Major Game Changes - Need Your Vote

[Brekk]

From the Desk of Overlord Brekk

Greetings, noble lords and cunning sovereigns of Alamaze,

A great decision stands before us, and I ask for your vote. As many of you know, we have been working diligently in the background on changes to the game. These changes include rebalancing troops, companions, summoned units, and kingdoms. Because of the way Alamaze is coded, I cannot alter individual games, when a change is made, it touches every game, those already in progress and any created afterward.

There are two paths to implement these changes, and I want your input. One very important thing to remember is that continual tuning will be required, regardless of the path we choose, and balancing will continue as we learn together.

Option One, the live rollout:
I update everything in the database first, then the rulebooks and the website. The database is the easiest part, and I can complete the current set of changes in eight hours, during which I would pause all games. You would then be playing kingdoms that, to me, feel more fun, with greater variety. You should also understand that some things could be unbalanced for a month or two while I continue work on spells, reinforcement levels, and kingdom traits. Some adjustments are already planned and would be implemented at the same time. I would then tune continually and seek your input constantly. I will also devote time and other resources to updating the new rulebook with the changes. In essence, you would be entering a public beta.

Option Two, the polished release:
We wait and push for something as close to perfect as possible before the first rollout. This would likely take months. After that, we would begin the tuning phase. This summary does not cover every detail, but it should give you a clear idea of the tradeoffs.

My personal preference is to start making changes now. It will affect your current games. Power levels will shift for certain kingdoms. Olorin and I have taken a balanced, mathematical, and fun approach to rebuilding kingdoms, and I would love to see how it plays in the wild. With that in mind, please vote, and please comment. Your voice matters. In the end I will make the call, yet I have spent almost a year preparing for this. It may feel a little chaotic at first, yet I believe you will enjoy the refreshed look and the livelier feel of the game.

Stand forth, speak your mind, and help forge the fate of Alamaze.

Overlord Brekk


Poll options

1. Start the live rollout now
   Pause all games for up to eight hours to update the database, play with the new variety immediately, accept that balance may be off for a month or two while spells, reinforcement levels, and kingdom traits are tuned, provide feedback during this public beta.
   
2. Wait for the polished release
   Hold changes until they are as close to perfect as possible, likely months, then launch a more stable version and begin tuning afterward.
   
3. I am unsure, I need more information
   Share a clearer timeline, examples of specific changes to kingdoms, spells, and reinforcements, and how current games will be affected before I vote.
   

[VballMichael]

Let's do it. I am good with public beta, so long as we know what we are seeing change. Thanks.

[Wynand]

From the Desk of Overlord Brekk

Greetings, noble lords and cunning sovereigns of Alamaze,

A great decision stands before us, and I ask for your vote. As many of you know, we have been working diligently in the background on changes to the game. These changes include rebalancing troops, companions, summoned units, and kingdoms. Because of the way Alamaze is coded, I cannot alter individual games, when a change is made, it touches every game, those already in progress and any created afterward.

There are two paths to implement these changes, and I want your input. One very important thing to remember is that continual tuning will be required, regardless of the path we choose, and balancing will continue as we learn together.

Option One, the live rollout:
I update everything in the database first, then the rulebooks and the website. The database is the easiest part, and I can complete the current set of changes in eight hours, during which I would pause all games. You would then be playing kingdoms that, to me, feel more fun, with greater variety. You should also understand that some things could be unbalanced for a month or two while I continue work on spells, reinforcement levels, and kingdom traits. Some adjustments are already planned and would be implemented at the same time. I would then tune continually and seek your input constantly. I will also devote time and other resources to updating the new rulebook with the changes. In essence, you would be entering a public beta.

Option Two, the polished release:
We wait and push for something as close to perfect as possible before the first rollout. This would likely take months. After that, we would begin the tuning phase. This summary does not cover every detail, but it should give you a clear idea of the tradeoffs.

My personal preference is to start making changes now. It will affect your current games. Power levels will shift for certain kingdoms. Olorin and I have taken a balanced, mathematical, and fun approach to rebuilding kingdoms, and I would love to see how it plays in the wild. With that in mind, please vote, and please comment. Your voice matters. In the end I will make the call, yet I have spent almost a year preparing for this. It may feel a little chaotic at first, yet I believe you will enjoy the refreshed look and the livelier feel of the game.

Stand forth, speak your mind, and help forge the fate of Alamaze.

Overlord Brekk


Poll options

1. Start the live rollout now
   Pause all games for up to eight hours to update the database, play with the new variety immediately, accept that balance may be off for a month or two while spells, reinforcement levels, and kingdom traits are tuned, provide feedback during this public beta.
   
2. Wait for the polished release
   Hold changes until they are as close to perfect as possible, likely months, then launch a more stable version and begin tuning afterward.
   
