Supersteve said:
Mark Twain said:
("Chapters from My Autobiography",
North American Review,1906.)
I do not know how many more comments apart from the HUNDREDS of pages of replies already made in the two different stickied threads in this forum (both the 'Important: Changes to the Loot System' thread, and this one) that Supercell needs to see before the data gets
thoroughly reviewed and appropriate changes made.
This is not a static situation. Short term changes to the game from the 1-gem boosts inordinately skew the most recent numbers. I think things probably look better to SC than they appear to us as players.
Players are active, and changes in our behavior (moving TH's outside in response to heavy attacks, limited play by some over the holidays, extensive play by others over the same period) are probably not accurately captured by data. There are too many variables changing too fast to make concrete conclusions from a 'data preview'. While I believe Supersteve to be well-intentioned, please do not pee off the castle wall and tell us it is raining loot.
I have worked with large databases (300K+ individual files each containing hundreds of data fields) and if you tell me what you want the data to say, I can come up with a spreadsheet to make it say WHATEVER MY BOSS wants it to say (or whatever I think will get him/her off my back). Frankly, I am concerned that the SC staff doing the analysis simply do not have a solid enough background in the field to truly parse out what effects are truly causal and not just corresponding. I am no expert either, but I know enough to be dangerous, and that is why I view most claims based on statistics with a heavy dose of skepticism.
If my boss said, 'just tell me if XXXis better, that's the problem', then I can make the numbers look like that problem is fixed. If you wanted a thorough, honest, comprehensive review, I would explain how complicated the situation is, and that a problem solved for one data subset (be it TH6 or TH10 or anywhere in between, farmers or gemmers, etc) is likely going to make big problems for another subset. My impression is this update has fixed the majority of the problems for TH10, and exacerbated the problem for TH6-8.
I have been struggling since the update to attain anything close to the pre-update loot levels (500-600k each per hour) I enjoyed before. I am clicking Next alot more than ever before, and the profit opportunities are not what they were pre-update.
My clan (predominantly TH7-8, with a few at TH6 and TH9) is also struggling. My feeder clan (Bronze Dolphins) to develop new members is predominantly TH4-5 and loot down there is (still) fantastic.
I play ALOT (and work full time). My wife plays (not as much). Two of my kids play (also not as much). We are TH8, TH7, TH6, & TH5. None of us are premature, and we all max almost completely at each TH before moving up. My family's anecdotal data since the update is that it has hurt TH7-8. TH6 seems about the same, and life is absolutely great at TH5.
The game should be just as fun at TH10 as it is at TH5. Sadly as players progress, the enjoyment level is decreasing.
Marika said:
Objective 1 in my opinion seems to be improved for TH10, about the same for TH6, and worse for TH7-9.
Objective 2 is partially met. I have definitely seen more varied opportunities. Unfortunately, the rewarding loot opportunities are very risky (extremely well defended), and the larger number of 'varied' opportunities are not worth the time investment spent building an army (of whatever makeup) based on the limited loot profit margin.
Objective 3 seems to be only met for TH10. Loot balance from my limited perspective is MORE OUT OF BALANCE than before, but that may just be because the pendulum has swung towards TH10 and away from TH7-8.
I am not just complaining though...
My recommendations are as follows:
1. Keep the loot percentage and loot cap change. These are good ideas but they do not do enough alone.
2. Offer a method of recovering a portion of the search cost based on the # of stars achieved. 3 star someone, recover 75% of your search costs, 2 stars 50%, 1 star 25%. Lose and you get nothing back.
3. Make a variable loot bonus for attacking TH's higher than your own that does not penalize the victim. Players as a group are burning millions (billions?) of gold a day in searches. Create a 'difficulty bonus' similar to the league bonus that comes from thin air, but control it season to season. If the economy becomes too strong, lower the bonuses. If the economy becomes too weak, increase the bonuses. This allows Supercell the opportunity to mildly tweak the economy every two weeks.
Thanks for reading this forum moderators and Supercell staff.
Respectfully,
Keith
Silver Dolphins Clan Leader
Originally Posted by Boonarom
