Q&A w/ Oktagon - May Edition (6/5/18)

Brigby

Hi Everyone,

With the arrival of Dominaria, and players having had the chance to play around with the new set, the Oktagon team took some time to answer a few questions players asked in the past question submission thread
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Will Masterpiece cards ever be available in booster packs again?
In the Dominaria update, we’ve re-added the Masterpieces back into the boosters.

Are there any plans to adjust Elite Packs in the future?
We do have plans for the Elite Packs, and we’ll provide more information once we’ve figured out all the details.

There has been mention of Planeswalker and Card rebalancing. Is this something that’s still planning on being tackled?
Until Dominaria, our main focus, as you might know, was to catch up to tabletop Magic: the Gathering releases. This task was finally finished, and we feel that our team grew more experienced with the project, and hopefully, with the MtGPQ community. With that said, we can focus a lot more on improvements for both new and veteran players, which includes overall game balance.

Imbalanced cards are a problem for any competitive game, and MtGPQ is no different. We do have plans for specific cards, and you can expect some changes in future releases. We also understand though that some players might feel reluctant about certain cards, since they could be nerfed at any time. What that in mind, we can say that the general rules are:

• If the card is broken or becomes unplayable, it becomes an urgent task for our team, so we will fix it ASAP. Expect a patch at any moment!
• If the card exhibits unintended behavior, such as infinite loops, then we will measure how much it is harming players, and then define the priority on our task list.
• If the card is simply overpowered, our team will put it on a list, and measure every single possible solution for it.
• It’s a complicated situation, since players that own that card might feel harmed by the changes. To avoid that, we intend to create a general rule for this: We will release the balance patch for previous cards together with the release of the next set. (E.g: We will balance Rivals of Ixalan cards at the time of Dominaria’s release)

While in production, our team members do their best to avoid releasing imbalanced cards that may break the game, but some cards still go live with unforeseen and unintended behaviors. We think we are doing a good job, but we can still improve a lot.

Are there any plans to improve the new player experience?
Since we joined MtGPQ, we knew that we would need to work on the first time user experience, which is not an easy task, since the bigger changes would require a lot of effort; effort that could be used to catch up with tabletop Magic: the Gathering. Instead, we are focusing on minor changes that seek to improve the experience for new players, and can hopefully be enjoyed by veterans, as well. 

We know that there is a lot to be done, but you can expect more frequent changes throughout the year. We will release a blog post with more information, once we’ve figured out all the details.

Will there ever be more additions to Story Mode?
The improvements for new players will include some changes to Story Mode.

When can we expect to see an option to pass the crown of Coalition Leadership from one player to another?
We are adding this feature in 2.8, alongside the next set of Magic: the Gathering - Puzzle Quest

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We hope you're enjoying the new Dominaria set, and the May Q&A Session! If you have any questions you'd like to ask in this month's June Q&A Session, then please visit the Question Submission thread to submit it.

Thanks!

Mburn7

Brigby said:

Hi Everyone,



Will there ever be more additions to Story Mode?
The improvements for new players will include some changes to Story Mode.

Changes?  Does that mean new levels, or changes to existing ones?  This is a case where ambiguity is not your friend

Brigby

Mburn7 said:

Brigby said:

Hi Everyone,

Will there ever be more additions to Story Mode?
The improvements for new players will include some changes to Story Mode.

Changes?  Does that mean new levels, or changes to existing ones?  This is a case where ambiguity is not your friend

Much like some of the other answers, I would imagine it's another case where they don't want to officially announce anything until all the details have been ironed out and solidified. They probably mentioned these changes, in order to give players an idea of what they're working on.

khurram

The next set of Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest, huh?

The Ravnica one isn't going to be released for paper magic until October if I remember correctly and I have doubts that 2.8 update will take that long. So what is that next set you guys are talking about.

We'd love to know more,  please 

Sorin81

Brigby said:

Hi Everyone,


There has been mention of Planeswalker and Card rebalancing. Is this something that’s still planning on being tackled?
Until Dominaria, our main focus, as you might know, was to catch up to tabletop Magic: the Gathering releases. This task was finally finished, and we feel that our team grew more experienced with the project, and hopefully, with the MtGPQ community. With that said, we can focus a lot more on improvements for both new and veteran players, which includes overall game balance.

Imbalanced cards are a problem for any competitive game, and MtGPQ is no different. We do have plans for specific cards, and you can expect some changes in future releases. We also understand though that some players might feel reluctant about certain cards, since they could be nerfed at any time. What that in mind, we can say that the general rules are:

• If the card is broken or becomes unplayable, it becomes an urgent task for our team, so we will fix it ASAP. Expect a patch at any moment!
• If the card exhibits unintended behavior, such as infinite loops, then we will measure how much it is harming players, and then define the priority on our task list.
• If the card is simply overpowered, our team will put it on a list, and measure every single possible solution for it.
• It’s a complicated situation, since players that own that card might feel harmed by the changes. To avoid that, we intend to create a general rule for this: We will release the balance patch for previous cards together with the release of the next set. (E.g: We will balance Rivals of Ixalan cards at the time of Dominaria’s release)

While in production, our team members do their best to avoid releasing imbalanced cards that may break the game, but some cards still go live with unforeseen and unintended behaviors. We think we are doing a good job, but we can still improve a lot.

In light of the recent Gilded Lotus nerf (which I still maintain was unnecessary) I appreciate the answer regarding card balancing and fixing, however only half of the question was answered.

What about rebalancing of planeswalkers? Especially the Origins planeswalkers, whose mana gains in particular make them nearly unplayable, but also those who's abilities are set specific and useless, more or less, in standard play.

Mburn7

khurram said:

The next set of Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest, huh?

The Ravnica one isn't going to be released for paper magic until October if I remember correctly and I have doubts that 2.8 update will take that long. So what is that next set you guys are talking about.

We'd love to know more,  please 

I noticed that too.  I second this.

nerdstrap

??? if a set is rotating out, we need to know ASAP to not waste orbs 

jtwood

khurram said:

The next set of Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest, huh?

The Ravnica one isn't going to be released for paper magic until October if I remember correctly and I have doubts that 2.8 update will take that long. So what is that next set you guys are talking about.

We'd love to know more,  please 

Core Set?

wereotter

jtwood said:

khurram said:

The next set of Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest, huh?

The Ravnica one isn't going to be released for paper magic until October if I remember correctly and I have doubts that 2.8 update will take that long. So what is that next set you guys are talking about.

We'd love to know more,  please 

Core Set?

Assuming the core set is added at all.....

Though there's a good change that there are fewer reprints which also exist in Puzzle Quest in Battlebond than there will be in the core set. I, for one, wouldn't complain if we got some cards added from there.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

HarryMason

This was a lovely set of non answers. What is going on with this game ? I'm starting to get that feeling I got right before I went to work, only to find a padlock on the door and a note saying 'sorry'

GrizzoMtGPQ

@Brigby will we see the June Q&A any time soon?

Brigby

GrizzoMtGPQ said:

Brigby will we see the June Q&A any time soon?

I will admit that it took me a little longer than usual to provide the team the list of questions, so I apologize for the delay. Having said that though, it seems be nearing the final stages, so my hope is that I can get it out sometime this week.