Development Thread - (11/15/16)

Corn_Noodles

Splizwarf wrote:

Corn Noodles wrote:

3) Paper card is two planeswalkers

In this vein, would it help tone down Deploy if it only pulled the next three Humans?

There's plenty of non-human planeswalkers, so I don't think it equates.

Splizwarf

I was thinking more in terms of the Gatewatch Posse all being human; I forgot that Nissa was an elf.

bk1234

I don't see what the big deal is with Deploy. Any good wipe will counter it. I'm in Platinum and I haven't even come across a single one.

It's like J2 -- I don't think he'd ever need a nerf because it so rarely affects us that it's not a big deal. Crush is much, much worse. Crush kicks my butt.

Just my 2 cents.

Ohboy

bken1234 wrote:

I don't see what the big deal is with Deploy. Any good wipe will counter it. I'm in Platinum and I haven't even come across a single one.

It's like J2 -- I don't think he'd ever need a nerf because it so rarely affects us that it's not a big deal. Crush is much, much worse. Crush kicks my butt.

Just my 2 cents.

Deploy usually sets up a 3 turn clock for you. If you can't get to that wrath of god card in 3 turns, you're done.

And it's not impossible to get hit by it in turn 1. Rare, but it's not a multi combo card. It can happen.

madwren

bken1234 wrote:

I don't see what the big deal is with Deploy. Any good wipe will counter it. I'm in Platinum and I haven't even come across a single one.

It's like J2 -- I don't think he'd ever need a nerf because it so rarely affects us that it's not a big deal. Crush is much, much worse. Crush kicks my butt.

Just my 2 cents.

The AI seems to deprioritize Deploy. Like many spells, it's significantly more powerful in the hands of the player than the computer. Judging by Slack conversations, at least, far more players are using it than are actually facing it. I've had it from the early days of the expansion, and it's in 3 of my 5 decks for NoP, but I haven't seen it cast against me more than once or twice in all of the events/QBs since then.

What you say about "good wipes" raises a different point, however. Of course, having them doesn't mean you'll draw them or respond in time. But more importantly, I think there's a shortage of global countermeasures against someone dumping 30+ points of power on the board in a single turn. Blue's certainly extremely effective with Engulf/Crush/DWave/Thing, but red and black both have wipes that top out at 6 toughness--which isn't effective anymore (remember the good old days when we lobbied to get Languish boosted to -6? Heh.) Green has Aurora, which is rarely seen (and at least in our coalition, Origins mythics are the ones least likely to be owned). Only white comes relatively close with Descend, and I suppose Tragic Arrogance (q.v. Aurora). Look out when Dovin Baan hits town, eh?

I will say, anecdotally, that Crush never bothers me at all, because I play heavy single-target removal. Octopi rarely live long enough to do damage. If there were three of them, tho..

kauppila

Well, to reply back to the original post, I appreciate your candor and transparency. Communicating with the community will only help everyone playing and develop more trust and loyalty.

I hope you can keep it up and listen to suggestions.

I for one really appreciated the first 1 day Emarkul's Corruption event much more than the multiple bug ridden 2 day events that followed.

I do think more 1 day events and different types of events would be helpful.

One more suggestion. I know you have many events with the counters for X number of events. It would be helpful if you could "activate" the node, but not actually have to play the match just then. Some players due to time zones are having to be active in the middle of the night or during work when they cannot otherwise actually take an hour away to play all their first matches in a node.

Example,
If the Nodes of Power event had the 5 nodes w/ 3 counters on each. How about capping the counters at 5, but starting them at 3. So, as soon as you touch the node, the timer starts. Then you don't actually play the node, but move to the other nodes and pop them too. Then you can take up to 8 hours before you actually start losing more time on your nodes (when they hit the cap of 5 on each node). Now, there are no more battles in this example than what we are doing now, but it would just make it more convenient to all if there was more flexibility.

Well, that is all for now, thank you for your hard work.

jimilinho_

Deploy doesn't need changing.

Its 23 mana so not cheap (still very good value of course), the decks built around it aren't actually that good if they don't draw it (just a bunch of 18 mana plus creatures and a few supports/spells) and to be honest from what I read the AI plays it pretty badly too.

