Leader "Interviews"

[Tsamu]

I think it would be interesting to learn a bit about the dedicated alliance leaders who make this game more enjoyable for so many players. Please answer the following questions

What is your alliance name, and what is your player/base name, age and level?
What other games did/do you play that brought you to Dominations?
How many alliances were you in before starting your own?
Why did you start your own alliance?
​What do your allies do that makes you happy?
What do your allies do that annoys you?
What three game improvements would make running your alliance easier?

 

[Tsamu]

Hi, my player name is Daniel, I'm level 264 CWA, and I lead Bad Rabbits 0SH.

Dominations is the first mobile game I have played seriously. I played Civilization obsessively, and enjoyed Age of Empires.

I was in 6 alliances before starting my own. I started BR 0SH because I wanted an environment where good players could war without being micro-managed or having to participate in lengthy strategy discussions. We have a simple plan for every war; first attack on a relatively easy base one age lower than yourself for 5 stars. The trade-off is that we occasionally lose a war we might have won.

My allies make me happy when they follow the plan, and extra happy when they ask questions, improve and adapt. Many players get to global and they use demolition or sabotage to deal with the missile silo, so it gives me warm and fuzzies when someone takes the time to practise and switches to multi-point attack with decoys.

What annoys me is allies who do not consider the alliance and just go for 1 or 2 stars on a base their own age. Luckily I don't have any of those because I kick them immediately. I also don't like whiners who explain that their attack failed because there were stronghold troops.

Running my alliance would be easier if there were personal messaging, longer alliance messages, and player statistics such as war attacks used and average stars earned.

 

[oddin]

I am not leader of my alliance but since I joined them, I became the “General” in WW and since our leader is a very relaxed guy that doesn't play often, I will answer from the general's point of view if it doesn't bother you.

What is your alliance name, and what is your player/base name, age and level?
Hellas Empire, Oddin level 224 Cold war Age (after a super rush from global 210 to cwa 224 in less than 2 months)

What other games did/do you play that brought you to Dominations?
Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, Baldur's Gate, Pillars of eternity and Shadow of Mordor

How many alliances were you in before starting your own?
None. My first actually

Why did you start your own alliance?
​Can't answer that. Not leader.

What do your allies do that makes you happy?
We use Line for War intel and I have written many notes that play the role of encyclopedia. It is basically guidelines that improve the choice of army composition, selection of tactics, base entry points, airplanes usage and other things that you won't find anywhere else since they are created out of experience and painful loses. Therefore, I am happy when I see my allies read them and practice using these guidelines and being able to take down harder and harder opponents.

It is very important for me, when they follow the WW plan and we have a victory against equal or a bit harder team. It is great satisfaction..

I am also happy when I chat with them for various subjects (vacations, drinking habits, cars etc)


What do your allies do that annoys you?

1. When they attack whatever number they like which is not according to the plan (this is almost completely eliminated)
2. when they login to the game and immediately ask “which is my target?” when I have invested 2-3 hours to make and write the plan to all of them. It is like a stab at the back.

What three game improvements would make running your alliance easier?
More fucking statistics for each player and war
Better Chat (more characters, separate space for friendlies)
Did I say more stats?
Marketplace that we can donate ntg, or resources.

 

[Tsamu]

lol for your #2 annoyance! I used to get that, which is why I stopped making detailed plans. I really like that you have guidelines in Line, something like that in game would be great.

 

[LordStark263AC]

Good morning everyone.

1. I'm Lord Stark, leader of Dragonstone 1.0, Atomic, French, 216.

2. I used to play Cossacks on PC years ago and it really appealed to me having your own "Castle/Town Centre" to grow and prosper like a real country/nation would. Then I destroyed my laptop with Cossacks still in it and never went back to it until by a chance my mate saw me playing SimCity BuildIt (please don't laugh) and insisted on me downloading 2 games, Clash of Clans and Dominations in mid 2015. Clash of Clans lasted about 3 months and Dominations.... Well Dominations is still here...

