Option to choose 3 Production boosts at start of game

[KermitsDad]

Background
My town is surrounded by many new towns that comprise only:
Main Hall level 1
Builders Hut level 1
1 or 2 Residences level 1
1 or 2 Workshops level 1
A short road about 6 tiles long

These towns are not developed further and after a while they go and usually get replaced with a similar town.
After a while the cycle repeats

My assumption is that players start an additional town wanting a set of 3 production boosts to complement the boosts they already have on their main town.

They then play the newly setup town to the point where they are able to see what 3 production boosts they have and then if the production boosts are not as wanted then the town gets abandoned.

They then move on and setup yet another town hoping again to get the certain boosts they are looking for.

Suggestion
My suggestion is that on startup players are given an option to choose the production boosts they will get.
This could be at the same time as they choose to be either elves or humans.

There could also be a random option so that players who don't care or don't know what they'd like will be allocated 3 production boosts randomly or as is needed to balance the game.

The Benefits
The biggest benefit is that developed players would have a much better chance of having active neighbors that they can trade with & receive neighborly help from. We'd all like this instead of having a continual stream of newly created and abandoned towns which arrive only to be replaced with yet another 1 week or so later.

Players that desire additional towns to have complimentary production boosts could meet their aims at the first attempt without needing to setup and abandon several towns.

The game servers would also surely benefit as the data storage for all these inactive towns and the associated dead accounts must be considerable. I'm not 100% sure but I think it very likely that cutting out or reducing dead data is beneficial.

Drawbacks & potential problems
Obviously development effort would be needed to implement this suggestion and it might not be possible to in all cases to give the chosen 3 production boosts.

Players might have a lot more mines near their town rather than "dead" towns and of course there is no chance of gaining a treasure chest or supplies from a mine.

 

[DeletedUser3034]

Another possible drawback..... too many people in a small area having chosen the exact same boosts.... that'd make trade very difficult.

 

[KermitsDad]

Another possible drawback..... too many people in a small area having chosen the exact same boosts.... that'd make trade very difficult.

The map is fixed so it wouldn't be possible to locate players all having the same boosts in the same area.
The boosts you get match the provinces at 12, 4 & 8 o' clock from your town.

 

[DeletedUser3034]

Now that you say it, I see it, thank you! So, choose your 3, then be given a town that fits the requirements. That could work.

 

[Tonton-des-bois]

Background
My town is surrounded by many new towns that comprise only:
Main Hall level 1
Builders Hut level 1
1 or 2 Residences level 1
1 or 2 Workshops level 1
A short road about 6 tiles long

These towns are not developed further and after a while they go and usually get replaced with a similar town.
After a while the cycle repeats

My assumption is that players start an additional town wanting a set of 3 production boosts to complement the boosts they already have on their main town.

They then play the newly setup town to the point where they are able to see what 3 production boosts they have and then if the production boosts are not as wanted then the town gets abandoned.

They then move on and setup yet another town hoping again to get the certain boosts they are looking for.

Suggestion
My suggestion is that on startup players are given an option to choose the production boosts they will get.
This could be at the same time as they choose to be either elves or humans.

There could also be a random option so that players who don't care or don't know what they'd like will be allocated 3 production boosts randomly or as is needed to balance the game.

The Benefits
The biggest benefit is that developed players would have a much better chance of having active neighbors that they can trade with & receive neighborly help from. We'd all like this instead of having a continual stream of newly created and abandoned towns which arrive only to be replaced with yet another 1 week or so later.

Players that desire additional towns to have complimentary production boosts could meet their aims at the first attempt without needing to setup and abandon several towns.

The game servers would also surely benefit as the data storage for all these inactive towns and the associated dead accounts must be considerable. I'm not 100% sure but I think it very likely that cutting out or reducing dead data is beneficial.

Drawbacks & potential problems
Obviously development effort would be needed to implement this suggestion and it might not be possible to in all cases to give the chosen 3 production boosts.

Players might have a lot more mines near their town rather than "dead" towns and of course there is no chance of gaining a treasure chest or supplies from a mine.

I think they aren't really trying to choose the "good" boosts... Most people are starting to play, then they abandon because they have to wait their builders to finish their jobs and because they are searching for "instant" games...

