**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Comments
So re-posting this suggestion:
one possible solution to the player movement (and start-time) challenges that these changes create:
Initiate matchmaking AFTER defense placement phase.
Make defense placement phase "open", meaning players joining an alliance anytime during defensive placement are able to place in that war (as long as everything is placed before matchmaking starts).
There's really no good reason you need a matched opponent when setting defenders, as you shouldn't have any more information after matchmaking than before that would modify strategy for placing defense.
This would carve out an almost 24 hour window after each war when people could move between alliances, allowing them to wait for rewards, finish own wars, etc. It would actually make the issue of coordinating alliance movements/recruits way easier than previously, where you need to create a gap by delaying AW start (or asking your new ally to do so in order to wait for you to join).
Theoretically this could allow alliances to start their 24 hr attack clock at a time that was variable but convenient for them, with the caveat that delaying their start would eat into their time to place defenders in the next one.
Matchmaking could still all be started at the same time for every alliance (and defenders would need to be locking in by that time), but Alliance XYZ could choose to start their 24hrs of attack with a 3 hour delay (eating 3 hours of their clock to set defense for the next one). Matchmaking has been done, but they're simply holding off until a time convenient for them (selected by officers ahead of time). You'd have alliances finishing attack at a different time (so real time scoreboard watching takes a hit), but all wars would be completed and results would be known before the next matchmaking began.
thanks
Today is basically a meaningless war. Test some stuff out. Relax. Point out the issues. Move on. Send me refills.
OK the last part is just to see if you're reading but hey... There's a lot of stuff to get done 😂😂😂
Since the thread is long and it seems people are jumping into the thread now on the start times of the war that just started, its probably worth summarizing the discussions surrounding war start times that occurred yesterday.
The original announcement said this:
It is a little ambiguous what "given over the course of a four hour phase" means, but the accompanying chart in the announcement seemed to suggest that all start times would be identical: at 11:00 Pacific.
@Kabam Miike explicitly stated this in a post in this thread: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/719082/#Comment_719082
However, this is NOT how the system is implemented, per @Kabam Lyra https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/733639/#Comment_733639
The bottom line: as the system is currently implemented, all alliances Enlisted for the next war will enter the Enlistment phase at 11:00 Pacific. Over the next four hours (possibly less) each alliance will be matched against an opponent, and as soon as that match is set those two alliances will immediately enter defense placement phase. Defense placement is 20 hours, regardless of when it starts, and attack phase starts immediately afterwards. This means your alliance's attack phase can start ANYWHERE between 7:00 Pacific and 11:00 Pacific.
I repeat: Alliance War Attack start times will now be anywhere between 7:00 am Pacific and 11:00 am Pacific. And you won't know where in that interval it will start (but it will be 20 hours after defense placement starts). It could be the same next war, it could be different.
The chart is super misleading. Defense placement and Attack are not aligned, and @Kabam Miike was wrong about his interpretation of the system. We now know pretty much with certainty that @Kabam Lyra statement is true, given the staggered starts people have already reported.
Feel free to complain about it (I think it is horrible), but it isn't bugged. This is what Kabam intended to do all along.
If there was an unintended issue that occurred, just say so. Stop with this working as intended nonsense. I HIGHLY DOUBT this was intended. At least I hope it wasn't. If it was, you have a really odd way of telling us. As previously stated, NO ONE in the USA wants to start wars this early. No one. Plus those poor Alliances that start crazy late on the other side of the globe. Seeing as how no one started at 11 AM PST, we can plainly see something went wrong. Either we got the wrong info, or the computer was given the wrong info. Either way, something is clearly WRONG.
Own it. Work with us. Then move forward. You speak of transparency, and then things like this happen. Just own it. That message at the end of the closed thread just proves there's a big difference between what many think of when speaking of transparency, and what Kabam does. Transparency means telling us when things go right, AND when they go wrong. We have a bunch of posts confirming none of us saw this coming. We did our best to work around a schedule you made for us. Graphic and ALL. Yet, here we are, getting something different.
