I hope they just remove flat badges. It would stop GW level abuse too. Othwise the speculations have been that the Health, Damage and Critical Damage recipes include both flat and relative values.
If you want to get better at this game, join Discord and learn badge crafting and much more: https://discord.gg/cDhgv3AJ89
Currently we have a 67% chance of getting a perfect combo badge using Legendary material at map positions with H% or DR% with Dodge/Retaliate/Bullet Dodge bonus.
If the bonus condition is random after the update:
There are 4 bonus groups (No bonus, Hero, Class, Traits), so 25% for each one. There are 12 traits that can be rolled (or more after the update), and 3 of them are useful for H% or DR% (Dodge/Retaliate/Lucky), another 25% chance.
25%*25% = 6.25%
Instead of 67% chance of getting a perfect combo, we will now have at best 6.25% chance instead. (or 3.125% if you can roll both flat and percentage Health badges)
Previously you can expect 67 useful badges from 100 sets of Legendary materials, now the number will drop down to 3.13 ~ 6.25, eleven to twenty-one times worse.
Previously you can choose Odd and Even positions to craft your badges and for example restrict all your H% badges at slots 1 3 or 5, and your DR% badges at slots 2 4 or 6. If the slot also becomes totally random, there will be a lot more conflict between the badge slots and much much harder to get them right in a Set. The 6.25% estimate from above will drop down to 3.125% in the worst case. (or 1.56% if you can roll both flat and percentage Health badges)
Remember that even if you get a perfect combo of Badge Type vs Bonus condition trait, the badge value could still be on the low end, AND the set could be wrong, AND the position could be wrong.
The crafting situation could be really bad and involve 11~44 times more grinding for legendary mats unless they introduce new mechanisms where you have some control over those (... and they are all already in place in the current version)
There are also other hidden traps with the new system, for one, if you craft equal number of D% and CD% badges, and equal number of H% and DR% badges, you will end up using on average 5 Metal : 5 Edible : 3 Chemical : 3 Cloth Which means a massive excess of Chemicals and Clothes, and severe shortage of Metals and Edibles. They are designed to not balance if you use the new recipes.
Here is an example: If you have 30 sets of everything: Craft 10 x Damage badges = 10 of everything used up (leaving 20 Metal, 20 Edible, 20 Chemical, 20 Cloth) Craft 10 x Critical Damage badges = 10 x Metal + 10 x Edible used up (leaving 10 Metal, 10 Edible, 20 Chemical, 20 Cloth) Craft 10 x Damage Reduction badges = 10 x Metal + 10 x Cloth used up (leaving 0 Metal, 10 Edible, 20 Chemical, 10 Cloth) Craft 10 x Health Badges = 10 x Edible + 10 Chemical used up (leaving 0 Metal, 0 Edible, 10 Chemical, 10 Cloth)
What are you going to do with the 10 Chemical + 10 Cloth? Craft critical chance badges?
The more you craft, the more unbalanced this will become. People will keep ask for Metal and Edible components events. The other two events would be pretty useless.
@Grady I completely agree, this will massively affect those who are aware of the badge maps, understand them and can use them to their advantage. However, that is quite a small minority of the games player base. You could say it’s their fault for not joining the forum/discord. However any DR badge no matter the condition bonus is going to be better than no DR badges or a CC badge if you aren’t aware of the lists and it’s all completely random.
I wish I could be more positive about this upgrade. I know a lot of thinking and hard work went into it, and it's great that NG keeps this game from going stale. The new crafting system will also be better for beginners and people unwilling or unable to put the time on learning the complex current one. Overall these changes are great, but for me personally I think they're not.
Waiting for the upgrade notes, and hope they will prove me wrong.
If you want to get better at this game, join Discord and learn badge crafting and much more: https://discord.gg/cDhgv3AJ89
NG should tread VERY carefully on the badge crafting...
if they are just making it harder for people to craft badges they want under the guise of making simpler, it is a problem.
don’t piss off your customers..
