Clan War Update Suggestions
A few suggestions to improve Clan Wars:
1. Allowing Players to Count Themselves In or Out of War
Every player's profile would include a button that would allow them to be either Active for War, or Inactive for War. When a clan searches for war, they would be matched based on the number of players who are Active for War.
The rationale behind this is that most clans that do wars do not want to include members who don't do their war battles, as it puts them at a disadvantage in war. The only way to avoid this right now is to kick members who don't show, or have members that know they won't be around for a war either temporarily leave, or trophy down to the bottom of the clan and hope they won't be counted. This is a hassle, and also creates a problem for clans that may be social or trophy oriented, and have some members that like to war and others that do not.
Allowing leaders set the war roster could also be helpful, though it could lead to problems in some clans with members that get counted out, but want to participate. (Though the solution for those players is easy enough--go find another clan.)
2. Recommended Minimum and Maximum Targets
Whatever algorithm is used to determine the recommended target, it is deeply flawed, and more often hurts a clan’s chances at victory than helps it, especially in the beginning of a war.
While it is impossible to take a player’s skill at attacking into account, the main problem is that the recommended target often starts by choosing bases that a player can easily 3-star, which are usually way too low on the map. In a full clan, a clan’s average player can still 3-star bases sometimes 25 spots or more above the recommended target if they are reasonably skilled at attacking (I personally have been recommended to go after bases 40+, and instead 2- or 3-starred bases in the mid teens, and others in my clan have as well). Recommending players go low, as the recommended target often does, means that too many players attack lower bases, and not enough players are left to go after the higher ones. Conversely, later in the war the recommended target will often switch to bases that are too high because there are more stars available, even if a player stands a better chance of getting more stars for their clan by redoing a lower base that already has 1 or 2 stars on it. As it stands now, our clan is constantly having to tell new members to ignore the recommended target and explain why they should not be paying attention to it.
To alleviate these problems, instead of having a Recommended Target, it would be more beneficial to have a Recommended Minimum Target as well as a Recommended Maximum Target.
3. Personal Loot Bonuses
At higher levels, a lot of players are hesitant to participate because the cost of making an army exceeds what you get back even if you win the war. A slight increase in personal bonuses you get during battle could offset this, and encourage more higher level players to participate in war, as well as encourage players of all levels to make stronger war armies.
4. War Castle Donations
The rationale behind not counting war castle donations toward experience or friend in need is flawed. It doesn’t encourage players to donate their best troops; it encourages players to not donate at all, and let other players handle donations. Though there is currently no way for leaders to see who is donating what to War Castles (counting toward troops donated would help fix this as well), at higher levels especially, leaders set standard donations for war castles, and kick players that do not follow directions. Thus, players might be more motivated to donate if it counts toward achievements and experience, but wouldn't necessarily be encouraged to donate cheap troops since they may have to adhere to standards, and are also motivated by winning the war. Especially considering war castle troops can now be dismissed, there's really no reason to worry about cheap troops in the castles, and it really seems unfair to the players who step up and donate.
5. War Strategy Page
It would be very helpful for clans to have a single page limited to approximately 1500 characters accessible from the war map that allows leaders to put info on the clan's attack strategies, donations to war castles, etc.
