The Reset Bonus Scandal: Lessons for EE Warriors

Well, the EE war season is over and many players who have worked hard to get high Rancor are anxiously waiting the new equipment that will blow away all previous equipment and give them a distinct advantage over all those players who failed to achieve this goal.

To these players I would like to say: don't hold your breath. :?

If there is one constant in KaW, it is that money talks. The devs will never make something that will give the average hard-working Joe and advantage over the builds that spend tens of thousands of dollars on Kaw.

How do I know? Look no further than the biggest blunder ever in Kaw: reset bonuses. :evil:

I hate reset bonuses to the core. I hated them when they first came out, and hated how the devs tried to get rid of them later on.

Before I get too much into how god-awful these bonuses were, let me refresh you on their history.

History :geek:

REset bonuses come out in December 2009 when EBs were not yet existent.

The devs told us they wanted to "reward the players who have completed(?) the game" by giving them 50 extra ally slots and %bonus equipment (8% on all stats total) every time they reset. (Translation: We are basically too lazy at the moment to come up any new stuff to get you to buy nobs, so we will try and con you into repeatedly resetting.)


Reset Bonuses Pro and Cons

I remember the debate in my clan over resets being quite lively. Nobody wanted to just throw away all the work they put into their builds thus far. However there was a fear that we might regret not resetting a few years down the road. Basically there were three options.

1. Ignore it. :?
People who picked this option chose to value their present LB ranking and build over future strength, hoping that not resetting will not come back to bite them in the ass in the future.

2. Embrace it.
These people chose future dominance over present-day fame. They chose to give up their LB ranking (and since LB is very based on actions, their future LB rank as well) for a chance to get a leg up on the competition in a few year's time.
It took a lot of guts for those builds to suddenly reset. The biggest Lb to do it that I can recall would have to be -Danny- from Tyr, who I believe was a top 20 build. (I have no idea if he is even playing anymore.)

3. Transfer Mains
This was a compromise option. Basically the player would keep his or her original account as it was, but grow up an alt with the resets, volley transfer a large amount of gold over, and then grow that one as the main. The original account would often be converted to an osf or hansel or just continue on as it was. This saved the original account, but lots of time and gold was lost on focusing on the "new" main.


Aftermath and the Dev's Betrayal :twisted:

After the initial grumblings by players, reset bonuses when on without a hitch. Players got more and more efficient at them until a set of four could be concluded in no time flat. Some people got addicted to the reset LB (seen only on computer) until they had thousands of ally slots and thousands of crystals.



But then the money began talk. :mrgreen:

You see, the big boys in Kaw started to max out at the 250 allies, and while they often maintain allies on other accounts, and most of those allies were not HLBC yet, it became apparent they would not be able to keep their ally LB ranking without additional slots. The demanded them from the devs, offered to pay, and the devs snapped them up without a thought about the hundreds of resetters who actually earned them. Sure the slots costed a lot, but it was a pittance considering that 1) they did not have to give up any battle/spy actions which contributed to rank and 2) they didn't have to fight with a low-earning reset build to get that gold.

Even more upsetting was the devs failed attempt to remove the 8% bonus items. It happened without warning one day. One of the permanent reset items, the Royal Amour, which gave 5% def. and 5% spy def, was unceremoniously taken from perm items and placed in the body equipment slot, so players had to choose between it and the Amour of Eternal Fire. Reaction was swift and hostile, countless threads appeared, and countless players began giving Kaw a zero star rating in the App store. Kaw caved into the pressure...for now....but they revealed how little they cared about their customers. ATA said they did it because the reset bonuses were becoming too easy with the EBs and were becoming an "exploit" (ATA's definintion of an exploit: anything you do that helps you avoid playing huge gobs of money is an exploit, but anything they do to swindle you out of your money is simply good business.)

This is Still Not Over

In the explanation thread announcing the end of reset bonuses, then-mod Wulf notes that the ATA reserves the right to remove the reset items. In short, ATA reserves the right to betray and rob all those idiots (me included) who were stupid enough they could get an advantage in this game entirely through hard work instead of spending thousand and thousands on nobs.

Sorry, but if the day ever come where ATA would remove the 8% reset bonuses because some big spenders were too chicken to reset their accounts, but smart enough to know ATA would bend to their wills, that is the day ATA will say goodbye to my business.


My Solution

Instead of holding these reset guns to our heads, I reccomend ATA just get rid of these items and give proper compensation to all the resetters it deceived. What I consider proper compensation is not merely throwing crystals at us, but also adding actions to our totals to compensate the time we used to do the resets. (Now I know lots of people later on figured out how to do resets at a lightning-fast pace. That’s ATA’s problem, not mine.) I believe at total of 80,000 actions, spread out over attack, assassin, spy ad scot, should raise the resetter’s LB status to what is should be if they hadn’t reset in addition to 40 xstals per reset for the gold lost in volley transfers and just general hitting from a small build. This is feel is the least they could do for the insults they threw at resetters in the name of making a buck.

Conclusion

Why did I write this? Because I think EE warriors must realize that the ends is not as important as the means. Too many clans played a boring, uninspiring EE just so they can get all the gotta-have-‘em new items at the end, instead of just enjoying a good fight. Why? Because no matter what the devs produce for us, somewhere down the line, they will betray all your efforts by offering a similar item readily available for those who are willing to spend a buck (Exoskeleton Amour, anyone?). EE warriors will then look like the played suckers they are, and the EB warriors who skipped the whole EE sham will be laughing all the way to the top of the Leaderboard. Let’s be realistic now. Do you really think players like Chongo, Cella, Ayiraa, and RedStar will let you have some sort of advantage over them for any extended period of time? Thus is the lesson learned from the reset bonus sham. :ugeek:

 

Reserved

 

The longer the game goes and the bigger builds get, the more important the reset bonuses are. I would say they have a value of about 2T gold at least.

 

the 8% is sweet, but the extra allies would have been HUGE if the devs never allowed the LB biggies to buy slots later on. It had the power to change the balance of power and the devs robbed us of it.

 

You made a idiotic, boneheaded comment for no particular reason? :roll:

 

I did most of my resets mostly with volley transfers. Do you have any idea how much gold it costs and how many hours it took to volley say, 3B to a build that had only 30,000 or so? lol I have taken many a shaft in this game.

 

I remember in clan there was a bit of a debate whether the 8% bonus would affect LB rank. There were many pissed-off players when it was revealed the resets took away battle wins, and actually lowered LB rank.