Feedback for Guild Expedition.. Level 5

[Verdant Summerland]

Very disappointed with the rebalancing of GE 1-4. It used to be a great way for players to build up, since they could get a small number of diamonds each level to help them tackle the next level, and buildings that were worth a reasonable amount at the antiques dealer. Now it's selection kits with a low resale value. Not impressed with the negotiation costs of GE 5; don't plan to do that again for such limited rewards.

 

[LoveNkind]

Don't worry. There will be enough players with your mindset that guilds will either be forced to open L5 or risk losing their best members. Coming soon to a world near you...uber Guilds comprised of lots of members that complete L5 weekly.

I think you are right. My main has over a dozen members with blue by their name this week, and I am not the only one who finished the whole thing. There will be a reshuffling of top guilds into those who open and play GE5 and those who do not.
Most diamond league guilds have room for new members so you can join the kind you want. Best wait another week or two for them to sort it out, tho.
Guild wanting new members to play--or not play--GE5 should advertise in world chat.

 

[Pericles the Lion]

In my main city, 43 of the 63 guild members attempted level 5 with 26 finishing the level. #12 guild on the world.

 

[Dursland]

In my main city, 43 of the 63 guild members attempted level 5 with 26 finishing the level. #12 guild on the world.

I'd like to know how many will repeat though. For most people it depletes basically their entire supply of defense boosts, or goods, to do GE5.

 

[Pericles the Lion]

I'd like to know how many will repeat though. For most people it depletes basically their entire supply of defense boosts, or goods, to do GE5.

I'll try to remember to provide an update this time next week.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

While there has been a lot of chatter about people quitting the game because of Level 5 I find it interesting how many St. Basil's Cathedrals I've seen in Stix-To-Brix threads this week. It would appear that some players are going to make the attempt.

Deal Castle as well are going up all over the place.

That just shows how foolish some people are. You'd have to hyper level them to make a dent in GE5 with them, and they don't provide anything else worthwhile. Wasted space because the GE5 rewards aren't worth the effort/expense. Especially with the Deal Castle. 7x7 and it gives medals. ROFLMAO!

 

[Xenosaur]

@Johnny B. Goode
Yes, truly. People rationalize their decisions to chase this, aka devouring what Inno's cooked up and selling. When this exits the current "shock and awe" phase of the play requirements and time/material/and use of space costs to the players, any sustained interest will die and succumb to a weak stream of feeble ongoing isolated interest.

Those few that want to continue in GE 5 will move from guilds that have stopped offering it, to reform with other members that have clamped down on the same "it's great!" hook.

Inno's ONLY salvation when that happens is to adjust the costs, and increase the rewards so more people will get potentially re-interested - or not.

Can't wait to see the "mid-life" kickers that PvP Arena and Settlements get to extend their life, and bring in MORE revenue.

Not to mention where GbG finally winds up.

 

[Pericles the Lion]

That just shows how foolish some people are. You'd have to hyper level them to make a dent in GE5 with them, and they don't provide anything else worthwhile. Wasted space because the GE5 rewards aren't worth the effort/expense. Especially with the Deal Castle. 7x7 and it gives medals. ROFLMAO!

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step" - Lao Tsu

Or perhaps something a bit more plebian. Q: "How do you eat an elephant?" A: "One bite at a time"

 

[xivarmy]

That just shows how foolish some people are. You'd have to hyper level them to make a dent in GE5 with them, and they don't provide anything else worthwhile. Wasted space because the GE5 rewards aren't worth the effort/expense. Especially with the Deal Castle. 7x7 and it gives medals. ROFLMAO!

St Basil is not unreasonable as part of a plan - at 5x5 you can reasonably level it to competitive for the space. It won't get you through GE5 alone, but it's an option. I built it on beta as part of my push to fight as much as possible there (currently able to do all but the last 2 in AF).

Deal though, yes, that's a bit shortsighted to go for at 7x7.

And I won't be doing either on any of my live worlds at this time. The two worlds I did GE5 on this week were one world with advanced troops, and one world where I negotiated all 16, and that won't be changing anytime soon - it's too far away with too many sacrifices needed to even start making the effort. And it can afford the goods for a long while, if not indefinitely.

----

I am considering setting up an iron age challenge-world to do GE5 the "honest" way and progressing it up. My concept for this would be "no events, no above-age GBs" to force reliance on GE & Settlement buildings to make the city work efficiently and motivate me to push GE for all I can get from it and seeing if I could use defending stats to gradually increase the frequency with which I could do difficulty 5 (since the goods in such a new city would be prohibitive to doing it every week). Might start it up after this event is over when I have a bit more time.

 

[planetofthehumans2]

St Basil is not unreasonable as part of a plan - at 5x5 you can reasonably level it to competitive for the space. It won't get you through GE5 alone, but it's an option. I built it on beta as part of my push to fight as much as possible there (currently able to do all but the last 2 in AF).

Deal though, yes, that's a bit shortsighted to go for at 7x7.

And I won't be doing either on any of my live worlds at this time. The two worlds I did GE5 on this week were one world with advanced troops, and one world where I negotiated all 16, and that won't be changing anytime soon - it's too far away with too many sacrifices needed to even start making the effort. And it can afford the goods for a long while, if not indefinitely.

