Dev Q&A (Get Your Questions In!) Thursday

[Maxx]

So when is this coming?

[Ozball]

That’s part of the 3.2 patch.

[Magius]

Can we have a transcript of the Q&A? Sometimes it is not convenient to stream the video

[Annaerith]

yeah if someone put it into a text id be happy to read.
i dont have the privelege to watch videos at work and at home i just dont find time

[Magius]

Exactly that

[Grundulum]

I, too, am a technological tyrannosaurus. I prefer to read rather than listen/watch because it’s faster.

[Annaerith]

and its also faster to write then to record a vodeo!
win:win

[Annaerith]

@Saltypatra i just realised one thing:

anyone who isnt good with english may have trouble understanding the QA videos. in text they can always use a translation, but not there

also im trying so hard to watch those videos but the voice is so low i cant hear them

[turintuor]

And the voices… are so… aussie…

[Nephilim]

I think I’ve now watched all of the streams and I want to thank the forum for coming up with the questions, and the devs and salty for sorting it out and giving us honest answers.
I had my question about event keys answered but wasn’t sure if the bit about getting none event troops and stones in them was asked /answered.
Sirrian mentioned possibly putting common and rares in, but didn’t say at what cost to the legendary drops etc.
Thanks again, it was awesome to see nim and Sirrian. And yes he’s bald and handsome, but so am I. We should have a baldie handsome-off. Lol
Cheers, great stuff team and it almost made me want to spend money again! Lol

[Eika]

Thank you for these videos. It was fun to watch!

[Slypenslyde]

I’m gonna ask the hard-hitting questions.

What’s the dev team’s favorite lunch?

[Macawi]

When you post the Q&A video @Saltypatra ; Could you please enable closed captioning on it for the hearing impaired? It would be much appreciated.

[turintuor]

Not sure about all of these. Feel free to correct me .

@Saltypatra

What are your plans for kingdom reworks and nerfing/buffing troops?

Miss this part…

@Saltypatra

Will the seasonal imps be rebalanced?

Yes. Maybe make them more unique, more trickster-like.

@Saltypatra

Are you going to change the event key drop pool now that gems are so rare?

Maybe give Rare/Common (multiple copies).

@Saltypatra

How often do the devs play GoW? How often do they play the level 1000, fully traited part of the end game?

Sirrian level 300, Nimhaim level 500 on the game server. But they have also a test server where they can play as they want.

@Saltypatra

Tasks were nerfed because players could earn gold faster. Now that mana surging on 4 matches has been removed and matches are slower, will these be restored or adjusted to compensate this?

x4 speed should have compensate this and mana surging on 4 matches wasn’t on the PC/Mobile since a long time.

@Saltypatra

In GWs, when are we going to see the troop bonus for defense teams for the best 27 players?

GW defense rework for next patch. “Best 27 players” will be later.

@Saltypatra

All things Wisp. Is it going to be changed, how did it get approved, etc.

6th most used troop so it is not that an issue. One way to nerf Wisp will be to remove Magic Link.

@Saltypatra

Will there be an arena re-work in the future?
What are you planning to do about Dawn Bringer in Arena?

Yes. Ideas:

• add Epic troops
• remove Hero
• limiting Hero’s weapons
• remove some weapons in defense
• scaling the Hero’s stats down

@Saltypatra

Is there a set number of kingdoms that you plan on releasing, or is the plan to just keep cranking them out over time for the foreseeable future?

They like doing kingdoms. 1 kingdom every 3 months (but they wish every 2 months).
Map could be extended or going up (heaven) or down (underground).

@Saltypatra

The game splash shows 3 companies - can you explain what their roles are and how it works in practice?

• Infinity Plus 2: devs
• Pipeworks: part of 505 games and did the initial Unity version
• 505 games: publisher

@Saltypatra

What is the long term plan on releasing Mythic troops? About how many will be released (one per kingdom?more?) or will it be indefinite? Any plans on 4+ color troops?

1 Mythic/month
1 Mythic/kingdom aside Apocalypse
Maybe Mythic for special event (Christmas for example)

@Saltypatra

Will there be a cap on how many turns a player can get at one time

No.

@Saltypatra

Will treasure maps rewards be buffed anytime soon?

Not for the moment. Maybe in the next couple of months (with a replay for Quests/Challenge).

@Saltypatra

are there plans for the anniversary coming up of the game?

Oh yeah.

[Rickygervais]

I like and i don’t like the 1 troop use in defense.

I like it cause we gonna see more diversity but i don’t like it cause we still gonna see the same team for each color.

As example, spirit fox remove every yellow on the board and desdeamon double damage on yellow, so i am pretty sure we gonna see them in every yellow defense team

[Nephilim]

Sirrian said he plays 10-20 games a day. I think that’s what he said, it was definitely at least ten from memory.
I think this was badly needed to re-engage with the community.

[Whiskeyjack]

I also made some notes for those that can’t see the videos or can’t understand/hear them. Missed a few from @turintuor 's list, I’ll try to come back and update when Salty posts the YouTube version as I think there’s a video on twitch that for some reason I just can’t see.

What are your plans for kingdom reworks and nerfing/buffing troops?

• they would like like to bring a lot of older troops up to the level of new troops
• Btw they browse the forums even if they dont respond
• powercreep is discussed in the forums a lot. Powercreep happens because devs are finding the level that’s fun which wasn’t necessarily the level that the troops had when the game first launched
• Nim has a list of troops, which need addressing now, which need effort, which aren’t quite working as well as they’d like and need looking at in future
• Kingdom reworks is a good way to buff troops, and they like doing it that way

Will the seasonal imps be rebalanced?

