 Equal Rights For Small Hoods 

[PerkyCox]

Having spent several weeks on a secondary farm in a small hood/derby, I fully support equal opportunities for small hoods, particularly, the ability to attain all horseshoes.

this past week, I was working solo, only to find that the 5th shoe is not attainable. 4 prizes? No booster? No thanks!

This ^^^^

The horseshoe levels are set to deliberately exclude small hoods from the benefit of the derby. Why offer the derby at all the small hoods, then? Why not REQUIRE a mandatory minimum number of derbyers in a hood to be able to derby at all? Or has SC exercised "soft power" here to incentivize the behavior they (may*) want, that is, larger NHs?

(*I say MAY because i don't know for sure why SC would care about how big the NHs are.)

The NH size was expanded to 30 by player request, but why does size matter to SC? And if size matters to SC, why use derby horseshoe levels to drive folks into larger NHs? (And is it WORKING?)

Or is is something else driving the inability to attain horseshoes in small NHs?

[SelseyBirder]

I've not played the derby in a small hood so I guess I'm not understanding how it actually works. Then number of horse shoe threshold prizes available increases as you move up in each league right. With 9 being available if your in championship league regardless of hood size. So that being said doesn't the points needed to attain each horse shoe scale according to how many are opted in the derby? Like last week we had 3 more people in the derby and the 9th award was 17K points and this week having 3 less the 9th award is at 14K points. I guess I'm assuming everybody has the same shot at getting all 9 (providing they are in CL). So I apparently don't understand how it actually works for a really smaller hood. Somebody fill me in? Seems like I still Learn something new about the game every day.

i think the simplest way to answer your question is to use my NH as an example, I play in a two player with my fiancée and we are in the champions league. The ninth level threshold is set at 9,000 points and we have the option to buy a tenth task. Our maximum score is 6,400 so we actually cannot reach the seventh (6,600), eighth or ninth threshold!

now I agree with the points made above regarding larger neighbourhoods, but it is more than slightly ridiculous when in the champions league we cannot reach the top three levels !

your thoughts?

ian

[daz258]

Just to play Devils Advocate.....

(using whiney David space voice) Ya kinda don't....

coordinating 15-30 members to get 10 tasks done with a reasonable average point value is signifigantly harder. whipping 14-29 minions into performing correctly week in and week out without slacking is a lot harder than it is to get 1-5 minions to do the same a single person neighborhood can knock out 10 320 point tasks in a single day by preloading their cake maker, wool maker, Town, Juice maker hot dog maker sushi maker and a few mining tasks. A single player derby competitor. (usually working in a NH of 10 or more that are not competing.) can spend 5 days 23 hours trashing tasks until they have a perfect board and then in 1 fell swoop go from not competing to winning with a perfect score.

Whereas larger neighborhoods have to be in constant communication with each other coordinating which member will be taking which task which ones will be trashed what the thresholds are for trashing vs keeping when to spend diamonds and how to stay ahead of the pack. so in that regards If anyone deserves a better reward it would be them. Also Supercell makes money on the number of players it has seeing the advertisements and buying diamonds and decorations at increasingly prohibitive sums of money so They want to encourage you to get all your real life friends and family playing as well to increase the player base in the hopes they too will buy a decoration or two.

By keeping the NH small a player circumvents the majority of the difficulties in doing the derby so being rewarded for taking the easy way out seems counter productive.

and besides it's just pixels for bragging rights. what good is bragging rights if everyone gets to brag.

I have to agree here, it's much more difficult getting a large group of players to work together - as such I believe their rewards should be greater.

Clash of Clans also features a system where bigger wars are potentially more rewarding - as it requires so much more organisation and teamwork.

Equal derby rewards would dismantle many larger hoods. Why Work as part of a team if you can get the same rewards by yourself?

It's just like the real word, bigger well organised businesses will turnover more money than smaller ones - and so they should.

[SmallChange]

I disagree.

In larger hoods the *Leader* works harder, not the players, I've been in various size hoods (or should I say my hoods have varied in size whilst I've been in them!).

