[AMA] Ask The Developer Anything - December 18th - Accomplices

[Clementine]

Please join us Thursday, December 18th, at 1:30pm PST for our next Developer Ask Me Anything! Please join us in discussing and asking questions about the new Accomplices Feature, recently released with v6.0. This is your chance to ask how the new battles are calculated and find out everything you ever wanted to know about the new feature!

Representatives from the Development Team:

Engram: General Manager
&dra: Developer

So as to allow those in other time zones to participate and this thread will be unlocked Wednesday at 4pm PST so that you may post your questions in advance. The Developers will arrive Thursday afternoon at 1:30pm PST sharp and will be answering questions here for one hour! The thread will then be locked at at the conclusion of the AMA. We'll answer as many questions as possible.

We know that there are still a number of unanswered questions from the last AMA. The Developers are still working on slowly answer when they have availability. The goal of this AMA is to focus on answering any questions about this new feature only.

Remember any posts that violate the Forum Code of Conduct will be removed. Furthermore, any post that attacks, insults, implies insults, harasses the Development Team will result in an immediate and permanent ban. Please keep everything on topic and constructive. Additionally, please remember that the Development Team is not responsible for Customer Support, so any Customer Support inquiries will not be addressed.

[-Batman-]

Now that you killed the game with this dumb move over fighting and robbing.
Losing when your attack is almost double there defence, is this a glitch or the way forward.
No one likes it.
Is there any plans we can move skill points out of stamina so we don't have to play that part of the game.

[spiderman]

Treating, Mate. When and where will more accomplices be found or acquired via PVP, LTQ, store etc.

[Green Drake]

Are there any plans to open up the rivals list to include everyone at a given level?

[&dra]

Sorry this thread opened late! We're working hard to get awesome holiday content ready for everyone.

[Carloco]

Are you talking about the expansion...... Looking forward to the new buildings

[SilentAssassin]

I have a few questions, but I have one I would like answered in major detail please.

I would like to know how battle calculations are now done. The process behind it step by step and the peramaters taken into consideration when the attack and rob button is being pressed.
I would like to request a step by step breakdown which deals with
1) an actual attack and rob showing real numbers and how it's all calculated step by step highlighting each new method of calculation and how they all come up with a win / loss resultant.
2) would like to know if you win a category, does it count as the full 50% of that stats part for example? Or do you get a fraction of the percentage?
3) what are the thresholds where you lose an attack or get 50/50 win loss ratio? Similar to the previous 80% battle attack threshold
4) are there differnt thresholds for differnt sections of attack / defence ?
5) any other information we may find useful

As a side note I would like to ask about IP When a level 250 hits a level 300, will there be higher ip for the 250?

Thanks in advance for holding this AMA !

[HavingFun]

What is your all-time favorite Atari game?

[aarondavidsdad]

With such an apparently enormous change in the PvP piece of the game, why not get in front of the change and proactively educate your customers on the reasons behind the change and what changes gamers will expect to see?

There is a lot of venom and anger on this forum due to the lack of understanding of the accomplice addition. The developers and forum mods could have done a much better job of communicating PRIOR to the release. The existing developer notes were beyond insufficient.

[TMI]

1. How are wins and losses for attacking and robbing done? Please be as specific as you can.

So Mafia ATK, ATK from Accomplices assigned to Mafia, and Your Kingpin Power, are added together I take it?

How are each calculated, particularly, how is Mafia ATK calculated relative to your current attack and defense?

What percentage of each are used for the addition?


2. A mod stated that there will be no difference in ip in wars between lvl250 and lvl300.

What about in the PVP event? Will there be any difference for the PVP event?

[smokey77]

1.are you planning to allow people to toggle on/off the collect all button or reduce its size/placement?

2.when will the new building(s) be available?

3.can we have much more info on accomplices regarding how to purchase them and equip them?

Thanks.

[surfinguy369]

When will you have the manual transfer available to players? I have already submitted a ticket and basically was just told to wait.

