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Agent Orange
01-17-2012, 08:47 PM
CJ54
Developer
So here's the million-dollar question for the readers: is anyone willing to take it on themselves to compile up some links to that information?

Preface
Modern War is an online war style game created by Funzio. It was released in Canada around the second week of November 2011 and is reported to be loosely based on Crime City another Funzio creation.

The purpose of the game is to build a base that will generate income allowing the player to purchase more items for their base, war units or defensive buildings. A player can only upgrade, build or 'clear' a new square of base one at a time in other words you cannot build two or more buildings or upgrade two or more buildings at the same time. The same goes for expanding the land or water area of your base.

Rivals
You can attack other players through the use of the rivals list which looks like a radar screen at the lower right of your screen. The game appears to loosely group your rivals based on the level they have achieved as well as the number of allies they have added to their profile.

When you bring up your rivals list you have two options, Raid or Attack. It is wise to use the Raid function in order to assess your rivals base before you attack it. By clicking the Raid button you travel to your rivals base where you can view their Profile which is located at the right side of the screen. The most critical pieces of information are their Alliance Attack and Alliance Defense values. The defense value should be lower than your attack value otherwise you will loose any attack you make on this rival.

it is also important to do a quick overview of your rivals base paying attention to any boost buildings they may have. A new strategy is to attack boost buildings first which will reduce your rivals strength especially the Composite Factory.

Allies
Allies are other players who you have invited or accepted an ally request from. Allies are useful in that they allow you to bring 4 additional units into battle depending on your level to a maximum of 2000. Therefore the maximum useful number of allies is currently 500 although you can have more.

At the time I am writing this there is an intermittent bug with the ally list and if you go over 1000 you could wind up with a corrupted list. What this means is your list will be blank but you will still show the correct number of allies. Most of your allies will still have you in their lists and be able to go to your base via the link. You just won't see them.

Currently Valour Vultures are out in droves hitting up weaker players to complete valour producing goals. If you manage to get to the highest levels of the game, currently over level 98-100 you will find yourself showing up on the rivals lists of the most powerful players in the game.

To make matters worse (hard to believe they can be) you also qualify for the top valour goal which is to whack players with 499 or higher allies. Because of this a lot of folks are dropping allies like hot potatoes to get under 499 so they don't get attacked non stop. Keep in mind that dropping allies also drops the number of units you bring to battle though it may be necessary in some cases in order to get out from under the barrage.

Attack and Defence values
The attack and defence values are compiled by the game by assessing the units you have in inventory. There is some debate as to what your army should be composed of though my feeling is that you need a fairly balanced army to be successful.

At the time I wrote that we were just starting to see the really strong gold players coming up through the ranks. Several months later we now have some extremely power players with all gold units in their armies. They are basically unbeatable, so it would be extremely wise to hit raid as opposed to attack! It would also be very wise to treat them with the respect they deserve.

Note that you must build Unit buildings and then upgrade them in order to unlock units shown in the Units area of the game. You have 4 main areas, Infantry, Ground, Air and Sea each with a variety of different units and all tagged with specific values. One for attack which is the top value beside the starburst and the other defense which is tagged with a shield. These units may be purchased with cash that you generate in the game or bought using gold which may also be with real money. You will see either a gold brick or stack of cash at the bottom right corner of each unit which tells you how they may be obtained.

Choosing a Nation
When you first configure your player's profile you are asked to choose a nation. There are six to choose from and each one will give you player a specific advantage in one particular area. For example the UK gives you a 10% bonus to any sea units you possess. Germany gives a 10% bonus to ground forces, China 10% to infantry and Russia to air power. Iran gives you a faster energy recovery and the US faster stamina recovery.

This may now become a fairly important factor in the game so choose your nation wisely. I have since switched from the UK to Russia because I was building a very dense air force. JMC posted some interesting stats where he found the UK and building Stealth Frigates actually worked out the same as non boosted Super Hornets.

Energy
Energy is used to play the missions in the Map area of the game which can be accessed by clicking on the clipboard at the bottom right of the screen. The more energy you have the more missions you can attempt although most missions also require you to have a certain number of units already on hand in order to access them. Though the amount of energy you can accumulate through skill points appears to be unlimited one thing to keep in mind is that it takes some time for it to refill. I find that overnight is roughly equal to 1110 energy.

Stamina
Stamina is required in order to attack other players through your rivals list. The more stamina you have the more attacks you can carry out.

