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    • Ok, now that I am in the match for somewhat longer, a bit more constructive feedback

      - The negative resources are indeed solving themselves somewhat
      - Its actually quite hard to take ány country, even AI (unless you want extreme losses), very fun
      - Suddenly strategic bombers are important, also a +1

      The one thing that continues to bug me tremendously is the way the 'speed round' works, in terms of time. I understand its coded as 'time goes twice as fast', but gamewise it creates utter chaos. Personally, I would rather see a CoW day be 12 hours at regular time (and of course, units move at twice the pace). Its very hard to do planning in regard to delayed orders etc. And it sounds to me, it shouldnt be that hard to code in such a way that everything is 'halved' instead of 'sped up'

      So, summarizing, even though I love the event and the laid out mechanics, I doubt I will join speed rounds in the future because of the way 'time' works.

      Just to be sure:

      @freezy
    • The best thing on this event maps is that we see that the day switch is not fixed by the server time. Now we have two times a day a day change, and players all over the world have a good chance to react after the new information are available. :thumbsup:

      Would you like to play with your friends in a game where gold is banned?


      Watch for the next season starts in September!
    • miech wrote:

      Its very hard to do planning in regard to delayed orders etc. And it sounds to me, it shouldnt be that hard to code in such a way that everything is 'halved' instead of 'sped up'
      There's a fairly simple answer as to why the speed matches work the way they do. Turning up the clock speed is a very easy thing to do on the server end and only requires halving the time between the clock's multithreaded "ticks". In other words, the server is operating as if the time for all operations is normal, but it's actually operating on twice the number of ticks per second. Therefore, the processes are doubled.

      The server operates in it's own internal bubble, not realizing that it's operating at double speed outside that bubble. And changing the ticks per second can be done externally so that, internally, the server software operates in an unchanged state. In theory, you could change the external ticks such that the unchanged internal state operates at super high speeds or extremely slow speeds. But it wouldn't matter inside the bubble of the server's "world".

      To programmatically change how the speed is perceived by the server internally, such that operations can be carried out in live time but have other elements operate at different speeds, it would be more complex as you would have to "invade" the internal world of the server and make multiple changes that would have to be adjusted individually. This would increase the likelihood of game imbalance issues. Doing things externally doesn't affect the game mechanics so that's a safer move, anyway.

      miech wrote:

      The AI seems unusually...active in my game. Is the AI by any chance elite AI? Gives me a harder time than most of the humans I seem to face in most of my games'_

      I suspect that the AI is getting more done simply because it has more units, more structures, and more time. If you stay at war with a fully-armed AI player but never move against it offensively, for days at a time, it will eventually wipe out your forces as much as it's force strengths allow.

      Extra units, double speed....the AI is bound to do better.
      It seemed like such a waste to destroy an entire battle station just to eliminate one man. But Charlie knew that it was the only way to ensure the absolute and total destruction of Quasi-duck, once and for all.

      The saying, "beating them into submission until payday", is just golden...pun intended.

      R.I.P. Snickers <3
    • miech wrote:

      Its actually quite hard to take ány country, even AI (unless you want extreme losses)
      Not really.








      The time display is a bit disconcerting, but I'm actually liking it because I figure I'm able to gain an advantage by understanding it better than average. If they wanted to "fix" it they would need to divide the display times by 2 on the browser client.
    • Thanks for your feedback - it is highly appreciated. We already received the feedback about the timer confusion when we launched the first round of speed maps. We did not yet manage to sort it out completely but still didn't want to keep you from having another fun (and fast!) experience with the Arms Race maps. But again, it makes perfect sense to align the timers and displays so that it is easier to understand for players without a degree in higher mathematics. ;)
      Felix / Alkyonor
      Community Manager
      Bytro Labs GmbH
    • DxC wrote:

      miech wrote:

      Its actually quite hard to take ány country, even AI (unless you want extreme losses)
      Not really.

      Thank you for that data. I hadn't noticed it in the WH. Now I know where to send 2 Light Tanks.

      Florida, here I come!

      (Cuba's gonna hate me.)

      Dang it....that's not my match!

      Florida is abandoned here, and in the top 5 armies.
      It seemed like such a waste to destroy an entire battle station just to eliminate one man. But Charlie knew that it was the only way to ensure the absolute and total destruction of Quasi-duck, once and for all.

      The saying, "beating them into submission until payday", is just golden...pun intended.

      R.I.P. Snickers <3

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Diabolical ().

