Call of War 1.5: Mechanics & New Balancing

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.

  • Hello everyone, let me try and answer some of your questions and hopefully provide clarification.

    Citizenkane wrote:

    OK just starting my first test round. Right off the start im confused about the idea's of "Balance" and "Styles of Play" this hope's to achieve. If you start with 5 tank plants and no ordinance plants that hurts players that want to use artillery, anti-tank, anti air forces. I have 4 urban cities that can build tanks, one that can build tanks or planes. If balance and a equal chance to play different strategies is a primary goal each county on a 22 map should have 2 tank plants, 2 ordinance plants and 1 air plant. Again this is just an early observation but if I start a game and their are 5 tank plants then players that want to spam tanks, which requires no real skill, becomes the default primary strategy. That game already exists and has it's own following. I think most players agree to keep COW growing it needs to feature unique options for the gamer to explore.']OK just starting my first test round. Right off the start im confused about the idea's of "Balance" and "Styles of Play" this hope's to achieve. If you start with 5 tank plants and no ordinance plants that hurts players that want to use artillery, anti-tank, anti air forces. I have 4 urban cities that can build tanks, one that can build tanks or planes. If balance and a equal chance to play different strategies is a primary goal each county on a 22 map should have 2 tank plants, 2 ordinance plants and 1 air plant. Again this is just an early observation but if I start a game and their are 5 tank plants then players that want to spam tanks, which requires no real skill, becomes the default primary strategy. That game already exists and has it's own following. I think most players agree to keep COW growing it needs to feature unique options for the gamer to explore.
    Yes, you are right and we were aware of that problem. This has to do with some internal system changes we made in order to make CoW 1.5 available for all of you, while keeping up creation of the other maps. We are fixing that currently and will have more appropriate starting conditions in the next CoW 1.5 event.
    We still decided to roll out the event now to give first impressions on where we want to go with Call of War in the future. And that future should not be forcing people into the same strategy over and over agai

    Zippofish wrote:

    My initial reaction is the cost of structures, most especially the rare material. It appears that each structure costs some of every resource. I’m sure I’ll get a better understanding after playing it a bit more. Just seems weird that it makes it not so rare. To me it feels like an obsolete resource now.
    You kind of state the problem we had with "rare material" over the past years. Nobody really knew what "rare material" really was. It just had this pretty odd state, where you needed lots of it in the first stages of a game but ended with huge loads of it where you didn't really care for it anymore.
    We no try to redefine it as a resource that, has its primary use for flying units. You can think of it as aluminium for example, but minerals etc. fall under it too.

    WayneBo wrote:

    First observation:
    All buildings, units and research cost manpower.
    Many units require much greater manpower than the original Cow.
    But . . . there are NO buildings that increase manpower production!
    Here i can tell you, that you can boost your manpower production by building industry, as it boosts all resource production, as well as money and manpower production.
    Let me also stress that are in the first stage of testing our resource balancing in on a great scale. We assumed, that manpower might end up as a bottleneck and highly appreciate all your feedback as it gives us the insight we need to iterate on changes for the future.
  • So guys,

    4 hours of playing and it is already the end of Call of War?

    As said in another post, this is the first event and we try to listen adopt and evolve the game with you.
    In the meantime we already work on new things which not only solve long standing problems but also make the game better. (Last thing is obviously discussable on your point of view)

    When i designed Call of War back in 2014 i never envisioned the game to stand still for a long time. Retrospecitvely i must admit that we did not really touch many of the flawed base concepts since then ( Slow early game, fuzzy and hard to understand battles and many mechanics which were designed to be optimized and integrated later (espionage anyone ?!?) to name a few)
    We now took the time to really touch some of these systems and i get that not all of you will like it, but i honestly believe that the game needs a facelift to stay alive and keep you interested and attract new players.

    So please give us some time and give us honest feedback what you like and what you don´t. This is not a 1 month process after which Call of War will change drastically but a long term project. And of course we won´t make everybody happy or will always make the right calls at first but me and the team believe that the game will be much more interesting longterm.

    Till then try to be nice, give honest feedback and help us to shape the game to be future proof!

    Enjoy the weekend everybody!
  • Ibeses wrote:

    When i designed Call of War back in 2014 i never envisioned the game to stand still for a long time.

    Ibeses wrote:

    We now took the time to really touch some of these systems and i get that not all of you will like it, but i honestly believe that the game needs a facelift to stay alive and keep you interested and attract new players.
    Are you planning something to actually retain/increase player base or the whole Call of War 1.5 is only gameplay changes?
    Estoy dispuesto a darlo todo, a luchar por lo que soy, a ser libre dentro de mi, a guerrear mientras viva.

