Question or Concern.

Okay, let me be honest here. When the Closed Beta started, the number of resources required for Research was high. The Healing of troops required other resources not just Gold. This sort of slowed down the progress in a good way! People actually had to participate and play for a good amount of time. With all the increase in rewards, reduction in required resources. I feel the game is being made too fast. With an easy to play and very quick to reach end-game there isn't really a challenge in playing.

The way it was, you had to play actively over a period of time. This ensured people returning to the game. It also ensured dedication on the players part. The way it has (d?)evolved after the launch, anyone can just breeze through to the end-game in a matter of month or two. There is no hard work or "building up" your account. Everything is easily acquired. More Gold, more resources, more storage capacity, easier region capture.

The game is being made an easy-quick to reach end-game kind. I tried raising this in chat yesterday on Kongregate. People will lose interest in something they do not strive for. If everything is easily obtained, there is basically no challenge. Currently the only time that is taken is in Building Construction or Technology Research. Other then that everything is easily acquired and obtainable.

Why so much Nerfing?

PS: My concerns are not meant as a disrespect to Developer logic or reasoning behind this. Or to question WHY??? I have enjoyed playing this game and met some very good people on the game. As such the nerfing really appears disconcerting.

CycLonite wrote:

Okay, let me be honest here. When the Closed Beta started, the number of resources required for Research was high. The Healing of troops required other resources not just Gold. This sort of slowed down the progress in a good way! People actually had to participate and play for a good amount of time. With all the increase in rewards, reduction in required resources. I feel the game is being made too fast. With an easy to play and very quick to reach end-game there isn't really a challenge in playing.

The way it was, you had to play actively over a period of time. This ensured people returning to the game. It also ensured dedication on the players part. The way it has (d?)evolved after the launch, anyone can just breeze through to the end-game in a matter of month or two. There is no hard work or "building up" your account. Everything is easily acquired. More Gold, more resources, more storage capacity, easier region capture.

The game is being made an easy-quick to reach end-game kind. I tried raising this in chat yesterday on Kongregate. People will lose interest in something they do not strive for. If everything is easily obtained, there is basically no challenge. Currently the only time that is taken is in Building Construction or Technology Research. Other then that everything is easily acquired and obtainable.

Why so much Nerfing?

PS: My concerns are not meant as a disrespect to Developer logic or reasoning behind this. Or to question WHY??? I have enjoyed playing this game and met some very good people on the game. As such the nerfing really appears disconcerting.

Good questions...

Let me try to provide some good answers.

1) Production Capacities

The old values help production for about an hour for the first levels of resource buildings, which meant that a player should click the "Collect Resources" every 1 hour or lose resources. The point is to provide a "smooth" progression in the beginning so as not to make it the new player's life miserable, otherwise he will feel disheartened and abandon the game. We felt that it was too harsh to ask from the player, especially the new player"to log in every 1 hour to collect resources or NEVER upgrade his buildings. We made it so now progression is smoother in the beginning and as you level up the need for more resources rises.

2) Production

Same as above. Production values were just too low in the beginning discouraging players. We didn't make it so the game is providing A LOT of resources, but we surely increased it to the point that a new player will feel a little bit more comfortable than before.

We do not believe that we have disrupted the economy or the progression of the game in any way with the new changes. However, we believe that the early gaming experience has been improved, because we want a new player to get to know the game first and THEN strive to get more resources through trading, battles and other means.

If you believe that a player can "rush" things with the new values, please allow me to disagree with you.

Also, wait for Guild Warfare. The need for resources will increase a tad bit.

Finally, we do not feel any disrespect, especially by players who have embraced the game the way you did. We love constructive comments and that is EXACTLY how we want to develop the game. WITH YOU GUYS!

I like the changes. If the grind looks too daunting to new players, they just wont play. If they see that it took them 5 days to reach archers, and then they look at the resource requirements for Heavies, they might not want to grind the game with 2 units for 2weeks to get a 3rd unit... Much less grind for their 4th/5th units.

I mentioned it in another post, but once more units are available, I think it will be important to allow players to choose the order in which they unlock units - with limitations.

For instance, there may be 3-4 different types of "light armor" units available to unlock and you would choose the first 2 in your first 2-3 days of gameplay for the average player.

There may be 2-3 different types of "heavy armor" units available and you choose to unlock 1 after about 5-7 days of gameplay.

There would still be investment into the game, and meaningful progression, but it is based on choices the players have made to customize their armies more so than investment based on a huge grind they pushed themselves through. Using grinds to keep players playing is a bad idea overall.