G
Guest
Guest
Hello Leaders,
Welcome to a new State of the Nations. I wanted to spend this time looking ahead at what’s coming up in our next release and beyond.
The next release for DomiNations is 5.3, “Strategies of War.” It introduces several new features, updates, and content. Last month I unveiled the Stronghold, a new building that will allow you to manage your Troop Tactics. The Stronghold’s level will determine how many Troop Tactics you can take into battle and how many can be donated to your War Base for World War. Whether you acquire Troop Tactics through Sales, Events, or Expeditions, the Stronghold will provide you the opportunity to decide whether you want to use those Troop Tactics offensively or defensively.
Also coming in 5.3 are changes that will make Coalitions and Coalition upgrades more awesome. The designer who led these improvements will be covering them soon in a Design Spotlight, so I won’t go into it here. Keep an eye out for the Design Spotlight for details!
The last improvement I want to preview is the updated Inventory. While it’s not as flashy as a new building or a feature update like Coalitions, this is something I’m excited about. In 5.3 you will find that the Inventory has been broken up into several subcategories. This will make finding what you’re looking for a lot easier. Additionally, we updated the UI to display a description for each item, which will help clarify what everything in your Inventory actually does.
We also have some great content planned for 5.3. First off, I know a lot of people will be happy to hear that the Trap Blessing will be making its triumphant return. There will also be several new Atomic Age building upgrades, including the War Academy and most traps.
The famous emperor of Mali, Mansa Musa, will become available as a Great Leader in the University. Many of you may have figured this out already from the “coming soon” artwork. Mansa Musa’s skills will be similar to Hiawatha’s, except he will focus on Gold instead of Food. Like Hiawatha, he will have only 50 levels, and his skills will be faster to research than skills from our initial set of Great Leaders.
Lastly, 5.3 is adding a new limited-duration building into the game: the Bazooka Tower. This devastating defensive structure will become available in an upcoming Event. Since this is the first time we’ve done a purely defensive Event building, we’ll be eager to hear what people think once they try it out.
It’s been a little while since we talked about sandbagging, so I wanted to provide a few updates. The first change we made to World War penalized sandbagging Alliances by making it harder for them to gain Glory. At the time this was released, we announced that this was likely the first step of several we would take to eliminate sandbagging from the game altogether. The specific goal of this change was to prevent sandbagging Alliances from climbing the Glory leaderboard.
In this regard, the change has been successful. Without including the names of Alliances, let’s take a look at top of the Glory leaderboard from October (before the change) compared with what it looks like in January. Obviously the leaderboard is changing all the time, so the numbers here are likely different from what the leaderboard looks like at the moment you’re reading this.
In October, 8 of the top 10 Alliances were using the sandbagging strategy as we have defined it. As of January, 0 of the top 10 Alliances are. Looking at the top 10 from October, you can see that their place on the leaderboard has changed considerably:
The Alliances that have remained in the top 10 since October have stopped using the sandbagging strategy. Those Alliances that continue to sandbag have dropped down the leaderboard and will continue to do so as Alliances that do not use this strategy surpass them. On the flip side, if you look at the top 10 Alliances from January, you can also see how these changes have helped Alliances that do not sandbag:
This is a significant shift in the leaderboard between October and January. When looking beyond the top 10 it tells the same story: Alliances that continued to sandbag dropped substantially while non-sandbagging Alliances climbed the ranks. Many Alliances that were not even close to being in the top 100 are now there because of this change. There are still Alliances out there that sandbag, and we understand that getting paired against one is a poor experience. We are looking at ways that we can eliminate the effectiveness of sandbagging without punishing Alliances that legitimately enjoy bringing players of various Ages.
I also wanted to spend a little time talking about World War stalemates. We understand that stalemates are frustrating and some Alliances feel that the only way to win in World War is to use the sandbagging strategy. Our team is currently working on an update to World War that would create a tiebreaker (or series of tiebreakers) in an effort to eliminate stalemates altogether. Unfortunately, that is not something we could fit into the 5.3 release. However, from 5.3 until the release of the stalemate solution, all stalemates where both sides get the maximum possible stars will reward both Alliances with 100% War Loot (instead of 40%). We know this does not completely eliminate the stalemate issue, but this change aims to lessen the inconvenience until we roll out a proper solution.
The last thing I want to discuss is the current balance between offense and defense currently within DomiNations. To put it bluntly - offense is overpowered, especially in later Ages. The Stronghold will help lessen the imbalance in a few ways. First off, it’s a strong defensive building in its own right. Second, it will limit the number of Troop Tactics an attacker can bring to any battle. Finally, it will strengthen World War defense by allowing donations of Troop Tactics to War Bases. After 5.3, we’ll be looking to address some of the remaining imbalance between offense and defense by buffing the Troops and Buildings that are not as effective as they should be. This is another change that will reduce the number of stalemates and ensure that combat remains challenging and rewarding for both the attacker and the defender. We’ll have more information about this in a future Design Spotlight, so stay tuned!
Thanks,
Brian
Welcome to a new State of the Nations. I wanted to spend this time looking ahead at what’s coming up in our next release and beyond.
The next release for DomiNations is 5.3, “Strategies of War.” It introduces several new features, updates, and content. Last month I unveiled the Stronghold, a new building that will allow you to manage your Troop Tactics. The Stronghold’s level will determine how many Troop Tactics you can take into battle and how many can be donated to your War Base for World War. Whether you acquire Troop Tactics through Sales, Events, or Expeditions, the Stronghold will provide you the opportunity to decide whether you want to use those Troop Tactics offensively or defensively.
