TGIF! Development News August 18 2017

My strong ships fleet is how I am winning battles against some pirates ranked higher than I am; I've lesser weapons/mateys than one in particular, but my ships give me the "win".

 

Thing is indeed, raids might have killed the pleasure of the game, making it a "no brainer". But on the other hand the game is not dead and won't be dead because of raids. Actually the opposite. The revenue increased a lot since it started (let's say a boom in revenue) and a lot more players pay. Which keeps the game and the company going and will keep it going. While most players prefer to pay (or feel achieved more because they pay) and have it easy rather than think, this will continue. Whether it is good or bad it is a subjective perspective.

 

really ? so again, let's placate the new players, and PUNISH older seasoned players who have been here for YEARS building, crafting, leveling, and doing it the right way, as opposed to those who bought their game in full, and are NOW complaining to you because they went all stam and energy. <shaking my head> unfrigginbelieveable.

 

It is a money maker that is for sure, but it also can breed players that level too fast with nothing to back up their level range, and then whine when they get targeted

 

I can see that i'm nolonger the only one in here that want my game back to what it used to be......A fighting-game !!!!

Since all these darned newbies arrived, i'm NEVER attacked JUST punched *SIGH*
How about you got rid of the punching-option and turned this game in to a fighting-game again ????

Now that you're finally listening to us, the ol' players, who made this game possible to play/fight for so many years, i just have one more request for you.....Get rid of your darned chat once and for all !!!!
Since i'm one of them who fought my way through my levels, my name is being dragged through the mud in your darned chat by pathetic players who can't understand that when they punch me i freaking attack back !!!!

 

@eric smith @Chasity Crafting is an area we'd love to put more work into, especially for the reason you mentioned that it's a way for free-to-play players to stay competitive. All the tiers of items and combinations make it a very complex system, and we're currently looking to hire more Game Design staff to help us tackle issues like this. That doesn't mean we won't approach this topic sooner rather than later, but there are some other areas of the game we think we can help solve quicker than crafting right now.

@JADES The changes we're looking at are intended to help shore up some balance issues between new and older players. I talked to Mi7ch about the calculations you PM'd him about; basically we might look at simplifying the complex way that battle math is handled right now as part of this change, but making it more clear how it works isn't the specific goal we have in mind. I mentioned Bulk Crafting in a number of threads, specifically the one about the Pawn Shop poll I believe, but I don't think I went into too much detail about it as we didn't decide to move ahead with it at the time.

@WOADLORD We have put some thought into scaling raid rewards by level. At this point most players find raids fun and engaging so we're looking to fix some other events first, like Battle Arena, that's much less popular. But we will likely circle back to this later on or even sooner if we find that it's a good way to help address some balance issues.

@Susanne Rautelius no items are being weakened, I promise. Some players in the forums recently brought up that you can collect items from higher level co-op bosses but can't use them until you reach a certain level, and that kind of sucks. So we have lowered some of the level requirements on these so more players can use them as soon as they collect them.

@robbin gordon @Kirsten @Jared Wow, I must have been really unclear — I actually mean the total opposite of this. Since last year there have been some new players who've come in and built up very strong characters in a very short period of time, and some older players have been having trouble competing with these guys even when they are far above them in level. These changes are intended to reduce the gap there and help reward players who've been in the game a long time and invested their SP in Attack and Defense. That's what Bulk Crafting was designed to do originally as well.

@FEMME FATALE 666 I'm sorry to hear the chat is such a no-fun-zone for you! It's always been a bit tough to figure out how to manage moderation in the chat but I think our current combo of WC and Lounge/Tavern is something most players like. Hopefully you have the support of many other players who know you to be a long-time fighter and character builder and no amount of insults from newer people can truly hurt your rep.

 

you just proved my point, when you posted the new achievements to be recognized and rewarded. there is not 1 reward for high attack nor defensive skill allocation... not 1. every reward is geared to those new ones who speed leveled, and went all health, energy & stamina.

you were quite clear, i had no trouble understanding you on either post.

