June Q&A Session - Question Submission (6/5/18)

Brigby

Hi Everyone,

It's that time again, where we ask the community for questions you'd like to ask Oktagon!

As per usual, in order to make it easy to collate and compile all questions, please keep them clear and concise. (Brief explanations are fine, but please no novels)

We will be closing the submission thread this Friday 6/8 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm UTC. We will then compile the questions, and send it over to Oktagon for review and answering. Once they have done that, we will format it and prepare it for posting in the forum.

If you would like to submit a question, then please comment down below. Thanks!

Coilbox

Three subjects that have been on the table very often

- any plans on expanding the story mode with a significant chapter? (not just 4 battles/tutorial)
- training grounds: are we going to see any time soon some kind of change here? (orbs as rewards based on consecutive victories, separation standard/legacy, etc).
- pw's leveling: we need runes! help us here! (maybe make training grounds a serious rune grinding place?)

thanks! 

Gilesclone

Can we change event end times to give us at least 12 hours after the last node?  It would really help people who live where these events end in the middle of the night or the work day.
Plus please get rid of Boss health.

Mark_Tedin

-Legacy Boostercraft could be separated by editions (oath,innistrad, etc) because the legacy block is too big.
-Dominaria deserves a history mode.
-Two Elite pack weekly. One by standard, other by legacy(with old masterpieces).
-Serra Angel´s ability is bugged. (don´t prevent damage)
-Elvish piper should´t come back to hand. It´s absolutely does not make sense to cost mana and masterpiece´s rarity.
-Indestructible gems shouldn´t be aim of support removal.
-Core Set will be next rotation of MTGPQ?
-Create a separate session "art gallery" for image cards. The view during the game disrupts the gameplay and cause many bugs.
-Decrease Bosses HP. (The powerlevel now is low no cycling, and the old big bosses was created while there cycling)
-4 consecutive victories in training grounds could give orbs.
-Create the option to disable animations.

Thankfull !!!

bk1234

"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"

Core! Core! Core! What can you tell us about Core 2019? Will it be like Origins? How will you deal with card overlap? We want to know everything!!!

Mburn7

What will you do with Core Set 2018? 

Will there be more transparency on bug fixing, so we know what is being worked on and what you do not know about yet?  (this way 1000 people don't all report the same bugs all the time)

Will we get more story mode content?

Could we have more insight into your design process?  Mark Rosewater does several articles after every set comes out on the MTG site explaining the how and why select cards were designed.  A similar article for how certain cards and mechanics were adopted into MTGPQ would be both incredibly interesting and would help us understand why things happen the way they do instead of just complaining all the time.

Will we ever get a standard-only training grounds?

Will the number of runes given in events and training grounds be increased ever?  Why or why not?

Will future sets make use of the unique tokens keyworded onto cards (like Verix Bladewing or Josu), or was that a 1 time only thing to make Dominaria easier?

Will Leader appear in future sets?  It has no analogue in paper, so there is no way to predict based on MTG releases.  Could you explain why the Leader ability was created and then used so sparingly?

And finally, Will you be bringing back the mana wheel loading wheel?  I ask every month, and never get an answer.  I have been asking this since it was removed in the Kaladesh update.  Please, it should not be hard to do and it was one of the subtle best parts of the game.  Please stop ignoring me.  Pretty Please?

James13

I'd like to know about the game speed tweaks that were hinted at being in the works.  Maybe some animation skipping toggles accessible in the battle menu?

Some token based decks do get a bit tedious.

Echoing the constant drumbeat for more Story mode!

Unsolicited feedback: I love the unique things that were explored more freely in Dominaria cards.  Unique tokens/support tokens/effects without existing analogues.

Thanks.

wickedwitch74

Hello,

I have a few questions about the team's philosophical approach to MtG:PQ, particularly how it has evolved from the paper game of Magic.

1. Can you explain your decision to change the paper rotation schedule to what MtG:PQ has put in place? While it is refreshing to see the backside of cycling, there are balancing issues that paper magic takes into account with set rotation. For example, by flipping Amonkhet early, we have lost allied-color support lands like "Scattered Groves". There is now an imbalance of enemy-colored support lands that doesn't exist in the paper game. Are you taking those considerations into account when making a decision like this?

2. The creators of MtG design cards to satisfy all sorts of players. There are cards designed to be standard powerhouses, cards which will appeal to the Commander/Casual crowd, and cards that are obviously geared towards Limited environments. My question is whether or not the design team intends to explore new game modes, like Limited, that will let different cards, Planeswalkers, and strategies shine? As it is, once a few dominant strategies take shape, the vast majority of cards and walkers become mooted. The old Planeswalker Arena at least required players to utilize some underused walkers, and there have been multiple calls for expanding play to include limited environments.

3. The Design team has the ability to retrofit certain abilities and errata across the entire history of the card base. We have seen the Legendary symbol applied to creatures, lands, etc... with the introduction of Dominaria. My question is if the Design team has any intention of going backwards and changing the game play of certain cards as the mechanics evolve? For example, we have seen more interaction with reinforcements (removing a reinforcement, etc...). Will a card like "Fiery Conclusion" ever change to say "Destroy one of your creatures, or creature reinforcements..."?

