Dessire
Emperor
This post has two objectives:
1. To highlight some of the most tedious, boring, and poorly designed features currently experienced in GbG, raids, and with historical allies.
2. To demonstrate that with just a bit of imagination, great things can be achieved in a game like this by developing features that are not tedious, time-consuming, monotonous, or boring.
But before, want to explain something:
In the world of videogames, if a feature, like raids in Forge of Empires, makes you play it only because of the rewards it offers rather than because the feature itself is fun and enjoyable, it is considered a significant failure. Games with such features are often abandoned, forgotten, and eventually shut down due to a lack of recurring player activity caused by these features.
I could mention many examples of games that have suffered this fate, but FoE rules prevent us from discussing other games that are not part of Innogames, both on the forum and within the game itself.
Another thing I want to explain, Artificial Difficulty:
In video games, especially those involving combat between a player and NPC enemies (such as military units you must defeat in battlefields to conquer a sector), artificial difficulty refers to increasing an enemy's health and attack power instead of creating a new enemy and giving it new abilities, mechanics, or combat elements that add genuine challenge. Defeating an opponent with 10% attack and later seeing that the final boss is the same initial opponent but with 5000% attack (while retaining the same attack patterns or characteristics) is not real difficulty—it is artificial difficulty.
This is a significant problem because it makes the system, in this case, and combat something edious, boring, and monotonous, leading to players abandoning the game.
---
Negative Features of GbG:
1. Time Consumption:
In Forge of Empires, gaining more attack power is considered a reward and progress. GbG is the only place where this really matters. In Expeditions (so far), PvP Towers, QI, the Continent Map, etc., you don’t need more than 1500% attack power to battle without difficulties.
However, in Battlefields, higher attack power is necessary to achieve greater attrition, thereby contributing more to sector conquest. Many people fail to consider that having higher attack power implies dedicating more time to the game. What’s the point of having so much attack power if you don’t have the time, motivation, or energy to press the same button (auto-battle) repeatedly, watching minutes turn into hours?
If you only have the time or motivation to reach attrition 110 but have enough attack power to reach 230, more than half of your city’s buildings are essentially useless decorations you don’t benefit from.
2. Monotony:
Do I really need to explain why pressing the same button over and over again for tens of minutes isn’t fun at all and only causes mental fatigue and a desire to avoid battlefields or event buildings focused on increasing attack power?
3. Artificial Difficulty and Combat System:
There is essentially no combat system, as battles are automated, and doing them manually feels like choosing to walk across a continent instead of take an airplane to travrl. The difficulty only involves increasing the defense and attack of enemy units, without adding real challenges that require any strategy from the player.
4. League System and Matchmaking:
Honestly, if you need an explanation about why both systems are still terrible and among the worst compared to other video games, then either you don’t participate in GbG, or you’ve never played another game that involves player competition.
I recommend Googling "the worst league and matchmaking systems in online video games" to better understand what I mean.
5. Rewards:
In video games, a good feature that requires player participation must be fun on its own, even if the rewards are poor. If the feature itself is good, that’s enough to keep players engaged. GbG isn’t fun, and the only reason people participate is to reach the Diamond League and hope for a chance to finish in the top three over 11 grueling days of doing the same thing repeatedly.
Take away the rewards, and what’s left? A system that even the developers of Forge of Empires wouldn’t waste their time playing! A popular saying in the gaming industry is:
“If even the developers themselves don’t enjoy playing their own game, then the game is bad and doesn’t deserve to exist.” also, the rewards themselves are not a lot better compared to some event buildings.
---
Quantum Incursions:
1. Starting over every 14 days:
This becomes tedious, having to develop the same city repeatedly. The sole purpose of this is to create artificial difficulty, forcing players to start from scratch and wait hours to develop their quantum city. This prevents players from progressing more easily through raid nodes.
This artificial difficulty isn’t entertaining and adds nothing positive to raids. It’s merely an excuse to mask the fact that “we lacked the creativity to develop a fun and challenging system, and we don’t want players to get stronger because it would lead to less real-money spending.”
