CardinalZ said:

Hi,

I have played Might and Magic, Hero's Kingdom until the game was pulled from the internet and replaced with a WOW style game.  I have missed this game very much and I miss the adrenaline rush I used to get from it.  It was superior to this game in many ways.  Please, buy the rigts to Hero's Kingdom and incorporate it into this game, or restart it as a separate income generator.  

MMHK is based on the paper-rock-sissors game, with each of the three troop types having an Achilles heel and an advantage over one of the troop types.  This allows you to delete the defense/offense strategy and allows use of all your troops that you must arrange in a specific order to win a fight.  MMHK allows 13 castles for each member during the entire game.  A game cycle lasts about 3-4 months, then the game restarts with new alliances and fighting groups, but allows experience gained to be carried forward, but not troops.

Artifacts are a big part of MMHK and can be purchased and discovered during the game.  There are 200-300 artifacts available which you must assign to your troops and benefit you during battles, or give magic powers, or enhance existing skill sets.  Very interesting stuff.

I don't see how you can loose by acquiring this game and making it available to gamers.

The cost to obtain such, would be quite high, and the cost to play it would probably make stormfall seems like peanutts in comparsion. And Stormfall already quite excesive in regards of cost.

It really does take too long to train units, it's pretty silly.

shewuvsyou said:

It really does take too long to train units, it's pretty silly.

I made a push for this a few months ago, got around 600 votes (roughly) but it got knocked back, so I don't think it will happen

Ultimately, 600 people most likely doesn't even make a dent in what the whole community wants, you can't force people into speaking their opinions,  and Plarium may be scared in case the XXX amount of players that didn't vote don't want it changed. That said I feel pretty confident that the large portion of players would want it changed. 

Mehnslayer said:

As for the hamlets update, I think they added it to TD and SI previously and it obviously worked out how they wanted it.

How they wanted it being the operative word here.

I tried to address that in a previous thread, however it ended up going in a circle. 

I feel like maybe I should just take the moderator role and just tell people to not break the rules and clear their cache. 

I want the community and Plarium to work in unison, customers should never feel disconnected and companies should never feel like they have to do a specific thing in order to stay in business. 

Because of this i'm not sure how much I can personally do, I have made a few threads that have received a lot of feedback and most players, new and experienced seem to agree with the majority of my views or suggestions.... The issue is Plarium has hundred of thousands of players, and I can get several hundred to make a vote, it is smart for Plarium to listen to their customers, however without a massive portion of the community speaking it can be "if we change this, will the community backlash"..... That is just my point of view anyway.

Mehnslayer said:

The issue is Plarium has hundred of thousands of players, and I can get several hundred to make a vote, it is smart for Plarium to listen to their customers, however without a massive portion of the community speaking it can be "if we change this, will the community backlash"..... That is just my point of view anyway.

 

Stormfall doesn't really seems to have houndreds of thousands of players though. And the draft from people passing through not staying for very long is quite large, all those inactive and dead castles around proves that very well. The source of new players out there is not unlimited. Looking at how to retain players and grow the player base would seems to be a good strategy. But hey, what do I know -)

Facebook has (last I checked) 4.6k beacons on server 1, compared to the amount on Plarium... That can create a lot of players, as for dead castles... I agree, although they are needed I would much rather they be limited. As for looking into ways to "grow the player base" I could not agree more, and ultimately I would like to push types of updates that do that.

I made a thread like 5-6 months ago, its long lost now... but I asked what players could change in the game if they had a chance, out of like 4-5 options and the most voted option was to find a way to keep players around longer... i feel the majority of players that join are through the hundreds of clicks which become more of a grind then enjoyable. "Join my battle in stormfall" type messages.

Well there is enough games that did both rise and fall on facebook too. There is different kind of players, and those that came in touch with Stormfall on this server, doesn't necessary spend that much time on facebook or have similar interests as players that play it there. Pritty sure those that play it through facebook more prone to throw their friends lists at this game than those that doesn't.

I found this game through some ad on a site some place. Its the sandbox type and the meta of the game I found interesting.

In a blink of an eye you can lose everything in this game, and the recovery time is just to long. Seeing new players post on the forums about get trashed out of protection, or lose all their army at some hamlet etc. That momment is where most of the new players leave this game behind.

I had a blast as a new player in this game, until I had to go to the bathroom, and within those 5 minutes I was away from the screen one of my neighbours did raid me, and totaly trashed me. I took a look at what it would cost to rev the lost units, and was like WTF? serious...  At the time I couldn't really make better units that paladins and archers, and the likes, but this game is very good at give you like "bonus" units from the start, units you can't make for a long time, although you can buy in the shop. Its dishearteing for a new player to  lose that they can not get back (before much later).