3. My first alliance was a Masonic alliance (don't ask why) very friendly and I was made a Council after about a month. 6 months later I realized that these guys are part-timers and are useless in World Wars. That's what made me leave, losing too many World Wars and people attacking easy targets instead of gaining .
My second and third alliances were good, very good. We were knocking on Top 100 alliances at one point but I had to leave them because they wouldn't give me a promotion even thought all of my World War attacks were 5 and my donations were through the roof. Yet it wasn't enough to become a Council member, so I left and by that time 2 of my mates started playing this game so we decided to start out own alliance.

4. There are a lot of Game of Thrones fans out there and I wanted them to join us so we can discuss upcoming season. Also I wanted to share my experiences and knowledge with new players. I'm a good guide, I'd like to think that I am. Also I wanted to be recognised for my efforts, the last 2 alliances took me for granted.

5. Asking questions about this game

6. Not doing 2nd attacks in World Wars even thought we're winning.

7.1 We definitely need another way for people to join alliances.
7.2 Statistics for each player.
7.3 A lot of good alliances have LINE or Discord for better communication and strategy. In game CHAT needs a lot improvement. I want to be able to attach files and so on.

 

[Tsamu]

Thank you Lord Stark, it was nice to hear your experiences. I totally sympathize with being taken for granted; that's why I left 2 of my previous alliances.

 

[oddin]

I feel for you guys. Giving so much and not receiving a "thanks" is not nice.
Luckily, in my alliance, people do recognize my effort and even dedicate their hard wins to me which is very touching and makes me feel good!

 

[Alexey]

Hello, I’m Алексис, a leader of “Орден единых”, 240 CWA.

I played Civilization and Alpha Centaury a lot, so I wanted to find a similar mobile game to play, and Dominations was the first game in the search list, and here I am)

It is my first alliance (technically the second, but that’s another story). I was eventually promoted to the vice-leader and played in that status for a while. Then a big discussion started about wether we should put more hardcore in our alliance rules or stay more relaxed. Finally it ended with a big split - our leader left for some top100 alliance, other hardcore oriented players started their own alliance, and I became the leader of those who stayed.

I like to see how people learn to play better and improve their attacks and sometimes I like to advise them on that.
I don’t like silent people who even don’t bother to say “hi”. There’s not much communication in our chat anyway, so I compensate that by being here, on this forum)

Three improvements:
first - alliance bank or trade post
second - more options for ingame communication
third - more options for alliance activity ( not just wws)

 

[Tsamu]

Nice to hear from a fellow Civilization player! Thanks for sharing. I can relate to the struggle between hardcore and relaxed players. As long as the relaxed ones are good attackers I think an alliance can contain both.

 

[LordStark263AC]

Where's everyone else? Only 4 leaders gave their story. Come on people, I wanna know your stories.

 

[oddin]

we are such an alliance. Half our player base are adventurers and the other half warmongers. To be honest its the second half that keeps the alliance alive and works for a common cause (perks, donations etc)

 

[oddin]

Tsamu Those guidelines took some time to create but it is now that they show their value. On our last WW, 3 main players, managed to earn 5 stars on opponents that were one age and 31, 40 and 23 levels respectively above them. We won the war because of their attacks. One of them was still with industrial age army and his opponent was early to mid atomic. All 3 of them, perfectly executed a 3 way attack with mostly decoys as tactics

 

[The Mighty Fist]

What is your alliance name, and what is your player/base name, age and level?

LegendsLost, Mighty Fist, Global Age 205....like Wrathchild, I am actually only co-lead, but sadly our leader has long been MIA.




What other games did/do you play that brought you to Dominations?

Bizarrely I saw the ad for it whilst playing, ahem, Plants v Zombies 2. It reminded me a lot of Age of Empires, which I used to love (and then went on to play the city building game Caesar and its spin offs, Cossacks - now Lord Stark that was a game indeed, and on into the Total War series).




How many alliances were you in before starting your own?

I’m in where I started




Why did you start your own alliance?

I’ll answer why I didn’t...an exaggerated sense of loyalty lol! That and latterly the thought of the grind going up the perk curve.




What do your allies do that makes you happy?

