Open letter to EA regarding game theory and Clash of the Clones

thatpaulholm

Part 2

What is my incentive to attack a target with more than 1 nerd? If both the attacker and attacked get paid out on defending a target, what difference does it make if I use 1 or 20 nerds? It takes a lot more time to completely destroy a target with 1 nerd. But since most encounters end in a defense, you might as well attack more targets with the same number of nerds.

I realize the makers of Tapped Out were not planning on designing an RTS game. And this expansion is just a fun extra. I just thought I'd point a few holes that I found.

irishbeing

Great questions. Very valid, and well worded.

I've been thinking the same thing. More points sounds better than points sooner (by mear hours).

The other thought/question that wasn't made clear (or at least to me) is....

I notice that with all the nerds I send to attack, the return doesn't always add up. Is it because when someone clicks on the building in their own town from my attack, the defense stops the attack, and instead of 140 or 70 elixir, I only get a fraction based on the time that the attack was successful?

But the bigger picture is why would I want to deter people from coming to my town to attack. I get more when I"m attacked more (less work for me too

S

masterau0

thatpaulholm wrote:

What is my incentive to increase my defense level? All this does is make my town less attractive to attackers. In this game it is in my benefit to attract as many attackers as possible. More attackers means more gold and elixir for me. Since I am now a more difficult target, attackers would logically choose someone with a lower defense score to attack. Since the reward is the same whether you spend 9 or 25 nerds there is no reason to attack someone with a high defense score. If it’s harder to defeat a castle it would seem only logical to increase the reward to match.

For the castle I usually assume my payout will be 10E/2G as the other player will defend most of the times (if you are using 1 nerd),
but consider this you spend 10 nerds on different individual castles (which is again time consuming as you will have to find 10 castles) and lets assume they are defended. So your payout 100E/20G
Now if you had used the same 10 nerds on one castle it will bring down the time of attack from 14 hrs to 4 hrs, and if the other player does not connect during that time your payout will be 140E/50G. See, there is a huge difference in gold.

I normally don't do it for castle but I definitely do it for buildings, if you can log in regularly you can spend 7-8 nerds on one building making your payout to be 70E/25G. Its a high possibility that the player might not connect for 1-2 hrs so you get the full payout. Getting the castles down to 4 hrs requires a lot of nerds, and its still 4 hrs so I avoid that.

Lets say you spend 10 nerds to attack a building - brings down the time to an hour and lets assume you win, so payout 70E/25G
Best Case : now is the same 10 nerds you used for different buildings with 1 nerd per building, if they all win its a jackpot 700E/250G, but be honest will you really expect a player not to log in for 10 hours :P . (more if defenses are high)
Worst case : all are defended making your payout to be 5E/1G per nerd = 50E/10G

Even if you used the 10 nerds individually for castles your payout if all are defended will be 100E/20G - still 5G lower than a win

As the game progresses people will get more nerd production and their defenses are bound to go higher, so more and more attacks will be defended (defending has a much better payout 20E/10G for each attack). So spending more nerds per building is a good option.

Still its based on the assumption that the other player does not log in within that hour and defend - so always some part of luck :P.

homerunhund

Adding to these thoughts, should I attack friends or random people? Is it beneficial for my friends to completely destroy my buildings or do I get more for stopping it early before total destruction? More details would have been nice with this update, especially since I don't play Clash of Clans.

MtMornWood

What we need is a Clash of the Clones Strategy Guide.

Attack RANDOM people - always. The payout for RANDOM attacks is 140exilir for castles, and 70 for buildings.
(Attacking targeted friends pays out less than half that amount.)
Attacks are good for both - even if you don't log on, if your house / castle is lost, you still get points.
Attack as many buildings as possible - I apply 2 nerds per house.

Once you have the full compliment of buildings, upgrades, etc, leave it - let people attack, and give them the points.
(at least that's my plan once I've got all the rewards)

And if people on your friends list aren't active / don't have castles, remove them, and add people from the current 'add me' list.