Developer Q&A (1/12/16)
LakeStone
Posts: 1,377 Community Moderator
Hi Everyone -
It has been a month since we launched worldwide and its been awesome to be a part of the Magic: The Gathering community. Everyone has been super friendly and have provided us some great feedback on how to improve the game and communication.
With every launch, we learn a couple of new things that need to be tweaked here and there. We took a few minutes to sit down with Benjamin Paquette, Senior Game Designer at Hibernum (MTGPQ Developer) to answer some questions we have heard from you.
Please enjoy the interview and we hope you have enjoyed the game so far. We have much more to come with the next update and will continue to expand the game with each update we release.
Thank you!
Everyone is asking, what is the main purpose of Quick Battle?
Quick Battle is actually a multi-purpose tool for players to enjoy! But mainly, it is there to allow players to quickly test out their new decks, and also to test their mettle vs other players (played by the AI of course!).
When do the Quick Battle's start and end?
Quick Battle begins and ends 3 times a week. Very soon, these battles will become more relevant and you will clearly see the start and end times for each event. We are still finishing up the complete design and will unveil more of this soon but players can expect Quick Battle to reset 3 times per week.
Why aren’t their rewards in Quick Battle?
Rewards for Quick Battle are coming. Much faster than winter… Rewards will be earned according to which position you ended the Quick Battle event in, and which one you were playing in. More to come on that pretty soon!
Who are the opponents that I am facing in Quick Battle?
If you are doing your first few fights, you might be facing a robot we created just for you. Otherwise, you’ll be facing decks created by other players around the level of the Planeswalker you choose to fight with. Creativity is key - expect to see a lot of new things as the weeks and months go by and new strategies are found and new cards are released!
What are the the purpose of the ribbons in Quick Battle?
Ribbons are there to show you your score at the end of a fight. They’re not a game object or a currency you’re accruing. Rewards that are tied to your wins are coming up in the next update. We apologize for the confusion this icon has caused, but we’re pretty certain you’ll find the next update to the Quick Battle rewards to be a very positive “trade of” to those ribbons!
When can we expect PVP battles/events in the near future and will they offer rewards?
In the next few weeks we will be rolling out an update that will bring with it Quick Battle rewards, as discussed above, alongside a Quick Battle cycle. These cycles will mean that the rewards you can earn from the weekend event will vary from the ones you get during the week. This should help players trying to strengthen their certain colors to pick their fights accordingly if they’re short on time.
More PvP events are in the works right now - but that is for later!
Can you give us a sampling of what players may expect?
Without giving everything away, imagine having a shot at a RED rare or mythic rare on the RED event that runs for a couple of days. It will help players a lot in getting the cards of the colors they’re after!
What should players focus on that may have completed the story mode?
We have more PvE - hard stuff, get ready! - in the works coming soon, and then all the updates we’re talking about regarding Quick Battle of course. This will help players diversify their Planeswalkers roster and extend their cards collection while we prepare the grand arrival of Battle for Zendikar!
What use is there for duplicate cards? Will I be able to trade or sell cards in the future? What should I do with duplicates now?
Right now your duplicates are just sitting there. No worries, they’ll come to use in a bit. The more you’ll have accumulated the more you’ll benefit (by quantity), too, so it’s really not wasted. I can’t spoil anything on the system yet though!
Can you give us some tips on how to best use each Planeswalker?
Jace has a very powerful mana drain and bounce mechanics. You’ll want to make sure you control your opponent’s creatures since yours are typically not as hard-hitting as the other Planeswalkers’ creatures. His first ability, Confusion, is great for making sure that you will survive for longer, and Ingenuity can give your spells a lot more use.
Nissa’s strengths are 2-fold: first, you can use some of her spells, creatures and abilities to accelerate your mana gain (spells such as Animist’s Awakening, for example, can give you a huge mana lead) so you can cast big creatures faster. Once they’re on the board, use cards like Joraga’s Invocation, Titanic Growth or her Nature’s Gift ability to bump them up to huge numbers and let it rip!
