IronApex Turok said:

toggit said:

Gadheras said:

Eugenia Misura said:

Each and every player in Stormfall can reach TOP positions.

"Each and every Player in Stormfall can reach TOP positions." I think you should added; Based on how much they willing to spend to achieve so.

You need to learn Plarium-Speak, it is a whole new language

It is absolutely true that every player in Stormfall can reach TOP positions

How? 

Just build thousands of archers, spend many hours besieging level 2 castles and you will reach TOP positions in Weekly Siege Rankings.
You might even get 5000 sapphires .... which justifies the second statement
"Everyone can get Sapphires for free simply playing the game actively"

Obviously we are speaking a different language - we need to choose our words as carefully as plarium lawyers do.

Actually, it can be quite easy to win free sapphires from tournaments etc
I have over 30k free sapphires, but I am not high level and it gets much harder after you reach level 61 ... especially on plarium server where the level of activity and competition is far too high.
Much easier on other servers and in other plarium games. I have over 60k rubies on kabam's pirate game

30k sapphires would allow you to compete with the meakest of armies.    you could buy 180 dragons with 30k sapphires.

my scrap defense would eat that for breakfast. it takes hundreds of thousands of sapphires to compete. 

why in the world would some buy 180 dragons with that.. it would be more better to spend in resources, Fortifications etc when there is a discount on them from wheel of Fortune. Even if someone who is impatient would buy the troops he will still buy it during 50% or 60% discount that way he is sure to get atleast 360 dragons. Also if the person has 30k sapphires, he/she would also have a lot of boosts. so training troops would be a better deal than buying troops.

30 K of sapphires is funny thing. It is pretty much better than 0 sapps, but still it is so small number compared what you need in this game.

Just look one good offer (on 15 days based). you can buy 3 * 25 K as average. Repeating that once per month, for a year it is near to 1 M.

Coiners buy them more often.

Without at least 1 M properties, player is just a toy in this game. Very probably that number is much higher, but I used those numbers just to show worth of 30 K.

Eugenia Misura said:

It all depends on how you're using them :)

How can I do my 2mil XP now on this event if the BG dont pay me???

Answer: I dont....

And like me are a lot of people!

So tell me EUGENIA: HOW can I enjoy the rest of the gameplay with out truppes ???

Can I raid ?

-NO!

Can I do PVP ?

-NO! 

What can i do Eugenia ???

djmoody said:

Eugenia Misura said:

Lady Nerium KT-S2, thank you for your post. I can see your point and I know that you're representing the vision of many Stormfall players.

Each and every player in Stormfall can reach TOP positions. That, however, requires a lot of time, Resources, Units, and considerable effort. Alternatively, you can use a special Resource - Sapphires - to develop your Castle and increase military power to dominate the map. Everyone can get Sapphires for free simply playing the game actively, i.e. participating in Tournaments, capturing Beacons, completing quests and Achievements, etc.

Some players decide in favor of in-app purchases to save time. It allows them to progress a little faster. Stormfall: Age of War is free-to-play, and like any other game of this type it gives all players free access to all game features and an opportunity to accelerate their progress with in-app purchases. It is not unfair that players taking this route, thus supporting the development of the game, enjoy certain advantages. Again, all these advantages may be summarized in one word - time. It takes less time to advance, but does not change the core of what every player needs to do to develop their Castle and grow military power. Moreover, there is a number of in-game limits so no one player can dominate an entire server. Therefore, when we develop a new feature, we make sure it will not negatively affect the game balance. 

Yet another thing to consider is the social aspect of our games, which is extremely important. We want our players to unite in Leagues to become stronger. We understand that it is hard to compete against stronger players - it has always been, in any game - and that is why we pay so much attention to various League activities and give players an opportunity to unite against a stronger enemy. For example, we've introduced League Help feature to improve this aspect.

If you have any suggestions as to how this part of the game can be improved, I'll be happy to discuss it.

That is such a lovely sentiment but it's simply not true.

You can buy INFINITE TROOPS, IMMEDIATELY. There is no need to even engage in any gameplay whatsoever. You can simply buy a win. 

The ONLY players that even have a hope of competing with uber spending are those that have been playing for 3yrs+. Even then though it is simply a question of how much money someone wants to spend.

Now either Plarium are happy with that because they saw it as the quickest way to make the most money in the short term, or they are not.

You post as if you are not. So giving you the benefit of the doubt. Over powered coining that would need to be removed ASAP for the servers to have any future (it may well be too late though):

- Remove the ability to simply buy troops in the shop

- Remove 50%, 20% off and def booster items

- Lower the healer revival %

- Remove the ludicrous defence boosts for lvl 31 and lvl 32 lost arts.

