[VC] Balance & Development Update July 18

A few weeks ago in the Spring/Summer Newsletter, we announced plans to make some changes to the game based on our research, as well as feedback from you via our new in-game survey. It’s been two weeks since then, and that means we owe you an update!

Below you’ll find a list of our planned changes with some more detail about how we plan to roll these out. We’ve also included some notes on why we think this is a good solution, ways we’ve tried to address your feedback, and most importantly, when we expect to release them. These aren’t all set in stone by any means, so please let rip if you have questions or suggestions!

Making it hurt less to be Bountied - estimated release date: August 2017

We’ve heard of lot of concerns about griefing lately, and because the bounty list is the most powerful way for players of very different levels to interact, much of that feedback centers around the list. People don’t like being listed over and over to the point where they can’t do anything but heal and die repeatedly, and according to reports, many decide to stop playing and simply stay dead.

Since announcing this idea, we had a number of players write in to tell us that bountying is one of their favourite parts of the game, and if we limited it further that’d ruin some of their fun. This is a core concern for us too; we want to see MORE bountying in the game, not less. If we can make it less painful to be listed, we should see more people heal and keep playing instead of just staying dead, meaning more targets and more people playing all around.

Our plan is to prevent someone from being listed for a brief period after the last time they were put on the list. This should give them enough time to do some adventures, collect GP or fight bosses without being killed again, so you can get positive XP even while you’re on the list. This limits the ability to chain the same person back to back, but many players have a whole list of potential victims; once you finish listing them, your original target should be ready again.​

Making Ambushes stronger - estimated release date: Late July / Early August 2017

The Fight List is another area where we’ve heard complaints about griefing lately. The fact that attacks are limited to people in your level range means there’s less room for painful mismatches in power level. Over time however, some accounts have gotten strong enough that Ambushes are less of a speed bump.

We heard from some of these players last week, and we definitely appreciate the hard work they put into designing very tough fighting accounts. On the flip side, just like with hitlisting, if people give up on healing or fighting back, that means less targets and less fighting overall. Increasing the boost percentage of ambushes should help more empire-focused players get some occasional breathing room, without making attack-focused players weaker in a straight up fight.

We also have the option of adjusting the number of ambushes you’re able to set, but we’ll start with raising the boost percentage and seeing how that affects attacks and ambushes in the game.​

More Promotions and Sales for More Players - estimated release date: Already out!

You may have noticed a new countdown timer for FP sales recently. We heard from a lot of players that they wanted more opportunities to get cheap FP, so everyone now has the chance to get some for 50% off every two to four weeks.

We have some plans for different sale packages we want to offer down the road, but our main focus is on game balance and player concerns right now.​

Giving higher levels more to do - estimated release date: see below

There’s quite a few things we’re considering to help with this issue. For one thing, we’re happy to report that the recent new Raid Boss drove increased play at higher levels. It’s all very theoretical at this point, but we’re planning to double down on that by changing the format of future raid events to create more fun and flavour; imagine an extra tough boss with improved drops, or weaker bosses that offer more drop chances.

These changes should be easier to implement, but we’ll need to take some time to balance the rewards and ensure they’re fun to play. The new PvP event we mentioned is a pretty big and exciting feature, so we don’t expect that to come out until sometime this Fall. We’ll share details on both of these as soon as we know more about what they might look like.

New achievements on the other hand are a go for sure, and something we’ve heard from a lot of players about. The tough part with these is always determining how to set the difficulty curve, but we know some players have gone a ways ahead of where the next “step” would be if the curve stayed the same. Our first goal is fill in these gaps, which we expect to be done in August. After that, we’ll move on to setting some exciting high-level achievements with special rewards that you can expect to see sometime in September.​

Guild War Rewards by Division - estimated release date: September 2017

We are super excited about this change, because it has the potential to make Guild Wars much more competitive and exciting across all level ranges. Our plan right now is to replace one of the Guild War events in September with a new Tiered Reward event, in which the top 20% or so of Guilds in each Division get a prize instead of just the top 20% overall. Spreading out the winners should allow us to offer better prizes, so if you fight hard and climb up the leaderboard, there’ll be a reward that makes your FP spent on refills worth it.​

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Thank you to everyone who sent in their suggestions about these changes! It’s always a pleasure to hear from people who want to help make the game more fun, and we’re glad to be able to share our plans with you.

Keep your eyes peeled for more updates over next few months, and as always you can reach us Monday to Friday at http://support.kanoapps.com/.

 

Has the bounty trap feature been talked about if this got implemented? Most people try to heal while on bounty and chain listing them is only way to get around their traps. So should they have same "brief period" they can't reset that trap?

You said want more bounties as well, if eating trap after trap happens because of this delay, I don't see more bounties occurring, I see less.

 

i dont see this as improvement i see this as giving players the final nail in their vc coffin

 

1ST off the terminology is "counter attack" in Viking Clan not "ambush" (I'm sure this was a generic post for all games)

Not sure what you mean by 'flip-side' we all made our accounts to a set rules/guidelines, now changing the dynamics cause of it? My 2nd guess is raid leveler's (your own demon in this game)

• Isn't this a fighting game? Let them overcome the mistakes on their own...
• Are the people complaining about this have way low cheiftains for their range? (This would be my best logical guess) Sort it by that, not a counter attack boost, and if they hit=their own fault.
  
• Is this going to be like next Arena?