XP Points
In order to increase your staminia or energy as well as attack or defense skill points you need to accumulate XP points which are tracked at the top right of the screen. XP points are awarded every time you win an attack or raid. Each time you move from one level to the next you receive 3 skill points which can be used to add to your attack, defense, energy or stamina.

Depending on your strategy you may elect to use a balanced approach here or just top up one or two of the above.

Goals
At the top left side of a the screen is a folder called Goals, in it are various challenges you can do in order to gain more XP, Valor or cash. These goals are pretty much self explaining although a word of caution about moving too quickly through the levels by completing a lot of goals. If you level up too quickly you stand the risk of arriving at the top levels of the game where there are many powerful players with large quantities of attack and defense. Some of the most powerful of these players have well over 200,000 attack and 200,000 defense so unless you have a force of equal or higher power it might be wise to slow down.

Strategies
There are a number of strategies that you can employ in the game. The most important thing you can do is upgrade and USE your vault which is accessed via the clipboard icon. By using this you can protect your cash from rival attacks. Otherwise your unprotected cash can be 'stolen' by a rival during an attack.

Building a strong economic base is also important since building a war machine is quite expensive. Therefore building and upgrading money buildings is also important.

A strong defense is also important, there is some debate as to whether defense buildings actually do anything. My feeling is that they do and therefore I use them on my base. There is a point at which your rivals may be so powerful that defences are of little help to yo. Also be aware of the blue halo around defence buildings as that indicates the area that their protection covers.

Currently I would suggest upgrading both money and unit buildings so that you can have a strong economy and a strong army. You will eventual

Links to other Guides or useful Threads
Several players have posted some really good information about the game and some strategies they employ.

Tramp Stamp posted a very good guide to opening moves here,

http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?13937-Suggested-opening-moves-for-an-economy-base

Emcee posted a good guide to a strategy called turtling here, though disregard the comments about cheating. This is a strategy and not a cheat.

http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?15470-Modern-War-Tortoise-guide-for-newbies.-Slow-and-steady.....

At the time I posted this article there were some issues with the way the game calculates losses when you attack a rival so my current recommendation is to sit tight and see how this problem resolves itself. The developer of the game is reported to be addressing this issue. But at the moment it is not cost effect to attack rivals or raid their bases. If you do attack or raid monitor your statistics either on the screen that pops up or by clicking on the results icon that pops up after an action. Scroll down to the bottom of the list to see what if any units you have lost. Many are finding that they are loosing very high value units thus making this aspect of the game not terribly lucrative.

There is a thread about the casualty issue here,

http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?17101-Casualty-rate-changed-drastically

as well as here,

http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?17388-Too-everyone-upset-with-how-MW-was-developed/page2

Loot are units you 'win' when completing missions in the map area of the game. In some cases you can obtain some decent units as well as cash. I have several favorite hunting areas many of which are covered here,

http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?15056-Loot-Farming

If you think you might have started off on the wrong foot this might be for you.

http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?17145-How-I-recovered-from-playing-this-game-quot-wrong-quot-incase-others-are-stuck-too...

youj has posted a very good guide for those not buying gold or accumulating valour.
http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?17457-youj-s-Gold-less-Valour-less(ish)-Guide-to-Success

ShawnBB has a good thread about the pitfalls of turtling here,
http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?17456-For-all-you-low-level-stupid-turtling-farmers

Nighthunter (no relation to Niteshooter) also has a guide here,
http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?15941-Modern-War-Non-camping-guide-for-Non-gold-buying-newbies

A good discussion about the value of units is forming here...
http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?17633-My-new-assumption-of-the-Casualty-mechanism-%26%23128562%3B

If you read further through this thread there are some other links and other useful posts.

Overview
My general observation is that the game is still in the process of being developed and therefore some things seem to be quite fluid in nature. That can be pretty frustrating if you are trying to develop a long term strategy but there are enough key areas to consider that even with changes you should still be ok.

You will find mention of whales or gold buyers, these players have purchased units or buildings in game. This can become quite expensive over the long term but can pretty much guarantee you of a very powerful base and army. The sky is the limit in terms of what you can spend although the total number of units you can bring into battle is currently set to 2000. You can certainly own more than that but only your best 2000 units come into play.

My personal feeling is that if you want to spend a small amount of money it is best spent at the beginning of the game where it will do you the most goods the key things most new players do is leave cash lying around either outside their vaults or in uncollected money buildings.

