The entire announcement can be found here but we'll copy/paste below as Inno can at times remove announcements.
So what's changing?
-rewards will be more streamlined so we'll get selection kits instead of lv1 and upgrades. That's always a positive
-as reported here previously Neo Colossus is getting a platinum (lv 11) which can only be obtained in end of season guild rewards (not individual rewards). So good players in casual guilds will drift to more competitive guilds.
-guild rewards will be paid-out per season instead of per championship. Some rewards like FP have increased but the better rewards (Qmedals) have decreased. In our view this is a net negative. For some of us the 12k FP for winning all 6 seasons in a championship is less than 2 days FP collections in our city. It's nice but not needed. The Qmedals used for city expansions is scarce and the overall amount will be reduced. We'll have to wait and see if the silver and gold Qpass will make up for the difference.
-The way we play QI will fundamentally change. Each day will be represented by a difficulty and we will automatically advance to the next difficulty at reset. So let's talk about what that means. We'll be using the boss nodes to make it simple. All the details are below in the copy/paste.
Difficulty one boss node strength multiplier 30%
difficulty 2 -40
difficulty 3-50 and continues to pus 10% until difficulty 8 which is 110%
difficulty 9 - 200
difficulty 10 - 250
difficulty 11 and 12 - 375%
As you know this is a game of have and have nots. The people who have QI boosts in their cities can breeze through lv 8 without adding decorations to their settlement. The people who don't have QI boosts in their city will burn through troops and stop around difficulty 3 and switch to a support/donation role.
Look at the composition of the guild you are currently in. Do you have a tiny amount of fighters and a whole bunch of people waiting for donation nodes to open? Well this problem is about to get worse.
Casual guilds will no longer be able to farm the lower levels over the course of the QI because it will automatically advance in difficulty at reset. It doesn't matter if you clear the boss nodes or not.
-The other major change is how quantum actions are purchased.
Right now we use shards to purchase actions. If we don't have enough shards we can spend diamonds to buy shards which then buy actions. The cost of the shards goes up with every purchase but it resets the next day. The cost was capped at 4 purchases/day.
With the new championship the cap will be removed so every purchase made during the season will increase in cost and will only reset at the start of the next season. What that means is the casual players will have more opportunities to hit nodes early in the QI because top players can't just buy more actions and spam the board.
If the bosses are cleared then farming nodes will be available but it won't move to the next difficulty until reset. So this change might help the casuals for the first day or two but here comes the net negative of this change.
The top QI fighters which every guild leans on to clear the fighting nodes so other can just give donations will not be able to do the volume fighting they are currently doing.
So that means all the casuals who enjoy guild rewards thanks to the top QI players will now be counted on to build fighting settlements and not just donation settlements. I'm sure some guilds will just accept dropping in the rankings but others will not meaning there will be more player drift.
Super guilds will recruit top players from competitive guilds.
Competitive guilds will try to merge with other competitive guilds so they can compete with super guilds.
Casual players in those competitive guilds will be booted to make room for more competitive players.
Casual guilds (which make up the majority of total guilds) will lose their best players and absorb players from competitive guilds who no longer tolerate them.
End of the day the disparity of have and have nots will increase not decrease which is contrary to the stated goals that prompted the change in QI.
The above picture is what it looks like when the boss nodes are cleared. You'll notice a red fight, blue fight and donation node that can be farmed.
Here is the copy/paste of the announcement as promised.....
he Quantum Incursions update and the 4th Championship
The 4th Quantum Incursions Championship starts on October 10th!
With this Championship, we're excited to introduce new Incursion maps, the new Neo Colossus level, as well as changes to the QI gameplay and rewards.
We've prepared this detailed post to explain the changes and our reasoning behind them. Dive in!
Reasoning and goals
To ensure the QI's seamless integration into the game and perfect the balancing, we continuously observe player behavior, analyze data, and read feedback . The following changes come as a result of this analysis. While the bulk of the changes happens during the BETA testing phase, we sometimes lack data needed to understand the full impact of the feature due to small player population, the lack of active Guilds, and lower activity rates on BETA.
