Wow, amazing. A psychic playing stormfall.

I like this game though. I can send batch of spies, go do something, checking the spy results, sending raids and another batch of spies, do something again, rinse and repeat. All it takes is 10-15 mins, most likely 5 mins of my break time. 

Both posts have been removed, and I edited your post to remove the quote Gadheras.

No need for that language, keep it PG 

Mehnslayer said:

Both posts have been removed, and I edited your post to remove the quote Gadheras.

No need for that language, keep it PG 

Sometimes, the result of your design produce unwanted results I suppose -)

Hey Oberon/Plarium...

Any chance we could have a new server with faster build times of units? It wouldn't affect any of your currents servers eco system and you could getl test data from it on the subject too.

You would soon enough see if players like it and if/how it affect players spending and activity pattern right?

Lord Oberon said:

A revive with resources option is already in the game. You can rebuild most of your units using your resources only. 

Lord Oberon,

Not true.  Revive is a function from the infirmary where you get some revived free based on infirmary level and can pay sapphires to INSTANTLY have dead troops back.  There is no option to use resources to INSTANTLY have troops back.  Rebuild is subject to the troop build times...and that is not in any way, shape, or form instant.  

This isn't just semantics; they are different functions.  One is instant and the other takes time...lots and lots of time.

Mehnslayer said:

Well lets be honest here guys... He isn't lying, as much as you may not like that response. 

Revive is paying to instantly get dead troops back.  Rebuilding is cuing more troops for training and waiting for them to be generated.  They are not the same thing.  

What I am suggesting is being able to use resources to REVIVE dead troops from the infirmary.  That is not cutting production times nor is it making sapphires more readily available.  It is just giving players a non sapphire option to revive that is self limiting (limited raid attempts and if you coin the resources, there is a cap to how much you can buy in a day).

Lord Oberon said:

A revive with resources option is already in the game. You can rebuild most of your units using your resources only. 

To make it absolutely clear, at this moment we aren't accepting any suggestions that would cause inflation, and this includes:

- reducing build times

- increasing payouts from the Battlegounds

- making sapphires easily available

As I mentioned in another thread, we are responsible for relying on our best judgement when making development decisions that we feel ensure the health and sustainability of the game, and trust that the majority of players will come with us on them. We do not and cannot expect everyone to agree with all of them.

Lord Oberon,

I know you are quite busy, but at times it feels like you don't really read some of the posts you are responding to.  There is a significant difference between revive and rebuild.  That difference is TIME.  Revive is instant.  Rebuild gets added to your cue.  

Plarium has the difficult task of keeping the game profitable while still being playable enough for all players to keep players around.  Since troops are a major profit point for them, I can understand why they would be reluctant to make changes that would cut into their profits.  

That said, the game does have a very high quit rate.  This game isn't for everyone.  Unless you spend a lot of $, you have to be patient.  The intent you stated, of keeping players engaged and at the keyboard, is defeated by this.  Because of how much waiting is in the game, it lends itself to being offline or AFK.  

Thatguy, wording is VERY important in these situations ;) Oberon said "You can rebuild most of your units using your resources only." Which is true

Mehnslayer said:

Thatguy, wording is VERY important in these situations ;) Oberon said "You can rebuild most of your units using your resources only." Which is true

Mehnslayer,

He did but he also said "A revive with resources option already exists in this game".  That is false.  You can rebuild, but you cannot revive with anything but the building level on your infirmary (castle def only) or with sapphires.  

Mehnslayer said:

Thatguy, wording is VERY important in these situations ;) 

I agree. In this case it is cynicism.

The game really does have a significant quit rate. High retention rates aren't typical for the browser MMOs; this is the reality and we have to accept it as it is. Most people will always choose simpler and less challenging casual games. That being said, Stormfall has a much better retention rate than other browser games of the same genre. 

Most of the time even after experiencing a significant loss in Stormfall players will return (for their league, to take revenge, to accomplish what they started and so on). There are very many aspects in Stormfall that make people want to come back.

Lord Oberon said:

The game really does have a significant quit rate. High retention rates aren't typical for the browser MMOs; this is the reality and we have to accept it as it is. Most people will always choose simpler and less challenging casual games. That being said, Stormfall has a much better retention rate than other browser games of the same genre. 

Most of the time even after experiencing a significant loss in Stormfall players will return (for their league, to take revenge, to accomplish what they started and so on). There are very many aspects in Stormfall that make people want to come back.

