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Nations need re-balancing

Flailer

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Joined
Jan 12, 2016
Messages
36
I brought this up in the recent Twitch stream that a few nations (well, most really) could use re-balancing. This was sort of dismissed immediately saying something to the equivalent "It's fine - these nations are fun to play"

This is important to address not just to provide your game with some actual compelling choices for nations to play as but also for the rest of us trying to get NTGs. If you want to think of terms of monetizing your game, this is important because different nations provides a compelling reason to switch nations (spend crowns) or start alternate accounts (spend money to speed things along). Also, we have an alliance with a lot of long term players in it and, no joke, in the last month or so, have had many leave because of either 1) persistent bugs 2) an ever increasing pay-per-win approach to the development and 3) the difficulty in getting NTGs in order to participate in world wars, easily the most fun aspect of the game. And these are players that had sunk a lot of money into the game already...

So, I'll try and bring up at least this aspect of re-balancing here in the forums again and ask that you'd consider making some changes. I understand your hesitancy to mess with a fundamental aspect of the game in fear of causing some unbalancing but, I would submit that the game is ALREADY unbalanced with regard to the nations and it needs to be addressed.

First, let's look at some stats as far as what players are choosing for their nations:

OVERALL NATION NUMBERS:
Overall players Level 250 and up
2012712Overall %25236Population %
China32784816.3%260510.32%
England20212610.0%413016.37%
France23893411.9%311912.36%
Germany1696058.4%822232.58%
Greece31497915.6%14195.62%
Japan29660014.7%9193.64%
Korea1547467.7%13315.27%
Roman30788815.3%349013.83%
2012726100.0%25235100.00%
Obviously, you'll have much better tools to slice and dice the stats on player percentages by ages, but however you do it, make sure it's for active, engaged players (in an alliance, playing once a day, etc). And, the stats I have access to are just for players that are currently in an alliance. But, that's not a bad way to look at it.

So, if you look at the initial overall population, the distribution of players in nations isn't so bad - it's between roughly 5-15% distribution with a 12.5% being a perfectly even distribution across all nations. A lot of this even distribution is from players that, when they first start out (like I did), honestly just don't know any better. "Greeks - cool! I like Greek civilization!"

But, if you start looking at players after level 250, once players arguably know the game a lot better, the numbers are quite different. You can see over 30% of players are now German, followed by roughly even France, Roman, and England (that one surprises me honestly). Next is China, which isn't so horrible, but then the bottom really drops out with Korea, Japan, and Greece.

And, hey, guess which NTGs are the hardest to find in higher ages? Yep - Scrolls, Porcelain. and Silk (less so because that's a common dock expedition NTG). This is really made worse by the fact that at higher ages, getting coalitions costs a LOT more NTGs than it did back when the nation distribution was more balanced.

So, the nations are de facto unbalanced which is why they need RE-balancing. I'm sure you have lots of good ideas on how this could happen. I'll throw out some suggestions below.

GERMANY: doesn't really need rebalancing. Why? Because the 15% damage boost is so compelling for both multiplayer and world wars, it's almost foolish not to pick it. In a way, I would actually set this nation as the standard by which all other nations should be judged - a 15% bonus in some area that is a fundamental bonus for how the game is played. In addition, they have a nice rally boost and a decent special troop (although less useful after Industrial).

FRANCE: the troop training speed bonus of 20% plus a larger alliance gate space helps on both offensive and defense. Pretty great! Again, decent special troop up until Industrial age.

ENGLAND: Increases loot by 15%. Special troop that's really great early on, less so later, but still not so bad.

ROMAN: 10% increased troop space. Similar special troop to Germans. More troops, pretty good.

So, let's call Germany Tier 1 - at over 30%, an overwhelming favorite. The next best ones we'll call Tier 2 are France, England, and Roman, mainly because they possess a % bonus to some fundamental stat that helps you in the game. Again, they're not as good as German, so maybe still some balancing can help bring the numbers closer to parity, but they're not as bad as the bottom 4.

CHINA: with the extra citizen, this is a decent choice if you're going all-in on growing by having a larger population. Kinda decent special troop. 1 extra merc is nice, but isn't going to change your day-to-day game or be the deciding factor in a war like an overall 15% to troop damage is.
POSSIBLE FIX: Some nation wide percent bonus. 10% University speed? Mercs 20% damage/HP? Generals 20% bonus?

KOREA: 10% loot returned when raided, 1 extra tactic, similar special troop to Brit and China. So, 10% loot returned isn't really compelling - especially when there's a blessing available that does a better job of this. Extra tactic is nice, but since the tactics have been re-balanced so many times, the power of 1 tactic is less important than it used to be.
FIX: Some nation wide percent bonus. To extend the logic on tactics, maybe a 25% boost on tactic stats? Add another tactic available at Industrial and another at Space Age?

