Warband

Published in Switzerland - Warfare analysis - 05 Apr 2024 05:35 - 5

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I wasted enough of my life on these games to hate myself for it. And im disappointed each one lost it`s charm thus splintering my legacy and memories into multiple games instead of 1. So i bothered myself to write muh constructive criticism hoping that you open a new game one day that will be good enough to last a lifetime instead of having me continue hopping between games.
 
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1. First impression
First impressions go a long way. The first week, specifically the first 3-4 days, looked totally disorganized. As a player i felt like you were doing live testing. Its actually really good that you hear out the community and make changes in 24 hours, but the fact that it came to the point where we had to complain since start felt as unprofessional game design, and its a stain thats not easy to wash off. I dont know what you did in beta testing but you need more comprehensive tests and simulation next time.
 
2. Beta testers
While speaking of first impressions, Bulgaria hardhearted some people on day 1. While we were struggling to put 2 and 2 together, they had already gathered gold and opened ~8 battles, what if all attacks were made against live communities. Their success relies on many factors including but not limited to organization, man power, visa and game mechanics.
a) Organization. I get that beta testers are invaluable part for the development of the game, but they already received the biggest reward of them all - information and experience about the game which they used to organize few days in advance, as Bulgarians claimed. To outsiders like myself it felt like Bulgaria has 200+ nukes, dropping 1 per round is enough to whipe a whole country. Nukes are most significant early game where they deny not just the enemy`s energy but contra-attacks that cost valuable early gold. I noticed that you like to syphon gold out of the game but its too soon Laugh I propose something like day 1-10 attacking regions is free, day 11-30 costs 3 gold, day 31-60 5 gold, and from day 61 attacking a region costs 10 gold. Yes free attacks gives room for few more battles - something that the players already want since they claim to be bored, and temporarily increases the amount of farmed gold, but only temporary, in the most crucial period Laugh
b) Man power. Bulgaria is the country with the most successful baby boom so far, congratz to them Laugh Someone probably paid an advertisement to get that many players... why not give extra rewards at the start of the game to people that pay ads. It would encourage more ads if you give them in-game equivalent worth of goodies for paying for an advertisement. I know of more than 1 community that could rival the Bulgarians if they had better experience at day 1. War pack for top 5 Society Builders is not bad, but its just 11eur worth of goodies when people need to pay 50-100eur for an ad, and your event should have started from day 1.
c) Nothing much can be done in this department. Im a fan of each consecutive pack costing more, with the additive cost resetting monthly. That way visas can differentiate themselves better according to their wallet size with less in-game influence, less hits. Afterall they are concerned about the games`s budget and like to buy things to support the longevity of the game. This can also make room for starting price of packs to be lower which might also make them more appealing for few more players to buy packs and stroke their ego.
d) Game mechanics. Personally i like fast laws and blitzkrieg but for the first 1-2 weeks i think the game should be slowed down while everyone figures out the game, gets their friends on board, explains to the wife he found a new game not a mistress, ect Laugh The start is most stressful and i propose the laws should take full 24 hours for the first 1-2 weeks.       
 
3. People complaining about bread
a) Not having enough bread to fight 24/7 all week. Now that is no longer true. Even I as a 2-man country that had to spend valuable 25 gold on creating a party am able to fight 24/7 and soon will become self-sufficient. But before introducing the logging 2 days in a row for bread mission and True Ally and True Revolutionary medals it was a much dire and discouraging situation, this ties back to point no.1. Another funny tidbit as you see is that people are frustrated when they have a simple goal they cant seem to reach.  In this case not fighting 24/7 aka missing out due to lack of bread. So we should be given simpler tasks and if harder tasks are locked behind a paywall there will be less protests since the visa at least has to pay for it. For example if further medals werent introduced, you could have given us a slower regen and another faster regen for gold/cash. You could have also gaslight us by lowering our energy limit which means faster recharge and since most of us wont log every hour we would miss some regen the same way we miss it during sleep and thus use less bread more happily.
b) Bread price. Price fluctuation can play both ways, depending on the visa`s wallet and behavior. Personally if i owned 90% of bread production i would rise up the price and get more value for the money i invested - the criers and quitters will quit anyway. However from eco PoV its not good if any few individuals hold that much influence over the market, if any one of them quits/loses his job/ect it can have significant repercussions for the game. Thus i claim you shouldnt rely on visas to lower the global bread price and instead give more bread self-sustain to all players, which in point 3.a) i claim we are already in the progress of achieving.
 
