Wind of change

Do you think this server should have a higher speed and morale off?

  • Yes

    Votes: 20 69.0%
  • No

    Votes: 6 20.7%
  • Whatever

    Votes: 3 10.3%

  • Total voters
    29

Brajanz0r

Artisan
Dear community,

As a representative of players on US 101 Carystus, I'm stepping up and starting a poll about changing current settings.

What do we want?

1) Speed 3 or 4 for World, Unit and Trade speed
2) Turning the morale off

Why is this important?


On day 1 we had up to 80 players that joined this world. That was definitely a negative record on US servers and we were all worried about the future of US worlds.
It appears that there was a technical issue with mail server so everyone got their mail with the announcement a day after. However, this didn't change much, 100 more players have joined today, give or take. So in almost 2 days, 180 players has joined this world and we all know by now it should be 4 or 5 times more.

Veterans came to a conclusion that world settings are not very appealing so we picked out these 2 things that are most probably the major problem.

From really active worlds we have only US 100 which is fast CQ world and basically nothing else. All other servers are pretty much wrapped up or in a process of it. Amisos (US 99) is done since the end of May, we are just waiting for DOM era and call it quits. Tegea is in the similar situation, Selymbria as well.

We need a good, active, fast and competitive revolt world with a lot of players.
More players = more competition = more gold usage = more money for Inno

Do we think this will solve a problem of the overall activity on US servers?


No. Activity on US servers is declining for a while and there are many reasons. I'll give several so you can all know we're on the same page.

- Gold users (abusers)
- Gold trade market - this allows anyone to trade resources for gold, stash a great bunch of coins and go nuts whenever they want on the expense of others that paid for gold. I see the best intention of Inno but this thing backfired. Also, many players are skipping worlds or showing up just to trade so we have a feeling there are 500 active players, but in fact there are 150-200. The rest of them are simming or trading.
- No room for rookies and eating them up at first sight
- MRAs
- All-star teams
- Bad relations between players that are usually leaders of top alliances
- No support from Inno on some subjects

etc.

I say lets take baby steps in order to improve US worlds. Yes it's summer time and people have other plans but you would think that something like pandemic would increase the overall activity since everyone is sitting at home - you're wrong. It started declining way before pandemic happened and nothing has changed. Many veterans have left and rookies are not interested in giving this game a try when they will be rimmed in the first week of playing.

My personal experience: I came to US servers in 2016 after a suggestion from EN players that the competition is much better on US worlds and players are really good. Came to US 52 and met wonderful people and amazing players. There were hundreds of great players and that made me stay. Had my own alliances, was a part of some major and minor ones, had a great time overall. And then the decline started.

At that point Inno had some real marketing skills - saw their ads on TV, YouTube, social media, websites etc. They were all over the place, so where are you guys now? Skip the TV because it's way too expensive, market your product on digital channels and that's it. Also you have a large mail database, use it as an advantage.

You are making new events, gods and troops - for who?

What can players change?

We will be working on our part right NOW.

Starting on US 101 (if we manage to make a deal with Inno about world settings) we will be more evenly spread with firepower and veterans.
We want to give rookies a chance to play and we want to make a healthy competition.
While you're reading this, top alliance founders and leaders are talking about a democratic strategy and equal share of manpower for this world. This way there won't be all-star teams and rookies will be able to get some space and time to learn about this game and enjoy playing it.

My team stopped recruiting at half of the alliance capacity until we sort out this issue. We can see that other teams are slowly forming and we couldn't be happier!

Leaders from all teams will talk and sort out any internal or external issues. Every team will have an equal chance of winning this world! None of us wants everything on our plates, we want to earn our win. If Amisos taught us anything, that would be it. We are all here to fight and enjoy some time off, hang out with our friends and compete against top players.

If you want to help out US worlds to be better - adopt this mindset and start implementing changes immediately.
Also @InnoGames, help us with more support on our requests, be more open to changes and help US worlds get back on the market again.
@Ryvirath I'll tag you as well, you've been very helpful and cooperative as an admin and I can say we all respect what you do for us. Help us connect more with Inno in order to improve this world and upcoming ones, together. You need us and we need you.

