You seem to be equating listening with action.
You seem to be equating inaction with not listening.
I believe Devs could be better at communicating ( see below).
But time spent communicating is not time spent on the game. Devs are paid to work on the game.
Imperfect Actions
Alchemy Lab as requested by players. The Devs took action as soon as they could fit it into the schedule. They made a mistake with Lab version 0.1, and are changing it. This will push back the whole schedule.
This is not the first time, or the last time, the Devs will make a mistake. Mistakes push back schedules.
I feel this is why Stronghold 21 was rushed out, to give players something to do. But not Stronghold 23, they wish to public beta Advanced Buildings before adding more.
Shards and trade
Both Shards, and trade, are on the schedule.
But.
Empires makes money off of summons.
Shards, and trade, will increase player retention, but decrease Return On Investment per player. Other ways to monetize shards, and trade, need to be scheduled first.
Edit:
Other ways including Revamping Challenge events, fixing Tourneys, and practice raids.
Competition is always good. Itâs healthy for companies, and itâs great for customers. I hope that other 3 match game we canât talk about here grows more popular so SG finally changes a few of their old business practices.
For example, the 1% chance of getting a 5* hero was fine when there were only 10 of those. There are way too many 5* now and a lot more are coming. I donât see the point of keeping chances of summoning that low to be honest. There are millions of people playing E&P today, there isnât any risk of them reaching endgame and getting bored of the game.
Giving a free vanilla 4* hero after player reaches level 30 would be a good gesture from SGâs part. Maybe a vanilla 5* hero after reaching level 40. It takes months to get there. Players get nothing for being that loyal to the game. Seriously, other mobile games give more to their fans. E&P fans just get screwed by RNG.
Before someone says s#%& to me, Iâm not asking for freebies. But if devs are that committed on relying on RNG for every aspect of the game they should also fix the problems RNG brings with it.
Actually, it is very common to buy a business with a successful model and not to mess with the internal workings of that business much at all.
It is likely that Zynga has a lot of influence on subjects like corporate communications (what it is ok for SG to talk about, and what they cannot talk about) and finances (overall budgets for development, advertising, etc.), but very little over game development.
There should be something like change 3 tc20 heros for a tc20 you dont have in a time limit, like once every 6months. Its irritating to have those doubles especially when you dont even have a rainbow 5*.
I guess they already know where they are going and we ll have wait and see
Company like this usually work with targets.
Targets usually are money per time.
As long as you reach the target, you can work on your own without the big boss meddling on your decisions.
Targets usually escalate, so letâs say you are really good and always reach the target? That meaning you can do even better, so next target gonna be higher! (Or proportional to the kind of period. December for example is an amazing moment to ask for more).
When you see special offers and such, thatâs probably the push button to reach a quota.
You devalue an offer if itâs always up, so you need to use them when you really need people buy and reach your goal.
So long story short, is it still possible for them to be totally independent as long as they meet Zynga money expectation, and they very likely both agree to that.
Small Giant donât want another head taking decisions, Zynga doesnât want to have more work if all goes well.
I know there was discussion of a reverse engineered clone of Empires ( RECE ) that broke a staggering amount of Intellectual Property laws.
Discussing RECE directly on a game forum would be the same as discussion of cheating initial hiring screening at a major coffee chain ( yes, the glamorous life of a forum mod ).
Even discussing RECE directly on another game forum, like BoH, would get shut down. Because. Legal.
Ideas
While indirect discussion of RECE might be helpful, It is unlikely to gain traction with you actual target audience, the DEVS.
Legal is VERY strict on information exposure during ongoing legal proceedings.
Literally hinting at RECE guarantees this topic will not make it past Petri ( hands Petri a mug of artisanal drinking chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles).
I am one of those long term FTP (1.5+ yrs) with no Hotm. I grind hard, (tournaments and events) post on forums/active with alliance (part of the community) I add value (maybe not monetarily- just mystic vision). Currently sitting at level 56.
All people are suggesting is another small avenue where my effort(and other c2p/p2w) can be rewarded. It may not mean much to a p2w to have another Hotm, but to a c2p or ftp make a huge difference.
RNG CANNOT be equated with a reward for long term effort and grinding. Itâs an inherent contradiction.
Having shards where I can mostly determine my own future (eg 1000 shards for an epic hero token that can only be received every month or so with hard grinding) is worth it
Hereâs the thing: everyone having access to more heroes, including HOTM, allows for more experimentation and more possibility of finding character combos that can be fun in practice and not just theory. Instead of everyone running one meta, youâd get your variety because different builds become more commonly available and viable to see how well they would work.
Thereâs too much variety to just presume only one combo would work ultimately. Iâd wager it would be a better game if they loosened the screws some here.
is why SG it is what it. SG listens when something is worth listening.