Also coming in 5.3 are changes that will make Coalitions and Coalition upgrades more awesome. The designer who led these improvements will be covering them soon in a Design Spotlight, so I won’t go into it here. Keep an eye out for the Design Spotlight for details!
The last improvement I want to preview is the updated Inventory. While it’s not as flashy as a new building or a feature update like Coalitions, this is something I’m excited about. In 5.3 you will find that the Inventory has been broken up into several subcategories. This will make finding what you’re looking for a lot easier. Additionally, we updated the UI to display a description for each item, which will help clarify what everything in your Inventory actually does.
We also have some great content planned for 5.3. First off, I know a lot of people will be happy to hear that the Trap Blessing will be making its triumphant return. There will also be several new Atomic Age building upgrades, including the War Academy and most traps.
The famous emperor of Mali, Mansa Musa, will become available as a Great Leader in the University. Many of you may have figured this out already from the “coming soon” artwork. Mansa Musa’s skills will be similar to Hiawatha’s, except he will focus on Gold instead of Food. Like Hiawatha, he will have only 50 levels, and his skills will be faster to research than skills from our initial set of Great Leaders.
Lastly, 5.3 is adding a new limited-duration building into the game: the Bazooka Tower. This devastating defensive structure will become available in an upcoming Event. Since this is the first time we’ve done a purely defensive Event building, we’ll be eager to hear what people think once they try it out.
It’s been a little while since we talked about sandbagging, so I wanted to provide a few updates. The first change we made to World War penalized sandbagging Alliances by making it harder for them to gain Glory. At the time this was released, we announced that this was likely the first step of several we would take to eliminate sandbagging from the game altogether. The specific goal of this change was to prevent sandbagging Alliances from climbing the Glory leaderboard.
In this regard, the change has been successful. Without including the names of Alliances, let’s take a look at top of the Glory leaderboard from October (before the change) compared with what it looks like in January. Obviously the leaderboard is changing all the time, so the numbers here are likely different from what the leaderboard looks like at the moment you’re reading this.
In October, 8 of the top 10 Alliances were using the sandbagging strategy as we have defined it. As of January, 0 of the top 10 Alliances are. Looking at the top 10 from October, you can see that their place on the leaderboard has changed considerably:
| October 2016 Ranking | January 2017 Ranking |
| 1 | 4 (down 3) |
| 2 | 5 (down 3) |
| 3 | 1 (up 2) |
| 4 | 3 (up 1) |
| 5 | 2 (up 3) |
| 6 | 14 (down 8) |
| 7 | 7 (no change) |
| 8 | 29 (down 21) |
| 9 | 17 (down 8) |
| 10 | 21 (down 11) |
The Alliances that have remained in the top 10 since October have stopped using the sandbagging strategy. Those Alliances that continue to sandbag have dropped down the leaderboard and will continue to do so as Alliances that do not use this strategy surpass them. On the flip side, if you look at the top 10 Alliances from January, you can also see how these changes have helped Alliances that do not sandbag:
| October 2016 Ranking | January 2017 Ranking |
| 3 | 1 (up 2) |
| 5 | 2 (up 3) |
| 4 | 3 (up 1) |
| 1 | 4 (up 3) |
| 2 | 5 (up 3) |
| 23 | 6 (up 17) |
| 7 | 7 (no change) |
| 50 | 8 (up 42) |
| 21 | 9 (up 12) |
| 14 | 10 (up 4) |
This is a significant shift in the leaderboard between October and January. When looking beyond the top 10 it tells the same story: Alliances that continued to sandbag dropped substantially while non-sandbagging Alliances climbed the ranks. Many Alliances that were not even close to being in the top 100 are now there because of this change. There are still Alliances out there that sandbag, and we understand that getting paired against one is a poor experience. We are looking at ways that we can eliminate the effectiveness of sandbagging without punishing Alliances that legitimately enjoy bringing players of various Ages.
I also wanted to spend a little time talking about World War stalemates. We understand that stalemates are frustrating and some Alliances feel that the only way to win in World War is to use the sandbagging strategy. Our team is currently working on an update to World War that would create a tiebreaker (or series of tiebreakers) in an effort to eliminate stalemates altogether. Unfortunately, that is not something we could fit into the 5.3 release. However, from 5.3 until the release of the stalemate solution, all stalemates where both sides get the maximum possible stars will reward both Alliances with 100% War Loot (instead of 40%). We know this does not completely eliminate the stalemate issue, but this change aims to lessen the inconvenience until we roll out a proper solution.
The last thing I want to discuss is the current balance between offense and defense currently within DomiNations. To put it bluntly - offense is overpowered, especially in later Ages. The Stronghold will help lessen the imbalance in a few ways. First off, it’s a strong defensive building in its own right. Second, it will limit the number of Troop Tactics an attacker can bring to any battle. Finally, it will strengthen World War defense by allowing donations of Troop Tactics to War Bases. After 5.3, we’ll be looking to address some of the remaining imbalance between offense and defense by buffing the Troops and Buildings that are not as effective as they should be. This is another change that will reduce the number of stalemates and ensure that combat remains challenging and rewarding for both the attacker and the defender. We’ll have more information about this in a future Design Spotlight, so stay tuned!
Thanks,
Brian
