The AtWar Press #21

= = = EDITION 21: October 6, 2019 = = =

Table of Contents
Section 1: AW Press: New Intervals For Releases
Section 2: Shining The Spotlight: JUGERS2
Section 3: Summer 2019: Summary & Review
Section 4: Metagame Survey Results
Section 5: Upcoming Tournaments
Section 6: Estus Interview

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AW Press: New Intervals For Releases

The AW Press and ATN team(s) would like to inform our readers that we will be releasing a new edition every three months, which means our next release is due for December. On top of other things, we will also be releasing new content separately from the main editions of AW Press/ATN; more information on this will come at a later date.

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Shining The Spotlight: An interview with Community Member, JUGERS2.

I've known Jugers for a couple of years now, and since I met him I've known him to be well-tempered and inquisitive in an admirable way: It should be no surprise that he's an excceptional competitive player in this regard, as well as a structured critic of many a project started by our community members. Always having something constructive to say, I messaged Jugers with a few questions for the communit to better know him through after he posted his public application to the AtWar Times Network. The following transcript details each various question and his detailed remarks therein verbatim:[/center]

Garde: Jugers, who are you and what do you believe you're known for?

Jugers: I am JUGERS2 also known as JUGERS. Fun fact: JUGERS2 is the alt of my original accont, JUGERS, which is my real life name. I am known in AtWar as many things, depsnds on who you ask. Some will say I'm a decent player, others will say I am a noob. I want to be known as a decent enough player but most important an honest and direct person: Someone who is a realist and doesn't like lies, also a fair player because recently some things aren't given.

Garde: From when you started playing AtWar to now, how did you become who you are?

Jugers: I started playing AtWar in 2012 with my original account but I got active in community affairs in early 2013. I became this guy who I am because I generaly always tried to learn from everyone something. I was watching/playing with the best players and also the best persons AtWar had. Back then community wasn't as toxic and losing was somtimes more fun than winning. This is my mentallity I still got. I play for fun and not for win. I also like to give it lowranks and I think I have done it with a couple of people.

Garde: What are you best at on AtWar?

Jugers: I don't think I got something I am best at in AtWar. Gameplay wise I like to play as Spain but it sometimes hard because I have to pick something harder so a lower rank and experienced player can go Spain. I am most good at giving advice to people, not only game related. I also think I am good at dealing with mods about some player punishments. Generally I am good at being a person who is fun to play and chat with.

Garde: Why do you want to rejoin the AtWar Times Network?

Jugers: Well I just want to help if possible. I think more people would help even if some aren't active enoughs. In my opinion you should accept all applications. Give them a chance and then clean the ones who don't really do anything in an amount of some days. But I don't think ATN requires that many people. Maybe my idea applies more to Supporters only.

Garde: What did you previously do with the AtWar Times Network?

Jugers: Previously in ATN I wasn't really doing much. I was pinpointing stuff in newspaper reviews. Like would be nice to add this edit this etc. I got in to it be "accident" because Radio forums required to have access to ATN forums too.

Garde: What is the most pressing issue on AtWar now in September 2019, and why?

Jugers: Depends. In my opinion it is the fairness of competitive players both in clan but most importantly in personal level. but I don't think most people would care much. Maybe activity, map editor, new clans/players coming back to AtWar, AtWar Times itself and lastly I think many want to know AtWar history which would be a hard project to do but by digging in forums we could try to do a long investment project where we try to (un)cover up as musch AtWar history as possible from different people perspectives. Anyway those are stuff we could discuss later.

Garde: Do you see yourself as a community leader, and why?

Jugers: I don't think I am a community leader because of my skills in AtWar. I think that leaders aren't the best fighters but they know how to fight with honor and how to respect the enemy. Even if they lose they will take the blame on theirself and won't try to find excuses. Most importantly they will play fair and never turn toxic. In the end they will say gg. Those small things might not seem much but for some, including myself, are really important.

Garde: Do you have any final remarks to make?

Jugers: Thank you for accpeting me if by any time you think I do something wrong tell me or simply remove me from program. If somewhere you wanna listen more about a certain thing tell me so I can expand it further. Keep up good job.

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Summer 2019: Summary & Review


June 20th, 2019 -- New Moderator

Written by brianwl, 20.06.2019 at 16:20

AW is happy to welcome Nero to the moderator team! Nero has been with the game for a long time, and has a unique style and sense of humour which will help round out our team. Please join us in giving a warm welcome to Nero as our newest Moderator.

