Communication NH - There's a Missing Feature.

[DeletedUser2863]

Greetings.

I want to make a case that this game is missing a central feature, and the absence of this imagined (but required) feature has resulted in another feature being distorted to some extent – the city name. Since there is no other good way of communicating to your neighbours and fellows which type of neighbourly help you would prefer, it has become common practice to put one's preference in, or instead of, the city name.

In my view, there are two sides of the coin that is Elvenar. One is efficiency, and the other aesthetics. To be efficient, you have to sacrifice part of the city name in order to receive the neighbourly help you need. But this doesn't have to be the case – there could quite simply be an option in the menu where you would set up your preferred boost for display, for example in the form of icons or letters somewhere on the screen.


I threw something together in Paint to demonstrate my idea.

What currently looks like this:

Could instead look like this* **:

*I'm sure the elvenar graphic designers would easily make it look infintely better if they tried.
**Of course, it doesn't have to be placed directly beneath the city name, it was just the first convenient spot I happened to think of.


With a feature like this, we could get the boosts we need while having the freedom to name our city whatever we like.

Thoughts?

 

[DeletedUser2163]

I like the idea, I'd take it a stage further though, I'd like the game to take me to the preferred NH when I click on the city, and not have to a) select the NH icon and b) then choose which one

Sounds crazy but with 327 completed provinces, and I try to help them daily, it would save a lot of time.

In a perfect world I'd like neighbours to be able to click a check box for the help they want and then be able to click on 'Help All' and do it all in one hit - lazy I know but....

 

[DeletedUser3034]

I love the sign!!!! And yes, I want a name for my city that actually sounds like a name

+1

 

[DeletedUser3205]

I like this a lot too.
Another way to do it - as a middle way between Jimlun's and Barak's suggestions - would be to let every city owner compile a list of the buildings that can receive NH in descending priority. Clicking the NH button would automatically choose the highest building on that list that is at free to receive NH at that moment. That would speed up the process of giving NH, make sure everyone really gets what they need and you'd still get to visit everyone's city (which I personally like).

 

[DeletedUser1446]

Fully support this idea!

The suggestion itself is more than two years old (see https://beta.forum.elvenar.com/inde...e-message-when-visiting-a-city.306/#post-1477 and corresponding threads), but here you even have a great idea how to make it look pretty!

I am aware that this is a rather low priority issue, and that there are many players who do not care at all about city names. But there are others who would very much welcome not being forced to abuse the name field to contain their neighbourly help wishes. Come on and do them a favour at last. It can't be too difficult to implement.

 

[Crystal2]

Brilliant idea Jimlun - fully support you here

 

[KermitsDad]

A great idea... +1

One other problem with neighborly help that I'd like to see solved relates to not knowing which is the best building to polish when giving a culture buff.

Elf players aren't necessarily familiar with Human culture buildings & visa versa.
Also, players are unlikely to be familiar with culture buildings that they have not researched yet.
Finally, you can never know the culture value of event buildings which are chapter related.

Two possible solutions to this:
The simplest - A mouse-over feature so you can see what culture a building gives during a help visit.
Or better still - An automated system such that if you're giving a culture buff, it takes you straight to the highest culture building available to polish.

When your sun is behind the clouds it's somewhat annoying if a player visits and polishes that puny 2x2 codex when there is a far superior culture building in need of urgent attention.

Your thoughts ?

 

[Timneh]

This problem has been mentioned before Kermitsdad and i agree that it would be great if an idea like the one you just mentioned was implemented, i think it would stop a lot of frustration.

 

[Deleted User - 384643]

Excellent idea! I support it as well.

 

[Aisling1]

I really like KermitsDad's first idea...that you could see the cultural value of a building to a player by hovering before you polish.. and even more, maybe the time left to run on a cultural building that has been polished ...

I'm not so sure about the second... Call me nasty but continually clicking on someone's lowest culture regardless of what they asked for is something I find satisfying when they're verifiably active but not visiting me Sometimes, it even works!!
I get my reward for having visited, rather than ignoring them, just 'cause they're ignoring me...

I do think choice is a part of the game being undermined by upgrades... in the sense that there is more and more of a "correct" way of playing to progress faster... or at least more "economically"...

So, anything that increases our choices / options without penalising... I'm on for!!!

 

[DeletedUser2886]

It's a nice idea but you will still get players who will give you your 3rd choice repeatedly for 30 days straight, when their title is something like CBM, or "culture please" (and you respect that for 30 days straight). Also don't some cultures read from right to left? I'm assuming you're suggesting 123 is left>right? For this reason I think that your idea should have a 123 next to each, or maybe a gold silver bronze colour/medal?

I voted yes anyway.

Also on a side note they should have a neighbourly help tab which basically has the icons like your picture...and you just click the symbol to apply the help to everyone in a predetermined list. It would be known as 3-click neighbourly help. Of course there will always be people who want a 1 click option but that way you would be giving people "help" they didn't want (unless there was some way to code it so "1 click" was smart enough to apply all 3 types of culture to everyone in one click. I'm not so sure this is possible well it probably is but it's probably a lot more time consuming than 3 click which basically sections everyone off into categories as an exact science)

 

[DeletedUser2863]

Thanks for your input and feedback, folks.
From this, and related threads recently opened, two things have become clear to me:
1. We all seem to have our own ideas on how to improve the current system to various degrees, but more importantly:
2. We all seem to agree that the current system isn't quite good enough. The poll speaks for itself. I'm hoping that as a result of the clearly successful poll, the devs/management get to see this suggestion.

