I just wanted to say "Thank you" to badidol and the rest of the Ikariam team, for listening to the concerns of the community (regardless of which location opinions and ideas were shared).
As they mentioned, I don't think there will, or even can be, a "perfect" solution.
But in looking at the final info, one can tell they were listening.
There's really no good place for me to say this, so I chose this popular thread.
Thanks again.
It's actually quite simple.
Forum predates Discord. The community somewhat naturally gravitated towards Discord, as a result we also moved more and more towards Discord.
The forum is technically just a relic that we keep alive for a few that for whatever reason refuse to use Discord.
Main community focus, however, lies with Discord, so that's where we mainly post and react.
Then the requirements to join the discussion there, should be the same as the forum.
There's no reason to require a cell phone. that's merely an option in discord.
Display MoreThe new settings posted on Discord sound more promising than the initial ones.
I'll post them here, for people that are not on Discord:
Smaller communities with 2 target servers will be able choose between these 2 target settings.
Setting 1
- Production of Wood and Marble will be 35% higher than normal.
- Trade Ships are 25% faster than normal.
Setting 2
- Production of Wood and Sulfur will be 50% higher than normal.
- Production of Wine is 10% higher than normal.
- Troops and ships are built 25% faster.
- Land units are 25% cheaper to build.
- Land units move 50% faster than normal.
- Priest conversion rate increased by 40% (7 conversions per priest instead of the normal 5).
Bigger communities with 4 target servers will be able choose between these 4 target settings.
Setting 1
Servers like they used to be back in the "good old days". No bonuses. Just plain old default values.Setting 2
- Production of Wood and Marble will be 35% higher than normal.
- Trade Ships are 25% faster than normal.
Setting 3
- Production of Wood and Crystal will be 35% higher than normal.
- Scientists create 25% more research points.
Setting 4
- Production of Wood and Sulfur will be 50% higher than normal.
- Production of Wine is 10% higher than normal.
- Troops and ships are built 25% faster.
- Land units are 25% cheaper to build.
- Land units move 50% faster than normal.
- Priest conversion rate increased by 40% (7 conversions per priest instead of the normal 5).
Let's take a look at new setting #4. One I think that most everyone has agreed is a decent choice
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Setting 4
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I think this could be used as a template for option #3.
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(new) Setting 3
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If the percentages need to be adjusted, down or up, so be it.
I think people would like this as an option.
And, by the by, swap crystal for marble, and I think people would like this for option #2 as well.
Also, I'm hearing from people that they are - let's say "uncomfortable" with the .us merges starting on September 11.
I understand that there's no way that you all are going to look at any date and see what events might have happened on that day, but, I think you probably understand people being uncomfortable about September 11 as a date.
You can participate on Discord with a browser.
Maybe I'm missing the ins and outs, but when I look, it says it requires a phone.
Display MoreThe new settings posted on Discord sound more promising than the initial ones.
I'll post them here, for people that are not on Discord:
Smaller communities with 2 target servers will be able choose between these 2 target settings.
Setting 1
- Production of Wood and Marble will be 35% higher than normal.
- Trade Ships are 25% faster than normal.
Setting 2
- Production of Wood and Sulfur will be 50% higher than normal.
- Production of Wine is 10% higher than normal.
- Troops and ships are built 25% faster.
- Land units are 25% cheaper to build.
- Land units move 50% faster than normal.
- Priest conversion rate increased by 40% (7 conversions per priest instead of the normal 5).
Bigger communities with 4 target servers will be able choose between these 4 target settings.
Setting 1
Servers like they used to be back in the "good old days". No bonuses. Just plain old default values.Setting 2
- Production of Wood and Marble will be 35% higher than normal.
- Trade Ships are 25% faster than normal.
Setting 3
- Production of Wood and Crystal will be 35% higher than normal.
- Scientists create 25% more research points.
Setting 4
- Production of Wood and Sulfur will be 50% higher than normal.
- Production of Wine is 10% higher than normal.
- Troops and ships are built 25% faster.
- Land units are 25% cheaper to build.
- Land units move 50% faster than normal.
- Priest conversion rate increased by 40% (7 conversions per priest instead of the normal 5).
Like others who have posted, I think it's unfair in a browser game to require someone to own a cell phone to contribute to a discussion.
But as we have this thread, I'll just add my comments here in the hope that they will be counted.
First, I appreciate that both the 2-setting and 4-setting options have a pillager-friendly option.
Second, I think settings 2 and 3 "feel" far weaker than several of the options we were previously offered.
But I think having a research strong choice (#3) is interesting. Though I think it need some buffing up to bring it more on par with the other choices.
But my biggest concern is that the bonus to build buildings has been removed from all options.
I would prefer the old setting #1 for the 2-world setting #1 -
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Setting 1:
Production of Wood and Marble will be 25% higher than normal. Buildings are built 25% faster than normal. Trade Ships are 25% faster than normal.
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building speed. full stop.
nothing else comes close to that.
this is a game of timers and time management.
resources can be pillaged. we now have freighters to go along with tradeships. and a bonus to scientists is reliant on how man levels of academies you have. None of those comes close to the value of the speed a building is built. especially at higher levels.