Some new twists to the game are 'events' where you go about collecting 'containers' which may contain specific items. This is sort of an easter egg hunt in that you want to find 3, 5, 7 or 10 of an item in order to get a prize with is an indestructible unit. Of note, these events are not available to players lower than L10 and the values of the prizes vary depending on your level. You have three options for opening these containers, free, cash which is 1000 x your level, or 15 gold which gives you a sure open. The other two are not guaranteed with free being the least likely to cause a container to open.

The first two events had very useful prizes at the 10 item mark but your odds of actually finding 10 are quite low. I would recommend if you are going to be keen on getting the final prize to start early as it seems your best odds of opening these containers decreases as the event wears on.

Read the forum! There is a lot of useful information floating around in them, enjoy the game but don't take it too seriously!

*please respect my work, do not edit and repost this message without permission! Links are always welcome.

youj
01-17-2012, 08:51 PM
I can't believe we both wrote a guide at the same time. Hah.
Here's my guide:
http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?17457-youj-s-Gold-less-Valour-less(ish)-Guide-to-Success

Agent Orange
01-17-2012, 09:03 PM
What's that saying about 'great minds'? ;)

Wildfire
01-18-2012, 02:28 AM
What's that saying about 'great minds'? ;)

great minds think alike (fools seldom differ):)

Not me straight from the dictionary!

Dover
01-18-2012, 05:23 AM
Is this still the November copy? Can it be updated/has anything changed since then? If we can get this stickied (not a real word lol) maybe AO and TS can fly through it one more time and tweak it if needed. I know not everyone will agree and there are a million (OK, maybe 137) ways to play the game but we need to focus on a foundation that all (newbies and veterans) can build on with the understanding there are a lot of variances to the game, and isn’t that what makes this a great game?

Wildfire
01-18-2012, 09:09 AM
I know not everyone will agree and there are a million (OK, maybe 137) ways to play the game but we need to focus on a foundation that all (newbies and veterans) can build on with the understanding there are a lot of variances to the game, and isn’t that what makes this a great game?
Think I just made that 138 ways, have big fingers is the key! I still had all 10 gold bars from the start till a few minutes ago, went to move a building that was just about to complete an upgrade to a more protected spot and hit the complete icon along with the move one, down to 7 gold bars now!

Tramp Stamp
01-18-2012, 09:46 AM
TS can fly through it one more time and tweak it if needed.

I updated my guide 10 days ago with the VIP suggestion and switching to Transports after 60 def.

Agent Orange
01-18-2012, 08:39 PM
Thanks TS!

Agent Orange
01-18-2012, 08:40 PM
Though the title of this thread is rather inflamatory others posted quite useful information to it.

http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?17456-For-all-you-low-level-stupid-turtling-farmers!

geodsJaxagoms
01-19-2012, 05:12 AM
zetaclear price (http://zetaclearworks.com/) cdWaeeHzxeDzdfbx

nighthunter
01-19-2012, 09:54 AM
hmmm you didn't include my guide
http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?15941-Modern-War-Non-camping-guide-for-Non-gold-buying-newbies
something to add,
1. given the high casualty situation I agree it's for best to keep your valor in storage, I had ~200 jungle stalker at one point and now 4...so I bank all my valor now but still attacking with $ units
2. again, given the situation, the single best unit in game? Medic, why? 0 attack point meaning you simply cannot lose it during an attack + 10 decent def + merely 16000 price tag
3. don't trust the casualty rate, the desert leaders are ranked "low" but I am losing them at least as fast as scouts, which might arguably be a good thing...

Agent Orange
01-19-2012, 09:58 AM
Thanks Nighthunter, missed it. If I've missed other guides please feel free to add links!

Agent Orange
01-19-2012, 01:47 PM
Installment #2

Mock Turtling....

I think the most important thing at the moment is to level up slowly and build your base as many have suggested. In terms of turtling I'm noticing a few things if you are starting new or over. When I first started to play things were a lot different, for one thing there were no goals for completing the missions in the maps nor were there green arrows pointing to the units you needed to attack.

Sometime a month or more ago that changed and the game now makes it a lot easier for players to figure out which missions they still needed to complete in order to finish a map challenge. Now in the goals folder you get two missions in the maps that you should complete in order to finish that map. The real bonus is now when you finish those two missions you get a cash bonus as well as an xp bonus. That's handy in some cases but could speed you up if you are trying to turtle your way through the early levels of the game.

The following is what I've noticed with my new player who is now trying to stay around L7.

