3.3 Release Notes *Updated (4/3/19)

[Deleted User]

octal9 said:

Are you planning True PvP? Communication on that front would turn what's viewed as neutral at best into a rationalized "okay that makes sense" reaction. E.g.: "A number of you want 'True PvP' and in MTGPQ's current state, that's not possible. Not everybody is playing on their toilet, so to enable you to face off against other players we found that real-time gameplay requires a real-time limit during a player's turn." A simple announcement of why a change is inbound increases player confidence in the team: "maybe these guys know what they're doing..."

I was thinking this was a possibility but even then this timer solution for both true PvP and loops is horrible.

True PvP needs a timer; however, based on the games architecture, as others mentioned, its not possible or highly limited. And even if it were possible, it would require many iterations before it become viable in events. Therefore, the starting iterations would be casual PvP (maybe inter-coalition, maybe not).

However, casual PvP does not really want specific timer limits as your are pretty much showing off your deck and I'm pretty sure some arrangement/discussion will occur before the battle (there are other possibilities but kind of tired right now). Thus, the best kind of timer for this instance would have to be one that you can adjust - the player(s) set the limits. Furthermore, any reasonable person could understand from this that the timers then should ONLY be limited to PvP and NOT the entire game.

Honestly, if you just sit and think for a few minutes about loops and how to stop them, there are numerous ways to go about it. And many of those options are better than a timer. Despite this, they decided to go with a timer in order to make the transition to casual PvP more viable. And this is further supported based on the "profiles" they designed and implemented as well as the little teaser about possible "pvp"-ish options in the future. This was in their roadmap and they were trying to kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

The problem they are facing is: they have spilled milk everywhere! There are so many issues that need to be addressed. Once again I will re-iterate they are biting off more than they can chew. The problem is probably their strict 2019 plans/roadmap, which does not have any extra allotted time to address the problems each of their implementation are causing - it's like a horse with side-blinders on, it only looks forward and runs!

Here are some important issues that need to be addressed:

profiles and exp

bugs

loading times

animations on/off

other quality of life improvements (timers/charges, deck slots, etc)

Please stop spreading yourselves so thin and wide - focus and perfect... Its like deckbuilding.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Tourmaline

It is almost like the people running this game dont understand and refuse to recognize that making sweeping changes that completely destroy large swaths of gameplay does nothing but alienate paying players. 

I felt a little guilty like maybe my comment about having no confidence in them fixing looping without totally destroying spellcasting was maybe a bit jaded and yet here we are and not only is spellcasting wrecked but also an entire dynamic of how the game is played has been shifted? 

Part of why i choose to spend my money on this game is because it is different from all the other card games out there that run on timers. Making massive changes like this without community involvement time and time again does nothing to inspire customer confidence that the products theyre paying for today arent going to become utterly useless in a month or two. 

I guess its going to take it effecting their bottomline before they understand why they get this constant outcry from the paying community that this relies upon.

Laeuftbeidir

starfall said:

Will the timer stop all those times that the graphics freeze onscreen for half a second or so?

Actually, why haven't those freezes been fixed?

Imagine if the new timer would have the side effect to solve every freeze - not planned, but accidentally build in!

madwren

Laeuftbeidir said:

starfall said:

Will the timer stop all those times that the graphics freeze onscreen for half a second or so?

Actually, why haven't those freezes been fixed?

Imagine if the new timer would have the side effect to solve every freeze - not planned, but accidentally build in!

To be fair, if you're playing the game for lesser amounts of time, you're going to experience fewer freezes. Brilliant!

IM_CARLOS

Hire some gamedesigner and do some betatesting to forfeit such loopholes.

Second if first step fails find a proper failback plan that didn't make casual game out of this. I promise, less people will buy exclusive cards if they get caught by a sledgehammer fix like this. 

Yes you can play around, but finding combos are the spice in games like this, not playing OP creatures to make them happen before sands run out. 

I won't buy any more cards and pw if this will be the final word. So get your money anywhere. 

Dologan

Who wants to bet that the timer itself will be the source of some freezes once it hits? You'll see... And then people will get so afraid of hitting the timer that the whole competitive meta is going to be radically altered to slow, underpowered decks which will make impatient veteran players leave in droves.

Houdin

Wow!!
Here I was sure we would never see another decision so poorly though out as Austerity.

Apparently I was wrong.

