Hey guys, this will probably be quite a long post, so grab some popcorn if you're up for the read. I'm always down for mature/constructive discussion and I know that my ideas are not always the best, feel free to provide your own, as well as help me improve my ideas. The goal of this thread is to give BHG as much useful feedback in one place as possible so that they can continue to improve DomiNations.
Disclaimer: Not all of these ideas are unique to me, some may/probably come from the time I've spent browsing the forum. I apologize in advance if I "steal" your idea. Feel free to correct me so that I can give you credit!
I don't remember exactly when I started playing, I think a couple of months ago but I'm mid/late medieval right now and have been thoroughly enjoying the game... thus far. I'm the leader of a full alliance (RememberTheName) and have gotten a few work friends & my wife into the game. I feel like I've gained enough experience raiding/defending/upgrading to provide in-depth feedback to BHG and provide them with the reasoning behind my suggestions. I'll break this post up into topics to try and better organize my thoughts.
The only money that I have spent on this game was the $10 starter pack to help support BHG, plus I wanted to change my nation/wonder and the extra house is sweet. Other than that I've earned every resource that I've spent.
I) Nation Balance:
As most people realize, nation balance is pretty poor currently. Thankfully this should be easy to fix since the designs behind each nation seem solid.
*British - the loot bonus is negligible at best, and basically strictly worse than the Greek upgrade bonus and French troop training. Plus the British have what is, in my opinion, the worst unique unit in the game. +1 Range, while following the 20% bonus that other unique units aside from Cavalry receive, is not very helpful. 20% increased DPS on the Chu Ko Nu is vastly better. Overall British are solidly in last place in terms of balance. Increasing the loot bonus to 10-15% and reworking Longbowmen would go a long way in helping the British. Currently there's no reason to play them over Chinese (if you want the unique archer unit) or French (if you want to be aggressive, 15% faster training army = 15% more raids = 15% more loot) or Greeks (if you want the economy since the Greek refund applies to ALL income, it's way better than 5% on raids).
*The other nations all seem relatively competitive. Romans, Greeks and French tend to stand out the most offensively in my opinion. While the Japanese are decent defensively and the Chinese are solid. Would be cool if the Chinese town center spawned defenders like a garrison or Coliseum.
*Maybe let Japan have bonus income for the duration of a shield? Extended shield time seems mostly pointless since the only way to get resources is to raid, which of course forfeits your shield.
II) Medals/Leagues
*Right now there is no incentive to be in a high league, or keep a high medal count. I frequently drop medals as low as I can to have an easier time defending my resources, and to be able to get "free" raids on people significantly weaker than myself. It feels cheesy, but is the only way to cope with the grind right now aside from spending real money. I could care less about getting a couple trade goods per day when I can just steal them from weak bases and stay trade-good capped. Dropping medals is not fun or interesting, and players should be rewarded for maintaining a high medal count. The current battle bonuses are not enough. I suggest a significant increase to the amount of bonus loot that players receive from being in higher leagues. This would encourage players to have a high medal count, and reward them for doing so. It could also help remedy players in lower ages getting taken advantage of by more advanced players. It was disheartening to be in Classical and getting raiding by late Med/early GP players.
III) Units
*Currently cavalry units are way too powerful. As a British player I have had a ton of success with 10 Knights, 15 Longbows and 5 Pikes. Honestly sometimes I just want to make 13 Knights and watch them demolish bases. Cavalry have the best "AI" in the game in that they focus down defenses, plus have an insane amount of HP meaning you aren't likely to have to retrain much of your army. Cavalry should probably have a damage penalty to walls. This would be easy for players to contextualize since, historically (at least as far as I know), cavalry didn't run up to walls and demolish them. That's what siege weaponry, sappers, etc were for.
IV) Blessings
*Having defensive blessings get "used" because a single spearman pokes one of your houses is frustrating. Likewise, finding an easy base with a ton of resources (well easy bases with lots of resources are always awesome) can be annoying after you've popped a couple of attack blessings. My suggestion is to tie defensive blessings to buildings - either your Castle, Town Center, or a Wonder. The blessing persists for as long as this building is not destroyed. For attacking, you should be able to use blessings like Tactics, but only before the battle. For example, you could drop your damage and health increasing blessings, and then send out your troops against a base that you know you would need the blessing benefit to destroy. I think these changes, or a few similar ones, could increase the quality of life of players when using blessings.
