Rejected City Defense needs a review - here is an idea!

[DeletedUser4259]

Idea!

Perceived problem: When all great buildings are leveled to max for defense and attack, the defender has very little chance of winning.

Hard Facts:
1. Attacker has a total of 300% unit bonus while defender only has 200%.
2. Attacker can control the unit's target selection and movement on the battlefield.
3. Attacker's unit raises in both damage output as well as defense (making them harder to kill with unmodified defender attacks).

Suggested Ideas: ..vote and discuss, but Only chose one of the below!
A). Remove attacker's defensive bonus and add it to their attack (so they get 300% to attack only)
B). Remove attacker's ability to control their units once battle begins (other than to retreat..) only allow auto attack!
C). Allow defensive Great buildings to set their bonus to "charge the enemy". So defender's units could be 200/0, 100/100, or 0/200 percent depending on what position the switch on their building is in, (a 12hour cool down on switching modes would be needed to prevent abuse of fast swapping.. consider it time required to "change the guard" or give out leadership commands to all your men.)

Vote: A, B, or C but not all 3, only one should be enough.

 

[DeletedUser]

A) That would actually nerf the attackers bonus. Sure, the attack would be higher, but the low defense will make the units as sensitive as glass!
B) Absolutely NO! This will just destroy the whole game.
C) This could work, but I guess that it will just be so much work for something that can be solved better and easier. This suggestion would require them to change how the entire GB-window works.

In my opinion the best change would be these three (all of them):

- Change watchfires. Give them some other stats, like faster healing time or training time.
- Change defensive GBs to just give +5% defensive boost per level.
- Change defensive boost to boost both attack and defense.

 

[DeletedUser2752]

How about:
D) Bonuses don't stack and watchfire are brought down to 1% (watchfires do not stack either) I.E.: a level 10 SB and DC will increase the defender's defence by 1 - (150% * 150%) = 125% + 25 watchfires = 1 - (150% * 150% * 101% ^ 25) = (approx.) 289% rather than 200%.

 

[DeletedUser4259]

Some thoughts on the 3 choices.


Choice “A” is a good option for causing more attacking units to suffer damage. Although it may well yield similar outcomes to what we have now, there will be more attacker troops dying before leaving the battlefield. More diamonds may be spent by some players to heal units, but others may choose to retreat more often when faced with a strong defense boosted by watch-fires.Battles will also be faster since the attacker is killing quicker with the added boost to attack percentage.


Choice “B” is not really a step forward but it does balance out the amount of interaction that both sides (defender and attacker) has over the battlefield. By limiting the attacker to only be able to retreat, it allows for the units selected before the battle to be on more of an even footing since the artificial intelligence is controlling both sides.


Choice “C” is interesting in that the defender is able to adjust “how” their defense will fight.Will they charge out and attack the enemy with ferocity (200/0)? Or will they sit back and try to absorb as much damage as they can while slowly whittling away at their attacker (0/200 ..this is what we have currently)? Maybe they will split their forces to draw the enemy into a trap where half charges out and the rest stay back to provide a more traditional defense for key locations around the city (100/100)?


I hope this helps to explain my thoughts on this proposed idea?

 

[DeletedUser]

The AI for city defense is random at best, mostly rather poor.
Agree fully that attack has the edge over defence. For a long period in history, it was defence who had the benefit of fortifications etc.

Anyways, being practical - of the proposed choices I like C most. However the simple solution would be to give attack bonus to the defensive SB's. The way to a more balanced game/ defense could also be more in the line of falcon93's suggestion.

 

[Andi47]

However the simple solution would be to give attack bonus to the defensive SB's. The way to a more balanced game/ defense could also be more in the line of falcon93's suggestion.

This is probably the best idea - because at current state the defending units sometimes not even *hurt* the attacking units. At current state, the defending units are like having thick armor but fighting with toothsticks.

 

[DeletedUser1418]

Here's my proposal:
They should simply restore the defense properties change they made to the Defending GB's. It used to be both attack and defense were increased by the Defending GB's, just like attackers now have it at both +150%. Although I find 200% a bit much, 50% would have been fairer per GB. Nevertheless, you get the balance right if you make the defender fire a bit harder.

EG: An defender with both Def. GB has +200% def and attack, The attacker has 150% def + attack. With the current battle-system you can still win, however a lot faster, and the losses will be heavier. Half that of the defender to say 100% d+a vs 150%, it will still be a much fairer battle.

The watch fires should only add to defence pool of the defending army making it harder to defeat.

 

[DeletedUser1036]

Last I heard, and this was long ago, is there was going to be some changes to GB attack/defense bonuses, and how they stack, but when/if/how this will be done is not something I know. Choice C seems pretty neat, but I agree that it would take a complete redesign of the GB structure, and would be a huge amount of work to get it to work right, and we all know we already have to much that does not work right so no need on adding anything else, lol. Anyway, great post, thanks for playing Forge of Empires.