What do you love/hate about the game?

General Discussion
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This not so much a “feature request” topic, just a topic for mentioning little things that you love or wish were different.

My first point, which I do not love or hate happened yesterday. For the first time, the battle was down to one more hit for both my one hero and the boss. (I could have regained some HP. I choose not to, so keep in mind this was voluntary and not something I was angry about.)

I had a counter-attack spell attached to me. He attacked. It destroyed me. The counter kicked in, and it destroyed him. Because I died first (or at all) it was a defeat and a win for the boss instead of a draw… but the game gave me the option to continue by paying 75 gems. I did not do it, but I guess if I had it would gone back to the battle, “Victory” would have appeared, and I would be taken to the loot screen. Was a odd situtation that was!

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I like that there’s always something for me to do:

  • Titans
  • Raids
  • Province Map (regular, plus hunt for troops!)
  • Make Heroes
  • Make Items
  • BUILD (yes I know it takes forever)
  • Collect Summon and Mystic Tower

And after a relatively short while, I can come back and do most of it again (shakes fist at building!)

Oh yes, and the Forums. And my alliance mates in-game and on Line. Actually, I have difficulty getting away from the game… :grin:

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that’s the same for raids - if you’re raiding and have a DOT on their hero and they kill you and die, or you have riposte and they kill you and you kill them (or vice versa), it counts as a defeat as the attacker (either on map or raid) needs to have 1 hero alive when all the enemies are dead. I’ve had that happen a bunch of times on raids, but never on map.

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Love:

  • The artwork (even if there are some striking similarities between many of the heroes :wink:
  • The interesting take on what is really just a simple tile matching mechanic, adding a lot of depth in the process
  • The ability to develop (your town; your heroes; your troops)
  • The excitement of having the potential to get new and interesting heroes (but undermined by my ‘hate’ items)

Hate:

  • The mean-spirited approach to rewards for effort spent. (Significant achievements given nothing more than token rewards (a few gems, which really aren’t worth much). Worthwhile prizes only going to the elite few in events. No reward for completing all the map quests. Little compensation in rewards for tough encounters to (at least partially) refund resources for battle items consumed).
  • The possibility/likelihood of no reward for real money spend (gambling). It’s still pay to win, but by stealth and needing more invested to win (because of high probability of your spend netting you nothing worthwhile if you are a mature player). I would prefer the integrity of regular ptw where your money actually buys you something concrete, even if it were just an accumulating chance that increases with spend.
  • The raid mechanic and the fact that it’s associated with resource (Hero Wanted Missions), requiring you to play it if you want to increase your chance of decent items.
  • The many bottlenecks and constraints to progress (scarce crafting resources; even scarcer ascension items)… and the need for endless grinding of the same old map levels to have to look for some of these.

(Gawd… why do I still play this game? :wink: )

Disclaimer:
The fact that I hate these aspects is in no way a refutation that many may well love (or at least happily tolerate) them. This is my personal hate list and is a matter of opinion.

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I like the variety of builds and the strategic elements of the game. The building, the collecting, the various gameplay modes are all fun and interesting, even if some of the wait times on construction get a little ridiculous after awhile and the lack of ascension resources can get incredibly frustrating. The artwork and graphics are entertaining, even if the “storied” elements of the game leave a lot to be desired. (Need a writer? Where should I send my resume?)

The main drawback of the game seems to be that those who have deep pockets can clearly excel exponentially faster than those who do not. This wouldn’t be so bad if there were a more viable path for dedicated players: if there was a way for players who love the game and play regularly to eventually collect and level a legendary team. As it stands now, a player who spends little (say, $5-10 per month) to nothing has slim hope of ever getting a legendary team or getting it fully ascended, even if they play everyday for six months.

Sure, there may be a precious few who luck into what they need, but for the vast majority of dedicated, poorer players, it’s going to take a long, long, looong time to be able to field a legendary team.

It takes a good two to three months to get a team that’s capable of beating the final stages of rare quests and monthly events, where you actually start to accumulate 4-star ascension materials. And another month or two or so before you can upgrade a stronghold to level 20 and start rolling for legendary heroes. And even then, after 4-6 months of daily gameplay, you’ve only got about a 5% chance at a legendary hero—and as it takes two days to train at a TC20, that’s, generously, about another month to get a 5-star hero. Maybe you can luck into 1-2 legendary heroes via epic summon tokens, but even then you’re looking at 2-3 more months before you’re likely to field five legendary heroes.

