Feedback for Guild Expedition.. Level 5

[LoveNkind]

Why people are complaining? It's been ages since defense for defending army was used by players. Now is the time. Just take your time and slowly increase your def stats. Not a big deal.
Fragments are another story. Doesn't look good but in general rewards for GE1-4 are better than it was. No crappy victory towers, medals etc.

I like PVP in my main. I have worked hard to raise my defense stats for that part of the game in that city. My little diamond miner I have not needed any defense (almost nobody ever attacks in either city), so we will see how I do there. We weren't going to open GE5 there, but I accidentally opened it, so we will explore it this week.

 

[Be Chuille]

If you hover over the tooltip for that task, it clearly says that it means fighting in GE.

Where are you seeing a tooltip?
Quest #8 spelled out "Solve 5 encounters in the Guild Expedition"
Either way, there is an option to acquire sectors, so I would not let that stop from completing GE.

 

[Graviton]

I'm not a fan of fragments but on the other hand I'm not sure how else they were going to deal with the power creep that is itself a problem.

I think the complaints that GE Level 5 is too hard are off-base. It should be hard. You shouldn't be able to complete it with ease right away, else there'd be no point to it. Even the most monstrous city now has to reassess its strategy and its design. That's good.

I also think the complaints about GE Level 5 being based on high defensive stats are off-base. As well as the reason stated above, I understand why Inno would want to restore utility to defensive stats, and it will be relatively easy for large, powerful cities to adjust. Might take awhile but it's not difficult. Also, it's early and Inno will no doubt adjust the criteria if they see a problem with participation.

Not happy at all that diamonds can no longer be found in GE Levels 1-3.

Not gonna threaten to ragequit nor claim that Inno owes me anything.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Where are you seeing a tooltip?
Quest #8 spelled out "Solve 5 encounters in the Guild Expedition"
Either way, there is an option to acquire sectors, so I would not let that stop from completing GE.

 

[LoveNkind]

This is nitpicking, I know. But could we please put the fragments on the last pages of our inventory? Please! They were already a nuisance before, but now we're going to end up with 3 or 4 pages (at least) of fragments before we get to anything useful in our inventory. It may be a minor thing, but throw us a bone here.

Sometimes, I use the end arrow and go from back to front.
But there is a better solution: Inno should make a whole new section in inventory for fragments. That would reduce my objection to them considerably.

 

[Pericles the Lion]

I'm not a fan of fragments but on the other hand I'm not sure how else they were going to deal with the power creep that is itself a problem.

I could not agree more. I would rather have to collect a bunch of fragments to assemble a good building than a get a bunch of full crappy buildings that are nothing more than food for the AD

 

[ScreamingZiva]

Did they lower the chance to get extra attempts (or remove some)? I know it could be RNG but I didn't get any in the first three levels and usually hit at least one.

 

[Achaeus 1283 the Avenger]

I won't be attempting GE5 on any of my worlds, due to problems enumerated above by many players.

My biggest issue is with the removal of diamonds from levels 1-3. I could live with reduced amounts, or reduced likelihood, but none at all! That is stupid and counter-productive. The reason I say this is my experience on the world where I am a leader in a teaching guild. New players are very reluctant to try GE because it is different, poses challenges they don't think they are ready for and they don't see the rewards. Diamonds were by far the best incentive for them to try GE. When they could get diamonds even on Level 1, that was something and exciting. In other words, a real incentive. Now that is so far off in the distant future that it might as well be a myth. Basically, this aspect of the change is going to reduce participation in GE over the long term as many newer players will just never start participating.

 

[PJS299]

I just started to actually try to finish GE4, and I was getting diamonds, so to have this cut in half is not exciting. It does seem a little weird that Inno ignores everything that happens on beta and just releases things on live anyway. GE5 looks good on paper, but in reality it seems like a bad idea. Inno is just looking for more ways to make money and make the game pay-to-play. I hate to complain, but this seems like the thing to complain about.

