Where is it all going

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   An associate of mine in the game recently had doubts about carrying on with Illriad, and I did what I considered to be the right thing and encouraged the player to stick around and not give up.  But, I have to ask myself if this was good advice.  My concerns are:-
1 Division of time between AoA and Illyriad when it is obvious that there are limited resources available.
2 Management of customer expectations given the lack of visible development effort.

I am left with the impression that someone has pulled the bath plug out from a very very large bath and we are slowly circling the plug hole.  My particular gripes:-

1 Many objects in the game have no useful purpose
2 People have by and large lost any interest in the mysteries - certainly there is no progress on the forum

The distinct lack of development, involvement and leadership is a real worry.
I like playing the game, but in reality it is dead.

Please feel free to add your thoughts.

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Dungshoveleux Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster Joined: 09 Nov 2013 Status: Offline Points: 958	Post Options Post Reply Quote Dungshoveleux Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Where is it all going Posted: 19 Aug 2017 at 12:30
	An associate of mine in the game recently had doubts about carrying on with Illriad, and I did what I considered to be the right thing and encouraged the player to stick around and not give up. But, I have to ask myself if this was good advice. My concerns are:- 1 Division of time between AoA and Illyriad when it is obvious that there are limited resources available. 2 Management of customer expectations given the lack of visible development effort. I am left with the impression that someone has pulled the bath plug out from a very very large bath and we are slowly circling the plug hole. My particular gripes:- 1 Many objects in the game have no useful purpose 2 People have by and large lost any interest in the mysteries - certainly there is no progress on the forum The distinct lack of development, involvement and leadership is a real worry. I like playing the game, but in reality it is dead. Please feel free to add your thoughts.

DeliciousJosh Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Forum Warrior Joined: 14 Jun 2012 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 464	Post Options Post Reply Quote DeliciousJosh Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19 Aug 2017 at 13:38
	Many players have these thoughts from time to time. I do agree to a certain extent. The reality of this game developing into what we are hoping for it to become is non-existent. There are small tweaks here and there that will be done, is what I predict. The major patches are myths and probably won't happen. The ambitions and the drive have left the game developers. They have new projects. They have moved on, yet they still try and maintain what they had built when they moved on. We are the hope of the game. Us, the players. The game itself needs some kind of small boost (starting with the mysteries becoming a thing again). As you said they are pretty dead now. Time and time again we have been promised hints and what not. I haven't seen any - have you? Honestly, the Faction play and the time put into that was a waste if you ask me. Maybe we haven't seen the end of it yet but so far it's disappointing. Having some smaller armies attack your town is just useless. It doesn't add any thrill. Maybe the first time, but that's it. I'm a big follower and fan of this game. Trying to make it work is a thing for me. The staleness gets boring so someone has to spark it up. Whatever it is they try, I take my hat off to those people. A game has a lot more to offer than just what is available in the game content. The problem is, leaders are far and wide spread. Conflicts are too few. Recently we have had a few old players return. It's always good when veterans come back. To me, the game isn't dead yet. The heart is still beating, we just need some more direction :) edit In regards to the Factions, I must add that they can be cool if they attack army encampments on the map. NPC usually avoid a square with an army encampment, unless they were already en route to it. Faction armies attack player army encampments, adds the dimension of having to protect your harvesters and gatherers even more. Edited by DeliciousJosh - 19 Aug 2017 at 13:43
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Ten Kulch Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster Joined: 20 Jan 2017 Location: Fellandire Status: Offline Points: 678	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ten Kulch Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19 Aug 2017 at 15:39
	I think there is a great misunderstanding among the user base about what kind of game Illyriad is. Illyriad is not about the environment doing things to you. Mostly, it is also not about you doing things to the environment. This MMO is about the things we do to each other, within the sandbox. If you are waiting for the devs to provide more solo content or environment content, then you will forever be disappointed, because it's not that kind of game.
	Check out my blog, Warmongering in Illyriad for self-defense techniques, military city construction, and PvP strategies.

abstractdream Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster General Joined: 02 Oct 2011 Location: TEXAS Republic Status: Offline Points: 1865	Post Options Post Reply Quote abstractdream Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 20 Aug 2017 at 02:10
	I generally agree with the above sentiments. The Devs have other things to do but there is enough content to keep newbs interested long enough to figure out player interaction is where it's at. Unfortunately, after a while, that too bores.
	Bonfyr Verboo

Ten Kulch Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster Joined: 20 Jan 2017 Location: Fellandire Status: Offline Points: 678	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ten Kulch Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: 20 Aug 2017 at 06:07
	I think a lot of the dead-end content was made for marketing purposes. It serves to fluff up the game description, and also provide some early solo content for new players. The same with the proliferation of rare materials, and to some extent, research and units. The main problem from a development standpoint is that those particular aspects do not generate prestige sales. From a philosophical standpoint, getting on the single player campaign treadmill also doesn't make sense, since the devs end up drawing the focus away from politics and maneuvering, and towards a monetary dead spot for the product. At least the current hunting and gathering activities factor into trade, which is interaction. I believe the players have barely scratched the surface of the sandbox. I will have more to say about that at some point on Warmongering after I finish digging out from under my to-do list.
	Check out my blog, Warmongering in Illyriad for self-defense techniques, military city construction, and PvP strategies.

