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Upcoming feature: Custom Fortmaps|Anstehendes Feature: Individuelle Fortkampfkarten

1.23 is going to introduce custom fort battle maps – as stated earlier. This post is going to explain this a bit more detailed what is going to be changed about the fortbattle maps.

Version 1.23 wird also die individuellen Fortkampf Karten einführen, so wie bereits zuvor bekanntgegeben. Dieser Blogeintrag geht nun etwas mehr auf die Änderungen ein, die die Fortkampfkarten betreffen.

Jedes Fort ist im Grunde aufgrund seiner Größe und den unterschiedlichen Gebäudestufen sehr individuell, natürlich nur, solange die Gebäude nicht alle auf der maximalen Ausbaustufe sind. Allerdings sind bei den Forts die Gebäudestufen nicht in Stein gemeißelt: In einer der folgenden Releases werden wir auch noch Gebäudeschäden infolge von Kämpfen einführen, allerdings ist das nicht das Thema von diesem Post. Worum es geht ist, dass wir all diese unterschiedlichen Forts haben und dass die Kampfkarten diesen Umstand wiedergeben sollten.

Was ist also notwendig, damit dies passieren kann?

Every fort is pretty individual because of its size and building levels. Well, of course unless the levels are maxed out, but that goes without saying. But the building levels are also not fixed for the forts – once we have custom maps, we’ll introduce destructable building structures in a following release, but that is not the topic for now. What matters is, that we have all these forts with different building levels and the battle map should reflect this fact.

So what’s going to be changed to make this happen?

  • Every building is present on the map, and the better the level is, the more advantages will be given to the sectors that belong to the building.
  • Character class sector bonus: Every tower will belong to a certain character class. Characters with the right character class that are located at such a building are going to have an additional bonus next to the sector bonus that the building structure is already providing.
  • The player limits are going to be lowered for the small and medium sized forts. There’s still a discussion going on about what the right values should be, but the initial version is most likely to set the limit to 30 players per side for the small and 60 players per side for the medium sized forts. Please note that there are unavoidable technical limitations that are limiting the number of players above the limit of 128 players, so please don’t even try to suggest to raise the limits instead of lowering them. Also, statistics of the battles show that most battles are played with about 60-70 players in average. So the limitation is mostly only hitting the small forts. The intention is to strengthen smaller alliances in the game, as the maximum limit does not involve so many players any more. Large battles can of course still happen at large forts, so the impact should be acceptable for the game.
  • Jedes Gebäude ist auf der Karte präsent, und je Höher die Ausbaustufe, desto mehr Vorteile werden die Sektoren bieten die zu dem Gebäude gehören.
  • Charakterklassen Bonus: Jeder Turm wird zu einer bestimmten Charakterklasse gehören. Die Spieler mit den entsprechenden Klassen werden in diesen Sektoren zusätzlich zum Standardbonus einen weiteren Bonus bekommen.
  • Die Spielerlimits werden für das kleine und mittelgroße Fort herabgesetzt. Es gibt noch immer eine Diskussion darüber wie hoch die Limits sein sollten, aber in der ersten Version werden die Limits vermutlich bei 30 Spielern pro Seite beim kleinen Fort und 60 Spielern beim mittelgroßen Fort liegen. Es sei angemerkt, dass es aus unumgänglichen Technischen Gründen nicht möglich, bzw. unpraktisch ist, das Limit nach oben hin zu erweitern. Bitte versucht es garnicht erst vorzuschlagen, dass Limit anzuheben statt zu senken. Außerdem zeigen die Statistiken, dass die meisten Kämpfe zwischen 60 und 70 Spielern im Schnitt aufweisen. Daher trifft die Limitation hauptsächlich die kleinen Forts. Die Intention ist dabei, dass kleinere Allianzen gestärkt werden. Große Fortkämpfe bei großen Forts sind natürlich weiterhin möglich, daher sollte der Effekt im Spiel sich im Rahmen halten.

And this is how it could look like (the map is done by me for testing purpose, please don’t start arguing about the bad sector layout):

Und so könnte es aussehen (die Karte hab ich nur zum testen erstellt, bitte nicht gleich über das schlechte Sektorlayout herziehen):

devshot-48-map-2This is the map in a basic configuration

Die Karte in der Basis Konfiguration

devshot-48-map-1This map is the same as before, except that three towers are now enlarged.

Die gleiche Karte, aber mit drei aufgerüsteten Türmen.

In Folge dieser Änderungen ergeben sich natürlich eine menge Änderungen im taktischen Sinne: Da die Forts in den meisten Fällen vermutlich nicht völlig symmetrisch sein werden, wir das Layout einen gewissen Einfluss haben. Zudem werden Kämpfe um kleine Forts ohnehin taktischer sein, da hier weniger Spieler teilnehmen können und daher der individuelle Spieler eine größere Rolle spielt. Alles zusammen werden die Kämpfe, genauso wie die Forts selbst, individueller und einzigartiger werden. Die Motivation ist dabei, dass wir in Folge dieser Änderungen mehr Kämpfe sehen werden.

