The New Rebalancing: an Observation, new PP version released on March 18 2015

Thanks for the response, Midoki! That was quick.

Lucky me, then I guess. My PR is now 1077 and literally I've not run a single offensive attack since around PR of 1035. About 10-11 more PR to go until I'm #3 globally.

And given the rich history that Midoki developers bring to the table, I'm glad to hear that you are testing things so extensively. The changes feel drastic and in all reality I've lost just a single offensive attack out of the 10 attacks I've run since yesterday morning. I didn't really use Ching that much so I'm not missing her ability but the defense upgrades feel very different and have given top level bases a great advantage that I guess should be expected. Anyway, perhaps things will heat up more so as other players max out their bases and troops.

Thanks again for all you guys do at Midoki!

 

Have you ever played Clash of Clans? The top bases are almost never 3 starred and only 2 starred if the entire attack is designed to bore a hole to the TH and take it out while hoping to get the 50% on the way. War is coming to PP, and you cannot have everyone 3 starring everyone else or war is pointless. Game changes designed to harden bases are a good thing.

I think some of your concerns are valid, but you are a 1%er. They cannot build a game for you. It wouldn't be profitable for them or fun for the casual player. Give it some time; once these changes have been in place for a while things will find balance, as games always do.

 

But i dont want it to be like clash where you cant 3 star bases....

 

you've said eveything I wanted to say. Good point. Midoki is on the right track of making this update and for this type of game. This is exactly what is needed..

 

Don't worry this is not COC, it's plunder pirates

 

I see a clash between gemmers and non-gemmers though. Gemmers don't focus on the loot element of the game as much for obvious reasons. I agree that a maxed base should be rarely 3 starred, so rebalancing might be needed. The loot, however, is what will discourage a large portion of this player base (which consists largely of non-gemmers). I was a maxed PH 7 base at PH 8 release and had spent $10 total. We seem to have entered into a new environment, which is what feels clash-like.

 

Update:

PR: 1098
Rank: #3 Globally

What did I do? Nothing, I logged on to rearm my mines and flame gate.

 

PPG. you said you were done posting comments. if you post any more you will be banned.

 

With that accomplishment I'd say you are recognized you as the true #1 player.
We all know the two clowns above you made it there by cheating.
Even our friend Mr. Green admitted that.

 

Great post there, well-said indeed! Your mention about "players getting used to more aggresive offense and successful raids even with sloppier attacks" basically echoes with something I said earlier about PCSD "Post Ching Stress Disoder" With Ching gone (she will return one day so that's something we can look forward too), we should naturally adapt our expectations of how easygoing raids can be accordingly. Perhaps the tricky thing is the recent boost in defense introduces unexpected changes that challenge our ability to adapt to / cope with "piracy life without Ching". Still, all we need to do is to adapt/"update" our expectations on raids against high level islands.

The main problems I see with the new update however lies not in "offense getting more challenging at high level". Rather it is about loot reduction.

 

I'm using a base very similar to PPG (just mild decoration/collector tweaks)
My defenses are maxed, but many of my walls are still 9/10, only the one wall thick weak points are lv 11 currently.

Despite this, I've seen several maxed out bases, with maxed out 500k+ grog armies bounce off my base barely denting it. (wall lv 9 is now equivalent to what wall lv 11 was before the update, so I'm effectively at least as strong as PPG pre-update).

This isn't a matter of "a better strategy can win". My guildmates have fought several of this design, and with some very clever attacks, managed to squeak by with a 1* victory - there is a slight defensive flaw that I'm sure PPG is working on fixing.

But with VERY clever attacks with a max strength army, just BARELY being able to manage a 1* victory if everything goes perfectly is not balance. a slight screw up on ability timing is the difference between a 35% loss and a 50% slight victory.

A PERFECT army with a PERFECT attack should be able to just barely 3* the toughest base, and a GOOD army with a GOOD attack should 1-2* the toughest base at least some of the time. Not 1% of the time, with all the stars just perfectly aligned.

