Dear Settlers,
The Dev Diary Anniversary Event 2019 was just published and we can't wait to hear your initial impressions and overall feedback.
Thank you,
BB_Odhran
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Dear Settlers,
The Dev Diary Anniversary Event 2019 was just published and we can't wait to hear your initial impressions and overall feedback.
Thank you,
BB_Odhran
Here's hoping we're able to actually log-in for the entire Event, because the Summer Event was a disaster and a serious waste of time due to that, if you weren't willing to dump serious cash into Gems to make up for all the lost time. We lost a lot of players due to that issue. Hopefully the BB tech team is ready for the inevitable mishaps and onslaught of 'Event Only' players returning.
The new Characters and Buildings look interesting, so it will come down to how hard it is to get them for the average-to-dedicated players.
So here's the problem with your wondrous res.
It only goes to level 12. That is just not enough. Not remotely.
When we high level players are dealing with 30-40k population size. Have every arch, have mag res filling every hole we can. Which by guide can be about 80.
Our goal is to maintain our population size while reducing our blueprint.
But here is the thing.
We only need a higher pop cap to allow us to run for longer while our army reproduces during these 2-3 week events. We want to have 15k army ready to go on day 1 so that we can keep on running while our Eracks tries to keep up.
You want a 15kgem investment for a wonder res. That is basically 2 ETG. The ETG are more valuable than the cap because they affect replacement. What good is a higher cap when your eracks is stuck at a 7 day production time and you've got no troops to run advs, which are your source of event resource.
The faster we can replinish our army, the lower our population cap needs to be. As you are giving us more buildings with the effect of schoolhouse, you are devaluing wonder res. You don't see that?
Here is why else I don't care for wonder res. Sure, it's got a small blueprint. And +150 pop over a mag. But compared to an arabian palace. It is +130 pop. palace having a smaller 4x4 blueprint than mag res making it easer to place and offering +1 square compared to mag. Which filled with arabian tower at 110. With that combo wonder is only +20. Which a single token investment would equalize.
And heres the kicker of it all.
Wonder is going to cost 15k grout and 10k stalks to reach that max population.
It's just not worth it.
I have to put in all those resources, just to tear down 1 mag and only gain +150 pop, and 4 usable squares.
Yes I know, during event. wonder res can be bought standalone for 10k gems. Clearly not worth on it's on.
Within bundle you group it with an imp floating res, which is in fact worth.
At least with that we can delete 1 building and free a square while gaining pop.
But when you are in a place where all pop buildings give over 100 pop, you cannot delete 2 buildings as you'd be losing pop to gain 2 squares. Not worth it.
At least for the 15kgem bundle we get the residences.
Candid exp. "Candid Explorer Available during Christmas Event An explorer that brings fourfold as many rewards when sent on a treasure search."
And
"Versed Geologist Available during Christmas Event Finds 50% bigger deposits, 50% faster and has a 50% chance of finding an additional deposit.
Works on all types of deposits."
Oh but wait, both the new scout and new geo do these things better.
So where is the draw? Where is the value?
At least this bundle has value beyond it's cost.
• 1x Intrepid Explorer
• 1x Training Grounds
• 7 Premium Days (split into 2x 3days,1x 1day)
• 5x Rain of Flaming Arrows
• 1x Premium Friend Buff
Price: 5999 Gems (Limit: 1 per Player)
But in now way can we put up the 15k gems for large bundle and have gems left over to put toward 5k balloons at a time.
And then there is this.
Description: 200 Grout
Price: 450 Gems (25% discount)
You let me know how many of those sell.
You do realize we run 4-5 WC a day right?
How many 2nd thief LS are sold during an event, oil LS during an event.
Every passing event grout is valued less and less because more people are growing into a position where they are able to procure their own.
You want 10-15k gems for the wonder res, and then 15k grout to upgrade it. And you think we are going to just gem purchase grout? Hell to the no.
If you are willing to over value your small bundle with a training grounds, why can we not get an ETG in the large bundle? That would at least make it attractive and worth while.
I'm sure you think friend buff is valuable. But they are cheap enough to be attained faster than events run and therefore are not really expensive.