V) Ages/Raiding
*It is too easy to pick on players in lower ages. As a mid/late medieval player every time I see a classical base I just dispatch my entire army, maybe lose one guy and clean house. There should be an incentive to raid people your age, or an age above you, and/or a deterrent for raiding people in lower ages. I can't imagine it being fun for lower aged players to feel like food for people above them, and it just makes raiding feel like a grind instead of there being strategic/tactical depth in the game. Against 99% of Classical bases I can just drop my entire army in one spot and go make some food while my army completely demolishes the base, not even needing any extra orders from me.
I'll touch on this later in the economy section, but overall I feel like there needs to be more income in the game, solid bonuses for raiding people your own age or higher would be a good way to reward active players for playing the game, while increasing the overall amount of loot present in the game. It is tedious to grind a million+ gold for an upgrade while getting ~50k on a good raid.
We just need a lot more incentive to risk our armies against equal players. High risk, high reward and rewarding strategic/tactical game play would be a lot more fun in my opinion than razing 25 bases for 30-50k gold per while not having to think at all.
a*Re-work the 5 star system. I think having 5 stars is better than the 3 that CoC has, but I think a couple of minor adjustments need to be made. Firstly, "Quick Victory" star should be removed. This encourages preying on weak players because the only way to get 5 stars is to totally annihilate some one, and do it quickly. I think the 5th star should be tied into completely destroying a person's base your same age, or higher. The 5th star should also pay out handsome rewards post-battle. Or perhaps give an end-of battle loot bonus based on how many stars were earned. This way raiding people your own age/higher would be further encouraged.
VI) Alliances
*Pretty much no reason to be in an alliance right now other than social interaction and getting a handful of troops every once in a while. Alliances are where this game could really surpass, or at least bring itself to equal footing with similar games (ex: CoC). It would be cool to donate a small amount of resources to alliance mates. Maybe have a "Request Gold" and "Request Food" option where a player can request to get 10-15% of their max food/gold once per day.
*Alliance wars are an obvious addition, they'd be a lot of fun.
*Alliance Trade Routes: Add a new building that costs food, Classical or Medieval Age that lets you train some sort of unit that you can then use to establish a trade route with an alliance mate. The number of trade routes established could be limited by building level, or library tech. The trade route would record how much income (passive and raid income) a player gained during a 24 hour period of time, and then deposit a small percentage of that into everyone else's building that that player has established a trade route with. This would slightly increase the overall income of the economy as well as reward players for making trade routes with other active players. A portion of this loot could be stolen by destroying the building that houses the trade routes in a raid, so players would need to collect it often.
VII) Economy/Economic Balance
*There needs to be more food/gold coming into the economy. I don't think that players should be able to play 100% passively and make it to the later ages but right now raiding is the only remotely viable method of getting food/gold. And even then it is tedious, and often times boring because of issues with raiding.
Potential solutions to this problem include: increasing the rate at which farms/caravans produce resources, but allow more to be stolen from them - again, rewarding active players. Let players sell trade goods for a substantial amount of a resource. Right now it simply isn't worth it 99% of the time over getting a blessing or mercs. Increase the benefit of the loot blessing/combine it with the aforementioned blessing change so that it could be dropped before a large amount of loot is raided. Increasing the amount of loot obtained from an easy, free-win 20k resource base feels like a waste, but passing up those resources also feels like a waste.
Let the gold mines/bushes be upgraded, or somehow increase their yield beyond what is currently given. They're basically just trade good pinatas.
Allow a portion of a player's army to be dedicated to "Mercantile Operations." This needs to be fleshed out more but the general idea is that if I know I'm going to be away for 8 hours because I work I can train "Merchants" or something using a portion of my army population, that will then produce income passively. Upon getting home from work I could make the merchants inactive/dismiss them, and then train up my army for some raiding. This would increase income overall, and slightly increase the viability of a more defensive play style.
VII) Generals
*Pretty much useless. There should be an option to allow them to opt not to defend so that they're not wasted needlessly. Also, they need to be a lot more powerful/fun/interesting. They're just giant HP pools right now. Let each general give some special buff to nearby troops, or have troops follow them around more and allow players to give the generals special orders so that using them increases control of your army. I was really excited to get my first general, dispatched it, and was immediately disappointed. As others have said, they cost as much as half an army but run around doing their own thing - and ultimately dying - at which point I have to wait an extended period of time to watch them be useless once again. I guess they're okay-ish on defense since they have so much HP.
