Game di Facebook: Castle Age

Castle Age adalah game berbasis web di Facebook. Walaupun gaya permainannya sangat mirip dengan virtual strategy, tetapi yang membuat game ini menarik adalah cerita. Didalam game ini terdapat suatu cerita tentang petualangan epic. Cerita-cerita ini merupakan potongan-potongan yang menjadi satu cerita tentang "Hero" atau pemain yang berusaha menyelamatkan kerajaan Valeria dari serangan makhluk-makhluk jahat.
Pemain dapat terus mendapatkan potongan-potongan cerita ini ketika pemain masuk lebih jauh ke dalam game. Narasi cerita juga dapat didapat ketika pemain mengalahkan monster-monster yang dipanggil di game ini.
Kekurangan game ini adalah jika pemain sudah jauh masuk kedalam game dan menjadi pemain kuat, pemain mungkin akan merasa bosan dengan banyaknya klik yang harus pemain lakukan untuk menghabiskan stamina. Pengembang tampaknya sudah memperhatikan masalah ini dengan menampilakan tombol yang bisa menggunakan  jumlah stamina tertentu sesuai keinginan pemain. Walaupun tombol ini hanya tersedia di Next-Gen Monsters seperti Bahamut dan Alpha-Bahamut dan monster-monster tingkat team dan world, dan tidak di mode permainan yang lain seperti raid sebelum level 50. Hal ini membuat permainan sangat membosankan. Tetapi!!! Castle Age akhirnya membuat perbaikan dengan menyediakan tombol attach untuk mempersingkat penghabisan stamina.
 Saya temukan ini di Facebook, cara ini benar-benar brilian untuk mempercepat CTA.
"From Mike Castle:

How many times do we all sit there, bashing away at a hydra, for example, all expending thousands of Stam points, with just 4 or 5 people with CTAs out, and clicks trickling in at an agonizingly slow rate. The people working the CTAs up and down the News Feed are expending all their Stam returning favours and everyone else just sits there, fat, dumb and bored, waiting for it all to be over... pleeeeease, let it finish soon... I'M BORED OUT OF MY SKULL, HERE!

How about we ALL use the CTA system to our advantage? Consider the Catapault in a Hydra battle... it does 1,340,000 dmg, and yet it only takes 10 clicks to launch. That's 134,000 dmg per Stam. Who amongst us can claim to be able to do that amount of damage with a single X1 hit? Yes, quite a few people with the Orc King can do that or better, but it costs 25 Stam to do it, not just one.

Here's another thought... If you put out a CTA and then click on it yourself, your own vote counts! If all of the 130 people in a hydra battle did this, that would only leave 170 to launch the Last Stand! And if each of those 130 CTAs only generated 1 or 2 hits each, the Last Stand would launch in about 10 minutes, not 2 days! Let's do a bit more simple maths...

Last Stand : 37,520,000 dmg / 300 clicks = 125,067 dmg per Stam point expended.

So, if EVERYONE put out a CTA, then clicked on it themselves and then had to RTF for 2 people, say, then that would be 375,200 dmg for the price of 3 Stam points. It really doesn't get any better than this, does it?

OK, what's my point? Well, in non-ML battles, you usually get 4 or 5 people working their CTAs up and down, as I said. This means that they are not using their Stam to hit the monster, so they lose out in the loot at the end, to a certain extent. And in ML battles, people know that ML will "pick up the tab" as it were, so they don't need to bother. Both scenarios actually encourage people to continue to use poor tactics. Tell me, are the 3 or so Stam points needed by every person to launch the LS, as I've outlined above, THAT important? In the grand scheme of things, clearly not. Even if we consider the entire weapons requirement, it still adds up to only a handful of Stam:

Catapult : 1,340,000 dmg / 10 clicks = 134,000 dmg per click

Ballista : 2,680,000 dmg / 20 clicks = 134,000 dmg per click

Cannons : 5,360,000 dmg / 40 clicks = 134,000 dmg per click-stamina

Blizzard : 14,700,000 dmg / 80 clicks = 183,750 dmg per click-stamina

Firestorm : 28,200,000 dmg / 150 clicks = 188,000 dmg per click-stamina

Last Stand : 37,520,000 dmg / 300 clicks = 125,067 dmg per click-stamina

(Numbers lifted from a thread on VaLianT's Discussions board)

That's a grand total of 89,800,000 dmg for the price of 590 clicks. Divide that by 130 people, and it works out at an average of 4.5 Stam per person for the entire weapons array! That then works out at a total average damage for each person of 690,769 for the price of LESS than one X5 Power Attack! That's one hell of a return, not just for big-hitters, but for everyone, down to the lowliest Level 10 Acolyte.

Honestly, battles should NOT be difficult to win. The weapons SHOULD be the easiest bit. But that requires that everyone, without exception, puts out a CTA and clicks on it, then RTFs to their friends and keeps working that cycle as the weapons launch.

It is a testament to ML's ethos that I'm seeing battles that are largely ML-only and the weapons are being launched more quickly than in most battles; however, how many people are putting out CTAs? Not more than a handful, typically, because they're waiting for the rest of ML to do their clicking for them, which takes a while.

So, how about a new tactic? When you step into a ML fight and decide to commit to it, light up your CTA. As soon as the next weapon launches, flip to your FB Profile and click it again... and again... and again. You'll be amazed at how quickly the weapons launch. I was recently invited into an Orc Battle with a particularly well-organised team and we took it down in less than 2 hours. The majority of that time was killing it AFTER all the weapons had been and gone. That one was a pleasure to be involved with, not a week-long chore. Oh, and guess what? If all the weapons launch, we ALL save on Stam and Energy, so we have more available for more battles, which means more successful battles per person, which means more loot per Stam/Energy expended.

Final point... if all the weapons launch, the loot is a LOT better for everyone (on average - it's all just random numbers, remember). I'm increasingly amazed at all the Skaar and Genesis battles that are being taken down in a matter of hours, with really big-hitters doing 12 mill dmg/3 mill def with only 2 or 3 of the weapons launched. They're then complaining bitterly about the poor loot drops. Time to learn patience, grass-hopper, get all the weapons out and THEN accelerate to smack it hard and kill it. And that only works if we all use the CTA system wisely.

How many times have you done an assist-click and found just 30 hours left on the clock and they're still messing about getting the Ballista launched? And your instant reaction is?... "Not touching that with a 10 foot pole!" And what if you stumbled across one that's only half an hour old and they're already working on the Ballista? "OK, I'll take some of that action... Crikey, look at all those CTAs!! Better get one out myself, then!" would be an entirely natural reaction, wouldn't it?

Why not tell your non-ML friends as well and get everyone you know on-side? If we adopt this, then more people will see ML battles as short, exciting and worthwhile and WHY, which will be better for all of US, and our reputation as an efficient, cohesive fighting team.

Cheers, and happy hunting :D"

MY OWN NOTE: For non-players of Castle Age that might read this and Newbies to the game...
ML stands for Monsters' Lair, which is one of the groups focused on the game Castle Age.
CTA stands for Call to Arms.
The odd names are those of monsters.
The list of items are weapons that are constructed and launched to assist with monster kills.

Hope that clears up any misunderstandings. ^u^