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Domination: Earth

1.15 Magnet Merge & Capture Changes


Mr. D

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Edited: the update is now live; please get version 1.15 on the Play Store
(App Store will be updated within the next few days).

Hi all,

A fairly large game-changing update is about to be released and will affect the core land capture mechanics.
It's now available on the Play Store/App Store yet (I will post again once it's live), but because of the fact that it's a pretty massive change to the way things work I thought an advance "heads-up" is on order.

Before I list the actual changes I wanted to explain "why" these adjustments are being made.
in my continuous effort to make things easier to understand I've come across a number of issues & frequently asked questions that many players are struggling with, such as:

  • When is a new land captured and when is an upgrade performed? How far does a land's "upgrade influence" extend and how far do I need to go to capture a new flag?
  • How to merge level 100+ lands and what priority is given to more than 2 lands occupying the same space?
  • How far do I need to go from a level 200+ center to capture new land?
    And last, but not least:
  • How do I get rid of those pesky level 1 lands scattered across my level 100+ land?

To answer these questions and to solve the associated issues I've decided to give players a bit more "control" over what's going on an eliminate many of the "invisible radiuses" causing so much confusion & frustration currently.

Accordingly:

  • The "500m upgrade radius" no longer exists.
    Lands will extend as far as their circle and that's it.
    This means that you can plant as many small lands next to each other as you want, and an upgrade will be performed only if you're standing completely inside this land's circle or target that land using the "Remote Upgrade" manually (the smaller "Flag" button on a land's tooltip).
     
  • If you're standing inside a level 1000 land (or any level 100+, for that matter) you will actually have to go beyond its visible border to establish a new land.
    No more "nested lands" (circles within circles).
     
  • Lands of any level can now be merged.
    This means that a level 3 land standing next to a level 2 land merges into a level 5 land as soon as their borders touch (+- 5 meters).
     
  • It is no longer possible to keep upgrading your land if it touches or is located within a larger land.
    E.g. a nested level 5 land located inside a level 20 land cannot be upgraded and will display the appropriate message. However, its parent level 20 land can merge the aforementioned level 5 with itself and become a level 25.
     
  • There are two ways to merge lands now:
    1. Using any of the Flag buttons ("Remote Upgrade" or the big "Capture Land" flag on Earth View, if you are standing inside the merging land).
    If you target a land that contains or touches a smaller land, next upgrade that you perform will merge such lands with their parent, one land at a time.
    I.e. if the land contains 5 nested lands within, 5 upgrades will be required to merge all of them.
    Please note that the parent land has to meet all the building requirements for the level it's about to become before it can merge one of the smaller lands (i.e. you'll have to upgrade your sandbag walls and towers before the merge can begin).
    Merging lands in such way will trigger the 15 minute upgrade timer, generate & collect resources nearby and provoke actions by the Ai (where appropriate).

    2. Using the new "Magnet" button located on each land's tooltip.
    "Magnet Merge" can be used on any remote lands (it does not require you to be within 500m from the targeted land), it does not start the 15 minute upgrade timer and can be performed multiple times in a row.
    Additionally, "Magnet Merge" attempts to merge all of the smaller & adjacent lands at the same time (instead of one by one), which is useful for consolidating level 500+ lands with dozens of smaller lands within.
    However, it does not trigger resource collection, no new resources appear after using "Magnet Merge" and the Ai won't notice a thing.
     
  • Upgrade costs:
    Because of the fact that high-level lands can now be merged with any number of smaller lands at any time, it is now required to pay an "upgrade charge" for every merge resulting in level above 100.
    Cost to upgrade a level 100+ land depends on its resulting level and equals to 1 Money and 1.10 Supply per level of land.
    I.e. to upgrade a level 100 land to level 150 by merging 50 nested level 1 lands you will have to pay 150 Money and 15 Supplies.
    It doesn't cost anything extra to upgrade lands below level 100 (e.g. a level 49 and level 50 lands together).