Edit: more to come later
Disclaimer: Not all of these ideas are unique to me, some may/probably come from the time I've spent browsing the forum. I apologize in advance if I "steal" your idea. Feel free to correct me so that I can give you credit!
I don't remember exactly when I started playing, I think a couple of months ago but I'm mid/late medieval right now and have been thoroughly enjoying the game... thus far. I'm the leader of a full alliance (RememberTheName) and have gotten a few work friends & my wife into the game. I feel like I've gained enough experience raiding/defending/upgrading to provide in-depth feedback to BHG and provide them with the reasoning behind my suggestions. I'll break this post up into topics to try and better organize my thoughts.
The only money that I have spent on this game was the $10 starter pack to help support BHG, plus I wanted to change my nation/wonder and the extra house is sweet. Other than that I've earned every resource that I've spent.
I) Nation Balance:
As most people realize, nation balance is pretty poor currently. Thankfully this should be easy to fix since the designs behind each nation seem solid.
*British - the loot bonus is negligible at best, and basically strictly worse than the Greek upgrade bonus and French troop training. Plus the British have what is, in my opinion, the worst unique unit in the game. +1 Range, while following the 20% bonus that other unique units aside from Cavalry receive, is not very helpful. 20% increased DPS on the Chu Ko Nu is vastly better. Overall British are solidly in last place in terms of balance. Increasing the loot bonus to 10-15% and reworking Longbowmen would go a long way in helping the British. Currently there's no reason to play them over Chinese (if you want the unique archer unit) or French (if you want to be aggressive, 15% faster training army = 15% more raids = 15% more loot) or Greeks (if you want the economy since the Greek refund applies to ALL income, it's way better than 5% on raids).
*The other nations all seem relatively competitive. Romans, Greeks and French tend to stand out the most offensively in my opinion. While the Japanese are decent defensively and the Chinese are solid. Would be cool if the Chinese town center spawned defenders like a garrison or Coliseum.
*Maybe let Japan have bonus income for the duration of a shield? Extended shield time seems mostly pointless since the only way to get resources is to raid, which of course forfeits your shield.
II) Medals/Leagues
*Right now there is no incentive to be in a high league, or keep a high medal count. I frequently drop medals as low as I can to have an easier time defending my resources, and to be able to get "free" raids on people significantly weaker than myself. It feels cheesy, but is the only way to cope with the grind right now aside from spending real money. I could care less about getting a couple trade goods per day when I can just steal them from weak bases and stay trade-good capped. Dropping medals is not fun or interesting, and players should be rewarded for maintaining a high medal count. The current battle bonuses are not enough. I suggest a significant increase to the amount of bonus loot that players receive from being in higher leagues. This would encourage players to have a high medal count, and reward them for doing so. It could also help remedy players in lower ages getting taken advantage of by more advanced players. It was disheartening to be in Classical and getting raiding by late Med/early GP players.
III) Units
*Currently cavalry units are way too powerful. As a British player I have had a ton of success with 10 Knights, 15 Longbows and 5 Pikes. Honestly sometimes I just want to make 13 Knights and watch them demolish bases. Cavalry have the best "AI" in the game in that they focus down defenses, plus have an insane amount of HP meaning you aren't likely to have to retrain much of your army. Cavalry should probably have a damage penalty to walls. This would be easy for players to contextualize since, historically (at least as far as I know), cavalry didn't run up to walls and demolish them. That's what siege weaponry, sappers, etc were for.
IV) Blessings
*Having defensive blessings get "used" because a single spearman pokes one of your houses is frustrating. Likewise, finding an easy base with a ton of resources (well easy bases with lots of resources are always awesome) can be annoying after you've popped a couple of attack blessings. My suggestion is to tie defensive blessings to buildings - either your Castle, Town Center, or a Wonder. The blessing persists for as long as this building is not destroyed. For attacking, you should be able to use blessings like Tactics, but only before the battle. For example, you could drop your damage and health increasing blessings, and then send out your troops against a base that you know you would need the blessing benefit to destroy. I think these changes, or a few similar ones, could increase the quality of life of players when using blessings.
