Update 2.0.16: Reducing rush strat effectiveness

Hi everyone! ːcer_goldː

We've been hearing your concerns regarding rush strategies being too strong in multiplayer, with 200 IQ players only building a few workers to spend every other penny on troops to rush in and end the game in record time. To prevent this from being the only viable high-level strategy, we've made a lot of balance changes.

Neutral empires less aggressive

• Increased neutral empires attack timers by 30-40% on all difficulties above normal difficulty. This means neutrals attack less frequently and the timer is longer.

Healing easier

• Healer price reduced from 200 food, 200 gold => 200 food, 150 gold

Stopping light unit spam is easier

• Wizard price reduced from 150 food, 350 gold => 150 food, 300 gold. Hp increased from 220 to 250.
• Axe thrower base damage increased from 9 to 10
• Wall hp increased: at level 2 from 2500 to 3000. At level 3 from from 4000 => 4500
• Splash harvester price reduced from 400 wood to 200 wood and resource collection rate decreased from 30% to 25%.
• Watermage spell range reduced from 10 to 7 (to reduce canceling fire and poison effects too easily)

Buildings and walls more resistant to catapults and hammermen

• Catapult bonus damage to buildings reduced from 4x to 3x
• Hammerman bonus damage to buildings reduced from 8x to 6x

Healing towers less useful for offense

• Healing tower healing ranged reduced from 10 to 6 to reduce offensive use and make their location more relevant. Price changed from 500 wood 50 gold => 400 wood, 60 gold

Goblin units buffed

• Goblin king income bonus increased from 15% to 20% in circle
• Rock Troll price changed from 800 food, 120 gold => 400 wood, 300 food. HP increased from 450 to 500 and armor from 1 to 2.
• Huge Goblin price changed from 1000 food, 600 gold => 800 wood, 300 gold

Naturally occurring resources less snow-bally

• Berry bush food per trip reduced from 20 to 10
• Blueberry bush food per trip reduced from 30 to 15 and total food reduced from 300 to 250
• Gold pile gold per trip reduced from 20 to 10, total gold from 200 to 150
• Pure gold pile gold per trip reduced from 30 to 15, total gold reduced from 300 to 250
• Gold fish total resources reduced from 300 to 250.
• Forester price reduced from 400 wood, 300 food => 300 wood, 300 food

Economy buildings more durable to slow down conquest

• Forester level 1 hp increased from 500 => 1000
• Bank hp increased: at level 1 from 600 => 1000, level 2 from 1200 => 2000, level 3 from 2000 => 3000
• Fishery hp increased: at level 1 from 500 => 1000, level 2 from 800 => 1600
• Storehouse hp increased: at level 1 from 300 to 600. Level 2 from 2000 => 3000. Level 3 from 3000 => 4000. Level 4 from 4000 => 5000
• Market hp increased: at level 1 from 300 => 750. Level 2 from 600 => 1500. Level 3 from 3000 => 4000. Level 4 from from 3000 => 5000
• Haste temple hp increased: at level 1 from 300 => 800. Level 2 from 500 => 1200. Level 3 from 1200 => 2500.

Workers have more hp to slow down conquest

• Worker hp increased from 50 to 100 and strength rating from 2 to 5.
• Goblin worker hp increased from 40 to 80 and strength rating from 1 to 4.
• Pumpkin worker hp increased from 100 to 120 and strength rating from 1 to 6
• Frog worker hp increased from 70 to 110 and strength rating from 1 to 5
• Prince hp increased from 400 to 700
• Caravan hp increased from 300 to 600

Reduced XP gained from destroying bases and base defenses

• Walls and non-attacking buildings dont give xp when attacked or destroyed.
• Buildings that can attack (e.g. towers) give 1 xp per attack and 5 xp * level of building for being destroyed. This reduces total xp gain from towers by 50-90%, the change is bigger for more expensive and higher level towers. These used to have big downside of giving attackers a lot of xp in player-vs-player games.

Static defenses cheaper/more durable/deals more damage

• Wall starting hp percentage increased from 1% to 50%
• Tower level 1 hp increased from 300 => 450. Level 2 hp increased from 550 => 700
• Fire tower price reduced from 800 wood, 100 gold => 600 wood, 50 gold
• Frost tower price reduced from 500 wood, 80 gold => 500 wood, 50 gold
• Poison tower poison damage increased from 6 x 22s to 9 x 16s. Hp increased from 500 to 600. Price changed from 500 wood, 250 food => 300 wood, 300 food
• Boulder tower hp increased from 1200 to 1400. Price changed from 700 wood to 500 wood, 100 food
• Acid tower base damage increased from 6 to 10
• Circle defender starting hxp increased from 4 to 80 so it doesn't die immediately from blocking arrows.