2. Mandatory difficulty increase every midnight:
There isn’t a single game in the industry that applies a system where difficulty automatically increases just to force players to spend real money or diamonds during events to mitigate this.
Even though raids allow any player to reach 400% attack or more in their quantum city by day 11, the automatic difficulty increase is still a colossal piece of… (better not say the word, or I’ll get banned).
3. Boring system and more artificial difficulty:
You play battles to move through circles that… really don’t mean anything. The only reason players still participate in raids is for the rewards (especially quantum medals), not because the feature itself is entertaining.
Each difficulty level is indistinguishable from the others beyond increasing the opponent’s attack and defense stats. Really? You couldn’t come up with something better, more engaging, and challenging for each level?
4. Time Consumption:
Fortunately, the quantum city portion only requires two short visits to raids per day. But the combat… especially at high levels, forces players to battle manually. If you have 100,000 quantum actions, that’s just under 30 battles. Do you know how tedious and time-consuming that is?
---
Historical Allies:
This will be brief. They bring nothing new; they’re just portraits that provide attack and/or defense bonuses and go into a building you must place in your city.
Instead of portraits, they could have been buildings requiring 1000 fragments, and nothing would change. The entire historical allies system was created under the false pretense of being “something new” to encourage players to spend real money during events, making them think they’re essential when they’re literally just buildings disguised as portraits.
-------
To demonstrate that simply thinking a little can solve most of the mentioned problems, I’m sharing an idea I’ve been refining over time.
(The image I’ve shared in the link was generated using AI and does not fully reflect any video game from a competitor, so it does not violate forum rules. The forum itself does not allow me to attach the photo so I used a link from the website prnt.sc)
Imagine that, upon clicking something like the statue to enter Guild Battlegrounds, you are taken to a window with nine squares—or better, eight, since it fits well with the limit of 80 guild members. In one of the farther squares, there’s a main building, and closer to the front, there’s another building. The remaining squares are empty.
In each empty square, guild founders can construct one unique building, which will start at level 1 upon completion. Construction will require goods and medals donated by members. The progress needed to reach level 1 depends on the amount of medals and goods donated, with the value of progress based on the era of the goods.
Once a building is constructed, clicking on it will open a window showing its current level, progress toward the next level, the bonuses it provides, and a list of 10 empty slots below.
Any guild member can join this list if there’s an empty slot available.
Every four hours, for two hours, two guilds will randomly face off to destroy each other’s buildings. When the battle starts, clicking something like the statue to enter the battlegrounds will show 16 squares—8 on one half of the screen and 8 on the other, representing each guild’s buildings. Any player can select an opponent’s building, except the main building (which can only be selected if the other seven buildings are already destroyed), to enter it. Inside, they’ll see a list of players assigned to defend that building, along with their defensive power (blue sword and shield) and the building’s health.
Players will have those two hours to join and participate in the guild vs. guild combat. After the two-hour battle, there will be a two-hour break before the guild is automatically matched against another guild based on the victory points earned so far.
Players can select anyone from the opponent list (inside of a building) to try and defeat the selected player's army. If unsuccessful, the opponent army retains the remaining health from that combat (so other player can finish the job).
If the player defeats the opponent, the opponent’s name and portrait will appear “grayed out” on the list. Players can also “defeat” opponents through negotiations. The number of goods required will depend on the average defensive power of the opponent and match the attrition level for that power in the battlegrounds. For example, if at attrition level 110, negotiations cost 55 goods per slot and the opponent’s attack power aligns with attrition 110 attack power, negotiating to defeat that opponent will also cost 55 goods per slot.
Once all opponents in a building are defeated, players can attack the building itself. Negotiations will deal double the damage to the building compared to combat (want to make more valuable the forgotten feature of negotiation, can not understand why Innogames do not give more love to negotiations), The attack and defense of the building will depend on its level and the average defensive power of the players assigned to that building, the building can have for example a max of 10 points of life, 1 point means 1 battle against NPCs or 1 negotiation.