The game moves you up quickly from the start so you wind up beginning the game at L2. It's very hard to try and stay here since the completion of some buildings and their upgrades trigger bonuses which include XP which will force a level up.

The rivals list tries very hard to group players within your level and number of allies. From L2 to L7 I notice the rivals list will try and keep only players at your level on this list. I also notice that most of the players since they are new and haven't seen the forums or haven't had any coaching do some interesting things. Mainly not building a strong economic base or defense so if you built a strong defense and offense you could easily beat these opponents. Problem is this also causes you to level up which is something you might not want to do.

Your vault does not upgrade fast enough to cover you if you are aggressively building your money buildings so buy some good defensive units if you can't spend on land upgrades, buildings or building upgrades.

I'm currently using a two pronged approach with my new player, building like mad including unit buildings and upgrading these as fast as I can because I want to be able to buy the most expensive units I can because at the lower levels I actually think since you have a limited number of units that can be brought into battle you want to be as strong as possible. Of course the game has other ideas at the moment and it seems to want to penalize anyone with too powerful a force by taking away your most expensive units. But perhaps at some point this might change and at that point those with weak armies are going to be screwed.

The part of the plan is to only buy energy with skill points, this is where I think different strategies will come into play and why I would only recommend doing this if your ultimate game plan is to harvest as much cash and loot from the map missions as possible.

If you game plan is to attack like mad in order to get cash (not a good idea at present) then I might try buying all attack skill points and play like the alien ship in the Star Trek episode Journey to Babel. The jury is still out as to what if any real effect the attack and defense skill points have though in the past I have stocked up on defensive skill points and they seem to give me almost a 2000 pt advantage over some attackers.

At some point our mock turtle is going to have to emerge from it's shell either because it starts to appear on the radar screen of more powerful rivals or because you get bored of just upgrading and expanding your base. This is why I have been upgrading my unit buildings ahead of time. Mainly my airfield since my goal is to buy B-52's but also my shipyard to get the Sea Scout.

Also at some point you will have to make a decision as to how many allies you want to add since having 1-2 will only allow you to bring a handful of units into a battle thus severely limiting your ability to fight. At the present time it looks like this is only going to be a real problem much further along in the game, I think once you cross into the 60's level wise though it could be as early as the 50's.

Meat shields, I use them though lately not as much since they can dilute your overall attack total. If you do use them it's cheaper to pick off the Insurgent Leader in the Insurgent Camp for the Desert Leader which is the same value as a $1000 Scout.

Finally, the other wild card in all of this are the units themselves. Some units are tagged as being strong against Sea, or Air or Ground and that makes me wonder if there is another value assigned to these units that we can't see and perhaps why we loose such high value units such as Stealth Frigates and Super Hornets for no good reason.

Agent Orange
01-19-2012, 02:02 PM
A good discussion about the value of units is forming here...

http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?17633-My-new-assumption-of-the-Casualty-mechanism-%26%23128562%3B

nighthunter
01-19-2012, 08:28 PM
Installment #2

Mock Turtling....


Hey AO, mind showing when you start your new id in your signiture? That tracks better...
your plans for skill points distriution help too

duder
01-20-2012, 10:34 AM
Installment #2

Mock Turtling....


I have an alternative approach suggestion that will level you, though not quickly, can push you to the point in the game where folks stop blindly attacking, and will ensure that you are able to defend yourself from the poor fools who do attack you.

An easy way to supplement your revenue is to attack rivals' command centers and munitions stockpiles. A fighter jet supported by 2 or 3 desert leaders will give you a massive offensive advangate against any opponents at level 2. You should be able to raid a few folks' command centers for the 6k payout three successful raids in a row provides. The goal in all of this is to be able to start building up a force of frigates. If you can get to ~20 frigates for five alliance members, you will be able to pillage to your heart's content through the first 5 or 6 levels targeting command centers and munitions stockpiles, replacing units as they attrit.

As you level up, be certain the levels of the buildings you target level up. Basically the goal is to ensure your income outstrips your replacement costs. You will want to slowly expand your alliance and attack force with your excess cash. You'll notice your expanded attack force will every so slowly have increased chances of unit loss. Be certain as this occurs that you increase the minimum level of the buildings you target so you do not find yourself in a position where your net raid income is negative. Something to think about: a level 4 munitions stockpile will more than pay for a frigate if you get all three robbery hits on it. A level 8 munitions stockpile will pay for a frigate with every successful raid (with the third hit paying for 2).

