Development Thread - *Updated (2/12/17)

Hibernum_Will

Hi everyone!

We are back with another Development Thread! It’s time again to chat about where Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest is heading - and address some of your questions.

The team has been busy working on the new Aether Revolt card set and a few other surprises too! We’ve been following along with the discussion on the forums - and wanted to take some time to address some questions that have come up. The feedback that the community provides is extremely useful! Keep it coming!

Without further adieu, let’s answer some questions:

What’s changed since the last Developer’s Thread?

Before the Holidays, we implemented some important changes. In addition to a number of bug fixes and performance improvements, we closed a potential exploit in Coalition Events. In addition, we introduced the Inventor’s Fair Event. Each month we want to run one special event - with better rewards and tougher competition. Since the Holidays, we’ve added the Social Invite system. Friends should be able to help friends - and the Social Invite system is the first step in that direction. We wanted to give you the ability to help out your friends - and give them an edge when joining the game. It’s great to see so many people engaging with the system! Finally, we’ve been working hard on the new Aether Revolt cards as well as a number of new Events. We’re excited to have them in-game!

What's up next for Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest?

We are adding a Battle Log to the game to help de-mystify matches - especially for new players. During an encounter, the Battle Log will keep track of the cards that you and your opponent played, as well as other critical information about the battle. You can access the Battle Log at any time during an encounter, letting you review cards and actions you may have missed. As well, you'll be able to review the Battle Log at the end of an encounter.

We also have a handful of new Events that we’ll be rolling out over the course of February. Keep an eye out for them!

Finally, over the next few months, we are adding multiple deck slots for each Planeswalker.

Did you say multiple deck slots?

I did! They’re part of a larger feature we’ve been working on that aims to help new players with deck building, and should also provide some interesting opportunities for Events. We don’t have a firm release date - but the feature should be in-game within the next few months. Hopefully I can share more details soon!

Do you plan on rebalancing cards or Planeswalkers?

Yes - but only when needed. We’re constantly looking at metrics and evaluating the state of the meta-game; however, we want to avoid making changes before the meta has had a chance to settle. Sometimes certain cards and Planeswalkers will initially appear very powerful until the community figures out how to successfully counter them. Other times we will release new cards which inadvertently boost an underplayed Planeswalker. If certains cards or Planeswalkers remain consistently over- or under-played we’ll definitely look at rebalancing them.

Are there any plans to update how matchmaking works?

Yes! We’re working on this as part of a larger update - but we hope to have it in-game in the next few months. Our long-term vision for matchmaking consists of three major changes. First, we want to change the “first-come-first-served” tie-breaking rule where the first player to reach a score wins a tie on the leaderboard. Everyone should have an equal chance, regardless of their time-zone. Second, you’ll only encounter Planeswalkers that fit the restrictions of the Event; that means no more matches against Koth when playing Terrors in the Shadows! Finally, we want to increase the variety of opponents you encounter in Events. Playing the same opponent over and over isn’t fun! We’re continually looking at ways to improve matchmaking - keep up the great feedback!

What’s up with players getting thousands of points in Quick Battle?

We’ve had a number of reports of suspicious scores in Quick Battle and Events over the last month. We take cheating very seriously; competition is only fun if it’s fair. We investigate each report of cheating individually - which can take time. However, in the vast majority of cases, players are playing by the rules.

Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest has a strong community of dedicated players!

Thanks again for all the wonderful feedback! Keep an eye out for upcoming Development Threads - there’s lots more to discuss! In the meantime, thank you for playing Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest!

THEMAGICkMAN

You said there was going to be a picture

Falizar

Thanks for the feedback - everything sounds wonderful.

Still yet, i would like to see the picture as well

bk1234

I was really looking forward to the picture.

Hibernum_Will

THEMAGICkMAN wrote:

You said there was going to be a picture

Coming soon! We didn't want to delay the Development Thread any longer; we'll update it ASAP with the image.

THEMAGICkMAN

Hibernum_Will wrote:

THEMAGICkMAN wrote:

You said there was going to be a picture

Coming soon! We didn't want to delay the Development Thread any longer; we'll update it ASAP with the image.

*sigh* thank God, this is he best news I've heard all year.

THEMAGICkMAN

Question - will the battle log allow you to view what happens when someone else plans against your deck?

bk1234

Hibernum_Will wrote:

What’s up with players getting thousands of points in Quick Battle?

We’ve had a number of reports of suspicious scores in Quick Battle and Events over the last month. We take cheating very seriously; competition is only fun if it’s fair. We investigate each report of cheating individually - which can take time. However, in the vast majority of cases, players are playing by the rules.

Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest has a strong community of dedicated players!

Now that we've settled the important matter of the picture -- this doesn't really address the cheater problem. In the Platinum tier Thursday morning a player got 35 points in 6 minutes.

