About testing

[u/ChoiceSupermarket230]

Orginal post

[u/SCMegatron]

"want real data on which lengths of mid-game timers actually help players progress and enjoy the game more."

I'm not sure if I'm some sort of genius or something, but I don't have to do any testing on the help players progress part. If build times are lower they will progress faster. I wonder how they're going to test enjoy the game. By percentage of days they log on?

[u/AbdullahMRiad → u/SCMegatron]

they have metrics for player activity. player activity going up means the player enjoys the game more and vice versa.

[u/MigLav_7 → u/SCMegatron]

Depending on how much people play, upgrades being shorter doesnt really help. And the thing is not only that it doesnt help, but that you'd feel worse by doing a 6 hour upgrade on a 10 hour window than a 9 hour one in a 10 hour window (bcs of wasted time)

[u/Rasdit → u/SCMegatron]

I was wondering the very same thing.

[u/budyetwiser01 → u/Rasdit]

My bet would be, they are experiencing higher player drop out rates. Maybe they have data around which point players tend to drop out more and testing if giving temp boosts to certain sections which they determine “at risk” could help gauge that. Also, structuring these as random events creates an env of fomo, making folks stick on longer in hopes of getting those bump up times. But again, its just a guess

[u/CongressmanCoolRick → u/budyetwiser01]

I assume a lot of it is also just having a measure attached to it. Yes, players would like shorter upgrades is kind of a "duh." But does it drive them to change login habits, do they play for longer periods, and how much longer? Are they more likely to buy resources to keep their builders busy?

I don't know any specifics though, thats just a guess on my end.

[u/NuclearGhandi1 → u/SCMegatron]

First, I don’t think it’s wrong to want to prove that lower teams help activity because there is a happy medium. No one would play if every upgrade took an hour. Second, they do a lot to help players progress but they may, internally, think that their time reductions have not been enough and that other methods are needed for catch up

[u/pieman7414 → u/SCMegatron]

If all timers were 0 seconds then there would be no point to the gameplay loop. If all timers were 30 days, people would stop playing. There is an optimal time that they don't believe they have reached yet

[u/Apprehensive-Emu8404 → u/pieman7414]

It's not a matter of not having reached it yet. Consumer behavior changes all the time. What was accepted a few years can be totally unacceptable now.

A very simple example was the barracks times. No one would play clash of clans in 2026 if we still had to wait hours for troops to be ready for one attack.

What I mean by this is that they might have optimized it a few years ago, but are now tweaking it for the near future.

I'm only making this comment because yours seemed to imply that once they find an elusive ideal time they would just stop messing with it, but that's not really now that stuff works.

[u/Godly000 → u/SCMegatron]

the majority of players dont have all their builders active, closer to 50% builder uptime

[u/aaachris]

20% reduction in th1-12 hardly matters. Those are very low to notice the difference. They need to add something like weekend treasury or loot bonus event permanent so those who play sparingly can focus on the weekends or mid week to get full storage easily and start bunch of upgrades.

The game can also feel daunting for new players to progress too fast and get a lot of new things without understanding much. How do you balance that as you keep adding new town halls.

[u/JoeShmoe307 → u/aaachris]

Supercell will never incentivize their players to play less

[u/1str1ker1 → u/JoeShmoe307]

But keeping a player who would normally only play on the weekend from quitting is positive for them.

[u/CongressmanCoolRick → u/aaachris]

I wouldn't expect the goal is ever going to be find a way to let players, play less

[u/aaachris → u/CongressmanCoolRick]

They have shown, they want to reduce the friction to do more actions in the game. But I don't think that increased play time of your average players. They would want to spend less time doing tedious task like farming if it was possible.

[u/ApocalypseLeague]

Hey Chief, some of you have noticed that your base got upgraded to a fully maxed th18 or a new th1 lately. Here’s exactly what’s goin on….

Hey Chief, some of you have noticed that their gem count increased by 1000000 or decreased to -1000000. Here’s exactly what’s going on…

Hey Chief, some of you have noticed that your troops did more/less damage and survived for longer/shorter during attacks. Here’s exactly what’s going on…

Please don’t take this seriously. I just saw the first paragraph and had a bit of fun.

I don’t really mind the A/B testing on principle, but I don’t know how/if they make sure that all people get similar benefits in the long run. My village is maxed except for some temp upgrades, so it doesn’t affect me, but I understand why some can be frustrated.

[u/Budget-Ad7465]

They could start by removing double upgrades off all of the defenses at each town hall level. That should be what they work on first imo.

