Gems of War - Guild Wars and Beyond!

[Theina]

@Mekkalyn

. Still sad that the human link is diminishing

Saltys not human???

[Kannon]

@Sirrian

Over the next few months we’re FINALLY going to be moving away from the Adobe Air platform on Mobile/PC, and rebuilding Gems of War on Unity. We’ve been working on this since December, and it’s well underway. We’ll likely bring PC over first, because it’s easier, then iOS/Android 1-2 months later. This literally halves the work we have to do maintaining the game (since we will have one codebase, not two), which means more resources for fixing old bugs, and more resources for making sure there are less NEW bugs! Also, it’ll look a whole lot sexier under Unity!

Will we get mac os client with this update?

[htismaqe]

I’m an OS X user and quite frankly, I don’t think it’s worth the time and money. Maybe Unity would make it easier but overall I’d rather see them focus on higher-impact items. Kind of hard to suggest that game developers focus on the Mac desktop when Apple themselves treat it like a red-headed stepchild.

[TheRani]

I wonder if it will still work properly in WINE on Linux after the switch to Unity. I guess time will tell.

[Ozball]

Unity has build options for Linux and MacOS, which would in THEORY make it possible to just build the game three times and have a build for each OS, and I’ve managed to do this when using Unity for game jams etc. (eg I made a Linux build on request for my recent weapon crafting prototype I did here on the forums) However, these are projects that are infinitely less complex than a game like GoW, so it’s possible platform specific issues would crop up even with Unity building from the same code base.

In short, it’s possible to build for other OS more easily, however they might still need platform specific support which might make it not worth the trouble, or the financial cost.

[GoldPhoenix0]

@Sirrian

Over the next few months we’re FINALLY going to be moving away from the Adobe Air platform on Mobile/PC, and rebuilding Gems of War on Unity. We’ve been working on this since December, and it’s well underway. We’ll likely bring PC over first, because it’s easier, then iOS/Android 1-2 months later. (since we will have one codebase, not two). Also, it’ll look a whole lot sexier under Unity!

Which in case some people aren’t aware, this will put the Console and the PC (Mobile to follow) on the same code base. Just to note, some of the console specific features (e.g. tasks) will not be available on PC until AT LEAST all platforms are running on the same code base.

As Console and PC/Mobile are running on different code bases, some of the small features (e.g. Disenchant All) are yet to be implemented, but we are wanting to provide the full experience without removing some/any of those features.

[GemsOfWar]

Does this mean that accession of troops on mobile will get more like Console (e.g. sliding bar vs level by level)?
And if so will that occur when the merge happens or at some post merge date?

[Theina]

Just dropping by for reasons unknoen…

[Shimrra]

@htismaqe

I don’t think it’s worth the time and money

Aside from the other issues it solves, moving to Unity will allow them to use the same codebase for both PC and Mobile instead of needing two - so loads of time saved in the long run by doing that.

[Strat]

@Shimrra

@htismaqe

I don’t think it’s worth the time and money

Aside from the other issues it solves, moving to Unity will allow them to use the same codebase for both PC and Mobile instead of needing two - so loads of time saved in the long run by doing that.

I believe @htismaqe is referring to the “time and money” of using Unity to bring Gems to the Mac. Not of having a single platform.

[Eika]

Unity also makes it possible to strengthen the CPU more than ever before?

[htismaqe]

Pretty much. I’m a longtime Mac user and fully understand why people don’t want to develop for it. It’s just not cost effective. Like I said before, even APPLE doesn’t want to invest in Mac. They’ve updated their phones and tablets a half dozen times since they last updated the iMac in 2015.

Heck, they announced yesterday they’re going to update the Mac Pro, for the first time since 2013.

[Rickygervais]

@Saltypatra @GoldPhoenix0

Any plan to rework the matchmaking system in the future? I start to feel really bad for the people in my rival list

[Shimrra]

Yeah I can understand the reluctance to do anything with Macs … that being said I wouldn’t mind, my laptop is a Macbook (against all better judgment) and it’d be nice to play Gems on that.

[htismaqe]

You actually have a Mac they care about a little bit. I have a mid-2011 iMac that still more powerful than most of the new desktops they’ve released since…

[Delinquent]

I’ve gotta say, so far this update has been a resounding success for me… and we haven’t even gotten the first guild war!

I’ve been spending this week experimenting with new teams (for both offense and defense) to find ones that will work best for the daily colors. It’s more fun than I’ve had in a long time. I’ve found that it’s forcing me out of min-maxing ways (or at least made me shift from a pure focus on speed). As a result, it’s made matches much more challenging and brought me back to the early days of playing the game and why I fell in love with it.

I think the addition of 5 Guild Wars matches/day where you have to be very experimental & thoughtful will be a very nice addition to the normal loop of grinding out PvP to min-max resource accumulation.

[htismaqe]

I’ve spent the entire week playing with different teams. I don’t think I’ve used the same exact team more than a handful of times. I haven’t had this much fun in a while, despite getting a few losses strictly from poorly-executed experimentation.

[YerMa]

I have still have a mac G5 i use for music production using logic

[htismaqe]

That’s awesome.

[Esoxnepa]

I loved the Weapon forging mini-game of days past. I’d love to see that make a comeback as part of crafting.