I should probably stop, but anyway…
In rebuttal to my previous argument:
Inno has a lot on their plates. With 400 employees and 7 games, there's roughly 57 per game. This means that they have 57 people to create ideas, design, bug fix and manage the many servers. With such a large amount of people playing this game, and with so many servers, this takes more than one person to do each task. Inno is such a big company, so they do have a lot of costs. Paying 400 peoples salaries, for electricity, plumbing, and keeping the games online takes a lot of money. They do need a way to bring in money, hence lowering the chance at getting diamonds. Also, since so many people play the game, Inno can't make a giant announcement like GE5 and say, “Yeah it is being released to live in a two-three weeks,” and then just not release it, or take a year or two to release it. This isn't like the Event Pier (or whatever that was), this is actually something that can affect the game in a large scale way. What do you do after reaching SAJM and being able to win every battle with your giant atk boosts? Inno has to add more features to the game, like more ages, and more GE levels. This may not be appealing at first, but it is a way to diversify cities, and increase money spending…? Inno will over time go over this level and make changes, but like I said, they can't release this and say, “Defending Army boosts, fortifications, difficult!” and then completely change the whole idea of it. Give it some time. Inno will make changes at some point. I am not a fan of this new feature, but it is part of the game, and (since they are not listening to feedback) it is staying. If you don't like it, don't do it. Or start a GoFundMe for InnoGames.

Please don't argue with me! I DON'T like the new GE level, I just feel like something should be said.
My main annoyances are about the rewards offered now, but so many people already said something about that, so I am not gonna say anything.
I also know that no one is going to build up their city defense, but as that is the main point of GE5, it should be said.
And I would like it if someone from Inno at least acknowledged our complaints...

 

[Angel.]

my whole guild is not happy with ge at all this time a few of us are trying ge 5 but wow cost is to high .cant win a fight even with 3 boost going defence boost an a building built all the dang fragments every were for stuff been selling cause we have no more room to add more .
we trying it but so far dont look like we will contenue to play it .will say it is pertty as far as the back ground gose

 

[LoveNkind]

This is the most negative set of comments I have EVER seen for anything, games or not. That means FoE is in immediate and extreme danger.

Many have noticed the increasing PTW and commented on it before. Here a few are wise enuf to figure out that FoE must have serious financial challenges and NEED more money. Ruining the game will not get there.

There are worldwide financial stresses. I won't discuss them here because we go to games to ESCAPE such things and their politics for a while. But the reality is that millions or billions of people are forced to cut back these days. Those who can afford to fund FoE will continue to do so if the devs figure out fast enuf that they have offended the paying gamers as much as the free players and correct course immediately. First step--apologize in announcements to restore hope right away. That will buy time to decide what changes are optimum and not make things worse by rushing.

FoE had better face the reality that many people must cut back because of layoffs, inflation, etc. Few people will choose a game over food. Some players' finances are unaffected--but others have had to reduce or even eliminate paying. FoE will be forced to cut back. I don't like it either, but they face it or die.

One relative cheap thing they can do is reduce the annoyance of fragments by separating them from everything else in inventory.

 

[spnnr]

Well the guild I am visiting indicated they wont be opening it due to costs as some were involved in the Beta roll out. I am hoping that Inno looks at the level of engagement between players and GE level 5 and look at making some changes that are more player friendly.

 

[McBluefire]

My feedback for US worlds. yeah, I gave my feedback on beta and the only thing I saw addressed was the attack boosts for the "attacking" army were reduced a tiny amount.

For those who are ready to jump on my feedback and argue how I got it wrong and parts of this are the best change ever, please don't waste your time if you are just hoping to get a response from me as I'm not going to waste my time acknowledging your dissension. This is *my* feedback for the developers, not to the community. Thanks for your understanding.

1) CITY DEFENSE: I'll never convert my city to a high city defense. Not going to happen unless all the event buildings coming up for the next few years include city defense plus attack boosts, good FP/sqr, and excellent goods & guild goods per square. Through normal replacement of improved buildings if I find myself at a city defense where I can attack successfully in GE5, then so be it! No, I'm not going to avoid GE5. I'll be one of the few people who completes it every week until my guild leadership decides that the goods shouldn't go all for one person in the guild who can afford the goods sink.

2) DIAMONDS: It was ridiculous to half the diamond output of GE1-4. Just flat out mean spirited. It gave folks a chance to help in GbG or afford some negotiation continuations each week, not spend 20K on events....so don't see why that was touched.

