DomiNations v9.12 Update

Greetings Leaders,
Get ready for battle this update; we have a significant balance pass coming to all of our Barracks Troops and updates to our World War Matchmaking. We have a lot to go over, so let's get straight to it.


Barracks Troops
All Barracks Troops are receiving changes to increase their effectiveness and help bring them on par with Factory Troops.

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Heavy Infantry

• Upon reaching Industrial Age, the following changes happen
  • Attack Radius: Increased slightly
  • Favorite Target: changed from “Any” -> “Buildings.”
  • Hitpoints: Increased moderately
  • Movement Speed: Increased slightly
  • Fire Rate: Increased slightly
    • The old version of this unit dealt less damage to Infantry. We are removing this negative modifier (allowing the soldier to do full damage to Infantry) and giving this unit double damage against Walls and Buildings.

Dev Comments: The Heavy Infantry currently loses a lot of its potential as more troops are introduced over later ages, especially with its reduced damage dealt to infantry. We wanted to give the Heavy Infantry a more defined role as a plentiful building destroyer.

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Ranged Infantry

• Upon reaching Industrial Age, the following changes happen
  • Attack Radius: Increased slightly
  • Hitpoints: Increased slightly
  • Damage: Increased slightly
  • Damage Bonus Amount: Increased (against Defenders)

Dev Comments: Similar to the Heavy Infantry, the Ranged Infantry had a tendency to lose value as more and more troops became introduced and ended up being one of the weakest scaling units in the game. After the rebalance, not only does the troop scale much better into late-game, but it is also able to play a little safer with its slightly increased range.

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Heavy Cavalry

• Upon reaching Industrial Age, the following changes happen (on top of the existing Tank changes)
  • Favorite Target: Defensive Buildings
  • The old version of this unit dealt reduced damage to Resource Buildings. We are removing this negative modifier and replacing it with double damage against Defensive Buildings.

Dev Comments: Once the Heavy Tank becomes a feasible alternative to the Heavy Cavalry, we found it outperformed the Heavy Cavalry in nearly every respect. This left the Heavy Cavalry without a role, and we are fixing that with a significant health increase, as well as a bonus damage against its primary target, defensive buildings. This will help solidify its role as a frontline unit that can not only take a lot of damage but also deal it right back.

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Raiders

• Upon reaching Industrial Age, the following changes happen
• Hitpoints: Increased moderately
• Damage Bonus: Increased moderately
• Attack Speed: Increased slightly

Dev Comments: Ranged Cavalry have a very defined role. They have always been good at destroying economic buildings and only OK at doing anything else. We feel it is important to maintain their iconic strength and give them a little more edge to allow them to perform optimally in their role.

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Supply Wagon

• The following changes happen once the unit reaches Industrial Age:
  • Troop Space: Increased from 8 -> 10
  • Attack Radius: Decreased from 5 -> 1.5
    • Dev Comment: The radius change can look like a nerf on the surface, but the reason for this change is so the Supply Wagon benefits from its self-healing ability at a steady, predictable rate. The regular unit healing here will make this a tankier unit that can stay in the fight a bit longer.
• Hitpoints: Increased by a considerable amount
• Damage: Increased slightly
• Damage Bonus: Increased slightly

Dev Comments: The Supply Vehicle performs well at earlier ages but isn’t performing as well in later stages of the game. After these changes, the Supply Wagon should not only scale better, but upon reaching the Industrial Age, it will change some of its strengths. The Supply Vehicle will lose over half of its range, but in return, it will receive a huge health boost, and its newly reduced range will allow it to be hit by its own heal throw frequently. That said, it will never target itself with its own heals, only its allies.

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Wall Breacher

• All Ages of Wall Miner will have a “Damage Received from Towers” buff that scales with Age.
  • Note: The amount here will scale, starting with a smaller gain at Classical to a more significant amount in Information
• Once the unit reaches Industrial Age:
  • Troop Space: Increased from 4 -> 5
  • Increase Damage Bonus
  • Increases Splash Radius
  • The Explosion will now hit all enemy Defenders and Buildings in the Area-of-Effect range of the explosion.
    • Additional Info:
      • The Troop’s built-in Damage Bonus will not enhance the explosion damage to Buildings and Defenders.
      • All existing buffs (Museum, Library, University, etc.) that affect Damage will affect both Satchel Charge and Breaching Axe firing modes.

