February State of the Nations!

[Tenacious D]

Rad, do you need a hug? Every single alliance that complains on these forums about sandbagging, dilutes their war strength down with MA accounts far more than Encore has ever dreamed of. Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to get a match at full strength.

 

[Tenacious D]

Ah geez, Wind Warriors. Now I feel bad. It is like making fun of a special needs child. But then again, I suppose that every team that matches Wind Warriors in war feels like a bully when it is over.

 

[worship01]

Good point, sandbagging does take away the fun of the whole alliance working together. Which is what world wars provide, a way to strategize and win together as a team. Without that, dominations is a solo game pretty much.

One other point on balance... it is a LOT harder to max defense at a given age than to max offense. Which is think is why offense is usually easier and has the edge (and it should be that way). Many people have maxed Atomic age armies, but not many people have maxed Atomic age defense. So surveying at 30,000 feet all the battles taking place, it would be easy to mistakenly say that offense is overpowered. Maxed offense and maxed defense of same age should be balanced, not maxed offense of age n and maxed defense of the age n-1. I really hope BHG fully realizes that point.

 

[Berny]

That's a great update, can't wait! Sounds like you're on track to fix my largest complains: reducing Uni time and worker requirement and, even more importantly, fixing stalemates by introducing additional tiebreakers! Giving both teams all war loot in stalemates is also a nice demonstration of good will.
Sandbagging will naturally decrease if the tiebreakers are implemented well.

 

[Berny]

As explained by other above: We had 2 wars in the last 60+ where we added irons. That was not done to get easier opponents, but to get any match at all after searching for a very long time at different sizes and combinations. We had more luck finding faster matches since, so no iron accounts in wars since those two exceptions.

 

[Vixen]

Trap blessing.. new uni do sound good. Let's stop attacking each other over sandbagging and keep the focus on Nexon fixing the root causes that result in sandbagging.

 

[Singaboy]

Maybe our alliance is not that high up in the glory ranking, but sandbagging rarely plays a role in wars for us. I am looking forward to the return of the trap blessing as well as other features such as Mansa Musa.

 

[JNation]

I agree with Vixen. we can push aside our difference regarding sandbagging but i think there are many more things that need to be address..

Map editor crashes
buggy AI for certain troops
server issues and crashes during WW or any other time
Lag issues
the list goes on...

Maybe more investment in game performance next instead of new features.

 

[Veldan]

Lol, I'm convinced now that people on this forum are going to be whining no matter what. This is a great State of the Nations, regardless of whether their insight in sandbagging is entirely correct or not. I'm looking forward to the patch and seeing where this game goes in the future!

To those who do not, and only feel negative: perhaps it's time to quit and find a game you do enjoy.

 

[wetwillyhip]

I agree with Vixen. we can push aside our difference regarding sandbagging but i think there are many more things that need to be address..

Map editor crashes
buggy AI for certain troops
server issues and crashes during WW or any other time
Lag issues
the list goes on...

Maybe more investment in game performance next instead of new features.

I totally agree with you Jnation. For the love of all that is holy please fix the god damned bugs and layout editor crashes!! I have not been able to change my layout for months - it would be nice if that were possible. This is a game changing bug that should be prioritized in resolving. There are bugs and glitches everywhere.

I am excited for the university and we'll see how well the stronghold - holds up. See what I did there?

 

[Woody82]

This,

I totally agree with you Jnation. For the love of all that is holy please fix the god damned bugs and layout editor crashes!! I have not been able to change my layout for months - it would be nice if that were possible. This is a game changing bug that should be prioritized in resolving. There are bugs and glitches everywhere.

I am excited for the university and we'll see how well the stronghold - holds up. See what I did there?

And this,

Maybe our alliance is not that high up in the glory ranking, but sandbagging rarely plays a role in wars for us. I am looking forward to the return of the trap blessing as well as other features such as Mansa Musa.