[Gr3g]

How will you get new Accomplices? Are there going to be upgrades to your Accomplices like there are to your character or is it just a new one every time? Are stats completely crap now because they don’t seem to help me win any battles. Also can you give some insight to when the patch will be out (ball park) I kind of want to forget that this even happened…it did tho

And last thing we’re all still waiting for the expansion pack any idea on that?

[SuzieCC]

With the new 'manage acct' feature, am I able to access both accounts on one device if one is on IOS and the other Android? Is there a trick to setting it up?

[Fredfreddy]

There have been talks for years to try to figure out how to eliminate punishment for level gain. Do you guys have real tangible plans to deal with this?

[Green Drake]

This AMA is supposed to deal with issues revolving around the new scoring system and accomplices. Many of us want that info so please keep that in mind prior to asking questions.

[Evan1000]

http://i.imgur.com/snmEwXH.png

http://i.imgur.com/AcbOTVA.png

I have the Goodfellas status, as seen in the screenshots above, and still have the class bonuses.. but it has the option to buy it again? If this is a glitch what would happen if I buy it again, get the bonuses again? Because I would not mind a 20% building income or energy regen for another 150 gold ;)

Also, do you have any plans on releasing new class bonuses in the future? For the one day I played Modern War, I noticed they had way more class bonuses than us.. could that be something you can implement here in Crime City? Because I would love some more bonuses and wouldn't mind spending a lil gold to get them.

And for my last question.. would you guys mind answering the unanswered questions in the previous AMA? We'd appreciate it as there were some good questions in there.. such as mine ;)

[JakeCullen]

With everything changing in the game...stats inflation, event overflow, bonuses and mods including the +1 building, feature additions, constant glitches, and more...how is gree going to make (at least) crime city appealing (and competition worthy at that) to a fresh (new, not mini) player? Thank you and have a pleasant day. :-)

[Weasel]

Goodfella status

This AMA session is supposed to be dedicated to the accomplice feature added with the 6.0 update, and your (first) question was answered in a different thread.


There is a display bug on Android regarding the Goodfella class. Players will see that they're not listed as Goodfella class though they will still receive the boosts that they should have from the Goodfella class.


As for my own questions, I do have a few.

When engaging in PvP and robberies, do you need to have an accomplice assigned to each category to "unlock" the items in those categories for your "regular" mafia? If so, why do there appear to be two melee categories and what does the sixth, "tech expert," category relate to?

https://games.gree-support.net/hc/en-us/articles/203514664-How-to-Read-the-New-Battle-Results

The guide for reading the new PvP results screen states, "Mafia vs. Mafia battles represent the largest weighting in battle outcomes, followed by Mafia Accomplices vs. Mafia Accomplices and Kingpin Team vs. Kingpin Team."

The way in which this is worded suggests that mafia attack, as shown in our profiles, is still the most imporant statistic when determining the outcome of an attack. Why does the current in game experience of a significant number of players seem to contradict what is stated in the guide? Meaning, a lot of people are losing fights and robberies to rivals who have significantly lower/weaker stats. Why?

Related, the guide makes no mention of robberies. Are robbery results now going to be calculated in the same way as PvP/fight results? The outcomes of robberies and attacks have used different calculations for over three years, why the change now?

In the future, will the acquisition of accomplices be limited to various events or will there be other ways to acquire accomplices outside of any special events?

That is all at this time. Thank you for answering our questions.

[Babytway]

-please explain the reasoning or idea's behind for this new concept for fighting and robbing. and how does this system make the game better? explain how this new system is balances the game from the previous system before accomplices

-it was stated that equipment is still a huge factor in determining fights/robs outcome 50% i believe what i've read is only half thats not really a huge factor taking into the fact that u lose attacking someone with 100mil less def than you while only carrying 1 accomplice is just not right no matter what the new algorithm is.

- how do i lose if enemy kingpin power is 1 and my kingpin power is one. how come that doesnt negate, kingpin power, and just fall on equipment attack n def

[.Lupo.]

