Forum Archaeology

[Algona]

A place to post observations, tidbits, discoveries, long lost treasures found as you dig through the Forum threads and posts from the misty and almost forgotten past.

I don't know how much I'll contribute personally, since I'm one of the older frequent posters and played through a lot of it, but who knows. Mustapha00 and qaccy come to mind as good frequent posters who predate me*, maybe they can share some perspectives or stories?

Have fun. And who knows, maybe 5 years from now some new frum archaeologist will find this thread and wonder just how weird we were way back in 2020.


*My apologies to those ommitted, Old age? Kick me in the shin and forgive me.

 

[DreadfulCadillac]

It took a bit of time, but I found what i believe to be my first post.

https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/looking-for-an-active-friend-look-no-further.23092/#post-205836

not to deep digging, but hey I suppose its a piece of history?

Also, I have realized that until like 5 months ago when it started getting better, a lot of my content was really cringy and bad..And once you get to the summer of 2019 and further, Its nothing constructive and alot is honestly so cringy it is kind of embarrassing.
Wont delete it though, lol. and by cringy, I mean like alot of it is 1sentence posts that are frankly, stupid.
Reminds be of winnergr to be honest, just exclude all the copypasting and alt accounts and other stuff.

 

[Super Catanian]

Ah, the previous Archaeology Event. Fun times. We had the chance to necro a bunch of old threads to celebrate! Last time I got to do that was during the Halloween Event, but it did not go to well. Surely this time will be different.

I'll take this time to summarize my time in the Forums and to reflect on it. Shoulda done it yesterday, because Throwback Thursday.

I had been a lurker for a bit before making my Forum account, so I recognized many. It was created five minutes before the one-year anniversary of the last appearance of the great ardak kumerin. It was also on the anniversary of the upload date of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" on YouTube. My first ever post was a super cringey story for one of the Halloween Event Contests. When I read it again after so long, I just kept telling myself, "Gosh, what the f[REDACTED]ck were you thinking?!". This was over a year and a half ago.

My writing style has changed since then. I've become a notable member in these Forums, so much so that a player from Beta even recognized me when I joined there, saying that they were pleased to see me join. I'm holding on to that one for a long time. Memes, lots of memes, I've posted. Oh jolly! It's what ardak would've wanted. *(tap on shoulder)* "Hey bud, calm down." Ugh, fine.

However, despite my rough beginning, I've quickly learned. I've learned that one should always take time when writing posts, to make them the best you can. I've learned that one should always take criticism as constructive. One should take the advice of other players that know what they're talking about. In fact, there's a lot of taking and taking one can do, and only by doing so can you give back to the Forums, completing the cycle. Failure to do one of those things will not have good results.



What's your story?

 

[WinnerGR]

My first post was in the black Friday feedback thread :

They are just scams

Replied to by @Algona

So you approve of INNO scamming people?

You play the game which is actively supporting INNO even if you've never paid a cent. INNO uses gross number of players to advertise to investors and to provide cannon fodder to the paying customers.

Isn't it your moral responsibility to not partake in a game that attempts to scam people?

If not then your ethics and mental processes need a serious overhaul.

I joined the game a few days before the AD was released and remember being really confused about the new thing that had popped up in my city , the AD ruin.

I am definitely a well-known-member but I am not sue weather that is for the right reasons.
I have made some good posts but sadly the number of bad posts is bigger than the good posts.


You will all remember my failed attempts at many guides and so I came up with some advice if you want to make a guide :

1. You need to know the topic off by heart and should not need the wiki much
2. Make the guide offline then show it to @UBERhelp1
3. If @UBERhelp1 likes it then publish it in the pending guides section
4. If it get lots of positive feedback then ask for it to be moved to the guides section
5. If it does no then try and edit it though do not try and write more guides like I did

Today I will post my first meme:

 

[UBERhelp1]

My first post was in the black Friday feedback thread :

Replied to by @Algona



I joined the game a few days before the AD was released and remember being really confused about the new thing that had popped up in my city , the AD ruin.

I am definitely a well-known-member but I am not sue weather that is for the right reasons.
I have made some good posts but sadly the number of bad posts is bigger than the good posts.