 

my question is what is this balance between new players and long term( years players ), you mention ?? do you mean the need to be a balance, cause of the big spenders from mafia wars who have gotten past and or stronger than the years long players?? in 6 months ?? geeeeze if so I think it is way too late

 

Scoughman said, @Susanne Rautelius no items are being weakened, I promise. Some players in the forums recently brought up that you can collect items from higher level co-op bosses but can't use them until you reach a certain level, and that kind of sucks. So we have lowered some of the level requirements on these so more players can use them as soon as they collect them.,,,,,,,,,,HERE SCOUGHMAN MY REPLY ENJOY, well it may suck but back in the day we had to level hard way to craft are weapons/warrior we wait long time, and got raid levelers crying there to weak well ya level to quick cos of raids ban raids get fighting bk in game if they want there crafting done earn it like we did fight for levels

 

They may not be able to use them for crafting but they are in their inventory so they are not without advantage, this whole idea of leveling the field with new players up against long term stronger players is a really bad way to look at things, newer players for the most part believe, wrongly, because of raids, the race to the top is the goal, no that is not the goal, IMO , the goal is to hold ya own in whatever XP range you are in, and keep moving forward by being smart, not just cause they can blow more money on virtual items cause they are in a hurry, the way things have been going for some time now, in fact since raids were implemented , is a slap to all those that have been playing since the beginning, this idea of lets take care of the newbies, has got to stop,

 

I think I've created this confusion by posting the TGIF in the General area instead of in each game's subforum, so let me try and clarify.

In LCN, there is an issue where some longtime players are losing fights to much lower levels, because their inventories are much weaker than players who have a lot of Limiteds, and their SP modifiers for Attack and Defence aren't strong enough to offset that. This is an imbalance in the game that we're looking to fix through a variety of methods. @Kirsten I realize this has been a long time coming — thankfully players in both groups have stuck around and we think a fix done soon can still improve the game for a lot of people. This issue is largely specific to LCN due to the different amount of items you can bring into battle vs. the other games.

Newer players have indeed benefitted from quick levelling due to raids, and yes, some "raid leveller" players in all the games are or will suffer from weak inventories because they didn't grind locations to level. But the key thing here is that the concerns about balance are not coming from the lower levels. @bully thor These changes are intended specifically to address the concerns of long-time, high level players; raid levellers haven't been complaining that they're too weak.

The changes we've rolled out around boss drop item limits are not intended to address a balance issue but a "fun" issue — regardless of your level or time in-game, collecting items you cannot craft doesn't make much sense, and weaker players will have no reason to craft them anyway because crafting away a bunch of items would likely make their inventories weaker overall. @robbin gordon These players will also benefit from achievements for health, stamina etc. but despite quick levelling most players in this group are still far from these achievements. On the flip side, leaving out Add + Def achievements was an oversight on our part and we'll be looking to add those ASAP.

Our goal is always to make the game more fun for everyone regardless of level, and that includes preserving the difficulty curve older players had to scale in order to get where they are now. I hope our recent Achievement release and our work on addressing your guys' concerns helps show that, and if there's something we haven't touched on yet please let us know. Otherwise I hope you'll join us in trying to find constructive and positive ways to improve the games; that's what the forums are all about.

 

One thing i see a lot is some older players complaining that the new people are lvling to fast and catching up to them because of raids. The thing is though every player in the game new and old has the same opportunity to gain more lvls fast. It is up to them for weather or not they take advantage of this though. If you choose to not lvl fast then so be it, stay a lower lvl and be strong in that field, but dont criticize and complain about others lvling faster then you when you could do the same. With people lvling that fast it addressed a major issue which is - Kano, we dont have enough people in range - well now you do but complain they reached it faster then you because of a new game mechanic you failed to take advantage of? Now with a larger fight list and them lvling fast you should be able to easily beat said players. it seems the problem is these long term players refusing to take advantage of the new game mechanics are also weaker then the new and upcoming players which is their own problem. Being a player that has been there longer you have quite the upper hand assuming you were actually doing the bosses, crafting and the special challenges. Then due to the old players not being able to win against the new ones that leads to the minority complaining about them wanting raids gone, which does not fix the problem at all only avoids it. If the problem truly is the raids instead of just saying toss them, why not post and help guide kano to make them better and what you consider to be more "fair"? Stop saying get rid of it because i dont like it and try to help to improve the game by suggesting a method that you find would best address and fix the situation.

 

I don't think that's true. I choose not to speed level, and that's my choice. I have no problem with those that do, newer players, older players, whatever.
BUT... if you do, don't complain about getting your butt kicked.
I don't think most of the complaints are about leveling too fast in and of itself, it's leveling too fast and having nothing to do, nowhere to go, being too weak, etc. With everything that's available now, it's quite easy for newer players to take the "upper hand" over older players, and it doesn't even take any skill. If you're willing to spend $$$, it's that much easier. We did not have NEARLY as many complaints before raids. There were issues before raids, but raids just amplified the differences and made it easier to exploit loopholes. I'm sure raids are here to stay, and there are 2 camps: those of us that stayed and are trying to adapt to the changes, and those of us that have "given up" since the game has gotten too far away from the focus it had in the beginning.