Once a building is destroyed, victory points are awarded to the guild of the player who destroyed it.
Attacking or negotiating once will consume tokens. Players will start with 10 tokens upon joining the battle and generate 1 token every 10 minutes, with a maximum of 22 tokens if they join at least one second before the first 10-minutes of the first hour.
If a player joins the battle and the building where his/her portrait appears is already destroyed or if he/she was already defeated in that buildong he/she defends, the player cannot act until he/she revives. Reviving costs 1 token. Reviving does not mean you must be defeated again, your name will still appear in grey, so you they cannot defend it again, but you can still attack or negotiate other players inside of buildinds or attack it to destroy it. Players can only die once unless they fail a negotiation or lose a combat encounter when attacking opponents within a building.
The guild that destroys the most buildings within the two-hour battle wins. Players in a guild can still act even if 7 buildings are destroyed, but if all 8 buildings are destroyed, they cannot take further actions. If one guild destroys all 8 buildings before the timer runs out, they must still wait until the four-hour cycle is complete to face the next guild. If both guilds destroy the same number of buildings by the two-hour mark, the winner is determined based on who destroyed first the last building of the enemy guild.
The winning guild earns 1 victory point. Additionally, all members of both guilds will receive rewards based on their performance, such as the most damage dealt to buildings, most opponents defeated, most total damage done, most attacks resisted, etc. Top-performing players will receive special rewards, with the defeated guild’s players receiving 1/3 of the winners’ rewards. Each successful token action also grants individual rewards.
About the buildings: Each building provides unique bonuses that improve with its level. For example, one building might increase the chance of generating an extra token every 10 minutes for all guild members. Another could enhance the defense of players inside it. Others might boost red attack power, provide a chance to resist being defeated, or increase damage dealt to enemy buildings.
To value every guild member, if a building is at max level (e.g., level 8) but only 7 players are assigned to it, the building’s bonus will correspond to level 7. This incentivizes having 80 members in a guild, as it should be!
Each player can also assign one of their historical allies as a "helper," providing special bonuses during the two-hour battles. The number of historical allies could be proportional to the main building’s level—e.g., 0.5 allies per level, meaning up to 4 allies at level 8. Each ally, based on rarity, offers unique bonuses, such as a chance to gain an extra turn during negotiations or a chance to avoid spending a token to revive if defeated or to not consume a token to attack or negotiate if the attack ot negotiation is sucessfully completed.
This system aims to give unique value to every ally and allow players to create personalized combinations of skills based on their preferred playstyle.
---
About the league system:
Obviously, there will always be a guild capable of defeating almost anyone, regardless of the game mode. Forcing the five guilds below that top guild to constantly face it would be unpleasant and pointless.
A guild will obviously face another guild with a similar number of victory points. However, the top guild will always be forced, every 4 hours, to face the guild ranked 10th, then the 9th, then the 8th, and so on in a cycle until it faces the 2nd-ranked guild. This allows the other nine guilds to have more than 32 hours of respite from fighting the top guild. However, to make being in the top position more challenging, regardless of how many victories they achieve, if any guild defeats the actual top-ranked guild twice (not necessarily consecutively), it will automatically take the #1 spot, and the former top guild will take the old position of the guild that claimed the top rank. The former top guild will then be required to defeat the new top guild just once to reclaim its position. The benefit of having more points is that the former top guild will only need one victory instead of two to regain the top position.
The fact that there is only one guild-vs-guild battle every four hours also allows less active or smaller guilds to have a chance to win. For instance, they could take advantage of periods of low activity in the game to destroy as many of the opposing guild’s buildings as possible. Also, earning only 1 point per battle and not lose victory points allows guilds with low activity always fight against similar guilds.