I doubt making it simpler was the major driving force behind the badge crafting re-do.
This game has been around quite a while now. There's a lot of players that are end-game. I imagine that the redesign goal of NG was "how do we change the badge system to increase revenue?"
Perhaps the new recipes will yield better badges, so end gamers have to chase more badge components to stay on top.
Or it could be that NG saw players quitting after badge creation, so they surmised some were frustrated with it
One thing is for sure. There's some data NG has that indicated they make this change. NG does very little in this game where they are not looking at the gameplay data.
I wonder if the option of changing the rarity/position/set/bonus hero teammates/bonus class teammates of a badge could be a possibility? As well as increasing the % Damage/Health/DR/CD/CC of any particular badge at the cost of supplies or unused components???
NG should tread VERY carefully on the badge crafting...
if they are just making it harder for people to craft badges they want under the guise of making simpler, it is a problem.
don’t piss off your customers..
I doubt making it simpler was the major driving force behind the badge crafting re-do.
This game has been around quite a while now. There's a lot of players that are end-game. I imagine that the redesign goal of NG was "how do we change the badge system to increase revenue?"
Perhaps the new recipes will yield better badges, so end gamers have to chase more badge components to stay on top.
Or it could be that NG saw players quitting after badge creation, so they surmised some were frustrated with it
One thing is for sure. There's some data NG has that indicated they make this change. NG does very little in this game where they are not looking at the gameplay data.
They could see simply that more and more people are using the map to craft the badges they want and they are trying to put a stop to it
I highly doubt that. In my experience, it often equates with rocket science or advanced logic proofs.
I am constantly reminded of tyrion lannister in the last season saying "some people you just can't teach."
They don't want a few of us to have a clear edge which doesn't even need to be monitized. It's that simple. Any optimism about this change is naivete. Come and see. This change gets pushed out no matter what. The numbers will be worse than before. I will spoon out your bonuses and let my dogs do the rest. Come and see.
They make changes in the game to hopefully make more money. That could mean adding more play to win features, or increasing player satisfaction to encourage more game play or lower player attrition.
NG spent money to develop the system to support these new recipes. If they did not want players using the existing badge crafting maps any more, they could just have easily just changed the patterns.
If you change the crrafting patterns regularly, eventually players will give up trying to discover the patterns. Or just make everything about a badge completely random. Both of these are easier to do than they did.
NG is not in the business of making changes like this to piss off customers. That's not a money making proposition.
Today, two main streams of badge wizards exists. Those which use the monopoly map and the evil people using plane mode. This change is the victory of the dark side over the researchers. Am I wrong?
Nope you're not wrong. And if they're not careful they will make a system which encourages airplane mode as the means of crafting top badges. That game is not worth playing.
@Fluxxx Sorry if you have already been asked this, didn't see it. Can you confirm whether flat badges are going away? It's going to be a major drawback for those of us who have invested significant time and money if we can't be assured of % badges. I sure wouldn't spend money on components if I couldnt control that. Anything you can share with us on that is appreciated.
Excited for the other changes in the update!
MacV (Trinity) "The two most powerful warriors are patience and time." Tolstoy
I just made some nice damage % and cd% badges I would rather get what I know I can get for sure then gamble after update. The risk for a certain spot is not to bad when you can choose bonus and type of badge. And if odd or even.
I think we all agree at this point that Queen Carol archer is a must... espacially now that bringing Shane is a reality... prepare yourselves for the wave of old characters requests NG
I always thought that silent killing, stealth, and threat reduction should have more protagonism in a world like that... also silent weapons for range survivors, and the implementation of a trait that combines with Silenced, I'm glad that Razor opened the door to that game syle...
I doubt making it simpler was the major driving force behind the badge crafting re-do.
