Dev Diary #1 – Welcoming Control Points
Mar.01.2018 BY KIXEYE_Chris
Today marks 1 week since Control Points went live! The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive amongst the community and top alliances, we’re pleased to hear that everyone is enjoying themselves in this new era of Alliance warfare.
Don’t forget to check out the News Feed articles that walk through how to navigate this new era of the War Zones, and don’t hesitate to ask questions in one of our official community channels should anything be confusing:
Additionally, thank you to everyone for providing feedback about the changes that occurred in the days leading up to Control Points. I understand it was a lot to absorb and will probably take a few weeks of playing to acclimate to everything, so I appreciate the majority of you staying patient and constructive while trying to get a deeper understanding of it all. I believe I’ve identified some of the primary concerns that have arisen, though, so let’s jump in.
A LOT OF CHANGES ALL AT ONCE
Whew, you’re telling us! This was the largest release to ever come to Rogue Assault since launch, and not just because of Control Points but because of all the other changes that came with it. To recap, here’s everything that launched:
- Heavy Turret & Heavy Platform
- Equipment System Overhaul
- Alliance Gifting
- Shared Replay in Alliance Chat
- Transformer Rebalance
- Base Power & Health Rebalance
- Tank and Artillery Unit Rebalance
- New Stronghold and Outpost Layouts
- New Daily Raid Maps
- Fixed an issue in which unit fire rate was unintentionally doubled.
There’s several reasons all these changes happened at once. First and foremost, we’re conscious of player feedback that changes too close to the start of a monthly event are highly disruptive. Therefore, the same week NIGHTHAWK ended, we pushed these changes out in order to maximize the amount of time before the next monthly event, allowing players the full amount of time before the next monthly in order to acclimate to new gameplay styles. These changes deploying just before Control Points can seem jarring, but it’s actually okay as Control Points isn’t a time-restricted feature. It’s a new persistent form of gameplay, and there’s no rush to have fully mastered these recent changes in order to participate in the War Zones. It’ll still be there when you’re ready.
The second reason for so many changes all at once is that all of these features are directly or indirectly tied to one another, and that’s an important point to keep in mind throughout all of this. Looking at any one individual change may not make complete sense, but let’s not lose sight of the forest for the trees.
TANKS ARE VERY DIFFERENT
It’s true, tanks are statistically quite different to how they once were. However, that change doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Let’s look at an example of some changes that came in this last update:
- Tank health decreased
- Tank Explosive Resistance Health increased
- Tank DPS increased
- Turret damage against vehicles normalized
- Turrets boosted less by Transformers
- Unit power now primarily based on equipment
What’s the outcome when we consider all those changes together, instead of individually? The first is that turrets no longer necessarily have hidden proficiencies against certain units solely for the sake of preserving balance. The more players can understand visible stats and how they’ll match up with their opponents’, the better.
Second, this fixes the problem of tanks solely serving as big blobs of health that don’t require correct strategic usage to be effective. Pit your tanks up against an explosive turret and they’ll be great; pit your tanks against the ‘wrong’ turret (armor-piercing) and they’ll be heavily punished. This rewards strategic use of your units more than mindless driving of the most powerful tanks you can find.
In that vein, with the Transformer changes factored in, base attacks require more persistent strategic approach rather than knocking down a few key buildings and rolling the rest of the base with ease.
Lastly, the ceiling on tank power is higher now with the equipment changes than it was prior to these changes, however that will not become fully realized until more equipment begins to become available. So if your tanks truly are less effective than they were formerly, that won’t last once you start obtaining and leveling up existing and new equipment.
All in all, use your tanks correctly and they are more strategic, more easily powered up, and have greater potential for power than they did prior to these changes. However, they are no longer invincible and un-skilled units, which is also a good thing.
WHAT ELSE IS IN STORE?
Only Tanks and Artillery units have moved to their shared equipment model. All other unit types will gradually move to their shared equipment model as well, but will likely come with much less balance tuning as their functionality is not shifting in the same manner as Tanks.
Once all units are on the new equipment model, leveling up will be a much steadier progression. We’re looking forward to it!
That’s all for now. Next month, our senior game designer Rodrigo will be popping in to tell us more about Alliance Store and Alliance Tech Tree before it drops. Good luck out there.
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