Announcement Annihilation - Feedback Thread

Annihilation - Feedback Thread

Hello and welcome!

Today, we would like to hear your most desired features which you want to see in Annihilation.

Please list your personal top 3 and try to explain each point in detail!

These are popular suggestions that we are already aware of and thus don't have to be included in your comments:

• Player-driven private games
• Leaderboard expansions
• Achievements

*Complete rework of all classes. All classes except for a few contain harsh disadvantages in order to make the class more “fair”
Some other classes do not (ex: Dasher little to no limitations, Warrior negative effects when ability used. This crates an imbalance between classes leading to some being used more than others, the easy approach for the anni staff is to add more nerf to the one class in order to make it as useless as the other, a good approach would be to buff all other classes some might need severe buffs in order to make them more competitive and used more often. (Ex : remove the warrior damage when ability used, remove weakness from robinhood, add extra cobwebs and a better passive ability to spider, add buff effects to vampire at night, etc. More can be implemented and suggested but the idea being a buff to all classes that would encourage players to use all classes not just the same (scout, dasher, tp) becuase they are the only strongest
*end game stats(highest kill count)(nexus damage) displayed
*Fishing class :3

2019 scout
Fortune 3 swords
Make alc regeneration from 2 to 2.3 or 2.4

①：Casual Anni as separated from current Anni ; 3 players vs 3 players, Nexus HP 15, limitied job (Only CIV, MIN, WAR, ACR, ENC), Small map, Each phases pass 3 min.
②：Random match depending on Rank point in ① idea； please think LOL or many type of other rank match games.
③：More media creator and partner, or inviting popular broadcasters ; This is importnat to reach potential newcomers and they can understand Anni system or get incentive to join Anni via broadcasting.

Ideas are from https://shotbow.net/forum/threads/my-view-of-anni-up-date.414508/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

※ A lot of players made so a detail sentence, then I added comment.

【Introduction】
I have already written or said my ideas can be justfied and important to expand Anni and Shotbow for obtaining newcomers and sustaining current players. Then, I would like to pose why these ideas have potentially huge good impact on newcomers and current players as a summary. Notablly, these ideas are made up from a concept, it is not from various concepts. This means that I dislike to change arbitrary and dominant environment from current one through manipulating Admin's mind by this suggetion; e.g.) manipulating game balance via changing exsisting classes etc. That why I would like to take about justification and necessity about establishing casual Anni and game match based on player's skill or experience, broadcast's uniqueness as compared with others.



【Background】
Anni players offten forget that Anni system is so complex. This means that potential newcomers hardly understand Anni system and get incentive to play Anni again. Furthermore, experienced players have huge knowledge and experience more than potential newcomers. So potential newcomers cannot take successful story under Anni, basically. Moreover, we have so many options as entertainment in 2022, e.g.) Netflexs and Youtube, Amazon prime video, Pokemon game, etc. So Anni game system needs to compete to obtain newcomers and sustain current players against other entertainment. In addition, newcomers make small contribution to win a game. Then, experienced players do not have incentive to kindly accept that newcomers come to same team or own discord without player skill. Next, newcomers need to spend time to Anni at least 40 - 50 min under these condition. So newcomers rarely get psychological attachment of Anni. That why we can extract issues from this analysis.

A：Potential newcomers hardly fit complex Anni system
B：Potential newcomers and Anni players have a lot of option to be fun without Anni.
C：Newcomers have a huge gap from experienced players.
D：The huge gap hinder newcomers to get incentive to play Anni through not getting successful story under Anni.
E：Newcomers rarely are invited to discord of experienced players (This means out of community).
F：Anni game is so long for players having less incentive to play Anni.



【Proposal】
①：Casual Anni as separated from current Anni ; 3 players vs 3 players, Nexus HP 15, limitied job (Only CIV, MIN, WAR, ACR, ENC), Small map, Each phases pass 3 min.
②：Random match depending on Rank point in ① idea； please think LOL or many type of other rank match games.
③：More media creator and partner, or inviting popular broadcasters ; This is importnat to reach potential newcomers and they can understand Anni system or get incentive to join Anni via broadcasting.



