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Let's just get this out in the open: We are adjusting the available loot in battles.
DON'T PANIC. Deep breaths.
The loot system is a little bit complicated, so it will take a little wall of text to fully explain. If you just want the quick version, here you go:
We are making it easier to save up for big upgrades and purchases based on your Town Hall level. At the same time, we are allowing for more rewarding loot opportunities in battles by increasing limits on available loot based on defender Town Hall level.
If that's a good enough explanation for you, great! If not, don't worry. Read on, and we'll try to explain what this means in practice as best we can. We know that players love their loot and the Clash development team wants to be 100% transparent concerning the reasons and the exact numbers underlying this change. Be brave, Chief. The answers await you!
A Bit of Background
The current loot calculation system has been in place since the early days of Clash, where Town Hall level 8 was the highest Town Hall and storages held a maximum of 6 million Gold and 6 million Elixir. Since then, we've introduced two new Town Hall levels full of new buildings, units, upgrades, added Dark Elixir, Heroes, and much, much more. However, despite all of these new things to spend your resources on, the looting system has remained more or less unchanged and, frankly, has become somewhat out of date and out of balance with the increasing costs.
Common criticisms we've heard are that it becomes too hard to save up resources for a big purchases (Inferno Tower, anyone?), that there is not enough loot in battles and that the costs of maintaining an epic base and mighty army are too burdensome for even the most industrious of Chiefs. Put a simpler way, the further one goes in Clash, the slower and more expensive it gets, until some players reach a point where it can feel like they are stuck (or at least moving in slow motion).
To help address these issues, we are making a couple fundamental and important changes to the way available loot is calculated during an attack. With these changes, our objectives are to:
1) Make it easier to save up resources
2) Create more varied and, potentially, more rewarding loot opportunities in multiplayer
3) Provide a better tuned loot balance on offense and defense as players progress further in the game
How is available loot calculated?
The Clash of Clans loot system, at its core, boils down to two primary concepts:
1) A defender who gets raided never loses everything.
2) An attacker can only steal a limited amount of loot.
Let's say you are sitting on 1 million gold in your storages, but... Oh no, here come the goblins and you get completely wiped out! However, because "a defender who gets raided never loses everything," you don't lose all 1 million gold. Instead, you only lose 200k, which is 20% of your total. Another way we can say this is that there is a defensive loot percentage of 20%.
What if you are saving up for something big (like an Inferno Tower!), and you are sitting on 4 million gold instead? 20% would still be a HUGE amount to lose (800k gold)! However, because "an attacker can only steal a limited amount of loot," you still only lose 200k if you get wiped out, because loot is capped at 200k maximum. Another way we can say this is that there is a defensive loot cap of 200k. (Note that this limit can be exceeded if there are also resources left in collectors, but we will ignore that for now,)
The defensive loot percentage and defensive loot cap are the key concepts that determine available loot, and we have to keep them in a careful balance. The lower the loot percentage and loot cap, the easier it is to hold on to your savings, but the harder it is to get more resources through attacking.
Why change the loot percentage and loot cap?
Face it, Chief, Level 6 troops, X-Bows, Inferno Towers and Level 11 defensive upgrades do not come cheap. Of course, it is natural that better and better items come with higher price tags, but with a loot system tuned only up to Town Hall level 8, how will you meet these rising costs?
Two things would clearly help: making it easier to save up loot and winning more loot in your attacks. Furthermore, the higher your Town Hall level, the more you need to save and the more you need to loot to keep up with expenses. By changing the way the loot percentage works, we can better enable saving up loot. By changing the way the loot cap works, we can better enable diverse and rewarding loot opportunities in battle.
What are the exact changes?
Remember the two primary concepts:
1) A defender who gets raided never loses everything.
2) An attacker can only steal a limited amount of loot.
We are changing the available loot so that, when a village gets wiped out, the defender loses a lower percentage of everything they have, but the attacker is able to steal more of it in total, based on the defender's Town Hall level.
Starting from Town Hall level 6, every Town Hall upgrade will lower the loot percentage by 2% Gold and 2% Elixir when you are defending. This means you will lose 2% less Gold and 2% Elixir each time you are wiped out, thus making it easier and easier to hold on to resources as you level up. Let's look at a few examples:
If you have 1 million gold in your storages....
At Town Hall level 5 you will have 200k of your gold available to attackers (20%)
At Town Hall level 6 you will have 180k of your gold available to attackers (18%)
At Town Hall level 7 you will have 160k of your gold available to attackers (16%)
At Town Hall level 8 you will have 140k of your gold available to attackers (14%)
At Town Hall level 9 you will have 120k of your gold available to attackers (12%)
At Town Hall level 10 you will have 100k of your gold available to attackers (10%)
If you're thinking, "That's no fair! TH10's will have it so easy!" hold on. You didn't let us finish.
