Game Balance: Diplomatic Units

It certainly is 

We're going to have similar problems with being defenseless against offensive magic spells when they come into play.  Is there a blanket defense against negative spells provided by the Mage Tower?  And what will stop me from soon sending waves of destruction against smaller towns?  Does the vault protect against magic spells as well, or will such destruction be thorough and crippling indeed?

The old cost.

You received utility as advertised out of the theft units you chose to build (and continue to do so up until the point the costs change tomorrow).

On the saboteur front we are aware that you have spent gold in the meantime on upkeep, but then again, we are only talking about between 24hrs and 48hrs worth of upkeep on these units produced.

Frankly I'm surprised that we're offering unit refunds at all, and I don't want anyone to take this as a precedent for when things get nerfed (as they inevitably will be) in the future.

The only factor that persuaded me to offer refunds on these units was my mistake in the unit technology description, otherwise these units would not being refunded at all, but the option to delete would be made available.

For the avoidance of doubt, the unit "refund" option is unlikely to be offered at any point in the future for reasons anything other than critical errors in the code, and certainly never for purely game balance purposes.

I'm also fairly impressed that your psychic abilities were strong enough to divine that the game team were internally discussing the possibility of offering unit refunds before any public announcement was made.  But I guess that's another issue altogether, sadly one that will be pursued.

2. INSTABUILD TO BE REPLACED BY 50% REDUCTION IN REMAINING TIME
As it says.

We will not be introducing a prestige-based reduction to research time.
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Will there be a limited number of times in which you can execute this 50% reduction in build time, or is this purely a revenue enhancement?  If there is no limit (like in the caravan situation) then this changes nothing other than to make instabuild cost more.

A revenue enhancement is certainly well within the rights of the providers of the game, just think it should be called out for what it is, not implying that it in anyway changes the game balance (except to make folks willing to keep paying have even more advantage.)

U

 

Instabuild, though I cannot truly defend it, was an immense convenience.  One could leave resources accumulating for long periods, then sit down and spend them all building stuff in the course of 30 seconds--then leave again, to do other things.

But I disagree that build time reduction helps fix the saboteur problem.  He who is willing to spend enough can cut down days of production into seconds.  Only the convenience (and the affordable cost) is lost.  The window for saboteur attacks is negligible.

I can't decide whether to get rid of my saboteurs altogether of keep some.  They no longer pose any value for use, only for defense against possible use by others, should I desire to save money by letting construction run overnight or during absences.  Then again, I already see the real-world cost of playing this game starting to spiral.  Perhaps I should let my position and power slide while more zealous players spend their way to the top.

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GM Stormcrow wrote: I'm also fairly impressed that your psychic abilities were strong enough to divine that the game team were internally discussing the possibility of offering unit refunds before any public announcement was made.  But I guess that's another issue altogether, sadly one that will be pursued.

Not so much psychic as attentive:

GM Stormcrow wrote: I will be returning the 3 buildings to the building queues of the 2 players who have lost them so far due to sabotage.  If these 2 players have started rebuilding the buildings lost, I will refund the resources used in their construction. Any players who have either built saboteurs or have saboteurs currently building are advised to hold onto them until reading about the changes tomorrow.  If you send them out on missions they will achieve nothing, but still might be lost to defences.

How fair would it have been to reverse the results of an effort into which I invested significantly, cut me off from expected future benefit, and then leave me with a worthless investment?  This sets an unfortunate precedent indeed, but I think the need for equitable correction on both sides of the conflict was necessary and I appreciate that this need was recognized.  While I read between the lines a little, I did so backed by knowing your team is reasonable and tries to be fair.