Thank you for your attention! Now - go vote! :cool:

Kind regards,
Brajanz0r
 

DeletedUser15668

Guest
I brought new friends into this world and I want them to have a great experience with this one. Realizing the low player count did worry me as a veteran to the game, but reading this post definitely gives me hope that we can band together as a community and find ways to make this an incredible world (hopefully with help from Inno as well)! I especially appreciate your rookie-friendly approach! One of my friends even remembered seeing a T.V advertisement for Grepolis a few years ago. So I can say advertisement is definitely effective, but you're right about T.V advertisements being expensive that's for sure.

It's also very nice to see top Alliance leaders and veterans working together to address some of the core issues that Grepolis may have which deter players from playing for the long-term. I want to see US worlds climb back up in population and take steps to reverse this decline.

Thank you for making this post @Brajanz0r! You got my vote and I hope this gains traction!
 
If all players stopped playing this world Inno would "have" to consider seriously what they are doing. Brajanz0r is right, I was unaware this world had even opened but to see that not many players have joined is worse. It makes a boring world when all the top players are in the top allies. Promotion for new entrants needs to be addressed big time and has been a issue for "years". Too many worlds in EN servers and US ones are monopolized by the veterans.. User friendly for learners sounds like a lovely ideal. Will all Leaders follow this to a t? I would like to hope so. Many points Braj has highlighted in regards to this should be something Inno consider if they dont want servers to die.
 

Brajanz0r

Artisan
I think its funny you want new players to come in and learn the game , but want to turn morale off . Hmmmmm

Good point, and it does look funny.
My personal opinion is that we don't need any restrictions in order to behave properly. I know many veterans dislike attacking small targets (browns) and unfortunately some players in top alliances are constantly taking cities from rookies in order to grow. Vets did nothing about it other than having a remark that slots should be filled with red targets, not brown. The truth is we never stood up for those smaller ones the way we should.

That approach should definitely change. This is why I said players should adopt some part of this mindset and be more open for rookies. Someone tried to make an academy for rookies on some previous world (sorry can't remember who it was) and I was happy to see that. Unfortunately it didn't go well because vets didn't give them time and space to improve their skills.

Turning off morale is an option for experienced players so they can enjoy this world as well. That doesn't mean they should attack smaller browns, we should all contribute to stop this kind of behavior if we really want rookies to stay and play.
 

Brajanz0r

Artisan
I do get your point but I don't think we need morale to be on in order to save rookies. Yes, the game itself would stop us from attacking them due to low morale but it will also complicate things and activate LMDs which is probably the most lame "legal" thing in Grepolis. What would stop a very active veteran to become a LMD and hit all the small players, taking their cities and then transferring them to the others?
Also, top 5 players usually can't do anything to help their teammates. They can attack only those with similar amount of cities and it's very hard to take any when you're limited to attack the best of the best. All you can do is to be 100% offensive and ask for 10 of your mates to cover your back, which happened numerous times. Also, if you're in top positions you can't fight back, most of the players would be able to attack you but you can't counter-attack due to morale of 20%.

When the morale is off, every player has the same chances and will be more likely active since there are no boundaries on who they are able to hit.
 

good day 23

Messenger
In my opinion, I will go stay natural in vote mostly of the player different opinion. and some good idea ;)

God bless everyone and Have a nice day :)
 

Volzaac

Newcomer
I do get your point but I don't think we need morale to be on in order to save rookies. Yes, the game itself would stop us from attacking them due to low morale but it will also complicate things and activate LMDs which is probably the most lame "legal" thing in Grepolis. What would stop a very active veteran to become a LMD and hit all the small players, taking their cities and then transferring them to the others?
I have the majority of rookies in my alliance as well as small time veterans who still don't understand the game well. I very much agree with the morale being turned off. My players are going to have slower growth because they are still getting used to the game and growing their cities properly. I can't teach them how to defend themselves and each other if the only people that can attack have 20, 40, 60 morale. Since this is a world where the alliance leaders are working together to create a fun and engaging environment for both veterans and rookies, morale being turned off should not be an issue for this server. Take it as you will, but we need players in this server and future servers, veteran and rookies alike. By combining server teamwork as well as positive settings for veterans as well, we can at least hopefully achieve a desired level of participation.
 

