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In our last survey, we asked you how you felt the current balance of DomiNations stood. Over the last few months, we had seen the start of a vocal sentiment that Defense felt a bit too strong in our most active community spaces. As such, we thought it best to ask the community at large to help paint the picture.
We approached the survey from two different perspectives: the Multiplayer experience and the competitive World War experience. Like our previous survey released in DomiNations, nearly 30,000 participants participated!
For multiplayer, while there is a large group that feels the experience is pretty balanced, the next highest majority feels that we are skewing toward favoring defense more. After examining our internal battle data, we noticed this very small trend of increased difficulty in achieving victories. It’s also worth noting that some players tend to ‘lose on purpose’, for various reasons, whether they’re looking to improve their matchmaking odds or increase the odds of better bases to loot.
This type of play does let us know that it’s much more convenient to purposely lose at certain levels to chase a more fun experience in other parts of the game. We are assessing both the balance of combat as well as the motivations for winning your multiplayer attacks. Our design team is examining ways in which future releases can help increase the sense of balance and reward.
For World War, it is very clear that the majority here believe that Defense is favored. We’re seeing an increase in discussions regarding the difficulty of obtaining a 5-star Victory against Defensive bases.
To get to the crux of the problem, we asked what might be the most difficult to deal with from the perspective of both an Attacker and a Defender. First, let's look at what those who were surveyed felt was the most difficult to deal with while on the Attack.
Defenders from Garrisons, Factories, Command Posts, and even Forest Defenders all swarm against you very quickly. Even when players are utilizing troop compositions considered to be ‘top-tier’ for attackers, those surveyed are still finding defenders challenging to navigate.
Fighters, a very common counter to spawned defenders, face their own challenges due to Towers, Machine Gun Towers, and Anti-Air. For us, we need to be pretty careful here as there is certainly strength in Fighters, but the Anti-Air play is still cause for concern. Missile Silo can be tanked by dropping Generals away from your attacking force, which is something that may be easier to do with the upcoming Detachments feature. This isn’t to dismiss the feeling that Missile Silo is difficult to deal with, the resources in Troops to combat it can be a high price and very easily distract from attaining a 5-star victory.
By comparison, the Defenders who were surveyed believed Airstrip units were the most difficult to defend against, followed by Factory and Barracks Units and then Generals. We’ve been evaluating our internal Battle data to discover where we might make adjustments to various units.
Prior to this survey, we’d already set in motion plans to improve the battle experience from the offensive end. Namely, the aforementioned Detachments feature is currently slated for early spring. This new feature will allow you to have more control over your attacks. We’re also re-evaluating Councilor Bonuses, some of which you have now with a higher focus on offensive stats or a single set of benefits for both multiplayer and World War. There are even new Legendary Artifacts in the works that give improvements to Offense for both Main and War Hall.
Here’s what you can expect from us in the near future:
Our next survey will focus on the Unit updates that we released in 12.13 and will be your opportunity to share your thoughts on whether this moved the needle in your WW/Multiplayer strategies.
We approached the survey from two different perspectives: the Multiplayer experience and the competitive World War experience. Like our previous survey released in DomiNations, nearly 30,000 participants participated!
This type of play does let us know that it’s much more convenient to purposely lose at certain levels to chase a more fun experience in other parts of the game. We are assessing both the balance of combat as well as the motivations for winning your multiplayer attacks. Our design team is examining ways in which future releases can help increase the sense of balance and reward.
For World War, it is very clear that the majority here believe that Defense is favored. We’re seeing an increase in discussions regarding the difficulty of obtaining a 5-star Victory against Defensive bases.
To get to the crux of the problem, we asked what might be the most difficult to deal with from the perspective of both an Attacker and a Defender. First, let's look at what those who were surveyed felt was the most difficult to deal with while on the Attack.
Fighters, a very common counter to spawned defenders, face their own challenges due to Towers, Machine Gun Towers, and Anti-Air. For us, we need to be pretty careful here as there is certainly strength in Fighters, but the Anti-Air play is still cause for concern. Missile Silo can be tanked by dropping Generals away from your attacking force, which is something that may be easier to do with the upcoming Detachments feature. This isn’t to dismiss the feeling that Missile Silo is difficult to deal with, the resources in Troops to combat it can be a high price and very easily distract from attaining a 5-star victory.
Prior to this survey, we’d already set in motion plans to improve the battle experience from the offensive end. Namely, the aforementioned Detachments feature is currently slated for early spring. This new feature will allow you to have more control over your attacks. We’re also re-evaluating Councilor Bonuses, some of which you have now with a higher focus on offensive stats or a single set of benefits for both multiplayer and World War. There are even new Legendary Artifacts in the works that give improvements to Offense for both Main and War Hall.
Here’s what you can expect from us in the near future:
- Tournament of Glory Releases with Update 12.14, helping to make a more competitive World War experience. Currently slated for release in January!
- This includes our first wave of Replay improvements
- Detachments will give players even more control over their armies. Keeping a group of units focused on a target while another group distracts the Defenders is but one simple example of this feature. More information will be coming soon, with a release currently planned for March.
- Evaluating unit balance with the intent to give usability across more compositions, and allowing underutilized Troops to scale alongside more popular Troops.
Our next survey will focus on the Unit updates that we released in 12.13 and will be your opportunity to share your thoughts on whether this moved the needle in your WW/Multiplayer strategies.