Developers Thoughts: Improving Alliance Wars Discussion Thread

Hey Summoners!

We've just posted a brand new behind the scenes look at the future of Alliance Wars, including some new changes coming to Alliance Wars Season 5! Make sure you take a read of the post over on our Blog: https://playcontestofchampions.com/developer-thoughts-improving-alliance-wars/

The Rotating Global Buffs kick off on October 17th! Prepare yourselves!

Comments

Jaffacaked

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

Championcritic wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

That's not at all what he said.

Of course not haha, it's the general community's perception of kabam

I suppose the expectation goes as follows:
"Greetings Summoners,
I just wanted to drop in and let you know I've taken the feedback to the team, and we've decided not to run the Nodes. We understand you haven't even tried it, and we value your feedback. The last thing we would want is for you to try something new. In the future, we hope to run every decision by you before we implement it so you never have to do anything you don't want to do. Thanks for guiding us in designing the game.".

Greetings summons, we know we are handicapping your top champs in the most expensive game mode with the top resources in the game. We've heard your feed back an decided to send Kelly Anne Conway out... I mean grounded wisdom to try an spin this into something great.

DJSergy

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Hey All,

I want to drop in and let you all know that you've given us A LOT of feedback, and we've made sure that the team is aware of your ideas and concerns. You've given us a lot to think about when we're choosing Rotating Buffs in the future, and even on how we're going to monitor the performance of the Buffs we're implementing this time.

Like we said in our Blog Post, this is a stepping stone for us to move towards allowing Alliances the agency to choose a Global Buff that they feel best suits their Defense teams. It's both a testing ground and a preview. This isn't something that we're going to be able to implement overnight, or even by the end of the year, but it's something we're actively working on.

Something that we've seen come up a few times is regarding the availability of Rank Up materials. We've been increasing the availability of rank up materials, like Tier 2 Alphas and T4CCs in modes like Alliance Quests, and even in Seasons rewards. We're not going to stop there, and are always moving forward in increasing rewards and access to resources across The Contest.

When we said the intention of introducing Rotating Global Buffs was not to find a way to increase difficulty, we truly meant that . The goal is to ensure there is more variety in Alliance Wars, and that we can continually keep the mode fluid, and ever changing.

We understand that this concept is a little scary, and we are going to monitor this change very closely, and use the data that we collect to continue to improve upon this moving forward, helping to make Alliance Wars a more engaging and lively mode. We also want to assure you that we will provide previews of large scale changes like this moving forward.

Cant believe you are moving forward with this concept as is.

Every single paragraph in this post ecept the first has completely flawed logic

2. Giving the alliances the power to chose the node wont bring variation to alliance wars. There will always be a node that counters the most comon use offensive champs the most, and thats the one each alliance will use. Expect nodes that counters blade and corvus, all the time, every war.

3. Unless we get enough rank up material to r5 a 5* champ every month it wont be enough. The rate the AW will change just doesn’t allign with the current game meta. The main concern is that AW will be changing faster than the players can adapt.

4. More buffs means higher difficulty no matter how much you sugar coat it and try to make it about variation

5. The concept is scary becuase it allows the game devs to bait switch the game every month. Awoke my corvus r5 him spent lots of sig stones now because of this global buff i cant use him.

I’m all for keeping the game fresh but this is just a terrible idea. Why not focus on buffing weak champs and nerfing OP ones? Why reinvent the wheel like this smdh

GroundedWisdom

That's not a spin. That's my own view. The game can't revolve around 2 or 3 Champs. Not War, nor future changes. The second they start altering plans because "Blade" on a War scale, we're in trouble.

borntohula

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

The second they start altering plans because "Blade" on a War scale, we're in trouble.

That’s the best summary of what they actually did I’ve read.

GroundedWisdom

borntohula wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

The second they start altering plans because "Blade" on a War scale, we're in trouble.

That’s the best summary of what they actually did I’ve read.

No, that's the perception. People think because they Ranked him, everything revolves around him. A Tag comes out, it's called a nerf. A Node comes out, that's a nerf too. He isn't the cornerstone for every decision in the game, and if the game is going to last, no Champ will dominate forever.

Spera

No reduction in aw rating ,reduction to season points only.
What about off season cheating/piloting then?

