Implementation issues (bugs) aside, this game suffers from a more fundamental problem as evidenced by the practice of medal tanking as the best way to maximize raiding profit while minimizing risk to ones own resources. Problem: this is unintuitive and frustrating to newer players at the lower levels being farmed, and extremely boring for those doing the farming. While it's not necessarily a game killer (people still play and buy crowns), it is a lose-lose situation that keeps more people from playing and buying crowns. Consider for a moment the premise of the game: carefully guide a nation from prehistory to the modern era. It's a cool idea, and what folks are mostly looking to gain from the experience, with gaining elite status more of a secondary objective. Whether someone invests 20 minutes or a few hours a day playing, the objective is always to make steady gains each day toward realizing that premise (the more time or crowns spent, the more gains are had). The last thing on my mind when farming is contributing to a situation that leads to folks making negative progress toward the primary objective, creating frustration and driving people away from the game.
This and future games like it will be more successful as growth is further separated from risk. As a rational player I want to maximize my profit and minimize risk. If the risk element were shifted away from the primary objective (evolution) and toward the secondary objective (climbing the ranks), I would spend more of my time attacking higher value targets and lower value targets would not care less if they were being farmed. Shifting the risk element could be as simple as changing the game mechanic so that the resources taken in a raid are not deducted from the target's stockpile, they are simply 'won'. In terms of economics this is equivalent to creating something from nothing, which might be undesirable in some models but this type of game already has copious amounts of that between various bonuses, crowns, pay-to-win, etc. -- it's already not a zero-sum game. There is no need to change the formula by which the resources available for capture are calculated, or by which medals are awarded -- that can stay exactly the same, the only difference is we presume the resources are taken from the townspeople instead of the government treasury, which can fit with the theme of the game just fine.
This would eliminate the frustration and boredom associated with farming, lead to a significantly better gaming experience and a much larger overall player base. This would also naturally lead to better definition of the secondary objectives: more leaderboards to 'dominate'. Leaderboards could be created around every aspect of the game, including farm income, caravan income, road income, hunting income, best defense, fastest tech progress, best balance of these, etc. etc.
Please like if you think this would enhance the game.
This and future games like it will be more successful as growth is further separated from risk. As a rational player I want to maximize my profit and minimize risk. If the risk element were shifted away from the primary objective (evolution) and toward the secondary objective (climbing the ranks), I would spend more of my time attacking higher value targets and lower value targets would not care less if they were being farmed. Shifting the risk element could be as simple as changing the game mechanic so that the resources taken in a raid are not deducted from the target's stockpile, they are simply 'won'. In terms of economics this is equivalent to creating something from nothing, which might be undesirable in some models but this type of game already has copious amounts of that between various bonuses, crowns, pay-to-win, etc. -- it's already not a zero-sum game. There is no need to change the formula by which the resources available for capture are calculated, or by which medals are awarded -- that can stay exactly the same, the only difference is we presume the resources are taken from the townspeople instead of the government treasury, which can fit with the theme of the game just fine.
This would eliminate the frustration and boredom associated with farming, lead to a significantly better gaming experience and a much larger overall player base. This would also naturally lead to better definition of the secondary objectives: more leaderboards to 'dominate'. Leaderboards could be created around every aspect of the game, including farm income, caravan income, road income, hunting income, best defense, fastest tech progress, best balance of these, etc. etc.
Please like if you think this would enhance the game.
