The Economist ~ Divisional changes

Day 2,286, 03:12 • Published in Poland United Kingdom • by Spite313



Dear friends,


Today I just want to talk a little bit about my impression of the divisional changes the admins have recently implemented. For those of you who spent the last week sleeping in a cave in the wilderness, the link to the info is here.


So the most important change is that in the past, division 4 was everyone at level 37 or higher. Now everyone level 34 or below is in division 1. This effectively means that almost all of D1, D2 and D3 has been reallocated into D1. What effect does this have? Well my first reaction on the day was “oh god they have screwed Chile and Argentina”. Since divisions came in, all countries have been pushing the argument for reborns (old weak accounts restarting), and pushing info to new players to train and not fight and thus create strong lower divisions. The result of this was that those countries, along with perhaps Spain, have the strongest low divisions in the world.


However, now almost all their tanks and precious soldiers from those divisions are in D1, with a few who were almost D4 under the old system in D2. What does this mean? Well obviously D1 is a lot bigger than it used to be. Once the only accounts there were new players and those D1 tanks caught early enough with the information to train. Now players who are a year old with 30k strength or more in D3 are now in D1 wondering what happened. Well, the ‘unfairness’ for new players aside, this means that all that hoarded power is now only worth 1 point instead of 6 to the big low division countries.



Back to the drawing board for old d3-strong countries


On the flip side, the old D4 powers are mostly laughing. Depending on when their players were born (many countries have a strata of players bunched around certain start dates due to baby booms) most of the older countries populations are now spread through division 2 and 3. Two divisions which were absolutely vital under the old system have completely switched hands. Division 2 is now 70k experience points wide, a huge gulf which for a player who fights max food fights every single day represents nearly ten months of continuous fighting. The same player would take 14 months of continuous fighting to get to d4. That means that D2 and D3 are not just the largest divisions- they will always be the largest divisions. And countries which are strong there now can expect to hold that strength for a long time.


As a final note on D2 and D3, as they are effectively the bottom 90% of the old D4 split in two, many of the players there are used to a culture where to get a battle hero or make a difference you have to dump huge damage. In other words they are tanks- high strength and unconcerned about XP. This means those divisions - especially D3 - are more like the old D4 than the old lower divisions. We can expect things like CO, fighter damage and battle heroes to reflect this. And remember, D2 and D3 are worth 5 points between them. Far more important than the now trivialised D1.



New D3 isn't a fun place if you want to get to the front


D4 has at last become the D5 people used to dream of - happy tank land. To reach 225,000 XP, you need to either be very old (over four years I’d say), a tank or a big company owner. Of course I expect the comments to be full of exceptions to this, but that covers 95% of the division. That means two things. Firstly that even small damage d4 players are so much more important than before. Merely being in the division means you can make a change in many battles. Secondly that there are so few D4 accounts (about 4000 in the game) that many battles will be sparsely populated. At the time of writing, there are 16 battles ingame. At an average of say 11 rounds per battle, that’s 176 mini rounds. Assuming fighters can hit twice each day, and obviously some will fight for each side, that means we will see on average 23 fighters on each side of each battle.


23 fighters. That’s right- although big priority battles will likely get more, the flip side is that lower priority battles won’t. Some battles you could be top 5 simply because there are only five fighters. Now of course some of that 23 are tanks and hit again and again through the day, especially in campaigns relevant to their countries interests. It’s more to focus your mind on the severity of the D4 situation than a genuine mathematical solution. No the important thing here is not just D4’s emptiness, but it’s volatility. Imagine you’re fighting a RW and winning comfortably with your 2 clicker damage in d4. Now along comes a MU and 20 guys hit against you. You’re now losing and have to find 20 guys for your side to counteract the damage. Some countries don’t even have 20 guys in d4.


For this reason highly mobile, highly organised d4 damage is essential for any country wanting to compete. Some countries have this already, but most don’t. Tanks have long been synonymous with disorganised damage, and they hit when they feel like it most of the time. Nobody wants to order someone to spend real money. And this is a division full of tanks. So it will be like herding cats- people will want to keep their independence, their MU loyalties, their own personal hubris. Countries will suffer as a result. Those nations like Poland and Serbia with a lot of high ranking “ordinary” soldiers who tank infrequently and follow orders will have a big advantage over those with huge tanks who hit where they like when they like. Those whose D4 are spread through many small MUs will also suffer.





For me the change is good, since it makes the game harder and thus for many of us justifies our continued playing. But it has screwed over a lot of people. Much like the current debate on forward planning IRL (ie how much guidance central banks should give businesses about future policy), the admins have made a big change suddenly which has damaged months or even years of investment for countries. The admins don’t announce future changes because they want us to play the game as it is now, not as it will be in six months. I can understand that, but without some certainty, it is impossible to strategise for the future.


Anyway that’s enough wall of text for a Saturday



See you on the battlefield D4 o/



Iain