    If you are using the "Magnet Merge" a pop-up displaying the associated merge costs will appear before the actual merge happens.
    However, if you use the "Flag" button the merge will be attempted straight away, so make sure to check the "Magnet Merge" window if you're unsure whether there is anything around to merge.
    The auto-merge has been added primarily for users of the pre-1.15 apps that won't have the "Magnet Merge" button and will be stuck with non-upgradeable lands otherwise (unfortunately, too many players download game updates weeks after their initial release).


I understand that this is quite an impactful change and a lot of information to process, but I hope that in the end it will make the land capture mechanics a bit more apparent and manually manageable.
As always, please do not hesitate to post if you have any questions! ;)

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To ne honest that's a lot to think about and try out ! But there are directly some questions popping up in my mind.

How does merging affect the buildings build on the merged lands? Is it the same as with previous level 100+ merging?

Does that mean within the radius of a big land of mine there will be actually nothing to do for me? In this case capturing within a 100+ land spawning items again would be great.

On what distance does this remote upgrade work?

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5 minutes ago, Ruvox said:

How does merging affect the buildings build on the merged lands? Is it the same as with previous level 100+ merging?

At the moment - yes, buildings will be converted into base level points.
However, this is only temporary as I'm also working on a different construction system which will change this aspect and allow preserving "lost" buildings potentially.

7 minutes ago, Ruvox said:

Does that mean within the radius of a big land of mine there will be actually nothing to do for me? In this case capturing within a 100+ land spawning items again would be great.

Resource generation is still going to be triggered by the same types of activity (including base defence, if your base is nearby), but it won't be possible to create new lands within the level 100+ land indeed.
To be completely honest the fact that it was possible before is somewhat of a bug (or "unplanned feature" :)), as you may remember me saying that we're aiming to encourage travel, not the ability to conquer the world without actually going anywhere (so there is supposed to be a land size limit for those who don't travel beyond its border).
But I will be adding new things to do while you're inside such lands and yes, I will think about alternative means to spawn new resources within their area. :)

12 minutes ago, Ruvox said:

On what distance does this remote upgrade work?

Same as it currently does (500m), there's been no change there!
I've only introduced the range-unlimited Magent button for land merging. ;)

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1 hour ago, Mr. D said:

If you target a land that contains or touches a smaller land, next upgrade that you perform will merge such lands with their parent

And what will happen if I targeted the smaller one ?

1 hour ago, Mr. D said:

Please note that the parent land has to meet all the building requirements for the level it's about to become before it can merge one of the smaller lands

But this only applies to lands <100 right ?

24 minutes ago, Mr. D said:

But I will be adding new things to do while you're inside such lands and yes, I will think about alternative means to spawn new resources within their area.

Really hoping for that since if I got you right people like me living in a big land wouldn't be able to acquire any resources (besides from scrapping, stations and fighting the Ai) without traveling a bunch of kilometers first.

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3 minutes ago, Ruvox said:

And what will happen if I targeted the smaller one ?

You'll see a message informing you about a larger land nearby and asking to use it for merging. :)
However, you can still use "Magnet Merge" to merge any lands that are within your smaller land, even if it touches a larger land as well.
E.g. level 1 lands can be merged with a level 50 land touching a level 1000 land if you select that level 50 land and hit "Magnet".

5 minutes ago, Ruvox said:

But this only applies to lands <100 right ?

Building-wise, yes!
Merging level 100+ lands will prompt you with the "Upgrade Cost" described above, but no new buildings will be needed.

6 minutes ago, Ruvox said:

Really hoping for that since if I got you right people like me living in a big land wouldn't be able to acquire any resources (besides from scrapping, stations and fighting the Ai) without traveling a bunch of kilometers first.

It's one more reason why I always keep recommending to have your base close to your home (at least within 500m for "Remote Upgrade") - if you're stuck within a large land you can at least raise its defence and generate some resources. :)
How come you don't have a base nearby, by the way?

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Ok everyone, the app should appear on the Play Store within the next couple of minutes featuring the new "Magnet Merge" button, but the server-side mechanics changes are now live.

Please post if you have any feedback or improvement suggestions! ;)

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32 minutes ago, Mr. D said:

if you're stuck within a large land you can at least raise its defence and generate some resources.

Uups, totally forgot about that one thanks for the friendly reminder. Indeed my base is reachable from my position :D

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Hmmm whIle I understanding the idea, I just upgraded a land and it costed me 15000 gold... it does not seems feasible to do that for all the lands in my land (nor do I really see why I would do it). This seems way to much, I cannot even pay for another merger while I had maxed out most of my resources.

Also I do see the downside that I really cannot do that much most days and have to play when I travel, which is sometimes. Thus in stead of playing daily I would play once a week? I am not sure how long I will keep a game that i play once a week...

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2 hours ago, Mr. D said:

I.e. to upgrade a level 100 land to level 150 by merging 50 nested level 1 lands you will have to pay 1,500 Money and 150 Supplies.

I think this is very expensive considering that you might had to pay several times for the same lands/levels. 

For example if I merged a level 100 land with a level 50 land which is than big enough to touch another level 50 land I had to pay 300 Supplies and 3,000 Money. So basically I would pay for the first level 100 and level 50 land to times but for the second level 50 land only one time. I think it would be nice to only pay the merging fees for the littler land. 

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7 minutes ago, Ruvox said:

I think this is very expensive considering that you might had to pay several times for the same lands/levels. 

For example if I merged a level 100 land with a level 50 land which is than big enough to touch another level 50 land I had to pay 300 Supplies and 3,000 Money. So basically I would pay for the first level 100 and level 50 land to times but for the second level 50 land only one time. I think it would be nice to only pay the merging fees for the littler land. 

The merge fee is insane. It's completely over priced, maybe a balancing is needed?

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15 minutes ago, Ruvox said:

I think this is very expensive considering that you might had to pay several times for the same lands/levels. 

For example if I merged a level 100 land with a level 50 land which is than big enough to touch another level 50 land I had to pay 300 Supplies and 3,000 Money. So basically I would pay for the first level 100 and level 50 land to times but for the second level 50 land only one time. I think it would be nice to only pay the merging fees for the littler land. 

I have to agree that the cost seems backwards...  paying for bigger land every time will quickly become discouraging...

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So, I have been dreading an update like this for months now. 

I don't travel far to go to work(around 2.5 miles).  I don't travel farther than that for pretty much anything I do during the week. Sunday I go to church, and spend a couple hours there, and maybe an hour getting food with my family.  Every few months my work sends me on a business trip for a day or so. 

With this update, my growth(AKA the reason for me to play) is effectively reduced to around 5-10m/day.  Which I don't think will be enough to keep me playing. 

If this is the way you want the game to be played going forward, I believe the potential player base will be much smaller, and a large portion of your current players will quit. 

Just my 2¢.

I won't be quitting until I play with the new mechanics for long enough to know for sure that I don't like them, BTW. 

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Indeed I agree with Riylan... with this change the game is for people with professions like delivery drivers /truckers and so on; while I travel frequently indeed I do not keep games I can only play one week a month.

That Being said in week 2 and from now 3 I am traveling i guess shall see how this goes that long, but this does seem likely to cause the current biggest 50- 100 players to quit since we all crossed the limit of making it affordable to pay growths...

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2 minutes ago, Republic of America said:

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/705/740/561/repeal-1.15-dominion-earth-update/ I might be a bit ahead of the problem and overreacting but I created a petition to repeal the update. 

Don't you think this goes a little bit off limits ? I'm sure Mr.D will adjust everything up to a state where everyone can live with it.

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14 minutes ago, Republic of America said:

I agree, however I believe that using this Democratic process will speed it up. negative publicity always encourages progress

That is just it.  This game is not a democracy.  Even if you have spent a lot of money on unobtanium, the game is fully owned and all decisions made by MR. D.  We are here raising our concerns and asking him to take them into considerations, not make demands or threats.  Hh has the right to leave the game as is, just as you have the right to not play...

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1 minute ago, Z3nd said:

That is just it.  This game is not a democracy.  Even if you have spent a lot of money on unobtanium, the game is fully owned and all decisions made by MR. D.  We are here raising our concerns and asking him to take them into considerations, not make demands or threats.  Hh has the right to leave the game as is, just as you have the right to not play...