    Manual: Básico y Machiavelli
  • The game right now is strange.. like research levels are very important now but you have to focus on something and try to build it because you cant do everything.. like i choose to go for planes then i need to fast start lvl 2 and 3 air base and research tactics bombers lvl 3 and interceptors but you end up withot resources and you have to wait days to fill back the resources.
    If you wanna improve the resources then you have to build factory which improve your production in the long term but u will need days to make them at least lvl 2 on your urban provinces meanwhile you have no resources to make any troops.
    So you either go all inn with troops lvl 1 and start war in the first 2 / 4 days or stay still and slowly improve the economy which makes the game so slow that most ppl would feel like to quit.
  • Ibeses wrote:

    Till then try to be nice, give honest feedback and help us to shape the game to be future proof!


    Enjoy the weekend everybody!
    Your game your rules. 4 hours or 4 days, im stating the fact that: Players like me who have played a long time, don't seem to like it, this is an overhaul more or less. This game built 99% of my social life on the internet, on Discord. I care and want to continue playing this, but im not gonna be an yes man and try and be "nice" about the fact that your are changeing the game in most ways that would validate an new game as much as Supremacy 1 did. It's not that people don't want this updated, and that we don't respect your work. You do amazing work makeing games that no one else has. But when you have such an monopoly on this kind of amazing game, people get defencive.

    I personally, don't play CoN, nor Supremacy (1914 OR 1), Call of War is the game we all love. Hence why we might be a bit aggressive to see thease types of radical changes. Im not gonna sit here and claim "i speak for all people on Call of War". There is clearly people who like it, im not gonna say theres not. And I know a lot is subject to change.

    You want to do an facelift but plastic surgery tends to make things more ugly. I am really trying to be nice here, as said, your game your rules. I would not join the 1.5 event if I did not want to give this an shot, and im not gonna out right quit before I see the final changes, but Im saying this now so we can start an discussion and so that we are both able to make this game great, but like I did with Supremacy, if I don't like how the game works, im not gonna play... so we will have to wait and see how this goes.

    I wanna make this an nice conversation, so I hope we can continue speaking as we see how develoups.
  • wedgeantilles wrote:

    ok how do you build more tank factors and air factors, cause I start out with five tank factories and I want to build more but I do not see an option for it. Also I can not build more air factors
    Tank Factories and Air Factories are only allowed to be built in urban provinces, so your starting cities. You can build air strips in provinces aside from urban provinces but those are just so you can move your planes around like normal.
    Dante Bugler1
    Game Operator
    EN Support Team | Bytro Labs Gmbh
  • wedgeantilles wrote:

    so basically, you can not spam build ships tanks and infantry
    Basicaly you cant spam anything.. because there are not enough resources and building structures is too much resource demanding. Even a normal air land is way too costy and the balance around air units is too stupid because they do low damage and gets insane dmg from anyone even infranty lol xD this has no sense at all
  • Good job bytro ruining what was a decent war strategy game that i would happily spend real money on occasionally.
    What we have now falls well short of balance between is it worth playing and occasinally making a gold purchase ? NO. Money can be spent on much better products ect war strategy games that can be inserted into our pc's and the end result is much better in every facet and a more worthwhile investment for war strategy players like myself.
  • Been playing the game for 4 years now and I can see some real potential behind these changes/ideas.
    Let's be honest, CoW as it is now is fun, but the game experience can be much improved in terms of balance, tactics, resource and province management. Therefore, the initiative is welcome and to be respected.

    Some feedback already after the first few hours exploring the changes, especially in the technology branch :

    - Medium Tank has been rendered useless following the huge attacking boost on the Tank Destroyer. Even if the med tank defensive values are better than the destroyer, neither should be used for defensive purposes (the heavy tank or other units are there for that). Moreover they now share the same speed, which really gives no reason to use medium tanks for breakthroughs vs. tank destroyers. I am not sure though how to balance this properly, as I quite like the new attributes of the tank destroyers... maybe lower some of the values ?

    - Motorised Infantry finally a lot more useful through the new attacking bonus implemented for some units. Yet, I would increase its current AA defense value (now only half of the Infantry AA defense value). Also thought the damage should have slightly higher than the Infantry until I realised the added +25% overall damage in plains, which actually fits nicely (but would still increase the AA value...).

    - Mechanized Infantry is still not there yet. The speed may be an important factor in tactics, but the damage values are still a bit too low when comparing with the new motorised infantry attributes (and the light armor class does not compensate enough as it is now in my view)

    - SP Anti-Air damage values are very scary (but heading in the right direction) and I find the +50% damage bonus in mountains (and nothing in plains) fairly unusual for this type of units. Overall, maybe a slight mistake for its attributes ?


    To be continued

    Cheers
  • Ibeses wrote:

    So guys,

    4 hours of playing and it is already the end of Call of War?