Liliana’s all about sacrifice. Sacrificing your own cards, creatures and mana gives her an edge. Cards like Erebos’ Titan, which discards your own cards when he dies to be returned to the board, are incredibly powerful, as is Despoiler of Souls, which drains a bit of your mana to be revived. Demonic Pact is an incredibly strong mythic support card as well, which essentially denies your opponent cards as well as dealing damage to them every turn, but at the risk of losing a chunk of her life if it gets destroyed. Her abilities are also very unique - Corrupt lets you sacrifice your cards to deny your opponent cards and Raise Dead lets you return your creatures to the board after they’ve been destroyed.
Chandra’s game is destruction. Her creatures have high attack but low life and are typically cheaper, but overall lack strong utility. She also has the best offensive spells in the game, and her abilities are strong - at Rank 3, Flame Shot destroys a block of 3x3 gems, which is useful for clearing out supports and generating some extra mana through possible cascades. As for her cards, Exquisite Firecraft is incredibly useful as it’s a cheap direct damage spell that can get rid of several big threats. Flameshadow Conjuring is also very strong, giving all newly summoned creatures both Haste and Prevent Damage, giving your creatures the power to punch through big defenders without taking any damage!
Gideon’s strength is in his creatures - they are efficient and typically strong, and do not cost a ton. Some of his best creatures are Knight of the White Orchid, which is an incredibly strong defender. Gideon has a niche with Disable, for which he has the 2 best cards that Disable in the game: Suppression Bonds and Hixus, Prison Warden. Both are incredibly useful at stopping your opponent’s creatures dead in their tracks, not to mention you can use Swift Reckoning to outright kill a Disabled creature. His abilities are all strong, as they give permanent buffs to his creatures - his third ability in particular, at rank 3, is game-changing, giving a creature lifelink, berserker and first strike!
It has been a month since we launched worldwide and its been awesome to be a part of the Magic: The Gathering community. Everyone has been super friendly and have provided us some great feedback on how to improve the game and communication.
With every launch, we learn a couple of new things that need to be tweaked here and there. We took a few minutes to sit down with Benjamin Paquette, Senior Game Designer at Hibernum (MTGPQ Developer) to answer some questions we have heard from you.
Please enjoy the interview and we hope you have enjoyed the game so far. We have much more to come with the next update and will continue to expand the game with each update we release.
Thank you!
Everyone is asking, what is the main purpose of Quick Battle?
Quick Battle is actually a multi-purpose tool for players to enjoy! But mainly, it is there to allow players to quickly test out their new decks, and also to test their mettle vs other players (played by the AI of course!).
When do the Quick Battle's start and end?
Quick Battle begins and ends 3 times a week. Very soon, these battles will become more relevant and you will clearly see the start and end times for each event. We are still finishing up the complete design and will unveil more of this soon but players can expect Quick Battle to reset 3 times per week.
Why aren’t their rewards in Quick Battle?
Rewards for Quick Battle are coming. Much faster than winter… Rewards will be earned according to which position you ended the Quick Battle event in, and which one you were playing in. More to come on that pretty soon!
Who are the opponents that I am facing in Quick Battle?
If you are doing your first few fights, you might be facing a robot we created just for you. Otherwise, you’ll be facing decks created by other players around the level of the Planeswalker you choose to fight with. Creativity is key - expect to see a lot of new things as the weeks and months go by and new strategies are found and new cards are released!
What are the the purpose of the ribbons in Quick Battle?
Ribbons are there to show you your score at the end of a fight. They’re not a game object or a currency you’re accruing. Rewards that are tied to your wins are coming up in the next update. We apologize for the confusion this icon has caused, but we’re pretty certain you’ll find the next update to the Quick Battle rewards to be a very positive “trade of” to those ribbons!
When can we expect PVP battles/events in the near future and will they offer rewards?
