Discussion Release Notes version 1.25 + Tournaments rebalancing

[DeletedUser1388]

our main focus has been moved away from the battles for a few months already

Maybe I'm dumb, but looking into last 10 release notes to live servers, each contain changes to the fight system. Then how the "focus has been moved away from the battles"? Maybe you wanted to say, the focus from building has been moved out for more than half a year?

 

[DeletedUser1657]

Maybe I'm dumb, but looking into last 10 release notes to live servers, each contain changes to the fight system. Then how the "focus has been moved away from the battles"? Maybe you wanted to say, the focus from building has been moved out for more than half a year?

Its a bit like an iceberg, what we see in release notes is the top of the iceberg. It takes a lot of work to get to that point. So all the work they have done in recent times we are yet to see, like the new event they mentioned.

 

[Sir Squirrel]

Also in them 6 months (that most seem to forget) there has been 3 or 4 events, 2 more chapters added, each with 2 new wonders and a few other changes that were not battle related. The reason the battle stuff took over for as long as it did was because it was totally redone with new troops added, squad size upgrades changed and new buildings for troop selection made. What they are saying is that the battle related changes are for the most part done now, so we can look forward to changes that are geared more to the building part of the game.

 

[DeletedUser1388]

Also in them 6 months (that most seem to forget) there has been 3 or 4 events, 2 more chapters added, each with 2 new wonders and a few other changes that were not battle related.

Can we agree, that the events are not related to build-aspect, nor to battle-aspect? They are simply quest chains, which fulfilled give this-and-that advantages, including cultural buildings. Regarding the new races, they are not a development related to build-aspect, they are only ensuring the continuity of the game, or in other words, keeping up the game flow. Regarding the "other changes" probably I forgot which one developed the build-aspect, sorry about that.
But not to talk only in the air, I would like to mention some examples which I would consider as a development to the build aspect: separating strongly in an excluding way the build from the battle (like having two AWs per chapter, one related to fight and the other to build, players could choose only one of them) functional customization of buildings, very expensive quest chains with forks leading to different results from which only one can be achieved, and so on. I know, that these things do not fit in the game, they were just quick examples. I cannot say more not having any clues about the future plans of the game.
At the end I would like to highlight what happened with the other then bonus relics: players around the world sent in a lot of ideas about their possible usage. Nobody suggested or requested spells. We got spell system.

 

[Dony]

usually you wont get what you want but what a game needs

 

[DeletedUser]

Where are my neighbors?

 

[CrazyWizard]

I now had the chance to go all out on the tournaments my experience so far.

Good Points:
The new point system works well, it gives a lot more fun and enjoyment to more players, chests are well reachable/rewarding
The rewards are ok, just a matter of getting used to it tho it's said the best are all concentrated on the 10+ provincies outside the reach of to many.
Negotiation cost are affordable for all, allowing a nice mix and match of negotiation and fighting.

Ok now the bad parts.
The new AI screwed up fighting big time I am seriously loosing my interest ibecause of it, also instead of less we need a lot more time instead.
The autocombat feature complely fails BIG TIME!, it has never been this bad in autocombat history. 3 sorceres and 1 deserter as enemy and your sworddances/. cerberus/archer fail miserably 9/10 times on autocombat.
2 sorceres and x other squads and you fail miserably 99/100 times, those simply cant be won. on rare occasions the can be won with paladins on at the very very early chapters with the ones you gain for free before you can build them.
Treants fail anything, anytime anywhere. 1 mage and you can sometimes win, 2 mages your always dead. the paladin outperforms the treant in similar situations 99/100 times the 100th time it's equal. (the same AI crap made the previous tournament easier because the orc generals behaved similary stupid)

There are still to many maps that are just awefull.

I have my martial monestary at lvl 20, needles at lvl 16 heroes forge level 12, I got loads of troops that I simply cannot field. there is no point in fielding troops if they will die more often then win anyway. already on very early stages are we forced to go to semi automatic combat to "fix" the AI's behavior. this makes the tournaments cost a lot more time to complete instead of less.

In the end the tournaments are now affected by the same problem that plagued the world map, it become a negotioation game where you use a few troops here and there to avoid the negotiation cost where possible.. this is fine for the world map since you want players not to advance that far but for tournaments :S
A mix /match with negotiation and fighting is ok, but ther is now just to much negotiation and to few fighting.

 

[DeletedUser1984]

Well, I didn't want to reply anything since I am a new player and well, I try to refrain in complaining BUT...as crazywizard said above, the cons are worse than the pros, or well, more at least...all in all I do not want to say anything about the increased squads, nor about the change of rewards, some consider them better, some, who got used in getting free KP, consider them worse...everyone is entitled to an opinion and they are better/worse depending on the player's development state.

My problem overall is the actual units we are facing. Let's take into regard one of my live server accounts where I am nowhere close in getting my units to 3 stars power-wise, yet, I encounter ALL the enemy units as 3 star units and myself at 2 stars and at an increased state of the squads now it is rather impossible to win anything. Another problem would be the number of deployed units...5 vs 8 is kinda ..well..bad...but that's another story. So, the big concern is this: earlier chapters players still encounter better enemy units although as a player we did not even get to the chapter where we unlock the 3 star ones. Maybe consider changing those units' power accordingly to the player evolution or at least gradually towards the last levels of the tournament...the latter would be the best option I suppose

Happy to see the costs of negotiation drop, baad mojo for battles from now on unless something happens.
And as a question to bigger players...has anyone seen anything wrong in the dmg output of those infernal 3 star dogs? [Cerberus] ...3 star cerb vs 2 star treant = the cerb wipes almost half my units in 1 blow...squads were similar that fight...

 

[DeletedUser1596]

The first live tournament is over and here's what I found out.: (I should say, that I was lazy as hell and fought on auto all the time)

• Lowering the number of battles per province saved me a lot of time. (about 1/3)
• I lost about 4x more troops than before. (massacre )
• Buy-out costs of provinces are affordable even on higher levels (yet expensive)
• The 10th chest is much easier to get. (we got one without any special effort)

What I would change is the composition of some enemy armies. Usually there are 3 types of enemy units per battle (light mel., heavy rng., magic), which is fine, but one of them should be in minority. In higher tournament levels, when our army is outnumbered, enemy army is spread in many groups (more debuffs), terrain is against us AND the enemy has a balanced army of 3 different types of units.. then the game makes unwanted difficulty spikes.

 

[DeletedUser1984]

My thoughts exactly..we actually managed to get the 10th chest easily, but the enemy composition AND for lower guys to encounter better units than they can get for the next months right from province 1 level 1...is too much...you would say: buy them...ok..then what's the point of building units then!? the balance between those who trade provinces and those who fight them is not a balance anymore...although better for those who trade..it gotten far worse for the battling enclined players...my 2 cents

 

[Heymrdiedier]

@Urvalsandal absolutely love your signature