long overdue, but the time is now

[Benedicto]

Thanks for the encouragement, and I just realized what am I missing why I fell short this season, my CL points. It will be my goal to farm CL so that for the next season I'll be at 2300+ and collect crafting materials for the new items. Season 4 will be my vengeance time

[LodWig]

I'm a mobile player only, and got to #34 on S3 Hunter LB (last time I saw). Granted, with full cel 77 gear (I started to play two years ago), and a fast iPad Pro. On S2 with lesser gear and hardware I ranked #43. So it's possible to rank high, I know of two mobile only players who routinely get to top 25. I wanted to say this just to encourage you. But, it's sure we cannot compete with PC players, especially for top 10.

[LodWig]

iOS computers? Yes, the player base will be much smaller...

[kamap]

There will still be a problem between IOS mobile and IOS computers, the player base will just be smaller, but the problem between fps will still excist.
So if they do that the complains won't go away.

[.sad.soul.]

I feel your pain Rafers.

[Coldet]

Ok I’ve never been a “Top” player. Mostly I’d say it was lack of skill, while a younger Coldet would also always blame it on the hardware or rather lack of top notch hardware. The point is hardware has been a gaming issue for as long as gaming has been a thing. Get over it! I certainly did.

For YEARS I wished that I could take my game with me wherever I went. Even after our fancy schmancy smartphones and Tablets hit the market it was still many years before our PC games became mobile.

Will mobile gaming ever be on a level competitive playing field with Computers? I doubt it. So yea, be thankful you can play your game while sitting on the “throne” and if you have a need to be competitive, go get yourself a super computer.

Sure it’s 2020 and mobile gaming is now a “thing” and it is probably time it had its own leaderboards. I certainly would not object to a split leaderboard. The game already is able to identify what hardware we are using. It should not be that big a deal.

Anyway. Personally I’d rather see them do away with the leaderboard rewards. All rewards should be for achieving level goals.

[lmcelhiney]

It really is easy for recent starters to be blase' about platforms. If those "in control" truly looked at this using statistics, they could clearly see the proof of what is being said.

I use the fastest iPads currently available and the FPS is still not at a "competitive level". Those who simply suggest that more money be spent by players to even attempt to be competitive might be investing in PC hardware stocks in the hope that they grow.

You might notice that there are not large threads about "how easy it is for mobile players" or "...having to use a keyboard and mouse is unfair!" It is unconscionable to simply ignore the pleas of the mobile players. Spending time and resources adding features which only reward those at the top is inappropriate to me. Do a statistical review of where your income is derived and let us know. Maybe, if a lot of the money comes from mobile user who are attempting to compete, that knowledge might help us to decide.

Pretty much, this is a wasted effort on the part us mobile players, as those at the top of competitions really rule the direction of the system.

[Verminnard]

I understand the frustration, but where does it end?
Phone users separate from I PAD separate from Samsung tablets separate from PC. With that we should divide PC into categories, 60Hz separate from 144hz separate from 240hz. The point is simple, someone will always have an advantage based on the platform that they are using in the current format. This is the case with a ton of competitive games, With most games the solution is simple. Upgrade your platform to what you feel you need to compete. I know that not going to be a popular answer, but lets face it if you complained to the developers of Battlefield or Call of Duty that someone had a unfair advantage because they had a faster computer with a 300Hz monitor, what would the answer be?

I think we have bigger problems that limit the ability to be competitive identified by Ethetan above.

[7string]

13ft shadow Thanks for starting this thread! I think the time is right for the Developers to hear more of the frustration from the mobile players.

I have been playing for about 1 1/2 years now, and am continually getting better, but my standings in the event LB's are starting to slip in the last few events. I used to consistently place in the top 200, and made the top 100 once. So I have collected a decent handful of medals, but nowhere near the top players. But in the recent events, things have changed, and I was not able to place in top 250 in either the last season or the recent bronze ANB. For the bronze ANB I will acknowledge that I was primarily seeking CT's and gear for a new Warlord setup. I also probably made the mistake of spending time farming gold when I could have just waited for the 10M to roll in at season end. That 10M extra gold may somewhat account for the many high standings in the LB, but not entirely.

