Dev Diaries Grab Bag Edition!

[FoxRox]

In this issue of the Dev Diaries, we've asked the community for some suggested material and handed the questions in! Producers Tim and Brian have taken their time to answer the questions I've selected, so read below!


1- Why haven’t you updated the Bookmark system? (Why you guys haven’t improve the bookmark system)

There are several UI systems that are outdated and less functional than we want them to be. The Bookmarks are one of these systems that needs an update. We want the Bookmark system to be something that is easy to use while providing useful information to the player. Right now it was get confusing if you have many bookmarks and this is something we need to address. In a future Dev Diary look for more information about what we hope to change and add to this system.



2- Do you have plans on adding sounds for incoming attacks to go along with the flashing city?

To be perfectly honest this was not something that was on the roadmap. Immediately after reading this question, however, we added it to the list. This is definitely something that needs to be added into GoR and I can’t believe we missed it. Expect to see this in a future update for sure.



3- The Godfather - Five Families has a very cool set bonus feature in the Armory. Any plans to add something similar to GoR?

Yes.


We definitely have plans to add something similar to the Armory to Glory of Rome. Even though on the surface Godfather and Glory of Rome might seem similar, there are a lot of differences between the two games and we want to design an Armory system that makes sense for GoR. Expect to see more details about this GoR feature after the release of 6th City



5- When the 6th city is released, will there be a new troop?

While we’re not ready to discuss the specifics of 6th City, we do plan to make it as unique to the game as 5th City. This could come from a number of things, including the possibility of a new unit, but our defining goal for all new Cities is to make them functionally unique and useful to our players.



6- i would like to ask when the leaderboard is going to be updated

There was a bug that was preventing the Leaderboard from updating. This has been fixed and the Leaderboard is once again functioning properly. If you were asking about changes to the Leaderboard itself, we’d love to hear your feedback below as to what you’d like to see.

While we don’t have too many updates planned for the Leaderboard just yet, we are planning on adding a Battlegrounds portion where players can see top players/Alliances that are participating in the Battlegrounds.



7- What is the point of leveling generals what do they effect?

Generals empower an entire army in combat. The higher a General is, the higher bonus every unit in their march gets in combat.



8a- Do you plan on restoring balance from the game, for example, reducing bears power or releasing a new type of troop to counter the bears?

8b- I have never found an effective use of the Ballista weapon. Can you make it be effective against Bears? Bottom line is what is the Ballista good for?

We are always keeping a close eye on combat, especially when a new unit is released. We continue to balance the power of all units in an attempt to keep combat competitive. With Ursa Berserkers in particular, we decided to use Scorpios and Ballistae as counters. If you are looking for a use for your Ballistae, point them towards Bears.

With that said, one feature we are releasing soon is an updated Battle Report. This update will allow users to see all bonuses that affect combat within the Battle Report so that users can better understand why a player was victorious even if they had a smaller army. With the use of items, a high level General and high level Research a player can take a significantly smaller army to victory. This presents an issue with the current Battle Reports because a player knows none of this and thinks a specific unit is just overpowered. We look to remedy this with the updated Battle Report.



9- Creating a use for the Forum/Museum

We are not currently happy with the function the Museum serves in GoR. The Museum and the Forum are the most ignored buildings in the game and we want to change that.

Unfortunately we don’t have specific plans for these buildings just yet, but we definitely to update them so that they are meaningful even if that means completely redesigning them from scratch. Any thoughts or suggestions on these two buildings are welcome in the comments below.




10- Battleground 1 seems to be kind of a waste right now. It doesn't generate enough bears to take out a marginally-reined battleground. Any plans to change the way it functions?

The original goal of Ungetümwald was to introduce the new Ursa Berserkers to players. Now that 5th City has been released this point is a lot less exciting since any player with 5th City can train these units. In an upcoming release we plan to make adjustments to the Germania Battleground. We’ll be looking at all points and if an update to Ungetümwald makes sense you can expect to see it then.

[StudiusMaximus]

Thank you for posting some of these responses. However, recent battles over the last 24hrs don't jive with your claim that scorpios and ballistas defeat bears. I lost a ton of troops by attacking bears with those ranged troops and I still don't understand the battle mechanics. Release the updated battle report ASAP becuase obviously Kabam changed something about the URsa but it is unclear what exactly. Battles still do not make much sense.

