Forum: empire-en

Board: [816] News from the world of Empire

Topic: [335793] DE Community "talkrunde" Roundup #8

[-335793] ang1243 (GB1) [GB1] :: June 14, 2017, 1:55 p.m.

Hi Everyone,

On Friday 2nd June, the last ever “community roundtable” took place in the German speaking community. The 'Talkrunde' was a podcast that involved 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 roundtable after the Summer event and BATTLE OF NATIONS update, and so it was the first opportunity to discuss these points.

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 THIS channel.

https://youtu.be/rfprZmmu8rg

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

• Secondary defence value changes
• Attacks from Resource Villages
• Apprentice Tokens
• Tool Transfers
• Rewards updating
• Battle for Berimond
• Berimond invasion
• Royal Capital Event
• Kingdom Resources Rework
• Private Resource Villages
• Reworking the hospital
• New Event Mechanic
• Equipment Storage
• New 'Epic Questline'

Secondary Defence value:

In some of the communities, players have been unhappy with the changes to defences, making it possible for defenders to hold far 'too many' defenders due to the reduction in food consumption. This, coupled with the increase in the secondary defence statistic has led to players arguing that the PvP balance has now been tipped in the direction of the defender; Attack sizes and therefore strength have reached a 'terminal velocity' now, whereas defence sizes continue to increase as food production increases. This will put players off competing in PvP battles, as the losses sustained will be too costly, so they simply won't bother. The secondary defence value change will also lead to a strengthening of the Foreign Invaders and Bloodcrows, meaning more losses against events too.

GGE are going to monitor the differences these changes make to PvP; actively measuring the differences the update has made to the day-to-day PvP, they will compare battle reports from before and after the update, and the number of attacks being sent as well, looking for changes in the nature of PvP. GGE also highlighted that so far, the feedback from communities has been polarised, some believe that the changes are a beneficial change to the game, increasing the ability for smaller players to defend, however others argue that more attacks will be sent on smaller players, as the big players are simply indestructible. This is a topic the GGE are prepared to repeal their changes on, if it is decided that is the correct measure to take after reviewing all the different factors.

The review of the state of PvP after these changes will start Mid-June.

Attacks from Resource Villages:

Players in multiple communities have been annoyed at the removal of the ability to send attacks from RVs, as it could be used strategically to beat players in the outer kingdoms who would otherwise be tricky/impossible for a particular player to defeat. It has been said that changes such as this contribute to the 'dumbing down' of the game from a strategy game to a simulation. It was also possible for players to capture RVs which were located nearby fortresses in the various kingdoms, meaning they could get to the fortresses before other players, and therefore farm rubies more effectively (in return for the foresight to capture those particular RVs and hold onto them).

So... Why was it changed?

GGE implemented this change for multiple reasons, firstly there were technical requirements that became more important. Resource villages, as a matter of fact, have historically technically been structured as landmarks and as such have always been treated by the system. This difference in the attacking behaviour was therefore causing difficulties in laying the basis for future development of any landmarks and that is why it was decided to remove this chance and streamline one and for all the mechanics of the resource villages. Secondly, GGE wanted to promote fairness in terms of the spread of fortresses between players, the fortresses should average out to be pretty evenly spread between the main castles of players in the outer kingdoms, and therefore (on average) players have a similar ability to hit as many fortresses as each other. Finally, GGE wanted to prevent RVs from being used as launchpads for attacks meaning players have little to no time to prepare a defence, even if logged in and displaying the correct castle.

New currency (Apprentice Tokens):

The community were curious as to whether the apprentice tokens had potential to be used as a game mechanic beyond the Gem rework compensation timeframe. They also wanted to know whether tokens remaining at the end of the event would be retained for any future use of the currency.

The tokens will be retained at the end of the Apprentice Blacksmith on August 18th; however, it is not confirmed at this stage as to whether there will be another event in which you will be able to spend these saved tokens. GGE is considering having the apprentice blacksmith appear on a more regular basis, or it could be that a different trader using the same currency appears regularly, this is likely to be the point at which more sets become available with these tokens, it is unlikely that more equipment will be added to the Apprentice Blacksmith before August 18th.

Tools:

In the update Patch notes, there was a section which described a future mechanic which would allow high level players to support low level players with tools.

In the future, there will also be possibilities for higher level players to be able to boost other players with tools in a fair way.

The players wanted to know why the ability to do this through CoPs (RVs, Monuments, Laboratories, etc.) had been stopped, and also when the new mechanic would be implemented so that the support practices could go on as usual.

Currently, there isn't a concrete point in the future at which this mechanic will be implemented, although it is likely that a mechanic allowing this will be added to the game in the future, however, not for a while. The reason it was stopped as an ability was due to players using dishonest tactics, breaking the ToS and playing unethically. The price of rubies for each country depends on the monthly income of the country an account has been registered in, previously, players were exploiting this fact by registering accounts on the normal server from low-income countries to get cheap tools. Other players were trading highly sought after tools for 'real' currency with other players, which is against the ToS of the game.

GGE will continue to promote the mutual support of players, but without these mechanics being exploited.

