7.3 Update: Battlegrounds

[Jeto]

Originally published at: 7.3 Update: Battlegrounds – Gems of War

The PvP system has not seen a major update since it was changed in the 2.0 Update (May 2016). As Gems of War has evolved since then we’re giving the PvP System a big overhaul, 7.3 is the first part of this overhaul with expansions to the system planned for future updates. The PvP World…

[Jerry_the_skunk]

Please don’t tell me, you’re planning to release it just half a day before weekend…
If that really has to happen, despite all articulated concerns, can’t it at least wait until monday?

[Pigfarm70]

Will there still be an option to PvP fight a specific player via the player profile ?

[Ash3nShad3]

Thank you for all the exciting updates! When is this rolling out?

[Ilmarien]

They never mentioned about Pet Gnome. Will it maintain the same probability of occurence? Will it change? This is also a thing only related to PVP.

I’ll definitely will play one week. Depending on the effort, it will be another mode that I’ll completely ignore. Soon there will be no more modes to play.

[Ash3nShad3]

Is this rolling out tomorrow?

[JamesDurning]

@Jeto

We have added a new Status Effect: Terror.

Troops affected by Terror have a small (10%) chance at the start of each turn to move down 1 spot in their Team (this is resolved from bottom most Troop to the Troop in first position). If a Troop is already in last position when the Terror triggers, they will run away from the battle… Cowards!

So if you have one troop left in first position, and terror triggers, does this move them down to 2nd position, or do they run? It’d be neat to have a long ghost boss battle, where the hero slowly moves from top to bottom as they become more and more afraid.

I’m surprised you process from bottom to top for this. I can’t wait to see the first video of an entire team running away in fear (<=0.1 ^ 4 = 0.01% chance on a team fear) and then the next video of an entire player’s team running away in fear. Surely there will be cheating AI accusations after that!

[Stratelier]

@Jerry_the_skunk

Please don’t tell me, you’re planning to release it just half a day before weekend…
If that really has to happen, despite all articulated concerns, can’t it at least wait until monday?

Second this. @Jeto can’t the dev team schedule the release in sync with a Weekly Reset? Yes, there is platform screening to go through but once that’s cleared…

@Jeto

When you lose a defense battle, there is no loss of VP (like there was with the old PvP Score). There may be a mode in a future update where VP can be lost, but in 7.3 (with Quick Battle the only mode available) there is no VP loss at this time.

This was specifically a concern from the “sneak peek” topic, this is (for now) seems good news to know.

@Jeto

These new Dragons cost a little more than their Gem Dragon counterparts, but they are a little tougher too.

Note that while the Gem Dragons get 55% skull resistance, Cosmic Dragons get 55% spell resistance, markedly more useful. 3rd trait says it buffs ALL stats (not just Magic) upon Color match, also more powerful than Gem Dragons.

@Jeto

Glory being earned from battles other than PvP was not counting towards the Glory Hound task.

“It only took 40 years.”
– (memeable quote from Monster Hunter World)

@JamesDurning

So if you have one troop left in first position, and terror triggers, does this move them down to 2nd position, or do they run?

My guess is they will shuffle down one slot at a time, but we will see. "First/last position" (distinct from “first/last Troop”) has only been used in terms of shuffling team formation previously, though there are admittedly plenty of spells utilizing both terms – e.g. "pull the last enemy into first position " (so if slot #4 is empty, an opponent in slot #3 or #2 is picked and moved to slot #1, whether or not slot #1 was empty).

@JamesDurning

I’m surprised you process from bottom to top for this.

Yes, this opens up a 0.1% chance that if all 4 Troops on your team have Terror then it may proc for all of them (expected result: one Troop flees and the rest shuffle down one position). If it was processed from top to bottom, there would be a similar chance that a Troop in 1st position could shuffle all the way to bottom position AND run away ALL IN ONE TURN, with the other 3 troops being effectively skipped.
(Compare the weird behavior that can happen if Slayer’s “Brutal Strike” trait causes fatal damage)

This being said, Terror at least opens up a new way to deal with summoner troops, who are often placed in last position(s) to begin with. Greed+Egg Thief type teams, for example, have a new counter.

Now if we could just get an actual counter for Chalcedony/etc. type teams…

[Jerry_the_skunk]

Bets are up: Will the next campaign feature random “Terror gems”?

[Kezef]

If one accepts the hints from the spoilers as genuine, the next campaign mythic comes from Wild Plains. So I’d be inclined to bet on “rage gems” or maybe “barrier gems” as a second choice.

[Pigfarm70]

Also, how will this now factor into fighting PvP at the start of a GAP to launch a Pet Rescue…

[sylverscale]

Maybe not the next but they’ll come, I’m sure.

[Pigfarm70]

What specific conditions control the team players will face in PvP ? Is it the opponents last Attack team for any mode (Explore for example) or is it the last team that player used in a PvP fight ? How does this work at weekly reset if the opponent has no fights played yet that week. Etc, etc…

If determined by last PvP team, is this PvP Region specific also ? Thus the PvP opponent pool is limited to those that have fought in that Region and will fight opponents that have teams of the same restrictions?

[redmist]

@Jeto

PvP Shop

    The PvP Shop is a new style of Shop for PvP, with 5 different tabs
       ...
        Other Tab: Spend Gold Marks to purchase some rarer resources, including a random Book of Deeds.

Will the colour of that ‘random’ Book of Deeds be weighted?

[Crow]

The candy crush update!

[Jerry_the_skunk]

@Jeto

If a Troop is already in last position when the Terror triggers, they will run away from the battle… Cowards!

Do we get a “mercy round” as with death mark and lycantropy?

[covertmuffin123]

Thanks for posting the patch notes in advance - it’s a big help.

[Jerry_the_skunk]

@Jeto

You will not drop down a league if you do not play for the entire weekly event.

I sense, that this exception will do more harm than good, although the intention to spare players, who are forced offline for some reason, is a good one.

If a player is immune, does the number of demotion spots get reduced or remain stable? In the former case, the top leagues will grow in size over time, while the bottom leagues dry out. In the latter case, players get punished for the inactivity of others. And once we get into a situation, where a promotion and a demotion spot overlap, I am sure the game will do something funny.
And in any case, I predict that the top leagues will be 80% inactive players, who stopped playing while on the winning side, eventually, unless you add some form of activity requirement for participation. You have not mentioned one yet.

Which makes me worry, that we start the first season with every single player, who ever created an account. Fun.

[NerdieBirdie]

@Ash3nShad3

Is this rolling out tomorrow?

I’m confused too. Usually they include an expected release date/time when they post the patch notes early.

[Stratelier]

@Pigfarm70

What specific conditions control the team players will face in PvP ? Is it the opponents last Attack team for any mode (Explore for example) or is it the last team that player used in a PvP fight ?

Most likely, it’ll track which teams the player actually used in PVP i.e. add them to the “pool” of available opponents to fight. Which means Attack teams can’t be necessarily kept secret anymore, and certain teams that benefit from actual player strategy (e.g. Shield of Urskaya teams) will be easily beaten since the defending cpu doesn’t know how to play them properly.