Keep the Contents of the Museum and Stronghold Secret

[StarTrekAlliance]

A large part of the fun of this game is the strategic aspect, and part of the game strategy is deciding which Museum artifacts to keep and improve, and which Troop Cards to donate to team members during WW. Some folks seem to want to know whether or not they'll win a battle before they even begin their attack...how is that fun? I've spent a lot of time thinking through my Strategy and part of my Strategy involves the Museum, and I don't want my artifacts displayed before or after the battle...they should remain secret. Why should an opponent get to know what Artifacts I've selected as part of my Strategy? Why should another player be able to glean details of my Strategy that I've worked hard to create? I feel the same about the Stronghold. Not knowing the contents adds to the excitement and keeps the game fun. Keep the contents of the Museum and Stronghold Secret. My two cents anyway.

 

[KniferX]

Randomness = strategy?
Stacking hidden all defensive towers hp/damage and defenders spawn time/damage is strategy?
Hidden P2W and reroll to win artifacts are strategy?
What else could I read from someone who wants DomiNations to be some fantasy space colonizing game...

 

[KingCally]

Seems like you and I share similar thoughts with regards to this post. No one should preach “ strategy” when the game is blatantly p2w.

 

[Xabar]

a large part of the fun of this game is the strategic aspect, and part of the game strategy is deciding which museum artifacts to keep and improve, and which troop cards to donate to team members during ww. Some folks seem to want to know whether or not they'll win a battle before they even begin their attack...how is that fun? I've spent a lot of time thinking through my strategy and part of my strategy involves the museum, and i don't want my artifacts displayed before or after the battle...they should remain secret. Why should an opponent get to know what artifacts i've selected as part of my strategy? Why should another player be able to glean details of my strategy that i've worked hard to create? I feel the same about the stronghold. Not knowing the contents adds to the excitement and keeps the game fun. Keep the contents of the museum and stronghold secret. My two cents anyway.

the problem is that the cheaters say the same thing

 

[NateTheGreat]

Just what I want to play blindfolded Chess.... Oh so much fun...
There are no guarantees that if we know the opponents artifact bonus % we will get 5*. But if we do know that a players base is much stronger than originally intended we can use a heavier hitting attacker in Wars.

A better suggestion would be that we don't know enemy artifacts during planning day, but after artifact selection is locked then we can learn what their hand is.
It'd be like the bluffing in poker. But in the end you see their hand. So you take a gamble ( which we do with loading Strongholds imo....) and see how your STRATEGY played out...then we have to compensate on War Day for good/bad decisions in Planning Day.

Also how fun is it to attack a MP base and lose you entire army === 2 hours retrain time to not know why??
There is already enough variability with how troops with move with pathing.

This is not Batteships hit/miss for crying out loud.... neither is it StarCraft II with far away galaxies mankind has yet to explore.

 

[Blood]

This guy is low level and usually has strange posts. I’d like to see the museum replaced by a statue system like in other games. All defense/offense limited to 10%, raiding boost limited to 50%, and no reduce attacker hp or dmg. Then when you are inspecting the base you know exactly what your in for. It would make it easier to catch cheaters(script to flag anyone over 10% boost) and get rid of the insane advantage the museum is capable of offering.

 

[NateTheGreat]

Maybe 20-30% boost ( similar to the university and library upgrades available). But I agree, this constant crafting and destroying of 3-4 star artifacts is frustrating... I'm constantly worried if I don't keep one type of artifact that I can't change my army composition.

That worrying led me to buy 20 slots imo... So I have a bunch of unused artifacts just sitting there for when I am able to use them.

 

[Davina]

StarTrekAlliance I’m trying to decide if you’re a blissfully ignorant idiot or a wind up merchant. Maybe the truth is somewhere in between.

 

[Manifesto]

Let's face it, you can only know 'so' much about a base. If you knew everything about it then where's the challenge? That's part of the strategy of the game, isn't it? Why stop at the Uni or Museum?
Why not show where the traps are without using tactics? Why not have the wonders or buildings or TC display their activation range? Buildings already show when troops are spawning, that's not enough? Why not have a sign that says ''forest defenders spawn from here'' ? Why not have buildings, that spawn troops when destroyed, have a giant sign showing which troops are about to spawn?
What is this childish obsession with wanting all the answers before you even start the game?
Where does it end? Should Rafael Nadal ask Novak Djokovic to yell out where he's about to hit the ball?

