Response to ideas from HQ

[kellpie]

Analysis of Ideas December 2010



Today we would like to give you a view on what we want to implement after analyzing all ratings of ideas from all threads. We already gave some of the below mentioned ideas to the game design for a conceptual realization and will, as you already know, implement some of them already in 2011.



Below you can find some comments on your ideas, which we looked into:

1. Artifacts (construction loop)
You asked for the possibility to start making artifacts in some kind of construction loop. With that you could start building a certain number of artifacts and another artifact building could start as soon as the previous one is finished or expired.

We are now looking into this. In this case we have to study all possibilities, in order to determine the feasibility. Therefore it is not possible to say, if we can implement this and when, if feasible, it will be available.

2. Blogs (search function)
Search function for Blogs, to make it easier to find them by key word.
Unfortunately we had to refuse this Idea. A search in all blogs would be a disadvantage in terms of technical performance.

3. Doors (lockable)
You would like to have one or more rooms that you can mark as “private”, so that nobody, except you, can enter them. This should be realized with doors (locked) or otherwise.

Also this one was added for future.

4. Weapons – Sale
Your wish was to get diamonds for the sale of Weapons (armors) with a high value.

This proposal was refused.

5. Houses
You would like to have more houses and a bigger variety of houses.

This will be implemented in 2011.

6. Calendar
The calendar was again raised as additional equipment element. This should allow you to publish appointments or special events to all members in a club or guild.

Unfortunately this is not possible and was therefore rejected.

7. Inventory-enhancement for diamonds
This idea will be processed together with the next idea. How this Inventory-enhancement will be done is still not clear, although we already have some ideas.

8. Stacking of all items in the inventory
This idea is now in conceptual development. After receiving a lot of ideas and wishes regarding the inventory and we of course realize, that you can win or buy more and more objects, we decided to work again on the topic “Inventory” and to customize it. Regarding this topic, we are still discussing on how to do it.

9. Guilds (House)
You would like to have special houses for guilds.
This item was now added and we will discuss in which form we will be able to process it.

10. SP – Rewards
For the existing daily quests, such as cat search, bingo and others, we will not implement the SP-rewards in the near future.

11. Stationary
For special days (public holidays and festivities) you would like to have the corresponding stationary for this event.

We will add this and will work on that.

12. Fishing rod (Inventory)
Request to minimize the fishing rod (inventory usage) or adding the option to sell it or not to accept it in the first place.

Yes, this is in processing. See point 8.

13. Interface (Resolution)
You would like to have the possibility to adjust the resolution, so you can adjust the game window to your needs depending on the size of your monitors.

This was also added.

14. Donating diamonds to the guild
You asked to donate diamonds to the guild account to facilitate the furnishing of rooms, for the authorized accounts, with furniture which needs to be paid.

After a long discussion on pros and cons, we will refuse this. There are too many possible problems for you if that would be possible. Who will receive the diamonds if a guild gets deleted? What happens if somebody is spending the diamonds for something you do not want? The idea is very good, but the possible risks are too serious.

15. Limit of the time for a sitter

You asked to set a maximum sitting time of 3 weeks on the accounts. The option that a sitter can put in another sitter when he leaves the account should be taken away.

Unfortunately we had to refuse that.

16. Description for rooms
Facilitate the adding of descriptions/designations of rooms to the Minimap.

Unfortunately, no. This is not possible.

17. Team-Icon
Add new Status-Icon for team members in the game to see if they are currently on- or offline.

Refused. Of course this would have been useful in order to find a contact person, in case of a problem. On the other hand this would be problematic, if this team member would receive messages from a lot of people and would need to go offline, because there is no time anymore. Like that questions would stay with that member or a chat would not be answered, which will cause dissatisfaction, because nobody gets an answer.

18. More resources
You wanted to have alternative resources, such as the growing and harvesting of fruit and vegetables, and their buy and sell.

Unfortunately refused.

19. Smileys in chat and forum
Facilitate the graphical display of smileys in the chat and in the forum.
In the chat, this is not possible. For the forum, please note that we are currently reviewing the whole forum.

