If you are reading this, good, because that means you are ready to make an awesome troop or spell suggestion that could potentially end up in the game! Today, I will show how to think of a new idea and properly make a professional idea thread
Before I begin, I'd like to thank Smasher for continuing the stickies by creating the newer troop suggestion guide. After you read this post, don't forget to check out Smasher's Troop Guide and Anoushka's Troop and Spell Guide. And, don't forget to search the forums and see if your idea has already been suggested. Now, with all of that introduction out of the way, let's get to the Troop and Spell suggestion guide!
Table of Contents (Part one)
I. The main idea
II. Attacking strategies
III. Defensive strategies
IV. Damage and hitpoints
V. Extra information
VI. Conclusion
I. The main idea
Coming up with an idea for your troop or spell is often the hardest part of the process. You have to come up with an idea that's very unique and never been done before in the game, but also not something too powerful or weak, for that matter.
Maybe you want to make a troop that primarily targets heroes and breaks into a "rage" until all of the heroes are gone. Or, maybe you want your troop to create duplicates of themselves to further distract multi-targeting Inferno Towers or other splash defenses.
For a spell, you want something that will aid your units in battle and (most likely) be essential in high-level raiding when there's all kinds of defenses firing upon your units. Two of my favorite ideas are a spell that creates duplicates of all units inside, meant to distract defenses, and a spell that revives all troops that are dead or that die in the spell radius, maybe with less health and damage. Be creative!
Once you come up with an idea, search the forums to make sure that no one has thought of it before you! You don't want to copy someone else's idea. However, if you find a similar suggestion but feel you could put much more detail in or change it up a little bit, go ahead. We love seeing NEW ideas here on the forums
II. Attacking strategies
A necessary part of your idea thread is how you can come up with attacking strategies involving your unit or spell. Good ideas will work with many strategies, allowing for varied attack styles. Some brand new strategies can even be formed, such as Lavaloon when the Lava Hound came out.
Think of things that the majority of attackers would use your unit or spell with. Here's an example: My troop, the Volcano Mage, makes structures take more damage from other units, meaning he would work well with a GoWiPe or GoWiWi attack because he would greatly help the Wizards, PEKKAs, or Witch's skeletons. He could even go well with a Lavaloon attack by helping the Balloons do even more damage than they already do.
If you're making a spell, here's an example for you: My other idea, the Inferno Spell, works so when a troop damages a building inside the radius of the spell, all other buildings inside the spell take damage as well. This would be extremely useful in the core of the base and where buildings are packed tightly together; again it would work best with a GoWiPe or GoWiWi attack, but also a strategy that implements Valkyries.
I don't know what you have in mind, so those were examples to get the ball rolling inside your mind. Hopefully by now, you already have a few ideas of some strategies you could use your unit or spell in, and are ready to move on to defensive strategies.
III. Defensive strategies
So, now you should know your unit and spell inside and out. If someone asked you a question about how it works, you should probably be able to answer it without hesitation. If that's true, continue on to planning how people could set up their base from protect from your unit or spell.
Let's say you used an idea I mentioned above for a troop: one that primarily targets heroes and breaks into a rage until they are all gone. You will want to put your heroes as close to the core as possible, yet spread them out so the unit can't take both down very quick. Place some traps in between, and maybe unimportant buildings around the heroes so that when the unit has taken down both heroes and will probably attack the closest building, he will be damaging buildings that are unimportant.
Making a base that primarily focuses on taking out that unit is called an "Anti-insert unit name" base. This is the last required type of content you must include in your troop or spell suggestion. Read the next few chapters for additional things that will add to the awesomeness of your thread
IV. Damage and hitpoints
People usually only include information like this in their posts, but damage, hitpoints, and other information are only to be included if you have already added attacking and defensive strategies involving your unit or spell. This section is obviously only for the troop-creators, because spells don't have hitpoints and usually don't do damage.
Damage:
How many shots would it take your unit to completely destroy a Town Hall? Builder's Hut? Cannon? Inferno Tower? Storage? Collector? Wall? Choose what you think would be the best and most balanced and find out the damage per second by comparing it to the hitpoints of different structures, using the Clash of Clans Wiki. Note: For more accurate information, try explaining the damage by using damage per attack AND attack speed. It is essentially the same as damage per second, but more accurate and straight to the point.
Hitpoints:
How many shots would it take to destroy your troop from a Cannon? Archer Tower? Air Defense (if an air troop)? X-Bow? Hidden Tesla? Inferno Tower? Wizard Tower? Mortar? Archer Queen or Barbarian King? Defending Clan Castle troops? Choose what you think is the most balanced and decide the hitpoints of your unit by comparing it to the damage of turrets and troops using the Clash of Clans Wiki.
For spells:
Radius and duration are the "damage and hitpoints" of spells. How long do you want your spell to last? Determine your information by using the Clash of Clans Wiki to find out how long other spells last. How big of an area do you want your spell to cover? Again, use the Clash of Clans Wiki and use current spells to help base your information off of.
Again, this step is completely optional so don't feel like you must include it in every post.
V. Extra information
This step includes housing space, training time, and training cost for both spells and troops, and determining whether your spell is a Dark Spell or normal Elixir.
