Update 10/12 - Town Hall 11 (Grand Warden & Eagle Artillery)

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One of the Biggest Clash Updates - Ever!
• Town Hall 11 is bursting onto the scene! BOOM!
• Grand Warden & Eagle Artillery: The most powerful and strategic additions ever!
• New troop levels, defense levels, and Clan Spell donation
• Attack through Shield at any time, but be sure to protect your Town Hall!
• Guard your play sessions when Shield is down and never get attacked off-guard again
• Goblins chasing Town Halls, bigger League Bonuses and Trophy offers, and so much more!

Turn It Up to TH11!
• Experience the biggest, baddest, most challenging Town Hall level ever: Town Hall 11!
• New Town Hall 11 hero Grand Warden can make armies nearly unstoppable!
• New Town Hall 11 defense Eagle Artillery delivers awe-inspiring devastation from afar
• More defenses, including an extra Cannon, Archer Tower, Wizard Tower and X-Bow!
• New Town Hall 11 levels for Minion, Witch, Wizard Tower and more!

Grand Warden: Your Army’s Newest Hero
• Harness powerful new battlefield tactics by boosting and protecting your troops
• The Grand Warden toughens all nearby troops and can make them temporarily invincible!
• He jumps, he flies - fit the Grand Warden into any strategy and make your army shine

Eagle Artillery: The Sleeping Sentinel
• This massive, long-range weapon obliterates poorly prepared attacking armies
• Volleys of explosive shells clobber tough troops and wear down others near the blasts
• Eagle Artillery only activates after many troops have been deployed, leaving the door open for tactical strikes and cunning multi-phase attacks!

Do the Spell Shuffle
• Request reinforcement spells, not just troops, starting from Clan Castle level 4
• Donated spells receive all existing Clan Perks benefits
• Freeze Spell is now unlocked at Town Hall 9 and has slightly longer duration on lower levels

Shields - Flexible and Fair Defense
• Town Hall destruction no longer grants a Shield - bring your Town Hall inside!
• You can attack while shielded at any time for just a small Shield reduction
• Get Shield at 30% destruction, more at 60%, but only when a sizable army attacks

Guard - Play Safe From Attackers
• Guard protects you from attacks and lets you attack others all you want
• Get free Guard when Shields expire and play freely without worry of being attacked
• Higher Leagues grant more free Guard - Titan I & Legend players get 100% coverage!
• 2 hours of extra Guard is available in the Shop every day

Richer Raiding: Loot and Trophies
• Town Halls now hold lots of available loot - destroy them in battle for a big payout!
• League Bonuses are bigger than ever, but scale with your destruction percentage
• Trophy offers get bigger and Trophy losses lower the higher your League!

Gameplay Balancing
• Battle time limit has been increased by 30 seconds
• Goblins now target the Town Hall and Clan Castle for 2x damage
• Rearm costs for all traps have been massively reduced
• Reload costs for X-Bows have been massively reduced
• Large amounts of Healers now have reduced effectiveness on the same unit
• Army boosts have been reduced to 5 gems for 1 hour of boost
• Cost for finding a match and ‘Nexting’ reduced for TH10
• Clan War Preparation Day has been reduced to 23 hours
• Troop combat and pathfinding AI has been polished up and tightened
• Available loot percentage on Town Hall levels 6-10 has been slightly increased
• Villages one Town Hall level lower are now worth slightly less loot
• The playing field and troop deployment area have both been expanded (outlying obstacles have been automatically moved)

Other Balancing and Improvements
• Two new achievements have been added: Anti-Artillery and Sharing is Caring
• Troop/Spell donation interface has been revamped and now shows existing donations
• Troops in Barracks can now be queued in sequence, similarly to the Spell Factory
• The Clan War button now animates when a war attack starts
• Active Shield or Guard can now be manually dismissed by tapping on the icon
• You can now be offline a bit longer before being made vulnerable to attack
• A special sound plays when finding a multiplayer target after 10 seconds of searching
• A special sound plays when no multiplayer targets are found and a search is cancelled
• Personal Break online-time limit has been reduced to 3 hours
• Personal Break limit is now extended instead of reset in some cases
• Multiplayer matchmaking is less likely to offer opponents under your Town Hall level (only below Champion League)

From the Dev's Desk: Loot, League Bonuses and Trophy Offers

Hello Chiefs, once again!