When will manual account transfers be available again? My account been lost 2 weeks support not answering questions when transfer will be available again.

[Chica]

The so called new buildings will they be comparable to NC and other higher end buildings and when will they be released? Has the idea of having buildings that increase things such as building output like 1% per level?

[HavingFun]

When will manual account transfers be available again? My account been lost 2 weeks support not answering questions when transfer will be available again.
Such a lame Lupo impersonation.

[sister morphine]

The guide for reading the new PvP results screen states, "Mafia vs. Mafia battles represent the largest weighting in battle outcomes, followed by Mafia Accomplices vs. Mafia Accomplices and Kingpin Team vs. Kingpin Team."

The way in which this is worded suggests that mafia attack, as shown in our profiles, is still the most imporant statistic when determining the outcome of an attack. Why does the current in game experience of a significant number of players seem to contradict what is stated in the guide? Meaning, a lot of people are losing fights and robberies to rivals who have significantly lower/weaker stats. Why?
I mentioned yesterday a theory suggested by another player that this was to do with iOS players being unable to beat Android players and vice versa until the 'droid update to v.6 came out. There may have been something in this as I was able to win last night against a player who I'd lost to a day earlier despite my stats being much higher.

[dirkk]

Is there any way we can unassign the accomplice in the kingpin? Its seems that once assigned it can only be remove by assigning another to replace it.

[|Don F|]

I have 2 questions. 1) I would like to know how the new kingpin thing is being calculated when attacking or robbing a rival. Before updating the game to 6.0,robbing was really easy. But with the new update, its has become almost impossible to rob.Many players lost to a rival even when they have 100m+ attack stats more than the rival. So here is my 2nd question, is it being design to work this way or its a temporary glitch that will be fix soon?

[Eddie Eagle Eye]

AMA QUESTIONS

1 . Would it be possible to show your own attack and defence stats on the equipment screen , would make it easier to see whether your purchases wether it be cash or gold actually make a difference to your stats as you buy?

2. Will the decorations limit be lifted , many players are waiting eagerly to finnish their hood art pieces?
2b will there be additions to the decorations in store? Would be nice to broaden my pallet range:o

3.can we have a further "are you sure you want to Finnish with gold" button on buildings , I'm sure I'm not the only one that's accidently finnished a building with gold when trying to pick up quickly , copped a bit of lag, Then bam! Gold gone!

4. I appreciate the new collect all button , but does it have to be soo big ? If you are resyncronizing your pickup times it is easily miss hit . Maybe off to one side or a dismiss feature on it .

5 just wanted to say thanx for the transfer feature ! Love it:)

6. It would be nice to buy multiple Uzis for RB , one at a time 800 times is pretty tedious !

7. Can we also purchase SA equipment at any time rather than when they run out ?


Any help on these issues would be apreciated
EEE

[Nighteg]

I have a question: what's the point of these AMAs if you're just ignoring half the questions?
Hint: tons of questions are still unanswered in previous AMAs.

[-Batman-]

How do you remove a linked account from Game Centre.

I have 1 account that I use to transfer between my iPad and iPhone but now under manage accounts I have my main and a Alex level 1. Can't see how to remove it

Another question

In the future will it be possible to gift items to fellow sync members

[smokey77]

I have a question: what's the point of these AMAs if you're just ignoring half the questions?
Hint: tons of questions are still unanswered in previous AMAs.

Theres probably little or no point . As usual the threads filling up with crap that has nothing to do with what the AMA is actually about , either because people completely ignored the original post or don`t have the manners to ask anything in a civilised way .

[doncarliyon]

Can't view syndicate member profile correctly shows very incorrect details

[HavingFun]

Theres probably little or no point . As usual the threads filling up with crap that has nothing to do with what the AMA is actually about , either because people completely ignored the original post or don`t have the manners to ask anything in a civilised way .
It's a phone game Bromo. How civilized does it need to be?

[HavingFun]

Can't view syndicate member profile correctly shows very incorrect details
That's because your syndacite mate blocked you for stalking. Now you need to buy a name change for 50 gold to reset it. You're welcome.