Actually, this was the main driving force We were planning to do this for a while now (I hinted at it last year), and it was actually put on hold when the badge crafting patterns were shared on the forum so that players could utilize it. The thing is, the very vast majority of players in the game, are not at the end-game, and the majority of that group also does not engage very much in crafting. Hence, we wanted to make crafting more accessible and understandable to anyone who unlocks Craftsman.
While we do use data, player / community sentiment and feedback are equally important to us - a lot of the changes we bring into the game are strongly driven by your feedback. Of course, we want to balance both to drive engagement and monetization - but it's never as straightforward as you might think. Otherwise, Pizza Guy Glenn and Sheriff Rick might have been alt heroes 😅
As for some clarification on badges, we are indeed removing flat-rate badges from crafting. The ones you have will remain, but you will no longer be able to craft them.
Finally, the seasonal campaign dates are correct - 3rd to 23rd of August. This one will be 3 weeks instead of 4, and will require only 2 distance resets instead of 3 to reach the final reward.
I am sure this will divide opinion but there is no reason for the badge crafting to be as convoluted as it is now. I've tried to read through the guide recently posted by Jay-Z but my tiny brain just can't cope . It is nice being able to control the badges you craft to some extent but the lengths you have to go to for a DR badge with a dodge/retaliate bonus is a bit silly. I imagine the amount of people who have put the time into learning all about the sequences will be low compared to the amount who have no idea about it's existence and are annoyed at how difficult it is to get a badge worth using.
Great stuff on removing flat badges. They suck and reward players who don't want to level up and instead use them to 'cheat' the system in GW. It's also nice to see you shortening the seasonal campaigns and reduce the gold costs.
Totally agree , i just want to play and have fun , not spend hours trying to figure out charts , graphs and data sheets on how to craft a good DR badge
Besides, I think @Grady did a Lions share of the work on cycles and I think I read him saying he's a big math fan number cruncher... The equation had been solved, and he'll happily move on to the next equation?
Big math fans don't solve an equation and then sit around admiring their work... They're looking for the next big equation to solve.
We are all grateful for the work they've done, but I don't think they're too angry.
Are you Lost? Alone? Looking for a killer team to have your back? Join ZOMBREX! We have a tiered guild structure so players of every level and ambition can find a home they fit in. Remember, search ZOMBREX FAMILY. Our page : https://m.facebook.com/Zombrex2015/
I doubt making it simpler was the major driving force behind the badge crafting re-do.
Actually, this was the main driving force We were planning to do this for a while now (I hinted at it last year), and it was actually put on hold when the badge crafting patterns were shared on the forum so that players could utilize it. The thing is, the very vast majority of players in the game, are not at the end-game, and the majority of that group also does not engage very much in crafting. Hence, we wanted to make crafting more accessible and understandable to anyone who unlocks Craftsman.
While we do use data, player / community sentiment and feedback are equally important to us - a lot of the changes we bring into the game are strongly driven by your feedback. Of course, we want to balance both to drive engagement and monetization - but it's never as straightforward as you might think. Otherwise, Pizza Guy Glenn and Sheriff Rick might have been alt heroes 😅
As for some clarification on badges, we are indeed removing flat-rate badges from crafting. The ones you have will remain, but you will no longer be able to craft them.
Finally, the seasonal campaign dates are correct - 3rd to 23rd of August. This one will be 3 weeks instead of 4, and will require only 2 distance resets instead of 3 to reach the final reward.
If might have believed this statement if NG had changed the system so we could craft the badge we wanted @fluxxx. slot, position, shape, effect. Now that would have made it simpler, that would have been an improvement.
Hey if you wanted to make things simpler you could even have removed the different shapes so we could easily match badges.
The only thing I see as things stand is adding more randomness to the badge crafting system.
It's a sad state of affairs if the only way a game company can make money is by encouraging even more gambling with it's player base.
Maybe NG could add a condition to the tools as in "has a 40% chance not to explode" to make absolutely everything in the game random and chance based.
where you say that few people are aware of the existence of the cycles i have to say that all the information needed is available right here on the forum. You don't have to visit some obscure website or join a secret chat somewhere. You just have to read through the forum. I doubt people who never read any information about the game are really that into it. In any case, the information is there for you if you wish it. Readily available.
