TinSoldier
New member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2017
- Messages
- 1,568
Hello Leaders,
Welcome to the June State of the Nations! Today I’ll be talking about our most recent release (5.5), providing more information about the World War Replay beta, looking at the next update (5.7), and lastly talking briefly about the forums and developer communication.
The 5.5 release, DomiNations Second Anniversary, brought a lot of new content and features for players. This included the Traveling Merchant Marco Polo as well as Friendly Challenges. One thing we learned with this release is that we need to better communicate when players will be able to access particular features. In this case, there was confusion around when Marco Polo would arrive, as we had not been clear enough that he would only show up at specific times. Friendly Challenges, on the other hand, could not be enabled until all players had updated to the new version. Unfortunately, Friendly Challenges also had problems that forced us to turn off the feature. Our team does its best to ensure these types of bugs don’t make it into live releases, but unfortunately we didn’t catch them this time. Friendly Challenges will return when 5.7 releases and all players have updated.
I also wanted to take a moment to apologize for the bug relating to airplane Troop Tactics returning after battle which led to infinite Night Witches wreaking havoc on players’ bases. Even though we did push a hotfix to correct this issue, we understand how frustrating it was and that we should have done a better job communicating that we were working on a fix.
5.5 also included the new Announcements window. Since we are no longer limited to displaying only one popup at a time, we can now more easily point players to patch notes on our forums or provide previews of upcoming changes. This will also let us make it clearer exactly when features will be available in future releases. Overall this new window will allow us to more effectively communicate with players within the game.
In my last State of the Nations, I mentioned that World War Replays would be available during a beta period after the release of 5.5. We can now give specific details about this! We launched the beta of World War Replays on 6/13/17. There is nothing special you need to do in order to access this beta beyond simply participating in World War. Our goal is to use this beta period to gather the information we need to correct any remaining bugs. To learn more about this beta, please see the World War Beta Announcement and for more information on the replays themselves please check out the World War Replays FAQ.
Another change coming before 5.7 is a fix that will correct a live bug which causes certain high-level building upgrades to have an incorrect offensive/defensive rating in World War. After this change, players with maxed-out Atomic Age bases will no longer appear to be lower in rank than their Global and Industrial allies. This correction will not change the ability for a player to be ranked higher than someone whose XP level is higher than theirs because this is not a bug. World War ratings only count things that contribute to the offensive and defensive capabilities of a player, whereas the player’s level is the cumulative XP earned from all sources, even those that do not contribute to battle. It’s completely possible for a player to focus on buildings and upgrades related to battle and therefore have a higher offensive/defensive rating than an economy-focused player who is a higher XP level.
Before we look at the 5.7 release, I also wanted to acknowledge another issue that has recently surfaced around World War stars. Our team worked to fix a bug that is causing a mismatch between the stars displayed and the stars actually earned in World War battles. It was possible to correct this issue with a server-only fix, and corrected yesterday as well. You can read about these fixes HERE.
Now let’s look at the 5.7 release, Allied Front. This update will primarily focus on Alliances and World Wars, bringing new features and improvements to both. Let’s take a look at what players have to look forward to.
First, 5.7 will introduce Alliance Levels. This new system will allow Alliances to earn Alliance XP in World Wars. Winning a World War will provide a small amount of Alliance XP, but the bulk of Alliance XP will come from just earning stars - whether you win the War or not. An Alliance will earn Alliance XP the first time any attacker earns one or more stars against an enemy War Base, with higher-Age bases providing more Alliance XP. This will mean that Alliances participating in larger Wars against tougher enemies will be able to earn more Alliance XP from a single War. When an Alliance reaches a new level, all of its members will earn a perk. Any players in the Alliance will benefit from these perks as long as they remain in the Alliance.
In 5.7 we will also be adjusting matchmaking in World Wars, specifically with an eye toward combating the strategy of sandbagging. We are currently testing a few different options for how matchmaking will change, but the overall goal here is to improve the quality of matches made for World War without dramatically increasing the amount of time it takes for Alliances to be matched. Since we’re still testing a few viable options, we’re not ready to discuss the specifics of this change yet, but as the 5.7 release gets closer we’ll provide additional details. We’ll also be hosting another Q&A round where players can ask specific questions about our plans here.
