Updates - Plague + Tech rebalance +
Posted: Wed May 11, 2016 9:43 am
At its conception, the game was intended to give newcomers an introduction to GateWars in a simpler environment that would reward effort, but offer a fast track to an account in Main at level 20.
That process was balanced to last somewhere between 3 to 6 months. Along the way (very early o,n in fact) it became noticeable that certain essential features that were designed to maintain that timeline were malfunctioning.
Plague, for instance, did absolutely nothing.
Technology bonuses offering up to a ludicrous 20,000 % stats increase, as well as - more importantly - income. Combined with the wild growth of armies above the cap, the tie between top income/UP and market bonuses meant no newcomer ever had to do anything other than collect the market bonus for either units, sit back, train a bunch of Higgs-units and fast-track through the ascensions.
Within years this rendered the entire ascension track a laughable 10-day process. The effort (or utter lack thereof) does in no way compare to the value of a level 20 Main account.
Starting in 2012, the Plague and rebalancing were announced. Over a period of 3 years, testing took place in the Development environment. Changes to the planning were made (in some cases through force majeure, in other cases because of planning conflicts).
In 2013, the administrator for Newgrounds became administrator for all of Gatewars, and assumed responsibility for Main, Quantum, (Ascended by proxy), Newgrounds. Other projects assumed priority, and while Newgrounds continued to grow, it did so unsupervised (save some minor updates through the years).
In 2015, we developed a new 'vision for GateWars'; in it, Newgrounds plays the role it was intended to play, in addition to offering interesting end-game play.
Development resumed, and for 2 weeks in 2016, the "Incoming: Plague+other updates" warning was displayed on the Base page.
Following Ascension Day in Main, the launch of the updates on NewGrounds is upon us.
The following updates have been launched:
Plague:
- Across the entirety of your realm (both trained and untrained units) will die if you are over the Plague cap. (As it is in Main.)
- Unit death for the next turn will be displayed on your Command Center page.
- Plague will affect all users over the Plague cap.
- Mothership Crews are indicated as a warning, do not yet count for plague.
Flexible Caps:
- Plague will show its murderous rage if your armysize exceeds 8 million.
- Raiding will no longer be possible if your armysize exceeds 6 million.
- Receiving units will no longer be possible if your armysize exceeds 4 million.
- These caps increase by a factor 1.75 for every year Newgrounds exists.
Technology:
- Income Tech now provides a 0.01% bonus per level, up to a max of 200%.
- Mothership Tech provides 0.02% bonus per level (cumulative with Attack/Def tech)
- Mothership Naquadah Carrying Capacity is increased with a factor 10 (UU CC remains the same)
- Attack / Defence Tech now provides 0.01% bonus per level
Security:
- Ongoing: general security updates
Facebook:
- functional SSO (1-click sign in) for those registered through FB
Still to come:
Plague / Flexible Caps:
- Mothership crews count towards population (50 each).
Battles:
- If your Motherships are incapable of breaking through your opponents fleet, no ground battle will follow. This has no effect on attacks requiring a Stargate.
- Blitzkrieg will require a successful MS Battle; if overpowering (att>200%def), kills anticovert, double normal priests, double defenders; quadruple normal attacker death.
Gameplay for level 25+
- tba.
That process was balanced to last somewhere between 3 to 6 months. Along the way (very early o,n in fact) it became noticeable that certain essential features that were designed to maintain that timeline were malfunctioning.
Plague, for instance, did absolutely nothing.
Technology bonuses offering up to a ludicrous 20,000 % stats increase, as well as - more importantly - income. Combined with the wild growth of armies above the cap, the tie between top income/UP and market bonuses meant no newcomer ever had to do anything other than collect the market bonus for either units, sit back, train a bunch of Higgs-units and fast-track through the ascensions.
Within years this rendered the entire ascension track a laughable 10-day process. The effort (or utter lack thereof) does in no way compare to the value of a level 20 Main account.
Starting in 2012, the Plague and rebalancing were announced. Over a period of 3 years, testing took place in the Development environment. Changes to the planning were made (in some cases through force majeure, in other cases because of planning conflicts).
In 2013, the administrator for Newgrounds became administrator for all of Gatewars, and assumed responsibility for Main, Quantum, (Ascended by proxy), Newgrounds. Other projects assumed priority, and while Newgrounds continued to grow, it did so unsupervised (save some minor updates through the years).
In 2015, we developed a new 'vision for GateWars'; in it, Newgrounds plays the role it was intended to play, in addition to offering interesting end-game play.
Development resumed, and for 2 weeks in 2016, the "Incoming: Plague+other updates" warning was displayed on the Base page.
Following Ascension Day in Main, the launch of the updates on NewGrounds is upon us.
The following updates have been launched:
Plague:
- Across the entirety of your realm (both trained and untrained units) will die if you are over the Plague cap. (As it is in Main.)
- Unit death for the next turn will be displayed on your Command Center page.
- Plague will affect all users over the Plague cap.
- Mothership Crews are indicated as a warning, do not yet count for plague.
Flexible Caps:
- Plague will show its murderous rage if your armysize exceeds 8 million.
- Raiding will no longer be possible if your armysize exceeds 6 million.
- Receiving units will no longer be possible if your armysize exceeds 4 million.
- These caps increase by a factor 1.75 for every year Newgrounds exists.
Technology:
- Income Tech now provides a 0.01% bonus per level, up to a max of 200%.
- Mothership Tech provides 0.02% bonus per level (cumulative with Attack/Def tech)
- Mothership Naquadah Carrying Capacity is increased with a factor 10 (UU CC remains the same)
- Attack / Defence Tech now provides 0.01% bonus per level
Security:
- Ongoing: general security updates
Facebook:
- functional SSO (1-click sign in) for those registered through FB
Still to come:
Plague / Flexible Caps:
- Mothership crews count towards population (50 each).
Battles:
- If your Motherships are incapable of breaking through your opponents fleet, no ground battle will follow. This has no effect on attacks requiring a Stargate.
- Blitzkrieg will require a successful MS Battle; if overpowering (att>200%def), kills anticovert, double normal priests, double defenders; quadruple normal attacker death.
Gameplay for level 25+
- tba.