Starting from Town Hall level 7, every Town Hall upgrade will also increase the loot cap by 50k Gold and 50k Elixir when you are defending. This means that attackers can potentially steal more in total from your storages when you get wiped out, depending on how full your storages are at the time. Let's look at a few more examples:
If a you have completely full gold storages....
At Town Hall level 6 you will have 200k of your gold available to attackers (standard cap)
At Town Hall level 7 you will have 250k of your gold available to attackers (cap +50k)
At Town Hall level 8 you will have 300k of your gold available to attackers (cap +100k)
At Town Hall level 9 you will have 350k of your gold available to attackers (cap +150k)
At Town Hall level 10 you will have 400k of your gold available to attackers (cap +200k)
Won't this mean lower level players will be picked on more?
Not at all. In fact, we are hoping for exactly the opposite. Currently, most players at Town Hall level 7 and above constantly see available loot hovering around a cap of 200k Gold and 200k Elixir. It is always that same boring 200k, no matter if they are at Town Hall level 7 trying to buy their first Hidden Tesla, or if they are at Town Hall level 10 trying to buy their first Inferno Tower.
After these adjustments, higher level opponents can provide much better loot opportunities (up to a cap of 400k). We are hoping that these better loot opportunities will incentivize all players at Town Hall 7 and above to attack other players at their level due to their higher potential loot payouts. The costs of higher level armies and spells can be better compensated by higher level opponents. At the same time, we hope that improving resource protection (down to a minimum percentage of 10%) will also reduce the hesitation and anxiety some players seem to feel when they are ready to upgrade to a higher Town Hall level, but fear that all of their looting opportunities will suddenly disappear.
What about existing loot penalties?
Currently, there is a loot penalty system in place that can modify the available loot based on the difference between the attacker and defender Town Hall levels. It was intended to discourage players at higher levels from picking on players at much lower levels by reducing the loot when the defender was at a lower Town Hall level, and increasing the loot when the defender was at a higher Town Hall level. However, this system is not ideal for a number of reasons and has, not unfairly, been criticized as "punishing players for progression."
We feel that the loot adjustments, as described above, are a better way of encouraging fair play and rewarding high level attacks, rather than the existing loot penalty based system. Therefore, we are removing loot cap increases based on an attacker being below a defender's Town Hall level.
Some examples will help here, too. In the old system, the situation looked like this:
(Old system) If a defender at Town Hall level 10 had 200k gold as available loot:
An attacker at Town Hall level 10 would see 200k gold as available loot (no penalty)
An attacker at Town Hall level 9 would see 220k gold as available loot (+10% loot increase)
An attacker at Town Hall level 8 would see 300k gold as available loot (+50% loot increase)
The new system will be much simpler. Town Hall level differences are ignored when the attacker is below the defender's Town Hall level. Instead, higher town hall levels will naturally carry a higher loot cap, regardless of opponent.
(New system) If defender at Town Hall level 10 has 400k gold as available loot:
An attacker at Town Hall level 10 will see 400k gold as available loot
An attacker at Town Hall level 9 will see 400k gold as available loot
An attacker at Town Hall level 8 will see 400k gold as available loot
Keep in mind, though, that loot decreases based on an attacker being above a defender's Town Hall level will remain unchanged in order to continue to better protect lower level players.
What about Dark Elixir?
Dark Elixir loot will follow a similar guideline, but with more minor values, as Dark Elixir comes into play much later in the game. For Dark Elixir, starting at Town Hall level 9, every Town Hall upgrade will lower the loot percentage by 1% Dark Elixir and increase the loot cap by 500 Dark Elixir when you are defending.
For example, when you are defending:
At Town Hall level 8, you will have a 6% loot percentage and 2000 Dark Elixir loot cap
At Town Hall level 9, you will have a 5% loot percentage and 2500 Dark Elixir loot cap
At Town Hall level 10, you will have a 4% loot percentage and 3000 Dark Elixir loot cap
Future plans
We truly expect that these adjustments to the loot calculation system will be better for all players in the long term. Even so, we will be keeping a close eye on how the loot situation in the game progresses in the weeks following the change. As storages start filling easier and loot opportunities start to expand, it may take a little while for the full effect of the changes to be felt throughout the game. Rest assured, though, that we are committed to doing what it takes to keep Clash fun, exciting and rewarding far into the future.
From your friendly Clash development team.
(Stopped playing) 
Originally Posted by bruc3y
