CaptainBro (US1) said:

I know I criticized the Shapeshifter event, but I think this is actually a good event from GGS.  I didn't do much this round but I do think once the equipment is revealed I might put effort into getting it.  Also, not allowing alliance help forced players to either know how to defend or abandon-ship which I genuinely liked because it made defeating a Shapeshifter possible.

Things to improve;

1. better rewards. so far its just okay.  I hope the commander is strong and specialized like the Bloodcrow but not unbeatable like the Fly's Eye/Winged Knight hybrid set.

2. time. the distance between us and the castle we're attacking should be reduced to 100 clicks from 150.  An 1hr attack is a bit too long in my opinion and closing the gap forces people to be active.

DarkWARLORD (INT1) said:

Shape shifter is similar to an fclets see a shifter castle of 8k defssimilarly an fc target of 8k may have variety of troops while shifters have only 2 type f troops..
Speciality
except hard core modeso no worry attackem all  u are not losing any sols sols are regenerated

David Noble (US1) said:

Well. Lets just say what if their could be masked defenders that are distinguished from masked attackers? Although you would not be able to predict the strength of troops accurately it would help at least if there could be a way of knowing the troops stationed inside of a castle are defenders or attackers even if they are both masked. It would be good to distinguish ranged from melee, but it would also be good to distinguish defenders from attackers as well. The reasons why? There is at least one reason. While it may not benefit defenders so much because they do not have to worry about losing tools or troops and players who are experienced at this game usually do not send defenders for attacking anyway it would benefit the attackers at least to distinguish troop strength between attackers and defenders. If a castle for example has very little or no defense it, but has lots of attackers then you could save tools as well if the castle you are attacking has very little or no defenders stationed in it and the attackers are distinguished from the defenders. You may not need to send as many tools to attack if their is very little or no defense.

I am also assuming that the strength of the castellan and defensive tools will probably be seen as well and not just between the melee and ranged troops, but I would also go a step further and say that defenders should also be distinguished from attackers as well.

kampo (US1) said:

David Noble (US1) said:

Well. Lets just say what if their could be masked defenders that are distinguished from masked attackers? Although you would not be able to predict the strength of troops accurately it would help at least if there could be a way of knowing the troops stationed inside of a castle are defenders or attackers even if they are both masked. It would be good to distinguish ranged from melee, but it would also be good to distinguish defenders from attackers as well. The reasons why? There is at least one reason. While it may not benefit defenders so much because they do not have to worry about losing tools or troops and players who are experienced at this game usually do not send defenders for attacking anyway it would benefit the attackers at least to distinguish troop strength between attackers and defenders. If a castle for example has very little or no defense it, but has lots of attackers then you could save tools as well if the castle you are attacking has very little or no defenders stationed in it and the attackers are distinguished from the defenders. You may not need to send as many tools to attack if their is very little or no defense.

I am also assuming that the strength of the castellan and defensive tools will probably be seen as well and not just between the melee and ranged troops, but I would also go a step further and say that defenders should also be distinguished from attackers as well.

if you take the risk of not sending enough tools , you may just lose , these are not Blood crows or FL , the other side can change and adjust , so its best to send a full tooled attack   I don't think this event will run again soon anyhow , it has caused so many different bugs for all players , and these issues haven't been addressed yet , so GGE just sitting around to see if it resets every week is just some real BS  

TurtleHunter (AU1) said:

I like it. Something new that isn't FLS OR BC's. Finally using your imaginations to a certain extend I note. Sams and nomads are entirely different, so you people who are saying that it is worse than FL's, grow a brain because ass you can see, similar kind of concept but nothing alike in any other aspect. 

(always read the small print)

Peter John (US1) said:

NobleDonkey (AU1) said:

Peter John (US1) said:

BM ang1243 said:

Peter John (US1) said:

@BM ang1243

I repost this as I didn't realize I can comment this thread.

What BS is ALL unit will be basked to Shapeshifter sharpshooter (range) or legionnaire (melee) units. So how on earth we can plan our offense or defense properly, if we can't even calculate the strength of the troops in the spy and incoming report? Does GGS developer actually have brain?

Hey @Peter John (US1)

I don't see how this would change the way you attack? You can see whether they are melee or ranged troops, and so you can adjust ratios, etc. accordingly. Admittedly you can't choose to ignore a castle because they have 700 Veteran flame bearers as opposed to another castle which has 700 Sentinels, but apart from this, I can't see a major downside when setting up an attack.

It DOES!! If you really understand the battle mech, then the troops strength (along with tools/cast equipment) MATTERS to properly adjust the offense ratio. You DO NOT just adjust the ratio based on the no. of troops if you want to attack with optimum result.