Personally, I don't even remember the last time I had a deploy cast against me (I'm in platinum) so I don't even think it's getting used that much.

There are far more powerful cards than this in the game

Andrea

Hi everybody,
and thank you SO much for this thread: I think the community was waiting for this and it will benefit both the game AND the community (and the devs, eventually).

I wanted to suggest one thing about this point:

Animation speeds have changed in the last few updates. How come?

We’ve been working on reducing unnecessary wait times in matches. In October, we increased the speed for a number of animations. We also increased how fast the gems fell - but many players found this disorienting, so we dialed it back. We’re still trying to find the ideal balance - and we’re still looking for other ways to speed up matches. Keep up the great feedback!

I don't know how easy or hard it could be, but... how about leaving the freedom to players to choose their right speed? Like an animation speed lever, to be pushed or pulled depending on each own sensitivity, in the control board (which is almost empty, anyway)
If this could be done the problem would be solved at the root, without enforcing the same speed on all players.

Thank you again

And

Norksman

This has been a great thread to read as a relatively new player (about 2 months or so).

Thanks for all the info and the responses from the players as well.

For me, I just enjoy the actual playing of the matches. Whilst it'd be nice to have the shiny mythics (I have 2 so far) and it's certainly frustrating playing against decks stacked with them I love the deck building and strategy of actually playing.

So my biggest request is the ability to save multiple decks for each planeswalker. It's so frustrating having a small PW collection and having to completely remake the decks which also means losing the deck I had tweaked just right. Particularly for the events and story modes that have objectives.

Second on my list would be a 'turn history'. As a new player, I haven't been exposed to all the different cards across multiple sets. Many times a spell is cast which completely changes the board state and I have no opportunity to see what the card was, what it did, how much it costs, what rarity etc. I'd love to be able to check all the cards the ai cast in the previous turn so that I can learn about them, plan for them, potentially add them to my decks etc.

Mainloop25

Norksman wrote:

So my biggest request is the ability to save multiple decks for each planeswalker. It's so frustrating having a small PW collection and having to completely remake the decks which also means losing the deck I had tweaked just right. Particularly for the events and story modes that have objectives.

^^^^^^This.

Ohboy

Mainloop25 wrote:

Norksman wrote:

So my biggest request is the ability to save multiple decks for each planeswalker. It's so frustrating having a small PW collection and having to completely remake the decks which also means losing the deck I had tweaked just right. Particularly for the events and story modes that have objectives.

^^^^^^This.

This has been a suggestion since the beginning of the game. It's also the feature I'm most likely to pay for.

Morphis

Time for a serious question(and quite important one, at least for me) and something we were discussing earlier this morning in our coalition chat:

Are you working on a fix or redesign of the game engine?

Since the beginning of this game it appeared quite clear to me that there is some flaw in the way most effect are handled.
Even some bug fixes generating side bug effects, are signs of problem within the very core of the game engine.
So the question is legit since I think the game can't go on for long applying what look like "band aid" fixes.
This could be also a chance to improve it making it much more flexible for new mechanics.

[Deleted User]

I hope it's not perceived as rude or the wrong place to ask- but have we ever been told the reason for in-app purchases being so highly priced?

I'm guilty of buying an embarrassing amount of £30 Mythic Card bundles and Mana Crystal packs in the short time that I've been playing the game. I just can't help but think that I would feel a lot better about purchases if they were at a similar price range to normal mobile app microtransactions and not the full price of a new game on Steam...

majincob

Drycha wrote:

I hope it's not perceived as rude or the wrong place to ask- but have we ever been told the reason for in-app purchases being so highly priced?

I'm guilty of buying an embarrassing amount of £30 Mythic Card bundles and Mana Crystal packs in the short time that I've been playing the game. I just can't help but think that I would feel a lot better about purchases if they were at a similar price range to normal mobile app microtransactions and not the full price of a new game on Steam...

This is off topic, I replied here.

Lucapaco

I'd have a wish that's not related to Gameplay or the app directly.
I really miss DeckTester.
Maybe You guys can take over the good job that Admin of this site has done and make it live again?
Or maybe make in-game search engine similar to what DeckTester has.