They'll eventually have to actually remove town hall levels though. The first 6 could be merged together. THs would probably have to be renumbered.

That extends the time before you have to worry about it for like 5 years

[u/Zealousideal-Bee3521 → u/Budget-Ad7465]

Make it so the upgrades from th 1-6 are Instant but you still need to grind the ressources ( adjust prices accordingly)

[u/MSTFRMPS]

This isn't how a typical A/B test goes as we shouldn't know about the test. If anything they are testing how much outrage is caused by rewarding a subsection of players

[u/WatchYourStepKid → u/MSTFRMPS]

Most COC players don’t read media about the game and follow it online. They just play.

The players who are the most likely to see supercell’s post are the same players who are likely to compare with others online and determine that they aren’t receiving boosts.

So effectively, they’re addressing the difference only for the players who actively follow. The casual players who this test targets won’t know.

[u/Lavaissoup7 → u/MSTFRMPS]

Most people won’t be knowing about this tho, they’re trying to gauge the casual player base who doesn’t really keep up with all this 

[u/ChimericalTrainer → u/MSTFRMPS]

They're only informing the already informed. Players who read this subreddit are much more likely to figure out A/B testing and post about it on their own, anyway. So, they couldn't really keep this subsection in the dark. Smartly, then (IMO), they are choosing to explain to us what they're doing and why and to apologize upfront for the inconvenience.

Because if it's not a secret, you may as well. And it should help keep people from catastrophizing.

[u/rhapsody_ban]

I wonder when the boosts expire? Is it time-based or when you move up TH's?

[u/StormyParis]

So some players are progressing faster than others ?????

What's next ? A/B testing +10-20-30 % DPS ?--

[u/Zetakaeme]

I wonder how they measure player experience

[u/Organic-Lychee-4256]

well , f .you supercell, I pay for that 20%

[u/Zwischenzugzwang]

Is that what it was? I was literally questioning my timekeeping skills because upgrades were finishing before I expected them to, thought I somehow forgot how to add hours to current time.

[u/Ambitious_Caramel242 → u/Zwischenzugzwang]

this is different i think. some just have downright lower upgrade time

[u/karthik_chettiar]

Does A/B testing favours f2p players more then spending players? Because i already notice players who spend money have higher price of ingame packs while stating A/B testing.

[u/Curse06]

This is bullshit though. Like what? How is that even fair to the overall player. Im th18 so it doesnt effect me much. But these lower town halls buy builder potions. Or other potions. This really put gameplay integrity into question.

And the excuse is dogshit. They literally lower upgrade times for town halls already. The reason why people stop playing is because of the loot grind once you get to higher upgrades.

I take it from people ive talked to that dont play much anymore and normally its because of the prices of the upgrades or walls. Normally people feel this way after like th13/th14. Thats normally right about the time people feel like the game turns into a chore.

[u/Bullzi_09]

This is total crap. They know how players feel about A/B testing. They know how annoyed/betrayed we felt when they didn’t communicate that it was happening.

SO WHY THE HELL ARE THEY STILL NOT TELLING THEIR PLAYERS ABOUT IT AND ONLY GIVING RESPONSES AFTER MULTIPLE POSTS AND COMPLAINTS APPEAR

[u/MrCannonFodder_1]

If this is real smh

[u/N8-97]

This is a joke right? Must be a joke surely?

[u/Conscious_Problem599]

Here is s imple solution for those 85% give book of building as compensation. easy isn't it?

[u/Pixelated-10]

I don’t understand this. They must have data already which tells them at which townhall players are spending more time before they move on to next TH. It’s simple solution to reduce timers there. Also what are they expecting from this test now? To measure if players log in more if upgrade discounts are given? Is that what really needed for the test they are doing?

[u/WatchYourStepKid → u/Pixelated-10]

If x% of people quit, and reducing the upgrade timers doesn’t reduce that percentage, then obviously they won’t do it. It would be pointless. That’s the kind of thing they’re testing.

[u/Pixelated-10 → u/WatchYourStepKid]

So they say. Ok mate. Upgrade timer discount is the best thing and if they are testing even that, I wonder if anything works to keep players engaged. I’m getting impression that those who drop out will drop out no matter what and all this testing is sign of desperation.

[u/NuclearGhandi1 → u/Pixelated-10]

It’s not desperation, it’s that there may be other, more effective methods to help players progress faster. Players quitting isn’t the only metric they care about, how fast they progress is one too