Summary, Suggestions & Appeal after a few weeks in game

[IFiona]

Dear Game Creators,

first of all i want to thank you for this wonderful game, even though there are lots of things which should be fixed. But as we all know, its a Beta, so we should not complain.
This game teached me a lot. Majorly to be patient.

It teached me, TOS which we all agreed at the beginning are not important. Each time when you go to Global chat, you can see it clearly. Politics, ***, harassment, spam and lots of more all the time. When you try to stop these ppl, they will either attack you, or they will tell you "if you want to chat, go to help". Sometimes when i am bored, i watch global chat and each time i must think about the movie "idiocracy" (you should watch it, then you know what i mean). Thanks god, from time to time you can find some brave ppl there who are not like that.

It teached me, there are a lots of unfair ppl in trade who rip off ppl and there is nothing which can be done about, exept to post their names and screenshots in forum. But to be honest, do you really check this post before you buy something in trade ? But this doesnt matter because newbies will learn even faster how it goes and do the same.

It teached me, if you are running any kind of mines, you better dont go sleep or stay away from the computer, because as soon as you log in, you will find a messed up map. But also this doesnt matter because you will need at least the same amount of time to rebuild all, as you was away.

And yes, you gave us the option to buy 3 geos, mine are busy all the time (poor guys, they never have a rest).
And i am happy i am not a newbie anymore, so i was able to pay my 3 geos. I am happy i am one of those who can play this game every day, but how the game is made now, ppl who cant log in every day will spend their time with rebuilding all and everything after they log in.

Stone, copper and marble are not that bad. The geo needs 4 min for stones, 10 min for copper, and 30 min for marble.
The pain starts with iron (1 hour, if you have a few mines, even with 3 geos its a pain), but 4 hours for gold and coal ?
Yes it is a real life game, and everyone of us learnt to be patient (and while you wait you can watch the mentioned movie above). But it is annoying to send them out every day and it costs a lots of time.

Oh, and then there is still the thing about goldmine-hater vs goldmine-lover. Both have lots of arguments why to build it or why better not to build it. I respect and accept both views. But even those who like to build gold mines (and have enough recourses to do it, and have enough money to buy a golden parrot with gems, or enough coins and luck to buy a parrot in game without beeing ripped off), i dont think they will build more than a few mines. So is it really necessary to give us with marys sector hundreds of more gold mines ? Since i dont have any gold mines, marys sector is more or less useless for me, exept the 10 more building licences and the space which i got with killing mary.


Apropos newbies. Compared to other games i was impressed about this wonderful long tutorial. Basically i think it is a great idea to have a long tutorial, and ppl cant even turn it off. They are forced to do the tutorial, and i am sure you made it in that way to force newbies to learn more about the game. None the less i was surprised to find lots of level 20 and level 22 player, who not even knew how to talk in whisper or global chat, they didnt know buildings cant be moved and the only way to move them is to destroy and rebuild them. They didnt know anything about producing time.... The list is long, but i am sure almost everyone of us made sooner or later a whole map rebuilding after we found out it doesnt make sence to build residences next to the mayor house, cutter and forester where no trees are, fisher in the middle of the map, marble mason in front of a tree, cutter in one corner of the map and forester in other corner.. the list is long, i dont need to continue this ... Lot of recourses and coins went poof for rebuilding, but i learnt to be even more patient and you can replace everything faster with buying gems.

What did i learn in tutorial ? I learnt how to build buildings, and i have to make recruits and send then out to kill camps - the end. The rest i learnt from other player and because i had luck to join a guild where i found lots of help. And now i have one question, is it really needed to have a 2 till 3 days long tutorial when i dont learn more ? I think it is needed, but you should give us more information - useful information. If i would get more information, i would be willing to do even a 5 days long tutorial ! The help chat is a pretty good idea, and i am thankful to all these ppl who helped me there. Most of the time it is nice there, to bad it cant be used to chat because unfortunatelly it is almost not possible to talk in global.

I am not a game creator, i am just a woman who not even know how much work it is to create a game. I can imagine it must be a hell of work, but pls dont cause us a hell of work too. Please give us a new tutorial, and give new ppl more information about the basics. Dont let new player build buildings on the wrong spot on purpose, so they are forced to rebuild all and everything after a while.


Talking about gems ... I understand you want to earn money with this game, and i really appreciate it is still a free game. I wish you all the best for this game and i hope you will earn lots of money with it. I am very thankful for the free gems every week, i know this is something which you cant find in other games.
I learnt, as we already have in real life, we also have in game two classes - those who can afford to buy gems, and those who cant.