Larger hoods don't need 10x320 point tasks per person. Some win weekly on a very low task trash threshold.
Larger hoods can help each other out with stock, Townies etc. I have no NH help in my hood (thank god for my friends!).
Larger hoods can do more varied tasks. Many are ruled out for me if I want to place because the tasks need to be done quickly.
Solo hoods can really struggle to get 10x320 pre loaded tasks as each time you get a task, you're refreshing fewer & fewer 'spots'. You can't place if you can't pre load the board.
Solo hoods have one person trashing the board.

I very rarely get a mining task, let alone 'a few'.
Keeping the NH smaller does not circumnavigate the difficulties, it faces different difficulties.
It's NOT the easy way out.

I don't get the sneery 'Pixels for bragging rights' comment either. We want Deco. Deco we like to decorate our farms, Deco we aren't able to win whilst playing the SAME game as those winning it. What's the issue? It's not about winning & getting trophies, we do that. The Deco is 'just pixels', the entire game is just 'pixels'. What's your point?


All players can do 10 tasks if they wish. I do 10 tasks each week, I get 4 Horseshoes. Player x in a large hood does 10 tasks each week & gets 9. Why shouldn't I get 9 Horseshoes? I've done no less work than the player in a larger hood.


For a very long time now I've accepted that SC wants us to play in large NH's so penalise small NH's, but I'm getting properly fed up of it now. Dibly/Mini has explained why quite nicely (thanks).

[Dove2017]

I support smaller hoods being able to achieve all the horseshoes - or at very least a better distribution in the first three or four horseshoes that allows permits, boosters, what have you, deco, in those columns.

bigger hoods aren't better, harder to manage, or more challenging than little hoods - each size has pros and cons. Also there isn't a finite amount of derby deco so why not make it available to everybody? It's not like solo derby players are snatching tools or trophies from leaderboard teams - there is plenty to go around!

[GpoppyZ]

Ok thanks for clearing it up for me. I wrongly assumed it would scale the required points all the way down to just a solo hood (and making the 9th attainable). How curious there is a cutoff to that. I've read all the comments up to this point and I get what both sides are saying. But I gotta side with the op on this one. Give everybody a chance to have the same rewards without forcing them to play in a way they don't want to. It's a business for SC but for us it's a game to relax with and just enjoy. Up to this issue it has been a game that allowed everybody to play how they want, focus on whatever aspect of it they enjoy most and not really be at a disadvantage to someone who likes to play differently. Solo, small, medium or large hood should all have the same derby opportunities for rewards. They should just continue scaling the points all the way down to solo hoods. JMO so don't blast me to bad.

[JessOfTheDerbyvilles]

Thanks for the great support and input, everyone.

Oh, come on (to the ones who think we are "taking the easy way out."). Not at all... We all have reasons for playing this great game, but one thing that we have in common is that we all play to have a little fun--perhaps to escape real life. Those of us who prefer to play solo or with one or two trusted friends, more than likely, do so for personal reasons (some of them hard to explain... grief, life tragedy, etc.). We aren't trying to get away with anything. We're willing to play hard this "pixelated" little farm game, so, Supercell, would you simply give us the same opportunities as those in larger hoods and give us the same pleasure they get when they get that rare deco? Not too much to ask, is it?

[PerkyCox]

I have to agree here, it's much more difficult getting a large group of players to work together - as such I believe their rewards should be greater.

Clash of Clans also features a system where bigger wars are potentially more rewarding - as it requires so much more organisation and teamwork.

Equal derby rewards would dismantle many larger hoods. Why Work as part of a team if you can get the same rewards by yourself?

It's just like the real word, bigger well organised businesses will turnover more money than smaller ones - and so they should.

FIRST: this turned into a REALLY long post, so I am bolding and CAPITALIZING the important stuff for those who want to read the chapter synopses and not the whole flipping novel. LOL

Here goes:

My issue with the CoC metaphor is that Hay Day was designed in the beginning as a solo game that encouraged (but DID NOT REQUIRE) the social element of in-game friends and neighbors. Only with the introduction of the derby has SC possibly tried to coalesce folks into larger NHs (again, I'm not sure why SC would care how big the NHs are).

In the "bygone olden days of yore:"

*Everyone got Greg as a neighbor (as they do today)

*Everyone got 5 slots in the shop (I think I recall you earned a 6th with 1 FB friend - it was a long time ago for me so I may be wrong).