Congratulations!

On June 20th, Nero was added as our newest Moderator. It wasn't specified why he was added or what he was doing, so I asked Nero a couple of questions:

What have you done since you were added to the Moderator team?

Nero: I tried to revive movie night, but it seems it's not so popular. I worked with Dave a few months ago to resolve the Bugs issue. He agreed to stop all attacks and to serve out his ban. I also helped to make the new mod transparency rules, which were posted in the new forum section.

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What do you think of the Moderator team?

Nero: I really like the team we have. They are all very smart and competent, and we all discuss things as a team before acting.
They were very welcoming to me when I joined, and I'm very appreciative of that.

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What have you done since you were added to the Moderator team?

Nero: I'd like to see a revival of the competitive scene and the AW radio. I was hoping we could use the radio for game commentary. I would also support any players that would stream on twitch, or maybe do it myself someday.



Clearly, as you all can see; Nero is doing his job in a fantastic manner, as such a Moderator should be doing!

He also brings us good humour

Written by Nero, 20.06.2019 at 20:02

Hi I am ~Nero

July 26th, 2019 -- Viserion, Guide to AtWar

Written by Reichsheer, 30.07.2019 at 18:38

Are you a new player? Do you want to compete with higher ranks?
Starting from today I (Viserion) am your guide to atWar.

Viserion has made a brave effort to bring new content, guides, maps, historical videos and much more to AtWar ever since being promoted to Supporter over the summer. You can expect Viserion to be doing more of this, including on his Patreon!


August 1-7th, 2019 -- Discord Update!

AIois was hard at work at bringing Discord as means of vital communication and meeting grounds for AW as a whole, updating our Discord to meet new standards. The following list is what was done during this update:

✔ "Nuked" the entire server as well as create a backup. From here the server was rebuilt on a template that would fit AtWar better.

✔ Added 24/7 Customer Support for AtWar via Discord. This is subject to change in the future.

✔ Added an application bot for future use.

✔ Implemented a new verification system.

✔ Added an AtWar Bot.

✔ Added a statistics bot so the public/administration can have access to how well the server is doing.

✔ Added custom commands such as ?helpful-links, ?simrules, and ?awpress.

✔ Reset the economy module.

✔ Disabled !work, !slut, !crime, !rob, !give-money, etc commands. users are no longer to earn money on the server for now.

✔ Implemented community-made logos into the server

✔ Created an information section of the server

✔ reworked server roles to fit better-reworked staff commands, accesses, etc.



Alois goes into detail about what is on this list, as well as announced some surprises! If you would like to see more on what was done, please read the news post: https://atwar-game.com/news/news.php?news_id=254


August 14th, 2019 -- AtWar DDOSED!

Written by Dave, 14.08.2019 at 08:19

Starting August 11 - our host got ddosed. There was nothing we can do about it since it was the host being attacked directly.

Sadly, as a cause of our host being ddosed AtWar was offline for a good chunk of August-- where administration then communicated through Discord and social media platforms; Dave eventually decided it was time to switch hosts completely:

Written by Dave, 17.08.2019 at 08:19

If you are reading this you are already on our new server!

I'm still working on some things behind the scenes, but the game is once again fully functional as of now.

I'm giving everyone 1 week free premium to make up for the downtime. If you already have a subscription it will be extended by 7 days. If you don't have premium right now, you'll get it for the next 7 days.

If you have lifetime I'm sorry, you get lifetime + 7 days... that's just how it goes.

Cheers

August 31st, 2019 -- AtWar Times Network Re-Announced

Written by Alois, 31.08.2019 at 11:37

As you all know, ATN has been dead for quite some time and has been long-waiting a comeback. So, I'd like to officially reintroduce the AtWar Times Network back into the community with new leadership and a plan for AtWar.

Alois announced the revival of ATN, which is still going strong and accepting applicants. You can expect more from ATN very, very soon!

News post can be found here: https://atwar-game.com/news/news.php?news_id=260


September 4th, 2019 -- This Month On The Supporters...

AIois started a news post about what is going on in the supporters team each month, giving out a Trello Board for the public to see that is updated every day so the community can stay updated with what the Supporters are doing. On top of other things, letting the community know of their last meeting and what they did; as well as their future plans.

