Neighborhood merge feedback thread

[DeletedUser]

Well I must say that the thread by Blacksmith is pretty fun

I see that many people talk about ranking points here. "OMG me waz plazed with playerz over 1'000'000 zcoring...". Just so you know, ranking doesn't mean anything when attacking. The merging is based upon research, and it is research that means a lot when attacking. Another thing that matters a lot is levels on GB. Maybe you should add GB levels into the merging formula aswell to make it more balanced?

 

[DeletedUser276]

I'd also like to know how that doesn't violate some of the forum rules

well as far as I can tell it doesnt. its an informative post. If you want I am always open for you to discuss it with me on skype.

 

[DeletedUser12153]

lol my advice for ones who are merged and think its unfair.

http://forum.en.forgeofempires.com/showthread.php?22460-Oh-Noes-I-gots-merged-HELP!

suggestion maybe you should actually read the feedback that's being given cause there is almost noone in this thread complaining about being plundered

 

[DeletedUser276]

suggestion maybe you should actually read the feedback that's being given cause there is almost noone in this thread complaining about being plundered

I have. I have also read peoples tickets they submitted through the support menu. since I figured they would be stopping in here I linked it to there.

As far as I know two major types of players complain about the old merging system, namely those super active pvp players who got stuck in a tiny hood and also those semi-active farmers who don't understand how to protect their goods.

bit of advice for the semi active farmers who dont understand how to protect their goods.

 

[DeletedUser]

Let's not go off the deep end here guys. We have all voiced our concerns, which are generally the same, and Blacksmith has responded. No sense in flooding this thread even more and making it impossible for people who have similar concerns that haven't spoken up yet and want to browse through it efficiently to catch up.

Blacksmith has stated earlier in this thread that the dev's are hard at work looking over the feedback and making adjustments, and we will hopefully see it tweaked by sunday. Let's take a step back and give them time to make these adjustments now. After all, this was a pretty big system change, we can't expect it to be perfect the first day. I have faith we will see improvements and things will balance out. :-)

And I apologize in advance if anyone feels like i'm trying to tell everyone to "chill out" or "shut your mouths". Not my intentions at all. Everyone is entitled to express their concerns and give their feedback. In fact, if we didn't do that, we wouldn't have these changes at all. All my intentions of this whole post is to point out that Blacksmith has stated that improvements are in the works. It's hard to read through 7 pages and sometimes it's not feasible so instead we just post but our posts end up becoming very redundant. So i'm really just trying to update everyone that has just come to this thread and provide a summary. Hopefully this post will be interpreted as helpful intentions and not disrespect. :-)

Happy forging all!

 

[DeletedUser14611]

My neighbourhood on Arvahall is seriously unbalanced now. Players rankings vary from 5 to 3977 - points from 1.4m to 31k. I feel like a goldfish in a shark tank.

 

[. ICE .]

No issues , or problems from what i can see of the hood merge on H ,
What is all the fuss about ,... ?
Fresh faces , fresh challenges. !
Sorting out merging , was LONG overdue. I hope this continues. I am sure they will look to "tweak" things as we progress. And feedback will be taken on board, but hey give it a chance ...the old system was killing the game for the most active players. Thats not just me speaking , but numerous others who play to same activity level as myself, that i speak to.

Well done FOE ....
Cant wait for same to happen on EN5 ...

 

[DeletedUser]

Sorting out merging , was LONG overdue. I hope this continues. I am sure they will look to "tweak" things as we progress. And feedback will be taken on board, but hey give it a chance ...the old system was killing the game for the most active players. Thats not just me speaking , but numerous others who play to same activity level as myself, that i speak to.

While I agree that fixing the merging system was long overdue, as evident by the long standing "we need a better neighborhood merge" thread. I can't relate to anything else you said. IMO it breaks more than it fixes and they should stop and tweak instead of continue to implement it and tweak things as they progress i.e. play with elephant in the hood on the shreds of the old one.

Also with so many post complaining on how their score is effected by tiny hoods, we all aware of what the tiny minority of the the super active players want or consider the most important things.(hint its not the same for everyone)

 

[DeletedUser14919]

Yesterdays merger and it's extremely unfair outcome.