Replacing Expeditions and Battlegrounds:
I’ve also been thinking about how to use this new game mode to replace Expeditions because, yes, if it were up to me, I would permanently eliminate both Battlegrounds and Expeditions. I still can’t believe there are players who think these two modes are well-designed and that we should just accept what InnoGames offers us to enjoy the competitive aspect of FoE.
Do you remember the old, toxic, cheaters-filled GvG maps? Imagine a single, large map made up of tiles, with each tile having a specific value. In the game mode I explained earlier, after defeating a guild, the victorious guild earns "1 coin." This coin can be used on this large map to acquire one tile at the edge of the map. After winning again, they earn another coin, which can be used to advance to one adjacent tile. However, when advancing, the previous tile becomes vacant. The goal is to earn coins to progress toward the center, where the most valuable tile is located. Holding control of this central tile for extended periods would yield increasing daily rewards for the members of that guild.
If, during their progression, another guild attempts to dislodge them and force them back, they can select the contested tile. In the next battle (which occurs every 4 hours), the two guilds will be forced to face each other, even if the defending guild tries to move away from that tile beforehand.
The losing guild will return to the edge of their starting region. For instance, let’s say this large map is divided into ring-shaped regions representing different ages, with the outermost ring corresponding to the Iron Age. If a guild loses a battle in this ring, they’ll be sent back to the outer edge of that region.
Special tiles:
There would also be special tiles. One type could serve as a "checkpoint." At the upper limit of each region, a guild occupying a checkpoint could spend 2 coins to acquire a second adjacent tile. This second tile would then be used to advance into the next region. If this advance leads to a checkpoint in the next region, the previous checkpoint would no longer be in possession, and the guild would only retain one conquered tile and must spend again 2 coins to genereate a second conquered tile—adyacent to the new checkpoint. Checkpoints are useful because if a guild loses in battle, instead of being pushed to the outer edge of the new region, it will simply retreat two tiles, and the victorious guild would acquire the tile previously occupied by the losing guild. However, this does not apply if another guild manages to take over the checkpoint in the meantime.
To steal a checkpoint, no battle is required. Instead, a guild can spend 2 coins and a large amount of the most abundant guild goods. Assuming each region requires advancing through a minimum of 6 tiles, spending 2 coins to steal a checkpoint and potentially avoiding being sent back to the edge of the new region after a loss is well worth the investment.
Another type of special tile could contain a sort of “atomic missile.” Found on the edge of each region, this missile could randomly destroy two buildings (excluding the main building) in the opposing guild’s setup for their next battle. However, this effect would only apply if the opposing guild attacks the guild that activated the missile within this new GvG map.
Central and adjacent tiles:
The central tile and its adjacent tiles could have a mechanic encouraging competition between guilds occupying these positions. For example, if there are five adjacent tiles to the center, guilds in those tiles may want to stay there for the rewards of being in a “second-place” position. To incentivize battles among second-place guilds and against the center tile, guilds in adjacent tiles could gain bonuses for fighting each other, giving them an advantage in claiming the central tile.
Teleportation shortcuts:
There could also be shortcuts allowing for "teleportation" from one tile to another far away within the same region or to quickly advance to the next region. To unlock these shortcuts, a system similar to Expedition nodes could be implemented. Along the way to these new tiles, there would be nodes requiring the guild to donate goods, resources, or battle. Completing all nodes would allow advancement to the new, distant tile, but there would only be a few nodes.
Optional participation:
If a guild doesn’t wish to participate in this map, they can simply stick to the 1v1 battles every 4 hours. With each victory, they’ll accumulate coins and might eventually decide to join the GvG map. And yes, coins will stack, meaning a guild with 10 coins could instantly progress 10 tiles.
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Obviously the last idea of use a GvG map requires more corrections but the thing is to show that it is really possible create something better, with less time consumption, and more enjoyable, and what I want from you guys, is to think about new ideas to permanently replace GbG and QI, vote for it, share the most voted idea on FoE's discord, and there massively up vote for that idea to show and proof Innogames what we really want to make the competitive side of FoE great as we never seen before!
