6 Month(ish) review of Kingdom Age

[Vito]

Ok,so we've all been playing this game for 6-7 months, so I thought I'd give a synopsis of my experience so far:
And, this game is BOOOORRRIINNNGGG.
There, I said it. I had such high hopes for this game. I was hoping Funzio/Gree had learned from their 2 previous games and melded them into a new exciting platform. for a while there, it was showing real potential, until Gree started getting greedy(I won't harp on this. It's been covered ad nauseum).
I've been playing the game slow, learning from my experience in Crime City, and I'm doing quite well. I haven't lost a fight in months and my stats are usually 2-3 times the players at my level. So,in that respect, I'm happy that my planning is working. I am a minor Gem spender, back when I thought A few gems would help(Ha).
The only problem is that I have nothing to do with my superiority. I have spent so much time wandering though kingdom after kingdom finding nothing worthwhile to hit. Let's face it, most players suck. There's maybe 2-3% of players that have any kind of money on them, and they all have had time now to build up their vault, so attacking them is fruitless. It usually costs me money to attack someone. Finding anything to rob is really hard too. Aside from Manors and level 10 silos, most buildings are worthless. I've almost given up on PvP. I log on, collect money, and log out. Whoop de do. I barely even try on the events anymore. I'd rather spend my money on units than the few crappy indestructible units you can get.
What I need is some excitement. Where is the new content? New buildings, weapons, units? Why do they keep rolling out the same events? I guess it's great for Wildstallion, But I find them repetitive and mostly unatainable.
What I really want is some drama, After leaving the soap opera that crime city is, I never thought I would miss it, but there is almost no interaction between players here. Most of my messages are people leaving allie requests. I actually miss those butthurt players leaving nasty posts when you robbed them or beat them down.
Please Gree ,do SOMETHING. Change the unit loss rates, start a PvP tournament, Get some worthwhile Honor Point units. Something. Anything.

Sorry for the long post/*****fest. I guess I'm just dissapointed with the way this game is going.

[Jhoemel]

Try playing modern war man if you want some drama and trash talking in player's wall

[Talkazar]

I agree on the events. I've long since rusty knived the boxes, and the boss event is only a day or twos diversion (largely because I'm 100+ and killing even one more boss would require a massive diversion of resources that would detract from the little PvP I do do.

The content is also becoming a tad stale. All they are producing at the moment is new maps that are slightly harder than the old maps. There are no new quests outside of the maps, and even those are increasingly formulaic (slay x monster, slay y monster, slay z of 1 and 1 of another monster, slay a tough monster, slay b monster, slay the boss monster, master the map, slay 5 of x and 5 of y monster, slay the big boss monster (now that it spawns...oops)). The graphics are pretty, but if thats all I wanted, I'd bookmark deviantart.

I'm quite happy to leave the trash talk to CC & MW. Alternately, you can always head into whale territory and call out the guys with 170k attack. I'm sure they'll be happy to give you all the PvP you want.

[echus14]

IMHO, the problems lie in rather more fundamental areas:

I mean, how much fun can one get and for how long, in whacking monsters on a map based on just your amount of health?

PvP can be interesting, but it requires some parity in strength. Furthermore, PvP for the sake of PvP soon loses its appeal unless you have a particularly bloodthirsty streak and just want to bully weaker opponents.

The current game constraints also make it too difficult/long to get your economy upgraded or your BD to level 10. The end result is that some people will achieve what they want quickly (kudos to them) but many will to a larger or smaller extent, have to camp. And camping is not only boring, but I really don't think campers will be buying gems to stop camping.

What should perhaps be considered is to loosen up on the main game requirements so that people can progress faster through it. Increase the vault size, allowing more buildings to be upgraded simultaneously, or reduce the cost of upgrading, etc, may be some possibilities. I know that this will raise howls of protest from players who have run the difficult gauntlets, but from a full game perspective, it may be better to allow people to progress through the game as opposed to bore them into leaving.

I actually enjoy the events, and reckon that there is where the greatest growth potential will be for KA … IF they loosen up on the main game AND tweak the events. What do I mean? Well, for example, people are avoiding the box events because it causes too much leveling up and beyond a certain point, the units are pretty useless. Or the Epic Boss event, which has loads of potential but dies out too quickly for most players at the higher levels.

I appreciate that GREE needs to make money, but I really think they are forgetting the mass market appeal of KA. Its like in the old days when you went to the video arcade. You’d happily spend $5 on tokens to play a few video games each week, but most people would not spend $500 to do the same thing.