You will all remember my failed attempts at many guides and so I came up with some advice if you want to make a guide :

1. You need to know the topic off by heart and should not need the wiki much
2. Make the guide offline then show it to @UBERhelp1
3. If @UBERhelp1 likes it then publish it in the pending guides section
4. If it get lots of positive feedback then ask for it to be moved to the guides section
5. If it does no then try and edit it though do not try and write more guides like I did

Today I will post my first meme:

Lol am I the guide guy now?

As far as archaeology goes, I found some of the earliest threads on this forum a little bit ago (from 2012!!) in the Art Museum. They are about art design/signatures. I'll link them in a sec.

[EDIT] [LINK] This is from May of 2012.

[DISCLAIMER] My story breaks game rules, but then I realized I was wrong and fixed it. I actually didn't realize it was against game rules until a guildie told me. Don't do what I did. Read the rules first. And follow them. And if you are breaking them, stop.

As far as my story goes, it gets a bit complex. So, I was UBERnerd14 on FoE originally, and I started at the tail end of the event that gave the Menagerie. Playing around, I got to EMA with no diamonds and a horrible city (In Dunarsund, I've tried to find the guild I was originally in, they were really nice and I'd like to thank them, but they either changed their name or I forgot it). Looking at the "Invite your Friends" thing, I saw that you get diamonds for friends! Now, what does stupid me do but create a push account! UBERhelp1! (Get it, I was helping my main. I was going to create more called UBERhelp(insert number) but I never did.) I had a city on D that I was trying to get up to Iron for the 50 diamonds. Ironically, I began to fall in love with my push account, as I was making better decisions and saving diamonds, and I created a new world on Angkor with that account, which is currently my main. I used the UBERnerd14 one less and less, until one day I deleted all the worlds and left it behind. I haven't touched the UBERnerd14 account since August 2018* **.

My Angkor city was great, and I made some friends and found a nice guild. I've tried creating other full cities, but all have failed except for my neglected diamond farm and the tiny town that I really should put more effort into. I joined the forum without really lurking too much and posted some crappy proposals that obviously failed. I started to get more involved and created a city on Beta, but now I mostly just stay on the Beta forum. On there, I found out about settlements, and that became a guide, which failed (as it should have), and then it improved to the CS guide you guys know today.

Now, I've moved on to some other projects in my free time, but some are secret for now (not what you think SC), not related to FoE, or just ideas... but those will be revealed all in their own time.



*If you see anyone on the internet with UBERnerd14 as their name, it is probably me. Feel free to say hello.
**Don't ban me for the story. Please.

 

[Super Catanian]

@WinnerGR I do not approve of this meme. Wrong template.

 

[Super Catanian]

Now, I've moved on to some other projects in my free time, but some are secret for now (not what you think SC), not related to FoE, or just ideas... but those will be revealed all in their own time.

LOL. And don't worry, I've other small projects meself that I work on. They mostly involve drawing [REDACTED] and practicing the piano 40 hours a day.

 

[DevaCat]

My oldest city is at 702 days, and hardly worth an archaeological effort as yet lol. In thinking about responding here, I realized that I have not (I think) created a single thread, let alone made a proposal. I have seen the arrows in those people's backs, and my mama didn't raise no fool!

Like others, I was a guest lurker for a long time before joining this forum. I joined, and remained silent for a long time. I had a lot to learn.

In terms of delving into the past, I have to unearth the Cosmic Raven controversy. I mean, some 63 pages of commentary ranks up there, right? I got into all that late in the thread; by the point I started getting into Recurring Quests, CR was gone from the forum, Toolbox Danny had created a condensed version of CR's stuff, and we were at the tail end of what I would call Clash of the Prima Donnas. HQS can't join forum (Dulahan) was a contemporary who had issues with CR (I'm not going to do the research for you) but had a guide involving Arc leveling that was very helpful imo.

Lol, well, after some hesitation I bit the bullet and started at ground zero and read the whole damned 63 pages. I learned a lot. Not just from CR, but from his/her detractors. Definitely archaeology, but worth it. Dated? Sure. What I got from it was some idea of how to proceed, what GBs would do what in combination, some idea of how to proceed. The game itself is silent. Dulahan's stuff added to that base. And thanks aplenty to Glarg's efforts to show us how to get a strong start.

