Clash of Clans [AMA] Here are the questions & responses from Darian Vorlick's AMA, held on December 20th, 2019.

[AMA] Here are the questions & responses from Darian Vorlick's AMA, held on December 20th, 2019.
[HUMOR] I have now become focused.
[GOAL] It took over 2 years, but I couldn't be prouder to say that I have finally lined my village border with 44 perfectly spaced bushes.
[Humor] thanks supercell
[Idea] Make santa surprise presents similar to grass in the way that that won’t disappear from touching it, this could help perfectionists a lot
[GOAL] I hit 6K cups for the first time
[HUMOR] Should I?
[Misc] Possible upcoming warden skin
[MISC] Thank you, Supercell. Very cool!
[MISC] Everybody gangsta until you forget to change your village and get off for a few weeks
[Glitch] really? You’re going to short change my rune of gold?
[EVENT] Merry Christmas you filthy animals!!
[Misc] At least I’m getting clan games points
[HUMOR] Merry Clashmas folks!
[HUMOR] Merry Christmas ...trader event ..❣️
Merry Christmas / Clashmas! - [Art] by Adam Clowery.
[humor] cancel, cancel! Where is the cancel?!
[Ideas] Imagine getting a Witcher themed Warden skin, would any of you like that? I think it could fit.
[GOAL] Proud father moment: my p.e.k.k.a. turned 8 today. Not sure if anyone cares but here ya go
[GOAL] My clan hit Level 20 today! :D
[GOAL] I have been with my current clan for over a year now and this is the first time we’ve unlocked all tiers for our clan games! I’m so proud of how far we’ve all come as a group, and this game just gets better and better everyday.
[HUMOR] It be like that doe
[MISC] Treating others the way I want to be treated
[EVENT] Ok, this has to be the best holiday deal yet.
[goal] now there both level 20

[AMA] Here are the questions & responses from Darian Vorlick's AMA, held on December 20th, 2019.

Posted: 20 Dec 2019 01:03 PM PST

Due to the maximum character count being 40000, I was not able to include everything I wanted to post, so I tried to cut out certain questions to make room. I spent some time reviewing what questions, I found, were most important to me and the Clash of Clans community. Here is the full transcript I had set up and wanted to post. I would recommend to use this, as I personally like to see the entirety of things, rather than summaries/simplifications, but to each's own. All questions and responses that are on this post and the transcript are highlighted on the transcript.

Q: Are we gonna be able to gift gold passes to people in the future? This would be helpful for communities like the RCS having giveaways.

A: One of our top QOL improvements we are looking at for 2020 is a better functionality when it comes to how we can send items to players. While it's only partly related to your question, our system originally wasn't designed initially to be able to send anything that isn't a Gem simply because Gems were the only form of currency when the support system was initially designed. With that said, we're going to be making some improvements to it, hopefully with the first major update of 2020. Adding the ability to gift Gold Passes is something we're looking at along with that QoL. However, we also have to look at how something like that could potentially be abused. I'm not saying it can be...we just need to find the ways it could potentially be abused before we do implement something like that. But from a personal standpoint, it would be nice to be able to gift a Gold Pass to someone, wouldn't it?

Q: Will there be an auto ability activation for the Battle Machine when he's about to die added any time soon?

A: During the development of TH13, it was looked at during development. However, there are some logic complications that sets the Battle Machine apart from the other Heroes. The fact that you can use his ability multiple times proved to be a bit of an obstacle. We simply may have run out of time to overcome it by the time the update was released.

Q: Can you add books from events/trader stacking? At least 2 since there are times like in this event when I had to sell my current BoH because my heroes had already finished upgrading at the time, and since we didn't know what what we were gonna get, I didn't have time to plan the upgrades. If not stacking, can you increase the max capacity of books?

A: The inability to stack books from the Trader was intentional by design. Magic Items are intended to be used, not hoarded. When we first introduced Magic Items, before they had the restrictive limit they have now, we saw players hoarding enough to upgrade their village multiple times over. These items were meant to speed up your progression as soon as possible, not sandbagging them for future updates. We only made the exception to the ones you buy in the offers specifically because the monetary value would be reduced if you couldn't receive all of the ones you purchased. This wasn't to give special treatment to those who spent money on the items. It was to ensure the value of what was spent remained consistent.

Q:Will there be any reduction in upgrade time and cost for lower Townhalls? If no, then do you think Clash of Clans,which takes years for a new player to reach a level where he can join competitive scene qualify as an esport?

A: We did a major refactoring of upgrade times and costs leading up to TH12. We recognize that as levels increase, it takes longer for players to get to that endgame. So we'll be taking a look at those upgrade times and costs in the coming year as well. We do want our esports efforts to remain rather grassroots. We don't see it becoming something like Overwatch League or League of Legends level of competitiveness. However, we still do want it to be somewhat of a proving ground where we can crown a world champion. With that said, in order to keep it approachable, we do need to make sure players are motivated to get there - even if that means reducing upgrade times and costs. So like I said, we'll be looking at those over the next year.

