Arch Server New Reset - Sept 20, 2013

[Hypello]

Arch Server will restart at Fri Sept 20 11:00:00 2013.
Armageddon is scheduled to begin at Sat Nov 23 18:00:00 2013.

Changes from previous set

Changes:

• AI Mages*
• Battle outcome is now decided using raw net power loss (same as most other servers; was relative/percentage loss)
• Spawning hatchery generation rate reduced by one third (from 6/hour to 4/hour)
• Free supporting limit for guilds reduced to 6 (from 7)
• Dark Elf Magician added
• Dwarven Shaman added
• High Elf added
• Naga Queen added
• Yeti added

Comments:
AI Mages are still very much in beta, however it was deemed that their introduction into Arch needed to be immediate as the server is dangerously low on players. Since they are still in their early stages, the development team appreciates any feedback and suggestions to improve the AI system which will eventually propagate throughout the other servers (but we'll know it was properly introduced into Arch first!).

[Laanders]

More changes added. Some comments:

The battle outcome change is partly to reduce the benefits to excessive oversummoning, and partly to simplify the battle mechanism and make it more equal across TR servers, where the raw power determination has been in effect for several years. In particular new players and those accustomed to other servers will often be confused why they lost a battle when they killed more than they lost.

It is worth noting that even the new implementation takes into account relative power loss when either side in a battle is more than twice as large as the other by net power. In these situations, the battle report shows a line announcing "xx% offensive/defensive advantage".

The hatchery rate change is a small adaptation to the smaller player base. The market has been generating the same amount of stacks per hour since the server had many times the current amount of mages.

The free supporting limit change is both for unification purposes across servers, and to balance for the fact that the average guild today is much smaller than in the past, and very few donate for supporting status.

Lastly, the new units are finally added to increase counter stacking options, in order to allow players additional attacking possibilities in a target-poor environment. It also coincides with the overall goal of reducing unnecessary differences between servers. Arch will still be the non-ultimate server, just not the non-ultimates-and-new-units server.

Since the new units have thus far been balanced for ultimate servers, it is quite possible that there will be a need to tweak them for arch. As always, we encourage the community to provide feedback on any such needs, as well as propose ways to cater to those needs.

There may yet be some additional changes, but probably nothing major.

[Laanders]

• The battle simulator now includes fallen units.

Additionally, off colour enchantments in the battle simulator now work properly.