Release Notes

[Hekata]

This from Discord although I'm copying it form the Beta forum.

"Chapter 6-10 Improved Progression
We are happy that our redesign of the first chapters with better quests worked out well and was able to improve the game for new players. We also know that some find our chapter progress slow and the rewards weak. This is why we are continuing the redesign of the other chapters to help players not get stuck or lost by:

• improving the quests to guide you better in building your settlement
• improving the quests to guide you better in building your settlement
• adjusting the costs to make your city and economy more meaningful
• increasing the rewards of the main quests to make them more worthwhile * we won’t change the story and we will add very few new quests

You can test all of this on Beta, from November 21 in the chapters from 6 to 10 included. The new balancing will start right after the update. The improved questline will start when you enter the next chapter after the one you are now. For example, if you are in chapter 6, you will continue the old questline until chapter 7. Then you will play the new version.
Note: your quest progress may be behind your research progress, but this doesn’t matter. As a technical side effect, you may get the first quest of a redesigned chapter again when you enter a new chapter after the update.
Thanks a lot and let us know what you think about this improved progression in ⁠Chapter 6-10 Improved Progressi…!
Kind regards,
Your Elvenar Team"


Also some clarification from the Community Manager:
"As a technical side effect, some of you will get the very first quest of redesigned chapters even though they have already played them when they enter a new chapter for the first time after this update; some internal details (that might be too complex to share):

• This only happens once per affected account, not every time they enter a chapter
• They can either complete these quests again (to receive their rewards) or cancel them (story quests of chapters you have finished can always be canceled)
• The following will happen:
  • When your questline is currently in chapter 6 or lower, you are not affected
  • When your questline is currently in chapter 7, you will get the very first quest of chapter 7 again right before you get the first quest of chapter 8
  • When your questline is currently in chapter 8, you will get the very first quest of chapter 7 and 8 again right before you get the first quest of chapter 9
  • When your questline is currently in chapter 9, you will get the very first quest of chapter 7, 8 and 9 again right before you get the first quest of chapter 10
  • When your questline is currently in chapter 10 or higher, you will only get the very first quest of chapter 7, 8 and 9 again once you enter chapter 21 (!!)"

 

[Frost Crystals]

Is it possible to add this info to the Section at the top of the Forum that is dedicated to Release Note information?
Nothing has been updated there since August...

 

[Silmaril]

Unfortunately not @Frost Crystals as all official announcement have been moved to Discord only now.

 

[Frost Crystals]

Unfortunately not @Frost Crystals as all official announcement have been moved to Discord only now.

 

[SkyRider99]

Discord spelt backwards is 'drocsid'. A coincidence? I don't think so.

 

[m4rt1n]

Discord is a joke when discussing a slow paced game aimed at the older generation. Inno will always say otherwise about their player game base, because they wear goggles of youth

 

[SkyRider99]

because they wear goggles of youth

Would those help with my sciatica and rheumatism?

 

[Herodite]

From Discord:

This will be effective on Beta as of tomorrow 10/01/2024

Improvements to Ancient Wonders bonuses and costs​

We want Ancient Wonders to be a fair challenge. But they use different resources and are very hard when a new chapter comes and easier later. This may stop you from placing an Ancient Wonder you want. To fix this and make them have a steady challenge, we changed their costs. Now you will need Spell Fragments, Combining Catalysts, and Royal Restoration. This will sound familiar to Chapter 21 players as they are the same type of cost of the Ancient Wonders in that chapter, but we cut them in half (also for Chapter 21) following the feedback we got from you. In general, we also improved their rewards. In most cases, rewards are the same type but stronger in the initial levels. At max level, there is little difference to now. The new balance will work for the Ancient Wonders in your city, after the update you will get the new bonuses. We know these are significant changes, and feel they are necessary to improve the game. These adjustments are essential for maintaining the relevance of Ancient Wonders. Give it a try, your feedback is invaluable to us and we greatly appreciate your dedication to improving Elvenar.