In the next few weeks we will be rolling out an update that will bring with it Quick Battle rewards, as discussed above, alongside a Quick Battle cycle. These cycles will mean that the rewards you can earn from the weekend event will vary from the ones you get during the week. This should help players trying to strengthen their certain colors to pick their fights accordingly if they’re short on time.
More PvP events are in the works right now - but that is for later!
Can you give us a sampling of what players may expect?
Without giving everything away, imagine having a shot at a RED rare or mythic rare on the RED event that runs for a couple of days. It will help players a lot in getting the cards of the colors they’re after!
What should players focus on that may have completed the story mode?
We have more PvE - hard stuff, get ready! - in the works coming soon, and then all the updates we’re talking about regarding Quick Battle of course. This will help players diversify their Planeswalkers roster and extend their cards collection while we prepare the grand arrival of Battle for Zendikar!
What use is there for duplicate cards? Will I be able to trade or sell cards in the future? What should I do with duplicates now?
Right now your duplicates are just sitting there. No worries, they’ll come to use in a bit. The more you’ll have accumulated the more you’ll benefit (by quantity), too, so it’s really not wasted. I can’t spoil anything on the system yet though!
Can you give us some tips on how to best use each Planeswalker?
Jace has a very powerful mana drain and bounce mechanics. You’ll want to make sure you control your opponent’s creatures since yours are typically not as hard-hitting as the other Planeswalkers’ creatures. His first ability, Confusion, is great for making sure that you will survive for longer, and Ingenuity can give your spells a lot more use.
Nissa’s strengths are 2-fold: first, you can use some of her spells, creatures and abilities to accelerate your mana gain (spells such as Animist’s Awakening, for example, can give you a huge mana lead) so you can cast big creatures faster. Once they’re on the board, use cards like Joraga’s Invocation, Titanic Growth or her Nature’s Gift ability to bump them up to huge numbers and let it rip!
Liliana’s all about sacrifice. Sacrificing your own cards, creatures and mana gives her an edge. Cards like Erebos’ Titan, which discards your own cards when he dies to be returned to the board, are incredibly powerful, as is Despoiler of Souls, which drains a bit of your mana to be revived. Demonic Pact is an incredibly strong mythic support card as well, which essentially denies your opponent cards as well as dealing damage to them every turn, but at the risk of losing a chunk of her life if it gets destroyed. Her abilities are also very unique - Corrupt lets you sacrifice your cards to deny your opponent cards and Raise Dead lets you return your creatures to the board after they’ve been destroyed.
Chandra’s game is destruction. Her creatures have high attack but low life and are typically cheaper, but overall lack strong utility. She also has the best offensive spells in the game, and her abilities are strong - at Rank 3, Flame Shot destroys a block of 3x3 gems, which is useful for clearing out supports and generating some extra mana through possible cascades. As for her cards, Exquisite Firecraft is incredibly useful as it’s a cheap direct damage spell that can get rid of several big threats. Flameshadow Conjuring is also very strong, giving all newly summoned creatures both Haste and Prevent Damage, giving your creatures the power to punch through big defenders without taking any damage!
Gideon’s strength is in his creatures - they are efficient and typically strong, and do not cost a ton. Some of his best creatures are Knight of the White Orchid, which is an incredibly strong defender. Gideon has a niche with Disable, for which he has the 2 best cards that Disable in the game: Suppression Bonds and Hixus, Prison Warden. Both are incredibly useful at stopping your opponent’s creatures dead in their tracks, not to mention you can use Swift Reckoning to outright kill a Disabled creature. His abilities are all strong, as they give permanent buffs to his creatures - his third ability in particular, at rank 3, is game-changing, giving a creature lifelink, berserker and first strike!
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Comments
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This is very interesting, but I'm wondering if anyone asked the developer about their plan for the rarity of the cards?
How are these cards meant to be balanced, versus how they are balanced in MtG?
