Q&A w/ Oktagon - July + August Edition (8/31/18)
Brigby
ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for being patient, as we worked through the process of compiling and answering the questions from both July and August's Q&A Submission threads. We've put together a list of the most frequently asked questions, and here is what the team had to say:
----------
How do you plan on speeding up / removing animations?
The plan is to allow players the choice between the following options:
Will there be any improvements or changes to the Story mode side of the game?
Not any time soon. There is, however, a very exciting idea that is moving along through design at the moment!
Is there any way to give us more time at the end of events to complete a final refresh? 6 hours (or less) is not too player friendly across the world.
We are currently looking at this and other options, in order to allow players in different regions the chance to participate equally in events.
Can we get a standardized vocabulary / grammar for card actions?
Inconsistencies will appear every now and then, especially for new card actions. Some of them even come from changes made, due to feedback on ambiguity and/or lack of clarity. We'd like, at some point, to revise the text of older cards to match the standard we now follow, although this is not up there in our priority list at the moment.
Have you considered giving players an option to choose which version of Training Grounds we enter, as opposed to rotating between Standard and Legacy?
That, along with allowing players to play both during the weekend (Friday - Sunday) and Standard during weekdays, are our current leading options for allowing some flexibility in how players can enjoy the game.
The lack of communication, be it new content or no updates of event schedule or such, is the biggest gripe. How would you improve this in the future?
We'd like to go back to consistently answering the Q&As on time. Also, we plan to continue to release articles, such as Mechanic Spotlights or Event Spotlights. We also intend to do a better job communicating to players when new Planeswalkers / Events / Bundles will be added to the game.
What is the plan for Mana Runes acquisition? As of right now, it is difficult for players to acquire the necessary amount of runes needed to level up all the Planeswalkers, which is quite frustrating.
There are currently some features and changes we plan on implementing that should solve this problem. In the meantime, we've been increasing the amount of Mana Runes earnable from newer Events. We've also recently increased the amount earnable through the Training Grounds. These measures should help in the meantime, while a more long term solution is being developed.
Will there be more new events? We used to get both a new PvP and PvE with each set, but now it has been only one or the other.
Not necessarily with set releases, however there will be new events being added regularly to the game. For the most part, if a set release had only one event, rest assured there will be some new and exciting event or feature following it.
Can we have something other than 3,000 player brackets as a PvP option?
Sooner than you might think...
Have you ever thought of running a double Mana Runes event?
This is something we are currently planning, however we'd like to do this in a way that allows us to run special instances of events with ease, so it will take some time. Rest assured though that this is something we want to bring to the game.
What were the easiest, most difficult, funniest, and most interesting aspects of designing Dominaria and M19? How do those compare to previous sets, and what lessons has your team learned?
M19 was a fairly simply set coming in from tabletop MTG, as most core sets tend to be, so we took that opportunity to add some set-independent mechanics, like Stored Mana and Flash. Dominaria, however, was a massively important (and nostalgic) set with multiple problems to solve.
The most difficult part of it was definitely identifying what to do with the Legendary status of cards. Eventually (and with some help from the community) we settled on simply creating an evergreen for Legendary cards, but it was pretty complex for a while there. This was mostly because we wanted something flashy and important to really make the set standout. We eventually moved that around to the Leader mechanic, which led to some very funny conversations about how certain leaders could have their flavor and mechanics represented.
----------
Thanks everyone for tuning into this July + August Q&A Session with Oktagon!
Thanks for being patient, as we worked through the process of compiling and answering the questions from both July and August's Q&A Submission threads. We've put together a list of the most frequently asked questions, and here is what the team had to say:
----------
How do you plan on speeding up / removing animations?
The plan is to allow players the choice between the following options:
- Current Animations - Cards pop up and automatically close.
- No Animations - Cards don't pop up
- Reader Mode - Cards pop up and close only on tap
Will there be any improvements or changes to the Story mode side of the game?
Not any time soon. There is, however, a very exciting idea that is moving along through design at the moment!
Is there any way to give us more time at the end of events to complete a final refresh? 6 hours (or less) is not too player friendly across the world.
We are currently looking at this and other options, in order to allow players in different regions the chance to participate equally in events.
Can we get a standardized vocabulary / grammar for card actions?