As we see more players playing QI in different ways Championship after Championship on our LIVE servers, we understand QI's impact in a more profound and detailed way and can make informed decisions on how to further perfect the feature and its balancing for our players. We firmly believe that balancing changes allow us to support a healthy game economy and, therefore, ensure Forge of Empires continues to bring joy to our players for years to come.
To shape QI efficiently and yet in sync with its natural cycle, we adjust both the balancing and more structural aspects of the feature with every Championship. You've seen those changes before, and they will likely come again, as the game develops further and new data arrives.
In time for the 4th Championship, we prepared changes that aim to address the following tendencies we found after carefully analyzing the data from the LIVE servers:
- Instead of promoting the collaborative playstyle as intended, QI has facilitated internal competition between Guild members, especially on lower difficulties.
- The manual difficulty change made it possible for some difficulties to be farmed , while others to be largely neglected .
Continue reading for the full breakdown of the general changes and the specific content for the 4th Championship! We are also planning a Fragment conversion to ensure you can use your old QI building Fragments — more details below.
General changes
I. Automatic difficulty change and farming nodes
At the moment, Guilds need to manually change the QI difficulty after defeating the Boss if they want to continue playing.
With the 4th Championship, we are introducing the automatic difficulty change. It means that the currently active difficulty will change to the next automatically every day at midnight server time, regardless of whether the previous difficulty Boss was defeated.
Consequently, we've added difficulties 11 and 12 to ensure there is a difficulty for every day of the season. Due to start and end times, the first and the last difficulties will be active for less than 24 hours. Use your starting Quantum Actions to boost your progress in the first difficulty, and prepare for fierce competition in the last!
The list of active difficulties per day:
- Day 1 (Thursday / 16 hours): Difficulty 1
- Day 2: (Friday / 24 hours) Difficulty 2
- Day 3: (Saturday / 24 hours) Difficulty 3
- Day 4 (Sunday / 24 hours): Difficulty 4
- Day 5 (Monday / 24 hours): Difficulty 5
- Das 6 (Tuesday / 24 hours): Difficulty 6
- Day 7 (Wednesday / 24 hours): Difficulty 7
- Day 8 (Thursday / 24 hours) Difficulty 8
- Day 9 (Friday / 24 hours): Difficulty 9
- Day 10 (Saturday / 24 hours) Difficulty 10
- Day 11 (Sunday / 24 hours): Difficulty 11
- Day 12 (Monday / 8 hours): Difficulty 12
With this change, we aim to ensure that everybody has the chance to participate in lower difficulties and facilitate the collaborative work required from a Guild to conquer higher difficulties. We understand that it might make QI more challenging for some players at the beginning. Considering this, we've made a range of QI effects more broadly available in Events to enable everybody to get a sufficient amount of QI effects over time. Namely, you will find the QI effects in the following buildings:
- Mythical Manor, the Fellowship Event 2024: 30% Attack for Defending Army in Quantum Incursions
- Eerie Abandoned Asylum and Phantom Abandoned Asylum, the Halloween Event 2024: 10% and 15% Attack for Attacking Army in Quantum Incursions
If you happen to defeat the Boss, i.e. finish the difficulty before the timer runs out, you can continue gaining progress with the help of farming nodes. All difficulties will now have three: two fighting nodes (offense and defense) and a resource donation node. All farming nodes have a capacity of 1.000.000 progress points, similar to the previous farming nodes at the end of the last Incursions.
II. Quantum Actions purchase behavior
Players can buy extra Quantum Actions needed to move between the nodes with Quantum Shards. There are three packages available. At the moment, the number of Quantum Shards you need to spend to buy a package increases once you buy one of them, but caps after four purchases. The cost resets daily at midnight.
With the new Championship, the Quantum Shards price will continue to increase with every purchased Quantum Actions package, meaning the price increase cap is removed. The cost will also no longer reset daily, but only once at the beginning of each season.
While players can still purchase Quantum Actions, this rebalancing aims to regulate extensive use of this option, thus narrowing the gap between different player groups and ensuring all players can enjoy the Quantum Incursions at a measured pace. We've also added the Quantum Actions regeneration effect to some Event rewards to allow players to gain more Quantum Actions naturally. Namely:
- The Escutcheon Estate from the Fellowship Event 2024 that provides extra 50 Quantum Actions per recharge cycle.