Currently we see a few mythics, Harbinger of the Tides in particular, who are huge deviations from their MtG equivalent in both power/toughness and effect.
Are mythics supposed to be strictly better, or are they supposed to be cheaper for the same effect, or are they supposed to be extremely expensive but game changing?
Regardless, it seems many mythics are either completely overpowered or completely useless - and much of that has to do with how mana gain is done in puzzle quest vs MtG. How are the developers addressing this? We notice that esp more efficient creatures are far better than huge powerful creatures, and how card draw is almost pointless because of a complete lack of mana ramp.
Furthermore, other features of MtG, such as defender's choice in blocking, or attacker's choice in attacking, are completely missing and change the dynamic and power level of many cards. First strike in particular is extremely powerful when the opposing player has no way of stopping their creatures from suiciding. Similarly, berserker is generally a bad choice as it wastes time and explodes itself versus a strong defender. Are the developers going to keep this as a simplified meta compared to MtG, or are there plans to address this with further features?0 -
First of all, I would like to say that MTG:PQ is IMO one of the more interesting takes on the match three genre that has been ever released. Introduction of cards adds a new layer of strategy to the game and gives it a lot of potential.
However, the game as it is is clearly flawed, and personally, I would really like to hear answers to the following questions:
1. Why was the game even released in its current state? Placeholder resource strings (Leaf_Glider_Power is my personal favorite), poor optimization (choppy animation on iPad Air), poorly designed and buggy UI (whenever I add a card to my deck, I go back to page 1 of my collection; swiping is problematic in certain parts of the UI like the hero selector, which is probably because the sensitivity has never been adjusted for tablets); there is simply too little content to keep a more experienced player engaged (story mode is rather easy to complete if you get some decent blue cards and versus mode is generally boring); issues with the daily rewards (I'm one of the people who got their fat packs, but are now stuck in 250 gold limbo... will I ever earn the much-coveted white rectangle?!) - all of this screams "alpha". The (lack of) activity on this forum is testament to players leaving for greener pastures, and many of them are not going to return even if the game gets fixed.
2. Are there plans to introduce at least a semblance of balance to cards and classes? Blue seems absurdly powerful vs. the AI, and there seems to be no power curve for the cards to follow.
Let's compare two blue creatures:
Separatist Voidmage 2/2 Attacker [10 mana] - When this creature enters the battlefield, target creature your opponent controls is Returned to its owner's hand and gains 6 mana.
Harbinger of the Tides 6/6 Attacker [10 mana] - When this creature enters the battlefield, target creature your opponent controls on the battlefield is returned to its owner's hand and it costs 9 more.
Paying the same cost for 3x better stats and an immensely more powerful effect should never be an option.
3. Along with performance improvements, are we going to see improved visual effects? Bells and whistles are in important part of match three games, and compared to Marvel:PQ or (lowers voice) Candy Crush, MTG:PQ seems lacking.
To conclude my post, I wish the developers best of luck in improving their game and making it a success. I really like the idea behind MTG:PQ, and I hope that it will be eventually realized to its full potential.0 -
Completely agreed. I was really looking forward to this game since the Marvel game is just so fun but so deeply flawed (especially the reward system), and I hoped that by starting over they could fix a lot of their mistakes. Instead I can't really play this game due to the "poorly designed and buggy UI" - another perfect quote. I'm completely surprised that a game in this state was even released to the public, much less one with relatively strong brand name (in niche circles anyway). Hopefully they'll finish the beta release soon and we can see what this game is really all about.Potatoperson wrote:1. Why was the game even released in its current state? ... all of this screams "alpha".0 -
This game shares a publisher with MarvelPQ, but they are developed by different companies.loroku wrote:I hoped that by starting over they could fix a lot of their mistakes.0 -
Can we have this again? On a regular basis? It will spare us much guessing and probably some frustration too.0
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@UweTellkampf
If you would like to request an old topic be brought up again, then please start a new thread. Closing this discussion.0
This discussion has been closed.
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