Battles usually consist of three rooms, which are decided by the judges of each battle beforehand. However, the available battle rooms are very limited, especially for battles with Major armies.
Designed by Master DS
Introduction
CPA: Battleground
Usually, battles last for thirty minutes, with there being three rooms per battle, lasting ten minutes each, which means that armies spend some time in each one of them. Sometimes there may be more or fewer rooms depending on the battle. Generally, battles take place on the CPA: Battleground, which is an army-centered Club Penguin Private Server. Some rooms in CPAB have been edited or remade in order to be able to hold battles in them. One example is the Iceberg, which has been enlarged so that there is more room for the armies. With that, a platform for judges and spectators was also added so they can sit without interfering with the fighting armies. Another example is the Cove, which has been remade and simplified so that armies can battle more easily.
Some rooms, however, are not accessible yet in the game. An example would be the Lighthouse and its Beacon. Regardless, there is still a large number of open rooms in the game, a total of 27. Aside from the main ones, there is also the Casa Fiesta added, ever since the Legends Cup XV, and it has worked as a great battle room.
Regulation
As the Club Penguin Army Judges organisation is responsible for all aspects of judging and regulates part of the battles, it also has regulations on the allowed battle rooms in a judged battle. Currently, for battles of any size, the allowed rooms are the Iceberg, Snow Forts, Stadium, Docks, Inside Mine, Forest, and Cove, according to the judging guidelines published in the CPAJ Discord server. Upon the addition of Casa Fiesta, it has also been informally added among those rooms. There are more rooms allowed for Small/Medium battles that have fewer than 30 troops online. These are the Pet Shop, Underground Pool, Dance Club, Ski Village, Gift Shop, and Dojo. What this means is that only 7+1 rooms are used for Major battles. At the same time, 14 rooms are allowed for S/M battles. Thus, only 29.6% of the available rooms are used for Major battles.
From the CPAJ Guidelines
Advantages
By having a regulation like this, it is ensured that the rooms are certain, while some remain unused at all. This helps army leaders train more in those rooms and perform better in the battles than they would otherwise. They are able to train in less time, compared to if more rooms were allowed. Choosing only the larger rooms can also make the battles less chaotic and more technical. At the same time, in the larger rooms, larger-sized armies are usually at an advantage, as they are free to cover more space while avoiding bunching.
deRegulation
Past Efforts
It should be noted that when CPAJ was first made, any room was usable for any type of battle. This means that a Major battle could end up taking place in the Book Room. This was the case up until 2023, when everything was getting more regulated. At that time, the predecessor of the current guidelines was made, which also added the room limitations.
The Book Room Being used in an Invasion
At this point, I would like to clarify that while I was a Head Judge, around this time last year, I tried to begin a deregulation process as part of the updated Judging Guidelines, which are currently being used. It was a decision that had to go through the Army Representatives. In CPAJ, each consistently active army has an Army Rep, so this means there were around 12 people with that role around the time. I created a suggestion, which I will show later in the post. It would lead to gradual deregulation, allowing more rooms to be used in battles, especially for smaller ones. To my surprise, some of the Reps did not like the idea and wanted to have a different approach, while some even suggested heavier regulation, and a decrease in rooms for Major battles.
After a couple of meetings, any changes were temporarily paused, and the new, at the time, guidelines were put into full focus. Some time after the guidelines were released, I quit from the HJ position to fully focus on Club Penguin Armies, so I never got to continue the process. At one point, CPAJ hinted that there would be changes in the judging guidelines, following a format similar to our Map Summit, which could include the room deregulation, too, but nothing ended up happening.
Advantages
By adding more rooms to the list of available rooms, battles become more unpredictable. This helps make them more intense and heated, which is what the community needs. They also become less size-based but more skill-based. A heavily trained army will be able to overcome any issues, even if the room isn’t the most suitable. It will be able to find formations to use to its advantage more easily compared to a less trained one. This could help smaller armies overcome the size difference simply by training more. An army that has mastered its training will face no issues in having battles in different, less common rooms.
Battles will also become less repetitive as it will no longer be the same 8 rooms appearing over and over again. They will be more entertaining for both the attendees and the spectators. At the same time, a smaller part of the game will remain unused, compared to now, and new troops will come in touch with more rooms. There are currently some battle-suitable rooms that have remained unused for a very long time. Since they are in the game, it is a no-brainer to let them go unused if they are battle-suitable. Having more available rooms will also improve judging itself. Judges will have a larger variety of rooms to choose from, which can be useful, especially in larger battles with lockouts. It will also decrease roomsniping as it will be tougher to predict what the next room is.
A Proposal
Below you can see the proposal I had shared with the Army Reps last April, which I still believe is a good first step to deregulate this unnecessary rule.
In this proposal, I had split the rooms into three categories. The first included the “Big Rooms”, which were the rooms allowed for any battles. In the second, there were the “Medium Rooms”. Those were mainly rooms used for S/M battles, with some extra ones being added. The last category, “Small Rooms”, followed a similar format but included smaller rooms. Instead of having the Small/Medium battle threshold at 30, I placed it at 50, as most rooms on the list can handle 50 penguins.
In my proposal, for Major battles only Tier A rooms would be used, and potentially a Tier B room. This way, there would be a potential difficulty increase, but at the same time, it would not disrupt the entire battle. At the same time, Small/Medium battles with fewer than 50 penguins would only take place in rooms of Tiers B and C. Tier A was not included because, usually in smaller-scale battles that take place in a large room, half of the room remains empty.
In addition to these, I had proposed that Freeland invasions should be allowed to take place in any room. There is no fighting taking place in the Freeland invasions anyway, so being able to choose any room makes them more interesting. Imagine, for example, seeing an army invading a Freeland outside the Mine room, which normally remains widely unused – apart from penguins walking by.
Modernisation
Since this sheet was made in April 2024, there have been some changes in CPAB ever since. First of all, the Dojo has been redesigned, making it more difficult to battle there. This would place Dojo from Tier B to C. Additionally, the Stage has been added. Given that penguins can walk in most of the room, even on some parts of the walls, the room can be considered a large one and should be put in Tier A. Last of all, the Casa Fiesta was added, which is a large room. At the same time, though, the Ski Village got another entrance, reaching 6, making it impossible to battle. Thus, it should be fully removed from the list, with Casa Fiesta being added to A Tier.
The Town and Outside of the Mine could also potentially be added in C Tier, as they are smaller-scale rooms, but still battle suitable. The Plaza would be an unsuitable battle room as it is the log-on room, so players would spawn in during the battle. The Ski Hill would be another C Tier room, despite the Sled Racing pop-ups, as it has a similar design to Dojo and the training mats. The Outside of the Dojo room would also be unsuitable, as it is too narrow and small for a battle to take place. This brings the number of used rooms from 8 for Major battles and 14 for S/M to 15 for both, and a total of 24 rooms used, compared to 14 now.
The Modernised Room Proposal
It seems like a deregulation when it comes to the battle rooms will be beneficial for the entire community. It is something that should be considered by the current Head Judges and the CPAJ Army Representatives. This change could help make battles more interesting and potentially increase the frequency of wars. Do you think this is something that will happen? Will there be a change, or will army leaders have a conservative view on the matter? Can a change like this improve the wars, battles, and judging quality?
JojoTeri
Chief Executive Producer
More Information
Professional Club Penguin player