Atlas Castle Infrastructure Update - Dynamic Infrastructure

Atlas
1

Hello Dragon Masters,

We alluded to a mid-season change in our Atlas Dreadfrost Season blogpost concerning castle guard limits to address the low guard meta in Atlas. We are happy to share that this feature, Dynamic Infrastructure, will be released next Tuesday, February 7, 2023.

THE STATE OF ATLAS

In its current state, Atlas castle ownership and defense can be softly exploited with a limited number of castle guards: cheaply creating blockades and earning bonuses and other rewards. We want teams to invest in a castle and castle guards in order to reap the benefits of the corresponding defensive mechanics, resource rewards, and castle victory points.

Running numbers back in September, about three quarters of all castles were employing <5% of their castle guard limit. We’d like to see that average percentage increase significantly in order to promote healthier and more dynamic gameplay. We hope this will create more attractive targets for all teams and will encourage more activity and glory hunting.

NEW MECHANICS

With the release of this feature, we are instituting a new castle guard threshold of 10% (or greater) of the maximum hireable castle guards in order to receive any and all bonuses provided by infrastructure on each player-owned castle. Furthermore, castles who are under their 10% threshold will not receive victory points during end of round calculations on every second Wednesday at 2:00pm PT.

Castle Tier Max Fort Level Max Castle Guards 10% Threshold
Tier 2 Level 3 2,000,000 200,000 or greater
Tier 3 Level 6 2,750,000 275,000 or greater
Tier 4 Level 9 3,500,000 350,000 or greater
Tier 5 Level 12 4,000,000 400,000 or greater
Tier 6 Level 12 4,000,000 400,000 or greater

Bonuses provided continuously (like primarch stat boosts or blockades) will enable and disable in real time as the castle guards total moves above and below the threshold. For example, castles under siege may lose their defensive primarch stat bonuses immediately after an enemy attack that lowers their castle guards below 10%.

Bonuses provided at a specific time (like Fort resource bonuses toward your Daily Tribute) will consider the castle guard threshold in a single snapshot in time. This means that a castle that spends all day at 9% of guards until it adds guards to 11% right before Daily Tributes are calculated at 12:00am PT will indeed receive its resource bonuses. No averaging is considered at this time.

INFRASTRUCTURE UI UPDATES

Updates have been made to the castle infra UI to clarify the status of the guard threshold:

Castle Infra Enbabled” state where the 10% has been met

1600Ă—744 699 KB

Castle Infra Disabled” state where the 10% has NOT been met

1600Ă—740 750 KB

RELEASE DAY

Around 12pm on Tuesday, we will release an update to War Dragons. Upon release, thresholds will be applied to all player-owned castles and new mechanics will be in effect. That is, castles below the 10% guard threshold will lose their active infrastructure bonuses until the proper number of guards are hired.

Our recommendation is that you prepare for the release by hiring some guards and anticipating the new mechanics before they are fully released.

As always, we will monitor the effects of the changes on Atlas and tweak parameters in the future if we deem necessary. We want this feature to promote more fun and interactive battles in Atlas and will also be listening to you for feedback.

As always, let us know if you have any questions or concerns here in the thread.

Thanks,
Al

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:raised_hands: :raised_hands::raised_hands::raised_hands::raised_hands::raised_hands::raised_hands::raised_hands::raised_hands:

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You might want to check that statistic. As of today, I believe that:

  • 69% of castles have >95% of their max guards.
  • 9% of castles have <5% of their max guards.
  • About 12% of all castles would lose their infrastructure bonuses if the update went live now.

You may also want to fix your table with the max guards (eg T3 is now 2.75m not 3m).

It’s pretty obvious what impact these changes will have on the game :man_shrugging:

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Ah yes, employees are leaving left and right, this game has almost no viable dragons at endgame to even attack in atlas with, mega alliances hold nearly complete control and are sitting on super safe castles but the major concern is some pirates earning some resources while not loading up guards to be a buffet. You’re just going to see more castles sitting empty and more teams disbanding.

You guys seriously need to reevaluate your priorities and stop catering to your whale teams who’ve already worked hard to destroy atlas. This is something to have looked into after all the actual issues of atlas had been settled.

So then this also means that a team can be loaded with 10%+ guards all day but if someone comes along and hits their castles right before daily tributes are calculated then they wont get anything? Will you guys be issuing bans for players/teams abusing this?

Glad Im done buying atlas elite. Once mine runs out tomorrow Im done giving this company another dime.

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It’s not like you will pay attention to any players commenting here since PG had proven time and time again they have no idea how this game is played, but what are you trying to accomplish here? More conflict? Burnout is one of the top reasons players quit. Let’s add to that.

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I would say finally :partying_face::partying_face:

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What mega alliance? If you referring to Dread mega alliance then you are wrong. It’s gone and all TA are independent which were part that said alliance

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That’s an interesting discrepancy, and makes me wonder how else their numbers are leading them to false conclusions.

That said, I think this change is a good thing.

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Honestly being independent really isn’t a thing nowadays. Watching one of those 3 tas try to help vs. what used to be a pretty fair fight of sapphire teams lol

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Sad, if you’re in the bigger umbrella it would be an a big advantage!

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Tbh, the mega alliance still is in existence.
Hit a team and guess who shows up to help, more than their TA that’s for sure

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Hey, thanks very much for the update.

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I wonder how long it will take for them to reverse this idea and how many teams will be left once they do.

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So, we decided that it was a good idea to lock teams out of bonuses?

Having to load 10% guards means they only need to be wiped 1.5x times a day for teams to not be able to load more resulting in no more bonus for the castle and rendering it useless until the next guard reset.

Destruction of infrastructure on top of this, now means not only is the team stuck with a castle they can’t get a bonus for holding, but their infrastructure is now tied up on it too.

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You can load more then 10% of guards
Start few days early and can have full set of guards then won’t run into that issue

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Woo, that’d be a good food. Party time.

:smirk:

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Clearly you missed the point entirely.

You can only load 12% guards daily, so once you have dropped to around 10% guards, teams only have to kill a tiny bit more than that to lock you out of the bonus.

It’ll only take certain TAs a few days to lock a team in a situation where they are unable to earn bonuses from holding castles despite holding many of them.

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yes, team’s running in pirate mode who never have to defend a castle like everyone else will now have to make a choice: spread themselves thin for max rewards or lower their castle real estate.

in short, the worst offenders were prime APR targets (1-100 apr) and with no guards or no primes at their castles, it was near impossible to launch an offensive against them that resulted in any glory earned. waiting for a defense attack is pointless as statistically defense of your castle results in lower glory and more troop burn (on average).

pirate mode forced some teams to get max rewards but effectively be safe in atlas, forcing teams in their APR range to do nothing or bully teams with worse APR cause they at least had targets that could be hit.

looking forward to the change.

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i see this for “independent” teams too … dread and non-dread. people will always have friends. you can’t stop friendships as it’s the main reason some people still play.

also, some non-ta teams join because they might be their gate and it’s a strategic advantage to protect your gate (even if they aren’t your allies)

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Does this mean that all castles have Marshals now? Other than the images just showing a level 4 and 6?