Turn up to wars and make sensible attacks for the benefit of all rather than just the one player. A bit of chat and banter, without feeling the need to get too personal. Generally tolerant rather than overly hardcore.




What do your allies do that annoys you?

Frustration rather than annoyance - people that don’t turn up to wars, turn up underprepared or simply don’t communicate. People who don’t donate - it’s such a no-brainer.




What three game improvements would make running your alliance easier?

For me the big pain is that I’m just a co-lead and am effectively the only one who can trigger wars (the other co-lead plays daily, but doesn’t read the chat as far as I can tell). I would love to take a back seat for a while and we have some good players who would do a better job than me (hehe). I saw a post where Nexon has changed leadership on request and so have just started that journey. But an automatic system whereby leaders inactive for 6 months plus were switched in favour of eg the alliance member who had made the most donations or had the highest XP would be good. Or a depose button available to co-leads after that time, hehe.

That aside, my grumbles are familiar; trying to keep tabs of ally performance each war is a pain - how good if that was available like alliance history; chat is ridiculously short and clumsy - we thought about Discord and may still go down that route.

 

[No Angel]

"I'm No Angel" I'm currently level 194 Atomic Age. I'm socializing in a young baby alliance Stilettos (created last July 2018)

I started playing Dominations in 2015 invited by my friends in Total Conquest game, they all have quitted though And I was in hiatus also, just started playing again last year. I played Total Conquest cause I liked Age of Empires kinda thingy, so I guess AoE also counts.

Stilettos is my second alliance. Well I have other accounts visiting other alliances but they just don't count

I started my own alliance because I couldn't stand on being around people who played in silence in my old alliance. Therefore, with my ego I created my own alliance with all my 11 accounts, planned to build a one woman alliance if no one had joined yet (Well it didn't work out, cause people kept joining)

My allies, I love them! I enjoy being around them who always talk responsively, and also play ocassionally. That's all, it makes me happy.

Um, no nothing annoys me in alliance, actually. Though we are all laid back, we don't focus in wars, and sometimes one-two fail our attacks, we enjoy most time playing!

I personally would hope that :
1. Matchmaking will improve
2. We can get better rewards for winning world wars
3. There will be Global World Chat so all of us could communicate

Thanks Tsamu for the interview!

 

[Berend_War]

This is an awesome topic so here's my story

I'm Berend Botje enlightenment age lvl 125. The leader of Outcasts United.

Had my own alliance in Clash of Clans but lost interest when the second base was introduced. Found Dominations as a replacement. Playing for almost year now.

Before starting my own alliance there was one other alliance, where I was a co leader within a few months, basically leading the alliance as medieval age. The current leader was fine me running the alliance but I wasn’t allowed to kick people. This gave a lot of issues and is the reason I started my own alliance. Many followed me to our new alliance.

It makes me happy when they ask things they don’t understand, ask for help to improve there gameplay, seeing others help the new players getting started and feeling welcome.
Like the dedication in war for more then 90% of the allies.

I can’t stand people that demand things instead of asking friendly. Have a big issue with people not following the War plan (Once or twice I can understand). People not communicating, More then 2 donation requests open without a explanations why there not able to donate to the previous request. But this kind of behavior isn’t seen often in our alliance.

Improvements for me from Leader point of view would be:

1. A global chat this will give some distraction while waiting for you troops to retrain and is a nice way to recruit new players.
2. Be able to look back in the last 5 war reports even when a new war is started. For example from the alliance gate.

 

[chris.dominations]

What is your alliance name, and what is your player/base name, age and level?
Our alliance is: Rocky Mt. Army, I go by Chris in the game. I'm a lvl 244 Cold War, Korean.

What other games did/do you play that brought you to DomiNations?
On mobile, I've tried a few other games but nothing else has drawn me in like the DomiNations. The ability to plan attacks and use skill to win battles is really unique.

How many alliances were you in before starting your own?
I was in 1 alliance before this one. I saw that a few people had just recently left and created a new alliance, so I followed them.

