Update Update 1.61

[DeletedUser99692]

I run Guilds in 2 worlds - trying to help Guildies is now a complete nightmare. After sifting through 56 pages of Inbox in one of them, most of which are "xxx left the conversation", I have lost the will to continue. On page 57 I have just come across a message left by a Guildie who has had enough & has left the game.

It is beyond comprehension in this day & age where communication is key, that Inno has rolled out a tool which kills conversation.

Until/unless the "xxx has left the conversation" is removed, I see many more leaving the game. It takes too long to manage Messages leaving no time to play the game or help Guildmates. There seems little point in continuing to persevere with something where enjoyment in playing the game is dwindling fast.

The only way to avoid the mess is to go 'lone wolf' or close the city until (if ever?) someone with an iota of commonsense at Inno reacts to the negative feedback on this. Surely there was enough feedback on the Beta Forum without the same being voiced here?

Like bmltanit I am a guild Founder / Leader in 3 guilds that have always been run with all guild members having the freedom to express themselves to ask for and receive help sound off if peeved at any thing or share friendly banter. If you didn't want a cluttered inbox then you just pressed delete. You could clearly see what messages you had opened and what was New. Am I now to tell them sorry no more message rights reply only to set threads. The guilds might live on but the spirit and harmony will be gone.
There is no delete just this stupid leave the conversation and just how are you supposed to know what you have read and what you haven't when you have 67 pages of mail. For the sake of sanity please stop trying to make out life wizzy wonderful and leave things alone. Give us the delete option back and some indication of New Mail. I have played this game since Jan 2013 and I am on the brink of walking away.

 

[DeletedUser97018]

as many others, i think the same - this is the best thing inno has done to repel players
i am also thinking of quitting the game and i've played over 2 years now - i'm addicted so still here...
i don't know what is sadder tho; so many long term players saying they will leave unless this is being fixed asap, or inno getting such a massive feedback (both on this forum and forum on server whos name shall not be spoken) and still ignoring that
maybe our hope of being heard is the saddest...

 

[DeletedUser15501]

Can we get some kind of official response on this from Inno please? This is simply unacceptable to leave as it is. So much player feedback and not a single word from them, not on the beta and not here... very unprofessional and unwise to ignore your playerbase like this.

 

[DeletedUser99692]

Can we get some kind of official response on this from Inno please? This is simply unacceptable to leave as it is. So much player feedback and not a single word from them, not on the beta and not here... very unprofessional and unwise to ignore your playerbase like this.

When has INNO ever admitted to having screwed things up. Did they admit that they got the change of Calc wrong no just a load of claptrap and sidestepping as usual. Man up INNO its a disaster get it fixed.

 

[DeletedUser16026]

Can we get some kind of official response on this from Inno please? This is simply unacceptable to leave as it is. So much player feedback and not a single word from them, not on the beta and not here... very unprofessional and unwise to ignore your playerbase like this.

The development of the messaging system does not stop here, even the announcement mentions that additional features such as adding/removing players from the group list will be coming with future updates. All feedback and suggestions from here are passed along to them, and they're already aware of the feedback and suggestions from beta.

However, at this time we cannot say what will undergo changes, in what way, or when. What we can tell you is that they are aware of everyone's opinion on the topic. We'll probably hear and see more with the upcoming updates - for example update 1.62 should already include some improvements which have been requested by the communities, though we cannot confirm what those will be, we'll have to wait for announcement.

 

[DeletedUser97883]

Inno seems to have a huge problem with using beta as beta should be used. beta should be used as a test and fix the problems systems, debug and resolve large customer complaints. how inno uses beta, release get feedback, release anyway. i honestly have no idea why inno even has a beta world when it feels like this game is in a constant state of beta.

This is so important it bears repeating. Why have a beta server if you consistently ignore the feedback from the beta players and release incomplete/bugged features in the main servers?

 

[DeletedUser16026]

Thanks, I'm new to using the app so haven't had an update yet and just assumed it worked the same way as the browser. Not sure why you cannot announce here prior to an update that and update is due on Wednesday the same as you would for the browser. I understand the day you can do it is stipulated by the app stores but surely your allowed to notify customers a new update is coming and it will include......