In 5.7, we will also be releasing a new building called the Bazooka Sentry. This time-limited defensive structure will be replacing the Bazooka Tower in all future events and sales. Based on feedback from the community and our own internal testing, the stats of the Bazooka Sentry are set to be considerably lower than those of the Bazooka Tower. Players that currently own the Bazooka Tower will keep them until they are used, but from this point forward the Bazooka Tower will not be made available in any way.
For players in the Atomic Age, 5.7 will provide new upgrades to the Sniper Tower, Stable, Embassy, and Factory. The new Atomic level for the Factory will allow all Factory troops to be upgraded one more level in the Armory. Additionally, this new Factory level will introduce the Tactical Helicopter. This handy chopper can be deployed anywhere on the map. It flies from the edge of the map to a location specified by the player. Beneath the Tactical Helicopter is a white ring that represents a deployment zone. Troops up to a certain population cap can be deployed directly underneath the Tactical Helicopter as long as it remains alive, even while moving. Additionally, the Tactical Helicopter will heal nearby troops. This advanced Factory troop introduces new strategic possibilities for rapid mobile deployment of your ground forces.
The last announcement for this month’s State of the Nations is actually about something outside of the game. I would like to introduce TinSoldier, a new Community Manager for DomiNations. TinSoldier will be working alongside Nb4powerup and is here in the BHG office to improve the communication loop between players and the developers. He will be answering game questions, driving more Q&A’s, and overall increasing player visibility into what we’re working on and why. Additionally, TinSoldier will be looking to reach out to highly engaged players to create more direct conversations with them. Be on the lookout for TinSoldier in the forums and be sure to say hello!
That’s it for now. Be sure to check out World War Replays and pass along your feedback HERE and in the near future TinSoldier will be posting more information regarding our next Q&A.
Thanks,
Brian
Welcome to the June State of the Nations! Today I’ll be talking about our most recent release (5.5), providing more information about the World War Replay beta, looking at the next update (5.7), and lastly talking briefly about the forums and developer communication.
The 5.5 release, DomiNations Second Anniversary, brought a lot of new content and features for players. This included the Traveling Merchant Marco Polo as well as Friendly Challenges. One thing we learned with this release is that we need to better communicate when players will be able to access particular features. In this case, there was confusion around when Marco Polo would arrive, as we had not been clear enough that he would only show up at specific times. Friendly Challenges, on the other hand, could not be enabled until all players had updated to the new version. Unfortunately, Friendly Challenges also had problems that forced us to turn off the feature. Our team does its best to ensure these types of bugs don’t make it into live releases, but unfortunately we didn’t catch them this time. Friendly Challenges will return when 5.7 releases and all players have updated.
I also wanted to take a moment to apologize for the bug relating to airplane Troop Tactics returning after battle which led to infinite Night Witches wreaking havoc on players’ bases. Even though we did push a hotfix to correct this issue, we understand how frustrating it was and that we should have done a better job communicating that we were working on a fix.
5.5 also included the new Announcements window. Since we are no longer limited to displaying only one popup at a time, we can now more easily point players to patch notes on our forums or provide previews of upcoming changes. This will also let us make it clearer exactly when features will be available in future releases. Overall this new window will allow us to more effectively communicate with players within the game.
In my last State of the Nations, I mentioned that World War Replays would be available during a beta period after the release of 5.5. We can now give specific details about this! We launched the beta of World War Replays on 6/13/17. There is nothing special you need to do in order to access this beta beyond simply participating in World War. Our goal is to use this beta period to gather the information we need to correct any remaining bugs. To learn more about this beta, please see the World War Beta Announcement and for more information on the replays themselves please check out the World War Replays FAQ.