Seeing the stats after a battle would be acceptable though. Wasn't Nexon going to implement an After Action Report showing the stats of your opponent? TinSoldier ?

 

[Borck]

Let's face it, you can only know 'so' much about a base. If you knew everything about it then where's the challenge? That's part of the strategy of the game, isn't it? Why stop at the Uni or Museum?
Why not show where the traps are without using tactics? Why not have the wonders or buildings or TC display their activation range? Buildings already show when troops are spawning, that's not enough? Why not have a sign that says ''forest defenders spawn from here'' ? Why not have buildings, that spawn troops when destroyed, have a giant sign showing which troops are about to spawn?
What is this childish obsession with wanting all the answers before you even start the game?
Where does it end? Should Rafael Nadal ask Novak Djokovic to yell out where he's about to hit the ball?

Seeing the stats after a battle would be acceptable though. Wasn't Nexon going to implement an After Action Report showing the stats of your opponent? TinSoldier ?

Totally agree Manifesto, it would be a slap in the face for everyone who thoughtfully invested blueprints, picking out artifacts and carefully upgrading them without buying stuff. I started 7 months after the introduction of Dominations playing it. And the museum, the university and carefully planning around events earned me a place in the top 200. I am not the worlds finest attacker but I can deduct and compute many variables of this game to give me an advantage to other players to find me a spot that I like. Ofcourse you can take that away and that is fine but it will be more and more a money spending game without any intellectual challenge. Just my 5 eurocents.

 

[No Angel]

Amen to the After Battle Report. Just make sure it's not flawed like Replays + Battle logs.

 

[KniferX]

Let's face it, you can only know 'so' much about a base. If you knew everything about it then where's the challenge? That's part of the strategy of the game, isn't it? Why stop at the Uni or Museum?
Why not show where the traps are without using tactics? Why not have the wonders or buildings or TC display their activation range? Buildings already show when troops are spawning, that's not enough? Why not have a sign that says ''forest defenders spawn from here'' ? Why not have buildings, that spawn troops when destroyed, have a giant sign showing which troops are about to spawn?
What is this childish obsession with wanting all the answers before you even start the game?
Where does it end? Should Rafael Nadal ask Novak Djokovic to yell out where he's about to hit the ball?

Seeing the stats after a battle would be acceptable though. Wasn't Nexon going to implement an After Action Report showing the stats of your opponent? TinSoldier ?

It would be nice if you would, at least once, not comment on things you do not understand.

The challenge and enjoyment is in creating a strategy that will crack the base that you are attacking. Angle of approach, in which order to deploy troops, where to place silo bait, where to use tactics, planes, how to get QV, contingency plan if something goes wrong.
The whole point of the game is predictability, you aren't fighting player vs player in real time battle. You are sending an AI controlled relatively predictable (bugs notwithstanding) army, with intervention tools like air units and tactics, against a player designed base with relatively predictable AI defenses and defenders.
The randomness element here is you yourself and your plan i.e. the ability to predict the AI well, make a good plan and execute it well.

And now you'll have invisible boosts, especially from p2w sides, randomly messing up your plans. The only way to counter this? Play the artifact game yourself and always assume the worst, thus to eliminate the risk you run with the cookie cutter all around good troop compositions (that do well against invisible boosts) and to throw the kitchen sink i.e. 4 troop tactics on a base.

P.S. you also kind of kill off your own argument by later admitting that a post attack reveal of stats would be good, the way you were talking you were going against it.

So yeah, I guess Nadal and Djokovic play the first set and then Djokovic does indeed need to tell Nadal where he will hit the ball, your own admition through your example.

 

[Blood]

Apples and oranges. Traps are supposed to be hidden p2w is a different subject. Tactics have nothing to do with a base that can not be beaten because they spent $1000’s(or just used the hack) upgrading the museum. The library has set known values. Good players can predict these buffs and attack accordingly.

 

[jagadeeshgarapati]

Just what I want to play blindfolded Chess.... Oh so much fun....