 

[Timneh]

I agree, i think the main reason for so many small and inactive cities is people sign up but find the game too slow or boring so do not sign in anymore and just abandon the game so that city just stays there until it gets removed after the 30 day inactive period.

 

[KermitsDad]

Of course my assumption might be wrong and yes impatient players will soon abandon Elvenar for a faster paced game.

I do however think that it is by far too much a coincidence that the majority of the abandoned start up towns I see are abandoned at exactly the point in the game where you are first able to see what 3 production boosts you have been given.

Also, at this very early stage in the game the building work such as upgrading a residence from level 1 to level 2 is pretty quick and I'm sure most totally new players will spend more than 10 minutes here before deciding if they want to continue with the game or not.

 

[Cregganroe]

If they were already players trying a new town they would know to look at the map and see what their 3 boosts are from there not have to wait and see what they were

 

[DeletedUser]

Also if they don't like their boosts they then have to make a new account under a different email address in order to try their luck again, its easier to ask support to delete the city and have another go using the same username/email, and yes it can be done, I've had 2 cities deleted one of which was very high ranking at that point.

Plus I've often tried a new game and decided I didn't like it just a few minutes in to promptly close it and never go back to it again.

 

[DeletedUser3042]

I am new to game and notice the same thing, neighbors not expanding, assuming they abandoned. But I have to say seeing they are all level 1 or 2 it doesn't make sense that they find it boring as in the beginning it only takes seconds and minuets to upgrade a building. Most builder games take time to build I'd think they expect that. But I see that the abandoned ones are at very low levels....I agree that may be why to find the boost they want. Unless they are looking for a more War based game like goodgame empire, I think young players like the thrill of war, I played goodgame and found it stressfull to come online and find all my troops killed etc and some very rude people, I like this so far much better.

 

[Cregganroe]

I am the same I like the gentleness of the game and do not need the stress of fighting I just like to tick along

 

[DeletedUser2886]

I am new to game and notice the same thing, neighbors not expanding, assuming they abandoned. But I have to say seeing they are all level 1 or 2 it doesn't make sense that they find it boring as in the beginning it only takes seconds and minuets to upgrade a building. Most builder games take time to build I'd think they expect that. But I see that the abandoned ones are at very low levels....I agree that may be why to find the boost they want. Unless they are looking for a more War based game like goodgame empire, I think young players like the thrill of war, I played goodgame and found it stressfull to come online and find all my troops killed etc and some very rude people, I like this so far much better.

only the battling is terrible in this game

 

[DeletedUser2886]

I agree 100% about being given the choice of what your boosts are. random sucks. you should also maybe me able to choose where you start

 

[KermitsDad]

Another solution to the issue of an endless stream of new starter towns surrounding active & developed players could be to:-

Divide the total game map into 3 areas:
1) The main area for active & developed players towns
2) An area for non active players towns - possibility of town deletion from here
3) An area for new players to start their towns

New players within the starting area can then either:
a) Stay active & reach a certain game milestone - perhaps have a trader and then be moved to the main area or:
b) After a period of no activity be moved to the non active player area.

One drawback could be that new starters do not quickly grasp the concept of neighborly help as established players will not be visiting them.
To overcome this it may be useful to introduce an early neighborly help quest that provides full help details of how this is performed.

 

[DeletedUser3034]

At first glance this seems like it could work. Consideration brings a few concerns though.

The first worry is the alienation the new player might feel, not being 'worthy' to be in the 'real world'.

Then there is the fact that much of learning to play is communication with your neighbors and your FS. More experienced players to answer questions and give advice.

Also by clumping all the newbies together, haven't we concentrated those most likely to quit / be inactive together? This would be a serious handicap to the early grow of the new player who is serious.

 

[DeletedUser2886]

I agree that if you have a long period of inactivity you are moved somewhere with all the rest lol

 

[Tonton-des-bois]

Another solution to the issue of an endless stream of new starter towns surrounding active & developed players could be to:-

Divide the total game map into 3 areas:
1) The main area for active & developed players towns
2) An area for non active players towns - possibility of town deletion from here
3) An area for new players to start their towns

New players within the starting area can then either:
a) Stay active & reach a certain game milestone - perhaps have a trader and then be moved to the main area or:
b) After a period of no activity be moved to the non active player area.