Those who can, they not even know what will happen with their map after beta ends. They bought lots of licences and buildings, and maybe one day all goes poof. I am sure everyone would be happy about a small information, what happens with the map and the buildings after beta ends.

And those who cant buy gems, well... They probably will never be able to upgrade their buildings higher than level 3. Or they have to learn to be even more patient to collect all the needed coins, which will probably take months...

If you dont have money to buy more licences with gems, then this game will probably ends for you sooner than you would like it. For each level you need more recourses, the question is how to get these recourses and coins when the licences are limited and available only with gems for real money ? And yes, i know what some of you want to say "you can collect the weekly gems or the gems which you will get later when you level up, and buy licences". This are probably those who have money to buy gems. Before you start, pls think how long it takes to collect all the needed gems to get just 10 more licences ! Yes, life is not fair ...


As i said, i really understand you want to earn money, but is it really needed to charge 500 coins + 300 marble for a level 4 farm, for a level 4 firwood cutter, for a sawmill, and lots of other buildings ? is it really needed to charge 400 coins + 450 marble for a level 3 mayor house ?
5.000 coins + 2.000 marble for a level 4 provision house or a barrack ? 800 coins for a second explorer ? 2.000 coins for a fourth general ?
the list is endless ...


Beside this, i might understand why you get only 15 member after you made a guild house, and then you have to pay for each member. But i never understood why a certificate for 2 member costs 495 gems, while for 1 member you charge 400 coins, since you sell 100 coins for 350 gems in trader.
I am sure the guild house is that expensive because you dont want to have so many 1-2 ppl guilds. Great idea so far ...
But till now you have 2 options to find out how many spots you will get after you made the guild house. Ask someone in game, or just make the guild house and you will get a big surprise. A short note in hovertext when you click the guild house in intermediate buildings tab would be very helpful, and i am sure this could also avoid to get more 1-2 ppl guilds. Oh, and i forgot how many ppl asked regular "do i need a guild house when i want to join a guild?" I think 2 sentences about the guild house in tutorial or somewhere else would be helpful.


I am very thankful to everyone who made our life easier with links like the combat simulator, the economy calculator or the trade calculator. you did a great job !! I still hope i can find one day all these things in game. So i dont need to have plenty of tabs open.
It would be a great help to have a window or whatever in game, which shows you how many buildings of each type you have, and best case which level and how much you produce in total of each recourse. If you dont want to turn your map into a desert landscape (no trees) or into las vegas (red blinking signs above the buildings), you need to use the economy calculator. It is a great help, but it is a pain to count all buildings, and to add or remove buildings, or change the level of buildings as soon as you change something on your map.
Please think about if it is possible to add something like that in game.

And my last thing is .. On top of your screen it shows you how many licences you have left. I dont know how often i thought i still have 1 licence left, but i didnt have any. Or i distroyed a building to get a licence to make an other building, but it wont let me and it shows me no licences available. I hope this can be fixed soon cause you never know if you really have a licence left or not. It starts to be annoying...


And now before some ppl start to write things like "if you dont like it, you dont need to play it", i do like the game, even with all smaller or bigger problems. Just for recording : With this post i dont want to complain ! If this post sounds like complaining, then i am sorry, it was not my intention. This is probably caused because i dont know how to type it better, and i dont know all english words. Just because english is not my first language.
I wrote this post because i hope the game creators will read it and think about some few things. And hopefully the result is a wonderful and fair game where ppl can have fun and the creators can earn money. I guess thats why they gave us the option to post our ideas and suggestions here in this forum. My intention with this post was to let them know what i think about this game, after a few weeks playing.

Thank you much for reading,
IFiona

[LadyTerra]

Very nicely said!
And about Mary's sector, couldn't agree more. I am a gold producer and I only use one gold mine. All those mines are indeed wasted. I would have liked to see more copper, cause I am always running out of copper.

[IFiona]

Thank you LadyTerra.
If there would be more copper or more iron mines, i could live pretty good with the fact that a geo needs his time to find a new spot. you simple send your geo out and when one of your mine runs out, you just can replace it without to wait hours till your geo comes back.
beside this today i noticed copper mines are indeed a problem. 6 mines only. even if you upgrade them to level 2, they dont produce enough for all your tool maker and bronze sword maker. to upgrade them to lvl 3 doesnt make any sence, cause then you have the problem they will run even faster out of copper.
I still hope this will change when beta ends....

[EpsilonSilver]

Excellent post.
Many great points.

[DarknessFalls]

This is a really good posting IFiona. The game of course is put out there to be tested and given feedback. So hopefully they will take a look at that and revamp some things to be more beneficial to everyone. Noobs and longtime players alike.

