Full Side Transfer

Just curious to see if this could be something worth pursuing as a possible option for balancing player numbers between Light and Dark.

For the context of this poll:
If you had the ability to transfer completely all research, building levels, unit XP, gems, gear, etc. to the other side as a new race would you?

A. Go from Light to Dark
B. Go from Dark to light
C. Stay Light
D. Stay Dark

Assume that this transfer would only be from one side to the other, not changing races on your current side, and the transfer feature would have a cool down of at least an entire round. (Capital capture)

This is purely a hypothetical poll, and votes are private anyway, so there are no repercussions for voting. feedback on this would be appreciated though.

Cool idea . Allow retention of everything but maybe let change races?

Though I know it isn't what you're suggesting at all, I'd love to fight on Dark Side as a human. Let us go rogue!

Metalsiagon wrote:

Just curious to see if this could be something worth pursuing as a possible option for balancing player numbers between Light and Dark.

For the context of this poll:
If you had the ability to transfer completely all research, building levels, unit XP, gems, gear, etc. to the other side as a new race would you?

A. Go from Light to Dark
B. Go from Dark to light
C. Stay Light
D. Stay Dark

Assume that this transfer would only be from one side to the other, not changing races on your current side, and the transfer feature would have a cool down of at least an entire round. (Capital capture)

This is purely a hypothetical poll, and votes are private anyway, so there are no repercussions for voting. feedback on this would be appreciated though.

This suggestion could quiet possibly keep the game alive for years! Choose one race as a dark player(I've already done that of course), same procedure as a light player(The race choice as light is permanent as well!). Then one would be able to switch between factions, if that is required of course. When it comes to guilds, I don't know, that is a bit tricky(Maybe my guild could have a light version, same players but with a different name when fighting under the light faction banner?) I find this suggestion very interesting, but we need the dev's to tell us if it is even possible, if yes, how much work would that require to keep going - especially when they are working on Kingdoms-Age as well   

Great idea !   

I certainly wouldn't mind trying the other races, but with the consequences of resetting, no way...

I'd be more than happy to switch over to the darkies to help them out, particularly if it was possible on a temporary basis.

If we get a free transfer/race change to any side, there would be enough darks who might reset to light... One way opportunity for some lights to pick a dark race or to have their cps count for dark would address the population issue instead of adding another neutral feature.  

Even as simple as letting lights choose which side their CPs would count in, for X amount of days/weeks. Or some roleplaying thing (spell of mind control? Bunch of lights dying and becoming skellies?) which would randomly make some people's CPs count for the opposite side.. Some lights would willingly choose to help darks I guess... or at least try. That's a lazy way I guess.

Letting lights play as a dark race would probably be the best solution.

I see no reason a light account cannot become dark, or vice versa, to include keeping race, progress, gear, etc. Would be much easier than trying to switch everything over to equivalents for a dark race. And starting over is a non-starter....no one would go for that, and a new baby account has minimal impact on the gaining faction's CPs.

And for new players, they could still pick whichever race they want, but based on population at that point, they could be assigned to whichever faction has fewer members. That would ensure equal distribution, at least. Whether or not those players stick with it is another matter.

Just my $0.02

This would be a major development from the devs but I like the idea.I would still stay dark,but anyways if this happens we can control the population balance. If people want to switch over to the other side that is.

I think you have to be careful that people don't load up on "free" stuff from their respective guild vaults prior to switching. The idea of individuals switching sounds intriguing, but raiding guild stores for personal gain prior to a switch needs to be addressed.

Good point. That is really on guilds, and if they have effective controls in place and leaders know their people, the risk can be mitigated. Not eradicated, but mitigated.

Or possibly, if you are in a guild, you have to make your intention known before being allowed to leave faction. Some sort of control measure, or maybe once they hit the big fat "switch faction" button, it sends a PM to council members in the guild, and the switch has a 2-day delay.

There has to be some sort of delay in the switch or else we could have some serious intra-cycle chaos. Of course, the chaos could be interesting....

Damastas wrote:

...Some sort of control measure, or maybe once they hit the big fat "switch faction" button, it sends a PM to council members in the guild, and the switch has a 2-day delay.

