Forum: empire-en

Board: [816] News from the world of Empire

Topic: [333439] DE Community "talkrunde" Roundup #7

[-333439] ang1243 (GB1) [GB1] :: April 26, 2017, 4:18 p.m.

Hi Everyone,

Last friday another “community roundtable” took place in the German speaking community. The 'Talkrunde' is a podcast that involves the production team and the players directly communicating, discussing various ways in which to improve the game, and in some cases discussing feedback on recent updates. This was the first opportunity for the Q2+Q3 Roadmap to be fully discussed in the Talkrunde format. 

If anyone is able to speak German, we would like to at least offer you the chance to listen to the 'Talkrunde' (aka Roundtable). You can find the recording here, you can also find the previous Roundtables on the same channel.

https://youtu.be/q9oeoQ_HgaA

For those of you who aren't fluent in German, we have provided a summary of the discussion below. TL;DR? These were the points discussed:

• Loot
• Gem Caps
• Alliance Rewards
• Booster Boxes
• Troops won in Events
• Maintenance Times
• Berimond Kingdom
• Lack of Variety
• 200% Prime Time
• Royal Capital Event
• Private Resource Villages

Loot:

The problem with loot currently is that various loot bonuses allow the attacker to loot more resources than the defending player loses. Players can effectively generate resources infinitely from 'nothing' using these bonuses. This has then led to more problems such as increased multi accounting; players have created specific 'farm' castles designed specifically for the purpose of generating resources which would otherwise be rare/tricky to receive. This makes the balancing more difficult, and it contributes indirectly to increasing the gap between "small" and "big" players, it also promotes multi-accounting as previously mentioned.

Part of the solution to this problem is to make resources easier to generate through legal means, production will be adjusted so that you will be able to produce more resources using the buildings in your castles, this will be with an initial focus on Kingdom resource production as opposed to Wood/Stone. We will also look into the possibility of increasing the amount of kingdom resources lootable from Robber Barons and Events such as the Samurais/Nomads. It was also discussed that the cost for upgrading buildings should be reduced, particularly for legendary level buildings. The plan other than the previously mentioned points is to remove the ability for the looting bonuses to 'generate' resources, and the maximum amount lootable will be capped at the amount in the defending castle. The current planned time window is for these features to be implemented in the second half of the year (probably not before september - a specific date will be released later in the year)

Looting Bonus in Alliance & equipment will continue to work in PvE battles (eg NPC events and Robber Barons) This will help with looting NPCs along with the fact that the base loot may be increased.

It was also discussed that the transfer costs for transferring to the Storm islands should be reduced.

Gem Caps:

The current stats cap used for equipment does not apply to gems that use normal equipment effects (e.g. general melee or ranged attack). This unwanted possibility adds an option to use unique gems in an unintended way.  It is currently possible to create “mix and match” sets which are way more powerful than normal sets, mainly through ruby purchasable unique gems. This change wasn’t intended, and it further increased the imbalance of paying players and non-paying players. In addition we devalued all sets that were equipped as planned for by the team (i.e. the full 9 piece sets all equipped together).

In the future you shouldn’t be able to exceed the cap values ​​with the unique gems (Max. Cap values will be announced on the forum this week as long as everything goes ahead as planned)

One of the problems with these plans which was discussed was how it would affect damage reduction castellans, as currently players are able to fully reduce fire reduction, however if gems were included in equipment max stats then this wouldn't be possible (the equipment maximum is 50%) It was also confirmed that removing the gems will be free for a few weeks (after this costs for the removal will be permanently dramatically reduced) compensation will Include both players who have earned gems and those who bought them using Rubies.

These feature should be finished and ready to be released by the end of May.

Alliance Rewards - Events:

The community representatives suggested a potential expansion of the current alliance rewards system to include alliances finishing in the Top 50, Top 75, and Top 100, the suggestion proposed that the top 5 would receive the decoration, and the other alliances would receive a mixture of Troops/Gems. 

This proposal is currently not possible to implement, due to the technical workload required to expand the rankings this much, but in principle it is possible, effectively this means it is unlikely to be implemented soon, but will be looked into in the future. However, it is much easier to swap the current rewards for different rewards, with some luck and a bit of motivation through your constructive ideas and your patience this could even be achieved in May or June

Troops won in events:

It was discussed that currently the troops earned in rewards through the alliance rewards system in events (Foreign Invasion, Bloodcrows, Samurais) caused problems with food consumption; because they are credited to the user as soon as they are achieved by the alliance. These troops begin to consume food immediately and can cause desertions. The potential solution for this is to credit more food with the troops so they shouldn't start to consume food in the stores beforehand for an extended period of time (Similarly to how the support team compensate lost troops along with food)

Maintenance times:

GGE wants to prevent the starvation of troops during downtimes caused by maintenance. This problem could be solved in various ways, and GGE plans to have a solution for this problem within the next 2 months.