Why did you start your own alliance?
I actually didn't start my alliance. Our leader was stricken with cancer just over 2 years ago, and has been on a medical leave since then and I've been filling in util he returns Before he left, I created a website for our alliance and also a couple GroupMe chats for our council and Co-Leaders (the alliance GroupMe quickly died out). I am happy to say that he's been undergoing some new experimental treatments and he does expect to be back early next year! 2 years of cancer treatment has taken a toll on his body, but he's looking forward to returning.

​What do your allies do that makes you happy?
Our group is very supportive, never a single bad word is said about anyone and everyone is always glad to help.

What do your allies do that annoys you?
Sometimes I'll log in and see an old troop request that nobody bothered to fill. Worst is when I see multiple requests. I'm currently just over 354,000 lifetime donations, so people are accustomed to me filling most requests. But after reaching alliance level 10 I think it's really ok for any one to fill requests. (Plus my activity level fluctuates depending on life and game activities)

What three game improvements would make running your alliance easier?
1. I'd like to see a full history of our wars, including the ability to drill into each war and see the results of each battle (just the outcome, not the replay although replays would be nice)
2. Chat improvements. Separate tabs for Alliance, Council and Challenges.
3. This is a biggie..... Have a global map where we can group our alliance members together in a "Hive". From there we can attack other NPC bases, and regular player bases (with all of the current restrictions in place). Something like you might see on the Mobile Strike global map.

Chris

 

[Berend_War]

The beautiful thing in all our stories is that there is a story behind every alliance. Most of them are more then just a bunch of people fighting a war together. All the best to your alliance and your leader Chris.

 

[Diddles]

Hi! I’m Diddles and I have 2 alliances - Legacy of Doom & Doomb@lls
I am currently a fully maxed Global Age, I just have 1 last set of walls to complete and some research at level 207... I do not believe in rushing bases.

I love strategy games but this is the only one I really stick to full time...I found dominations 3 years ago while searching for civilisations related games.

I started in an alliance that wasn’t as active as I liked but I found 2 like minded people and we moved to start an alliance ourselves, I was the lowest level and started as council. We stayed together a long time before I began to become disillusioned as I was far more committed than the others and I decided I wanted control of my own destiny. I built another alliance and then we expanded to 2.

My Allies make me happy by simply joining in with being an active part of the Doom community, some of us have been together a very long time and we have good relationships. I love new people that talk, I know we can help them with our experience and that makes the alliances stronger. We have 2 competitions we run and I get a buzz from being able to reward active members.

I’m not so fond of people that can’t communicate as it makes things harder in wars. Those that stack troop requests are a bit annoying and those that haven’t spoken for 2 months and then say “give me war” & “I want a prize” for not contributing anything can be a bit of an itch too. By far the worst are those who beg for war and then don’t attack! Grrr lol

In order for me to run the alliances better I’d like to see a much improved functionality to the in game chat area, or at least the alliance mail system. It can be frustrating not being able to get many characters in when you need to explain stuff
I’d also like to have results from challenges more accessible and some kind of league system where you can actually see tables and challenge other alliances directly rather than a random matchup

thanks for reading! Great idea Tsamu!

 

[Papa10x]

Alliance name Christ is Alive, Cold War Era, 231, British, player name is Papa
Played Civilization, Age of Empires, Game of War, Legend of Vikings, have played Dominations since mid 2015.
Still in my first alliance, was promoted to council and then took over when the original Leader got too busy with RL

We have a pretty relaxed atmosphere, about half the alliance wars and half builds. Would like to see more active in war but it
is what it is. Like to see active people whether they War or not, donating is required.

Biggest peeve is those who who ask to be in war and don’t show, second to that would be a stack of unfilled troop requests..

This game desperately needs better, expanded chat, pm option, and better stat tracking. Better war rewards to coax out the builders would
help also.

 

[Tsamu]

Thank you all for sharing! I love reading your stories, joys and frustrations. We leaders have a lot in common, especially our desire for better ways to communicate with our allies. I am going to post an idea for allowing the leader to add a Line group ID to the alliance properties, which would link to Line. I know there are many other chat apps, but Line seems to be the most popular amongst Dominations players.