There has to be some sort of delay in the switch or else we could have some serious intra-cycle chaos.  Of course, the chaos could be interesting....

I think the idea of a delay coupled with a freeze on that individuals ability to deposit/receive from their guild could work as a solution. Unless of course devs would allow for entire guilds to switch...  

Oingoboingo wrote:

I think you have to be careful that people don't load up on "free" stuff from their respective guild vaults prior to switching.  The idea of individuals switching sounds intriguing, but raiding guild stores for personal gain prior to a switch needs to be addressed.

I feel like this is already a possible issue with players switching between guilds on one side, but it doesn't happen often.

Guild leaders should be just promoting people they trust. If something happens to their guild, it would be best that the mods addressed that person, but there's no perfect way to prevent it from happening ahead of time without impeding regular transactions.

The only thing I can think of is that each guild treasurer or whatever get a limit to how much they can transfer in a day, and the guild leader gets to control that limit. That would at least minimize the damage.

Or there could be an option to prevent treasurers from sending things to themselves, requiring someone else to oversee their transactions.

There are always positives and negatives, the important thing is that "something" is done(at least a try) about population balance!

There has to be a function within the game that allows people to change sides if it is needed for the benefit of the game. I would happily move myself or the guild. But it has to serve a purpose.

I would leave it up to the guilds to manage who has access to vaults, we can't expect the dev team to micromanage that - plenty of people have gone nuts during my time in the game - the factions have to sort these things out themselves.

But again we need to know if these things are even possible?

Until we know that. I suggest we make it so that players are only given the choice of joining the faction with less players or allow a certain amount of players to join each faction(maybe direct 15 new players to the dark faction then 5 to the light faction et cetera until the numbers even out.If the light faction get 5 players that stick around and all the 15 new dark faction players decide to leave the game, then its just tough luck!

The migration from Everos to Olympus was stopped before the merger of the two worlds, why can't we get something like it when it comes to joining a certain faction?

Btw why do we keep hanging on to the concept of dark and light, why not just make it blue or red team(left or right side of the map). Let me keep my orcs when and if I move to the "blue" faction, no new race selection is needed then, is this possible?

Perhaps when a Capital is under attack, players can choose whether they would choose to switch Factions/Races.

With the intention of giving the defeated Faction a starting 'edge' (let's say 5% more players than the victorious side). Everyone is allowed to click their race of choice.


At the end of the War Cycle:

First, players remaining within their own Faction, but chose to switch races do so.

Second, players from the victorious Faction that wish to switch Factions, starting from the person that is ranked highest get to switch until the assumed 'active' players on the defeated Faction side has attained that 5% edge.

Third, starting from the highest-ranked member in the defeated Faction, players that have elected to switch are allowed to do so, alternating between the defeated Faction and the victorious Faction until there are no members on one of the two sides that wish to alternate.

Note: If the defeated Faction had MORE than a 5% advantage it is actually possible to lose members. Therefore, in such a case only 1:1 transfers are allowed.

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Example 1:

Light is victorious. Light has 200 members. 100 choose to remain with their race or choose to switch race within their Faction (Granted). 100 choose to switch Factions (55 Granted, 45 Denied).

Dark is defeated, Dark has 200 members, 150 choose to remain with their race or choose to switch race within their Faction (Granted). 50 choose to switch Factions (Granted).

New membership: 205 Dark, 195 Light (Ideal ratio, based on 5% starting bonus)


Example 2:

Light is victorious. Light has 250 members. 200 choose to remain with their race or choose to switch race within their Faction (Granted). 50 Choose to switch Factions (Granted)

Dark is defeated, Dark has 150 members, 140 choose to remain with their race or choose to switch race within their Faction (Granted). 10 choose to switch Factions (Denied).

New membership: 200 Dark, 200 Light (Could not reach Ideal ratio, but much closer membership totals)

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Love everything about this idea.

1 Question though: If you switch Factions do you get a option to keep you're race or switch to one of the other faction's races or MUST you keep you're original race?

Gimli wrote:

Love everything about this idea.

1 Question though: If you switch Factions do you get a option to keep you're race or switch to one of the other faction's races or MUST you keep you're original race?

