New Events that actually change something

Gameplay Chat (PC/Mobile)
1

Melodramatic pre-amble

So… another week and another weekly event… and another two slices of troops getting a +25% stat boost… which, this week, buffs some scary things…

These weekly stat gains generally do one of two things:

  • buff the meta or overpowered troops that are getting heavy use and make things a bit worse for us all; or
  • buff underpowered troops that don’t get used, and hey they still don’t get used and we notice little change…

There’s a third way; just occasionally, they:

  • buff things that are semi-broken into a daft state so they get deployed mindlessly en-masse (4x ScaleGuards I am looking at you)

Weekly events were always, as I understood, intended to stir up variety and/or offer new viable teams… and overall I really don’t see that they achieved it much… so I have two main suggestions for changes to address that…

Part 1: incentivise defence changes

Other than the relatively minor impact of the stat gains (or the infrequent stupidity of 50% buffed ScaleGuards), the weekly changes don’t really encourage players to change their defence teams away from the usual griefing… a few kind souls put troops up that match the occasional Snots hunt, but these are a minority…

Blindingly obvious solution: offer rewards to players based on what defences they play. Things like:

  • +bonus Glory for each enemy invasion if you have 3-4 of this week’s highlighted kingdom’s troops
  • +bonus Gold for each enemy invasion if you have 3-4 of this week’s highlighted type troops

So this could make it really repetitive for the week? Right… but at least it’d be different each week… whereas now it’s largely the same in top-end PvP every week…

Part 2: noticeable troop mechanic changes to build new invade teams

In the late game, games aren’t often won or lost simply based on stat numbers. It’s either the superior tactics of the human player or the shamless RNG-crappery hitting a devour or mana drain mechanic… So the stat gains, as indicated above, don’t really persuade one to try anything new… I will use my normal dragon team, or my normal loop team, or what I usually use anyway…

More interesting solution: enact situational changes and reworked spells or traits for the featured kingdom or troops, just for the week, picking up their flavours, and powering up their Epic and Legendary troops, in particular in ways that encourage new combos. Here are a few ideas, sampling a couple of kingdoms.

Glacial Peaks week

  • all spells that create blue gems create one additional blue gem
  • whenever a troop is Frozen, deal it 5 damage
  • Tassarion’s spell also destroys himself and summons an Ice Golem in his place
  • Ice Golem’s spell explodes five other random Gems
  • Queen Mab’s spell always give an extra turn
  • Borealis’ spell damages all enemies instead of one

Forest Of Thorns week

  • whenever a green troop’s spell is cast, Entangle the first enemy
  • all spells that create green gems create one additional green gem
  • Green Seer’s spell also deals 7 true damage to the enemy it Entangles
  • Lady Anariel’s spell also cleanses all allies
  • Rowanne’s Reinforced trait restores 4 Armour per turn instead of 1
  • Gloom Leaf’s spell also cleanses it and gives it Life
  • Sylvanimora’s spell explodes a second random column
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I’m in agreement with the entirety of this post.

The invade part would require quite a lot of changes to the game though, but it’s doable.

3

Had me there already.

But went on reading anyways and agree on most points.

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I always love a good melodramatic pre-amble😉

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I hope idea #1 makes it into 3.1, if for no other reason than it would make Mgla happy by rewarding both the offense and defense sides of PVP.

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Well if we had more balanced troops, pushing some +25% would definitively favor some builds for the week.

But I like your idea that not all weeks are “+25%”, the event bonus could be special effects indeed.

I’m also tired with the “things you need to do to get a bonus this week” (snotgems). It doesn’t encourage enough creativity :slight_smile:

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Im hoping for some more innovation in mechanics once they finish moving over to unity.

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Ah I know just where to get these individual mechanic buffs from Jainus :wink:

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They could change it from +50% to +250% and Devour and Death Touch would still kill outright. As such they remain defense of choice (baring a quick kill boost, like Scale Guard or Bombots). And since they are the defense, invade teams are forced to prepare for them using the same stun/drain/immunity troops instead of allowing for creatively using the buffed troops.

Instant Kill Mechanics are seriously bad for the game.

edit: As time goes on it is going to get worse unless the mechanics are completely removed/retooled. As the collection of bonuses from kingdoms, power levels, etc grow higher the troops will be able to survive more and more spell/skull damage, yet devour and death touch will always instantly kill.

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I agree with topic to its fullest. I initially expected more stuff then generic 25% bonuses every week. I’m not complaining with bonuses but it just doesn’t add any depth.

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11

Seems like they did try to do something with some synergy this week:
Invade with beasts in PVP to get a bonus
Defeat beasts in PVP to complete tasks
This certainly seems to be a move in the right direction by having the events themed (if only we had live PVP you could get both bonuses :slight_smile: )

Having said that I agree that a wider range of possible options for the event mechanics would be great and could really create more variety of troops being used.

Perhaps @Saltypatra could jump in to let us know if this is even on the radar - given the recent roll out of GW I assume that there is likely a plan of some kind for what comes next. Any hints?

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12

I’d certainly like to see some of the things you talk about.

I know I’m going to be frustrated with Kerberos getting a buff this week. While they often claim their are great counter troops, even troops like Scarlett are basically useless against these buffs.

I also had expected to see rewards other than just gold, souls, gems, keys from the rewards. I thought it would be fun to choose to chase things like Celestial or other traitstones. Things that would make the event something you could choose to do if your needs matched it, and ignore otherwise.

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While I’m not sure how well Part 2 would work as there are many potential risks to game balance when you’re adjusting spells weekly, I have to say that I love the idea of incentivising changing up the defense teams. I have only been playing Gems of Wars for about two months now, but I am already sick of seeing the same defense teams over and over again. It makes a number of my PVP matches boring, frustrating, or both.

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Some ideas:
1.Event that gives you +1 extra trophie in pvp
2.By not using death mark-devour troops in defence,+100 gold in defeat,+500 gold in winning
3.for every 50 turns in maps +1 gem

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15

That is an impressive feat :wink:

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Closed beta? He/she is actually one of the AI bots used on the internal servers for testing?

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Sorry, I meant “Gems of War” the game, not “Guild Wars” the new feature. Never type on the forum tired, I guess. :blush:

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that would reward ppl for setting 4x scale (and so on)
i think this would stir the problem into worse

maybe you need to highlight that they must be 3-4 unique troops of this week’s highlighted kingdom troops

or maybe it should include the (new) weekly event troop? (would ensure unique character of each week)

love it, sadly would possibly require tone of coding not to mention bug fixing :sweat_smile: