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Discussion of game balance issue - Raiding missions

Discussion of game balance issue - Raiding missions

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Sep 1, 2017, 22:1709/01/17
64

Discussion of game balance issue - Raiding missions

I'm far from an expert on the game, but my observation has been that there are the following missions:

Raid 2 (or 3) bases of level 10 (or 15) or higher.

Raid X in 1 go, where X is a resource amount.

Raid X in 2 or 3 attempts.

Raid a base 10 levels lower, or higher.

Kill 100 (or 250) points of troops in an enemy town.

4 S+D locations

1 S+D location of at least a certain level.

Occupy a town 10 levels lower (or higher) and collect resources.

While I understand that this is a PvP war game, there is a problem with having half the missions raid missions: You only get 10 a day.

(1 every 2.5 hours.) This might be enough for average mission distribution for semi active players, but it is easy to go through 10 raid attacks quickly if you get these missions back to back.

Furthermore: I have found a break from scouting results and what you can actually collect, for various reasons.

1) You are capped at 50k from an enemy. This is not per day, nor per week. (If someone can tell me how to clear this limit, please do.)

2) You can not raid resources protected by their bunker.

3) Sometimes you just don't get a full load for random reason. (Raided a base with about 250K and only got 50% of 30k out, failing a 22k mission.) PS - Player was within 10 levels, and it was my first time raiding them, or attacking them at all.

Net result is: you may be left waiting for mission to run out for 4 hours, only to get another raid mission you cant do right after.


A significant contributing factor to this problem is the need to destroy troops for some missions. By itself, that is fine, but players tend to quit when you wipe them, plus there are numerous people who quit anyway. (bazillion towns under level 10.)


Once the raid missions get above about 10-12k per attack, it becomes increasingly difficult for a newer player to complete them simply due to lack of targets. Those that will yield more than about 6k quickly reach the 50K limit. (4-5 hits, or less)

Even the AH-24 only moves at 24 Km/hour, meaning most sizable towns that can be raided are more than an hour away.

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Sep 2, 2017, 14:1009/02/17
08/12/14
160
Badlag247 said:

-snip-

1) You are capped at 50k from an enemy. This is not per day, nor per week. (If someone can tell me how to clear this limit, please do.)

-snip-

Your post is slightly confusing to me, but I'm moderately sure you're talking about raiding for resources. If so, you can raid for more than 50k by sending a resource load at your target. I do this 10-15 seconds before the raid hits and then cancel after the hit. If you do this, with a lvl 20 logistics center and loading dock, you can raid for up to 82k per hit (your convoys will carry 32k in resources). This can be increased further by upgrading these two buildings.
Sep 2, 2017, 16:4909/02/17
64

Yes, you can send resources, but only 6 times per day, so that is not a solution as it doesn't even cover the 10 raids per day.

By contrast, there are only 2 S+D missions per day, but you have 60 you can do daily. If things were balanced: you would get 6 S+D missions for every raid mission you get, or more (to encourage players to push S+D higher.)


This isn't a question of "is it possible", this is a discussion of game balance, which neither of your comments touch upon.


The first is "how do I work within the structure provided by the rules?"

The second is "Are the rules out of balance?"

2 very different things.

Thank you for your feedback.
Sep 2, 2017, 23:2809/02/17
08/12/14
160
Badlag247 said:

Yes, you can send resources, but only 6 times per day, so that is not a solution as it doesn't even cover the 10 raids per day.

By contrast, there are only 2 S+D missions per day, but you have 60 you can do daily. If things were balanced: you would get 6 S+D missions for every raid mission you get, or more (to encourage players to push S+D higher.)


This isn't a question of "is it possible", this is a discussion of game balance, which neither of your comments touch upon.


The first is "how do I work within the structure provided by the rules?"

The second is "Are the rules out of balance?"

2 very different things.

Thank you for your feedback.
That's why you cancel them. You can send only 6 COMPLETED resource pushes, but canceling them brings it to infinity ;)
Sep 3, 2017, 02:2709/03/17
Sep 3, 2017, 02:33(edited)
64

Inaginni said:



That's why you cancel them. You can send only 6 COMPLETED resource pushes, but canceling them brings it to infinity ;)

So I should spend diamonds to do missions to get 10 riflemen? Cheaper to just buy riflemen, no?

Beyond that: you've entirely missed the limiting factor: 10 raids per day. If I push an infinite amount of resources into someone, I still don't have more raids.

Math works like this: You have 10 raids per day. You have 60 locations you can hit without even increasing the level of them. If the missions gave you hitting 6 times more locations as raiding towns, it would be in balance. That is what I'm trying to discuss, not how to game the system as it currently stands.

Personally: I think the canceling you are discussing amounts to exploiting a bug. As such, I consider it cheating, and wont be doing it. Since is apparently contributes to diamond consumption, I'm guessing that no one will be punished for exploiting it.