FYI chess is blind folded. since you can't peep into opponents brain and know what his next move will be. predicting that is masterclass. don't dare to bring something irrelevant.

 

[Manifesto]

KniferX
Firstly, Seeing the stats after the fact is something Nexon had already discussed, I'm just bringing it back for discussion.
Second, seeing the stats after doesn't change your attack approach, predict the AI, etc, before the attack. You still get to decide all those things.
Last, Djokovic telling Nadal where he's hitting the ball is BEFORE the fact, not after.
If you want to counter my comments, please use some common sense and logic. What a laugh you give me sometimes!

 

[Manifesto]

Blood
You win, you know it all and your convictions are just, as is your superiority.

 

[KniferX]

1. You preach on about how it's better to not know stats, bring up pompous examples, and end it on a tennis comparison.
Then, all an alliance has to do to satisfy you and make it acceptable, is to organize a couple of players to do scout attacks and it's a-ok to know stats then.
I mean, I find that funny, honestly.

2. Seeing the stats doesn't change your attack approach. What? I know you don't play wars, but I didn't expect such a blunder.
I'm not going to deploy my army near a mortar/redoubt position if I know they are boosted by 30% and my troops won't survive the inital deployment. I will change my planned fighter deployments if I know they won't survive a specific run due to stronger buildings or they have to be deployed somewhere else due to stronger defenders. These are just 2 examples off the top of my head.

3. You know what, I'll just give you the benefit of the doubt that the tennis example was connected to the ''example'' of players wanting to know everything that will happen in a battle. And that you are not implying that players who want to know just museum stats are like Nadal wanting to know where Novak will hit his ball next. Because that would be pretty funny if you are.

Finally, let's talk about the real, tangible effects of the current situation with invisible artifacts on real players of the game. No hypothetical examples or tennis comparisons.

- Low skilled player: left totally confused on why he lost his attack, museum being one of the contributing factors
- Mid-high skilled player: in order to compensate for the risk he has to assume the worst and bring full power every attack, even if he doesn't need it. I.e. more troop card expenditure. Alternatively, he can play the museum game himself and try to negate the enemy's boost with his own boosts. Will reduce necessary troop card expenditure but won't resolve the other underlying problems.

Who benefits the most here? P2W players and the lucky few who get good artifacts early on. More money for Nexon there as well.

Funny how about loot artifacts you can call out the lucky few and say they don't need skills to loot now, and then defend the privilege of p2w players and other lucky few to have invisible, game changing boosts in a part of the game where skill does actually matter, world wars.

 

[NateTheGreat]

It's pretty easy to tell where traps are already, gaps in the wall, can't place them under a building, etc. etc.
It's like an EOD bomb tech, they can smell the landmines and can feel the threat is near.

But having a battle sway 100% the other direction because of hidden artifacts? It just becomes a game of chance at which point you have no chance of taking out a base even the same level as you because of the wide swing in variances. There's no skill involved just chance.

Also, in tennis as in any other sports arena there are bounded rules. The court doesn't suddenly get 10 feet wider for Nadal and the net 5 ft higher for Djokovic on his return serve. And players have physical limits and play styles, which, as it turns out can be STUDIED. I play soccer and against really tough opponents we would study the opposing players defense/offense ahead of time to be prepared for the game. This is certainly true of the top level tennis players.

 

[NateTheGreat]

The skill and strategy is picking your museum artifacts, troop tactics, generals, war tactics BEFORE a war (planning day) or MP battle starts then finding out how you stack up so you can decide to pass on a really tough OP base that spent a lot of time upgrading artifacts or FIGHT.

The point is you can see what moves your opponent is making in real time, one move at a time in chess...And you can compensate.
The museum being completely hidden before, during, and after is blind luck.... No skill.

Obviously you don't know what an analogy is...

 

[Manifesto]

NateTheGreat
You can use many analogies to make your point and l can do the same. Whether tennis or not, whether players study each other or not, the point is that there are ALWAYS going to be unknowns. No amount of studying can predict what the human mind will do.
eg: Ever kick the ball with the outside of your foot to fool the keeper?
Similarly, ever put traps around the corner from a hole in the wall, instead of in that hole?