over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Hey everyone,

I hope you're all doing great!

I've noticed multiple messages asking for more communication, which I think it's quite fair considering that my last and only post was 5 months ago... and I'll start this one by discussing the same topic! :D

After seeing some comments expressing their disappointment after the start of Shocktober, I thought that some conversation would be great to show that we're attentive to feedback and answer some of the questions. So here we go:

Seasons VS updates

I want to make clear once more that Seasons are NOT updates, and should not be considered like it. Like I wrote in my previous post, we shifted our focus at the beginning of 2021 and slowed down the pace of monthly content to fully focus on quarterly updates (I know, I'm getting to it, keep reading).

The current plan is to have fixed season themes for some in-game events (Shocktober, Clashmas, Lunar Year, Birthday, etc.) and mainly using existing arenas. New Arena and new theme might still happen in the future (like Executioner's Kitchen), but right now, this is not where the priority is.

So, where's the update? You said quarterly

While it was risky for us to communicate our plan to release quarterly updates because players can feel swindled when delays happen, this transparent communication came from the team as it was one of our main goals for this year and something we really wanted to stick to.

But yes, unfortunately, delays can happen (as we announced in early September when the update was "supposed" to go live). This is something we're not pleased about, but that was a necessary decision.

I don't want to meme-quote Shigeru Miyamoto here, but that's the idea: we will always prefer to delay an update to make it better instead of rushing it or cutting stuff out to meet a schedule we decided months ago.

As always, we will reveal more info when we are closer to the release date. It's coming.

Trust and expectation

After 2020 and the Clan Wars 2 update, many players felt disappointed. The update was a miss. Coupled with a long development time, it has deeply shaken the community's trust in the game team. And as you probably know: trust is hard to earn, even harder to earn back.

2021 was a great year for Clash Royale, even if it's not over yet. With the focus on players' progression, the last two updates were a success that significantly helped and grew the player base. The team is more than ever dedicated to making the best game possible, ensuring that Clash Royale will still be kicking in the years to come, and earn your trust back.

I'll be coming back and forth in this thread, and I'll be happy to answer some of your questions in a casual AMA style (though I'm not going to reveal when the update is coming and what it will contain, sorry!). Don't expect instant answers, but I'll be around!

Thanks for reading!

Cheers 🤝

External link →
over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Hey everyone,

I hope you're all doing great!

I've noticed multiple messages asking for more communication, which I think it's quite fair considering that my last and only post was 5 months ago... and I'll start this one by discussing the same topic! :D

After seeing some comments expressing their disappointment after the start of Shocktober, I thought that some conversation would be great to show that we're attentive to feedback and answer some of the questions. So here we go:

Seasons VS updates

I want to make clear once more that Seasons are NOT updates, and should not be considered like it. Like I wrote in my previous post, we shifted our focus at the beginning of 2021 and slowed down the pace of monthly content to fully focus on quarterly updates (I know, I'm getting to it, keep reading).

The current plan is to have fixed season themes for some in-game events (Shocktober, Clashmas, Lunar Year, Birthday, etc.) and mainly using existing arenas. New Arena and new theme might still happen in the future (like Executioner's Kitchen), but right now, this is not where the priority is.

So, where's the update? You said quarterly

While it was risky for us to communicate our plan to release quarterly updates because players can feel swindled when delays happen, this transparent communication came from the team as it was one of our main goals for this year and something we really wanted to stick to.

But yes, unfortunately, delays can happen (as we announced in early September when the update was "supposed" to go live). This is something we're not pleased about, but that was a necessary decision.

I don't want to meme-quote Shigeru Miyamoto here, but that's the idea: we will always prefer to delay an update to make it better instead of rushing it or cutting stuff out to meet a schedule we decided months ago.

As always, we will reveal more info when we are closer to the release date. It's coming.

Trust and expectation

After 2020 and the Clan Wars 2 update, many players felt disappointed. The update was a miss. Coupled with a long development time, it has deeply shaken the community's trust in the game team. And as you probably know: trust is hard to earn, even harder to earn back.