I do think that defenses needed a buff, particularly walls, and I'm glad they got them. But the non-wall defenses definitely didn't need as big of a change. 2k extra hp across 4 bunkers is a lot.

Not only does this make it harder to destroy the defenses, but this makes the side buildings add up to less percent as well (they needed a nerf, but not this big of one). So now, if youve destroyed all the collectors and academy and everything, you're attacking the base already worse off than you were pre patch, from a percentage destroyed situation. And the fact that we have to rely on percentage victories to have any chance is already a balance design flaw I think.

The percentage destroyed offset and the defense boost together I think are slightly too much when looking at max level bases. I don't mind losing 1-2* when I see the attacker spent over half a million grog on their army. I think wow, it took quite an army to breach my base, that was a cool attack. I did mind losing when I saw a PH7 with AC5 brutes/gunners manage to 2* a max level PH8 base, which seemed to be the balance before the update. It should be a "is the loot/PR I will win worth the extreme army cost this base will take?" and balancing army costs vs rewards, rather than "I have to absolutely spend half a days worth of collection for a 1% shot at just barely 1*ing a base if I want even the slightest chance of winning"

Unmaxed bases (walls still lv 9-10) without this layout I can still 2* with a mid-end army with a full guild ship, which is how things should be. I'm happy for the free PR, but I can see that unless things are slightly rebalanced (it won't take much, just a couple slight tweaks), a lot of the fun of the game will be gone. Please don't go overboard in trying to fine tune things Midoki. a 10% stat change goes a lot further than you guys are realizing, and I can see that reacting too hastily in response to this could break things in the opposite direction again very easily as well.

 

Finally someone tries to see this issue from the defense perspective. Kudos to you for that!

I agree that even if my island is levelled quite badly (2 or 3 star), it would comfort me sufficiently if my raider recruited an expensive crew of pirates to take out my island.

I certainly don't mind if defenses get toned down a bit from how strong they are now, but like Skye said, Midoki plz don't take any one single adjustment attempt too far! You will get many distraught fans and players!

 

Would they care? High level players have already spent their gems.

 

If I have been upset today, it's because I am "old" clasher. I joined Plunder, hoping for a better, more player-focused experience. I still have hope...hope springs eternal...but this last update has spun the game in a sad direction.

 

To be honest I'm not having much hope in Midoki either This whole new system too strongly favors newer players who are PH6 or lower. As if they're ignoring early adopters like us entirely just to please the new players. It's a known fact that iOS users are generally more willing to spend money on apps and games than Android users, although I wonder if this would also be true in social games like PP and Clash.

 

Just cracked one of your guildmates bases (same style base as you currently have) for 2 stars and 91% without the guild ship.

I like the fact defenses are stronger now as it brings back the challenge compared to the ching era when it was training grounds and ching kicking all bases' butt. Your judgment, which as other have said, is only an entire few days old. I think this is the way it should be atm. Maxed ph8, difficult to kill. There was another base that was exceedlingly popular in the ph7s before ph8 came out, but with TIME, people figured it out. That's the expectation at the pinnacle of this game. Plan well, execute well. If you don't, you should lose, plain and simple as that. If you have an amazing base, then you win many defenses early on. But as more people willingly attack you, slowly people will find something that works. And then the cookie crumbles.

 

And for the sake of this thread, people need to stick to the OP's topic about defense and not be talking about 'low loot'.

 

Sorry but you are wrong, completely wrong on this point. The title of the thread is a about the new update and rebalancing put in place. Part of that rebalancing was nerfing loot!

 

Ah, sorry didn't read his whole post in detail. Skimmed it for the section headings and didn't see anything about loot. Oh well. I guess titles say more than content cry me a river...

 

No problem @Jun .
I've read many of your posts and respect your opinions even if they are different than mine.