[LCN] Proposed PvP Balance Changes - Sept. 20 2017

Big news today. Over the past year we’ve heard a lot of concern about how raids and purchasing have affected the game, especially in the last year since Mafia Wars shut down. There’s been concern that people have been levelling too quickly by investing all their Skill Points into Energy and Stamina, and that new players who buy Favor Points have taken advantage of imbalances in the game to gain too much of an advantage when fighting. People have reported being beaten up by players hundreds or even thousands of levels below them, which is especially frustrating when they may have only started playing recently.

Recently we’ve done a deep dive into the game’s statistics to learn more about fight interactions throughout LCN. We’ve found that there are indeed some cases where people have become extremely strong fighters by investing in new and powerful Limited items, even when their Attack and Defence stats are relatively weak.

This chart shows interactions between a sample of different players (not everyone in the game, just a representative group). Green means the player on the left axis defeated the player on the bottom axis, red means they lost, and white means it was a tie (it could have gone either way.)

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As you can see, players tend to beat people at lower levels and lose to players at higher levels, and things are fairly even when you’re similar in level. However, there are a few green lines that go deep into the red. These players are so strong that they defeat people much higher level than them, despite how much those higher levels have built up their Attack and Defence.

Especially early on in the life of the game, PvP calculations have been adjusted a number of times. We haven’t done this in quite a while, but recent events have demonstrated just how powerful Limiteds can be, even when you aren’t investing your Skill Points in Attack and Defense. For this reason, we think it’s time to make another adjustment — namely, improving the amount that Attack and Defence affect your fighting strength.

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This chart above shows how our proposed change would affect this sample of players. There are still some green lines poking into the red, but they are much closer to the centerline. Those same strong players still have pretty good chances against people quite a bit higher than them, but they aren’t easily defeating everyone all the way to the other end.

We think this adjustment will help address the concerns expressed by players, while still keeping things fun and competitive within your Fight Range. We may have to tweak the formula more over time as we monitor fight interactions, but for right now we believe this is the fastest, cleanest and neatest way to approach this problem. We understand this is a pretty big change and we’re really looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

 

Sounds good...but like you said, will have to see what the effects are in real gameplay. When will they come into effect, cause can't notice any changes at the moment. Still loosing to players 3000 and even 5000 levels below me. Cheers

 

hmmm i distrust graphs an stuff , i mean you can prove anything with facts according to 98% of people , well see how it plays out

 

I and sorry but don't understand well what you are doing for the mobs in lvl 6000 attacks a lvl more than 12000 and win?

 

Its nice to see some weight put on the skills vs total attack. This is long overdue

 

You should do the math before you distrust it. This looks well analized. I look forward to some surpizes both sides of fights in the near future.

 

Well this will bring purchases to a grinding halt. Everyone has the same opportunity to make purchases, but what you are saying is that when a cpl higher levels whine that you will devalue what we spent. So what you are really saying is DO NOT SPEND MONEY WITH KANO, because we will bend you over! Got it!

 

i have always said that skills should count more than money can.....money should provide shortcuts to the top...not be everything....i understand the fustration of people that neglected the attack/defense skills.....but unless these skills matter more no point having them in the game

 

Being someone who has fought the urge to go heavy into energy and stamina I like the proposal. Looking forward to seeing how it works in real time and not just on paper. I suspect things actually won't change too much. Instead of getting beat by 10% you'll get beat by 5% which is a gap you can close if you put in the work. Now if the person beating you was doing so because they had a strong allocation of SPs in attack/defense they are really going to kick your butt.

 

That's really not what we are saying at all. If you choose to spend on Limited Time/Qty/Crate items you will still have an advantage over players who do not, players who have few limiteds and players that have mostly old limiteds.

This is about re-balancing our PvP formula which has largely remained unchanged for the nearly 8 years that Mob Wars: LCN has existed. In that time the strength of Limited items has grown immensely, to the point that they can overshadow the worth of a player's Attack/Defense skills. This change is about bringing the balance back in check, but let me be clear that "balance" does not mean "equality".

 

Sounds reasonable to me.

DumbDumb - I don't see how it hurts the people who spent a lot. The only ones it "hurts" is the level campers and their ability to beat up much higher level players; they still will kick butt in their own range. The ones who spent and leveled, they have a fair shot at anyone at their level as long as they didn't put all their skill points into Energy & Stamina.

That's how I'm reading it.

 

The point is they sold us items based on a formula, that would provide a certain benefit. Then changed the formula to negate (decrease their value) the value of the items. If you didn't like the balance then don't up the strength of the items so much. You will lose this if it goes where I'm pretty sure it's going to go. Everyone had equal opportunity to purchase.

 

For clarification sake: When you use an adrenelene boost, or boosted attack using more than one stamina, does that boost percentage include your stock pile value + atk/def skill points and allocated loadout items all together or is one of those not included in that?

 

I'M NOT TOO EXCITED ABOUT CHANGING WHAT I'VE BUILT AND MAKING PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO BUILD A BETTER PLAYER TO KILL HIGHER LEVELS!!! BIG CRYBABY HIGHER LEVELS!!!

 

That's a valid point DumbDumb however the nature of an online game such as this requires some periodic tuning as the in-game economy and ecosystem do not remain static. This is a pretty common practice for just about all online games that persist for this long. Some probably silently make changes while others will announce what is going to be affected. We are choosing to engage with the community around this as we know it is a contentious matter. But we have gotten to the point where personal Attack / Defense are no longer having much of an impact and this is what we are trying to fix.

I would have to look at the specifics, and the adrenaline may behave different than boosted stamina stamina attack, but I believe that they do include all of that. Calculate the attack strength then apply the boost to that calculation is how I believe these work.

 

im personally NOT surprised at all about the number of LONG TERM LCN players who HAVE GIVEN UP on the game.. THAT alone SHOULD flag an underlying issue.. this game has changed and NOT for the better since players shifted over to LCN ppl just NO longer care.. reinvigorate the game with TRUST and LOYALITY and DEAL with ppl gaining like 15000+ lvls sooo quickly.. remember this is a GAME.. and as such ppl will vote with their feet an hence why they r no longer playing.. Thanks..

 

You adjusted the system every time you released stronger weapons. Which we paid money for, now you are devaluing what we purchased. Everyone has equal opportunity to purchase, you are clearly sending all of us a message if you spend money in a kano game that kano will screw you when someone whines. Somehow the people that have money to spend in an online game aren't going to just write this off. Buckle up. Maybe we wouldnt have built our accounts like we did if the older players werent so nasty to is when we joined. Now you are enabling them to do it again.

 

how about this then.......refund half the skill points to everyone in the game.....then they can re-alocate them acordingly?

 

I'm sure there'll be a reallocation Skill Points option for FPs coming soon. Just like in Mafia Wars.

 

Well, I like it. What some of you "newer" players don't understand, is there were people spending in the game WAY before you came along. Some of the items we purchased are even falling off of our equipment list, as at the time, the items WE purchased were much less powerful than what is available now. It forced me to see that I was not willing to spend indefinitely, so I quit spending. It's all good though, cause I continued adding to A and D. I look forward to seeing how it affects actual game play.