New Update 7/20/2014: Lots of Big & Little Changes!

[Nate]

Greetings Pit Masters!

You'll want to pay close attention to the following post as some significant changes have taken place regarding the game.

ECONOMY CHANGE
The in-game value of a trophy has been decreased by a factor of X and in response all trophy account balances (and the costs of goods) have been increased by a factor of X thus nullifying the decrease. For example:

Let X = 40.

If the cost for an apple was 1 it would now be 40, and likewise if your account balance was 10 it is now 400. Before the change you could have bought 10 apples (10 x 1 = 10), and after the update you can still buy 10 apples (10 x 40 = 400).

A real in-game example: The old price to cycle items at the Blacksmith was 1 trophy. It is now 15 trophies instead of 40 which means it now costs 62.5% less than before.

EDIT: I changed the values in the above example and added more info to prevent further confusion.

Why was this done? Before this change the lowest amount of trophies something could cost or be rewarded was 1 when in fact sometimes I would have liked it to be 1/2 of 1 or 1/10 of 1 or 1/5 of 1, etc. This change now allows me to do that. It offers greater flexibility in the ability to price things and rewards.


PRICE CHANGES
In addition to the above change, prices have also changed on some things. Some have been increased and some have been drastically decreased. Why was this done? This was done for numerous reasons. One being with the above change it offered more flexibility at the low end allowing for price points below what used to be 1 trophy. Another reason is in the past three years my operational costs have increased significantly mainly due to an increase in marketing costs. Depending on what ad network is used it is now 300%-1000% more expensive to get someone to try out the game, and that of course doesn't mean they will end up supporting it. Up until now I attempted to subsidize this increase in costs myself without changing anything in the game, but unfortunately I am no longer able to do that. A classic David vs Goliath scenario is playing out for many indie devs on the game ad networks right now but this time around David isn't winning. For the majority of players there will be little to no noticeable change and with the increase in trophy rewards which I'll discuss in more detail below I suspect many players will actually be better off than before.


GAME CHANGES
There have been lots of little changes here and there in Conquests, the Gauntlet, the Blacksmith etc. They mainly have to do with energy costs, timers, the ability to have the auto-repair use trophies, etc to go along with the new pricing structure.


IN-GAME ADS
You've all been asking for this for a long time and I truly apologize for taking so long to implement this highly sought after feature. ;) In various locations throughout the game, ads are now being displayed to help monetize the game as I search for new revenue streams to help offset the increase in marketing costs. Anyone who has the Accountant upgrade (basically anyone who has helped support the game by purchasing trophies) will not see ads. If you don't like ads and don't want to see them please consider grabbing the Accountant upgrade and you'll remove ads and support the game in one fell swoop! If you don't want to purchase trophies and you like to use an ad blocker, I ask that you whitelist Pit of War so the ads will show. You just might see a game you like and we'll both come out winners.


TROPHY REWARDS
Gladiators are now rewarded trophies for numerous achievements in the Great Realm. Any time a gladiator kills in the arena or pit fights they are awarded with a trophy. Gladiators competing in the Blood Games are also awarded a trophy each fight. The chance to find a trophy during tavern contracts and conquests has been greatly increased as well. In addition the trophy login bonus has been increased. Some of you remember when you could exchange gold for a trophy once per day. The new reward system actually offers more than that.


REFER A FRIEND BONUS
Of course none of you need an incentive to use the RaF program and everyone has already posted messages on Facebook and emailed their friends about what an awesome game Pit of War is, so I mention this purely for posterity. :) The trophy rewards for recruiting friends to play the game have been increased significantly, it is my hope this will encourage many of you to try and get your friends to play if you haven't already and maybe even try again. Studies show most people need to see something three times before they act on it. Help me get new players for free and I'll help you by giving you trophies for free.


As always if you are unhappy with the new changes I do apologize and if you would like to give me feedback you are welcome to send me a PM and I'll be happy to discuss it with you.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Organised Chaos]

I'm seeing some odd glitches now. On the Arena Gates page, the timers for energy regain, Arena token regain and Battle Royal don't apear. Although the energy timer still appears on other pages and energy does seem to regain normally.
Also the info in the arena fights page, Stable, Record etc. don't apear and the challenge dropdown now includes a token like 'countdown_1234' at the end of each entry.