To say that you are happy about going back to a state of complete randomness (or as someone said in a chat: going back to the dark ages) is surprising to say the least.
Besides, I think @Grady did a Lions share of the work on cycles and I think I read him saying he's a big math fan number cruncher... The equation had been solved, and he'll happily move on to the next equation?
Big math fans don't solve an equation and then sit around admiring their work... They're looking for the next big equation to solve.
We are all grateful for the work they've done, but I don't think they're too angry.
Well the map was only fully figured out on July 3rd, 2 weeks before this update preview. Before that we only had partial knowledge of it. Charting the badge monopoly map also happened to be the longest running and largest scale community project.
I don't mind moving on to the next set of equations, but it would appear there won't be anywhere near the same level of complexity.
I understand people don't want to spend 2 hours understanding how crafting works to get a perfect DR badge. However most don't realize if they had spent 10 hours farming components to get 1 perfect DR badge before, after the update they need to farm over 110~220 hours to get the same perfect DR badge based on what we know so far.
Compare to mindless grinding for mats for hundreds of hours, the effort spent understanding a guide is hardly any time spent.
Imagine people complaining the Distance is too long and time consuming, they then shorten it to 5 missions but lower the reward to 1/11th.
This also create a gap for newcomers. For anyone who hasn't already reached Lv2 Craftsman, getting to the same level of stats as an end gamer is now a lot more difficult. This update is the worst for people who spent the time to understand how crafting used to work, but had being saving up material and waiting for their Lv2 Craftsman to drop.
By the way: - I do like most of this update, there is so much new content and mechanics to be explored. My favorite is Shane's LT causing explosions. - The badge system does need to be beginners friendly. The current system is beautifully crafted and a work of art from my POV, however there is too little in-game hints for navigation, so most people wouldn't get it. That could have been helped by showing a preview of the step/jump map positions similar to the preview on Tetris or other visual clues. - The new implementation is rather brutal and it's a pity to see the old system abandoned. The numbers don't seem to be well thought out though and I expect complaints rising in a few months. - We already had an issue of Badge Fragments dropping at 16% while Components drop at 21% each. In the long run that created a 5% gap of excess components that people always complain about. - The new system will create an imbalance within the different Components themselves - shortage of Metal/Edible and excess of Chemical/Cloth that is far worse than 5%. (If they don't change the recipes shown in the preview.)
The minority of players is reading the forum and from that amount of players the minority is patient or skilled enough, to dive into the math and sheets.
The change in system is a democratize step for the majority of the players, even if it feels like a slap in the face for the math- and finetuning geeks.
A lot more determination for most of the people, but a bit more randomness for a few people.
I doubt making it simpler was the major driving force behind the badge crafting re-do.
Actually, this was the main driving force We were planning to do this for a while now (I hinted at it last year), and it was actually put on hold when the badge crafting patterns were shared on the forum so that players could utilize it. The thing is, the very vast majority of players in the game, are not at the end-game, and the majority of that group also does not engage very much in crafting. Hence, we wanted to make crafting more accessible and understandable to anyone who unlocks Craftsman.
I really see the need to make more people engage in crafting, and let the player do a choice they understand is probably the way to go.
However, as Grady also pointed out, new players that haven't reached craftsman level 2 will have no way to craft the same badges as we have done. To ensure that new players are able to craft badges with the best bonus conditions without crafting an enormous amount of badges, you will have to give the players some influence over bonus conditions. Either by keeping the pattern for bonus conditions, or by letting the user select bonus conditions themselves, maybe with a chance to fail, or let the next bonus condition be visible to the user, so the user can make a choice of which kind of badge to craft with that bonus condition.
Right now there is a 66% chance of getting a perfect bonus condition when you choose to craft a DR badge with your best components.