    As said in another post, this is the first event and we try to listen adopt and evolve the game with you.
    In the meantime we already work on new things which not only solve long standing problems but also make the game better. (Last thing is obviously discussable on your point of view)

    When i designed Call of War back in 2014 i never envisioned the game to stand still for a long time. Retrospecitvely i must admit that we did not really touch many of the flawed base concepts since then ( Slow early game, fuzzy and hard to understand battles and many mechanics which were designed to be optimized and integrated later (espionage anyone ?!?) to name a few)
    We now took the time to really touch some of these systems and i get that not all of you will like it, but i honestly believe that the game needs a facelift to stay alive and keep you interested and attract new players.

    So please give us some time and give us honest feedback what you like and what you don´t. This is not a 1 month process after which Call of War will change drastically but a long term project. And of course we won´t make everybody happy or will always make the right calls at first but me and the team believe that the game will be much more interesting longterm.

    Till then try to be nice, give honest feedback and help us to shape the game to be future proof!

    Enjoy the weekend everybody!
    Willing to give a chance to the new balancing, but if I can say one thing it is that the new rule "all units costs a bit of everything, but in various proportion" is reaallly not user friend nor newbie friendly, and is really something for economic optimizers rather than strategists.

    In CoW 1.0, when I launch a game I check my ressource situation and then map out a bit whether I should invest more in mobile force or infantry etc. If I want more of a specific unit, I quickly realize which resource I lack and I orient my strategy to get it.
    In 1.5, it is way more complicated.
    It also makes the game auto-balance harder (if you don't have a resource, or very little of a resource, you are DOOMED, whereas in CoW provided you had supplies you could probably find some units to produce), will harm any small AI nations without all resources (since they won't be able to build anything, which means taking their capital will be payday) and is in general not easy on the eye.

    The rest I am willing to test more, but the "everything cost all resoures" needs to go IMO.

    A minor irritant is that there has been a split between heavy armor and medium armor (which seems a bit too detailled, but fine) but SP AT has been put heavy medium armor, when historically most AT were actually medium armor.
    Since you can produce units of different tech level, I would put the early SP ATmedium armor, and the later ones use heavy armors, but actually go slower (you can even end the "Medium SP AT" in research and create "Heavy SP AT" as a new branch that needs Medium SP AT fully researched so it is easier for the player). Minor and personal taste, but missed opportunity if you ask me.

    By the way, I am a (former) producer and designer of mobile (freemium) strategy games, so I know my way around balancing & monetisation.
  • C88 wrote:

    In Cow 1.5 air units are nerfed on the ground.. there are no points in invest in making an air force. Air force has got always nerf after nerfs but now its not flying anymore its feels like chickens that try to fly
    I disagree - Starting Hit Points of tac bombers are now 40 and keep increasing by 40 per level.
    Air force used to be the only thing to produce to ensure victory in a lot of situations and vs. most players. It is not the only thing to produce anymore, which is for the best.

    Yet, I find the AA value of Anti-Tanks a bit too high.
  • Entrocit wrote:

    C88 wrote:

    In Cow 1.5 air units are nerfed on the ground.. there are no points in invest in making an air force. Air force has got always nerf after nerfs but now its not flying anymore its feels like chickens that try to fly
    I disagree - Starting Hit Points of tac bombers are now 40 and keep increasing by 40 per level.Air force used to be the only thing to produce to ensure victory in a lot of situations and vs. most players. It is not the only thing to produce anymore, which is for the best.

    Yet, I find the AA value of Anti-Tanks a bit too high.
    There are many way to counter air units in cow..but most playerbase doesnt have a clue how to use them like i still see ppl who do directs hits under my patrol. hits points means nothing if any units have AA buffed and attack of tactics is so low..Also the patrol tic is still 15 mins meanwhile it should be 7.5 mins because now every attack of the ground is 30 mins and the patrol tic was related to ground tics too.. so another nerf for the planes but you may not even realize what im saying do you?
  • Entrocit wrote:

    I disagree - Starting Hit Points of tac bombers are now 40 and keep increasing by 40 per level.
    starting HP's of most landunits is eqaul or higher then starting HP's of air units and keep by +-30 per level....
    But take a look only on two main land unit now: infantryand armored car.
    Infantry start with 35 HP 3 aa-damage, first upgrade +25HP +3 aa-dmg, next + 30HP +3aa-dmg; (dont forget +50% damage buff in city)
    armored car stadt with 45 HP, 6 aa-dgm, lvl2 +35 HP, +6 aa-dmg; lvl3 +50 HP (!), +6 aa-dmg; lvl 4 +55 HP (!!!) +6 aa-dmg. ( dont forget +50% damage buff on plains)

    Also: airforces are nerfed, airforces in CoW 1.5 are 3 till 5 times (each lvl up is more weaker) less usefull then they were in CoW 1.0;

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