Another change coming before 5.7 is a fix that will correct a live bug which causes certain high-level building upgrades to have an incorrect offensive/defensive rating in World War. After this change, players with maxed-out Atomic Age bases will no longer appear to be lower in rank than their Global and Industrial allies. This correction will not change the ability for a player to be ranked higher than someone whose XP level is higher than theirs because this is not a bug. World War ratings only count things that contribute to the offensive and defensive capabilities of a player, whereas the player’s level is the cumulative XP earned from all sources, even those that do not contribute to battle. It’s completely possible for a player to focus on buildings and upgrades related to battle and therefore have a higher offensive/defensive rating than an economy-focused player who is a higher XP level.
Before we look at the 5.7 release, I also wanted to acknowledge another issue that has recently surfaced around World War stars. Our team worked to fix a bug that is causing a mismatch between the stars displayed and the stars actually earned in World War battles. It was possible to correct this issue with a server-only fix, and corrected yesterday as well. You can read about these fixes HERE.
Now let’s look at the 5.7 release, Allied Front. This update will primarily focus on Alliances and World Wars, bringing new features and improvements to both. Let’s take a look at what players have to look forward to.
First, 5.7 will introduce Alliance Levels. This new system will allow Alliances to earn Alliance XP in World Wars. Winning a World War will provide a small amount of Alliance XP, but the bulk of Alliance XP will come from just earning stars - whether you win the War or not. An Alliance will earn Alliance XP the first time any attacker earns one or more stars against an enemy War Base, with higher-Age bases providing more Alliance XP. This will mean that Alliances participating in larger Wars against tougher enemies will be able to earn more Alliance XP from a single War. When an Alliance reaches a new level, all of its members will earn a perk. Any players in the Alliance will benefit from these perks as long as they remain in the Alliance.
In 5.7 we will also be adjusting matchmaking in World Wars, specifically with an eye toward combating the strategy of sandbagging. We are currently testing a few different options for how matchmaking will change, but the overall goal here is to improve the quality of matches made for World War without dramatically increasing the amount of time it takes for Alliances to be matched. Since we’re still testing a few viable options, we’re not ready to discuss the specifics of this change yet, but as the 5.7 release gets closer we’ll provide additional details. We’ll also be hosting another Q&A round where players can ask specific questions about our plans here.
In 5.7, we will also be releasing a new building called the Bazooka Sentry. This time-limited defensive structure will be replacing the Bazooka Tower in all future events and sales. Based on feedback from the community and our own internal testing, the stats of the Bazooka Sentry are set to be considerably lower than those of the Bazooka Tower. Players that currently own the Bazooka Tower will keep them until they are used, but from this point forward the Bazooka Tower will not be made available in any way.
For players in the Atomic Age, 5.7 will provide new upgrades to the Sniper Tower, Stable, Embassy, and Factory. The new Atomic level for the Factory will allow all Factory troops to be upgraded one more level in the Armory. Additionally, this new Factory level will introduce the Tactical Helicopter. This handy chopper can be deployed anywhere on the map. It flies from the edge of the map to a location specified by the player. Beneath the Tactical Helicopter is a white ring that represents a deployment zone. Troops up to a certain population cap can be deployed directly underneath the Tactical Helicopter as long as it remains alive, even while moving. Additionally, the Tactical Helicopter will heal nearby troops. This advanced Factory troop introduces new strategic possibilities for rapid mobile deployment of your ground forces.
The last announcement for this month’s State of the Nations is actually about something outside of the game. I would like to introduce TinSoldier, a new Community Manager for DomiNations. TinSoldier will be working alongside Nb4powerup and is here in the BHG office to improve the communication loop between players and the developers. He will be answering game questions, driving more Q&A’s, and overall increasing player visibility into what we’re working on and why. Additionally, TinSoldier will be looking to reach out to highly engaged players to create more direct conversations with them. Be on the lookout for TinSoldier in the forums and be sure to say hello!
That’s it for now. Be sure to check out World War Replays and pass along your feedback HERE and in the near future TinSoldier will be posting more information regarding our next Q&A.
Thanks,
Brian
