2/24/2015 - Missile Patch

[Alex]

I've made 6 important changes that I'd like to announce as part of a patch on Missiles and their role in gameplay.

 

1) I've doubled the efficiency of the Iron Dome national project. Previously, it would block 25% of all missiles launched at your nation, now it blocks 50%. This is in effort to make it a more useful project, and to nerf the effectiveness of missiles in combat.

 

2) I've increased the amount of loot that can be gained in ground battles. Soldiers are what loot cash from your opponent, and they're now set to take anywhere from ~$25-$80 each (with an Immense Triumph victory level) per battle. I also increased the minimum amount the defender could be left with from $60,000 to $100,000. There is a new restriction in place as well - you can't take more than 75% of your opponent's cash on hand in a simple ground battle. The purpose of this is to promote ground battles as a more useful tactic in higher tier warfare. I think you'll find that stealing a good chunk of your opponent's cash in a battle will make it a very attractive option.

 

Money Stolen = MIN( (Defender's Money - 100,000), (Attacking Soldiers * (25.20-78.75) * Victory^), (Defender's Money * 0.75) )

*This isn't the exact formula, but will work for all intents and purposes

^ Victory means how successful you were. An Immense Triumph corresponds to a 3, a Moderate Success to a 2, a Pyrrhic victory to a 1, and an Utter Failure to a 0.

 

3) Missile damage has been reduced slightly. This is a direct nerf to the efficacy of missiles, and also promotes a higher land area in larger cities (to create a lower population density). The new formula for missile damage is:

 

Infrastructure Destroyed = MIN( (RANDOMBETWEEN(250, MAX(350, (Population Density * 3))), (Infrastructure in City * 0.3) )

 

4) Missile upkeep has been increased 3x. Missile upkeep was previously rather cheap at $7,000/day/missile, and allowed nations to stockpile missiles at almost no cost. This has been tripled to $21,000/day in peacetime, and $31,500 in wartime. This will discourage the massive stockpiling we currently see.

 

5) Having Air Superiority, Ground Control, and a Blockade will prevent your opponent from launching missiles at you. Previously, the only way to stop an opponent from hitting you with missiles was to beige them and end the war. Now, if you can best them on land, air, and sea, you can prevent them from lobbing missiles at you while still allowing the war to continue.

 

On the flipside, it will discourage the turtle tactic of only lobbing missiles and will force players to focus on at least one facet of conventional warfare.

 

6) The amount of score that missiles contribute to your nation has been reduced from 10 to 5. Nations with stockpiles of missiles were seeing inflated scores that didn't demonstrate their true strength. This change will help with that inequity. It may take some time to reflect this accurately across all nations with missiles.

 

---

 

I know this isn't the long awaited Nation Perks patch, but this is an important mechanics change and a lot of these ideas have been flung around for a while. I thought it was important that I finally addressed the missile problem, as it's a concern that had been brought up numerous times over the last few months.

 

Now, go ahead and tell me why this was the worst update ever and that I should undo it immediately

[Britishdude]

Blast Sheepy, I was about to decom my soldiers

Edited February 25, 2015 by Britishdude

[Adama]

This looks like a great update. Good work master sheep.

[Ishamael Naeblis]

Good stuff.

[Ayayay]

 

Are you kidding? The first ground battle launched against me destroyed half of my tanks; Over 500 gone in an instant. That also halves my air superiority which means if I was equal to them in planes before the attack, I no longer am afterwards. Coupled with the fact that they now have the air superiority to bomb my ships when they feel like it, it isn't hard to see how quickly a slightly more powerful nation can take the initiative almost immediately and keep it. This is especially true in an alliance war when you have other nations to fight who are each as strong as you. I've been against this before and I'm still against this now, there is already to much of an incentive to be the group to launch the first strike, we don't need to to make it even more imbalanced.

 

 

Besides, missiles need resources anyways, if a nation is losing they will run out eventually.

[Oblige]

Good stuff.

[Hysteria]

[TellUrGrlThx]

I can dig it

[Eviljak]

Great update, balance is good

[Alex]

 

 

Are you kidding? The first ground battle launched against me destroyed half of my tanks; Over 500 gone in an instant. That also halves my air superiority which means if I was equal to them in planes before the attack, I no longer am afterwards. Coupled with the fact that they now have the air superiority to bomb my ships when they feel like it, it isn't hard to see how quickly a slightly more powerful nation can take the initiative almost immediately and keep it. This is especially true in an alliance war when you have other nations to fight who are each as strong as you. I've been against this before and I'm still against this now, there is already to much of an incentive to be the group to launch the first strike, we don't need to to make it even more imbalanced.