- The Yaga's Roost from the Halloween Event 2024 that also provides extra 50 Quantum Actions per recharge cycle.
III. Leaderboard reward schedule
As you complete the seasons, your overall progress is counted towards the Championship leaderboard. At the moment, players receive their final reward Chest after the end of every Championship .
Starting with the 4th Championship, we will credit those leaderboard rewards after every Incursion , in addition to the current End-of-Incursion reward Chests. This way, you will get rewarded regularly for your QI efforts and can use the rewards to subsequently boost your progress for future seasons .
To account for the higher frequency, we have adjusted the content of those reward Chests accordingly. For example:
| 1st place | 4th-10th places |
|---|---|
| 250x Neo Colossus Silver Upgrade Kit Fragments 250x Neo Colossus Golden Upgrade Kit Fragments 2000x Neo Colossus Selection Kit Fragments 500x Quantum Incursions Summer 2024 (Iron Age) Epic Selection Kit Fragments 500x Neo King Selection Kit Fragments 500x Neo Queen Selection Kit Fragments 200000x Quantum Medals 2000x Forge Points | 125x Neo Colossus Silver Upgrade Kit Fragments 50x Neo Colossus Golden Upgrade Kit Fragments 250x Neo Colossus Selection Kit Fragments 125x Quantum Incursions Summer 2024 (Iron Age) Epic Selection Kit Fragments 250x Neo King Selection Kit Fragments 250x Neo Queen Selection Kit Fragments 100000x Quantum Medals 750x Forge Points |
Guilds that consistently hold their top ranking positions from one season to another, will find that the new approach can yield more rewards in some instances. Formerly, the leading Guild could receive 5.000 Forge Points per Championship. After the change, a Guild that holds the 1st place in the ranking during the entire Championship will get 2.000 Forge Points every season, so 12.000 Forge points for the whole 6-season Championship. Of all possible rewards, only the number of Quantum Medals has decreased overall.
IV. End-of-Incursion reward chests and "new" progress points
Currently, players need to clear the 1st QI difficulty in order to qualify for the first End-of-Incursion reward chest and can improve its contents by continuing to play actively, gaining more points, and clearing more difficulties.
With this change, we continue using the progress points to determine the content of those chests, however, now the overall Guild progress is taken into account.
This means that the combined number of progress points gained by the participants during an Incursion will determine the content of the End-of-Incursion reward chests.
Every interaction with a node in all Incursions and difficulties rewards 10 progress points. The total number of points needed to qualify for a chest is as follows:
- Chest 1: 2000
- Chest 2: 6000
- Chest 3: 10000
- Chest 4: 20000
- Chest 5: 30000
- Chest 6: 40000
- Chest 7: 50000
- Chest 8: 70000
- Chest 9: 100000
- Chest 10: 150000
All chests contain the same reward types, but the number of resources and Fragments increases with every chest tier. For example:
| Chest 5 | Chest 10 |
|---|---|
| 300x Neo Colossus Selection Kit Fragments 150x Neo Colossus Silver Upgrade Kit Fragments 80x Neo Colossus Golden Upgrade Kit Fragments 300x Neo Winners' Plaza Selection Kit Fragments 300x Neo Botanical Rotunda Selection Kit Fragments 60000x Quantum Medals OR 600x Forge Points | 1000x Neo Colossus Selection Kit Fragments 500x Neo Colossus Silver Upgrade Kit Fragments 250x Neo Colossus Golden Upgrade Kit Fragments 1000x Neo Winners' Plaza Selection Kit Fragments 1000x Neo Botanical Rotunda Selection Kit Fragments 200000x Quantum Medals OR 2000x Forge Points |
This change aims to re-iterate the importance of collaboration between Guildmates and ensure players can benefit from the combined progress, rather than only from their personal input.
Balancing changes
- All reward sources (QI Pass, Nodes, Leaderboard, End-Of-Incursion Chests) will now provide Fragments of building Selection Kits, rather than level 1 building Fragments. With this change, we aim to make our rewards more universally accessible between different QI Championships. The enemy Army strength is now scaled in accordance to the following values:
- Quantum Pass milestones now require 250 progress points each. Please remember that, simultaneously, every succesful interaction with a node in all Incursions and difficulties rewards 10 progress points. We also made sure you receive a steady supply of motivation for your QI efforts every step of the way with the accessibility of leaderboard rewards, improved node rewards, and End-of-Incursion chests.
