Comments

wow the units are looking good with their helmets on!

 

Wow, there are a lot of cool things coming up, this game keeps growing.
Improvement in Advisors, improvement in enemy units, new things at the event, lottery back in development, Romans coming.
Very, very excited.

 

Wow big things, props to you guys, amazing

 

amazing. one more time. have no words. thank you guys!!

 

I’m super hyped for Halloween; the new buildings are one of the best additions to the game. AI helmets are also super cool and it’s great to see so much work being done to improve visuals.

However, I have to speak against the lottery as I feel it does not belong and it will steer the game to a wrong direction. The reason why lotteries are so effective is because they are abusive and unfair; they use people’s hopes to take their money. If any player was doing that; abusing players to take their coin, they would be banned in a second. No matter how dire the state of the game’s eco is (and in all honesty it’s not that dire), an abusive system like this should not be introduced to the game, especially when there are plenty of alternatives.

For devoted, long-time players, new items are everything. Introducing a super cool item that they cannot have no matter how much they play or how good they are at the game is extremely disappointing and demotivating. Asking players to play a different game altogether (gambling and not questing/ pvp) in order to obtain a highly sought item is just not right.

All new features so far have built upon existing features and brought value to the game, new advisors and gears allowing diverse play, new quest objectives, cool visuals. The lottery is a completely foreign concept, adding no value for players; a limited amount of cool items awarded randomly can only bring frustration. This is just meant to take players’ coin and I hate to see it being advertised as a cool new feature.

 

There are several responses in defense of the lottery:

1. Most important is that our community faces increasing inflation that has spiraled out of control and makes things very difficult for newer players. We must find a way to remove coins from circulation, and the lottery is designed to do that. We expect it will remove tons of coins very quickly.

2. AoEO has never made questing the only way to obtain gear, so we have no reason to handcuff ourselves like as we develop additional content. Many items already in the game are unobtainable from quest chests. Not only that, but the Devs kept some unique items out of loot tables and gave them away to contest winners. Compared to those, the lottery is generous because it essentially acts as an in-game random loot table. Buying a lottery ticket is very similar to buying a chest -- both have a percentage chance of getting an item.

3. If players do not want to lose money on the lottery, then they do not need to play it. The unique items won on the lottery will be tradeable, and no doubt they will find their way onto the market.

4. If the lottery does not achieve its objectives or if it creates some kind of economic dystopia, we will be watching and would swoop in and fix it.

 

My point is not that the lottery will not achieve its objective ie remove coin. My point is that it will do so in an unfair way, foreign to the game and that the fixation on fixing the economy has led to a misguided decision; introducing an abusive and unfair system.

1. There are other ways and the reason why they may not be as effective and may take longer to remove coin is because they are not abusive.

2. Questing has been the only way to obtain gear; that's how gear is entering the game. Sure you can trade/ buy gear or even try moes if you are not patient enough. But people who play the game ie questing have always been able to get all gears. No item is currently unobtainable as a quest reward. Which item has been given as a contest reward? That must have been some super rare occurence, I don't even remember it. You can't use buying chests to support this either as this falls into the same logic; feature that does not belong and should always be an alternative and not the main way of obtaining gear

3.Sure the lottery is not forcing anyone to play it but psychological pressure is a lot worse than brute coercion. You have to see this from a players' perspective, someone who wants all items and will not be able to to obtain them by doing what they love ie playing the game. There is no justification for causing this kind of frustration to devoted players. I personally offer all my coin in order not to see this mechanism enter the game.

4. The lottery's objective ie: remove coin from eco no matter what is wrong. It should be remove coin in a fair way that adds value and makes sense for the game. If you cannot figure out a way to do so, just spend some more time thinking. An economic dystopia is not the only kind of dystopia a game can suffer from.

 

The players that love moes thrill so much would be better off choosing another game. Moes is only meant to have a marginal place here if any at all. I cannot imagine making decisions about this game having in mind not someone who learns micro and macro and plays the game, but someone who mindlessly clicks on chests. And you cannot argue this is not mandatory, as for some people it is "mandatory" to have all gears and it should not be mandatory to gamble in order to get them. And yes you are removing something from the game, the concept that all you have to do is learn the game, devote your time and effort and you can get everything.

 

I really like the new city decorations! But please, don't make a huge invisible area around them. The Igloos (for example) need a huge area to place and we can't build them next to each others.

 

This is a false statement. There are many legendary items that do not drop in chests. Some are available for players to purchase. Others have been available only to members of certain alliances. Some are available only by crafting. Others are available only by completing entire quest lines. Other best in slot gear are below level 40 and for all purposes found only in Moe's.

 

Fair enough, I forgot about legs sold at vendors, this is the only exception. Big difference is you give your coin and you get the item, a fair transaction. Alliance specific gear is the same thing, you buy the gears with coin. Crafting items counts as a drop since all recipes drop from quests. Getting item after completing a questline is also an item obtainable through questing. No items have ever been only obtainable in Moes, and Moes items are not limited in numbers; meaning that you would eventually be able to get one even if you had to click on a million chests, which is of course a terrible way to get an item.
More importantly, no items have ever been exclusively awarded to players who did anything other than questing or pvping, since this is what this game is about. I don't recall items being given through contests, but even if that was the case, you got rewarded for winning a contest; it was up to you to try and be the best. In the case of the lottery you get randomly rewarded, you may barely play, not even care about the game, have no skills and still get an exclusive item. Honestly, i don't know how a system like this could be allowed, no matter what it is meant to fix. The intention here is not to introduce cool items for players to have fun with. Anyone smart enough knows that items offered through lotteries are not something you can realistically expect to have. Otherwise everyone would be a millionaire. I hope players see this for what it is and don't get fooled ; hopefully before they lose their coin.

 

thanks guys, this is amazing... props for keeping an eye on the game economy and finding a way to remove the excess coins. Essential for the continued health of the game.

Brilliant!

 

Can't wait for the event !
Thank you for your work guys.

 

The pumpkins will not have a big area so you can build closer, also the winter igloos will be updated next patch to fix this problem.

 

Awesome changes, keep it up guys

 

I am serious and the reality is, I have lost around 10m to Moe's again only cuz I wanted to have the new leg. bow recipe and I stil don't have it haha... I know its my fault but that doesn't change the result, I take a break or hang more on aoe3! Everyone feels different and has different perspectives. I was also against reforge system if someone remember xD my perspective is very simple "gambling is not rts" but again don't rush on me maybe I'm a bit oldskool idk... But OK to speak negative about something which is not released yet isn't that correct... So let's see, greetz gl & hf all

 

I'm not against the idea of a lottery, but i have to admit, the thought that a random almost unactive casual player could win a possibly best in slot item and easily sell it for 8M to someone who has been grinding two months for that 8M is kinda upsetting. Maybe tickets should be acquired as a quest reward? But that would basically remove the coin sink purpose from the lottery.
Anyway, the lottery alone will not fix the issues with the current economy. I think the quest reward rework should come before the lottery, since as far as i can tell it would be a lot more important for the current goal.

Another idea for increasing the amount of coin exiting circulation could be increasing GM slots to 20. GM fees are underappreciated when it comes to finding coin sink solutions.

 

Just put the daily/week rotations of quests and for completing them you get tickets