DeathDealer89 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster Joined: 04 Jan 2012 Status: Offline Points: 966	Post Options Post Reply Quote DeathDealer89 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 20 Aug 2017 at 21:47
	I imagine the largest amount of prestige sale generated with minimal effort is in regards to tournaments. They absorb prestige, gold and other resources. And right now Koda has provided 2 player ran tournaments with little dev involvement. Although to be fair it would seem that the dev's using their existing code and the ability to simply reward special units would be more advantageous. Next would be wars, particularly wars where the players get hurt to the point where they need to rebuild but not to the point where the quit. Sadly the devs can't really do much to promote wars without a lot of addition to the game. Personally I think adding a new school of magic would be best. As each spell could use a new resources giving a use to many that don't have them. The prestige use would be similar to armies just a simple 10% boost. If useful enough maybe a 10% boost to mana production but doubtful with the stockpiles out there. This would likely require less effort that something like pathfinding

Ten Kulch Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster Joined: 20 Jan 2017 Location: Fellandire Status: Offline Points: 678	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ten Kulch Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 21 Aug 2017 at 05:07
	I'm honestly curious, what makes you think that tournaments consume prestige? I can't think of anything beyond the 10% boosts, which are only 4 prestige per city per week. Maybe some minor basic resource boosts during the troop buildup to hold a little extra troop sov. I would hazard a guess that the biggest prestige sinks are city building, and weekly boosts to food/RP to support bigger cities. Possibly medals, city skins, avatar customization. Under that assumption, I would speculate that raising the city cap from 10 to 45 really generated a lot of prestige consumption.
	Check out my blog, Warmongering in Illyriad for self-defense techniques, military city construction, and PvP strategies.

DeathDealer89 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster Joined: 04 Jan 2012 Status: Offline Points: 966	Post Options Post Reply Quote DeathDealer89 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 21 Aug 2017 at 07:11
	Its not about what generates the most prestige use right now but what effort the Dev's could do to increase their profits. If 99% comes from doing nothing then they wouldn't be very motivated to make any changes. 4 prestige for a 10% boost either attack or defense. 4 weeks Assume average 10 city player. Assume 500 ish players. 80k prestige After that becomes some conjecture, big standing armies means big cities with food boosts and RP boosts. 100 players, 10 cities, 2 boosts, 52 weeks 100k prestige, although whether or not those 100 players would continue to build if tournaments weren't a thing is up for debate. Maybe some players would actually use more to boost other basics for troop production but hard to say. Raising the city cap from 10 to 45 can't really be done repeatedly. Its not like they can raise the city cap to 100 next year and expect an equal return. I suppose they could also add an additional % gold boost which would get used repeatedly and require fairly minimal dev effort. It wouldn't have much of an effect on the game play itself as that player could have just sold the prestige on the market for a similar effect. % boost to collection speed to # collected could be done and may not move into the realm of pay 2 win. Prestige for re-arranging the internal city page would require effort but generate a fairly small amount of prestige use. Prestige for actually changing the internal view or map icons would have the same issue. Neither of these really have any game play affect though. Edited by DeathDealer89 - 21 Aug 2017 at 07:14

Ten Kulch Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster Joined: 20 Jan 2017 Location: Fellandire Status: Offline Points: 678	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ten Kulch Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 21 Aug 2017 at 15:23
	180000 prestige, purchased in $3/75p increments, is only $7200. For an event that happens once or twice a year, that is not enough to sustain a business. Probably why the devs stopped hosting tournaments, there wasn't a good ROI. If the main driver is construction (my assumption), then the question is what drives prestige-built construction. I don't know how metrics would be tracked for that, but I understand that GM Stormcrow knows metrics tracking.
	Check out my blog, Warmongering in Illyriad for self-defense techniques, military city construction, and PvP strategies.

DeathDealer89 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster Joined: 04 Jan 2012 Status: Offline Points: 966	Post Options Post Reply Quote DeathDealer89 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22 Aug 2017 at 06:05
	Lets see a driver of construction would be having something to do with your large cities. Currently your options are war, tournament, or score. Dev's can't actually increase the amount of war going on so your left with tournament. Score is probably a fairly small player overall.