----

I am considering setting up an iron age challenge-world to do GE5 the "honest" way and progressing it up. My concept for this would be "no events, no above-age GBs" to force reliance on GE & Settlement buildings to make the city work efficiently and motivate me to push GE for all I can get from it and seeing if I could use defending stats to gradually increase the frequency with which I could do difficulty 5 (since the goods in such a new city would be prohibitive to doing it every week). Might start it up after this event is over when I have a bit more time.

One of the big yikes on basils and deals is that on the attacker side there are 3 GB, and one of them is a 3x2 building. Therefore, inno should change the % based on size, or inno should introduce a defense gb that's 2x3.

TA is an ok medium but that by itself is a measly 50-something % at level 80.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step" - Lao Tsu

Or perhaps something a bit more plebian. Q: "How do you eat an elephant?" A: "One bite at a time"

"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, 'This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.'" - Jesus
Although I would add for this discussion that you should first sit down and decide if the reward is worth the effort/expense. That determines whether a player is willing to pay the price in goods or city design to bother with GE5. No doubt what my answer is to that.

 

[Orius Maximus]

I finished level 5. I had to negotiate the last two encounters, but that didn't seriously impact my supply of goods. I keep a surplus of 5k of current and previous goods on hand if I need them for things like negotiations, and didn't spend anywhere near that amount, so for now it may be sustainable. Even trying advanced units like Hover Tanks or Eels didn't help as I was still doing 1 damage on some hits, and there was no chance of benefitting from the AO. I might as well have used Strike Teams for stealth. I have a Virgo Project but that thing's a gamble. It might make a difference, if it attacks. I'm going to stick with my earlier comment that it's really the defense attack score that matters here.

As things stand now, I can complete the first 8-10 encounters without building fortifications, then everything up to the 14th encounter I can clear fighting. The last two will require negotiating. I think the balance isn't too bad here, but the last quarter should be toned down a bit. If diamonds needed to be reduced, well that sucks but it happens. However, the prizes on the lower levels really should be adjusted. ToR BPs need to be restored to the early encounters for the lower level players, and the extra attempts should go back to what they were, especially now that GE is 16 encounters longer. Those extra attempts help players clear things more quickly. The unlock costs for level 5 should be tweaked a bit too, there'd no good reason for them to jump like they do.

I already had the Basil in my city, so I'm going to continue leveling it. I've been working on the PvP Arena, so I wasn't neglecting defense. The Basil and Deal are a 30/30 to defense at level 10 and 65/65 at level 80, so a Basil with the TA is 50/50 at 10 and 120/120 at 80. All 3 is an 80/80 at 10 and 185/185 at level 80. Given the Deal's huge footprint -- equal to the CoA and CdM combined -- I'm still not sure the Deal is really worth rushing into a city. It's bonuses at level 10 probably would not have been enough for me to win the last two fights.

Four of our players cleared level 5 this week. One was an IA guy who was pissed about the GE changes. However since the other guild leader wants to collect the fragments from level 5, we will be opening it. If there are Jaims players looking for a level 5 GE guild, then Savage Intent is open for business.

 

[Dursland]

I've tried to contact Kotaku to see if they will report on InnoGames but haven't had any luck getting a response.

"Players dissatisfied for x reason" articles seems to be their bread and butter, if we can just get their attention.

 

[Pericles the Lion]

"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, 'This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.'" - Jesus
Although I would add for this discussion that you should first sit down and decide if the reward is worth the effort/expense. That determines whether a player is willing to pay the price in goods or city design to bother with GE5. No doubt what my answer is to that.

You seem to be presuming that GE L5 will be the end of the need for big Dattack and Ddefense. My belief is that L5 is just the beginning. The rewards are not fully understood. Level 5 for sure, but what comes next? If nothing, then you may be right. If more features that require defending army boosts, then players with your mindset will be left behind. I'm going to hedge my bets and get prepared.

 

[MJ Artisan of War]

41 members in my guild finished GE 5..... None were impressed....
We plan to open it each week but not require it....

 

[Hazel the Pirate Queen]

We will be opening level 5 for those that want to challenge it. As of now we are not changing our current requirements!

 

[Dursland]

I'll try to remember to provide an update this time next week.

I will as well.

I'm in Ascendant on Dilmun, the #1 guild. We may be #1 across all worlds actually, sitting on 55k+ prestige at the moment. (Threw that in there, cos.)

Leader just posted this

GE: 10 April 2023

26/78 completed GE5. Many I’m sure were experimenting and not all will continue completing it. It is enough interest, however, that I plan to keep unlocking it for now.

There will continue to be no requirement to complete GE5. There for the taking only if you so choose.

Thanks, rPie

Will let you know what numbers are next week.

 

[tuck everlasting]

Diamonds still exist in GE, a 30% win chance of a certain amount. Every GE level get some rewards reconfigured.... Its a Frag-Expedition now.

Diamond rewards are missing in levels 1 through 3 and level 5...unless im missing something thats a huge reduction in potential diamonds

 

[Just An Observer]

Cirgard: Two Big Dog guilds saw one with 38 and another with 36 hitting 80. That is about the same number as those who can score 500 or more during GBG on a regular basis. Now to see how far the numbers drop from Week 1 of GE5.

 

[Mor-Rioghain]

You seem to be presuming that GE L5 will be the end of the need for big Dattack and Ddefense. My belief is that L5 is just the beginning. The rewards are not fully understood. Level 5 for sure, but what comes next? If nothing, then you may be right. If more features that require defending army boosts, then players with your mindset will be left behind. I'm going to hedge my bets and get prepared.

I fear that you are on point. These kinds of changes never do seem to bode well for future developments.