Thank you for your time
1. To highlight some of the most tedious, boring, and poorly designed features currently experienced in GbG, raids, and with historical allies.
2. To demonstrate that with just a bit of imagination, great things can be achieved in a game like this by developing features that are not tedious, time-consuming, monotonous, or boring.
But before, want to explain something:
In the world of videogames, if a feature, like raids in Forge of Empires, makes you play it only because of the rewards it offers rather than because the feature itself is fun and enjoyable, it is considered a significant failure. Games with such features are often abandoned, forgotten, and eventually shut down due to a lack of recurring player activity caused by these features.
I could mention many examples of games that have suffered this fate, but FoE rules prevent us from discussing other games that are not part of Innogames, both on the forum and within the game itself.
Another thing I want to explain, Artificial Difficulty:
In video games, especially those involving combat between a player and NPC enemies (such as military units you must defeat in battlefields to conquer a sector), artificial difficulty refers to increasing an enemy's health and attack power instead of creating a new enemy and giving it new abilities, mechanics, or combat elements that add genuine challenge. Defeating an opponent with 10% attack and later seeing that the final boss is the same initial opponent but with 5000% attack (while retaining the same attack patterns or characteristics) is not real difficulty—it is artificial difficulty.
This is a significant problem because it makes the system, in this case, and combat something edious, boring, and monotonous, leading to players abandoning the game.
---
Negative Features of GbG:
1. Time Consumption:
In Forge of Empires, gaining more attack power is considered a reward and progress. GbG is the only place where this really matters. In Expeditions (so far), PvP Towers, QI, the Continent Map, etc., you don’t need more than 1500% attack power to battle without difficulties.
However, in Battlefields, higher attack power is necessary to achieve greater attrition, thereby contributing more to sector conquest. Many people fail to consider that having higher attack power implies dedicating more time to the game. What’s the point of having so much attack power if you don’t have the time, motivation, or energy to press the same button (auto-battle) repeatedly, watching minutes turn into hours?
If you only have the time or motivation to reach attrition 110 but have enough attack power to reach 230, more than half of your city’s buildings are essentially useless decorations you don’t benefit from.
2. Monotony:
Do I really need to explain why pressing the same button over and over again for tens of minutes isn’t fun at all and only causes mental fatigue and a desire to avoid battlefields or event buildings focused on increasing attack power?
3. Artificial Difficulty and Combat System:
There is essentially no combat system, as battles are automated, and doing them manually feels like choosing to walk across a continent instead of take an airplane to travrl. The difficulty only involves increasing the defense and attack of enemy units, without adding real challenges that require any strategy from the player.
4. League System and Matchmaking:
Honestly, if you need an explanation about why both systems are still terrible and among the worst compared to other video games, then either you don’t participate in GbG, or you’ve never played another game that involves player competition.
I recommend Googling "the worst league and matchmaking systems in online video games" to better understand what I mean.
5. Rewards:
In video games, a good feature that requires player participation must be fun on its own, even if the rewards are poor. If the feature itself is good, that’s enough to keep players engaged. GbG isn’t fun, and the only reason people participate is to reach the Diamond League and hope for a chance to finish in the top three over 11 grueling days of doing the same thing repeatedly.
Take away the rewards, and what’s left? A system that even the developers of Forge of Empires wouldn’t waste their time playing! A popular saying in the gaming industry is:
“If even the developers themselves don’t enjoy playing their own game, then the game is bad and doesn’t deserve to exist.” also, the rewards themselves are not a lot better compared to some event buildings.
---
Quantum Incursions:
1. Starting over every 14 days:
This becomes tedious, having to develop the same city repeatedly. The sole purpose of this is to create artificial difficulty, forcing players to start from scratch and wait hours to develop their quantum city. This prevents players from progressing more easily through raid nodes.
This artificial difficulty isn’t entertaining and adds nothing positive to raids. It’s merely an excuse to mask the fact that “we lacked the creativity to develop a fun and challenging system, and we don’t want players to get stronger because it would lead to less real-money spending.”