We’re here one last time this update to go over the last of the supporting changes surrounding the shield system revamp and the addition of Village Guard. In the previous posts, we discussed lots of changes to support fairer defense, increased focus on attack, and greater flexibility in play sessions and shield times. Now it's time to bring it all together with what all Chiefs strive for: the spoils of battle! Whether you're a Trophy pusher or hunting for sweet loot, these last set of changes aim to make the spoils of battle more rewarding for skilled attackers, better tied to gameplay objectives and better balanced in attack vs. defense.

The first set of changes involves the Town Hall becoming a primary loot target. Even Trophy pushers should take note of the last item on this list!

• Available loot is now distributed to the Town Hall as well as storages (maximum loot is unchanged)
• Town Halls contain a share of loot equal to one Gold Storage, one Elixir Storage and 1/4 Dark Elixir storage
• The Town Hall is now looted only when it is completely destroyed by an attacker
• Town Hall Gold, Elixir and Dark Elixir storage increases by Town Hall Level
• The Town Hall and Clan Castle now count as resource buildings, so Goblins can target them for double damage

Also for the loot hunters comes changes to the League Bonus system to make it worth more, but only if you attack well:

• All League Bonuses have been significantly increased
• League Bonus loot is now progressive from 0% to 100%, based on destruction percentage of a victorious attack
• 100% League Bonus is earned at 70% destruction

Also, the Trophy pushers out there will be seeing some much needed rebalancing of high-level Trophy offers. High-level players will be gaining more Trophies from attacks and losing less from defense:

• Trophy offers of defenders with less Trophies now increase based on total Trophy count
• Trophy offers of defenders with more Trophies now decrease based on total Trophy count

Finally, there are some general-purpose multiplayer matchmaking changes to support all the rest:

• Available loot percentage on Town Hall levels 6 through 10 has been slightly increased
• Multiplayer targets one Town Hall level lower are now worth slightly less loot to attackers
• Multiplayer matchmaking is now less likely to offer targets at a 2-level Town Hall difference (only below Champion League)

The overall goal of these changes is simple: the better of an attacker you are, the better your spoils of battle should be! Let’s dive in deep one last time to discuss a better balance in how players fight for rewards. Whether you’re after Trophies or loot, there is something here for you!


What’s In a Town Hall?

The Town Hall is the heart of a village, so the building should always be of prime importance to attack and defend. Even though Trophy pushers are always eager to flatten every Town Hall they find, loot hunters haven't really much cared. Now that Town Hall destruction no longer grants shield, what practical value does the Town Hall bring to a loot hunter? In the upcoming update, the answer will be simple: more loot!

Think Town Hall sniping is gone? Try telling that to a Goblin.

Every destroyed Town Hall will now be worth a significant share of Gold, Elixir and Dark Elixir to attackers. Loot that used to be only available in storages will now be distributed also into the Town Hall. Let’s take an example of a Town Hall 10 defender with available loot of 100K Gold, 100K Elixir and 1000 Dark Elixir (any loot from collectors is ignored here):

Available loot is being distributed into Town Halls as well as storages

Doing the math, we’ll find that players who defend their Town Hall well will be losing less to attackers than they used to. However, poorly defended Town Halls will carry a price tag. Also keep in mind that Goblins, obviously, will not turn a blind eye to such a sweet share of loot, and will target the Town Hall for double damage just like they target other resource storages and collectors. GoGobWipe, anyone?