    • I have really enjoyed the Arms Race maps, better than the Speed Map although that was quite fun. managed to take one Speed Game through to 84 days :).

      The negative manpower and food etc have contributed to using different strategies and units. However the main effort has been on not throwing away units as they were hard to replace.

      One thing though. Can we have more advance warning of events so we can prepare for it by not engaging in other new games just before the event.

      Thanks and keep it up.
    • miech wrote:

      Yes, so far the 2 events have been highly imaginative.

      I wouldnt mind helping the staff thinking up some events. Just send me a message and I will throw out some ideas.
      I'm still just thrilled they finally came up with a polar map. I just wish they'd use my north pole map idea, though.
      It seemed like such a waste to destroy an entire battle station just to eliminate one man. But Charlie knew that it was the only way to ensure the absolute and total destruction of Quasi-duck, once and for all.

      The saying, "beating them into submission until payday", is just golden...pun intended.

      R.I.P. Snickers <3
    • After just about completing and Arms Race game I have to say it was one of the best maps ever. Interesting points;

      1.) Early Resource Deficiency (Food & Manpower) is a n00b trap. I dunno how many exactly positions, it was certainly a half dozen or more, made the mistake of building extra barracks to fix the Manpower issue, but only ended up getting themselves suckered into a Negative Food Death Spiral. I did well because I always upgrade my resources, and in this Round I paid super-close attention to Food. You might try including a warning about this in future Arms Race-style Rounds.

      2.) A.I. Bots were mean. Really mean. I suffered some of my heaviest losses early on when I underestimated a neighboring AI Bot and took heavier losses than anticipated. I compensated for the loss, but I noticed many players had this problem - and Lord Have Pity on the players that attacked an Inactive player nation that had not yet fought any battles! However, after that first conflict, I easily adapted, and used my new knowledge successfully. Again, maybe you can be apply a little more emphasis on how potent the AI Bots are in these kinds of Rounds.

      3.) Artillery and Railguns actually were useful for me for a change. Early on, anyway; after I expanded my economy sufficiently I left the artillery largely behind and went back to TAC Spam, but I did appreciate how this Round made units I almost never use become important, or at least, significant.

      4.) I gained a new appreciation for Commandos, and Mechanized/Motorized Infantry. I never use these units in regular games. Probably still won't as I hate building L2 & L3 Barracks so I only get Commandos when I happen to park my capital on a captured enemy province with a L2 Barracks, but in this game they were worthwhile.

      5.) Rockets Are King in this Round; rockets are always handy, but when your opponent has a 30+ stack with good AA defense, has artillery that out ranges yours, and plenty of 'meat' in the form of infantry or armor, rockets give a huge advantage. As stated, this is usually the case, but rarely in a game is there so many L5 forts so close together across so wide a landscape. In addition, having so many L3 Airbases in close proximity enhanced the ability to Rocket Spam as needed, so it was a strange experience, but one I enjoyed.

      6.) Blitzes were only possible if your opponent did not have sufficient forces to defend those forts, so LTs (my fave armor unit) was actually not as effective as MECH or even my MOT units. In most games this is not the case at all; I have taken almost all of North America or Africa in past games with only a dozen or so LTs and a crap ton of air' in this game that combo was not always enough, and when it was I could easily be delayed by even a moderately defended fortified city. I appreciated the change.

      7.) x2 Speed Rocks. I did not care much for x4 Speed; I have a very active playing style and x4 required much to high a temporal commitment; but x2 is just about perfect.

      8.) Mistakes were punished more severely; whether is the enhanced speed, the more aggressive AI, or the resource issues at the beginning, I noticed that players that made errors were punished very quickly and harshly. Especially if they were not active enough to identify and correct the mistakes they made. Some n00bs got overwhelmed and never expanded beyond a couple of provinces or else were overrun by the AI, or starved themselves into morale oblivion. If any Round needs a 'Rank Minimum' it is the Arms Race Rounds.

      9.) TAC Spam could actually be hindered, though not stopped. In most games I start TAC Spam and just run over position after position after position until I literally have to stop because I have expanded myself into a serious negative Food situation (whereupon I pause and develop my Food production until it is a positive modifier again). In this game I had to be much more careful as an enemy could spam AAGs and SPAAGs and park the darn things in a fort (usually a L3 - L5) somewhere close by and make things painful for your air force. Fortunately for me, by the time my opponents started spamming AAGs and SPAAGs I already had an overwhelmingly powerful air force and a dominate economy so I would not care too much if I traded a TAC for an AAG (something I would never be happy about in most cases), but it was cool to always have that additional threat when I was slinging my bombers across the battlefield.