Pathfinder alone spits out 2500 SC a week. 4 weeks, bam friend buff. And you are not doing an event every month. So I can still afford to buy the friend buff, plus the tag buffs all with SC.
Those items hold no gem value, they are just bonus within the bundle but not cause to buy the bundle.
I'm afraid your cost evaluations are becoming more out of touch with what players are able to afford in game without gem use.
You want us to celebrate your birthday with you? Alright. Kick off the event with a 1 day 200% gem sale. Don't mess around with the 100% Even with that we gotta drop 60 bucks just to make it worth it. And then we have to decide. Get 1 gem pit for investment with delayed return, or instant value of buildings?
With a sale its 60 bucks to buy this large bundle and what do we get? a wonder res and a bunch of items we can acquire otherwise.
Hard to find value in that when we will get 1 res through door anyway.
But hey, at least we get this general.
"As the elder twin he aimed to surpass his father General Log by being able to lead a larger army, with success. Even more kind-hearted as his father, he recovers 20% of lost units after every battle and can lead 280 Units. Travels twice as quickly to adventures. Recover 3x as quickly from defeat and has the advantages of First Strike & Flanking. Also does splash damage.
The reward for the 15000 ballons quest (1 per Event)"
Btw. It's "balloon" not ballon.
Also this spelling error "IIt can not" within education tribute explanation.
Your problem is. Some player pay attention to the details. And not everything you do regarding events balances out.
Sure I'm gonna end up dropping some gem on the event. Maybe. Hard to say. Halloween is only a few weeks after this event ends, and I already know I will need some set aside for pumpkins to get something of real value.
Which going off last years list.
Village School (max 3) Haunted Mansion (max 3) Laboratory (max 1)
roughly just under 15k pumpkin value. Which @ 360 gem for 300p.
15k gems will buy 41.6 packages X 300 12500p.
Knowing that is only 1/4 or less of what I need during event. Birthday package is not worth it.
This will grant me pop recovery, pop cap, and faster source for friend buff.
If those items are what you want.
We know better than to get "Mad Scientist (max 1)". So your not getting that 5k pumpkin from us. You are giving us a far better general now, and we already got boris.
Good job on the other new buildings. Those are nice value. A great addition to our ability to tech further.
But overall, I find it hard to be excited about this event when there are no rewards worth mentioning outside of new general and scout. We always need more scouts. This gen will help out in the high level advs. But still. When you give us a general that cuts down unit loss, we don't have to recover army as fast, we don't need as high a pop cap, we don't need to put in the ultra high cost for a wonder res.
The cost associated with wonder res is out of touch with what is needed and what we can achieve without it.
I will accept any Wondrous Residences that others do not want, I will find room for them.
We get one for free; if people want to spend the gems on others I say let them. The small bundle is tempting to me, the large; not so much. Maybe adding another explorer or storage tower would push me over the edge.
(Also both mag rez and arabian palace take the same room - 4 2x2 spots, just one is a T shape and one is a square).
The small bundle is maybe interesting to me. The big one isn't because most of the price comes from population buildings I don't need. Although if this becomes a trend and there's a new bundle or two every event, I'll have to start passing sooner or later regardless.
New general sounds awesome.
New explorer is nice. I guess. Another one for the collection to click one by one.
New geologist looks I think maybe pretty appealing. -200% search speed is awful, but for when you're not in a rush, the +200% deposit size is great.
Well, I know to each player their own, and some of the items (the new scout, new general) look appealing and, I will get the "free" Won Res, but the bundles need to be reworked. Especially at that price. Either offer a 200% gem sale for a day or add more to the bundles.
The -200% speed general is AMAZING - when used correctly. For copper the time doesn't matter much - perhaps for marble, too - though we've stone cold.
But for overnight granite? Could be quite useful.
I was thinking marble, maybe iron, which is all I search for anyway. I think any of the other rows may be off limits. Looks like 16 hours for granite.Quote:
Originally Posted by bombcar
16 hours for granite is perfect if you time it to go off about 1/3 of the way through the night (during off-time). It works best if you do the "clustered masons" approach.
