General state of things

[RLBA]

Anyone else kinda seeing things these days as repetitive? I'm in a legend empire and noticed only 2 empires have meaningful competing battles, RM and LS. Kudos to those two empires, I've never seen so many epics with so many stars. I'm just curious where that leaves the rest of us. Obviously other than cash they've figured out something the rest of us haven't. And I'm not one of those conspiracy theorists. If they weren't legit somebody would've stepped in and done something by now. If UE is going to continue the devs need to throw the rest of us a bone. New jobs, promotions, something. No offense to LS/RM but the longer 2 out of 300 hundred empires continue to dominate the entire game (6 months so far). The quicker the rest of us will find another game. Parity and competition promote continued interest and PA's bottom line. A win win for both players and the bean counters

[Maverickâ„¢]

Re: General state of things

It's very simple spend as much as them and be as strong as them. Just because they have disposable income and spend it on there UE toon doesn't mean the rest of the players should get more things for spending less. without the top players spending what they do do you thing the amount of content and development the game has seen would be the same without them? Not every player plays this game to be number 1 or in the number 1 empire some are casual players some hardly ever log on but if they enjoy playing that way then fair play to them.

[NickyB]

Re: General state of things

If UE is going to continue the devs need to throw the rest of us a bone.

I doubt that, and it would be unfair to the BIG Accounts who have spent thousands to get where they are.

[mr_teflon]

Re: General state of things

i've never warred either of those empires but i guess its their activity that wins the day for them, without looking i'd probably guess if most of them showed up for war each time that the activity would beat a less active empire who has the same upgrades, activity beats levels.

[tha dude]

Re: General state of things

I don't see what those guys have to do with the rest of UE. They are playing a different game amongst themselves.
They choose to all play together for a reason, they play the game at a higher level and its better to play surrounded by like minded people. And yes, most wars are above 60 actives. That's the difference. Bosses always die, chat never stops, you don't wait for caps or demo, if you need pulls there is always someone there, basically the game never stops.

I had brought up a level salary cap for empires earlier, not to break up these mega strong houses, but to spread the game out a bit and add some strategy to becoming the #1 empire. ATM the strategy is recruit as many of the strong toons as you can. The top empire isn't necessarily the most skilled at the game, it just has the strongest toons. But thats the way the game is set up so you can't fault anyone for playing to win...

[Tired]

Re: General state of things

activity beats levels.

Not true. Say an empire has 3 actives each lvl3k with average 6k health all enforcers with them in the middle row, 1 in each building against 80 lvl1s all active. All the lvl1s in that empire would all be dead by the time they even kill or even get close to killing 1 of the lvl3ks in the other empire

[analytical]

Re: General state of things

I don't mind having a caste system based on spending. That's a fundamental characteristic of the "free to play" model. The company wants to make money, and the big spenders give them a lot of it. The company develops features that help them a) acquire more customers; and b) maximize the lifetime revenue of the existing customers. I don't spend much, and I really admire those whales that swim in the deep water. One of my allies is level 4000+. I enjoy looking at their LT's and weapons. Scrolling through their insignia is a chore tho.

I do see a problem with the general state of things. Features like gifting, for instance. It simply doesn't work. New players NEED those gifts to build their toons. But at least 3/4 of the gifts that are sent are never received, based on anecdotal reports. Seeing PA add features like new classes and insignia without fixing some of the fundamentals in the game sends me a message. I mean, why not just have the system drop a random gift from an ally instead of making people send them with only a chance of a drop?

Another thing that would be fun would be to wake up and find out that you are a monster for a day. Just imagine it: you are suddenly 2000 levels higher, you have buffed up powers all over. Big ESAD (energy, stam, attack, defense), your class skills and level are great, your inner circle has twice as many stars, you've got max insignia for a day. Once I had to drive a friend's BMW. What a different experience from driving my old beater. What must it be like to drive one of those destroyers for a day? And then you wake up the next day and you're you again.

I think that perhaps PA is not focused on making the process of becoming a whale as much fun as it could be. One of the main aspects of games is "flow" - the steady flow of tasks that are simple enough for a person to do at their current level of experience. Most games start out great, and after a week or two, the flow just ... stops. What used to be a one-minute task is now a two-day task (unless you spend). Free players lose the flow, and they bounce. UWE has that challenge. As the OP said, after a while it's just the same tapping day after day, without a change in the game play except for the fact that you can blast through your resources in 5-10 minutes, and then ... well, come back tomorrow.

Unless you wanna spend several hours in EvE, you can punch out til tomorrow.

This is not a complaint about how the game goes, or a request for a spiff. I'm just saying that this is a familiar pattern for gamers. The devs are building new things while leaving things broken in other areas. There's a message in it about where the resources can be expected to go in the future.

Like I tell my kids: I'm not here to entertain you. If you're bored, it's your problem. Do something to enjoy every day. Make your own fun.

[ToPPeR]

Re: General state of things

I want to be able to drive a Ferrari too but you don't see me asking the Ferrari owner to throw me a bone! It's simple! You either have the money to spend on game or you don't! There are always gonna be different class of people. A lot of things aren't fair in this world! Just gotta suck it up and deal with it!

[Sarah]

Re: General state of things

I don't see what those guys have to do with the rest of UE. They are playing a different game amongst themselves.
They choose to all play together for a reason, they play the game at a higher level and its better to play surrounded by like minded people. And yes, most wars are above 60 actives. That's the difference. Bosses always die, chat never stops, you don't wait for caps or demo, if you need pulls there is always someone there, basically the game never stops.

Exactly this. If you don't spend money like RM etc, then don't expect to compete with them. They are on their own tier of the game, and if you're expecting to reach that tier in this game without paying as much as they have (or more) then you should change your expectations. There are many players/empires at all levels to compete with, learn to enjoy that competition and don't worry about rank.

[CHFIII]

Re: General state of things

Assassini did not get the memo evidently, they currently sit at number one. The top 20 empires are competitive and there is no salary cap so those who most want to win are likely to flock together.

What would be interesting is if there were really multiple leagues... as it is it's just one league with 'bands'. If there were an "open Division" for those who want competition and some 'beer league' options that would be fun. First you need a better ranking system so a top 2 doesn't end up 12th due to losing one match at the end but then have it to where there are say 60 teams per league, top 20 go up next season, bottom 20 drop down and it becomes interesting and you could have real intrigue for players at the end of the season.

Not sure exactly how to work it but the general idea is to do a better job of putting similar strength teams together so use of skills and coordination matters. I wonder what the AVERAGE margin of victory is... seems to be around 100 and the nail biters are rare but how fun is it if you get down to the last minute and 5 guys from one side just healed to go up by one while the other team is all but throwing rocks to knock down the last building to win it...

[Massmurder]

Re: General state of things

I'm relatively new to the game, but I have noticed the way teams bounce up or down between leagues sometimes is just ridiculous, you win 2 or 3 and your in high diamond or low legend, then get walked all over in 20mins or so. Lose 2 or 3 and your in low plat and become the bully.

I was thinking it would be nice if at the start of the new season, your teams been upgrading and improving for a couple months, let the manager of the empire pick what league you are in and it stays locked there till the season is over. Within reason, a legend team shouldn't be able to stay in gold league obviously. But if you were competitive in diamond or platinum, let us choose to stay there the entire season, if you go undefeated in your league, next season go up to the next league, or if you lose more than win go down a league. I think that would help with the one sided blowouts that happen occasionally.