- Remove the infirmary offence revival

- Remove the ability to buy fortress levels (make it a monument a league's activity and accomplishment, not to their coining)

- Replace these revenue streams with custom artwork for castles, beacons troops etc (yes people actually do pay just to make things look nice)

- Replace these revenue streams with new hygiene factor spending items that give a boost to your in game activity (e.g. levels to your thieves that would increase their speed and make raiding significant less hassle, ability to buy couple of extra raids)

The last point, hugely important. Money should enhance the return on your in-game activity. But it should never be possible to bypass in-game activity and simply buy troops/end game with no in-game activity. You have to play the game to get progress, you get maybe 20/30% more return for your time invested if you pay.

Couple of other pointers.

The Bonus on Fortresses should be obtained from holding beacons. The more lvl 5 beacons the higher the off/def bonus. The only long term content in the game is beacons. You have to give more incentive to beacons. 

That means finding a new use for the fortress (possibly it opens up a league market place for swapping/trading items, so big players can help new players and grow their league). 

You also need an open API into some of the game data. That way you get 3rd party fan sites building a community of websites around your game. Developing functionality for your game for free basically (from simple - who has grown the most this week kind of stats, to league tools that take the hassle out of running a league, to the ability to share and publish battle reports).

Btw I am open to approaches from Plarium if the money is right.

It is quite possible to create amazing games that also make money (making exploitative games that only make money has no long term).

Very nice man !

Eugenia, I wander what u will answer to djmoody's thread.

Ask your superiors couse things are out of your controll!

Threads like this u will see on all social media if things are going in this direction !

The game is dying and everyone knows it.

I have to ask guys and ladies.. 

 WHY?, just WHY do you even reply to the CM's posts or any other MOD for that matter?

There is 1 word that describes them all and that's ****************************

Eugenia Misura said:

Lady Nerium KT-S2, thank you for your post. I can see your point and I know that you're representing the vision of many Stormfall players.

Each and every player in Stormfall can reach TOP positions. That, however, requires a lot of time, Resources, Units, and considerable effort. Alternatively, you can use a special Resource - Sapphires - to develop your Castle and increase military power to dominate the map. Everyone can get Sapphires for free simply playing the game actively, i.e. participating in Tournaments, capturing Beacons, completing quests and Achievements, etc.

Some players decide in favor of in-app purchases to save time. It allows them to progress a little faster. Stormfall: Age of War is free-to-play, and like any other game of this type it gives all players free access to all game features and an opportunity to accelerate their progress with in-app purchases. It is not unfair that players taking this route, thus supporting the development of the game, enjoy certain advantages. Again, all these advantages may be summarized in one word - time. It takes less time to advance, but does not change the core of what every player needs to do to develop their Castle and grow military power. Moreover, there is a number of in-game limits so no one player can dominate an entire server. Therefore, when we develop a new feature, we make sure it will not negatively affect the game balance. 

Yet another thing to consider is the social aspect of our games, which is extremely important. We want our players to unite in Leagues to become stronger. We understand that it is hard to compete against stronger players - it has always been, in any game - and that is why we pay so much attention to various League activities and give players an opportunity to unite against a stronger enemy. For example, we've introduced League Help feature to improve this aspect.

If you have any suggestions as to how this part of the game can be improved, I'll be happy to discuss it.

That is such a lovely sentiment but it's simply not true.

You can buy INFINITE TROOPS, IMMEDIATELY. There is no need to even engage in any gameplay whatsoever. You can simply buy a win. 

The ONLY players that even have a hope of competing with uber spending are those that have been playing for 3yrs+. Even then though it is simply a question of how much money someone wants to spend.

Now either Plarium are happy with that because they saw it as the quickest way to make the most money in the short term, or they are not.

You post as if you are not. So giving you the benefit of the doubt. Over powered coining that would need to be removed ASAP for the servers to have any future (it may well be too late though):

- Remove the ability to simply buy troops in the shop

- Remove 50%, 20% off and def booster items

- Lower the healer revival %

- Remove the ludicrous defence boosts for lvl 31 and lvl 32 lost arts.