2021 was a great year for Clash Royale, even if it's not over yet. With the focus on players' progression, the last two updates were a success that significantly helped and grew the player base. The team is more than ever dedicated to making the best game possible, ensuring that Clash Royale will still be kicking in the years to come, and earn your trust back.

I'll be coming back and forth in this thread, and I'll be happy to answer some of your questions in a casual AMA style (though I'm not going to reveal when the update is coming and what it will contain, sorry!). Don't expect instant answers, but I'll be around!

Thanks for reading!

Cheers 🤝

External link →
over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by MissStealYoTrophies

I actually have several questions that have been kicking around in my head for a while.

  1. What exactly made Clan Wars 2 take so long? We’ve seen the team produce more content in less time before. Was it just COVID, or was there something more complex going on?

  2. What are the plans for new cards? Is there something coming in the update that adding more new cards would interfere with?

  3. Do you think the basic idea of Clan Wars 2 is here to stay, or will it be replaced later on?

  4. How many people are actually on the Royale team? Most players don’t really know of any team members besides the community managers, and I think it would be interesting to know.

  5. What would you say was the best update in the game’s history, and would you try and work towards more updates following that same pattern?

  6. Is Ice Spirit best girl?

Thanks for the questions!

  1. COVID played a big part in it. I was not on the team at that time, so I did not experience it directly, but I know it was the main reason. Our development process is very organic: it's a lot of spontaneous discussions, we just talk with each other across the room, and we're all involved in the process. With everybody working from home and isolated, keeping this organic process was challenging, and the adaptation has been hard.
    But we figured it out! The Magic Item update was also developed with everybody being at home and it went really well. And we're now back in the office!
  2. I can't reveal anything about the next update yet, but we still have many card concepts in the box.
  3. Yes, it's here to stay and improve!
  4. Around 25 people (this includes everyone from server engineers, data scientists, marketing, design, art, esport, etc).
  5. I would say the Magic Items. The effect has been amazing on the game and the players. And yes, I think it clearly showed what was needed for the game.

  6. It's a boy, but yes, he's the best one!

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by audiotaku

Hi Max,

We’ve heard a few times now that the CR team has changed it’s focus at the beginning of 2021 to quarterly updates.

I’m down with that, but I think the release of only one card in 2021 paints an ugly picture of this year’s progress.

Obviously the delayed update is taking a lot of development time and fair enough, you SHOULD take your time to get it right.

But for future updates, is new feature development time always going to negatively impact the stream of new cards?

I know there are plenty people here that think the game already has too many cards but I’m not one of them - new cards make the game fresh and exciting for me as we scramble to experiment with all the cool new combos.

What is the team’s perspective on the cadence of adding new cards to the game, and will we ever go back to regular new additions?

Hi! Thanks for the questions.

- "Is new feature development time always going to negatively impact the stream of new cards?"

It depends on the feature and the work that we need to put into it. Developing a card takes a lot of time and effort from multiple team members (coding, design, balancing, art, etc).

For the Magic Items, many things were going on, and it was hard to develop new cards simultaneously. The Summer Update was "lighter", so we managed to add the Goblin Drill with it.

It's also (again) a question of where our focus is. If we decide to improve progression, we need to make that happen before thinking of adding 10 new cards.

- "What is the team’s perspective on the cadence of adding new cards to the game, and will we ever go back to regular new additions?"

There's definitely no hard stop on new cards release. As I said in another reply, we still have lots of concepts in the box. There's currently no goal in terms of cadence, like "we need to add X cards per year". We want every card to have a purpose, be original, and adding something new to the game.

Maybe in a future update, we will decide to go full-on with new cards and add 10 new ones at once!

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by Ictpro56

Gotta love how the community is like: "YOU GOTTA COMMUNICATE MORE!!!!!!", then Max communicates with the community, then the community complains about delays. I have such a love/hate relationship with the clash royale playerbase. Anyway, there are some people who do appreciate that you try to manage the community, and i think more would be great. Some of the playerbase knows how hard it is to make games, especially with not a big team. In fact, I wasn't expecting an update this season. Not because i gave up on the devs, or think they are lazy, but because i know they need time to make a good game, and rushing would only make this the new clan wars 2, even tho the summer update made cw2 actually good and i like it now. People expecting new cards every month, and always forgetting last few updates to the game. Not the devs disappoint me, but the community. Keep updating this great game, there are people out there who truly appreciate your efforts.

