NEWS: New game mode

Yesterday Space Ape revealed the new game mode they are working on. It is called "ALLIANCE RAID" and it's basically a mode where you attack completely overpowered zones as a team to earn rewards.

So the idea is that every player's attack does damage to the base, and the next player attacking finds a pre-damaged base to add more damage. The more destruction the alliance creates as a whole, the more rewards we get.

To attack in this mode, you don't need fuel cells but tokens. Tokens are earned during normal event battles.

They'll add some new building types, but for this mode only. You can see these in the screenshots I made - they are the oversized buildings. Graphics aren't final, they'll get their own design.

The defenses have ridiculous health points to make destroying them very hard, but they also give you more ability points than usual when destroyed so the abilities can be used more often.

Bases can't be attacked simultaneously by several players. They'll be blocked as long as an attack is taking place.

These raid battles offer normal XP only, but the overpowered defenses give you much more XP than the normal base defenses of course.

For the record: The duration of 340d shown in the first screen is a test only, reality will see these happening at the weekend instead of a standard event. So we won't see these every weekend. Maybe they'll do these during the week as well in case people react positive to the mode itself.

We'll have the opportunity to test this mode in some way, no details on that yet.

Release date isn't set, but planned to be before the end of 2018.

You can watch everything yourself here at 29:30 - https://youtu.be/PguXv9zWCdU

bioDROID out!

ESSENTIALS: Sentinel Rulebook

The leading members of Sentinel family felt it is about time that we lay down the rules for all family members. This creates transparency over how we roll and secures fairness while playing this wonderful game together.

Feel free to add questions or feedback in the comments.

Earth Wars: Sentinel Family

Rulebook

1. WARS:

1.1. Participation is mandatory in all started wars.

1.2. We stand united, even in the face of defeat - everyone has to attempt base 1 in every war.

1.3. Not attempting base one will cause a reminder message from leading staff during the war.

1.4. Everyone with 0 attempts at the end of a war "earns" a war strike.

1.5. 3 war strikes in a row result in a demotion to the next lower alliance.

1.6. If a war strike is collected, it can be negated by fighting in the next war.

1.5. Behavior that may result in a demotion to the next lower alliance:

• Repeatedly having to be reminded to attempt base 1
• Repeatedly collecting 2 strikes before participating in war
• Ignoring leading staff's call to redesign an obviously flawed base (i.e. solos, Dead End pulls, Megatron rushes)

2. EVENTS

2.1. All players have to hit their respective alliance minimum score.
2.2. As soon as someone knows that he won't be able to hit that minimum, he or she has to actively inform their commander.
2.3. If the alliance finishes the event early and a player hasn't already hit the minimum, they are required to at least complete that minimum score by helping out other Sentinel alliances.
2.4. Players who don't move out for above mentioned point may be kicked with a message telling them to do so.

3. PROMOTION

3.1. Players who exceed their respective alliances at least 3 times in a row will be considered for promotion to the next higher alliance in case they meet the other requirements (base level, squad power).
3.2. The promotion offer can be denied twice by the player if they don't feel ready for the next step yet or already know about upcoming real life issues preventing them from keeping their gaming level.
3.3. The third time a promotion is offered, the player has to move up.

4. DEMOTION

4.1. Demotion generally is in order whenever a member constantly fails to live up to the respective alliance's requirements, i.e.:

• Missing event minimums 3 times in a row
• Not participating in wars 3 times in a row
• 2 days (Sentinel Warpath) respectively 3 days (Sentinel Beings, Sentinel Knights, Sentinel Shadows) or more of uncommunicated absence

4.2. Players will be informed about their demotion by the commander or officers with the request to move down voluntarily.
4.3. If a demoted player doesn't move voluntarily, he may be kicked and ordered to report in at the next lower alliance.
4.4. A demoted player has to work his way back up under the above mentioned rules of promotion.

5. REAL LIFE ISSUES

5.1. We have an honest understanding for whenever real life gets in the way.
5.2. Every player is responsible for actively communicating any issues to their officers or commander as soon as possible.
5.3. If a player is hindered from hitting the respective alliance minimums by a real life situation, he or she is expected to do the right thing and step down voluntarily to a fitting lower level alliance.
5.4. Players who are asked to do so and refuse to comply may be kicked and ordered to report in at the next lower alliance.
5.5. Urgent or emergency situations won't get anyone kick as long as we know what's going on.

6. COMMUNICATION

6.1. Our central communication tools are Facebook and its Messenger tool.
6.2. We urge every player to become a part of at least one of them to make out-of-game communication easier for everyone.
6.3. Players without a Facebook account can reach the family via its BAND group, via LINE or via this blog.
6.4. Event scores are communicated on a weekly basis for team and LB events via the Sentinel Family Facebook page.
6.5. Here are the most important communication links:

• Facebook group "Earth Wars: Sentinel Family"
• BAND group for Sentinel Shadows "Earth Wars: Sentinel Family"

6. ALLIANCE REQUIREMENTS

6.1. Sentinel Knights:

• First level competitive crew
• Base Level: All bases HQ 8 or higher
• Event Minimum: 4,000 points in all events
• Squad Level: Top war team with a power of 3,000 or higher
• War Schedule: Four wars a week (Monday to Thursday), participation mandatory
• No wars during events (team & solo events)

6.2. Sentinel Shadows:

• Mid Level competitive crew
• Base Level: All bases HQ 13 or higher
• Event Minimum: 80% of 40 player average in standard events, 10,000 points in leaderboard events
• Squad Level: Top war team with a power of 8,000 or higher
• War Schedule: Three wars a week (Monday to Wednesday), participation mandatory
• No wars during events (team & solo events)
• BAND required