4. Discounts
The ones that truly benefited from the starting discounts were the visa players, it made the game look like a cash grab. Next time limit the discount to companies q2 and q3. A f2p player cant afford more. While a visa made his 10 q5 companies today at half price, a f2p will gather enough gold to make one in a year from now at full price.  

5. Self-feeding loop
The ones that become visa day 1 reap many benefits in comparison to f2p players. The payed money for energy and they got their energy to influence battles and flaunt their accounts. But by spending the energy they reap additional rewards from weekly tournament and weekly challenge which is significantly a lot more than a f2p gets from just doing DO and making 8000 weekly hits at the weekly challenge. They are also the only ones that farm BHs. This week Xannibal_the_Mongol made 1 billion damage, while i did only 1 million, discouraging to see and continue playing for the average joe. That means to be able to hold Xannibal in battle it would take 1 million of "me". Im rank 173/300 which is average. If a visa wants more energy and rpgs it can pay for them, they dont need to get free 300 energy bars and such, profile decorations are enough.  Adjust early rank scallings so that 1 good visa can tank at most as much as 10 people from rank 100/300. I also tie this back to point 1.c) progressive increase of price of packs to better differentiate visas`s wallets while they do smaller impact on the game. Also im not sure how your weekly tournament brackets work but its the second week and the other 2 brackets are empty, divide players in brackets by their normal hit(hit without any weapon). This way f2p dont see a goal they cant reach, they are losing from fellow "mortals" and recognize they should just farm bigger stock next time.

6. Nukes
Hero wrote an interesting article about them here. I think theres too many in circulating. As i said day 1 Bulgaria was perceived to have 200+ nukes and everyone jumped to lick their boots and ask for MPP - which is the reason the alliance AMC was created in the first place. The problem of 1 country having too many visas and by extension too many nukes can always happen, Think thoroughly about the impact of nukes to the game. Maybe give 1 nuke with each DO.

7.  Mod team size
Its not in-game but its game related. You made so many people mods that you had to divide them into Mod I and Mod II. Me and everybody else doubt theres that much work to be done. Its becoming clear this is done for political reasons - accepting mods from every community. Its not looking good, especially for other communities who think mods got a hotline with admin. I suggest you either reduce the mod team or give us more transparency on what exactly they do - surely if theres so much work to be done 1 mod can be updating a timetable of tasks. Im not a big fan of influential people from different communities working together for prolonged periods of time. These games primarily feed from hatred and greed. If people are together long enough they can work out their differences which will lead to backstage politics that stagnates(kills) the game.

8. GUI
Call me a psychopath but i dont like the dark navy blue shade of the interface, i prefer a lighter color.
Its not a priority but it is bothering to find some icons to be too cartoonish and silly in comparison to what other games of the same genre offer. Im talking about booster, tank, submarine, gun icons, in that order of annoyance. It would be nice if hyper bar gets a more distinctive icon too. If you cant make new on your own, i imagine there are cheap talented artists on fiverr, or you can experiment with AI.
 
9. The customer is always right
Its good that you listen to the community and claim to follow game data when taking into account your decisions, but you come out too brute. Consider upgrading your customer service skills. Phrases like "you cant convince me", "im not here for you to trigger my anger", ect. are unprofessional at best, condescending at worst. We are not here to argue who is right and who has the longest p*nis. Everyone would feel a lot better if to any reasonable idea/opinion, no matter how bad it may be, you respond with "Thank you for your input, i get where you are coming from. We`ll take your voice into account". As long as its reasonable and its not asking for something stupid like giving everyone 1000 gold, bite the pride and soothe us with a white lie.

WTKEa7kikcg


The damage done so far to the game can probably be sanitized for current players. But as a said its a stain hard to get rid off, it will be hard to convince players that left during the first 3 days to come back now.
To fellow readers dont bother starting a debate with me on my opinions. I find many players to be dumb and/or cant communicate properly. Call me a narcissistic *sshole i dont care. Im too tired to debate.

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In other news

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AMC is looking for grown men, preferably with 2 gigantic balls, to pave the way of history and encourage more people in standing against the Bulgarian Empire. People with 1 or 3 balls are ok too, AMC is desperate enough to take them. People with 3+ should seek medical help.

https://www.worldhistory.org/img/r/p/500x600/2908.jpg

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Comments (5)

we think alike on many of the issues, voted o/
s15 v8
Really good article
Well done! Some good points really.
estoy totalmente de acuerdo con tus opiniones, administración tiene muchas cosas que mejorar ojalá lo haga y no haga oídos sordos