20. Diamonds for achievements
You asked to get a certain amount of diamonds for your achievements.

This was unfortunately refused.

21. Chat-Window
Facilitate to open more chat windows at the same time in order to follow the conversations in different chat rooms.

Due to performance and user friendliness, this was refused.

22. Resources
We received the idea to increase the sales price for primary resources.
Regarding this topic, we are currently working on evaluating and improving it. This concerns the whole market.

23. Chat-Pen
Please show a pen or indicate somehow if a chat partner is writing something, like in ICQ or others, for example.
See Point 21. Unfortunately this is not possible.

24. Blogs (Numbering)
The request to number Blogs/Pages of the blog, instead of the Back & Forth button which is currently available.

Yes, this was added and we will look into it to improve this for you.

25. Bingo-Reward
Please facilitate, to stack all rewards in the inventory.
See point 8.

26. Deleting user from friend list
Please insert a warning in the game or a security question in the game before somebody can be deleted from the friend list.

Yes. This was added.

[kellpie]

Evaluation of the ideas for April 2011



1. Crests / Profile pictures for guilds

It has been suggested to be able to create a crest for a guild. This would also result in the interface and the profile of the guild being reworked, so it looks nicer.



2. Guild tournaments: Fights

It has been suggested to be able to modify the groups in a tournament, so players in lower level areas do not meet too difficult opponents and tournaments can become more balanced.

Currently we see no need for changes at the tourneys considering the level area. The tournaments in general need to be reworked. This is already noted and in the future the concept will be created. It will not be possible to start this in 2011.



3. Improvement of the dialogs at the bank

People were wishing that the dialog of the interest could be improved so that it will show the exact amount of gold, silver and copper you will get in the future.

This would overdo things to justify the effort. Therefore, it has been declined as the added value is not that grave.



4. Bonus: Add a new bonus or replace one of the existing

You would like to have an additional bonus within the hour or at least to replace the trade bonus, as it does not encourage to more fun.

We have admitted this for now. It will be more to do and to decide what to change/add. That’s why it will take some time.


5. Arena (Balancing)

The idea to reduce the span between minimal and maximal damage respectively minimal and maximum damage, so that the player attributes have a bigger role.

This is very controversial and would improve the game in a hardly recognizable way. We have admitted this and need to evaluate it.

6. Arena (Fight)

Force the players to click. Players should need to click if they want to attack or defend, there should be no automatic action.

We needed to refuse this, as it has been discussed in another discussion about forcing people to click. We need to find a solution when the fight system is being reworked as a whole. See point 5.

7. Sort / search function for pigeons

Players where asking to be able to sort messages by nicknames or guild names.

This idea has been admitted and it will be realized. We do not know yet if we will be able to implement this in 2011 though.

8. Ranking

Has been suggested and had already been criticism some time ago. Frosted and inactive accounts should not appear on the ranking anymore to occupy places. This is currently done in an unpleasent way.

This is being worked on. We must not forget what happens when the inactive player is getting active again. He will re-appear in the ranking. That’s why it currently does not matter if a player is being hidden or re-appearing again after activity. We are working on a more complex solution that should not hit the players that are getting inactive without intent (broken internet access etc.). This topic is in a larger discussion at the moment.


9. Occupation points

It has been suggested to increase the occupation points maximum per day from 90/140 by the amount 10.

We cannot implement this. The results for the balancing would be too high.


10. Diamonds

Rewards in the form of diamonds for activity in the game. Addtionally, making the current diamond packages cheaper.

This is not possible unfortunately. But there was the idea to offer diamond special promotions more offer, so that you can get cheaper packages for a certain time span. This has been admitted. Decision is pending.


11. Cheaper furniture items

People were asking to make furniture items cheaper in general and reduce the price of the old furniture items.

We already have the special offers. This will be further extended in the future.


12. Social points for fights

People were asking to get some SP for fights, especially for NPCs this would produce some further appeal.

Unfortunately, me must decline this. Here we are rewarding the players with experience points. We don’t like to change anything about this.

13. Display the name of the pig in the game

It has been suggested to show the name of the pig in the name, for example as a mouseover in the game. Addtionally, it could also be displayed in the player profile.