Four exceptions (3 nerfs and 1 buff are coming)​

There are few exception to the general new balancing. Two Ancient Wonders are too strong: The Sanctuary / Martial Monastery and Watchtower Ruins. They give huge culture, making this requirement almost trivial. We cut this bonus, it is still good, but not excessive. This makes culture matter more. On the plus side, you can now level up The Sanctuary / Martial Monastery to level 35 (before 30) and the bonus on Troops Health is stronger. The third one we nerfed is Dragon Abbey and its mana per spell bonus. This got too strong over time, as spells got more common. Also, this is very strong at first, but way less later. We want Ancient Wonders to have stable and good effects in future chapters. With the change, this will happen. Compared to before, Dragon Abbey will be stronger in future chapters, but weaker in the current ones. The fourth Ancient Wonder in this list is the Thrones of the High Men. It was originally depending on total Ancient Wonder levels to provide increased Culture and additional Ranking points. Now it will also take the Main Hall Ranking points into consideration, which considerably boosts the ranking points output, especially in higher chapters. This also boosts Culture to some degree, but not as strongly as the Ranking points.

 

[Elfclaw the Mighty]

Nothing about these AW "improvements" sounds better in any way...

 

[SkyRider99]

you can now level up The Sanctuary / Martial Monastery to level 35 (before 30) and the bonus on Troops Health is stronger.

Better troops health seems to be a good thing. How much 'stronger'? 1% ??

On the down-side, I have given away all my rune shards to FS members, since I was at L30.

I'm all for 'improvements'. Our politicians talk about giving them to us all the time!

 

[kimkimkim]

I just don't know why they can't leave things well enough alone....nerf this, buff this, change this blah blah blah......ok great, change the costs for upgrading to include royal restoration spells....are they gonna make royal restoration spells more readily available to those people who are not in fellowships or are in fellowships where tournaments don't matter, you all want to make it fair for everyone right?

yeah more levels to Martial Monastery/Sanctuary.....do you all think you could have thrown caution to the wind and highly suggest we not use up our leftover runes when they were given a value?

and the Dragon Abbey, is it strong or is weak?....exactly what will happen to it, will the amount of mana decrease per spell or will the mana increase?

 

[dennise]

The thing that will stop me placing AWs is having to use RRs. I find them very hard to acquire. In my newer city I often have trouble with CCs too. Finding enough goods is easy. I probably won't be able to place any more AWs which will definitely affect my game playing. I haven't heard any complaints from players about AWs being too hard to place, so I don't know what Inno is basing this decision on. They are always changing things that don't need changing and ignoring the things that do. One thought I had is that Inno might consider it an extra revenue stream. RRs can be bought with cash and diamonds but goods can't. If people get desperate enough they might end up buying them.

 

[SkyRider99]

...nerf this, buff this, change this blah blah blah....

Couldn't have said it better myself @kimkimkim.

 

[Hekata]

I've checked the discussion going about these changes on beta discord and people are departed about these improvements changes nerfs

Here's an example about the reduction in culture:

"Yesterday i had 320 k of cultural bonus, today minus -132 k of cultural bonus ??? I can't even upgrade some marvel because now I don't have enough cultural bonus ! .... I have pass from 1 326 000 to 181 585... A loss of 1 144 415 of culture really ? Are you serious ????"

Basically the Monastery/Sanctuary now gives the same amount of culture as the glorious auction event building.

An example of the cost for upgrading 1 level of an AW (I don't know what level is this particular AW but RRs, CCs and SF are going to be needed from level 1, so no idea how beginners will manage that:

Needing 20 Royal Restorations to update my Timewarp is just way to much; that along with having to also pay 16000 Spell Fragments and 16 CCs

I've also see someone mention 34 RRs for 1 aw level

I've also found this bit of info: the amount of mana the DA gives per spell is now 22k instead of the previous 28k. I don't know what level that is but, while it's a significant reduction, it's not as bad as I feared.

Here's an interesting comment about the changes to the Shrooms:

If the changes to the Shrine of the Shrewdy Shrooms go through (the training size bonus now works the same as for the Dwarven Bullwark), then there is almost no point in building armories at all anymore, in certain cases. The recent buff to the Lighthouse of Good Neighborhood has made cultural buildings massively superiour for Orc production, and the training size benefit of armories is tiny without the old SSS effect. Add to that that Armories require a lot of culture, which will be much more scarce after this change, it wouldn't make sense to have them at all.