[StudiusMaximus]

I am shocked... and completely disappointed... that in this "dev grab bag" there is no mention of instant attacks and use of speed up dials which have made combat really boring and dull.

In all seriousness, using dials has made combat so much less fun. And yes, I use them, but I would be very happy if they were removed from the game. Think about it...you can't defend, you can't reinforce, you can't actually engage tactics... it ruins the fun of battle.

Dials are a HUGE problem, maybe even more so than Ursa balance and battle mechanics. Can you please discuss this?

What should we do as a community to get Kabam to listen to us and remove instant attacks and speed dials from combat?

Please, please answer.

Thanks

[StudiusMaximus]

Why didn't you introduce the new battle report in this update? We cannot figure out what you are changing in the game. There is no mention in the update notes of any changes. There are many many instances where the troop infographic fails to tell the whole story. Many battles come out with both sides saying "wtf happened???"

That makes battles un fun.

I'm telling you... if you could please TELL US HOW BATTLES WORK and remove instant attacks, you could revitalize this game.

[Jean-Marc Depierraz]

Thanks FoxRox, topics are nice ;

Besides the market and museum, don't forget this :

'Other Bonus: Bonuses from miscellaneous sources, such as the Coliseum'

Maybe I'll build one of those buildings one day lol


Cheers,

[cameronius]

Sorry Foxy but as someone who has had over 800k scorp and ballistae thrown at my bears and barely been scratched i believe your claims to be false ...is there a way to defeat bears with lvl 10 reaserch and a high lvl gen apart from cross reinforcing with lvl 10 bears and a higher gen ?

[Inpatfan]

Have to agree with cam. I have posted reports where I hit 200K bears with 100K scorp followed by 100K scorp. In those attacks I killed a whopping 2K bears. I also hit 20K Ball backed by 100K bears, using 90K bears myself. In that attack I killed all the ball and 95K bears. Not sure you guys made the defense against bears work the way you think you did.

[StudiusMaximus]

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo


Where is the new detailed battle report? Was that just another promise of appeasement for which there was no intention to actually implement?

[X4OX0]

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo


Where is the new detailed battle report? Was that just another promise of appeasement for which there was no intention to actually implement?

Dear StudiusMaximus, I wish to help solve your problems. As every time I come on to the Forums, which I am so regularly eager to leave by seeing anything that has been commented or created by you. I hope that we can help each other, me helping you by teaching you something, and the end results of you STFU. I look at your name StudiusMaximus, which I take as Studies to the Max. Correct me if I am wrong. If I am right you imply that you study, unfortunately all most of us see you do is cry. Which implies to me, that you do not know what you are doing.

So to help you out on berserkers, to be honest I am a very well known player, and I was the first person to figure out how the berserekers work, and what their weaknesses are. So to give you some insight please check out gorbible.wordpress.com

Note that the bears are flanking troops, they flank to the rear. Or in terms that might best suit you, bears fight bears first, while the Roman troops fight each other. If you only send roman Troops in an attack, the bears flank your troops, and your troops are literally fought on two sides and loose.

How about phase, do you know how to optimize fighting with projectile troops?


I have also seen you complain about how big the generals are, well I again would ask you to stop complaining. To understand the game just like most things you must research and have a complete understanding of the basics, which can most constructively discovered by looking at the micro. So to give you some insight.

An attack is worth 100EXP for your general.

NOTE That you can reinforce a nuetral on the map.

NOTE that you can attack all of your generals at that neutral, giving your reinforcing gen 100 EXP per attack.

NOTE that attacking a level 10 barb will give your gen between 3.5K EXP-4K EXP.

The reason I ask you to stop complaining, is its people like you who keep complaining, instead of learning causing the dems to make changes in your favor, which makes the game more terrible and again makes you complain because you still don't know anything. People like you complained about porters, now we have dialers. You complain about being starved out because you won't defend, so now we have prepaid marches, making internal Banking nearly impossible.

Thank you,
THE_FARMER or X40

[Noob_58DJ6HZ]

I think a market should be built as many of the people online get spoon-fed all their resources, this is usually by their alliance or generous people in global chat. But what I'd like to say is that having a marketplace where you can make offers, or appease offers would be a great idea. What more is the possibility of trading troops, this is so when a person has troops that they don't want they can trade it for troops they do want without having to use the useless troops that occupy population for scouts rather than soldiers. My point I'm trying to get to is that any person should be able to make trades over the marketplace(which should be built) to hasten the unnecessary train time for their units when theyy could just train for them.