So, in a nutshell:
(1) Allow faster/easier progression in the main game. Getting BD10 and dragons and Lvl 10 Water Temple of Healing, etc, should be steps to achieve and not major impediments.
(2) Concentrate on having more and varied events with a mass player appeal. Sure, the top prize, can still be for major gem buyers, but have enough incentive for other people to pay small sums to achieve (after all … the events are happening every week).
(3) Integrate the 2 above for a common goal. What I would like to see is that the map monsters are a lot more difficult to defeat, and that is why you want to build up a strong army (including event units). The monsters should also be able to defeat the player, so that he cannot fight the monster for (say) 24 hours at least as he recuperates. Ultimately, the bragging right should be: I managed to kill the Boss Monster X (and yes, it should be achieveable for all players, but easier for gem buyers who can afford stronger armies faster)!

Just my 2 cents worth. Sorry for the long post.

[Ssne]

I would actually say KA is more fun than the other two now. That is 100% because they put step functions into the boss events. Getting to 15 or 20 kills to get a unit that is worth a few hundred gems is a big deal. Yes 50 kills is impossible, but compare this to MW where it's 35 kills or bust. They just started a boss event over there and I am going through the motions, but I don't really care if I get 13 kills, 15 kills or 17 kills. And no chance I am going to watch the clock for 2 hours trying to get from 13 to 15....and no chance I buy any gold.

In the current event on KA, I made 20 kills on one account (stopped naturally at 18 and needed one potion each for 19 and 20), and 30 kills on the other (stopped naturally at 25 and needed eleven potions total to get to 30). In both cases, I actually spent money to get gems (real cost, about $10). I had always thought I would just be a free player. This is smart by Gree. I had an incentive, it was achievable, it just took a small amount of $ to get over the hump...so they converted "free" to "paid."

Now, the auction part of the game sucks, that is just stupid. But it has to be a big moneymaker for them which is why they do it. The Wildstallions of the world are helping and not helping all at the same time.

[Chups]

One of the things why this game sucks is when you destroy building, they just come back right in when you press them at no cost. I mean...nobody dies or gets really destroyed. There is no fear that one day you might need to work hard if you don't take care of your kingdom. You can't really get back (revenge) at someone.

[ShawnBB]

Vito, i never had a moment of boring in KA. You just have to set the goal properly.

CC,MW have a heavy PvP advantage. So to speak, it is nearly impossible to equip end cash weapons in CC and worthless to buy cash unit in MW.

Unlike them,KA is more of a hood build game,not PvP nor events. As I expected in April when the game just released here, PvP must be dead in KA's game system.
Dragon is the best unit and very very achievable and worth. All the PvP and event units that a free player can get will be replaced by dragons,that's why I don't even join event at all.

I have played for 5 full months, now having a 13200 IpH as a free player and is unlocking lvl10 BD. Full dragon and full weapon will take me about another 4 months to achieve which keeps me busy and excited.

[Joie]

I agree chups, there should be some penalty to repair a destroyed buildings and not just click and move on.it doesn't have to be major and destroy your economy to do it but at least something. Maybe even a small repair time before you clock resets even. I'd also like to be able to upgrade units in some way through some sort of training academy building..

Congrats on getting the level 10 BD shawnbb, I fear I leveled up to fast to be able to achieve that goal. Maybe if I drop all of my allies it would keep me hidden long enough to do that.

[Joaquim Jose]

Here's my review of KA.

0/5 stars.

[Baraka]

Put it sime instead of long drawn out post

KA Is S**T

Update after update trying to save a dying game concentrat on MW not this little kids game.

[TemplarX]

Vito, I so totally agree with you 100%, my sentiments exactly. I actually started a thread with the same thoughts in mind, before coming across this thread of yours. I get a feeling GREE(.) has no idea how to manage and grow a massive multiplayer strategy game. Like you, I find it a waste of time looking for pvp gains...to the extent i suspect most kingdoms on my rival lists are abandoned ghost towns! The only thing that's keeping me in the game is that challenge to complete my BD upgrade to lvl 10, and then amassing a dragon army. So I am definitely not the player profile that GREE(.) is trying to target.

[ezinap]

I agree with most

Yes the game is becoming boring.

Yes there are still plenty of choices

Yes the Boss event is now better, with the intermediate reward / goal

Yes it is still flawed at a basic level

The problem: the boss event is so much rewarding at a lower level, that the choice of leveling up is becoming unappealing.
So the game is played best, by doing nothing!
No pvp no pve no quests, just collect and buy.

Solution: make the Boss event more rewarding at high level than at low level.
That 's valid for any event.
Did you read that Gree?!?

[GetItOn]

So the game is played best, by doing nothing!
No pvp no pve no quests, just collect and buy.

LoL. I saw the eppitamy of that on my 2nd acct today. Guy has played for at least 151 days (had a wall post that old) and was only lvl 11!! With a whopping 43 monster kills in over 4 months and 200'ish PVp wins but with 440k gold and most everything lvl10. Literally the prime example of just logging in to collect money and do an upgrade.