LeaderBoard/Crown Update 6/4/13

[MHz_]

We've seen some slight abuse of the way the crowns and matchmaking systems work, resulting in players gaining way too many crowns per day and getting near a point that cannot be overcome.

We're pushing out a fix that will reduce the number of crowns you can earn from opponents with a significantly lower count than you have. This will likely only affect a very small number of players.

Update 6/4/13:

Tonight (US time) we pushed out 2 major changes for Crowns and Matchmaking:

For crowns, we adjusted the total number of crowns for all players who had over 500. This was necessary so that our update to the matchmaking system and the overall balance of the leaderboard is intact. For players affected (about 430 of you), you were credited 250 gems for the inconvenience.

Please note that the actual rankings were not affected, and all players did not have their rank changed, but their total Crown count did.

We hope to not have to ever do this again, and I apologize greatly for the inconvenience caused.

The second change we did was to the matchmaking system. Before, we match players based on the defensive strength of the attacker and defender, which was a flawed implementation, and I take full responsibility for this. Now players are match relative to their offensive progression (army camp/barracks levels, troop promotions etc..) and the defender's defensive progression. This will not be exploitable as the prior system was.

Please feel free to leave comments and feedback here and I'll do my best to address them.

[jim151222]

And me. I now only get 1, or 0 crowns per battle. Maybe fix matchmaking to match players with similar level crowns instead of just making it so I had to spend 35k gold just to find a 19 match. Nice move guys.

[MHz_]

Things will normalize a bit once we have more players in the game and players progress as expected. I know this sucks right now, but it was necessary to preserve the integrity of the leaderboard. I want to ensure that it can be fair and competitive for everyone, and it was approaching a point where some players were so far ahead they likely would never be able to be caught up to.

[jim151222]

You thinking of implementing a matching system that matches similar crowns levels though? Because that would be nifty. Then it'd be going with the competitive spirit, those 2 players who are 1.2-1.7k out in the lead can just fight each other for crowns and the rest of us have more of a challenge to obtain the crowns as we will be losing more fights against tougher opponents. Or is that likely to still be abused? Just a suggestion. Thanks for the fast response.

[MHz_]

You thinking of implementing a matching system that matches similar crowns levels though? Because that would be nifty. Then it'd be going with the competitive spirit, those 2 players who are 1.2-1.7k out in the lead can just fight each other for crowns and the rest of us have more of a challenge to obtain the crowns as we will be losing more fights against tougher opponents. Or is that likely to still be abused? Just a suggestion. Thanks for the fast response.

Crown based matchmaking is very exploitable. It allows players to purposely lose matches in order to deflate their count, enabling them to hide at low Crown levels with a town that is too strong to defeat for low ranked players.

This is unfortunately going to be a point where this change has to be in place until things normalize. With how active everyone is though, it shouldn't take too long.

[jim151222]

Oh I see, not that I see the point to hiding at low level crowns. Sort of seems like a pointless excersise, lose crowns, to gain crowns, ending you up where you started in the first place. And with the ability to skip towns does that not become obsolese, new players could assess the town, realise that it's a very well defended town and skip to the next one, leaving said player with epic town and low crowns, no wins because people just skip them.

I don't know maybe there is people that would do that but it sounds a bit strange to me. Sort of a large circle of getting nowhere. But I accept your point even though I don't quite understand it.

[laff80]

congrats to the developers of the game, to reward the players that have been the most active and fighting to be top of the leaderboard, you nerf their gameplay so that it's absolutely pointless to continue playing. there's good logic in that decision.

[laff80]

I'm level 29 and I lost 19 crowns to a player that attacked me and they are level 36.

They have maxed out defenses and for my revenge attack I can only win up to 2 crowns while risking 16 crowns if I don't reach 50% damage.

Thanks heaps, I spent $5.49 on gems and get rewarded with nerfed game play.

[sandgroper]

Im level 25 and have been fighting hard and trying to remain fair to work up the leaderboard. Im tryingto only target towns that are lower than me but are very well defended and equiped, or preferably ones higher or at my level.

It can take sometimes dozens of next match clicks and gold spent to get a match that fits those conditions and now im limited to 1 or 0 crowns per match seemingly regardless of who i choose.

It just doesnt feel like your targetting the right players!

Also would it really be that bad to have a pop up when you open the game mixed in with all those annoying try this game or that game that i really wish i could click never remind again on to explain your changes and maybe even how the new system works? Something like if your higher than rank 50 your screwed or something would suit!

The challenge of the players way out in front had made me decide to purchase loads of gems so i could chase them. Im glad you did this before i could log on and make my purchase. I think ill uninstall instead

[MHz_]

New changes have been listed on the first post of this thread.