Also, currently Booster boxes often come just before maintenance, seemingly encouraging players to buy a bonus which will be used up during the downtime, this is not intended, and the solution proposed for this problem is to pause the booster boxes during the period before and during maintenance. In the case of unplanned maintenance work (due to a server failure, power failure, etc.), GGS will unfortunately not be able to provide a reliable solution for the time being at least.

Booster box:

It was discussed that purchasable chests should be timed in such a way that they can be used effectively and efficiently, arriving at the beginning of prime playing times, and that the chests should be as efficient as possible for different levels of ruby spend, adapting to how rubies are bought by each player.

Also, currently boosters are activated as soon as the chest is bought, which isn't always effective for players, however, Similar to the rewards, a completely new function would have to be integrated into the program code (an inventory for this type of object), which unfortunately cannot be implemented quickly. Due to the long list of current issues that need to be dealt with, it is unlikely that GGS will be able to offer such a function in the near future.

Berimond Kingdom:

An update was requested on the status of the Battle for Berimond event, currently the event appears between the long-term events (King Eric's event, Spring night's festival, etc.) which means the event appears roughly every 4 weeks. Due to this extended period of absence it was highlighted that a solution for keeping titles was required, the proposed solution is to reduce the percentage decline of the gallantry points providing the titles.

The planned timeframe for this change is to have it ready for the end of May.

Lack of variety in the game:

It was proposed that the point discussed in the Q2+Q3 Roadmap about a new event mechanic should be brought forward, pushing the automatic looting of NPCs back further instead. The point about auto-hitting was heavily criticised by the community in the roundtable also, so it is likely that the above proposal will be put forward. The aim for release of the new event mechanic will be June/July.

Other ideas for variety discussed arrived at the possibility of a change in rewards for events, which is looking more and more possible due to these discussions.

It was also revealed that the Underworld event should be re-released to the server at some point in May.

200% Prime time for small players:

It was proposed that the 200% prime time should become more common for players, this isn't possible at the moment due to balancing issues, however alternatives were discussed.

The general 100% 'super' prime time is very popular currently, highlighting it is a useful feature at the moment.

The possibility of a removal of the personal prime time was discussed, replacing it with a 'loyalty' bonus, this bonus would be dependant on several factors, including the activity of the player in question.

The percentage bonus value of the prime time is currently set at 100% in general, and it is rarely higher than 100%, as the higher bonuses have been misused in the past, there will be exceptions and special occasions in the future, in which GGS may deviate - players will be notified by newsletter beforehand if this is the case.

Alliance royal Capital Event

The problem with this event is that currently some alliances have two main cities! This is a major problem for the alliances in question, as it is impossible for these alliances to set defences, making them very easy targets. There is no fix/schedule for a fix at the moment, however as soon as we know when they can provide the required fix, we will announce it - but the event will definitely come back!

Private resource villages:

More information about the format of the private resource villages was revealed; The RVs will not be on the world map, and therefore cannot be stolen by other players (hence the term private resource villages). The maximum capacity of villages controlled won’t change and will include the private RVs too. You need tokens to buy and level the RVs up. You can get these tokens in the samurai and nomads shop, in private offers and in the armorer as long as things go ahead as planned. The main target group for this feature are; small players, players who find it difficult to get a "normal" village, and players who can not get the maximum number of Resource Villages with the “normal” ones.

These private resource villages will not be quite as effective as real Resource villages.

Wishing Well:

Additional information will be provided at a later date

...and that's it! Thank you for taking the time to read the details, and I hope you found the information useful. Please bear in mind that the information mentioned above is still subject to change, as this is a discussion around the features, rather than the official announcements describing the release of the features. You can discuss this announcement HERE.

Please Read: We haven't been able to give summaries for all of the Roundtables so far, as it is takes a lot of time to write summaries like this, If you appreciate this sort of information, and would like to see more summaries of the Talkrunde not just in German from now on, then please click the 'Like' button below to show your appreciation.

Cheers,

Angus