Discussion Release Notes version 0.28

[DeletedUser]

A sincere request : if possible please revert back to the old Map style as soon as possible ...I don't mind having those sandy parts in place of the inactives and undiscovered players but the surrounding sandy frame makes it really difficult to see the map specially on small screens / laptop without a mouse wheel... I am not able to see anything at all except my own city and just one neighbor and then its all sandy area on my computer screen which is 15" laptop ... I don't have a mouse wheel and using chrome zoom out makes it practically unreadable the map contents if i really need to see a major part of the map (check @LordB's submitted picture) ....

I do think the dev's would also be thinking about the future while bringing in the changes ... and I am sure they have plans to bring this game on tablets and phones in the near future (Android / IOS version)...but this current change really will make it even more difficult on those devices which are much smaller in sizes than laptops and Desktops.

This is how the map looks without chrome zoom out on my 15" laptop screen : Just me and my silent neighbor ...and sand all around us... What fun to see (not!!!)

 

[DeletedUser1419]

can only say about the same to the map.. and im not like it.
map look for me, like it are get much smalle now.
well i think the most negartive thing about the new map have been say. from the other player.

 

[DeletedUser651]

The developers are in no way looking to give certain players an advantage above other players. The main goal is, and has always been, to give every player a game they can enjoy playing.

I am sure that is the main goal Goryn. However, on beta, that is not what is happening. For a player that has 125 neighbors vs a player that has 23 and both have spent the same amount of coins to get those discoveries, the game just isn't remotely similar. Then, no matter how anyone finds a work around for these lack of coins, such as to build tier one factories set for 24 hours, the devs take those fixes away too. It can get very frustrating.

It would be one thing if this happened occasionally, or infrequently, but I can attest that I haven't had a new city in months. I feel Spinster's pain. Meanwhile, some players have completely full neighborhoods. Completely full. I just can't believe that is a function of luck. So yeah, some players are getting a much better game to play than others. Whether intended or not.

Another point....they way they keep monkeying with the quests.....not once have they increased the bonuses from the quests, every update has decreased them. There is no way that taking away something good will make people happier. These may be little things, but they are consistently upsetting players. Please stop doing that. Pick something and stick with it. It seems as if the devs are consistently surprised by the way players respond to the quests...if they don't have anyone who works there who can figure out what a typical response will be, you could try asking us first. We all play the game a lot. Maybe asking the beta players BEFORE they keep trying things out would be a good idea? I can promise you this....if this new change in the 24 hour quest bonus comes to the US server, people are going to be furious yet again and we JUST got back to being happy.

Oh and P.S....the new map is awful!

 

[DeletedUser629]

How often you get new neighbours depends on your location on the map. Unfortunately, there aren't enough new players coming to beta to fill all the gaps.

When it comes to quests, and i can't say it often enough, players should use them as a bonus feature, not a thing they have to rely upon. The 24 hour quests were meant to give players who have difficulties trading their goods an option to gain a small amount of non-boosted goods. They were not meant to be used as primary source of goods income by building 30 tier 1 factories and put them all on a 24 hour cycle. The thing is, we can't tell upfront how players will react to quests, but if a quest interferes with the balance of the game, we will change it, or in this case, remove it.

The Beta server is difficult to play on when it comes to neighbours, we know that. If the developers decide to change the system, it will be for all servers. In the meantime, we will have to work with what we've got.

 

[DeletedUser408]

mini map there ya go that is good idea fi they decide to keep as is then

 

[DeletedUser1250]

I am glad that bugs are fixed.
I am also glad I could visit my neighbours without a crash, without a darkblue map, without finding cities that are only filled with grass, glad I didn't have to reload after every 2-3 neighbours.
I was very frustrated when I tried to help the members in my fellowship, but that has already been reported and visiting them through the notifications worked fine.

I don't like the way the map looks now, it is full with sand, due to the lack of neighbours. I realize this will be different in the other servers, when there are more players. But even if there would only be one or 2 pieces of sand between the neighbours, I still wouldn't like it.
I had problems with finding all my neighbours, it is hard to see them all, hard to see what I have discovered and what I didn't, due to all the sand
Is it possible to zoom out so we can see all our discovered neighbours at once? And keep it that way, just like we can zoom out to our own city and keep it that way now (glad that is fixed). A few posts before mine, ddevil posted a picture how he sees the map, well I see it that way too. Not nice.

The game is much slower now than it was before and much slower than on the dutch server. There is some delay and I clicked more than once twice on something, thinking I hadn't clicked good enough because it didn't load. My laptop is just one year old and it's a good one.

