Ask Timon and Rike! (Questions we'd like answered in the next Q&A)

[Jackluyt]

I thought it would be nice to have a dedicated exclusive Thread where we could post questions we would like Timon to answer in the next Q&A session - instead of the Unicorns and Rotation and Storage that usually drift in!

I have a feeling that a Q&A is coming soon - so lets get all the important questions on paper now!

​

I would suggest no discussion in this Thread - just brief to-the-point questions, followed by an explanation of why you are asking - like this, in this format:

Q: Is the moon really made of Blue Cheese?
Someone in my fellowship told me this, but it does not seem likely. If you look at the moon through a telescope, it is yellow - not blue!!
Please explain Timon?
Thanks,
HorribleHarry.

*****​

Here is one to get the ball rolling!

Q. Will there be changes in the way that Diamonds are given in the game?

Hi Timon and Rike!
TrainStation (created by the Slovakian company Pixel Federation) gives one 'Diamond' every day for logging in.

They also give them:

• as a reward when you level-up!
• as presents to celebrate their birthday and Christmas and other similar events
• and often to say sorry for game glitches and bugs too!
• and they allow you to buy Diamonds and gift them to a friend! Which is something I really wanted to do - have Elvenar competitions in the EPL Facebook group with Diamond prizes - which I would pay for out my own pocket..

All of this has been discussed with Support - and the answer form the Design Team is: "Not at this time".
Apparently the game structure is such that Diamonds belong to one player - and are not transferable.

To me this appears a bit short-sighted.
The more Diamonds you give away (in the Events and perhaps as an occasional 'mystery package' in the Tournaments and the daily Treasure Chests too!) - the more people will spend them!
And the more people spend, the more likely they are to buy more...

So not making more use of Diamond purchases and gifts, looks to me like poor business sense...
... regular give-aways of small amounts of Diamonds would make the game more exciting!

Do you have plans to expand the Diamond functionality?

Thanks!
J

Elvenar Platinum Leaf is the largest public Facebook group with 5000 members,
with hundreds of items of Elvenar facts, as well as a growing collection of videos.
You and your fellowship are welcome to join us!​

 

[Tonton-des-bois]

You can answer the second question about the diamonds that Inno is giving so generously... If you combine the Law of Gravity with Archimedes one : even if the rain fall down in our hearts, the money floats...

 

[DeletedUser441]

Virtual money is like gold , it sinks to the bottom That's why I can't get a float or even afloat .

 

[Jackluyt]

Q2. Is there any plans to increase the relic boost above 700%?


Q3. Are you considering re-tweaking the Sorceress?

Hi!
This used to be a really powerful unit.
Then you rebalanced her - and now she is almost worse than useless - I never use mine any longer.
Are you aware of this - and will you perhaps fix it?
Thanks!!


Q4. Player Migration - outward movement

Hi!

My understanding of player movement is that cities inactive for a month, below a certain level, without Diamonds on the books, are flagged for removal, and removed weekly.
We were told that active players would move towards the center of the map, and inactive cities should drift with time towards the map's edge.
Most of my friends and Facebook members report that they do not see this happening - after the initial movement several months back, inactive cities just stay put.
We have been told that cities are flagged for movement - but it is only possible to move a small number at a time...

Could you please explain this works, so I can tell our Facebook group? It is a question that is asked often!
By which mechanism would the outward movement happen?

Thanks!!

 

[DeletedUser1829]

Q. Are any feature improvements planned for in-game chat? Like allowing copy and paste easily?
Many people have found a work around for copy/paste but not everyone knows about it.

 

[Jackluyt]

Q. How about a fellowship leader board for Tournaments?

This would be great for competitive players - to see how their Fellowship compares!
It would also be useful if you are a competitive player, thinking of changing to a more active Tournament-oriented fellowship...

Q. Ring 10+ Orcs for negotiation
A month or so ago when Tournaments were re-tweaked, there was an error that required players to use Orcs to cater - even if they were not yet in chapter VIII and had no way of producing them!
This was quickly corrected, so that now one only is required to have orcs when one has already unlocked that technology.

Why can't you do the same for World Map provinces?
In the Events, we are asked to complete one encounter - and there are always (a very few) players who have over-explored and cannot win fights any longer because their squad size is hopelessly too small - and they have no Orcs, so they are effectively unable to complete the Event quests, unless they use Diamonds. Which is something you have vowed will never be required...

Can this not be fixed please?
No Orcs for catering until you are able to produce them...

Q. Event quests are boringly repetitive

Hi!
Is it not possible to have more imaginative quests in the events?
The endless repetition of power of provision spells, and the same 3, 9, 12 and 24 hour productions is very boring!

It is also my opinion that we are missing an opportunity here!
There are many game features that new players are not aware of - and event quests could be used to teach them about them!
Also to get players used to doing the things that Timon wants them to!

1. Timon wants us to trade more - so let’s have lots more trading Quests like ‘trade with someone on the map 10 times’; ‘trade with someone in your fellowship 20 times’; ‘place 10 trades for your first boosted material’, place 10 trades for your second Boosted material, accept 10 trades, etc etc.
2. Co-operation with Fellowship is part of Timon’s plan - so what about ‘visit fellowship members 24 times?” Which would 'force' us to have bigger fellowships!
3. Trading- and visiting friendships on the Map are desirable - so how about ‘visit x number of people on the Map’?
4. The Design Team want us to use the Magic Academy more - so how about ‘Cast 5 Spells’?
5. Keep the Quests Event-related - like ‘Collect 20 Easter Eggs’? ‘Use 100 Sky Essence’?
6. The Designers obviously would like to encourage us to buy Diamonds.
   So how about giving us 50 Diamonds and telling us to spend them - repeated several times during the event!!
   Sort-of getting us into the swing of using Diamonds, à la Pavlov!
7. Use three different keyboard shortcut keys (many people do not know of these)
8. Visit the Forum and the Wiki once each, using the icon bottom right of the city
9. Change the graphics resolution of your city
10. Change the speed of your fighting screen
11. Use each of the three the trader filters...
    