Written by Alois, 04.09.2019 at 11:37

The Supporter's team is slowly going through a major revamp. We will not accept people who don't give value to the team nor are qualified for the job that the Supporter's take on. Next, we are going to be keeping the public more updated about what is happening with not only the supporters but the game as a whole, as that is part of our job. Finally, "This Month On The Supporters..." will hopefully turn into a weekly post (instead of monthly) to bring the community information; as the Supporters are working hard as volunteers to keep AtWar going!

As you all can see, this summer was filled a lot of upsides and downsides. We are hoping to continue what we are doing with AtWar by slowly working on the code, map editor, rules, content, etc and tackling issues to ultimately make a better game for everyone.

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Metagame Survey Results

Recently, I conducted a survey asking everyone to rate AtWar's strategies on a Europe+ 3v3/2v2/1v1 10K basis, and I can say with certainty the results weren't shocking in the slightest! The Implementers team now has a very clear vision and path to take going forward in balancing the meta, as the data gained here tell us exactly how you feel about each strategy. Of course, we will also be conducting experiments to objectively rate these strategies in the future. Based on this, however, there are a few things I would like to announce: b[During the Autumn 2019 AtWar Competitive season, we will start posting an official tier list of strategies for competitive play[/b]. In the future, I would like to make separate lists for Duels, 2v2s, and popular Scenarios. As well, very soon a new Strategy balancing update will be released. I don't want to spoil the contents of it just yet, but both of these buffs have been highly requested by the community for a few years now. In the future, I would also like to start hosting public testing sessions over on the test server, so stay tuned for that as well.

Beyond this, I'd like to share with your the survey results and a few comments from myself and other Implementers: I received 33 unique replies on the first half, and 32 on the second (Respondent 17, you know who you are. We've dispatched Waffel and Karlo to apprehend you, your time is nigh!). I'll post the raw statistics below as well as an excerpt from my recent report to Dave regarding this subject, as I averaged the results to get a clearer picture of the overall placement of each strategy.

"All suspected troll responses and non-registered usernames (per the survey instructions) have been eliminated, and generalizations/guesses have been included as they provide insight into how many players view said strategies without necessarily being accustomed to them. At the end of this month's patch notes, I have included the detailed analysis of each response question. As for now, this is the averaged metagame tier-list I have to offer based upon my findings in this survey (Note: I use the mean average here for aggregation, with each tier being given a rating integer between 1-6 going from S-F):

S-Tier: N/A
A-Tier: Perfect Defense (1.84)
B-Tier: Imperialist (2.33), Desert Storm (2.54), Lucky Bastard (2.57), Iron Fist (2.84), Guerilla Warfare (2.87)
C-Tier: Naval Commander (3), Insurrection (3.09), Great Combinator (3.3), Sky Menace (3.33)
D-Tier: Blitzkrieg (4.12), Master of Stealth (4.27), Relentless Attack (4.51), Hybrid Warfare (4.69), Counter-Insurgency (4.78)
F-Tier: Industrial Powerhouse (5.3)

"I've graded these strategies on a scale of 1-6, assigning one integer to each tier ranking from S to F; If a score meanders between its assigned number and the next highest, it is assigned to that lower tier; IE, Perfect Defense holds the "1" ranking, but the ".84" holds it back down a tier. I chose only to round down rather than split it down the middle to avoid confusion or discrepancies. As we can deduce from this tier-list, it goes without saying that player complaints about Desert Storm, in particular, isn't without cause, though it should be noted that objectively, Perfect Defense is the strongest strategy here if we're going by public opinion solely; I'm of the opinion that starting units affect this placement greatly, and one day this may be an issue to address. I don't think anyone is clamoring for a PD nerf either, so its placement can be summarized as being the best all-around strategy that can be played literally anywhere on the map. As for the others: There is quite a bit of work to be done to create a healthy metagame ecosystem that continues to surprise and entertain players for years to come. In my opinion, aiming to buff strategies to the B-Tier should be our primary focus".