Exactly what I was curious about, I'm not sure I'd give up being a human but I could definitely live with fighting on the other side if I was still a human.

Nice and stimulating thread.

I think that the switch should be done after every war cycle, as for the map changing, and not allowed during a war.

I personally would stay on the light side, but the war must be balanced.

So, even a random switch after each war could be a slotìlution. Everyone / every guild must accept the war into they are, collaborating witht he other players / guilds of the same faction for that war.

Or the risk is having the same war 2 times in a row, or countless times in a row, and let the game dying for exaustion and bore.

Seems to me then, for maximum effect (to have as many Lighties go dark, at least for a time), that there should be the possibility of switching sides without resetting and necessarily changing race. Background story can easily be developed into a ''rogue/mercenary'' type of races, who actually fight on the other side.

Bit hesitant if it should be allowed for import in the losing faction only, so the losing faction doesn't lose extra people, because I'd like maintaining the possibility of returning to the faction from which you came.

Other solution (Fyrr mentioned it, I believe) is to let everyone decide to which side their cp go, but would this be sufficient ?

Or a 3rd faction, which cp goes to the losing side, whether dark or light.

Allow people to change faction, keep the race they have already chosen. dark or light. Will this lead to a perfect game? Probably not! But people will know its only going to last 1 war and the next might be a killer one!

A lot of cool ideas, particularly the ones about Faction choosing regardless of race. That would open up possibilities of faction specific bonuses (completely not related to balancing) alternating between each victory that affect certain unit classes to make them more effective in combat or something like a "Plague" that temporarily makes a stat go down.

Big problem with choosing which side a player fights for is the guilds role in it, a single guild switching factions could greatly give an advantage to one side. Plus there comes the problem of guild vaults being tapped by players who switch factions on a regular basis.

One possible solution is to get rid of Light and Dark capitals and make it a single "Goal" capital in the center of the map that a single guild has to control for a certain number of days in order to win. Each side starts the same way working towards the center, then when a guild takes control, they become enemies of everyone and try to hold their own. Guild alliances could actually be implemented to mean something by making them universal, for example a coalition of 4 guilds from both sides makes a move on the center, or tries to knock the other off the central capital. Sort of like a king of the hill mode
.
Realistically I can't see something like this ever being talked about seriously unless there was a major backing from the player base, and a significant increase in forum participation.

Metalsiagon wrote:

A lot of cool ideas, particularly the ones about Faction choosing regardless of race. That would open up possibilities of faction specific bonuses (completely not related to balancing) alternating between each victory that affect certain unit classes to make them more effective in combat or something like a "Plague" that temporarily makes a stat go down.

Big problem with choosing which side a player fights for is the guilds role in it, a single guild switching factions could greatly give an advantage to one side. Plus there comes the problem of guild vaults being tapped by players who switch factions on a regular basis.

One possible solution is to get rid of Light and Dark capitals and make it a single "Goal" capital in the center of the map that a single guild has to control for a certain number of days in order to win. Each side starts the same way working towards the center, then when a guild takes control, they become enemies of everyone and try to hold their own. Guild alliances could actually be implemented to mean something by making them universal, for example a coalition of 4 guilds from both sides makes a move on the center, or tries to knock the other off the central capital. Sort of like a king of the hill mode
.
Realistically I can't see something like this ever being talked about seriously unless there was a major backing from the player base, and a significant increase in forum participation.

You're right but something has to be done!

I see 1 problem in this idea: If I switch to Dark and I go into coop q with an Orc, well that won't work.....my Dwarfs will rip their heads off.

I asked for the option to change races ages ago.
I wanted to give Dark side a shot without losing all my progress.

I'd like to keep my unit levels too. (or overall experience invested)

With full guild transfer, race, upgrades and units levels i could try.

I think in order for the game to last, the best way is for there to be a way to try other races.  Same faction, different faction shouldn't matter.

I would love to try some of the other races but the time/effort to regain my current level is just too much because the only way to do so is a complete reset.  I would rather try a different game than just start all over.  

If however I were able to try out the other races it adds an element of "replayability" to the game and would definitely make it more interesting for people.