Combat Rebalance Design Spotlight (Stage 3)

[TinSoldier]

Greetings Leaders!


Stage Two has been live for about a week and a half and the development team is happy with the overall results of the changes. We are continuing to identify areas of combat balance that need further improvements and plan to address those in the near future. However, it’s time to talk about Stage Three of this rebalance.


This spotlight is going to breakdown the changes to defenders, Barrage, Gatling Guns, Bazookas, and Factory troop training, which will be going live on October 18th. If you’d like to see a basic list of these changes, they can be found at the end of this spotlight. If you missed the previous combat rebalance spotlights, you can check them out below.


Combat Rebalance Introduction

Combat Rebalance Stage One

Combat Rebalance Stage Two


Like defensive buildings, defenders will also be getting stronger by having both their hitpoints and damage increased. Coalition defenders and unique building defenders, like the Longhouse Shieldmaidens, will also receive similar stat changes. Barrage will be doing more damage to ensure it’s still just as effective against more tenacious infantry protecting their homelands.


On the Factory front, we are making several significant adjustments in this Stage. First, Gatling Guns will receive hefty improvements. When compared to similar defender-killing troops, Gatling Guns have not been performing as well as we’d like. Allowing them to shoot over walls will provide a great increase in their ability to deal damage to incoming defenders. Giving them increased hitpoints and a troop space reduction will also make them more durable against the barrage of bullets they regularly face from defenders.


Secondly, Bazookas are also being improved. Although they deal high damage to enemy tanks, they often find themselves overwhelmed too quickly when squaring off against multiple tanks simultaneously. Giving these troops splash damage, on top of increased hitpoints and damage, will help them shred enemy armor brigades rolling out of the Tank Depots and Bunkers. Similar rocket troops, like the Ethiopian Coalition’s Kagnew Infantry, will also do splash damage and have more hitpoints and damage.


Lastly, we want to give players more choices in how they’re building their armies, so almost all Factory troops will cost about 50% less oil to train. This reduction will open up new possibilities for building more Factory-based armies when the extra armor or firepower is needed.


The next design spotlight is going to cover changes to the remaining buildings, wonders, armored cars, and more!


- Brad


Change List

• Troops
  • Gatling Gun
    • Hitpoints increased
    • Damage bonus against defenders increased
    • Troop space decreased by 1
    • Can now shoot over walls
    • Training cost decreased by half
  • Commando
    • Training cost decreased by half
  • Heavy Tank
    • Training cost decreased by half
  • Bazooka
    • Damage increased slightly
    • Hitpoints increased slightly
    • Now deals splash damage
    • Training cost decreased by half
  • Armored Car
    • Training cost decreased by half
  • Tactical Helicopter
    • Training cost reduced slightly
  • MRL
    • Training cost decreased by half
  • Kagnew Infantry (Ethiopian Coalition troop)
    • Damage increased slightly
    • Hitpoints increased slightly
    • Now deals splash damage

• Event Troops (changes made to match Factory troop counterparts)
  • Machine Gun/Veteran Machine Gun
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
    • Damage bonus against defenders increased
    • Troop space decreased by 1
    • Can now shoot over walls
    • Machine Gun Army/Veteran Machine Gun Army now summons more troops
  • Bazooka/Veteran Bazooka
    • Damage increased slightly
    • Hitpoints increased slightly
    • Now deals splash damage
  • Korean War Battalion
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
    • Damage bonus against defenders increased
    • Troop space decreased by 1
    • Can now shoot over walls

• Tactics
  • Barrage
    • Damage greatly increased
  • Turtle Ship Barrage (Turtle Ship is summoned by Admiral Yi)
    • Damage greatly increased

• Defenders
  • Heavy Infantry (including unique nation defenders)
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Ranged Infantry (including unique nation defenders)
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Heavy Cavalry (including unique nation defenders)
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Flammpanzer
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Heavy Tank
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Machine Gun
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
    • Can now shoot over walls
  • RPG (Rocket Arsenal defender)
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
    • Now deals splash damage
  • Chariot Archer (Egyptian coalition troop)
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Toa (Maori coalition troop)
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Urumi (Indian coalition troop)
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • T-34 Tank (Russian coalition troop)
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
• Defender Event Troops
  • Pirate
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Jaguar Warrior
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Shieldmaiden
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Assassin
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Camel Cataphract
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Janissary
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Yumi Samurai
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Retiarius Gladiator
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased
  • Attack Helicopter
    • Damage slightly increased
    • Hitpoints greatly increased

 

[BeerMan]

One of the few positives from the last update was increased plane damage, which is now negated by greatly increased defender HP. Ugh... Splash damage for zookas sounds good though.

 

[NateTheGreat]

We will see how much increase these factory troops are able to offset the effective nerf the barrack troops saw after the Stage 2 250% buff to Defensive Buildings. Won't hold my breath.

Bazookas
Increased zooka damage and health, and splash damage could make them invaluable

Machine gun
Finally a troop space decrease. They still need 4 range to avoid getting 1 shot by anti-tank guns
If you reduce commandos space to 5 and gave them ability to disarm 1-2 traps, people might use them effectively.