[Hobknocker]

I think it's wonderful that you put so much time & thoughtfulness into your posting. I hope BB appreciates the time & effort as well.

With regards to the cost of upgrading buildings for non-gem-buying-players, I think they've set forth a challenge. Maybe it's too hard, maybe not. I have a friend who's not ever going to spend a penny on the game, and he's done alright for himself thus far, though he's very far behind me, (I've spent a lot of $). But he's disciplined, and he's saving the weekly gem rewards, along with the level rewards, and he'll buy 10 more licenses, and then build more things that he can sell for coins. It's not that hard, really - lots of people pay for bufs with coin, and it's easy enough to build baskets & sell 10 per day - make 60 coins. Do that a couple days in a row and you should be able to buy a noble residence. Do it a few more days and other items will become available to you through the gem sellers.

Fortunately, you've learned patience, and that's the true key to being successful in this game.

[IFiona]

Thank you much SirRoy (you are probably the king of great posts here).

And thank you too Hobnocker. I am one of those who dont put real money in this game. Basicly you are right, it is possible to earn some coins with recourses, but its much harder and you need a looooots of patience. If licences are limited, you need to think lots of more steps ahead. I am now level 33 and the only way to get XPs is to do adventure, so you need lots of things to build your army. It is harder, it takes ages, but it is not impossible.
Right now i have the time to do it, but i a wondering how long ppl are happy with this game (special since there are lots of other things which causes problems), who cant log in every day and spend hours on this game to build an army without more licences .... Of course the game creators want to earn money with this game, thats why special things costs gems. But to loose ppl because of this limitation could also mean to loose ppl who are willing to pay sooner or later ...
If you give only ppl who are willing to put real money in this game the chance to buy licences without to wait ages to save the weekly gems (for just 10 licences), then you could loose those player who dont want to put real money in game (since this is beta and noone knows what will happen with the maps and the buildings). But this doesnt mean those player will never put real money in this game, maybe they just want to wait a while....
Thats why i think it should also be possible to buy licences for coins (or recourses) ...

[LadyTerra]

Actually, this game is how its going to be when it goes full production. Unless some catastrophe happens, no one is going to lose their progress. It was stated early on in closed beta.

[Hobknocker]

Thats why i think it should also be possible to buy licences for coins (or recourses)

And it is, though not in way that BB planned. There are lots of people selling gem items out there, and most are trustworthy. The other decent way to make coins is through the sales of adventures that your explorers find.

I think your point is valid, however. Did BB make it TOO hard to level up to keep the non-paying customers engaged? Time will tell.

It'll be interesting to see whether the recent stability issues are indicators of anything more significant occuring. Like maybe the revenue isn't meeting projections, so staff (developers/testers/customer support), have been re-assigned to other projects. That would probably be the beginning of the end. Certainly they've bungled the Easter event, and perhaps to the point where there won't even be one. Given all the testing done on the test server, that's kind of alarming to me. I have 25 years in the software development industry, and I've seen my share of disasters. This hasn't reached that point yet, but the most recent messages aren't comforting.

And as a gem buyer, I'm delaying any future gem purchases until I see what BB does to respond to these recent events. These things can quickly snowball to where revenues dry up quickly and projections become dire, and plugs get pulled. I'm not saying that's what will happen here, but ultimately, this game is supposed to be a profit center, not a financial sinkhole.

[GingerBeer]

And it is, though not in way that BB planned. There are lots of people selling gem items out there, and most are trustworthy. The other decent way to make coins is through the sales of adventures that your explorers find.

I think your point is valid, however. Did BB make it TOO hard to level up to keep the non-paying customers engaged? Time will tell.

It'll be interesting to see whether the recent stability issues are indicators of anything more significant occuring. Like maybe the revenue isn't meeting projections, so staff (developers/testers/customer support), have been re-assigned to other projects. That would probably be the beginning of the end. Certainly they've bungled the Easter event, and perhaps to the point where there won't even be one. Given all the testing done on the test server, that's kind of alarming to me. I have 25 years in the software development industry, and I've seen my share of disasters. This hasn't reached that point yet, but the most recent messages aren't comforting.

And as a gem buyer, I'm delaying any future gem purchases until I see what BB does to respond to these recent events. These things can quickly snowball to where revenues dry up quickly and projections become dire, and plugs get pulled. I'm not saying that's what will happen here, but ultimately, this game is supposed to be a profit center, not a financial sinkhole.

well ive been locked out of the game for 2 days. 2 days of me trying to get any response from bb or ubi about my problem. I cant imagine any company thinking thats an acceptable business practice.

I cant say if they have pulled people, but they clearly dont have enough people working on the project.