I build fast decks -- faster than a lot of my game friends and I've cleared all 5 nodes with bonuses in Platinum in 22 minutes -- 6 minutes is just not possible. Looking at the big scores isn't the problem. Looking at the pace of play is. I'm not saying there's a cheat APK -- but if there is, it creates perfect scores in minutes. That's what you need to be looking at.

It's REALLY uncool that people set alarms to wake up and get the perfect scores and they are shut out of the top 5 because of it. Fixing the ties/ rewards won't help it -- even if you give 100 people rewards, it's not cool that some people earn them and some don't.

Thanks for all the good news, but someone has to keep it real. I didn't like waking up to a SS Thursday morning of 35 points in 6 minutes. It literally screwed up my whole day and my relatively quiet week. (I'm sure that was noted.)

It needs to stop.

DaisukeK

Can't wait for all the said changes be implemented, especially deck slots, which is THE pain in the **** as of now with new events with new objectives. Definitely on the right track, devs. Thanks for your hard work

Volrak

Hibernum_Will wrote:

We are adding a Battle Log to the game to help de-mystify matches - especially for new players. During an encounter, the Battle Log will keep track of the cards that you and your opponent played, as well as other critical information about the battle. You can access the Battle Log at any time during an encounter, letting you review cards and actions you may have missed. As well, you'll be able to review the Battle Log at the end of an encounter.

Here's a thought: Seeing your own battle log is nice and all, especially for newer players or when new sets come out and cards are unfamiliar. But where it can really reap major benefits is after the match, when the battle log is uploaded to the server and analysed automatically or by human checking to identify cheaters.

If this is indeed how battle logs will be used, I also wouldn't necessarily expect d3go to confirm it publicly. But the idea of a battle log is so well-targeted at the problem of identifying cheaters that I feel like it's got to be in their plans.

wink

Volrak wrote:

Hibernum_Will wrote:

We are adding a Battle Log to the game to help de-mystify matches - especially for new players. During an encounter, the Battle Log will keep track of the cards that you and your opponent played, as well as other critical information about the battle. You can access the Battle Log at any time during an encounter, letting you review cards and actions you may have missed. As well, you'll be able to review the Battle Log at the end of an encounter.

Here's a thought: Seeing your own battle log is nice and all, especially for newer players or when new sets come out and cards are unfamiliar. But where it can really reap major benefits is after the match, when the battle log is uploaded to the server and analysed automatically or by human checking to identify cheaters.

If this is indeed how battle logs will be used, I also wouldn't necessarily expect d3go to confirm it publicly. But the idea of a battle log is so well-targeted at the problem of identifying cheaters that I feel like it's got to be in their plans.

Yes! This! Battle Logs need to be checked server side so that the devs can make sure people aren't cheating. If the Battle Log says that a player won on turn 2 using a Caustic Caterpillar, they'll know definitively that they cheated instead of having to rely on circumstantial evidence that is based on things like speed and collected laboriously by other players. And if it can be automated too, even better!

THEMAGICkMAN

wink wrote:

Volrak wrote:

Hibernum_Will wrote:

We are adding a Battle Log to the game to help de-mystify matches - especially for new players. During an encounter, the Battle Log will keep track of the cards that you and your opponent played, as well as other critical information about the battle. You can access the Battle Log at any time during an encounter, letting you review cards and actions you may have missed. As well, you'll be able to review the Battle Log at the end of an encounter.

Here's a thought: Seeing your own battle log is nice and all, especially for newer players or when new sets come out and cards are unfamiliar. But where it can really reap major benefits is after the match, when the battle log is uploaded to the server and analysed automatically or by human checking to identify cheaters.

If this is indeed how battle logs will be used, I also wouldn't necessarily expect d3go to confirm it publicly. But the idea of a battle log is so well-targeted at the problem of identifying cheaters that I feel like it's got to be in their plans.

Yes! This! Battle Logs need to be checked server side so that the devs can make sure people aren't cheating. If the Battle Log says that a player won on turn 2 using a Caustic Caterpillar, they'll know definitively that they cheated instead of having to rely on circumstantial evidence that is based on things like speed and collected laboriously by other players. And if it can be automated too, even better!

hey, be nice to the caterpillar. he's the meta killer in platinum right now. OP cards, must be nerfed ASAP.

but yes i really hope this is something they do, it'd finally be a failsafe way to eradicate cheaters.

also, another quick question,why'd you leave my favourite card,Prized Unicorn out of MtGPQ? can you please fix this? MTGPQ needs the Unicorn.

tinyau

Hibernum_Will wrote:

Are there any plans to update how matchmaking works?

Yes! We’re working on this as part of a larger update - but we hope to have it in-game in the next few months. Our long-term vision for matchmaking consists of three major changes. First, we want to change the “first-come-first-served” tie-breaking rule where the first player to reach a score wins a tie on the leaderboard. Everyone should have an equal chance, regardless of their time-zone. Second, you’ll only encounter Planeswalkers that fit the restrictions of the Event; that means no more matches against Koth when playing Terrors in the Shadows! Finally, we want to increase the variety of opponents you encounter in Events. Playing the same opponent over and over isn’t fun! We’re continually looking at ways to improve matchmaking - keep up the great feedback!