One drawback could be that new starters do not quickly grasp the concept of neighborly help as established players will not be visiting them.
To overcome this it may be useful to introduce an early neighborly help quest that provides full help details of how this is performed.

interesting concept to combine with the recent players moving to the center but they just needed to push the beginners to the border while pushing the advanced ones to the center and only let the new accounts to be created at the border for that to work...

But they are not gifted enough to think to such a simple method... they always implement things without looking further than the current day...
They have absolutely no anticipation skills

If they had invented dynamite, they would have smoked in their storage and waited the whole thing to explode before thinking to the no smoking area sign...

 

[DeletedUser2886]

Lol so true ^

 

[DeletedUser]

I think part of the problem is that they never really implemented the 'player movement' here on the EN servers. Probably because it was set up as a manual process and we have not had a real active Community Manager here on the EN server in a long time. I'm hoping now that they say we are going to have the automatic version starting with the last update I hope to see if it makes any difference.

From what I understand and what I saw with my Beta account, was that after a certain period of inactivity a players city would be moved away from the center of the map to the outskirts of the map. Accounts with active cities would get moved into those opened up spaces toward the center of the map. Boosts had to match of course. It was pretty good when it first happened as I went from a hopeless area of the map to one that had a lot more neighborly activity.

In order to help the game, they really need to use some of the areas freed up by moving inactive players out, by placing new accounts there as well.

I've been doing a survey of my current area, pretty much dead, and rough numbers in a limited area north of my city for the last week was about

3 active player, 8 accounts deleted and replaced with new starter cities, 30 inactive cities.

So basically in that area there are 11 active accounts ( 8 of them created this week ) and 30 inactive cities with points ranging from ( 19 to 75,000 ) city points. If things go as usual, most of the starter cities will be inactive in two weeks.

I'll probably do a complete survey of my neighborhood ( 90 neighbors ) on Wednesday as that is my day off, and see what happens, hopefully there will be player movement by then in the space between tournaments.

I think the boosted goods only play a small part, as players starting a 2nd account to play on a second world may not really want the same boosts on both of their accounts.

 

[DeletedUser2886]

I think part of the problem is that they never really implemented the 'player movement' here on the EN servers. Probably because it was set up as a manual process and we have not had a real active Community Manager here on the EN server in a long time. I'm hoping now that they say we are going to have the automatic version starting with the last update I hope to see if it makes any difference.

From what I understand and what I saw with my Beta account, was that after a certain period of inactivity a players city would be moved away from the center of the map to the outskirts of the map. Accounts with active cities would get moved into those opened up spaces toward the center of the map. Boosts had to match of course. It was pretty good when it first happened as I went from a hopeless area of the map to one that had a lot more neighborly activity.

In order to help the game, they really need to use some of the areas freed up by moving inactive players out, by placing new accounts there as well.

I've been doing a survey of my current area, pretty much dead, and rough numbers in a limited area north of my city for the last week was about

3 active player, 8 accounts deleted and replaced with new starter cities, 30 inactive cities.

So basically in that area there are 11 active accounts ( 8 of them created this week ) and 30 inactive cities with points ranging from ( 19 to 75,000 ) city points. If things go as usual, most of the starter cities will be inactive in two weeks.

I'll probably do a complete survey of my neighborhood ( 90 neighbors ) on Wednesday as that is my day off, and see what happens, hopefully there will be player movement by then in the space between tournaments.

I think the boosted goods only play a small part, as players starting a 2nd account to play on a second world may not really want the same boosts on both of their accounts.

that's some damning evidence there and I have to concur it's pretty much a similar story in my area. A got two friends of mine to setup accounts and they said they were dumped in an area where the towns didnt even have names and couldn't be clicked on. this says to me they are just holding towns. point is thats no neighbourly help. they told me they didn't like the game after a few days anyway and left.

however innogames seems to think their game is amazing and that nothing needs to be changed. How do I know this? look at their updates and their update videos. Also...everytime a player suggests something whether on here or somewhere else they claim it would ruin the experience and make the game not fun. no wonder people are deserting their cities.

Absolute facepalm