Devs and mods read all for different reasons.
Mods moderate the forums and have other tasks on the forums.
Devs and community managers do read all of this. Part of the reason mods are tasked to move posts is for better dev visibility. I created this post for many reasons - the main reason is shining through. Forums are a place for feedback and it's my belief that we, select few that are active in game and on forums should be used by the devs to help improve the game. Complaints are common but does not mean they do not warrant merit. A lot of information is attained through complaints.
I'm an officer in a large alliance. We spent a staggering amount of time organizing the first and second TB but based on all the data we collected so far, I've developed a set of rules for each phase. People just need to log in, do their thing and can deploy immediately even before other people start their combat. It took a lot of work to get to this point though.
The thing that is an absolute time sink is tracking people's activity. We absolutely waste several hours of our lives trying to track down the last 2-3 people that haven't done their stuff. There is no easy way to do it other than constantly monitor the short log and ping people in the chat.
I think they did this on purpose, it'd be easy to implement either a longer log or list who has/has not done the combat. Maybe it's their way of keeping those people from being harassed to play to keep the game "casual". Either way it's ridiculous overhead.
Officers- are you feeling burnt out? Are members not paying attention? What are you all using to communicate? What's working what's not?
Leaders- are people leaving guilds? Leaving the game all together? And why? Any tips or warnings concerning TB?
I do not feel burnt out, but yesterday evening I was completely fed up with the game and relieved that TB was over. I did most of the planning alone and share the coordination with a few guild members. It is too much work - period. Many players don´t want to use third party solutions like Line/Discord to coordinate activity (2 left because of that, maybe 2 more). Starting time (7pm in Germany) is far from ideal.
It was almost like being the supervisor or executive - do this, do that, why did you not do as you were told ... meh. We had to explain to them how it works and motivate them to do what we asked for.
Unfortunately, rewards do not reflect the efforts.
Everyone was buzzing after the first TB even with the platoons needing stuff we didn't have. After second one, with worse rewards for more stars and the realisation that it's exactly the same each week there is a definite slump in excitement and 2 people have quit the game completely due to it now taking too much time.
I don't mind doing TB. The bugs need to be fixed. I do think a 12 hour time limit will kill it for me. I don't need that kind of pressure to fulfill a guild obligation for a game.
I'm an officer in a 68M GP, HAAT guild that's relatively casual (no 600 rule, but strict raid rules). We showed no actual improvement (26) for in this TB, though organization was much better due to people listening a lot more and liberal use of the Guild Message. However, we were a lot closer to picking up 2 more stars than in the first attempt despite having slightly fewer points overall (we suspect participation drooped slightly).
We tried as much as possible to outline the strategy and explain it so that members aren't just being told what to do, but what the bigger picture was. This seemed to pay off in less herding of cats, but naturally there were those that did their own thing and it cost us a star in phase 4 and 6. This was also in the face of terrible platoons which seemed designed to be unwinnable.
Most players now understand the basic strategy (check all platoons first, play your rare heroes on platoons first, don't bother with unfinishable platoons, etc). We're hoping that this will lessen the amount of administration we need to do on TBs going forward. We have 1 officer that keeps a spreadsheet of everyone's contributed GP and combat waves. Having Daily points and waves stats screens would certainly make his life easier.
As for attrition and fatigue, we haven't had anyone leave but have let one player go and may cull another couple due to complete lack of participation in TB. Most of us feel that while we'd like frequent TBs, we don't want them weekly. 6 days on, 3-4 days off would be enough time to regenerate some enthusiasm for the mode. And I think most of us agree that 12h for P1 and P2, 24h for the remainder would probably be a good fit for our guild.
Finally, we'd like to see the issues with platoons addressed and some better tools for communicating and analysing results:
Territory Battle Message Board, visible at all times in TBs
Ability for officers to lock platoon missions, deployment, combat/special missions.
Daily stats in addition to overall stats.
