General Frustration

[DeletedUser]

I'm feeling a general sense of frustration with the overall game design.

1. When will I earn the all important DIAMOND during game-play? EVERYTHING has a diamond cost associated to it, yet I can't (or at least haven't seen how to) earn even a SINGLE diamond through general game play. It would appear one can ONLY acquire them by using REAL MONEY or by partaking in sponsored spamming advertising schemes that don't always work. I wouldn't mind having to pay for some if I received a FAIR amount for the cost that's associated with it. I mean $15 for 750 diamonds -- it cost 600 diamonds just to unlock the "Multi-storied House". For $15, I'd expect to receive an allotment that would last for at least a little more than for 2 minutes of game play.

2. I've just reached the Early Middle Ages and I'm dreadfully game-locked. I'm about to stop playing because I can't do anything. I can't rebuild, everything has a price tag that's insanely high (i.e. the 1st EMA troop building costs 25 forge points (25 hrs of waiting), 750 gold, 1500 supplies plus a couple hard to obtain resources just to unlock then the building itself uses enough land that I have to sacrafice/sell at least 2-6 buildings to have enough land to build it and costs a WHOPPING 11050 gold and 8570 supplies, where's that supposed to come from? (a days worth of waiting on my blacksmiths?!?) - and how much are the troops going to cost?!?! ARMS, LEGS and my 1st born and 12 hours more of waiting for the training of 3 mounted troops.

3. The world map is cripplingly restrictive, there's hardly enough resources to support an effective trade when you're stuck in a small 'neighborhood' so it takes forever to build up goods. I find that I can neither negotiate my way into new areas nor most certainly I can't fight my way farther, I can't build a modern enough army.

4. What does it take to get more EXPANSION BLOCKS? Why did they have to make EVERYTHING so hard and/or damn-near impossible to earn. Oh, but it only costs 200 diamonds for the 1st extra expansion slot if you don't want to have to play for 6 days to get the next technology that offers one. That's ONLY $7 dollars right!!?! for 1 4x4 plot of land, enough for 2 residence OR MAYBE ONE of any other building (and most likely NOT one that you really need cuz those are usually bigger than 3x4)... and only functional if you can place it where you can connect it a trail that's connects to your town hall that is...

Yes, I'm very frustrated.
5. How do I get into a bigger 'neighborhood'? There's only 11 people in my current one and it has not changed in over 4 weeks. What's the cut-off in size before it gets merged with another neighborhood? I know I'm not the most advanced user in that neighborhood, but no one is so far ahead that they are anywhere close to willing or capable of trading Goods with me or others in need. We're ALL greedy with our resources cuz we need every last morsel we make.

It's somewhat fun and definitely adictive to play, but I'm not spending the kind of money that currently on the table to keep playing....

If someone can offer some additional guidance that offers a little hope that it gets less hard, I'd appreciate it.

 

[Meat Butcher]

There are many successful players that do not use diamonds. While you do get occasional diamonds from quests I would not hold your breath waiting for them.

I suggest you join a guild with some experienced players to help guide you along. I can say that my game enjoyment was 100% better once I joined one. Just the fact that you have a group that can help you trade for goods as wall as daily polishing and motivating is a huge advantage as doing it solo.

good luck

 

[DeletedUser8428]

Diamonds are not required to play or succeed in this game. I use them, not everyone does. All things have a cost - coins (earned by the residences you build) or supplies (earned by the production buildings you build). In each era, there are also a number of 'premium' buildings (both residences and production) that you can only buy with diamonds, but you are not required to buy them.

I looked at your city in B world. You have only two production building and few houses. In my experience, one doesn't succeed at this by immediately tyring to win battles and carry the flag. I spent a few weeks building my city - houses and production - to start a foundation of coins and resources - before I had my first battle. I read the proliferation of guides in this forum (main forum page under 'guides') and reading posts in the forum to understand how the game worked. I asked questions to find out what successful people did and then I tried to mimic what they did. I am by no means a house on fire and I doubt that anyone will select me Player of the Year. But I love this game, have fun playing it and have met scores of players who are helpful and kind.

And to echo the previous response, the best way to learn a new thing (like a game) is to hook up with other people who know more about playing the game, who will willingly assist you when you need it. Join a guild. On B world, I belong to 'The Allegiance", we're always happy to see new faces. If you want an invite to join, send me an ingame message - hjh102.

 

[DeletedUser]

Thanks for the quick response. I suspected I'd rarely see diamonds in regular game-play. But, I'm not going solo, I am a member of a guild, not a bad one either (we're right around rank 250 after about 2-3 weeks together). It's the neighborhood that is hard to get around. It would be nice to have more than 10 neighbors to interact with.

 

[DeletedUser8428]

Nieghborhoods are shuffled every two weeks - you're in luck. When you get up in the morning, you'll be in a somewhat different neighborhood. May have some of the same people ... may not. Do a forum search on 'merge' to get more information about neighborhood merges.

 

[DeletedUser]

hjh102, thanks for the response. LOL, I think you looked at the city i started but have been ignoring. Ironically, i just looked at it and see that there's almost 70 members in that neighborhood. Maybe i should come back to that city and resume my work there. I might have better luck advancing there. In E-H , i've reached a personal rank of around 8350 out of 45000 and i'm in a guild that's close to the top 10% (albeit still about 250th). But as noted in another post, there's very few people in that neighborhood and although our guild has about 12 members, they can't make up for the lack of neighbors to interact with (for battles or trading in general).

So, i think i'll change worlds... see ya there.