PvP

[Bauhaus]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has an idea how is PvP gonna work?

Because so far, the game looks pretty ok. I mean, the "paying customers" do have their advantages over the "free2play" players - as they should - but nothing game breaking. It seems pretty balanced with both parties happy.

However, when it comes to PvP, I wonder about 1 thing:

The instant production of settlers in provisions house along with the instant recruitment of troops in barracks, could turn this game into a "pay to win" one and people will end up losing all the time they invested (time can't be bought with anything, even in a free2play game), lvling up their cities only to face a pay to win situation later on.

Looking forward to your replies,

Best regards,

[Zavvy]

Im guessing pvp will be on islands apart from your main, building towers to protect land with gold mines and stuff.. I dunno. in any case paying customers would obviously benefit if there were no restrictions. maybe limit the amount of attacks to once per day, that would give non-paying customers incentive to compete as well.

Ill come up with a better response later, got a tyrannosaurus headache

[sparkz]

The instant production of settlers in provisions house along with the instant recruitment of troops in barracks, could turn this game into a "pay to win" one and people will end up losing all the time they invested (time can't be bought with anything, even in a free2play game), lvling up their cities only to face a pay to win situation later on.

The amount of other resources you need to build the army and how long you need to get them through production and/or trade limits ones ability to short-rush army, and in cases of players with weaker economies, practically kills the point of using gems on a regular basis.

Also, as of now we have absolutely no idea about the scale of the battles or losses we will take, the system might end up being slow paced with no gem investment necessary (because no matter what you do, your barracks alone will be enough to replenish your army between battles).

[Bauhaus]

The amount of other resources you need to build the army and how long you need to get them through production and/or trade limits ones ability to short-rush army, and in cases of players with weaker economies, practically kills the point of using gems on a regular basis.

Also, as of now we have absolutely no idea about the scale of the battles or losses we will take, the system might end up being slow paced with no gem investment necessary (because no matter what you do, your barracks alone will be enough to replenish your army between battles).

At some point the resources may not be the problem. A free2play player can prepare first (ofc it will take him longer) and then chose to participate in (apparently less) "pvp fights". Here comes the advantage a paying customer has but this is fine. Acceptable. After all the paying customer, the one who pays so others can enjoy the game for free should have some advantages. However, once the free2play player choses to participate in a pvp fight and if the paying customer has the ability to instantly get settlers/troops then he is just "food" and there is no possibility for him to be able to compete - ever - .

Hence the previous poster wisely spoke of restrictions or else it would be a mute point. Seeing that instant speeding up settlers production in provisions with gems and instant recruiting troops with gems is *already* in the game, makes the concerns even more justifiable. Hence it would be good to know, before ppl invest weeks and months in a game that they would never be able to compete. As I said before, it may be free2play, but ppl's TIME that they invest in a game is far more valuable. Time is something no money can ever buy.

And never forget, free2play players are not "food". They are the major part of a game's "playerbase". The kind of playerbase that fills the servers. The kind of playerbase that attracts players, who among them are paying customers. After all, nobody, even paying players, wants to play in an emty game.

[Dilbe]

The problem so far is that there have been no anouncements about pvp other than that is will be added some time in the future. Wich means that anything posted here by players is pure speculation, and you can't really use that as basis to decide if the pvp part will be fair or not. So all we can do is wait untill BB makes another anouncement (or hope they reply to a topic like this, but considering the developers are german, i would not realy expect them on the english forum very often).

[Bauhaus]

The problem so far is that there have been no anouncements about pvp other than that is will be added some time in the future. Wich means that anything posted here by players is pure speculation, and you can't really use that as basis to decide if the pvp part will be fair or not. So all we can do is wait untill BB makes another anouncement (or hope they reply to a topic like this, but considering the developers are german, i would not realy expect them on the english forum very often).

I may be harsh but this is also a problem. The developers of a game (I am not saying this happens in this game for this reason, I am speaking in general) should not avoid to answer such questions in hopes to gain time because in the meantime the players become "hostages". Hostages in a game they invested 4, 6, 12 months of their precious time only to find themselves in a situation later on that they would not want to be and thus they would not play that game had they known things would be like that. From this aspect, a "avoid to answer some questions to gain time" is not a proper behavior and players should rather avoid investing their time playing a game with a foggy endgame or pay to win or not conditions.

Let me give you a simple example when it comes to this game:

I like Settlers Online (so far).
I don't like pay to win games/situations though.
I see a couple of things that trouble me in this regard (instant recruitment of settlers and troops).
So I ask the devs what about it.
The devs don't reply (for whatever reason).

So here comes my dillema.
Should I continue play the game (which I like) in hopes things are gonna be ok?
or
Should I stop playing the game of fear I will invest my time only to find myself facing a pay to win situation after months?

Other players don't mind that. Since they like a game thus far, they keep playing that game. No problem. That is fine also. Each to their own. It's their time, their "investment". I am not speaking on behalf of all players. I am only speaking on behalf of the players who are like what I described above.

But I believe there are many players like this. In every site about games you visit and read the forums about f2p games, there is always this 1 major question. "Is it pay to win"? Why do they ask that, because obviously they do not want to face this situation and end up "wasting their time". And the first thing players look at when they are to chose whether to play a f2p game or not is ofc, the "store". If they see items there that lead to "pay to win" situations, they avoid such games. Ofc, not all players, they are many known games out there that are pay to win yet their playerbase is big. Hence I said, I don't speak on behalf of all players but of such players who are like this.

[BB_Azariel]

Hi guys,

I just wanted to say a couple of things here...

1) This game will NEVER become a "pay to win" game. The main objective of the TSO team is to make sure that paying players have a decent advantage whithout limiting the non-paying players. It will be the same for PvP (hence the fact that it takes a lot of time to put in place as we have to be extremely precise and careful in setting it up correctly).

...but enough on this subject as it's got nothing to do with the main topic (feel free to find another thread on this subject if you want to carry on with it).

2) Devs are in germany and probably never read these posts. Nevertheless, I read the ALL!!! and then send my feedback to BB when needed with the best ideas I have found on the forum... So all posts are interesting.
Just remember when you open a thread to search the forum for similar threads before you start yours. Constructing a real discussion on one single thread will be much easier for players to see, and will make my job easier in seeing the good points from the bad ones when reporting to BB.

3) For the moment we have very little insight into what's coming in terms of PvP. BB first has to rethink the battle system and has to add in some essential aspects of the game (such as an economic overview for example). Nevertheless, as soon as I have any interesting and relevant information I'll make sure to pass it on to you guys!

Hope this helps

BB_Azariel