Christine Hare said:

Hi there NightTrain, what is happening with your game?

There is no game play anymore. 

Yeah the game have taken a turn for the worse, The Beacon Massacre basically killed all league game play, experienced players who have a deep understanding of how the game work warned against this in advance but was ignored.  Now we ask for a force limit on beacons so it might bee possible for leagues to hold more than one beacon and for league ranking to actual make some sense.

But I think Plarium think that a force limit on beacons might stop the big players from expanding their armies even further. But the truth of the matter is that they are quiting or not playing because they are bored. 

The solution is very simple, add a force limit to normal beacons and add a new type of beacon with no force limit where you can get a new "Mystical Essence" that let you enrage your darkened trops making them even stronger.

Beacons have as long as I played this game been the core of the game, what drive it forward. And what makes leagues have to talk to each other, now that the beacon game is dead the game is no longer functioning like it used to. 

all of the updates have created a massive unbalance in the game re: spenders vs non spenders

this creates an environment where larger spending players will constantly hammer on the non spenders to reduce their losses as they will not risk higher losses attacking players who have also spent on the game to increase their fortifications, offense/defense bonuses etc

personally my desire to actually play the game is declining quickly due to this, I have no desire to hammer on unsuspecting players of a much lower level and calibre - there is no challenge to it and I also don't want to suffer huge losses attacking players who have orange walls and extremely high troop bonuses 

I log in to be present for my league - i do the daily clicks and build troops

I am not sure a force limit really fixes anything.

RandomDrop said:

This game is not suppose to require thinking on the players part, its designed to encourage a certain type of person to spend money in order to have their imaginary name visible to other players.

People are ranting and raving like its supposed to be a strategic war game and that developer updates don't reflect that properly but it simply is not. Maybe it was long ago but those days are long gone and never coming back. The sooner people can come to grips with this the less this game will stress them out.

no stress here nor is there much desire to play 

yes there used to be strategy to the game when the playing field was more balanced

before all the things were added for coiners 

my first league challenge when I started this game I sent attacks out to castles across the map that took over 8 hours to land boosts were not used I would go to work and return just in time for the attack to land and hope they hadn't stacked in my absence - and yes I won those attacks and my army was not "huge"

if you had 20 million or more offense you were on the way to being a "hammer"

huge players would lose troops when they sent them out of catacombs - beacon hits would take up to an hour - again no boosts 

People defended their castles and when the negative food was an issue I exchanged defense with another player of equal amounts so that we could have our castles defended - i thought nothing of leaving defense out while i was away from the game for 8 hours or more - now I would never do that

Sir Dan Saul Knight said:

I am not sure a force limit really fixes anything.

It probably would have when first asked for. Some layers more of pay to win later... not so much.

A Force Limit on beacons would at least make it possible to hold a few beacons, and at the same time as you fight other major leagues. Now you have to chose if you want to hold beacons and just fight minor leagues, or actual fight a fair fight against an opponent that is your equal. And after 4 years all major league have another major league on the opposite side, so it is a Mexican standoff.

Sir Dan Saul Knight said:

Zardas said:

A Force Limit on beacons would at least make it possible to hold a few beacons, and at the same time as you fight other major leagues. Now you have to chose if you want to hold beacons and just fight minor leagues, or actual fight a fair fight against an opponent that is your equal. And after 4 years all major league have another major league on the opposite side, so it is a Mexican standoff.

Even small leagues could muster enough defense to get some game play going again. Those leagues was actual very active before the beacon massacre came, no they are more or less dead.

I think you should be really clear.

A force limit will allow leagues to hold a few beacons, correct.

At the same time it will not lead to fighting between major leagues. Force limit beacons will be invulnerable to attack. That will not encourage any fighting fighting and help drive towards a heathly meta game again.

Feel free to argue for them but you should do so knowing what that will bring and what it won't.

The only warring will be picking off small noob leagues who are encouraged into trying beacons when they don't know what is involved because they see other beacons going up on the map. And that won't last for long as there are only so many noob leagues, especially with activity levels as they are now.

After that bit of fun it will just be a slow creep of major leagues expanding a beacon every x months after they have built 'x'm defence required by the force limit to be safe. 

The game will progress to a defence building (and sadly more likely buying) contest. I guess at least that is still some degree of meaningful competition for rankings over compared to where we are today (which is zero) but it's really not going to lead the game back to being a vibrant strategy game. Build defence, dump in invulnerable beacon doesn't make for great gameplay.

sure better than nothing is it not?

And there will bee some fighting, because you need to figure out how mush D is needed to keep me out :P

And if you relay want to step it up you can hold many beacons and have your big players move defense around.

Force limits won't mean anything if the beacon massacre returns.

Force limits will increase losses per attack, but won't limit the number of attacks.

I haven't been on Facebook in a while, but I've been getting the impression that their beacons have been dropping as well, even with force limits.  The last time I tried to log in there, all I got was a black screen, but I'll try again soon just to check the beacon map there.

At my most recent count, there are 5 leagues here with beacons.   Dominus has 4 beacons, and the other 4 leagues have 1 each.

Imagine if you will:

The coiners on Plarium.com keep building offense up and up and up.   Then the devs introduce force limits on beacons.   Gameplay went downhill years ago and off a cliff not long after.   How does a coiner get satifaction now?  How will they get satisfaction with force limits introduced in today's beacon graveyard?

Right now, anyone who attempts to chase out Balur and repair a beacon to maximum shine will attract test attacks.   As long as no weakness is detected, the coiners are likely to lay off so they don't take a dent in their infinite offensive build up.

