SUGGESTIONS: SPELL ENERGY
Herm10neG92
Posts: 194 ✭✭✭
PLEASE allow us to purchase less than 50 spell energy in a Diagon Alley transactions. Don’t want to waste 100 coins when I don’t need 50 spell energy. Most of the time when players consider buying spell energy with coins, they only need around 5-10 to catch the emergency confoundable that just popped up. No one wants to waste 100 coins buying 50 spell energy. Please make more options like this available and I guarantee you will see an increase in actual monetized purchases of coins when players can use them efficiently enough to warrant their purchase. Most people on these forums are reserving their hard earned coins to increase their ridiculously low amount of starter spell energy (75 SE is practically worthless during Brilliant Events when it takes 10+ casts to catch a brilliant snitch even at level 20+ with potions).
Adding to that, 150 coins for an increase of a measly 10 spell energy seems like a rip off with how difficult and time consuming it is to gather that many coins. Please consider either increasing the amount of spell energy it expands by or making higher amounts of spell energy available at inns. Another idea would be having the app give energy rewards at inns based on what percentage of your energy cap you currently have. For example if I have 0/125 energy, I should receive a 10 SE meal rather than a 3 SE meal. It’s very discouraging and almost makes me not want to play when I finally get to some inns and there’s supposedly a 60% chance I’ll get 10 but I still end up with 3. Just a thought. Usually not as mad about getting 3 when I am near full on SE.
Every article in the media about WU highlights the fact that SPELL ENERGY is the biggest issue in this game because it’s required for EVERYTHING and given out so sparingly. PLEASE LISTEN AND FIX THIS!!! @HPWULola @ admins
Comments
Heck, I think the spell energy, being so hard to come by in so many places, is just simply too expensive in general.
I would recommend (as an alternative to your point), still make 50 the baseline... but only charge 50 coins. Or at the very most, 75. I haven't expanded anything in my vault because I need to save up coins for energy itself. It's just too hard to come by around here.
💯 on all counts.
I mean at this point ANYTHING would at least make the game more playable. I definitely agree that it’s too high a price as it stands now. I would support any type of progress towards this or even the ability to brew a potion that restores SE. If we have healing potion that can restore stamina, we should have a potion open that restores spell energy. Also why does casting Protego cost no spell energy but others spells do? Not in any way saying it should cost us energy, but since spell energy is such a precious resource... why is this exclusive to protego?
FWIW, when every single article about this game mentions the rampant issues with spell energy availability compared with how necessary it is to accomplish anything, you know something needs to change.
the cost is not something i have issue or complaint with. energy being on the expensive side to buy in the store is an encouragement to go out in the world and walk around. the core basis of this type of game - get off the couch.
the fact it can be bought at all means that when you have no inns around and cannot possibly play with lightning bolts, eventually you can earn/obtain enough coins to buy some and be able to do anything involving them in game.
you have to work to get spell energy - agreed at times a whole lot for very little - but if it was too easy to purchase then actually going places would be nerfed for a lot of people.
my only complaint is that where it exists in the store to purchase spell energy, it looks almost exactly like the spell energy cap increase and twice now have purchased just lightning bolts when i meant to purchase the ability to hold more lightning bolts.
if the icons for them in store could be made very visually different that would be very helpful - i am on the lookout for it so hopefully wont make the mistake again, but it is an easy one to make and is sad to lose two thirds of the progress towards what you actually wanted getting something you didnt.
completely end user error, i admit - so request would be to make the two purchase icons more easily distinguished.
I’m happy to walk around and work for it. I have spent several hours on plenty of days doing just that. I have gotten blisters on numerous occasions. I definitely acknowledge there needs to be a certain level of difficulty and you can’t just be given things easily as you level up, or else why would people continue playing?
I like that it’s reasonably difficult too, I just think there are other ways to approach spell energy and they should consider work arounds for rural/suburban players who don’t have energy readily available. Maybe when you start the game you could select what type of region you play in and there would be different game dynamics regarding inns and SE for urban vs rural players. Energy potions, smaller (and even larger if some desire it) increments available in Diagon Alley, or changes to inns could help improve this for a large portion of the player base if not.
I’m not sure what the best option is and I realize there is never going to be one option that makes absolutely everyone happy. Really just trying to suggest some things I’ve thought of that could be helpful.
I don’t think you could allow the player to pick their area because that could be abused. I do think the game should somehow recognize you are in an inns-dense or inn-devoid area and adjust. And I’m talking a large area, not just your block. Whether that mean less casts on average for foundables, higher probability for SE in greenhouses, and even SE in fortresses. If a SE potion was ever introduced, make those ingredients more readily available in rural areas and more sparse in cities. There should be something to adjust for rural players. And give options to add POI’s like other games. If you’re really rural, there’s not going to be many man made structures that fill the bill in the first place, but allowing someone to add what is available would help.
@Dogoutlaw I didn’t consider the capacity for abuse. Good call. But you’re right, the game could very easily be set up to detect that.
