Should have thought of that, given many questions were asked. I’m running out the door for work as I see this, so the super, super short version:
Salty in general, was very vague on most things that are unreleased. Significant hanges are coming,.
There will be some kind of change/alteration to Invasions to address the fact that all races/tribes have Siegbreakers.
There will be something to replace New Class Trials once the last two classes are released.
Not going to be 2 CXP in Explore. Devs are firm on this stance now, benefit of PvP and sigil’d game modes.
Medals are intentionally exclusive to Explore by design; no medals in PvP or elsewhere.
Pet gnomes are fine per devs, players aren’t playing PvP.
Something new (4.8?) is coming to incentivize players back to PvP. Players will need to actively choose whether to pursue Explore token farming or whatever additional incentives will be added to PvP.
No pet gnomes in Explore. No pet gnome tokens in any game mode.
Pretty much anything that is being asked in the pet gnome thread is a hard “no”, to protect the game economy. Duplicates and randomness of pets are intentional. (Think: Similar mechanics in Chaos Orbs, Medals)
Gems are meant for late gamers to accelerate acquisition of pets; players need to decide between cosmetic v. faction pets. Devs do not see this as a significant issue as a very small proportion of players actually make it to the pet progression wall.
Barbarian class “bug” was not kept because it was too powerful a boost for new accounts, although fine for late-gamers.
Beta testing program for 4.8 and beyond is being completely redone. All beta testers players will need to re-apply for beta testing status. Players selected will need to actually beta test the game and give testing feedback beyond critiques of patch notes. Players will flow in and out of beta each quarter (roughly) and there will be application periods before certain beta tests, administered by Salty. She will post more details about these changes when she is ready.
I think that’s the majority of them, at least that I could rattle off the top of my head.
There are ones who literally can’t because most of the betas are on PC only. And those who just don’t bother to (or have quit the game.) It’s been an issue for years though. I’m glad she’s going to start taking the program more seriously. More time spent in the beta with players who actually want/can put the time in to test it thoroughly will be of great benefit to everyone involved.
I’m really disappointed by this. I’d like to see a rework to the pet system overall, in a way that lets people do battles on their own time, without necessarily making battles more frequent. I’d also like to see the dumb team system for it removed, it should just use our normal set of teams.
I think making it a Level 100 Talent would be a good compromise.
This is a benefit for newer players. It amounts to six extra team slots so that they don’t have to spend one (or more) of their few team slots on pet rescue events.
Great summary, but one important note I think that may be worth mention are Tuesday Delve event changes.
Salty didn’t specify exactly what is changing but the devs hear us about Delve Tuesday and Delve difficulty in general at higher levels. So, changes are coming. I don’t remember if @Saltypatra said the next major update or just SoonTM, though.
My guess is we will get to start at the current highest level we have completed for Tuesday events, but that is pure speculation on my part. Nothing was confirmed except that Delves are being reworked by the Devs.
So the whole concept of 1-Day-Faction-Runs is intentional? What about 28 games per day are healthy or we are looking into on how to improve pure faction lvl 500?
I dont see how those statements can coexist or what did I misunderstand?
It’s by design, so that when one you want does show up, you’ll be more inclined to spend on it impulsively.
And… that’s the pet progression wall. The vast majority of accounts never make it past the Mythic wall at Power 10 to ever have to deal with pet issues.
Ease of access hinders monetization. The system is designed to encourage impulse purchasing when the player is at the right place at the right time when a desired pet shows up.
Thanks for the catch on that. Salty did say that the intent of the Tuesday delve events was not to race to 500 in a single day, but they understand why the current situation is occurring.
IMO, Tuesday delve fixes might fall into the SoonTM category, while Salty said that long term delve help is a back half of the year feature. That aligns a bit with the powercreep that’s expected to happen by then.
See comment to the direct poster above.
What Salty meant by this was that it was intended for players at the extreme end of the kingdom Power meta (Power 17+) to be buying out cosmetic pets when they appear. If players didn’t do that, then the alternative is perfect clearing factions or waiting a potentially very very long time for another normal pet to appear for that kingdom.
The alternatives are poor outcomes in order to encourage spending on cosmetic pets.
Thanks for the summary Lyrian, I just couldn’t get through this week’s stream. Lots to talk about, but I’d like to pick at just two things:
Aaand there goes my interest in elite leveling mythic and legendary troops. With the current drop rates, it’s just not worth the time.
On the one hand, I’m glad Salty revealed that they at least considered keeping the glitch. On the other hand, huh? New players have a giant mountain of content to try and catch up on, particularly now that kingdom/mode unlocking has become so rigid. I would think that the design objective would be to make that progression as painless as possible, not take away their options.
The March 16th troop doesn’t have Art yet. 4.8 will likely come around that time, probably late February/early March. 4.7.5 was just a small quality of life update.
And thank you Salty for answering all our questions honestly & with transparency. I appreciate knowing that things are in the works for PVP & Factions.
I would like to discuss with developers in advance about my participation in the beta test, then what if I don’t fit them or do they have rules that I won’t pull?