Amonthir

So before we even have a single war with the global nodes active, despite all the feedback offered with basically no responses from a Dev, you are already making it an official change for Season 5? No data gathered on what impact the globals have in a live environment, no mention of ‘if this really sucks, we’ll change it before Season 5 begins’, nothing to indicate this thread is anything other than a dump of ‘Here’s what’s what, now suck it up’ info?

Kabam Miike

Amonthir wrote: »

So before we even have a single war with the global nodes active, despite all the feedback offered with basically no responses from a Dev, you are already making it an official change for Season 5? No data gathered on what impact the globals have in a live environment, no mention of ‘if this really sucks, we’ll change it before Season 5 begins’, nothing to indicate this thread is anything other than a dump of ‘Here’s what’s what, now suck it up’ info?

Hey There,

I think you missed the part that we said "Now, this is the first time we’re doing this, and we’ll be monitoring their performance during the Preseason to ensure that they are not overzealous. If we find that they are having too large of an effect, we will act accordingly."

We're going to keep an eye on this, and if we need to act between the preseason and the start of the season, we will.

PaytoPlay

An armor break immune global buff will be quite awesome for season 6... *Evil laugh*

unknown

This content has been removed.

Micklownick

25,000 views and 700 comments later this discussion thread had zero effect on the outcome of what kabam was going to roll out. Awesome. Good talk

mostlyharmlessn

Surprised you didn't do a global "Prove yourself" and "Unblockable"

But seriously adding a global bleed immune is just over the top considering how many bleed champs are now sidelined for this season of AW now.

Add in that you already Broke Drax by making him slide backwards when an autoevader evades and he comes in for his medium hit, you now take away the last useful bit from him in AW which is is ability to do good bleed damage.

Flcarv4lho

immunity to bleeding is absurd.
You're making good heroes in middle-sized heroes.

MEKA5

Congratulations Kabam. This is just like defenders diversity. Everybody warned you already...you keep going your way. Nice discussion.

RogerRabs

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Amonthir wrote: »

So before we even have a single war with the global nodes active, despite all the feedback offered with basically no responses from a Dev, you are already making it an official change for Season 5? No data gathered on what impact the globals have in a live environment, no mention of ‘if this really sucks, we’ll change it before Season 5 begins’, nothing to indicate this thread is anything other than a dump of ‘Here’s what’s what, now suck it up’ info?

Hey There,

I think you missed the part that we said "Now, this is the first time we’re doing this, and we’ll be monitoring their performance during the Preseason to ensure that they are not overzealous. If we find that they are having too large of an effect, we will act accordingly."

We're going to keep an eye on this, and if we need to act between the preseason and the start of the season, we will.

You do realize people treat Preseason Wars very differently than regular season wars correct? Some alliances tank to manipulate war ratings, most people don't boost or heal, some use subpar champs to keep others free for AQ/Story/EQ. The data won't begin to tell the real story.

You made an entire Meta much less effective. This is going to cost everyone more for the same rewards.

Just because you gave us a heads up doesn't mean this is good communication.

mostlyharmlessn

Micklownick wrote: »

25,000 views and 700 comments later this discussion thread had zero effect on the outcome of what kabam was going to roll out. Awesome.

Nope... Kabam made up it's mind, and it's not till they see an impact on their sales will they made a change... So again, we have to go through the cycle of "We told it was a bad idea before your implemented this" before they come in with Oh Geeze, we thought were going to make this fun and exciting, and we missed the mark...

GroundedWisdom

RogerRabs wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Amonthir wrote: »

So before we even have a single war with the global nodes active, despite all the feedback offered with basically no responses from a Dev, you are already making it an official change for Season 5? No data gathered on what impact the globals have in a live environment, no mention of ‘if this really sucks, we’ll change it before Season 5 begins’, nothing to indicate this thread is anything other than a dump of ‘Here’s what’s what, now suck it up’ info?

Hey There,

I think you missed the part that we said "Now, this is the first time we’re doing this, and we’ll be monitoring their performance during the Preseason to ensure that they are not overzealous. If we find that they are having too large of an effect, we will act accordingly."

We're going to keep an eye on this, and if we need to act between the preseason and the start of the season, we will.

You do realize people treat Preseason Wars very differently than regular season wars correct? Some alliances tank to manipulate war ratings, most people don't boost or heal, some use subpar champs to keep others free for AQ/Story/EQ. The data won't begin to tell the real story.