It is HUGELY different when you are attacking 100 StKG + 50 ScKG vs 100 Mace + 50 ScKG vs 100 TravKn + 50 ScKG vs .... shall I continue????

Worst case for defense, knowing the incoming troops strength you CAN made an attempt to decide what kind of defense formation you want to choose. With proper calculation (again if you know exactly the battle mech is) you can kind of predict whether a specific incoming better served with, let day 50-50-0 or 100-0-0 and so on (also the M/R ratio per defended section). It is  BIG deal knowing the exact troops strength coming at you. While you don't really lose anything, but I HATE to lose. I'd rather be burnt but I have used my brain to defend incoming vs go 100-0-0 all the time. It's BORING.

Have to agree with both of you here Peter John. Making it so that you can't see what the troops are rather than having it set up as it would be for PVP is annoying.

With that being said though, Angus is also right. Whenever you attack another player, you need to be prepared for their defence to change. This means that when you attack, you attack as though you expect for them to be online and for it to be filled with top quality defenders and tools and with a tonne of alliance support EVERY SINGLE TIME and ON ALL FLANKS. 

Angus has said that this event is like "baby steps" to teach people to participate in PVP.. Even though their alliance can't support, they can still be online. I probably wouldn't spy in this event for any reason other than to see how many troops are in a potential target (bigger the better, and hopefully people on Au1 have better defence than the FLs). Then I would set up the attack to go will full force and full tools on all flanks in all waves in case they were online and had strong troops hiding in their ops to move over to their main.

Can imagine that password sharing may become a problem in this event though...

TOTALLY agree with you with the fact the defense can change. But that's the risk you NEED to take.

Here an example of issue of attacking. Let say I have a few attacks out. As most ppl know, most attack would involved a lot of R offense troops. Let say, this cause you have a few hundreds M off. left in your castle, twirling thier thumb. So out you send your faithful spy and see 100 Masked M + 50 Masked R on wall. What are you gonna do?

Those could be easily 100 TravKn + 50 ScKG. Had you know that for sure, wouldn't you take the risk and send ladder + your M off. (may be no mantlet to speed up the troops movement)? But since you don't see it, that could be 100 StKG + 50ScKG, which in this case had you know for sure, then you wouldn't attack it and wait it out until you regain your R off. troops, one way or another.

And I, pesonally, don't always attack full MOFO. I really like to tweak my attack, to the optimum. And if I attack a small alliance, I would like to give my target a chance to win. Or if shady match me with a weak opponent, I would scale back as much as I can as all I care is winning it to get my rewards, not really to burn his castle. Some players may play like me, and those who does would need to be able to see exactly what kind of troops in the def. and willing to take risk and/or giving a fair chance of the target to defend himself (especially if the level is pretty big in difference). May be I'm just too nice, but I don't want to be called bully because the shady match me with a weak player, even though that's actually not bullying, but hey there are too many cry baby out there.

HOWEVER, the biggest issue is for incoming. Not knowing exactly what coming at you, are you gonna risk tweaking your defense formation?

The matter of fact is, the masking of troops JUST simply take the fun of attacking/defending completely. We will just attack/defense like Robot

And here below, the lies:

BM ang1243 said:
...
  Attack of the Shapeshifters event is on its way… Make some noise!

• Attack of the Shapeshifters is a new Player versus Player event where you can use different strategies in order to win great rewards.

...

WHAT STRATEGY???? The only strategy in here is to use 1 single tactic to attack, and 1 single tactic to defend. So much for telling us that we can use "different" strategies. LMAO.

DK Banana (GB1) said:

Peter John (US1) said:

...

And here below, the lies:

BM ang1243 said:
...
  Attack of the Shapeshifters event is on its way… Make some noise!

• Attack of the Shapeshifters is a new Player versus Player event where you can use different strategies in order to win great rewards.

...

WHAT STRATEGY???? The only strategy in here is to use 1 single tactic to attack, and 1 single tactic to defend. So much for telling us that we can use "different" strategies. LMAO.

Rewards for expense (tools, tying up armies for a few h) not worth the while - easiest route is simply to send out to all Shapeshifters without tools when you go offline. Lose most, usually win one, gain points in all cases, no costs apart from travel. Otherwise when I am on, hitting towers is more fun  and brings in more reward (food - anything that fails to bring in food is a no no for any active player) than shapeshifter attacks.
So tedious as hell after day 1.
Might be an idea to strip the game down a little, rather than keep adding stuff...

Mike Shot (US1) said:

What equipment piece should I buy first?