Purpose of this blog

Dmitry Yudo aka Overlord, jack of all trades
David Lister aka Listy, Freelancer and Volunteer

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

[WoT] Global Vision: Part II

This post is the continuation of the recent Global Vision: Part I article where we covered the CW plans for the near future.

What else we have in stock.

Sabotage and how to fight it

Sabotage is a kind of special clan consumable which represents a mobile tactical unit that can be sent behind the enemy lines with the aim to ... guess what? - Perform sabotage, yes.

It works this way: using your scout/intelligence you can assess revolt chances for a particular enemy province, the higher the chance, the more likely it is that your sabotage will be successful. The outcome of your sabotage will be known next turn. Typical sabotage effects to choose from:
- minus 1 token to enemy defense in a given province
- "railway war" - disables borders between provinces for some time
- destruction of enemy HQ
- provocation - chance of starting revolt in enemy province
- etc.

Just as revolts/pillages, this functionality is likely to be tested as CWs special.

Counter-intelligence is the best way to prevent your enemies from successful acts of sabotage. The lower revolt probability of your province, the lower enemy chances to perform successful sabotage on your territories.

Global Map Seasons

The below is a bit more distant in terms of time.
The entire mode of Clan Wars will be changed due to the upcoming implementation of seasons.
Season is a sort of global event that takes place in all provinces, i.e. active throughout the Global map. Each season is preceded by wipe/reset - everyone starts from scratch on a completely virgin map.

Season starts just as CWs beta did back in 2011 - with global contest mode - all provinces are available for landing.

Each season will last 2-3 months and eventually get its own winner and, of course, losers.
Seasons will be broken into several stages with different rules, conditions, and restrictions for each of them - e.g. vehicle tier restrictions, missions and goals (gold farming, capturing specified key provinces), etc.

Depending on the functionality available that time it can be Revolution stage with higher revolt chances for one stage, with totally different rules for another stage.

Based on clan performance during each stage special Victory points will be awarded and stage winners defined based on them.

Winner of the entire season will be determined by the total number of Victory points earned throughout the season. However, this concept is still subject to design changes. Winners will get special and huge prizes (this is not subject to change).

Seasons end with another Global map wipe/reset and shuts down for vacation while everyone is waiting for another season with new rules and new prizes. 

Make it comfortable

Such a crucial mechanics change as seasons requires an overhaul and massive improvement of clan functionality available for players. This work is going to be done in parallel. We are planning to add clan statistics, leaderboards, achievements, thinking of how to facilitate clan communication and action logging.

Obviously this would require some time to be done, but there is no other way.

Let us know

In these two posts I have given only the basic ideas on what will happen to Global map in foreseeable future. Sure thing, we have got many more plans and ideas. I intentionally left out the mercenary thing (it hasn't been dumped), CWs merger, transfers, and some other delicious stuff.

Just like with client-side updates, we are planning to communicate update notes and release plans for CWs since it's an inherent part of WoT.

38 comments:

  1. [quote]Such a crucial mechanics change as seasons requires an overhaul and massive improvement of clan functionality available for players. This work is going to be done in parallel. We are planning to add clan statistics, leaderboards, achievements, thinking of how to facilitate clan communication and action logging.

    Obviously this would require some time to be done, but there is no other way. [/quote]

    People have been asking for these functions drom the beginning of CW in 2011 and there hasn't even been any development yet on it :/. WTF is this. Basic things not even have been worked on. How difficult could making a clan log be. In over 1.5 years no logging, no working clan PM system.

    First fix things that are desperatly needed before implementing new things please. It is completely idiotic that we have to rely on third party website's for basic things like who left the clan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Check the previous part - I have explained the reasons there.

      Delete
    2. no you didn't.
      you just wrote it wasn't done.

      and truthfully, there is no good explanation why most important and rather easy addition to cw was not done other then guys who were never playing CW didn't find it important

      Delete
  2. Overload, thanks for the info. It's good to see CW getting some attention.

    The info on Rebellions leaves a lot of questions:

    1) This probability of rebellion, is that per day? It's showing at 10% for our HQ, and 20% where we have 15 chips.

    2) We've got 5 provinces, so that means we'd get about one rebellion a day? Is that that kind of level you planned?

    3) You said, only clans already on the global map can "land" at rebellion points. Please confirm this, cos it leads to some other questions...

    4) Does the winner take the province? Or does rebellion continue day after day until the province own eventually quells it?

    5) If the winner does take the province, do they get an additional HQ to put down? How else can the resupply chips here, to advance.