This is getting tl;dr (took me over 1 year to discover what that meant ), I just want to encourage anyone who is still lurking to come join in. We are not all trolls here.

 

[DreadfulCadillac]

My oldest city is at 702 days, and hardly worth an archaeological effort as yet lol. In thinking about responding here, I realized that I have not (I think) created a single thread, let alone made a proposal. I have seen the arrows in those people's backs, and my mama didn't raise no fool!

Like others, I was a guest lurker for a long time before joining this forum. I joined, and remained silent for a long time. I had a lot to learn.

In terms of delving into the past, I have to unearth the Cosmic Raven controversy. I mean, some 63 pages of commentary ranks up there, right? I got into all that late in the thread; by the point I started getting into Recurring Quests, CR was gone from the forum, Toolbox Danny had created a condensed version of CR's stuff, and we were at the tail end of what I would call Clash of the Prima Donnas. HQS can't join forum (Dulahan) was a contemporary who had issues with CR (I'm not going to do the research for you) but had a guide involving Arc leveling that was very helpful imo.

Lol, well, after some hesitation I bit the bullet and started at ground zero and read the whole damned 63 pages. I learned a lot. Not just from CR, but from his/her detractors. Definitely archaeology, but worth it. Dated? Sure. What I got from it was some idea of how to proceed, what GBs would do what in combination, some idea of how to proceed. The game itself is silent. Dulahan's stuff added to that base. And thanks aplenty to Glarg's efforts to show us how to get a strong start.

This is getting tl;dr (took me over 1 year to discover what that meant ), I just want to encourage anyone who is still lurking to come join in. We are not all trolls here.

Hey, can you link that thread? quarantine got me so bored im willing to read it ALL

 

[WinnerGR]

Lol am I the guide guy now?

As far as archaeology goes, I found some of the earliest threads on this forum a little bit ago (from 2012!!) in the Art Museum. They are about art design/signatures. I'll link them in a sec.

[EDIT] [LINK] This is from May of 2012.

[DISCLAIMER] My story breaks game rules, but then I realized I was wrong and fixed it. I actually didn't realize it was against game rules until a guildie told me. Don't do what I did. Read the rules first. And follow them. And if you are breaking them, stop.

As far as my story goes, it gets a bit complex. So, I was UBERnerd14 on FoE originally, and I started at the tail end of the event that gave the Menagerie. Playing around, I got to EMA with no diamonds and a horrible city (In Dunarsund, I've tried to find the guild I was originally in, they were really nice and I'd like to thank them, but they either changed their name or I forgot it). Looking at the "Invite your Friends" thing, I saw that you get diamonds for friends! Now, what does stupid me do but create a push account! UBERhelp1! (Get it, I was helping my main. I was going to create more called UBERhelp(insert number) but I never did.) I had a city on D that I was trying to get up to Iron for the 50 diamonds. Ironically, I began to fall in love with my push account, as I was making better decisions and saving diamonds, and I created a new world on Angkor with that account, which is currently my main. I used the UBERnerd14 one less and less, until one day I deleted all the worlds and left it behind. I haven't touched the UBERnerd14 account since August 2018* **.

My Angkor city was great, and I made some friends and found a nice guild. I've tried creating other full cities, but all have failed except for my neglected diamond farm and the tiny town that I really should put more effort into. I joined the forum without really lurking too much and posted some crappy proposals that obviously failed. I started to get more involved and created a city on Beta, but now I mostly just stay on the Beta forum. On there, I found out about settlements, and that became a guide, which failed (as it should have), and then it improved to the CS guide you guys know today.

Now, I've moved on to some other projects in my free time, but some are secret for now (not what you think SC), not related to FoE, or just ideas... but those will be revealed all in their own time.



*If you see anyone on the internet with UBERnerd14 as their name, it is probably me. Feel free to say hello.
**Don't ban me for the story. Please.

I have a similar story :

Once I got to EMA I saw the "Invite your Friends" thing, I saw that you get diamonds for friends! Now, what does stupid me do but create a push account! InfamiosBron.I had a city that I was trying to get up to Iron for the 50 diamonds.Then I got to HMA on this account and joined the #600 guild in my world were they told me that it was against the rules and that it would be severely punished . So I had just got to EMA on the push account when I was told and as soon as I was told I came up with a ridiculously long password in a RNG and copied it and pasted it till I had changed the password on the InfamiosBron account.I now have no access to that account and hope you do not ban me .

