Game Update: Rivals Heal Link Adjustment

Hi folks,

This is the first post today in what's going to be a day full of updates. In our effort to continue iterating on and improving the games, the developers are taking a look at several things that have been brought up by the community. The first step was auto-listing inactive accounts to make the Bounty and Hitlists more lively, and now the developers are turning their attention on another aspect of the game that requires a little tweaking.

Specifically, I'm referring to the Heal link in the Rivals pop-up window, which was included to let players fight off their rivals and heal without having to close the window. When the developers added this, the healing functionality was a bit different from the Heal link on the main page, allowing players to heal faster than intended.

In order to get some parity between the Heal links, the developers are pushing out a change today across all games that will make both Heal links function exactly the same. For most players that won't mean much, but for players who were taking advantage of this unintended side-effect, that means that everyone will be on a more even playing field. The healing dialogue box will pop up over the link now, so players will have to wait a couple seconds before healing again.

Hopefully this should address some of the reports players were sending in regarding Heal Bots, as this can be attributed to the way the link was allowing players to heal quicker than they would on the main page. As always we'd love to get your feedback, so if you have any thoughts on this change, please let us know below!

 

So how will that stop bots?

It wont.

Itll only give bots more of a edge now.

 

As it so happens I'm a bit of an optimist, so I think this change will work out fine.

The main objective of this update was to make the two Heal links function exactly the same which will cut down on the mistaken reports of Heal Bots - which, in many cases, were players abusing the ability to repeatedly click the link - which in turn allows Support to concentrate on weeding out the actual Bots. It makes the gameplay a bit more fair for everyone and will serve to expose those who are actually using Bots so we can get rid of them.

 

Im curious as to why the auto bounty thing hasnt made it to VC yet....as u said...today there will be many updates...I suppose I should just be patient.

As far as the heal thing goes I have mixed emotions on that one. Its been that way for so long now and discussed countless times here in the forums that I pretty much figured it was an intentional thing. When it first came out I wasnt a big fan of it because it seemingly took away from those players that had built their accounts with substantial defense and health to be some of the very few that could ride the bounty. Since this unintended "side effect" many more players have been able to "ride" for much more substantial amounts of time. Basically now that its been reverted....those players that never should have been able to ride the list were able to artificially inflate their stats. Those are stats that going forward other players wont be able to make up. Secondly.....personally since that link was created I and Im sure others found no need to further add to certain attributes as they were seemingly not needed as much. Being a higher level player it takes much more in terms of resources and time to level which makes it much more difficult to change things up in regards to where we want to allocate a hefty percentage. At the lower to mid levels its easy peasy to change things up and make a significant diff in SP allocation. Once again I cant help but feel the highest of levels are getting the unintended" yet very unfortunate "short end of the stick". In a nut shell....there has been a multitude of decisions Ive made in regards of what Ive done with my account based on that heal button that there is really no coming back from....including the size of my bounty.

I suppose theres really nothing that can be done at this point but to see how it plays out. But I certainly hope that if it turns out to have an adverse affect that Kano will consider some form of compensation whether it be A) limited amount of SP reallocation or.... b)allowing XP to be received while being attacked on the bounty. Its never made sense that players doing the attacking on a bounty target got XP while the target never did. I realize that some people think that it can be abused but thats just hogwash. If u can withstand the attacks on the bounty than u deserve the XP its as simple as that. A player should not be penalized for building a strong account.

 

Why this?

For someone highly against reallocating SP you seem to of changed your tune big time.

I see how it is though...

And I can dig up those threads where you were so against SP reallocation.

Way to contradict.

 

Just like every update we make to the game, we leave room open to adjust it based on feedback. As you said polish, there will probably be an adjustment period, but the developers are confident that this change is for the better.

As for the Viking Clan auto-bounty, that should be released today. I know that the developers were planning on rolling that feature out within a short time period, so expect to see some news on that later this afternoon.

 

By removing the ability to thrash on the heal, it will help us identify when players are running automation etc, first we needed to bring rival heal to behave the same as it is exposed else where throughout the game.

 

When is Kano going to catch players using bots to grab bounties?

Knock someone from full health to 0 in 1 hit.

 

Yep...always been against SP reallocation except in one or two instances where I was in agreement that "limited" reallocation "might" be necessary. Im not convinced that its necessary in this instance either. Its merely a suggestion in hopes that Kano keep an open mind in regards to compensating if this change does turn out to have an extreme adverse affect. So while your busy digging through old posts and threads be sure to understand them in the context in which they were written.


So....No contradiction here my silly lil friend. Things change and with that so must our way of thinking on individual subjects. I will always be against skill point re-allocation when it comes to doing it just for the sake of doing it because someone has realized a mistake, or changed their strategy . But much like my situation long ago in PC....If a long standing game option is changed well after the fact and has an adverse affect on those that played and built there accounts within the parameters set forth by Kano....then Yes.....SP reallocation should at least be consideration. But as I said previously.....Im not sure what effect this might have on my game and will give it a fair shake before I come to a definitive conclusion. Until then I will continue to express my thoughts in hopes of open dialogue in an ongoing effort to better my game and to make it as fair to everyone as possible. If you find "hypocrisy" in that.....than so be it.

 

Change went through...lol.


No reply to when youll start catching those using bots to snatch bounties?

 

i dont like it when you want to ride the hitlist for fun or to get more rivals you now cant
very dissapointed alot of players like me raise there health so they can ride the hitlist although you will benefit in BA due to higher health
it spoils a crucial part of the game

 

i know from the original mw game that you could use a different browser and disable java or flash and set page to refresh every 2 secs so it auto healed you
would people still be able to heal this way on kong or fb lcn ?

 

Auto bounty

Just wanted to pop in and say WAY TO GO on the auto bounty!!! I know some players have used these inactives to inflate their bounty kills and get their achievements on the fast track. This levels the playing field on that account, and increases bounty board activity. Kisses to the devs. DOD

 

You can still heal, you just have to move your mouse around.

 

No they should not be able to do that.

 

Kendall you totally ignored the fact some use bots to CATCH bounties.


How does Kano plan on catching that?

 

Kano's stance on Bots of any kind is to eliminate them where we find them, no exceptions. If there's a Bot that our systems haven't detected and removed for whatever reason then it should be reported to Support where it can be removed...with extreme prejudice.

 

yea i think alot of us would like to no that kendall... because the way i see it now is ya open the door all the way for the people that use a bot...

 

what they are trying to say is it will now be alot easier to catch the bot users because it eliminates alot of people that were suspected of useng them before. now you have to move your mouse up and click then move your mouse down and click or just wait about 1-2 seconds for the popup to go away to click the heal button. but with bots they make it so they click nonstop on the heal button and if you know how bot work i shouldnt have to explain. so now that the only people that are able to click on heal more then once per second are most likely 99% of the time bot users.

 

What about those that use bots to CATCH bounties?

This update youve blown that door wide open.

Why send to support when youve basically just said you have no way to catch that..