3) ANTIQUES DEALER: GE was great for providing weekly AD fodder. But the income from that, however pitiful, has been nerfed. No, I'm not speaking about less buildings over time or the FOY, I'm talking about the small fact that folks seem to careless about: The kits generate way less AD currency & gems than the buildings that they can spawn. So now in order to get the same amounts I used to be able to get for these silly buildings I would have to place them in my town, then store them, and then sell them in the AD. That's unnecessary. Please make it so the kits can spawn the L1 building in inventory, thank you. Either way, I don't appreciate the extra steps to do something I used to do so easily and now I hope you enjoy storing more data in your database regarding how many GE kit fragments I'm storing permanently.

4) TARGET AUDIENCE: GE5 should have been a natural progression from GE4, not something aligned to your top 5% of players. What a waste of resources to focus on such a small portion of the players. While you were at it you gutted GE1-4 so chances are you'll see a decline in folks participating in GE and in folks leaving the game. Good job.

 

[Pericles the Lion]

I am in a top 10 and we aren't even opening the level. You want to charge us more then do something for us not you. That's the way commerce works , you have to make the game better if you want to charge more not worse.

It's no surprise that this is the initial reaction to the rollout of L5. However, the top guilds will have members that want to do L5. These guilds will either (1) open the level weekly, or (2) lose these top performers to guilds that will open it.

 

[qaccy]

Looking over the enemy bonuses for GE5, the feedback probably has less to do with it using defensive boosts instead of offensive boosts, and more to do with just how large the enemy bonuses are. Almost 2k% by the end in SAJM? Even if players were still using their offensive bonuses instead of defensive, that's a pretty high bar to clear for a lot of players. I'm probably the only player in the space ages with a higher defensive boost than offensive, but even then it's only about 1.05x that of my offensive boost - I guess I'm already going down that 'all-rounder' route that Inno seems to be pushing for here.

That being said, I'm interested in at least giving GE5 a shot because the building prizes look kinda nice...but that's coming from someone who hasn't played since 2021 and thus has a city full of buildings that're 2+ years old lol

 

[Pericles the Lion]

^^^ pure fantasy

 

[Pericles the Lion]

Either way it doesn't matter

 

[JJ597]

I can understand why Inno made GE 5 so difficult. It's due to "power creep" from the event buildings, etc. The changes to GE 1-4 are partially understandable. I do like that there are plenty of fps available. Dislike, building fragments, Severe dislike, removal of diamonds from GE 1-3 and reduction in GE4. I play in multiple worlds and might have spent $45 on the event rewards line. Losing the diamonds from GE, I will spend ZERO! and no longer care if get fully upgraded event building.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

I'm not a fan of fragments but on the other hand I'm not sure how else they were going to deal with the power creep that is itself a problem

I could not agree more. I would rather have to collect a bunch of fragments to assemble a good building than a get a bunch of full crappy buildings that are nothing more than food for the AD

Other than the annoyance, the bigger problem is that the fragments are of obsolete buildings, except for the FoY (my opinion, others may say that even it is worthless). And for that you need 800 fragments! At least when you get a FoA or GoSG building from ToR, you can sell it right away. Now you have to wait for enough fragments to assemble it before you can even do that. I could see if it was fragments of useful buildings, but come on. Tribal Squares? Terrace Farms? AD fodder only. And don't even get me started on fragments of a shrink kit. The only shrink kit worth having is for the Rogue Hideout...and you only need one of those.

EDIT: I now have finished level 4 of GE. I also now have 2.5 pages of fragments (16 total) of various types in my inventory. If you count the GE selection kits (4), which I already assembled, it's 3 full pages. Only about 4 or 5 of them are useful things, the rest are only AD fodder if and when I get enough to assemble them.

 

[Tutankhamen]

I tried the new GE, and I hate it.
Can't even get past the first encounter in level 5 -- the enemy has 157% defense boost.

On top of that.... I really dislike the new prizes on levels 1-4. They're mostly junk that I don't need, because it's far less useful than the stuff I already have in my city. That was somewhat true before this release... and Inno you made it worse instead of better.
You removed much of my incentive to play GE at all.

I think you should:
1. Drop the enemy's defense boost waaaay down in level 5. Give us a chance to at least win a few encounters. (You know we've all ignored defense boost forever.... c'mon!)
2. Fix the crappy rewards in levels 1-4. (Sacred Sky Watch and Tribal Square already sucked. Now I have to get fragments of them? Yuck.)(Maybe those were good for very very new players? Maybe the GE prizes need to scale up with a player's age and achievements, so they're still worthwhile!)