I would like to emphasise my absolute disgust at the outcome of the merger that took place yesterday and the effect it has had on my personal situation....Before the merger I was 2nd in my neighbourhood with a personal points total of 77,550, I was 60,000 points behind the no1 ranked player(ASHKAN69) and we were locked in battle for the tournaments every week and it was a good contest....He has dropped to 2nd in his new neighbourhood and boasts he will be back to no1 very soon....I on the other hand have dropped from 2nd to 48th...YES 48TH.....and find myself being attacked by new neighbours who have 550,000 points and who attack with FIELD GUNS and JEAGER INFANTRY when my most advanced troops are MUSKETS...Therefore I won't win any more medals in any more tournaments and therefore my chances of getting any victory expansions any time soon are zero whereas before I would have got the 2,000 medal expansion in a month......If the games administrators don't remedy the situation i'm in and put me in a neighbourhood where i'm against equals I might as well delete my account here on this world and concentrate on my game on GRIEFENTAL.....I put 2 tickets in to support and was told to post my feedback here in the forum which this thread is.......I feel i'm being paid lip-service to and that nothing will happen.........I bet this is the worst merger anyone on this world has experienced but I still expect nothing will be done about it.......Anyone reading this put yourselves in my shoes, i bet you would be bloody upset about it too.!!!!!

 

[DeletedUser]

While I agree that fixing the merging system was long overdue, as evident by the long standing "we need a better neighborhood merge" thread. I can't relate to anything else you said. IMO it breaks more than it fixes and they should stop and tweak instead of continue to implement it and tweak things as they progress i.e. play with elephant in the hood on the shreds of the old one.

Also with so many post complaining on how their score is effected by tiny hoods, we all aware of what the tiny minority of the the super active players want or consider the most important things.(hint its not the same for everyone)

Mordins words are my thoughts exactly... Tweak neighbourhood merging, don't break it...

Once you have torn apart all those settled neighbourhoods... there is no way of putting the genie back in the bottle.. many players who don't like the new neighbourhood won't post a message... they just won't log in any more !!

 

[DeletedUser12086]

Thanks for your comments so far. I would ask that you give the new neighborhood something of a chance.

I see a lot of comments about points, and the large ranges within the new neighborhoods. Just to clarify, it is tech tree advancement that is used to balance neighborhoods, not points, as points are meaningless when it comes to advancement.

A new way to merge neighborhoods was requested for a very long time across all game versions, and we examined what players asked for and tried to deliver exactly that. If you have any comments on exactly which parts you like, and which you don't like, and reasons why, then of course please do let us know, but please keep it constructive.

There were two notable issues with the old system. Firstly that neighborhoods would get very small and stay that way for a long time (it was impossible to merge whole neighborhoods until they hit a magic number, with two "matches" totaling less than 80, which was very specific criteria and the reason that neighborhoods could remain small for such a long time). This was addressed with a "chunk" system. In some cases however, it is possible to find a chunk of 1, where one player has a large gap in research on both sides, for example.

The other issue that we received a lot of feedback about was the wide range of players, with some CA accounts, for example, being stuck in neighborhoods with Bronze Age players. It was suggested repeatedly to provide more balance in advancement, and so the chunks that help solve the first issue were used to help solve the second one, too, by finding chucks of similar advancement (not points) and putting them together.

One final note: these new neighborhoods of similar sizes are important for something that is coming soon...

 

[DeletedUser8813]

well i think this is a good system ,my new hood in en1 is great although i did go from no4 to no1 ,we are all pretty evenly matched ,that can only be good.
i havnt had a merge on en5 but i will welcome it with open arms.
i see some crying because they will have to actually fight for medals now instead of a 2 horse race like it has been for ages.to them i say move on

points have no bearing on your level of advancement , they dont influence the battle .the era is what they are doing so you end up with mostly the same era in your hood ,points will still vary .
there are still lots of towers to get your medals from .just wont be as easy to win them

this was well over due .so well done FOE team

now if we could just have some code optimization ..