And for pillagers, military building speed is also important.
If we swap crystal for wine in the first choice, these two aren't bad:
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Setting 1:
Production of Wood, [Wine] Crystal, and Marble will be 25% higher than normal. Buildings are built 25% faster than normal. Trade Ships are 25% faster than normal. Scientists create 50% more research points. Troops and ships are built 25% slower. Troop units cost twice as much to produce.
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Setting 4:
Production of Wine is 50% higher than normal. Trade Ships are 35% faster than normal. Scientists create 75% more research points. Troops and ships are built 50% faster. Land units are 25% cheaper to build.
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Though, taking from several options I've seen, if I could pick, I'd like this one:
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Setting A:
Production of Wood, Marble, and Crystal will be 25% higher than normal. Buildings are built 25% faster than normal. Trade Ships are 50% faster than normal.
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From what I understood merge could be postponed because players do not like bonuses? What is wrong with bonuses? Most playeres agreed that sever 1 and 4 are fine. Server 1 great for builders. Server 4 interesting for warriors. What is wrong with server 2? You have + + + + + +🤔Seems very fine and balanced for both builders and warriors.Maybe to add 10% on crystal and sulphar too. Server three seems the worst but still it has all +.
Settings seems fine to me. Maybe because my server is old and have 0 bonuses but I would not really make big changes to this. Lets not lose balance with 50% on everything as someone suggested. Who wants fast game he can go to Ares.
The biggest complain is that the settings in for the 2 server merge and the 4 server merge are so drastically different.
The 2 server merge should be a subset of the 4 server merge.
Not only that, the balancing of all the different options was poor.
yes, yes, and yes.
Though I want to note that I appreciate that the powers-that-be came up with the initial ideas, and are now giving some thought to further developing those ideas, based upon community feedback.
From what I understood merge could be postponed because players do not like bonuses? What is wrong with bonuses? Most playeres agreed that sever 1 and 4 are fine. Server 1 great for builders. Server 4 interesting for warriors. What is wrong with server 2? You have + + + + + +🤔Seems very fine and balanced for both builders and warriors.Maybe to add 10% on crystal and sulphar too. Server three seems the worst but still it has all +.
Settings seems fine to me. Maybe because my server is old and have 0 bonuses but I would not really make big changes to this. Lets not lose balance with 50% on everything as someone suggested. Who wants fast game he can go to Ares.
change wine to crystal on choice #1, and I think options 1 and 4 balance each other nicely. (even you seem to agree that 2 and 3 probably need work.)
(As I mentioned in a different thread), as things stand right now, I'd like those 2 options for .us as well.
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Setting 1:
Production of Wood, [Wine] Crystal, and Marble will be 25% higher than normal. Buildings are built 25% faster than normal. Trade Ships are 25% faster than normal. Scientists create 50% more research points. Troops and ships are built 25% slower. Troop units cost twice as much to produce.
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Setting 4:
Production of Wine is 50% higher than normal. Trade Ships are 35% faster than normal. Scientists create 75% more research points. Troops and ships are built 50% faster. Land units are 25% cheaper to build.
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To me, I think the resource production bonuses for troop production bonus servers, is over-estimated, because a pillager can gain more than the bonus merely just by pillaging.
I think builders will want building production, and resource production. and pillagers would want troop benefits.
And everyone wanting research and ship speed.
For building, I think Zephyros is interesting - increases for: 25% ship speed and buillding; 40% wood and marble speed
or the variant on Herakles - increases for: 25% ship speed, marble and wood; 15% building and 40% crystal.
but if I'm looking at all the options, I think I'd like a 25% option:
25% ship speed, 25% building times, and 25% wood, marble, and crystal.
From a builder perspective, I think that would be great.
If they need to add negatives for military building to make that happen, I could accept that, I guess, but then it looks an awful lot like .en option #1 with crystal swapped for wine:
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Setting 1:
Production of Wood, [Wine] Crystal, and Marble will be 25% higher than normal. Buildings are built 25% faster than normal. Trade Ships are 25% faster than normal. Scientists create 50% more research points. Troops and ships are built 25% slower. Troop units cost twice as much to produce.
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And for pillagers, option #4 is just really nice. I thought about reducing wine, to give a sulphur bonus, but really, with the unit cost reduction, that's unnecessary
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Setting 4:
Production of Wine is 50% higher than normal. Trade Ships are 35% faster than normal. Scientists create 75% more research points. Troops and ships are built 50% faster. Land units are 25% cheaper to build.
=====
Anyway, those are the two options that I think I'd like to see for .us.
Everyone's mileage may vary, of course : )
Honestly, I'm indifferent about the troops because the slower build up, etc., likely doesn't mean much in most scenarios. But I did want the 50% extra scientist points and the extra wine.
If it was a brand new server, those additional penalties would be a lot more limiting.
Setting B would give you both Wine and research : )
Oh, you like the slower one.
That's an interesting option.
I just was thinking that some might not want negatives.
But I'll agree it's an interesting option.
So there's 3 very different choices : )
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We're not going to implement solutions that require manual adaptations to single servers when merging 200+ servers, sorry.
