Q&A w/ Oktagon - December Edition (1/28/19)

Brigby
Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
in MtGPQ General Discussion
Hi Everyone,

We hope everyone is having a great new year so far! With the holiday break and the recent 3.2 update, the team had their hands pretty full and haven't been able to address the December Q&A until recently. Having said that though, they still wanted to try and get a few short but sweet answers out to the community, so we hope you enjoy the following Q&A session!

We want to give a big thank you to the 3 Oktagon team members that took the time to review and answer all of these questions: Alain Valchera, Matheus Funfas, and Pedro Rauiz!
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Gameplay

Are there any plans for a stable set of comprehensive rules to be written and put into place for MtGPQ?
The "Pro Mode" plans, currently in concept phase, include several rules and guideline updates, along with revised articles accessible through the Help Center. A few other aspects also need work before such a mode is put in place though, such as card texts from older sets not describing the correct effect or differing from standard writing, and some system updates needed to detain loops and balance effects.

Speaking of balance, how does your team balance card strength between different colors?
On color distribution and balancing, we have a few formulas in place (such as we do for building each card), and we keep track of how the interplay between each color is working under the game restrictions, while maintaining their color identity. They do need some tweaking from time to time and manual adjustments, based on the way we can adapt the original effect from the paper version to the game's infrastructure, and due to Magic: the Gathering's own variety of effects set by set. Some of several cards in review from MtGPQ's earlier days are on that list precisely because they break the balance in some way by being either weaker or stronger than a card of that color should.

Events

Is there a plan to adjust the Duel Deck format to disincentivize consecutive victories by a single side?
We're working on that. The changes for the Duel Decks EvZ event still need implementation and testing, and should be available in the near future.

Can we expect to see new Coalition events in the future?
Certainly, though it should take a while given our packed scheduled with Allegiance and the upcoming War of the Spark. But we can announce that upon the release of 3.2, we will schedule the former Battle of Four Tribes event as a 2 part event with reworked encounters and rewards, along with the return of The Dragon War event.

Coalition

Are there any plans to upgrade the Coalition interface? Coalition page, rules, etc?
We have plans for a Coalition interface update, along with the addition of more interactive systems, which should allow new game modes and options for Coalition players and friends. Those changes are tied to the Player Profile improvements road-map and Seasons content, so we'll be able to detail them a little bit more in a future blog post later this semester.
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Thanks for checking out the December Edition of the Q&A w/ Oktagon. With January almost over, we plan on rolling the January questions into February to make up for any lost time, so if you have questions you'd like to ask them for the combined January & February Edition, then please submit them HERE

Comments

  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
    Thanks for posting!

    The good :
    Rules: are coming! Finally! Best part!Great to hear that's it's even put into a broader concept

    The bad :
    Balance: ouch. Maybe more _recent_ cards should be higher on the list then the mentioned old cards. Or will legacy be buffed to reach standards power (exaggerating here, but only marginally)?

    The ugly:
    Coalition events. TL;DR: no.
  • GrizzoMtGPQ
    GrizzoMtGPQ Posts: 776 Critical Contributor
    Devs: Too busy making cards.
    Players: But we don't have anything to do with cards.
    Devs: Sorry busy!
  • khurram
    khurram Posts: 1,090 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2019
    Allegiance and up coming War of the Spark...

    What is War of the Spark?
  • Mburn7
    Mburn7 Posts: 3,427 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2019
    khurram said:
    Allegiance and up coming War of the Spark...

    What is War of the Spark?
    The set after Allegiance.  Its the final chapter in the Gatewatch vs Bolas arc.  Bolas comes to Ravnica and razes the place (or at least, tries to)
  • Tremayne
    Tremayne Posts: 1,673 Chairperson of the Boards
    Thanks for the Q&A
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
    Mburn7 said:
    You're too busy to make coalition events?  How does that work?  What's the point of having new sets if we have nothing to do with them?

    Look.  WE DON'T NEED ANYTHING COMPLICATED.
    Seriously.  Watch me design an event right now.

    Corruption Spreading:
    Bolas' influence on Ravnica is spreading, with more and more guilds falling under his control.  Fight for control of his guilds before it's too late!

    Coalition PvP Event.

    Top Node:  Kaya's Coup
    Colors:  Black-White
    Objectives:  Exile 3 or more creatures.  Summon 3 or more Vampires or Spirits

    Left Node:  Dovin's Deliberation
    Colors:  White-Blue
    Objectives:  Drain 15 mana from your opponent's hand.  Cast 4 or more artifacts or enchantments

    Right Node:  Domri's Destruction
    Colors:  Green-Red
    Objectives:  Cast 3 or more creatures with Haste.  Deal 30 or more damage in 1 turn.

    Boom.  Took 5 minutes.

    No need for special node rules.  No need for funky rotating supports.
    Just a nice simple event (feel free to use this one, I give you full permission)
    This shouldn't be too hard to code in (since its basically the same as every other Hibernium event), and it would make all of us VERY happy.

    Other than that, Thanks for the Q&A!
    I'd play it. Now grab some pictures from the wotc page, copy some random lore texts, add some random rewards and copy and paste it over another event setup.

    I've always been on the page that additional complexity is not additional fun for this game, but mostly either better to be ignored. I mean, who cares about across ixalan node effects? Who cares about the cards that get forced into our libraries in some events? They don't event help in the Dom events since they changed the secondaries.
    I admit it's interesting every once in a while, but shouldn't be a requirement.

    Every event that isn't a coalition event feels empty to me, by the way.

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