Concerns About the Change to Sitting

[Thunder TA]

"If this does put pressure on people to either be here or pay for someone else to sit, I think that kind of fits the game description (A strategy game for hardcore players)."

Yet every description and reason everythings being done is for the excuse it helps the casual player.I understand what they are trying to do ,and what it will do for the game money wise, My issue is basically dont sugar coat it and try to say it will help everyone when its basically for one group because thats who will use it. Call it for what it is and dont pretend no one can see it.

Kinda like the reply earlier that basically were all wrong because we dont agree with them.They can do as was also posted whatever they want. Their game and money.Bit dont pretend everyones children .Most everyone in this thread have also played since the beginning.

We want the game to thrive also.

[Band of Horses]

"If this does put pressure on people to either be here or pay for someone else to sit, I think that kind of fits the game description (A strategy game for hardcore players)."

Yet every description and reason everythings being done is for the excuse it helps the casual player.

It gives the casual player the ability to play in a hardcore environment.

[Thunder TA]

Cough BS cough

[arthas]

Anytime you pay RL money for a feature that will allow you to have in game advantages is in a way, a P2W feature. The army in/out, avoiding PKs, real time province management while being chained, this takes a certain amount of dedication and craft from players. Being able to simply "pay" others to do it for you does not promote a fair gameplay in my IMO. As has been said, others who are willing to pay will definitely have an edge.

[DavidC]

The entire discussion concerning the implementation of this feature was to cater to casual players that want to be competitive. This is a fact (and likely recorded in our weekly meeting).
The second part to this discussion was how do we ensure it doesn't become a feature that top (land/nw/warring) kds can abuse. This is where we determined that every time a sitter is set (whether for 1 hour or 23 hours) will remove 1 full day from the 21 day maximum days allowed for an account to be sat. The loophole that has been pointed out this age by abandoning, inviting and resetting sitter for 21 days will be removed with our next age changes. However, this particular loophole really has nothing to do with how this new aspect of sitting affects the game because they are not taking advantage of the less than 24 hour cancellation; it could be taken advantage of in the future by utilizing the less than 24 hour aspect and we will not allow this.

Overall, we asked ourselves this same question: will this be good for the game? Our answer was yes. This is why it was implemented. We feel that allowing casual players another method with which they can be more competitive will bring positive results and growth to the game, which is always our main objective.

[drkzeraga]

Hey David I have a brilliant suggestion. Could you sell something that will refresh spell duration? Like just automatically cast certain spells at certain times and you can even set the target etc. Or even have a function to automatically raze and build buildings. Or train troops. Or attack.

I'm sure it will be a huge hit among casual players like myself, who is too lazy to even find someone to sit for me. I'll be looking forward to more such pay-for-convenience features in the future.

[Volcanon]

Just wanted to throw my 2c in there cause there seems to be a lot of odd backlash to this.

This sitting feature is not pay to win, in fact its now _cheaper_ to sit than it was before. Prior to this change, I would always load up 2 days to ensure my hits were covered and I could recover my province when its convenient for me. Now the convenience factor is built in, and I can now load up 1 day at a time as needed. This means I'll actually spend less on sitting, my kd mates will feel less pressure when we need to wave at an odd time, and I will feel more in control of my schedule playing Utopia. Overall a win, win, win.

I'm a huge fan of this change to sitting - it will make my life a lot easier. Thanks guys!

[Thunder TA]

You still making bots for a few kds ? Might need one

[Tadpole]

Loving this. I can see how some kds will use this more than others, but with the 21 days (or 21 odd hits over the span of an age) limit. I don't see it beeing p2w really. Same kds paying for sitting now making sure all hits are aiao, will be paying for this.

I'm actually tempted to play competitively again under this change though, says something.

[Darkmoore]

Making it anything less that 24 hours is for people who are not casual players..
A casual player would not mind 24 hours break..

[Thunder TA]

It means you have been slacking frog boy

[Sweetiepie]

The entire discussion concerning the implementation of this feature was to cater to casual players that want to be competitive.

