I know I'm shouting into the abyss here but I do love this game and want it to keep existing and be the best it can be.
Why do Victory Point worlds exist?
Now, I don't have access to any kind of TW2 player base figures but worlds feel smaller than they did back in the day, I remember when all of the worlds were Domination only. I quit for a couple of years, came back, and VP worlds were a thing - a new inception (now old) which I believe was implemented as a means to give a more definitive closure to a world victory.
I vividly remember some sort of message coming out from Inno about why they were adding VP worlds and I think it was because they felt as though Domination worlds went on for too long - Don't hold me to that because I'm just recounting from vague memories but it makes sense. Domination worlds can take a while to end and here is an obvious fact:
It suits the revenue streams of Inno to have
a) frequent worlds
b) shorter worlds
Why is this? Well, when are crowns sunk into the game? Within the closing weeks? Or the opening? The answer is obvious. So, by having more frequent worlds - though I believe they were always monthly (?), and having shorter worlds, means Inno is gonna gain more revenue through crowns purchases.
And I'm not here complaining about that, business is business. But when it disrupts the overall playstyle of the game then perhaps there is an issue.
What is the issue?
So I recently came back to the game on W90 - had probably been about 6 years since I played before that, and I believe it was the first VP world I played with any longevity. Anyway, I won that world and played a major role in securing KAT the victory - whatever. But what I noticed was that the overall gameplay was tainted because of the pursuit of victory points.
Instead of players seeking out the best villages for growth, or focusing on shoring up their hub provinces, or focusing enemies on the map. There was a tendency for them to go for easy villages in new provinces, barbs even, just to secure a VP and climb the player rankings.
Perhaps at minimum Inno could change how the player rankings work and make them point-based so that people aren't incentivised into sub-par gameplay.
I will just say - who am I to define it as sub-par? There is no one way to play this game, but surely others have noticed major deviations between how VP worlds and Domination worlds play out. Isn't that a major reason as to why Domination worlds have higher player counts, or that the player base is dwindling? (Obviously, people don't want to play against bug abusers either so that needs sorting).
I like to think there are better options. I actually like the idea of VPs but the execution is a bit flawed in my opinion. A victory point could actually be attributed to players/tribes for controlling a province by ridding it of active threats. That's what the game's about right?
So if a tribe were to control 50% of active villages within a province maybe that would be sufficient dominance to grant a Victory Point.
W90 might be a bit of an outlier because that world was absolutely destroyed within a month. But then I look at W92 right now and there are players with 8 VPs and 16 villages... it just seems so wrong, because that player is not the strongest in the game - is that not what ranks should indicate - strength? Why are the leaderboards structured to incentivise this kind of gameplay...
I was even rank 1 on W89 and W90 at the same time because of how flawed the VP player rankings are. On w90 I was the strongest player and deserved the rank, but on W89 I was so weak - but just because I secured my hub province and was a rim player I was able to get cheap and easy VPs. It's just flawed and incentivises poor gameplay.
Anyway, I just think there's an opportunity for Inno to implement a new server type to bring back old players or bring in new ones - or as mentioned, revamp the VP world idea into something that incentivises similar gameplay strategies to Domination worlds (which are more popular, but last longer and so aren't as economically viable to Inno).
Potential Server Types:
Domination
Domination Points (A point to tribes who control 50% of a province) - Keep a points-based player leaderboard
Victory Points (But only for tribes - the player ranking system is SO flawed.)
King of the Hills Server - Tribes look to control 4 provinces equally spread out around the 4 corners of the map. Think (484/479) and its symmetrical counterparts
Speed Servers - Why don't these already exist? Just have a pay-in fee of X amount of crowns and walah - you've got yourself a cash cow.
Water worlds - Add patches of water for water villages that have the unique ability to recruit a specific ship, which can only attack in a 1-tile radius, but is a strong unit that encourages players to capture them.
These are just off the top of my head. I just feel as though there's an opportunity to grow the game and you're letting it stagnate - or worse, dwindle into a game that used to exist.
Last Thing
Give us some infrastructure. You let 3rd party sites that offered immense value die or worse - you pressured them legally out of existence. Think Tw2-tools, or TW2 stats.
Give us a map generator, a global leaderboard system, and a battle calculator so we don't have to use Excel sheets.... Like, come on.... it's a joke how little infrastructure this game has.
I know it's a long post but can you think of potential server types that Inno could at least contemplate? Do you think the VP servers are flawed too? Why/why not?