GREEK: Refunds 5% of building cost. Free upgrades under 15 minutes. Similar (worse) troop as French. Okay - this is bad unless you're like Classical Age or under. Once you get past that age, building times are measured in days/weeks so there's no bonus to a 10 minute speedup. Also, cost is 99% of the time not the deciding factor for your building - it's citizens and time.
POSSIBLE FIX: Some nation wide percent bonus. If you're going to run with the building theme, make buildings 20% faster to complete. There, I said it. And/or free complete that increases each age with it capping at a day or two in SA or something.

JAPAN: 25% longer peace treaties (whee!) and a TC that shoots. Also, super bad. Peace treaties aren't something you look to extend - if you're under a peace treaty, that just means you're playing less (not raiding). Also, it's the equivalent to adding 1 tower to your base? That isn't even in the same realm as a 15% overall damage bonus like Germans.
POSSIBLE FIX: Some nation wide percent bonus. Fortunately, this one almost writes itself - make Japan like the anti-German: 20% defense boost from towers and/or defenders. If you do this, make sure it doesn't get maxed out with museum bonuses and stops being compelling at higher levels.


OTHER RE-BALANCE IDEAS:

Make later ages (Industrial and beyond) have some further choices with their nation bonuses. The devs have said it themselves that after Industrial age, factory troops start becoming more powerful than barracks troops. So, if the only nation bonuses are to barracks troops, perhaps give other troop types bonuses as your nation advances? This might offset some of the weaker nations too by giving them a compelling reason to pick them later.

GERMANS: Improved heavy tanks. Or stronger APCs.
BRITISH: Improved bombers
FRANCE: Improved saboteurs
ROMAN: Improved fighter planes
GREEK: Improved bazookas
CHINA: Improved APCs
KOREA: Improved transports
JAPAN: Improved fighter planes

Just some ideas - I'm sure the community could come up with some much better ideas than I could. But, please don't ignore this - and other requests - that address some of the fundamental problems with the game.

I love this game more than about any that I've ever played - up there with Civilization. So, it's for that reason that I want to try and offer some solutions to see the game continue to flourish.

Thanks!
 
Last edited:

Xabar

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Joined
Dec 9, 2017
Messages
456
In my opinion

-Geman and Romans dont need any ofensive boost. They are the strongest in ofensive, thats why are the most used in higher ages. Because their boost afect equaly to all their units.
In the case of Geman and Romans a putative new secondary peack must be economic or defensive, never offensive
-Greek and Japan, needs a serious offensive boost in a secondary peack and in an a factory and or airstrip units.
-British and France, are the best to farm resourses. No economic Boost. Just with an sligthly bost in defense or in some Factory troop is fine.
-China and Korea have an slightly advantage with the extra mercenary and the extra tactic. Just with an sligthly bost in defense or in some Factory troop is fine. Or an economic boost.


Just. Previous publications about it
https://forum.nexonm.com/forum/nexo...ure-requests/633889-improve-balancing-nations
https://forum.nexonm.com/forum/nexo...ests/636223-nation-rebalace-just-for-opinions
 

kilgore_trout

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Joined
Aug 30, 2015
Messages
240
If you look at it from their eyes, the data youve provided shows that one nation needs to be nerfed to even out the distribution. They said in the stream that they liked playing as the underdogs, so why not make them all underdogs?
 

jonbly

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Oct 15, 2017
Messages
57
The other end of this problem is that those few who are Japan must be getting constantly attacked. You'd have to make Japan better than Germany to get people to switch...
 

Saruman the White

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Nov 27, 2017
Messages
527
The biggest problem is that when it comes to:

*adding more nations / re-balancing the existing ones
*reducing time / citizens

I sense that we're speaking to deaf ears... There are hundreds of similar posts and NEXON refuses to help with these issues
 

Xabar

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Joined
Dec 9, 2017
Messages
456
The other end of this problem is that those few who are Japan must be getting constantly attacked. You'd have to make Japan better than Germany to get people to switch...

I agree,the change must be tha Japan be offensive competitive, and for example, have a defensive plus
 

Xabar

Approved user
Joined
Dec 9, 2017
Messages
456
The biggest problem is that when it comes to:

*adding more nations / re-balancing the existing ones
*reducing time / citizens

I sense that we're speaking to deaf ears... There are hundreds of similar posts and NEXON refuses to help with these issues

-*adding more nations, problably they refuse beacuse this implies add more national tradegoods....... and a problem with coalitions. Is possible, but requier think and plane a lot how to do it. Add more unballance nation, coul be worse.

-*reducing time / citizens, I agree, but have to be progresive during Ages (Improvement Times: Ex. IronAge: -45%, CA:-40% GA:-35% EA:-30% IA:-25% GA:-20% AA:-15% CWA: -10% SA: -5% DA: 0%). Lower Ages Improvements Faster than the higer. Thats necesary to increase the pool of active, and competitive players in middle and higer Ages.
 
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