Barracks Troops
Need Damage Buff
Ranged infantry, heavy infantry, heavy cavalry, heavy artillery, attack helicopters, and APC
Got screwed over with the stage 1/2 build health buff and now again with this buff to defensive troops.

Barrage
Oh look you forgot to buff Barrage during stage 2 when you buffed demolition, oppps. Well maybe it'll be enough of a buff to get us even pre-stage 1/2 balances. Probably not...

Training Times not Resource Cost
Again... you need to reduce tactic and airstrip TRAINING TIMES not resource costs. This resources cost reduction still won't make people use commandos. I ROFFLOL when I watched some guy use two commandos with 5 HTs. His commandos ran up and hit my landmines in less than 10 seconds it was glorious. Then his HTs were obliterated by the buffed redoubt tower LMAO.

 

[zeltum]

Do something with MRL. Looks a good troop but completely pointless when its so weak and costs so much.

 

[Cryos]

Stop buffing Defenders.I will admit the resource cost reduction for factory troops is actually useful because a lot of times of player spends more oil to train troops than they get from attacks. But you still need to decrease the troop space for more than just machine guns, Commandos especially need to have their space reduced or maybe make Commandos disable traps as well it will slow them down but it will be helpful.

 

[yemen]

You are ruining the regular multiplayer game, and making p2w the standard for wars; insert sound and fury here...

Seriously, continued steps in the wrong direction. But too tired of it all to care much now.

 

[MisterLaxx]

Airstrip training time should not be touched. They are creating a skill gap. If planes took less time to train, you could afford to make more mistakes and it would not help to push you as a player to learn and be better.

Leave the same and you have to become the better player. Museum is out, fighter hp artifacts are available and a good chunk of players have them by now. I raid in empire league even after the last rebalance. I understand the mechanics and I'm successful. You need to learn planes first

 

[No Angel]

seriously? Stage 2 was not a success?!

 

[Rachel]

Since nexon is bored maybe you should try doing something about cheating and sandbagging just an idea

 

[qi1ln]

I never used troop tactics, or mercenary at multiplayer battle. Even the SOTG and Blitz. I only use it in war. Because I cant get the amount needed for each one of them for each of 3-4 battles a day.
i think this is something that should be considered. Attack on MP Battle relatively weaker than world war. If the developer want to make world war more challanging, just make sure that the MP Battle wont be too hard to play. Otherwise it will have a negative impact on the game itself

Btw too bad for commando. I like it because it is unique Too bad it cost too much troop space to be used.

 

[ademirk]

HI:
"

Stage Two has been live for about a week and a half and the development team is happy with the overall results of the changes." ARE YOU CRAZY????
I'm not able to see any good comment from users about stage2.
I'm a Global lvl 181, and I cannot defeat (without losing all troops) any more industrial lvl 130 without using generals, airstrip and mercenaries! Its really crazy.
You cannot attack any base with less then 2k oil because you need to use your airplanes and if you loose them you will spend more than 1.4k to train them again.

Since rebalance stage 2 our aliance is out of WW, I'm just accepting suggestion to other games to play.​

 

[Radzeer]

This dev team turns out to be an unguided missile now.
I have no other explanation anymore. I believe they have even created the GARUDA SAKTI team and having all sort of laughs over this community.

 

[Blood]

Uhhhhh... yup....sure......why not.....let’s do this.... I moved from mp attacking lv 200-240 down to mp attacking lv 160-200. It takes 5 times more attacks on global then cws to get the resources I need. But yeah.... great success. Everyone is super duper happy. They are not saying, doing, or planing anything bad on discourd, line, fb, or twitter.

 

[MartinK12]

Attacks are already so slow and painful even when u face against lower age base and lower player level and u buff all defenders and offset this with just the cost of factory troops Why I need even stronger base when almost no one is attacking me and even if they do - I don't actually get anything from it. The only thing after this rebalance is complete will be top CW players attacking with only heavy tanks, the rest troops will be even more useless

I almost lost all interest in Dominations and after I do ONE !!! daily attack I have to wait to retrain most troops and tactics so long that I had to find another game to play which is more interesting that this one. U have a great success with forcing players to quit playing your game - whoooopi - worst game company ever !!!

 

[NateTheGreat]

Nice MisterLaxx. Why don't you just call me a noob, inexperienced player imo.... JFYI I used to be able to 5* pretty much every MP battle pre balance 1 and 2 without losing 1 plane, no generals, no merc, no TT. Now if I don't use merc camps, generals, and TT and hit players 10-20 levels lower I can't take out all defenses and therefore now lose all 4 fighters. I've spent 2 years becoming good at planes so I don't lose them imo....

What are your all wise and knowing plane skills? Oh you spent $$$ on a whole bunch of 2* and legendary artifacts for your transport/paratroopers that now do 5000+ damage... Right.

 

[FroggyKilla]

Coming Soon, an Artifact that will give 40% Damage and 40% Health to all Defenders.

