- Reaction score
- 26
For all of you who were not able to participate today, here is a short transcript of the questions and answers. Apologies if the language feels a bit clumsy, but this is a direct translation of the players' questions as they were asked:
Q:
Would it be possible to reduce the time for resource transport?
A:
It is actually already possible. There is a Premium feature called Merchant Bonus. It gives +50% trading capacity and +50% trading speed. Most worlds do not use this feature, but you can request it for future worlds.
-----
Q:
Will we get more cz and sk communities to the CZ server?
A:
There are currently no such plans.
-----
Q:
When will we get a better attack planner?
A:
There are currently no plans to improve the attack planner. That said, I've been toying with the idea of watching it for quite some time now. We are currently working on a few things and also on a new feature. I can't promise anything but it's possible we can look at it afterwards.
-----
Q:
Are the devs also playing on worlds until the endgame or just on the test servers?
A:
The team (and all other InnoGames employees) are allowed and encouraged to play on live servers, we often start together as a team or with other Inno colleagues on new worlds, but it is very difficult to keep up with the veteran players. Some of us last longer than others, but I usually lose everything in the first weekend.
-----
Q:
Is there an overview of accepted ideas and how many of them have been realized?
We have something called "backlog". This is basically a list of ideas that we want to implement at some point but haven't gotten around to yet. Everything we do is prioritized in this list, so we just need to go from top to bottom, but of course there are lots of variables: requests from other departments, technical decisions like updates or security measures, bug fixes, etc. The cost/benefit ratio is always the the deciding factor on what to implement next (if at all). Cost here is in the form of time invested vs benefit to the most players/the biggest impact on the game
We get help from the CMs to determine if ideas are interesting worldwide or just in one market. but we actually have something planned to involve the players directly much much more in the decision-making process
-----
Q:
Are you still generally thinking about how to make the game more suitable for mobile phones?
A:
Definitely. We make continuous improvements to the mobile app from time to time to improve the player experience. On Android, for example, we saw complaints from players when swiping between villages didn't always feel good, which we then improved. I don't think since then I've seen any complaints about swiping on Android. Of course we also make improvements for iOS for which we also released lots of updates.
-----
Q:
Q:
A number of questions and suggestions regarding minting/coining, everything from an extra Premium feature, to suggestions to increase storage capacity during minting, changes to existing items and additions to KH - so to sum it up briefly; any plans to make minting easier?
A:
There are no immediate plans to change coinage, but I've seen a lot of discussion about it and would like to look into whether we can make this easier for players.
-----
Q:
"Add new automatic features to reduce bots"
A:
One aspect of fighting bots will be that we look at the features they offer (disallowed things remain disallowed of course) and maybe we find a comfort feature we missed and can implement in our game, so that all players can benefit from it without spoiling the experience for others.
-----
Q:
"Is there a way to add two-factor authentication?" (To prevent cosplay)
A:
Currently, there is no two-factor authentication in Tribal Wars. There are no plans to add a mandatory two-factor authentication to enforce the rules. I don't think it would be very effective. If two-factor authentication were to be added to the game, it would be as an account security mechanism and not as a regulatory tool.
-----
Q:
"Adjust the time players get barbs on .net" (Disadvantage for Europeans when villages get barbs at 2am)
A:
This sounds like a good idea, we can check it out!
-----
Q:
"The newer worlds feel so laggy, have there been less resources allocated to worlds?"
A:
There have been no changes to the amount of resources allocated to worlds for quite some time. In fact, servers generally run on improved hardware (faster processors, etc), so performance has improved over time. Looking at the performance metrics, everything looks good too.
From time to time we experience problems in older worlds, especially when it comes to players with a large amount of complex dynamic groups. The calculations done in the background to process dynamic groups can take quite a long time and will result in slow loading of some pages, especially the map and village overview.
-----
Q:
Last year was the 20th anniversary of Tribal Wars. Will there be a celebration every year?
A:
Last year we had our 20th anniversary and so we wanted to celebrate with some fun facts, freebies and a personal photo. This year will not include such an event. But we still have our birthday event that takes place every year in the summer to celebrate Tribal Wars' birthday.
On a side note, I saw players using their personal picture as a profile picture, which made me quite happy. I also use my personal 20 year picture as my desktop wallpaper.
-----
Q:
Are there any new events planned this year?
A:
There are currently no brand new events planned for this year as we are currently working on some other topics. But we're always trying to improve already existing events for a better experience, so we can make adjustments if needed.
-----
Q:
Is it possible to enable push notifications for KÖ accounts?
A:
It is unlikely that we will be able to resolve this due to technical limitations in our backend.
-----
Q:
Would it be possible to receive push notifications from all the accounts I play on? (If I play on different accounts in different worlds)
A:
It is unlikely that we will be able to resolve this due to technical limitations in our backend.
-----
Q:
What does the process look like behind inventing, building and implementing a new event?
A:
At least for the last 2 new events it worked something like this: We look at events if they can be improved or if something new needs to be created. The game designer then works on some concepts and presents them to the team. Then the team decides which concept is best and then the game designer starts working on the design of the new event. When the design is ready, we do a kick-off and the developers usually start working on it. We also do a lot of testing internally before we release to beta. Afterwards, we will release the new event to everyone.
