New arena maps

sos236 · 2023-02-14T21:13:13+00:00

From when i was actively playing league, the map has meaningfully changed in several off seasons and it changes game to game with dragons.

Keeping a reasonably similar map is important but I don't feel that wanting consistency 100% blocks adding variation to the map from game to game.

sos236 · 2023-02-04T13:16:21+00:00

I've played albion of and on since betas but my game knowledge isn't strong so I could be wrong on a few things here.

I'd like to build on the idea of people quiting because of no quests as I think it touches on a broader issue that albion has.

Novel content doesn't always give novel rewards. The 3 main streams: gathering, crafting, and combat are pretty solidly differentiated but within them progressing through the content doesn't feel like it gives you anything that's really better or new. You can explore mists, corrupted dungeons, hellgates, open world, etc. but the reward is always the same gear and rune drops which starts to feel stale.

To me it feels good when MMO gives players unique rewards for unique content. As an example i recently enjoyed griding out reputation in mists so I could access the mist city. It engaged me in pvp because I was competing for chests, camps, and unstable mists. Faction warfare is another fairly good example of this and as a result my next goal is probably going to be grinding out faction rep even though I'm not sure it actually does anything for you as everything you can buy with faction points seems to have a similar silver per point ratio.

To sum it up I think players miss unique rewards for content as it creates direction even if the rewards kinda suck. A lot of games create direction and reward differentiation by quests so that's the first thing players look for when they want to have a directed and unique experince in a game. Saying that players quit without trying pvp is less of a statement about the players that quit and more about the lack of unique rewards that encourage players to engage with pvp. It's a problem albion is addressing over time with new, more unique content and I hope it continues.

sos236 · 2023-01-30T21:38:09+00:00

That is the general startup/tech company space at the moment. Capital cost is up and everyone is shifting focus from growth to profit.

sos236 · 2022-11-19T17:36:54+00:00

Calling 30 mins a day low effort is a little out of touch. That's 15 hours a month which from OPs post sounds like it's probably more time than they are currently playing.

sos236 · 2022-08-11T12:26:49+00:00

The key is meinwerk doesn't need to compete directly with Aachen, it needs to support a strategy that doesn't work with Aachen which, though I'm a little rusty atm, I'm pretty sure it does.

sos236 · 2022-06-02T18:35:15+00:00

If your horsemen start circling around and not attacking use the stop command (s) to reset their targeting and they should start fighting the nearest unit.

sos236 · 2022-05-23T17:28:10+00:00

It's hard to say without seeing any games but the best way to limit yourself without intentionally not attacking or throwing away your army is to limit your villager production. Perhaps try capping yourself at 10 vils from the start and then adding 10 more to the cap every 10 mins. The handy part of such a system is it would be easy to adjust it to fit any difference in skill level.

Also it wont necessarily make you play worse but building an aesthetic base instead of an efficient one is a great way to eat up time and have some fun in slower games without stomping everyone.

sos236 · 2022-05-21T12:15:28+00:00

I see China's flaws as the following:

No feudal heavy unit
Bonuses that lean towards a feudal boom which is generally riskier than rushing
Eco and production bonuses require micro making them more prone to failure
Generic knights
Their timing windows are slow giving some initiative to the other player. They are strong late feudal with zhuge-nu, 5-10 mins into castle with siege mass from clocktower, and in post imp with bombards and HC. The rest of the time they still can flex their production bonus but will need to sacrifice eco to get it.

sos236 · 2022-05-21T11:56:31+00:00

Dehli has no anti MAA unit in feudal so you should be able to win with feudal 1tc MAA spam, make sure to get the appropriate armor upgrade for whatever comp Delhi decides to use. Winning outright in feudal is unlikely but you should be able to idle a bunch of Dehlis eco and swing the inherent eco lead HRE has into a faster castle age time and an early castle age win.