Losing units and buildings now always gives the player small amount of resources

1. This works even without having the life-insurance tech upgrade.
2. There's always a resource bonus for losing a creature or building.
3. The bonus resource type is either wood or food, depending on price of the destroyed thing. Resource amount is 20% of total price of the thing that was destroyed. For example, if archer costs 120 wood and 60 food and it dies, player get's 20% of (120 + 60) = 18 wood.
4. For economy buildings and full-time workers it's 33% of total price.
5. For walls it's 10% refund of total price.
6. Lifeinsurance technology upgrade, which increases this bonus, has been rebalanced. The bonus at level 1 gives +20%. And level 2 gives +15%. This is multiplied, so if guard normally gives back 30 food, having Life Insurance level 1 gains 30 * 1.2 = 36 food.
7. This bonus increases when you have less circles than other players. This is to make it easier to come back from having fallen behind. The multiplier is calculated as 0.6 + 0.4 * max number of circles for any player / your circles count. For example if you have 2 circles and enemy has 4, the bonus resources is multiplied by 0.6 + 0.4 * 4 / 2 = 1.4x. So losing a guard gives back 42 food instead of 30 food, which is baseline. The multiplier is capped at 3x.

Technology upgrades

• Damage upgrades now always give at least +1 damage per upgrade.

Leader bonuses that encouraged rushing have been reduced or replaced with permanent stat boost.

• Wolfam: starting bonus change from +1000 food to +500 wood and +500 food
• Wilbelforce: removed starting +400 gold. Added 2 starting gold piles.
• Barg the Barbarian doesnt get extra barbar workers. Get's +15% damage for all units and buildings..
• Ephius the economist: removed +2 gold piles per circle.
• Barandur: doesn't get keeps in each circle. Get's +6 armor to all buildings.
• Laura - can recruit goblin workers now (also regular workers). Removed +1 healer per circle. Gets +4 armor to melee units.
• Xee and Xot: Removed +1 monster mushroom per circle. Get's +2 zombies per circle.
• Swifty the scavenger lord: reduced towers per circle from 2 to 1.
• Mindy the mushroom mage: starting +600 food removed. All things start with +25% xp.
• Wyona the water queen. Removed starting wood. Added wood harvesting bonus +20%.
• Demian the Dragon: removed +3 workers per circle. Replaced starting +222 gold bonus with 2 gold piles (300 gold). Added workspeed bonus +40%.
• Darkness dominion: Removed +5 zombies per circle. Get's a regular tower per circle (didnt used to get any towers). Starts with forester level 3. Get's +4 armor for all melee units.
• Melee mercs: removed starting gold +100. Added starting gold pile.
• Arcane alliance: removed +2 frog workers per circle. Starts with 2x Namtar worker (pumpkin cyclops worker).
• Smog the Shaman: reduced starting food from +300 to +150
• Harvey the horsemaster: removed starting health temple.
• Mermaid and Goblin: reduced starting +500 wood to +150 wood. Start in a healing lake that provides permanent healing to anyone inside the circle. Starting workers switched from goblin to frog. Get's 2x loot from destroying enemy units and buildings.
• Dominic the defender: boulder-towers per circle reduced from 2 to 1. All ranged units and buildings do 20% more damage.
• Flynn the footman: removed +1 barbar worker and +1 archer per circle (still get's +1 spearman). Get's +15% damage to all units and buildings. Can recruit frog workers now (also regular workers)

Replay fixes

• Fixed: replay didnt show all players if the game was played on LAN or hosted on player's own device

General balance

• Golem level 1 hp decreased from 1000 to 900. Xp requirement increased from 600 to 900. Attack cooldown increased from 0.6s to 0.8s.
• Golem level 2 damage reduced from 50 to 40. Hp reduced from 3000 to 2500. Attack cooldown increased from 0.6s to 0.8s.
• Vampire levels are harder to gain: xp requirement at level 3 increased from 350 => 450. At level 4 from 550 => 600. At level 5 from 1000 => 1200
• Summoner summoning cooldown reduced from 70 seconds to 60 seconds. Hp increased from 180 to 220. Attack cooldown decreased from 2s to 1s.

Phew, that's the list. Lots of changes, so let us know how you feel!

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