However, I do like the idea of having to visit everyone individually, as this is an optional feature for an extra boost for active players. It isn't mandatory. An automated or semi-automated system would, in my humble opinion, slightly diminish the game as it would remove the aspect of actually visiting and interacting with your neighbours (which I understand to be the purpose of the feature to begin with). Note that my suggestion hardly affects the way neighbourly help currently works, but rather frees up the city naming function for its originally intended use - naming your city. Because frankly, visiting cities with personalized - and sometimes clever - names is far more enjoyable than visiting various iterations of "Culture please" over and over again.

[...] yes, I want a name for my city that actually sounds like a name

[...] there are others who would very much welcome not being forced to abuse the name field to contain their neighbourly help wishes. Come on and do them a favour at last. It can't be too difficult to implement.

+1! It's clear that many players are sharing this opinion.

A mouse-over feature so you can see what culture a building gives during a help visit.

Your thoughts?

A very good, straight-forward idea that would improve the game.

Also don't some cultures read from right to left? I'm assuming you're suggesting 123 is left>right? For this reason I think that your idea should have a 123 next to each, or maybe a gold silver bronze colour/medal?

Valid point. I trust that, if this were to be implemented, the developers could come up with an unambiguous display (quick fix: simply make it vertical instead, reading up->down). There are countless options for what the display could look like; it doesn't have to be as primitive as the one I cooked up.

 

[DeletedUser3034]

If I recall, 20 yes votes are needed to be forwarded?

 

[Aisling1]

It's a nice idea but you will still get players who will give you your 3rd choice repeatedly for 30 days straight, when their title is something like CBM, or "culture please" (and you respect that for 30 days straight). Also don't some cultures read from right to left? I'm assuming you're suggesting 123 is left>right? For this reason I think that your idea should have a 123 next to each, or maybe a gold silver bronze colour/medal?

I voted yes anyway.

Also on a side note they should have a neighbourly help tab which basically has the icons like your picture...and you just click the symbol to apply the help to everyone in a predetermined list. It would be known as 3-click neighbourly help. Of course there will always be people who want a 1 click option but that way you would be giving people "help" they didn't want (unless there was some way to code it so "1 click" was smart enough to apply all 3 types of culture to everyone in one click. I'm not so sure this is possible well it probably is but it's probably a lot more time consuming than 3 click which basically sections everyone off into categories as an exact science)

 

[Aisling1]

The only reason I can see for a player repeatedly, 30 days straight going to the trouble of visiting you, and hitting your 3rd choice... particularly if they themselves are clued in enough to have a CBM message.... is that they are seriously trying to tell you something. They hit you daily, they are active.. you are obviously getting something wrong.
If they were inactive or couldn't care less, they wouldn't bother visiting..
Are you a back cross tier trader by any chance??? Are you being lazy and not bothering finding their highest culture, or builders if that's their preference..???

I find that if people care enough to visit, they usually know what they are doing and 30 days, 3rd choice always... I think you should see if it's your problem and not theirs.

 

[DeletedUser3034]

I will say though, as a player in the earlier chapters, who has little experience with event buildings, when looking for culture to polish, I am stuck with finding the largest footprint and hoping it was the best.

 

[Timneh]

The only reason I can see for a player repeatedly, 30 days straight going to the trouble of visiting you, and hitting your 3rd choice... particularly if they themselves are clued in enough to have a CBM message.... is that they are seriously trying to tell you something. They hit you daily, they are active.. you are obviously getting something wrong.
If they were inactive or couldn't care less, they wouldn't bother visiting..
Are you a back cross tier trader by any chance??? Are you being lazy and not bothering finding their highest culture, or builders if that's their preference..???

I find that if people care enough to visit, they usually know what they are doing and 30 days, 3rd choice always... I think you should see if it's your problem and not theirs.

I used to have a neighbour that would only give help by giving coins to main hall. He was a nice guy and we used to message each other a bit. I asked him why he would not give help any other way except giving coins and he said that when you visit a city the main hall is always in the centre of the screen so to save time he just clicked on that instead of searching for culture buildings and also that the builders hut could be hard to find. If players had culture buildings right next to the main hall he would click on them but he would not search for them or the builders hut. He left the game after the battle revamp and could not win fights anymore. My point is that the player might not be deliberately giving a 3rd choice of help to try and tell you something but they are just saving a little time, also some players might not look to see what help you would like and just give what they want to give.

 

[DeletedUser2863]

If I recall, 20 yes votes are needed to be forwarded?

Is that an official rule? Seems rather arbitrary.

 

[DeletedUser3041]

Love this idea. My vote is yes or +1 whichever works lol

 

[DeletedUser3034]

Long as you voted in the poll