Hi Holotable Heroes,
Thank you for all your feedback on the event and for joining us as we experiment with mixing up the Territory Wars formula. This in an ongoing process that we will continue to iterate on. The Territory Wars after this one will have a different structure but we want to let you know that this something we will continue to change over time and is definitely not set in stone.
Now the exciting conclusion! And the winner of the Community Poll is… BoatyMcboatFace… no that’s not right but we have the results for who you want to include in this Territory War! (Don’t worry, we removed all the bot votes for Boaty and Ugnaught.)
Please note that the January Calendar has been updated and the the preview phase for this special Territory Wars event will start on January 14th. See the updated calendar
here.
Poll Results:
The following characters were chosen by the community to remain available for this Territory War:
Our Picks:
- GROUP 2: Ezra Bridger, Count Dooku, Sith Trooper, Kylo Ren
- GROUP 3: Boba Fett, Hermit Yoda, Snowtrooper, First Order Executioner
- GROUP 4: Bastila Shan, Wampa, Resistance Trooper, Tie Fighter Pilot
Unavailable Characters:
The following characters were included in the poll but were not chosen by the community or Capital Games. These characters will be unavailable for the next Territory Wars:
- Group 1: Jedi Knight Revan, Colonel Starck, Dengar, HK-47
- Group 4: Darth Traya, IG-88, Jedi Knight Anakin, Death Trooper
- Group 8: Darth Nihilus, Nightsister Zombie, Jolee, Shorestrooper
- Group 10: General Kenobi, Asajj Ventress, First Order Officer, Jango Fett
- CG’s Group: Han Solo, Ahsoka Tano (Fulcrum), Enfys Nest, First Order Stormtrooper
Replies
I've liked TW since it started.
The premise of it is wonderful, bringing a team dynamic to the game that's sorely missing.
The other modes like raids and TB either have guilds competing internally for rewards (fun in a different way) or pulling together against a set challenge.
As with any game mode, these things can get stale. None of these modes are immune from the inevitability that over time you end up running largely the same comps, the same way, over and over again. New toons, different bonuses, etc. all work to keep things fresh and prevent the game from feeling like a drain or chore.
But TW is a drain and feels stale for a very distinct reason that none of the proposed or past tweaks have addressed.
As someone who likes the mode and helps manage it in my guild here is the real problem:
It is way too time consuming to take seriously, and becomes a drain on energy, morale, and motivation over time. This is true even if you're like me and love PvP and would probably do it without rewards - just to play the game and get bragging rights.
In every other mode, from solo PvE events, Grand Arena, Arena, raids, etc. you can take these modes very seriously and play to win within time windows that fit into your real life, or that you can plan around.
Trying to take TW seriously, whether for rewards or the competitive thrill, can be a 24 hour event. As someone who manages it in a competitive guild this is what it means in that context: you keep logging in to check when a territory is down, you keep rallying people to get in, the map is so expansive and so reliant on enough people having to actively participate that you are rallying people or having to dive into the game the entire 24 period offense is open.
It is structurally too demanding, and de-emphasizing it as a zone of real competitive and instead making it a place of "fun" is a contradiction in the format. You have to knock down territories to keep having "fun," competition and playing the game is fun, and as a microtransation game the sense of fun is all wrapped up in building or buying things and using them. If you do that well, you get rewarded, and the rewards are disparate depending on who did it best. Creating a sense of disorder with faction bonuses (or more controversially eliminating toons from use) help deal with some of the naturally occurring staleness of any game - clearly faction bonuses that let you use new toons or shift the standard defensive/offensive logic are more popular. But none of that fun sense of disorder deals with the fact that this mode is way too demanding to sustain a high level of interest from most players over time. Even dramatically increasing the rewards would only provide a short-term activity boost that would ultimately be defeated by the fundamental flaws of the game mode. Even now, my sense is that many of the competition oriented guilds are already divided between a smaller group of TW diehards and other competitive players who take every other game mode very seriously but have lost all sense of romance about being invested in the 24 hour slog. This is not because they don't get to use their Lobot they geared two years ago anymore or because they don't think it's fair to face toons they haven't acquired. It is not even because it can be boring to battle the same comps over and over again. It's because the mode is at odds with the kind of relationship people want to their phones, their own time, and the game.