12. etc etc

 

[Jackluyt]

Another Question: Relative complexity of Tournament Provinces

I would really like to hear what Timon has to say about this!
Our Facebook group tracks each Tournament province each week in cities of different levels - and we have found that there are some that you can AutoFight quite easily with five squads of Treants or Golems or Mortars or Paladins. But there are other provinces where the enemy has Mage types (for example) which are much more tricky - and one is forced to Manually Fight - and even then will take much greater losses.

What I am thinking is that it is tough on Ruby the Newbie if she gets assigned one of these 'tricky' provinces, randomly, when she starts.She is at a considerable disadvantage compared to Clovis the Novice who was assigned an easier province type - Clovis will get boosting Relics much easier, to increase his goods output. Not just in the Tournaments; also in the World Map fights!

Are you aware of this, Timon?
We know you try to 'balance' the game to make it equally fair to everyone!

Will you re-tweak the 'tricky' provinces?

Thanks!!

 

[Jackluyt]

Q. Expansions:
Hi Timon and Rike!
Many of the recent game changes have been designed to 'slow the game' and prevent cities growing too big too fast. It is obvious that each building in a city has to be 'painted' one-by-one when one visits, which slows the game considerably - and this is only going to get worse as cities get even bigger with more buildings.
It is understandable and logical that you are offering fewer expansions per chapter, and making the premium expansion unaffordable except to the very rich.
What many of us are wondering is which directions do you see the city going in future, in the respect of size, and expansions?

 

[Jackluyt]

There were a lot of interesting suggestions for Q&A in the US Forum - if anyone would like to take a look?

https://us.forum.elvenar.com/index....tions-wed-like-answered-in-the-next-q-a.7480/

 

[Jackluyt]

Q. Why not more Diamond prizes on the Fanpage?

Hi!
Why not give more Diamond prizes on the Fanpage?
Look at this one you posted?:

It is a nice idea - asking people to say which Halflings field crop they would prefer.
So why not chuck in a few packages of 50 Diamonds?
It cost nothing to give them away
It creates massive goodwill from the players towards the designers
It get people used to recieving and using Diamonds - so they are more likely to continue using the shop.

It would be a win-win situation for all!

 

[Jackluyt]

Question for the Moderators: Do Timon and Rike or their production team ever see these questions?

A lot of people are putting in a lot of effort to produce them in a lucid fashion.
They are not featuring in the Q&A - so far...

 

[DeletedUser2089]

Q. Are we ever going to get something different - besides another guest race?

Currently, the format is generally like this - research and build: portal; 'special road'; different facilities with interdependent production outputs, etc. Use outputs as part of the research for technologies. Complete chapter. Next guest race - rinse and repeat! Boring!!

 

[Timneh]

Why will the devs not consider reducing the cool down time in tournaments ?

It has been asked for many many times in order to give players a chance to actually complete 6 rounds of tournaments without having to stay up into the early hours on at least 1 occasion depending on when you start the tournament. Do the devs really think that people are happy to lose sleep for the sake of a game. Maybe some are but i am not as i have a life away from a pc.

 

[DeletedUser3097]

Question for the Moderators: Do Timon and Rike or their production team ever see these questions?

A lot of people are putting in a lot of effort to produce them in a lucid fashion.
They are not featuring in the Q&A - so far...

I'll try and find out for you!

 

[Jackluyt]

I'll try and find out for you!

Thank you!
There are some good ideas here - and there are tons more on the US server's Forum!


I can understand that SOME of the questions cannot be answered, because 'game secrets' are involved - but surely not ALL of them?

 

[DeletedUser441]

" Game secrets " ? ! ? Surely not ! You pay your money and build as you wish . There's no Planning Dep't in Elvenar ; is there ? If there are secrets how do I become enlightened ? Perhaps we have to buy every culture building and Premium Expansion to find out .

I do think it ridiculous if we have to "guess" the developers logic. I play by my own logic and do as I wish. I just think that secrets belong to an elitist society where the privileged few like to use their advantage over the unknowing many to give themselves an ego boost - SAD !

 

[Jackluyt]

" Game secrets "

We had an answer from a Moderator in Beta.
The browser game market is very competitive - and designers are loath to share stuff that may give their opposition an edge, by showing them some special new thing they are planning.

That is why there are certain things they prefer not to discuss publicly...

 

[DeletedUser441]

I understand what you mean now . My paranoia causes me to think that perhaps there are aspects to these games that are not widely known ; such as causing a player to have "glitches" in their game which delays their progress in some way because they haven't complied with the developers logic somehow.. It would explain a lot in Elvenar.

 

[DeletedUser3097]

Thank you!
There are some good ideas here - and there are tons more on the US server's Forum!


I can understand that SOME of the questions cannot be answered, because 'game secrets' are involved - but surely not ALL of them?

I checked for you, and yes they do, so don't be discouraged! Eventually I am sure you will get some questions answered.

 

[Jackluyt]

Q. What about a Double-click F HotKey?
One of our Facebook group, Bas van Hoorn, is a programmer - he suggested this good idea!

When one uses HotKeys for visits, one does the F+E or W+E with the right hand and the mouse-clicking with the right.
On the Fellowship page, it is a hassle to go to page two or three - the F key always drops you on page 1.
It is awkward to take your hand off the mouse to hit the < and > arrows, or to use the mouse to do this.

How about another F click to take you to page 2, and yet another to page 3?