We at FoE addicts are giving the middle finger to the new blatant pay-to-win (PTW) rivals system.
To let you all in behind the scenes a bit we have three people that regularly contribute to this site and a fourth that helps maintain the site when there are technical issues. All of us play the game and we range from casual to hard core so that brings-in some different perspectives. None of us want to continue doing the rivals everyday so we will stop posting the daily rival quests. For live event we will make one big post containing the information we have here from the beta server.
We were not given advanced information on the rival switch other than a heads-up that there will be mechanic changes starting with the anniversary event. We followed-up with Inno on Monday if this was the plan moving forward and that was yet to be determined but likely yes with some changes based on feedback from Beta server. Well our feedback is the middle finger. Now that seems harsh so let's break this down.
We do not object to harder quests or more quests to get the shinny object which is the eternal market upgrade. We do not object to more of a grind that will separate casual from hard core players in regards to event rewards. We do object to a blatant PTW mechanic and that's what this new rival system is.
If the rival quests were
- defeat x units
- gather goods, coin, supply
- complete x encounters in GE
- some minor quests in the event like unlock 3 gems or something that makes players interract with the event mechanic but is not burdensome
Those are all fine and we wouldn't complain at all. This new rival system does not compliment a player's ability to get further in the event by providing event currency or special advantages. On the contrary the new rival system will drain players of event currency and require them to buy more. Let's repeat for emphasis.
The new rival system requires players to use diamonds to buy currency to complete the challenges and play at least one board a day. The quest may as well be "spend 2k diamonds to buy 850 energy" as a daily quest.
When you look at the quests none of them seem game breaking until you realize that spawning a gem is a gambling mechanic. These quests are not skill based or grind based they are simply go to the cash shop to buy more turns or you don't get all the fragments for the eternal market. FOMO fear of missing out classic bullshit pay to win mechanic.
So this is what we'll be doing moving forward. Focus on the prize line and mostly ignore the rivals. Only play one or two boards max per day. Do not start playing a board until the rival challenge appears. Spawn however many gems you intend to play that board. We are trying 8-12 so see how balanced the event is for currency and right now it's not balanced well at all. Pay attention to the rivals in regards to what pieces you play first. So if the quest is to unlock lv1 pieces then sure do that first. But this is the important part. If you cannot complete the rival without spawning more gems then just ignore the rival and play the board how you would do normally.
If this post seems negative it's because as a group we're pretty pissed at Inno right now. We all play for different reasons but we obviously really enjoy the game and the relationships with other players we've made. We run this site because we're players helping other players. We do it for free. We refuse all ads. You don't have to register like a discord so you can't be tracked. There's no additional information behind a paywall. We're not sponsored. So we have no obligation to provide cover for Inno when they do shitty things like they're doing right now with the new rival system.
If you consume any content from media influencers and they're saying this isn't that bad I guarantee you they are being paid by Inno so they are not serving the community they are serving their sponsors.
So we recommend.
1) play your normal game strategy that budgets boards and spawned gems
2) pay attention to the rival quests that can be done within that strategy
3) if you are playing the rival stop at the second milestone which gives the fragments for eternal market
4) if you complete the daily challenge do not collect on it until quest 7 of rival which may ask for 10 keys of a particular type (sometimes). If by luck the rival quest asks for the reward given by the daily challenge that's a free quest completion for you.
5) complain about the blatant pay to win gambling mechanic so they will feel pressure to change before it comes to live server and all the following events. You have a voice so let it be heard. Be a pain in the ass. Keep sending in reports. Flood the forum and discord with complaints. If any shills are trying to tell you it will be ok and it's not that bad understand they are not on your side. Inno media team has paid influencers for content. People have whored themselves out for what is laughably little money. Recognize it when you see it and disregard anything else they have to say.
Inno's response:
Anniversary Event: Rival Balancing Adjustments
Dear Anniversary Party guests,
thank you all for already providing more feedback and participating in the polls! We have made a couple changes already partly based on the polls and partly based on data we collected since the first rival appeared.
- We increased the time for every Rival Challenge to 2 days, decreasing the total amount of rivals (24 to 12). The first 2 day Rival Challenge will appear on the 1st of March.
- On live the Rival Challenges will appear one day earlier than on beta.
- The difficulty for the Rival Challenge quests has been adjusted, making them more generic and easier.
- Milestone rewards have been changed from 3 and 6 quests to 4 and 8 quests.
- The Milestone rewards have been swapped, the Eternal Market is now available after 4 quests and the boosters after 8.
- All Energy rewards have been removed. Instead, you now gain more from the normal Event Quests , Free Energy Quest from 30 to 60 and 2. Milestone from 500 to 550
- Fragments from Rival Challenges have been increased to allowing you to miss a couple Rivals and still be able to gain all Fragments for the full kit/ally. You now receive a total of 600 for the Eternal Market Platinum Selection Kit (was 500) and 720 for both new Historical Allies (was 600).
We hope that those changes will make the Rivals less stressful and more enjoyable to solve. Of course we still want to hear your thoughts about the Rival Challenges and the Event in general. So please make sure to provide your feedback in and for the Rival in specifically. Thank you very much!
*Your Forge of Empires Team*
End of Inno's response