6.3. Sentinel Beings:

• Mid level competitive crew
• Base Level: All bases HQ 11 with fully maxed defenses
• Event Minimum: 7,000 points in standard team events, 11,000 points in leaderboard events
• Squad Level: Top war team with a power of 6,000 or higher
• War Schedule: Four wars a week (Monday to Thursday) and during 10 points flat solo events, participation mandatory
• No wars during team events

6.4. Sentinel Warpath:

• Top level competitive crew
• Base Level: All bases HQ 15 with fully maxed defenses
• Event Minimum:14,000 points in standard team events, 18,000 points in leaderboard events
• Squad Level: Top war team with a power of 10,000 or higher
• War Schedule: Wars all week and during all events, participation mandatory

Event info: BATTLE OF WITS

Sorry for being lazy here lately, had some busy days. This weekend will see an individual totalizer with 60 prestige, rewarding us 2-, 3- and 4-star shards. It will be a triple XP event, therefore everyone battle zone only offers a max of 10 battle points.

Assuming one scores an average of 9 per battle and fights the full 192 battles I calculated in my player's guide a few months ago, the possible score to achieve without spending or sacrificing sleep would be around 1,700 points.

So since every prestige takes 100 points, this allows you to get 17 prestige and the following rewards staying F2P:

17 x 25 = 425 2-star shards
17 x 15 = 255 3-star shards
17 x 10 = 170 4-star shards
17 x 50,000 = 850,000 energon
17 x 50,000 = 850,000 alloy

That's very lame, so it'll be all about the XP this again.

Go level your bots!
bioDROID out

Event review: POWER BEYOND MEASURE

So here we are, guns are still hot from shooting down an incredible amount of Decepticons this weekend. The event was called "Power beyond measure", and it saw the official launch of the newest additions to the character roster: Rodimus Prime for he Autobots and Motormaster for the Decepticons. I'll get into those two bots and their abilities later in this post.


Leaderboard events are always special as they are the only type of event with a game wide ranking and no point limitation whatsoever. A lot of people despise them though because it's been almost impossible to hit the top 100 and get at least the 3* version of a new bot without having a majority of the alliance buying fuel cell bundles. So basically non-spending alliances are doomed to a new 2* and a handful of premium crystals, which isn't the most appealing reward for a weekend of grinding. But still, the event itself usually always is a lot of fun, and this weekend was no different.


Sentinel family had a hard time on leaderboards lately since we lost a bunch of hard hitting members a few months ago and couldn't get anywhere near the top 100. This led to other members (including me) leaving the family for the triple changer weekend and act as a mercenaries on other alliances to get their shot at the new 3* bot. The remaining players focused in our top and mid tier groups Warpath and Beings and finished both groups in the top 400 (#346 for Warpath, #381 for Beings).


But since we still want to evolve Warpath back into a top 100 group, we tried to do things different this weekend. Warpath currently has 34 regular members. We approached all of them two weeks before the leaderboard and asked them to state a score that they are able and willing to hit in the event. We got 24 answers, 10 of them committing to our minimum score of 12,000 points or higher. 10 people went for at least 10,000 points, and another 2 admitted they won't be able to hit hard that weekend and dropped down to Beings. Two members openly stated early on they were going out to a top 100 group as mercenaries.


So we now had the chance to offer the remaining 10 spots in Warpath to every Sentinel member from Knights and Beings who would commit to at least 10,000 points. The resonance was awesome, so we had no problem in filling up Warpath to a full army of 40 players. Beings again took in some players from Knights to be at 40 as well. So with all the pledges combined, we could expect a total score of around 430,000 points, which should have led us at least back to the top 300. But what happened than was just amazing.


We started off pretty well, finishing the first part of the event (a 60,000 point totalizer for mainly shards and 2* Rodimus Prime) after 4 to 5 hours in. Looking at the leaderboard we realized that we were way more higher than expected, always pending around rank 120 something. Especially our "guests" from Sentinel Beings and Knights really pushed themselves hard, adding up nicely to our top 5 scorers. so in the end, we exceeded our expectations of 450 to maybe 500,000 points by far, ending up with a total of 603,593 points, ranking 131 of the world.

This was a fun race with some motivating competition within the alliance, and I'm very proud of where we ended up. A lot of folks exceeded their pledge by far, and all I can say is thank you guys for the effort made, the time invested and the dedication proven.


Bad news of this event is that, the bar for hitting the top 100 once again has been risen. 760,000 points were needed to get a 3* bot out of this event, which is an average of 19,000 points per player and therefore near to impossible to reach without spending money on fuel cells. I'm sure this will just intensify the anger at this type of event, but most likely nothing will change.


Before I close this post I wanna take a short look at Rodimus Prime.

His special "overloads" the other bots in the team and pushes their stats for a short time period. I already read that even the 2* gives a nice boost to a squad and that people expect this ability to be nerved very soon, so enjoy yours while it lasts.


Thanks for reading along, see you next time.
bioDROID out!

Event info: POWER BEYOND MEASURE

So here we have it, ladies and gentlemen: The first leaderboard event of 2018. This one is for our new leader class bots Rodimus Prime (Autobots) and Motormaster (Decepticons).


In preparation we organized some temporary player movements. Warpath will be filled up with 40 players doing a minimum of 10,000 points, some aiming even 12,000 or 15,000 points, to end up ranked top 200. Beings loses some hard hitters by this, but will still aim for the deserved spot in the top 400. Knights will aim at finishing the 60,000 point totalizer.


Here are your event details:

 

 

 

Have fun and go smash some cons!


Yours
bioDROID