Discussion - 1.13 and new army management

[DeletedUser12086]

This is a discussion thread for the announcement here.

 

[DeletedUser]

When this came out on the beta server and you asked for feedback there were two main points that most players raised:

1. Being able to filter units by age; and
2. Being able to easily and quickly see whether a unit was attached or unattached (without having to hover the mouse over each unit).

Thank you for implementing the first but the second seemed to be much more important to most players who left feedback (myself included) and I believe this would have been of greater value than any of these changes.

Don't get me wrong - these changes look to be more visually appealing than the previous version and the ability to use one unit in both attack and defence is valuable but it still feels like you have ignored half the feedback.

 

[DeletedUser]

Or maybe they just didnt want to implement it Martynius :-P
Those Alkatraz armies are getting big as it is, and you can imagine how big they would get when we could select our attached units easily for more difficult battles :-) At the moment I just dont bother (like most players I think), and i choose to lose a few of unattached units a day just to save the total time I spend on battles :-)

 

[DeletedUser2029]

The new screen for managing your armies has a new look, and now includes shameless taunts from some of your opponents

Does this apply only to PvE or will it be available for PvP also?
If so, will they be predefined or will we be able to modify them (like town names or player profile, standard "mild language" rules apply)?

 

[DeletedUser16026]

I'm with Martynius here. Easily distinguishable unattached units was the top requirement. In fact, I remember Anwar mentioning they'll look into it due to the large number of requests for it. It might be the screen does not show any unattached units so we're just not seeing it, but can we get a confirmation of whether or not anything has been added/changed in regards to the display of unattached units?

 

[DeletedUser98641]

These are some great changes, I have been waiting for them a long time.
But I agree with Marty: "Being able to easily and quickly see whether a unit was attached or unattached (without having to hover the mouse over each unit)". That one I really miss.

 

[DeletedUser]

2. Defending units. If the enemy's defenses are visible, they are shown here.

How exactly does that work?
Are they visible if lets say you attacked before and thats what the defender had?
Or if the defender doesnt change his defense troops over a period of time, ie, after 24h since they were set the defenses become "visible" to a possible attacker?
Or is it only for the battles on the game maps and not PvP?
What`s the algorithm?

 

[DeletedUser8821]

I agree that the most important update would have been to show unattached units.
I have lost valuable units because I had not noticed they were unattached.
The next useful update would be to identify which unit is in which building so one doesn't have several units killed in one building & none in the other.

 

[DeletedUser]

How exactly does that work?
Are they visible if lets say you attacked before and thats what the defender had?
Or if the defender doesnt change his defense troops over a period of time, ie, after 24h since they were set the defenses become "visible" to a possible attacker?
Or is it only for the battles on the game maps and not PvP?
What`s the algorithm?

I think it simply means you can see the defenses when you are fighting NPC on the map, and that you cannot see them when you are attacking in the hood.
For GvG, who knows :-D

 

[DeletedUser15432]

I like the changes to the artillery against heavy units but do not like the reduction in attack

 

[DeletedUser]

Yeah, we kept saying how important it was to distinguish between the attached and unattached units. Personally I don't see how the new interface is of any value add to the previous interface. The only main difference I see is the ability to view the enemy's units if that's visible, but that only applies towards sectors, not when you attack your neighbours.

Will this page appear when you click "attack" on your enemy? Or is this change strictly when you click the army management tab?

Thanks

 

[DeletedUser]

I am confused with this new feature - "Use your defending units as part of your attacking army"

How is this a new feature? Previously you could use defending units as part of your attacking army, you just had to move them to the pool first then move it to the attacking army. Once that is done you just move it back.

 

[DeletedUser]

I think it simply means you can see the defenses when you are fighting NPC on the map, and that you cannot see them when you are attacking in the hood.
For GvG, who knows :-D

Yeah thats what i thought too. Its good they took the advise of the players and made it possible to select through the ages, otherwise I dont really see the point for this new army management.
Im still waiting for the guild vs guild module which last time I heard of, a month or so ago, was due very very soon, maybe even same time with the halloween event...

 

[Amy Steele]

I am confused with this new feature - "Use your defending units as part of your attacking army"

How is this a new feature? Previously you could use defending units as part of your attacking army, you just had to move them to the pool first then move it to the attacking army. Once that is done you just move it back.

The previous system was as you describe... if I understand correctly, the new system allows a unit to be used in both attack and defense simultaneously. So if you are attacked by a player while you yourself are fighting a battle, the potential now exists for the same unit to be fighting both defensively and offensively at the same time.

 

[DeletedUser96901]

The previous system was as you describe... if I understand correctly, the new system allows a unit to be used in both attack and defense simultaneously. So if you are attacked by a player while you yourself are fighting a battle, the potential now exists for the same unit to be fighting both defensively and offensively at the same time.

and if you attack somebody (or on the world map) and you lose all your troops (which are in both simultaneously) and someone attacks you seconds after it you don't have any defense

 

[DeletedUser7719]

Yep, but it's the player's fault if he wants to do that

 

[DeletedUser12086]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

While the screen was on Beta, there were several suggestions as to how it could be improved. A lot of Beta testers wanted a better way to view defensive units, which we have since implemented by moving all defensive units to the front of the unit pool. You can see it in operation next week

Another thing we added after listening to feedback, as you've noticed, is the age filter. Overall, the screen is a big improvement on the old one, and - while there is no unattached units filter in the new screen - this was not part of the old screen, so it hasn't gone "backwards" in any way and the new screen is still a major improvement.

Having said that, something to show unattached units was fairly high on the wish list from Beta, and I can tell you that there are plans to implement something to address this in the future. However, because of the need to prioritize, we are unable to always implement requests before releasing a feature. But it is on the cards.

 

[DeletedUser]

Will this page appear when you click "attack" on your neighbour? Or is this change strictly when you click the army management tab?

 

[DeletedUser]

Nice one... definitely looks like an improvement on the old design and the filter by age is a nice feature.

Just one point.... For the majority of the time I've played this game one of my biggest annoyances was that I never knew which unit belonged to which building... the game is obviously keeping track because I've watched a whole barracks empty after an attack went wrong in the past. This isn't a problem for me anymore (thank you Alcatraz, I've found I've developed the same mentality as many a dictator to my troops wellbeing nowadays)... but it's easy to forget that for the majority of players this might have been a far more useful feature... even if it just added something to the tool tip similar to how we can identify unattached units saying something like barracks A...barracks B..etc

That being said... well done... certainly looks better than the existing interface

 

[DeletedUser16026]

Will this page appear when you click "attack" on your neighbour? Or is this change strictly when you click the army management tab?

The same page will appear everywhere, in the army management tab, on the map, and against neighbors. However, you won't see your neighbors' army listed (it didn't work like that over at beta and I don't see it as part of the announcement so I'm guessing no change on that front).