Existing Gameplay Changes by Mr. Slider

[subtle quarry]

Welcome @meager needle! Any feedback from the community will show up here.
Please note that this thread discussion is not shared with SMG.
It is solely for the RISK Community to discuss ideas & provide constructive feedback!

[grand siren]

what exactly do you mean?

which slider
and what do you mean by 100% of a take

[gusty steeple]

This 100%. It is beyond dumb that knowing about and having the time to execute perfect slider is a skill in this game. Has absolutely nothing to do with what Risk is about but definitely is important.

[gusty steeple]

In balanced blitz you lose less troops on average if you set the attack slider to the smallest possible amount of troops that still give 100% win probability.

[grand siren]

oooh

[gusty steeple]

E.g. against a 1 always set it to 3 because that's already 100%. The impact it makes grows with the attacker's stack size. 1000 to 1 loses way more than when the same stack perfect sliders to 3 instead 1000.

[grand siren]

yeah that is dumb lol
i always play 100% random so it never gives me 100%

[gusty steeple]

The proposed solution here is also the best possible because they don't need to reinvent anything about the balanced blitz algorithm. Just give everyone perfect slider every time.

[gusty steeple]

In true random it doesn't matter. Perfect slider is an artifact of the way the balanced blitz algorithm works.

[grand siren]

yeah
alright thank you for explaining

[stiff slate]

I don't see how it's possible people would downvote this... having to use the slider to ensure you're only committing 4vs1, 6vs2, 7vs3, 9vs4, etc can waste a lot of time in 2 situations. Situation 1, you are trying to get a kill and you barely have enough troops, you're forced to adjust the slider so you aren't overcommitting troops, this wastes time and its pathetic. Situation 2, you're in a bit of a stalemate with 4 players still alive. Your capital (or big stack) is the only thing open to take a card, BUT instead of being able to just attack, you have to make sure the slider is all the way down otherwise you could lose like 20 troops attacking a 1... imagine all 4 players are using the slider, that's a massive amount of time wasted just because if you don't use the slider, you're at a disadvantage.

[gusty steeple]

They like the feature because it gives them an edge over those not using it.

[meager needle]

And its disappointing see how super relevant people in this community are complaining about this problem since the slider was added to the game, and SMG dont giving a f**k about it. I dont understand if they dont fix it because of they are focused in a more casual player base that dont see the problem, or its because they dont even realize that having this flaw in the game, its actually affecting the gameplay, doing it more unfair and slow

[grand tundra]

I don't see the reason you have to slider...like yeah you could lose some troops. But in the long run of the game it's not that bad. And for low troops it's not important to slider. Only if you have a large stack, and even then you probably don't have to.

Slidering is almost useless

The dice in the game is just fine as it is. I don't know why people think it's broken, they're wrong in my mind.

Just think like a GM and figure out how to play in such a way that accounts for the current dice in the game. Very easy. SMG doesn't need to fix anything.

[zinc canopy]

Setting slider to "auto 100%" is:

• adding an extra toggle or button / icon on the primary game UI
• more isn't generally good, as it's already confusing enough for plenty of people as is
• it is a hacky fix to unexpected behaviour, instead of addressing the root cause of the behaviour
• kinda silly bandaid

It also seems to be PC players mostly that want "auto slider" - while also voting aggressively against any form of balancing between mobile and pc (more of a "I have a massive advantage over mobile players but to save 2% of extra troops I need to slow down a little bit, this is unacceptable!" rather than "this is an improvement to RISK that will positively impact all RISK players") - it's a very small proportion of players that want an auto slider (and most people won't even know, or care, why it's wanted), it's not a solution, it's a hacky workaround imo.

As to why I voted no for it^

If the concern is the tiny % of troops saved that you get from perfect sliding vs not, can always play true random where slider has no impact aside from "I only want to fight with X troops, rather than all of them - to damage an opponent without using all my troops" - the slider has zero downside to being used or not in the situations referenced, and you are instead of using dice "with stabilisers", just using dice / random - where slider concerns don't exist 🙂

I'm a little wary that you've said "super relevant people in the community" - everyone's voice matters, if it was an exclusive "some people are more important than others" it'd be a pay to win game, it isn't.

We're currently working on our network overhaul / moving from 3rd party MP engine & shifting a lot of things to server side instead of client side.
This has the end result of being able to support:

• server side storing of dice tables instead of client side (the reason an estimation technique exists)
• meaning dice can be improved in a much cleaner way
• massively improving reconnection, and holding games even when no human player remains (e.g disconnected briefly as last active player)
• variety of game modes
• much more secure environment (effectively removing MP based hacking from being an issue)

So from what I understand, the slider is the most important thing because some (quoting) "super relevant people in this community complain about this problem"
and things like more stable networking, less cheating, more game modes & ability to improve the dice without low-end supported devices being a factor for MP dice - are just a waste of the community's time?

I really don't get it..

[zinc canopy]

Just posting here for you @meager needle as it looks like it was flagged by Mee6 for repeated text or something
"""

No, you dont have to add any extra UI, the slider just have to be in other position every time you attack, and yes its kinda a bandaid fix, but if you are not focused on fixing your game, I prefer this slider change temporally until you solve the root that is causing the problem.
And this its not about a problem of PC vs mobile players, if you fix the slider you also gonna be helping mobile players. But you put the PC players as the bad ones that only want more advantage over the poor mobile players. I would love you giving mobile players a better and faster way of attacking, because improves the gameplay by making it more dynamic for everyone.
And no, of cause im not playing true random because of your dice code is broken, its a tottally different style of playing.
And at the end you said that I said that the slider its the most important thing when that never came out of my mouth. I understand that you have priorities and limited time and resources, so thats why im proposing a more simple solution for the problem. And, as I said, I dont consider this being the biggest problem in the game, but yes, in my humble opinion, one of the most easy to fix.

And I didnt know (and I respect) for you dont giving priority to more experienced players over the rest of the community.
Sorry if I have a misspelling, Im from a spanish language country, and again, thanks you.
"""

[meager needle]

Oh, thanks

[gusty steeple]

Thanks for taking the time for expressing your point of view and what the team is currently focusing on!

I would like to clarify that in my opinion the issue is that "perfect slidering" gives an advantage to those that use it to the detriment to both casual players that don't care about it or mobile players that don't have the time to adjust. Since this "skill" has an impact on win rate but has absolutely nothing to do with how good anyone is at Risk this is a problem in my opinion.

I would also like to suggest a very simple fix doesn't have the drawbacks you mentioned like e.g. cluttering of the UI. It would also preserve the originally intended functionality of the slider which is the ability to attack with a smaller amount of troops, e.g. to thin out another bigger stack without sacrificing all of ones troops or having to manually attack multiple times.