Dear Kings and Queens,
Today we bring you two important announcements.
Initially, after careful analysis and consideration, we decided to close the Guild vs. Guild (FAG) feature. And secondly, we're pleased to introduce its immediate replacement - the all-new feature - Guild Raids!
In this post, we'd like to give you a brief primer on both.
Within the next 1-2 months we plan to close the FTA and open Guild Raids first
on the Beta server. For a more detailed Beta schedule, please visit the
Beta Forum .
Please note that both of these features
will only come to live servers after the Beta testing phase , which we don't expect to finish before the end of this year. Of course, we'll keep you posted on the live release schedule as it may change.
Now that we've got the timeline out of the way, we'll explain the
reasons behind this decision.
Q: Why are we closing the Guild Against Guild?
A: We recognize that the FTA has become an integral part of the game for some of you, especially those who have been playing Forge for many years. The decision to close the operation did not come lightly to us. But here are the main reasons why we decided to do it:
- Participation Versus Maintenance.
Until now, only a very small percentage of our player population is actively playing FTAs. As a legacy feature, making it slow and bulky, FTA requires significant effort to maintain. Additionally, the FTA requires constant updates with each increment of Eras, and overall falls short of today's standards for feature design. As a result, it often falls short of your expectations and ours. Overhauling the FTA would require many of our resources and would not be feasible and secure in the future. Instead, in line with our market and vision for Forge of Empires, we decided to create a new feature to bring all the different players and Guilds together and make a new long-lasting addition to your gaming experience.
- Inaccessibility.
The FTA is not mobile accessible without a major technical overhaul. While this has been the case for some time, we believe it is no longer viable for a cross-platform game like Forge. Our goal is to close this gap and ensure that key features are equally accessible regardless of platform. The introduction of Battlegrounds in the past already addressed this, but with Guild Raids, we want to improve even further. Please note that during the testing phase, we will likely release the feature to the browser first, with the mobile update coming later.
- Classification.
The FTA continues to occupy an important position in the global ranking. With the recent PMS update, we've introduced a new ranking that focuses on Guild performance in PMS rather than prestige. For us, it was the first step in reducing the burden of the FTA on competition and making the rankings more fair and accessible to as many active guilds as possible, including mobile and browser players. We want to finish what we started and unite all Guilds in a new mission of Guild Raids.
Q: When will the FTA close?
A: We don't have the exact date yet, but we expect all the necessary preparations to be completed within the next 1-2 months. We will update you again when we know. By making this announcement early, we want to give you time to share your feedback with us and prepare, even though we don't have an exact date yet.
Q: What will happen to the FTA rankings?
A: They will be frozen in time in their closing state to commemorate all the impressive achievements of the Guilds. Other areas of the game that use prestige and Guild Power will be balanced accordingly.
Q: What are Guild Raids?
A: We designed this feature to bring all Guilds together to compete against each other, while also creating a new way of working together within Guilds by bringing your forces together for a common goal. We intend Guild Raids to be successors to FTA, but not necessarily the same. With Guild Raids, we want to introduce a new concept of a Guild mission in which participants move together from one mission point to another, earning rewards along the way. One could say that Guild Raids is somewhat of a parallel world, with its class, resources, and units.
Q: When will Guild Raids start?
A: We don't want to leave you without FTA for too long. After the FTA closes, we want to give ourselves time to address potential issues and hope to start Guild Raids soon after. As always, we'll keep you posted on progress.
Stay tuned for the next update on the FTA and Guild Raids! In the meantime, please feel free to discuss the changes, ask questions, and share your thoughts on what Guild Raids could be like
in this thread.