Please

GrizzoMtGPQ

http://beta.mtgpq.info/#/cards/search

NDZahmbie

madoddvibe wrote:

madoddvibe wrote:

Everyone's got a point where they'll have spent enough hours or dollars for nothing but a punch in the face for their effort, and after that point they won't spend any more.

... and I just reached that point. Bought an Origins Big Box, 3 rares, no mythics - that makes 1 mythic total in my last 8 big boxes. One of the rares was Jace's Sanctum, which makes 3 copies total in the last 2 big boxes alone.

I give up. Fix this game. At the moment it is pointless playing - both runes and crystals are effectively worthless because there is nothing that I can buy with them which provides any progression or value whatsoever. Why exactly should we spend time playing events or quick battles for worthless rewards?

Development Team, this really needs a response from you. I've heard of entire coalitions boycotting purchasing until this has been addressed.

I for one will not be spending any real money on cards until I have some assurance the algorithm has been fixed.

Corn_Noodles

NDZahmbie wrote:

Development Team, this really needs a response from you.

Why does the Development Team need to address this? How do you know they have control over the drop rate? Maybe the Publishing Team should address it since drop rate is directly tied into revenue.

It is not unreasonable to assume the drop rate is at where it is because the game is making plenty of money. Threats of people stopping spending money are just that, threats. You want someone to address something? Truly don't buy anything and then see what happens. The fact that drop rates haven't really been addressed seems to me to be a symptom of the game going in the right direction revenue-wise and there being no point in interrupting that cash flow.

You want to see some change? The next time an Olivia-like card is released, people who are truly unhappy with the state of things shouldn't buy it. Fact is, most competitive people will still buy it. People don't want others to get an advantage over them.

Games aren't just games, they are also a business.

I fear the day the drop rate increases significantly or we are allowed to get any specific card we want in some way. To me, that'll mean the game is in trouble and they're scrambling.

GrizzoMtGPQ

I have spent money in this game. I have stopped even though I coveted these new cards. For the reasons documented here. I want real action from the dev team. My cash sits on the sidelines until I see things change. Unfortunately due to the way things are sold I will not get another chance to buy what I wanted and now must bow and pray to RNGesus. It's about sending a message.

NDZahmbie

Corn Noodles wrote:

NDZahmbie wrote:

Development Team, this really needs a response from you.

Why does the Development Team need to address this? How do you know they have control over the drop rate? Maybe the Publishing Team should address it since drop rate is directly tied into revenue.

It is not unreasonable to assume the drop rate is at where it is because the game is making plenty of money. Threats of people stopping spending money are just that, threats. You want someone to address something? Truly don't buy anything and then see what happens. The fact that drop rates haven't really been addressed seems to me to be a symptom of the game going in the right direction revenue-wise and there being no point in interrupting that cash flow.

You want to see some change? The next time an Olivia-like card is released, people who are truly unhappy with the state of things shouldn't buy it. Fact is, most competitive people will still buy it. People don't want others to get an advantage over them.

Games aren't just games, they are also a business.

I fear the day the drop rate increases significantly or we are allowed to get any specific card we want in some way. To me, that'll mean the game is in trouble and they're scrambling.

I'm defining the Dev team to be both the Programmers and Product Ownership of this app. And when I requested this be addressed, I simply was requesting the Dev team offer some response, which to date I have not seen after multiple posts on this topic. (Still waiting guys.)

And of course I'm sensitive to the secret sauce nature of the drop algorithm and understand that all cards can't be made easily attainable for the purpose of sustaining the business and employing the team who has publishes this game.

That said, the popular opinion I very much agree with is that there is an egregious imbalance with the drop rate. Along with everyone else no longer willing to spend $. I'm seeking a middle ground. Getting the same card over and over again, even with rares and in the case of mythics (what are the odds of getting 4 Sigardas before just ONE of the 15 Mythics from SOI that still haven't dropped for me?! And this is just one example).

I suppose though that ultimately the money will talk. I don't want the Dev team to have to become reactionary to this because ultimately the Product and its user community suffers. Unfortunately, that seems to be the direction we are heading with no official response from the Dev Team to date.