Dev Comments: The Wall Miner’s job is almost exclusively to find and destroy a high-priority Wall. We have found that currently, the Wall Miner seldom reaches its target due to its lack of health, and when it does reach the Wall, it frequently does not completely destroy the Wall. We are giving it a scaling damage reduction from Towers to increase their success rate for reaching the target Wall and increasing the explosion damage to generally destroy an unbuffed, same-age wall. Additionally, we wanted to reward players even more for reaching a Wall, so we gave the explosion’s blast area the ability to hit enemy Troops and Buildings.

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Ranged Siege

• Upon reaching Industrial Age, the following changes happen
  • Troop Space: Increased from 10 -> 12
  • Attack Radius: increased from 5 -> 7
  • Hitpoints: Increased slightly
  • The old version of this unit dealt a smaller amount of damage to infantry. We are removing this negative modifier and replacing it with double damage against buildings. This means it will deal its full damage to infantry.
  • Reduced Damage Received from all defensive towers that scales with Age.
    • This starts to scale from a small amount in the Industrial Age, increasing gradually per age until a player reaches Information Age.

Dev Comments: The Ranged Siege has always been good at its job, but we’re taking its strengths and increasing them exponentially. Its Attack Radius is now 7, which is the same range as the old Attack Helicopter, and changing its Damage Bonus to increase damage dealt on Buildings. Additionally, we’re adding a scaling Damage Reduction from Towers to the Ranged Siege to truly solidify its position in battle. It will remain vulnerable to enemy defenders, so it is vital to protect this unit with other allies in battle.

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Mortar Troops

• All Ages:
  • Favorite Target: Defenders
  • Damage Bonus: Defenders
  • Damage Bonus Amount: Increased greatly
• Upon reaching Industrial:
  • Attack Radius: Increased from 4 -> 5
  • Damage: Increased slightly
• Increased projectile speed

Dev Comments: Mortar Troops have always been an interesting unit to play. Its undefined role and ‘Any’ targeting turned this unit into a jack of all trades but master of none. With the changes moving forward, the Mortar Troops will be a master of defender destroying. Their attacks will deal an incredible amount of damage to defenders, which is balanced out by the lower health of this unit. Additionally, we found the projectile took too long to land at its target, and by the time it did land, the target had often moved from the targeted location entirely. We’ve increased the projectile speed to ensure this does not impact the Mortar Troop’s effectiveness to such an extent.

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Attack Helicopter

Updated 3/16 10:03 AM:
Fixed the range listed incorrectly in the patch notes to reflect the values in-game. The intended Rocket Range is 6, and the Machine Gun range is 4. Sorry for any confusion this caused.

• All Ages:
  • Changed primary target from Buildings to Any
  • Attack Helicopter now has two firing modes which are chosen based on which type of unit the Heli is currently attacking.
    • Rocket:
      • Used against buildings
      • Attack Range - 6
    • Machine Gun:
      • Used against defenders
      • Attack Range: 4
      • Damage bonus to defenders
      • Suppresses units hit by Machine Gun
      • Targets via cone damage which can hit multiple units
        • Note: All existing buffs (Museum, Library, University, etc.) that affect Damage will affect both Machine Gun and Rocket firing mode

Dev Comments: The Attack Helicopter will be the most versatile unit next to the Heavy Tank. Its medium-range Machine Gun will only be used when targeting Defenders, and its long-range Rocket will trigger when targeting Buildings. We're also increasing the Health significantly to increase the time it can stay on the battlefield while putting pressure on base defenses.

