UBERhelp1
Well-Known Member
I haven't posted a "normal" thread like this in a while, so bear with me. This isn't a rant on what players normally complain about. It's something that annoys me, but honestly probably not anyone else. If you haven't gotten past the CA story yet, there will be spoilers 
Forge of Empires has a massive problem with pushing out new ages that don't really build on to anything in the previous age(s), making the game feel rather like extra stuff being added on as an afterthought rather than worked into the story. For example, after a whole adventure in the Arctic searching for mysterious new materials and meeting tons of new people, all of that is basically ignored once the player moves to OF (except promethium). We never hear from the AF characters again. But I want to talk about the start of the AF story. After the FE story, which was 'told' to us by the Princess, she vanishes as the primary questgiver. No goodbye, no checking in, she just disappears. And the new questgiver? The only introduction we receive is this: "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Admiral Terry Hunt, and we just spotted an enemy ship trespassing on our marine routes, headed from the north. We have no records of anything relevant in that direction. Where did it come from?" And just like that, we decide that we should trust her and follow her off into the unknown. Where has she been the whole game? Why do we only meet her now? And similarly to the Princess, she disappears after OF without a trace. If you want to see my solution to this specific example, check the spoiler below. Otherwise feel free to skip to the next paragraph.
The one tie that should connect everything in the game, in my opinion, is the story. As of late, to be quite frankly honest, it's been trash. With each new age, the story never references anything earlier or foreshadows stuff to come, and this makes each age's story feel disconnected. Additionally, each story from basically ME-on has been following the same copy-pasted formula: there's a bad guy, we have to take him out, we win, and then we get a new age with a new bad guy. Rinse and repeat. I'm honestly not sure what the cause of this is. Surely the people working on the story know what's coming and what's happened already, so they can plan out a story that stretches more than one age. It feels almost as if the actual story is just an afterthought because Inno *has* to put one in because something has to accompany the quests. Though the saddest part to me is that Inno set themselves up for an actually good story line, but gave up on it for some unknown reason.
How many of you remember our old friend-turned-enemy Ragu Silvertongue? If you don't, then that makes sense. He was last heard from in the Colonial Age, when he left us with the cliffhanger: "What!? My people are enraged? And you have the military's backing too? Very well, I know when I have been defeated! The throne is yours once more! I shall choose exile, but remember this: I shall return!" But... guys... it's been 13 eras since then, and almost 10 years in real life. So where is Ragu? In my opinion, he should have been the villain of this game. Who are you fighting against on the continent maps? Who is controlling the province owners in the background? RAGU SILVERTONGUE. He's the one that wants to bring you down. He might be causing public distrust, sabotage, etc. But just like the questgivers I mentioned earlier, once Inno "finished" his storyline, he's gone. Never heard from again. And I'm going to be honest, that's just sad.
I feel like especially now, Inno hasn't been experimenting with the game, its story, and new ages, rather playing it safe with the same formula. Sure, they added the Space Age colonies. But that's just a rebranded cultural settlement. Why not give us a bonus questline? Release it in between two ages or something like that. Small bits of content here and there to keep the story moving, but not require a full on age drop. Give us a reason to care about the story, instead of clicking randomly through it. Give us new content, not just a reskin of an already implemented feature. Speaking of reskins, remember when Inno redid the taverns for basically no reason? They still haven't created new graphics for ages past InA. What's the hold up? I mean, I get it. This game is a decade old. It's hard to find something new that will be fun and actually fit the game. But please, Inno, either directly tell us that you no longer care about the game rather than adding new ages of ever-increasing grinding to get through, unfinished or unpolished features (event hub, beta testing on live servers, tavern skins, etc) or give us something new.
But maybe I'm weird, and this shouldn't matter. Maybe I should just take it and play the game or leave to find a new one. What do you guys think? I'd like to know. On a side note, I would be happy doing outlines of the story from InA onwards to build better lore of the game, if Inno would look at it and make changes. But I think that's unlikely. Anyways, if you guys found this interesting, I might do some more.