V) Ages/Raiding
*It is too easy to pick on players in lower ages. As a mid/late medieval player every time I see a classical base I just dispatch my entire army, maybe lose one guy and clean house. There should be an incentive to raid people your age, or an age above you, and/or a deterrent for raiding people in lower ages. I can't imagine it being fun for lower aged players to feel like food for people above them, and it just makes raiding feel like a grind instead of there being strategic/tactical depth in the game. Against 99% of Classical bases I can just drop my entire army in one spot and go make some food while my army completely demolishes the base, not even needing any extra orders from me.
I'll touch on this later in the economy section, but overall I feel like there needs to be more income in the game, solid bonuses for raiding people your own age or higher would be a good way to reward active players for playing the game, while increasing the overall amount of loot present in the game. It is tedious to grind a million+ gold for an upgrade while getting ~50k on a good raid.
We just need a lot more incentive to risk our armies against equal players. High risk, high reward and rewarding strategic/tactical game play would be a lot more fun in my opinion than razing 25 bases for 30-50k gold per while not having to think at all.
a*Re-work the 5 star system. I think having 5 stars is better than the 3 that CoC has, but I think a couple of minor adjustments need to be made. Firstly, "Quick Victory" star should be removed. This encourages preying on weak players because the only way to get 5 stars is to totally annihilate some one, and do it quickly. I think the 5th star should be tied into completely destroying a person's base your same age, or higher. The 5th star should also pay out handsome rewards post-battle. Or perhaps give an end-of battle loot bonus based on how many stars were earned. This way raiding people your own age/higher would be further encouraged.
VI) Alliances
*Pretty much no reason to be in an alliance right now other than social interaction and getting a handful of troops every once in a while. Alliances are where this game could really surpass, or at least bring itself to equal footing with similar games (ex: CoC). It would be cool to donate a small amount of resources to alliance mates. Maybe have a "Request Gold" and "Request Food" option where a player can request to get 10-15% of their max food/gold once per day.
*Alliance wars are an obvious addition, they'd be a lot of fun.
*Alliance Trade Routes: Add a new building that costs food, Classical or Medieval Age that lets you train some sort of unit that you can then use to establish a trade route with an alliance mate. The number of trade routes established could be limited by building level, or library tech. The trade route would record how much income (passive and raid income) a player gained during a 24 hour period of time, and then deposit a small percentage of that into everyone else's building that that player has established a trade route with. This would slightly increase the overall income of the economy as well as reward players for making trade routes with other active players. A portion of this loot could be stolen by destroying the building that houses the trade routes in a raid, so players would need to collect it often.
VII) Economy/Economic Balance
*There needs to be more food/gold coming into the economy. I don't think that players should be able to play 100% passively and make it to the later ages but right now raiding is the only remotely viable method of getting food/gold. And even then it is tedious, and often times boring because of issues with raiding.
Potential solutions to this problem include: increasing the rate at which farms/caravans produce resources, but allow more to be stolen from them - again, rewarding active players. Let players sell trade goods for a substantial amount of a resource. Right now it simply isn't worth it 99% of the time over getting a blessing or mercs. Increase the benefit of the loot blessing/combine it with the aforementioned blessing change so that it could be dropped before a large amount of loot is raided. Increasing the amount of loot obtained from an easy, free-win 20k resource base feels like a waste, but passing up those resources also feels like a waste.
Let the gold mines/bushes be upgraded, or somehow increase their yield beyond what is currently given. They're basically just trade good pinatas.
Allow a portion of a player's army to be dedicated to "Mercantile Operations." This needs to be fleshed out more but the general idea is that if I know I'm going to be away for 8 hours because I work I can train "Merchants" or something using a portion of my army population, that will then produce income passively. Upon getting home from work I could make the merchants inactive/dismiss them, and then train up my army for some raiding. This would increase income overall, and slightly increase the viability of a more defensive play style.
VII) Generals
*Pretty much useless. There should be an option to allow them to opt not to defend so that they're not wasted needlessly. Also, they need to be a lot more powerful/fun/interesting. They're just giant HP pools right now. Let each general give some special buff to nearby troops, or have troops follow them around more and allow players to give the generals special orders so that using them increases control of your army. I was really excited to get my first general, dispatched it, and was immediately disappointed. As others have said, they cost as much as half an army but run around doing their own thing - and ultimately dying - at which point I have to wait an extended period of time to watch them be useless once again. I guess they're okay-ish on defense since they have so much HP.
Edit: more to come later
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