New battle system & Simulator

  • Dear Ahaus,


    Since the beginning of Tentlan, the battle system was often criticized and regarded as flawed due to a variety of unpredictable factors, quirks and randomness that made it hard to understand and master. It quickly became evident to us that it needed work, so we decided against documenting this version, that would have only caused further confusion, instead favouring working on a complete replacement and documenting it afterwards, hence why we asked for your patience when questions concerning the battle system showed up.


    Today we are announcing a complete overhaul of the battle algorithm that powers battles in Tentlan. This update focuses on the fundamentals of the battle i.e. what exactly happens in each round, how damage is calculated and inflicted and how other factors come into play. Rather than elaborating on how the complete battle will work, which we will do shortly in a separate post, let me explain in which ways it's different and what can you expect:

    • Fully deterministic system, with the exception of a small random luck factor depending on your Stele structure. Unpredictable randomness, such as "hit misses" and "critical hits", will be gone; the randomness that the luck factor will introduce will be calculable, and otherwise situations where the same battle produces more losses than it should have for no apparent reason will be a thing of the past.
    • Luck as a unit attribute says goodbye: certain unit types will no longer be luckier than others. The aforementioned luck factor will depend solely on the Stele structure and will apply to the troop as a whole.
    • Sending a large amount of a single type of unit will no longer result in a better outcome than mixing different types of troops, provided that the sum of the troop attributes is comparable. That is to say, the outcome of a battle will be consistent with its rules regardless the set of troops being sent to battle.
    • The rules of the battle will be applied to both of the parties without bias: the attacker will no longer be in a favourable position in being able to neutralize the defender before said defender has a chance to defend, as it used to happen occasionally.
    • The "superiority" factor will still be in effect: beyond defeating the oponent in a single round, the more superior the troop is (whether that is the attacker or the defender) the less losses there will be in battle. Unlike the previous algorithm, however, this will follow a simple rule that one can easily plan for (details in a separate post)
    • Support units (which are: Spies, Shamans, Quipucamayocs, Poloms, Pochtecas, Settlers and as of this update Amazon Warriors) will no longer receive any damage until the combat units of the troop are fully defeated (with exception of Amazon Warriors, that may cause damage to support units any time). Previously these units were protected by the front line as well, but could receive a small random amount of damage during rounds.
    • Since "hit misses" in battle are gone, Quipucamayoc's utility in battle has been repurposed, instead granting a strength bonus (also known as "accuracy factor") for the whole troop, depending on how many Quipus per unit are sent, and up to +30%. Unlike how Quipucamayocs used to work in the previous algorithm, this factor will be calculated at the beginning of a battle and remain consistent throughout the battle regardless of Quipucamayocs losses afterwards. In addition, the total accuracy factor applied to the troop will be shown in battle reports to aid understand the outcome.
    • Similarly, Shaman's effects in battle have also been simplified, and now grant a "recovery" bonus, or "regeneration factor" where a percentage of the losses per round are fully recovered in the next round (of up to 30%), thus decreasing the overall losses in battle and giving an edge towards opponents that take multiple rounds to defeat. As with Quipu's accuracy factor, this is calculated at the start of the battle, remains consistent for the duration of the battle, and is shown in the battle reports.
    • Amazon Warriors will now focus solely on support units and will have no effect against combat units. This means that mixed with other troops they will have their effect as they used to, but they won't be able to stand alone in a battle. This change was a necessary byproduct in the process of simplifying how the battle algorithm works, but it should not break strategies for the majority of the players.
    • The "attack" unit attribute is now called "strength" for clarity, though its role in battle will remain similar to what it has always been.

    We will talk and document in detail how the new battle algorithm works in the coming days, stay tuned.


    That's for part one of this update, now let me introduce you to part two :)




    That's right, we are not only going to document the new battle system in detail, but we are bringing a fully featured battle simulator for everyone. Besides simulating the outcome of a battle given a set of troops, we are also bundling:

    • Looting simulation, provide the amount of resources the defender would have and find out how much you could theoretically plunder based on a variety of factors, such as your cargo capacity post-battle, your astrology level, the defender's underground cave level, etc.
    • Simulate random luck as it would happen in real battles or set a specific % of luck to test your luckiest/unluckiest cases easily.
    • Export your configurations as templates to a local file and import them later to save you time: no need to type in the same set of units and levels again and again, type it once and export it to a file.
    • View the full battle report as you would with real battles based on a simulation's outcome.
    • New "Load in simulator" buttons in spy and battle reports make it easy to simulate against real opponents' configurations: Spy on someone and load his complete set of units and levels with a single click from the report.
    • A bonus "hidden" feature: double click on the "Attacker" and "Defender" words above the units and levels to prefill all your levels and units currently in the city.
    • No shenanigans, the battle simulator will be available to anyone with a Jaguar Temple built, with no costs or limitations in the amount of simulations one may run.

    We believe full battle transparency is the right thing to do, so we are betting big on it with this update and hope to leave the times of battle obscurity in the rear mirror. We know that some will find underwhelming that we aren't dramatically expanding battles yet with new features, but we hope you'll agree that laying the foundation of battles upon which to build in the future was of utmost importance for the time being. This will not be the last update focusing on the war aspects of Tentlan ;)


    Now let's talk about timing! Due to the sensitive nature of this update, we will not be rolling it out immediately, partially because we want you to know in advance, and partially because we would prefer to test it more carefully first. We are going live with it on our beta testing server today (in fact, it should have already hit by the time you are reading this) and if we face no complications or stability issues, we'll be bringing it to this server in a matter of days. We'll keep you updated and announce the final date as soon as we can.


    In the meantime, we would very much appreciate if you could help us test and report any issues you may find with the new battle system or the simulator in our beta server located at: http://beta.tentlan.com.


    We hope you'll like what is coming and look forward to hearing your feedback :) Rest assured, we will continue 100% commited to build the best Tentlan that we can.


    Your Tentlan Team


    P.S.: Many of you have brought into our attention fairness issues with certain loopholes that are being exploited in-game and we'd like you to know that we are not oblivious to any of this. Pay attention to what we'll have to say about it in the immediate next update after this one ;)

  • Short update: Our data suggests that the test in the beta server is going well and the update is stable, so as originally estimated it will likely hit this server in a matter of days, not weeks. Stay tuned for the final date.

  • This will be the final date if we have no unexpected complications until then, depending on your time zone:

    • United States (New York time) & Canada (Montreal time): 2015-07-23 20:00:00
    • New Zealand: 2015-07-24 12:00:00
    • Australia (Sydney time): 2015-07-24 10:00:00
    • United Kindgom & Ireland: 2015-07-24 01:00:00
    • Belgium, Netherlands & Central Europe: 2015-07-24 02:00:00

    Or in other words, in approximately 30 hours since the time of publishing this post. Remember to spy and use the simulator first before doing any new attacks after the update hits, as it will be a completely new battle system and the outcomes will inevitably change compared to what you were used to. Good luck!

  • The following hotfixes are now online:

    • Fixed errors after attacks if you had a pillage quest ongoing.
    • Readjusted corn shortage effects in battle in order to 1) have the final stamina appropriately calculated (so a penalty of -100% really is 0 stamina total) and 2) reduce the troop strength according to the penalty as well (so with a penalty of -100% the effective strength will also be 0)
    • The wall structure stamina status is now back in battle reports.
    • Fixed wall having no effect if the player had no other units left in their ranks.

    Sorry for the inconvenience that these issues may have caused, we identified and fixed them as soon as we were able to do so. Please don't hesitate to report any further problems any time if you spot them.