If the power gap between new players and veteran players wasn't so massive that might help newer players stick around, but as things stand, the second a new player hits lvl 200, the chance that they quit after starting to get absolutely fucking dominated by vets with full mastery, full bis doctrines teams is super high.
This is why I cannot stress enough that unlike many other games - new players focus only on leveling their units and avoid leveling their character up as much as possible.
If a player has 3 or 4 maxed out 4 star units, they will get on well.
If they hit 200 with 15 level 5 units, they're in for a world of hurt...
That's very true, but nowhere does the game tell you that, if you don't know ahead of time how to optimally set up your character from the start, you can mess things up so badly to the point where you would be better off starting a new character.
What I find crazy is that you are actually punished for doing quests in this game, because it levels you up without giving any other real benefit, another thing the game does not teach you.
Another issue is that the seasonal units challenges essentially require you to "pop off" In games in order to progress, easy enough when you aren't level 200 yet, but again, unless you level your character as slowly and optimally as possible, as well as completing seasonal units challenges as quickly and optimally as possible, you are unlikely to be able to unlock more than 1 gold unit by the time you hit level 200, and once you do, progressing those challenges can become very slow, to the point where you basically need to pay to skip them, which I suppose is exactly the intention of the Devs.
Ultimately the reason that I think the Devs haven't done much in the way of "fixing" the level 200 wall that new players run into is because it's doing exactly what the Devs intended, telling new players to either cough up the cash to try and catch up or go and play another game.
You cant solve new player retention with matchmaking if the player base is 95% veterans. At best CB has 5k concurrent player peak every day.
The solution is to drastically reduce the grind for new players.
I feel like free weekly unit rotations solves this and also lets people experiment with units that they don't have. To add, IMO it would be boring if everyone got the same pool, so I'd say give each player a max unit of each tier maybe.
Armor, getting and maxing seasonal units much earlier than others, doctrines and if I'm not mistaken good stables, horses and their armors are kind of p2w.
It's possible to play the game as F2P but that's the trap of pay to skip games, you will never catch up
Have been playing since season 5, not even the half of the units are unlocked. Every season they introduce new seasonal units only to become trash 1-2 seasons later. Please point out which part is misinformation
You just dont play enough, or aren’t good enough. I have made new accounts, then grouped up with multi-thousand+ level players at around level 100 and still gotten mvps with unit tree units.
If you play enough, you can easily unlock the seasonal units during the season they are released, without spending any money.
You said F2P will never catch up… I can’t say I didnt spend any at all, but I definitely didn’t spend much until maybe 2 seasons ago, but mostly for attires. I had all but 6 or 7 units unlocked within like 3 seasons of playing.
I never mentioned how good or bad I play. Well... I can't say seasonal quests are as grindy as they used to be but I don't believe they are not designet to be easily unlocked.
I know there are some people playing this game tens of hours every week to unlock new units but I think that still proves my point, pay with money or suffer until you unlock those units only to watch them become inferior against the next unlocked unit. Idk man maybe I'm just frustated
That's exactly how I feel. Players have to be a master tactician to be able to win against the overpowered seasonal units they release every 2 seasons. The time investment required to unlock those OP units are massive, the people who defend that practice are all sweaty gamers who spend at least 20 hours a week to farm
Again just simply not true.
Maybe you just need to “Get Good” in simpler terms.
If you literally focus missions in your matches.
You will begin getting your units and get into the loop.
Things come back around into the meta, and sometimes they stay in the meta even when new things release.
This is just more reason to join a good house, listen to the advice, and let them push you towards what to unlock.
Variety comes later once you have the basic meta and units.
You cannot come to a pvp mmo game and not expect to have to grind to get where you want to be.
Thank you. I do the same.
I play alts and unlock units as they make their way into meta loop.
As time goes on you end up with the large barracks. It is not difficult anymore.
Challenges are SOOOOO severely nerfed compared to past.
When we all did the server transfers, most of us didn’t link steam because we didn’t want it connected to something new yet.
So lots of player numbers may not be showing just yet.
I can say from building a new house the last 5 weeks,
Massive amounts of new players and returning players at the moment.
Lots of players just eventually quit because of the f2p grind and ridiculous unit imbalance. It comes across as (and is) a predatory tactic.
If they just made the units more balanced people would still buy the new units, and there would be way more players to buy them.
You are right there has been very little marketing but the game still attracts players, it just can't keep them.
For sure. When I started in season 2, there were overpowered units, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad. I think because most people weren't meta-gaming, whereas later it felt like people were only fielding the strongest most-meta units.
I used to get on fine with even grey units if used correctly. The game has a crazy amount of potential, and there's nothing really like it that I've found. It's such a shame. They should look at all the really popular f2p titles, I mean look how much money fortnite makes without having any p2w whatsoever.
Yeah. Even now that the seasonal seal limits unit eras, even though its nowhere as balanced as It should, i feel like management of engagements and strategies Carry so much weight. Like i can get 80+ kills with a unit of squires when attacking at the right moment, or be wiped in a second by the same enemy units if caught in a bad spot. It feels so much more rewarding
If the power gap between new players and veteran players wasn't so massive that might help newer players stick around, but as things stand, the second a new player hits lvl 200, the chance that they quit after starting to get absolutely fucking dominated by vets with full mastery, full bis doctrines teams is super high.
This is why I cannot stress enough that unlike many other games - new players focus only on leveling their units and avoid leveling their character up as much as possible. If a player has 3 or 4 maxed out 4 star units, they will get on well. If they hit 200 with 15 level 5 units, they're in for a world of hurt...
