Posts by Amazon

What is the quest you are trying to finish? If, for instance, it is to attack a barbarian, it doesn't matter which one you attack. The arrows just show one that is close to you, but it doesn't have to be that one. Just make sure it is a level 1.

I think the trick to making money from the game is first, to make the game so enjoyable that people really want to play it and second, to then give perks that enhance the enjoyment but need to be bought. A lot of the things that can be bought with turquoise are really unbalanced or not worth it.
For example, the blessings. Ik gives you increased production of 2 resources but not the 3rd, which is the scarcest to start with, decreases building time somewhat and adds 1 spot to your building queue. That additional spot is pointless when it takes days to build even 1 building. It's not a good bundle, except maybe very early. Similar points could be made for the others.
The cost of feathers is ludicrous and what they do should be a part of the game that is free. That is part of making it enjoyable. Improvements to the tribe interface have been suggested so many times it is ridiculous, and yet nothing is done. This too is a basic part of any cooperative game.
It's rather similar to producing a car that has basic features like wheels and a roof, but it only gets 5 mpg and can't go above 20 mph and the steering doesn't work too well. However you can purchase options to make it look pretty, such as special trim or hubcaps. No one would buy such a car.
Frequently I get a message to click to upload the latest version, but never is there any hint of what has been changed. Is it just the barbarian reset, or are there real changes happening? In any other game I have played, the devs keep the players in the loop about the changes, naming the bug fixes or enhancements done.
The overall impression is that the devs don't give a crap about what players want from the game, kind of a "take it or leave it" attitude. And frankly, I'm becoming inclined to leave it.
I too have spent lots of money on games but I am particular how it spend it. The option purchased has to have value.

I don't like how personal messages are lumped in with reports and can be easily missed. Also they get deleted so you can't refer to them later. There should be a way to save mail other than to copy/paste it to some other place. For that matter, there should be a way to save battle reports permanently if you think they are important for some reason.

I don't quite understand what you are suggesting.
However, I do think it is silly to have to upgrade the tribal council when it serves no purpose other than to join or start a tribe. Either make the upgrades do something, or omit the need for them.

Yes it's odd you can zoom out on your city but not on the map.

There has been a ridiculous amount of lag lately, particularly on Copan. It often takes minutes rather than seconds to log on and sometimes it won't load at all, or when it does it only loads partially. Refreshing the page just causes a new lag. What is is going on?

Well... here I am Amazon.

I am old enough to know better but too young to resist.

I play several servers under different names. Amazon is my name on Copan.

It certainly is complex. My eyes were crossed by the time I finished reading it. I'm still not sure I get it completely, but I have the general idea. Thank you.

#1 is ridiculously low, and #'s 2 and 3 are no protection at all. Admit it, the game is made for bullies. Say someone has reached the marvelously high score of 2500 points. If he has an army at all, it's small and weak. Now someone with 24.9k points can attack him and reduce him to ashes. After that he is still fair game for anyone else. So player 1 defeats him and he has protection from player 1 for 12 whopping hours. No defense against player 2, 3, 4, etc.
There is not a scrap of fairness in this anywhere. It is completely unbalanced.

But you are overlooking the point that everyone doesn't start the same day. If someone is just beginning on a server, even if he is an experienced player, he doesn't have a chance against well-established ones. So the result is, many people quit early, and this benefits no one. Once an inactive player has been fully looted (if it's even worthwhile to loot him) his city just clutter the map and no one gets any benefit. And the chances of his returning to an even worse situation are nil.
I do not see how letting big players drive little players out of the game is beneficial even to the big players for more than a heartbeat.

Yes I was lumping them together kind of. I actually meant the notifications window. It is poorly designed for a couple of reasons:
1. it will say things like "sun temple has been expanded to level 30" but not specify in which city.
2. When you are scanning through it and possibly trying to delete some of them, the window will suddenly scroll to the top i.e. latest notification, even though nothing may have changed, and you lose your place or worse yet, delete something you wanted to keep. I don't see the point of having notifications as such. They should just be reports. Full and complete reports. Maybe I'm just spoiled in that regard. I played Tribal Wars for a long time, and it has a great report system. All reports have categories, such as attack, defense, construction, etc, and you can choose which ones you want to see and which ones you don't. In other words, fully customizable to the user.

Can you explain the difference between strength and stamina, and how they relate to attack/defense? It is really not clear, so I don't know which buildings are more critical to expand.

You're such a cynic!

The existing time limit may be ok, though I would make it a week, but the points limit is ludicrous. No one is in a position to protect themselves at that level. I feel the points limit should be eliminated completely or else made much higher (e.g. 50k). The time limit alone would suffice.

Allowing people to attack someone 1/10th their size just encourages bullying. It is particularly difficult for someone who is just getting established to have someone who is well-established to start farming them.

You would not allow this kind of activity in real life (a 10-yr old beating up a 1-yr old, 10 guys vs 1, etc). Please don't allow it in the game.

The absolute max should be 2x.

Currently, if you want to see the requirements for the next level of a building or research, you have to be in the appropriate season. You need to be able to see them to decide whether or not to switch seasons. This info needs to be available at all times, so you don't waste time and production changing seasons, only to find you don't have the requisite resources and have to wait to switch back.

When you spy a barbarian, the heading says "Spy report of [coords] name of barbarian city". This is good.
When you attack a barbarian, the heading says "Battle report: Player vs barbarians". There is nothing to tie it to the previous spy report until you display the full report. Why not have it say ""Battle report: Player vs barbarians [coords] name of barbarian city"?

On a similar note, when spying a player, the heading says "Spy report of [coords] city name".
When attacking a player, the heading says "Battle report: Player vs player". Again, at first glance there is no connection between the two reports.

It would be better if both spy reports and battle reports headings included the coords, city name and player name.

When I use the word "heading" I am referring also to the subject in the inbox.

Some things that occur show up only in activity and not in reports (such as when you send troops or resources to another player, or get spied by another player). The activity list gets too cluttered and there is no kind of permanent record. If you have been attacked, you get a report and see that when you get back online, but not when you get spied or someone sends you something.

IMHO the activity list should only contain items that are current i.e. happening now, and when they are over they should become reports. This is what happens when you do the spying, but not when it is done to you. Once they become reports they should be deleted from the activity list.

You need to see incoming as activity, but not after it is over.

OK thanks.

It seems the emphasis is on "eventually". One aspect of the hints that drives me crazy is that they often aren't even relevant. For instance, say I have a resource developed as far as I want it. Now all I want to do is collect and produce there. But because if I did want to upgrade it, I would need more population, every time I click on it I get a hint to upgrade the sun temple.

If and when the settings are changed to disable hints, it would be nice if they could be disabled individually rather than en masse. Something like "do not show this again".