- Remove the infirmary offence revival

- Remove the ability to buy fortress levels (make it a monument a league's activity and accomplishment, not to their coining)

- Replace these revenue streams with custom artwork for castles, beacons troops etc (yes people actually do pay just to make things look nice)

- Replace these revenue streams with new hygiene factor spending items that give a boost to your in game activity (e.g. levels to your thieves that would increase their speed and make raiding significant less hassle, ability to buy couple of extra raids)

The last point, hugely important. Money should enhance the return on your in-game activity. But it should never be possible to bypass in-game activity and simply buy troops/end game with no in-game activity. You have to play the game to get progress, you get maybe 20/30% more return for your time invested if you pay.

Couple of other pointers.

The Bonus on Fortresses should be obtained from holding beacons. The more lvl 5 beacons the higher the off/def bonus. The only long term content in the game is beacons. You have to give more incentive to beacons. 

That means finding a new use for the fortress (possibly it opens up a league market place for swapping/trading items, so big players can help new players and grow their league). 

You also need an open API into some of the game data. That way you get 3rd party fan sites building a community of websites around your game. Developing functionality for your game for free basically (from simple - who has grown the most this week kind of stats, to league tools that take the hassle out of running a league, to the ability to share and publish battle reports).

Btw I am open to approaches from Plarium if the money is right.

It is quite possible to create amazing games that also make money (making exploitative games that only make money has no long term).

how long til there is an "instant victory" item in the black market. where you just buy it, apply it to a castle you want to raid or a beacon  you want to take and you automatically win, no matter how much defense is there?

IronApex Turok said:

how long til there is an "instant victory" item in the black market. where you just buy it, apply it to a castle you want to raid or a beacon  you want to take and you automatically win, no matter how much defense is there?

I dont think that will be there.. cause it is hard to say how much sapphires that should cost..

Eugenia Misura said:

Each and every player in Stormfall can reach TOP positions. That, however, requires a lot of time, Resources, Units, and considerable effort. Alternatively, you can use a special Resource - Sapphires - to develop your Castle and increase military power to dominate the map. Everyone can get Sapphires for free simply playing the game actively, i.e. participating in Tournaments, capturing Beacons, completing quests and Achievements, etc.

Some players decide in favor of in-app purchases to save time. It allows them to progress a little faster. Stormfall: Age of War is free-to-play, and like any other game of this type it gives all players free access to all game features and an opportunity to accelerate their progress with in-app purchases. It is not unfair that players taking this route, thus supporting the development of the game, enjoy certain advantages. Again, all these advantages may be summarized in one word - time. It takes less time to advance, but does not change the core of what every player needs to do to develop their Castle and grow military power. Moreover, there is a number of in-game limits so no one player can dominate an entire server. Therefore, when we develop a new feature, we make sure it will not negatively affect the game balance. 

Yet another thing to consider is the social aspect of our games, which is extremely important. We want our players to unite in Leagues to become stronger. We understand that it is hard to compete against stronger players - it has always been, in any game - and that is why we pay so much attention to various League activities and give players an opportunity to unite against a stronger enemy. For example, we've introduced League Help feature to improve this aspect.

If you have any suggestions as to how this part of the game can be improved, I'll be happy to discuss it.

I'd disagree.  You say in app purchases allow one to grow a LITTLE faster?  Have you played the game?  I am a light spender who has learned smart play from league mates as well as from posts experienced players (like DJMoody) put on the forums.  I've had pretty good growth from bgs, using tournaments for net gain rather than loss, etc.  Even so, the growth I get with smart play and a small amount of money is a mere drop in the bucket next to what the bigger spenders can buy in the same timeframe.  

What limits do you refer to?  There is a limit on how much gold/iron you can buy and I see the packs allow you to buy only so many before they refresh.  I've heard mention that at a certain negative food production level it won't let you cue more troops, but that doesn't stop you from buying troops nor does it stop you from using production boosts to get past that food problem for long enough to cue.  The fact is that these new features have allowed the gap between big spender and everyone else to grow massive.  There are players with armies big enough to take just about any beacon on the map by themselves.  How is that balanced?  I will not say these are not smart players who built a good portion of their armies from time and smart play.  I've seen the difference between stupid spenders and smart spenders.  I will say that through smart play alone, a free player cannot compete with a smart big spender. The gap in growth is just too big.  

For all your talk of making sure that time is a the big factor and that new features will not negatively impact the balance, what I've seen says the opposite.  The "free" sapphires you mention are in very small quantity; what most players get for free in a month is easily eclipsed by spending $10 on one of the discounted packs.  Also, these packs are not available for sapphires; you have to spend real money to get those.  That, by itself creates a big gap in opportunity.  Spend real money and get tons sapphires, troops, and bonus freebies.  Earn sapphires through gameplay and either pay full price for stuff, wait for the rare 80% discount on what you want to come up, or gamble on that prize draw in hopes of winning a pack.  Additionally, look at all these temporary buffs that are real money only.  You can't use sapphires for the 50% off/def boost.  You can't use sapphires for the temporary Smoulderstone Keep castle skin (and the bonuses that come with it).  Sure, I can get it for $9.90 since I don't spend much or often and get the low priced packs.  However, is that really balanced?  Should a player HAVE to spend real money to get those benefits?  