Another solution is to introduce craftsman level 3, but that would make the path to the endgame even longer for new players, it is quite long already.
A third solution is to change the bonus conditions. Right now hero condition is quite bad, and it only gets worse the more heroes are introduced. Remove the hero condition. Then make the class condition better by also including the class of the hero which equip the badge. Limit defensive badges (Health and DR) trait bonus conditions to defensive traits, and offensive badges (CD and Damage) trait bonus conditions to offensive traits. Then the probability of getting a good bonus condition will be somewhat better, and it will be easier for new players to utilize the bonus conditions.
I am collecting badge crafting results. If you want to contribute please note down as much about each crafting as you can in the sequence you craft and send it to me. Recipe, effect and bonus condition is especially interesting. Discord server to discuss badge crafting: https://discord.gg/PvWYqaQ
@magic not sure where the level 2 craftsman come into it but I can assure you there are 1000’s or endgame players who also haven’t had a chance to craft the badges we have because they haven’t been on the forum/discord and not in a big guild family. Even then someone in my guild tried to jump 4 times and gave up.
As I said earlier, those who know the badge maps lose out a bit. New players and those who didn’t know the badges win massively. A DR badge with a rubbish condition is still better than using all legendary components and getting a CC badge.
It would just be nice to have SOME kind of control over position/shape/bonus ... if those truly are random i may never change a badge again because i need very specific ones for improvement.
Are you Lost? Alone? Looking for a killer team to have your back? Join ZOMBREX! We have a tiered guild structure so players of every level and ambition can find a home they fit in. Remember, search ZOMBREX FAMILY. Our page : https://m.facebook.com/Zombrex2015/
I doubt making it simpler was the major driving force behind the badge crafting re-do.
Actually, this was the main driving force We were planning to do this for a while now (I hinted at it last year), and it was actually put on hold when the badge crafting patterns were shared on the forum so that players could utilize it. The thing is, the very vast majority of players in the game, are not at the end-game, and the majority of that group also does not engage very much in crafting. Hence, we wanted to make crafting more accessible and understandable to anyone who unlocks Craftsman.
While we do use data, player / community sentiment and feedback are equally important to us - a lot of the changes we bring into the game are strongly driven by your feedback. Of course, we want to balance both to drive engagement and monetization - but it's never as straightforward as you might think. Otherwise, Pizza Guy Glenn and Sheriff Rick might have been alt heroes 😅
As for some clarification on badges, we are indeed removing flat-rate badges from crafting. The ones you have will remain, but you will no longer be able to craft them.
Finally, the seasonal campaign dates are correct - 3rd to 23rd of August. This one will be 3 weeks instead of 4, and will require only 2 distance resets instead of 3 to reach the final reward.
If might have believed this statement if NG had changed the system so we could craft the badge we wanted @fluxxx. slot, position, shape, effect. Now that would have made it simpler, that would have been an improvement.
Hey if you wanted to make things simpler you could even have removed the different shapes so we could easily match badges.
The only thing I see as things stand is adding more randomness to the badge crafting system.
It's a sad state of affairs if the only way a game company can make money is by encouraging even more gambling with it's player base.
Maybe NG could add a condition to the tools as in "has a 40% chance not to explode" to make absolutely everything in the game random and chance based.
where you say that few people are aware of the existence of the cycles i have to say that all the information needed is available right here on the forum. You don't have to visit some obscure website or join a secret chat somewhere. You just have to read through the forum. I doubt people who never read any information about the game are really that into it. In any case, the information is there for you if you wish it. Readily available.
To say that you are happy about going back to a state of complete randomness (or as someone said in a chat: going back to the dark ages) is surprising to say the least.
The minority of players is reading the forum and from that amount of players the minority is patient or skilled enough, to dive into the math and sheets.
The change in system is a democratize step for the majority of the players, even if it feels like a slap in the face for the math- and finetuning geeks.
A lot more determination for most of the people, but a bit more randomness for a few people.