I’ve mentioned previously that I think SE rewards should be less RNG determined and more based on what your current SE is relative to your cap. When a player has 0 energy it makes little sense and is quite discouraging to only give them 3 SE. Yes I like a challenge, but I also think you could base this off of some element of need for energy.
@Herm10neG92 I’m fortunate where I am. Small college town. Plenty of inns, a few fortresses (although only one in a good spot that I’ve discovered so far), etc. I don’t think I should be given benefit if I’m at zero. All I need to do is walk another 50 feet and I’m at another inn. The inn types make sense too in town. In the center (Main St), it’s all madame puddifoots. Low output, but there’s about 10 of them on or within a block of Main St. As you get to edges, more sparse, changes to three broomsticks with the occasional 3-story green inn (weasleys?) thrown in. I have SE available to me, just have to walk for it. So I don’t think my SE level should change anything.
@Dogoutlaw I suspect that sooner or later, WU will also introduce the option to suggest new POI - nothing officially confirmed yet, though.
As for SE in cities and rural areas... I think that the different types of Inns might be suited to compensate. With careful tuning, the "high-output inns" could be placed in more POI-sparce areas while the "low-output inns" would be placed in POI-dense areas - where more Inns are either way.
Personally I dislike the idea of Fortresses giving SE because you'd want to encourage people to move: to inns to refill energy and to fortresses to use that energy. Kinda "symbiotic" - but hey, that's just my opinion.
@Lucoire - I would typically agree with your final point above but some places just don't have that option. There are two places I know of in my city (yes.. CITY) that has an inn within valid walking distance of a fortress. One of those places has 1 inn and 1 fortress. Another has MANY inns but is on the other side of town that I can rarely make it to (and honestly, it's not the safest place in the city and for me to actively play, it's usually after dark). So it would really be a benefit to be able to receive spell energy at fortresses.
@Craeft All 3 Niantic games are about moving, exploring, traveling, building and connecting communities. It's at the very center of their game design ideology. And yet I here, in this very Forum, I read lots of suggestions that critisize that and instead offer solutions that require far less mobility - at times even none at all. Isn't that rude, condescending, arrogant? Reading that I get the impression that people don't like the game and instead wish the game was VERY different.
Respecting Niantic's core design principle, I would not remove or change the necessity to move to Inns to refill your energy and then move back to Fortresses to use it.
So, how would you resolve it?
Well, keep in mind though that WU is the first game where you can't get the resources needed for a given POI.
In Ingress, portals are SWARMED with XM (and you get other materials by hacking the portal).
In PoGo, you can spin for pokeballs (and other resources).
But in WU, you have to go between different "structures" to continue.
The latter is very difficult for those of us in sparse areas. I would seriously just recommend following the model of the previous 2 games - allow us to get the resources needed at the given POI - i.e., let us get spell energy at a fortress. That alone would be an enormous boon.
@Craeft Both Ingress and Pokemon have game mechanics that motivate people to move. Capturing Portals and Creating Links+Fields in case of Ingress and Capturing Gyms in case of PoGO.
WU doesn't have that. If you give Fortresses Spell-Energy, there isn't even a single incentive left for people to move.
Then I'd recommend (and hear me out because I know this would be a massive change on Niantic's part) making fortresses more than just wizarding challenges.
I'm literally just **** out ideas at the moment to hopefully start a discussion on HOW to do that... but maybe incorporate the houses into (and offer house points such as in the books). Ravenclaw took X fortress in a given area and Hufflepuff took Y fortress in a given area. Let's go get em.
Honestly, an ideal way to handle this (if they went that route) would be to incorporate Ilvermorny houses for that PvP aspect (hurts me to say that because I really don't like PvP).
I honestly think there's a way to resolve this. But the way it is right now is broken for a LOT of people.
@Craeft Oh, I'm very much against that. Right now, WU is a non-competitive game. It is Co-OP ONLY. And that's a very good thing - given how much toxicity competition has brought to Ingress and PoGO.
Wizards Unite NEEDS its own niché, making it more like the other 2 Niantic game would make it obsolete.
And I disagree with the word "broken". 😉
But it is broken. Maybe not for you. You might be in a prime area. But for a lot of people, it is broken and unplayable.
@Craeft I would rather develop and improve the areas with low POI density than change the very essence of what the game is about. I would rather change the algorithm by which the game determins what place is an Inn/Greenhouse/Fortress than redesign the resource-economy of it.
I would rather empower those who are lacking rights than changing the laws for everyone.
Energy is a limitation, it determins how much time you can play away from an Inn. I understand that people don't want to be limited within games, they want to feel powerful. But this isn't Bayonetta or Devil May Cry, this is more like DarkSouls - with Inns being the Bonfires, places to rest and recharge before again venturing out into the world.
There is a reason why I don't want to change the fundamental rules of the game. Everyone has a favourite style of game and (at least that's my feeling when reading most of the comments here) most people don't like the game as it is, don't even try to play it the way the developers intended it to be played. You've surely heard of the quote "It's always easier to blame others than to change yourself", essentially most suggestions here sound like "this is what you need to change to make this my favourite game" - but the game was already designed in a certain way and with certain principles in mind (and with a certain audience in mind).