This has been admitted. It will at least be shown in the profile. We will see, if it can be implemented in the game too.


14. Same earnings in SP and EXP for both community actions.

It has been suggested to equal the amount of SP and XP that is being rewarded for community actions.

We want to leave it the way it currently is. The effort for the hoster is incomparable higher. Therefore, it is only fair to give a bit more SP and XP.

15. Moving NPCs

It has been suggested to make the NPCs move around the map to intensify the interaction with the map and to make it livelier.

Here we have to decline due to performance reasons. It would influence the game extremely and therefore you too. This would not bring any fun.


16. Pond for cummunity baths

It has been suggested to implement a pond for community baths and the summer.

This is not possible unfortunately. To integrate 70+1 people in a single pond (roman bath) is complicated considering performance. We are still looking for other solutions, so this point is not fully declined.

[Plinfut]

Changes to Achievements

This suggestion noted that the medals for collected resources should be adjusted as there are now also more possibilities created with the new Thalassos island. These medals should be modified for all resource fields and mines.
We have gladly accepted this suggestion as we completely agree with you all that it would of course be better if these were also taken into consideration.

Suggestion for more 'Extra Quests'

We are happy to have received the news from you all that you'd like some more quests. We would also like to make more game quests available to you all in the future, so that you can continue having fun attempting new challenges.

Personalized Clothing for Avatars

This idea has already been commented on in an earlier feedback to ideas. We're still testing the idea technically, in order to find out if we are able to implement it and which advantages or disadvantages it would bring everyone. We will inform you all as soon as we know anything more about this. We consider this idea to be very good on the whole.

The Clearing of Walls, Borders and Fences

Here, the question was posed of whether it'd be possible to provide you with more space for your designs and creativity. This then raised the question of whether an option could be implemented, whereby the player would be able to remove existing elements like walls, borders and fences. Unfortunately we are not able to implement this as many technical problems could arise, which would be very difficult to resolve.

Hall for Special Events

The following suggestion from you all has been considered worthy of discussion: A unique NPC building for special events such as Christmas, Easter or World Children Day could be implemented, in which special items, actions or games could be offered. Alternatively it could also be possible to open the Tonkarius Palace, which would be furnished depending on the event.
We will continue to concern ourselves with this suggestion and will keep you all posted.

Graphical Changes to the Game for Special Events

It would be good if the whole map could be graphically modified to suit particular events like Halloween or Easter. Unfortunately we must decline this suggestion. The use and benefit that it would bring to the players is simply too small to justify implementation. We would rather surprise and entertain you with other things.

[Plinfut]

Handing out rights
The option to give a guild members the right to use the house editor without any other guild rights, and to block access to IGMs and chats separately for sitters: a concept design is ready and waiting for a review by the programmers to see if it's technically possible.

Inventory management
An option to get rid of items you no longer need: the same applies as for the rights system. A concept is ready and needs to be reviewed to see if it's technically possible.

Closing houses
Also the option to close the first and second house separately passed the designing phase and is awaiting a technical review.

Guild wars and tournaments
Guild wars will be changed in the next update. A new kind of fight will be introduced for honor. (More information will follow on that.)
The designers have some rough concepts to improve tournaments. The details still need to be worked out, but they agree that this feature needs to be adapted.

[Plinfut]

Dear players,

We received some more feedback from the development team about some of your ideas and ideas of players from other servers.

Feedback from DE:

• The wish to split the sitter right of reading private messages and chat messages has been heard and will be implemented in one of the next releases (May at the earliest).
• A disposal function for items in the rucksack that are no longer needed is planned for the next release (in May).
• The request of introducing a new guild right for 'House builders' that aren't quite the same as admins has been looked into. We're planning such a feature in May.
• We are aware that the players would like the 'right to inheritance' to be adjusted. It's annoying having to always use care packages. We'll also consider a solution to this, however the release in May is already fully booked with other updates. This means it might be a while until we're able to implement it. We therefore ask for your patience.
• We agree that the tournaments aren't working so well at the moment. This is also an issue that we'd like to get working on as soon as possible. However this will not be ready until sometime after the release in May (see above).