2. Mandatory difficulty increase every midnight:
There isn’t a single game in the industry that applies a system where difficulty automatically increases just to force players to spend real money or diamonds during events to mitigate this.
Even though raids allow any player to reach 400% attack or more in their quantum city by day 11, the automatic difficulty increase is still a colossal piece of… (better not say the word, or I’ll get banned).
3. Boring system and more artificial difficulty:
You play battles to move through circles that… really don’t mean anything. The only reason players still participate in raids is for the rewards (especially quantum medals), not because the feature itself is entertaining.
Each difficulty level is indistinguishable from the others beyond increasing the opponent’s attack and defense stats. Really? You couldn’t come up with something better, more engaging, and challenging for each level?
4. Time Consumption:
Fortunately, the quantum city portion only requires two short visits to raids per day. But the combat… especially at high levels, forces players to battle manually. If you have 100,000 quantum actions, that’s just under 30 battles. Do you know how tedious and time-consuming that is?
---
Historical Allies:
This will be brief. They bring nothing new; they’re just portraits that provide attack and/or defense bonuses and go into a building you must place in your city.
Instead of portraits, they could have been buildings requiring 1000 fragments, and nothing would change. The entire historical allies system was created under the false pretense of being “something new” to encourage players to spend real money during events, making them think they’re essential when they’re literally just buildings disguised as portraits.
-------
To demonstrate that simply thinking a little can solve most of the mentioned problems, I’m sharing an idea I’ve been refining over time.
(The image I’ve shared in the link was generated using AI and does not fully reflect any video game from a competitor, so it does not violate forum rules. The forum itself does not allow me to attach the photo so I used a link from the website prnt.sc)
Imagine that, upon clicking something like the statue to enter Guild Battlegrounds, you are taken to a window with nine squares—or better, eight, since it fits well with the limit of 80 guild members. In one of the farther squares, there’s a main building, and closer to the front, there’s another building. The remaining squares are empty.
In each empty square, guild founders can construct one unique building, which will start at level 1 upon completion. Construction will require goods and medals donated by members. The progress needed to reach level 1 depends on the amount of medals and goods donated, with the value of progress based on the era of the goods.
Once a building is constructed, clicking on it will open a window showing its current level, progress toward the next level, the bonuses it provides, and a list of 10 empty slots below.
Any guild member can join this list if there’s an empty slot available.
Every four hours, for two hours, two guilds will randomly face off to destroy each other’s buildings. When the battle starts, clicking something like the statue to enter the battlegrounds will show 16 squares—8 on one half of the screen and 8 on the other, representing each guild’s buildings. Any player can select an opponent’s building, except the main building (which can only be selected if the other seven buildings are already destroyed), to enter it. Inside, they’ll see a list of players assigned to defend that building, along with their defensive power (blue sword and shield) and the building’s health.
Players will have those two hours to join and participate in the guild vs. guild combat. After the two-hour battle, there will be a two-hour break before the guild is automatically matched against another guild based on the victory points earned so far.
Players can select anyone from the opponent list (inside of a building) to try and defeat the selected player's army. If unsuccessful, the opponent army retains the remaining health from that combat (so other player can finish the job).
If the player defeats the opponent, the opponent’s name and portrait will appear “grayed out” on the list. Players can also “defeat” opponents through negotiations. The number of goods required will depend on the average defensive power of the opponent and match the attrition level for that power in the battlegrounds. For example, if at attrition level 110, negotiations cost 55 goods per slot and the opponent’s attack power aligns with attrition 110 attack power, negotiating to defeat that opponent will also cost 55 goods per slot.
Once all opponents in a building are defeated, players can attack the building itself. Negotiations will deal double the damage to the building compared to combat (want to make more valuable the forgotten feature of negotiation, can not understand why Innogames do not give more love to negotiations), The attack and defense of the building will depend on its level and the average defensive power of the players assigned to that building, the building can have for example a max of 10 points of life, 1 point means 1 battle against NPCs or 1 negotiation.
