So after a long time waiting to respond to this topic's question (I wanted to see what other's said/came up with) I will finally give my usual essay of what is my 2 cents
So from what I've seen thus far, a majority speaking here on the forums from all sides wish for the era to continue as advertised, which is an unlimited era that only ends with 10 relics being captured by 1 alliance for 100 ticks.
I have stated it before and will state it again. I do fully understand the reasoning behind the staff's decision to try to end the CE early. To address the direct questions, I shall post my opinion in order as so many other's have done.
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1. 2014 is coming to an end, and obviously 2014 CE cannot end in 2015
You are correct in stating that this is the 2014 CE, HOWEVER, you advertised it as no tick limit. As every advertising campaign in the world will tell you, you ALWAYS put asterisk's in tiny writing SOMEWHERE in your advertisements if you have ANY doubt that you will have to alter anything. This is DEFINITELY one of those cases. If you wished to have a 2014 CE that stayed solely within 2014, then you should have made the tick limit exactly for New Years Eve on whomever's timezone you wished to use. There was no statement for ending an era when year ends. There was no statement that a 2015 CE would ever take place and therefore needed 2014 CE to end before it started. In fact, my plans for this CE was to PROLONG it for as long as I could. If my alliance was (hypothetically) dominating this era and could have access to all 10 relics, I WOULDN'T END IT. Why? Because of the fact that this was an unlimited tick era. I would wait until someone came along strong enough to overthrow me. My point here being, there was zero notification a tick limit would ever be implemented at any point during the advertising of this event. As such, you committed to us, the community, an unlimited tick 2014 CE. I believe it's in your best interest to stick with this commitment. As many have indicated already, there are many willing to attempt lawsuits on you for false advertisement as they have literally spent thousands of dollars on this. If you think you've lost out on money this CE, imagine what you WILL lose if a lawsuit passes. Just a reminder, a lawsuit passed against Redbull for "not giving you wings"... I think the chances of being sued for "not doing as advertised" here has an even less compelling argument to fight with than Redbull had against "not giving wings"...
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2. We never expected this era to last that long. It is a big stress on our players as well as our admins for far too many months now. we want all our players and admins to have a healthy game experience.
Fair enough. This era exceeded your expectations. I think that's fantastic in all actuality. However, imagine if this was the other way around and then contemplate the situation with what you are currently doing? I would bet you just about anything, you wouldn't of even slightly considered ending this CE early no matter how stressed your staff got if the CE was producing more money than you ever expected. If the admins are burned out, then give them a break and do what so many suggested already. Switch them up. Your game stresses me out when I only play for 1 normal era. I expect it to stress me out as a player. You've focused the game play to do exactly that for anyone who wishes to be serious. Fast game pace with little strategic value compared to activity level. There are some strategic aspects still, but most are focused on activity level. If you want less stressed players, bring back strategic values which force players to strategize before
making decisions again (i.e. food maintenance killing off armies, limited to 2 TBs which nullified any food requirements on armies sitting on them).
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3. Since CE has started, the income on all servers dropped as almost all top players are playing now only on one world. this was ok for a few monthes, but recently it has dropped too far down placing a risk on closing the entire BD operation. running the servers, advertisements to bring new players, paying the developers who are now working on building the Mobile client of battle dawn, paying the IT guy on keeping the servers at 99% up time... all that costs tens of thousands of dollars monthly.
Having CE's in general most likely dropped your income overall. Look at people like SoF who didn't spend on servers and just slowly accumulated reds and blues in preparation to playing the CE. Technically, he was boosting for worlds and giving false boosting info per that world he was boosting on. The drop in income for BD was most likely directly effected by the CE, but in all honesty, that was most likely as a whole on BD. I made the decision that this CE would be my last era as a player. Meaning that I don't intend to spend anymore money on this game via playing. Not because I don't enjoy the game. I've been here for about 7 years. But because this game is too much of a commitment. So here we are in regards to the games play style again. The mechanics you have chosen to lead this game to (fast paced, easy learning curve, activity > strategy) have actually slowly been driving me away from wanting to play. I have to choose between doing real life activities (sleep being one of those) and surviving on BD.
