5/17/2015 - Rebalancing

[Alex]

Alright, I need to start this off with an apology. In the last update, I attempted to balance the game, but made a very hasty, negative change to the game. The balance change that increased the number of spies you could buy to 2 per city per day was a very bad idea, and the community backlash has made this apparent. I take full responsibility for the poor decision to make that change, and I'd like to apologize to all of you for doing such a lousy thing.

 

Now I've got some good news in this update, and some extra work I went through to try and rectify this blunder on my part.

 

• The limit of purchasing 2 spies per day has been put back into place as it was before the last update
• The added spy range has been expanded beyond the current -25%/+75% war range, it is now -35%/+125%. While still limiting who you can sabotage, it opens it up a lot more than who you can declare war on.
• You can no longer buy any military in Vacation mode. This is pretty obvious, and something that was made apparent to me as a result of the last update.
• I've cleaned up the formatting on the military purchasing pages, so that errors are now displayed more clearly and uniformly.
• I've added a fancy drop down list to the Leaderboards page that I'd encourage everyone to check out. You can now sort the top 10 nations in a variety of categories, including Population, GDP, military units, casualties, and kills. This was a ton of work to add in, so I hope you'll accept it as my apology for the poor change I made earlier today.

Lastly, I have been and will continue to work with members of the community on changes before just blatantly changing things like I did today. I had the game's best interest at heart, and didn't mean to arbitrarily ruin the espionage aspect of the game. I will do my best to not make these kinds of mistakes in the future, and hope to regain your trust as players and community members.

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention, I'm aware some players got to take advantage of this temporary change and purchase extra spies today. This is, again, my fault, and there's not much that can be done. The amount of damage should be minimal and not have too much of an effect on gameplay.

[Kim Jong-Il]

o/ Update!

 

(now please get to nation perks plsplsplssssssss)

[Brooklyn666]

What about people who bought more than 2 spies for the short time that it was possible? Do they stay, or get rolled back?

[Alex]

What about people who bought more than 2 spies for the short time that it was possible? Do they stay, or get rolled back?

 

I updated the OP, but yes, this is something that unfortunately we'll have to just cut the losses on. I understand this is less than desirable, but I get the impression everyone would rather have the 2/day limit back with a few people who bought extra spies one day than be stuck with the change forever.

[Arthur James]

•  

  What about people who bought more than 2 spies for the short time that it was possible? Do they stay, or get rolled back?

  they should have a roll back and the money refunded.

and

Thanks for the leaderboard changes.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Arthur James

[Vincent]

Ok , I will get the ball rolling, I admit I recruited 20 today. I don't mind having them rolled back , so long as my money to recruit them is refunded.

 

I didn't cheat or etc. I played along the game rules .

[Ren]

The drop down list is awesome, but it's missing nukes.

[Placentica]

This game is really good Sheepy and really, before changing things, just run some polls first, or run it by 10-20 alliance leaders on IRC.

 

125% war updeclare range?  Why not have spies different than war declare ranges?  I'd rather see spy limits lowered than have some 800-1000 score nation have free range over anyone pretty much, even if they'd have to be brutally stocked up, still could easily defeat a 2000 score nation.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Placentica

[Kim Jong-Il]

The drop down list is awesome, but it's not missing nukes. https://politicsandwar.com/leaderboards/nuk

ftfy

[Alex]

The drop down list is awesome, but it's missing nukes.

 

No it's not. https://politicsandwar.com/leaderboards/nuk

This game is really good Sheepy and really, before changing things, just run some polls first, or run it by 10-20 alliance leaders on IRC.

 

125% updeclare range????  Why not have spies different than war declare ranges?  I'd rather see spy limits lowered than have some 800 score nation able to declare on me.

 

125% updeclare range for spies only, the war range has remained the same. Sorry if there's any confusion there.

[Kim Jong-Il]

This game is really good Sheepy and really, before changing things, just run some polls first, or run it by 10-20 alliance leaders on IRC.

 

125% updeclare range????  Why not have spies different than war declare ranges?  I'd rather see spy limits lowered than have some 800 score nation able to declare on me.

 

Well, a nation at 800 score will be spending more than a pretty penny to spy on you, so I dont see how thats a downside for you

[Arthur James]

the problem of this is, the spy range gives lower tier to challenge those who are in upper tier while the reverse can't

(I still love the one without restriction)

 

now I would keep distance from those top tier flocks bcos the rules gives lower tier a better aggression on upper tiers.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Arthur James

[Alex]

the problem of this is, the spy range gives lower tier to challenge those who are in upper tier while the reverse can't

(I still love the one without restriction)

 

now I would keep distance from those top tier flocks bcos the rules gives lower tier a better aggression on upper tiers.

 

Which is how it should be, and why the war range is set up that way too. Helps with the whole catching up/recycling of big nations thing. Make the bigger nations more vulnerable so that they can be beat down, and new nations can rise and take their place, and keep things dynamic.

[Hooves]

Good guy Sheepy

[Ren]

No it's not. https://politicsandwar.com/leaderboards/nuk

 

 

I didn't see that it scrolls! Great addition.

[Samwise]

I seriously geeked out over the military leaderboards. Fantastic addition!

 

Edit: What would be cool is if you could add the indicator that shows when someone's in your range for the military leadership boards like you do with treasures.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Samwise

[Moreau]

Hell yh

[Clarke]

I can't spy on people I am at war with out of range, wtf?

[Kadin]

I can't spy on people I am at war with out of range, wtf?

This is a good point.. Should there be an exception to the range if you're at war with the nation?

[Bilal the Great]

Lol I already bought a dozen of spies.

[Brooklyn666]

I bought a bunch of spies, and I have no problem "returning" them, as long as I get my money back.

[Malice]

Thanks for re-rebalancing.

 

I think the suggestion of spy op costs scaling up against smaller targets could be looked into, rather than a spy range. ( http://politicsandwar.com/forums/index.php?/topic/6364-5172015-balancing-changes/?p=101809 )

 

The Leaderboard bonus stuff is great, maybe the text is a little big on the dropdown though :3

[Oskar]

Yay! Thanks Sheepy! Keep up the good work! 

[Diocletian]

Hm, I thought buying 2 spies per city would be epic. I know I'm not the only one, either. Who could aruge against it and why?