Reward revision:

In the previous roundtable it was discussed that the top X rewards given in events should be updated/adapted, the players in this roundtable were keen to find out more about the details of these changes, and when they are planned to be implemented, the focus was on alliance rewards; allowing a wider number of alliances to get rewards for finishing in top X positions.

There will be new rewards for the nomad and samurai events arriving early in July, at the moment, it looks like this will affect the alliance Top X rewards, however with the new event mechanic for the nomads, the rewards for this event may well be expanded outside of the alliance rewards as well. The current plan is to expand the 3 Top X rewards to cover wider numbers of alliances; for technical reasons, the layout will remain as 3 Top X reward brackets, but the expansion of these brackets will allow more alliances to win these rewards.

There are other plans afoot as well; the foundations are being set for an introduction of a difficulty system within the game, which differentiates players into categories, so that alliances/individuals are competing for rewards appropriate to their playing style, and competing against similarly skilled players/alliances for these rewards. This is currently slated to be introduced by the end of 2017.

As per the recent announcement about the new event mechanic, there will be a new content package planned for every month, with this structure, the current plan is to extend/swap rewards for particular events every 6 months roughly, to increase variety in the game.

There are also plans to change the wishing well mechanic, although the changes which will occur are still unknown at this point.

Invasion of Berimond:

Players have been wondering why the event has not appeared recently, and the Roundtable members wanted to know whether the event would be arriving in the Great Empire any time soon.

Unfortunately, the event still has some major technical issues which mean it cannot be launched in the game, it will be back, however at this point there isn't a defined point for its return, as it is unknown how long the issues will take to fix.

Berimond

Drum roll please....

From the end of July, it should be possible for one side of the berimond feud to destroy the capital, and 'win' the event! It isn't technically possible currently, but steps will be made to make this feature of the event a part of Berimond once more!

Royal Capital event:

Quite rightly the players asked for an update on the Royal capital event in general, when it would be back, and in what form.

At the moment the event still has some major technical issues which are preventing the event from being safe to launch, and so it won't be coming back for a considerable length of time. When the event does come back, it will have been redesigned, arriving in a new style, however, it is unlikely that the Royal Capital event will be back before the end of 2017, and so players shouldn't expect to see it before 2018 arrives.

Kingdom resources update:

The roundtable members requested a general update on the kingdom resource changes, when it would be arriving, and any details which are likely to be part of the update.

Currently the update is scheduled to be part of the July Content update, however it is still being revised and so the content cannot be confirmed at this stage. However, some likely features were mentioned. Currently it is planned that the nomads/samurai camps should give all kingdom resources as loot, not just Ore as it is currently, it is likely that these kingdom resources will be lootable in greater amounts as well. There should also be more kingdom resources available as rewards.

Private Resource Villages:

The Private RVs update is currently planned to arrive as part of the August/September updates, however, the mechanic is taking shape quite quickly, and so some key aspects are appearing. These new villages will be purchasable with a new currency, this currency is likely to be available from event shops such as the nomad/samurai events, however this is not confirmed at this stage. The Currency should however be completely 'earnable' and not require rubies. Private RVs will be less effective than public RVs, for example, at the highest level, it will provide roughly 80% of the boost of the other RVs. These RVs will not be possible for other players to steal either, as they will be private to your account. Based on previous information it is also likely that these RVs will be included in the total number you can hold as a player (combined with public RVs).

Change to the hospital:

The Roundtable members suggested that ruby troops shouldn't fill up space in the military hospital, as they often 'push' coin troops out of the alliance hospital, making them impossible to heal.

GGE suggested that the military hospital could maybe be split into two separate sections, one section holding premium ruby troops, and the other holding normal coin troops. This would combat the problem, as they wouldn't be able to push their counterparts out of their spaces, it would allow players who heal both types of troops still as well. 

New Event Mechanics:

The community requested an update on the 'new event mechanic' mentioned in the Q2/Q3 roadmap

This summer’s Khan’s Revenge event will introduce a new mechanic in which you and your alliance members will have to work together to dominate the battlefield. Not only will your success in this event depend on your ability to attack enemy camps, but you can also put your defensive skills to the test by inviting attacks on your castle! Each attack you and your alliance members make on a Khan camp will increase the camp’s rage level. Once they are fully enraged, you can taunt the camp and trigger an attack on your castle. This is currently planned for Early-Mid July.

There is also another new mechanic planned for the end of 2017, which will have a focus on PvP.

Equipment Storage:

Let's not beat around the bush... The inventory for storage of Unique Equipment is going to be significantly increased to accommodate for the wide range of unique equipment given by events nowadays.

 

'Epic Questline':

The description of this new idea from GGE was somewhat vague, but fundamentally, there are plans afoot to implement a new rewards system which the top level of players will be challenged to complete, in return for these efforts it will be possible to earn some of the strongest equipment sets available in the game. It is likely that this system will work in a similar manner to the current Long-term events such as the Lotus King, Kala's Contest, etc.

...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, then please hit the 'Like' button below. It is less likely that these sorts of summaries will be required for the new Q&A video sessions, as they will be spoken in English, and it is currently planned that they may have Subtitles available in the languages spoken by the majority of players.

Cheers,

Angus

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