Not only Planeswalkers fit the restrictions of the Event, the deck should be event deck (decks of the Planeswalkers joined the event), non-event deck should be excluded.

Mainloop25

tinyau wrote:

Hibernum_Will wrote:

Are there any plans to update how matchmaking works?

Yes! We’re working on this as part of a larger update - but we hope to have it in-game in the next few months. Our long-term vision for matchmaking consists of three major changes. First, we want to change the “first-come-first-served” tie-breaking rule where the first player to reach a score wins a tie on the leaderboard. Everyone should have an equal chance, regardless of their time-zone. Second, you’ll only encounter Planeswalkers that fit the restrictions of the Event; that means no more matches against Koth when playing Terrors in the Shadows! Finally, we want to increase the variety of opponents you encounter in Events. Playing the same opponent over and over isn’t fun! We’re continually looking at ways to improve matchmaking - keep up the great feedback!

Not only Planeswalkers fit the restrictions of the Event, the deck should be event deck (decks of the Planeswalkers joined the event), non-event deck should be excluded.

I dunno, those decks tend to need a lot of human input to make them work. The AI is not smart enough to pilot a deck like that and be a difficult fight for platinum-level players.

buscemi

Hibernum_Will wrote:

Do you plan on rebalancing cards or Planeswalkers?

Yes - but only when needed. We’re constantly looking at metrics and evaluating the state of the meta-game; however, we want to avoid making changes before the meta has had a chance to settle. Sometimes certain cards and Planeswalkers will initially appear very powerful until the community figures out how to successfully counter them. Other times we will release new cards which inadvertently boost an underplayed Planeswalker. If certains cards or Planeswalkers remain consistently over- or under-played we’ll definitely look at rebalancing them.

I'm deeply, deeply fascinated by this. You've admitted in this thread that you're deliberately designing the game to allow decks that win against an opponent with 400 life in 4 turns. In such conditions, what constitutes over-powered exactly?

At the other end of the spectrum... I'm willing to bet money on the fact that any card on this list is underplayed.

gulgoth

Since you guys seem to think people like watching fabricate animations for 5 minutes per turn, I'm quitting the game. It makes zero ZERO sense to force us to watch stupid **** support animations nonstop. I really enjoyed this game when you sped up animations, but then for some stupid reason you guys slowed them down a few days later. Then you add fabricate? There would be nothing wrong with fabricate if we didn't have to watch the stupid **** animations. Notice how even though you added referrals and new expansion that players are bleeding and event participation is lower and lower by the day? You cant really deny it when it has numbers telling us how many joined it. I can promise you that waiting for 500 stupid support animations every turn has something to do with that.

Its also kinda stupid that you held back saheeli for 6 months. Especially when the game was super buggy and lots of people were locked out of accounts or errored out whenever trying to join her event (me included). She should have been the first planeswalker released with kaladesh (since it was said thats when she would next appear). Instead she wasnt even released during kaladesh. I honestly dont get it, rather than release a planeswalker you already had finished and fix bugs that were driving people away, youd rather release new planeswalkers. The new chandra sucks **** compared to dovin or nissa or saheeli. shes like a super nerfed koth/ob nix combined with energy restrictions.

Im glad you guys started working on getting rid of cheaters, but i didnt really quick battle and i wasnt in platinum so it didnt really effect me.

Biggest advice to you devs though. make a simple button that lets the user turn off ALL support animations. You could also make a button for fast/slow animation speeds for gems/casting animations etc. Thats all i can think of, but I most likely wont be back around to see if you actually take any of my suggestions. I dont see a point since I honestly dont think you consider support animations to be a problem and most likely wont fix it.

Astralwind

Yeah, those animations, give us a choice to turn if off. It can save a lot of time for the working people. Sometimes, I would take a quick break or two to finish one match and it takes forever.

bk1234

buscemi wrote:

I'm deeply, deeply fascinated by this. You've admitted in this thread that you're deliberately designing the game to allow decks that win against an opponent with 400 life in 4 turns. In such conditions, what constitutes over-powered exactly?

Video and decklist or it didn't happen.

JopeX37

Is there any plan to give us something to do with duplicate cards other than trade them in for runes that eventually become useless? I'd happily trade dupes plus runes and/or crystals for new cards. At this point I'm not even asking that the new cards be of my choosing, just the ability to make some forward progress would be great.

Brigby

Hey Everyone. Sorry for the delay. We had to make sure everything about the uploaded images were approved (thumbnails, icons, even the order Mana is displayed [WUBRG] )

Hope you enjoy reading this installment of the Developer's thread, and have a great rest of the weekend! I'll see you all tomorrow

THEMAGICkMAN

YAY there's a picture now! Will the battle log record what happened when someone else played against your deck?