Meanwhile, the guy with deep pockets drops $500-1000 on the game his first month and spends his time basking on the leaderboard, forcing you to see clearly how the game is tilted.

It can be incredibly frustrating, and I’ve seen too many who love the game give it up in a rage. One person in my alliance is up to level 46 and still has no 5-star heroes. I can’t believe she’s held on this long; most have long since quit and cursed the game.

I understand that the developers need players to spend money in order to keep the game operating and to do the hard work of updating and keeping it interesting, but it seems there must be a way to keep dedicated, working class players from giving up hope. (There are plenty of options—better odds for TC20s, an uptick in epic summon tokens, a chance for HotMs via quests, better drops of ascension items, et. al—but they’ve been discussed elsewhere, so I won’t belabor you with them here.) I like the smaller, largely bundled >$10 gem buy offers that are occasionally offered; I think that helps tighter players and is a step in the right direction.

I absolutely love the game though, and I’d love to see its economy adjusted in such a way that other folks who love it can be convinced to stick around and continue to play.

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Yes, defender wins ties. If all heroes are dead, who is alive to loot the monsters or raid the base :slight_smile:
Using gems to continue would of course make it a win.

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@Cpt.Ahab
You covered almost everything that I was going to say on that particular part of the game (Which is good because it keeps me from having to type it all. :laughing:) I actually do not have so much of a problem with people being able to buy their advancement, though. I am never going to come close to the top of the list; I am happy with trying to beat my own records). I rarely run across people with crazy-high defense stats, and even if I did, I am not forced to fight them; the game at least tries to balance that out.

But…

I’m at 30-something. I would be much higher but I have never played the experience quests. I still have no 5* and the only thing that has helped me along is having three sets of 4* troops. But I have spent maybe 2,100 gems, a dozen or so acquired epic summon tokens, and level 20 training trying to gain a 5* while a few others in my alliance who are in the level 20s range have at least two 5* already, a few of them own the monthly featured one without having ever spent a single dollar.

But as you similarly point out, a long-time member of my alliance just rage quit because he saved up gems and then spent a little money to get 10 summons. He did get one 5* but the rest were 3*. A “fairness” factor seems to be missing from the game.

If there is a sort of % change calculator tied to receiving higher level heroes, I would think it would increase, if only slightly, as you reach each new level. (You have a greater change at getting a 5* if you are at level 30 then a level 15).

OK, so another thing that I do not like about the game has to do with iron usage. I can understand allowing only one build at a time. This type of game is supposed to take a lot of time and effort else you reach the top quickly and get bored. But, it is necessary to increase your iron storage to such a level over a few months to be capable of building your final level 20 stronghold… and then, if you are still a regular player, you will never come close to running out of iron again (unlike food). It is not quite balanced, but I am not sure where iron could be re-distributed to fix this.

OK, so, bad-mouthing the game out if the way, here is what I like about the game:

  • It is not a 100% necessity to involve other players. Sure, you are missing out on a lot without raids and Titan battles, but at least you have the option.
  • The gameplay type itself. I do not know of any other high-quality match-3 RPGs out there. Maybe they exist, but from my perspective of not knowing any better, the unique concept gives reason for any RPG lover to give the game a try.
  • There is a very small learning curve and the tutorial is excellent at solving that. Unless you are fighting a Titan, you can take your time with any challenge that you face.
  • A Titan’s strength is generated according to your alliance’s success or failure to defeat the previous one rather than the strength of the actual team. If done the other way, you could end up with Titan after Titan that you can never defeat because a few in your alliance are only present a few day a week.
  • The fact that, for every attack, there is a defense, if only slight, and vise versa, There is nothing that the enemy can do that you cannot counter with varying levels of success with a potion or hero special ability.
  • Troops. It is nice having a form of universal strength that you can always increase and can be used with every hero, not to be reset if you decide to get rid of a hero.
  • The fact that team requirements are so relaxed. You do not have to use a healer if you do not want to, and if you want all of your heroes to be the same element for some reason, go right ahead. The game does not force your to use all five elements every time.
  • The themes. A minor point, but it has been fun seeing snow and the aurora in the sky on the base lately.
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I like how everything is hard to get even for pay to win players, I love that this game is play to win, and i hope they are keeping it that way.

What I hate? The inability to obtain Hotm and exclusive heroes by grinding your way, for those you need to spend money, of course you can save gems and do summons, but if you are lucky as I am, you’re doomed.