That means as much as laziness is rewarded from now on. Everyone who is
"really" interested in the game and tries to get better is looking for
it and thus you inevitably come across sooner or later via the forum,
chats, charts etc.
I doubt making it simpler was the major driving force behind the badge crafting re-do.
Actually, this was the main driving force We were planning to do this for a while now (I hinted at it last year), and it was actually put on hold when the badge crafting patterns were shared on the forum so that players could utilize it. The thing is, the very vast majority of players in the game, are not at the end-game, and the majority of that group also does not engage very much in crafting. Hence, we wanted to make crafting more accessible and understandable to anyone who unlocks Craftsman.
While we do use data, player / community sentiment and feedback are equally important to us - a lot of the changes we bring into the game are strongly driven by your feedback. Of course, we want to balance both to drive engagement and monetization - but it's never as straightforward as you might think. Otherwise, Pizza Guy Glenn and Sheriff Rick might have been alt heroes 😅
As for some clarification on badges, we are indeed removing flat-rate badges from crafting. The ones you have will remain, but you will no longer be able to craft them.
Finally, the seasonal campaign dates are correct - 3rd to 23rd of August. This one will be 3 weeks instead of 4, and will require only 2 distance resets instead of 3 to reach the final reward.
If might have believed this statement if NG had changed the system so we could craft the badge we wanted @fluxxx. slot, position, shape, effect. Now that would have made it simpler, that would have been an improvement.
Hey if you wanted to make things simpler you could even have removed the different shapes so we could easily match badges.
The only thing I see as things stand is adding more randomness to the badge crafting system.
It's a sad state of affairs if the only way a game company can make money is by encouraging even more gambling with it's player base.
Maybe NG could add a condition to the tools as in "has a 40% chance not to explode" to make absolutely everything in the game random and chance based.
where you say that few people are aware of the existence of the cycles i have to say that all the information needed is available right here on the forum. You don't have to visit some obscure website or join a secret chat somewhere. You just have to read through the forum. I doubt people who never read any information about the game are really that into it. In any case, the information is there for you if you wish it. Readily available.
To say that you are happy about going back to a state of complete randomness (or as someone said in a chat: going back to the dark ages) is surprising to say the least.
I guess we're just all gamblers at heart?
As mentioned by @Superhero - think about how many people play the game. This forum is in English/German so that rules out any countries who don't speak those languages. At the end of the day this is a mobile game, it's not e-sports and you shouldn't have to go through the lengths to learn about the crafting system that you do now. Not everyone wants to sign up for a forum, or even know to look for one and not everyone wants to scan through data and spreadsheets. They just want to kill some zombies, chat shit with their guild and maybe craft a good badge once in a while. They don't know it but they will likely never craft a DR badge with a solid bonus to it and it shouldn't be that way.
You don't know that it isn't totally random or going back to the dark ages. All the information we have now is based off a 3 minute video where Fluxxx barely delves into any detail on the new system. There might be a sequence to what bonuses you get like there is now for the player base to figure out. Then it will be about using the right components at the right time.
Like I said it will divide opinion but I think this is a step in the right direction.
Comments
There are 12 traits that can be rolled (or more after the update), and 3 of them are useful for H% or DR% (Dodge/Retaliate/Lucky), another 25% chance.
There are also other hidden traps with the new system, for one, if you craft equal number of D% and CD% badges, and equal number of H% and DR% badges, you will end up using on average 5 Metal : 5 Edible : 3 Chemical : 3 Cloth
Which means a massive excess of Chemicals and Clothes, and severe shortage of Metals and Edibles. They are designed to not balance if you use the new recipes.
