Supercell, you are going the wrong way
Supercell,
You're going the wrong way with this game. You keep taking steps to "protect the newer players" and add new high end toys and troops to keep the gemmers gemming, but the game is losing it's appeal to me and many others.
I can forgive the high end stuff as that is where the money comes from and the game needs to be kept fresh with new goals to acheive but it's the steps that you have taken with regards to protecting newer players that has removed a lot of the fun factor from this game. There has been a lot of vocal objection to the changes you have made. You ask for feedback but do not respond adequately to the biggest issues people bring up.
You brought caps into the game to limit the amount of resources that could be taken. Then you instituted penalties and bonuses into the game in regard to attacking a lower or higher TH. Then you expanded those penalties and bonuses. In this last update you have reduced the available loot from storages by 20% unless they have about a million or more in storage! It is clear the direction you are going in and it is not good for the game.
The result of your latest update is that attacking isn't as fun. Attacking is the cornerstone of this game and the most fun aspect of playing. The amount of raidable loot is the primary factor in choosing to attack a base. By making less loot available, you reduce the number of targets to attack. This adds frustration to attacking costing more time and gold to find targets. This game is similar to poker in that it becomes more interesting and fun when more is at stake. The more that a base has to take the more interesting and fun it becomes to attack it.
Because of the way storage loot is calculated you can usually avoid being attacked by having less than 200,000 gold in storage because you are not a target if someone cant even make 40,000 gold from raiding you. So this has created an issue where there are fewer targets worth attacking than before the update when you search for an opponent. The cost of searching is a big drain on individual resources but more importantly on the entire community because it is gold which is removed from the game and therefore it is important to the players to reduce this drain on the entire community.
The game would be much better if there were more targets and more loot available when attacking. It is not a big deal for TH7 and up to lose 100k of resources because they can make that back in an attack or two. These levels should not need to have 500,000 in storage to have 100,000 exposed for the taking. Make it 50% of storage up to 200,000 then reduce it to 20% up to 700,000 to achieve your maximum of 200,000. This would create many more targets worth attacking and greatly reduce the annoyance of searching and the drain of gold on the players.
Also I think higher caps should exist for TH8 & 9s. They should have an opportunity to play for higher stakes as the more advanced levels of the game and they also need the resources with the much higher upgrade costs. Increasing the raidable storage caps to 250,000 for TH8(which would be achieved at 950,000+ per my calculations above) and 300,000 for TH9(at 1.2 million+) would make the game more enjoyable on attack and not add much pain on defense since it would be easier to make it back. It is difficult to get all four storages on a TH9 so they would rarely lose the max.
Get the leagues figured out quick. They are an embarrassment for the most part. You need a structure where you remain in a group for the entire 2 weeks, no moving up or down until it's over. You compete with those in your group for rewards at the end of two weeks(GEMS!). The best way to do it would be to allow the player to attack everyone in his group once (similar to a revenge). Add up the stars from the attacks within your group and those with the most stars at the end of the 2 weeks win the prizes(hopefully 1st, 2nd, 3rd). Also you need to increase the pathetic bonus given out at the low and middle leagues. Give back the experience levels which should have never been removed. People are proud of the levels they have earned and deserve it displayed. Not to mention it is more useful information than league or trophy #.
Your updates keep taking the game in the wrong direction. More loot needs to be made available for raiding not less to keep the fun factor in this game. Another thread discussed the poor balance in terms of time needed to make troops which causes people to use the same basic troops 99% of the time and how it gets boring and old. There should be better options for variety in army composition. I thought DE troops would help in this area but they have been disappointing for the most part. The way you are taking this game is making me look for other options to spend my time and money on. I'm sure I'm not alone. I will be here until the next update to see how you respond to the chorus of complaints but that may be the end of the road.