-----
Q:
New game mechanics can often improve the gaming experience. What new game mechanics is the development team currently considering for Tribal Wars to freshen up the game and keep players more engaged?
A:
We are currently working on a new feature that is in the design phase. If activated on a world, players can collect relics by conquering barbarian or player villages. Players can attach relics to a village that provide a buff in a certain radius, depending on the type and quality level of the relic. You can merge 3 relics to create a higher quality relic with larger radius and stronger buff. However, please note that this is still in the design phase and things are subject to change.
-----
Q:
Is there a possibility for a High Performance world on the .nl server?
A:
There are currently 2 Classic worlds in the NL market. Players can ask the community management to run a round in a "High Performance" environment on one of these worlds.
-----
Q:
Our former CM always told us, a long time ago, that the farm rule setting is no longer possible on regular worlds due to the new features added to the game later, and the farm rule is only possible to run on Classic. Do you see any chance of ever making the farm rule possible again for normal worlds, to increase the diversity of settings?
A:
There are certain game settings that should not be used on normal worlds such as farm limit and package academy. These settings are quite complex and difficult for beginners to understand. Especially when the price for not fully understanding the mechanics is quite high. These advanced settings should only be used on Classic worlds.
-----
Q:
Are there any new Endgame scenarios planned?
A:
There are currently no new Endgame scenarios planned. I think we already have a large number of playoff scenarios where some are more popular than others. If necessary, I think a more beneficial strategy would be to improve and update the already existing ones.
-----
Q:
Any chance of public API for modders?
A:
Apart from the current (world data) there are no plans to add new ones.
-----
Q:
Why aren't the most popular player scripts added to the game as a feature for everyone?
A:
We are quite open to the idea of doing that and we already do it from time to time. The last script we implemented in the game was a script that improved the tagging tool. If you think there is a script that would greatly improve the player experience, please forward it to your local Community Manager.
-----
Q:
Will there be more improvements to the mobile apps?
A:
Already answered in another question above
-----
Q:
How many people are in the development team, are they full time?
A:
Tribal Wars has a team of 8, Devs, GD, QA, PM. Everyone is full time, we share a sys admin with other games and get an artist if we need one, since TW isn't that graphics heavy.
Q:
Would it be possible to reduce the time for resource transport?
A:
It is actually already possible. There is a Premium feature called Merchant Bonus. It gives +50% trading capacity and +50% trading speed. Most worlds do not use this feature, but you can request it for future worlds.
-----
Q:
Will we get more cz and sk communities to the CZ server?
A:
There are currently no such plans.
-----
Q:
When will we get a better attack planner?
A:
There are currently no plans to improve the attack planner. That said, I've been toying with the idea of watching it for quite some time now. We are currently working on a few things and also on a new feature. I can't promise anything but it's possible we can look at it afterwards.
-----
Q:
Are the devs also playing on worlds until the endgame or just on the test servers?
A:
The team (and all other InnoGames employees) are allowed and encouraged to play on live servers, we often start together as a team or with other Inno colleagues on new worlds, but it is very difficult to keep up with the veteran players. Some of us last longer than others, but I usually lose everything in the first weekend.
-----
Q:
Is there an overview of accepted ideas and how many of them have been realized?
- Of the ideas that have been accepted but not yet implemented, is there an internal order in which to implement them?
- If so, what does this look like?
- What criteria are used to determine how the ideas are prioritized internally?
We have something called "backlog". This is basically a list of ideas that we want to implement at some point but haven't gotten around to yet. Everything we do is prioritized in this list, so we just need to go from top to bottom, but of course there are lots of variables: requests from other departments, technical decisions like updates or security measures, bug fixes, etc. The cost/benefit ratio is always the the deciding factor on what to implement next (if at all). Cost here is in the form of time invested vs benefit to the most players/the biggest impact on the game
We get help from the CMs to determine if ideas are interesting worldwide or just in one market. but we actually have something planned to involve the players directly much much more in the decision-making process
-----
Q:
Are you still generally thinking about how to make the game more suitable for mobile phones?
A:
Definitely. We make continuous improvements to the mobile app from time to time to improve the player experience. On Android, for example, we saw complaints from players when swiping between villages didn't always feel good, which we then improved. I don't think since then I've seen any complaints about swiping on Android. Of course we also make improvements for iOS for which we also released lots of updates.
-----
Q:
- Why is there no standardization for scripts?
- Is an update to the app planned? If so, is there a release date?
- We've been actively thinking about potential future changes to scripts and standardizing them, but it's a complicated topic so there's nothing to announce yet.
- We recently released a fairly large update for our iOS app, and hope to soon release an update for the Android app as well. If you have particular areas that are problematic with our apps, please let us know via a support ticket.
Q:
A number of questions and suggestions regarding minting/coining, everything from an extra Premium feature, to suggestions to increase storage capacity during minting, changes to existing items and additions to KH - so to sum it up briefly; any plans to make minting easier?
