Discussion Release Notes version 1.0

[DeletedUser]

1. The chests in the research tree are indeed locks: if you don't meet the requirements, you will not be able to start researching the technology they're on. If you have already passed this point in the research tree, you will be able to continue. This has been stated this way in the release notes for update 1.0 as well. If that wasn't clear (enough) then we apologize and we'll try to be more clear next time.

2. No, we cannot refund the Relics spent on the Magic Academy. We will add more ways to receive Relics in the future, though. While Relics are fairly scarce now, they won't remain that way forever.

Thank you for clarifying this and i hope that you didn't take my post personally even if it sounded quite harsh as I know you just forward the news.

I'm still shocked however, with more and more limits and restrictions that are added to the game. I'm here in the middle of IV chapter with only 40 provinces conquered. For some it might sound only 40, but I don't need and want more. How am I supposed to conquer almost twice of that to get 70 in total and unlock the further progress? Maybe i dont have time for that? Maybe i enjoy slow pace and small size of my city? Why do i have to conquer them? At the moment it looks like either i bow to you restrictions or i have to quite the game, which is quite unfair. Oh, i can stay and donate all my KP to others as i will unlock the wonders by the end of this chapter, but come on... Where is the "be merchant or fighter" or whatever the saying was? Where is that choice for us now? Can't we just trade with others, keep the size of our cities as we want them and play the game as we want?

This one was very well said:

unless of course develolpers insist on having us play the game their way .... in which case I can provide them with my account details and let them manage this city of mine as they please ...

And this one below would be very, very welcome, as not everyone conquers everything that is on his sight. Some of us just plan what and when we conquer, especially with regards to getting runes for the wonders. Now, it looks like you know that many players do not consider Elven/Human wonders good enough to build, so you want us to conquer as much provinces as we can and waste them on those runes, to have bigger problems with getting dwarven runes later. It's sad

We will however monitor this feature to see if the balance is correct, as we have done before with other features.

 

[DeletedUser613]

Well, it seems we know have several issues that need to be addressed to before people start to leave the game

Compensation for down time where most players were unable to play for between 5 and 10 days due to the previous version update
Compensation for those players who spent diamonds on tech increases - now the cost of tech increases has been significantly reduced
Clarification of what is actually supposed to happen with regards to spells and the magic academy
Clarification of what is going to be done with regards to the absent cities
Information on what is being done with regards to expansions, we can still collect them but we can no longer place them

 

[Deleted User - 56274]

For me it IS a very large obstacle that I am not entirely certain that I have the desire to overcome. I do not enjoy battles and have other uses for goods than to unlock provinces, so, yes, I am opening chapter 5 and no, I do not have 50 provinces unlocked.
So, to me it is not a minor requirement but a major change to how I play this game.

 

[DeletedUser]

We're not talking about an Everest sized mountain you have to overcome here. The requirement to advance to chapter II is 10 provinces, 30 to advance to chapter III, 50 to advance to chapter IV, 70 to advance to chapter V, and 100 to advance to chapter VI. Even if you don't like to fight, clearing 10 provinces really isn't all that hard. If you want a full sized city, and you don't want to buy premium expansions, you will have to conquer provinces, and lots of them. Most players will be able to match the requirements easily, and they get spells as a reward, which would normally cost them relics.

We will however monitor this feature to see if the balance is correct, as we have done before with other features.

The numbers provinces going into Chapters II, III, and IV are consistent with the way my cities are progressing on live BUT the Chapter V requirement is very ill-timed. It sets players up to feel like they're either losing runes, hourly KP, or forced into a lot of unpleasantly timed fighting.

Right before the chest, we unlock ancient wonders, allowing the collection of runes from completed provinces. It takes a lot of provinces to get enough runes so players who are looking ahead save up provinces for Chapter V. On live I pretty much stopped fighting in Chapter IV once I had enough city space and didn't fight much into the 5th ring of provinces. Forcing me to clear 70 provinces at the moment I unlock AW sets me up for some sort of loss. Either 1) I lose runes 2) I lose control of my game because I'm scrambling to clear a bunch of provinces in 10 hours or 3) I lose hourly KP because I wanted the runes and couldn't clear provinces that fast.

You really need to rethink this. Players shouldn't feel like they're faced with nothing but bad moves.