【Justification and necessity】
① and ② ware made to mitigate issues of "A and C, D, F".
③ was made to mitigate issues of "B and D".

Firstly, why do ① and ② have a capability of mitigating issues ? This is so simple. Game is easier and shorter, less gaps more than current Anni system. That why ① and ② is needed to obtain newcomers and sustain Anni players.

Secondly, why do ③ have a capability of mitigating issues ? It is because broadcast make fun time when broadcaster's personality is interesting. This can be a option to make fun time to potential newcomers and sustain current Anni players through giving feel of "be in community" to views. That way ③ is also needed.


Therefore, I wrote these ideas should be integrated into Anni team's strategy on this place.

Thank you.

My suggestions are intentionally left somewhat open ended to allow for changes to be made to them if implemented. Please let me know if you have any ideas or feedback.

1) A random event would be an awesome addition! It could be a portal that, when entered, can give you a unique reward if you are able to control an area for a predetermined time. Or maybe it teleports you to another part of the map. Maybe it happens to spawn outside a desperate teams base and gives them a new avenue to turn the tide of battle. The possibilities are endless!

2) A new class is long overdue. I am aware that adding a class is risky to the game overall as they can easily be too powerful or the opposite. I think the reward is worth the risk because it is at the core of what makes this game fun. It allows for new strategies to be made and more depth to the game. As for which class should be added, I will leave a link to a few that I feel would be a good addition.
https://shotbow.net/forum/threads/smelter-update-of-the-cooker-class.347764/
https://shotbow.net/forum/threads/fisherman.261076/

3) Unique mobs that spawn in the map would be a great idea. For example: A pig that has speed 10 and when killed, has a drop table with a chance of a rare item. What's great about the idea is its many ways to be balanced if it gets too powerful or vice versa. This concept doesn't have to be limited to positive rewards. Maybe that same pig could also have a chance to give the player slowness for a certain amount of time if killed. Pork farvor agrega esto!

I strongly believe that each update to Annihilation should have more than just a rebalance or bug fix. In my opinion, there should be a minimum of one new content addition. When the team door was added, that was an example of a good update because it added substance to the game. I personally don't find the content useful to me because of my playstyle, but it added something new to try out, and that is what matters most.

Just gonna do quick 3 things that I personally think would help make the game more enjoyable and or retain a player base with the remaining players that still play the game

1 - Without playing the game since the scout changes I can already tell that they are far from ideal and I’m saying this as someone who would like to see as many classes “viable” as possible. Scout needed a nerf but the class had somewhat of a identity and the changes ruined that - the way I used to see scout was that it had the upside of being a mobile class which was really good at chasing rather than scouting (not bad imo) and traded off offensive abilities like succubus suc and thor hammer damage/resistance, a good nerf that could of been done instead was remove the ability to use bows since this is what I felt was really unfair to play against when I played classes like thor into scout and would just get out ranged and ran down while not being able to close the gap also open to other ideas
Scout imo is one of the most enjoyable classes to play and that shows just by how many people play it nerfing the class to just make it feel bad rather than nerf it to balance it is how I saw the changes and don’t really agree with them

2 - Gap change was definitely something that needed to happen however I think the change was light and probably won’t change anything in 99% of games the timer change was something that I thought about before it went thru similar how to hcf works, however I think the better way to do it is to change it so you get a timer after every gap either make it longer like 5 mins per gap so most players will only use ~1 a rush and will let teams spread out the resources more or 1-2 and have a time in between gaps that you are killable so people don’t just chow down on one right after another and have a period of time you can kill said person

3 - remove ender pearls honestly might be the most unliked idea but I’m not even sure why they were added than other maybe to compensate for insane swapper traps what are another problem that I’m not gonna talk about, defending in this game was one of my favorite things to do back when I first started playing and I still build walls and even tried them in cws but spending ur entire game building this well thought out wall can all be bypassed if the people rushing you minded a few extra stacks of gold or if the one runner had one to get over your wall - I definitely think the vamp nerf helped with the problem but pearls still exist and it just doesn’t feel like they fit in the game

Just a couple of my thoughts off the top of my head I’m sure if I thought harder I could come up with some other things but at the ver minimum these would definitely feel nice to change up the game - just a few other things that could be changed but I won’t elaborate on is entire swapper rework, class balance changes (best to get community feedback on this), fortune, and toning down miner but gap nerf would help with this

I love the first idea, the second i think we need more playerbase to get implemented succesfully, but is a great idea too.

