DomiNations v9.12 Update

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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.



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.




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.





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.



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.



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.



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.


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.



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.


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.


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!




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.
 
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Leviathan and BHG_Muet there is a serious problem with the new barracks troops upgrade
​​​​​​​a full army of attack helicopter space age can take down a full max information age base in less than 1:30 with no cards or tactics something has to be done no reason to purchase cards or anything really now test it yourself line all helicopter on any side of a any base they will cut right though it no matter the museum no matter the level of defense
 
BHG, are you serious. Instead of this what you should have done is to beef up defense. The game has already been unbalanced. Why do you think many have quit? I can understand trying to bring the barrack troops back into the game, but you should have added some defense upgrades also in this update.

face it, you guys simply don’t play the game. At least in the higher levels. Don’t you realize that most wars there are time wars? Haven’t you seen all the open war base designs for time wars? It’s boring and defenders are the losers.

it’s ashamed, you have slowly been killing your own game. This is a war game. It’s suppose to be challenging. 5 star attacks should not be the norm, they should be the exception.
 
Thx for the changes, hope they will bring some diversity to the game.
Those changes applies to defensive troops that come from all defensive buildings in our base too, right?
But changing all training cost to oil is meh :(
 
The patch wasn't up for me earlier, but I have it now. I have yet to test out helicopters but these are a lot of big changes and once and it's unlikely that they will have tuned them all just right yet. Being able to clear a base without buying stuff seems like a good thing, however. We'll see.
 
Those changes applies to defensive troops that come from all defensive buildings in our base too, right?
I would not assume that. Spawned defensive troops have been on their own hp and damage tables for several years now and don't have factory alternatives to compete with.
 
The update were very vague and didn't give any numbers for stats changes. Will you please post the actual numbers?

This update invalidated a large portion of the wiki and it would be a travesty to not have a repository of information to go to.
 
The update were very vague and didn't give any numbers for stats changes. Will you please post the actual numbers?

This update invalidated a large portion of the wiki and it would be a travesty to not have a repository of information to go to.

message me via discord, I can send you all Info age stats, except field mortars and MBT
 
TheWise Leviathan
First of all I think this update is a big step into the right direction. A barrack troop buff was long overdue.
Here are a few of my thoughts/experience/suggestions:

My Helicopters only show a range of 4/6 instead of 5/7, I think its not just a visible bug.
The Helicopters are op, especially in the lower ages (atom, cw). My atomic Heli army is comparable to my info age HT army. I think their dmg is too high.

The expertise bonus from the barracks is out of line now, the buffs are too low for the "new" stronger barrack troops.

Did the boost to heavy infantry took effect on the ATW spawned troops? If not I´d like you to add that. It could be a comeback for this troop.

Did you buff the nation specific troops spawned by houses and command post?


And one last point. I know its not part of this update, but could you please adjust the lv of the tank spawned by the destroyed mercenary camp to the lv of the camp itself. Its a pity that this troop, which was the last research in its library book is completely useless in higher ages. Particulary if compared to the research before, the HT spawned by the destr. factory.
 
Sorry, but this update will scare long time player finally away. Why to make the game even slower? All troops cost oil now! Terrible change. That makes you avoid your alliance troop requests. Too expensive now to donate troops.
You are destroying the game with your updates. Most of your new features were terrible in the last years. Truley, you guys never played this game!
 
this is a fiasco... and a big one!

you never learn from your mistakes....

1. dominations was decent 3 years ago but you wanted to change things. Told us that factory troops is the way to do battle when you reach higher ages. Barracks troops become overnight completely useless for anyone above global age. OK we adapted after some time because museum was somewhat new and not many had max museum anyway.

2. then you created assault rally which ruined the game for many months. Even the strongest bases, fell in 1:20-1:30.
It took 4 tries from the devs to code the assault rally correctly!!! Do you remember that or none of you was working at BHG back then? 4 tries to fix a tactic!!!!

3. forward a few years... The game is definitely unbalanced and geared towards offence leaving little to no chances for defenders to actually defend!! And instead of buffing defence ....

you come up with this brilliant plan to actually re-rebalance barracks troops in such a way that they have become too strong and it will take many months before you actually see the truth and re-rerebalance the stupidity you 've done. Big defensive bases are falling down like nothing in record time. And this is the outcome of you not playing the game for real like we hardcore players do for 6+ years.

- buff the barracks troops for all those players that still use them by 20-30% to make their life easier but never make them stronger than factory troops. Helicopter stats are completely nuts now. Reduce them and completely remove the dual way of attacking. I killed a 3D base with no planning and just deployed everything in a straight line and killed it in 1:40. Troop combo was 12 Helis, a few HTs, several zooks. NUTS!!
- think of how one change affects everything else. Buffing the foot soldiers, will also buff the stats of paratroopers and the soldiers spwaned from APCs....Right?
- Defence!!! An important aspect of the game. You seem to forget this with every major update you are doing. FFS we have become completely useless!!
- You want to help players upgrade barracks and barrack troops in armory but you are reducing food cost???? WTH??!!!!! Who told you we need food reduction? Reduce the time of research/upgrade by 50% and this will indeed help the players. Please do nto underestimate our intellect.

I am not happy with the rebalance at all nor many allies of mine. You obviously did ZERO testing, otherwise you would have seen the consequences.

Please see to it immediately and correct the injustice done. Reduce barrack troops stats asap.
 
Guys, my base has maxed all D buildings, plus library and museum. A good hitter now need 1.10, against a good D museum with Helis and Heli TT, 25 Eisenhowers with Range 6 are now flying over the war map. It’s ridiculous. What have you thought during the design phase, what was done in beta testing? Every good alliance has analyses what happened with the changes in 30 minutes and needed another 30 minutes to test it. What have you done in Baltimore, played PS again? No one of you understands your own game.
 
not at all true and i have maxed attack helis info age got 51 % on lvl 340 base that had no gens also…a little tweaks and I must agree the Helios are OP
 
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Holly molly, these buffs are so goood! Attacking now is so much fun! Now all barrack units are really fun to use. I've been waiting for a meta shake up and this will definitely do it. Let's go! 🤙✨
 
so barracks troops will be even better now since they get buffed by the armor and weapon blessing as well as the buffs.
 
It's a good idea to buff the barracks troops, not sure I like the Oil cost instead of Food. Food is already useless once you max walls. If everything costs Oil, might as well delete Food/Gold from the game.

But, if the upgrade costs will be in Food, then it's acceptable overall.

We gotta upgrade these troops before we can judge how well they were buffed, but from the stats looks like a couple will be OP and expecting a nerf to them soon after.

I wish the upgrade discount was both TIME and COST 50%. Most people have low level barracks troops.. will take ages to max.

On a side note: still waiting for a fix for NTG rebalance that made it worse. Really.
 
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