I have been matched up with a sandbagging alliance exactly once, and we war non stop. So I really don't see it as that much of an issue, but am happy it at least has their attention while still evolving the game further. (Can't wait to rush through Mansa Musa)

Now the bugs, that is just awful. Just like sandbagging I am not impacted by the Layout editor crash bug, but holy heck do I feel for the players that are. I would expect that to be one of the main priorities. Not being able to edit your base properly, and not being able to edit your war base at all completely messes up the game.

@BDS, Nb4powerup, apart from the trap blessing, any news about bug fixes in the next release?

 

[Veldan]

I have been matched up with a sandbagging alliance exactly once, and we war non stop. So I really don't see it as that much of an issue, but am happy it at least has their attention while still evolving the game further.

Yeah, my alliance also wars non stop and I don't think we ever ran into sandbaggers. Maybe one time, I'm not sure. It only seems to become a problem if you have a very high leveled and/or high glory alliance. For us industrial/enlightenment peasants, it's not an issue.

 

[Radzeer]

Just to get the facts straight....
We have matched Encore too some two months ago... we were at full strength, Encore at full strength... Our lowest age member was EA, you GPA, iirc. We were badly out XPed, but we did not complain a word. Never used MA or lower age members in WW.
In fact we have met many alliances from the top 50 - except Encore all sandbagging against us. That's why I was surprised... And the fact that you tried out the sandbag method proves, that the thread starting post's point about sandbagging is at least lacking common sense, when not a blatant lie.
I don't want to be off topic here - Encore has many crowned bases, maybe collecting whales into an alliance and having 20 bases over Lvl 200 is also one of the reasons it can't get an opponent

 

[bsharpy]

A lot of us have been playing this game together since it came out hence the high level bases. Yes we try and search with no sandbags but end up having to adjust roster to find matches otherwise we could let it run for days and find nothing. It is a problem of matchmaking system more than an issue of the teams using sandbags. It doesn't appear this update addresses either concern

 

[Woody82]

Yeah, my alliance also wars non stop and I don't think we ever ran into sandbaggers. Maybe one time, I'm not sure. It only seems to become a problem if you have a very high leveled and/or high glory alliance. For us industrial/enlightenment peasants, it's not an issue.

Half of my team is Global actually ;-)
But yeah, we definitely don't aim for a top 10 spot in Alliance Glory ranking, that's for sure.

 

[S_How]

I believe, that it is not much of a problem if you stick to 10-20 person wars. If you go over 25, and are an industrial/global average team, you will face the problem non-stop. 80% of our wars are against teams with undeveloped, unplayed accounts at the bottom of their roster. It forces us in a position of either splitting the team so we cannot play together, sitting 20+ people every war, or leaving. Its unbelievably frustrating.

 

[Tenacious D]

You are spot on.

 

[Bowmore]

Whatever. You certainly aren't the only ones. All anyone has to do is browse the top alliances and you'll see pretty much the same composition: a bunch of high level atomics and then a handful of low level Irons, ones that often have days or weeks of inactivity. Just look at the so called ''#1'' Alliance. That's why its incomprehensible to me how the guy who is in charge of Dominations can actually claim the leaderboard is now free of sandbaggers. Listen to your customers!

The Glory system is a complete joke. There is no incentive for teams to actually battle their peers. Instead, all the highly ranked teams are fearful of losing their position on the leaderboard so they intentionally configure their roster (and wars) to protect their position, instead of going after their true competitors.

 

[dolphin225]

We are a lower level Alliance too (only one low level Global), but just got our first war with people who threw in three totally inactive players - think we can still beat them because their Global & Atomic rushed to get there.

But have to say, with BHG's comments about the leaderboard, am super curious to know why an Alliance with 10 people - 8 of whom are horribly inactive - is on the Top 100 Leaderboard??? Check out UA Obsidian - #6 last time I checked.

 

[dolphin225]

I'm one of the ones Nexon probably hates - haven't spent a dime on the game and am currently mid-level IA. Lol...