New Update 7/29/2014: New Pit Fight Matchups, New Level Requirments For Skills & More

[Nate]

Greetings Pit Masters!

A minor update has just gone live.

Jimmy's Pit Fights now use a gladiator's skill points in addition to their level for matchups rather than just their level helping to create more competitive matchups more often. This is something I wanted to do from the beginning but it required more under the hood work than I wanted to do at the time.

Each tier of skills has a new level requirement in order to unlock. This helps newer players who are unfamiliar with PoW's style of skill trees as it does differ from many other games where deeper always equals better and has been a large source of confusion for some time now. Gladiators who already have skill points in a skill that would otherwise be locked after the update due to not meeting the level requirement will still retain those skills and use them in combat but will have to wait to continue training them until they meet the new requirement.

The amount of points a gladiator receives when fighting in the arena has been modified slightly to better reflect their performance on the sands. If a gladiator dominates their opponent they will be rewarded with more points than if they just barely won. We already do this to a small extent, the new algorithm fine tunes it.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Avengelyn]

Well i just did the 35 pit fights for today under the new system with my warrior Pile Driver, 35 straight fights against Lady Mary, another HOL warrior 2 levels above me. Went 18-17, which is obviously something i'm not used to seeing now that i have 5 young HOL warriors. So much for my day in the sun after getting smoked in pit fights for the entire career of my first 5 warriors.....

It seems to me that this entire update was put in place to detonate the dominance of warriors using a "skill rich for their level" approach. I can understand you wanting to discourage this style of play, but you've disabled my entire team without warning. EVERY one of my warriors is essentially skill locked, at least till level 30 and perhaps beyond.

Other than the impact this has on myself in particular, i'd caution you strongly on these types of "limited options" ideas. Limited options means limited skill, and this reminds me of when WoW changed their skill trees so that Timmy couldnt make a bad warrior with poor choices. I'm not looking for games that are on rails and "fair for all", i'm looking for games that challenge and allow me to try different things to see if they work or not. Cookie Cutter builds that everyone has are not fun and challenging in the least and this update goes a long way towards that end.

If you really wanted to make things more fair for the newbies, perhaps the entire idea of a HOL warrior should be scrapped. Giving experienced managers far superior warriors that newbies dont have access to is one of the most unbalanced things i've ever seen in any game.

After these past 2 updates my enthusiasm for the game is starting to waver...some good news soon would be appreciated..

Avengelyn, manager of Lethal Formula

[JerimyA5]

The manager of the above mentioned Lady Mary here. Just saw the same thing. All of the underground fights were vs. Pile Driver. I have mixed feelings about this. Truthfully I don't care about the Underground Pit Fights. I don't even waste time with them any more. Too much clicky for no reward worth mentioning, even if you do get 1st. (Well okay, you do get squids, that's not nothing. But we get those regardless placement) However, this does feel very much like a punishment of some sort. And I don't even feel that HoL glads have anything to do with it. I have always leveled my glads, HoL or regular, in the Tavern missions. Avoiding the Arena and exercising great patience to have glads with more skills for their level then the rest of the rabble. Now, I don't see this change effecting anything in the Arena, and therefore I don't care much. But it does still feel like your punishing any smart manager for slow leveling any glad, HoL or not. And I am very much wondering why this would be? The precedent worries me that I'll be penalized in other ways for my play style in the near future.

[Avengelyn]

Unfortunately Jerimy yes it does change arena as well for us, my warriors are flying up the charts now with each win. Primus in my 30's sounds outrageous but it could very well happen to me.

Avengelyn, manager of Lethal Formula

[Nate]

Hey Avengelyn,

Thanks for taking the time to offer your feedback, I appreciate it. I can remember when I was a kid I would spend hours reading the 1st edition D&D books trying to find all the loopholes to make the unbeatable character. My DMs hated me. My best loophole character was a dual class thief/monk. I got x 3 damage for a jump kick and x 2 for a "back stab" I believe. He kicked monsters in the back from dungeon to dungeon leaving a trail of dead bodies and pissed off gamers in his wake. I then created a 1st level Druid with a 25 Wisdom and under 1st edition rules that gave him access to the top spells in the game. All his other stats were around 3-5. He was basically an invalid being pushed around in a wheelchair that could destroy the world if he sneezed by accident. Intelligent and creative players usually find these kinds of loopholes and PoW attracts intelligent and creative people so I am always having to close loopholes when they are discovered to keep the game from degrading into jump kicking back stabbing thief/monks!