Inconsistencies will appear every now and then, especially for new card actions. Some of them even come from changes made, due to feedback on ambiguity and/or lack of clarity. We'd like, at some point, to revise the text of older cards to match the standard we now follow, although this is not up there in our priority list at the moment.
Have you considered giving players an option to choose which version of Training Grounds we enter, as opposed to rotating between Standard and Legacy?
That, along with allowing players to play both during the weekend (Friday - Sunday) and Standard during weekdays, are our current leading options for allowing some flexibility in how players can enjoy the game.
The lack of communication, be it new content or no updates of event schedule or such, is the biggest gripe. How would you improve this in the future?
We'd like to go back to consistently answering the Q&As on time. Also, we plan to continue to release articles, such as Mechanic Spotlights or Event Spotlights. We also intend to do a better job communicating to players when new Planeswalkers / Events / Bundles will be added to the game.
What is the plan for Mana Runes acquisition? As of right now, it is difficult for players to acquire the necessary amount of runes needed to level up all the Planeswalkers, which is quite frustrating.
There are currently some features and changes we plan on implementing that should solve this problem. In the meantime, we've been increasing the amount of Mana Runes earnable from newer Events. We've also recently increased the amount earnable through the Training Grounds. These measures should help in the meantime, while a more long term solution is being developed.
Will there be more new events? We used to get both a new PvP and PvE with each set, but now it has been only one or the other.
Not necessarily with set releases, however there will be new events being added regularly to the game. For the most part, if a set release had only one event, rest assured there will be some new and exciting event or feature following it.
Can we have something other than 3,000 player brackets as a PvP option?
Sooner than you might think...
Have you ever thought of running a double Mana Runes event?
This is something we are currently planning, however we'd like to do this in a way that allows us to run special instances of events with ease, so it will take some time. Rest assured though that this is something we want to bring to the game.
What were the easiest, most difficult, funniest, and most interesting aspects of designing Dominaria and M19? How do those compare to previous sets, and what lessons has your team learned?
M19 was a fairly simply set coming in from tabletop MTG, as most core sets tend to be, so we took that opportunity to add some set-independent mechanics, like Stored Mana and Flash. Dominaria, however, was a massively important (and nostalgic) set with multiple problems to solve.
The most difficult part of it was definitely identifying what to do with the Legendary status of cards. Eventually (and with some help from the community) we settled on simply creating an evergreen for Legendary cards, but it was pretty complex for a while there. This was mostly because we wanted something flashy and important to really make the set standout. We eventually moved that around to the Leader mechanic, which led to some very funny conversations about how certain leaders could have their flavor and mechanics represented.
----------
Thanks everyone for tuning into this July + August Q&A Session with Oktagon!
3
Comments
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This is great, and I'm sure I speak for lots of us in saying thank you. However, I think the bit I've quoted above sort of misses the point. One of the most obnoxious aspects of the animations is all the stuff that goes on above the board after you make a match, or before/after a turn ends. I don't need to see all eight thopter tokens hit the board after I kill Hangarback Walker. All that does is cause frustration and slow down my experience as I go through the match. I also don't need to see where every little bit of mana has gone, or originated. I'm a veteran player though, so I'm well aware that there is utility in having these available for the new person. All I'm saying is that I think there should be an option to turn that nonsense off, because it does literally nothing for me. The Battle Log is where I'd go if I had questions about what happened.Brigby said:Hi Everyone,
Thanks for being patient, as we worked through the process of compiling and answering the questions from both July and August's Q&A Submission threads. We've put together a list of the most frequently asked questions, and here is what the team had to say:
----------
How do you plan on speeding up / removing animations?
The plan is to allow players the choice between the following options:- Current Animations - Cards pop up and automatically close.
- No Animations - Cards don't pop up
- Reader Mode - Cards pop up and close only on tap
4 -
I am legitimately concerned that there is no understanding about what players mean when they ask for faster animations. No animations shouldn't remove showing what spells are cast and what cards are drawn. It is essential to know what spell is cast so you know why you took 6 damage or why your creature was destroyed. There are also plenty of times when it is important to know what card was drawn when you are at a point that you can't open your hand to look.Brigby said:
How do you plan on speeding up / removing animations?
The plan is to allow players the choice between the following options:- Current Animations - Cards pop up and automatically close.
- No Animations - Cards don't pop up
- Reader Mode - Cards pop up and close only on tap
Here are some animations we don't need:
Thopter Spy Network spawning 4 individual 1/1 thopter tokens.
Visual trails going from matched gems to the cards in my hand.
Creatures taking lethal damage and shaking with a death animation.
I'm honestly not sure how else to explain it without playing for a while to find more examples. I would gladly make a few videos of some situations that need improvement if that would help you guys.4 -
Brigby said:Hi Everyone,
Can we get a standardized vocabulary / grammar for card actions?
Inconsistencies will appear every now and then, especially for new card actions. Some of them even come from changes made, due to feedback on ambiguity and/or lack of clarity. We'd like, at some point, to revise the text of older cards to match the standard we now follow, although this is not up there in our priority list at the moment.
Have you considered giving players an option to choose which version of Training Grounds we enter, as opposed to rotating between Standard and Legacy?
That, along with allowing players to play both during the weekend (Friday - Sunday) and Standard during weekdays, are our current leading options for allowing some flexibility in how players can enjoy the game.
The lack of communication, be it new content or no updates of event schedule or such, is the biggest gripe. How would you improve this in the future?
We'd like to go back to consistently answering the Q&As on time. Also, we plan to continue to release articles, such as Mechanic Spotlights or Event Spotlights. We also intend to do a better job communicating to players when new Planeswalkers / Events / Bundles will be added to the game.Summary for all other points: We're working on it (eventually).As for these:Standardized Vocabulary: I think the standardized vocabulary is should be a much higher priority. It is very confusing right now in game for someone who has been playing both paper and PQ for a long time, it must be infinitely more confusing for someone new to either. Please tell them to bump it up a bit on their list.Standard vs Legacy TG: I would prefer to be able to chose which is which on any given day (or even any given fight) than rotating them, since sometimes I just want to kick back, relax, and unleash a horde of Emrakuls on my enemies. That's much harder to do in standard.Communication: I love that you want to do this. I am skeptical that you will actually do this. Prove me wrong.3 -
This one was more interesting than the ones before.Animations :Great! Looking forward to it. Please take @zw2007- s feedback, it's good.Story mode :Well, not unexpected that nothing will come so only, but nice to know it's on the radarEvent endings :I'm glad to hear it has a high priority! If you announce it before, no one would complain if you make test runs to gather feedback.Vocabulary :There is a standard you follow? Really? Then it might be necessary to revise that, since also in M19 there are several unclear cards, and.. Well, it's been said multiple times. II am sure you're underestimating the importance of this topic, particularly regarding the new player experience. If players who play for years have problems understanding cards, then a new player will be totally lost.Training grounds :Interesting! We like variety (but no randomness)Communication:The Q&A is the only way of a flow from the source in our direction. It's often late, sometimes gets canceled, and if it comes, it often appears you don't invest a lot of time into it. That leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Game changes are often unannounced, it's good to hear you're aware of it.. Communication is the one thing you can easily improve by just doing.. Anything.Mana runesThe runes in standard TG are nice, but the new walkers in M19 alone will cost around 600-700k runes - the income should at least be comparable to the expected costs in the same time (back in kld - HOU I was able to get every walker and level him up to sixty at around the time the next one came out). I will not pay for toys that I can't level.EventsIf you use what already exists in a clever way, there's no need for the game to feel stale.BracketsYou know, I generally like such spoiler-statements, but (this is totally subjective and only my opinion):you don't give us a lot of input, if we had gotten more I'd feel more familiar with whoever wrote this and like it. As it is, it feels like a wasted opportunity to properly answer something else instead.EventsI somehow read it as a redesign of the current way events are implemented to fascilate ajustements.. If that's correct, this might be my favorite point0
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I am also concerned about the reply here regarding animations. Yes, we need to go back to the previous way for mass token generation where the token popped up once and only once; that's a big annoyance but far from the only one. The main animations we need to be able to disable are the arcing trail that hits players/creatures/supports when something happens to them, and the loyalty gaining light effects. These take forever and can be easily replaced. Make the loyalty gain effect just like the mana effect where you see a + sign and a number and then it goes away; for that arc trail thing, either let us speed it up or turn it off completely. When I cast Hour of Devastation, for instance, I don't need to watch the 12 damage come hit each creature and then the opponent in turn. Just put a big red -12 next to each of them, all at the same time, and then process the effect.
As for standardizing the vocabulary of the existing card set, would you accept help from the community? I guarantee you we could collaborate on producing the correct wording for all your existing cards if we knew the effort wouldn't be going to waste.