Usually most updates only include bugfixes and we do not always have confirmation about which bugs could or could not be fixed before the app gets updated (due to the whole app stores procedure).

So far only a couple updates have included new content and those have been announced. Otherwise the announcements tend to be merged if both browser and apps get the same features - for example the 1.61 browser announcement mentions that the update for the apps will be available about a week after the browser update takes place.

Thus most of the time we would only be posting a "the apps now have a new update" note without more information, which is pretty much the equivalent of the app itself notifying you about the update.

 

[DeletedUser15501]

I just boil in my spirit when i read such typical kinda response. I'm sure the honorable Darkstar thought this type of response will help but it's just making us all angry even more! For the life of me, don't defend the undefendable! why take the typical stance of releasing features that are nowhere near being completed?? why even decide at all to leave this important part of the messaging system from the first release and worse yet, be content with letting your players suffer for days/weeks by seeing this ridiculous '...left the conversation' nonsense until you decide to fix it later? do the developers/implementers even consider the implications these changes in the past few months are having on the playing body? It's unimaginable how people actually spend time on the 'test' server to give you constructive feedback and yet, you keep releasing features that keep sending the game backwards instead of going forward. It's actually near unethical! Unbelievable customer relations from Inno. Activity in most guilds has taken a step backwards since people are just either getting bored checking the messages or they are so cautious about sending any new message in fear of spamming their fellow members! Utter ridiculousness.

Yet, Inno gets to sit in their offices organizing parties and laughing and having the audacity to show us their happy faces when the players are unimaginably having a torrid time with the game! Get the basic features sorted before release and listen to feedback! how hard could this be?? Simply tone down the background colours and fix the silly notification problem and perhaps the other parts can actually come in your next updates! How are you not able to prioritize these issues especially when the love for the game is dwindling with these features still in place? It should be a priority if you're going to actually lose players over such changes! Oh my, why did we have to lose the only guy who had any sort of vision for the game, IMHO?? it's very obvious the effect of his loss :-( Those remaining should still be able to listen and act. why can't you just do your job and do it well?

Exactly, you hit it right on the mark! This should be fixed right here and right now, not letting us suffer and wait for the next update and hope it will be fixed then. FIX THIS MESS NOW!

 

[DeletedUser16026]

I just boil in my spirit when i read such typical kinda response. I'm sure the honorable Darkstar thought this type of response will help but it's just making us all angry even more! For the life of me, don't defend the undefendable! why take the typical stance of releasing features that are nowhere near being completed??

I do not see myself defending anything, in fact I have not said a single word regarding the current messaging system. I apologize for making you even more angry but it's not like I can sit down and fiddle with the game's code to fix things. A player has requested an official response and I've provided what information we do have. That is the current official response.

Unfortunately the developers themselves do not have the time to respond to individual feedback. But it's the CM team that acts as an information channel between the players and the devs, meaning even if the developers could respond, at this time that is all they could tell you.

As to why the message system was released without certain features, the answer is because with most of the basic functionalities it can still operate better than the old system and at the same time it is cross-platform, allowing many more players to use it. We all understand your frustration and rest assured it's all passed along. But as much as I or others would want to, we can only push for changes. We cannot do them ourselves.

 

[DeletedUser5180]

The development of the messaging system does not stop here, even the announcement mentions that additional features such as adding/removing players from the group list will be coming with future updates. All feedback and suggestions from here are passed along to them, and they're already aware of the feedback and suggestions from beta.

However, at this time we cannot say what will undergo changes, in what way, or when. What we can tell you is that they are aware of everyone's opinion on the topic. We'll probably hear and see more with the upcoming updates - for example update 1.62 should already include some improvements which have been requested by the communities, though we cannot confirm what those will be, we'll have to wait for announcement.

what you really mean is that new features will be rushed out (ignoring all feedback from beta) and then when the proverbial hits the fan (as it will do) then there will be a rush to fix things.

why not scrap beta altogether as almost everyone knows this server is the real beta and unfortunately we are expected to pay for YOUR testing with OUR hard earned cash.

there is zilch, nowt, nothing, absolutely zero coming out of my pockets for a substandard product

 

[mrbeef]

Unfortunately the developers themselves do not have the time to respond to individual feedback.