Once a building is destroyed, victory points are awarded to the guild of the player who destroyed it.
Attacking or negotiating once will consume tokens. Players will start with 10 tokens upon joining the battle and generate 1 token every 10 minutes, with a maximum of 22 tokens if they join at least one second before the first 10-minutes of the first hour.
If a player joins the battle and the building where his/her portrait appears is already destroyed or if he/she was already defeated in that buildong he/she defends, the player cannot act until he/she revives. Reviving costs 1 token. Reviving does not mean you must be defeated again, your name will still appear in grey, so you they cannot defend it again, but you can still attack or negotiate other players inside of buildinds or attack it to destroy it. Players can only die once unless they fail a negotiation or lose a combat encounter when attacking opponents within a building.
The guild that destroys the most buildings within the two-hour battle wins. Players in a guild can still act even if 7 buildings are destroyed, but if all 8 buildings are destroyed, they cannot take further actions. If one guild destroys all 8 buildings before the timer runs out, they must still wait until the four-hour cycle is complete to face the next guild. If both guilds destroy the same number of buildings by the two-hour mark, the winner is determined based on who destroyed first the last building of the enemy guild.
The winning guild earns 1 victory point. Additionally, all members of both guilds will receive rewards based on their performance, such as the most damage dealt to buildings, most opponents defeated, most total damage done, most attacks resisted, etc. Top-performing players will receive special rewards, with the defeated guild’s players receiving 1/3 of the winners’ rewards. Each successful token action also grants individual rewards.
About the buildings: Each building provides unique bonuses that improve with its level. For example, one building might increase the chance of generating an extra token every 10 minutes for all guild members. Another could enhance the defense of players inside it. Others might boost red attack power, provide a chance to resist being defeated, or increase damage dealt to enemy buildings.
To value every guild member, if a building is at max level (e.g., level 8) but only 7 players are assigned to it, the building’s bonus will correspond to level 7. This incentivizes having 80 members in a guild, as it should be!
Each player can also assign one of their historical allies as a "helper," providing special bonuses during the two-hour battles. The number of historical allies could be proportional to the main building’s level—e.g., 0.5 allies per level, meaning up to 4 allies at level 8. Each ally, based on rarity, offers unique bonuses, such as a chance to gain an extra turn during negotiations or a chance to avoid spending a token to revive if defeated or to not consume a token to attack or negotiate if the attack ot negotiation is sucessfully completed.
This system aims to give unique value to every ally and allow players to create personalized combinations of skills based on their preferred playstyle.
---
About the league system:
Obviously, there will always be a guild capable of defeating almost anyone, regardless of the game mode. Forcing the five guilds below that top guild to constantly face it would be unpleasant and pointless.
A guild will obviously face another guild with a similar number of victory points. However, the top guild will always be forced, every 4 hours, to face the guild ranked 10th, then the 9th, then the 8th, and so on in a cycle until it faces the 2nd-ranked guild. This allows the other nine guilds to have more than 32 hours of respite from fighting the top guild. However, to make being in the top position more challenging, regardless of how many victories they achieve, if any guild defeats the actual top-ranked guild twice (not necessarily consecutively), it will automatically take the #1 spot, and the former top guild will take the old position of the guild that claimed the top rank. The former top guild will then be required to defeat the new top guild just once to reclaim its position. The benefit of having more points is that the former top guild will only need one victory instead of two to regain the top position.
The fact that there is only one guild-vs-guild battle every four hours also allows less active or smaller guilds to have a chance to win. For instance, they could take advantage of periods of low activity in the game to destroy as many of the opposing guild’s buildings as possible. Also, earning only 1 point per battle and not lose victory points allows guilds with low activity always fight against similar guilds.
Replacing Expeditions and Battlegrounds:
I’ve also been thinking about how to use this new game mode to replace Expeditions because, yes, if it were up to me, I would permanently eliminate both Battlegrounds and Expeditions. I still can’t believe there are players who think these two modes are well-designed and that we should just accept what InnoGames offers us to enjoy the competitive aspect of FoE.