    Thanks,
    CitizenSoldier.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1. Yes, per day. Though not sure where you got those numbers from.

      2. No. That would be too high and too annoying. We haven't come up with exact figures yet.

      3. Did I say that? :)

      4. Revolt makes a province neutral.

      Delete
    2. 1. 10-20 and even 50% are numbers from game
      2. well that number would be perfect if the landing zones were removed.
      However, if that number would be too annoying, why it is used on CW at the moment?
      3. No, not you. It was said in the article about introducing this changes. Article that, btw was posten 3 days after the patch itself. And was, of course wrong, only clans that can apply to landing can apply to rebellion.
      4. What? Revolting province is still owned by previous owner untill the end of landing - when it is either captured by landing clan, or rebellion is quelled. You can still move tokens in and out of it, it still brings you the gold.

      Delete
  3. As regards too seasons, I think tier restrictions are a really bad idea. Clan Wars is our only competitive haven for tier 10s that we've worked hard on and you are considering taking that away for a part of the year? Tournaments already cater to tier 8 and below, not 10's, why on earth would you take clan wars from us?

    -Anfield [RELIC] NA

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    Replies
    1. Yeah I have to agree with RELIC, Anfield. Since I worked so hard to get how many tier 10s I own aka 12 going towards 13. Clan Wars is the only thing I think that should stay Tier 10 Exclusive since some people in this game has SO Much free time on their hands like myself.

      Delete
    2. And you'll still have your tier 10s, now you'll be able to use some lower tanks as well for part of each season. Seriously, after a year and a half of clans wars not changing -at all- people are complaining about change? Bring it on please.

      Delete
    3. I don't keep lower tiers because the gameplay is poor. I don't want to run around with KV1S's on clan wars, that should be reserved or end tier gameplay, or give us more tier 10 tournaments. Not all change is good ed but perhaps you can't see that. The changes aren't gonna make bad clans any better.

      Delete
    4. "I don't keep lower tiers because the gameplay is poor." That's a blanket generalization if I've ever heard one. As I said, after almost 2 years of the same thing any change is good. If they do 3-month seasons they can tweak the rules each time.

      I would love one night off clan wars a week specifically for Absolute (preferably 90 point) companies.

      Delete
    5. Those, who disagree with tier limitations,

      we don't want to overdo in this respect, the current position is that CWs are end-game and players should have an opportunity to use best what they have, taking full advantage of the time/resources spent throughout the game.

      Delete
  4. - minus 1 token to enemy defense in a given province - Absolutley not!
    - "railway war" - disables borders between provinces for some time - 2 turns max
    - destruction of enemy HQ - Absolutly not!
    - provocation - chance of starting revolt in enemy province - Yes but not to high. Also chanse of revolt on the province with HQ should always be 0. Losing HQ to any thing other then a fight is just stupid.

    For the seasons tank restricitons would be very bad. I have plenty of tier 10 but i do not have room for many lower tier ones. It would mean I would not play for a season if I cant use the tanks I have. No point in playing the game any more. Vacations should not be long 1-2 days max.

    The clan statistics part is good tho.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, finally someone supports with "no tier restriction" thing.

      Delete
    2. I would support a Tier restriction but not like mentioned.

      Id prefer areas on the map where you need to play with lower tier tanks.
      T7 T8 T9 T10 e.g on Northafrica just T8 / South just T7.
      Yet you should have the majority of Europe always in T10 max T9 area.

      I would not want to see T3 battles for 3 months, make it a event for a dedicated area.

      Last but not least: Does a season mean you will perfor a total wipe after 3 months? IF yes it will disappoint people after 3-4 seasons to be in the need to "start over 'again' "

      Delete
    3. Why for 3 months? It can only be one stage, ie 1 week with tiers 1-3, 1 week with tiers 4-6, etc. Not the entire season.

      Yes, each season will be concluded by reset/wipe.

      Delete
    4. I do not have room for lower tier tanks and I do not want to spend more gold just to get garage slots for them.

      If I'm forced to play lower tier tanks in CW I quit the game.

      If you want that make it for africa keep europe and other high income areas tier 10. Not even tier 9 is ok.

      The other option is making garage slots free.

      Delete
    5. If you're getting gold from holding land, then why can't you afford a couple of garage slots?

      They are 300 gold a piece, and go on sale pretty often for half off.

      Delete
    6. and have 80 active members in a clan, each of them needing 3 slots even at discount it's 36k gold. Fine for top clans, not for africa clans.

      not considering crews. do yu plan to move your crew from tier X to tier VI? Or play with a stock one?