P.S. Will the update be targeted ONLY on endgame players? Just some nice QOL changes would be enough for me, the average level 11 player :>

I can't reveal anything about the new update yet, sorry! But yes, as we announced earlier, it will focus on high-level players.

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by oj_rohit

I understand you can't give much about the upcoming update, but think being in our place, we all are very keen for the update, and just a small hint/anything about what is it about will be so good and will definitely create a positive hype around it.

Exactly what u/yukataur25 said. That's our call to say as little as possible. It can be frustrating from our side too, but we feel it's better to manage the hype and expectation that way.

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by DPAV21

I don't want to meme-quote Shigeru Miyamoto here, but that's the idea: we will always prefer to delay an update to make it better instead of rushing it or cutting stuff out to meet a schedule we decided months ago.

TBH, I don't know how true that is **Clan Wars 2**. What's the point of delaying an update if you know it's gonna disappoint the community either way?

We never release an update that we're sure will disappoint the community. That, unfortunately, happened with the CW2 update, but we never thought: "this is going to be bad, let's release it!"

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by knnack

Who told you 2021 has been great for clash royale. It’s still the same Clan Wars. Nothing has changed and since the gameplay has gotten far more unbalanced, what makes you think 2021 has been great?

Data told me! As I said, the last two updates were a success that significantly helped and grew the player base, especially the Magic Items one.

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by oj_rohit

Thank you so much for the reply. You're awesome.

Hope this type of communication/AMA here on reddit will be regular now. I, personally, love it.

Will there be a 20-win challenge during the CRL World Finals or in the near future?

We’re working on it!

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by PEKKA2000

Thanks a lot Max for reaching the community!

I am a clan leader that loves the game. I see some minor issues, like balancing, end-of-game content, slow progression, too many cards to upgrade. But really nothing outstanding or deal-breaking that makes me hate the game.

I only see one big, huge, giant problem, and that is CW2. I have wrote several posts on the CW2 problems, like:

But at this time I am going to focus on the biggest problem of CW2: players just jump all the time from clan to clan when their current clan is not winning the current war to go to a clan that is winning the race. How can you retain players in your clan if in the first 2 days of a war season it is clear that your clan is not going to be able to win for the next 4 or 5 weeks? If you do this, you are guaranteed a 1st place chest week after week. If you don't do this because you are faithful to your clan, some weeks you will have good chests and some weeks you will have bad chests, but your clan for sure will never win all weeks. Being faithful to your clan is a disadvantage compared with a clan-jumper mercenary!!! How can this be possible!!!!! It saddens me that the dev team could have thought that this is a good ide!

Clans are the basis of this game, clans creates community and retain many players into the game. CW2 does not provide tools to retain players. On the contrary, it encourages players to leave your clan ASAP when you are not winning the current war.

Please do something with wars so that we clan leaders have tools to engage people into our clans and into the game, which at the end it is at the best benefit of SuperCell!

Thanks a lot for the comment and posts. It's clear that you're very passionate and have put lots of thought into this - so thank you very much!

You make a lot of good points, and I agree with most of them. Clan Wars still need improvements, we discussed this as recently as this Friday with the team. Of course, there's always a long road between the idea/solution and the implementation, but the work is not over.

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by JaSamTesaTesanovic

  1. Are there any plans to implement duels outside of CW in the near future ?

  2. Any hint on the Shocktober events ? pretty pleasee👀

  3. What is your favorite card ?

  4. Does Knight have good stats for the cost ?

  1. Yes. It's more complicated than we first planned, so I'm not sure about the "near future", but that's definitely on the top of our list.
  2. You'll see soon enough!
  3. The Princess, my first maxed legendary card
  4. Yes 🌚
over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by OllieEvo05

Are there any plans to add a “bonus storage” of cards once you upgrade a card to max level? This way you can trade with lower level clan members without using your own gold.