1. Pyro buff - a left click ability that throws a fire grenade, fireball or breath of fire. Helps gives it an ability unique to the class, whereas the fire resistance can be made with potions and flame and fire aspect with enchanting. The current ability being just aoe fire near the user pales in comparison to the wizard's fireball and it's other options.
2. Ninja buff - Between the smoke bomb and shuriken theres already alot the ninja has to do; for not much advantage. So a passive buff where if the smoke bomb is ready and the ninja gets melee'd the smoke bomb activates automatically. And adding jump boost ontop of the speed from the smoke bomb should add to it's movement options. Enough to jump 2 blocks, maybe 3 blocks?
3. Hunter - being notified when a trap goes off, or being able to see a trap's status while picking which one to lay

① I want hackers to ban quickly.
Needless to say. I often meet hackers lately. We don't want to play with hackers.
We want to have fun in fair play.
But we don't know when hackers will appear.
The burden on ANNI Admin now increases. Therefore, I want you to create a Japanese admin.
Making a Japanese admin should have some benefits

② Add new job and new item.
I want a new profession.
For example, you can swim faster or become stronger while in the water.
Jobs that can be used by wolves.

③ Use scp to disable tactics to drop players into the abyss.
Please stop void scp.
The ability of scp itself is interesting.
However, void scp wastes long hours of preparation.
This will lose motivation.
Can't be used near the abyss or can't be used unless your feet are on the ground.
Some measures are required, such as.

Here is my top 3:

1. Accept the Admin apply of Tobi472. Rumors say he might bring fresh german air.

2. Make 1v1 Annihilation a new gamemode: Smaller maps, shorter Phases, no witch, instant smelting, 50 Nexus HP and much more

3. Take Annihilation to the next level not by rebalancing the classes but reworking the whole class system itself. What does that mean?
In short: ( if you want a detailed version with the build in battle pass system contact me private) The maximum amount of classes will be reduced and in a result of it some classes will become 2 in 1. Each newly formed class has a short questline which unlocks new abilities. From the now freshly unlocked abilities you can select a few to customize your Class. This would be comarable to LOL having its Runes but you mainly select the main branches.

3.1. While looking back at LOL there is one big thing which could be fairly easy be implemented and have a big impact on the strenght of mobility Classes. The implementation of Anni-Spells. You can select one out of many helpfull abilities some easy ones which come to mind rn:
Flash aka the 45 sec cd doubblejump for all classes. This might give you the edge in escaping this nasty scout. On top of that you could balnce it that not all classes are able to select this ability. For exmaple classes with mobility cant select Flash.
Heal will be the ability to produce instant health potions after a set amount of time.
Ghost grants you a short speed and invis buff.
There is almost no limitation of what you can add here and it will surely refresh anni.

1. PRIVATE GAMES
Making it possible to create private matches with some basic customization, which classes to remove, which map, maybe disable certain things like fortune, gapples (until a certain phase maybe), pearls, etc. Be sure to include a way to duel parties also, to make it easier for clans. Might want to limit the amount of servers and add a time limit on the matches 2-3hrs to not let people hog the servers

2. BALANCE CHANGES
I think it'd be unfair to have to choose between many balance changes that need to be done, there'll be many brought up by people that each deserve their own attention
What you often see is people want walls to be powerful again, while they'll never be as strong as they used to be since people know how to deal with them for most of the time, but like Capt said, pearls are really the main reason why they're so weak now, swapper traps can get crazy and almost impossible to avoid, but I think adding a longer swapper timer like most classes already have would help greatly against that.
Another balance change I'm in favor of is *offense* Scorpio voiding, only actual effective way to avoid them is to make an actual good wall and have at least 1 person watching it and ready to either face the Scorpio or be a defender and tank the hook, which is a crazy investment for just 1 leather who can keep coming constantly and ruin people's games within seconds, and who will build walls these days now, which links to my first balance idea, and even worse if the enemy set up a skybridge.
And the last balance I think is important in the game now is how easy it is to get OP, fortune allows your entire team to get diamonds super quickly, miner gold rush let's you get stacks of gold very easily, cycling enchants allows you to get very high protection with some effort, while maybe not all these can or should be changed they all add up to people getting sometimes too strong to kill, which makes you fall back to cheap strategies like void scorpio.

