Update 0.38 – Patch Notes

[Sibelios]

@Cyrup

Here are some areas of the game we’re considering focusing on in the future:

• Improvements to the Battle Pass
• Continuing to convert the game to the new UI menu style
• Introducing Russian and some Asian languages to the game
• Continuous quality of life improvements
• Changes to make the timing going between battles more succinct.

With the last Update (0.37), I listed several issues which I felt were still insufficiently addressed. So what’s the state of these issues now? Here’s my list:

@Sibelios

Issues that still should be addressed as you “move into world wide release”:

• Absence of any meaningful updates to Kingdoms (e.g. no activity tracking, no rewards adjustments for active kingdoms, no revisiting Deals, etc.)

Issues still are the same, even more so with the change to Marks as I mentioned here:

Why do the Developers hate Highly Active Kingdoms at Maximum Capacity?

0.38 UPDATE So, no changes to kingdom structure, administration, rewards, or anything else in this update. Although I’m not surprised, it’s extremely disappointing. But that’s not even the worse part. This update now makes the Food Deal one of the most rewarding passive activities in the game and as I’ve discussed previously, full kingdoms with active players are essentially losing out on benefits enjoyed by smaller kingdoms every day because there’s simply not enough inventory for all. Take a…

Grade: F

@Sibelios

• Pervasive lag, disconnects, server restarts

While some issues have been addressed like the disconnects in Events from touching the screen too much, inactivity disconnects remain an occasional problem and lag and game hangs up (e.g. retrieving mail, switching classes in PVP, navigating through menus) still persist
Grade: C-

@Sibelios

• 2 Starting Spells is still really painful for new players

Complete unaddressed. This is still a pain point for new players and the spell changes don’t make a bit of difference here. I still see numerous players just starting asking “How do I get more spells?”. Is four spells really so much to ask?
Grade: F

@Sibelios

• Gear Vault space is still woefully insufficient especially with the introduction of gear set bonuses; Northelm should provide 3-4x bonus for Gear Vault instead of 2x (which is ok for Minion and Spell Vaults) and Mythic Levels of Northelm should add even more

So we got an additional starting 25 Gear slots with this Update. As I’ve said elsewhere, I believe they are are taking an incrementalistic approach, so even though I feel that the gear situation is still a problem (persistent small salvages required, no incentive to raise Northelm to Mythic, etc.), it looks like they are likely to continue to tweak this in the future.
Grade: C

@Sibelios

• massive issues with resource economy despite the Shop Update in 0.37 (too many shard types, no means of exchange/downgradeability, too much RNG across content levels for shard types, weapon shards are virtually non-existent, etc)

With this update we have a daily method to acquire shards of all rarities, albeit randomized, by spending the new Marks earned from Events. Additionally, Skirmishes are now the game mode where Shards are found, having been removed from Dungeons, which incentivizes Skirmish mode and gives us a reason to use some Wooden Keys. With the addition of the 0.37 Shop changes, this is a pretty nice step towards resolving the Shard economy. Shard rarity is still too hard to target and the randomization of Shard purchases both with Marks and with Ore from the Bazaar still feel like you are too much at the mercy of RNG, but overall this Shard economy is in a better place
Grade: B+

@Sibelios

• FOOD! (yet again still no use for Food beyond the Kingdom Bazaar Food Deal once Followers are levelled)

Completely unaddressed. Also, with the introduction of the new Marks, the Food Deal from the Kingdom Bazaar is even more rewarding so the fact that no changes were made to the availability of the Food Deal (full kingdoms are still punished as there is not enough to go around) makes this issue even more critical.
Grade: F

@Sibelios

• ORE! (0.37 just introduced yet more uses for Ore but we are still stuck with the old old rate)

I still think this is a problem, but with so many changes to the overall economy with this update, the issue of Ore is one that probably is not as dire as others and probably will get addressed once all other economic changes have been made before launch.
No Grade

@Sibelios

• Glyphs are still absurdly rare given the quantity needed (unless you want to pay gobs of money in the new Shop)