3. I am unsure, I need more information
   Share a clearer timeline, examples of specific changes to kingdoms, spells, and reinforcements, and how current games will be affected before I vote.
   

I vote for something closer to option 2. I would we want to minimize the impact on live games if possible.

[Brekk]

Wyand,

Changes impact all games, old and new, immediately. I want to be clear on that. The current changes have already be vetted, but kingdoms will continue to receive updates live.

For example, if I remove the Revelation spell, it disappears at once. If I add one more dragon brigade at turn 15, and you are on turn 14 heading into 15, you will receive that brigade on the next turn. If you are on 15 and heading to 16 or later, you will not receive it.

Adjustments to recruited troops will work similarly. These will take more time, and I may need to manually update older games to align with new companions and related changes.

Spells become active for a kingdom as soon as they are implemented. I should also add that we have computed the strength of each brigade, and those numbers will be released soon. These values are not likely to change. Both Option 1 and Option 2 already include these computed strengths.

Please ask questions, and do not forget to vote at the top.

[Clueless]

Wyand,

Changes impact all games, old and new, immediately. I want to be clear on that. The current changes have already be vetted, but kingdoms will continue to receive updates live.

For example, if I remove the Revelation spell, it disappears at once. If I add one more dragon brigade at turn 15, and you are on turn 14 heading into 15, you will receive that brigade on the next turn. If you are on 15 and heading to 16 or later, you will not receive it.

Adjustments to recruited troops will work similarly. These will take more time, and I may need to manually update older games to align with new companions and related changes.

Spells become active for a kingdom as soon as they are implemented. I should also add that we have computed the strength of each brigade, and those numbers will be released soon. These values are not likely to change. Both Option 1 and Option 2 already include these computed strengths.

Please ask questions, and do not forget to vote at the top.

I vote for option 2 (wait for polished release).

[Maximus Dominus]

The last time that I logged in to the Alamaze forum was back on 01-31-2025 at 09:44 AM. Nonetheless, I was included in the list of those sent the e-mail about this.

I cast a vote in favor of you acting now to begin implementing changes. There's no time like the present. Holding things in abeyance until all of your ducks are lined up in a row wold take how long, exactly? It could take forever.

My interest in the game fell off a cliff many months back. You chose to head in a particular direction, so pursue it. Grab it with gusto! Otherwise, you may well end up piddling for years on end. That would sap your energy and enthusiasm. So, why risk it?

I think that Olorin has been assisting you with "rebalancing" of units and such. He's a really smart fellow, and that sort of thing is right up his alley of expertise.

Every so often, I've dropped in for a few seconds, now and again, to browse particular postings, without logging in. I am aware of some of Alamaze's "progress," but definitely not everything, and perhaps not even the majority. Alamaze and its community of players has already endured extensive delays in past years, stretching well back before you ever came on the scene, John.

In your e-mail, you said, and I quote, "Stand forth, speak your mind, and help forge the fate of Alamaze." And so I do, but that doesn't tend to endear me with others. Be that as it may, I think that the rewriting (once again) of the Alamaze rulebook isn't a better choice, at present or in the near future, than a variety of other things that would probably set Alamaze up better.

   

You can rewrite the rulebook a hundred times, but it's not gonna solve problems that are far more relevant to onboarding new players. Why in the world does the list of new games forming still sit inside of a scroll bar box? That's insanity! Joining a game of Alamaze yields that same old http URL address, so that's never been fixed. There's no quick and easy way to just grab a screenshot of the entire list of new games forming, if it extends past a certain point. Why isn't that basic, fundamental, level one information still not exported to a more useful mechanism for advertising what new games of Alamaze are forming? And if that http issue, which supposedly presented a potential security issue, is still around, how many years does it make it since awareness of that problem was first gained? Years later, and players get the morsel of being able to rename one of their starting characters. It's like one foot in one world and one in the next.

The rulebook is still gonna be a bloated mass, after you spend however much more time on it. Sure, it needs to be done, but I downloaded it, just now, and it's still pegging the length meter at 295 pages. Understanding how to use the game interface is VASTLY more consequential and important than whittling a few pages off of that rulebook. If they can't figure out the game interface, then the best rulebook in the world isn't gonna save you. Reading the rulebook isn't actually necessary to new players being able to have fun with playing Alamaze. Do you think that new players are likely to master what's in the rulebook, before they figure out how to use the game interface, or before they start having fun in the game?

I will never in my life understand the obsession with "rewriting the rulebook." How many years have been wasted on that pursuit? The rulebook has been written and compiled and revised and recompiled how many times, exactly? Does anyone even know or remember?

What about rewriting the rulebook, once again, is likely to alter the underlying dynamic? Nothing, insofar as I am aware. Clean it up. Fix those stats. Tinker around the edges. How do you plan to make it more easily digestible, though? And not just to Alamaze veterans, but to brand spanking new players, including those who don't want to read hundreds of pages and still not know how to work the game's interface? At any point is the rulebook ever gonna make an attempt to explain how to use the game interface?