This introduces of course quite lot’s of changes to the tactics of the game play: The forts are most likely going to be not completely symmetric, then the topology might give an advantage to certain movements on the map. The smaller fort battles are going to be more tactical because of the lower player limits. All in all, battles are going to be, like the forts themselves, more individual and more unique. The motivation is, that we hope to see more battles in effect of these changes.

23 Comments

  1. Diggo11
    Diggo11 November 4, 2009

    Hey this looks awesome! Keep up the great work!

    I’m interested to know how big the sectors containing buildings can get though. For example can only the towers grow in size, or can we also get double sized walls and partially larger fort buildings?

  2. zet
    zet November 4, 2009

    Technically, any building can change its size to any size – a building could for example even extend across the walls (e.g. a headquarter reinforces one side and extends over the wall, forming an additional tower). This depends however on the creativity of the one who is using the map editor (which isn’t me) 😉

  3. Archer
    Archer November 4, 2009

    Cool, sieht wirklich gut aus, diese Idee. Kannsich hervorragend auf die Intensivierung der taktischen Möglichkeiten auswirken.

    Nur, die Beschränkung der Spielerzahl beim Kampf gefällt mir nicht. Das hat sofort den Effekt, daß wieder vermehrt kleine Chars gekickt werden. Selbst auch erst Level 34 sind Fortkämpfe aber einfach eine gute Möglichkeit Erfahrungspunkte zu sammeln. Dazu kommen dann die unteren Level einfach nicht mehr, was wirklich schade ist.

    Cool, looks really good, this idea. Can affect very well the intensification of the tactical possibilities.

    Only, I do not like the restriction of the player’s number in the fight. This has immediately the effect that again increasingly small Chars are kicked. However, for me, also only level 34, fortfights are simply a good possibility to collect points of experience. Then in addition the lower levels simply do not have this oppotunity any more, what is a pity really.

  4. zet
    zet November 4, 2009

    That the smaller player have no chance to enter battles is in deed the only thing I don’t like about the new limits. However this is an already known problem of maxed battles. I believe that this problem should be solved aside from the battles and that it shouldn’t be tried to solve it within the battle system. Trying to please everyone is not going to work here at all. After all, fort battles are done for holding or getting a fort, and that’s quite a price to win. I would rather want to provide additional events that everyone can join without being rejected, based on the fundamental rules of the fort battle mechanics. We have a lot of ideas on that, but before we start working on that, we’ll have to fix the other issues in west (duel system, economy and trade).

  5. Diggo11
    Diggo11 November 5, 2009

    zet :
    Tech­ni­cal­ly, any build­ing can change its size to any size – a build­ing could for ex­am­ple even ex­tend across the walls (e.g. a head­quar­ter re­in­forces one side and ex­tends over the wall, form­ing an ad­di­tion­al tower). This de­pends how­ev­er on the cre­ativ­i­ty of the one who is using the map ed­i­tor (which isn’t me)

    Thanks Zet, I do hope the person in charge of the custom maps does invest the time into making ALL buildings expand. I’ll be looking forward to testing this and eagerly awaiting the Fort Shops 🙂

  6. Fahabio
    Fahabio November 5, 2009

    Hey Zet 🙂 I have been using the beta forum to submit a couple of ideas but I guess you are a little more reachable here 😉

    So my two ideas were:

    * How hard is it to implement a system that simply beeps when the round is t (3, 5?) seconds from beginning? It would be VERY useful, because due to the “dead” time between rounds, players tend to do other tasks and then forget to check back the battle.. so all I’m asking is for the flash battle client to “beep” when three seconds remain to the next round (with a mute option, of course).

    * This one might be a little harder to implement and might not be one of your top priorities, but how hard would it be to make the “Quests” and “Fort overview” blink in the same fashion that “Skills”, “Town forum”, “Telegrams” and “Reports” blink (this is, when there is anything new, a new fort battle, a new quest (a question mark or an exclamation point), just blink until the user “checks” (opens) the menu).

    I hope you get my idea. I’m really really enjoying the-west 🙂

    Keep up the awesome amazing work 🙂

  7. Leones
    Leones November 6, 2009

    Looks nice, I’m in a fortbattle right now on the beta (zet has joined us, the attackers, too). There are only 3 buildings in the fort instead of 4, too bad the towers are completely built or I could’ve seen that too.