Feedback from COM:

• As one or two of you have already probably realised, we've implemented your request of having Gaia's gifts rotate more often. Unfortunately this was not possible until the last release for technical reasons, however we've made it possible now. We decided against a set cycle and / or a set number of rotating items in order to be able to surprise you all a little – so it's worth visiting Gaia more often in future!
• We received the interesting idea of having a special guest list for the 'bathing' social activity so that you don't have to search for people in the friends list so often. We're looking into whether such a feature is possible. There might be some technical complications that could arise. We can't promise anything just yet, but we've accepted the idea – if it's possible, we'd like to do it.
• Your request of making the merchant service more consistent and compatible with chat has been heard. We're currently working on modifying the merchants. It looks like we'll manage to finish it in time for the next release (in May), but we can't guarantee that yet unfortunately.
• Another great idea from your forum was to make it possible to set the map. We're looking into whether it's technically possible (even with such simple issues as this, we cannot know exactly). We will of course try and find this out. It won't be ready until after the May release as we hadn't planned it until now.
• The fact that it's always difficult to find enough people on the .com server for eating and bathing together is a cause of frustration. We've finally managed to find a solution to this urgent problem which will be implemented in the approaching release (May). We are confident that it will make it significantly easier for you all to find each other and achieve the maximum SP yield.

Feedback from IT:

• You came up with the good idea of adding a search function to the blogs similar to the one found in the forum. We're currently checking whether that's possible. If so, then there should be nothing standing in the way of its implementation. However the question remains of when we can find time to implement it. Our May release is already over booked with updates, therefore it might be difficult to have it done in time for this release. We should be able to manage with a later release. Thanks for the suggestion!
• Yet another good idea that some of you came up with is to have a display of the number of items already placed in a room whilst decorating the house. We're currently looking into it. It's also unlikely that this feature will be ready in time for the May release, but if it's technically possible, we'd like to implement this idea.

Feedback from NET:

• We would like to modify the tournaments over the course of the coming weeks. The fact that there aren't any tournaments on NET at all at the moment is something that definitely needs to be changed. We'll work on that as soon as possible. As the tournament programming is relatively complicated, we're unable to promise that it'll be implemented during the next release (in May), although we'll try our best. However we will not release the feature prematurely, only to have it functioning less than ideally.
• Some of you wanted to enable everyone to reach the goblins during generation 1 of the game. This would require a lot of work to adjust, therefore we're not going to alter this in all likelihood. We ask for your understanding!

Feedback from FR:

• Some of you have been asking, why you can't begin generation 2 with a certain amount of starting capital. It's currently set so that you all already receive plenty of things: All of the SP as well as all furniture. You also have much of your gold passed down (200 gold pieces over 10 days). Therefore you shouldn't get too bothered by your first generation change. Nevertheless, we're currently looking over the rules of inheritance at the moment which means that there may possibly be a change here in one of the next releases. We're unable to say any more about that at this stage.
• Unfortunately, we're not able to offer the transferral of social points as some of you have asked. The problem is that it'd make it relatively easy for some resourceful players to cheat the game and advance through the leaderboard rankings. That's why we will not be implementing such a feature – in order to protect your own accomplishments.

I hope that I've managed to answer a few of the teams' questions, and above all, the players of our national servers. Please remember, yet again (if I haven't already made this point clear enough), that we're not able to guarantee when a feature will be released into the game. Unforeseen delays are possible, both long and short term ones. Therefore our announced dates are not to be taken as binding, but rather as an estimation.

Kind regards
Your Travians Team

[Plinfut]

To the DE team:

• Your wish to have the “Feeding the Beast” extra quest shortened after playing it once (particularly the dialogue) has been heard and will be implemented in one of the next releases. A report about the received reward (piece of furniture) has already been implemented.
• Scaling of the online display:
To the admins: We require more information regarding this issue, which is why we are currently unable to say any more about it. However we're working on it.