I have loved the crafting and building aspect of this game. I play 100% on iOS devices - either 2016 iPad Pro, or 2018 iPhone XS Max. I have sunk countless hours into farming XP, gold, materials, and crafting gear and jewelry, and spent more money over time than I care to think about. I am now at CL2167 which I consider pretty decent. During the last event, I only managed CL1530 which I had hoped to be better. But still, I constantly saw people in the top 100 who had 500-1000 less CL's than me, and even with mediocre gear of 72's-74's. I managed to craft 4 level 77 pieces during the bronze ANB, and all the rest up to 76 by the end of the game. But the best I could reach with Warlord was 103 (in last full TL I opened 105 which I knew I could beat, but with only 2 mins left). End result placement over 300 on the LB. I guess I should be content that I will still get two medals from the ANB and 3 medals from the Season, but the whole event thing is feeling very frustrating. Before they made the TL's more difficult I was up to around TL133 I think. So some of my shortfall could be some skill or tactics on my part, but overall I feel pretty good about how I play, and my fingers move about as fast as humanly possible when drawing the symbols. So I think the difference is mostly in devices. I'm not sure how much is FPS. I will be getting the newest iPad Pro in the coming week, and will see if faster FPS makes a difference. But I suspect that the advantage the majority of top players have is playing on a PC with function keys. And of course I still think there are too many cheaters who are not being caught by the review of the LB's. I just don't believe it when I see someone with CL below 1000 and mediocre gear placing in the top 100 and completing TL's over 120. [to be fair most of the sub-1000CL players dropped out of the top 100 at the very end, but they still probably ended up in top 250 and higher than me]

So I support your idea of a separate server/LB/rewards for mobile players. Frankly, I think this game should be mobile only. Allowing PC's just opens the door to hacking, bots, and other means of cheating. But if that cannot be done (and I think that is what the Devs have said in the past), then find another way to even the playing field a little! Such as:
- My iPad has a soft keyboard folio attached to it. ALLOW US TO USE "FUNCTION" KEYS IN IOS WHEN A KEYBOARD IS ATTACHED??
- OR MAKE THE GAME AVAILABLE ON THE MAC??
- Or as others have said, allow one or more abilities to be auto played rather than having to draw a symbol. I really hate the symbols. Only the V is easy for me. Next easiest is >. For some reason the hardest for me to draw quickly is the middle ^ up arrow. I often end up drawing either a circle or drinking a potion when I don't mean to. And the W is just too hard to draw fast when you are drawing more than one symbol per second.

I don't want this post to be long, so will save other thoughts for later.

PLEASE DEVS - GIVE SOME THOUGHT TO MAKING THE GAME MORE FAIR FOR MOBILE PLAYERS!!

I really don't want to quit this game, but I'm seriously considering it if you don't address the PC/mobile discrepancy.

[Ethetan]

Some great ideas. I posted a similar suggestion a while ago regarding the irony of mobile players not being able to compete (aside from 1 class and 1 spec) in a mobile based game.

While the steps here would be a nice start, I would argue that it needs to be taken even further. Buckle in, this is going to be a long one.

To grasp why, let's start by identifying the problem. First, we all know cheating of various forms has gotten out of hand in this game, particularly when it comes to high leaderboards. Despite the likely hood that it will offend some of the overly sensitive people here on the forum who are terrified of not being politically correct, I think we all also know where the majority of the problem lies.

Cheating, especially botting has seemingly been ignored by DP as it pertains to many of the highest ranked players, and is, for all intents and purposes, now permissable for players to do, since DP has set the standard that not much will be done about it unless you make it overly obvious that you are doing it. This, in turn, leads to it not only being accepted at high ranks, but down right required if you have aspirations of getting there, which only snowballs the problem. It is the Corona Virus of this game, something that spreads easily and rapidly, and will be devastating to the game's health if left untreated. Ironically, it is also largely purpetuated by the same country that brought us the actual Corona Virus.

Some will complain and whine at that comment, but we all know it's true. Heck, most of the players are flagrant enough to actually put the country's name in their character name, while showing clear signs of foul play. Yet another example of how "safe" it has become to not be a legit player.