I think you'll find there is still a lot of options and variety with builds and we are far from running on rails with cookie cutter builds. There will always be some degree of monkey see monkey do going on in any game, however, I still see a lot of room for experimentation generated from skill builds/race/gear layout/strategy combinations. Really the only change is preventing the above scenario which I think we can agree is a good thing. I haven't specifically looked at your gladiators, however, I'm sure they probably have a good number of skills that can be trained while waiting to unlock deeper tiers. I would be surprised if they were skill locked. Keep in mind, this change doesn't prevent any particular skill build, it simply changes the level it can be realized. I recommend doing all your arena fights and tavern contracts each day to maximize XP gain and speed up the leveling process as to unlock the tiers sooner than later.

HoL slaves have been mentioned on a handful of occasions and I decided to track them. Turns out most non-HoL slaves don't fight HoL slaves very often as the HoL slaves are far out numbered. In addition, non-HoL slaves win a good amount of the time and are far from being outclassed. HoL slaves have an edge but it isn't an overwhelming one. A bigger factor is the player controlling the HoL slave has a lot more experience now and that is a much larger contributor to the success of a gladiator.

Nobody likes it when their characters are affected by a change, me included. You have my sympathies as a gamer and at the end of the day I think this change will be a positive for the game. Hopefully you'll enjoy some of the new updates that are on the way.

Thanks again.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Nate]

my warriors are flying up the charts now with each win.

Gladiators will naturally climb and fall as they find their equilibrium in the rankings. Gladiators proving to be far superior to their surrounding will climb, gladiators proving to be far outclassed will fall. If you are seeing your gladiators rise quickly it is because their ranking is far below what their ability is. They will no doubt slow down the higher they climb.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Nate]

no reward worth mentioning, even if you do get 1st.

Actually Pit fight rewards changed awhile ago. I think you'll find 1st place offers some of the best prizes in the game.

1st: Epic or Fabled Epic or Legendary or 2500 BGP

But it does still feel like your punishing any smart manager for slow leveling any glad, HoL or not. And I am very much wondering why this would be?

Please see my above reply to Avengelyn and I believe that will answer your question. If you enjoy a slower play style, you can still play that way if you like, nothing is preventing you from doing so. If you enjoy being more passive in the arena and more active in the other areas of the game that is still possible.

The precedent worries me that I'll be penalized in other ways for my play style in the near future.

Try not to think about it as a punishment or a penalty. Games are always being balanced and PoW is no exception. Sometimes those balances are at the game level and sometimes they are at the meta game level. I try to stay as hands off as possible until something reaches a point to where it needs to be addressed for the good of the game. Not everyone will always agree with the changes and I feel bad about that but it is understandable.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Nate]

Well i just did the 35 pit fights for today under the new system with my warrior Pile Driver, 35 straight fights against Lady Mary

If this is happening, it means at this time that gladiator is the only appropriate matchup given your level and number of skill points. For the majority of gladiators this will not happen. For gladiators with a lot more skills points than their level would normally have will see this happen until they start to level up which will expand the pool of available opponents.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Avengelyn]

If this is happening, it means at this time that gladiator is the only appropriate matchup given your level and number of skill points. For the majority of gladiators this will not happen. For gladiators with a lot more skills points than their level would normally have will see this happen until they start to level up which will expand the pool of available opponents.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

Getting matched up against the same warrior every time in the pit fights is going to lead to a collusion problem, and sooner than later. What if, for example, i happened to run North Point as well as Lethal Formula in the scenario where Pile Driver was guaranteed to fight Lady Mary and the reverse? I could easily make it so both went undefeated in the pits doing that correct? Also, if i know for certain Pile Driver is going to draw Lady Mary 100% of the time, i could alter strategies to specifically deal with that one warrior.

These things are just from the hip, i'm sure someone will come up with something more nefarious and soon if that isnt changed.

Avengelyn, manager of Lethal Formula

[FrosteeFyre]

The amount of points a gladiator receives when fighting in the arena has been modified slightly to better reflect their performance on the sands. If a gladiator dominates their opponent they will be rewarded with more points than if they just barely won. We already do this to a small extent, the new algorithm fine tunes it.

This is referring to skill points earned, right? Also, would it not make more sense to reward more points to the very close fights' winners? In real life, the tougher the fight is on your warrior, the more skill they earn, as opposed to say a HoL dominating a 10% w/l abandoned gladiator? Just my thoughts on the matter, it would also promote strong Stables battling each other for risk/reward (in the form of skill points) as opposed to picking on new/abandoned Stables.