OKTAGON Q&A Session - August 2021 *UPDATE 8/31/21

Magic:PQ Support Team
Magic:PQ Support Team ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 3,444 Chairperson of the Boards
edited August 2021 in MtGPQ General Discussion

ANSWERS

    1. Would the team consider adding a button that would enable players to see just the Standard sets when deckbuilding outside of events? It would make it a lot easier for players trying to build decks before events to test them out and would generally be a nice quality of life feature. There was a post on the forums a while back about the possibility of implementing "seasons" to Puzzle Quest. Is that still on the table as a possibility and if so is it something the team plans to add to the game in the future?
      Answer: We have been discussing and designing some quality of life features recently and we plan to implement them in the future. Regarding seasons, we welcome the possibility of bringing them to Magic: Puzzle Quest, so it's still on our radar. Thank you for your suggestions!

    2. Have you adopted a design philosophy of making lands more powerful and land destruction less powerful, or is this happening unintentionally?
      Answer: In Magic: Puzzle Quest, mana comes from gems, and not exactly from lands, even though land supports do help by converting gems to one or more colors. This generates a need for land supports to become more powerful in order to make them useful. Land destruction is not a core mechanic of Magic: the Gathering and is still less relevant than using lands, so, in Magic: Puzzle Quest, it won’t be a priority until a core mechanic related to land destruction becomes relevant in Standard.

    3. We have been getting less and less events with the release of each set. Once Innistrad Midnight Hunt is released and standard rotates We will only have a handful of standard events. Zendikar Expeditions, Rise of Adventure, Skoti Bloodline, Doomskar Claimants and You've Found An Entrance. Only 2 of those are coalition events. Are we getting several new events with Innistrad? There are no PvP Legacy coalition events besides RaW because that one is block restricted. Are we losing all other current PvP coalition events once they go to Legacy? I wouldn't like playing a double turn Greg on A Timeless Voyage with the huge possibility of a turn 1 Omniscience.
      Answer: During the development phase for Strixhaven (STX) the team has been focused on the Real-Time PvP feature for the Coalition section. In return there has not been sufficient  time for adding a new event to that release. There will be new events with the next releases to assure enough variety for the upcoming Standard rotation. The Design Team is also looking into the option to turn existing events into Block Restricted events. 

    4. Will we ever see the return of counter-magic, such as with Insidious Will and Pact of Negation? This is a core Magic concept, but was mysteriously abandoned in Puzzle Quest. When Flash was developed, many of us hoped it meant we would finally get actual counterspells.  Instead, they’re often converted to the much worse “drain mana”, which is useless in a game where opponents can cascade for dozens of mana a turn. It would be great if you could start creating actual counterspells and add some much-needed strategy back to the game. 
      Answer: Flash is a mechanic that generated several technical issues and tricky interactions, and we're thinking about a way of reworking or replacing it. This does not necessarily apply to counterspells, though. We are aware that counterspells are way too important for blue centered strategies and it lacks utility in Magic: Puzzle Quest. We're trying to make the traditional mana drains have more usefulness in upcoming releases and introduce an effective counterspell mechanic. Thanks a lot for the interest!

    5. I enjoyed the first episode of your podcast, but it has now been two months without another. Is that project going to continue?
      Answer: Hi, Marcela here! Thank you so much for the interest, it’s great to hear that you enjoyed it! The podcast is actually from Oktagon Games, so most of the episodes will be about the company itself, in Portuguese. But whenever we get a Magic: Puzzle Quest episode, you’ll be the first to know, pinky promise! 

    Observation: We know that some of our answers in regards to questions about new features and questions and feedback related to your ideas seem repetitive. It has to do more with the fact that we often can't say much about upcoming features nor give an estimate on when these ideas could potentially come to the game. 
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Hi everyone,

    How are you?
    Here's another Q&A SESSION.
    We will answer the questions posted by August 22nd, so please send your questions and doubts HERE.
    Make sure to submit only 2-3 questions maximum, this way the team is able to focus and will try to answer all questions in a given month.

    Thank you for all the support,
    Rebeca

    Comments

    • madwren
      madwren Posts: 2,259 Chairperson of the Boards
      Question submitted, posting for reference: 

      "Will we ever see the return of counter-magic, such as with Insidious Will and Pact of Negation? This is a core Magic concept, but was mysteriously abandoned in Puzzle Quest. When Flash was developed, many of us hoped it meant we would finally get actual counterspells.  Instead, they’re often converted to the much worse “drain mana”, which is useless in a game where opponents can cascade for dozens of mana a turn. It would be great if you could start creating actual counterspells and add some much-needed strategy back to the game."
    • Machine
      Machine Posts: 857 Critical Contributor
      edited August 2021
      Are there any changes planned for the rare vanguard packs? Currently, it's impossible to collect the rare vanguards without wasting a LOT of mana jewels. This ensures a VERY bad user experience.

      I bought a rare vanguard pack from the newest set (AFR) and received Nahiri. I decided I wanted a second rare vanguard from the same set. Odds should be in my favor, because I only had one rare vanguard from that set. I had to waste 480 (!!) jewels before getting a new rare vanguard. So... I pulled Nahiri 5 times in a row. That's horrible and really infuriating. Just get rid of the 10% chance (yeah right... with this bad luck I should have pulled a mythic you would think) of getting a mythic vanguard and make the rare vanguard pack also nondupe. The way things are right now, the "rares" are more rare than the mythics.

      Any chance for some kind of compensation? This really sucks... @Oktagon_Support

    • Magic:PQ Support Team
      Magic:PQ Support Team ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 3,444 Chairperson of the Boards

      UPDATE - Answers

      Thanks for your patience and support 🧡
      Rebeca
    • BongoTheGrey
      BongoTheGrey Posts: 348 Mover and Shaker
      Answer: During the development phase for Strixhaven (STX) the team has been focused on the Real-Time PvP feature for the Coalition section. In return there has not been sufficient  time for adding a new event to that release. There will be new events with the next releases to assure enough variety for the upcoming Standard rotation. The Design Team is also looking into the option to turn existing events into Block Restricted events.

      I'm super grateful for real time PvP. It is an amazing feature and I understand that it took a lot of time to develop and that you had to sacrifice STX events in order to release it. I just think that it is a shame that you have an immense pool of events that are already designed and ready to be played that you just decide to never run them again. We play Trial of the Planes every single weekday and it is a Legacy event without any restrictions. Why can't we also play Rising Tensions the same way? That event was crippled and we rarely play it. I would love to have more events to play and you already have them designed and ready to roll. We frequently play some Legacy PvE events. Battle of Four Tribes is not one of those. I was just checking the event's section of the wiki and I can't remember me playing The Great Tournament more than once. A whole coalition PvP event rotating out of Standard that I'm sure a lot of people never get to play
    • Machine
      Machine Posts: 857 Critical Contributor
      When can I expect an answer to my question @Oktagon_Support?

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