 

the achievements for LCN coming out this week, and others to follow, so when achievements out for VC and what achievements are they and plz dont just say soon cos we had this reply before and it lasted 3 months before anything was done

 

It really makes no sense... old players that don't want to play raids it's on them... if they play raids, they definitely won't have weaker clans than raid levelers. Big Spenders will spend anyway and they will have stronger clan even if they are new players, not because of their skill or anything but because it is a pay to win game and these is what happens in a pay to win game. This won't change, while the game is meant to be like this. My opinion is that everyone knows what this entails so they should expect having this mind when they play the game. Definitely, new players won't beat old payers because they put more points into Energy Stamina and Health. That's total non-sense from the start. if they beat others because of that is because they are using their resources in the game, which has nothing to do with raids, and won't make any difference compared to older players anyway... just that they will level up faster. Yes they'll be stronger if they are higher levels, but out of range when they will reach that point... If that alone is an issue it's nobodies fault, it's just the one's that complains and they should remember that if they are lacking something they can always add more cause leveling up is going to happen anyway. I am most certain, though, in that situation, that is not a balancing problem. It's just that some players play better and some have no idea even about the basics. There is no way to balance "The lack of intelligence" of people outside the game. And sincerely i really don't expect these kind of complains from old players because if they are that "dumb" they would have stopped playing the game a long time ago. And if they didn't definitely they complained from day one and they were always weak... There is no balancing to be done. You want to make players get smarter or understanding the game better?
1. Make them easier to read or get informed about the game basics, and even strategies... or force them to do it. (ex. make demo events with rewards, or challenge them into doing something right to get some reward, motivate them to play so they get stronger and reward them if they get stronger).
2. You think that the fighting range is bad for the most set of people and therefore these king of issue appear? Then modify the fighting ranges. (Make them smaller, the lower levels can attack higher levels anyway, so if they think they are up for the challenge they can always go and do it, while if higher level players can only fight lower range players then they should start rethinking on what or where to put their SP in, or rethink their strategies all together, because definitely what they do won't get them far. Before raids, players had to invest a lot in all SP so they can advance and win, so i see no problem, why would we make it even more pointless to invest only in some just because some players wanted to go only defense. They have undead fights anyway if they actually want to grab something, for GB, cagematches, etc.)
3. No, there is definitely no way a new player that invested in stamina energy and health mainly will beat any "relevant" player in the game just because of that. Yes, it might happen if they did that and also spent a lot of dollars on it, but the reason is that, not the fact that they added a lot of energy, stamina and health. it's also basic maths.

NOTE: I said "relevant" player specifically because I know very well in all these games there are players that have no idea on how to play properly and chose to play a game that have rules and logic behind it, without knowing the rules, or understanding even the basics, nor they have time to use their mind to do so. Therefore they will complain, and cry around because that's pretty easy and you don't have to think to do that. So a relevant player is a player that actually knows the basics of the game and knows how to use them, and in short how to play the game. Again, if you want to make every player relevant, make them learn to play the game and inform them on the rules, and force and motivate them to understand how to play... It's saddening if there are old players that are in this situation, but in such games there always have to be weaker and stronger players, that's why it's called a game. If everyone would win, and would be strong then I'd just make an account and never do anything in the game and expect to be at same level o strength with those that spend almost all day playing or those who spend money or those that know all the tricks in the game. (I don't even know, why do I even had to mention this)

 

If you player LCN on facebook you would change your tune, the long term players there who built their accounts thru the years, had to deal with mafia war players who had full clan in a month and in a little more than a year are now high levels and some can spend like Nothing I have ever seem, on limited items etc, it does not affect me
, personally, but I have been watching the whole thing evolve and if that were my main game, I would not be happy, and ya wrong, people are not complaining in the other games about people leveling to fast with raids, what happens is these new players , say in VC or PC are just levels with nothing to back them up, half only play during raids, have no interest in learning the games, so are just empty shells who become targets and wonder why.

 

there is plenty if info about the game and ways to build the account , but ya cannot force people to go read shit, a good example is how raids were perished constantly by newer players not so long ago, cause the new players could be bothered to ask or learn or read I notice is till happens but nothing like it did, even public raids tend to be less of a gamble, the info that be found under help on the game home page and in the knowledgebase is there for anyone who bothers to read it.

 

Why read the help, when @eric smith and @Kirsten are here to answer all my questions?

 

you noob