Are these bugs in the game, or is it a problem with cached js files?

[Nate]

I'm seeing some odd glitches now. On the Arena Gates page, the timers for energy regain, Arena token regain and Battle Royal don't apear. Although the energy timer still appears on other pages and energy does seem to regain normally.
Also the info in the arena fights page, Stable, Record etc. don't apear and the challenge dropdown now includes a token like 'countdown_1234' at the end of each entry.

Are these bugs in the game, or is it a problem with cached js files?

Looks like that was from cached js files. Give it a shot now and let me know if it is still happening.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Organised Chaos]

All good now, thanks.

[Kreegan]

Not sure if I'll be able to cope with the new repair prices but the drastically slowed down Conquest speed certainly seems to be a major minus at this point. Is it still possible to get non-Legendary awards upon a successful run? If yes, it largely defeats the purpose of running through the Underbelly if you don't have the whole day just for that.

[Nate]

Not sure if I'll be able to cope with the new repair prices but the drastically slowed down Conquest speed certainly seems to be a major minus at this point. Is it still possible to get non-Legendary awards upon a successful run? If yes, it largely defeats the purpose of running through the Underbelly if you don't have the whole day just for that.

Repair costs for some legendary and fabled epics was bugged, I actually just fixed it. The cost to skip the rest timer has been drastically reduced (around 500% cheaper), you might consider using it on days you don't have a lot of free time. If you don't want to do that, Jimmy is always happy to have you run The Gauntlet. And of course you can always go to the Blacksmith who is happy to accept gold, trophies or BGP for your legendary needs.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Kreegan]

The repairs still cost the same for me (or are even slightly more expensive) - 3100-3500 gold for a nearly full Legendary equipment + 1 Fabled Epic.

[Nate]

Ah English, you silly language that allows for many interpretations of the same sentence. Allow me to clarify. :) The repair price you have been paying for some legendary and fabled epics was bugged. The current price is the corrected bug price.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Kreegan]

Fair enough then. The real world is full of economic bugs as well anyway.

[Dainoji]

Let's assume X = 10.

If the cost for an apple is 5 it would now be 50, and likewise if your account balance was 10 it is now 100. Before the change you could have bought two apples (2 x 5 = 10), and after the update you can still buy two apples (2 x 50 = 100).

This caused quite a stir and some confusion just now. The example Nate gave of X = 10 is just an example. The real value of X is 40 based on knowing my account balance before and after. If you see something that costs less than 40 it means the price has actually been reduced on that.

Can you verify that Nate?

[Nate]

Sorry I was in my cage eating. I just took a look at the chat log. Sorry if my example confused anyone. I was just trying to illustrate how the mechanic worked with a simple example. Looks like it didn't go over so well. In any case, yes everyone's trophy balance has been increased by a multiple of 40 along with many things in the game to keep it equal. As I mentioned in the original post some prices went up many went down.

It is important to note that you did not lose any buying power during this change. As the tide went up, so did all the boats. The only difference is some things cost a little bit more now and many things cost a lot less. In addition it is far easier to win and find trophies in the game now.

If you still don't understand or have any questions, please send me a message and I'll be happy to go over it with you.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Nate]

I went ahead and made a quick list of the things off the top of my head that increased in price and decreased in price to help those of you who are concerned about this change. If you don't see something here it is either the same as before or I missed it.

PRICE DECREASED
- Auto running arena fights
- Auto running pit fights
- Auto running tavern contracts
- Energy Potions
- Cycle Blacksmith's items
- Cycle Slaves
- Unlearn Skill
- Achievement slots 3 & 4
- Remove locked achievements
- Skip Resting Timer in Conquests (this is a massive drop)

PRICE INCREASED
- The Champion's 3 Pack Membership Special (minor 10% increase)
- Scouting Report
- Street Games Refresh Board
- Reset Ally Cooldown in Conquests
- Reset Ally Cooldown in The Gauntlet
- Achievement slots 5 & 6
- Skip the time to identify an item (this now decreases as time goes by instead of a fixed price)

