December Q&A Question Submission (12/4/17)

Brigby

Hi Everyone,

Due to the holiday season, this month is essentially shortened, so we'd like to start off the next round of Q&A question-gathering as early as possible.

If you have a question you'd like to have Oktagon answer, please feel free to include it down below. Please note that this is NOT a place to start discussion or debate. This is purely a thread to submit questions. If you would like to discuss various topics, then please contribute to an existing thread, or start a new one, if one doesn't already exist.

We will be closing this thread on Thursday, 12/7, at 6pm PST / 9pm EST / 2am UTC, Friday 12/8

Mainloop25

Anything you can share about Ixalan would be great to hear. 

Outersider

Is there any plans to use Mana Runes for something other than levelling planeswalkers or empty deck slots? Some of us have used them for maxing our planeswalkers and filling those slots and have a lot (personally I have over 1.6 million )  Any chance of converting them to Orbs or Crystals.... Something.... Anything.... would be nice. 

Thuran

With booster crafting here, how do you feel about the place and role of mana jewels going forward?

Sarahschmara

While I certainly don’t have surplus runes yet, I am curious if a currency exchange is possible. Obviously, there would need to be some sort of loss of value but it would be helpful if one could convert them. 

ZW2007-

Are you able to provide an official release date for the Booster Crafting update? Also, are there any plans to change the current cost/structure of Elite Packs?

THEMAGICkMAN

What are your thoughts on the early game progression? Currently all new players have to do is Training grounds and the hourly pack, as they don't have enough cards to complete story mode objectives and runes are in short supply early game do completing the story mode objective in each colour is also very very difficult. 

Where on your priority list is addressing the early game? Do you have any plans you can share?

Mburn7

1)  When will Ixalan come out (even a month will suffice, just give us an idea)

2)  Is there a timeline on the bug fixes?  I know of several cards that have been bugged since their release (Kefnet's Final Word, Wildfire eternal, Refuse/Cooperate, Hazoret's Undying Fury, Pull from Tomorrow) and I assume there are a bunch that I don't know of.  I will provide exactly how the ones I know of are bugged (since they are bugged in weird ways) if you need me to.

3)  Will there be a change in the current event scheduling cycle when Ixalan comes out (or before)?  It sucks to have to choose between Coalition and life on weekends, and be bored senseless during the week

wereotter

There's been discussion regarding Origins as the always standard set, especially now that Core sets are returning to Magic next summer.

Can you tell us if it's planned to replace Origins with the core sets, or if the core sets might be used to expand Origins? If neither, considering Core sets are largely reprints, what plans, if any, does the team currently have for how these will be utilized in Puzzle Quest?

khurram

There are no masterpieces in paper set of Ixalan. Are you going to promote some of the mythics from Ixalan to masterpiece status while translating to mtgpq? The rarity of some cards has previously been changed like this in past sets (rare in paper magic, but mythic in mtgpq)

Although, most of the players I have discussed this with, don't really want that. But it will be good to know your stance.

Mainloop25

How is the eradication of the Something Went Wrong errors coming  along? 

QuiksilverHg

Has there been any consideration to creating an offline mode? I travel frequently and it would be awesome to even be able to play story mode while I don’t have an internet connection on the airplane.

QuiksilverHg

Is there any chance of changing some of the ways the game mechanics were originally implemented? Specifically I’d like to see us be able to have more than 3 creatures on the board.

wickedwitch74

I would be very interested to hear from the Development team on how they plan on handling some of the new mechanics and themes from Ixalan.

-Will the flip cards work similarly to the flip cards from Innistrad?
-How will you handle enrage mechanics when blocking is out of the player's control?
-How will the Development Team push the tribal theme in Ixalan?
-Will the team be implementing treasure tokens? Will they be similar to the Fabricate mechanic?

wickedwitch74

In the last Q/A session, it was mentioned that the development team would be looking at fixing some of the problem cards that exist in MtG:PQ. 

What are the criteria that the team will look at to decide which cards to adjust? 

Will the team be looking to revisit under-used and under-powered cards and give them a bump?

Matthew

Are you planning on making any "Quality of Life" changes to the game? If so, this thread has a ton of good ideas on where to start!

On a completely different note, is Enraged going to be sticking around? It's near the top of my gripes about this game, and often comes across as merely a way to force people to miss out on points in events, and thereby limit the flow of resources even further. If we're being forced into losing points, then that is unsatisfactory. If I'm going to lose points, I want it to be because of a well-made opponent deck, a poor decision on my own part, or just absurdly bad luck; I can accept those things. This mechanic artificially imbalances the randomness of the game, which makes it less fun to play.

Gunmix25

1. When is the planned month in which Ixalan will be released?

2. Booster crafting for Mythics, does this include Exclusives or are they excluded from crafting? 

3. The recent release of Bolas revealed a significant (yet fair imho) increase of runes needed for leveling. booster crafting also revealed that mana runes still hold an importance to the game. Is this a move for balancing new PW by Oktagon? If so, what can we expect from future mono and dual color PW in terms of leveling. I.e. their total expected cost to level. This would be valuable information in the coming months when new PW are planned for release.

4. Will triple colored cards be featured in Ixalan?

5. Will TG eventually receive a standard and Legacy mode? 

6. Will deck slots ever be added as a prize for an event? 

Thank you

Gunny aka Winterwind in game

Sorin81

Training Grounds was implemented as a replacement for Quick Battle, however is been argued that it is not a suitable replacement.
What is your opinion on bringing Quick Battle back to the game?

Krishna

With the end of Elite Pack Re-rolls, do you have any plans to change Elite Packs and/or the role of mana jewels? Or will the value of Elite Pack duplicates simply be reflected in 500/ 5000 runes/ orbs?

naphomci

First and foremost, can you give any type of projection of when Ixalan will come? Paper magic might get ahead by and entire set....

My other question: Are their players to make the game take less loading, battery, and memory? I recently 'rushed' through a Trial of the Planes. I spent more than 1/3 of the time waiting for the game to load various screens and match.

Kinesia

THEMAGICkMAN said:

What are your thoughts on the early game progression? Currently all new players have to do is Training grounds and the hourly pack, as they don't have enough cards to complete story mode objectives and runes are in short supply early game do completing the story mode objective in each colour is also very very difficult. 

Where on your priority list is addressing the early game? Do you have any plans you can share?

With this... I recently started an alt, how to make this stuff questions?

Is the Introduction meant to appeal to Match3 players, Paper Magic players or somehow both? Is it possible to have slightly different tutorials aiming to each since they have different needs?

Is it possible to open up the things beginners are allowed to "try"? They are currently locked to Story Chapter 1 too strongly, they need at least things like the "Training" story section to see what else is _possible_ in the game to keep them interested.

(I think the easiest path is to add a few more early things to the Training story mode based on what type of player they are, allow access to this very early on. Early tutorials stop people from moving cards around in hand but don't let you _know_ you get that ability later, so paper players might think this game is more simple than it is.)