Here is an example:
If you have 30 sets of everything:
Craft 10 x Damage badges = 10 of everything used up (leaving 20 Metal, 20 Edible, 20 Chemical, 20 Cloth)
Craft 10 x Critical Damage badges = 10 x Metal + 10 x Edible used up (leaving 10 Metal, 10 Edible, 20 Chemical, 20 Cloth)
Craft 10 x Damage Reduction badges = 10 x Metal + 10 x Cloth used up (leaving 0 Metal, 10 Edible, 20 Chemical, 10 Cloth)
Craft 10 x Health Badges = 10 x Edible + 10 Chemical used up (leaving 0 Metal, 0 Edible, 10 Chemical, 10 Cloth)
What are you going to do with the 10 Chemical + 10 Cloth? Craft critical chance badges?
The more you craft, the more unbalanced this will become. People will keep ask for Metal and Edible components events. The other two events would be pretty useless.
Waiting for the upgrade notes, and hope they will prove me wrong.
if they are just making it harder for people to craft badges they want under the guise of making simpler, it is a problem.
don’t piss off your customers..
This game has been around quite a while now. There's a lot of players that are end-game. I imagine that the redesign goal of NG was "how do we change the badge system to increase revenue?"
Perhaps the new recipes will yield better badges, so end gamers have to chase more badge components to stay on top.
Or it could be that NG saw players quitting after badge creation, so they surmised some were frustrated with it
One thing is for sure. There's some data NG has that indicated they make this change. NG does very little in this game where they are not looking at the gameplay data.
I am constantly reminded of tyrion lannister in the last season saying "some people you just can't teach."
They don't want a few of us to have a clear edge which doesn't even need to be monitized. It's that simple. Any optimism about this change is naivete. Come and see. This change gets pushed out no matter what. The numbers will be worse than before. I will spoon out your bonuses and let my dogs do the rest. Come and see.
(Oh come on that's a funny reference)
They make changes in the game to hopefully make more money. That could mean adding more play to win features, or increasing player satisfaction to encourage more game play or lower player attrition.
NG spent money to develop the system to support these new recipes. If they did not want players using the existing badge crafting maps any more, they could just have easily just changed the patterns.
If you change the crrafting patterns regularly, eventually players will give up trying to discover the patterns. Or just make everything about a badge completely random. Both of these are easier to do than they did.
NG is not in the business of making changes like this to piss off customers. That's not a money making proposition.
Am I wrong?
It's going to be a major drawback for those of us who have invested significant time and money if we can't be assured of % badges.
I sure wouldn't spend money on components if I couldnt control that. Anything you can share with us on that is appreciated.
Excited for the other changes in the update!
"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time." Tolstoy
I always thought that silent killing, stealth, and threat reduction should have more protagonism in a world like that... also silent weapons for range survivors, and the implementation of a trait that combines with Silenced, I'm glad that Razor opened the door to that game syle...
Hence, we wanted to make crafting more accessible and understandable to anyone who unlocks Craftsman.
While we do use data, player / community sentiment and feedback are equally important to us - a lot of the changes we bring into the game are strongly driven by your feedback. Of course, we want to balance both to drive engagement and monetization - but it's never as straightforward as you might think. Otherwise, Pizza Guy Glenn and Sheriff Rick might have been alt heroes 😅
As for some clarification on badges, we are indeed removing flat-rate badges from crafting. The ones you have will remain, but you will no longer be able to craft them.
Finally, the seasonal campaign dates are correct - 3rd to 23rd of August. This one will be 3 weeks instead of 4, and will require only 2 distance resets instead of 3 to reach the final reward.
I am sure this will divide opinion but there is no reason for the badge crafting to be as convoluted as it is now. I've tried to read through the guide recently posted by Jay-Z but my tiny brain just can't cope
Great stuff on removing flat badges. They suck and reward players who don't want to level up and instead use them to 'cheat' the system in GW. It's also nice to see you shortening the seasonal campaigns and reduce the gold costs.
https://forums.nextgames.com/walkingdead/discussion/40263/wild-walking-is-actively-seeking-new-members"
Big math fans don't solve an equation and then sit around admiring their work... They're looking for the next big equation to solve.
We are all grateful for the work they've done, but I don't think they're too angry.