No, not planned.

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by Cluck_Norris1961

What are your thoughts on adding a community idea. I.E Have a tower skin contest, have youtube creators make a season or even an update since they play the game as a job. Make a crossover because I can't remeber if I have seen a crossover.

Also hope you don't get to many screw you make the game better type comments.

A Supercell Make Campaign for a Tower Skin is definitely on the list. The Make website is under rework right now, and implementing a new game/campaign also takes a lot of time, but hopefully, we will be able to make that happen in the near future.
We also have an emote contest project that is 95% ready but on hold for now.

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by natemymate77

Thanks for the communication max. I would like to point out the reason a lot of trust was lost was because of the near radio silence after the update last year. We were told that it would be inclusive to all and straight away you had clans gutting themselves because of how fame was earned. But at least lower members could be used to destroy boats but like a week later the developers decided to change that mode too. It felt like they only cared if people had max decks.

The developers also decided that it should take 18 months minimum of coming first to get to legendary league if you start a new clan (which still hasn't changed) meaning most clans are blocked off from the best rewards, meaning it is very unlikely any clan survives long enough to make it that high. There was no communication before hand that clans trophies would be reset to their lowest levels of that league (not even the new levels of that league which wouldn't have been so bad to get reset to gold 3) killing even more clans. I am not sure why they thought it would be fair to basically take off some clans nearly 1500 trophies knowing at best they could recover them in 9 months.

Then when the communication did come it felt like more of an attack on us for something they did, rather than trying to understand our frustration. Then when we aired our grievances it felt like they were brushed off, we were told now we receive less information because they want to manage expectations. But the reason most of us were very angry was because of the lack of information and for being lied too. Like you brought in an entire new system but we had to teach ourselves how it worked.

I won't go into how badly implemented everything in CW2 was done. But I will ask this: With the developers removing the extra fame for card levels, how have they not brought in level caps by leagues? I believe the newer players should be protected from people with max decks in the lower leagues, it is depressing to see a level 6 get stomped by a level 10 with level 11-13 cards in bronze league. Will they consider this in the future?

I do have to say the 2 updates so far this year have moved things in the right direction. I do hope you keep the communication coming, especially considering the next update will be a major update there should be someone available to answer simple questions after it comes into effect.

Good luck.

Hey,

Thanks a lot for the feedback.

About the cap levels in CW2:

- One of the main goals of CW2 was to encourage players to play and upgrade more cards than the 8 from their main decks. With that logic, it made more sense not to have level caps so the incentive will stay no matter your clan and league.
- Also, if a player spends resources on upgrading his cards, he should be able to feel that his investment is worth it.

The introduction of KL checks to CW matchmaking was to minimize the mismatches. A KL 6 player should not, in any case, be matched against a KL 10 player.

You make valid points, and I know that some players are thinking the same (level caps were a regular request). But from a game design perspective and for the general "health" of the game, removing level caps make more sense. Level caps would also:

- Penalise lower-level players from joining a higher league clan, as they will automatically find tougher opponents.
- Further fragment the matchmaking pools, which would lead to longer matchmaking times, and likely exacerbate the problems we have with players exploiting smaller matchmaking pools.

So no, there's currently no plan of adding level caps in the future.

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by KingDAW247

Is there any plans to give an opt out feature? I just left my long time clan of four plus years as I became burned out from being forced to do all war battles for the sake of the clan's chances at success, and better rewards.

Hey,

I understand completely.

I can't promise that, but that's something I would like to see implemented too.

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by Bonargh_Helsaw

Hey! Thanks for reading if you do. 1 question So all the way back in March or May on twitter, you told some people that there will be a Ingame Poll that has the community choose the new Balance change times (Say every 2 months instead of 3) But we never got that ingame poll- Is that still planned?

Hi!

It's still planned, yes, but it takes longer than I expected.

