Dev Diary v.1
In come the developers! Today, The King has given the guys behind the scenes his blessing to address some of the most recurrent questions and concerns of the Commanders in Top Troops. We hope you enjoy this and find the answers helpful!
What’s the next big thing coming to Top Troops and when will we discover it? Can you give us some hints?
You know Clan Wars has been 'coming soon' for a while now. Believe us: It really is coming very soon now. Besides Clan Wars, we are adding a new 4th difficulty in the Adventure Mode (this one will make you sweat!), we are shaking up the Chambers of Destiny, and we are bringing in something called ‘Gear’. Gear will help you differentiate your units from the opponents’, creating specific strategies and giving to your deck a unique twist. We also want to make the acquisition of new units easier by adding new ways to obtain Fragments and giving you more options in the Summoning Pit to get your favorite heroes.
The Clan Wars tile has been present in the Battle menu for a while, but it still says ‘Coming soon’. When will Clan Wars be available to us?
Clan Wars will be available in the coming months. Developing this new game mode hasn't been easy; there are some novelties in how battles are played, and it will offer exclusive rewards. If you want to start preparing for the big opening, make sure you recruit active clanmates and optimize your Clan, as you will need all the hands you can have if you want to succeed!
When will the Magic Island get an update? What about the Chambers of Destiny?
The Magic Island is a tricky one. The game mode is a favorite for most Commanders when they join the game, as it offers the opportunity to play with different units, progress quickly through the island, and the Island Pass provides some good rewards. However, we are aware that after some weeks in Top Troops, the game mode can become less exciting. To address this, we have introduced new game modes such as Giant Hunt or the Battle Challenges, but it is our intention to update the Magic Island too. We are currently brainstorming ideas on how to make the game mode more enjoyable in the long term. If you have any ideas, feel free to share them with us! Additionally, the Chambers of Destiny will receive an update very soon. We will introduce new tiers of difficulty and better rewards as you progress through them. Stay tuned!
Will we be able to retire Epic/Legendary units at the Yonder Yacht anytime soon?
The goal of the Yonder Yacht is to give more value to Common and Rare units. And although we have been excited about it, it is true that not as many Commanders as we had expected interact with it. This is why we have added the Legendary Chest in recent updates, and we will soon add more items to the Retirement Shop. However, the retirement of Epic and Legendary units will not be an option any time soon. The obtention of these units differs a lot among players of different tenures and profiles, and adding a retirement for them could cause more imbalances than bring benefits to the community. Although we don’t discard this option, our main goal for the near future of the Yonder Yacht is to increase the value of the Retirement Shop by prioritizing its contents.
Will you add more map sections or Adventure Mode levels?
Yes, we have plans to continue adding new levels to the Adventure Mode, which is the easy part. Additionally, we're considering other alternatives such as introducing waves of enemies, mini-bosses at the end of every map, or implementing special restrictions in certain areas. We're still brainstorming to determine the most enjoyable additions.
Why are so many units rebalanced after coming out? Why do you sometimes say that they’re rebalanced and other times that they get fixed?
Despite our efforts, bugs do slip into released units sometimes. We are very grateful whenever Commanders report them to us, and we are aware that it can mar their enjoyment of the game. Since going live to the entire world in October, we have taken the approach to communicate transparently any bugs that we have fixed in every version, and have dedicated as many resources as we can to continue fixing them. Rebalancing units is a natural process in any RPG game in the market. As designers, we understand that one of the main motivating factors for our players is to figure out different strategies to beat the challenges they encounter. Whenever a unit is too powerful or too weak, it ends up limiting the options players have to tackle these challenges and this risks making the game boring. Some months ago, we noticed that having a defensive team full of healers, especially Verleaf, to try and make time run out for attackers, was the main strategy in our meta. It was so overwhelming that it was disincentivizing other strategies, so we thought of tools we could give to our players to counter it. We tried to boost counter-healing strategies, like the Injury status effect, and introduce specific units, like Girtablilu and Boomerang Mercenary, that could beat it. However, those tools were not enough to stop the overwhelming healing meta, so as a last resource we had to nerf Verleaf to help other strategies flourish. On the other hand, we have the Werewolf. Even though it’s been recognized as one of the strongest units in the game, we have seen players discuss and use lots of different strategies to beat it. That’s why we are happy with its performance and we hope to introduce more units like it in the future that can spark conversations and different strategies.
Will Fragments become available as event rewards rather than just in the Summoning Pit?
The logic behind the addition of Fragments was to increase the accessibility of Legendary units to everyone. This is the reason why we maintained all the probabilities of full Legendary and Epic units intact, and we decided to add an extra chance of getting Legendary and Epic units through Fragments, instead of Common and Rare units. But we won't stop there. We are planning to add Fragments as rewards in several sources in the game in the upcoming updates. And although we cannot share the details yet, Fragments will be accessible both in sources that are available to all players, as well as in sources that will require a competitive and diverse roster of armies.
Are there plans to make it easier to get copies of units we want to Ascend?
We are trying to listen to the requests of our community and are aware that Commanders want to be able to progress with their favorite units faster. After the addition of Fragments, which aims to facilitate the acquisition of Epic and Legendary units, we are planning to add more ways that will help players get their desired Legendary units by means that reduce the randomness, increase agency, or a combination of both. Our immediate actions include introducing a Wishlist in the Essential Summon and reworking the free Legendary Redemption after 50 Summons. The wishlist will allow you to select 5 units from each faction, which will have increased chances of appearing in the Essential Summon. The best part is that you can change your mind and experiment with more options by changing the units in your Wishlists. We hope that these changes improve your experience!
Why do you not communicate big changes, like significant unit rebalancings or the addition of Fragments, in advance?
As you know, we launch new versions of the game in a progressive way. We do this to limit the risk of launching a new version with major bugs that hampers your fun. We have sometimes found these kinds of bugs in new versions and have had to stop their launch to create new ones. That’s why many of you did not get version 1.3.0 and went straight to version 1.3.1, for example. Some changes however, like rebalancing units, also need to be launched retroactively to old versions so that everyone is on the same playing field. Because we try to release the new patch notes to notify all the changes whenever the new version is in the clear to release for everyone, sometimes you will find these balancing changes before we release the patch notes, especially if the new version gets delayed. In the future we will improve our processes to inform you of battle rebalancings as soon as possible through our social media channels.
We hope this has helped answer some of your most pressing questions! If you’ve found this helpful and would like to see more Dev Diary entries, let us know on our community channels!