Fighting accounts is "KEY WORD" which means have next to no defense and want extra help from boost on counters to THWART lower levels off, yet attack highers...... Makes perfect sense to me

If make a curve, set it higher for defensive players, not people with zero defense and chitload of health/stam/energy where gain all the perks already from a normal build.....

 

ughhhh are you kidding, we might as well be playing patty cake or pick of sticks, those fighting features, I can do without , so the whiners are gonna cause this to become farmville , pfffft

 

i dont belive you are changing it for peopel who have no clue how to build a stong and defensive profile ? guess you are just giving into raid levelers who fluy up rankings and dont do it the way we did before the raids came along PFFT

 

That is exactly what they are doing, we long time players who have spent years building our accounts , and don't whine about being listed or attacked in a fighting game, we are pixels FFS, no one gets hurt, leave it alone, stop catering to people who need to be playing farmville, FFS do something about caging like we have asked for ,for years, if I wanted to play a ville game I would, I choose to playing fighting games where my pixel kills someone else's pixel FFS, Stop catering to the cry babies

 

Guys they already have protection and a 30-Day protection period when they start. Bounties hurt? Well overcoming obstacles is part of the game, or at least used to be. I took it as a challenge to improve a weak area that was being exploited by others. It gives you a goal. Putting training wheels back on players because they keep falling off their bikes is not doing them any favors. A lot of this game is about improving your character, where is the drive to do that if KANO keeps coming to the rescue?

I"m paraphrasing but it used to say in the overview part of the help section "to not whine about the game not being fair to you" or words to that effect.

Please guys, get back to that original sentiment. Let players learn to ride the bike on their own without mommy and daddy rushing over to hold it all the time while they ride.

 

I'm not a fan of fight restrictions. I get chained on a regular basis, and I don't use "protection". I've gotten to over level 5k without all of the things that are in place now, and it hasn't stopped me from playing.
When I was growing up, my car seat was a phone book. I never had a bicycle helmet, and I crashed my bike plenty of times. I didn't have an airbag in my first car, and I got into 2 accidents with it and somehow survived. Oh, the good ol' days.
I have a feeling that the Kanites are from a different generation than I am, as are most of the players, I suspect. I guess this is the way society is heading, to include gaming. Can someone tell me where the closest "safe space" is? I think I need it now.

 

yeah babysitting the milleniums , FFS they don't want to work think their shit don't stink and don't want to be beat up in a game designed to get beat up and do the beating, FFS

 

LOL, agreed Jared, bet you were like me if "messed up as a kid" and had to bring own switch into get own ass whooped.

KANO do not cater to the kid (in most cases are adults) that won't even attempt to grab the switch, yet alone won't hand it to them, and take that arse beating deserved.

 

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
And you try and tell the young people of today that ... they won't believe you
Courtesy of Monty Python's, 4 Yorkshiremen sketch

 

That's nothing. My dad had to walk to school barefoot 20 miles in the snow uphill both ways all winter long. It's a wonder I was even born. How did we ever survive without all of the technology we have now?

 

Hey guys, thanks for the input. I know many of you are tough as nails and changes like this probably don't make much sense to you. It means a lot that you guys like the game the way it is (for the most part).

Changes like this are based on feedback we got from a lot of other players, many of whom are a lot lower level. We want new people or people who joined more recently to have a good time and stay around long enough to be valid targets on your guys' fightlists, and if people aren't sticking around due to tons of hitlisting, that's worse for everyone. That's our logic at least.

 

Quick question Scoughman, when I send in a "idea to support" (behind closed doors so to speak) I've always been told to start up a forum post. So were are these people that are supporting these ideas comments? Or even yet, why didn't they start own thread.....

 

Hey JADES, doesn't matter where you send it in. In the past we've tried to keep people's feedback and suggestions to one channel so we can focus in on it, but frankly it's our job to listen in as many places as you want to talk to us.

Lately we've been getting a lot of feedback from the in-game survey tool we started running a few months ago; it's a good way to get a really broad set of responses from people in all kinds of different level ranges and times played.

 

Just...wow. This post made me sad. A handful of players may chain bounty, so the rest of us get punished? Sounds a lot like cutting off your nose to spite your face if you ask me. Personally, I strive to get chain bountied to raise my cost and stay relatively untouched for 24 hrs.

 

you are taking feedback from low levels , who in all probability, leveled from raids, which is another sore spot, with long term players, but I digress,and cannot take the heat, cause they don't read game info on how to build accounts and become strong, and cater to them FFS, if you make some of these implements it is just another slap in the face to the ones who have been with Kano since the beginning, has kano not learned from the debacle of inviting the cheating ( not all , but most) big spenders, who took over LCN, where was the protection for the long term players, who took their shit to the point I see high levels now kiss their asses, get real these are fighting games, let people fight , do not change that one iota.

 

If they want to ensure low levels don't get hitlisted by high levels, why not just close our accounts in stead of destroying the features of the game one by one? would make it easier for you guys to nurture the new players, and make it easier for those high levels that aren't in the forum and don't get what it is you are doing, to understand it.

 

That's what we're talking about. Consider that the clamoring for these changes are coming from players that you describe as a "lot lower in level." Don't let their frustration lead you to altering the game to suit their bitching because once you start down that road it will never stop. And anyone complaining now with all the protections they are already afforded won't be long for this game anyway no matter how many changes you make. The players who stick around for the long term will be those who felt they earned their placing in the game on their own.