• yes, S&N love the imps and they need more love. IOL needs to “spread his love”
• when they came out there wasn’t an obvious plan with them, it was just a short-term thing
• The power level of the imps at release (6mo after release when max troop level was 10) was ok. scatter (split) damage is not very good these days
• could buff scatter damage or could replace with a new mechanic in line with them being ‘tricksters’. Devs like the conditions in their spells.

Not a question, but they show the new UI for guild war defence teams

• Also drop in that Merlantis is coming next Friday (20th)
• You get 500 bonus points for using a unique troop on defence, so a total of 24k 12k bonus points for using 48 24 unique troops (thanks for the correction TT!).
• They think this will shift the guild war meta and make it a lot more fun - Sirrian said he had a great time coming up with new teams.

All things Wisp. Is it going to be changed, how did it get approved, etc.

• troop balance is tricky, and Devs know that people often ask why it takes so long
• Fizzbang was balanced in the old client, and when they released her in the new Unity client it didn’t work as they’d intended. Mana surge was different and made her much stronger, but it was easy for them to fix her straight away.
• devs agree that wisp is a “little overpowered”.
• Graph shows it’s the 6th most used defence troop behind TDS and Nax for players at level 500+, so it’s not like it’s in every defence battle even if some players are experiencing that.
• they think wisp’s overpower comes from magic link and maybe mana cost, but it’s not as simple to just raise the cost as this hurts early game players without making much of a difference to end game
• Sirrian is thinking that magic link is therefore the main problem but wants to be certain. Nothing feels worse than nerfing a troop, and then realising it hasn’t worked so having to nerf it again
• they took a similar approach to bone dragon, which in the end required a client update for them to change it to work how they wanted. BD usage is now right in the sweet spot of usage as far as they are concerned.

Will there be an arena re-work in the future? What are you planning to do about Dawn Bringer in Arena?

• “Emphatic YES!” (Sirrian says ‘yarrr’ like a pirate)
• Arena was originally build for troops at level 10, and was since upped to 15. But the way that weapons and hero power have progressed hasn’t been conducive to late game players. For players at level 50 - 100 it’s really fun and lots of players play it at that point in the game.
• They have some ideas, like adding epic troops, removing the hero from arena, limiting certain weapons, or (as a temporary measure) stopping dawnbringer from showing up in defence.
• Nim suggests scaling hero back in arena but says some weapons are problematic - dawnbringer is just the latest (runic blade and burning scythe were the ones before it). It’s better to fix the problem in arena than to nerf weapons.

Is there a set number of kingdoms that you plan on releasing, or is the plan to just keep cranking them out over time for the foreseeable future?

• Devs want to keep making them. The map was originally built to have enough space for 31/32 kingdoms, which at the time was enough for a few years. At the time they thought ‘if the game’s still going in a few years then that’s a problem that future S and future N can solve’ and here they are. They are now running out of space although they’ve worked out how to sneak some more in - the idea for the Merlantis kingdom actually came about because they were discusing how they could put a kingdom in the water.
• they have some plans over how the map could evolve: they could go underground, move to a new plane (heaven/hell) or just extend out the side. have been arguing back and forth as to which is the best, and how navigation around new areas should work. Sirrian personally likes the idea of the underground.

What is the long term plan on mythic troops

• current schedule is 1 a month
• 1 per kingdom at the moment except apocalypse. this may change depending on rate of kingdoms and troops
• may decide to do mythics for special events like holidays, but still discussing and would give us warning
• eventually will go to 2 mythics per kingdom, as they will catch up, or they might add new kingdoms like apocalypse.

Will there ever be a cap on how many turns the player can take?

• Sirrian would rather not go there: if a player can create loops then that should be rewarded with continued turns.
• Having said that, it might be imposed in the future if there are so many combinations of troops that can create too many endless loops.

Treasure map rewards

• they will be buffed but not sure of timeframe.
• they are in the middle of discussing TH in general, like arena they would like to re-visit TH. It’s popular early-game or for people to pass off to spouses/kids. They want to keep it fun and rewarding, so looking at how it can be boosted, but have no firm plans yet.
• In general, devs would like people to be able to re-play content (coming in a patch coming shortly). as part of that there are ways to buff treasure hunt rewards, more on that in the next 2 months.

Any plans for the game’s 3rd anniversary?

• “oh yeah!”
• some announcements coming shortly
• Talked about what date the anniversary should be (soft launch, steam launch etc)
• in the meantime everyone should get involved with design-a-troop, devs are super excited about it and have loved reading the suggestions so far
• Nim promises another lair soon, and said that she’s just been too busy or too ill.
• They would like to make Q&A monthly

Edit: tidied a few bits, and also just wanted to say that I really enjoyed hearing the Devs talk about the game, so more of this please @Saltypatra!

[Vangor]

@turintuor

Yes. Maybe make them more unique, more trickster-like.

As a follow up to this: will the imps ever be available for glory again?

[TheIdleOne]

They love Imps and so do I. I wish they were a lot easier to get; I can’t even try to enjoy it if I don’t own most of them.

[Eika]

I can answer that. No I highly doubt it, what makes me doubt it so strongly is that crafting is around now and there will be a way to craft them whenever they appear there.