I for one was actually excited for that fixed start time for everyone. Wasn't particularly happy with the time itself, but figured this was a step in the right direction. Now... it's just another heap on the mountain of good intentions gone wrong here with MCoC. The wisest decision would be to shut down war for 24 hours and relaunch it. Although, we all know that isn't gonna happen. As wise as it is, this message, alongside the slew of those behind it, and the slew that will follow.... will likely fall upon deaf ears. I would LOVE to be wrong. Would make my DAY to be wrong about this. Please Kabam, prove me wrong and do right by us. There's been some GREAT suggestions made. Listen to your players.
Also, quick question to the rest of the players, were your defenders locked out of solo quests once placed? Another officer said they couldn't access a couple that he placed for defense before attack phase kicked off. Personally, I didn't have this issue. Just curious if anyone else did.
The system is bugge somhow
Thank you for summarizing it so well. And including the definitely inconsistent statements and why we might have interpreted it one way versus another (because even the Miike vs Lyra did the same).
The chart and the description are radically different than the implementation, and I was actually hopeful for the consistent start time, as at least one can plan for it, and it played nicely with AQ. The actual implementation is much more difficult.
Consistent and locked in start time was problematic for many alliances. But the actual system does something far worse. Not only are start times not guaranteed to be consistent, they are now four hours earlier than they used to be. The vast overwhelming majority of alliances were starting wars between 11:00 am Pacific (when matching officially opens) and about 5pm Pacific (the latest you can probably reasonably go at least early on to still have a shot at three wars in the week with the full 24 hour attack time). No alliance could possibly be starting wars between 7am and 11am under the old system and still expect to fight all three wars.
So the new system is both variable start times, and *also* pushed into a window that practically no one was starting in in the first place. That is the most disruptive possible way to do it, and it wasn't necessary. Even with variable start, Kabam could have pushed match making to 15:00 - 19:00, which then meant actual attack phases would be starting between 11:00 and 15:00 which is when they were starting for most alliances in the first place.
While coming at this situation with what appeared to be the best of intentions, things did not pan out right. The matches shown previously prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Coupled with unbelievably early start times... yeah, this is no good. How many more posts will it take for them to figure out something needs to be done? Shut it down guys. It was a misfire for sure.
This is an excellent suggestion
Here’s some additional clarity to our previous announcement regarding the new timelines for Alliance Wars.
NEW MATCHMAKING SYSTEM - CLARIFICATION
There are 3 Enlistment Periods each week. Alliances must opt-in to their next war during these times.
This should correct any conflicting information on the times from our original Post.
We will be monitoring the new Matchmaking System closely over the next few Wars, taking in your feedback and reviewing Alliance activity.
Over this period we will be refining and improving the system, we will post updates in this Discussion thread and append any new information to the top of this Post.
NEW MEMBERS RECRUITMENT - CLARIFICATION
As long as you recruit a new member before the matchmaking window starts, they will be able to join your next war. The original behaviour is still correct. However there was a bug found, see below for a workaround.
NEW MEMBERS RECRUITMENT - BUG AND WORKAROUND
There is currently a bug where a new member cannot join a war if you have already enlisted for your next war.
The workaround for this is to recruit new members before you enlist, or de-enlist and re-enlist after accepting a new member. We are working to get this fixed as soon as we can.
There was a misunderstanding between us when this information was being drafted. Our initial post had some conflicting information, and while it also contained the correct information, we neglected to pick up on the incorrect information, and I later doubled down on the incorrect information.
This was an oversight on our part, and we are sorry for the confusion that we caused.
Defensive Placement Period last for 20 hours. Therefore AW start times will fall between 7 am PST and 11am PST.
This shouldn't be that difficult.
I'm far less concerned with a mistake that was made by the mods in describing how this would work, and am far more concerned about how the devs think this if a better system. It's garbage. The only reason I can conceivably think Kabam is pushing this system is so that you are required to choose specific champs for AW and AQ. No finishing AQ early and then placing defenders.
According to @Kabam Lyra the game starts every war as soon as the match is found because this spreads the load out among the servers that run war, and the servers can't handle all of the wars starting essentially at the same time. So it must have been intentional for the wars to start over a period of time rather than all of them at the depicted start time.
But AQ starts for everyone at the same time and the servers can handle that.
AQ + AW > AQ
It is not possible with the new system. All attack phases will start between 10am - 2pm EST.
Well sh!t