avvakum

Hi!

The player you knew as avvakum has passed away last month due to stomach cancer. I am his wife and I've been given instructions to inform the gaming communities.

He left FS some time ago, but brought 6 -7 year experience of online gaming to some other game and been successful. His name in other game was EDURACE and his death touched many. You can read about moving from his clan to The Wicked Players clan few weeks before his death here: https://thedailyboun.../r-i-p-edurace/ . You can see a video of his clanmates paying tribute to him (below). Also, a gaming company wants to pay a proper tribute to him by adding a grave or a commemorative plague in his name on one of the game's map. For some reasons, he wanted to stay in TWP few weeks before his death.

Nice! I left FS almost one year ago and switched to a team-oriented, PvP only game. The things we argue about there are only "Matchmaking system that fails to balance both teams and Noobs that don't learn anything". I really miss PvP'ers vs. LvL'ers discussions there lol

there is no emotion.. there is peace

I see a lot of passionate views and opinions here which is a good thing, nothing is getting placed on the back burner, I'm working with the team now and we're going to strive for a much more regular pace of updates to improve all aspects of the game. 

 we're going to endeavor to bring the game to new audiences 

 

In this noisy world you have to be really clear on what you want these new audiences to know about you and your game. The ladders full of inactive players mean only one thing for new audiences - the game is already dead. 

Ha someone's been on LinkedIn

 

 

If you add this:

 

 

to this page :

 

 

and select "Huntet Cow Studios Ltd." for your positions, you will get something like:

 

 

 

you can also add some video/pictures : 

 

 

the same is for Education, for example:

 

 

and you need more followers

 

there's gonna be a lot of bashing here soon

It's the full moon after all, and it's hard to control themselves near so many people who could be dinner. 

"Most listed" on the Allies' lists of other active players would be much better..

 

avvakum

This is what I will be doing after the XP loss removal   

 

 

http://vimeo.com/109624297

there is one very important thing to learn about arena -> Arena is an advanced version of Rock-Paper-Scissors game, where you have to learn about your opponents more than about their setups. Have you ever tried to play the Rock-Paper-Scissors game with your friends? how do you win it? Can you win by choosing Rock (== some "magic" setup of one type) all the time? Once you are predictable you are dead meat. Now, think one more time about what the Rock-Paper-Scissors game is, how important types and details of various Rocks are in the Rock-Paper-Scissors game? ... if you choose Rock you still beat Scissors... this is where your focus should be :arrow:

Jeebus, that was almost 6 years ago... bump for the arena players lol

Actually, this is true DOMINANCE!!! 

 

Sun Tzu:

 

"For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill." 

 

"Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."

 

"The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities... It is best to win without fighting."

 
If epics are adding in and players come back to arena doesnt that mean more arena master level players to contend with? 
 
If it does how is this going to increase long term players in the arena?
 

The changes I would make (along with adding more motivation - Epics) would be more different conditions (only Common items, only Rare items etc.) for the arena tournaments. The arena masters would be outnumbered by different types of tournaments and gear they would need to be successful. More players would find their niche in the arena.

Lets start from this: are we sure that xp loss is the main concern of those who dont PvP?
Im sure its not. Sure its an important aspect, but please trust me when i say that for someone who doesnt PvP, its much better to be hit once on a while losing xp, than being regularly hit losing nothing. The worst thing that can happen to someone who doesnt PvP is to log in everyday and see his log with received attacks. Its an aspect of the game they dont play, so the first reaction is "leave me alone and let me have fun with my game". So a random hit once in a while causes less damage than constant farming hits. Please trust me, cause i know this is what happens. (and im excluding from the equation gold hits: if you get hit for gold its your own fault, but im pretty sure everyone agrees with that). So the first thing is: being hit regularly for random reason, prestige, farming etc. is much worse that a single sporadic hit, even if you lose nothing. Please dont forget this, cause it very very important and it created BIG problems in the past.

The second aspect is: why they dont PvP and how can they be involved in PvP.
And excluding a small percentage of players who might get involved with rewards or medals, the answer is: they dont PvP period. And you cant have them involved, there is no way, they just wont do it.
Its a part of the game? Yes. Its a part of the game they will actively play? No way.
An every attempt in involving them will relentlessly fail. And their chance to have fun in the game will go down.

So for someone PvP is the most important part of the game, for someone else is the best way to enjoy the game less. It has always been this way.

When PvPers hit each other and randomly hit non PvPers once in a while, everything works. Every time there is an attempt to change this, it doesnt work anymore. It already happened too many time in the past for not being true.

Lets consider then, that players who dont PvP are not one or two. There are many of them. If you take a look at PvP medals in profile, or the number of players who played the ladder, or the amount of prestige in players profile, you will notice that there is a high number of players who dont PvP (and as said, for many of them, there is nothing you can do to change the situation).

That said, i have a big concern about this proposed update: i read about adding quests, global events, or other kind of events.
Quests: the main thing i do in this game is completing quests: if there is a quest in my quest book, i have to complete it, if there is an adventurer medal, i must have it. Almost an obsession. Now if you add PvP in quests what will happen? Will i make them? The answer is simple: not a single chance. And if i cant complete my quest book, if i cant get the medal as soon as its possible, i have no more reason to complete quests. My main goal in the game is ruined.
Same goes for global events, where the goal should be to work together to achieve a result, not to work one against the other. I dont miss a single event, i want them all and be the first to get the medals. If you add PvP will i take part in global events? The ans wer is still the same. Its not going to happen, and another aspect of the game would be ruined.

So are there ways to improve PvP? Probably yes, even if, if you look back, probably PvP in old days was working fine, probably better than now, after dozens of changes and updates. In fact the main problem in old days was only that PvP rating was gained by just a few high level players (mainly cleaning friendly bounties), cause there were just a couple of PvPers in high levels. If you apply the old system to the current situation, where there are probably more PvPers at EOC than in the rest of the game, that problem would have solved itself.

Please also consider, that there is a large part of the community that never read forum. Here we are planning a HUGE change in the game, and only a very small part of the community is involved in the decision process. An announcement in  home page would be nice. But i can tell you which the main reaction will be, cause i have seen it happening already too many times in the past (i started to play almost 7 years ago, so i saw it many times). Every year we start over with a new PvP system. Trust me when i say that the main reaction will be: "Oh my god, again?"

The conclusion (cause i already wrote too much) is: PvP can be improved, but it should be improved by having more PvPers competitively hitting PvPers. Any attempt of trying to involve more that part of players who dont PvP, is destined to fail, or to ruin someone game experience.

And so will be any attempt of linking to PvP other aspects of the game. Quest, Events, Buffs, are a part of the game that is working fine. Make the adjustment you think can improve the PvP apect, but please DO NOT, fix PvP by touching what is working in the game. The result would be much worse that expected.
 

+1

^This post pretty much sums it all up why Doom's idea is just too bad. Good post.