The idea here will be to use the income to keep pace with new buildings as they become available (as well as to upgrade your existing buildings). If you expand your alliance slowly, equipping them with frigates, you'll find that you will be more than competitive through level 20. At that point you will still be attacked; however, you will be attacked infrequently, and mostly you'll be able to sit and focus on whatever component of the game you want to improve.

This strategy will more than pay for itself - the downside will be searching through your rival list for rivals with unrobbed buildings of the type that are worth it. The upside - you'll have a good chunk of valor that you wouldn't otherwise gain while turtling.

Agent Orange
01-23-2012, 12:46 PM
Hey AO, mind showing when you start your new id in your signiture? That tracks better...
your plans for skill points distriution help too

Hi she's been live for a week as of today and at L8 with no allies and 2 grunts.

Agent Orange
01-23-2012, 12:48 PM
When I first started to play I used that exact attack strategy only targeting the command center and munitions dumps. Though right now I'm noticing it isn't as lucrative as it used to be. Granted I'm writing this just prior to the pending change to the way attack and defense losses are calculated so things might change radically in the next week....

Agent Orange
01-23-2012, 01:57 PM
This thread is starting to come up with some very interesting theories in terms of unit valuation....

http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?17899-Official-data-explain-probability-of-low-medium-high-casualty-rate./page3

Agent Orange
03-24-2012, 07:34 PM
I posted this to another thread but it a quick and dirty method of trying to get out from under constant attacks.

I think it's important to analyze this player, in other words hit revenge to see their base.

What you want to do is have a look at their inventory with special attention to valor units such as super hornets and stealth frigates. If they happen to have more of one type then pick defensive units that will take them out such as the drones or anti aircraft units. What you want to do is make it uneconomical for this player to keep hitting you up, unless they are really thick they will realize that loosing a bunch of high value units for a handful of valor is a really dumb thing to be doing.

But there are a few tricks as well, vault is probably the most important item to upgrade and right from the beginning of the game you should be constantly upgrading until you hit the limit of 10 million. I'm on the fence about money buildings, yes nice to have but also makes you a target and one of the main reasons that cloaking works so well.

What I might want to look at are your unit buildings. If you want to go all out attack but are a free player I would consider trying this.

Upgrade your air field to L10 and your advanced airbase to at least L2 so that you can buy the Super Hornet if you are playing under the Russian flag that is even better as that will give you a 10% boost to your air units. When you can build the airship hanger and upgrade it. What you are trying to do is get to the point where you can build strong attack units because you want to have a higher than average attack score vs all the opponents at your level.

If you are tired of being raided consider building SAM sites and Mine Fields, I skipped across bunkers and holding cells because they waste too much valuable area in your base. Also look carefully at the range of your defences as you want to position them in such a way that they actually protect your most valuable money making buildings. I don't bother trying to protect my unit buildings but I do protect my boost buildings. The single biggest thing I see with most bases is that they have not figured out how to maximize the spread pattern of their defensive buildings. Overlapping of spread pattern is also a very useful thing to do. Then look at your defensive units, remember the comment about upgrading unit buildings, this comes into play here as well the most popular defensive units are the Drone to take out air units, anti aircraft units to also take out air units, Sea Scouts to take out sea units but with my current strategy I am trying to equip myself with the most powerful defensive units available other than gold units because you really want to make sure you don't dilute your units overall score by having weak units in the mix. One reason I'm not keen on meat shields any more, IMHO I think they are wasting valuable cash which could be better spent on upgrades, and most players are now attacking for valor so you wind up with quite a bit of PvP loot units which are free and make great meat shields.

The next most common mistake is to take on too many allies at the beginning. With my LLP I experimented with 1-5 allies up to about L10 but made the mistake of not upgrading unit buildings so I could give them a better attack and defence units. Currently they are at L50 with 38 allies and that may be a bit on the low side for that level.

Agent Orange
04-09-2012, 08:13 PM
With a new event on the horizon here are a couple of things I'm doing in advance.

1) saving my Energy in order to hit up some of the better spots where we got suitcases and boxes in the past events.
2) getting as much free Tapjoy gold as possible including downloading Funzio's new app Kingdom Age which gave me 18 gold.
3) taking a quick nap since I suspect I will be up all night.
4) coming out of the gate hot and heavy since the 9th and 10th items tend to be next to impossible to get as each day lapses.

Good luck all.

stricker
04-09-2012, 10:52 PM
ok, this is scary AO... after i read your first recommendation, i looked down to see how much energy i had... AND, it was on 666... no kidding!!! what should i do???