3. ACTUAL UPDATES
Like Snurkle said and like soto said and others have too, a simple nerf/bug fix with one minor change to a class shouldn't be considered an update or sold like one. New content needs to be brought into the game, either being new classes, new items, tutorials, new class rework like what was mentioned in the 2021 year ahead post, just new content, keeping the game fresh.

I'm going to add a 4th point because there's a lot to be said and to choose only 3 is not enough, neither is 4 but take is as you wish, and this one might be a little controversial but I've been seeing more and more people mention it
4. RANDOM TEAMS ONLY
With the exception of small parties like 3-4 players, avoiding putting parties into same teams, with the small amount of players and matches we have in anni currently it's easy to know which players play a certain way, and either joining their team to just have an easier game and help a specific player/clan or where even clans/groups will join the same team as the other. With a private match making system I believe that will bring the bigger parties into those games and let more casual play into public games.

A final addition is I think sandbox could be used for play testing many of these features I've mentioned, host many test games with one or some of them, for a better feel of what people like or not, before just updating and issuing changes only months later.

Sorry for the longer post, very nice seeing a thread like this, I hope we can see people's ideas come to life soon!

Gonna let others say the stuff like new classes and quality of life changes. The only quality of life change I'm going to recommend is the ability for the engineer to upgrade their evertool from stone. Surrounding the evertool with 8 iron or 8 diamonds in a crafting table to upgrade it to iron or diamond tools would be nice. I find it odd that one of the main class items for engineer becomes useless after 5 minutes of playtime. Of course if you died the tool would go back to stone however. Its a small and pretty random change but its always bugged me that this wasn't a thing.

Giving more value to emerald and obsidian ranks, not in game advantages, but rather visual things, like kill particles and more kill effects that are exclusive to ranks, could be for obsidian that have purple particles and an enderman kill effect and that balloons and pets are unlocked in the lobby since for what it is worth I feel that it does not have the value of the range. And let the 8 vs 8 return.

Before I start off with the 3 points, I'd like to give credit where credits due. This post was totally unexpected but very much appreciated. It would also be a kind gesture to at least leave a like on all the posts to give the writers a sense of acknowledgment that the post has been read (low budget placebo effect I guess lol ).

The first 2 items I'm about to list are not directly involved with the gamemodes gameplay, it rather focuses on the root problems which causes these poor decisions to be released into the live game.

【1】 - Lack of communication:
This has always been an issue on Shotbow, but with the critical declines recently, this issue has become an active problem which can't be sugarcoated anymore. Players have no spokesperson, whenever we're told to take our suggestions to the forums on Discord, it's essentially left 4 dead since none of the members of the Staff team wants to acknowledge the posts existence. This issue is especially bad in the JP community. There is a lack of active JP staff compared to the 100 EU Admins we now have on Anni. It leaves the players wondering where those admins are when there's a question, a suggestion or feedback, whether it's on the forums or on discord. We should at least have one admin whose job is to focus on proper player (customer) experience on forums or Discord. => A Spokesperson (EN / JP)

【2】 - Staff team structure:
To describe it shortly: It's a mess. It's crucial that this issue gets addressed cause it's genuinely troubling how little structure there is. No sign of activity, existence or admiration. I wholeheartedly believe this should get cleaned up. Staff that take long breaks, retire them (temporarily). We need active replacements. You've opened your applications, the options are endless. Better communication between Player <--> Staff <--> Developer when it comes down to the management. Right now it's downright messy, looking at it from a business perspective. Mistri could actively use his big brain to help you guys out with that & direct you towards a better direction, but you need to admit that you require a little bit of help, even if you are a Lead in your gamemode. There's no shame in striving for a better game.