 

[Radzeer]

Dear NEXON, I'm having a few ideas how you can 'improve the game' with the next patches:

1) The last useful troop in the barracks (wall breakers) could be made obsolete by a 'great increase' of wall's hit points...

2) You could decrease the costs of the barrack troops training to 10% of its current values, I'm sure that will greatly increase the variability of troops used in mp battles.

3) Make all generals to pop-out from the fort if they are activated (for lots of oil, of course) - the investment into all general's levels must be honored.

4) Add additional wall elements for all ages (I find 5 elements pro age reasonable) - we cant put a wall around each defending structure, now!

5) Sell 'fire breathing bunnies' cards again - and never say never again!

6) Give us a new defending building - the Wizard Outpost - all attacking troops in its surrounding should convert to defending troops - and make it invisible for the attacker, similar to the decoy traps, please! Hell, the the attacker can have the betrayal tactic, the defenders shall have a similar weapon too - to even out this imbalance!

7) And please - this is my final suggestion - let us activate defending troops for the Stronghold... As we are not playing WW anymore, let us assign a few paid-cards to the stronghold for multiplayer defenses. If they pop-out and die (by some mistake), they should be simply removed for the next defense, thus allowing us to try some different sh troops that suits our defense more.

 

[JNation]

I dont think Laxx spends any money on the game. and if you are curious about how to use the planes more effectively you could just watch his youtube channel. if you say now that after the rebalance you're unable to 5* bases 10-20 level lowers with the additional support from Generals, mercs and such, could you provide an example of what that looks like? Like are you a 220 level trying to attack a 200 and are forced to use a full army? Or maybe you are a high CW like 260-280 and attacking a 250..

 

[GeeGee]

Hmmm...another stage of ‘rebalancing’ and I’m still no clearer in determining whether all the time, effort and not inconsiderable levels of money invested to date has been worth it. How are you measuring ‘happiness’ in all this? Is it simply that the roll-outs of each rebalance have gone smoothly - i.e. with minimal glitches? Or is it that we, the users of this game, are singing the praises of each and every ‘rebalance’ introduced to date?

From my experience, the rebalancing exercises are leading to changes, including: a reduction in 5-star WW battles (undecided how I feel about that); a complete sea change in approaches to the use of Tactics (good, I think); and yet another polarisation of Troop/Kit combos (failure). So, in these regards, you have a measure of success. But, in my humble opinion, I haven’t seen a corresponding increase in the basic reward that is - game playing fun.

I get the point of all this tinkering. Or do I? Bases are now harder to crack, period. Match-play (mp) is no longer what I would call a ‘fun’ pursuit, it’s more or less an exercise in chatting to Alliance colleagues while you wait for kit to rebuild. Now that could well be a lack of skill on my part. It could also be because I don’t tend to use Tactics, Mercs or Alliance Troops in mp. And why don’t I use such things? Well, I’ve never needed, or wanted to. But I guess things will have to change.

Perhaps the other thing I don’t really understand is the buffing of troops/kit. I initially thought the rebalancing programme would result in genuine variety in roster compositions being introduced. But as far as I can see, all that’s been achieved is a ‘re-focussing’ exercise. Whilst I’d be the first to admit that everyone has basically been using variations of the same kit (6-9 Howies/Heavy Artillery, APCs, Bazookas/RPGs, Ranged Infantry, Heavy Tanks), I can see no evidence of people using radically different kit. Neither can I see people lurching towards buffed Machine Gunners, Mortars etc. Why? Simple...everyone gravitates towards kit that delivers the most damage and carries the highest hitpoints.

In fact, I’d say we are now seeing a hefty polarisation of choice towards Heavy Tanks and Attack Helicopters, with less and less people using Ranged Infantry and Howies/Heavy Artillery. The ultimate extension of this ‘re-focussed’ polarisation may well be more and more people gravitating towards the German Nation. But maybe that will be addressed in a later rebalance stage. Maybe we’ll see rebalancing of such things as CWA Barracks buffs. Maybe we’ll see rebalancing of the Barracks/Factory Cap.

Turning to other things I don’t quite get yet - the buffs to Coalitions. To my way of thinking, Wars will now be an exercise in every team member utilising 3 Level 7 Defensive Coalitions. Add to that the effect of ‘Hold the Gates’ on top of all the other defensive boosts and Wars will be somewhat ‘demoralising’.

Finally, a question. Could you please provide a complete picture of all the forthcoming rebalancing exercises? It would really help provide a deeper understanding of what this rebalancing exercise is seeking to achieve. It cannot be an exercise in driving the fun out of the game. That would be illogical. Equally it surely cannot be a simple exercise in ramping revenue generation. That would alienate those who cannot afford, or simply do not want to play a game on a pay to win basis.

Anyway...onwards and upwards, I hope.

 

[GeeGee]

Hahaha. Don’t get me started on a Museum buffs. To my way of thinking, the ‘Museum effect’ is yet another example of an unbalanced building that now makes the rebalancing exercise seem somewhat ‘chaotic’. Shame really, as the concept could be so good. Sadly, the second wave of artifacts combined with the boosts to all round base defence now makes mp a lottery.