Is [5,0,0] -> [10,0,0] -> [30,30,0] -> [40,40,20] for hero progression not a relic?
EDIT: I know that "taking away" levels isn't the correct method. SC would need to be really sensitive about this and find a good way to not hurt current players too much, but still enable new players to have a smooth progression throughout the game. I just wanna know if people are aware that this might be a problem for new players and thus the longterm playerbase of CoC.
EDIT2: People don't seem to properly read. I'm not suggesting to take levels away from current players. I just mentioned this to emphasize this exact problem! A proper idea for both existing and new players obviously can't be and isn't that simple. I just wanna know, assuming there is a proper way to balance it, if people still think that this progression is still valid for CoC in 2016 where the game doesn't end with TH9 but with TH11.
================================================== ==========================================
As someone who started when there were already 40 hero levels on TH10 I always felt something was wrong.
I'm a near maxed TH10 and I just wanna share my subjective opinion on this part of the game.
TH7: lvl 5 BKing
- Really easy to get and smooth to max out.
TH8: lvl 10 BKing
- Still really smooth to max out, though there are quite a few DE laboratory upgrades as well.
- Maxing the king and the town hall at all is almost timed perfectly if you have a well distributed income of gold/elixir/DE.
TH9: lvl 30 BKing / lvl 30 AQueen
- The common problem I had and I can still see with most TH9 players is, that the town hall structures + laboratory are maxed out far before walls and heroes are.
- Before we had +5 hero levels on th7 and th8, now we have +50 hero levels to get.
- For me it was 15/15~ but it might vary depending on your laboratory and farming focus. Either way it should result in similar levels if you are constantly upgrading stuff.
- TH9 was the first town hall where progression didn't feel smooth anymore. That's not a problem by itself, with the fair progression you experienced until moving from TH8 -> TH9 it's just like a huge "spike" in additional time consumption while carrying your 5/5 builders around just for regular wall upgrades
// now here I have to assume somethings from past patch notes
// As far as I know, the max levels 30/30 were introduced before the 4.14 TH10 update. So nothing has changed since back (?)
- For me it felt like maxing heroes on th9 was a far too distant goal, that's why I didn't bother with it and progressed with 20/20~ heroes.
- Back then TH9 as max level TH needed stuff to grind. That's okay. But we have 2 additional TH levels now.
- Today there is a huge difference if you upgrade your Town Hall right after max defense or with maxed heroes (in my case that would have been 15/15 compared to 30/30).
- High level heroes are almost necessary if you wanna stay competitive.
--> You are either TH hugging (staying maybe twice or thrice as long as you "should" have to)
TH10: lvl 40 BKing / lvl 40 AQueen
- We get an additional max DE Drill -> +50% passive DE income
- More war loot
- Technically highter league loot// assuming we have 30/30 heroes already
- We only have to upgrade for 20 additional hero levels, that's not even close to the "sleeping time" we have with the 50 levels on TH9
- With the additional DE progression (time and farming) feel okay. It's still taking time to fetch all the DE, but overall it doesn't feel sluggish rather like quite the accomplishment.
TH11: lvl 20 GWarden
// haven't experienced it myself, but a friend has recently progressed to TH11 and almost maxed the GW already
// but the data already speaks for itself
- 20 hero levels, but they are not done with DE, but with plain elixir!
- the elixir costs for the first 10 levels are really easy to farm and thus he is upgraded real quick
- progression due to elixir seems to be and feel quite okay. Especially assuming you balance it well out with the laboratory upgrades.
=> Since the GW is an elixir hero it doesn't feel wrong to assume, that SC knows and planned for the progressing players to not have maxed BK/AQ
================================================== =================
I try to dl;dr my overall opinion and "wish":
On all TH the hero progression feels okay, if there wasn't that nasty TH9 (Maybe a nice graph or numbers would be nice to clarify this).
Since the TH9 situation was the result of it being the former max level for Town Halls and we are 2 generations in the future and the grind has basically shifted to TH11 now, the current progression of TH9 doesn't feel nice anymore.
Now here is the problem: The community.
I can think about a lot of ways to smooth the hero progression out again, but in all cases those with TH9+30/30 heroes will feel it the most.
Let's assume we would simply change the overall max levels to something like this (this isn't a serious idea) TH9 -> [20/20] => TH10 -> [35/35] => TH11 -> [40/40/20]. The progression of current TH9/10 would need to be halted and lowered, once they progress to the next TH level they could be instantly reverted back (or they get an instant option to upgrade them for X levels for free, whatever).
Especially regarding this forum, I think there are a lot of said TH9ers who like to stay where they are and have this little bit of superiority compared to other TH9ers.
Now I don't wanna discuss this sample idea or the mad community at all.
I'll finish it with two questions?:
1. Do you agree with the hero progression feeling "wrong" or "old"?
- If no, why not?
2. Balance always hurts someone/somewhere. Say you are a perma maxed TH9 with 30/30 heroes. Would you be okay with the gap being smoothened (depending on the way it'd be smoothened ofc) so that you could progress faster/more smoothly as a TH9 after maxing out defense/laboratory (faster != together with maxed defense) ?