I'll spare you the big rant I have bubbling in my head all day and just say the conclusion of it: I'm so sick of these constant changes they keep making to the very basics of the game. If these "improvements" go live it just might be the final push I need to finally stop playing.

 

[Jake65]

Quoting from above:
"Add to that that Armories require a lot of culture,"
which in turn boosts Ohno;rium production in the trader.
Hopefully, this time, what happens in Beta stays in Beta.

 

[SkyRider99]

Hopefully, this time, what happens in Beta stays in Beta.

 

[sail0r]

Inno, are you insane??? Who ever complained about wonders being difficult to build? Some wonders may have needed some sentient goods or seeds or mana that may not have been readily available, but you waited a day or two to gather what was necessary and you could upgrade it.
Now you make changes to that and require spell fragments, CC's and RR's. Where on earth should we get those from? Old players with 10+ Moonstone Libraries will lough about the first two but those that only have one don't get them easily. And what about RR's? They may be one of the most difficult to get. So I lough at your announcement saying that this is done for us.
According to the feedback in Beta, players have seen a huge drop in culture. I don't know how my Winyandor city will be affected but I have to say this. When you start the game you learn that you have to balance population, manufactories and culture. So I have spent 5 years creating and developing a city that has enough population, manufactories and enough culture. Now I don't want to design everything from scratch, just because you decided to change the fundamentals of the game.
I may have been one of the most loyal players of this game, but enough is enough.

 

[owl76]

I've just worked out the impact this will have on my Dragon Abbey

Currently my level 34 DA:
527 provinces * 45 AWP = 23715 mana per spell use

If this change come to live, then it will be based on squad size:
4002 SS * 230% AWP = 9205 mana per spell use

Level	Ancient Wonder Power (%)
1​	24​
2​	36​
3​	48​
4​	60​
5​	72​
6​	88​
7​	96​
8​	104​
9​	112​
10​	120​
11​	136​
12​	144​
13​	152​
14​	160​
15​	168​
16​	180​
17​	184​
18​	188​
19​	192​
20​	196​
21​	200​
22​	202​
23​	204​
24​	206​
25​	208​
26​	212​
27​	214​
28​	216​
29​	218​
30​	220​
31​	224​
32​	226​
33​	228​
34​	230​
35​	240​

 

[Hekata]

Wow, that's terrible. I haven't researched any of the optional SS techs so I'd barely get any mama, lol

 

[Hekata]

Here's some news about the new AW improvments nerfs, it's from one of Discord Beta mods:

Ancient Wonders changes - Additional improvements following feedback

First, we really want to thank all our beta players for the useful feedback you have provided since we implemented the recent improvements to Ancient Wonders bonuses and costs.

This is what beta is meant for and thanks to your feedback we are now able to implement a series of additional improvements to address 2 of the major points raised. They will be available on beta **from tomorrow, January 12**.

- We are doubling the Culture effect of 3 Ancient Wonders (Martial Monastery / The Sanctuary, Watchtower Ruins, and Thermal Spring of Youth)
- Keep in mind this will still be a lower amount compared to how it was before the initial change, we still listened your feedback and corrected those benefits to increase them

- We are introducing helpful refunds for some buildings. They will now grant Combining Catalyst or Royal Restoration depending on their size and type (usually between 1 and 3)
- This will help provide additional ways to get the resources needed to level up your Ancient Wonders in the new system
- We plan to keep expanding the list of buildings in the future
- Down here you can see an image with the first round of buildings

Please note the irony of getting 1CC for selling parts of the Moonstone Library, one of the few buildings that actually makes CC, lol

And for those who don't use discord: players reaction and dissatisfaction with these AW improvements nerfs is even worse than during the big tourney rebalancing nerf of 2021.

EDIT: I've just noticed that we can sell MR and MWS for 5 RR spells!! Hahaha, one would think it's April 1st today