Q&A with Oktagon - December Edition (12/21/17)

Brigby

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the December edition of our Q&A session with Oktagon. It's been a busy end of the year, right before the holiday season arrives, but we wanted to get one last Q&A in before we wrap up 2017, and usher in 2018.

Here to answer your questions are Pedro Rauiz (Game Designer) and Arthur Fukushima (Internal Producer).
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Is there anything that can be shared about Ixalan?
Players can rest assured that our engineering team is already working on the Ixalan cards. Since the game hasn't received a new set in a while, and this is the first set fully created by Oktagon, we want to release as much content as possible without losing quality; we want to make the mechanics loyal to the MtG card game. In order to ensure that level of quality though, players can expect the release of Ixalan to arrive around late January/early February. 

What does the future of Standard set rotation look like?
Until the release of the set following Ixalan, the collections in Standard will be: Origins, Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation, and Ixalan.

Will there be any new adjustments or additions to events in the future?
All we can say about new Game Modes is that we have some really cool ideas in design (very early design, since our priority right now is catching up with Wizard's set releases)

Are there any plans to add or adjust how certain resources can be used in the future?
Now that Booster Crafting is released, the game received a new currency: Mana Orbs. Many players have a huge amount of duplicates that still reward Mana Runes, and can be used to level up Planeswalkers.

This month we are offering discounts on many Planeswalkers, in order to showcase them, as they will be one of the aspects we'll be focusing on in the future.

We know many of you have an enormous amount of Mana Runes, but since new PWs will be added in the future, we believe the currency will have its value increase over time. Another thing that will make its value increase are changes to the deck slot system coming in early 2018.

Where on the priority is addressing the early game? Do you have any plans that can be shared?
Yes, we do have plans to improve the first time user experience (FTUE). Since, for now, we can't give a specific date for these changes, we thought we could share a little bit of our vision about the game's first minutes, for players familiar with Magic, and for newcomers.

The first minutes in MtGPQ can be scary, especially for players that have never played paper Magic. Too many things happen at the same time: matches, visual FXs, cards popping on the screen, etc. That can cause a negative impression about the game. Players end up asking themselves: "Should I understand what's going on?"

For players familiar with paper Magic, the game fails to explain some basic concepts like, "Where are the lands?" "Are they special cards in MtGPQ or am I missing something?"

This problem is even more noticeable when it comes to the Planeswalkers. Many players don't even know what the concept of a PW is, or even their importance. The game fails to explain how important it is to have different PWs, and what can be achieved with that. We want to make the learning curve less steep, and introduce new features slowly and with purpose.

In short, yes, we have plans and are fully aware of the problems around the FTUE, but this is a long and delicate problem, requiring a lot of study and tests to make sure changes we make will actually improve these aspets.

What is the timeline and/or status of bug fixes?
Bug fixing is a continuous process, and improvements in the game will be noticed gradually over time. We always strive to fit in as many fixes as we can in every release.

What is the future of Color Mastery?
We know the Color Mastery system isn't the best way to measure player skill, or even their deck quality. Our team has some proposals for a change, but we must validate each idea, in order to offer not just an OK provisory solution, but a great and long-lasting one.
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We hope you've enjoyed the December Q&A session with Oktagon!

We want to thank everyone for being a part of our community. With Hibernum's closure, and Oktagon's transition period, we know this has been a bumpy road for players to travel with us. Thank you all for your patience and understanding, and we look forward to bringing you more new and exciting content in 2018.

Happy Holidays everyone!