I do know a lot of players that leave, give away their accounts to other people in their league etc, and they keep play them as alts though. Regardless how good league you got, and even how much revenge they dish out on someone that might wipe you. The incentive to keep play is very low, because you can't do much at all.

And tbh, you can't really call other games simple in comparsion to Stormfall, because come on. what is complex with this game? Also you have to look at what kind of crowd you tap into for Stormfall, and I would guess you would find a lot of players from 4x games, AOE like games and so on.

I still would like to know if we could by chance get a new server for Stormfall with faster build times on though. It wouldn't affect any of your currnet eco systems running. And you would get a chance to pull some data for the bigger picture.

I never said Stormfall was rocket science, but becoming good at this game requires a particular knowledge, mindset and attitude to gaming. 

what is complex with this game?

We have a Wiki , FAQ and numerous guides for Stormfall. Most casual games don't have all that because there players know exactly what to do. It's not like that with Stormfall.

Lord Oberon said:

I never said Stormfall was rocket science, but becoming good at this game requires a particular knowledge, mindset and attitude to gaming. 

what is complex with this game?

We have a Wiki , FAQ and numerous guides for Stormfall. Most casual games don't have all that because there players know exactly what to do. It's not like that with Stormfall.

I play a lot of games casual. So what you put into the term of casual I don't know. Similar browser games to Stormfall, or any came being played casual? And dude, there is wikis and guides for even Candy Crush etc. so..... -)

They are typically distinguished by their simple rules and lack of commitment required in contrast to more complex hardcore games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casual_game

So what you basicaly saying is farmville is more hardcore than stormfall -)

Mehnslayer said:

To be honest I wouldn't consider SF either, it's kind of middle ground... You have things like learning and mastering BG's which takes a long time, however 90% of game mechanics are a non factor outside of tournaments. There is no incentive besides social to stay logged in, log in - build units, catacomb units - raid castles, return an hour later to catacomb units and that is your day. 

I know family members that spend a whole lot more time on things like farmville or similar, than I ever do on Stormfall in a day. The ingame chat in SF so terrible that the incentive to stay logged in for social chat is more frusterating than anything else, then its better to make use of teamspeak, ventrillo, mumble or similar for that aspect. The number of times I have had the game lock up and freeze after type something into the chat is just.....

Yea I know, A lot could be improved for the game to function optimally, personally I think this game is a gold mine, (Plarium is already making a lot of money though) It just needs a lot of hard work put into it to revert a lot of things players want and to shape it more or less to what players want

Mehnslayer said:

Yea I know, A lot could be improved for the game to function optimally, personally I think this game is a gold mine, (Plarium is already making a lot of money though) It just needs a lot of hard work put into it to revert a lot of things players want and to shape it more or less to what players want

And yes, most players here want a hardcore experience... But with that comes immense strategy and planning, not winning by buying 1mil sapphires for 1 dollar ~

Well problem is some players can spend thousands of dollars on this game, and others got a more "sensible" budget to spend. But Plarium does cater more to the ones spending the most, and even a player spend a lot of time and effort and "grind" they can't get close to compete with the big spenders even by spending all that time they create content for the ones that spend a lot... If Plarium one day woke up to find only big spenders left on the server they would face a serious content problem.

- Very few take high risks because units take to long to replace - check.

- In tournaments leagues stack own DEF at alts, bot castles etc, and then send OFF to same place to farm the most EXP - check.

(The nice low risk PVP Plarium pushing towards)

- Abuse of glitches such as send resources to targets to raid the most - check. (farming bots this way can give ridicilous amount of resources).

- Obvious bots in game never removed even after reported over and over - check. (remove them would just remove raid content I guess, Imagine you had to start raid actual playing players that would fight back).

- With high risks come great rewards... uh no, FAIL - check. (There is no real incentive to risk a lot, because there is no reward in the game that justify the risk. You shouldn't be able to win big all the time, but knowing you have a CHANCE to do so, would justify the risk of trying. Loading BG'  over time for that big payout is not the same, its just simple maths)..

There is room for strategy and planning, but the game doesn't really push towards that aspect. It does push towards what is SAFE and give the least risk. I can sometimes enjoy start stalk a player, take notes of when he is active, when he send out raids, when its most likely he got his offense in the open and so on. and then try to hit hard. Then bask in the tears when get mailed about what kind of ahole I am that made him lose his shit and I made him quit, or Im on his death list and he will burn my house and kill my dog or whatever. (and yeah, you can get a lot of abuse after damage someone serious in this game).

This game could be so much more, but a lot of things just make it terrible sad... :/