3 -
Nice to hear you're thinking about the impact excessive animations have on gameplay, but please look at more than just card popups....
How do you plan on speeding up / removing animations?
The plan is to allow players the choice between the following options:- Current Animations - Cards pop up and automatically close.
- No Animations - Cards don't pop up
- Reader Mode - Cards pop up and close only on tap
All the other little animations (mana flowing to cards, Loyalty to PWs, damage/enhancements to creatures, shining gems for supports/energized/activated, those little dust motes around supports denoting the number of shields, etc.) all add up and can impact the play experience when they slow down user devices.
As an example, in the recent Oath of the Gatewatch event, I was using Saheeli and activated her 3rd ability to deploy multiple copies of Heart of Kiran to the board. It got to the point that every available non-Loyalty gem was taken over by a support or Energized. At that time, every action took multiple seconds, as there were just too many effects trying to happen at once.0 -
Pleeeeeeaase let us do thisAs for standardizing the vocabulary of the existing card set, would you accept help from the community? I guarantee you we could collaborate on producing the correct wording for all your existing cards if we knew the effort wouldn't be going to waste.0 -
The animations are bviously a huge issue. Just make a 4th setting that skips EVERYTHING.
It could be super simple. We choose what gems to match. The cards that require our attention pop up like they currently do. Then skip to the next turn when we reorder cards and do it again.
Skip the cascades, skip the other players turn, skip everything. I only want to be involved when I have a decision to make. The rest is fluff or can be found in the Battle Log.
Maybe I am extreme but I can look at the board and see if there is a new creature or support.
0 -
As has been discussed, the animations issue is not just about cards, but to give you a _really_ easy example to see what we mean...
Play Green/White Huatli with Path of Discovery and Vampire Conquisatador and the Forerunner. Have her first ability out and start playing multiple Vampires. You get heaps of gem matches, but it starts slowing down incredibly because of the "loyalty" animations...
You don't need a graphical arc to show this at all, but if you _do_ want to signify it then just have her face flicker for a microsecond. If IN TESTING this still causes problems then have it only occur the first time per turn and maybe 1 in 10 times after that.
There are a lot of things where you DO need to draw people's eyes to things, it's just the current approach is really really stuck in one particular type of animation. Drawing lines is VERY slow, making the destination flicker is not.
0 -
No new question thread?0
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Well these were some encouraging comments. I have long opined for more content outside of the scope of cards/PWs. And many of these seem like hints that something is to come.
Will there be any improvements or changes to the Story mode side of the game?
Not any time soon. There is, however, a very exciting idea that is moving along through design at the moment!
What is the plan for Mana Runes acquisition? As of right now, it is difficult for players to acquire the necessary amount of runes needed to level up all the Planeswalkers, which is quite frustrating.
There are currently some features and changes we plan on implementing that should solve this problem. In the meantime, we've been increasing the amount of Mana Runes earnable from newer Events. We've also recently increased the amount earnable through the Training Grounds. These measures should help in the meantime, while a more long term solution is being developed.
Will there be more new events? We used to get both a new PvP and PvE with each set, but now it has been only one or the other.
Not necessarily with set releases, however there will be new events being added regularly to the game. For the most part, if a set release had only one event, rest assured there will be some new and exciting event or feature following it.
Can we have something other than 3,000 player brackets as a PvP option?
Sooner than you might think...
RE: Story mode comment - So many good options for content that could be way better than story mode. Story mode would give a few more fights that we would quickly master, and then tire of. I would much prefer something more engaging, complex and deep. I really wish they would scrap the rune system and have an individual story mode for each planeswalker, where you have to basically beat their story to get them to level 20. Then you gain more experience by playing with them in other content until level 60. Also, plenty of other unique and fun options. Looking forward to seeing what's in the pipeline.
RE: Mana Runes comment - I just keyed onto "some features and changes we plan on implementing" ... again, vague but gives me some hope for a better future.
RE: New Events.. New events added regularly to the game... yes please!
The 3000 bracket comment leaves me a little bit wary. The blood pumping intensity of going for 300 jewels in the last few rounds of HoD is what keeps this game enjoyable to me. Washing this feeling out by going to small pools with nerfed prizes is hopefully not what they intend.0 -
Same feeling for me. It would be good if not every event is super competetive but if nothing is, then there is not really much to play for. It will just be a card collector.babar3355 said:
The 3000 bracket comment leaves me a little bit wary. The blood pumping intensity of going for 300 jewels in the last few rounds of HoD is what keeps this game enjoyable to me. Washing this feeling out by going to small pools with nerfed prizes is hopefully not what they intend.