They don't seem to have the time to produce a 'fit for purpose' messaging system either....

I wonder what they DO have time for.....

 

[DeletedUser99692]

I do not see myself defending anything, in fact I have not said a single word regarding the current messaging system. I apologize for making you even more angry but it's not like I can sit down and fiddle with the game's code to fix things. A player has requested an official response and I've provided what information we do have. That is the current official response.

Unfortunately the developers themselves do not have the time to respond to individual feedback. But it's the CM team that acts as an information channel between the players and the devs, meaning even if the developers could respond, at this time that is all they could tell you.

As to why the message system was released without certain features, the answer is because with most of the basic functionalities it can still operate better than the old system and at the same time it is cross-platform, allowing many more players to use it. We all understand your frustration and rest assured it's all passed along. But as much as I or others would want to, we can only push for changes. We cannot do them ourselves.

Darkstar you have my deepest sympathy I spent many years as a Customer Service Manager for a major retail company. The truth unfortunately is that you are like I was a mere Mushroom kept in the dark and fed manure on a daily basis. Its is about time that INNO dropped the policy that we have invested X amount in this so we are launching it regardless.

 

[DeletedUser15501]

Can't we as players (and mods who sympathize with us) band together here and take a stand against the devs' lack of any action here regarding the problems we as players are facing with this new message system? I know we can all stop purchasing diamonds but it has been a long time since I've purchased diamonds anyway and I don't think that's enough. What can we do more? If I was a moderator I would have gone on strike and let the devs know I won't be doing anything for them until they fix at least the ''xxx has left the conversation'' problem.

 

[DeletedUser]

I do not see myself defending anything, in fact I have not said a single word regarding the current messaging system. I apologize for making you even more angry but it's not like I can sit down and fiddle with the game's code to fix things. A player has requested an official response and I've provided what information we do have. That is the current official response.

Unfortunately the developers themselves do not have the time to respond to individual feedback. But it's the CM team that acts as an information channel between the players and the devs, meaning even if the developers could respond, at this time that is all they could tell you.

As to why the message system was released without certain features, the answer is because with most of the basic functionalities it can still operate better than the old system and at the same time it is cross-platform, allowing many more players to use it. We all understand your frustration and rest assured it's all passed along. But as much as I or others would want to, we can only push for changes. We cannot do them ourselves.

In other words, they were in such a dang hurry to get messaging to work on other platforms they released a product that was not ready, without regard for their base. One can only surmise this was done in order to gain a new stream of customers and possibly diamond spenders. Give us a break, we are smarter than you think inno.

 

[DeletedUser105078]

In other words, they were in such a dang hurry to get messaging to work on other platforms

LOL, I don't know about there having been such a big hurry, the iOS and Android versions of the game have had a "coming soon" notification on their inactive message centres since about this time last year...

I've posted the following in another Forum thread, but copied it here as this seems to be where it's all at, lol.

In my two main guilds (I'm founder in one and leader in the other) I posted messages asking members not to delete threads, and we've had absolutely no spam problem. Admittedly they're not big guilds (one has 45 and the other has 35 members). But without the spam, I have to confess I'm really liking the new message centre. It's working a lot better, it's easier to find one's previous post in a thread (especially useful for never-ending FP swap threads if you're lazy and like to copy/paste), I love how it shows unread messages, I find the brighter screen a lot easier to read, and it feels altogether more professional than the previous message system.

I do admit, though, that the "left conversation" spam could be a nightmare for guilds that are not prepared. In one tiny 5-people guild in one of my satellite worlds, just one member decided to clean up his mailbox after the update, and gave everybody else two pages worth of spam! I shudder to think what would have happened if it had been a bigger and more active guild.

The "left conversation" could also open the door to griefing if players have an axe to grind - they could leave their guild and delete all the guild threads in their mailbox, producing pages and pages of spam for everybody...

On the other hand, it's important to know that somebody has left a conversation (say you reply to a guild thread expecting everyone to see it, and don't realise that some people have opted out).