No, any solution will have to be an automated one. Like the soft merge.
As said many times before: the current approach is based on the feedback of the previous soft merges which was "gief new servers dammit".
Yes i understand the reason, but could you not save the first,the original, the oldest server. It doesn't have to be for every community. maybe you could make it global server just to save it.
It is shame losing the original server(s) where it all started over 16 years ago
Some lost the whole community they started with 16 years ago and simply merged into another.
Consolidation requires sacrifice, if you will.
And if we start there, where do we stop? Which extra is worth doing? Which isn't? Which "tradition" and "history" is worth saving, which isn't?
Starting to make excuses and making extras possible opens up pandora's box of never ending exceptions.
Only servers that are over 5,000 days old at the time of the merge are kept, but they can be optionally merged off.
If that's too many, make it 6,000.
QuoteAnd if we start there, where do we stop? Which extra is worth doing? Which isn't? Which "tradition" and "history" is worth saving, which isn't?
Starting to make excuses and making extras possible opens up pandora's box of never ending exceptions.
I understand your point, and it's a good one. But I kinda agree that en.alpha is in a special category of its own.
And as I noted above, non-english language servers were merged to it last time around. So it kinda has become an international server, just without the title...
It was one of the original settings lol
which one? I don't think any had building % and troop % in the same setting
Display MoreDisplay MoreWhat about if instead of destroying those oldest worlds like "alpha" and "beta", you make a copy of then and then just have a clean merge. whit old and new players joining this "new" world. you could give them as one of the options - probably 1, since most players will choose it.
This way you could keep the spirit of those worlds alive, keep the same map with mine levels from by gone ages, and donations from now forgotten players would not be destroyed, there would remain inactive helios towers from players who dont play the game anymore.
It is something special exploring the world and seeing all those relics of a bygone era. it tells stories of now abandoned islands, developed by now forgotten players. it would be something special exploring the world looking for already developed islands to continue what other players have started over a decade ago.
We're not going to implement solutions that require manual adaptations to single servers when merging 200+ servers, sorry.
No, any solution will have to be an automated one. Like the soft merge.
As said many times before: the current approach is based on the feedback of the previous soft merges which was "gief new servers dammit".
Yes i understand the reason, but could you not save the first,the original, the oldest server. It doesn't have to be for every community. maybe you could make it global server just to save it.
It is shame losing the original server(s) where it all started over 16 years ago
Now, that's an interesting idea - making en.alpha a global server. Especially since it kinda was treated like one in the last set of server merges.
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Setting A: (old setting #1 from 2-world)
Production of Wood and Marble will be 25% higher than normal. Buildings are built 25% faster than normal. Trade Ships are 25% faster than normal.
Setting B: (old setting #4 from 4-world)
Production of Wine is 50% higher than normal. Trade Ships are 35% faster than normal. Scientists create 75% more research points. Troops and ships are built 50% faster. Land units are 25% cheaper to build.
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To be clear, I think everyone would agree that these are the best choices from all 6.
I'd much rather have this for setting A.
Production of Wood, Wine and Marble will be 25% higher than normal. Buildings are built 25% faster than normal. Trade Ships are 25% faster than normal. Scientists create 50% more research points. Troops and ships are built 25% slower. Troop units cost twice as much to produce.
lol "I want it all" : )
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Setting A: (old setting #1 from 2-world)
Production of Wood and Marble will be 25% higher than normal. Buildings are built 25% faster than normal. Trade Ships are 25% faster than normal.
Setting B: (old setting #4 from 4-world)
Production of Wine is 50% higher than normal. Trade Ships are 35% faster than normal. Scientists create 75% more research points. Troops and ships are built 50% faster. Land units are 25% cheaper to build.
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To be clear, I think everyone would agree that these are the best choices from all 6.
The Festival of Worlds caps the build time to 12h and with it lasting 32 days, it will give you enough time to take a sawmill or luxury mine from 1 to 60.
Are they doing that this time around?
Display MoreOk, so "you will have to make a decision then", suggests that accounts will not be "auto-added" to a server, even if there are more than 22 assigned to a particular email?
That means exactly what it said there.
11 accounts per server. Not more.
Which means in smaller communities you will be able to keep a max of 22 (11 per server), all connected via IP sharing function.
In bigger communities 44.
Anything more will make you lose all of them, because of multi accounting.
Who the hell realistically plays (fairly and rule-abidingly) more than 1-3 accounts anyway?
For the most part, I don't disagree with the last comment. But I have a lot of players in my alliance who do.
I think part of the issue is the pirate mini-game. So people make a lot of what they call "feeder" accounts just for that.
I know you said there won't be any game changes for this, but if you want to address a MAJOR motivation for multi-accounting, you may want to look at the pirate game, and its motivations and rewards.
You guys are talking like you all be alone on islands. You all are getting relocations. Orgnise with your alliance and you could have 17 towns on island. Which could be 3-4 or even 17 players with donations.
Yea, maybe some islands will not be max level but still if all of you donated on old servers you should be able to make good islands without problems.
If you did not donate erlier than it is your mistake not GFs...
That's what I was saying above.
But the issue is TIME.