You made an entire Meta much less effective. This is going to cost everyone more for the same rewards.

Just because you gave us a heads up doesn't mean this is good communication.

If Allies are Tanking, that's their choice. Find it hard to sympathize with the fact that that they won't get to test the Nodes .

mostlyharmlessn

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Amonthir wrote: »

So before we even have a single war with the global nodes active, despite all the feedback offered with basically no responses from a Dev, you are already making it an official change for Season 5? No data gathered on what impact the globals have in a live environment, no mention of ‘if this really sucks, we’ll change it before Season 5 begins’, nothing to indicate this thread is anything other than a dump of ‘Here’s what’s what, now suck it up’ info?

Hey There,

I think you missed the part that we said "Now, this is the first time we’re doing this, and we’ll be monitoring their performance during the Preseason to ensure that they are not overzealous. If we find that they are having too large of an effect, we will act accordingly."

We're going to keep an eye on this, and if we need to act between the preseason and the start of the season, we will.

I'm willing to bet he saw it.

Maybe you're missing the part many are getting sick and tired of going through this cycle of "let's see how this goes first before we actually do something meaningful."

A good version of this change, make the mini bosses bleed immune... leave the rest as is....

RogerRabs

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

RogerRabs wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Amonthir wrote: »

So before we even have a single war with the global nodes active, despite all the feedback offered with basically no responses from a Dev, you are already making it an official change for Season 5? No data gathered on what impact the globals have in a live environment, no mention of ‘if this really sucks, we’ll change it before Season 5 begins’, nothing to indicate this thread is anything other than a dump of ‘Here’s what’s what, now suck it up’ info?

Hey There,

I think you missed the part that we said "Now, this is the first time we’re doing this, and we’ll be monitoring their performance during the Preseason to ensure that they are not overzealous. If we find that they are having too large of an effect, we will act accordingly."

We're going to keep an eye on this, and if we need to act between the preseason and the start of the season, we will.

You do realize people treat Preseason Wars very differently than regular season wars correct? Some alliances tank to manipulate war ratings, most people don't boost or heal, some use subpar champs to keep others free for AQ/Story/EQ. The data won't begin to tell the real story.

You made an entire Meta much less effective. This is going to cost everyone more for the same rewards.

Just because you gave us a heads up doesn't mean this is good communication.

If Allies are Tanking, that's their choice. Find it hard to sympathize with the fact that that they won't get to test the Nodes .

Wasn't my point at all. But I know that you just post on here to disagree with everyone.

You can't truly gauge how something will effect AW seasons by looking at data from the preseason. Alliances approach preseason much differently.

Championcritic

RogerRabs wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Amonthir wrote: »

So before we even have a single war with the global nodes active, despite all the feedback offered with basically no responses from a Dev, you are already making it an official change for Season 5? No data gathered on what impact the globals have in a live environment, no mention of ‘if this really sucks, we’ll change it before Season 5 begins’, nothing to indicate this thread is anything other than a dump of ‘Here’s what’s what, now suck it up’ info?

Hey There,

I think you missed the part that we said "Now, this is the first time we’re doing this, and we’ll be monitoring their performance during the Preseason to ensure that they are not overzealous. If we find that they are having too large of an effect, we will act accordingly."

We're going to keep an eye on this, and if we need to act between the preseason and the start of the season, we will.

You do realize people treat Preseason Wars very differently than regular season wars correct? Some alliances tank to manipulate war ratings, most people don't boost or heal, some use subpar champs to keep others free for AQ/Story/EQ. The data won't begin to tell the real story.

You made an entire Meta much less effective. This is going to cost everyone more for the same rewards.

Just because you gave us a heads up doesn't mean this is good communication.

Exactly this @Kabam Miike. You guys will need to keep an eye throughout the season itself as well in order to get a more accurate picture. And do please do something to eliminate alliances manipulating their war rating during the war season. As others have suggested, make it such that war rating doesnt change during the off season.

BrianGrant

Wow... that female buff is bigger than expected. Can we go back in time so I can get Emma Frost?

This season we're going to see female champs do some crazy things. Should be fun.

mostlyharmlessn

BrianGrant wrote: »

Wow... that female buff is bigger than expected. Can we go back in time so I can get Emma Frost?

