This feedback thread from the US server is very good,
https://us.forum.elvenar.com/index.php?threads/tournament-changes-community-feedback-and-data.25576/
People have really written extremely good reviews of what they like, don't like, how it has improved and not improved their game.
My reduced difficulty proposal would address some of this stuff, like:
- it was better when players could do 25x2 or 15x3, or 11x4 or 8x5, or 6x6 to get 1600 pts according to their RL schedule. (SoggyShorts)
- I loved it in the beginning, maybe because I was thrilled with one click instead of four ... I set up my towns based on what each chapter needs...not what the tourney will take from me. This tourney system is now taking all of my resources, each week. (CiraKelley)
- We shouldn't have to cherry pick developed Wonders, or worry about the feasibility of advancing past mid point of chapter 15. Also, I now worry about every expansion I place, and I won't ever BUY another. (Lelanya)
- I have the capacity to place 5-6 expansions right now and up to 10 soon, but I am not placing them ... I can't do tournaments on mobile anymore. (Myosmar)
- The motivation to progress through the ages is gone. ... The two real benefits use to be new AW's and higher tournament rewards. Now this growth is punished while it will take much more time and effort to research through a chapter. ... Most importantly- I no longer enjoy the game. Im struggling with the 'sunk cost fallacy' right now. While I want to walk away and I don't enjoy the game I spent so much time and energy on the game that I dont want to give up. I do hope you guys are able to make the game fun again. (Swankey Bob)
Premium expansions need to be removed from the calculation and there needs to be an adjustment to the AW penalty. Not counting the first 5 levels and excluding some of the AWs and some should be weighted in at half the penalty. I thought my idea of including only the highest of any two AWs from each chapter would go a long way towards fixing the massive imbalanced of this new tournament.
Is there no one left on the Elvenar development teams that remembers that AW only marginally caught on until they were improved and the new tournament has reversed their benefit, and even causes some to be a net drain.
Well time to be the wet blanket again I guess
While there´s merit in both the comments from
@edeba and the rewiews quoted, I´ll ad a little twist to them all.
1) ppl can still choose different province/stars comboes to reach 1600 points. This is the low end of performance. Here the star-level of enemy troops have a great inpact. So lownumber-highstar provinces would often give fewer losses (numerically) than highnumber-lowstar provinces. The blocking factor to do 25x2 now is mainly difficulty. Before it was lack of troops. It HAS become harder to do 25x2 and easier to do 6x6, but the 25x2 wasn´t just a walk in the park for low-performance players before.
2) This is due to catering becomming a more viable solution.
3) It may come as a shock, but I totally agree
4) I agree on the placing of expansions part. The "I can´t do tournament on mobile anymore" part on the other hand
Tournament HAS gotten harder on higher levels. So it´s only reasonable, that ppl skilled in manual combat, would do that. In the old tournament ppl, who wasn´t totally overpowered, would also feel compelled to do manual combat to increase their score. More ppl feel the need to do manual combat to get a good score, but there´s nothing new about it.
5) This hit it spot-on. This is the problem INNO has to adress. Players should never feel, that they get punished for progression. INNO has the great advantage, that the wast majority of players don´t know they´re getting punished for progressing. So here INNOs low information level really pays of. If I hadn´t read this tread, then I also would have been an ignorant to the punishment. Just like I was about the punishment, that SS carried in old tournament. I heard rumors about it, but nothing solid. And there´s many rumors out there. Most of it total bogus. So I just wondered why my tournament performance didn´t improve. Overall the new tournament has been a huge boost for me. I should be very happy, and I am. But it tingles my sense of fairness, that the top players get punished so hard. I must admit, that I didn´t take their concerns serious, about not being able to compete against lesser developed players. In my defense: there were a lot of whining and groundless speculations going on. But I should´ve seen past the fustration, and you have my apology
As far goes getting tired of a game, but don´t want to stop due to energy (and/or money) spent. Oh been there many times. Just remember it should be fun to play, and sometimes you just need a break. Nothing wrong with that. I´ve had a break from both elvenar and WoW, and are playing both again. The reason for taking a break was the same in both games: to much monotone activity. In WoW it was endless dailies on endless alts. In elvenar it was to much time spend on giving NH. INNO has made NH quicker, and now makes tournament quicker too. That greatly increase my joy of playing. I know players compelled to do manual combat disagree on the faster tournament part, but for me it´s faster.
@edeba) I agree on both removal of premium expansions from calculation, and lowering AW penalty. I don´t agree with your surgestions to lower AW penalty. IMO the weight of each level should be the same, but way lower than it is now.
- Not counting the first 5 levels of each wonder: it has the merit, that in a way you pay for it with the space used. But I don´t think you should be rewarded for building lowlevel wonders instead of other buildings.
- weighing the wonders differently (even if it`s only 2 or 3 categories), will IMO be a logistic nightmare, that´ll only evolve into endless discusions about "why does this wonder weigh harder than that wonder".
- Only making the highest wonder from each chapter count: well you´re past the "different weight" discussion. It´s a clear rule. But let´s say a player got a L30 MM. He can build a L30 crystal lighthouse with no penalty. But if he decides to build a L20 throne, then he gets hammered. I fail to see how that in any way is fair.
To be honest I think, that there´s only one fair way to exclude AW-levels from the equation: deduct a set number depending on chapter or mandatory research.
I still think the best solution would be to drastically reduce the weight of all AW levels.
But if INNO does this, then they may feel compelled to hinder tournament in another way. So pay heed to the below
A while ago I had written how I loved the Spire because of all the time instants and other prizes, but disliked how all the time instants it gave had allowed people to create so many troops that tournaments were more about how many provinces people had available to fight in than how well they fought. I also bemoaned how this made manual fighting pretty pointless since folks could get so far with autofight that manual fighting provided little benefit. I missed how a smaller player might be able to differentiate themself from the crowd by manual fighting and it wasn't just about having a gazillion open provinces. So it turns out that Inno actually seemed to have paid attention and made it so doing much over 50 provinces was near impossible, thus lessening the the possibility that someone could guarantee #1 in tournament just by virtue of having scouted more provinces. Also the value of manual fighting has increased. All this and now I hate it. Okay, I don't exactly hate it. I love that each province is only 1 fight instead of 4. It's just that I miss being able to do 5 rounds of 50-60 provinces and collecting 500-600 KP. Now I can do about 6 rounds of 37 provinces with a lot of manual fighting. A lot more work for a lot less benefit. It turns out that even with all the manual fighting my overall ranking in the tournaments is actually lower.
File this under "Be careful what you wish for."
So beware. Sometimes INNO listens.....