Do you remember the old, toxic, cheaters-filled GvG maps? Imagine a single, large map made up of tiles, with each tile having a specific value. In the game mode I explained earlier, after defeating a guild, the victorious guild earns "1 coin." This coin can be used on this large map to acquire one tile at the edge of the map. After winning again, they earn another coin, which can be used to advance to one adjacent tile. However, when advancing, the previous tile becomes vacant. The goal is to earn coins to progress toward the center, where the most valuable tile is located. Holding control of this central tile for extended periods would yield increasing daily rewards for the members of that guild.
If, during their progression, another guild attempts to dislodge them and force them back, they can select the contested tile. In the next battle (which occurs every 4 hours), the two guilds will be forced to face each other, even if the defending guild tries to move away from that tile beforehand.
The losing guild will return to the edge of their starting region. For instance, let’s say this large map is divided into ring-shaped regions representing different ages, with the outermost ring corresponding to the Iron Age. If a guild loses a battle in this ring, they’ll be sent back to the outer edge of that region.
Special tiles:
There would also be special tiles. One type could serve as a "checkpoint." At the upper limit of each region, a guild occupying a checkpoint could spend 2 coins to acquire a second adjacent tile. This second tile would then be used to advance into the next region. If this advance leads to a checkpoint in the next region, the previous checkpoint would no longer be in possession, and the guild would only retain one conquered tile and must spend again 2 coins to genereate a second conquered tile—adyacent to the new checkpoint. Checkpoints are useful because if a guild loses in battle, instead of being pushed to the outer edge of the new region, it will simply retreat two tiles, and the victorious guild would acquire the tile previously occupied by the losing guild. However, this does not apply if another guild manages to take over the checkpoint in the meantime.
To steal a checkpoint, no battle is required. Instead, a guild can spend 2 coins and a large amount of the most abundant guild goods. Assuming each region requires advancing through a minimum of 6 tiles, spending 2 coins to steal a checkpoint and potentially avoiding being sent back to the edge of the new region after a loss is well worth the investment.
Another type of special tile could contain a sort of “atomic missile.” Found on the edge of each region, this missile could randomly destroy two buildings (excluding the main building) in the opposing guild’s setup for their next battle. However, this effect would only apply if the opposing guild attacks the guild that activated the missile within this new GvG map.
Central and adjacent tiles:
The central tile and its adjacent tiles could have a mechanic encouraging competition between guilds occupying these positions. For example, if there are five adjacent tiles to the center, guilds in those tiles may want to stay there for the rewards of being in a “second-place” position. To incentivize battles among second-place guilds and against the center tile, guilds in adjacent tiles could gain bonuses for fighting each other, giving them an advantage in claiming the central tile.
Teleportation shortcuts:
There could also be shortcuts allowing for "teleportation" from one tile to another far away within the same region or to quickly advance to the next region. To unlock these shortcuts, a system similar to Expedition nodes could be implemented. Along the way to these new tiles, there would be nodes requiring the guild to donate goods, resources, or battle. Completing all nodes would allow advancement to the new, distant tile, but there would only be a few nodes.
Optional participation:
If a guild doesn’t wish to participate in this map, they can simply stick to the 1v1 battles every 4 hours. With each victory, they’ll accumulate coins and might eventually decide to join the GvG map. And yes, coins will stack, meaning a guild with 10 coins could instantly progress 10 tiles.
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Obviously the last idea of use a GvG map requires more corrections but the thing is to show that it is really possible create something better, with less time consumption, and more enjoyable, and what I want from you guys, is to think about new ideas to permanently replace GbG and QI, vote for it, share the most voted idea on FoE's discord, and there massively up vote for that idea to show and proof Innogames what we really want to make the competitive side of FoE great as we never seen before!
Thank you for your time
GBG and QI. In my guild, we all love 