[doncarliyon]

That's because your syndacite mate blocked you for stalking. Now you need to buy a name change for 50 gold to reset it. You're welcome.

Find some other thread to joke around mate

[Weasel]

I mentioned yesterday a theory suggested by another player that this was to do with iOS players being unable to beat Android players and vice versa until the 'droid update to v.6 came out. There may have been something in this as I was able to win last night against a player who I'd lost to a day earlier despite my stats being much higher.

There are many theories currently floating around. Some may be onto something, others just wild speculation. Personally, my game has been flip flopping between being able to defeat the same rivals I've always been victorious over and being able to defeat no one at any stat level. I've mostly been hitting the same 5-6 people and aside from the targets being the same there has been little or no consistency in the outcome. Really I'd just like to know if this is some kind of strange bug, or if we can expect things to remain as mucked up as they can sometimes seem 'lately'.

[LeatherKicks]

When will next update be. I'm impressed with the collect all button, saves alot of floating around. Just curious if there will be new equipment and buildings soon?

[Winnson]

Checking in. This should be good!

When is the next PvP event planned? We haven't seen one in a long, long time.

[Winnson]

Thursday, December 18th, at 1:30pm PST

How long is that from now? I was thinking 3 minutes, but it's like 3 hours and 3 minutes from now right?

[Nighteg]

Checking in. This should be good!

When is the next PvP event planned? We haven't seen one in a long, long time.

I'll join the question. We want PVPs back!

[Clementine]

The Developers are in the house and will begin answering questions!

[Vince Tempel]

So how does this work they just start answering questions?

[surfinguy369]

Thanks Clementine

[Sleazy_P_Martini]

No one wants accomplices. Can you revert back?

[Vince Tempel]

Clementine will you be answering questions already posted or live questions now?

Thank You

[CatDor]

Why don't we give gree a chance to explain the accomplices you never know we might like it

[Clementine]

Clementine will you be answering questions already posted or live questions now?

Thank You

All of the above.

[Engram]

Treating, Mate. When and where will more accomplices be found or acquired via PVP, LTQ, store etc.

The plan is to distribute out Accomplices in various events, including LTQs, Battle for Empire City, Raid Boss, Lockbox Leaderboard events. We don't plan to do direct sales of the Accomplices in the store initially.

[Sleazy_P_Martini]

Why don't we give gree a chance to explain the accomplices you never know we might like it

In the history of major changes(gold bonus, rivals list, ip changes...) when have we ever liked a major change?

[CatDor]

Starting when?

[TMI]

Engram, your avatar is extremely handsome.

Is that really you or is that just some random pic from the internet?

[&dra]

Now that you killed the game with this dumb move over fighting and robbing.
Losing when your attack is almost double there defence, is this a glitch or the way forward.
No one likes it.
Is there any plans we can move skill points out of stamina so we don't have to play that part of the game.

Losing when your attack is almost double their defense - this is not how the feature functions. You currently cannot see your opponents' attack on the battle results screen, so you may have lost due to their higher attack stats. We are working on adding more transparency to the battle results screen.

There are plans for new functionality that will allow players to reallocate their skill points.

[Sleazy_P_Martini]

The plan is to distribute out Accomplices in various events, including LTQs, Battle for Empire City, Raid Boss, Lockbox Leaderboard events. We don't plan to do direct sales of the Accomplices in the store initially.

Welcome back engram. If we seem a little harsh at times, it only because we love this game a lot. It's not personal. We're just scared of losing our big "investments" in this game.

[Carloco]

Relocation of skills points be coming out with the expansion and when will the expansion come out

[Green Drake]

Losing when your attack is almost double their defense - this is not how the feature functions. You currently cannot see your opponents' attack on the battle results screen, so you may have lost due to their higher attack stats. We are working on adding more transparency to the battle results screen.

There are plans for new functionality that will allow players to reallocate their skill points.
I have lost robs and attacks today where both my attack and defense was higher than the other account.