 

[DeletedUser14349]

The other issue that we received a lot of feedback about was the wide range of players, with some CA accounts, for example, being stuck in neighborhoods with Bronze Age players. It was suggested repeatedly to provide more balance in advancement, and so the chunks that help solve the first issue were used to help solve the second one, too, by finding chucks of similar advancement (not points) and putting them together.

But I think the devs forgot to consider what will happen if a hood is full of only InA players. And in the case of my houndsmoor hood, It`s just plain stupid to do this merge right before the PA came out. We have now there the top 10 players who are able to compete for the CA, InA and PA tower which leaves no option for those who just recently finished the InA tech tree and had no time to accumulate a surplus of forge point packs, goods, coins and suplies and most important of all, time to level up all their GB`s to the max. I wouldn`t care being somewhere in the middle range of a hood if I had at least a chance to compete for a tower. To me the previous merge system was ok in general. It just needed a little adjustment so that hoods can be merged sooner even if that would mean to have a bit more than 80 players per hood. I will give it time until Sunday and if it doesn`t impoove drastically, I am going to quit. I got up this morning and for the first time since I started to play, I didn`t bother do do anything at my city and least of al, doing fights because it`s just pointless

 

[DeletedUser]

I'm first in my hood with 400k points more than 2nd , I'm already in PE,the only one in the hood, and around 10 in hood are in industrial, total number vary from 45 to 49, when some inactives show their heads some days.In 8 months we had 2 merges, this new system, will put me with a lot of players of InA/PE, so gonna be so hard to fight and win the last 3 towers, like till now(colonial/Industrial/Progressive)(this last one I will win with one battle before next sunday).To who helps this? to the active players , ofc not, to the farmers, that they can farm the whole life, dunno.If for active players, it's so heavyto get medals, or almost impossible, no expansions,so no more development, so very hard to be interested in game, where you only can get medals from your Gb's, in case you have the 2, cause 80 players fight for the same 2-3 towers.Before was natural selection, now in concentrate same kind of players in same hood, I prefer the first system.
As bussinesman, I really think , active players will spend more money in game, than farmers,I see a lot of industrial cities, with WW, don't see a lot of bakeries in lower cities, cause farmers get tired of not advance, and quit.
Well, you have the good stats for sure.

 

[DeletedUser16522]

I've just reached CA toghetter with 4 other players in my old neightbourhood, with the tech tree merge this putted us with players wel in to IndA and CA....
so where part of the 'omg I was #2 and now im #44' group, competition was VERRY active with us 4 and after a while most became friends...

now us 4 are totally struck because our fighting chance was taken away now, i well understand that some people want a merge, but our neightbourhood was only in need of a merge with a group of +- 40.... i know this might be farfetched but isnt it possible to make an option where you can post that you want a merge therefor letting the neightbourhood choose for themself and perhaps devide the tech tree merge into; started CA untill end of CA, instead of close to ending IndA...
or make a system where points mather toghetter with GB's?

just trying to input some idea.

 

[DeletedUser]

well i think this is a good system ,my new hood in en1 is great although i did go from no4 to no1 ,we are all pretty evenly matched ,that can only be good.
i havnt had a merge on en5 but i will welcome it with open arms.
i see some crying because they will have to actually fight for medals now instead of a 2 horse race like it has been for ages.to them i say move on

points have no bearing on your level of advancement , they dont influence the battle .the era is what they are doing so you end up with mostly the same era in your hood ,points will still vary .
there are still lots of towers to get your medals from .just wont be as easy to win them

this was well over due .so well done FOE team

now if we could just have some code optimization ..

mmmm... wonder if you would have quite the same impression if you had gone from no4 to no44... as you still may in 2 weeks.. or 2 weeks after...