With force limits, there will absolutely NO POINT anymore in building up infinite offense.   They're bored.  They will be willing to take a dent in their offense to ensure no noncoining league EVER gets their beacon to 5.   They watch and they know which leagues are coining and which are not.  They watch and they a very good idea of which leagues MIGHT have 'safe' defenses.   I think we all know that more often than not, a league will be impatient and try to get a beacon up the first chance that 'safe' thought enters their minds.

The coiners, looking for some fun, and knowing they have enough offense for 100 force limited attacks, will bring that beacon down and wipe the league's 'safe' defense out.   The coiners will replace their offense far, far quicker than the league will replace their 'safe' defense.


This is the way I imagine force limits going in today's version of SF.   (Stormfall: Age of Farmville 2)

IMO, getting a beacon will actually be easier without Force Limits, as coiners still have a reason, or think they have reason, to keep building offense forever and won't take that dent without a good reason.   Just don't give them one.  Respect their power and humbly take the little piece of the pie they'll let you have, as a sign of their recognition that you have achieved/transcended to a certain level of power, and status, of your own.   You have risen to the lowest level of league Goddom.


This is just my opinion.  I may be wrong.   I probably am.   Just thought I share my unconventional and warped imagination of what I think would happen.

Aegon Targaryen said:

Force limits won't mean anything if the beacon massacre returns.

Force limits will increase losses per attack, but won't limit the number of attacks.

I haven't been on Facebook in a while, but I've been getting the impression that their beacons have been dropping as well, even with force limits.  The last time I tried to log in there, all I got was a black screen, but I'll try again soon just to check the beacon map there.

At my most recent count, there are 5 leagues here with beacons.   Dominus has 4 beacons, and the other 4 leagues have 1 each.

Imagine if you will:

The coiners on Plarium.com keep building offense up and up and up.   Then the devs introduce force limits on beacons.   Gameplay went downhill years ago and off a cliff not long after.   How does a coiner get satifaction now?  How will they get satisfaction with force limits introduced in today's beacon graveyard?

Right now, anyone who attempts to chase out Balur and repair a beacon to maximum shine will attract test attacks.   As long as no weakness is detected, the coiners are likely to lay off so they don't take a dent in their infinite offensive build up.

With force limits, there will absolutely NO POINT anymore in building up infinite offense.   They're bored.  They will be willing to take a dent in their offense to ensure no noncoining league EVER gets their beacon to 5.   They watch and they know which leagues are coining and which are not.  They watch and they a very good idea of which leagues MIGHT have 'safe' defenses.   I think we all know that more often than not, a league will be impatient and try to get a beacon up the first chance that 'safe' thought enters their minds.

The coiners, looking for some fun, and knowing they have enough offense for 100 force limited attacks, will bring that beacon down and wipe the league's 'safe' defense out.   The coiners will replace their offense far, far quicker than the league will replace their 'safe' defense.


This is the way I imagine force limits going in today's version of SF.   (Stormfall: Age of Farmville 2)

IMO, getting a beacon will actually be easier without Force Limits, as coiners still have a reason, or think they have reason, to keep building offense forever and won't take that dent without a good reason.   Just don't give them one.  Respect their power and humbly take the little piece of the pie they'll let you have, as a sign of their recognition that you have achieved/transcended to a certain level of power, and status, of your own.   You have risen to the lowest level of league Goddom.


This is just my opinion.  I may be wrong.   I probably am.   Just thought I share my unconventional and warped imagination of what I think would happen.

It would have to revert back to the "old way" where people sent softeners and weakened beacons - all the people with precious troop syndrome would have to start actually taking some losses

Hammer players always expected some losses but the rest of the league was also included in the fight and had to offer up offense to soften beacons if they wanted one ... now hammers do not want any losses because they spent too hard to make their hammer 

Does DE even matter without food restrictions?  I'm still amazed at how many people go to so much trouble for lovar's blessing.  What is the point?

The only purpose I see for holding beacons is territory for fortress upgrades and badges....well....ok...I guess DE does matter until you get the DE badge to level 10....but afterwards?

JEZEBEL said:

It would have to revert back to the "old way" where people sent softeners and weakened beacons - all the people with precious troop syndrome would have to start actually taking some losses

I remember those days fondly as well.

It took some skill knowledge and experience to take down a beacon in an effective manner. 

- Strength test to work out what the defence was

- Determine how much the hammer players were willing to lose

- Work out appropriate softener sizes to bring the defence down to that level (not too big as no one wants to lose lots of troops but no so small that they are on the wrong end of the siege mechanic and ineffective)

- Determine who was sending the attacks. Get people sent to the right places.

- Find out their travel time and determine the when each person should send

- Tensely sit in teamspeak herding all the required people and hope that they actually did what you were telling them at the correct time - lol

Might sound silly but it was beyond most people to actually organise a beacon attack. Great reward for the "good" players.

It also meant that the attacking league always lost troops too. The softening blows would have to be planned well to get 1 for 1 kills, only the hammer blow would kill effectively with minimal losses. Today uber coined hammer kills with virtually zero losses.

It was also a social occasion, being on Teamspeak for a good couple of hours or more to get it all done with maybe 9 to 15 people on each beacon (4/5 hrs when we were doing multiple beacons across multiple leagues).

It's a great example of what was lost to the coining - just press send on giant dumb coined army that is guaranteed to everything. Absolutely nothing to that.....

Rowdie said:

This game was based on holding beacons. That has disappeared because of the beacon masscre and huge coiners for offense. There has to be a way to bring it back to where it was and a force limit would be a start. A bigger defensive bonus per lvl of beacon would help. A bubble ove a beacon for 24 or 48 hrs would help to lvl them up. something to bring the game back to where it was. Way more incentive to actually hold beacons again. It needs to change or this game will continue to die.

Hi!

These are really nice suggestions pls post them in "Sugestions"  thread  too....and hope some of them will appear in the game 

Best regards!