Hello players,
Over the last few months, we've made some tweaks to the configuration of Olympus worlds in response to Community Feedback, as well as based on our own data and observations. The rebalancing has fallen into a few different categories. Some of these changes are already live as they are mostly just tweaks to numbers, such as how many temples are available, or how many troops are in temples, and some of these changes are not yet live. Below you'll find a summary of the changes already implemented, as well as the detail of the upcoming changes on the new Olympus world, ZZ21, which releases this Thursday.
Word Configs
Sandbox 21, will open on Thursday,
- Game speed: 4
- Unit speed: 3
- Trade speed: 3
- Night bonus start: 00:00
- Night bonus duration: 6h
- Beginners protection: 6 days
- Alliance limit: 25 members
- Conquer system: Conquest
- Morale: Active
- Endgame: Olympus
- Starting towns: 1
- Conquest duration: 12h
Live changes
Temple count
It was determined based on the data we could see that the number of small temples available for conquer was too high. By reducing the number of temples available in an ocean, we hope to improve the competitive nature of catching and holding small temples.
Changes to temple buffs
With the reduction of the number of small temples, we also adjusted some of the buffs offered, making them more powerful than when they were first released. We also added some additional buffs for some of the gods. These buff changes have been in for a while, and look to have the desired impact on the Olympus endgame. Additionally, some of the Large Temple buffs were improved when compared to their original value.
Unit numbers
We adjusted the number of land and naval units in small, large, and Olympus temples. These changes for small temples were to reduce the difficulty of the naval battle, but increase the difficulty of the land battle. For Large and Olympus temples, we wanted to increase the difficulty overall for these temples, so we increased both the land and naval units stationed in these temples. These changes to unit counts have been live for a while, but we've only had a few Olympus worlds since they were implemented, so its unclear if we got these numbers correct. With this in mind, we also made the values of units in temples configurable on a per market basis, and we'll look to make standards based on market size.
New changes
Now, on to the new functionality! One of the things which was noticed in our analysis, as well as Community feedback, was that by adding significantly more PvE elements to the game, without adjusting the PvP aspects, we ended up with too much going on in a world, and the worlds feel less focused overall on common goals. We wanted to make sure that conquering temples remains a big part of the gameplay, but not the only thing players focus on during the Small Temples phase. We also want to create a tempo on the world where players can rebuild, and not have to make a decision between defending a newly conquered temple and expanding by conquest of enemy cities. To combat this pacing issue, we came up with 'Temple Shielding'. We also wanted to encourage players to utilize the buffs gained from small temples to take out their enemies, and not only capture a temple to contribute towards the endgame.
Temple Shielding
With the introduction of this new mechanic, Small and Large temples will periodically shield themselves. Shielded temples can't be attacked, or conquered but can be supported. For sieges when a temple becomes shielded it will work similarly to how Olympus works when it jumps. Any ongoing sieges will end, and the units will be returned. If a temple is already owned, the units stationed in the temple will stay put for the duration of the protection, and the ownership of that temple won't change.
The duration of shielding depends on the world settings, as well as the endgame settings. Faster world speeds result in shorter intervals between shielded and unshielded time. We're hoping with this mechanic's introduction, as well as the reduced number of temples available per ocean, we'll see a shift during the shielded time of a temple where players will refocus on gaining ground around the temples they want.
Once the small temples phase begins, the temples will start unshielded, meaning you can dive right into capturing things, but you and your alliance will need to be efficient, and grab the temples you want ASAP before the shielding kicks in for the first time. Once the shielding begins, the temples will cycle between shielded and unshielded for the duration of the Olympus phase until Olympus is conquered and a winner is declared. Once Large Temples spawn, these too will run on the same schedule as the small temples, meaning the can start either shielded or unshielded depending on the schedule.
To see when a temple is due to be shielded or unshielded, you can hover over the temple on the map, or see the time in the temple info window which shows incoming commands and units present in the temple.
These changes are just the first batch of balancing changes we've applied to Olympus, and of course, are mostly aimed at making the game mode a bit more competitive. To answer a question we know we'll get, we haven't forgotten about Revolt worlds for Olympus, and this is still on our radar. One of the big advantages for the changes detailed above is we already had a lot of the required code for them available for us to utilize. Adding Revolt to Olympus is unfortunately a much more significant piece of work we intend to address in the future.
We hope these changes go towards improving your experience. If you find any bugs, please let us know ASAP on our bugs forums. If you have any feedback or questions, please leave them in our feedback thread here.
See you ingame!
Your Grepolis Team
Last edited by a moderator:
