This game is not fun for new players

[PainekillerXII]

Absolutely atrocious game balance. Immediatly after attack protection is off I get 5 separate attacks on my city by 1 guy and I'm immediatly conquered. Why is this even allowed?

 

[dianices]

server specs are provided in advance, players get sufficient time to set themselves up and learn what they need to know....if they don't do that....well......no amount of cash is going to help.

even if i come with only a few weeks left in the server i can still play pretty decent , even if i'm totally new to it.

 

[Rachel.L]

the great thing about dying early is you take what you know and start again immediately
attacks are part of this WAR game
if that is not your speed, find a different game
if you want less action, start on the rim rather than the core
also, find an alliance to help you out
there are multiple guides here that give you pointers

 

[The Smilodon Fatalis]

Absolutely atrocious game balance. Immediatly after attack protection is off I get 5 separate attacks on my city by 1 guy and I'm immediatly conquered. Why is this even allowed?

Sorry that happened.

I'd recommend trying a slower speed. Build speed 1 or 2 with a 1 or 2 unit speed are usually better worlds to get your feet wet on. I'd also recommend waiting a bit and joining a rim ocean like Ocean 35 or Ocean 65. They're usually not as active but have a lot cities to feed on while you learn.

 

[Scipio Italicus]

Game is full of bully boy tactics like constant daily attacks from players with much higher established cities not allowing other players a chance to recover and multiple members from supposed alliances and sister alliances.Even tho this game has a war based side constant sending of attacks from alliances to smaller players should not be permitted or is this a game where established players are allowed to say you should join us or we will just make this game unplayable for you.

 

[JTin46]

Game is full of bully boy tactics like constant daily attacks from players with much higher established cities not allowing other players a chance to recover and multiple members from supposed alliances and sister alliances.Even tho this game has a war based side constant sending of attacks from alliances to smaller players should not be permitted or is this a game where established players are allowed to say you should join us or we will just make this game unplayable for you.

It gets a lot worse than this I'm afraid. Find yourself in a top alliance on the front line and you will most likely find yourself under attack at all hours of the night for a good amount of time if you have cities in high value areas. Not to mention if you make a real nuisance of yourself you will probably be rewarded with spam attacks from the rim to try and mess up/overload your game interface so you can't defend against the closer range serious attacks.

This game is pretty one sided now. If you want a quiet life make sure you're in a very strong core ocean with one of the biggest alliances on the server. That way you should be safe from danger and only have to send off LTS to the frontline and be done with it. Alternatively join later on the rim as suggested above and less big hitters will be interested in you as you won't be in their way. It's very hard to learn and progress in the core as a relatively new player.

 

[Scardy]

Absolutely atrocious game balance. Immediatly after attack protection is off I get 5 separate attacks on my city by 1 guy and I'm immediatly conquered. Why is this even allowed?

I love how this game just throws people out in the middle of a war zone once its done babysitting you for couple of days

 

[Rhizome9]

Absolutely atrocious game balance. Immediatly after attack protection is off I get 5 separate attacks on my city by 1 guy and I'm immediatly conquered. Why is this even allowed?

I am sure that there are many people who have had a similar experience to yourself and have decided not to come back to the game.
(I wonder if Inno keeps tabs on the numbers of new players who leave quickly and don't come back, as they must want to keep more people wanting to play and spend money?)

The only way to survive as a new player is either (a) play a 'revolt' rather than a 'conquest' world, (b) join an alliance (you see, there is a good reason to have several MRA's on a world), and (c) land closer to the rim than the core. Maybe do all 3.

I was lucky on my first world as I managed to get an invite into an alliance. I then built a very pretty wall and sat behind it whilst the rest of the alliance was shouting "take a city, or at least colonise a city. FFS!" "Noob "

 

[Silver Witch]

Absolutely atrocious game balance. Immediatly after attack protection is off I get 5 separate attacks on my city by 1 guy and I'm immediatly conquered. Why is this even allowed?

Its not easy for players new to the game. All the advice here is good. Don't place so much emphasis on your first city. The restart will take you to an area with players starting the world or starting again like you. The most important thing to do in your first world is to learn. Once you understand the game you can make your own choices about world speed or danger.

its easier if you have an alliance with more experienced players to provide advice and to help you out if your city is in danger but there is also the wiki page (the w top right of your game screen) where you can read about all aspects of the game.

 

[dianices]

weeeeeell...........the QUALITY of those experienced players, has been a debate here for a loooooong time. finding the ones who are helpful without throwing some kind of attitude into it are worth more than the gold some spend to "buy the game".

there's all types of players, but learning what they are and how to navigate them is probably some of the most relevant and real-life translatable skill you can learn in a gaming community. you just have to develop a healthy perspective and understand that it IS a gaming community, not your actual neighbors.

 

[supafletch]

Play a world that's not far from closing and learn the game.

 

[Fluvisol]

Play a world that's not far from closing and learn the game.