You wouldn't change the agenda of the republican party to be more appealing to hardliner democrat-voters - you'd rather focus on your core audience and on those who are openminded enough to give you a chance.
I have so much to reply to that that I'm actually just going to remain silent and continue to try to improve the game.
@Craeft Improving is good but changing the very foundation?
Traveling yesterday, so just now catching up. When I suggested SE at fortress, I wasn’t suggesting amounts that would break the game. I was talking to similar amounts you would get from inns. <=10 For inn sparse areas. Could even be every five min just like inns. So it was essentially double duty for the lack of POI. The reason I said there was only one good inn in my town was because it’s in town off Main St. The others have just one inn close by or not for blocks. But for example, while on road yesterday, we (well hubby since I was driving, but team effort right?) pulled out our phones to see what some towns had, and we occasionally saw towns, or very large parts of towns where there was one fortress and nothing else. THAT is an issue. What’s the point in that? That is where rural players are getting unnecessarily bent over and sub/urban players have an advantage. I’m not a programmer, but I would be very surprised if they couldn’t make the game recognize this issue and adjust for it.
And yes, I’m hopeful we’ll eventually have the capacity to suggest POI for the game. Then hopefully some of this imbalance can be evened out. That is, if anyone is left playing in these rural areas who will give a hoot to submit by the time it comes around.
Very good point @Dogoutlaw. I’m not sure about you, but I’ve also experienced that several of the few inns and greenhouses in my area are no longer matching up with what they are labeled as by Niantic’s database for POI. For example, a retirement community nearby is labeled by as “Giant Jesus Statue” with a picture of a large statue that I presume was once there? There’s also an inn across town that is labeled as “Western Joker Statue” for a restaurant that has long been closed down.
It’s a tad bit frustrating to have such outdated POI’s become inns when there are other attractions in the area that are not even recognized by the game.
I’ve also been out on a boat in the Gulf or Mexico when I was in Florida (last Community Day actually) and it didn’t even recognize that I was in a body of water. I found that to be pretty odd and I feel their maps are sometimes a little flawed. The game could certainly benefit from the ability for players to submit potential updates to or suggest additional POIs.
I don’t have much of an issue with filling Energy. I have my routes downtown and I can fill up 50+ energy in like 2-3 min. I can see for the players who don’t live by any inn stops that it might be difficult. I personally use my free coin to increase my energy capacity so that when I am done playing downtown I can still play comfortably from home.
I think it ultimately comes down to finding your replenishing route for lack of a better term lol
@Herm10neG92 The POIs aren't generated automaticly. The issues you mentioned with the "outdated" Object-POI-relations is a sad result of that manual process. The map itself is "open street map", a reasonably well maintained one with free licensing.
As for the POI, the 3 Niantic games "Ingress", "Pokemon GO" and "Wizards Unite" all use the same database - and at least in Ingress those POI can be edited (updated with new info, moved to a "better" location) or even removed. Currently both Ingress and PokemonGO have the option to submit new POI once you've reached a certain level - and I wouldn't be surprised if that very same functionality were to come to Wizards Unite in the near future.
Given that "editing" and "removing" can be abused, all of those requests are then verified/reviewed (edits are reviewed by other players - certain restrictions apply - and implemented once a "consensus" has been reached, removal-requests are reviewed by Niantic itself)
@Lucoire thanks for the info! Hopefully this feature will show up in an update in the near future.
@Herm10neG92 just fyi...Giant Jesus Statue is something no longer in existence. I've submitted it as an invalid portal in Ingress, yet it still remains. Western Joker is still there (to my knowledge). It's a statue inside the restaurant. @Lucoire did a great job explaining the processes of addition/edit/removal.
I live at the edge of a city. Immediately next to me is a park, which has a Fortress. That's it.
Here are my two usual routes : (F for Fortress, I for Inn, G for Greenhouse)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/RNJ1emLzPbGPbcBx6
Purple is in two parts. Solid is accessible 24/7, though in a not-so-nice part of town, it's a 2km return trip, a bit less than 3km return when I can get to the fortress on the dotted part. (Which isn't always as there is a gate and it's closed after 8pm (in summer, earlier in winter). That is the "WU-only" route. Beyond that fortress are at least four inns, but within the walled grounds of an old abbey which you now have to pay to enter.
Red is the "Going Downtown route", so it has a use beyond WU. But it's extremely boring along a major artery (featureless, treeless), no landmark to see for 1km. And that first one is a greenhouse. It gets a bit better afterwards, but that's around 6,5km return to the fortress that way. And the app doesn't like it when I take the bus, it doesn't track properly and I can't do that to visit the inns.
That red I? is a community center. Which, considering the other POIs on the map, should be one of them.
What about having a Home ? It could be a bit like Minecraft. You have some storage available there, where you could store those fancy ingredients you acquire from portkeys (shells, unicorn hair...), and the option to have three meals a day. Let's be mad, have another cauldron there !