      10.) Alliances become more valuable. Because it could take so much more energy to KO a position, making alliances, however temporary, becomes very profitable. In a recent 100p I didn't bother allying with anyone until only about 9 players remained because I simply didn't need to; I TAC-Spammed my way to a huge territorial advantage quite quickly and never had to worry about anything. In this game, even when I was clearly ahead, I had to consider which positions I was going to attack with care; if they were largely untouched by war and controlled a cramped position I usually avoided attacking them until I knew I had overwhelming firepower and no other enemies to worry about. In fact, I lost the most TAC right at the end of the match when I parked 82 air units (about 60 TAC) over a L5 Fort with 11 AAGs mixed in a 35 unit stack. I lost over 60 air units in that one battle (not sure exactly how many TAC, but I only had 2 INT & 11 TAC when the fight was over); thus justifying my earlier caution when dealing with potential targets.

      11.) Intel Gathering is super-important. Because of the aforementioned issues, knowing where your target's units are and what they were doing is paramount. I am a heavy spy user, but in this game I think they are as mandatory as artillery if you intend on doing anything other than just hanging out in your forts.

      12.) Just remembered; Elite ART, Elite SPART, Elite TAC, Elite INT, Elite INF, Elite MOT, Elite MECH, and Elite MT's were all super useful on this map. The ART & SPART have +10km range over non elites, which really mattered alot. Sadly, I did not have any of these while several of my enemies did, and it really does take away your options. I did have Elite INF & TAC, and got full use out of both and was very pleased; however Elite MOT & Elite Mech would have been even more powerful (and the normal versions are, in fact, superior to the Elite INF). Elite MTs can move faster than non-elite LTs, and really added to the hitting power of my opponent's stacks (though my complete control of the air nullified that edge, if we had been closer in air power it would have been a strong advantage for my foes).

      In closing, the Arms Race was awesome. Please add these games to your regular lineup; it is the best and most enjoyable I have ever played. It was the same, but different, and different in a very good way! :)

      Keep up the Good Work!

      The post was edited 4 times, last by KingCongo: Spelling; Elite unit mentions ().

    • Thank you guys very much for the feedback. We really appreciate the positive words and also the constructive feedback. We will review it of course and see if we might do further changes to the game mode, if we will do such an event again ;) I like that you got to try different units and strategies and that you had to adapt to certain situations. That's what we like to see :D Well done!
      Sarah / Sasri
      Ex-Community Manager
    • Hi Sasri, as u can see the event was an overwhelming success.

      The only issue is with the game timers but that is something we can work around. Other gripes are the initial negative resources but this does have a good effect on the game and as Freezy said:


      freezy wrote:

      Regarding the feedback to the map: We know that players start with negative production, but we think this is fine, as it gives a little incentive to go out and fight right away. That should prevent players from just turtling, waiting until the other players killed themselves. We want everyone to get involved in the fights right away, so from our view it's fine.
      The only thing is we need more advance warning so we can clear our social calendars for the Arms Race maps.

      Therefore there is nothing stopping you declaring today that there will be more Arms Race maps this coming Friday :)

      Please? Pretty Please? With Cherries on top :)
    • KingCongo wrote:

      After just about completing and Arms Race game I have to say it was one of the best maps ever. Interesting points;

      1.) Early Resource Deficiency (Food & Manpower) is a n00b trap. I dunno how many exactly positions, it was certainly a half dozen or more, made the mistake of building extra barracks to fix the Manpower issue, but only ended up getting themselves suckered into a Negative Food Death Spiral. I did well because I always upgrade my resources, and in this Round I paid super-close attention to Food. You might try including a warning about this in future Arms Race-style Rounds.

      2.) A.I. Bots were mean. Really mean. I suffered some of my heaviest losses early on when I underestimated a neighboring AI Bot and took heavier losses than anticipated. I compensated for the loss, but I noticed many players had this problem - and Lord Have Pity on the players that attacked an Inactive player nation that had not yet fought any battles! However, after that first conflict, I easily adapted, and used my new knowledge successfully. Again, maybe you can be apply a little more emphasis on how potent the AI Bots are in these kinds of Rounds.

      3.) Artillery and Railguns actually were useful for me for a change. Early on, anyway; after I expanded my economy sufficiently I left the artillery largely behind and went back to TAC Spam, but I did appreciate how this Round made units I almost never use become important, or at least, significant.