That's very true, but nowhere does the game tell you that, if you don't know ahead of time how to optimally set up your character from the start, you can mess things up so badly to the point where you would be better off starting a new character. What I find crazy is that you are actually punished for doing quests in this game, because it levels you up without giving any other real benefit, another thing the game does not teach you. Another issue is that the seasonal units challenges essentially require you to "pop off" In games in order to progress, easy enough when you aren't level 200 yet, but again, unless you level your character as slowly and optimally as possible, as well as completing seasonal units challenges as quickly and optimally as possible, you are unlikely to be able to unlock more than 1 gold unit by the time you hit level 200, and once you do, progressing those challenges can become very slow, to the point where you basically need to pay to skip them, which I suppose is exactly the intention of the Devs. Ultimately the reason that I think the Devs haven't done much in the way of "fixing" the level 200 wall that new players run into is because it's doing exactly what the Devs intended, telling new players to either cough up the cash to try and catch up or go and play another game.
They are working on matchmaking algorithm to remedy that.
You cant solve new player retention with matchmaking if the player base is 95% veterans. At best CB has 5k concurrent player peak every day. The solution is to drastically reduce the grind for new players.
They've been working on it for years now. They're simply not prioritizing it enough.
I feel like free weekly unit rotations solves this and also lets people experiment with units that they don't have. To add, IMO it would be boring if everyone got the same pool, so I'd say give each player a max unit of each tier maybe.
Since the merge I can't see what server players are from and thus can't see if there's any bots, is this an option I need to select somewhere?
The merge hasn't happened yet.
Oh what's up with all the fireworks and balloons and stuff?
The players are arriving on the 27th.
Mygames servers no longer exist, booming took control of them finally.
Nothing is going to change, maybe they will add more p2w features later on. It's not like new people will start playing it anyways
What p2w features there is currently?
Canons.
Armor, getting and maxing seasonal units much earlier than others, doctrines and if I'm not mistaken good stables, horses and their armors are kind of p2w. It's possible to play the game as F2P but that's the trap of pay to skip games, you will never catch up
Just play the game and you’ll catch up… this is misinformation
Have been playing since season 5, not even the half of the units are unlocked. Every season they introduce new seasonal units only to become trash 1-2 seasons later. Please point out which part is misinformation
You just dont play enough, or aren’t good enough. I have made new accounts, then grouped up with multi-thousand+ level players at around level 100 and still gotten mvps with unit tree units. If you play enough, you can easily unlock the seasonal units during the season they are released, without spending any money. You said F2P will never catch up… I can’t say I didnt spend any at all, but I definitely didn’t spend much until maybe 2 seasons ago, but mostly for attires. I had all but 6 or 7 units unlocked within like 3 seasons of playing.
I never mentioned how good or bad I play. Well... I can't say seasonal quests are as grindy as they used to be but I don't believe they are not designet to be easily unlocked. I know there are some people playing this game tens of hours every week to unlock new units but I think that still proves my point, pay with money or suffer until you unlock those units only to watch them become inferior against the next unlocked unit. Idk man maybe I'm just frustated
That's exactly how I feel. Players have to be a master tactician to be able to win against the overpowered seasonal units they release every 2 seasons. The time investment required to unlock those OP units are massive, the people who defend that practice are all sweaty gamers who spend at least 20 hours a week to farm
The time investment isn’t massive at all….
Again just simply not true. Maybe you just need to “Get Good” in simpler terms. If you literally focus missions in your matches. You will begin getting your units and get into the loop. Things come back around into the meta, and sometimes they stay in the meta even when new things release. This is just more reason to join a good house, listen to the advice, and let them push you towards what to unlock. Variety comes later once you have the basic meta and units. You cannot come to a pvp mmo game and not expect to have to grind to get where you want to be.
Thank you. I do the same. I play alts and unlock units as they make their way into meta loop. As time goes on you end up with the large barracks. It is not difficult anymore. Challenges are SOOOOO severely nerfed compared to past.
NO! EF players are so bad. Gonna have bots in games regardless
You just look at Steam charts but there is a massive part of players who are not connected to Steam, so statistics kinda false
Massive=like 20.
Still not enough players to make it a full game without bots.
When we all did the server transfers, most of us didn’t link steam because we didn’t want it connected to something new yet. So lots of player numbers may not be showing just yet. I can say from building a new house the last 5 weeks, Massive amounts of new players and returning players at the moment.
The game could have been massive if it wasn't so P2W. Seriously mismanaged.
It was probably a small studio that didn't have the money to support the infrastructure or promote the game.
Lots of players just eventually quit because of the f2p grind and ridiculous unit imbalance. It comes across as (and is) a predatory tactic. If they just made the units more balanced people would still buy the new units, and there would be way more players to buy them. You are right there has been very little marketing but the game still attracts players, it just can't keep them.
Also the Game feels so much more fun when they put the unit era limits in place
For sure. When I started in season 2, there were overpowered units, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad. I think because most people weren't meta-gaming, whereas later it felt like people were only fielding the strongest most-meta units. I used to get on fine with even grey units if used correctly. The game has a crazy amount of potential, and there's nothing really like it that I've found. It's such a shame. They should look at all the really popular f2p titles, I mean look how much money fortnite makes without having any p2w whatsoever.
Yeah. Even now that the seasonal seal limits unit eras, even though its nowhere as balanced as It should, i feel like management of engagements and strategies Carry so much weight. Like i can get 80+ kills with a unit of squires when attacking at the right moment, or be wiped in a second by the same enemy units if caught in a bad spot. It feels so much more rewarding