The above is an excerpt being sent straight to Dave so we can start planning and rolling out balancing updates much, much more quickly. We don't want to artificially change the metagame too quickly, however, so expect these changes to happen around every major update/implementation or on an emergency basis (If a strategy ever enters S-Tier for a prolonged period of time). I will also put out a new metagame survey every month so we can track how these balancing updates change everything. Thank you to everyone who responded, you're doing us a great favor by helping out like this. Without further ado, here are the raw results from the survey:

Blitzkrieg:
33 unique responses
S - 1
A - 1
B - 8
C - 9
D - 11
F - 3

Counter-Insurgency:
33 unique responses
S - 0
A - 2
B - 8
C - 4
D - 10
F - 9

Desert Storm:
33 unique responses
S - 8
A - 13
B - 4
C - 4
D - 2
F - 2

Great Combinator:
33 unique responses
S - 0
A - 5
B - 16
C - 7
D - 4
F - 1

Guerilla Warfare:
33 unique responses
S - 2
A - 12
B - 10
C - 7
D - 1
F - 1

Hybrid Warfare:
33 unique responses
S - 0
A - 2
B - 2
C - 10
D - 9
F - 10

Imperialist:
33 unique responses
S - 4
A - 21
B - 7
C - 0
D - 0
F - 1

Industrial Powerhouse:
33 unique responses
S - 1
A - 0
B - 1
C - 5
D - 5
F - 21

Insurrection:
33 unique responses
S - 10
A - 5
B - 5
C - 5
D - 1
F - 7

Iron Fist:
32 unique responses
S - 1
A - 11
B - 9
C - 11
D - 0
F - 0

Lucky Bastard:
32 unique responses
S - 2
A - 13
B - 11
C - 6
D - 0
F - 0

Master of Stealth:
32 unique responses
S - 0
A - 1
B - 5
C - 11
D - 10
F - 5

Naval Commander:
32 unique responses
S - 2
A - 3
B - 18
C - 8
D - 1
F - 0

Perfect Defence:
32 unique responses
S - 7
A - 22
B - 2
C - 1
D - 0
F - 0

Relentless Attack:
32 unique responses
S - 0
A - 1
B - 2
C - 8
D - 17
F - 4

Sky Menace:
32 unique responses
S - 1
A - 3
B - 15
C - 8
D - 4
F - 1

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Upcoming Tournaments

You may have already seen that the Master of West tourney returns for the fifth time. This year the prizes besides the trophies for the first three places will include some sweet Protocoins.


To sign up click here and make a small post in the tournament topic.

On top of other things, the Supporters' plan to host other tournaments and are welcoming anyone from the community who would also like to host one themselves!

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Estus Interview

Recently, there has been an influx of maps on AtWar, specifically in the World War II genre. So, I interviewed one of the creators of the newest WW2 map, Estus:


What do you think of your World War II Map?

Estus: It has been a lot of fun to play and feedback has been important for balancing. Right now the priority is detect overpowered units, economy problems between factions, and fix some historical incorrect borders. But overall, I am pleased with the result.

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What made you want to make a World War II map, considering the recent "spam" of World War II maps from other players?

Estus: Since I began mapmaking, none of my maps was set in modern times, so after Age of Charlemagne and Byzantine Reconquest, which are big medieval maps, I started to want to create something different from that. I enjoy the mainstream WWII maps, but they aren't very friendly scenarios to low ranks, and I kinda never liked maps that force you to build huge stacks of troops and an endless amount of cities. These two factors pushed me to make World War II: 1942-1945.


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Did you research before you made the map? Are your borders "accurate"?

Estus: As I said before, there are some incorrect borders, I took historical references of old maps, but couldn't make it 100% accurate. I'm slowly fixing it, last update was the Leningrad Front, Spanish Morocco and Northern Ireland, they all got fixed.

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What editor did you use, and why?

Estus: Html5 I guess... I think I never used Silverlight. It was the first I tried and stood with on Google Chrome.

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What do you think of the current state of atWar's map editor?

Estus: There are glitches that needed to be fixed as soon as possible, but if you have patience, you can avoid them after some trial and error and make great maps! What bothers me most is the lack of certain editing tools, I'm used to AutoCAD, so commands would be great, also the tool to make geometric forms and curves. And, of course, neutral events also crucial to map design.

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Finally, do you think your map has convinced cartographers and future cartographers to make more maps for AW, despite editor being in a bad condition?

Estus: I hope so! And I am at full disposal of mapmakers who need help with Photoshop, images, etc. I really enjoy seeing new things being played, so with my maps, people at least can see that the editor works, not good as it should be, but still works.



In the end, Estus plans on keeping up the good job he is currently doing and bring more interesting content & fun to the community. Stay tuned!

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