With all the things that get broken, slowed down, and made worse, I doubt any of the developers actually play this disaster piece for more than 5 consecutive minutes. Whoever beta tested this latest patch and enjoyed looking at a 2 second pathing animation in Explore, cliffy errors while selecting the side quest battles, along with a broken animation when you encounter mimic battles is…very unprofessional. (The mimic battles can only be corrected by exiting out of Explore and then going back into the Kingdom Explore map).
I mean, what exactly was the process of testing the new Explore? Going at a snail’s pace through battles, one by one, while enjoying the time wasted for these new animations and effects? Seriously. Please stop adding new effects and animations that nobody asked for. They just add more problems that are never going to be resolved. As actual players, we just want to get through battles as quickly as possible. Too much “bling” and not enough substance. The artwork and spell designs have always been fantastic, and there is no need to try and measure up to people who care about this game much more than the developers.
Stop overthinking it. Keep it simple. Slow down and stop adding more problems, inefficiency, and lag to the game. People from this community and elsewhere need to fly over to Melbourne and talk some sense into whoever is in charge because our patience can only go so far. They clearly do not understand what we are trying to communicate or they do not care.
No, I was a Beta tester before all the PvP updates, so I have been away from that process for over 2 years now and have no clue what is going on. But I would NEVER volunteer ever again. We can only take so much disrespect and the unprofessional game changes that interrupt our typical habits. The devs mostly do not listen to others anyway. Once they open up the new updates to people, everything is pretty much finalized, and they do not have the time and resources to make adjustments.
New updates focus so much on how it looks, flashy new effects, and other unnecessary changes. It is like we are taking our car in to get the transmission replaced, and instead, we get a new paint job.
Very disappointed in the unnecessary slowdown between explore battles too. What is the point and what does it try to fix? Many posters above alluded to that this could be intentional. If you may Jeto, can you please confirm if this is the case or not?
I have always enjoyed playing explore (over any other game modes) since I started playing 5+ years ago. I like farming medals on my main account and doing GaPs when I have time on my new account. I was actually looking forward to the new explore “improvement” until this. If this stays, I don’t plan to continue to play explore and maybe the game at all. This is not to threaten anyone. I have spent thousands of dollars on my main account and also started spending money on my new account. The game doesn’t owe me an explanation and I don’t owe the game my patronage.
For you @Jeto personally: since this is potentially my last message here on the forum, I have nothing but great things to say about you. People have seen your professionalism, patience, and attention to details on the forum. I have also experienced it first-hand when I had to open tickets twice for my new account. Thank you for your help. I wish you well.
The animations were not added to intentionally slow down players Explore battles.
If anything, it is just to have consistent UI and animation between the Kingdom maps and paths. The Kingdom Quest battles have the path and animation, and as Explore uses it’s own map, the design was carried over.
The animations also show you progressing to the next battle and side quest battles becoming available - while obvious to existing players, is beneficial to new players.
Feedback was shared about this in the beta and the animations were sped up and I also highlighted the existing feedback around animations in Gems of War - also suggesting linking these animations to the existing Animation Speed settings that exist within the game, or just an option to tap to skip the animation.
The team made sure that the amount of clicks required remained the same, and you didn’t have to interact with the map to access the battles like you do in Quests.
I understand the importance of playing Explore battles for farming rewards within a specific period of time - While obviously that is not the design/intention of the game mode - and I did mention before the update went live that there would be comments on the animations and any additional time added (though more specifically to E1-12) once the update went live.
As mentioned in this thread already, the team said it’s something they will be keeping an eye on. At the moment, all I can do is track the number of comments we see from it to pass that on.
Animations will never be something that will be just totally removed though. But the QOLs exist where I have passed on other suggestions to address your comments around them.
I was a beta tester 9 years ago. Had a bit of a falling out with a former staff member. Only toxic staffer in my opinion of amazing folks over the years. I still believe they are more 505 Games aligned than Infinity Plus 2. (Not Salty ladies and gents. I loved Salty, someone else behind the scenes)
That is all to say beta testers use to have a logo or emblem in their profile here. Would be a cool thing to utilize again for those who still partake.
We do not add the beta emblem to profiles anymore, unless they want it (going forward) because others in the community can be toxic towards beta players.
That seems to be the case based on the above post. From what I understand, beta testers are unpaid volunteers. It feels unfair for them to dedicate their personal time to improving the game, only to receive harsh and ungrateful criticism from certain segments of the player base.
You mean the devs wanted to make it even WORSE???
WTF? Why do they hate us?
Seriously, that has to be one of the single biggest (non-bug) pieces of feedback being shared on this forum constantly, that we hate all the animation being added to the game, slowing us down and making things more annoying.
And this is in an area that directly affects the value for money of verses - which you sell - as slowing down explore battles lowers the amount of battles we can play, and thus reduces what rewards we get. So slowing players down there is bound to frustrate us and make us less willing to buy things.
But the kingdom quests are one-time things, so you only have to sit through that frustration once. Adding that bad design to things players repeat over and over is very different.
That would be much better. Why do we have unskippable animations, anyway? Who asks for that?
There were no plans to revert Sunspear either when its 3rd trait was changed, but it was done once the message got across that the change was anti-player for the sake of ‘consistency’.
This instance may be a little harder to accelerate/eliminate, but it’s still within a similar ballpark.
I know you’re just the messenger Jeto, and I remain a big fan: but this is borderline irrelevant if the time taken in between battles completed is increased by other means.
i’m a paid player who was vip 15 in my second week and i too have some kingdoms at 50 plus and only a few at 60 but i have 7 just over 40 i been playing since 2019