【3】 - This last point is dedicated to ideas that could quickly improve the game by a big margin:

• Replace ender pearls with Sponges (Referencing Capt's suggestion)
• A Water related class which, automatically enchants any boots with Depth Striding 1/2 or 3.
• Rework scout better. We can all agree it has lost its value.
• Rework vampire & hunter (the changes made weren't good).
• Halex00's evertool suggestion is actually clever, adapt that somehow.
• SpeedAnni, similar to SpeedUHC (Referencing suimintarazu's first suggestion)
• Depending on player activity, automatic 1v1 games availability (Referencing Tobi472's suggestion)
• We'd rather see a good update once every couple months than seeing one every month or two even though they're basically bug patches for the most part. Differentiate patch notes from actual ''updates''. (Referencing myself, Snurkle & Sens)
• Incentivizing > Punishing, do not forget that, you learned that hard way a couple days ago.
• A Gap change that is actually effective and doesn't sound and read like a bunch of thoughtless bullcrap.
• Allow Organizers & Media creators to ''actually'' spectate the CW game instead of letting us sit in the lobby like a bunch of dogs.
• Introduce custom crafts (Referencing hypixel UHC)
• Become a likeable staff team. (Referencing the community)

『 Looking forward to see how the Staff team will process most of these ideas & suggestions. 』

1. Enable to play in 8v8 mode again.

I'm sure this is what many players are thinking, but I think the old 8v8 mode, which is a size smaller than the usual game size, would reduce the waiting time when new votes don't start at all, depending on the time of day, mainly during off hours for the Japanese. Also, it would be nice to be able to open CWs and such between players without having to apply for a sandbox to admin. This would reduce the burden on the admins.

2. Changes to ALC Enhanced Potions, weakening the Gapple accordingly.

In a recent update, the effect of the ALC enhanced potion regeneration was reduced from 3 to 2, which seems to have made rushing in ALC more or less difficult. Currently, the effect of the regeneration potion at level 3 is "regeneration 2, 1:30", but I would like to see it be changed to "regeneration 2.5, 1:00" or "regeneration 3, 30 seconds" so that players can rush to some extent without relying on Gapple. Along with that, you could weaken Gapple.

3. Adding new classes, equalizing each class

As the number of skilled players has increased, it seems that only a limited number of classes have gained supremacy in the game. In order to prevent the game from getting stuck in a rut, I think adding some new classes and weakening the currently overpowered classes (Enchanter, Scout, Transporter, etc.) will make the game more enjoyable than ever.

To simplify, I feel the game encourages too much passive play and feel like Anni was better when gear traded hands more often through risky but exciting battles.

• Nerf the enchanter meta whether that would be by nerfing enchanter(like sens said) or by adding more team counter play options like the old chain swapping method, multiple immos, tweaks to merc and lumber jack.

With games dwindling in player count the new meta seems to be gear up into prot 4 diamond armor and play an escapist class like tp, scout or dasher. This has also dis-incentivized the use of unique combat classes. I feel like my experience in many games has gotten stale where I lose any gear I spent the first 20 minutes grinding for. After that it seems like I spend the rest of the game as a leather getting bullied by a few ultra geared players outside of my base with no really effective way of killing them yet they never actually rush in fear of losing their gear. I miss the excitement of being able to take down a full diamond player with some tactical team play as a group of leathers. Gear doesn't trade hands often enough and it has taken the "roller coaster" effect out of most the games I play.

• Balance bows and ranged classes

Since the 1.9 update the bows in the game have a really unbalanced risk to reward ratio where mid control seems to be defined by who can sit in the mid base and pour more arrows out into mid with no recourse. This has lead to me spending most my time at mid healing back up because the second I leave my mid base I am hit with a barrage of arrows. A powerful bow can be used to 2 shot a leather and 3 shot an iron without much risk and bow spamming in close quarters against a melee attacker shouldn't be as effective as it is.