Now, several months later, I can make Necros and such, but I also know if I totaly wipe one of these days, I will take my 20 USD a month (or so), and go find something else to do, because the recovery time is just way to long at this point in time. I also know very well, players I stomped on and wiped out in the game during this time, several of those doesn't play anylonger. Maybe because of what I did to them or I was a contributing factor. Success with PVP games is for players to pick themselfs up again and get back into it. Not sit around wait weeks and months to get back to where they was.

Also once wiped out, you most likely become someones favourite farm, because even you in a good league they doesn't necessary want to babysit you 24/7, and the units you build when offline you will most likely find dead when you log back on again, unless you don't dig into your pockets and pay for the auto hide scrolls...

Kinda feels like, once you get beaten down, you have to pay protection money to Plarium for not lose your stuff trying to recover. That such as SWEET deal being a gamer seeking entertainment and all right? Or you can sit in front of screen 24/7 and move your units to catas evert half hour one is done..... great gameplay...

oh yeah, happy new year....
 

I think another confusion, and I have tried to clear this up before... Is that the recovery time/build time is considered "hardcore" by Plarium, if it is or isn't is another issue but hardcore means more or less that you are dedicated and spend more time then you should because you get so immersed. With Plarium games, I wouldn't say Stormfall is incredibly immersive, I think that the build time is intention to attempt to keep people online for longer, however I have seen people with Que times up to 800 days.... 

I have this strange "circle" in my head of how Plarium operates, it starts right from the very core.... The units. Units (I would safely guess) make the most profit for Plarium, that is why the infirmary exists, and it is why 99% of updates come directly around units and how to enhance them. Things like the infirmary update are better for the community, and I highly doubt hurt Plarium's wallet directly. If you look at all your units with a price tag it VERY quickly becomes expensive, both from sapphires/real money... This is a deterrent for big players to use their army unless they are sure it won't die immediately, and for lower level players to stay catacombed because the 50k offense they have is huge. 

I think this steams directly from 2 issues

• Units build time
• Defense is unfavoured in 99.99% of scenarios vs Offense

According to that he gained 55mil offense and 16mil defense (I don't know his actual stats)

But that is 39mil difference, I am not DJ, I am not as good or experienced as him.... But damn lol

I think another confusion, and I have tried to clear this up before... Is that the recovery time/build time is considered "hardcore" by Plarium, if it is or isn't is another issue but hardcore means more or less that you are dedicated and spend more time then you should because you get so immersed. With Plarium games, I wouldn't say Stormfall is incredibly immersive, I think that the build time is intention to attempt to keep people online for longer, however I have seen people with Que times up to 800 days....

Mehnslayer said:

I think another confusion, and I have tried to clear this up before... Is that the recovery time/build time is considered "hardcore" by Plarium, if it is or isn't is another issue but hardcore means more or less that you are dedicated and spend more time then you should because you get so immersed. With Plarium games, I wouldn't say Stormfall is incredibly immersive, I think that the build time is intention to attempt to keep people online for longer, however I have seen people with Que times up to 800 days.... 

My longest unit to train at current time is  a Necro, 1 hour 53 mins...  What so hardcore try to log in every 2 hour to put a unit into catas + some other minor units? If you don't have any units to do anything with there is no purpose to stay logged into the game. The social interaction through the ingame chat is ABYSMAL, it bugs out and client hangs all the time using it. (And yes I tried different browsers).  Watching gras grow is not hardcore its tedious and very boring. Im sure over at the Plarium offices they have pleasure in entertain themselfs with watching a snail race a tortoise.

If I want something hardcore I do a session with h1z1 or something. You can spend hours gear up, get killed and have to start over with your stick and berries again. But know what? Its the journey collect the gear that is the fun part. The interaction with players you meet, and it doesn't take you week to get back into the fun again either.

Stormfall give no reason for a player to stay online if he can't do anything. If it was more like near instant unit build time for your resources, you would see people. Build their units, put them to use, go pvp, raid what not. Spend their spoils on more units. If it was a bad outcome, they log on later and spend their resources and start over again, and send out those units to do something, somewhere. Players would take higher risks, more battles, but Plarium have yet to realise that the most valueable thing for a gamer is TIME. There is only so many hours a day..

Gadheras said:

 Plarium have yet to realise that the most valueable thing for a gamer is TIME. There is only so many hours a day..

I suspect Plarium does realize that and it is the reason why troop build is not instant.  Plarium literally sells us time in the form of boosts.  You can produce units instantly...if you pay for it.  

I agree that the current troop build times are excessive.  It takes a long time to recover if someone wipes you out.  Even if you win, but just barely, you lose close to half the units involved in the fight...a much bigger handicap for the defending side due to the significant power difference between offense and defense.  That dynamic encourages players to hide in cata when someone is attacking and then hit back once the attack is done.