HOW TO FIX IT
The structure of the event itself needs to be changed. Changes to toons and factions are important in dealing with the mundane problems that come with making a game interesting, and should continue to be discussed, experimented with, debated, etc - but TW has foundational problems in its design. No amount of toon tweaks will keep this mode alive or stem its growing dispopularity over time.
I personally think it should be fixed rather than scrapped, we need a competitive teamwork mode in the game.
I'm sure many people can come up with better solutions than what I'll suggest, so take it only as a template that gestures in the direction of the actual problem.
1. Use the exact same time format (24 hour preview, 24 hour defense, 24 hour offense).
2. Use the exact same map with the same number of territories.
3. Have the game randomly assign members of the guild to specific groups of territories where only they can deploy, and have those same groups randomly assigned to offense territories.
4. Let the chips fall where they may and total up all the offensive and defensive points each guild has earned overall and the guild with the most wins.
Ships would take a little more thought, but it wouldn't be hard to come up with something that helps achieve these goals and lets people use their fleets.
All of the sudden, like every other game mode, you can log in at a specific time, spend your half an hour or hour or two hour - however somebody serious about the game already spends their time - do your battles and be done, you can schedule when you'll do it ahead of time as one may be doing with raids. No more ongoing slog within a 24 hour period. Just like every other mode.
The guild as a whole can still come up with guild-wide strategies for defense, suggestions, etc. and still get be invested in how their friends battles are going. Individual rewards are still dependent on how your team mates do, and all the incentive to pull together and coordinate and have all that lovely banter is still there. All of that good stuff while maintaining the exact kind of relationship to the game and one's phone a gamer already has for every other game mode.
At very best reviews were mixed...
DEV POST
DEV POST
Entschuldigung CG, wir hatten den Eindruck, dass Sie Englisch sprechen. Teilen Sie uns bitte mit, welche Sprache Sie sprechen.
Désolé, CG, nous avions l’impression que vous parliez anglais. Veuillez nous faire savoir quelle langue vous parlez.
Lo siento, CG, teníamos la impresión de que hablaba inglés, háganos saber qué idioma habla.
Beklager CG vi var under det indtryk, du talte engelsk, så lad os vide, hvilket sprog du taler.
Scusa CG avevamo l'impressione che parlassi inglese, per favore facci sapere che lingua parli.
क्षमा करें, सीजी हम आपके द्वारा अंग्रेजी बोलने वाली छाप के तहत थे, कृपया हमें बताएं कि आप कौन सी भाषा बोलते हैं।
К сожалению, CG у нас сложилось впечатление, что вы говорили по-английски, пожалуйста, дайте нам знать, на каком языке вы говорите.
Jammer CG ons was onder die indruk dat u Engels gepraat het, laat ons asseblief weet watter taal u praat.
За съжаление CG бяхме под впечатлението, че говорите английски, моля да ни уведомите на какъв език говорите.
ക്ഷമിക്കണം CG ഞങ്ങൾ ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് സംസാരിച്ചിരുന്ന ധാരണയിലാണ്, നിങ്ങൾ ഏത് ഭാഷയാണ് സംസാരിക്കുന്നതെന്ന് ഞങ്ങളെ അറിയിക്കുക.
CG申し訳ありませんが、あなたが英語を話したという印象を受けました。あなたが話す言語を教えてください。
Przepraszam, CG, mieliśmy wrażenie, że mówisz po angielsku, daj nam znać w jakim języku mówisz.
Desculpe CG estávamos com a impressão de que você falou Inglês, por favor deixe-nos saber o idioma que você fala
对不起CG我们的印象是你说英语,请告诉我们你说的是哪种语言。
Banning hard-earned or expensively-bought toons from a vital game event is poor planning. Please instead think up creative buffs like you did for Mace, CUP etc. Those got near-universal applause, this has received near-universal condemnation.
it makes me feel this all over again …
Can you guys look into this again?