Sudden Death Design Diary

Apr.20.2022 BY WC:RA

Fresh from the Firebird #15

Hello Commanders, 

Last December, we launched Dominion, the first phase of the newly revamped World Map warfare. The purpose of Dominion was to reward competitive team-based gameplay requiring both strategy and individual skill. The new game mode replaced one-vs-one alliance Control Point Wars with multi-target King of the Hill style wars where many alliances can fight many alliances at the same time to capture Battle Zones for their own alliance.

While we were happy with the overall rollout of Dominion, we noted some clear areas of improvement, thanks in large part to the insightful feedback from the community. One common concern was the lack of options for planning wars. Another issue raised was the lack of importance in a single battle within the system, since a large alliance could rely on their numbers alone to secure victory.

The WCRA team is excited to move forward with Sudden Death, the second phase of our World Map plans, which seeks to address many of these issues with a brand new war structure. Sudden Death reuses the concepts of Battle Zones as they exist today, but with several key additions – notably a series of conditions that must be met by at least two alliances to trigger a war, and a dedicated War Tally points system, to add value to each victory and defeat in the grand scale of a Sudden Death battle. 

Sudden Death will be introduced to all Battle Zones in Europe, while the Black Sea will retain the current Dominion ruleset. When Sudden Death is launched, all Battle Zones in Europe will have the following phases: 

Open: These Battle Zones are available for War. To trigger a war, at least 10 members of at least 2 alliances need to enter the Battle Zone. Each of these players will need to be within the level range of 80 to 85 until the 6.6 update planned for May. This starts the Rally Phase. 

Rally: 15 minutes in which alliances can move into the Battle Zone and scout enemy bases, set up defenses, etc, but not attack each other.

Contested: 45 minutes in which alliance members can attack one another. They earn points for each base they defeat or if an attack fails to beat their base. If a player is defeated, they are kicked out for a given period of time, during which they can earn no points for their alliance. 

Sudden Death: The duration of this phase is 30 minutes. At the beginning of this phase, alliances which do not earn 20 total points are kicked out of the Battle Zone. Those that remain enter into a sudden death war – still earning points like the contested phase – where once kicked, players cannot reenter the battle zone. Either the last alliance standing wins, or else if the timer runs out, the team with the most points is crowned the winner. 

Rewards – For the victorious alliance, all members regardless of participation will receive a tiered crate. The more points earned in a given war, the greater the crate rewards tier.

*Shown above is an example of what’s seen after winning a Battle Zone

The Rally Phase conditions are meant to protect a Battle Zone from being stolen by a single player when noone is looking, and allow two or more alliances to prepare to battle, but only pull the trigger when they are right ready to fight. The 15 minutes of Rally phase will allow you to gather the last of your forces and scout out the competition before the first punch is thrown. The new points system will bring excitement back to every battle in a war, while also helping you earn better rewards for your alliance if you manage to pull out on top.

The idea here is that the bigger the war, the harder it is to win, and therefore, the greater the reward for the victor. And finally, the Sudden Death phase is where the stakes are raised, and all is on the line for the final battles to crown the winner. 

We’re excited to hear your thoughts on this new game mode! Be sure to join us on Discord at https://wcra.io/discord and share your feedback – or challenge another alliance to a Sudden Death War!