To compound this, we see some of these same users with multiple accounts illigitimately taking up multiple spots on the leaderboard with each of the accounts being just as shadily built up as the next.

The problem with the solution suggested in the OP is that all it will do is force these players to run emulators on their PCs to allow entry to whichever leaderboard ends up being the softest, and only result in having multiple leaderboards with cheaters on top instead of the one board we have now.

Something obviously needs to be done to keep future players from being encouraged to follow in these players' footsteps, but something also needs to be done with the players who have already benefitted. Whenever someone brings it up, or when other people post information or proof of rule breaking by top players, DP is quick to delete the thread. Just see the post that was made a few weeks ago regarding one of the 24XX cl players that everyone with a brain knows is cheating, and then go look at the top of the leaderboards for S3 when they are posted and see that he is still there, and for every class, no less.

For whatever reason, DP seems intent on not only failing to do anything to these players, but actively protecting them by suppressing the comments of those trying to bring further light to the situation.

Just think about seasons. It's no longer "will I make Champion if I work hard enough", or even "do I stand 10 legitimate chances to be ranked in the top 10". Champion is right out. I don't think we will ever see a fully legit player win that again. And when considering the top 10, the only question is will all 10/10 be cheaters, or only 8/10? This is, admittedly, a little bit of an exaggeration, but the point stands. Legit players like Romme and Shadow are getting fewer and further between, because honestly why would you give yourself arthritis tapping away at your screen for 10 hours everyday trying to keep up, when you could just bot and get the same result, with no apparent risk associated with it.

All of this combines to make for a culture where people who exploit/bot/hack or any other forms of cheating not only are rarely banned, but are shielded by DP from being called out and, worst of all, are often bestowed with the highest honor this game can give, the title of Champion (which is beyond laughable when considering what they did to get it) and that is just a sh*t environment for a game to have. With all of this, I have decided to stop financially supporting the game until it's fixed. I will still log in and do ANBs etc, just so I'm not hopelessly behind on celestials if the game is ever cleaned up, but will just be doing them the way I did this bronze, spend almost no gems, buy no boosts/crates, and stop after reaching t100 for the celestial.

I'm not sure what steps DP will ever take to fix this, if any, but I feel like the solution will have to come from player suggestions as we see from this topic, because the likely hood of them developing a solution on their own just isn't there. Granted, some problems are harder to fix than others, and I don't want to make it sound like Eternium is the only game with these problems. Some games have gone so far as to create separate leaderboards for "that country" because having them compete with everyone else is just senseless.

The banning also needs to be stepped up, but that in itself will not fix the issue. The reason for that is this game is free to play, meaning anyone can have 40 accounts, run virtual desktops on their PC, each with a different account, and leave all of them botting all day while you are at work. So, if one of your accounts eats the ban hammer, who cares? You have plenty more where that came from.

My suggestion, and it won't be a popular one, as is the case with many of my opinions, I suspect, (at least with the mopey masses of casuals who care nothing about the LBs) is to switch to a subscription based service. Now, I know what you are thinking "Hey, that won't completely fix the problem, just look at games like WoW". And you would, in part, be correct. Games like WoW do have botters running rampant even though the accounts actually cost real money to keep active. The difference is that there is no way to make real money in Eternium. In WoW, the cheaters have already made several times their investment back by the time they are banned, so it is actually profitable for them to do it. With Eternium, there is no way to sell gems, or even gold, and even selling accounts isn't much of an issue because the game simply isn't very popular by comparison, so no one is spending big bucks on a "Champion" account.

So, ultimately, this would do several things:

1. All but eliminate botters, exploiters and cheaters of all kinds (because if they get banned, they lose everything, their account, their sub money, and they made no profit in the process)

2. Highly discourage players from having multiple backup accounts or taking up numerous leaderboard spots (especially when considering adding risk back into botting, which would force players to play legitimately and, at that point, it only makes sense to put all your time into one high level account rather than spreading it out over several, lackluster accounts where all of them have mediocre gear and low CL since you wouldn't be able to bot with them to get them up anymore)

3. Give a steady revenue stream to the developers so maybe they actually start taking the game seriously. This could mean a more focused, in-line game, with less bugs, many of which cannot be attributed to anything but carelessness and lack of testing on the devs part, better, newer content released more consistently, and tons of possibilities on where they could take it in the future, with a real, financial incentive to do so.

