Events: reduce the time or cost of improvements (Poll)

[No Angel]

Andrew dear, you're such a bad boy! So this is what you've been spending my money for the last 3 years?! Give back my cards please

 

[fjaoaoaoao]

I would spend more money on this game if what you actually bought was worth it; the prices on things are ridiculous, but I understand that maybe it's the few people who fish out $1000 that are keeping the game going...

 

[Bootney Lee Fonsworth]

Agreed. Even something as simple as cutting build times in half for everything until the penultimate age, in the present case atomic, would go a long way. Methinks a lot of dropoff occurs when people hit industrial, times double, and observant players realize they're still nowhere near the top. And as a result of this game tilting more and more to long-term enthusiasts they're unlikely to keep putting in the time to either be matched with sandbag accounts or late game bases they haven't a prayer against.

Through enlightenment age the game is briskly paced enough to keep rewarding you with new things, I'd wager it'd be moreso in half the time. Industrial and up is where the real game begins now. Airplanes, tanks, decoys, marginally useful factory troops. It's also where the upgrade times become a real burden too. 4 and 5 day upgrades in IA and global aren't going to make any longtimer's bases suddenly lesser somehow but they may provide those same people more targets and larger war pools by year's end.

 

[Mcnasty]

So what xp level are you?

 

[Dvicious]

If they don't shorten the time to top age somehow, there won't be enough players in cold war to justify releasing a space age. The big spenders and early adopters will be playing on their own. Cold war hitting down to global was an acknowledgement that that is the last age with a wide enough player base for real gameplay.
....
A max offense, decent defense global age base in 3 months without spending or excessive grinding for instance, with the ability to move up and be a weak atomic. When they release space age, adjust older times so the same thing is true for atomic.

I like this idea, but the big concern I have is that this will get a larger number of people to global quickly but at that point when the speed boosts are gone these players will quit fast and not actually feed into the higher ages. Without any transition they will hit the wall of long upgrade times and a grind for resources that we were weaned into. I cant imagine sticking around if i was cruising along with 2-3 day upgrades and then suddenly had to deal with 12-14 day upgrades. the game would feel impossible. Its not a critique as i see the need for new players at the top but I dont know how you get people that need the fast progression to stick around once the grind hits. maybe there is no good answer.

 

[yemen]

I like this idea, but the big concern I have is that this will get a larger number of people to global quickly but at that point when the speed boosts are gone these players will quit fast and not actually feed into the higher ages. Without any transition they will hit the wall of long upgrade times and a grind for resources that we were weaned into. I cant imagine sticking around if i was cruising along with 2-3 day upgrades and then suddenly had to deal with 12-14 day upgrades. the game would feel impossible. Its not a critique as i see the need for new players at the top but I dont know how you get people that need the fast progression to stick around once the grind hits. maybe there is no good answer.

There is a transition of times now between enlightenment and industrial, where everything goes from 4 days max to 8+. I would definitely keep a smooth transition, just moved back to global / atomic instead (no sudden tripling or more). The goal is that active players can at least get to one age below the current max (at the bottom of the age) quickly, and then be able to move to the current max reasonably quickly from there. The max age can be as slow as desired to let Nexon develop the next one.

The grinding part of this game will always drive a lot of people away, but it is a necessary evil at the top to balance against the other problem - quitting from boredom after finishing. But Nexon has acted like they can't rebalance as they add new content - that needs to change.

Catering to players like Andrewdsz who hate the idea of anyone new not suffering through what they did will kill this game. And the funny part is that this is one thing CoC does well that Nexon hasn't copied - it doesn't take nearly as long to get to the top of that game. Sure, top players quit, but somehow there is a healthy pipeline of new players coming up.

 

[Cannibals]

What may have escaped notice in this debate is that BHG has already thrown a bone to lower age players. Museum helps lower age players more than upper age players because of the skew in supplies. Lower ages get a lot more supplies than upper ages ... like 3x - 5x more in my experience. Without any changes in build times, players who age up through GP will show up in GA with a lot more toys than anyone who is in GA now.

To put things in context, each age is worth 5%-10% increased hitpoints and damage for any given unit. Each opened slot on an artifact is worth that, and double that when leveled.

Another example: I have two Defender Spawn Time -12% items that give me nearly the same bonus as Hold the Gates for hardly no effort at all. How many have spent months and $$$ to achieve the same as what I got in 10 minutes effort over a weekend?

 

[Alexey]

This poll is so predictable. I voted for cost just to see if my voice would be the only one there)

 

[Dvicious]

yeah, resources will be easier but ultimately the bottleneck is worker time. I dont think ive ever had more than one worker not working for more than 12 hours since i started. It was hard at the beginning to keep them busy but now with the long builds collecting resources to keep all workers busy all the time is not hard. without shortening build times there will not be enough players in the pipeline to keep up with dropoff at the top.

 

[yemen]

The randomness of all of that is one of the big problems with the museum - what you got in 10 minutes effort, someone else might just never see. And it is only relevant compared to inactive players, as presumably the active ones will have similar counters eventually (assuming the rng gives them anything good). Unpleasant but not a huge deal for mp, but terrible for war.

Ultimately, I don't think Nexon has made any huge positive change for lower players with the museum, as it does not deal with the game's primary limitation - worker time. They have reduced the game's oil constraints with the jewelry boosts to looting, and I am happy about that. But you can only use it as fast as you have workers available.

 

[Manifesto]

A defender spawn time of ''-12%'' relates to the defenders you're attacking, no?

 

[Cannibals]

“Enemy Defender Spawn Time” relates to the defenders I am attacking. “Defender Spawn Time” refers to my defenders.

Worker availability is a constraint, but Museum provides an alternative to acquiring the same bonuses as aging up but with i worked requirement. I think this helps lower ages especially given that supplies seem to be more plentiful than at higher ages.

 

[pckrn]

are you even reading the posts? no one is saying everyone should be launched into CWA. people are saying global and less should be quicker. if you’re lvl 250 and you’re worried about people reaching lvl 150, you really worry too much.