To me this time is absolutely "lazy mans" coding. 

The community complains when the dev's accidentally  make broken cards in the sets. Mostly I believe because they dont play test them enough and not at all with some of the super creative veterans as beta.

Why is it lazy?

Well if you are tired of constantly having to allocate resources on a case by case basis to fix issues with cards, what is the lazy solution?

Just limit every card in the game so even if it's broken it just stops anyways.

Is the above comment actually true?

Probably not but there is no way @Brigby you cant see why this decision is coming across that way.

The dev's have made a decision that effects upwards of a third of every card in the game, altered the meta to completely invalidate 75% of all deck types and completely devalued almost 100% of cards that have been offered and paid for with real currency. All without even one moment of player feedback.

If this goes live without being fixed prior to or with an immediate hot fix I truly believe you will see a movement that makes the notanotherdime fiasco look like a minor disagreement between nuns.

Something this horrendously bad cant be placated with " th dev's will look into it" or maybe it could be changed in a couple of months.

If you had asked me yesterday if there was anything that could possibly make me want to see the next set delayed I would have said "no way"

Today I would say, unless you want to see this game experience a nearly instant app death. Pull the update and get this fixed if it isn't possible to do an instant hotfix.

RithPrimeval

starfall said:

Will the timer stop all those times that the graphics freeze onscreen for half a second or so?

Actually, why haven't those freezes been fixed?

Having this extra timer will probably cause even more freezes/slower running game/faster battery drain.. 

Brakkis

Now that it's been mentioned in our Slack, I've got to take a moment away from the terrible turn timer discussion and ask:

@Brigby Will Spectacle be ruined the same way Raid was (only triggering once per turn as opposed to paper's no limit) or will it trigger every time damage is dealt during a turn?

Brigby

*Updated the post with a link to the Loop Prevention System - More Details post

OmegaLolrus

For the new Rising Tensions events... are we going to have the two Rising Tensions a day? Are we going to rotate weeks (one week Ravnica Allegiance, one Guilds of Ravnica)? Is Guilds of Ravnica Rising Tensions getting taken off the weekly calendar?

Brigby

OmegaLolrus said:

For the new Rising Tensions events... are we going to have the two Rising Tensions a day? Are we going to rotate weeks (one week Ravnica Allegiance, one Guilds of Ravnica)? Is Guilds of Ravnica Rising Tensions getting taken off the weekly calendar?

While I'm not sure how set in stone this will be for the future, at the moment it looks like it will be an alternation of one week of GRN Rising Tensions then the following week of RNA Rising Tensions; rinse and repeat.

OmegaLolrus

Brigby said:

OmegaLolrus said:

For the new Rising Tensions events... are we going to have the two Rising Tensions a day? Are we going to rotate weeks (one week Ravnica Allegiance, one Guilds of Ravnica)? Is Guilds of Ravnica Rising Tensions getting taken off the weekly calendar?

While I'm not sure how set in stone this will be for the future, at the moment it looks like it will be an alternation of one week of GRN Rising Tensions then the following week of RNA Rising Tensions; rinse and repeat.

Delightful, I'm rather fond of Rising Tensions... especially if there won't be locked nodes.

Dropspot

GRN rising tensions will still reward GRN packs or they are going to be updated to RNA packs? Also TotP are going to reward RNA packs as well or they will keep rewarding GRN packs?

Brigby

Dropspot said:

GRN rising tensions will still reward GRN packs or they are going to be updated to RNA packs? Also TotP are going to reward RNA packs as well or they will keep rewarding GRN packs?

The GRN Rising Tensions events will reward GRN packs. The RNA Rising Tensions events will reward RNA packs. The Trial of the Planes events will reward RNA packs starting in 3.3

IM_CARLOS

I don't give a * about the new set, new events, new pw or new rewards if the LPS comes real. No more * dime for me for this game! 

Grixis197

@Brigby

Is there gonna be any new Avatar Pictures and titles in this new set?

Brakkis

To best sum up the 3.3 Patch

Brigby

Hi Everyone. Thank you all for the insightful and constructive feedback. I just spoke with the team this morning, and they will be changing the 18 seconds per phase to 90 seconds.

This change will be a transitional adjustment, as the team will continue to monitor and work towards finding the right balance between solving infinite loop issues and maintaining player play styles following the 3.3 update.