A:
There are no immediate plans to change coinage, but I've seen a lot of discussion about it and would like to look into whether we can make this easier for players.
-----
Q:
"Add new automatic features to reduce bots"
A:
One aspect of fighting bots will be that we look at the features they offer (disallowed things remain disallowed of course) and maybe we find a comfort feature we missed and can implement in our game, so that all players can benefit from it without spoiling the experience for others.
-----
Q:
"Is there a way to add two-factor authentication?" (To prevent cosplay)
A:
Currently, there is no two-factor authentication in Tribal Wars. There are no plans to add a mandatory two-factor authentication to enforce the rules. I don't think it would be very effective. If two-factor authentication were to be added to the game, it would be as an account security mechanism and not as a regulatory tool.
-----
Q:
"Adjust the time players get barbs on .net" (Disadvantage for Europeans when villages get barbs at 2am)
A:
This sounds like a good idea, we can check it out!
-----
Q:
"The newer worlds feel so laggy, have there been less resources allocated to worlds?"
A:
There have been no changes to the amount of resources allocated to worlds for quite some time. In fact, servers generally run on improved hardware (faster processors, etc), so performance has improved over time. Looking at the performance metrics, everything looks good too.
From time to time we experience problems in older worlds, especially when it comes to players with a large amount of complex dynamic groups. The calculations done in the background to process dynamic groups can take quite a long time and will result in slow loading of some pages, especially the map and village overview.
-----
Q:
Last year was the 20th anniversary of Tribal Wars. Will there be a celebration every year?
A:
Last year we had our 20th anniversary and so we wanted to celebrate with some fun facts, freebies and a personal photo. This year will not include such an event. But we still have our birthday event that takes place every year in the summer to celebrate Tribal Wars' birthday.
On a side note, I saw players using their personal picture as a profile picture, which made me quite happy. I also use my personal 20 year picture as my desktop wallpaper.
-----
Q:
Are there any new events planned this year?
A:
There are currently no brand new events planned for this year as we are currently working on some other topics. But we're always trying to improve already existing events for a better experience, so we can make adjustments if needed.
-----
Q:
Is it possible to enable push notifications for KÖ accounts?
A:
It is unlikely that we will be able to resolve this due to technical limitations in our backend.
-----
Q:
Would it be possible to receive push notifications from all the accounts I play on? (If I play on different accounts in different worlds)
A:
It is unlikely that we will be able to resolve this due to technical limitations in our backend.
-----
Q:
What does the process look like behind inventing, building and implementing a new event?
A:
At least for the last 2 new events it worked something like this: We look at events if they can be improved or if something new needs to be created. The game designer then works on some concepts and presents them to the team. Then the team decides which concept is best and then the game designer starts working on the design of the new event. When the design is ready, we do a kick-off and the developers usually start working on it. We also do a lot of testing internally before we release to beta. Afterwards, we will release the new event to everyone.
-----
Q:
New game mechanics can often improve the gaming experience. What new game mechanics is the development team currently considering for Tribal Wars to freshen up the game and keep players more engaged?
A:
We are currently working on a new feature that is in the design phase. If activated on a world, players can collect relics by conquering barbarian or player villages. Players can attach relics to a village that provide a buff in a certain radius, depending on the type and quality level of the relic. You can merge 3 relics to create a higher quality relic with larger radius and stronger buff. However, please note that this is still in the design phase and things are subject to change.
-----
Q:
Is there a possibility for a High Performance world on the .nl server?
A:
There are currently 2 Classic worlds in the NL market. Players can ask the community management to run a round in a "High Performance" environment on one of these worlds.
-----
Q:
Our former CM always told us, a long time ago, that the farm rule setting is no longer possible on regular worlds due to the new features added to the game later, and the farm rule is only possible to run on Classic. Do you see any chance of ever making the farm rule possible again for normal worlds, to increase the diversity of settings?
A:
There are certain game settings that should not be used on normal worlds such as farm limit and package academy. These settings are quite complex and difficult for beginners to understand. Especially when the price for not fully understanding the mechanics is quite high. These advanced settings should only be used on Classic worlds.
-----
Q:
Are there any new Endgame scenarios planned?
A:
There are currently no new Endgame scenarios planned. I think we already have a large number of playoff scenarios where some are more popular than others. If necessary, I think a more beneficial strategy would be to improve and update the already existing ones.
-----
Q:
Any chance of public API for modders?
A:
Apart from the current (world data) there are no plans to add new ones.
-----
Q:
Why aren't the most popular player scripts added to the game as a feature for everyone?
A:
We are quite open to the idea of doing that and we already do it from time to time. The last script we implemented in the game was a script that improved the tagging tool. If you think there is a script that would greatly improve the player experience, please forward it to your local Community Manager.
-----
Q:
Will there be more improvements to the mobile apps?
A:
Already answered in another question above
-----
Q:
How many people are in the development team, are they full time?
A:
Tribal Wars has a team of 8, Devs, GD, QA, PM. Everyone is full time, we share a sys admin with other games and get an artist if we need one, since TW isn't that graphics heavy.