Looking forward to the event and the Adventure Bookbinder reward. (back to huffing helium)
The one thing I am very sad NOT to see is any adventures giving double XP.
Wow, that didn't take long for the first crash/shutdown of the event.
Saw the notice that there was a "planned" one 5 hours from now, so I'm guessing this is that, just early?
I now remember how frustrating it was last year trying to get Cake Dough. My guild has all above level 50. Little or no cake dough available in TO.
These artificial obstacles to provide challenge in the game are wearing thin. Yes, you don't want to make getting cake dough too easy. But you constantly push the frustration envelope (like with weekly challenges).
All this frustration for a game with no long term future with Flash becoming obsolete.
And it's obvious that BB is not putting any development effort into enhancing the actual Settlers online interface. (yes, there are new buildings and buffs, but not UI enhancements). Like a star menu so items don't keep shifting around, a "sleep when buff expires" on buildings, a speed dial for generals that load a given configuration of troops, a Find a building on the map tool, a Find a particular player tool, etc. When your development environment is going away (Flash), why put any time into creating or enhancing the user interface?
The level for dough/candles should have been adjusted. players can reach level 50 much faster than before, so there are not as many as it used to be. Level 55 or 60 would make more sense and would be enjoyable.
I don't like this event.
Indeed, we only have 1-2 sub-L50 players at any given point. We spend so much effort getting them over L50 that it's now hurting us. Quite a few guild members are skipping this event or doing minimum efforts as a result.
Another horrible event. The ratio of active players level 50+ verses players under 50 is huge. BB wants us to play and level up however makes no compensation for level 50+ to get dough. If BB wanted us to continue playing this game they would make it easier for us to get the dough and not using gems to do so. This is another failed attempt by BB on trying to keep active players playing.
I wasn't even aware there were active players below level 50 at this point (or any players that has been here for under 3 years for that matter), yet a quest requires them to exist.
400 mil in balloons in 6 more days....lol Sorry (not really) but you do realize that this game is on it's last legs. The influx of "new fish" is almost gone and besides a few rare exceptions it is older players just hanging on to something they enjoy. Some of the goal post in this event are just absurd and do not reflect the player base at all.
The 400 million target seems quite reachable.
disagree - we are at 33 mil on day 2.. and with cake dough being so difficult to get (some are selling 50 for 5k grout!!!).. i cant afford to buy it. candle drops are too low, collies and explorer drops are a joke.
and good job bb turning a community sharing event in to a dough gouging event.
i work.. i cant grind adv 24-7...
quest makes me do old ruins.. gives Zero candles??
https://photos.smugmug.com/Computers...2010.58.46.jpg
Too difficult to get dough. This event is not balanced well. There should have been an adjustment for the levels to get the dough.
You know, if people would just cooperate a little it wouldn't be difficult at all.
The players getting dough get it at a rate of around 9 times what upper levels get candles at. I've been running DB's and giving a LS to a lvl 42 guildmate. (Our only guildmate getting dough.) She's getting 143 to 285 dough, while I'm getting 16 to 31 candles. This is before prem.
So 1:1 trades would be more than fair to everybody. People need to quit panicking and offering ridiculous trades cause they're afraid they're not gonna get dough. Run BN's. Get candles. Trade 1:1.
And the usual suspects need to stop offering 23 dough for 85 candles and thinking they're getting over on people. When you can get 23 dough by converting 46 candles in the PH, offering a trade like that, during an event like this, is somewhere several levels below despicable.
Trading in this game has gotten pathetic, especially during events. This is an event where we're supposed to be working toward a common goal that benefits everyone, not screw everyone over to maximize personal profits. All the Liberterians can just stuff any "free market" replies. Baloney. It doesn't apply to this particular community effort.
In the last 12 hours, we've done 24 million. Need to average 60 million per day for the rest of the event. And these are low production hours as people are still gathering the necessary resources. I've only contributed 100 myself so far, the amount required by the quest. It seems unlikely we're heading for a repeat of last year where the numbers had to be adjusted. I would expect to easily overshoot that 400 million.
I don't know what the community goal is based on, but the 15k number is almost achievable running the festival hall unbuffed, let alone with cakes.