Q: Will we get any free hero skins and will there be an additional way to earn loot in builder base?

A: As far as free skins, who knows? This was the first year we ever did Hero skins so we're still looking at future options. As for now, they're only available through the Gold Pass but it's likely they'll be available through other means as well.

Q: With the release of TH13 we saw 1 new troop, 1 new defense, 1 new hero, and 1 new siege machine. Were there ever plans for a new trap? Or maybe some spells?

A: There is always room for more unique additions to the game in future updates. If you noticed, we didn't increase the level for several troops and defenses when TH13 was released. We didn't want to release ALL of the goodies in one shot. We do want to make sure we can space out the upgrades over time. That way you don't get all of it done in the first week and get stuck with nothing to upgrade for another 18+ months (assuming that's how long it is before we add another TH level). That includes new Spells or any other new feature we'd like to add after TH13. We've got more content coming in 2020.

Q: Still kind of on the topic of TH13. With the new siege machine added is it safe to assume the team is already bouncing ideas for another one for a future update?

A: The TH13 update is the start of our next production roadmap. For reference, Clan Games, Magic Items, TH12, Clan War Leagues, and the Season Challenges were all part of a production roadmap that pointed to a single goal: The World Championship. But to clarify, the end goal wasn't to specifically create an esport. It was to create a competitive platform that the community has been asking about for years. In order to release such a platform we had to do several steps before that. Looking at things in reverse, in order for players to compete at that level we needed them to have the newest and "max"est Town Hall, so we added TH12. However, in order to get people excited for TH12, we needed to speed up the upgrade process so we added Clan Games, Season Challenges, and Magic Items. With TH13, it's the start of a roadmap towards a very specific design goal we have in mind. We're not ready to share what that is just yet.

Q: Do you think the gold pass will ever be purchasable via gems & will hero skins be obtainable in the future outside of the gold pass?

A: It's unlikely. The game gives more than enough free gems each month to more than cover the costs of the Gold Pass. We don't do monetary incentives very often, but the Gold Pass is an absolute steal in terms of value that you get from it. Furthermore, we DO need to keep the lights on in order for us to keep making content. It's just an unfortunate reality.

Q: What's the stance on new barb archer & goblin levels? Whilst barbs & goblins have received small buffs since the addition of their most recent upgrades these 3 troops have all been withheld from new levels after townhall 10/11

A: We're aware of which troops didn't get levels. Hopefully we have some interesting solutions for those in coming updates.

Q: Any thoughts on revamping the lightning spell? It's currently absent & has been for some time from high level play despite increases to it's damage

A: The meta is constantly shifting based on what the community looks for in the competitive scene. Our biggest goal is to both keep troops and spells usable without being OP but also make sure underused ones are still viable. Changing the functionality of Lightning Spell specifically for higher level play would drastically alter how it's used in lower level play. That's not something we'd do very readily or easily.

Q: Will we see any additional utility added to walls in the future since the team has spoken about it in the past?

A: Additional utility like what, adding exploding traps in them? That was something we almost added in TH13 but found it to be way too frustrating for players when they were attacked. But, we're constantly thinking of new things we can do with them. We'd also love to hear new ideas if you have em!

Q: Will the Village get a new Background, bacause the current one is seven years old.

A: This is a QoL improvement we're looking at for 2020.

Q: The revenge button does not work. Are you planning to fixt it or to delete it?

A: We don't plan on removing the Revenge feature. In fact we're pretty adamant about keeping it in the game but it does need an overhaul to actually do something. It's pretty high on our QoL list.

Q: Will we get new training attack, bacouse of the new th13?

A: Creating those practice levels is pretty time intensive. We didn't have time to make new ones for TH13. Plus the practice levels are intended to introduce players to new meta attack strategies. Since those strategies are created by the community, we needed to wait to see what are the new popular ones you guys create before we could add them as practice modes.

Q: What about Single player or practice mission for Builder base?

A: I think Builder Base requires a lot of other things before we start working on practice levels for it, but it is something we could add in the future. We just don't have anything like that planned for it just yet.

Q: As a hardcore builder base player, I would like to see a real Clan related battle aspect added to it, be it clan wars themed or something different.. Thoughts on this?

A: While we don't have anything "on the books" for new content for BB, one of our designers is thinking of ways we can create a more Clan-linked social experience for Builder Base. There are a few design obstacles we'd need to overcome first. It's meant to be more of a solo type of feature so there weren't any Clan-based features developed into it. Furthermore, creating a Clan War feature would need to address the head-to-head aspect. You'd have to be online the same time your opponent is. If you were to do a Clan War system, if you could attack when your opponent wasn't online then it's no different than regular Clan Wars.

Q: I am a Chinese player. There are many platforms for game content creation in my country. I am a content creator on the Wechat platform. My fans currently have about 30,000 fans. I hope to get creator code to allow me to create better. Game content

A: While we introduced our Content Creator program to the world, there are many legal hurdles that prevent us from releasing it certain regions, like China. Hopefully, we can find a way to release it in China soon.

