by kaw_admin on Oct 27 2015, 1:51pm
A Message from KaW Admin
The development process for Lowland Wars is intended to be iterative, and what you experience in the initial beta will likely be very different than what these wars shape up to be in a year's time. We will continue to monitor your feedback and make changes to achieve our goals of fairness, fun, and accessibility. Note that these iterations may not always swing in your favor. We will do our best to eliminate any strategies or exploits that impact Lowland Wars negatively to ensure everyone has an enjoyable experience, and will rely on your feedback as well as our judgement to determine what is and what is not considered fair play.
How do Lowland Wars work?
Lowland Wars are a new type of clan war that ONLY incorporates Lowland buildings into win % and plunder calculations. Opting in to a Lowland War works exactly like a traditional Round War, except that players must meet a minimum strength requirement in order to cast Wave of Conflict.
Why Lowlands?
Lowlands were chosen specifically to address three of the largest issues with the current Round War system.
1) Accessibility - By only including Lowland Buildings in battle calculations, we are making it a lot easier for smaller and new players to participate. A war-ready build can be created in weeks, or even days.
2) Dynamic Play - It is a lot cheaper to build on the Lowlands than it is in The Abyss. Lowland Wars allow us to make drastic changes to keep things interesting and fair, while allowing you to change your build on the fly to optimize for the win.
3) Turnout - If we achieve our goal of maintaining a fair system, it enables us to give better rewards for Warring. Coupling this with a low barrier to entry means that we will (hopefully) see a lot more of the kawmunity engage in Wars, which means more fun for everyone.
Matchups
Restricting battle calculations to Lowland buildings and requiring that everyone meet a minimum strength threshold before opting in will result in a pool of players with a much smaller size distribution. Initially, we will be matching up clans randomly. This means that your clan needs to be ready to face anyone. We will be monitoring matchups and making changes as needed on an ad hoc basis.
Allies and Equipment
At the start of this open beta, Allies and Equipment will NOT be taken into account in win % and plunder calculations. However, we are well aware of how hard you have worked to build up these assets and can assure you that we will be incorporating them in the future. When we do include Allies and Equipment, it will make sense in the context of Lowland Wars and will not compromise the system's fairness, fun, or accessibility.
Pots and Mith
Initially, Potions and Mith spells will not impact Lowland War battle calculations. If they are included in the future, they will be balanced for Lowland Wars (that means no Mystical Hammertimes)
What does this mean for the future of Wars?
We've already begun thinking about what Lowland Wars could become if enough players rally behind them and have a bunch of ideas for new War mechanics, features, and interface improvements. But first, we need your support to build a solid foundation.