There’s some heroes I love but I would probably never be able to obtain Free to play…

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tornados and time stops cost 100k iron each (roughly). I’m sure you can find something to do with that iron then, for crafting the most powerful battle items.

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Well I had a similar situation in a Raid, it was down to 1 on each side, it was my Li Xiu, against a Grimm I think. But my last hit was a regular attack that destroyed him, but his special attack kicked in at the same time & I was destroyed. I don’t think that the attacking player should go down in Defeat, it should’ve been a tight victory for me. This has happened to me on more than one occasion. How can both be defeated ? They can’t be both defeated one has to win over the other, I should’ve won all of my battles that I went down in defeat on raiding. Trophies are so important to all players, but I know I should’ve won.

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I also hate that there are any 3* heroes in the Elemental Summoning for the month, there should be no way that a regular, not really rare with their obvious summoning is so frequent, that a 3* hero should be in there. They need to remove all of them from the Elemental Summoning. Epic Hero Summoning should be that Epic or Legendary summons, NEVER a rare. Rare heroes are way to common to come up in that summoning. I get more rare heroes in the Epic Summoning, so to me they are common to very common & never rare at all. We paid cash money to this game for gems for these summonings & we need to be treated better than a common rare hero that comes up way too often.

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There must have been some sort of damage over time status effect on your Li Xiu that killed her (Sartana, Kelile, Colen, etc). Defense specials don’t fire until it’s their turn and not if you kill them.

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I might by mistaken, & you may be right, however I was the last player standing, not my opponent & I should’ve won, not gone down in defeat, did that mean the other player won? When I killed off all their heroes? They should not have gotten the winning side of the trophies & some of them were in the loss of over 40 trophies to me. That should not be.

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Most turn-based games calculate the winner at the end of the turn. If you didn’t have a hero survive to the end of the turn, that’s how the rules work. Trying to code it to check at every point in the middle of a turn adds a lot of code.

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Does that mean the other person got the winning amount of trophies then? That would be wrong because they died before me, so please explain that to me.

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In most games, the attacking player needs to show a clear victory. If it’s somehow a tie or simultaneous death (and in a turn based game, “simultaneous” means at the end of each turn), the defender wins. Because they successfully defended (i.e. defeated and killed/knocked out the attackers) their map/base. If no attackers are alive, they cannot take over a territory.

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Level 46 with no 5 stars is extreme bad luck assuming they didn’t spend $ to buy world energy to level. At that levl they should have multiple tc 20s going

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You say in most games, however is that in OUR game? You not really answering my question adequately, & you said nothing about the winning number of trophies either?? If you don’t know that’s ok, but don’t assume something that you have no idea of which you speak. You say in most games, I’m not talking about most games I’m specifically talking Empires & Puzzles. So if you’re not a dev, then please don’t answer for them, cuz you don’t know the answers to my questions. Thanks for the effort though.

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I do know what happens to trophies…if you don’t kill all the defending heroes before they kill you, as calculated at the end of each turn, the defender wins and the attacker loses the raid. The attacker does NOT get the ham or iron and loses whatever the amount of trophies are. The defender wins the trophies.

You’re asking why - I’m giving you an explanation of the “why” of how many of the games are designed. No, I’m not a dev of this game: the devs don’t answer on these forums. You’ll be waiting a long time before getting an answer.

But having helped people design and playtest turn-based games, the onus is on the attacker to be alive at the end of the turn while the defender is dead. I’m also explaining that the reason win conditions are checked at the end of the turn, rather than every single little bit along the way of each turn, is generally an application coding issue. The code becomes more complex and slow having to check win conditions constantly with a variable amount of things that can happen each defender’s turn (slash attacks, status effects, specials launching), so it’s checked at the end of the turn.

There’s a correlation in real life. If an army from Sparta with 1000 warriors goes to take over Athens and the battle comes down to the last two soliders and the last attacker kills the last defending soldier, but then slumps over and dies from his wounds, did the Spartan army take over the city? No, they just killed all the soldiers.

I’m sorry you don’t like that explanation, but that is the “why” of most turn-based games. Since the devs aren’t going to respond, that’s probably the best explanation you’re going to get.

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Agree - it’s a simple rule. You can’t go raid their keep and get trophies and gold if your last person standing isn’t alive to do so. The rule is that you need to survive the full turn. If you don’t you don’t win, and as a result the trophies you ‘gambled’ for the attempt are lost.

Don’t see a problem there.

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