I wish I had seen this thread when it started, but to be honest the game takes so much of your time nowadays. it has been months since I browsed the forum.
A bit late to the party and I have tried to read as much of this thread as I can, but it is a lot to absorb ... and in saying that, I may be so far off the mark here because the traction from here may already have gone through to the devs or at least to an Inno for consideration?
This is a lengthy post and I do apologise, but being late to the thread, I would like to spew the whole 'where I am coming from' thing before actually making a few (hopefully) constructive suggestions
I for one do not think that the time in between seasons in too short and I say that because it is (or should I say, used to be) 'on the whole' a fun thing to have in your day to day game and brings good personal rewards etc and I for one dislike the few days we currently have off so to speak, as actually playing GBG like our guild does is not something that requires psychiatric treatment and altered sleep patterns and a few short sessions during your daily gameplay has typically been a fun, rewarding and generally good thing ... probably because for us it has never been an obsession driven chore.
But I say this not to go against what seems to be a strong opinion here that the gap should be longer, but rather to suggest that the huge exploitation spam opportunities are what are causing guilds to lose sleep, map-watch 24/7 and ultimately have to get to the point that everyone is focussing on here ... that being 'we need a longer break from this intense grind' ... whereas the view I have discussed at length within our guild and which I am going to throw into the ring here, is to suggest changes to GBG that waters down the ridiculous exploitation loophole/spamming as this loophole exploitation is what is attracting and breeding the burnout in the first place, along with the various other side effects discussed in this thread.
Increasing the recovery time (sounds like a real life PTSD which is ridiculous to say the least) will NOT balance the exploitation so will just make the exploitation less horrible for the 24/7 clock-watchers whilst doing nothing about the format balancing issues.
The obsessed will remain equally obsessed during the 10 day stint and then just get a longer period to actually have a life in between ... this serves to ignore the flaws and any intrinsic imbalances in the overall GBG format and simply make it more achievable for the addicted to be able to continue their addiction.
Let's be clear about one thing, the guilds that are destroying GBG for many (most?) other guilds are working hard for their money - make no mistake, so the obsession, the Skype groups, the bleary eyes and no doubt strain on their relationships in real life are all prices they are paying for their huge rewards, but here in lies the heart of my view (as shared by many of those within our guild and hopefully others) ..... the board locking spam that these guilds are pursuing, especially when allied with like minded guilds, actively PREVENTS other guilds (which means other players of this game) from getting much out of GBG at all, so the mantra is pretty much to play the game for many more hours every day in real-life-altering shift patterns to clock/map watch and earn yourself an extra 1000+ forge points every day ... or have a life, play the game in it's traditional format (buildings, GB's, daily collections, events) and grow your City via the games original strategies with a potential competitive ratio 'deficit' upwards of 1000 forge points per day (and let's please all remember that doing all of these 'normal' things along with GE and a bit of GBG every day already takes a few hours each and every day on average) ... and let's also be clear and remind ourselves that this 90 page thread is a small looking glass into widespread distaste in the current format, so it is not a case of 'if it aint broke'.
By the way, this not a whinge or a whine ... we all know this is a strategy game and if there are those out there with little else going on in their real lives that want to live, eat, sleep and breathe GBG day in day out and make a gazillion point whilst doing go, then so be it and may they long be remembered for their sheer brilliance in the game - but no other strategy in this game actively
prevents or takes away from others playing the game of having access to the chance of rewards as dramatically as this.
Recurring Quests, Arc 1.9x groups, trading goods for FP, diamond mining/farming ... none of these strategic twists that were discovered along the way in the games natural evolution takes anything away from another player or prevents them from playing or having a chance to enjoy a certain aspect of the game.
But the exploited loopholes in GBG do exactly that.
Locking the map with the 159/160 swap group exploitation in the current format makes it virtually impossible for the unobsessed to get into the rings with more SC cells and so on, which ultimately means faltering around with one or two sectors per day due to the higher attrition on the outer rings where they have been pinned back to.
It is one thing to lose a race for a sector, but it is another ballgame entirely to be so easily
prevented from playing GBG at all (well, just about) and as clever as the alliances are in setting up the little 4hr grid swaps, it is a really silly loophole trick that is spoiling this for the vast majority of others by the format basically allowing players to ultimately decide (if I can put it that way) who should and who shouldn't be allowed to play and get rewards.
This is not about guild power, prestige, ranking points or other bragging rights - this is about thousands and thousands of forge points that Inno is currently allowing to be dished out by a group of players as they see fit and that is just bizarre to say the least
So the short of it all is that I feel the balancing should be addressed so that that everyone can enjoy GBG a little bit more rather than throwing a bone to the greedy so that they can recover their hammered treasuries and spend a bit more time with their kids and/or loved ones.
Throwing said bone would ease the little bit of inconvenience that is manifesting amongst the
few (too short a break in between for us to recover from roll calls and our Treasuries are depleted) ... let's just remind everyone that they are currently doing this for upwards of 1000FP per day ... whilst the
many remain locked out .... whereas addressing the balance could (hopefully, as a delicate set of balances would probably be required to please all) introduce much more difficult complexities for the greedy to gain such massive advantages, whilst the many regular players can perhaps get to enjoy this portion of the game and get a chance of enjoying a few rewards as well.
Let's face the dilemma head on for a second using a few silly examples ... currently, Player A is in a guild that exploits the GBG loopholes and earns, on average, an extra 800 FP each and every day from GBG ... whilst Player B is in one of the locked out guilds in that season and typically earns perhaps 30-50 FP per day during the season and even this probably requires checking back regularly throughout the day to check if there is even an accessible sector to try and do a few encounters on.
Now we balance the format and Player A is suddenly (for example) only able to earn 500 FP per day and Player B has the ability to enjoy GBG as a game feature as well and with sufficient effort may make 150-200 FP per day.
That to me would be an example of balance and as far as I am concerned if the greedy would then want to quit the game because they would no longer have ALL the rewards available (meaning nobody else can have anything), then I would have to say that the core of this issue would be revealing itself in all of it's true colours, as using the silly example quotas above, 500 FP if you want to work
really hard and 150-200 FP if you want to work
hard is surely not something to rip apart as an injustice?
OK, so that is my ranting background of my opinion ... regarding suggestions, I have quite a few which I will post when I get a chance later on or tomorrow (no idea if some or all of them already exist in the ideas section so hopefully if I do put them in here some kind souls will advise me as to their uniqueness, similarity or duplicity) ... and I do hope the trolls don't get wind of this post as it they make general discussion such tedious work