BONUSES
- Daily Login Trophy Bonus increased around 175%
- Refer-A-Friend Trophy Reward increased
- Massive increase in frequency for trophy drops and rewards in the arena and pit fights to the point where most of you will be far better off than before. To be honest I'm afraid I might have been too generous with this, time will tell. I read an article that said if you are generous with your players, they will be generous with you. Let's hope it was right! :)

Hope this helps some of you. The reason for the changes was increased flexibility for pricing and bonuses and the majority of the discounts were implemented to better help players engage with more areas of the game. As I mentioned in the original post, Pit of War has become massively more expensive to operate over the years, far more than I ever imagined. If someone told me a few years ago that some companies would be willing to pay what they are currently paying just to have someone install or try out their free game I would have laughed hysterically, yet here we are, and these are the giants indie devs must contend with when competing for ad network bandwidth. :) As customers we don't generally care about the problems of the companies we do business with and I fully understand that. I tell you all of this to simply to let you all know the factors behind these changes. If you enjoy playing PoW and would like to continue enjoying it for many years to come, please consider supporting the game by purchasing trophies. Pit of War is really more of a service at this point rather than a simple game, and as such continued support is appreciated. As always, I thank everyone who supports the game, and even for those who do not support it financially I appreciate and thank you for choosing to play Pit of War when there are literally millions of games available now at the touch of a button. Cheers!

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Avengelyn]

Sorry I was in my cage eating. I just took a look at the chat log. Sorry if my example confused anyone. I was just trying to illustrate how the mechanic worked with a simple example. Looks like it didn't go over so well. In any case, yes everyone's trophy balance has been increased by a multiple of 40 along with many things in the game to keep it equal. As I mentioned in the original post some prices went up many went down.

It is important to note that you did not lose any buying power during this change. As the tide went up, so did all the boats. The only difference is some things cost a little bit more now and many things cost a lot less. In addition it is far easier to win and find trophies in the game now.

If you still don't understand or have any questions, please send me a message and I'll be happy to go over it with you.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-


Confusion wouldn’t be my first choice of words, since to me that implies that all the information was there to be seen, but simply got misinterpreted. In Nate’s unedited version of this announcement, the number 40 was simply not present at all.

For me the confusion began AFTER I was informed by the other players, in chat, that it looked to them like the number was 40X. Why not use 10X, 50X, or even 100X, why the 40X? Seemingly even Nate felt that way on some level since he used 10X as his example in place of the real number (40X).

We then started to focus on what the various trophy costs were, using this 40X as our basis for what was cheaper, or more expensive, to support this “Tides & Boats” ideal. By and large, with some exceptions, things seem somewhat in line….until you get around to checking the bank.

Yes, the tide does raise all boats, until you need to buy more boats.

Simply put, if you buy your trophies in lots of $100 as I do, the number you should be using instead for comparison is 22.4X, offset to a small degree by the increase in free tokens added to pit fights etc.

The math:

Previous Rate: $100 for 1,250 trophies (800 + 450 free), or 12.5 trophies per $1.

New Rate: $100 for 28,000 trophies (20,000 + 8,000 free), or 280 trophies per $1.

12.5 X 40 is 500, not 280.

This represents a SUBSTANTIAL rise in the cost to play the game if you continued to play it as you have, assuming you buy trophies at all. If you buy your trophies in lots of less than $100, your number is even more unfavorable.

Now everything is crystal clear to me and I’m totally cool with the changes, though I would have preferred Nate just calling it what it was, which is a simply a price hike.

I’d much rather Nate raise the price and be able to update & improve the game than the alternative.

By the way, it does appear from first impressions though that if you engage in Conquests, you’ll need more trophies or more time. I had 1 warrior on my team die on hard level, and the timer was 9 full minutes with every membership enabled, brutal….

Until our various price points are reached (or until Nate decides I’m not worth the trouble), I’ll see you in the Pit….

Avengelyn, Manager of Lethal Formula

[Nate]

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it. Again my apologies if the announcement was not clear and caused you trouble. In hindsight I'm sure it could have been written better. Generally the way I have always made announcements is to give a brief summary and then let the players poke around and see all the changes. I certainly wasn't hiding anything as all the information is available in the game for players to see and check out at their leisure, and in this case do any math they would like to if so inclined. I would caution doing straight calculations because due to the fact that many prices have dropped dramatically and a lot of free trophies are entering the game the straight back of the napkin math doesn't tell the whole story. I'm confident most players are going to end up better off than before.