I can't tell you how many people I have talked to about the Old Client style of play and how many have answered me saying "Why did they change that?! It sounds awesome".
Yellowhairedme wrote:
Now coming to Senatus you are a bootlicker. You said you will watch the era and came to CE by writing i will troll anyone who attacks me.Btw noone cares about you. You got killed and relocated to nowhere. You start to build and when ticks reach 2-3 k you plan everything and after KMO's downfall. You call all your so called feinds and with a mega reds donor you begin to build up.
I came here with no intention to play for the win either. I turned down multiple teams to join this CE before it started (Rania being one of them) because I had a 2 week vacation that would pop up right in the middle of the era (tick 1200-1500) I knew these would be monumental moments in the CE and didn't want to let any team down by being absent for such a long period of time. Especially as I usually contain around 40-60% of my alliance's OPs in most cases whenever I play seriously. However, this era has exceeded my expectations for how long it lasted as well and I could have EASILY played seriously if I had known how things would turn out. This is nearly the same situation Milan was in, cept he was travelling the world for an even longer period than I was. SirSkipWith is another case in which he thought he didn't have the time to play CE, but it lasted so long, he got the chance and is now playing in the rank 1 team.
There is no reason to go pointing fingers here and the such. Everyone has their own reasons for doing what they do and each is specific to that individual. Should I say you suck because you aren't ranked in the top 10 at this very moment on the CE even though it has no bearing on your actual validity as a player?
SnOwDoG wrote:
In all seriousness, I always said to people when asked what tick the server would end, and I always stated around ticks 6 to 7k. Many people with admins included laughed at me. I took into consideration all of the stalemates (which would eventually end), alliance's that die and rebuild only to join the other side as well as the major wars. I too have never been a fan of the Battle Hug era's. If the era is going to end at a specific tic I do propose an idea:
1- Establish a set start time and date for the 2015 CE EXAMPLE 5-1-2015 @0:00 GMT
2- With 2015 era date established end 2014 1-2 months before 3-1-2015/4-1-2015
3- HAVOC and not these wussie havoc's we have been having for the past few years. Maybe surprise re-emergence's of such alliances like DoG (if you do not know who they are then you have never played a real havoc)
4- Rules that a admin would enforce would not apply due to fact admin with only log on to administer resources (if to be distributed more than 1 time) as well as the duration of havoc would depend on end date of 2014 era and start date of 2015 covering the complete span of time 1 to 2 month of pure havoc.
5- The spoils of war. I was trying to think of an incentive to encourage people to end the era before the before mentioned 2014 end time. So I thought of this:
-If the server is brought to the end date, HAVOC determines the winner. Alliances with less power receive more resources and those with higher power receive less if any to level the playing field. The overall winner of havoc wins. This will remove all of the boo hoo crying and complaining of farmed r5 units and would be pure insanity. A havoc for the ages to end the BD era for the ages.
If something like that was implemented, I would have no issues with a end time; however, to end the server at tick 5K is absolutely absurd. That is clear false advertisement and I for one would want a refund for all of the reds I spent my hard earned money on for I played ONLY for a no tick limit era. Listen I understand we are all for the most part worn out. On the flip side of that token, that is what we all signed up for admins included. If you are going to end it at 5K you might as well just end it now for most myself included will not put another dime into this sever and more than likely the game as well. Now you are planning on releasing the mobile client which WILL bring in a plethora of new players, give more purchase options and restrict ways to cheat (no more T.V. alliances). You are going to need a large group of vets to make the mobile a success. So I implore BD management and administration to rethink placing end tick 5K. From what I have read so far from others, it looks as if I am far from the only person more than likely not coming back. I do not like being mislead in order to fund a project then have the rug pulled out from my feet. I feel my proposal for the havoc ending era would satisfy most for we all deserve something other than a 5K ending. That is my clear thinking thought not taking stabs at anyone or anything. What's fair is fair. For the record as well, people would boost for this insane havoc for most will burn through resources quick. For those that like and agree with my idea say so. If you like the idea; however, feels it should be modified.....say so. Just do not go without a fight. That would make this era 100% a waste of time money and for some sanity.
