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► 18th August 2009 - Mobilising Armies Polish

Since the release of Mobilising Armies, we’ve been in-game and scanning the forums to see what has worked well and what hasn’t. As can be expected from a project of this complexity, some things didn’t quite pan out how we intended. So, we’ve made a few amendments that we hope will create a better gaming experience:

The Conflict scenario has changed from 4-player to 2-player
The idea of the Conflict scenario was for players to consider a variety of tactics and to really engage in an all-out battle to the death. There turned out to be one unwanted and dominant tactic, however: wait for the other teams to beat each other up, then join in later when you have the advantage. Although you could argue this was a legitimate tactic, we didn’t feel that doing nothing for a few minutes was any fun. We considered a great many options to fix this, but decided to change this scenario (and only this scenario) to make it 1 versus 1.

Squad levels removed
Mobilising Armies was built with five levels of squad that you could purchase as your Rank increased, which allowed larger amounts of reward credits. The issue with this was that it led to far too many waiting rooms (4 scenarios x 5 ranks = 20 rooms) and, with each room requiring 20 players, we needed 20 x 20 players for a game to start in each room. Even if games started more quickly, there would not be enough players available, so to simplify the waiting rooms, we have changed it so only one level of squad is available. If you previously had higher-level squads in your inventory or bank, you will find them gone and your credits reimbursed as investment credits. This will hopefully make it easier for people to experience all four scenarios.

Waiting room system improved and five simultaneous games
Twenty players are required for a game of Mobilising Armies to start, and, when a player doesn't get picked, they get an increased priority for the next game. Originally, only four out of those twenty players were picked to join a game at a time, but we improved this a little while back so that three games started at any one time. This was only a temporary fix, so five games will now start simultaneously, as soon as there are enough players.

Selling reward items back
When buying rewards, many players felt the best idea was to save up their reward points until they had increased their Rank and unlocked the best rewards, neglecting the earlier rewards. We want you to make use of the lower-level rewards, so you can now sell reward items back to the reward shops in the officers' tower for 100% of their initial cost. This should encourage you to buy the rewards as and when you can afford them, since you can upgrade them at no extra cost. The only exceptions to this are the resource locators and quest kits (which remain a partial trade-in), and spoils of war.

Mod Tim
Lead RuneScape Content Developer