To the COM team:

• You came up with the good idea of developing a couple of additional, useful options for the player context-menu. We have planned the expansion of the player context-menu for the next release (in June).
• You also had the interesting idea of introducing a new section in the UI for notifications. However, as we already carried out a range of UI changes last year – for which the feedback was a mixed response – we will not implement any significant changes to the UI for the time being.
• We're unable to offer the transfer of Diamonds as some of you have requested. This feature would have made it relatively easy to cheat the game and unfairly reach the top of the leaderboards. Therefore, in order to protect your achievements, we will not implement this feature.

To the IT team:

• Your wish for an additional use for wax and feathers has been taken on board. We'd generally like to use already existing content as much as possible. Therefore we are working on a possibility of making use of this content in the game again. We aren't yet able to say, when there'll be specific news relating to this though.
• You gave us the feedback that some areas in Travianland, such as the Germanic area, are still relatively unused. We also share this view and so we will try to include these areas more in the future.

To the FR team:
• Seeing goblins that you can't (yet) reach is a side effect that we had to put up with from the implementation, the feature wouldn't have been technically possible otherwise. We are therefore unable to change anything here.
• We're currently working on making parts of the guild menu more intuitively set out. We're not yet able to say when this will be finished.

[Plinfut]

To the DE team:

• You had the great idea of indicating whether an account has a sitter or not. We have therefore planned an expansion to the player context menu for one of the next releases.
• The request to notify players who have been set as a sitter has been accepted and will likely be implemented in the next release.
• Unfortunately for technical reasons it will not be possible to ban players from the house chat. We are therefore not able to change anything with regards to that.
• A reworking of the tournaments is already planned. However due to the complexity of the matter, we're not yet able to say when the implementation will follow.

To the COM team:

• Some of you requested to be able to directly choose any express cave from all the regions without having to go back to the village center. Even though that sounds simple enough, a certain amount of technical work will be required to implement this. We are therefore unable to commit ourselves to it right now but the idea has been taken on board.
• You came up with the suggestion of having search and sort functions for IGMs. We are currently considering whether we will be able to implement this. We can't make any promises here either but the idea has been heard – if it's possible, we would like to implement it.
• You also requested the ability to give away items won at the wheel of fortune. That would technically mean making gifts out of them (such as in Gaia's Giftshop) which will unfortunately not be realized. Since the last release, items that you no longer need can be sold to Hula.

To the IT team:

• You also requested the ability to give away items won at the wheel of fortune. That would technically mean making gifts out of them (such as in Gaia's Giftshop) which will unfortunately not be realized. Since the last release, items that you no longer need can be sold to Hula.
• You had the nice idea of displaying the online status of friends. We will therefore implement this feature in one of the next releases, so you can see whether your friends are online or not.

To the NET team:

• Unfortunately we will not be able to enable the transfer of credits and furniture as some of you have requested. This would make it relatively easy for cunning players to cheat the game and achieve a high position on the leaderboards unfairly. In order to protect your own game achievements, we will not implement this feature.
• You also wanted to be able to personalize your own avatars. Implementing this feature would involve an immense amount of work and could also lead to technical complications. It's unlikely that we will change anything here for these reasons.
• A reworking of the tournaments is already planned. However due to the complexity of the matter, we're not yet able to say when the implementation will follow.

[Plinfut]

To the DE team:

• An expansion of the player context menu, which will enable you to tell if an account currently has a sitter, is planned for the next release (in August).
• A modification of the tournaments is now planned, however due to the complexity of the issue, we are not yet able to say when this will be implemented.
• A option for the purchase of furniture packages would require a lot of work and would also bring with it new problems. However we are still considering offering additional tinkerer sets.
• For technical reasons it will not be possible to ban players from the house chat unfortunately. We are therefore unable to change anything here.

To the COM team:

• You came up with the nice suggestion of having construction loops for artefacts. This feature is already planned and will be implemented in one of the next releases.
• We're considering adjusting the bingo rewards. We are not yet able to provide you with more information on this matter right now.
• For technical reasons it will not be possible to also distribute the bonus for social activities if the activity was not finished within the bonus period but started within it. We are not able to change anything here unfortunately.