Better Attacks, Better League Bonuses

This update has been all about encouraging and rewarding fair and skillful attacks, and changes to the League Bonus system only further this goal. The main mechanic is simple: the better your attack, the bigger your League Bonus. Making this change also has allowed us to increase League Bonuses across the board, as well as reshape the League Bonus curve to provide more compelling steps of growth as players climb the ranks.

Find the right League for your attacking skill to maximize your bonuses!

The League Bonus now counts up for each percentage point of destruction, from 0% bonus at 0% destruction up to 100% bonus at 70% destruction. The League Bonus counts up rapidly at first: the first 80% of the bonus is already earned by achieving 50% destruction. Note that you still have to win the attack. Failed attacks give no League Bonus!

We’ve also straightened out the progression of bonuses through the Leagues to make each higher level have more compelling rewards than the level before, and thus encourage players to play at as high of a League as they can. Let’s look at a few examples:

League Bonus examples after a 70% or 50% attack

Notice how the League Bonus for a 50% attack in one League is comparable to a 70% attack in the League before. If you find yourself regularly getting over 70% destruction on your enemies in one League, it might make sense to push into the next League to get more bonus out of your attacks! Even if you can only manage 50% destruction in the tougher league, your League Bonus payouts will still be similar.


More Trophies, Less of a Grind

Clashers who play in the highest Leagues all share a similar frustration: huge Trophy losses on defense and infuriatingly small +1 Trophy offers on attack. Indeed, much of competitive Clash play is centered around trying to grind more +1 Trophy offers than will be lost on defense. This “+1 Trophy grind” has led directly to a need for incredibly long play sessions, constant online-time, and a certain saltiness towards the Personal Break system - all things related to the revamped shield system and Village Guard.

Now that we are shortening the Personal Break online-time limit to 3 hours, we have taken a careful look at the top-level Trophy grind and rebalanced Trophy offers to make sure competitive Clashers can still push, and now in a more meaningful and productive way. With these changes, we will be increasing Trophy flow, softening Trophy losses and allowing all high-level players to push with less grinding and more breaks.

Let’s take a look at a direct comparison of how Trophy offers will be changing. First, we'll look at the current system, for both high and low level players. (Warning: These matrices are FRESH off the Dev's Desk - number spam ahead!)

Old system: Attackers at high and low Trophy counts are treated the same

Above, we see Trophy offers for attackers and defenders of differing Trophy levels, and see that they are identical regardless of how many total Trophies they have. The Clash Trophy system has always treated score differences the same, which has led to a growing misrepresentation of player skill at high levels. The skill difference between an attacker at 5000 Trophies and a defender at 4300 Trophies is likely much, much less than the skill difference between an attacker at 1000 Trophies and a defender at 300 Trophies, however they still get the same +1 Trophy offer. On the flip side, a defender with 5000 Trophies is worth a whopping +56 Trophies for an attacker only 500 Trophies beneath them!

New system: Attackers at high Trophy counts fight for more Trophies and lose less

Here we see how the system is changing. Now, the effect of Trophy differences becomes lessened as players gain more and more Total trophies. That 5000 Trophy attacker now sees a +6 Trophy offer from that 4300 Trophy defender (instead of +1), and they are only worth +48 to an attacker 500 Trophies beneath them (instead of +56). This means that attackers will be able to accumulate bigger Trophy gains with fewer attacks and will lose less Trophies when they defend.

An important detail here is that the range of available targets is NOT changing. We are not offering any fewer targets to high-level players, we are simply making them worth more to attack, and less to defend against. For top players, +1 Trophy offers will be a thing of the past:

Fight for more Trophies at higher Leagues!

Yes, for players in Titan I and Legend, the minimum Trophy offer seen will be +6, which should not only make the Trophy grind more forgiving, but also make it actually meaningful to push for 2 or even 3 stars in every attack!


Welcome Chief, to a Better Clash

As might be apparent from these three posts, there’s nothing more The Clash of Clans Dev Team loves more than talking Clash, and we are tremendously excited to finally be putting so much of this talk into action in the next update. We truly believe this package of changes will improve and elevate the Clash experience for all Chiefs, from the casual to the hardcore, from the Trophy pushers to the loot hunters. We will be signing off for now, but we urge members of the Clash community to continue to discuss these changes, ask questions and help one another out in understanding these new systems and the better Clash to come!