 

 

Besides, missiles need resources anyways, if a nation is losing they will run out eventually.

 

 

What's wrong with encouraging a first-strike system? That favors war preparation, brings down inflation, and reduces stagnation of sitting around waiting for the other guy to make the first move.

[Atzuya]

7/10 good update

 

Glad to know the formula for the new stuff

[vonnorman]

I think its fantastic lets have some war shall we?

You know... To test it and whatnot...

Edited February 25, 2015 by vonnorman

[Sol Farmer]

Looks great to me. Keep up the great work Sheepy!

[Ayayay]

What's wrong with encouraging a first-strike system? That favors war preparation, brings down inflation, and reduces stagnation of sitting around waiting for the other guy to make the first move.

I've been against this before and I'm still against this now, there is already to much of an incentive to be the group to launch the first strike, we don't need to to make it even more imbalanced.

[Hansarius]

Only one I take issue with is this one:

 

5) Having Air Superiority, Ground Control, and a Blockade will prevent your opponent from launching missiles at you. Previously, the only way to stop an opponent from hitting you with missiles was to beige them and end the war. Now, if you can best them on land, air, and sea, you can prevent them from lobbing missiles at you while still allowing the war to continue.

 

 

If your nation is subject to blockade and having lost air & ground superiority, then missiles were the only way you could fight back.

Now if it happens, then you can't do anything but sit back and watch your nation get destroyed.

 

I believe reducing the damage, increasing the maintenance and boosting the Iron Dome to 50% would be more than enough to nerf missiles.

[ChestnutRice]

Excellent update for game balance. Missiles were rather oppressive with their power before this. Now it seems quite a bit better. Especially with the great buff to Iron Dome. Good work Sheepy.

[b hunter]

baaaaaa

[George Clooney]

I like it.

[Dwynn]

Alright... 

 

Missiles needed balance, there was no question about it. But all 6 of these changes combined make missiles next to useless. Meh. Whatev appeases the masses I suppose.

[Shellhound]

Only one I take issue with is this one:

 

If your nation is subject to blockade and having lost air & ground superiority, then missiles were the only way you could fight back.

Now if it happens, then you can't do anything but sit back and watch your nation get destroyed.

 

I believe reducing the damage, increasing the maintenance and boosting the Iron Dome to 50% would be more than enough to nerf missiles.

Well, that's operating off the belief that if your opponent gets superiority on you it's game over, which isn't true. With actual coordination and a half decent warchest you can break superiority easily enough.

[Prefontaine]

Sigh. You couldn't just remove them from the MAP system? Missiles will still be what the vast majority of attacks will be for. I mean, it's your game, but you keep turning my suggestions into garbage implantation. Wars are still going to be shit. And now the first two projects everyone buys will be missiles and dome. Removing from the map and making dome lessen the damage and remove one missile slot is the far better solution than these changes.

Edited February 25, 2015 by Prefontaine

[Samwise]

I have to agree with Malone and Shellhound. Missiles were overpowering, and needed tweaked, but I think it got taken too far.

[Placentica]

Lol, there is a nerf and then there is this. 

 

Making such huge changes is never wise.  I do like a lot of them, the score change was necessary, but you also need to change the stupid 75% updeclare range as well (while only having a 25% downdeclare).

 

But the upkeep 300% increase is very severe.  Did you really need all of these nerfs?  A simple nerf to the dmg output or bumping the dome would've been enough.

 

If you are going to change things so drastically you really should allow nations to refund their missiles purchases, as this clearly will cost us with stockpiles a lot of cash/resources in decomming.

Edited February 25, 2015 by Placentica

[Sweeeeet Ronny D]

Nice to see the Iron Dome I bought today, just got a sweet sweet buff.  I would agree that this makes the Iron Dome, a must have project now.

[Tenages]

 

What's wrong with encouraging a first-strike system? That favors war preparation, brings down inflation, and reduces stagnation of sitting around waiting for the other guy to make the first move.

I've been against this before and I'm still against this now, there is already to much of an incentive to be the group to launch the first strike, we don't need to to make it even more imbalanced.

 

 

 

Only one I take issue with is this one:

 

If your nation is subject to blockade and having lost air & ground superiority, then missiles were the only way you could fight back.

Now if it happens, then you can't do anything but sit back and watch your nation get destroyed.

 

I believe reducing the damage, increasing the maintenance and boosting the Iron Dome to 50% would be more than enough to nerf missiles.

 

Hans and under are completely right about this. Cutting off missiles when your opponent has superiority was an awful idea when you first mentioned it months ago, and it remains an awful idea.

 

War was already firmly tilted in favor of the attacker. Now it's unbelievably, hilariously tilted in favor of attackers.