Diminishing returns

[Volk]

Hello guys and gals. It’s my second time (and quite certainly last time) trying to address the issue of diminishing returns for playing.

What I mean by “diminishing returns” is the fact that the more you play, upgrade your cards, kingdoms and even level up, the less you will earn in terms of gold and PvP points. I mainly talk about gold but PvP points are the same.

Let starts with the basics on the way it works right now, based on my own observations and a bit of discussion with Nimhain.

First, the game seem to give you a supposed Player Value which depend on : team values, progress of the guild you’re in, your progress in leveling and starring of your kingdoms. This value is then compared to the opponent team value to determine gold and PvP points earned from a specific battle. At least it’s pretty much what it seems to be.
This means that players with teams exceeding in value your own Player Value will earn you more, and players with teams lesser than your own Player Value will earn you less. (My guess is that when opponent Team value and your own are equals it rewards you 1000 golds).

Secondly, the game seems to have a minimum value for earnings which concern only the weaker teams. I can clearly remember at the beginning that weaker opponents would be worth only 500 golds, but now my minimum seems to have increased to reach 700 golds.

That’s for how the game calculate earnings.

For example : I estimate my Player Value at around 7500 (1000 golds earning).
Players in the 4000 range nets me ~720 golds.
Players in the 5000 range nets me ~730 golds.
Players in the 6000 range nets me ~735 golds.
Players in the 7000 range nets me ~780 golds.
Players in the 8000 range nets me ~1400 golds.
Players in the 9000 range nets me ~1900 golds.
Players in the 9500 range nets me ~2000 golds.

In these data you can roughly see how the earnings evolves with the difference between Player Value and opponent team value. You can also see the minimum earning I was talking about.

Well all that is quite good but what is my issue with it would you say ? I have two problems with this system.

The first one is that when you start, it is quite easy to tackle teams with a value over 2000 points than your own, as teams are quite weak generally speaking at low level. And because it is quite easy to do it you tend to have earnings quite high when you start. But as you level up, get cards, upgrade your kingdoms or even enter a better guild it gets increasingly difficult as teams starts to be quite strong.
The second one is that at some point you can’t fight stronger opponents anymore. When you reach the 9000 and some points your earnings get less and less, as most of your opponents are either weaker or mostly equal to you.

So as you play it gets increasingly difficult to earn the same amount of gold up to the point where you can’t anymore. So my question is : Why are we punished to just play the game ?
It’s driving me insane, theses diminishing rewards got me to stop upgrading my kingdoms and to be scarce when traiting troops just because I want my earnings to stay stable.
I have testimonies of players who are seeing their earnings diminishing too and would like it to change for the better.

Alas I don’t have a “Silver Bullet” to resolve this issue… I believe something must be done to reward the player for tackling strong teams regardless of the Player Value but without making it so it would cause disparities between starting and experienced players.

If you feel like me that something must be done, please I encourage you to give ideas to resolve this issue.

Thanks for reading me.

[Esoxnepa]

There used to be so much less gold in this game.

You used to need to pay for every battle. PvP had you putting up quite a bit of gold, and losing was losing it all, so the game became increasingly stale, as you only played your “I win” teams.

I’m at two kingdoms not at 5 starts, and as long as I put up a high ranked defend team, and always take the top opponent, I’m seeing 900-1,500 gold per match before bonuses.

Stacking a bombot team, and grinding the weakest PvP will gain you so much gold. Depending on your bonuses and your guild bonuses, you can grind out over 100,000 gold an hour.

So you can manage massive gold generation in the game.

[Justin]

While gold per battle decreases, the speed at which you can win increases as your troops grow stronger. Even the armor kingdoms I recently five starred help me win faster, because of troops like Gard’s Avatar and Rowanne. You just have to use all these resources to your advantage to keep your edge.

[LYNDALE]

Not quite Justin. Your wins don’t increase as you get stronger or not for long. You don’t always get great cards and your opponents are stronger. I don’t know your level but it’s easy to find yourself very disadvantaged at level 900+.
100k an hour is not realistic for most players. A few yes. At 2k a game that’s 50 games an hour of wins only. Playing the highest difficulty isn’t feasible for everyone.
I’m pecking away at mythic (starting not leveled) teams for peanuts. I don’t have the cards or arcanes to match the opponents I’m thrown against. So 100k an hour isn’t happening. Since pvp is the only real source of gold you’re pretty much stuck.

[htismaqe]

I have people in my guild that earn double the gold I do. But my fully-leveled, fully-traited teams are most often twice as fast as theirs. Six of one, one half dozen of another.

Plus other than mythic troops which nobody can get without huge luck, I am pretty much guaranteed to get every new troop that comes out because even though I’m earning less I’m also SPENDING less because I have everything done already.

[LYNDALE]

Same here htismaq. Some new players in my guild are raking in far more per battle even though they are half my level. They were able to pull several real mythics. I have just aquired 2 for a total of 3.
Death, pharos Ra, and yesterday wulfgarok. It will be a long time traiting those three.
My opponents will have at least 1 fully traited Mythic. Usually Death and/or famine. Throw in bone dragon for a ‘fun’ time.
If I’m hit with death mark then that troop dies within 2 turns. If I cast DM the opponent lives. This is consistent.
2 people at the same level can have vastly different cards and experiences.
I’m used to bad luck in this game. My Path to glory would give me 40 major yellow. Or whatever the color was. More useless majors! Occasionally got an arcane. The mythic at the end eas Wulfgarok.
Sorry that was long way to say not all 900s are equal. It can be frustrating. Throw in the same set group of opponents and… it needs an overhaul desperately.wish it was soley based in team card levels.
Ok done complaining

[Spherix]

You’re looking at it backwards. You’re not being penalized for making progress. You’re just no longer being given a bonus that’s intended to help new players get through the early game and into the mid-game.

Battles can go significantly faster once you have a decent collection of troops, and can make teams with some synergy. Between mana masteries and gem transformers/creators/exploders, you can charge spells significantly faster as well. As others have said, even if you’re earning less per battle, you should be earning more for the same amount of time.