Its obvious that Plarium wants us to PvP and they add more features, boosts, etc to try to encourage it, but it feels like the core of their thinking revolves around getting people to spend $ for it.  I can't fault the devs for wanting to make money.  However, I do feel that making the cost of a big loss too high discourages players from actually playing the game the way the devs seem to want us to play. 

ThatGuy said:

Gadheras said:

 Plarium have yet to realise that the most valueable thing for a gamer is TIME. There is only so many hours a day..

I suspect Plarium does realize that and it is the reason why troop build is not instant.  Plarium literally sells us time in the form of boosts.  You can produce units instantly...if you pay for it.  

I agree that the current troop build times are excessive.  It takes a long time to recover if someone wipes you out.  Even if you win, but just barely, you lose close to half the units involved in the fight...a much bigger handicap for the defending side due to the significant power difference between offense and defense.  That dynamic encourages players to hide in cata when someone is attacking and then hit back once the attack is done.

Its obvious that Plarium wants us to PvP and they add more features, boosts, etc to try to encourage it, but it feels like the core of their thinking revolves around getting people to spend $ for it.  I can't fault the devs for wanting to make money.  However, I do feel that making the cost of a big loss too high discourages players from actually playing the game the way the devs seem to want us to play. 

Most players will be very carefull with what they do in regard to pvp. The whole "insert 100 USD" try again.... does not encourage pvp at all. I walked into a WOD by mistake once, and even it was good pvp points for that day, it was not worth the 17k sapphires bill it would take to rev units from it. The rebuild of the units took weeks, which hightlights did consist of spying and raid with DEF units to get more resources to rebuild for. The tortoise way of recovery I guess. Which will only be fun for so long.

Due to the ability to rev units for sapphires and just buy units for sapphires. There will always be a cost factor invovled when you do pvp, or do basicaly anything at all. Even you don't spend a dime on the game, your units still got a value because that is how the game is.

The return of your money is somewhat the same as the bank of South Park would give if you try invest them...

I think the guys over at Plarium need to ask themselfs "would I want to spend houndreds of USD worth a week to play our games?" Because that is what they want us to do. So how about it Oberon's, tell us what kind of games you guys (and girls) play and how much you spend on them weekly please.

I like to make the following 2 suggestions that will make this game more dynamic and exciting:

1) Troop building speed is way too slow => Make troop building speed across the board for all troops to be 3 times faster than the existing programming. If troop building is substantially faster, the game will see a lot more action and more fun to play.

WaterVirtue said:

I like to make the following 2 suggestions that will make this game more dynamic and exciting:

1) Troop building speed is way too slow => Make troop building speed across the board for all troops to be 3 times faster than the existing programming. If troop building is substantially faster, the game will see a lot more action and more fun to play.

2) When spies are sent for spying mission, large number of spies should kill opponent's spies based on the overall number/strength of the spies involved as well as castle sentry bonus points. The existing version give all the advantage to the defender with large number of spies, so the attacker who sends spies is at a huge disadvantage. The programming logic should be changed so fighting of spies should be more balanced. Again, this will dramatically change the dynamic of the game, and it will be much more fun to play. Using assassins to aid spy killing is not an effective game design. 

What puzzles me in the game logic for spies:  If a spy mission is successful, how would the loser know?  Spies are supposed to be stealth, aren't they?  I can have no spies at all out and still know I've been spied on...what is the logic in that?

Attacker has a bigger advantage with the attack units though, so it sort of balances out.  You can spy first to avoid hitting blind, but its going to cost you.  I've seen plenty relegate spies to beacons only and just use fireballs to spy.  Its effective if you know how to estimate the def based on what you kill (and if you don't mind spending sapphires to spy).  

Personally, I think fireballs are one of the more unfair things in the game.  There is no defense; someone fireballs you and your troops get killed, or altar if not enough troops out to soak it up.  It does not seem like castle def bonus has any effect on damage from fireballs; if it did, many players with tons of guards and lvl 5 fortifications would take no damage from fireballs at all.

My suggestions for making game more dynamic:

1) faster troop build times

2) lower the resource cost of defense troops to balance out the current massive imbalance in off vs def

3) Fireballs do a set amount of damage that cannot be blocked; that is a rather unfair advantage.  Def boosts should count vs fireballs.

4) Hamlets are too risk free for attackers; do away with the auto recall of offensive units.  I'd also suggest that dominion give a defense boost along with the resource boost.  

5) Extend defense bonus to all def units regardless of location; def is at a huge disadvantage in most of the game.  If you want people to expose their def for PvP, make def more effective.

6) Reduce cost of reviving units or significantly increase tournament rewards.  99% of the time, the rewards are nowhere near what you lose to earn them.  

7) Fix the lag.  Certain times of the day are unplayable due to the lag.  When a league mate gets fireballed and I try to send reinforcement or revive guards, the game freezes until the animation loads.  When the lag is really bad, I also can't attack or reinforce because the menu when you hover over refuses to come up.