I agree with you to a certain extent Lex. I have also suggested that if a tick limit MUST be placed, to please at least give us a normal era's worth of time to plan things out (2500-3000 ticks). This would pretty much lead to the same dates (February or March).
However, I do not believe your havoc idea to be the best. I truly do understand where you are trying to go with this idea. But as many other's have stated, it kind of clears the slate and has everyone starting anew EXCEPT for those already at the top (ie - RDH, NJ, RBR, and most of the llll coalition). Those who have fallen (most of whom are still left are actually pro's who just don't feel like rebuilding) will have the resources to all of a sudden close the gap in power between the strong who have survived and themselves (who have failed up till now). With this being the case, if I knew Havoc was coming up, I would purposefully suicide my army and have my team do the same so we could gain those extra resources. You feel that it would force those on top to really prove themselves (which is true), but you would also being giving a huge advantage to those who took a break and are refreshed. RDH has recently made a LOT of enemies, but they have done well to keep them under control and demoralize them from wanting to try to continue playing. This havoc idea would pretty much pit all these alliances against RDH at once and there would be nothing RDH could do to prevent them from gaining the huge boost of resources. They would simply have more enemies. You assume the havoc would clean the slates of all who would play it, but that really isn't the case. People have been making grudges all era and most likely, would use havoc to gain their revenge. ESPECIALLY if it was the determining factor for winning. RDH's work to gain global access would be turned against them because now, they have the entirety of the map to try to protect against the rest of the world. It would truly nullify any achievements made up until Havoc and actually turn against any achievements made. It rewards the fallen and punishes the survivors. Something I don't think the CE should do. I do understand you're attempt to make the CE not end on a battlehugs like situation, but I don't think this is the best solution. I wouldn't mind considering other ideas though as I do agree with your overall reasoning for trying to come up with an idea. Ending the era on battlehugs of any sort would be a sincere waste of the entire time we've all been here.
My last statement here is this. If we ever do another CE, we should make up a clear black and white list of rules for a majority of the major factors in regards for cheating. ESPECIALLY for the CE. Make a list, send it out with clear rules for certain specific instances. Then there is no grey area for speculations and you can clearly lay down the law instead of the current fiasco we're going through where nearly every decision has been subjective to the admin. That is what is getting everyone so fired up this era. The subjectivity. Everyone on the CE world should KNOW BETTER than to do ANYTHING that could be construed as cheating in any manner. No family and friends should be able to join with 2 accounts. We've had some pro's within the top 20 individual rankings tell the admins "Oh, sorry I didn't realize we had to notify you my brother was playing under the same IP address as me". Come on... I understand the admin's get caught up here because of the grey area. You don't want to cut off that 1 in 10 scenario where it's true. So instead, make it clear. These people can't play together, they must play different worlds. Otherwise, it's a ban. I don't care if both are huge players who want to compete. Either they choose 1, none, or they both try and get banned when caught. End of story. Any Multi-IP address gets banned and stays banned unless substantial undeniable proof can be provided. If banned, DELETE THE COLONY within a shorter time frame. I've seen some banned colonies that have lasted NEARLY 4000 ticks now... why haven't they deleted?! Delete them! If people knew they'd be banned by an auto function FIRST and they'd have to wait until an admin came around to reverse the autoban's functioning IF it is a legitimate case, I would bet you anything that cheating would be curbed tremendously. Because no one would want to chance getting their main colony banned by accident. Then, if a family member really does cause a ban, it's the family member that gets yelled out, not the admins.