Players have made suggestions on how to improve the balance time and time again.  Guess what has happened?  Either the mods say that Plarium said no (such as having the free revive work everywhere, just like the paid revive does and reducing troop build times) or we get no response at all.  The main "response" we've seen is bugs going unfixed, more cash only things added to the game, and higher cost to compete.  

Its really hard to say who is more to blame for the current state of the server.  Plarium are the ones who made it possible, but players are the ones who have voted with wallets that they "like" this new stuff.  A small portion of the community comes to the forums to complain, but its a mixed message.  We complain here while the money flows in from players who are buying the stuff.  Heck, probably some of those who complain and hate these new additions are still buying them.  

Warrior said:

IronApex Turok said:

how long til there is an "instant victory" item in the black market. where you just buy it, apply it to a castle you want to raid or a beacon  you want to take and you automatically win, no matter how much defense is there?

I dont think that will be there.. cause it is hard to say how much sapphires that should cost..

Plarium could just allow fireballs to be used on beacons and hamlets as well, and remove the cap on how many you can send.  That way the cost would be based on the amount of defense in the target, and you could send as many as you wanted with a few clicks. 

Warrior said:

BiohazarD said:

Warrior said:

IronApex Turok said:

how long til there is an "instant victory" item in the black market. where you just buy it, apply it to a castle you want to raid or a beacon  you want to take and you automatically win, no matter how much defense is there?

I dont think that will be there.. cause it is hard to say how much sapphires that should cost..

Plarium could just allow fireballs to be used on beacons and hamlets as well, and remove the cap on how many you can send.  That way the cost would be based on the amount of defense in the target, and you could send as many as you wanted with a few clicks. 

Lol i know who will be very happy to see this happen. 

OR, they could make fireballs available for all, using the mage building. And it would require a MANA resource to use them, and in stead of have people buy fireballs, you could buy boosters for MANA to gain them faster.  but hey, can't mess with Plariums cash cow...

djmoody said:

The last point, hugely important. Money should enhance the return on your in-game activity. But it should never be possible to bypass in-game activity and simply buy troops/end game with no in-game activity. You have to play the game to get progress, you get maybe 20/30% more return for your time invested if you pay.

Couple of other pointers.

The Bonus on Fortresses should be obtained from holding beacons. The more lvl 5 beacons the higher the off/def bonus. The only long term content in the game is beacons. You have to give more incentive to beacons. 

That means finding a new use for the fortress (possibly it opens up a league market place for swapping/trading items, so big players can help new players and grow their league). 

You also need an open API into some of the game data. That way you get 3rd party fan sites building a community of websites around your game. Developing functionality for your game for free basically (from simple - who has grown the most this week kind of stats, to league tools that take the hassle out of running a league, to the ability to share and publish battle reports).

Btw I am open to approaches from Plarium if the money is right.

It is quite possible to create amazing games that also make money (making exploitative games that only make money has no long term).

Dead on.  Money to bypass in game activity is part of what kills the game.

Changing fortress function and taking away bonuses players paid for would cause quite a riot.  What I'd suggest is linking fortress bonus to league achievements.  The more your league achieves, the better your fortress bonus.  

Considering how much drama comes from dark essence (who gets and how much), perhaps they could link beacons to fortresses in this way:  make fortresses have skills that boost rewards you get from playing the game.  The more beacons you hold, the more skill points you earn to allocate into your fortress skills.  These fortress skills could be things like increasing the amount your troops can carry (get more from raids), increase points your league earns from tournaments (rather than buy an xp boost for an xp tournament, hold 10 beacons, invest in points skill and get a boost to your points earned), increase build speed of troops and/or reduce resource cost of troops.  

One of the big things discouraging holding beacons right now is that certain leagues have massive hammers that can smash just about every beacon on the map and those leagues are warring, hitting each other's allies, etc, resulting in many losing their defense over and over again.  End game content can't be made too easy, or otherwise the whole thing becomes a bad joke.  However, addressing the dynamics that are killing the beacon game seems necessary to help encourage holding beacons.  