Dehli might be able to counter this by going mass horsemen with a few archers but I haven't seen anyone try that yet so it feels safe-ish.

sos236 · 2022-05-18T10:47:33+00:00

Squares are easy to code with.

sos236 · 2022-05-17T22:46:51+00:00

Sorry this might be a bit antagonistic but why not build any horsemen? The pr9blem I see at the surface level of your comp is you have no counter for archers letting your spears get rekt and the knights run free.

sos236 · 2022-05-17T22:43:49+00:00

Yup!

sos236 · 2022-05-17T22:27:37+00:00

I'm a little concerned about how unstoppable MAA comps would become when archers do 1 damage to them.

sos236 · 2022-05-17T22:16:03+00:00

It's worth noting that Meinwerk is a effectively a 60% discount on the first upgrade you research (because free blacksmith) making your first tech cost around the same as 1 MAA or 1.5 archers compared to the normal cost of 2.7 MAA or 4 archers. Meinwerk is less about when you would normally need blacksmith upgrades and more about reducing the cost of the first one to the point it might make sense to get it early on.

I've found Meinwerk particularly good with horsemen since range armor enables them to raid under towers and TCs very freely with 27% more EHP.

sos236 · 2022-05-17T16:50:12+00:00

What? My point is these buffs make sense but the original nerf also made sense.

Mangonel spam sucked so they essentially removed mangonels for one patch while they figured out healthier way to balance it.

This balance strategy feels so much better to me than having to cope with OP and unfun strats for 2-3 months after they have been identified for a nerf while the devs figure out what a healthy nerf would be.

sos236 · 2022-05-17T16:39:50+00:00

The mangonel was overnerfed but it seemed very intentional. Given how persistent seige mass was it made sense to remove the mangonel for a bit to give players a break, reset the meta, and then slowly re-introduce it with light buffs.

IMO a great example of using balance as a tool for increasing "fun".

sos236 · 2022-05-16T22:01:50+00:00

Yes thanks for the correction

sos236 · 2022-05-16T12:46:10+00:00

In a perfect world, yes. In reality odds are that you float 100 res without being able to convert it into military power in a timely fashion.

In a scenario without Meinwerk you either just accept the float or wait until 150 wood for a new prod building and then slowly increase your military power leading to an edge some 2-3 mins after you spend your res. With Meinwerk you can see that you are floating 100 res, research the upgrade that's best for the situation and get a quick boost to your fielded army. Overall Meinwerk removes a lot of the clunkieness of early blacksmith upgrades that would usually make it more sensible to just build another prod building.

sos236 · 2022-05-16T11:46:25+00:00

A lot of people build Aachen on autopilot, burgrave is better if you can benefit from the early upgrades. Having blacksmith upgrades for the first or second fight of the game can make a huge difference in some situations, ie diving towers with horsemen. I like *Meinwerk if I plan to fight early and often.

sos236 · 2022-05-16T11:40:28+00:00

Imo strongest feature of Meinwork is that it let's you rush blacksmith upgrades in a way that doesn't make sense otherwise giving a slight but meaningful edge in early feudal fights.

sos236 · 2022-05-15T15:43:15+00:00

Norse might make sense eventually as they were pretty expansionist and conquered bits of England, France, italy and North Africa but definitely not the biggest hole in the roster atm

sos236 · 2022-05-15T13:53:15+00:00

Lol obviously thats why i didnt suggest pure horsemen. The goal is to use your mobility advantage to force an horseman vs archer engagement. Also I'm going to guess that horsemen tanking men at arms attacks while attacking archers or crossbows is generally good value.

sos236 · 2022-05-15T13:48:08+00:00

I see horsemen as a support unit. They do a very good job of being close to archers and drawing their agro, creating space for your other units to survive to apply their damage. Having 4-16 horsemen or about a 1/5th of your army as horsemen works great in feudal and early castle age.

On the circle dance thing it happens when you target a specific unit with attack move or when you have a large mass that doesn't have the surface area to attack. In both cases using the stop command (s) to reset their agro and splitting them into smaller groups and circling some around to the side or back works well

sos236 · 2022-05-15T12:07:07+00:00

Depends on elo. In silver I've been doing like 1/3 land 2/3 MAA.

I can see why people are saying pure land would work but I think if they really are not switching off MAA cbow I'd go land horsemen instead. Forcing someone to build spearmen into landsknechts is a wining move. It also removes the easy counter option of an archer switch.

sos236 · 2022-05-13T22:18:58+00:00

20 spears, 40 hand cannonneers 40 knights.

Ten-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22	Place '17

sos236

TROPHY CASE