It does kind of read that you want to make more recruits available to the ultra competitive monarchs at the top, so they can fill their slots with slightly more casual people who are not prepared to be available at any and all times to wave, because we all know they struggle to recruit and retain. I think we can all see that there is not suddenly going to be a stampede of absolutely new players joining up simply to play competitively and I can't recall anyone even starting a thread in forums or hearing a lot of complaints of those hoping for something like this so that they could achieve their dream of playing a 'drone' province in a particular nw band.

The consequences could be:

a) those playing non competitively now in semi retirement lower tiers emigrate back to the top and thus overall play gets worse in terms of knowledge and potentially more farming with impunity, with negative consequences for the mass experience, and a negative effect of number of players
b) those who played once come out of retirement improving numbers
c) both - hence numbers canceling each other out but the player base changing
d) a negative experience in the war tier potentially leading to number drop.
e) a mix of the above
f) it all works hunky dorey, numbers go up and everyone is happy


It looks as if the appetite is again to cater to desires/needs/wishlist of a few individuals without much thought as to potential impact elsewhere on the server. I'd be more reassured if your 'actual meeting notes' had mentioned covered potential downstream consequences too.

True growth is going to come from the downstream not the upstream and for years the downstream voices have been drowned out until there are few even come into this forum. On a positive note I hope the 30 second video reach outs during tick will help the downstream and that's a positive note. For years they have been given no thought at all.

I guess we will just have to wait and see what the results are.

[khronosschoty]

It does kind of read that you want to make more recruits available to the ultra competitive monarchs at the top, so they can fill their slots with slightly more casual people who are not prepared to be available at any and all times to wave, because we all know they struggle to recruit and retain. I think we can all see that there is not suddenly going to be a stampede of absolutely new players joining up simply to play competitively and I can't recall anyone even starting a thread in forums or hearing a lot of complaints of those hoping for something like this so that they could achieve their dream of playing a 'drone' province in a particular nw band.

The consequences could be:

a) those playing non competitively now in semi retirement lower tiers emigrate back to the top and thus overall play gets worse in terms of knowledge and potentially more farming with impunity, with negative consequences for the mass experience, and a negative effect of number of players
b) those who played once come out of retirement improving numbers
c) both - hence numbers canceling each other out but the player base changing
d) a negative experience in the war tier potentially leading to number drop.
e) a mix of the above
f) it all works hunky dorey, numbers go up and everyone is happy


It looks as if the appetite is again to cater to desires/needs/wishlist of a few individuals without much thought as to potential impact elsewhere on the server. I'd be more reassured if your 'actual meeting notes' had mentioned covered potential downstream consequences too.

True growth is going to come from the downstream not the upstream and for years the downstream voices have been drowned out until there are few even come into this forum. On a positive note I hope the 30 second video reach outs during tick will help the downstream and that's a positive note. For years they have been given no thought at all.

I guess we will just have to wait and see what the results are.

If I understand you correctly, I agree.

[Verminator]

Pay 2 win implies that you have an unfair advantage. This is not unfair since there are no ingame items or DLC. The sitter gets no extra tools, it is sill a person behind a keyboard playing by the same rules as if the owner was there.

If I am Player A in Scenario A, and you are Player A in Scenario B. If I decide to sleep the full night or if I decide to wake up and check ticks during the night, that is fully up to me and allowed. If I decide to stay up for 24hrs straight, checking my prov and micromanaging what UNFAIR advantage do you in Scenario B have over me? What did I give up? Sleep. I could have paid $1 to sleep. That's not an ingame advantage.

The biggest flaw in your argument is that you present it as a "choice" to wake up in the middle of the night. It is simply not so for everyone. Plus you're switching back and forth between saying it gives no "in-game advantage" and it gives no "unfair/competitive advantage" which are not mutually exclusive things. In-game is playing the game at its base level, whereas competitive is playing the game at a much higher level. I realize waffling between those two concepts makes it easier to always be right, but you're playing both sides of the field in order to always be right and it's not like we can't see you doing it. ;)

[Verminator]

It gives the casual player the ability to play in a hardcore environment.

Except they're not playing in that environment, they're getting someone else to play for them. All the aspects that turn the normal environment into a hardcore environment (waking up in the middle of the night to hit for instance) can now be passed off to someone else to deal with. It doesn't change the way the casual player plays much at all, except maybe that they're paying more money into the game than before.

"Aha" ...