Commanders,Since we first launched the game, there have been a couple major systems in the game that many of you have come to know quite well, that have been in need of an update. They are the Base and Raid systems.These two go hand in hand and rely very heavily on each other. Commanders have spent a lot of time and resources upgrading the Bots and Mods they have placed to defend their Bases, and even more to upgrade the Bots they use to raid other bases to gain Raid Chips that they use to purchase Upgrade materials, and Crystals in special raid events.There are, however, a couple of issues that exist within the system that we need to address. There is an inherent issue with the Raid system where players are able to rise through the Ranks of Raid medals to a place that they do not yet belong by continuously Raiding bases that are well below their capabilities, and belong to players that are not nearly capable of defending their bases against much stronger opponents.This has caused the ladder and tiers of the Raid System to have become fractured, and quite inaccurate. There is currently no clear performance based indicator that players can measure themselves against, or that we can use as a metric of performance.To fix this problem, we are going to be issuing a major revision to the Raid System. Starting August 28th, we will be altering the Raid opponent selection to no longer offer options on which bases to raid. There will be only one opponent, and that opponent will be selected based on their performance in Raids in relation to yours.In the beginning, players may see matches that feel unfair, but as matches occur the system will correct itself and give players more appropriate matchups based on their medal count. The higher your medal count, the tougher the opponents will become, and this is the way that it should be.We also believe that this will help address a major issue that many players have brought up over and over again. Players have noted multiple times that no matter how much time they’ve put into the Bots and Mods on their bases, there doesn’t seem to be anything that they can do to defend themselves from an Attacker. This is the result of players constantly choosing the bases that they are well overqualified for.We realize that this may be a jarring change to start with, but it is a necessary one for the health and future of the system.In addition to the Opponent Selection change, we’re going to be making a few other changes:- Refreshing Raid Opponents will no longer cost a full Raid Ticket. Instead, refreshing will cost 2 Energon and scale up to the full value of a Raid Ticket (10 Energon). This scaling will reset after 12 hours.- Raid Chips are now awarded for a successful defense. The amount of Raid Chips awarded will increase with your Medal Count.- Raid time limits have been extended to 20 minutes from the original 15 minutes to give players more time to complete their RaidTo help players ease into this System, we’re going to be making a temporary change to the way that our Special Bot related Raid Events function as well. Starting August 28th, with the launch of the Shockwave Raid Chip, you will now also have the ability to purchase a 3-Star Shockwave from the Raid Store for 10,000 Shockwave Chips! We know that many players have asked for something like this in the past, and hope that you're excited about the prospect of being able to obtain a 3-Star Bot directly! However, with that in mind, we are removing the Logic Crystal that is usually included in Raid events.During the Shockwave Event, in addition to receiving Shockwave Chips for a successful Raid, players will be awarded with half of their potential Shockwave Chip amount for failing the Raid. This amount of Chips for both a win and loss will scale up with your Medal count.We hope that this will encourage you all to start Raiding, and accelerate the time in which it takes to normalize the rankings of all of our Commanders.This is a big change, Commanders! It’s going to take some getting used to, and it will be a little trickier in the beginning of the change. But we are going to continue to monitor the systems, address any issues that may arise (technical, or in game!) and are dedicated to making these systems important and functional!