*You could fill your shop and advertise in the paper: 1 free ad every 30 minutes

*You could add friends via FB or GC (no Android)

*You could follow 5 farms only, and could not delete farms that decided to follow YOU

*No events of any kind

*You filled boats, sent trucks, sold to visitors, or sold in the shop -- that was it.

HD was a social game played solo (if that makes sense) because the social component was still fully optional. If Greg is the only neighbor you wanted to play with, then you could have a perfectly good time making what you needed, shopping in the paper, visiting other farms in the paper, and buying out Greg's shop every 24 hours. You didn't have to add any FB friends if you didn't want to, but you were stuck with followers forever. Really, for the true solitary farmer, you could play every aspect of the game by yourself, with no in-game friends REQUIRED.

Slowly Hay Day morphed into a more highly social and competitive game.

*Events were added first events were solo, then later global events came along.

*The shop-sale system was reworked to give a free ad every 5 minutes

*Global events started

*Fishing area opened

*NHs are introduced with the town. The advantage of picking up townies from your NH was the first encouragement for players to create and join NHs.

*NH chat feature enabled

In 2014 the most social and competitive component is added: THE DERBY

The Derby has changed the whole game fundamentally -- but the solo farmer can still play solo and even derby if they want to. What they CAN'T do is achieve all the horseshoes. The levels are set too high.

WHICH finally brings me to the bolded part of Daz's (and by extension TOT's) post: I respectfully disagree that most people in NHs will abandon them and go into solo NHs if the solo NHs can attain all the horseshoes. Why? Most of us joined into NHs to have that social interaction with our in-game friends we had been playing with forever, and chatting with on the forum.

It takes a certain kind of player to be in a solo NH. They have to be more patient, for one thing. They may be more focus on the personal feelings of accomplishment that flow from having done things 100% themselves. They may be looking for a quiet game to play in a calm way, without a lot of chatter.

I am not the kind of player who would want to be in a solo NH. I'm too much of an extrovert. And my gut feeling is that most players who would play a social game are not going to form solo NHs just for derby prizes.

Will those derby players who do NOT enjoy the social NH aspect have more of an incentive to jump out? Maybe -- but I think these folks were always eventually going to downsize at some point anyway -- like there is frequently a drop-off in derby participation once a player gets that 40th CL Derby achievement..

And maybe those players who are not invested in making personal connections with NH members AND who hop from NH to NH will form solo NHs, but I kinda doubt it: Most players join NHs to make their games easier. Being in a solo NH makes your game HARDER.

There are so many kinds of NHs out there, and so many ways they play together (or not) and derby (or not) or chat (or not) that I don't see how simply making 9 horseshoe prize levels attainable for every NH would disrupt the game by essentially destroying NHs.

I keep coming back to this: I have never thought it was fair that smaller NHs who are also spending diamonds and participating in the derby cannot mathematically reach the 9th horsehoe. I frankly expected this to get tweaked, but it never has, so I guess it was intentional.

[SmallChange]

*Perky*. It was definitely intentional. SC said so in one of the AMA discussions. They *want* us to play in larger NH's. Originally there was going to be a minimum (10 I think) but they decided against that because it discriminated against solo players (and they couldn't be done with the uproar), so instead they've just put in lots of disadvantages of being in a small/tiny NH to 'encourage' bigger NH's - lack of ability to get more than 4 Horseshoe prizes being one of them. However, as Mini said, if it hasn't worked in 3 years...time to admit it hasn't worked.


As Perky said, people choose to play solo for many reasons. I play solo now because I'm done managing other people in a game that's supposed to be fun/relaxing/zoning out from life. I'm done with getting angry, hurt or plain frustrated with people over a game - there's enough of that IRL. I'm done with explaining basic strategy to people who either are unable or unwilling to grasp it.

It was *fun* playing the Derby together before the Leagues, when we'd all be there at the end, deciding whether it was worth paying for the extra tasks, how many we needed to do, who had diamonds, who could do the tasks...shouting the horses over the finish line. I loved it. Then they changed it...

What is it to anyone else how I like to play? How does it affect anyone else if I can achieve 9 Horseshoes?

[NorCalCornholioAcres]

Yes!! My neighborhood has only 3 active players. Would love the chance to get more horseshoe prizes!