Why do Victory Point worlds exist?
Now, I don't have access to any kind of TW2 player base figures but worlds feel smaller than they did back in the day, I remember when all of the worlds were Domination only. I quit for a couple of years, came back, and VP worlds were a thing - a new inception (now old) which I believe was implemented as a means to give a more definitive closure to a world victory.
I vividly remember some sort of message coming out from Inno about why they were adding VP worlds and I think it was because they felt as though Domination worlds went on for too long - Don't hold me to that because I'm just recounting from vague memories but it makes sense. Domination worlds can take a while to end and here is an obvious fact:
It suits the revenue streams of Inno to have
a) frequent worlds
b) shorter worlds
Why is this? Well, when are crowns sunk into the game? Within the closing weeks? Or the opening? The answer is obvious. So, by having more frequent worlds - though I believe they were always monthly (?), and having shorter worlds, means Inno is gonna gain more revenue through crowns purchases.
And I'm not here complaining about that, business is business. But when it disrupts the overall playstyle of the game then perhaps there is an issue.
What is the issue?
So I recently came back to the game on W90 - had probably been about 6 years since I played before that, and I believe it was the first VP world I played with any longevity. Anyway, I won that world and played a major role in securing KAT the victory - whatever. But what I noticed was that the overall gameplay was tainted because of the pursuit of victory points.
Instead of players seeking out the best villages for growth, or focusing on shoring up their hub provinces, or focusing enemies on the map. There was a tendency for them to go for easy villages in new provinces, barbs even, just to secure a VP and climb the player rankings.
Perhaps at minimum Inno could change how the player rankings work and make them point-based so that people aren't incentivised into sub-par gameplay.
I will just say - who am I to define it as sub-par? There is no one way to play this game, but surely others have noticed major deviations between how VP worlds and Domination worlds play out. Isn't that a major reason as to why Domination worlds have higher player counts, or that the player base is dwindling? (Obviously, people don't want to play against bug abusers either so that needs sorting).
I like to think there are better options. I actually like the idea of VPs but the execution is a bit flawed in my opinion. A victory point could actually be attributed to players/tribes for controlling a province by ridding it of active threats. That's what the game's about right?
So if a tribe were to control 50% of active villages within a province maybe that would be sufficient dominance to grant a Victory Point.
W90 might be a bit of an outlier because that world was absolutely destroyed within a month. But then I look at W92 right now and there are players with 8 VPs and 16 villages... it just seems so wrong, because that player is not the strongest in the game - is that not what ranks should indicate - strength? Why are the leaderboards structured to incentivise this kind of gameplay...
I was even rank 1 on W89 and W90 at the same time because of how flawed the VP player rankings are. On w90 I was the strongest player and deserved the rank, but on W89 I was so weak - but just because I secured my hub province and was a rim player I was able to get cheap and easy VPs. It's just flawed and incentivises poor gameplay.
Anyway, I just think there's an opportunity for Inno to implement a new server type to bring back old players or bring in new ones - or as mentioned, revamp the VP world idea into something that incentivises similar gameplay strategies to Domination worlds (which are more popular, but last longer and so aren't as economically viable to Inno).
Potential Server Types:
Domination
Domination Points (A point to tribes who control 50% of a province) - Keep a points-based player leaderboard
Victory Points (But only for tribes - the player ranking system is SO flawed.)
King of the Hills Server - Tribes look to control 4 provinces equally spread out around the 4 corners of the map. Think (484/479) and its symmetrical counterparts
Speed Servers - Why don't these already exist? Just have a pay-in fee of X amount of crowns and walah - you've got yourself a cash cow.
Water worlds - Add patches of water for water villages that have the unique ability to recruit a specific ship, which can only attack in a 1-tile radius, but is a strong unit that encourages players to capture them.
These are just off the top of my head. I just feel as though there's an opportunity to grow the game and you're letting it stagnate - or worse, dwindle into a game that used to exist.
Last Thing
Give us some infrastructure. You let 3rd party sites that offered immense value die or worse - you pressured them legally out of existence. Think Tw2-tools, or TW2 stats.
Give us a map generator, a global leaderboard system, and a battle calculator so we don't have to use Excel sheets.... Like, come on.... it's a joke how little infrastructure this game has.
I know it's a long post but can you think of potential server types that Inno could at least contemplate? Do you think the VP servers are flawed too? Why/why not?
