Development details!

[Shadow]

Hello everyone! We have exciting news for you! After a month of hard work, we have completely overhauled the races at RWL with a mind to restore balance to the game. What follows is an account of major game changes that will be in this month's turbo theme for you to test.

Race Balancing:

The rationale behind the new race chart was very simple: No more super powers. The current state of affairs is that there are two strategy types, and a few races that are good at each of those, and all the other races are not used by anyone but newbies. The race chart changes were intended to allow any strategy to be played on any race with some effectiveness, while still allowing each race to excel in one area. Some races are getting nerfed, and others are getting boosts. Note that the balance was done according to a rather more complex scheme than making sure all of the stats added up to 0 -- each stat was weighted differently for each race, depending on how useful it was for the dominant strategy of that race. The result is what we hope will be a much more balanced game in which any race can be effectively used to win.

The race chart has been updated in looks as well -- the color code has been corrected so that green really does mean a good thing (for the dominant strategy of the race). The signs have also been corrected. A negative number in merceneries or costs now really does mean lower prices/costs instead of the opposite. We hope that this change will make the chart much more intuitive and informative in general.

Specific race changes:  So far, we have focused on race stats, but wildcat got a little bit of extra attention. The loyalty cost if pressgang was lowered slightly. The hope is that wildcat will be a viable alternative to indy races in terms of troop production, but if further changes are needed to bring it up to speed, don't hesitate to tell us.

Painted on is also getting a better race ability. You will notice that painted one no longer has all 0 stats, but rather has a few green ones. This is to make it a newbie friendly race that can run any strategy, without giving it the sort of power that the more strategy dedicated races will have. It has also been given the race spell Pay Tribute, which gives both food and cash, in smaller quantities than loot or feast. This is about as newbie friendly as spells get, so if you know of new players joining, encourage them to start with painted one.

The rest of the race spells have not been changed - yet. We want to test the balance as things are with the new chart, after which we will decide if races need different spells in order to fine tune the balance. If you have suggestions in this area based on your experience in the coming round, please let us know. Now is the best time there has ever been to get your ideas considered in coding changes.

Merceneries:

The troop loop has been fixed once and for all. As long as future changes to the races keep the minimal/maximal race bonuses for merceneries between -25% and +25%, the troop loop will not be possible. The way camps work has also been tweaked slightly. The effectiveness of camps at reducing buy prices/increasing sell prices now depends on your merc bonus - the more extreme the bonus, the bigger effect camps have. In all races, the effect of camps is capped at 40% of your land, at which point you have the lowest buy prices and highest sell prices possible for your race. The cutoff prices are also determined by your merc bonus. In order to balance out the change and ensure that the troop loop is not possible, base buy and sell prices have been raised and lowered by approximately 10% respectively for weasels, stoats, and skiffs.

In addition, the sell price for food on merceneries has been increased to $9. This is to pave the way for farming strategies, which will become viable strategy options in the near future. We are changing the price now to observe the effects on other strategies.

Costs Stat:

In the course of testing these changes, it was discovered that the costs stat has never actually been doing anything - the costs for each race have been the same up to now. This has been fixed, and you should notice a significant difference between difference races in terms of the upkeep you have to pay on troops and leaders.

Future changes:

Please note that the current race balance chart is a first draft based on mathematical balancing. There is still a very strong human element to the game that cannot be balanced so simply. If the changes do not balance properly, please don't hesitate to post and tell us why.

In order to offset some of the changes, we are considering changing up the race spells for a few races. This is ongoing in development, so if you have ideas or suggestions, please let is know.

And finally, at long last, we are working on making cashing and farming effective strategies at RWL. The relevent races will (hopefully) be released for general testing in next month's turbo round, after the testing and tweaking of this round comes to a close.



I am going to sticky this topic for the duration of the turbo round. This is where to post your ideas, constructive criticisms, and comments about changes, as well as report any bugs you find or features that are not working as advertised.

[Uiblis]

Where are the changes to the races (as in the chart) going to be shown?

[Shadow]

on the race chart ^_^

[Uiblis]

As in on the game guide?

[Krowdon]

On the Fox section of the chart, it says -20 for Mercs, but its green.

[Shadow]

yea, cheap mercs are good for foxes

[Krowdon]

But it has a minus. Shouldnt it have a + if its green?

[Shadow]

+ doesnt mean good. + means bigger. + mercs means expensive mercs. -mercs means cheap mercs. The color code depends on the race, not the sign, since rats like expensive mercs, but casher races like cheap mercs.

[Uiblis]

Well, it's good for things to be cheaper obviously, so it's green

[Night Wolf]

No because its say it has lower buy prices thus the minus(at least if im understaning correctly)

[Krowdon]

+ doesnt mean good. + means bigger. + mercs means expensive mercs. -mercs means cheap mercs. The color code depends on the race, not the sign, since rats like expensive mercs, but casher races like cheap mercs.

*facepalm* I get it. Okay. Sorry. *is slow*

[Uiblis]

I like the pictures when scouting, looting, foraging, etc.  :)

[Krowdon]

I hadnt seen those before. I like them too.

[Firetooth]

Great work guys!

I remember those foraging, scouting etc pics! Epic!

Also, Pressgang conscription is still to weak imo. Less loyalty costs won't balance the race. I'll try it out this round sometime (perfect theme for race testing) and see if I'm wrong.

I'd also love to see painted one given a slight boost to make it a good casher race, but it already has been improved significantly.

Other then that, good to see the over powered races lose some of there advantages. I still think that rat, wolf and marten will be most played, but hopefully this will slightly change the races used. It's definetly a good start.

[Shadow]

I plan to test out pressgang myself this round as well, but I think you are right in that it will still be too weak. Land for land, pressgang can output as much as a rat with all barracks now, but the extra turns you need to spend getting loyalty mean it outputs only about half as much over time.

That said, a wildcat with a lot of cities will actually output more than a rat, so if it has a good source of loyalty, it could be a really great team race.

It's a tricky one to balance, though. Making the output bigger makes it overpowered in terms of team output and we are back to the old rat, which could output a round's worth of leadering netwoth in a run or two with a wolf supplying loyalty. Too little, and it becomes underused again.

I think to balance this might require revisiting the rate at which loyalty is produced when not all your land is huts, but that is down the road.

I invite all players to try out wildcat if they get a chance - it can be a really fun race to play, and I would love to get it into mainstream use without overpowering it.



I am also toying with the ideas of reducing wolf's loyalty and defense bonus so that its leader defense is not quite to unstoppable when paired with troop defense, making them both +15%. We''ll have to test the defensive abilities of that race as well, taking into consideration the reduced troop output from rat.