First steps to fix the pay to win problem (an easy guide for Nexon/BHG)

[Quovatis]

Three easy steps to address pay to win:

1) Remove the defensive troop card loading from the stronghold. Nobody asked for this, and this is the core problem. With defensive cards removed, wars will (for the most part) return to skill instead of money being the deciding factor. Keep the stronghold in the game to limit the number of extra troops used for offense. Players can pay money to supplement their army if they wish, but the game should be designed such that the most skilled players can destroy bases WITHOUT extra cards. This is key.

2) Do a balance pass on troop cards. As we have pointed out many times, certain cards like elephant archers and Yumi Warriors are way too powerful compared to other options. They need to be toned down significantly so you're not forced to buy them to have any chance of defeating the very toughest bases. Hint for elephant archers: make them take the bonus damage from planes.

3) Make up the lost revenue by offering cosmetic item upgrades--a proven strategy used by numerous other games.

These are the core issues. Personally, I'd like all troop cards to be earned only, not paid for, or at least prohibit extra cards in war. But I understand that likely won't happen, so the above is the best compromise. This needs to be addressed ASAP, as we already see many players leaving because of the pay to win problem. Honor the "we believe in play to win, not pay to win" text on your own webpage Nexon! Do the right thing and make Dominations great again.

 

[LordJestix]

As long as troop cards are in war and can be obtained by $$$ then there will always be p2w in this game. P2W needs to be removed entirely.

Your compromise isnt going to fix anything really. It will only lessen the dissent but then when people lose wars only because they dont have the offensive cards the uproar will again be about removing p2w.

Troop cards are great but have no place in war. Troop cards should be used to help in raiding. See that jucy oil well that has 8k oil in it, but need help getting to it? Great use those nice troop cards youve been holding onto.

I will continue to repeat this, The #1 game in this genre and has been top 3 money earners for years is CoC. CoC has no p2w features in it at all.

 

[Motaz Tarek]

add removing time factor from war as who use cards in war attacks will certainly have this factor on his side, and hence 5 starring all enemy bases without using cards will be useless since u will lose because of time factor

they dont need to add cosmotic upgrades, i bet on my life they already earned tons of cash from players rushing university upgrades, and it's almost equal to the cash they can earn from a player rushing his base from GA to max AA

if they wanna keep defense troop cards they should revert the spawn on destruction of SH and make it sabotag-able again

 

[Motaz Tarek]

they want to make easy profit, why continue developing the game and fixing bugs to attract new players while u can milk wallet warriors for having unstoppable armies of troop cards...

 

[Berny]

p2w is the core issues for me as well, and I agree that it has no place whatsoever in war. Good ideas here and many other posts on this forum. What's missing is the developers point of view. Do they think their game is not p2w (common sense, but also their stats on wars should tell them otherwise), are they ok with it (should change their motto then), or do they not like it either but are forced to by higher ups? Most frustrating for me is their silence on critical matters of the game

 

[Krieg]

One thing that would help a lot would be roll back the update that allows SH troops to be liberated no matter what. Before that, a skilled player could destroy a SH without trigger the troops, like every other building.
The defense players had to think a lot to commit a huge number of troops that could never be useful. Now, if you put 8 elephant archers there, they will be in battle.
Canceling this feature would be a first step in the right direction.

 

[Master Contrail Program]

A simple checkbox asking if an alliance wants to allow troop cards in a war search would help. Or even just a yes/no to defensive stronghold spawns. Not great, but better than now. Give the wars that allow them increased glory rewards, war loot, AXP and higher priority searches as an incentive, or else most alliances would just check no(even the big ones) and they'd lose significant revenue drivers.

Honestly, with a leaderboard of only 100 alliances the bulk of players in this game will never come close to it. The logical thing would be to have alliance leagues, but the devs don't seem to be interested in that. So let alliances play on their own terms rather than pure $$$$ ones.

 

[FroggyKilla]

Their newest premium troop is a bit overpowered too. The gladiators outclass the shieldmaidens.

Needless to say this is a decent solution to the troop cards.

 

[JuDomines]

Some good proposition in there. Whatever you chose Nexon, please do something

 

[yemen]

Fantastic suggestions. Cover all of my key complaints, and stated politely and thoughtfully. Nb4powerup TinSoldier, the sentiments above are shared by a lot of players, this is something that we look forward to seeing acknowledged and moved towards.

 

[British Coffee]

set a limit to number of troop tactics. 4 elephant archers in battle is way more OP than 5 sabs

 

[SiuYin]

I would say the root cause is not enough late age (aa and ga)players to support the revenue.
the fact is after each release, some player quit. And the largest quit happened at the patch of estate,second largest happenef at stronghold release.

you can easily sense that there are not many aa players,especial when you are mwmber of a heavy alliance and try to match a game with 25＋aa player, it will take you very long time and always matched with same alliance again and again

As I always suggestted, reduce early age upgrade time, attract and push new player to late age. Do whatever to increase the player size of late age.

 

[Tsamu]

I would say the root cause is not enough late age (aa and ga)players to support the revenue.
the fact is after each release, some player quit. And the largest quit happened at the patch of estate,second largest happenef at stronghold release.

you can easily sense that there are not many aa players,especial when you are mwmber of a heavy alliance and try to match a game with 25＋aa player, it will take you very long time and always matched with same alliance again and again

As I always suggestted, reduce early age upgrade time, attract and push new player to late age. Do whatever to increase the player size of late age.

Rather than reduce early stage upgrade time, Nexon could offer real bargains on early stage upgrades, like $5 for 5 chapters of iron age research. That would generate some revenue, get new players caught up, and get them used to paying. Actually, I think it would be a real revenue generator if special offers actually were special, with a significant discount over using crowns for anything below Atomic, or whatever is the highest age at the time.

 

[SiuYin]

It would be good to offer some real bargains to early age.
But in early age, unless it is real real bargains, it is unlikely that new joiner will pay

The point is, the longer a player played, the more likely he will pay. so the most important thing is expand player base, push them up to later age.

 

[Drunken Master]

The game upgrade system and timing is still based on when the game stopped in industrial age... It's a fatal mistake as if you are a new player, atomic age is nearly 2 years away and does not seem attainable... I knew I would be industrial in a year when I started... Now I been global for months and still see myself being global for a lot longer before I'm ready for atomic... Upgrade times and costs are way too high... 230,000 oil is nearly impossible to get without leaving your screen on for days at a time. Couple that with 2 weeks of waiting... Nexon knows most people will pay out of frustration... They don't account for those that quit out of frustration though...

 

[LordJestix]

SinYin is right, if they want more people to get to the later stages and potentially spend that money, they need to allow quicker advancement by reducing some of the earlier "long" upgrade times.

 

[LordJestix]

The issue with getting oil, especially at AA(even though im not there) is the fact that the player base even for abandoned bases at the higher ages is going to be much much smaller.

 

[Quovatis]

Good point here. In any other game, the global age or maybe Atomic age would be the max level, based on upgrade times. But we still have at least 2 more ages, so all balancing models are broken.