Show Guild GP based on context - when viewing a ground territory, show character GP. When viewing ships, show ship GP. Show remaining GP in both.
List people that have done each special and combat mission on the mission itself, and how well they did (#waves or pass/fail).
I am always looking to hear from other players, officers, leaders, guilds, alliances. I want to expand my knowledge on the community as much as I can.
I'm a leader in a 7 guild alliance, in numerous community line and discord groups and on these forums. As I see the frustrations pooling from the last weeks, I want to hear from you all in different perspectives.
Players/members: is TB too much to going on for you? Are you a casual or more hardcore player? Are the time constraints of this game affecting your real life?
Officers- are you feeling burnt out? Are members not paying attention? What are you all using to communicate? What's working what's not?
Leaders- are people leaving guilds? Leaving the game all together? And why? Any tips or warnings concerning TB?
Will 12 hours help or hinder? (I see both sides)
I feel at this time with so many things unknown, unsaid, and misinterpreted we should all pool together and help one another.
I'm a hardcore player with 2 accounts. I've played for about a year. I don't think TB is too much work if you know what you are doing.
Having that said it's boring, repetitive and pointless. What ruins it for me the most is rewards. There a huge reward discrepancy and the game disproportionately rewards p2p and older players who have farmed everything because they ran out of options.
I think rewards shouldn't be giving massive advantages to some players because they are part of mega guilds
I'm an officer in a 102 mill GP guild that got 40 stars the last territory battle.
For the third version of territory battles I already have all the instructions for each phase already written up and ready to copy and paste into Line at the start of each phase.
We also have a great spreadsheet that tracks the roster of every guild member and provides info on which toons each member has and what star level those toons are to aid in filling platoons.
We also have another spreadsheet we can use to track progress of territory points earned and projected to earn in each territory to help us figure out deployment cadence for each territory.
The only issue that was tough that was beyond our control was the ridiculous duplicate platoons before that caused us to need 10+ of the same toon. In phase 1, that seemed to be a non-issue. If that continues to be the case, then we will likely hit our 41st star this territory battle and get an upgrade to the purple reward gear box with a lot less micro-managing and direction than what we had the last 2 territory battles.
Here's a crazy idea: why does a tb have to be LS or DS? Why couldn't the same TB have battles, platoons, etc from both sides?
It doesn't fit thematically (yet), which is kinda weird to say about the Battle of Hoth.
What if the DS TB is just a flipped version of this same map, going the other direction? They'd already have huge chunks of art and code developed and in-place for that.
Here's a crazy idea: why does a tb have to be LS or DS? Why couldn't the same TB have battles, platoons, etc from both sides?
It doesn't fit thematically (yet), which is kinda weird to say about the Battle of Hoth.
What if the DS TB is just a flipped version of this same map, going the other direction? They'd already have huge chunks of art and code developed and in-place for that.
Pretty sure this is what will happen. Your reasons are their reasons lol
All of the above... Members leave because it's no longer benficial to be a big fish in a small pond. Sad cuz this kills a lot of mentorship that was happening. Im pretty hardcore myself but leader of a casual alliance, and i have to admit I've thought hard about leaving myself (but i wont).
Also upsetting it's just one more thing focused on LS esp rebels, and is a continuous kick in the acorns for those who didnt get luke. (Not to mention getting cholo halts all farming on old ben). If we even got a dev to say DS were coming even without an exact time it would go a long way.
I do understand and overall appreciate that the rewards system is equal among all, but maybe there could be bonuses for those who participate more than others... Rather than just deploy willy-nilly and move on without any sort of coordination. Would also be way to bridge the gap for newer players who work hard.
Idk...just a few thoughts...ya know, since ya asked
I agree. There should be a difference between me going all out and earning 15m and someone doing 200k. Same rewards is ridiculous
Replies
Devs and mods read all for different reasons.
Mods moderate the forums and have other tasks on the forums.