 

[WinnerGR]

After an earlier post from @Algona I decided to look into what treasure hunts used to be.
Here is what I have found :

Spoiler: The treasure hunt was added in update 1.4

Treasure Hunt
A new quest is now available in the form of a Treasure Hunt. The hunt includes random prices, displayed in the lower right of the screen. Come back at the appropriate times to find and collect a prize!

Spoiler: In update 1.124 they were removed

The Treasure Hunt
We have come to the decision to remove the Treasure Hunt feature from the game, which we have been considering for a while. The introduction of the Treasure Hunt was intended to provide some rewards and a small amount of game play on a daily basis. In the few years since, we have introduced many other things like the Guild Expedition, Incidents, Daily Challenges and other features to play with and gain rewards from. This left the Treasure Hunt with little of its original purpose. This is one of the reasons the feature never made the jump to mobile. We're removing the Treasure Hunt now in the interest of focusing on other areas of the game.

One of the reasons this decision took a while was that we wanted to make sure those new features (especially Incidents and Daily Challenges) are used and work well before removing it.

I am still trying to find more information on TH but it is very difficult

When I look at these earlier updates they were so much bigger compared to what we have now .

On another note In update 1.4 they added aiding :

Spoiler: Original Aid

Aid
You can now polish or motivate a random (almost) building in the city of another player by simply clicking a button below his portrait on the social bar. This will not require visiting the city. Attack button in the social bar has been moved to a small button and the Aid button is now in place of the previous Attack button:

• Aid button automatically motivates or polishes a building of the respective player without visiting him.
• How exactly the order of aid works? It's very simple system:
  1. Three buildings: “Shrine of Knowledge”, “Tigers’ Den” and “Oasis” (most recent age) are prioritized.
  2. If there are no such buildings available or all of them are already polished/motivated, the feature will enhance a random building from the most recent age.
• You will also find the Aid button in the Event history - if someone helped you, you can instantly return their kindness.
• It is still possible to visit a player and choose which action to do and which building to polish/motivate. Which way will you choose? This is entirely up to you!

I do not know how my city would function without almost every building being aided daily.[/SPOILER]

 

[WinnerGR]

I have found an FAQ on THs :

https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/treasure-hunt.8191/

 

[DreadfulCadillac]

Found a bug report on it:

https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/treasure-hunt-controls.8673/#post-66195

 

[DreadfulCadillac]

https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/undo-1-94-changes-to-treasure-hunt.16455/

This is a intresting one, about how inno started moving fp packs into the bar and not in inventory.

 

[DreadfulCadillac]

@Algona did I find it:

https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/treasure-hunt-fps-back-to-packages.16463/

Transfering treasure hunt fp back to inventory,

 

[DevaCat]

Thanks @DreadfulCadillac for putting up those links, I was out weeding this morning and now my fingers are frozen into claws -- woulda taken me ages to find that stuff. Nice blast from 3 yrs ago, and I really do miss Ardak's memes.

First, fun to see some familiar faces complaining about: greedy Inno, not fair, forum trolls attacking their feelings in proposals, we spend money so they should listen to us, and yada yada. Even more fun? Seeing a few of them posting recently and realizing that they have not changed one iota.
Also fun when @Algona asks the question "how does the change you want to see make the game better?" and gets crickets from those same people. Not much seems to have changed in three years.

I was a little surprised at Dursland stating that if FP packs (to inventory) were to be removed from treasure hunt then all FP pack rewards should be removed and everything go to the bar. Poor thinkery and a little extreme, but not representative of things he's written since that time. Doubt he'd take that position now.

So, this was when Inno stops sending all FP rewards to inventory and starts to send more and more to the bar? For what purpose or in response to what? This would make for an interesting discussion. Sigh... I'm going to have to rub in some liniment and find my hat and trowel and spade, aren't I?

I did have to laugh at the guy who (having no Arc) was complaining about not being able to collect his small FP pack reward from treasure hunt so he could save it up and then compete against a high level arc owner. As if!