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Assault Vehicle

• All Ages:
  • Troop Space decreased: 12-> 10
  • Hitpoints: Increased greatly
  • Favorite Target: Defenders - before: Any
  • Damage Bonus Amount: Increased
  • Now has a small splash damage effect
  • Attack Speed increased
    • Dev Note: This unit now receives extra healing from Supply Carts and Tactical Helicopters

Dev Comments: This Troop is having its role tweaked to primarily target defenders, and will be awarded the same damage bonuses as the Heavy Tank, meaning the AFV will deal considerable bonus damage to Tanks, Buildings, Walls, and Generals. Also, by increasing its Attack Speed, its damage output rivals that of the Heavy Tank!

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Barracks Troop cost update
All Barracks Troops will cost Oil to Train after their Industrial Age Upgrade is complete.
Dev Note: These troops are now near-equivalent to Factory units in damage, so the cost was updated to reflect their new power.




7 Day discount Event
To celebrate the balance changes coming in 9.12, we will be featuring a 7 Day Barracks Troops discount event. This event will cut the cost of Barracks Troops’ upgrades by 50% and will go live shortly after 9.12 is released.



World War Matchmaking
The World War Matchmaking server-side updates began rolling out shortly before the release of 9.12 and have now been deployed to all players. As stated in our previous message, our goal is to improve the quality of matchups that Alliances are seeing in World War. The first wave of these changes will lead to more competitive matches and reduce scenarios where players are paired with higher age and experience levels.


Recap of the Changes:

• We’ve increased the timing windows for matchmaking. While this may increase the time it takes to find a match, it should lead to more competitive games in World War.
• We’ve also made a few under-the-hood adjustments to our matchmaking values that will impact how Alliances are measured against each other. As mentioned above, our goal is to improve the competitive balance when squaring up in War, leading to more competitive battles and fewer matchups where the War might be out of reach due to either Age or Level imbalance.

We will be keeping a close eye on our data and player feedback once the changes are live, so let us know your thoughts in this thread or the DomiNations feedback forum here. We’re curious to hear how you like the changes to Troops as well as your experience with World War once you’ve had a chance to fight a few wars with your Alliance.

 

The first two-thirds of your comment is complaints about old stuff so we can ignore all that.
- Yes, attack helicopters might be too strong now. You're naive if you thought they would nail the balancing on all the units perfectly right out of the gate. So what other units have you actually tested and found to be too strong? Any? It doesn't sound like it.
- Paratroopers have different base stats from barracks infantry and should be unaffected by any of these changes. They just share added buffs from other sources.
- APCs already need help, and stronger infantry isn't even going to give it to them. The APC itself dies too quickly, making boosts to infantry irrelevant.
- So reduced food costs for upgrades wasn't something you needed. It's still a reduction. I don't see a reason for complaint, unless you thought you were entitled to a massive time reduction they never promised and which you should not have expected.

So multiple paragraphs of ranting and the one legit point is that helicopters seem too strong, which others have already pointed out. Well done. Good thing you included all those exclamation points.

 

I hope the devs don't change things based purely on the few 'defender' comments on here - but I agree that the devs don't have a good history of testing their products fully. Who knows - maybe the devs really like easy wins.
Looking forward to trying the helis again and making up my own mind.

 

Am having a lot of fun with Attack Helicopters! Hope they stay around like this awhile, like magical Assault Rally did Sure we'll get burned out from time wars after a month or two, like we did with magical Assault Rally, but it's fun in the meantime. Granted Recon is the magic sauce here but that's been the case for awhile.

 

Dov'è DOMINATIONS app non la trovo nel dispositivo.Con nuovo aggiornamento è sparito :-(

 

AIUTO cosa sta succedendo

 

1. history is a good learning source. Knowing what happened in the past, will help us understand the future, especially when we deal with BHG
2. A game must be balanced in every aspect of gameplay (low,mid,high level) and for every type of gamer (casual, hardcore). This update fails at this goal.
3. I have every right to whine for my own reasons and when I see injustice towards defenders AGAIN! Are you the forum police by any chance?
4. Feel free to ignore my posts as I will surely do with yours

 

King Crimson I agree this new heli madness is fun. And zooks with AR+protect was nuts and we all had some great fun with it. BUT this just ruins whatever balance this game has. Already defenders struggled with everything and their role was dominished although they are the ones judging the outcome if almost every war. BHG fails to see that and continually buffs offence which will make at the end all WWs a struggle for the best TIME and nothing else.

chadwicke, dradis, domas and every other player that knows a bit more about this game and has experience at the top 100, all agree that this must be changed. It is not just my opinion against the whole domi community. The heli buff is absolutely an overkill and needs tweaking

 

its all helis or all ht etc ,maybe a limit on a troop type mayhelp in bringing diversity in attack styles .eg limit units dep on there strentgh .