      There is no point in keeping every tank in a garage (says the man who has 105 tanks in garage at the moment, each of them being able to be used with 100% crew and some perks).

      You keep tier 10, few tier 9 that may be useful, tier 8 usable for easy 8, tier 6 usable for super 6, premiums and few low level troll tanks/money makers.

      So making any clan oriented activity it has to be done with tier 10 tanks, maybe with tier 8, eventually tier 6. Tier 1 are ok since they are for free.
      I have a lot of interesting tier 2 and 3 premiums, but tier 3 clan wars would not be really welcomed.


      The idea of seasons is annoying. Clan Wars are a process. It depends how often there will be a reset, but 1st week will be setting up the positions, then forming stable situation, then real war will start - and those can last from 1 to few months depending on available territory.
      Resetting it after 2 months? Annoying

      Delete
    7. to add:

      tier 10 as an end game content you keep as many as you can.
      lowe tiers not.
      So if the season would be played on low level tanks, you need to equip yourself with tanks you will need, because with different map, you need different tanks.

      also low level tanks are usually not so well balanced (much more exceptions in the matchmaking), what forces to create more detailed rules on limits of tanks used.

      That's why I may welcome short time event for fun, not important for CW in a long run, but whole season played on other tanks then t10 - no.

      Delete
  5. What is about the initial idea to introduce commanding vehicles into CWs?
    (Abilities like airstrike, navalstrike on coastal maps or other stuff to use like consumables.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Still thinking of it. Though it's a tough question of how to differentiate those from regular and prem tanks, what their role and performance should be.

      Delete
    2. Well, make them just able to buy and use by Field Commanders (or higher) of clans.
      Bring in the ability to just use them in CW and a max limit of 1 per side.
      Think about 5-6 different consumables (just for com-tanks) to allow some tactics with this vehicle.

      - Im thinking about either using it as second line supporter with id say a bunch of kits to repair modules of damaged tank which need to retreat from frontline.
      - Or using it as cooridnator with a SPG view and air/navalstrikeability
      - Or using it as scouting tank with good mobility and viewrange.

      (depending on the nation, we got 6 atm so think about 6 different com-tanks with different abilities like i mentioned ;) )

      I got some more ideas on how to...

      Delete
    3. And make those premium with higher than regular price tag?

      Delete
    4. who said sth about premium?
      is that how WG makes their business?

      id welcome creditprices, but not that cheap ofc.

      Delete
    5. It would be nice to make these vehicles only buyable by clans and sitting in "clans garage". Only situation such tank could be given to a player would have to be clan disbanding. This way these vehicles could only be premium, since bought from clan treasury. That's my concept of how should "commander tanks" work.

      Delete
    6. I don't think command tanks are really so needed.
      The idea of leading while playing has it's own sweet taste to it, most clan use the same FC, so what's the point of FC playing the game and grinding the tanks if all he needs is commander vehicle?

      Some extra tools would be nice for FC. If FC is not fighting with his tank. Either extra support - artillery of the map or airstrike or commanding tools - free camera view, ability to draw arrows, lines and point specific points on the battle terrain itself, not on the minimap. Such tools may be available for FC as long as long his tank survives, when he dies he just simply can use what everyone can use now after dying.

      Considering that most commanding vehicles were normal tanks with mock gun and changed extra equipment it wouldn't even require special tank - just normal tank that is in some way limited (lower number of ammo available for example or lower number of crew in tank, meaning you start like your gunner and loader were injured)

      Delete
  6. As much as I would be glad to see any changes, I have some criticism here to make. What I want to point out is that at a point, where You can buy a one chip less in a battle, people may acuse You for introducing "pay to win". THat's a VERY BAD move in terms of PR.

    What You should consider is replacing it with a tier reduction, so (depending on the sabotage success?) one or two chips could only bring tanks to a battle that are two tiers lower. This way it woud forve to use tier 8 taks and tank destroyers, tier 6 artys etc. It is a disadvantage, but well played T28, S-51 and so on are just as dangerous for tier 10, and on the oter hand, thse tanks have lower HP and thinner armor. Of course if there would a battle restricted to T8, this would scale down and "sabotage it" to T6, and so on.

    At the same time destruction of enemy HQ is pretty much pointless as it can be redeployes the very next round. This would be annoying to happen, but in the end it would most probably not be worth the efford at all. I like the idea, but this needs to be redesigned to do some other "tricks". Maybe HQ lock so it can not be moved from a province dor 24 hrs would be a nice way to force more furious defence play, maybe setting a 24 hour delay on introducing new chips to the map... that's great, but wiping it out makes ono sense if You can simply redeploy it.