  8. Archer
    Archer November 6, 2009

    Fahabio :
    Hey Zet I have been using the beta forum to sub­mit a cou­ple of ideas but I guess you are a lit­tle more reach­able here
    So my two ideas were:

    (…)to make the “Quests” and “Fort overview” blink in the same fash­ion that “Skills”, “Town forum”, “Tele­grams” and “Re­ports” blink (this is, when there is any­thing new, a new fort bat­tle, a new quest (a ques­tion mark or an ex­cla­ma­tion point), just blink until the user “checks” (opens) the menu).

    Keep up the awe­some amaz­ing work

    Esp. the second one is a really great idea. Can’t cpount the missed battles in the Beta… 😉

    You have my full sympathy with that one.

  9. Echo
    Echo November 6, 2009

    Wanted to say: Wow, this game is awesome! I have been playing for about a month now and really enjoy it. Great set up! Keep up the great work…
    My only complaint is the personal wars on the forums, makes a new player not want to post there.

  10. Costinha
    Costinha November 7, 2009

    zet, will the chat for battles come along with the custom battles maps to the other worlds?

  11. Archer
    Archer November 8, 2009

    Limitierung der Anzahl der Angreifer und Verteidiger beim Fortkampf? 10 beim kleinen Fort????

    Jetzt kommen ja die unteren Level noch viel weniger zum zuge bei den Fortkämpfen… SEHR Schade.

    Warum wollt Ihr denn unbedingt die Fortkämpfe zur elitären Sache der Highlevels machen?

    Limitierung of the number of the attackers and defenders in the further fight? 10 with the small fort????

    Now come the lower level still much less to zuge in the further fights… VERY MUCH pity.

    Why want you then absolutely to make the fortfights the elitist case of the high levels?

  12. Amin
    Amin November 8, 2009

    how about trading building?
    is it come by 1.23 patch?

  13. zet
    zet November 9, 2009

    @Archer: It’s a beta setting. Most battles on the beta are fought with about 30 players in total.

  14. zet
    zet November 9, 2009

    @Amin: no, not in 1.23. Can’t say when, we don’t know yet. It will need us to rework a lot of quests that we don’t want to be solveable by pure easy trading.

  15. Hellstromm
    Hellstromm November 10, 2009

    I do hope it doesn’t remain 30/60/128, those first two numbers are horribly low. A more appropriate set of numbers (non-beta) would be 60/90/120.

  16. zet
    zet November 11, 2009

    @hellstromm: The numbers are going to be raised a bit, but not as much as you wish. I’ll do a post on that.

  17. Delchev
    Delchev November 14, 2009

    Hi, something bothers me for a while, and maybe it’s not the right place, but you definitely are the right person to answer me 🙂
    If i register for the battle wearing battlegear “A”, and after that work something and change clothes into something else (lets call it “B”) and go to the fort, which clothes will be considered for the battle? Those when you sign, or the actual you are wearing when the battle starts?
    Thanks in advance

  18. Diggo11
    Diggo11 November 16, 2009

    Zet I also agree with Hellstromm, something like 64/96/128 sounds about right. Part of a fort battle should be to conscript enough players to fill all spots, as well as to have the top quality fighters on your side. Forts have a max of 100/150/200 players when all towns are filled, so to lessen it any further than Hellstromm’s or my suggestion would be pretty illogical.

  19. zet
    zet November 16, 2009

    @delchev: The one that you wear when the battle starts is used through all the battle.

  20. D. Saint
    D. Saint November 16, 2009

    I see that you will introduce more attackers then defenders in this weeks update:

    [i]- Different player limits for the fort battles, depended on the size of the fort. small (defender 42/attacker 50), medium (def 80/att 100), large (def 120/att 140)[/i]

    I think this is going too far too fast. Since the latest update, defenders have given up the inside defence, which must have be seen as a success for the game. But that means attackers again have the advantage of concentrated fire in the opening rounds. Attacks against equal number of defenders have now started to succeed, when planned and executed well by experienced players. This next update will make it even more likely to do so.

    Too likely, I fear.

  21. Archer
    Archer November 23, 2009

    hi again,

    resumè after a while of fighting round the forts with the limited number of fighters:

    Has ANY fight, whose amounts were full within the limitations, been won by the defenders? Any? I doubt that.

    After all it’s still a pity in my opinion. Sorry to have to say that.

    Meanwhile, the automatic map size is a hit, really.

  22. Storan
    Storan December 29, 2009

    Hi, sorry for my bad english.

    visible bonuses towers 2 and 3 levels are equal,
    visible bonuses towers 4 and 5 levels are equal,

    is such a feature or a bug?

  23. the black penny
    the black penny January 30, 2011

    boom found it.

    all new players say the same thing
    for the last few YEARS the new players have been kicked from the forums.

    tally count.
    map it
    count it again.
    and yup

    reason and conclusion =

Comments are closed.