This Update gives us a new way to acquire Glyphs and at a reasonable price from an earnable game currency. I’ve demonstrated elsewhere the expected rate of earning Diamond Marks based on Event participation. Assuming that Marks will also be available from other event modes (perhaps Seasons?), it seems like there is a reliable, albeit random, way to regularly attain Glyphs.
Grade: A-

@Sibelios

• Diamond Chest quality - supposedly this was going to be updated

Completely unaddressed. Diamond Chests are still terrible, even more so since you only see chests when earned from game modes (rewards from Dungeons and Skirmishes, using Tickets, or playing Events). The prevalence of a full chest of commons/uncommons is just inexcusable at this point.
Grade: F

@Sibelios

• Citadel Reset Feature and Citadel stat functionality

We finally have a Citadel Reset! First one is free, further ones are 300 gems. Obviously this was a much needed change. My biggest complaint is that you have to assign the points one at a time which for those with higher Citadel levels is a pretty tedious process
Grade: A-

@Sibelios

• Meaningful Stats page (all bonuses of equipped loadout should actually be present in Stats page)

Well my pet issue around Block seems to have been addressed. Also other elements of Stat presentation seem like they are correctly displayed. At least for now until something else bubbles up, this seems to have been handled well
Grade: A

Of course new issues always arise:

@Cyrup

With the change to the way mana is shared across spells, the new bonuses on single-color Spell builds for battles, as well as the addition of Mastery bonuses to spells, this has had a net positive effect on your Hero’s ability to give Damage (mainly from Spell damage and Mana damage). In fact, it was quite strong. Correspondingly, we’ve increased enemy damage to keep things in balance.

Obviously this is the elephant in the game right now for mid-range players. Plenty has been said about this elsewhere; hopefully they come up with a solution soon.

@Cyrup

Here are some areas of the game we’re considering focusing on in the future:

• Improvements to the Battle Pass

Beyond whatever improvements they have in mind (and it definitely needs to be improved both for the free and paid rewards, with the change to Horns earned from Events in this Update, it is now difficult once again to complete the Battle Pass with daily play without spending Gems. Remember, you must earn 900 Horns over 56 Days to receive all Battle Pass rewards. Currently, Horns are earned as follows:

• 6 per week from each of the three formats of PVP (Open, Restricted, Elite) for a total possible 18 per week. Obviously if you are not level 50, then only 12 per week are possible.
• 28 per week from Events based on no gem expenditure and daily play. Purchase the 100 gem cache regularly for the 3-day Dungeon Event (the most economical choice since you will often recover 50-100 gems from the leaderboard), you increase your total to 42 per week
• Variable number per week from Bounties. If you use only the 4 free tokens daily, and choose the best available bounties from all 4 given, then you will earn ~42 Horns per week. Take time to complete Bounties one-at-a-time, you can expect to earn ~48 Horns per week.

So lets take a look at the typical Level 50 player, doing Events daily and spending 100 gems on the 3-Day Dungeon Event (42 Horns / Week), doing the minimum rewards in all 3 PVP formats each week (18 Horns / Week), and doing free bounties by choosing them one-at-a-time (~48 Horns / Week). Over 8 weeks that represents a total of 864 Horns, 36 Horns shy of completing the Battle Pass. If you don’t meet any of the conditions I used in my example (not Level 50, not spending gems on Events, not picking Bounties one-at-a-time), then your Horn deficit will be even greater. Typically these extra Horns will need to be picked up through Bounties, so you will need at minimum an additional 12 Gold bounties at a minimum Gem cost of 300 Gems to fill our your Battle Pass. At least for the time being, buyer beware!

@Cyrup

Dungeon Chests no longer give Shards

• To balance this, they now have a higher chance to give Relics - Especially Higher rarities

As I said a couple posts previously, this is malarkey

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Finally, late game gem income needs help. Currently the best way to earn gems for long-term players is doing Turn 0 wins in PvP for 500 gems / week (1500 gems / week for all 3 tourneys). Because gems are at such a premium, most “end-game” players are therefore forced to pursue color aligned gear setups to achieve this goal. Although it certainly has created “something to shoot for”, it makes PvP even more joyless than ever and the situation needs to be addressed.

/fin (for now)