Reason being that the survey will be made by a special team who are "experts" in that kind of thing. This will not be just "do you like balance changes? yes/no" and will also contain questions about other topics.

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by RoadTo7k

Hi, I just saw the community post from you and I was very happy to hear from you! 👍

Here are some questions from myself: 1) Are there any plans to make more than 3 star skins for every troop and to maybe make them easier to get (maybe win them from some challenges or in trophy Road🤷)

2) Secondly, I wanted to know, if you have ideas to rework how challenges (grand, classic) and the badges work? 3) What would also bei very cool is the idea of adding another way for a clan to have fun - like the clan chest, you had several years ago - that was great fun!

4) Last, I was interessed in any plans for a training-camp-like thing, that is similar to the base-attacking think, coc has

I hope, you guys keep up your good work in the following years! Thanks for answering in advance!

Hey!

  1. Currently, there's no plan to go over 3
  2. It's on the list

3 and 4 are more suggestions than questions :D thank you for those!

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by RumiB7

I have a couple questions. Thanks for the communication, by the way

  1. Is the quarterly balance change schedule due to a lack of time and resources of the team? Or because it is believed to truly be better for the game? I understand the idea of making them less often but the balances themselves haven’t been any better than before - so now when a bad balance change comes out, we are stuck with it for months.

This leads to my other question:

  1. Do you have any high level players on the balance team? By “high-level” I mean people with top ladder badges and royal tournament badges. I really believe this would solve a lot of the problems with the balancing. A player like this would be able to give highly informed input about balance ideas and, if they are active in the cr community, they are likely to represent what people want very well.

Thanks

  1. Better for the game. Balance changes are most requested and "appreciated" by high-level players (which are important for sure). But for the vast majority of the players, they're not something needed or even wanted.

  2. I don't think it would solve any problem. We balance the game using data and feedback from the community. We are also in regular contact with content creators (some of them being former or actual pro players) who tell us their suggestions and opinions about balance.
    Personal opinion or sensitivity must always be kept in check by stats and data. Top ladder players would also balance the game for top ladder - which is not the same as 5000 trophies ladder, and not the same as challenges. Decks are different, usages and winrates are different, we need to balance the game for all players.

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by Grevencillo

First off, I understand you are playing devil's advocate here (in the proper sense of the expression now as, unlike Drew, you were NOT part of the team that made these decisions, but are still supposed to defend them). So please do not take any of this as any kind of personal attack. I do, however, feel obliged to express my concerns.

I believe a big part of the reasons behind the mess that was (and still to some degree is) CWII is explained by the thought process behind it. It really looks that, instead of a cohesive and focused vision, it was the result of a brainstorm-like mishmash of ideas, much like a checklist, some of which are in conflict with each other.

Take for instance your first two points: "feel the investment is worth it" and "minimize the mismatches". You may not notice at first, but these two ideas are in clear contradiction to each other. You can't feel your investment gives you an edge unless you allow for mismatches. If you try to match according to level, what's the point of leveling up? I'll just get stronger opponents so no advantage for me (I know it's KL and not card level, but ultimately those are linked). But since you were just trying to tick checkboxes, you just added a weird fix for this: let's remove level caps!

Overall it makes no sense. Instead of a controlled playing field with level caps where players can progress to higher leagues as they level up (and thus reach better rewards, hence "feeling the worth in the investment"), you create a system where no player is safe in any league from fully maxed level 13s, and add this weird KL matchmaking that just opens the door to a multitude of exploits (see level 6 players in legendary II).

And this is justified because "it allows low-level players joining higher league clans". But why should they in the first place? As low-level players doesn't it make sense for them to join lower league clans, and then as they level up move to higher league clans? Or even better, let their own clan organically grow and rise up the ranks as their clanmates level up (instead of keeping them stagnated for months at a time in the same league because of the new progression system for clans)?

And if low-lever players are supposed to join high-level clans without penalty, who is supposed to play in the low-level leagues then? Why would anyone do it (from a rational viewpoint)?

