I'm not sure why I'm bothering to post anything anymore, as anything I've posted or supported in the past seems to just drift into oblivion without ever being recognised by the developers. Consider this a final cry before I go silent forever.
The way TSO was two years ago was roughly this: On your island you have production giving you materials. These scarce materials could then be used to build military, strengthen your economy or traded with others. Some resources for economy, like granite for upgrades, had to be acquired from adventures. The same would have applied for military (titanium, saltpeter) if the adventure loots hadn't given the weapons without the need to actually produce them. Despite this workaround to acquire expert resources, materials were generally scarce. A player would have to plan, optimise, and make decisions on how to use their materials to best advance in the game. Trade was a key feature in the game as a smart trader could get "more for less" by buying relatively cheap materials and selling relatively expensive materials.
For advanced players all of this has been lost, and in many ways I see that the developers brought it on themselves. Resources are available in abundance, there is no next step to "advance" to, and trade has become a dumping ground flooded by high level players. I know some people think that giving players more and more stuff is a great idea, but ultimately it does not add to the game. Things had value because they were hard to get. Getting that stuff for free will make you happy for a moment, but ultimately getting stuff for free takes away its value and the purpose is lost.
The Veteran general
Who'd be silly enough to try to make their way through massive epic adventures without the veteran? Old-timers like me will remember that the Veteran isn't an original part of the game. In his absence, some adventures truly were hard; losing militia, cavalry and soldiers in bulk was unavoidable, but it may have been the only way to get those cannons or epic buildings. The veteran not only decreases losses, but allows for more loose troop composition. If a boss required you to use 80 soldiers and 120 crossbows to mow down, the veteran can do the same with 130 recruits and 120 crossbows. The loss count is higher, but the need for the expensive weapons is lost.
Resource abundance, Parrot exploit and Christmas freebie Gold towers
Making the most out of what you have is an integral part of any economy-based game. However, TSO has drifted to a course where everything seems to be in excess. There is no resource sink for the higher tier materials, so higher level players sell their surplus materials to lower level players for pennies. This boost in turn leads any starting player to clear their home island in weeks and build it full with no great effort. At least leveling up buildings requires coins at a point, but even that has been made easier. In the past the infamous parrot exploit made sure that coins were artificially accessible to all, and now the free gold tower is basically doing the same thing, without breaking rules.
Epic raids and how they missed their original point
A large player base was reaching the level cap with booming economies. These players were not finding challenge in the existing content, so epic raids were introduced to address this issue. Regrettably, lower level players were complaining that they were "too hard" and BlueByte scaled down the difficulty of the adventures whilst they significantly increased the loot. The issue here is that the need for these adventures came from those players who had it all and needed a challenge. None of those players got that challenge though. A high level player is able to get all the stuff they want from the epic items merchant in a few months. In the time frame of TSO that is near instant. Again, the attempt to make something accessible to all has ultimately lead to a situation where playing has become less interesting rather than more interesting. What if two years ago low level players had complained that it was "too hard" to get cannoneers and BB would have made them available from lv32?
Developers, get back on track
Here are a few guidelines for the devs to ignore that could allow to get the game back on its original trails:-Create features that drain resources in a way that high level players will want to spend them rather than dump on low level playersI would like to point out that this rant is from a high level player's perspective; the early game remains much in its original form to new players apart from the flooded trade market. But even low level players will one day reach high levels. Wouldn't it be nice to think that the game would still be worth playing when that happens?
-Balance off new features that give stronger units, stronger generals and higher production with features that require higher unit losses and higher material consumption
-Keep some resources scarce making players to have to choose how to spend them; don't hand out all at once
-Make the ultimate goals, like the best generals, best units, or best buildings hard to get. Don't listen to whiny players complaining that they're too expensive
-Make gem items that aid players to advance, but don't sell the best stuff directly for gems (Good gem items: Fast gens, scouts and geos; watermills, silos etc; premium time // Bad gem items: Christmas box that gives the best population building in the game; Veteran general)
[Thread merged, Original post: "Developers lack perspective"]
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Gerontius
