The upcoming update will have significant changes.
- Rain.
- More ELO points for campaigns.
- Fallback Button change.
- Campaign Unit changes.
- No ‘muzzle smoke’ for ballistic artillery.
- Free online Mini Matches boosted to 7.
- New User Training Zone.
You can see all the gory details in the Next Update section.
Send comments, questions, concerns – to my snowpunchgames gmail.
In a nut-shell, I’m addressing some issues related to overly defensive play and also make things better for new players. Plus a lot of fine tuning..
Gory Details:
- New user Training zone. This is significant because the first online experience for a new user is a sensitive moment. It should not be over too quickly without any chance to do some damage and see what the online game feel is like. Experienced players can enjoy blitzkrieg tactics vs each other and leave the new players out of it. This is our last chance to start growing the community again and it requires both new players to hang in there and old players to help mentor our new players. Right now we have many old players starting mini-matches hoping for a chance to earn some mentor points via matching up with a new player.
- Each new battle in the campaign will reset the round counting back to 1.
- Winning a campaign battle objective (10 green pie pieces) earns 1 ELO point. This was changed to encourage more aggressive play. Those that are stingy with letting opponents have rewards will obviously get the same treatment back to them and will most definitely lose out in the ELO race in the long run.
- Can’t fall back after ANY UNIT makes an ATTACK. If a unit attacks a unit then the fallback button will disappear for the rest of the round. This is addressing the (I kill SF unit and then FALLBACK QUICKLY) move. A kind of dirty play that is not really sportsmanlike (I did it once and felt bad) and it also takes advantage of the easy fallback button. If you are really falling back then you are moving only, not attacking. Attacking means you are staying for another round and that your opponent has a chance to respond.
- Introducing the RAIN concept. If we end up liking rain then I will make it a random threat to powder weapons, to encourage more aggressive play. But for now it’s just a new concept and a soft round limiter, a subtle hint at round 16 to start wrapping up the battle.
- The SF mortar going bye bye. Replaced by a new SF Cavalry! This is just a reaction to a bit too much artillery recently and also too much tactical influence by this one mortar unit. Your either babysitting it too much, or it’s too influencial in battles. It was fun for a while but with the loss of wind it’s now a bit too powerful. Plus I just want to shake things up with a gradual move away from SF Artillery, starting with the SF Mortar. The extra SF Cavalry unit should liven up a lot of battles starting with the Wheat Fields as it’s not a ‘promotion’ unit like the leaders are. It is an ‘extra unit’ and one that will definitely change the attack dynamics of maps 3-8 (if you keep it alive).
The larger Goals of the 1.82 Update:
- Great for new players. The New Player Training Zone and free mini matches boosted to 7.
- More lively matches due to looming Rain and less muzzle smoke on artillery. Plus campaigns have a chance for a bonus ELO point and less artillery ini general means more exciting unit movements.
Lots of fine tuning all across the board and a soft push to reduce defensive play should help liven up battles. I am particularly interested how some of the bigger changes will affect things. Rain, the bonus ELO point, less artillery and the new SF Cavalry unit. Not to mention the new user training zone will give new users a 5 point boost from all opponents and also compliment Mentor matches nicely.
If these drastic measures do not help enough with the war on overly defensive play then I have a few more ideas on the forum that have some merit. Although, that would be a different update further down the road.
Musket Smoke 