 

[Algona]

Good hunting and fun treasures.

I appreciate you not cluttering up the Proposal.

i hadn't seen that thread Winner linked. Fun read.

Anybody look up Changelog 1.94?

The mention of changing from Inv Fps to Bar FPs isslipped in, buried deep in the bottom of that Changelog.

It was all part of a transition INNO was making back then, moving FP Rewards onto the Bar. I think UDER nailed one reason, but i think there were some secondary reasons not worth going into at this time.

Did you guys read why INNO said they removed it? Kinda fits in with theie desire to keep people more immersed.

That and if I remember right Treasure Hunt was not available on mobile. I think,

Silly question, want me to throw more of these out randomly? Won;t happen often, but I enjoyes setting ut u. Struck a harmonic chord with my DMing...

 

[DreadfulCadillac]

Good hunting and fun treasures.

I appreciate you not cluttering up the Proposal.

i hadn't seen that thread Winner linked. Fun read.

Anybody look up Changelog 1.94?

The mention of changing from Inv Fps to Bar FPs isslipped in, buried deep in the bottom of that Changelog.

It was all part of a transition INNO was making back then, moving FP Rewards onto the Bar. I think UDER nailed one reason, but i think there were some secondary reasons not worth going into at this time.

Did you guys read why INNO said they removed it? Kinda fits in with theie desire to keep people more immersed.

That and if I remember right Treasure Hunt was not available on mobile. I think,

Silly question, want me to throw more of these out randomly? Won;t happen often, but I enjoyes setting ut u. Struck a harmonic chord with my DMing...

I love them, please do!

 

[DevaCat]

Good hunting and fun treasures.

I appreciate you not cluttering up the Proposal.

i hadn't seen that thread Winner linked. Fun read.

Anybody look up Changelog 1.94?

The mention of changing from Inv Fps to Bar FPs isslipped in, buried deep in the bottom of that Changelog.

It was all part of a transition INNO was making back then, moving FP Rewards onto the Bar. I think UDER nailed one reason, but i think there were some secondary reasons not worth going into at this time.

Did you guys read why INNO said they removed it? Kinda fits in with theie desire to keep people more immersed.

That and if I remember right Treasure Hunt was not available on mobile. I think,

Silly question, want me to throw more of these out randomly? Won;t happen often, but I enjoyes setting ut u. Struck a harmonic chord with my DMing...

Lol, please continue when you feel the itch! I'm hooked.

Just now read Changelog 1.94 and also the 1.94 feedback thread. A lot of unhappy people lol.

One reason given for moving FP rewards to the bar was so that people wouldn't be able to build up huge stockpiles of fps as quickly, and it would prompt them to go ahead and spend them as they were received. Someone (Ardak iirc) mentions the way neighborhoods were put together had recently changed, and that having a huge reserve of fps (and the other stuff needed) could enable a player to jump two eras and enjoy at least a two-week reign of terror.

Well, seems like the horse was already out of the barn if that was a reason for the change. The Arc of course. I saw a guild member do a high era triple jump not too long ago.

Your memory is still intact The Treasure Hunt never came to mobile, and it looks like bringing in Incidents and the DC which were available to both platforms made the TH unneeded. Pure speculation on my part, but the DC might have been intended to provide something more for people to do, but also to address resource inflation? The DC costs goods, productions, etc whereas the T hunt seems to have been just be on at the right time and collect your freebie. If that's the case, then Incidents could have been a sop to the I Want My Freebie crowd! Of course, Incidents morphed to become an additional channel for providing Event currency -- and to keep us glued to our city screens. Very clever.

 

[WinnerGR]

There didn't use to be a BP trading system :

Spoiler

Trade Duplicate Blueprints:
We noticed players were receiving a lot of duplicate Blueprints. With the 0.24 update, it will now be possible to trade 2 duplicate Blueprints for 1 RANDOM Blueprint of the same Great Building. Simply go the the inventory, click on the Great Building with the duplicates and select the pieces you wish to trade by clicking on them. Then, click on the new "trade 2:1" button below and you will get a random new Blueprint (not the same Blueprint of the ones you just traded, but you may still end up with a duplicate - see Anwar's post below).