I got new quests that I couldn't decline and liked them until I got the quest to scout 3 provences. That was the moment I got very disappointed. I was hoping all the time I would see a new quest with a rune shard as a reward. Wiki says we can get a rune shard for completing quests, but I never had such a quest before. I hoped it would be introduced soon, maybe this update. Scouting 3 provences takes at least 4 and a half or 5 days. Reward 25000 coins and 7500 supplies. I am disappointed about that. If a quest that takes almost 5 days to complete in a questline about provences and the use of shards won't give a rune shard, then when will we get it? I understand that we can't get rune shards for every quest, but first I got quests like buy 3 knowledge points, scout a provence, complete a provence, use a rune shard. I did them all and had hope for a shard coming soon as a reward. It was obvious it went into the direction of the using of shards, I got indeed a quest to use a shard and thought it would come after that and then I saw the disappointing reward. If that quest would have asked me to scout 5 provences instead of 3, which takes much longer than 5 days, but with a shard as reward, I would have been happy. Are there already quests that give a rune shard as a reward?

 

[DeletedUser1025]

I also get is the pic ddevil has put here, I see only my town and my neighbour. No unzoom function on my laptop, there was a mention of chrome somewhere above - does it mean that I can only get the overview using chrome? Well. I won't. Can someone confirm whether this is the case.
Also, when I start scrolling, the other provinces do not come up at all (not even after a while) and there is just sand, sand, sand, occasionally I get to the sign of "scout" or "locked" but without the coloured provinces I get completely lost in the sand with nothing. Where did the discovered and non-discovered neighbours go??? I cannot even give help to the neighbours discovered since I do not see them. And I have no idea where my borders are and where I was fighting last time.
So, big minus for this feature on my part, I hope it will not stay like this.

 

[DeletedUser1345]

I will from now on give myself a full night of sleep before I post on forum.
New content is being introduced, and when it is, it is good and appreciated, even if it is content that I will not use.
Fixing the problems on the map is good. A zoom out feature would be helpful. Introducing compass points on the map would make it easier to navigate around the provinces.
The gaping holes are hideous. I hope the dwarves, when they are on their feet again start to occupy some of them.

 

[DeletedUser651]

They were not meant to be used as primary source of goods income by building 30 tier 1 factories and put them all on a 24 hour cycle.

Really? Any one of us here could have told you that is exactly what would happen. That is my point. Those of us who are playing this game nonstop can let you all know ahead of time how the quests will be used. What is bad is to have these quests and then yank them away again. It is like giving out candy and then demanding it back. At the very least, try these things out in beta....isn't that why you HAVE beta? (I am assuming that because you don't like the outcome, you will take this away from the US servers because you already implemented this on the US server before trying it out over here).

What I am asking is that you don't keep doing this to the live servers because you are making paying customers very upset. Don't we both have the same goal not to have unhappy players? I ask that you get the devs to try out the changes in quests here first and then if they are ok, then put them on the live servers. If they don't work, then the live players don't have to be disappointed again.

• It is no longer possible to receive Goods from repeatable quests, this is in order to prevent potential exploits"

One last thing....I respectfully ask that you all the employees/mods respect all of us and stop calling things that relate to quests exploits. No one is exploiting anything. Players are not doing anything wrong, nor are they bad people or exploiters. People are playing the game as designed and if the game is not acting as some designer hoped then it is the designers' fault. No one has hacked your servers, nor found cheat codes to get unlimited diamonds. They are declining quests that have a big giant DECLINE button on them.

When it comes to quests, and i can't say it often enough, players should use them as a bonus feature, not a thing they have to rely upon.

Players will use quests the way they will use quests. It is a part of the game and people have different playing styles. If you don't want them used a certain way, then don't make it possible to use them that way. Otherwise, all you end up with are unhappy customers....it is that simple.

I am emphasizing these points ad nauseum because on the US servers at least, people are having big problems over quest issues. Some players are calling others cheaters either directly or indirectly. Players are leaving the game over their anger. Fellowships have suffered. Customers are swearing not to spend any more money on the game. Player's cities are being trashed. All this happens because instead of saying "Sorry, we messed up, we need to tweak the quests" we get told essentially "you all aren't behaving as proper players should behave". I am asking that this company readjust its behavior towards customers. You know....put a plaque on the wall that says "The Customer is Always Right" and then live by that motto. My comments can only help Inno. Happy customers will trust the company more and spend more money.

 

[DeletedUser1388]

.... Unfortunately, there aren't enough new players coming to beta to fill all the gaps.

