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On-Spawn Mechanics

Mon Jul 23, 2018 12:34 pm

Dear Valiants,

Not only do we constantly strive for new and better features, our team works hard to ensure that none of the existing features are left behind, and always remain in that perfect state of balance.

At that, we’d like to inform you of a little minor rebalancing that is in the works!

In addition, the long awaited Guild Raid Update and the return of Conquest will be touched on in this dev blog. Read on to find out more!


On-Spawn Effect Change
As you are aware, there are broadly four types of skills - Active, Passive, On-attack and On-spawn skills (As seen on Camelot Series Heroes and Dark Lords, for example). There will be a little tweak to the mechanics behind these On-spawn skill effects to give them a small bump in priority so they are always applied first.

Q: How would this affect the Arena?
A: All On-spawn effects skills will take place before Aura effects are applied.

For example, Maya’s On-Spawn Ability allows a chance to silence the Auras of her enemies. As a result, if you were to go second against a Healer team with aura effects such as ‘Attack on Heal’ with a Maya on your team, there is a chance that their auras will be prevented from triggering right off the bat on their turn, increasing your chances of survival!


Raid Structure Update
Raids are a key fixture of the Valiant Force experience, and they’re constantly being refined and improved. Let’s take a look at the newest updates coming your way soon: 

Fixed Raid Schedules are a thing of the past. In the coming raid update, these will be replaced by Raid Passes, which will allow Guild Masters and Vice Guild Masters to unlock or reset any available raid at the convenience of the guild!

Q: How do the Raid Selectors work?
A: There will be one Raid Pass provided to each guild every 7 days. Using this Raid Pass, the Guild Master or Vice Guild Master can choose to reset the raid the guild is currently on, to reset a raid that has been completed, OR to start a new raid that the guild has yet to unlock. There can only be one Raid Pass in existence at any time, so even if the guild does not use it, there will not be a second one provided to the guild after 7 days (in other words, they do not ‘stack’).

However, you can have multiple raids available at the same time - If the first raid has yet to be completed, you will still receive another Raid Pass in 7 days, allowing your Guild Master to unlock yet another raid, which you can attempt concurrently.

Q: Do any existing limitations still apply?
A: The current raid prerequisites still apply. For example, if you have yet to meet the raid prerequisites for Firestorm Labyrinth (You must be at least Level 60 and have completely cleared Dark Ruin Depths once), you will still be unable to participate in the raid when it is opened. If you have just joined the guild from another guild which has a raid open, you will not be able to participate in this raid cycle, until the next raid is opened or refreshed.

Q: How does this improve the Raid System?
A: For a start, the raids can be unlocked when all members are ready - No more wasted raids before the Guild Master changes to the correct difficulty! In fact, this isn’t a problem anymore as the difficulty of each boss is now remembered by the game - the raid boss will now appear at the same difficulty as the previous run by default. In addition The reset timer no longer exists. This gives guild all the time in the world they need to take down the tougher bosses, when before they were limited by the raid reset timer.

Q: What about the Raid leaderboard?
A: The Leaderboards will now be determined by ‘Kill Score’ (+1 point of each Heroic Boss, + 2 Legendary Bosses, and +3 for Master Bosses) and the time taken to complete the whole raid. Total damage will no longer be included in the calculation of rankings. The leaderboard will update to show records the moment the first raid boss of each raid is cleared.

In preparation for these improvements to the raid system, please note that there will be one cycle in which the Firestorm Labyrinth (Raid 2) will be cut short to one week instead of two. Do make the necessary arrangements to accommodate this - for example, your guild might want to consider doing the bosses on legendary or heroic difficulty for just this week if you are not confident of clearing it in time.


Conquest Returns
After a season of trial runs with Conquest, we collated all the feedback and suggestions from players about the system and how it can be improved, and went back to the drawing board to see how we could incorporate all these great ideas. When conquest returns, some rules may be quite different from what you remember in Beta!

For starters, while claiming of resources from the Farm can still only be done during recoup days, claiming Diamonds and Gold from the Outpost can now be performed during both preparation and recoup days!


Pathing Update:
There are a few changes to the path progression rules in Conquest.

Reserved Routes: On each defending guild’s territory, there will be two separate ‘reserved routes’ for invading guilds to progress and capture nodes, without fear of interference from the other invading guild. Invading guilds can only move, attack and capture nodes along their specific ‘reserved’ paths. These paths will be marked out relative to each guild’s color on the map.

This change gives smaller guilds a fighting chance, especially where collecting precious resources are concerned, because it is now much harder to be locked out of contesting any nodes.

It is important to note that defending guilds will not be affected by the ‘reserved’ restriction; they are free to move, attack and capture any nodes on their home turf. Also, as before, the Castle Node can be invaded by either invading guild, although it cannot be captured.  


Outposts:
One piece of feedback we received was that the randomness of the outposts at the start of each Conquest battle can greatly affect the war. We’ve considered this problem, and come up with a more balanced approach to the placement of outposts. 

Each outpost will now be split into 2 halves, with each split outpost resting symmetrically along the two reserved paths. The exception to this will be the Gold Refinery, which will sit squarely in the middle of the defending guild’s territory, and cannot be invaded or captured by invading guilds. This standardizes access to the outposts for all invading guilds, removing a lot of luck from the equation.

Simply put, if a defending guild controls both halves of each outpost on their turf, they retain 100% of its effect. However, each invading guild can only wrestle away 50% of the effect at most, because they only have access to one half along their reserved path.

However, for defending guilds, there will be no change to the cost of upgrading or repairing outposts. During Peacetime, upgrading or repairing outposts will upgrade both halves at the same time!


Conflict Nodes:
In Conquest Beta, capturing or recapturing a node will block all other guids from accessing the next node linked to it. This can lead to a number of cases in which some guilds blocked others from advancing at all. 

The new system will designate all captured or recaptured nodes as ‘Conflict Zones’ for the remainder of the invasion phase. This means that the node will be treated as a free-access node to all guilds who can reach it, regardless of who owns the node. This means that claiming key bottlenecks can no longer create the scenario of the opposing guild being unable to progress beyond it for the rest of the phase.

Simply put, capturing any node turns it into a ‘conflict node’, which is treated as yet another link along your guild’s reserved path. ‘Conflict nodes’ will be indicated by a shield bubble surrounding the node (Color coded to indicate whether it is the invading guilds or the defending guild's), but the actual ownership of the node will only be transferred (or retained) at the start of the next day.

Please note that ‘Conflict Zones’ and ‘Conflict Nodes’ and not the final names for these mechanics. They may be different in the actual Conquest!


Scoring:
The existing Top Guilds Ladder will be reset for the rollout of the all-new Conquest. For the purpose of scoring, Guilds will be ranked by number of wars won and also by total accumulated conquest points. 


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These updates are but a few of the biggest changes that will be happening when Conquest returns. The best part? This is just the tip of the iceberg for all the improvements coming to Valiant Force. You can look forward to many more anticipated updates such as Recipe Items no longer taking up bag space, and a number of features that make upgrading your heroes much more convenient.

As usual, we’re extremely grateful for all your support and feedback. Keep those messages coming - we’re always listening!