This season we're going to see female champs do some crazy things. Should be fun.

This is really an attempt to make Spidergwen seem useful in AW attack.

Ascoop24

BrianGrant wrote: »

Wow... that female buff is bigger than expected. Can we go back in time so I can get Emma Frost?

This season we're going to see female champs do some crazy things. Should be fun.

Leave it to Brian grant to only look at one half of the coin.

ShaggyM

I think Kabam is trying to do the right thing. The preview will let them know if the change is egregious and the community will give plenty of feeedback 😊.

Repto23

Everyone complaining about this but its not a permanent buff, its just for 1 season so just deal with it. And i use Blade and AA on offense so its not like this doesnt affect me.

BrianGrant

mostlyharmlessn wrote: »

BrianGrant wrote: »

Wow... that female buff is bigger than expected. Can we go back in time so I can get Emma Frost?

This season we're going to see female champs do some crazy things. Should be fun.

This is really an attempt to make Spidergwen seem useful in AW attack.

Honestly, they almost did it lol. I dont have the balls to do it, but I hope someone records some Spidergwen R4 gameplay this season. The 25% alone probably isnt enough for her, but I think in a class advantage situation it could be.

GroundedWisdom

RogerRabs wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

RogerRabs wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Amonthir wrote: »

So before we even have a single war with the global nodes active, despite all the feedback offered with basically no responses from a Dev, you are already making it an official change for Season 5? No data gathered on what impact the globals have in a live environment, no mention of ‘if this really sucks, we’ll change it before Season 5 begins’, nothing to indicate this thread is anything other than a dump of ‘Here’s what’s what, now suck it up’ info?

Hey There,

I think you missed the part that we said "Now, this is the first time we’re doing this, and we’ll be monitoring their performance during the Preseason to ensure that they are not overzealous. If we find that they are having too large of an effect, we will act accordingly."

We're going to keep an eye on this, and if we need to act between the preseason and the start of the season, we will.

You do realize people treat Preseason Wars very differently than regular season wars correct? Some alliances tank to manipulate war ratings, most people don't boost or heal, some use subpar champs to keep others free for AQ/Story/EQ. The data won't begin to tell the real story.

You made an entire Meta much less effective. This is going to cost everyone more for the same rewards.

Just because you gave us a heads up doesn't mean this is good communication.

If Allies are Tanking, that's their choice. Find it hard to sympathize with the fact that that they won't get to test the Nodes .

Wasn't my point at all. But I know that you just post on here to disagree with everyone.

You can't truly gauge how something will effect AW seasons by looking at data from the preseason. Alliances approach preseason much differently.

First point is not correct.
Second point is another issue entirely. The manipulation of Rating during Off-Season is another issue in and of itself. If Allies want to know what to expect, they'll pretty much have to run it before. They also have the data from Seasons previous, so it's not as if it's a blind guess what people are capable of. The suggestion was actually made on here to run Nodes in the Off-Season so it's not so much of a pressure. Again, I don't have much sympathy for the fact that people are busy manipulating the system.

Ascoop24

I'm truly disgusted with kabam right now. 24 pages in with 90 percent of people telling you how unhappy they are with this change and you plan to go through with it anyways. Bleed immunity cripples killmonger and makes archangel pretty much useless in the aspect of war. Both of these champs rely on their dot effects to do a substantial amount of the damage in a fight. Km will probably be okay for most normal nodes but won't be able to take bosses unless you are using a fully boosted r5 5 star or r2 6 star. But AA I feel terrible for those that have him and use him heavily in war. No bleed =no poison which = no neurotoxins I'm not sure what they will do. My opinion you need to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new solution that doesn't cripple champions every 6 weeks.

Marri

Come on guys, it's 1 season. Only a few weeks. After that all your bleeders will be useful again (Note: Blade will still be great for those who use him). I take my R4 5* in mostly for DS and I fight bleed immune defenders with him often. He is my no1 champ for UC in AQ. So don't fret, you're all overreacting. See it as an opportunity to use those top champs in questing or AQ during AW Season.

mostlyharmlessn

Repto23 wrote: »

Everyone complaining about this but its not a permanent buff, its just for 1 season so just deal with it. And i use Blade and AA on offense so its not like this doesnt affect me.

well it could be because you rank up a champ now to be useful this season, but then find they are useless the next season