Hello everyone,
With yet another War of 3 Kingdoms under our belts, and yet another round of a bunch of unhappy players (Wouldn’t have it any other way), I think it’s time I write another forum post where I list some issues I’ve been hearing (And experienced) a lot and give my take and ideas on them to help work towards resolving them, or at least dampen the severity.
For those who don’t know me yet, I’m Fur from 7DD and I have done a similar post in the past with relatively the same structure as what this one will have.
The last time I did this, the E&P team heard my voice by working towards fixing the problems the community felt was needed to be addressed.
I am hoping this post will have the same effect.
So, with the introduction out of the way, let’s get into the heart of what I wanted to talk about :
W3K’s flag useage, or lack thereof.
After checking multiple of the top warbands in my kingdom, there was something all of them had in common ; They all had on average a hundred unsued flags. Some had less and some had more, but not a single one had almost all their flags used (98% or more).
Everyone I have heard talk about W3K have expressed the same issue : There is too many flags left on the field at the end of the war, and most of the battles between warbands were decided by how many flags were left on the table, which made a lot of people unhappy about the results.
I have gathered a couple of ideas from myself and others and I came up with a couple of ways to look at this particular issue and it’s ways to fix it.
Increasing W3Ks visibility :
Some of the complaints I heard were that there was no reminder that the kingdom war was ongoing except the tab in Events Quest, which caused some to forget it was live and use their flags. (There’s a portal with offers related to the war, but hey…)
So here are some ideas to increase the war’s visibility to remind people that the war is live.
1- Add the same small swords icon on the Events Quest icon as there is on the Alliance icon when you still have flags to use in bi-weekly wars and on the Raids icon when you still have flags to use in the weekly tournament.
2- Replace the W3K tab in the Events Quest section to a big panel like there is for monthly events and Alliance Quest. (This could be done for Towers and Mythic Titans too, it is much easier to see and we’re already all used to these big panels who are, in my opinion, more attractive)
3- Add a banner when entering the game like there is for promoting portals, but promoting the W3K war in itself and encouraging people to go and use their flags.
These will help people be reminded to participate in the war.
Another issue that came up is that some couldn’t get their last set of 3 flags in (Or had difficulties to) beause of the amount of time there is between the adding of new flags and the time left after the last set has been added for use.
This could be fixed by remodelling how flags are released. Either giving 6 flags the beginning and the other 6 at the 24 hour mark of the war clock or straight up having all 12 flags available from the start. Both the former and the latter would alleviate the pressure to find time to use flags each quarter or all 12 at the last quarter of the war and would allow us to use them when we have enough free time to do so.
Another point of discussion was how there wasn’t incentives to use flags (Besides end loot, of course), and that it would cause some people to not care enough about the war and not use their flags.
Some solutions :
1- Add Event Valor Challenges specific to W3K like there is for monthly Events and Alliance Quest. For example, a reward could be given for using 6 flags, 12 flags or even be creative and push people out of their comfort zone by having challenges like using a rainbow team, 4* heroes only, 3 heroes of the same element or 5 of the same or to attack an opponent that you have already attacked once before during the war. Valor Challenges like these would definitely spice things up and reward us at the same time, while not forcing people who just want to do their own things.
2- Add small rewards for successfully killing a target like there is for normal raids. (Ham, Iron, 1* crafting/ascension items…)
The following is an idea that came up a lot in some groups and most seemed to like it :
Add a ‘buy-in’ in gems that serves as a deposit when signing up that gets reinbursed related to the % of flags used, but still have a free sign-up for players who aren’t looking to take the event as seriously as others and matching both ways separately in warbands. This would filter players and separate them into 2 categories ; those who are serious and those who want to have fun. The buy-in would also serve as a way to hold people who chose that option accountable for not using flags by losing gems, while those who chose the free buy-in would still be free to do how they please.
I am unable to come up with a buy-in cost that would be fair and matter for all type of spenders, C2P and non-spenders, so I am not going to come up with a number.
The last point I wanted to bring up is that there should be penalties or punishments for players who leave flags on the table. While I am not totally on board with this, I thought it was still a good enough talking point to bring up and deserved to be talked about.
1- Tag every player at the end of each W3K war with a number from 0 to 12 according to their number of unused flags in the database, then use that extra parameter in the next W3K matchmaking to create warbands of players who are flagged the same. Those who previously used 12 flags get paired together versus another warband with players of the same tag, those who used 11 are paired with and against those who used 11, 10 with 10 and so on until players who used no flags during last Kingdom war are matched with and versus players who did the same.
This would create fairer warband matches overtime while holding people accountable for their past mishaps while still giving them a chance to redeem themselves if they want to be matched in warbands of players who use all their flags.
2- Though I am not completely on board with this one and I can see it’s flaws, I thought it was still a worthy enough suggestion to add : Tag every player at the end of each W3K war according to their scores and use that extra parameter during future W3K matchmakings.
This would create fairer matches between warbands. Those with deeper rosters and better skills will get to war with and against peers of the same assets while when trickling down the order, warband matches would still remain fair.
3- This is one I absolutely do not like, but I heard it so much that I am still going to include it : Ban players who didn’t use a single flag last W3K from participating in the next war.
You may have realized that I haven’t talked about loot yet, and that’s because I think it has been beautifully arranged and is related to score/flag useage very well. I wanted to say that on that front, I believe you guys have nailed it perfectly !
And for those who believe I say this because I received great loot, please don’t be mistaken ; I still haven’t received a single 4* mat from this event yet, but I have seen loot from pretty much all tiers and warband placements, hence why I’m saying the loot is well distributed.
I also love the W3K wars, and I believe that once every 2 months is not enough, we should get to war in them every calendar ! This would benefit both sides, players and E&P staff/company, more war and loot for us and more portals, new heroes to release and offers to release to us at the same time.
And finally, on a completely unrelated note from W3K, I wanted to talk about something else that comes up regularly and that I believe people are right, which is the scarcity of high end loot in the Alliance quest in all tiers.
AQ is an event that happens only once every 3 months that alliances and players put huge efforts, time, gems, battle items and materials of all sorts for seemingly very small rewards.
I believe that in the past when there wasn’t so many Aether deals, the loot was fine as it is now, but now that there are more than a dozen (Or almost, depends on the week) Aether IIIs for sale each week, the AQ rewards should be adjusted to reflect and be on par with the pace of Aether sales.
Unfortunately, I do not have the number of rolls and percentages per roll for each rarity in each tier, but I believe both should be adjusted significantly higher to incentivize people and alliances to continue putting effort into this event.
To conclude, I know it is difficult to talk about good points in posts like these, but I would like to highlight the fact that I have always been very happy with the service I have received from support and I think that you guys have been doing a good job overall !
If any of you have any suggestions or tweaks to my ideas, please discuss them below and let us know what you think.
Please have a wonderful day, kindly,
Fur
And over time could alleviate the risk of loosing flags due to a bug.