[Clementine]

Engram, your avatar is extremely handsome.

Is that really you or is that just some random pic from the internet?

It's really him. ;)

[Engram]

Is there any way we can unassign the accomplice in the kingpin? Its seems that once assigned it can only be remove by assigning another to replace it.

Not in the initial release of the Accomplice feature.

In the meantime, we will be releasing all category types of varying stat powers starting this month, so you will be able to tune your team.

[&dra]

Are there any plans to open up the rivals list to include everyone at a given level?

I'm not sure what you mean by this exactly, but we currently match players based on their relative strength. Strength is based on stats, mafia size, and kingpin power, not level. There are no plans at the moment to change this.

[Vince Tempel]

When attacking or robbing it cost 1 stamina. Now it is ranging from 1-3 in cost. Is this new or bug.

Thank You

[Green Drake]

I'm not sure what you mean by this exactly, but we currently match players based on their relative strength. Strength is based on stats, mafia size, and kingpin power, not level. There are no plans at the moment to change this.
I am level 250 with 484 mill attack and 213 def. Virtually every account on my rival list is over a bill attack. I can't participate in any robbing or attacking unless it is on my news feed from someone that lost to me.

[Engram]

Welcome back engram. If we seem a little harsh at times, it only because we love this game a lot. It's not personal. We're just scared of losing our big "investments" in this game.

Totally understand.

It pains me personally when we aren't providing the Crime City community the quality game you deserve.

[Gr3g]

I know this really has nothing todo with the with the update but are there any plans to move crime city to the window's store and or its phones?

[CatDor]

Are the accomplices going to be available to only gold spenders in events? When I ask this I mean events have such extreme requirements that most can barely finish normal if that.

[&dra]

With such an apparently enormous change in the PvP piece of the game, why not get in front of the change and proactively educate your customers on the reasons behind the change and what changes gamers will expect to see?

There is a lot of venom and anger on this forum due to the lack of understanding of the accomplice addition. The developers and forum mods could have done a much better job of communicating PRIOR to the release. The existing developer notes were beyond insufficient.

We have been working to get as much information to our players about these new changes as we can. We added the in-game tutorial, help '?' screens, help text, FAQs, build notes, and various forum and FB posts. We understand that not everyone reads the forums, which is why we added information in as many places as possible.

[Vince Tempel]

where are you on FB. Nothing under Gree or Crime City.......

[Evan1000]

The plan is to distribute out Accomplices in various events, including LTQs, Battle for Empire City, Raid Boss, Lockbox Leaderboard events. We don't plan to do direct sales of the Accomplices in the store initially.

So this is your way pretty much to get people to do LTQ's? Smart.

And also, NOOO don't ruin raid bosses.. I'm closing In on 200m attack and now stats are being made worthless.

I'm sorry, not worthless.. half worthless, since stats went from counting 100% to only 50%, after all the gold we spent on making them.

And also, if you're going to make attack AND defense count in order to beat people.. either add them both together because it's pointless then to have separate attack and defense stats or start giving out more defense mods because I'm at 170m attack and still haven't hit 100m defense.. huge gap. I haven't been able to rob anyone for a few days and I hate it, that's how I made my money and built up my own IPH

[surfinguy369]

When will the manual transfers be available? I have been missing my character for almost 2 weeks now and yes I have submitted a ticket.

[Clementine]

where are you on FB. Nothing under Gree or Crime City.......

https://www.facebook.com/crimecity

[Clementine]

When will the manual transfers be available? I have been missing my character for almost 2 weeks now and yes I have submitted a ticket.

Please contact Customer Support by following up on the ticket you already submitted. This functionality will be available very very shortly!

[Pudgy Pumpkin]

Most of the player concerns seem to surround the uncertainty concerning the formula used to determine attack and rob wins. Can you give us the basic formula? We can handle a little math.

[Engram]

Are the accomplices going to be available to only gold spenders in events? When I ask this I mean events have such extreme requirements that most can barely finish normal if that.