Even if new players are coming, this "support" will have only one effect, that older players could do visits on them. And some of the new players may visit the olders.
I thought about that only 9 combination of city structures exist from surrounding structure perspective. This meas, if there would be a process, which runs once per week/month, it could "compact" the map, moving outer older players toward the theoretic center of the whole map, with their discoveries as well (more than probable the discovered provinces are linked to a city in the background). Of course, the neighbors will be changed - the discovered cities and provinces at the old position will be set as not discovered/conquered, and same relative provinces/cities at the new position made discovered. Having only 9 combinations of structures, it will be easy to find same structure toward the center.
This would be a proper solution for all worlds, including beta and will make all players happy, not talking about "rewarding" old players.

 

[DeletedUser590]

Hello,

The new map seems to have more "fluidity", this is good.
On the other hand, it is now really very difficult to find the limits of the map, and neighbourly aid has become a pain.
Mini-map or zoom would help a lot.

 

[DeletedUser1257]

Just adding my two cents, though it has been said many times already.

1) Please get rid of the blurry frame around the world map. It adds nothing, and makes it much harder to scroll to your neighbors and end of your explored areas in order to do more relic hunting.

2) I also do not care for the Swiss cheese look of the new world map. This I can live with, though it does make determining the border of your explored area much more difficult.

 

[Muf-Muf]

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! It is very much appreciated.

At the very least, try these things out in beta....isn't that why you HAVE beta? (I am assuming that because you don't like the outcome, you will take this away from the US servers because you already implemented this on the US server before trying it out over here).

We can assure you that nothing gets implemented on any Live server (including the US server) before having been on Beta first. Beta gets every single update first, no exceptions.

One last thing....I respectfully ask that you all the employees/mods respect all of us and stop calling things that relate to quests exploits. No one is exploiting anything. Players are not doing anything wrong, nor are they bad people or exploiters. People are playing the game as designed and if the game is not acting as some designer hoped then it is the designers' fault.

We didn't say that anyone exploited these quests. The changes were made in order to prevent exploits. We're not calling anyone a cheater. The only thing we're doing is improving the quests system (and with that: the game as a whole). The fact that we make changes does not mean we think players cheat. It only means that we see that players are playing the game in a way that we did not a) intend, or b) anticipate, and we're making adjustments in order to guide players towards the ways that we had in mind when designing the game's features. We do not want to force you in a certain direction, but do keep in mind that we have certain "paths" or "routes" in mind when we design the game. That of course doesn't mean you have to take these paths that we have in mind, but we do want to (mildly) encourage following them, so that we can give you the best possible gaming experience, which we of course want you all to have.

I thought about that only 9 combination of city structures exist from surrounding structure perspective. This meas, if there would be a process, which runs once per week/month, it could "compact" the map, moving outer older players toward the theoretic center of the whole map, with their discoveries as well (more than probable the discovered provinces are linked to a city in the background). Of course, the neighbors will be changed - the discovered cities and provinces at the old position will be set as not discovered/conquered, and same relative provinces/cities at the new position made discovered. Having only 9 combinations of structures, it will be easy to find same structure toward the center.

While this in theory may seem to be an easy solution, in reality it unfortunately is not. We did have similar thoughts ourselves as well, but it would take a LOT of time to implement such a feature. At this point, we unfortunately do not have that amount of time available, as we are still working on a lot of other things. We do realise that the gaps in the map are a big problem, and we are continuously forwarding the feedback that we receive on that as well. We would like a solution to this problem just as much as you all do, but at this point we are -most unfortunately- unable to offer one.

 

[DeletedUser]

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! It is very much appreciated.

While this in theory may seem to be an easy solution, in reality it unfortunately is not. We did have similar thoughts ourselves as well, but it would take a LOT of time to implement such a feature. At this point, we unfortunately do not have that amount of time available, as we are still working on a lot of other things. We do realise that the gaps in the map are a big problem, and we are continuously forwarding the feedback that we receive on that as well. We would like a solution to this problem just as much as you all do, but at this point we are -most unfortunately- unable to offer one.

Would it be possible (on the beta server) to stop the auto deletion of inactive players, and only delete the same number of players that join during a certain period?
I do realize that too would take some work, since the deletion of inactive players would have to be done manually, but it would be a good thing to do on this server, to simulate the same circumstances as on a normal server.
The number of "dead" cities would be grater doing it this way, but it would be better than empty gabs on the map.

Edit: This would be a problem for the players in the outer rim of the map, they would´nt be getting any new neighbors on the outside of them, and i dont have a solution for that problem, other than dont delte the inaktive players in the outer 5-6 cirkels, leve those citys as they are when people stop playing, so no new players have to be placed there.

 

[DeletedUser]

Thanks for the bug fixes ^^

One thing I'd like to mention though is that I'm not happy with the new worldmap - although the idea of making it a "real old map" with the edges and all, also means that I can see even less of the map than I could already. A zoom would be wonderful!
Also, I don't really understand why the space under deleted players that you had discovered, turns into a blank void again, instead of the green area it used to be. After all, we had discovered that area, didn't we? We know what it looked like, only the player that used to be there disappeared.
Can discovered areas please be returned to the green colour again? Thanks!
Will also make it easier again to see where we can go scout next, especially since the map is so very, very tiny now...