    That's my riticism here, not let's move to some questions :D

    1. Are costs of each action would be strictly related to each province income? So starting a revolt in a 2400 gold province would require 10 times more resources than starting it in a 240 gold province? That would seem fair, as defending high income provinces is much more difficult anyway as they are constantly in the center of every clans attention.

    2. How do You see the railway war? Would it seal off the entire province "all arround" including also backup in some cases (that would be interesting), or would it only "build trenches" between two specific locations? Th second option sounds a bit like fortifying a province requiring two wins in a row to conquer instead of one (first to break the enemy defences, and second to conquer it). Please explain this a bit more! :)

    3. Do You plan to make any way for a clan to reduce revolt chance on their province? Like paying that exact provinces income to reduce revolt chance by 10% or some sort of such mechanics? That would make holding the top earning provinces for weeks much more difficult and costly. At the moment if two clans "make a deal", they can surround a province and exchange it every couple of days, so they only have to fight half the battles, and still get all the gold.

    4. Are ou planning to divide fights for a province into stages? Like capturing a province in one battle in a clan to clan mode, that lets You collect 70% of the provinces income. After that a second battle to capture "the capital city of each prvince" that could maybe involve clan VS mercanaries, and give the remaining 30% of income? Since everybody want to have mercanary battles, and at the same are pretty much affraid that it will break the ballance of the CW map - I think that this solution woud be a GREAT option. It lets "mercs" have their battles, and does not breat the general strategic map and long term plans of clans for bigger clan to clan wars.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. your idea of reducing tier is just less harsh version but meaning roughly the same - increase your chance in battle by paying gold.

      destroying HQ would probably mean - as it is now - 3 days without HQ. Otherwise it would be advanteogus to have your HQ destroyed and set it up somewhere else.

      But situation when I cannot defeat you, I pay gold and you lose your HQ is obviously retarded. It's a big no no.

      Even blocking HQ movement for 24 hours would be extremely powerful tool, allowing you to block enemy HQ and stop him from runing away with it - so he has to defend province with hq otherwise he will lose it.
      It is still too powerful weapon as for 300 gold spent.

      Delete
  7. Is there any other endgame content in the works seperate from CWs?. Im not talking about game modes such as garage battles etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, there is one more end-game component we are currently thinking of. I can't disclose the details for now. It's intended to be embrace wider audience than CWs and require less time, ie it will be less demanding.

      Delete
  8. I would like to see some kind of tier restrictions occasionally. There are many fun tanks on the lower tiers that I do not really use anymore. Some kind of incentive to use them would be nice. Also it would force people to change their strategies. Also tank class/nationality restrictions might be interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Overlord, can't WG just remove the normal Landing Zones? I see no point in having them anymore when you have better ones in the middle of the map, which also give you more gold just by defending. Clan-Wars is pretty dead right now, at least for me and I'm sure that other clans dont like the "revolt" feature, you can't plan,do tactics,create aliances anymore when an random landing zone pop-up in your only one territory.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. oh, landing zones are in some ways more useful then normal provinces - your opponent on the map cant attack them so you just need to hold of landing clans.

      But I agree with the idea of removing normal landing zones - they creat disproportion between different parts of the map - with spain or france being within 3 days reach from multiple landings, while middle of russia and africa being 5 or more days away from nearest landing.

      Increasing number of revolts and eliminating landing zones would make different parts of the map more balanced (the other issue is prime time)

      Delete
  10. very nice post Overlord but why take so long to suggest and implement such changes to CW.

    I have over time got bored with WoT mostly because of CW and it being so stale. I would rather than having French and British tanks over the last series of patches view improvements to Random battle types , CW and historical battles much more important.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This changes was a very cool selection.

    I hope the next be the seasons, but i hope its gonna a shorter time not 3 month...

    I think cool idea (on forum see it):
    - low tier cw maps (as historical, had some tierpoint and tank-restriction) and low slot map (little map, cw in 8v8 instead of 15v15... )
    - robbing - as in neutral place, the neighbours can try to robbing the gold , for chips and if dont succes, the attackers receive tank-froze, but the defenders no.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The message from Microsoft on Windows Telephone www.windows7mart.com updates is mixed. Although the company promised a year ago that it was developing an enthusiasts plan to supply early access to updates windows 7 professional retail, Microsoft has yet to detail when it plans to deliver it.

    ReplyDelete