For troops:
To figure out housing space: Is your troop a primary attacking force? Make the housing space range anywhere from 4 - 25 depending on how many hitpoints the unit has. Is your troop primarily a tank or meatshield unit? Give it a housing space from 20 - 30 depending on how much damage the unit deals. Is your troop a support unit, or in other words, works better when it's with more troops? Give it a housing space of 8 - 16, depending on how powerful the unit can be. This will also encourage attackers to bring along other troops with it.
To figure out training time and training cost: Is your troop capable of doing lots of damage while alive, or does it have high hitpoints or a very powerful special ability? Give it a higher training time and training cost. If your troop is the opposite, give it a lower training time and training cost.
For spells:
To determine whether it is a Dark Spell or normal elixir: Is your spell critical at high-level raiding and very powerful if used correctly? Make it a normal elixir spell. Is your spell not necessary in high level raiding, is similar to an already existing Elixir spell, or is basically a luxury? Make it a dark spell.
To determine housing space: Is your spell a Dark Spell? Give it a housing space of 1. If it's a normal Elixir spell, give it a housing space of 2.
To figure out training time and training cost: Is your spell normal elixir? Give it a training time of somewhere around 30 minutes. Is your spell a Dark Spell? Give it a training time of 15 minutes. Dark Spells can range anywhere from 90 - 150 Dark Elixir at level 1. Normal elixir spells should be about 26,000 - 30,000 Elixir at level 1.
Of course there's still favorite targets and weaknesses you can make your unit have, but those you should be able to think of on your own and are usually user-choice.
VIII. Conclusion
Hopefully this guide helped you create your troop or spell! Now, you're ready to set up your thread. If you're up for it, read on for 8 more chapters on how to professionally set up your thread.
Don't be like Larry! Read this and set up your thread professionally!
Table of Contents (Part two)
I. Introduction/Troop or spell name
II. Table of Contents
III. Titles
IV. Formatting
V. Summary and description
VI. Strategies and Statistics
VII. The Idea (Pictures)
VIII. Conclusion
I. Introduction/Troop or spell name
One of the most important parts of the thread is introducing your unit. A proper troop or spell will have a catchy name that people can remember it by, as well as fitting into the medieval theme of Clash of Clans. Right now, most additions will be for Town Hall 10, so I try to make my threads all have a lava and fire theme. The more catchy the name the more people will recognize and remember it.
An introduction is also good, as it prepares readers for what your idea will include, and maybe include a picture or two to help catch peoples' eyes. Also, don't forget to hand out credit for people who helped you or created artwork!
II. Table of Contents
This is an extremely important part of the thread; it summarizes all that you are going to talk about in your troop or spell, so people can know what they are going to be told about and can help you add more detail if necessary to your thread. You can even color code your titles, but please don't make them bright and hard to see (You know who you are)
III. Titles
These are a very important part of the thread. You must include bolded clear titles explaining what you are about to talk about in each section. Colorful titles can also be a great thing if you want to color code sections. If you want your titles to stand out, add color, use caps, make them bigger. Anything is possible
IV. Formatting
To format a troop or spell suggestion guide you just need to put everything together in a way that makes sense – this means, put your summary and description at the beginning, and your trivia and frequently asked questions at the end. In between those, add your attacking and defensive strategies. Make everything orderly and easy to read. The order of things can vary, as long as it makes sense and readers can follow what you're saying easily.
V. Summary and Description
This is where the creativity begins! In the summary, state all the main parts of your idea. You should explain what the purpose of your idea is, what Town Hall and Dark Barracks/Spell Factory level it is unlocked at, etc. This will set the stage for the rest of your thread and will hopefully encourage readers to read on.
The description is fun to make; Simply make it catchy and clearly state what your idea does in as short of a space as possible. Remember, it will show up on the screen that appears when you click the information button about your unit.
VI. Strategies and Statistics
The more attacking and defending strategies you add, the more people will know how your troop will play out in-game, and can tell you if your troop is too overpowering or not powerful enough. Be sure to start with general attacking strategies and then some more concrete ones. Then explain ways one could set up their base to protect from your unit/spell.
Stats - They're not required but people always ask for them. Do not add them unless you have already included attacking and defending strategies involving your unit/spell. Take into account what people ask you to change, and don't become too attached to any particular statistic.
These optional stats should include attacking speed, training cost, amount of levels, research cost, housing space, training time, movement speed, damage per second, damage per attack, hitpoints, and ability statistics (if any). For spells, they should include duration, radius, training cost, research cost, amount of levels, type of spell (Elixir or Dark) and ability statistics (if any).
VII. The Idea (Pictures)
This will help readers understand your idea better! Examples of these include the:
Picture of the troop:
Picture of the Dark Barracks new level:
Picture of the spell:
Make sure to upload all of your images using Imgur, so people will not have to click on links, attachments, or see tiny pictures.
VIII. Conclusion
The trivia and frequently asked questions section is to state any information that may not have been noted in the previous sections, including fun tidbits and forumer questions and suggestions. Then comes the conclusion, where you thank them for reading and say what you want to end with. For example, my conclusion is always "Here is how you can help….." and then I end with "Happy clashing, everyone! Anthony
P.S. Don't bump your threads. It's really annoying.
Originally Posted by PRODlGY
