Year of the Player: Update 5 - October 2nd. 2019

RELEASING ON OCTOBER 2nd. 2019:

• Tower Power Updates are releasing TODAY via a minor update.
  • This will affect tower levels 76 through 90.
  • The buffs will gradually be applied across levels 76 to 85.
  • The affected tower stats include base Attack Power, base HP, base Supershot, and the Defense Power seen on the attack prep screen.
• Tower / Dragon Alignment is releasing TODAY via the same minor update.
  • We’ll be lowering the player level requirements to breed Harbinger dragons from player level 300 → 280.
  • We’ll be reducing the player level requirements of the Dragon’s Den beginning at Den level 48 all the way to the max level (105).
  • Dragons from Obsidian through Abyssal Tiers will be able to reach Expert status at an earlier player level than before.
• Timer Cost Updates are releasing TODAY via the same minor update.

RELEASING NEXT WEEK

• Builder Hut level 46 will be reduced from player level 430 to player level 426, affecting tower levels 83-85.
• We’re planning to increase player level requirements for the final tower levels (88, 89, and 90) next week after this Fortification event is over to help players plan with sufficient notice.

Tower Power Updates

We have received feedback from many players that end-game dragons can achieve consistently high levels of success against the best bases in the game, despite the fact that bases are the most difficult to build. Additionally, this was one of the key topics covered in the Limited-Time Chat 18. To help solve this issue, we’re rolling out updates to the stats of tower levels 76 through 90. The buffs will gradually be applied across levels 76 to 85, which avoids awkward spikes, until the buffs reach a maximum of +20% from tower levels 85-90. The affected tower stats include base Attack Power, base HP, base Supershot, and the Defense Power seen on the attack prep screen. We’ve playtested this change with the Gameplay Faction and used updated playtest success criteria to get it to feel right.

See below for the planned buffs:

Tower / Dragon Alignment

During our discussions with GPF around buffing high-level towers, an additional issue was raised about how players with non-end-game dragons often attack opponents at a similar player level who have higher level towers than these dragons were balanced against. For example: A player with a Mythic Obsidian Dragon might often face an opponent at the same player level who has towers designed for Harbinger Dragons. The root cause of the above issue stems from there being a discrepancy between the player level requirements for breeding and experting dragons versus building corresponding towers.

While we want to hustle to get the high-level tower buffs live as soon as possible, we also want to be responsible and not make this related issue any worse in the process. We spent time looking at all of the relationships between towers and dragons, inclusive of when each can be upgraded, and we’ve identified a set of improvements we can make to help decrease this discrepancy.

We’ll be lowering the player level requirements to breed Harbinger dragons from player level 300 → 280 and reducing the player level requirements of the Dragon’s Den beginning at Den level 48 all the way to the max level, level 105. The effect of these Den changes is that dragons from Obsidian through Abyssal Tiers will be able to reach Expert status at an earlier player level than current day. The new Expert level requirements are calibrated based on the player level that would be achieved by building between 7-10 of the corresponding defensive towers.

There are some cases where certain tower levels were launched with a lower player level unlock requirement than they probably should have carried, due to either the direct player level or the corresponding builder hut requirement. Rather than make widespread changes to these, we’re better aligning the dragons without retroactively raising the requirements of any towers before tower levels 88, 89, and 90.

Updating those last few levels is absolutely necessary because both Mythic Empyrean towers and Legendary Abyssal towers should not carry the same player level requirement, which today is true since Builder Hut level 46 is available at player level 430. Fixing this is in the best long-term interest of the game, but in order to help players plan with sufficient notice, we’re going to separate that change from the other updates and deliver it next week after this Fortification event is over.

• Today:
  • We’ll fix a small lumber requirement error on builder hut level 46 where the cost is cheaper than builder hut level 45.
  • Harbinger dragons become breedable at player level 280 instead of 300, by virtue of reducing the player level requirement on incubator level 12.
  • Tower levels 61-65 (which were gated on Harbinger eggs for Builder Hut levels 37-39) will remain at player level 300.
  • Expert dragons at each Tier will have a significantly reduced player level requirement, as detailed above, by way of Den requirement reductions.
• Next Week (after Fortification):
  • Builder Hut level 46 will be reduced from player level 430 to player level 426, affecting tower levels 83-85.
  • Requirements for tower levels 88-90 will change as follows:

• Anyone who already has towers between 88-90 who doesn’t meet the new player level will not lose their progress. For example: If you already have a level 90 tower at player level 435, the level 90 tower will remain on your base and will not be lost or decreased in power. Further upgrades to tower level 90 after this change goes live will require first achieving player level 440.

Timer Cost Updates

As mentioned in the YOTP Update #5 4:

We are adding additional discounts to the Harbinger and Vanguard tower levels’ timer costs in order to smooth the progression of traversal from Obsidian Tier (which requires 5 tower levels) to Harbinger Tier (which requires 10 tower levels). The following are the new discounts to the construction time and cost of these tower levels:

TL;DR (Again)

RELEASING TODAY

• Tower Power Updates are releasing TODAY via a minor update.
  • This will affect tower levels 76 through 90.
  • The buffs will gradually be applied across levels 76 to 85.
  • The affected tower stats include base Attack Power, base HP, base Supershot, and the Defense Power seen on the attack prep screen.
• Tower / Dragon Alignment is releasing TODAY via the same minor update.
  • We’ll be lowering the player level requirements to breed Harbinger dragons from player level 300 → 280.
  • We’ll be reducing the player level requirements of the Dragon’s Den beginning at Den level 48 all the way to the max level (105).
  • Dragons from Obsidian through Abyssal Tiers will be able to reach Expert status at an earlier player level than before.
• Timer Cost Updates are releasing TODAY via the same minor update.

RELEASING NEXT WEEK

• Builder Hut level 46 will be reduced from player level 430 to player level 426, affecting tower levels 83-85.
• We’re planning to increase player level requirements for the final tower levels (88, 89, and 90) next week after this Fortification event is over to help players plan with sufficient notice.