Brajanz0r

Artisan
@Ryvirath our voting is over, more or less. Some people didn't register so their votes weren't valid but I guess it would be +5 or +6 in favor of changing.

We would love to hear an official answer, most of the world is waiting for this and many of them will bring the final decision whether they will stay or leave depending on the verdict.

Thank you!
 

Ryvirath

Lochagos
So, as far as this is concerned.
Active worlds don't receive changes generally unless there is a large game breaking issue, or as the one time exception that I did for the anniversary world.
So I won't be changing any active settings on this world.

Now that said, this thread and in general the sentiment is still very valuable to me as it relates to future worlds and the settings we move forward. I'll be reviewing all of the worlds, what the numbers looked like, etc to ensure future worlds are exciting for the community as a whole.
 

Brajanz0r

Artisan
So, as far as this is concerned.
Active worlds don't receive changes generally unless there is a large game breaking issue, or as the one time exception that I did for the anniversary world.
So I won't be changing any active settings on this world.

Now that said, this thread and in general the sentiment is still very valuable to me as it relates to future worlds and the settings we move forward. I'll be reviewing all of the worlds, what the numbers looked like, etc to ensure future worlds are exciting for the community as a whole.

Thank you for taking our request into consideration.
We will be waiting for future worlds.
 

MystkRuler

Citizen
I suspect morale is a safeguard instituted by game managers to stop the abuse of newbies by arrogant players who view them as food. A person coming into the game for the first time should have help to understand how things work. Instead they are left to be eaten by sharks who have no concern for member growth in the game but only their stats and amount of cities captured.
 
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Shadias

Newcomer
I suspect morale is a safeguard instituted by game managers to stop the abuse of newbies by arrogant players who view them as food. A person coming into the game for the first time should have help to understand how things work. Instead they are left to be eaten by sharks who have no concern for member growth in the game but only their stats and amount of cities captured.

Agreed, it can seem annoying but it does make sense, at least in my opinion.
 

DeletedUser13228

Guest
I would continue to support almost anything to help grow the number of players in each world to ensure this stays a viable game. Giving smaller players an advantage using morale so that they are not crushed by larger players seeking to grow easily instead of attacking stronger players is certainly one way. But I would like to see Innogames experiment with alternatives or at least modifications For instance, the maximum morale penalty is very high and it's consistent for the life of the server. It allows players to grow very slowly for months, while they stay very costly to attack. This is even true for players who join the server soon after it starts. Anything that encourages slow growth is not good for the game. It should not be that difficult to have morale slowly reduced as the server ages for everyone and also have its effect be reduced as a function of how long the player has been on the server. This would still give a powerful advantage to smaller players early in the server who should not be the food for the most experienced players. But by slowly reducing morale as the world matures, it will encourage players to grow faster and join alliances while making sure valuable cities in key locations are not occupied by players just taking up space, especially those who will harass larger players with frequent, small attacks knowing how expensive it is to retaliate. Some amount of morale early in a server is fine to let inexperienced players get a healthy start, but it doesn't need to be such a powerful factor for the entire life of the server that ends up discouraging many experienced players from joining the world at all.
 

MarinaDanka1

Senior Citizen
None of us wants everything on our plates, we want to earn our win. If Amisos taught us anything, that would be it.
Kind regards,
Brajanz0r

Earn your win is not what you want. You don't want competition. You collectively run away when there's competition, like what you did in Tegea.
I guess you really believe yourself but I doubt anyone else does. In reality, I call your group server killers because all the dom servers you play don't develop, they stay small...That's the sad reality about your "earn our win".
 
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