Would it be possible to make it so that the "left conversation" warning does not bump the thread and does not produce an unread notification?

There's no need to go and read who's left which thread - the only time you need to know, is if you want to add something to a thread, and then you'd be able to see any "left conversation" notification.

 

[ddevil]

The problem arises even when one of the member who's not that active suddenly decides to start deleting all his messages ... It need not only be a big guild ...Even a small guild can get affected with this "soandso has left the conversation" fiasco and specially if it has been a long standing guild with whole lots of message threads in it .... But Of course a smaller guild is much easier to control than a large guild ....

A simple solution I can think of at the top of my head is greying out the left members names in the "Group info" as that will not affect the messages while anybody interested to see who's left the conversation can also do so easily ... But then I m sure this and many more suggestions would have been given already in the server that cannot be named and was duly ignored by the Dev's as they always do.

Why can't the dev's think that when that "server that cannot be named" with much lesser players than a live server has so many problems with an update then of course the live servers will have much bigger issues with a larger player base ... As always any new bug can be tolerated to an extent if it happens unexpectedly while transferring the update to a live server from the server that cannot be named but how can the dev's think players will tolerate an issue as big as the current one with the new messaging system, which has already been so badly criticized on that server, being introduced on the live server without any kind of changes?? How do the Dev's think of it as a fair decision ?? It maybe very urgent and very important update for the dev's but that doesn't mean they just ignore the players concerns / issues and include it in the game as it is with all the major issues still in it ...

I don't think any player was in any kind of hurry to get the new messaging system on the live server and also don't think would mind even if its reverted back to old system now till this new messaging can be redone without the"soandso left the conversation" issue in it.

 

[DeletedUser15501]

This is intolerable and I'm completely done with this game until they fix this ''xxx left the conversation'' garbage. The devs need a serious wake up call here.

 

[DeletedUser]

marine1632

My only issue is that by spending time improving FoE to work on every new tablet and phone app that comes out...they are forgetting that the game needs new content to save players leaving through boredom.
I understand that more and more players are now using these devices to play FoE but my problem is...when do we get some new content that makes existing players that have been here since day 1 interested enough to continue playing and remain with the game...when all the updates are concentrated there?
Maybe I'm just an' old fart.)

(and I know many of you are going to agree)

I agree the old system worked well and this one isn't very customer friendly I would concentrate on new game menus I suggested once to update the system so you could be like google maps and go around your city on the roads to see the buildiings

 

[DeletedUser100555]

I know iPhone users have more money and lower expectations, but as with many recent updates this is just a huge insult to existing pc based customers. The very customers who are paying for the TV ads, the new headquarters and the year and a half development on a new message system.

I wonder if the tablet or phone formats actually look better than for the pc. Does the new quest dialog look better on a tablet or phone ?

 

[DeletedUser98783]

I really disagree with a lot of the issues with the new message system.

Give it time to get used to it, the old message system was terrible. Threads disappeared at random, threads you sent didn't appear in your mailbox till they were replied too if at all, people were apparently deleting threads without reading them often meaning you were not communicating with them in the way you thought, it was only on PC, you had no idea what the last message you read was (okay you probably did but not as quickly as now).

While this has it's bugs as well, the mailbox only flashes occasionally (I think switching to GVG and back will reset it but that isn't good enough) overall it seems much more robust. I would like a slightly higher contrast or bolder font in mailbox (like the one that shows up when you are typing the message).

Guilds will get used to it and perhaps have to restrict notifier rights to prevent mailboxes being spammed once with stupid threads and again with people leaving stupid threads. Once you have left a thread though it's done don't complain about the mail you get from people leaving threads just leave them yourself, or talk to your guild notifiers about not creating stupid threads. Most guilds need 5 for communication... Trade, GVG, GBs, In game Chat, random stuff... random is probably not needed but there are loads of other fp chains etc that aren't as key and players, for multiple reasons, may want to opt out of.

While it is still early days after initial frustration I have left the threads I don't need and am having no issues, I have made a suggestion to improve it in another thread to ease the transition between threads for new players arriving and leaving.

Sorry that was really long.