• Quality of life changes

I understand development is run through volunteer hours and we are ultimately subject to whatever the devs feel like working on but changes to the score board and more achievements are not going to change player base numbers and the overall Anni experience. Development in new content whether that be spin off game modes, new classes, new game mechanics, new items, and meaningful class reworks to under utilized classes would breathe some actual life into the server. I think being able to vote on not only the map but possible game modifiers like reduced nexus health, faster ore respawns or tagging on snurkles suggestion power up wild cards like special mobs would spice up games. I think the current state of Anni deserves more love than it is getting and a few weeks of full games would bring up the current participation levels.

I appreciate this thread and feel that Anni from a balance and development side is in a better place now than it has been in years past.

Advertise the game. Anni is a great game, we just need a bigger playerbase. Right now I feel like if you are a noob you just join and get your butt whooped and then leave... imagine if some big youtuber got on here. I think the game would be popping off. Easier said than done, of course though.

Get rid of Swapper & Immo. It is incredibly frustrating to play against these classes and just demoralizing to play as AND against. It's an arms race of boredom. It isn't fun to just get shut down by a single class. It isn't interactive.

Tone down the mobility of classes. Building walls used to be really effective at defending, but now there are so many ways to get around walls. I miss the old style of defense.

Hello

1- As everyone is saying, bringing back a 1v1 match system where you can customize the rules like (nexus hp, time for phases, etc)

Viable because when the 1v1 match sandboxes are hosted, its that time when shotbow peak goes up

2- More administrators who actually know how to play anni (SA/NA/JP)

3- Make a system where you can buy kits from within the game, with a command like /shop

4- More privileges to users emerald, obsidian
like 2 shout tokens per month (no needed sub as it is now)
balloons, gift particles

You could connect the benefits of this ranks with annihilation, for example tokens to host sandbox.


Thanks for doing this, know how many people needed a post like this

1. Beta testing event servers
The easiest way to test upcoming updates and gives immediate feedback. Maybe host the test for a week. Admins don't even need to be there all the time, the forums and Discord can do the feedback.
2. General buff to underused classes
Vampire used to be very interesting. The flying mechanic makes it so much easier to take out skybridges (Why are we still getting torches from builders?). Nobody uses it anymore because it steals so little health.
Hardly see anyone using immobilizer because it just add hearts to make ultra gear players even harder to kill
Robinhood is such a disappointment that I don't even need to explain
3. /shop
This is more like Shotbow in general. I don't understand why I can't buy things in game but have to go through the website
4. A tutorial
New players have no idea what to do between each phase and will try rushing with plain iron armor solo and fail spectacularly.
If a tutorial map is takes too long to implement. Try "tutorial missions". A list of objectives you can do (30 lvl enchant, Gapple, First invis rush, etc.). They can act like first time achievements, maybe comes with an XP reward as well.

1. Add a small ANNI mode.
As many people have already suggested, we need a small ANNI mode. This will be attractive not only to regular ANNI players, but also to new ANNI players. This is because the current ANNI is fun for regular players, but for newcomers, the game is too long and not easy to challenge. So why not implement shorter ANNI such as 8v8 or 3v3? These games could use the Nexus hp 30 and small maps to shorten the game time, and for those who are just starting out in ANNI, this mode could use all professions available for those who haven't opened up their jobs. This will act as a tutorial, and newcomers may enjoy this mode and then join the full version of ANNI.

2. Lower the amount of xp required to open up important jobs.
There are other obstacles for newbies to settle into ANNI besides those mentioned in #1. That is the hassle of job release. Currently, ANNI can only be enjoyed if you have a profession, but it takes a lot of time and effort for beginners to unlock the jobs they need. Shouldn't the amount of xp required to unlock jobs that are essential to the game, such as Enchanter and Acrobat, be less? Otherwise, beginners may not want to continue playing ANNI due to the amount of hassle involved.

3. Adjustment/addition of jobs.
Although this is a lower priority compared to 1 and 2, adding new elements will bring freshness to the game. This is also important to motivate already existing ANNI players. I don't know if the developers are aware of this, but I believe that the usage rate of each job is very different.For those professions with low usage, we can make them more attractive by adding new abilities.

I'm sure it's a lot of work for the developers, but as an ANNI player, I believe that this thread with many opinions will help make ANNI better.