I agree with you on this point. I'm running mortars in all 3 slots and unbuffed would just about hit 15K. I'm nervous about getting to 400 million, but like you said, people are just getting started. So you may well be right, and I certainly hope you are :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwalben
going on day 2 and we haven't hit 60 mil. that is 30 mil a day. With 5 more days that is 150 mil plus the 60 mil makes it 210 mil. As you can see, we are a bit short. Last year they did the same thing and lowered the bar because it WAS impossible.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwalben
Yes some of those low levels are extremely greedy. I haven't even finished my first quest because I can't get the dough without grinding a bunch of adventures and converting it. Just not worth the bother.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciara_Belle
I can see why some of the low levels never bother doing adventures anymore, there is no point in leveling up.
You make it sound like, especially during events, trades haven't been pathetic. I think I started in 2012, by 2013 everything upside downed already lolQuote:
Originally Posted by Perwyn
There is a blatant imbalance of ratio of lower level players and higher level players.
Would it be possible to raise the boundary between dough and candles to 60 instead of 50?
There's a huge shortage of dough, and that's the only way it's going to change.
All they need to do is triple the drops of the candles so converting them makes more sense - when more people convert the demand for the dough from under 50s will go down and they won't be able to do that greedy price gouging business.Quote:
Originally Posted by AlliNel
For anyone who hasn't done the math:
At 12/hr x 3 (so bronze swords or something) assuming you started at the beginning of the event - you will make 864 balloons a day (call it 850 for travel time).
850 * 14 days = 11,900 balloons
But you need 15,000! No worries - you will get 600 from quests, and 100 per day from the daily, for 2000 more, 13,900 balloons.
But that's not 15,000! Still, you get 310 from the achievements (have 10 cakes placed on you) - but let's ignore those. You're short 1,100 balloons and very sad right now.
However - you get one petite cake from the quest, and one enormous from a door - even if self-placed, that's 16 hours of 50% and 16 of 100% = 288 and 576 = 864 (say 850 for travel time). Still 250 to go.
But that's only ONE MORE SELF PLACED Petite Cake! That's 80 dough and 100 candles, or 360 candles.
Getting 720 candles from explorers and adventures should not be hard for anyone. There is no need to buy dough in the trade office, unless you want to go beyond the 15k for the 1k repeat rewards.
And the double ballista may be worth it, but that's up to you.
You only need a total of three buffs to get to 15k.
Doing everything for 14 days is pretty hardcore for this type of game.Quote:
Originally Posted by bombcar
What do you need the 720 candles for if everything is taken care of by the free buffs, the quests and the festival hall and the one self made petite cake buff ?
You need 720 candles to make the two-self made buffs (assuming you can't get any dough at all).
You didn't count the achievement buffs in this did you ? 2 small cakes and 2 large ones ? The ones you will automatically get by gathering/creating 12000 balloons.Quote:
Originally Posted by bombcar
I didn't; I ignored the achievements entirely - with them it's even easier; perhaps no dough/candles at all.
The only thing you need to buy is the 50 of cake or candles for the one quest. If people really want to buy cake beyond that, more power to them, but don't be surprised that the market is not very favorable for something in somewhat short supply that you probably don't really need, even more so if you are criticizing people for "gouging" because they could just not sell at all.
This is a pretty relaxing event compared to something like Easter or Halloween. 15k balloons should be pretty easy to come by for most people. As long as you have the resources handy, you can just set it and forget it for 2 weeks and self drop the occasional free buff if you want. In terms of community contribution and additional rewards beyond the top limit, that may take a bit more effort, but just for the main prizes, I don't see why anyone would struggle very much.
Well I hope your math is right because I am not doing putting in any extra effort for this event. I don't like it but then I am not a fan of most of their newer events anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by bombcar
People were asking for 5000 candles for 1000 longbows the second day...and offering 30 dough for an adventure they will turn around and try to sell for 30k. People are using that word 'gouging' pretty correctly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwalben
Yep. Same people every event. Over n over. Gouging. Actually, it's all the time, it just gets much worse during events.Quote:
Originally Posted by Narasn