dear Settlers,
with this Dev Blog, our Gamedesign provides a glimpse behind the curtain for the second time.
BB_Turian explains, how the decision for a new event resource was made and the reasons behind this huge change.
Easter Event 2015 - information & detailsSneak Peek can be found here
Developer’s Diary can be found here
The recent Blue Byte Backstage episode also provides brief information on Youtube.
Changes in event mechanics: Temporary event resources
As many of you might know, all event resources in TSO used to be permanent resources. New resources could only be acquired during an event, while leftover resources remained in the game and could be traded. During the last events, especially during Easter 2014, we received a lot of feedback that events became increasingly easy and held little challenge, because several players already had huge amounts of event resources in stock. To be more precise, a lot of players could already get all the rewards worth striving for at the beginning of the event. Those players either traded event resources in the past or had them left over from previous events. At the same time, there were players who still had to collect resources during the event in order to earn their reward. Long story short: there was a big discrepancy between newer and older players as far as challenge was concerned.
I am BB_Turian, the designer in charge of the Easter 2015 Event that introduced a fundamental change regarding event resources.
Why is having permanent event resources an issue?
When designing an event for TSO, one of our goals is that it should be achievable for the targeted player group. To take a random example: All players between levels 36-50 should be able to get the highest reward of an event.
That means that we always base our balancing on the assumption that, as a player, you would start with ‘0’ event resources, as this is logically the lowest common denominator.
Balancing an event based on a permanent event resource became almost impossible as the economic situation grew more complex with each additional year. More and more players were starting with an increasing amount of event resources. At the same time we could not take this into consideration when it came to balancing for the above mentioned reasons. That led to increasingly unfair start conditions at the beginning of each event. An important change was needed to improve 2 aspects: Fair play, no matter how long you’ve been playing the game, and balancing.
Why the new Easter resource "Stripy Eggs"?
The first thing we decided was to introduce a new resource called Stripy Eggs. This was done to ensure that all players would start at ‘0’ event resources and that they would have the same chances and challenges ahead of them. Event resources can be acquired for the duration of the event. In order to avoid event resources being piled up - leading to the fair play and challenge impacts - all remaining resources will be automatically transformed into gold coins to provide some value to all unspent Stripy Eggs and to avoid anybody “losing” any value gained.
Starting with Easter 2015, all events will follow the same rules.
Each event will have its own resource that will be removed and transformed at the end of the event.
One Easter event – two shop categories
Since a lot of old Easter eggs were still in circulation, we tried to find a solution
that would allow players to spend the eggs saved so far.
Our first approach was to introduce a standard Easter 2015 shop category where new items would be purchasable for Stripy eggs. In addition to that, we reopened the shop category from 2014 and unlocked all items with their old shop limits. Some of you might have seen this particular shop setup on our test server.
Our intention was to give all players the same challenge and starting conditions for the new 2015 rewards. On top of that, everybody should have had the opportunity to spend their already earned old Easter eggs and acquire all items they missed during 2014.
First feedback on the test server and forums
The feedback we received on our test environment was mixed to negative. First of all, many testers were confused by the two shop categories, the two event resources and the new and old item limits in the shop. The introduction of a new resource was generally regarded as a positive aspect. The Community was however divided when it came to the usage of the old Easter resources.
Many testers considered it unfair that newer players could only gather one resource and not the other, being unable to access the 2014 rewards. That perception was also enforced by the fact that the Easter 2014 main rewards were considered more valuable. Testers wanted the opportunity to get some 2014 rewards, especially the Master of Martial Arts general.
On the other hand, some players especially saved up old Easter eggs the whole year to get these high-end rewards for themselves or make it possible for their younger guild members to get them. Some even hoped to get another Master of Martial Arts. Both groups definitely made strong arguments.
Measures taken to react to the feedback
After discussing and evaluating the feedback internally, we saw the necessity to act on it. Our main goal was to fix the event resource situation by introducing a new, temporary resource. Our purpose, as the development team, was for everyone to have a nice and rewarding Easter event. So we took the following measures:
- We removed the Easter 2014 shop category from the game to avoid confusion and distraction from the 2015 event.
- Both old and new players asked for some of the 2014 items to be present in the shop with a new limit. We added an additional Master of Martial Arts and a Veteran General for the 2015 event, to allow everyone a chance to obtain these items.
- We announced a special event, which will give players the opportunity to spend all their old event resources. This event was already planned. We wanted to make sure that the players who saved up and traded for old Easter eggs, knew that there will still be a chance to spend their accumulated event resources this year.
The upcoming resource event
The overall goal of the event is to remove all old and permanent event resources (e.g. Presents, Pumpkins, etc.) out of the game, while giving players a chance to trade in all their collected resources one last time for nice items. After announcing the event, we noticed a lot of speculation starting in regards to the event‘s shop content. We would like to share the following regarding the Easter category and the respective shop items:
All shop items from the Easter 2014 event shop will be available,
using the same item limits, as seen in the early version on the test server.
At the current stage, we cannot announce any content or detailed mechanics of the event. New items or limits for existing items are yet to be defined. The event is currently being designed and we are waiting for the Easter 2015 event feedback before taking the next steps.
Why not add the possibility to convert the old Easter eggs into Stripy eggs?
Some of you suggested implementing the option to convert old Easter eggs into the new Stripy eggs. While this would be a valuable approach, we decided against it, mostly because it would result in the same imbalance as before the event. Some players would enter the event with an advantage and balancing the event would be impossible.
To ensure a proper way for you to use old resources, we planned to introduce the resource event.
Test versions and Sneak Peeks
The prices for the old Easter eggs on live game worlds were heavily affected by the announcements and test versions. As seen with this year’s Easter Event, our online economy works a lot like real economies in that regard – with all the benefits, but also all the risks.
So: Please be careful when speculating with resources and prices based on test versions and Sneak Peeks.
On test servers and Sneak Peeks we regularly point out:
“Sneak Peek is a brief information about one of the upcoming game versions and may not reflect the final status of the content. Once the game version is finalized, a corresponding Dev Diary will be published.“
The test server’s purpose is to gather feedback upfront in order to improve the features and content. That may result in drastic changes of the initial test server versions. This feedback is extremely important to us as a development team and we hope it also matters to you as a Community. As it happened now with Easter 2015, your feedback changed the version a lot. For previous events, we changed item limits or prices (i.e. we added another Grim Reaper on demand). The most drastic changes were made for the initial combat re-balancing during autumn of last year.
We removed new basic mechanics and changed a lot of values based on your feedback.
Happy Easter, everybody!
Hopefully we were able to provide you with some insights regarding the changes to the event resource mechanic. We also hope that you will enjoy the Easter 2015 event, where you can experience these changes for the first time.
BB_Turian
for the whole ‘The Settlers Online’ Team
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