Unless I'm wrong @Grady ?
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Hey if you wanted to make things simpler you could even have removed the different shapes so we could easily match badges.
The only thing I see as things stand is adding more randomness to the badge crafting system.
It's a sad state of affairs if the only way a game company can make money is by encouraging even more gambling with it's player base.
Maybe NG could add a condition to the tools as in "has a 40% chance not to explode" to make absolutely everything in the game random and chance based.
@WellyLuga
where you say that few people are aware of the existence of the cycles i have to say that all the information needed is available right here on the forum. You don't have to visit some obscure website or join a secret chat somewhere.
You just have to read through the forum.
I doubt people who never read any information about the game are really that into it.
In any case, the information is there for you if you wish it. Readily available.
To say that you are happy about going back to a state of complete randomness (or as someone said in a chat: going back to the dark ages) is surprising to say the least.
I guess we're just all gamblers at heart?
By the way:
- I do like most of this update, there is so much new content and mechanics to be explored. My favorite is Shane's LT causing explosions.
- The badge system does need to be beginners friendly. The current system is beautifully crafted and a work of art from my POV, however there is too little in-game hints for navigation, so most people wouldn't get it. That could have been helped by showing a preview of the step/jump map positions similar to the preview on Tetris or other visual clues.
- The new implementation is rather brutal and it's a pity to see the old system abandoned. The numbers don't seem to be well thought out though and I expect complaints rising in a few months.
- We already had an issue of Badge Fragments dropping at 16% while Components drop at 21% each. In the long run that created a 5% gap of excess components that people always complain about.
- The new system will create an imbalance within the different Components themselves - shortage of Metal/Edible and excess of Chemical/Cloth that is far worse than 5%. (If they don't change the recipes shown in the preview.)
The change in system is a democratize step for the majority of the players, even if it feels like a slap in the face for the math- and finetuning geeks.
A lot more determination for most of the people, but a bit more randomness for a few people.
However, as Grady also pointed out, new players that haven't reached craftsman level 2 will have no way to craft the same badges as we have done. To ensure that new players are able to craft badges with the best bonus conditions without crafting an enormous amount of badges, you will have to give the players some influence over bonus conditions. Either by keeping the pattern for bonus conditions, or by letting the user select bonus conditions themselves, maybe with a chance to fail, or let the next bonus condition be visible to the user, so the user can make a choice of which kind of badge to craft with that bonus condition.
Right now there is a 66% chance of getting a perfect bonus condition when you choose to craft a DR badge with your best components.
Another solution is to introduce craftsman level 3, but that would make the path to the endgame even longer for new players, it is quite long already.
A third solution is to change the bonus conditions. Right now hero condition is quite bad, and it only gets worse the more heroes are introduced. Remove the hero condition. Then make the class condition better by also including the class of the hero which equip the badge. Limit defensive badges (Health and DR) trait bonus conditions to defensive traits, and offensive badges (CD and Damage) trait bonus conditions to offensive traits. Then the probability of getting a good bonus condition will be somewhat better, and it will be easier for new players to utilize the bonus conditions.
Discord server to discuss badge crafting: https://discord.gg/PvWYqaQ
Then folks will be able to reach 80% DR more easily without bonus conditions.
Food
For
Thought
@Fluxxx
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Well said, there is nothing more to add.
That means as much as laziness is rewarded from now on. Everyone who is "really" interested in the game and tries to get better is looking for it and thus you inevitably come across sooner or later via the forum, chats, charts etc.
You don't know that it isn't totally random or going back to the dark ages. All the information we have now is based off a 3 minute video where Fluxxx barely delves into any detail on the new system. There might be a sequence to what bonuses you get like there is now for the player base to figure out. Then it will be about using the right components at the right time.
Like I said it will divide opinion but I think this is a step in the right direction.
https://forums.nextgames.com/walkingdead/discussion/40263/wild-walking-is-actively-seeking-new-members"