Edit: I did some checking, and the instant call back is 300 diamonds. While there are not riflemen for sale, the commando is roughly 2x as good, and also a light infantry, and available for 11 diamonds each. For 110 diamonds I can have roughly 2x the strength gains vs spending 300 on exploiting a bug.
Sep 3, 2017, 03:4309/03/17
Sep 3, 2017, 03:58(edited)
08/12/14
160

Badlag247 said:


Inaginni said:



That's why you cancel them. You can send only 6 COMPLETED resource pushes, but canceling them brings it to infinity ;)

So I should spend diamonds to do missions to get 10 riflemen? Cheaper to just buy riflemen, no?

Beyond that: you've entirely missed the limiting factor: 10 raids per day. If I push an infinite amount of resources into someone, I still don't have more raids.

Math works like this: You have 10 raids per day. You have 60 locations you can hit without even increasing the level of them. If the missions gave you hitting 6 times more locations as raiding towns, it would be in balance. That is what I'm trying to discuss, not how to game the system as it currently stands.

Personally: I think the canceling you are discussing amounts to exploiting a bug. As such, I consider it cheating, and wont be doing it. Since is apparently contributes to diamond consumption, I'm guessing that no one will be punished for exploiting it.


Edit: I did some checking, and the instant call back is 300 diamonds. While there are not riflemen for sale, the commando is roughly 2x as good, and also a light infantry, and available for 11 diamonds each. For 110 diamonds I can have roughly 2x the strength gains vs spending 300 on exploiting a bug.

 You're still not getting it. You can cancel resource pushes for free if you do it soon after launching. That's why I send resource pushes 10-15 seconds before my raid lands and cancel right afterward. Please try it out this time xD

Also, it's not a bug, at least anymore if it was one. Plarium acknowledged it a few years back, so don't worry about it.

Edit: Now if you want to talk about "gaming the system" (not really as Plarium has already had it brought to their attention and decided to leave it in, but it sure feels like it), there is technically a way to build up over 100 usable raids. However, I wont release those details just yet. Although I already see some possible evidence of it being used, I'm interested to see how many will figure it out first ;P

Hint: Coining is, sadly, involved for this one.

Hint 2 (for higher efficiency version): The coining doesn't necessarily have to be yours ;)


Good luck!
Sep 3, 2017, 04:0209/03/17
64

I managed to use up all my call back things before I realized I was consuming them while cancelling. As such, I am hesitant to waste my last one trying out what you suggest, even if they allow it. It does seem like a bug, because you are not actually delivering resources to the person, just tricking a counter to allow yourself to exploit the extra capacity you gain.


For example: The game intent is that no player can take more than 50K from another player in a given week. Using this system, you can hit another player for an infinite amount of resources, circumventing the protection. So why bother having the protection game mechanic at all?


You are correct though: I did not think the march could be cancelled for free. Thank you for that clearification.
Sep 3, 2017, 15:0109/03/17
Sep 3, 2017, 15:01(edited)
08/12/14
160

That sucks about using up your recalls. Also, good on you for trying it, but I think you're skimming my messages a bit. I'll bold and underline the parts I think you're skimming.

Badlag247 said:


For example: The game intent is that no player can take more than 50K from another player in a given week. Using this system, you can hit another player for an infinite amount of resources, circumventing the protection. So why bother having the protection game mechanic at all?

It was, probably, the original intent of Plarium many years ago for there to only be 50k raids. However, Plarium has since decided to keep it (also many years ago), and recognized it as one of the hidden game mechanics (there are quite a few). So, according to the owner of this game, this does not count as gaming the system.

Also, there is still a limit. You cannot take more than 100k from a target in a week. You might have already noticed this mechanic if you raided someone within a week of them raiding you.

Sep 3, 2017, 15:3509/03/17
64

Thank you for your explanation. I did not simply skim your messages, as you inferred, but I did come to a different conclusion about how they view it, and what that means from a moral standpoint.


I'm not going to tell you that you are cheating, know it, and should stop.


What I'm saying is that, given how I view it, I choose to not participate in doing what I feel is violating the spirit of the game mechanic. Each person must operate within their own moral framework, and ultimately judge their own actions as acceptable or not. My point was only that this is outside of what I consider fair play, so I decline to participate, but I was not meaning to imply moral superiority, nor trying to constrain how you choose to play the game. For me, it is little different than choosing not to spend money on a game while allowing others to "coin" to get ahead.


I hope that clears up my position on it a bit better.


Again: thank you for your insights and the time you took explaining them. This is all a bit of a tangent though: The balance issue of raid missions vs other missions was what I was really trying to discuss. Apparently I'm the only one who is running into this, and this might be because I'm pushing the envelope a bit harder. 

The best day I've had for S+D missions has been 6 or 7 of the do 4 missions with a similar number of "hit one of level X or higher" where X seems to be my highest location level beaten divided by 2. This is about half the possible locations I could hit without raising the max. By contrast: I've hit impossible raid missions just about daily, sometimes several times a day. 

When my next raid mission will be after the 4 hours expires and I've used up all my raid attacks, the mission is impossible. This usually happens when I need to hit 3 within 4 hours, but can also happen when the town I scouted gets hit before my raid reaches it.