- All difficulties offer the same type of rewards as node rewards, making collecting enough Fragments for any given reward easier. It remains that the node rewards are based on reward pools that offer a chance to receive one reward out of a pool.
The content for the 4th Championship
Finally, let's look at what our game designers prepared for the new Championship!
Of course, three new Incursion paths to venture on:
- Obsidian Peaks
- Tempest Spires
- Onyx Crater
And the brand-new level for the Neo Colossus!
| Building | Size | Road requirement | Stats - Iron Age | Stats - Space Age Space Hub |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Neo Colossus - Lv. 11 | 4x4 | No | Def%+Atk%/Atk 45 Def%+Atk%/Def 45 Def%+Atk%/Atk GBG 42 Def%+Atk%/Def GBG 42 Def%+Atk%/Atk GEX 56 Def%+Atk%/Def GEX 56 Forge Points 28 Goods 192 (when motivated) Guild Goods 380 (when motivated) Fragments 30 For: Neo Marble Gateway Selection Kit (1000 required) (needs motivation) | Def%+Atk%/Atk 63 Def%+Atk%/Def 63 Def%+Atk%/Atk GBG 59 Def%+Atk%/Def GBG 59 Def%+Atk%/Atk GEX 73 Def%+Atk%/Def GEX 73 Forge Points 36 Goods 221 (when motivated) Guild Goods 380 (when motivated) Fragments 30 For: Neo Marble Gateway Selection Kit (1000 required) (needs motivation) |
Notice for BETA: Neo Colossus level 11 will be added to the game during the later seasons of 4th QI Championship. Once in, you will be able to get Fragments for the updated Selection Kit exclusively for your Guild's performance in the Quantum Incursions leaderboard. We apologize for the delay!
Fragments conversion
As a consequence of the balancing for the 4th Championship, certain types of Fragments will no longer be accessible. To ensure you don't hoard unusable Fragments for QI buildings, we will be manually converting them into Selection Kit Fragments for all players!
The conversion rate is as follows:
| Existing Fragements | Exchanged into |
|---|---|
| Neo Colossus - Lv. 1 Fragments | Neo Colossus Selection Kit Fragments |
| Neo Winners' Plaza - Lv. 1 Fragments | Neo Winners' Plaza Selection Kit Fragments |
| Neo Botanical Rotunda - Lv. 1 Fragments | Neo Botanical Rotunda Selection Kit Fragments |
| Neo Winners' Plaza Upgrade Kit Fragments | Neo Winners' Plaza Selection Kit Fragments |
| Neo Botanical Rotunda Upgrade Kit Fragments | Neo Botanical Rotunda Selection Kit Fragments |
| Neo Tactician's Tower - Lv. 1 Fragments | Neo Tactician's Tower Selection Kit Fragments |
| Neo Sentinel Outpost - Lv. 1 Fragments | Neo Sentinel Outpost Selection Kit Fragments |
| Neo Tactician's Tower Upgrade Kit Fragments | Neo Tactician's Tower Selection Kit Fragments |
| Neo Sentinel Outpost Upgrade Kit Fragments | Neo Sentinel Outpost Selection Kit Fragments |
| Neo King - Lv. 1 Fragments | Neo King Selection Kit Fragments |
| Neo Queen - Lv. 1 Fragments | Neo Queen Selection Kit Fragments |
| Neo King Upgrade Kit Fragments | Neo King Selection Kit Fragments |
| Neo Queen Upgrade Kit Fragments | Neo Queen Selection Kit Fragments |
Notice for BETA: the exact timeline for the exchange is being determined. Like the Neo Colossus lvl. 11, it is likely to arrive on BETA after the start of the 4th Championship. Please stay tuned for the updates!
This concludes the update. As always, join the discussion with your fellow players on our official Discord channel, and let us know what you think about the 4th Quantum Incursions Championship!
The page is WIP and will be refined later on.