The Clash of Clans Dev Team

Sneak Peek Recap for Shield, Loot and Other Changes

Shields:

• No shield given from Town Hall destruction
• No shield given if attacker does not deploy at least 1/3rd of a full army
  
  • Full army: Maximum possible space of Army Camp and Heroes (weighted x25 space) of defender TH level
• 12 hours shield given at 30% destruction
• 14 hours shield given at 60% destruction
• 16 hours shield given at 90% destruction

Attacking Through Shield:

• Can now enter Multiplayer matchmaking or Revenge without affecting shield
• Executing Multiplayer or Revenge attack while shielded deducts 3 hours of shield
• Additional attacks in the same shield deduct more hours (4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 hours)
• Shields can be dismissed manually (to intentionally take a defense)

=> Read the complete "From the Dev's Desk: Shields - Part I: Attacking and Defending" post, here.


Village Guard:

• Village Guard prevents you from being attacked while shield is down
• Can go online, offline and attack with no penalty under Village Guard
• Free Village Guard activates when a shield expires:
  
  • Titan I / Legend League: 3 hours free Village Guard
  • Titan II League: 2 hours free Village Guard
  • Titan III League: 1 hour free Village Guard
  • Champion League (all levels): 30 minutes free Village Guard[/COLOR][/B]
  • Master I League and below: 15 minutes free Village Guard
• 2 hours extra Village Guard available in Shop for 10 gems while shield is down (23 hour cooldown)
• Village Guard can be dismissed manually (to intentionally take a defense)

Personal Break Timer (PBT):

• PBT is 3 hours: forced offline for 6 minutes after 3 hours cumulative online time without shield
• PBT resets when gaining shield, or in other reset cases below
• Buying 2-hour Village Guard from shop extends current PBT by 2 hours
• PBT paused during server maintenance, but not reset

PBT reset cases:

• After defense with shield: Full PBT reset
• After a defense without shield OR 6-minute PBT kickout without defense: PBT extended (+15 minutes to PBT, +15 minutes Village Guard)
• After 2nd consecutive defense without shield OR 6-minute PBT kickout without defense: PBT extended (+15 minutes to PBT, +15 minutes Village Guard)
• After 3rd consecutive defense without shield OR 6-minute PBT kickout without defense: Full PBT reset + Free Village Guard based on League
• After 30 minutes consecutive offline time without defense: Full PBT reset (no Village Guard given)

=> Read the complete "From the Dev's Desk: Shields - Part II: Village Guard and Personal Breaks" post, here.


Loot:

• Town Hall contains much more loot (shares available loot with storages)
• Town Hall has loot worth of 1 Gold & Elixir Storage + 1/4th Dark Elixir Storage
• Town Hall and Clan Castle count as resource buildings - Goblins will attack them for x2 damage
• Available loot % slightly increased for TH6 through TH10
• Available loot reduced for attacking one TH level lower

League Bonus:

• All League Bonuses increased
• League Bonuses is now progressive, from 0% to 100%, based on destruction percentage
• 100% League Bonus earned at 70% destruction

Trophy Rebalancing:

• Trophy offers from lower players increase with League level (from +1 minimum at Bronze to +6 minimum at Titan 1 and Legend)
• Trophy offers from higher players decrease with League level (e.g. from +56 at Bronze to +48 at Titan 1 and Legend)

=> Read the complete "From the Dev's Desk: Loot, League Bonuses and Trophy Offers" post, here.


[NEW] Other Changes:

• All trap rearm costs massively reduced (~75% rearm cost reduction on average of all traps)
• X-Bow reload costs massively reduced (~70% reload cost reduction for all levels)
• Time until you can be attacked after going offline increased from 1 minute to 5 minutes (to help cases of accidentally going offline)