Everyone plays the game differently and this change effects each person differently based on play style, as such if anyone would like to continue this discussion or has any feedback or questions please send me a PM here on the forums and I'll be happy to help.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Rokchewer]

Hmm..just looked over the changes and the thing I spend the most on...the elite 6 pack has gone up about 50% in price. It used to cost me about 6 dollars and now it will cost 10.50 ish for two weeks. This is based on 280 shields for a dollar under new system if you buy the 100 dollar pack. While this is fine...I understand the need to raise costs. I do think it is disingenuous to say costs havent changed. While I do appreciate getting more shields for doing stuff I really dont think its gonna eliminate that much of the extra cost


Rokchewer, manger of Team Triangle and Soul Maidens

[Adoede]

I'm absolutely on board with whatever financing Nate needs to do to make this game viable long-term. In fact, I wouldn't mind if Nate moved to support the whole game through ad revenue and increased ad presence significantly in the game - even for those of us with the accountant upgrade. I'd take that trade-off if it meant Nate didn't have to worry about finances and could focus solely on gameplay matters. I've always had mixed feelings about the trophy system anyway and how people could use it to buy advantages in the game. I'd prefer a truly level playing field any day. If more ads lets Nate create that environment, I'm all for it.

[Rokchewer]

I'm absolutely on board with whatever financing Nate needs to do to make this game viable long-term. In fact, I wouldn't mind if Nate moved to support the whole game through ad revenue and increased ad presence significantly in the game - even for those of us with the accountant upgrade. I'd take that trade-off if it meant Nate didn't have to worry about finances and could focus solely on gameplay matters. I've always had mixed feelings about the trophy system anyway and how people could use it to buy advantages in the game. I'd prefer a truly level playing field any day. If more ads lets Nate create that environment, I'm all for it.

I totally agree..more ads wouldnt bother me much as long as they are done on side bars and such and not popping up in your face. I certainly want Nate to keep the game going and love most of the updates he has done in the last six months or so.

[Isajij]

So basically we're getting the opportunity to earn trophies at a higher rate, we just need to earn forty instead of the original one. Seems like a fair deal indeed Nate.

[Kreegan]

300k for a Legendary armour piece identification... Nate, I think you outdid yourself in some areas. Combined with the increased repair and healing costs, I don't really see how can I maintain more than 1 gladiator (max 2) in Blood Gods without switching to a de facto monthly payment. Maybe using the rest of the Barrack slots for gold mules but that will essentially result in grinding just to survive financially.

[ahroun]

nate, i have 3600 trophies right now but i cant upgrade my doctor to lvl 3. is there a new requeriment to get doctor to lvl 3? or its a bug? thanks :D

forget it, today the option is available

[riggen]

300k for a Legendary armour piece identification... Nate, I think you outdid yourself in some areas. Combined with the increased repair and healing costs, I don't really see how can I maintain more than 1 gladiator (max 2) in Blood Gods without switching to a de facto monthly payment. Maybe using the rest of the Barrack slots for gold mules but that will essentially result in grinding just to survive financially.

I second this, the gold gain is insanely low in blood gods and with the increase in both repair and injury healing, I for one will likely never have more than 2 gladiators in the top bracket(not that I even have too many good gladiators, mind you, but maybe someday I would've :P).

The legendary identification fee increase feels a bit odd, even though, well, underbelly runs will be much slower.

[Falk]

Dunno if this was mentioned before, but you still get 1 trophy per kill. Is this like its meant to be or will it be changed like all other trophy gains/costs? I mean, 1 additional arena fight did cost 1 trophy, now 40. You got 1 trophy for a kill before (or an arena token i know), and now still just 1? That would be a huge decay of the worthiness of a kill.

[Kreegan]

The 1 trophy per kill thing was removed long ago (more than an year, I think). You could get a trophy for a kill just like you could get any other "prize" - normally some green junk - but that's it. So nothing has decayed in this regard. :)