You also claim level caps would "Further fragment the matchmaking pools, which would lead to longer matchmaking times". I fail to see how. Level caps has no effect on the matchmaking pool (unless there is something else going on that's not being explained). What does have this effect, however, is KL matchmaking.

To me, nothing here makes sense. Trying to check too many boxes is like trying to move in multiple directions at the same time. You just don't move. That is what I feel about CWII.

Hey!

Thanks for the reply and the feedback.

Before anything, I want to say that our job as Community Manager can sometimes be difficult because we must balance what the community wants and what the game team thinks is best (or possible) and explain that in the best way possible.

I don't know Drew's personal opinion about levels cap, but as it was a strong community request at the time (still kind of is), I'm pretty sure that his life would have been easier if it had been implemented. But sometimes, community requests can't be granted for an all lot of reasons.

- Incentive to upgrade

I must insist that the central thing here is that one of the main goals of CW2 was to encourage players to upgrade their cards. We wanted players to upgrade at least a second deck so they could use it on the ladder. This is the key element that you must keep in mind.

- Feel the investment is worth it vs minimize the mismatch

I don't think those two concepts are in contradiction.

You upgrade your cards to get better rewards, climb the ladder, and progress in the game. You say it yourself: "and thus reach better rewards, hence "feeling the worth in the investment"".

Yes, you get stronger opponents because you're becoming stronger, but that's the point of the game. Progress is not based on mismatches. The goal is not to get to level 13 so I can crush level 9, that would not be very healthy. If you follow this logic, why should I upgrade any of my cards, ever?

- Coming back to level cap

If there's a level cap, there's no point in upgrading a card to max if it can only be used up to level 11 in Clan Wars. You just wouldn't be incentivized, and the goal of encouraging players to upgrades more cards would not be met.

- Low-level players in higher leagues

This is not "the" justification (encouraging players to upgrade their cards is), but that would be one of the side-effects. As to why low-level players would join high-level clans, well, there can be many reasons. The important thing is if they want to, they can do it without being penalized. I'm not saying that it's something all low-level players are doing, just that it's not something impossible.

Overall, it just gives players more freedom.

- Matchmaking pool

If you implement a level cap per league, you can only match players within the same league, so the pool is limited. Right now, matchmaking for players is done based on the "war ELO" and KL, no matter the league you're in. So it's wider.

- Exploits and other issues

Players are very inventive when it comes to exploiting the system. Exploits happened in CW1, they are still happening in CW2 and would probably still happen with another system. We're working on fixing them.

Thank you again for expressing your feedback in a constructive way, it's valuable to us. Game design choices are influenced by the "whys" and the kind of behavior we want to encourage for players. I don't think we are in a right vs wrong discussion, level caps are fundamentally not "wrong", just not aligning with the goal we were aiming for.

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by natemymate77

Thanks for the answer.

I have to ask another two questions then just for my own sake of mind.

If there is no level caps to allow lower level players join a higher league clan, why is matchmaking still separated by leagues?

Would removing this step in the matchmaking process actually increase the player pool for every level of KT, so you would actually see less mismatches in level difference and also less exploitation of the CW matchmaking system? (Which we saw with a lot of legendary clans recently)

Players matchmaking can happen between leagues.

over 2 years ago - /u/Supercell_Max - Direct link

Originally posted by natemymate77

Has this been a recent change? Because I have tested it hundreds of times and you will never face a bronze league player in a legendary clan. That was how they were able to exploit the level 6 KT to nearly guarantee the encounters with clans they had set it up with.

Even just this week to test it I did a level 6 account in gold league, where I was still only matched with gold league clans and I was matched with a few level 10 KT even after waiting over a minute. Could you maybe post how exactly the matchmaking for war is determined. Thanks.

Not so recent but it was not the case when the CW2 update was released.

I had a chat with one of the server engineers and he confirmed that players can be matched between leagues.

Matchmaking depends on your 'war ELO' (which is hidden) and your KL. I can't unfortunately tell much more because that's how exploits happen.

As for the current exploit with players win trading in Legendary Leagues, that's a bit more complicated than what you described, it's not just about the league and the KL.