Wednesday, 2 December 2015

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

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