 

[DeletedUser17220]

But I think the devs forgot to consider what will happen if a hood is full of only InA players. And in the case of my houndsmoor hood, It`s just plain stupid to do this merge right before the PA came out. We have now there the top 10 players who are able to compete for the CA, InA and PA tower which leaves no option for those who just recently finished the InA tech tree and had no time to accumulate a surplus of forge point packs, goods, coins and suplies and most important of all, time to level up all their GB`s to the max. I wouldn`t care being somewhere in the middle range of a hood if I had at least a chance to compete for a tower. To me the previous merge system was ok in general. It just needed a little adjustment so that hoods can be merged sooner even if that would mean to have a bit more than 80 players per hood. I will give it time until Sunday and if it doesn`t impoove drastically, I am going to quit. I got up this morning and for the first time since I started to play, I didn`t bother do do anything at my city and least of al, doing fights because it`s just pointless

I know exactly how you feel. The previous system is not too bad. At least it can ensure that players in one hood started at a similar point of time in the past. There can always be players who started the game earlier than you, and in the old system you won't see them as your opponents. The new system just breaks this rule and it's unfair to a lot of players, especially those who are close to the end of the Ind Age tech tree or just finished the Ind Age tech tree recently without enough time to accumulate resources and level up their Great Buildings, since it has been the last age available for a long period of time and the current system is only based on the progress in the tech tree.

If it is possible it would be much better to add another selection criterion to form the new neighborhood, and that is the starting time of the game. If one player has started the game more than a certain amount of time (for example 1 week) earlier than another, they should never join the same neighborhood.

 

[DeletedUser9070]

mmmm... wonder if you would have quite the same impression if you had gone from no4 to no44... as you still may in 2 weeks.. or 2 weeks after...

Just what happened to me actually (I was in the same NH as Hawr-nee Knight here on EN1), from No2 to No 44 placed with top 10 players that play since server existed and thats one of the big problem with the new merging system, the fact that only the progression is taken into consideration for a merge is not enough, Ive started on EN1 more than 6 months after server existed, these players above me have had many months of ressources collection, medals accumlations and by being top of their previous NH and also on scoreboard since Great Buildings were introduced have had their GBs close to L10, it will take way too much effort to "catch up" in fighting power (not many contributing to GBs nowadays) only to compete against 50+ players trying to scrape for medals on the SAME tower, there can only be few winners here no matter how hard you play.

The game has become more fun for those top players but has become a CHORE for the rest of the playerbase, with the new AI and now the new merge it has become way too time consuming to bother competing against that much competition.
May be this will retain some of the veteran players on each world as they are now less bored (temporarily) but the majority of the players placed under such competition will definitely give up and either go back to "farming" or just go play another game.

 

[DeletedUser17220]

I see a lot of comments about points, and the large ranges within the new neighborhoods. Just to clarify, it is tech tree advancement that is used to balance neighborhoods, not points, as points are meaningless when it comes to advancement.

As I said you shouldn't only consider the progress in the tech tree. You need to consider the time factor as well. The new system is just like asking a 13-year-old boy to fight against a 30-year-old adult simply because they are both 170cm tall.

If that is impossible, at least consider the levels of GBs as a factor as well. I have pointed out in a very early thread that possibly everybody will have to invest FP to their military great buildings at early stages of the game if the new system is not going to be changed.


Edit: and now I think about it, with the new system it is also possible that in the future those relatively new players will have to face against dozens of watch fire towers even without having the opportunity to get one, because they started the game after the Easter event. Is this really what they want to see?

 

[DeletedUser]

Countess,

The logic in your explaination of the new system in your above post is good, and the system sounds good. But one huge factor that surely had to have been overlooked that should be factored in is the balance of guildmates in a neighborhood together. This has potential to heavily unbalance the entire new system alone. For example, in my newly merged neighborhood, we have 11 guildies together, 7 of us are in the top 11 in the neighborhood, and are globally ranked 83 all the way up to 7 (all very active fighters). I have done a count (and recounted 3 times to verify), and there are no more than 4 guildmates in our neighborhood from other guilds. This puts us at a HUGE disadvantage as far as PvP medals, personal global rank, as well as guild growth and rank go.

I agree, most, with exception of a couple, of our other concerns that we have all mentioned are more of an "inconvience" and will just take some time getting used to and adjusted to. However, I do hope the devs consider balancing the ratio of guildmembers per each neighborhood. I do personally know of a few other neighborhoods in the same boat, and i'm sure plenty others.