      4.) I gained a new appreciation for Commandos, and Mechanized/Motorized Infantry. I never use these units in regular games. Probably still won't as I hate building L2 & L3 Barracks so I only get Commandos when I happen to park my capital on a captured enemy province with a L2 Barracks, but in this game they were worthwhile.

      5.) Rockets Are King in this Round; rockets are always handy, but when your opponent has a 30+ stack with good AA defense, has artillery that out ranges yours, and plenty of 'meat' in the form of infantry or armor, rockets give a huge advantage. As stated, this is usually the case, but rarely in a game is there so many L5 forts so close together across so wide a landscape. In addition, having so many L3 Airbases in close proximity enhanced the ability to Rocket Spam as needed, so it was a strange experience, but one I enjoyed.

      6.) Blitzes were only possible if your opponent did not have sufficient forces to defend those forts, so LTs (my fave armor unit) was actually not as effective as MECH or even my MOT units. In most games this is not the case at all; I have taken almost all of North America or Africa in past games with only a dozen or so LTs and a crap ton of air' in this game that combo was not always enough, and when it was I could easily be delayed by even a moderately defended fortified city. I appreciated the change.

      7.) x2 Speed Rocks. I did not care much for x4 Speed; I have a very active playing style and x4 required much to high a temporal commitment; but x2 is just about perfect.

      8.) Mistakes were punished more severely; whether is the enhanced speed, the more aggressive AI, or the resource issues at the beginning, I noticed that players that made errors were punished very quickly and harshly. Especially if they were not active enough to identify and correct the mistakes they made. Some n00bs got overwhelmed and never expanded beyond a couple of provinces or else were overrun by the AI, or starved themselves into morale oblivion. If any Round needs a 'Rank Minimum' it is the Arms Race Rounds.

      9.) TAC Spam could actually be hindered, though not stopped. In most games I start TAC Spam and just run over position after position after position until I literally have to stop because I have expanded myself into a serious negative Food situation (whereupon I pause and develop my Food production until it is a positive modifier again). In this game I had to be much more careful as an enemy could spam AAGs and SPAAGs and park the darn things in a fort (usually a L3 - L5) somewhere close by and make things painful for your air force. Fortunately for me, by the time my opponents started spamming AAGs and SPAAGs I already had an overwhelmingly powerful air force and a dominate economy so I would not care too much if I traded a TAC for an AAG (something I would never be happy about in most cases), but it was cool to always have that additional threat when I was slinging my bombers across the battlefield.

      10.) Alliances become more valuable. Because it could take so much more energy to KO a position, making alliances, however temporary, becomes very profitable. In a recent 100p I didn't bother allying with anyone until only about 9 players remained because I simply didn't need to; I TAC-Spammed my way to a huge territorial advantage quite quickly and never had to worry about anything. In this game, even when I was clearly ahead, I had to consider which positions I was going to attack with care; if they were largely untouched by war and controlled a cramped position I usually avoided attacking them until I knew I had overwhelming firepower and no other enemies to worry about. In fact, I lost the most TAC right at the end of the match when I parked 82 air units (about 60 TAC) over a L5 Fort with 11 AAGs mixed in a 35 unit stack. I lost over 60 air units in that one battle (not sure exactly how many TAC, but I only had 2 INT & 11 TAC when the fight was over); thus justifying my earlier caution when dealing with potential targets.

      11.) Intel Gathering is super-important. Because of the aforementioned issues, knowing where your target's units are and what they were doing is paramount. I am a heavy spy user, but in this game I think they are as mandatory as artillery if you intend on doing anything other than just hanging out in your forts.

      12.) Just remembered; Elite ART, Elite SPART, Elite TAC, Elite INT, Elite INF, Elite MOT, Elite MECH, and Elite MT's were all super useful on this map. The ART & SPART have +10km range over non elites, which really mattered alot. Sadly, I did not have any of these while several of my enemies did, and it really does take away your options. I did have Elite INF & TAC, and got full use out of both and was very pleased; however Elite MOT & Elite Mech would have been even more powerful (and the normal versions are, in fact, superior to the Elite INF). Elite MTs can move faster than non-elite LTs, and really added to the hitting power of my opponent's stacks (though my complete control of the air nullified that edge, if we had been closer in air power it would have been a strong advantage for my foes).

      In closing, the Arms Race was awesome. Please add these games to your regular lineup; it is the best and most enjoyable I have ever played. It was the same, but different, and different in a very good way! :)

      Keep up the Good Work!