 

[DeletedUser1232]

I have some problems for visiting, I have to return in my city for each neighbor otherwise i'm blocked, and it ask a lot of time.
For the map I prefer the old, the new has very little visibility

 

[DeletedUser283]

While this in theory may seem to be an easy solution, in reality it unfortunately is not. We did have similar thoughts ourselves as well, but it would take a LOT of time to implement such a feature. At this point, we unfortunately do not have that amount of time available, as we are still working on a lot of other things. We do realise that the gaps in the map are a big problem, and we are continuously forwarding the feedback that we receive on that as well. We would like a solution to this problem just as much as you all do, but at this point we are -most unfortunately- unable to offer one.

@Muf-Muf , I think that what we have here is ... failure to communicate

1) like @Bobbykitty said, players are playing the game the way they see fit to adapt to their gaming conditions;
so at some points in the game - not always, but we have very severe zones in the tech tree - some component of the game might be in short supply, whether it is coins, supplies, goods, culture or maybe just space ...
at these moments, players have a simple choice : adapt (and increase the pressure on some other components of the game to try and find a balance) or perish (call it quits);
I remember that just before I could research temple of ages, it was very difficult for me to keep my city up and running, because I did not produce enough tier 3 goods and had not enough culture to maintain a proper income.
when a player direly misses some component of the game, if ever he/she finds a way to get more of it, the player will go this way; it may not be the way game designers had in mind, but the player finds a path;
a typical example : the neighbourhood is empty; no way to make coins through helping people, there is no one out there;
problem : the player has a lower income in coins than originally planned by the designers because it is obvious that they never thought about the possibility of an empty neighbourhood;
solution : getting coins differently -> "wow, there is this quest (and that one too) that can help me getting more coins fast and secure ! I will decline all other quests except those 2 in order to get enough coins to keep up !"
players are not in anyway exploiting the quest system, they are adapting to the conditions of their gaming environment !

and by the way, I do not really understand why the devs are making all that fuss about the way people use the quest system; I have been playing FoE for more than 3 years on 4 worlds, and nobody there cares about the way you manage the quests; the only problem is when a quest is ether difficult to understand or too difficult to achieve (and in this case the quests are modified once the outcry has reached its target );

if some players are exploiting the quest system, it is because the people who designed the quest system are not good enough !
bring better devs !

2) these things being said, I really wonder if those devs ever play the game they are working on; it seems to me that they have difficulties with game economics, which are at the center of a city builder ...
Anwar is sorely missed

3) "It would take a lot of time to implement this feature"
Ha ! if these guys did not loose that much time tweaking quests or designing a new way to make the map unreadable, the neighbourhood issue could be fixed by now ...

all in all, the more I play this game and the more I have this weird feeling that the graphic designers did a fantastic job while the guys in charge of the mechanics of the game are all rookies ....

 

[DeletedUser778]

While this in theory may seem to be an easy solution, in reality it unfortunately is not. We did have similar thoughts ourselves as well, but it would take a LOT of time to implement such a feature. At this point, we unfortunately do not have that amount of time available, as we are still working on a lot of other things. We do realise that the gaps in the map are a big problem, and we are continuously forwarding the feedback that we receive on that as well. We would like a solution to this problem just as much as you all do, but at this point we are -most unfortunately- unable to offer one.

Maybe change the priorities?
It is not only the beta server where players are unhappy about inactive players and holes in their neighbourhood, but very likely it's the worst here.

This is roughly how our populated area looks like:

[tr1][td]

[/td][td]Estimated 2-4k players in the well populated green center.

The other 8-10k players scattered in the blue area[/td][/tr1]

 

[DeletedUser1122]

Like a lot of people said already, the new map is pain. i'm playing on a laptop atm and it's really uncomfortable.

About the neighbour issue... I feel lucky, i have a few players around me. This + fellowship is enough for me but i feel sorry for people who got lost in a lonely corner .
A solution needs to come, even if it takes long. The dev team could also promote the beta server on others servers, it could give us some fresh meat .
Maybe a reward, like culture stuff ?

 

[DeletedUser778]

I think they need more then culture stuff, we here got nothing so far while atm you get 100 free dias when you start playing on the german server.
Furthermore there is now the 2nd event in the forum where you can win diamonds and they have discount offerings for dia purchases sometimes.
I have never seen stuff like this here on beta
So there should be something more to make beta attractive, something like 100 dias for completing chapter 1, 200 for completing chapter 2, etc.