It will totally depend on the player's abilities, but our plan is to provide access to Accomplice units to non-spenders. However, the stats of the units will be dependent on how well you can complete/compete in events.

We also have features on our roadmap that should allow players of different abilities to compete better. More on this in the New Year.

[CatDor]

Ability to spend gold then? So again you're catering to only the top teams? I find this very silly business practice. If it were possible to come closer to completing events don't you think more people would buy gold?

[TMI]

Most of the player concerns seem to surround the uncertainty concerning the formula used to determine attack and rob wins. Can you give us the basic formula? We can handle a little math.

This. This is the most important question that needs to be answered.

[Goodison]

Are the current attack/rob mechanics currently working how you planned?

For a long time we were told we got more attack stats/mods than defence to keep the game balanced and competitve. Now players can't rob/attack 95% of people on the rivals list. Is this change intentional?

[SilentAssassin]

Ability to spend gold then? So again you're catering to only the top teams? I find this very silly business practice. If it were possible to come closer to completing events don't you think more people would buy gold?


The general incentive to buy gold is because gold gets you further in the game and stronger
If free players were same level as heavy gold players then there would be no incentive to spend thousands

[jeets]

I got a good question for you that doesn't involve the update. Why is it that for the epic boss the higher level players such as myself have such a difficult time getting to level 100 but a level 15 can get to it with ease? Why are the loyal long time players punished?

[Engram]

No one wants accomplices. Can you revert back?

Based on where we are in the lifecycle of the game, our team determined that we needed to introduce a new feature in the form of Accomplices in Crime City to:

1) Preserve the investment of our loyal, long-term players in their stats
2) Enable us to innovate on new game features to ensure the health and longevity of Crime City
3) Give us the flexibility of providing new types of appealing rewards in various events (Accomplices are just a start. There will be completely new types of rewards coming in the New Year.)
4) Give us a new way to control stat inflation

[&dra]

https://crimecity.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/201794814/hero_equip_help_5.png

We’ve gotten a lot of questions about how battle calculations work, so we want to give more context on that.

The calculation is about 50% mafia power, 30% equipment power, and 20% kingpin power. Each one of those is computed separately. Within each segment, the attack of the attacker versus the defense of the defender is the most important factor. We do also allow for the attack of the defender versus the defense of the attacker to have a lesser influence as well. Within each segment we basically look at a margin of victory in percentage terms. Then we add up each segment weighted according to the above to determine the final outcome.

A lot of people have asked about how the skill points influence the battle. The answer is, skill points have the same modification impact on the player’s attack and defense that they have always had, and are applied the same way to accomplices and accomplices that have joined your mafia. We likely will change this in the future, and are looking into adding a way to allow players to reallocate their skill points to be fair to everyone.

A lot of people have also asked more about the relative importance of attacker attack versus defender defense versus defender attack versus attacker defense. The answer is that they are not a fixed percentage of each segment of the calculation. The bigger the discrepancy between attacker attack and defender defense the less the defender attack and attacker defense matters. In other words, if I attack you and my attack blows away your defense, then your attack and my defense will be largely irrelevant. On the other hand, if my attack is exactly evenly matched with your defense, then your attack versus my defense makes up half of that segment’s calculation.

Several people have asked whether we “cap” the win/loss in a given category. The answer is basically that it ranges from “total win” to “total loss”. In other words, let’s say I have 1B mafia attack and you have 1 defense. I will win 100% of the mafia segment.

Several people have asked why the attacker defense and defender attack stats aren’t shown in the battle results. We are considering how we can surface this information to you better in the future, however because attacker attack versus defender defense is the most important factor those are the stats we chose to surface. We're definitely looking for more ways in the future to make things clearer to everyone, and also for new ways to make the feature more fun and exciting.

[Clementine]

Thank you all for joining us for the AMA!

http://uploads.bobitexpos.com/Automotive/images/Auto_Rental_Summit/Thank_You_for_Coming_Words.jpg