      Having participated in the exact same match that this player is describing, I can say that he is not exaggerating about
      his Tactical Bomber counts. In fact, after stabbing me in the back for the second time (first time was against our coalition in general...second against me specifically), I successfully knocked down over half of his huge Bomber fleet in a single engagement. Then, only a few days later, he lost most of his bombers in another battle (as he describes) against another player. Yet, he kept spamming more and more bombers and pretty much nothing else.

      Still, it was an interesting match and I endorse his overall sentiment that the Arms Race matches are a good concept. Had it not been for his betrayal, I would probably be the first or second place winner of that match and I certainly look forward to playing it again. Heck, I wouldn't mind even having @KingCongo as an opponent in that match just so I can show him what revenge really tastes like.

      Of course, that might just be mean on my part....turning my full attention on him from the start (I know I have a certain somewhat-justified reputation for extreme aggressiveness). Since he doesn't exactly agree with my interpretation of the events, I won't blame him if he thinks I'm just being bitter about my sudden and unjustified defeat. All I really care about is getting a rematch. But that would only be if in another Arms Race match.
      It seemed like such a waste to destroy an entire battle station just to eliminate one man. But Charlie knew that it was the only way to ensure the absolute and total destruction of Quasi-duck, once and for all.

      The saying, "beating them into submission until payday", is just golden...pun intended.

      R.I.P. Snickers <3

      The post was edited 3 times, last by Diabolical ().

    • Really?

      I quit your coalition, quit sharing maps at the same time you were online and we were chatting (so you could also cancel your share map with me) and gave you 24 hours notice that I was gonna attack and you still call it a backstab?

      I don't think that word means what you think that word means. :D

      As far as my losses, sure I lost a lot of planes. I began my attack on you with exactly 117 air units and ended with 26 INT & 44 TAC and thought I got a great exchange for the just under 200k in manpower worth of units I wiped out and the +50% boost to my economy 32 game hours later. ;)

      But, yeah, if I was not playing you might have made 1st or 2nd. With me in the game; never gonna happen.

      GG
    • Hm....yes, the infamous "24" hour warning. That's actually kinda fair in and of itself...though some people would argue for 48 hours. And though that doesn't take away the sting of betrayal, it is marginally fair.

      If only your "24" hours were real hours rather than in-game hours...since it was a 2X Speed match. But I'm not bitter about it. And yes, you did wipe out tons of my forces....beating me quite thoroughly with my pants down....while I was still organizing my units into a strong and cohesive defensive position. But, what with nearly "36" in-game hours passing, you were quite "justified" in catching almost all of my AA and Militia thinly spread out as single units all over the place and not grouped together into a fortified defensive line....something that would have been achieved had I been granted an actual 24 hours from which I planned my movements by.

      You're right that you totally wiped out tons and tons of defenders that did not have time enough to get into their positions. Your "24" hour warning was just enough time for me to put together enough forces to keep you at bay and your "36" hours was just enough time for me to send them where I wanted them yet not enough time to actually arrive. In this match, 24 hours WOULD have been enough time...but then you didn't actually give me a real 24 hours, now did you.

      Like I said before, you don't agree with my interpretation of the events. Far be it from me to actually believe you when you say I've got 24 hours and that you only meant "in-game" hours.

      so sad....so sad....so sad

      But I'm not bitter...!

      Well, maybe a little. But don't you dare think that you can beat me any time. Had I been allowed the real time to defend according to your own word, you wouldn't be so smug right now. Your statement that my lands increased your holdings by 50% are a severe understatement because my proportionally-based economy was gigantic as with all of my matches. Realistically, had I been given the full 24 hours, you likely would have lost that match...and even if you didn't, you would not have had anything more than a squeaker of a victory against me because of my cunning and guile on the battlefield.

      Notwithstanding that, my military front against what used to be OUR enemies could have easily been pointing at you, but then, I don't betray MY allies....not in 24 hours, nor in 48. You see, I actually have something you might not recognize...and it's called loyalty....and it's called character. Next time you think about betraying someone else, why don't you take a good look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself this, "Would my dear departed grandmother condone this...or my mother...or my pastor?"
      It seemed like such a waste to destroy an entire battle station just to eliminate one man. But Charlie knew that it was the only way to ensure the absolute and total destruction of Quasi-duck, once and for all.

      The saying, "beating them into submission until payday", is just golden...pun intended.

      R.I.P. Snickers <3