Oh no you're right this isn't a democracy, it's a capitalistic system. high-paying players, players who enjoy the game leave and now they make less money they go back to ways that made more money. That's what I'm worried I'm worried this is simply a cash grab make it more difficult thus we spend more money.

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3 minutes ago, Republic of America said:

I'm worried this is simply a cash grab

I'm very sure you don't have to worry about that. That was definitely never intended. Furthermore, the update doesn't encourages you in any way to spend more money (Uobtainium)

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4 minutes ago, Republic of America said:

Oh no you're right this isn't a democracy, it's a capitalistic system. high-paying players, players who enjoy the game leave and now they make less money they go back to ways that made more money. That's what I'm worried I'm worried this is simply a cash grab make it more difficult thus we spend more money.

Not the concern I have.  I have seen no signs of cash grab in this game.  I just think there was some confusion and he was looking to fix an unintended consequence, but did not consider how some players are actually playing...

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2 minutes ago, Ruvox said:

I'm very sure you don't have to worry about that. That was definitely never intended. Furthermore, the update doesn't encourages you in any way to spend more money (Uobtainium)

I just worry it's a ploy to encourage more unobtanium purchases to buy resources.

1 minute ago, Z3nd said:

Not the concern I have.  I have seen no signs of cash grab in this game.  I just think there was some confusion and he was looking to fix an unintended consequence, but did not consider how some players are actually playing...

Okay that I can believe. I truly think this update is just breaking the game for big players. I hope there's not an intended consequence and they're just simply trying to rebalance the game I truly love the way merging it's just overpriced to a point that's not even achiveable any more

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Ok guys, first of all - feedback heard and noted!
As I said on multiple occasions in the past, I'm doing my best to find the perfect balance in the game, not make this game impossible to enjoy (despite what some of you may think). :)

Having reviewed the real-life merge examples performed in the last couple of hours I agree that the merge cost is a bit too steep; as a TEMPORARY solution I've slashed the upgrade cost by 10 (i.e. all merges should cost 10 times less now).
However, following your feedback I have a couple of ideas for a better formula which may scale better for lands above level 500; we'll try it out next week. ;)

I am a bit disappointed that the requirement to place new flags within larger lands is perceived as such an important game element (possibly *the* most important element?).
When this update was designed I was under impression that having the ability to check-in in a larger variety of places (due to the 500m invisible upgrade radius removed) would be the key feature of the update, making localized travels a lot more diverse (and outweigh the inability to check-in within level 1000 lands).
But once again, I hear what you're saying (looks at @Riylan ;)) and I will have a think about ways to shift this balance.
In my opinion, the game shouldn't end whenever you can't place a flag on an already captured piece of land, but enabling this ability isn't the right solution either (it just doesn't make any sense! Sub-countries within your own country? :)) and other game features should replace this process.
I have a few ideas of how this could be improved and will work on that next week!

29 minutes ago, Republic of America said:

I agree, however I believe that using this Democratic process will speed it up. negative publicity always encourages progress

I don't say this often, but I must say that I am sincerely offended by your petition and comments.
Do I not always respond to every single bit of feedback and suggestion?
Was there ever a case when I ignored our players' opinions and did things my own way despite negative feedback?

Please remember that I am not a corporation, I am one person; a player just like yourself, trying to make a fun game for everyone.
The fact that this game has no ads and there are so few ways to spend Unobtainium is my way of saying "this is not a cash grab".
However, it costs over $1,000 per month to run this game and pay for the associated hardware and software, so I have to sell a minimum amount of something.

What I'm trying to prevent here with this update is over-expansion of higher-level players with no "sink" for their accumulated riches that makes such players an impossible obstacle for newcomers.
There's just nothing you can (or need to!) spend in-game resources on at high-levels at the same pace you're earning them.

Anyway, I'm afraid I'll have to continue this discussion later / on another day, as (once again) a mortal being that I am I have to return home and spend at least some time with my family before getting back to development (that I'm actually not being paid for, believe it or not! 100% of our profits go towards hardware maintenance and online ads). :)

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