To the IT team:

• You have also requested for a change regarding the picking of herbs. We have already planned something here, this will be implemented into the game in one of the next releases.
• We currently considering the possibility of giving the guilds more room. We can't yet say when we'll have more news relating to this matter.
• We're also looking into whether it would be possible to sell letter paper to Penpalus. If it is possible, there should be no problems with introducing this feature. However there's still the question of when we'll have the time to implement it.
• We're also thinking about how we could rework the friends list. As this is a complicated issue, we're not yet able to provide any more information regarding this.

To the NET team:

• Your idea of having an ignore list for the festival hall has been accepted and will be implemented in one of the next releases.
• You also requested to shorten the Thalassos quests (after playing them once). The work which would be required to implement this would be much too great, therefore we are unable to change this.

To the FR team:

• The transfer of social points, which some of you wished for, is a feature that we will not be able to offer you. The feature would make it relatively easy for cunning players to cheat the game and achieve high positions on the leaderboards unfairly. In order to protect your own in game achievements, we will not implement this feature.

[Plinfut]

To the DE team:

• You wanted to have the ability to identify accounts controlled by sitters. An expansion of the player context menu has therefore been planned for the next release (in August) which will be able to display whether an account is currently being controlled by a sitter or not.
• A readjustment of the tournaments has already been planned, however due to the complexity of the issue we're not yet able to say when the implementation will follow.
• Due to technical reasons it is unfortunately not possible to ban players from the house chat. We are therefore unable to make any changes here.

To the COM team:

• Due to technical reasons it is unfortunately not possible to enable guests to use the teleportation mirror. We are therefore unable to make any changes here.
• We are currently looking into how feasible a filter function for reports would be. We are not able to say any more about this at this moment in time.

To the IT team:

• You made the suggestion of having a multi-selection feature for objects in the house editor. We are currently looking into how feasible such a feature would be. We don't have anything against it if it could work. If it's doable, we would like to implement it.
• We have decided against an automatic extension for house staff. If you had several members of house staff, it would be difficult for you to ascertain how so many SP and /or Diamonds are being constantly spent.
• You requested a display for social activities which would show how many participants are currently available. We're looking into how feasible such a feature would be.
• We're currently considering how we could rework the friends list. At this moment in time we're not yet able to give any precise information due to the complexity of the issue.

To the NET team:

• You requested to have goblins which would not look identical to each other in all of the worlds. Right now we're working on this modification but we're not yet able to say when the change will make its way into the game.

I hope that these answers are helpful for the teams and, above all, the players of our different country versions.

[Plinfut]

To the DE team:

• You wanted to have a indication for mass mails, showing for which club or guild it has been sent. If it is not too time consuming, we will implement it in one of the next releases.
• You made the suggestion of having the received number of XP (e.g. for bingo) displayed in blue instead of green. We will integrate this with one of the coming releases.

To the COM team:

• Having an option of purchasing furniture packages would require a lot of work and carry its own set of problems with it. We are however considering offering more tinkerer sets.
• You wanted the house name to be displayed on the mini-map. This is a nice idea but this section of the UI is already pretty full. We will see if we can put the house name down there, but we are not yet able to promise anything.
• The player context menu is already very full, making it unfortunately impossible to expand it by having an online indicator.

To the IT team:

• You made the suggestion of a coop-battle against Tutorix. These coop-battles present a significant, technical challenge, therefore we cannot say whether there will be such a battle against Tutorix in the future. The idea has however been taken on board.
• We are currently thinking about expanding the 'Demon awakening' quest with new rune stone positions and / or new riddles. We are not yet able to provide more details on this matter right now.

To the NET team:

• No ideas or suggestions

To the FR team:

• The spawn behavior of goblins was already changed with the October release. The goblins now spawn differently for each game world.
• Unfortunately we will not be able to offer you the option to transfer social points, furniture, Diamonds etc. for which some of you have asked. The problem is that this would make it relatively easy for some cunning players to cheat the game and achieve high positions on the leaderboards by unfair means. In order to protect your own game achievements, we will not implement such a feature.

I hope these answers are helpful to the teams and, above all, the players of our various country versions.