Perhaps one thing that would help is granting additional defense bonuses to leagues based on activity of players.  That is a hard metric to measure.  It is usually a handful of players who do the bulk of the "work" in earning rewards for league quests.  Perhaps it could be based on what % of the league is participating in those quests and earning points in tournaments?  The higher the % participating, the higher the beacon defense bonus.

Warrior said:

BiohazarD said:

Warrior said:

IronApex Turok said:

how long til there is an "instant victory" item in the black market. where you just buy it, apply it to a castle you want to raid or a beacon  you want to take and you automatically win, no matter how much defense is there?

I dont think that will be there.. cause it is hard to say how much sapphires that should cost..

Plarium could just allow fireballs to be used on beacons and hamlets as well, and remove the cap on how many you can send.  That way the cost would be based on the amount of defense in the target, and you could send as many as you wanted with a few clicks. 

Lol i know who will be very happy to see this happen. 

Changing fireballs to work that way is much more likely than selling an instant victory item.  Of course, if I were to add an instant victory item to the game, I'd be evil and make it an item that gives no points, kills no troops, takes no resources.  Use it and all the opposing troops at the location are sent back to their owner's cata =)  

Naturally, to ensure proper balance if such an item were introduced, anyone who uses one will immediately have their castle skin replaced with a bouncy castle skin and a huge banner saying "I won Stormfall".  Their troops would all stay at home for 7 days partying.  Any troops currently out, including sieges and defense at others' castles will immediately be recalled to party.  Troops will be too busy partying to defend against attacks and resources will immediately be spent on the party for the full 7 day time span.  Naturally, since the troops are partying, they cannot be sent to cata.  

Changing fortress function and taking away bonuses players paid for would cause quite a riot.  What I'd suggest is linking fortress bonus to league achievements.  The more your league achieves, the better your fortress bonus.  

One of the big things discouraging holding beacons right now is that certain leagues have massive hammers that can smash just about every beacon on the map and those leagues are warring, hitting each other's allies, etc, resulting in many losing their defense over and over again.  End game content can't be made too easy, or otherwise the whole thing becomes a bad joke.  However, addressing the dynamics that are killing the beacon game seems necessary to help encourage holding beacons.  

ThatGuy said:

Changing fortress function and taking away bonuses players paid for would cause quite a riot.  What I'd suggest is linking fortress bonus to league achievements.  The more your league achieves, the better your fortress bonus.  

One of the big things discouraging holding beacons right now is that certain leagues have massive hammers that can smash just about every beacon on the map and those leagues are warring, hitting each other's allies, etc, resulting in many losing their defense over and over again.  End game content can't be made too easy, or otherwise the whole thing becomes a bad joke.  However, addressing the dynamics that are killing the beacon game seems necessary to help encourage holding beacons.  

I think the amount of thought you have put into this is great.   The big problem is Coiners, and not JUST Coiners.  There are entire leagues of Coiners out there now and there is literally NO HOPE to compete with them.

I understand your point, Djmoody. However, we won’t make the changes you suggest.

Our developers have their own vision of the game, and it should come as no surprise that the game development process is mostly based on their vision, and their plans. Of course, multiple factors are taken into consideration: analytics, stats, player feedback and suggestions, marketing research, and many other things. However, neither of the factors can be prevalent. We understand that some players would like others to have less benefits and armies. However, it's not the direction we'd like our game to evolve in.

You say that Beacon is the only long term content in the game. I would rather say that it’s because Leagues is the most interesting aspect of the game. And I agree here with you. We strive to create and improve features related to this aspect. Additionally, we give players an opportunity to unite against the stronger enemy. Only up to 3 players can attack at the same time. And 160 can defend (if we're talking about the Fortress or a Beacon). 3 against 160! Even if those 3 have huge armies, they're still limited with how much they can send at a time. And the Defenders have no limits. All your power can be combined against the upcoming attack. And it's up to the League leadership to motivate their League mates to send their Defense to protect their League's strategic points.

A single player cannot defeat the joint Defense, even if he has a huge army. This game is not about single warriors, it's about Leagues, unions, allies, sacrifice of your own Units for the common good, etc. It's hard, challenging, sometimes it may seem almost impossible. It's easier to say that the things are not fair, that some players have bigger armies while you have nothing to put against them. But there's also another way, which is much harder, but which can bring you to the wanted glory.

this is the most active thread....

So funny here :)

I dont know why, but in a very short time i think we will have all Jumy's fate :))

The dev vision is very clear Eugenia :

'' How can we make this idiouts use more VISA ?"

Go Plarium !