(!) Spoiler Alert (!) -- [Any Details Provided are Subject to Change] (Part 2)

[Fourdottwoone]

@Jeto

This issue with data diving and then sharing spoilers on content, update, etc, is that no matter what you stipulate with your information – players will jump to conclusions and make assumptions, because you are unable to provide the full context or answer any questions that will come from it.. so all they have left to do is stew and start getting concerned and stressed, before an update is finished let alone release.

Fair point. However, please consider these two scenarios:

1.) An update adds something new to the game, like the Astral Spire. It’s nice to hear about it early, speculating about spoilers is part of engaging with the game. However, there isn’t any harm done if this just drops without any preview info whatsoever, everything that was around still works like it used to.

2.) An update entirely revamps a core part of the game. There is a specific point in time where acting before has vastly different results than acting after. Like, when it migrates player inventories, possibly converting resources into something worth far less (or far more) for all practical purposes. This isn’t “nice to know”, this is “need to know”, and the information must be available early enough for players to take informed decisions. Dropping this on short notice (or none at all) is considered extremely foul play.

Let’s take a look at one specific situation:

Most long-time players are currently bottlenecked at kingdom upgrade level 16, due to books. This locks them into kingdom power level 26. In most cases, going to kingdom upgrade level 20 automatically raises kingdom power level to 30, without spending anything extra. The total cost (in bottlenecked resources) is currently 28 books and 26 imperial deeds. Once the update converts these into new resources, will those still buy the SAME AMOUNT of progression as before, WITHOUT EXTRA HOOPS to jump through?

If the answer to this question isn’t “yes, no strings attached”, expect a riot if there hasn’t been ample time for players to decide whether to upgrade before or after the point of no return.

@Jeto

So now, you have put me in a position where I have been working on this explainer, which isn’t finished and I feel like it has to be released now, half done, just so I can try and jump on this to prevent players getting worked up about things that might not, or definitely are not a concern at all.

And I’m really sorry about this. But I believe your company is about to shove us players into a scenario 2 position, and looks like it will primarily hit the more active and more spending inclined part of the community. My apologies in case I’m way off track here and this is actually a scenario 1.

It would be helpful if you could confirm that the conversion will be entirely neutral, that nobody will gain an advantage or suffer a disadvantage based on whether they collect and spend their kingdom resources now or after the update.

[Maisie]

So, Jeto said there would be an explainer blog; gave a timescale for it; and your response is to double down on self-entitled TELL US RIGHT NOW outrage about a change we don’t yet know the details of?

@Maisie

a hell of a dick move

[NerdieBirdie]

@Fourdottwoone

And I’m really sorry about this. But I believe your company is about to shove us players into a scenario 2 position, and looks like it will primarily hit the more active and more spending inclined part of the community. My apologies in case I’m way off track here and this is actually a scenario 1.

It would be helpful if you could confirm that the conversion will be entirely neutral, that nobody will gain an advantage or suffer a disadvantage based on whether they collect and spend their kingdom resources now or after the update.

I get where you’re coming from, and don’t blame you for sharing the spoilers here, but I do worry that these kind of spoiler posts will only make people upset and demanding of information, which may in turn cause us to get LESS communication from Jeto/devs. Again, I see your points and agree that further heads-up from official channels would be great, but I worry about the unintended consequences.

[canadademon]

Thanks for at least giving us a heads up that something is coming. My thoughts are similar to yours but I’ll hold my opinion until at least the blog is posted (hopefully sunday night for NAmerica).

What’s funny is that this is a familiar place for me, where they go ahead and change things when I start to make progress.

The only true concern I have at this moment is whether I should upgrade the ~5 kingdoms I have enough resources for, and craft the books I need for another Magic kingdom - or not.

[Fourdottwoone]

@Maisie

So, Jeto said there would be an explainer blog; gave a timescale for it; and your response is to double down on self-entitled TELL US RIGHT NOW outrage about a change we don’t yet know the details of?