Forge of Empires has a massive problem with pushing out new ages that don't really build on to anything in the previous age(s), making the game feel rather like extra stuff being added on as an afterthought rather than worked into the story. For example, after a whole adventure in the Arctic searching for mysterious new materials and meeting tons of new people, all of that is basically ignored once the player moves to OF (except promethium). We never hear from the AF characters again. But I want to talk about the start of the AF story. After the FE story, which was 'told' to us by the Princess, she vanishes as the primary questgiver. No goodbye, no checking in, she just disappears. And the new questgiver? The only introduction we receive is this: "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Admiral Terry Hunt, and we just spotted an enemy ship trespassing on our marine routes, headed from the north. We have no records of anything relevant in that direction. Where did it come from?" And just like that, we decide that we should trust her and follow her off into the unknown. Where has she been the whole game? Why do we only meet her now? And similarly to the Princess, she disappears after OF without a trace. If you want to see my solution to this specific example, check the spoiler below. Otherwise feel free to skip to the next paragraph.
So after the Princess' last quest of the FE story, we should get the first OF quest in there from, say, Mandrubar, our researcher. He could say something like:
"My liege! While you've been busy finishing the battle with Colonel Oumee's forces, our researchers have found some mysterious activity! We need some resources to investigate!"
(quest actions)
[/i]"Perfect! Allow me to introduce Admiral Terry Hunt, the best explorer we have. She knows more than anyone about exploring forbidding environments. She found something recently that we think you should know about."[/i]
Then the next quest is where we start following along with Hunt.
"I am Admiral Terry Hunt, and we've just spotted...."
Of course, it would be nice to have the Princess check in every so often during the story, but you get the point.
"My liege! While you've been busy finishing the battle with Colonel Oumee's forces, our researchers have found some mysterious activity! We need some resources to investigate!"
(quest actions)
[/i]"Perfect! Allow me to introduce Admiral Terry Hunt, the best explorer we have. She knows more than anyone about exploring forbidding environments. She found something recently that we think you should know about."[/i]
Then the next quest is where we start following along with Hunt.
"I am Admiral Terry Hunt, and we've just spotted...."
Of course, it would be nice to have the Princess check in every so often during the story, but you get the point.
The one tie that should connect everything in the game, in my opinion, is the story. As of late, to be quite frankly honest, it's been trash. With each new age, the story never references anything earlier or foreshadows stuff to come, and this makes each age's story feel disconnected. Additionally, each story from basically ME-on has been following the same copy-pasted formula: there's a bad guy, we have to take him out, we win, and then we get a new age with a new bad guy. Rinse and repeat. I'm honestly not sure what the cause of this is. Surely the people working on the story know what's coming and what's happened already, so they can plan out a story that stretches more than one age. It feels almost as if the actual story is just an afterthought because Inno *has* to put one in because something has to accompany the quests. Though the saddest part to me is that Inno set themselves up for an actually good story line, but gave up on it for some unknown reason.
How many of you remember our old friend-turned-enemy Ragu Silvertongue? If you don't, then that makes sense. He was last heard from in the Colonial Age, when he left us with the cliffhanger: "What!? My people are enraged? And you have the military's backing too? Very well, I know when I have been defeated! The throne is yours once more! I shall choose exile, but remember this: I shall return!" But... guys... it's been 13 eras since then, and almost 10 years in real life. So where is Ragu? In my opinion, he should have been the villain of this game. Who are you fighting against on the continent maps? Who is controlling the province owners in the background? RAGU SILVERTONGUE. He's the one that wants to bring you down. He might be causing public distrust, sabotage, etc. But just like the questgivers I mentioned earlier, once Inno "finished" his storyline, he's gone. Never heard from again. And I'm going to be honest, that's just sad.
I feel like especially now, Inno hasn't been experimenting with the game, its story, and new ages, rather playing it safe with the same formula. Sure, they added the Space Age colonies. But that's just a rebranded cultural settlement. Why not give us a bonus questline? Release it in between two ages or something like that. Small bits of content here and there to keep the story moving, but not require a full on age drop. Give us a reason to care about the story, instead of clicking randomly through it. Give us new content, not just a reskin of an already implemented feature. Speaking of reskins, remember when Inno redid the taverns for basically no reason? They still haven't created new graphics for ages past InA. What's the hold up? I mean, I get it. This game is a decade old. It's hard to find something new that will be fun and actually fit the game. But please, Inno, either directly tell us that you no longer care about the game rather than adding new ages of ever-increasing grinding to get through, unfinished or unpolished features (event hub, beta testing on live servers, tavern skins, etc) or give us something new.
But maybe I'm weird, and this shouldn't matter. Maybe I should just take it and play the game or leave to find a new one. What do you guys think? I'd like to know. On a side note, I would be happy doing outlines of the story from InA onwards to build better lore of the game, if Inno would look at it and make changes. But I think that's unlikely. Anyways, if you guys found this interesting, I might do some more.
-UBER