Problem is the game automatically assigns new players to the newest world, and I wouldn't expect them to think to themselves "surely these older worlds where everyone is so much bigger than me are a better place to learn"
But if you put them in older worlds by default then new ones will fill up even slower than they already do

 

[steve.0]

the problem is where you get assigned its not random the program fills in from the centre out any world you join in the first week you will be in 055 or 045 with the mras just waiting to jump all over you address that and scatter lone player more uniform and a few more may stay ive seen some worlds stillborn where every player for the first 2 months are within an hour cs tt of each other and no lone player can grow till rimmed old hands can cope with that but new players will give up you could also call for volunteers here old players to run a creche for a week to teach assign them to a quiet area put new players around them and tell the new players who there babysitter is worth a try you may even get a few new alliances to enter future worlds from it

 

[Kal Gordon]

Hey @steve.0,

• Players shouldn't automatically be dropped into 45 or 55 when they join a world. It probably won't be equal between the 4 oceans, but there will be a spread between all of them. If you want to end up in a particular direction, then choose that when you join the world, rather than just clicking "random".
• That seems more like a lack of players joining, which of course will mean a smaller area that everyone drops into. (That's not a fault with the way that world is set up to drop people, and is more likely due to less popular settings or bad timings for a world release.)
• Teaching alliances do exist. They aren't as common as they could be, but they do exist. The "quiet area" is the rim, meaning that these alliances start later in the world. Which means that new players need to be lucky to get near one of these teaching alliances, or they need to have been directed to the externals to find teaching alliances to join up to before they start in a world in-game. There could be more teaching alliances, and if there were then perhaps players should be directed to the forums when they create a game account. It's not perfect, but it does already exist to a degree.

 

[Rhizome9]

Perhaps Inno Games should have something on the front page (before you select which world to go into), which says something along the lines of "New to this game? Then why not try it out in a learners location*?" And the new player can click on a link that take them to O35 or somewhere similar on the world that could be a safer starting point to learn the game.

(*NB: I'm sure that there is a better way of explaining 'learners location'?)

 

[Zyrd]

One should be aware that he can be attacked, and either join a strong alliance or build strong defenses during beginner protection period. Moral allows effective defense for a low-point player, but one must play the first several days of the game very actively if he wants to defend himself. If you are attacked soon after the beginning protection is over, you are most probably attacked by a noob, and defense can be fun.

 

[Rachel.L]

maybe if the updates to the tutorials for bp added more info and less pretty pictures, that would help new players
add links directing them to the wiki, forum guides, reasons to build more that just those items the quests require

as for jumping into worlds late, once wws start, the ability to join that world is terminated
maybe joining one of the never-ending worlds tho, where the pace is slower

 

[richieup]

Wow we really must be bored if we raking this thread up from June.

I would guess the player complaining has long gone. BP is normally plenty of time to read a tutorial and build some troops. This game isn't rocket science and there is only so much Inno can do to make it easy for newbies.

If you Playing for 10 mins a day and in a core ocean then you can expect to be eaten straight out of BP.

Actually, the solution might be quite simple. Perhaps when people get rimmed, they take 70% of their city research and building level with them so they don't have to start all the way from the beginning each time and they get relocated on to an island with similar sized cities.

 

[The Smilodon Fatalis]

I was gonna say it might be a good idea to let them respawn their biggest city if they get rimmed and keep their slots and BP. This way when they get rimmed, they can immediately start building CSes and founding towns/building farms from BP.

Imo the build bonus really only gets used by a small percent of players who get rimmed and is taken most advantage of people who want to do rim play (I mean this in the sense is best used by people getting the boost to play rim specifically). Maybe offer slots and the build bonus to late comers in order to offset this. 1 slot per month joined late.

 

[OldDragon]

Is the new game even fun for old players?
I realize this is not exactly the topic of thread, but it is a close corollary... so please bear with me.

The new Domination endgame caught my attention a few days ago. I posted a few scattered comments and made several inquires among the old vet players I once played with. My squad retired three years ago when we got our crowns and topped the Hall of Fame and why repeat another WW grindfest. The cheating seemed out of control and Inno had ratcheted up the cost to win thru a variety of money grabs that are well-documented in this forum.

And yet...
I still drop into the forum from time to time, and I still get text messages or emails from old squad mates.
We haven't found anything to replace it and still reminisce. Is this new endgame worth our effort, time, and money? Will it be fun?

Inno is probably wondering the same thing for a different reason. If our squad decides to play, then it would be worth at least $10000 USD in gold buys. Not enough to pay for a server, but it isn't chump change either. More important, we would bring in another dozen new players to the game. Maybe more if we really want to win a Domination server. These new players would be deep pocket adult gamers... not free-to-play juveniles, bored housewives, or Casper the Ghost. Any new players we bring would be carefully trained, protected, and closely monitored to thrive, because why bother otherwise? It could be the renaissance of Grepolis.

But before we go all stupid, I am trying get my hands around the health of game in late 2018, and whether or not the Domination endgame is worth another try. Frankly, if Domination isn't fun for an old player, then it will be hellish for a new player.

I am really torn too. I cannot see a fun strategy for Domination yet. The forums look dead. The servers are barren. Where is the enthusiasm? Is it too late to make a difference? I see promise, but I also remember a lot of "no-fun" problems that had nothing to do with the endgame.

Please post your feedback on Domination somewhere in the forum. Or drop me a PM. I would appreciate your thoughts.