4. "Across Ixalan" has been hailed as a success. Does the Design team have plans to implement this kind of content for future releases? While it's nice that Trial of the Planes allows players to accumulate "unobtainium", the entry cost is disliked. "AI" still requires an admission fee, but Platinum players are able to win that fee back, and then some. 

Thank you for your time.

DBJones

How long do you think a single match should take? Say for someone with a mediocre collection, most commons/uncommons a good chunk of rares (~1/3) and some mythics.

Mainloop25

Since the response to card rebalancing was basically, "buyer beware," will there be any new safeguards put in place to minimize the future likelihood of player disappointment like there was with Gilded Lotus?

Before Hibernum released Baral and New Perspectives, the community warnings about the game-warping abuse of those cards was well in advance of release. Let's hope Oktagon doesn't make that same mistake. 

AdriA

I have experienced a lot of bugs since the release of Dominaria and my coalition friends experienced different issues. Those problems are disturbing the harmony of the game and none of the bugs I have reported were fixed so far.

So, we'll see more effort to maintain a good game experience?

Also, there are some cards that players have already discussed to be rebalanced such as "Squee, the Immortal" since he is a core card for reinforcement decks and ther are a few other cards. 

You'll discuss and rework balance issues players have experience?

madwren

Will you be rotating out Origins (the last Core Set introduced by MTG) with the introduction of the new, 280-card Core Set 2019? In addition to the oddness of having two core sets simultaneously live, the existence of certain power cards (that we have dealt with since inception) constrain the Standard meta and limit design space.

jtwood

Reiterating the desire to know more about the plans for handling Core Sets. Hoping that they are an addition to Origins and not a replacement. 

bk1234

[MOD MIC ON] Please remember to reserve this thread specifically for questions. Thank you. [MOD MIC OFF]

Froggy

1. When can we expect Standard and Legacy Training Grounds?

2. Can we expect rewards for lower tier (bronze, silver, etc.) to be adjusted so newer players benefit faster or at the same speed as bets? (I am platinum, so this question is for the benefit of my friends in the game currently suffering from this).

3. Now that DOM is out, is there an expected plan/timetable on what all previous bugs will be being fixed? If I may, I suggest handling the bugs set by set, starting with most current sets and going back. But updates with these fixes coming out once a full set is done, rather than waiting till it is all fixed. Can we get some inside skinny on this?

4. Will we ever see masterpieces in the IXL and RIX booster packs?

Laeuftbeidir

What about a change to the tier system? A player reaching platinum and facing my decks will have only access to a percentage of the cards I have. A new system would be best, a diamond tier at 1.000-1.500 plat mastery points could ease a lot of pressure on the short term

Edit : if you have this on your schedule, an answer showing your current ideas (even if they're not likely to be implemented) would be very much appreciated. We know you were busy catching up to paper, and we understand the differences in between "this is what we're going to do" and "were in an early stage, here are some first ideas". Actually, the latter one would be way more interesting, not only for this question

Machine

Can we expect to get all the charges of events up front? This will mitigate event start and ending times.

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.

knifelheim

Are there any plans for an event with unlimited progression so players always have something to work towards? Training Grounds stops giving rewards after 4 plays, so if that's the only event available that day, there's nothing worth playing for.

Is there any chance of us being able to turn off animations for buffing and reinforcing creatures?

Can we please get the shield level for supports on the actual card?! We should not have to guess at what a card will do when we play it. And while we're on the subject of knowing how a card will behave when we cast it, can we PLEASE get a quality check on the cards from these last sets? So many cards have the incorrect values listed on their abilities. The Karox Bladwing support says it deals 2 damage, but it deals 3 on entering and 4 on subsequent turns. Jhoira's familiar only reduces the cost of Historic cards by 1, though it is listed as 2. There are more.

Will there be anything done about the statistically improbable amount of duplicates received from packs? Opening a 5 card pack with two pairs of cards in it shouldn't happen. It certainly shouldn't happen multiple times in one Premium Pack. I know that we now have booster crafting, which is great, but the sheer number of duplicates received is just bonkers.
I opened a pack in which 3 of the 5 cards were Riddleform. Seriously, how is that even possible? There are 190 cards in that set. 55 are uncommon. 38 are blue. 11 of those are blue uncommons. Assuming those 3 cards were somehow guaranteed to be blue uncommons, that's still a .82% chance that all three would be the exact same card(1 * 1/11 * 1/11). The chances should actually be astronomically lower as it should be 1 in 6 chance to get blue and 1 in whatever to get uncommon and then multiply all of that by .0082. It's one thing for RNG to be RNG, but this is something entirely different. This is rigged against the player. At least in Vegas you know your odds.

Brakkis

With the advent of Ixalan, cards that bounce creatures from the fiekd have had the 5 cards in hand limit removed.
Is the destroying of creatures when the hand is full intentional with all of these cards (Perilous Voyage, Expel from Orazca, Depths of Desire, Karn's Temporal Sundering, etc)?

If it is intentional, are there any plans to change the older bounce cards (Harbinger of Tides, Lashweed Lurker, etc) to remove the 5 card limit from them as well?

ZW2007-

What are your thoughts on this? https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/72533/new-game-mode-idea-planechase-updated

Is it even theoretically possible to implement? If so, is it something you would ever consider?