The basis of any popular game, as anyone who follows eSports can attest, is it's competitive scene. It brings popularity to the game through everything from word of mouth to streamers, which in turn, causes the flocks of masses known as casual players to come flooding in, which is where a majority of most games money comes from. So, while it may be contrary to what some are tempted to believe, catering to the 1% is actually one of the best ways to make a game flourish. Let's look at our Wow example again. The years when WoW was the most financially successful were the years when it catered almost exclusively to hardcore players. I'm talking vanilla, TBC, even some of WotLK, when many boss encounters were just brutally hard until they were nurfed to let more people do them. Once they began catering to the masses and giving everyone the best gear, then entire system fell apart and it has never fully recovered.

I guess I should wrap this novel up, but I do think posts like the ones in this topic are the first and most important step to saving this game, and maybe at some point, the devs will see this game as being worth saving.

[lmcelhiney]

Interesting concept!

I play on two iPad Pros which have a reasonable FPS rate, but do not compare to a gaming PC. At one point in time, I actually got a character to Lvl 99, but then the Bosses were enhanced.

Since the advent of Medals, it isn't really practical for anyone to try for the top unless they have medals. They are the reward which keeps on giving and continues to drive the player base into two camps, in my opinion.

I believe folks who are successful competitors now have no reason to spend any money. Those of us on mobile really have no more reason to spend money.

How will they fund the Unreal development?

[Turgeon]

I approved that can solve big part of the problem

[LodWig]

This "iOS/others" split is a wonderful idea. It will of course benefits to iOS users (which I am part of) more than to Android users, but even they will benefit from it (because less "advantaged" players). It will not solve the fact that you can farm efficiently on PC and play on iOS with the same toon (unless requiring separate accounts), but that can be evened by more grinding time on the iOS side. Thank you for going out of the usual mobile/non-mobile split and coming with this.

[Benedicto]

You know what I was very frustrated at? I spent CTs to get full celestial gear, consumed all my custom jewellery boxes for experimentations, reforged stats that costed thousands of gems, and crafted full lvl 77 items just to try to push to the top 50 yesterday, but never happened, because I am a mobile player only!... Those who ranked above me was way below my gear stats, but because they play on pc,... Oh well.

Totally agree, however never going to happen. The gap between PC and Android is laughable. Even after many years of playing this game, I cannot even get close to the PC guys. Now, I am not the worst player or the best, however I can't even break the top 100 at seasons end due to not being able to dodge and move freely like that of PC players.

Something else to consider, loyalty means nothing in the mobile gaming world. Similar to buying car insurance, there is no reward for sticking with a supplier. So no matter how much actual cash we pump into the game, there will be no rewards for doing so. Probably why everything is so ludicrously expensive. If a younger me saw hoe much I have spent on this game, he would be violently sick all over the place. However it is a great trap, because we spend money, we feel we have to keep on grinding a playing. This seems to be true of many mobile games. How I miss the time where you bought a game, completed it 100% and then moved on. Only to visit the game for nostalgia. For the 1st time, due to COVID-19, I bought a PS4 and 4 games, GTA 5, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro and Diablo 3. So much deep joy playing them and no need to spend cash on them. This all said and done, I still find myself grinding over and over and over again in Eternium. Its got to be a form of madness! In fact insanity. What's even more insane is, I have not played Diablo 3 yet! Think I need to have a long hard look in the mirror and carry out a reassessment of my life.

So I digressed somewhat there, my apologies. Point is still prevalent, Devs are not going to listen / change Somthing that they do not care about. Just look at the Gold fiasco in AnB Bronze currently. They were warned about this and still let it happen. When challenged, they have just said "crack on and spend your 10mil" this is without a care in the world for the disadvantaged players without the extra 10mil.

Best we behave like good little worker drones and continue the futile grind to greatness. Maybe dip ones toes in the vat of enlightenment, whilst riding a wave of tolerance and understanding.