Devs and community managers do read all of this. Part of the reason mods are tasked to move posts is for better dev visibility. I created this post for many reasons - the main reason is shining through. Forums are a place for feedback and it's my belief that we, select few that are active in game and on forums should be used by the devs to help improve the game. Complaints are common but does not mean they do not warrant merit. A lot of information is attained through complaints.
The thing that is an absolute time sink is tracking people's activity. We absolutely waste several hours of our lives trying to track down the last 2-3 people that haven't done their stuff. There is no easy way to do it other than constantly monitor the short log and ping people in the chat.
I think they did this on purpose, it'd be easy to implement either a longer log or list who has/has not done the combat. Maybe it's their way of keeping those people from being harassed to play to keep the game "casual". Either way it's ridiculous overhead.
I do not feel burnt out, but yesterday evening I was completely fed up with the game and relieved that TB was over. I did most of the planning alone and share the coordination with a few guild members. It is too much work - period. Many players don´t want to use third party solutions like Line/Discord to coordinate activity (2 left because of that, maybe 2 more). Starting time (7pm in Germany) is far from ideal.
It was almost like being the supervisor or executive - do this, do that, why did you not do as you were told ... meh. We had to explain to them how it works and motivate them to do what we asked for.
Unfortunately, rewards do not reflect the efforts.
We tried as much as possible to outline the strategy and explain it so that members aren't just being told what to do, but what the bigger picture was. This seemed to pay off in less herding of cats, but naturally there were those that did their own thing and it cost us a star in phase 4 and 6. This was also in the face of terrible platoons which seemed designed to be unwinnable.
Most players now understand the basic strategy (check all platoons first, play your rare heroes on platoons first, don't bother with unfinishable platoons, etc). We're hoping that this will lessen the amount of administration we need to do on TBs going forward. We have 1 officer that keeps a spreadsheet of everyone's contributed GP and combat waves. Having Daily points and waves stats screens would certainly make his life easier.
As for attrition and fatigue, we haven't had anyone leave but have let one player go and may cull another couple due to complete lack of participation in TB. Most of us feel that while we'd like frequent TBs, we don't want them weekly. 6 days on, 3-4 days off would be enough time to regenerate some enthusiasm for the mode. And I think most of us agree that 12h for P1 and P2, 24h for the remainder would probably be a good fit for our guild.
Finally, we'd like to see the issues with platoons addressed and some better tools for communicating and analysing results:
I'm a hardcore player with 2 accounts. I've played for about a year. I don't think TB is too much work if you know what you are doing.
Having that said it's boring, repetitive and pointless. What ruins it for me the most is rewards. There a huge reward discrepancy and the game disproportionately rewards p2p and older players who have farmed everything because they ran out of options.
I think rewards shouldn't be giving massive advantages to some players because they are part of mega guilds
For the third version of territory battles I already have all the instructions for each phase already written up and ready to copy and paste into Line at the start of each phase.
We also have a great spreadsheet that tracks the roster of every guild member and provides info on which toons each member has and what star level those toons are to aid in filling platoons.
We also have another spreadsheet we can use to track progress of territory points earned and projected to earn in each territory to help us figure out deployment cadence for each territory.
The only issue that was tough that was beyond our control was the ridiculous duplicate platoons before that caused us to need 10+ of the same toon. In phase 1, that seemed to be a non-issue. If that continues to be the case, then we will likely hit our 41st star this territory battle and get an upgrade to the purple reward gear box with a lot less micro-managing and direction than what we had the last 2 territory battles.
It doesn't fit thematically (yet), which is kinda weird to say about the Battle of Hoth.
What if the DS TB is just a flipped version of this same map, going the other direction? They'd already have huge chunks of art and code developed and in-place for that.
Pretty sure this is what will happen. Your reasons are their reasons lol
I agree. There should be a difference between me going all out and earning 15m and someone doing 200k. Same rewards is ridiculous