Master of Martial Arts General

[Plumz]

OK so this is my fault because of imprecise expression. The MA wasn't nerfed on test by devs. As it is now on life MA is the most effective general. On more than 80% of all camps (my personal experience) it performs almost equal or even better (depends on troops/enemies composition) than Major general. Additional it can saves troops in adventures because of his special abilities. Saccing MA with 1r can wipe anywhere between 20-50 enemies in a camp making the 2nd wave attack much easier and less costly.

This was why so many players bought it and why we were all so excited about it. It made possible for players under 50 to do adventures that were very hard without Major general, and do them effectively with reasonable cost. MA cost of RB is almost 100R only more than Major? Just as example.

ON test all adventures that are not going to be affected by combat changes will also not affect MA effectiveness. However, by making the enemies harder and changing the attacks all adventures that are going to be changed (epic, FT) will drop MA effectiveness to almost BHG level. This does change its usefulness, simply it is not as attractive as it is now in those adventures. Numbers are already there so those are not rumors. It is not his abilities being nerfed, the upgraded hp/dmg of enemies in those adventures "are nerfing MA". And the players didn't do this did they? There are few proposed changes on test (by players) tha can easily salvage the situation and keep MA in line with its effectiveness even on the "upgraded" adventures. A tiny tweeks, not a major change.

Why I am posting this here? Because there seem to be a vacuum of communication on test. And the additional proposed changes by the devs to beef up even more epic adventures (AFTER players feedback says clearly they are a bit too hard) makes even those cool testers heads wonder what's going on? Uncertainty of where is the game going is also not healthy. People are holding back on gems purchases because they simply lost trust in the dev team. You blame them?

Hope this clarifies the topic.

[Plumz]

If I do seem harsh on devs it is only because I love the game and don't want to see it going down spiral of doom. Yes I don't understand a lot of what devs do, yes I do have questions (as we all are) and yes I am watching the changes like a hawk. And yes when I see a proposed change which most players (by posting on test) deem just plain too harsh or even idiotic I will raise a question. Proposed (not final) changes to adventures loot (1/4 value and no weapons) are just too harsh, everyone sees that. Come on common sense pls.

I frankly think devs got a cold shower by the overwhelming respond on test from players about the new balance change. They shouldn't be shocked if they knew what keeps people playing and what is attractive, worthy to players. Managing your island for 8 hrs a day, finding, building and upgrading (slowly) number of iron mines, buffing and calculating just so you can do an adventure (increased cost and reduced award) is just not what players see as "fun". We already have a jobs and families that we all need to attend. Well, this is a lesson for the future. Know what your player base love about the game, why players play before you start throwing things around and dismentaling what players (most) enjoy. Not to mention that the proposed changes (even as they are) still CAN'T be effectively supported by the island deposits. Numbers don't lie...

[Bigbobdog]

So Plumz specifically what enemy units are increasing in value that are really nerfing the MMA. Please tell me. Given the update they did post on the test forum only a few troops went up and not by anything more than a small amount and most of those were on VLT which is an adventure that is rarely done.

[Pinkleet]

Those are exerts from only one posts started right after new balance was introduced. The changes BEFORE recent update were quite harsh on R, B, Cavalry and MA:

"I know the MMA was supposed to help by not making as many Calvary so you could go into battle with better troops, but since a lot of enemy units if not all enemy units have higher HP, and in regards to Island of the Pirates, more units in the unit group, makes the MMA as well as calvary completely useless. And especially the recruit is as well useless.

I mean we still have to spend 40 horses for 1 calvary, what's the point when only 200 of them can only 1000 damage, and very few unit groups seem to have that, it's just a waste of horses and resources.

I honestly think that if everything is going to have splash damage, the enemy units should have had the SAME HP as before, what is the point of having splash damage if almost every enemy unit has higher HP? Especially Caltrop which should NOT have 20 HP."

"so.. too many undefined text, too many losts, bigger diferenc normal general / MMA / major
splash on every units is too strong.. if this change is final, fairytale adventure is unplayable.."

"As to the rebalancing of the master of martial arts general, I have seen enemy units have an increase of 400% for their hit points. I could imagine the MMA general having an increase and a new damage range of 1300 - 1400 to stay somewhat in line with these increases."

"Quote Originally Posted by BB_Mara View Post
* check on general's balancing (especially the Master of Arts balancing)"

"Do you plan refund gems or money spent to buy this worthless general after changes ? How about "balance" players with 1000k cannos/titaniumswords/crossbows to players which will currently start a game..."

The recent update is reversing a lot of the changes proposed earlier. BB came to their senses after overwhelming respond form majority of players (including you Bigbobdog) concerned about how the changes will affect the game and the economy. Ma is returning to its effectiveness and value even thou BB stated clearly they wanted to "balance him". And thanks god they did reverse most of it.

[Plumz]

My apologies for posting not current information. The latest proposed changes are reversing a lot of shifts from earlier version. The post was started on the premise of previous changes not the ones currently on test. Well, I am happy about it

[Bigbobdog]

Yes and agreed pinkleet that very first idea of balancing i was strongly against. As you said I had looked at it carefully and made suggestions. They backed off of it and now have a new version where our troops and their stats are not touched. There are some enemies that are but i can accept it as a small balancing and the fact is it only affects adventures that one would rarely do.


And yes plumz this is my problem with this post. If it was active during the original balancing i would whole heartedly agree. However they have backed off and are doing i would say mostly good changes. More testing is needed but the MMA is good and these rumors dont help anything. Especially given that the current changes have it as its same relative strength.

[Plumz]

Amen. I already told my guildies about it. Unfortunately, because of the shaky uncertainty of where the game is going they are holding up on the MA purchases until changes come to life. On ares you can call it an overall attitude toward game now "wait and see". It is BB's own fault, I am sure last game sale was quite disappointing in numbers. Lack of vision purely. You don't drop a bomb like this on your player base, shock them so hard and than wonder what happened while trying to stitch the test forum exploding with discontent. Guess it was BB karma to learn that.

[Wimpy]

I have no idea what is going on.

[Perwyn]

It would be nice if BB would issue some kind of statement regarding all the combat changes that were flushed last week. This post (see link) actually does that. http://forum.thesettlersonline.net/threads/20922

Sort of.

Well kinda.

But not really.

Given how riled up everyone has managed to get over the massive changes that were being tested (and are now discarded), the least BB could do is a little hand holding and reassuring right about now. I don't mean trying to distract us with "oh look! Shiny!", which is what that post tried to do, but an actual, well thought out, detailed and complete explanation of their intentions.

Of course, no one's going to be holding their breath waiting for this, since it's pretty much established that BB as a company is horrible at communicating to their clients. It's a shame really, because a lot of people really love this game, and deserve to be treated much better for their loyalty and the money and time they've spent here.

As far as the subject of this particular post and others like it, my hope is that you both, Pinkleet and Plumz, chill out for a while and give the community at large a break from all the "sky is falling" posting you two have been busy at. I know you guys love the game. So do I. So do we all. But please......

Wouldn't it be a good idea to just take a deep breath, step back from all of this for a week or so and then see where things are at then? Maybe do some testing and leave some feedback on the test forums? Waddayathinkhuh?

[Plumz]

Deal. Week off forum posts Starting... now!