An electronic search of the 295 page rulebook, just now, yielded no results for "interface." Is it in there any any other name? On Page #18, I see that big fancy term "The Online Order Entry and Verification Website." It confirms that "there there is a learning curve to fully understand Alamaze’s gameplay," that's not an explanation of how to use it, at all.

That Alamaze Game Queue continues to look as confusing as ever. How many games of Alamaze are currently underway and being played? It doesn't bother to say. So, you can't use that critical piece of information to tempt and attract newcomers with. It remains the case, even now, that Alamaze isn't geared towards new players - and all of the colorful verbiage and clever word games by Alamaze veterans will do nothing to alter that underlying conundrum. That old reliable mantra of "read the rulebook" never got Alamaze a bunch of new players, no matter how many times it as chanted and held up as some kind of Holy Grail. Most assuredly, it's not. The rulebook isn't key to attracting or retaining new players. The rulebook is of "secondary importance," not "primary importance," to the challenge of growing the size of Alamaze's player base considerably.

Currently, 5 games of Alamaze are forming. All 5 of them are 12-player games. The one closest to starting has 9 players signed up for it. Another has 5 players signed up. A third has 4 players signed up. Both the 4th and the 5th of those 5 games forming only have 1 player signed up to play in each of those two games of Alamaze.

You can balance and re-balance the forces until the moon falls from the sky, but you haven't yet addressed the underlying, fundamental problems that continue to depress Alamaze's player numbers.

This thread indicates that Game 949, the one with 9 players signed up to play in it, already, began forming and accepting players for sign-up back on May 8th, 2025 at 03:14PM.
https://alamaze.net/forum/thread-17543.html

So, that game has been forming for more than 3 months, if I'm looking at things correctly. Is there a market of games that take months on end to form and start? People will simply get tired of waiting, particularly newcomers.

You can do what you want to. It's no sweat off of me what path you go down, or what your chosen priorities are. But if you actually want people to, "Stand forth, speak your mind, and help forge the fate of Alamaze," then that runs the risk of you getting told things that you may not want to hear.

Alamaze is coded so that you can't alter individual games. That's a programming issue. Recode it. Programmers recode things all the time. I know, it's complicated. It requires an investment of time and energy and coding expertise. Maybe A.I. can assist with getting coding kinks like that out of Alamaze's programming.

Admittedly, I'm out of the loop - and by choice. I'm just here responding to an e-mail invitation sent out to multiple different people from support@alamaze.net. I always wish Alamaze well, but I just think that the priorities could possibly benefit from a re-look. I've spoken enough about Alamaze over the years to last me a lifetime. More times than not, it's fallen on deaf ears - and that goes back well beyond John taking over. I stepped away from things long ago, to let Rick do things his way. And more recently, I stepped away to let John do things is way. I probably should be taken off the list for invitations like the one that I received a little earlier, this evening. I'm not hear to rain on anybody's parade. There is always a lot of other things on my plate that I can allocate my attention to.

And on that note, the best of luck and success in getting it all sorted out.

- Charles -

[Xerro]

I have always liked betas. Having the opportunity to help improve a game appeals to me personally. The first option will also allow you to evaluate the changes better. By seeing the effect on the game as a whole with just the troop changes will allow you to see where tweaks are needed to troops . Then moving on to kingdom traits and reinforcements will allow you to see the effects more clearly on the most current changes. I whole heartedly support choice 1.

[JohnnyUtah]

Brekk - Can you not just deploy a second instance with the new db updates and then invite a handful of veteran players to beta test?

If you had a nonprod instance then you could attempt some code updates as well. I'm guessing it's just javascript?

[Olorin]

He is indeed getting help re-coding it. But that takes time, a lot of time. As in there are thousands of lines of code to check and re-do. In the meantime balancing the various Kingdoms and brigades will take a few days, the reinforcements,summons and companions adjustments a few weeks, and probably about the same for spells.

And I agree with Charles that the game interface needs to be used in the rewrite of the rulebook showing examples of use. Or a fast introduction showing same. I think an "Intro to Alamaze" showing an example turn being filled out with an explanation would be invaluable to a beginning player.

[Brekk]

Brekk - Can you not just deploy a second instance with the new db updates and then invite a handful of veteran players to beta test?

If you had a nonprod instance then you could attempt some code updates as well. I'm guessing it's just javascript?

Not today, although we are building the backup server now, which is far more than a Java recompile.  We will be updating the server, applications, hardware changes, https throughout, and other “stuff”.  Once I have this working i will be able to shift players to that server and easily run a prod/dev environments.
Hope that helps, stilll a lot besides this to do to help modernize the infrastructure, which doesn’t really advance the “game” itself it just keeps the house from falling down and giving myself more options.