 

Choppers do need perhaps adjusting, hard to tell about other troops yet they are so good, it’s a fine line between op and redundancy though.

some options could be reducing damage versus non defensive buildings and town centre in particular, they are probably too SAM resistant as well, taking more damage from SAM’s while still being able to survive the first defender that walks up to them is probably appropriate.

 

also there is another thing that greatly affects defending ability:
- Helicopters do not take damage from traps, they just fly over traps and walls
- more importantly they absorb SAMs/GCIs. And they do it in a very effective manner as we saw from friendly challenges. This assures that Transports/Fighters/recons stay alive during the whole fight.

 

I can’t explain in text how GOOD it feels to have more than 4 viable units to choose from. As a 350 IA player this is such a breath of fresh air. I agree that some numbers need tweaking, but this feels SOOOOO much better than the “ great rebalance” we had shoved down our throats - back when they made these troops useless.

Attacking would actually be pretty balance if you took those studied ducking troop cards out of the game.

 

It doesn't make sense using Oil to train up Medieval and Enlightenment Age troops, like Cannons and Raiders

There was no Oil back then...

 

I can’t explain in text how GOOD it feels to have more than 4 viable units to choose from. As a 350 IA player this is such a breath of fresh air. I agree that some numbers need tweaking, but this feels SOOOOO much better than the “ great rebalance” we had shoved down our throats - back when they made these troops useless.

Attacking would actually be pretty balance if you took those studied ducking troop cards out of the game.

Which variety? 18 helis and 6 RPG or 16 helis and 10 RPG, 2 recons, 4 fighters, 4-5 sabo, decoy. That’s it, no base can stand against such combo with maxed Info Age troops. 90 seconds is slow and you don’t need museum buffs really.

 

The attack helicopters are obviously OP. What I mean is being able to use infantry, artillery, mortars and tanks effectively again

 

Read - think - response - the whole process without smoking anything. Oil is up after Industrial Age for training costs,

 

Shut up. Your opinion does not matter. Especially if you addressing me.

 

1. I saw nothing in that litany of old grievances that sheds light on the new update, particularly since some of those problems were subsequently fixed.
2. It's absurd to say that the update fails at balancing when only one out of ten updated units appears to have been adjusted improperly, thus far. Go ahead and run a bunch of tests with fully upgraded artillery, mortars, and supply trucks, and then you'll be in a position to make sweeping statements about the whole update.
3. I don't dispute your right to make comments here. I support it. I dispute that initial impressions of ONE UNIT being overpowered justifies a long sweeping rant condemning not just the entire update but BHG's entire history of updates.
4. As you wish. I find that calm, relevant, specific, evidence-based arguments are more useful than either overreaching rants or just ignoring whoever disagrees with you.

 

All that the helicopters might need is an increase in the troop space they occupy. Bump them up from 8 to 10 or 12 and you not only can't field as many but losing one to a SAM or Air Defense will sting that much more.

 

All that the helicopters might need is an increase in the troop space they occupy. Bump them up from 8 to 10 or 12 and you not only can't field as many but losing one to a SAM or Air Defense will sting that much more.

no, then we will see one attack heli sale every other day. One attack heli TT on very corner plus 12 from barracks, old AR times Welcome back

 

Ah, you have smoked again, good to know. Isn’t it hard if people are ignoring your „shut up“ command. Probably you should go to the army, there is a chance to be part of a command chain. Or you are going to Russia, they are searching for mercenaries there.