Q: Hi Darian, I just want to know if BB will get any love and if it will become less grindy. I also want to know if there will ever be new content for lower th levels.

A: I've addressed the BB stuff in other posts so you'll have to forgive me for not retyping it all out again. As far as new TH content, it's unlikely. The goal of Clash is to get you upgraded, not keep adding new content so you'll stay at the same TH.

Q: Snow in builder base doesn't fill some of the top part. "Full" sign on army camps is still in the same position even though camp size has shrunk. It just seems odd seeing so much gap in full sign and army camp center.

A: We're aware of these glitches. Unfortunately, our hands were tied with fixing other higher priority bugs like the Android crashes, etc. first. We'll eventually get to the visual bugs once we've fixed all the crashes and other critical ones first.

Q: Will there be anything in any future updates that will boost the request time of the Clan Castle?

A: How do you mean boost request time? You mean shorten the request timer? I don't think it's something we've discussed on the team very often as most are pretty happy with the 10 minute timer.

Q: Is their any plan on increasing of attacks in legend league or increasing the loot gain or you feel the current of attacks and loot is good enough

A: We feel 8 is currently a sweet spot for the number of attacks. We tested it early on with 10 and 15 and it was simply too demanding to keep up with that many attacks and defenses every single day for a month. If it becomes too demanding or too much of a chore, it simply burns people out from wanting to enter Legend League. Just keep in mind that you need to take as many defenses as you do attacks.

Q: Do you have plans on releasing old skins so we can buy it if we have missed it ?

A: Not at this time. We have discussed just preliminary ideas but we haven't come to any final decisions about how we'd like to reintroduce old skins. We have too many cool new ones we are working on, and it's often times very difficult to look backwards and want to reintroduce old content. We may offer them in the store at a much later point but if we did that now, given that it hasn't even been a year since we first introduced skins, it would devalue the exclusiveness of them.

Q: As you have mentioned earlier that recruitment tool is being modified/ improved as we speak , as that is the only ingame medium to recruit (without using external app/platform) since global is no more for obvious reasons. Is their anything that you would like to share with us regarding the same , Please remove members from the list whose inboxes are full

A: As we've said in the past, we recognize the recruitment tool didn't exactly have the smoothest roll out. In hindsight we agree in that we probably should've kept the chat active as we worked on deploying the recruitment tool, then finally closing Global once the tool was in a much more productive state. However, all we can do now is work on improving it and we have been. We've been monitoring the results from the changes we implemented in the recent update and those results are showing much more positive recruitments. It's still not perfect yet though.

Q: What do you know about this win trading? and the thing about ed? (if its true) What is being/will be done about this? and if we are not allowed to know, when will we know? When will this be resolved?

A: Any investigations into win-trading are done by our anti-fraud team. They do very thorough investigations of inappropriate activities and are really good at their detective work. With that said, we do not publicly reveal any details of account investigations.

Q: Playing Clash of Clans in an emulator: is this against the Terms of Service or not?

A: Playing using an emulator is not supported. While technically it is a 3rd party program, and thus technically a banable offense, it's one of the less likely things we'd come down on someone over.

Q: Are clan leaders going to get better tools? Ban players from clan (1-3 day?), stats on players activities (clan game points, cwl stats, etc), info on players history that join? Any way to make challenges persist after logging off? We have players in different time zones and it makes it difficult to coordinate fcs. Maybe make a separate channel just for challenges since we thankfully don't have global anymore?

A: We've been publicly talking about improving the Clan experience for quite some time. We simply haven't really nailed down solid features that we're completely sold on just yet. If we do add new functions to Clans, we want to make sure it's something that'll serve a purpose and not just filler material. Creating a separate chat channel may have some benefits, but at the same time it has a lot of negatives as well. We do want to improve methods for Clans to communicate with one another, especially for those who may not use external tools like Discord or Reddit etc. Adding a cross-Clan chat channel wouldn't really offer the benefits we'd like to see as it'd be no different than Global, so we have quite a few obstacles to tackle in this regard.

Q: Does supercell have a plan for more gear ups? Either more types of gear ups (ex: mega tesla in the home village) or more of the same (ex: more double cannons in the home village). Thanks for all you do!

A: Gear ups are a bit of a double edged sword. They're fun and cool but very niche and very limited in their practicality. The original idea was to have them simply be an alternative to the standard defense; not more effective but a trade off of sorts. But in an effort to maintain that balance, that may have reduced their potential effectiveness. Given that gear ups are tied to Builder Base levels, and since we don't have a BH10 planned on the horizon any time soon, it'll be a while before we see a gear up based on a new Builder Base addition. However, we could always add more gear ups that are separate from the Builder Base as well. We don't have any new ones planned at the moment as we're already elbows deep in the next update.

Once again, thanks to Supercell Forums user, PaluEF for his original post. I modified the transcript where necessary to make it look neater.

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[HUMOR] I have now become focused.

Posted: 25 Dec 2019 09:10 AM PST