They could make a rotating schedule, PvP1 is High reward/higher competition, PvP2 is lower reward with smaller brackets. Just have them every other turn or so. There are also the PvE that is just a grind for most veterans so there will be more 'easy' content anyway.0 -
Or maybe let people opt into 2-3 different bracket sizes? 250, 1000, 3000.. with prizes scaled based on tier.Rhasget said:
They could make a rotating schedule, PvP1 is High reward/higher competition, PvP2 is lower reward with smaller brackets. Just have them every other turn or so. There are also the PvE that is just a grind for most veterans so there will be more 'easy' content anyway.1 -
Like others in this thread, I'm going to register my objections to this solution.[snip]
----------
How do you plan on speeding up / removing animations?
The plan is to allow players the choice between the following options:- Current Animations - Cards pop up and automatically close.
- No Animations - Cards don't pop up
- Reader Mode - Cards pop up and close only on tap
[snip]
Basically what it's saying is either deal with what you have, slow the game down, or choose an option that isn't going to do at all what you wanted in the first place.
The option to turn off animations is not ever going to be a good thing.
First, the pause button / battle log freeze is not fixed. If we can't see what cards are popping up, we are going to have to use this feature a lot. It's important in this game to always know what your opponent is doing.
To that point and bug aside, constantly checking the battle log and clicking on supports to see what they are will also slow the game down.
One more point -- for new players who don't understand all of the options to check cards and how to mostly avoid the pause bug, this is going to create a bad experience. If they turn it off, not understanding the implications and what the options mean, they are basically going to be blind. I wouldn't continue to play a game that made me feel like this. Would you?
I request that the team really reviews the consequences of this change before rolling it out.4 -
They could do one better and just give us a button to view each player's graveyard/exile! 99% of the time we could get the answer to "what just happened? I wasn't paying attention" from seeing those two zones... and then there's all the OTHER reasons we should be able to do this.bken1234 said:
First, the pause button / battle log freeze is not fixed. If we can't see what cards are popping up, we are going to have to use this feature a lot. It's important in this game to always know what your opponent is doing.1 -
Entire community for months: Please speed up token animations.Devs: We hear you, we're going to let you stop seeing what cards are drawn....14
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Problem with asymmetrical rewards is that the player base has in the past used high-reward events as evidence of "lacking rewards" in other events. It seems common practice for players to demand equally high prizes. Would be kind of nice if, when entering an event, you were given an option of say three different prize packages to compete for, of equal value to each other. If you're after crystals, runes, or jewels, you can get more of those to the detriment of the rest. Maybe adds some tension. Then, as @Ba@babar3355 suggests, players could select into a large or small pool, which would scale the rewards to match. Doesn't need to be separate pools for separate prize packages, though.Rhasget said:
Same feeling for me. It would be good if not every event is super competetive but if nothing is, then there is not really much to play for. It will just be a card collector.babar3355 said:
The 3000 bracket comment leaves me a little bit wary. The blood pumping intensity of going for 300 jewels in the last few rounds of HoD is what keeps this game enjoyable to me. Washing this feeling out by going to small pools with nerfed prizes is hopefully not what they intend.
They could make a rotating schedule, PvP1 is High reward/higher competition, PvP2 is lower reward with smaller brackets. Just have them every other turn or so. There are also the PvE that is just a grind for most veterans so there will be more 'easy' content anyway.
0 -
Game speed.
I like that they are going to have different options so we can each choose what's best for each one of us for each event. The beginners need more animations to know what is happening. An experienced player playing training grounds does not need any animations and could use option 4 I mentioned above.
Please just ensure you give good options for game speed as mentioned in every post. Maybe something as simple as if holding the screen it speeds up faster and faster. If held for 5 seconds skip to the next decision for the player.
This is obviously the biggest topic currently so please put more thought into it than mentioned in the original post.
Thank you.1 -
Do we get a new question submission thread @brigby?
0 -
Yes. I should be posting it either later today, or early tomorrow, so that players can submit their questions over the weekend as well.Laeuftbeidir said:Do we get a new question submission thread brigby?0
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