Yes, of course. Giving feedback isn’t just about what one wants to hear, it’s also about what one needs to hear. It would be a disservice towards the game to not explain why an explainer blog a day before the update drops wouldn’t really help, at least not in the projected situation. We actually do know quite a few details about the change, and they currently all point towards a tiny window of opportunity with a huge impact. This isn’t a TELL US RIGHT NOW, this is a MAKE IT FAIR FOR EVERYONE.

[Risa]

The blog isn’t finished in Friday today, so it will be published in next Monday. I think it’s fair. At least if I were in Jeto’s shoe, I wouldn’t write it during weekend, working overtime. It is not that urgent.

[thmmaster]

its a game. Games are intended to be fun. If we don’t like it, we don’t have to play it. I been playing gems on Xbox almost since day 1 of its release and never once I had any issues with their decision making all these years. I am always looking forward to any new updates and I am thankful they kept this game fresh all these years.

[TheIdleOne]

Can someone please tell the troop creator that Sunken Fleet is suppose to be an Elemental faction (the first 4 troops were Elementals and the 3rd trait of the Legendary is 50% mana start to Elementals) and NOT an undead faction because the 5th one was made incorrectly!!

It’s a little frustrating that its building anti-synergy with each troop being released..

[Darkborne]

Sure, let’s make a troop from the sunken fleet a rogue. When troops do have synergy within a kingdom or a faction, it seems to be a mistake. It’s such a pity, and that’s why the majority of troops are useless in this game.

[Zuul-Emo]

Hasn’t that been a bit of a theme with the 5th troops in the underworld kingdoms?
City of thieves - all rogues, 3/4 human, 5th troop is just human
[Court of Foxes - all wargare/fey, 5th troop is fey/wargare (no difference, but weird they reversed it)]
Eldrazhor - all elf, 5th troop is beast
Fell Roost - all dragon, 3/4 daemon, 5th troop is daemon/monster
Sunken Fleet - all elemental, 5th troop is undead
The Black Heart - all rogue, 3/4 elf, 5th troop is a goblin/rogue without goblin ability for extra turn (still makes no damn sense)
The Labyrinth - all taurus, 5th troop is orc/giant
The rest all fit to some degree. But yeah, there’s been a bunch of them that have no synergy. If there’s a reason for that, they haven’t explained it yet.

[Darkborne]

@Zuul-Emo

But yeah, there’s been a bunch of them that have no synergy. If there’s a reason for that, they haven’t explained it yet.

It would be snowing in July before the developers would ever explain that.

[Crow]

My theory? They are glory troops renamed to delves.

[Kezef]

If you go back into the mists of time, the exact same complaint was levied on the previous occasion during which Sunken Fleet expanded.

My take? I’m less objectionable about the troop expansion not being an Elemental. It’s not really that big a deal to me, and I don’t care that the Maraji Queen gives that troop type a 50% start.

On the other hand, I look at what the troop does. And I find myself wondering if troop design was outsourced to AI when I see that the troop creates Brown (cursed) gems for a faction where Brown is the one color not used.

[Zuul-Emo]

@Kezef

On the other hand, I look at what the troop does. And I find myself wondering if troop design was outsourced to AI when I see that the troop creates Brown (cursed) gems for a faction where Brown is the one color not used.

Exactly. Troop feels like it’s been slotted into the wrong location. Nothing about it seems to fit well.

[Kezef]

I take back part of what I said. I forgot that Water Elemental is blue/brown. (I was thinking blue/yellow for some reason.)

It still makes little sense to me. The faction colors are blue/red. Drowned Sailor already converts Yellow to Blue, so it doesn’t cooperate with the new guy very well. Cursed Gems are all too likely to backfire, Maraji Queen does the whole Cursed bit better because the Cursed part won’t backfire, and the only potential synergy for an all-faction team would be to curse a troop and then hope that Drowned Sailor can make a Death Mark stick where it wouldn’t have before.

They’re simply adding troops for the sake of making us spend stuff.

[AMT]

@Jeto

Mythic shards

Do we know anything about these?

[Jeto]

Sorry, mythic shards = mythstones (code/dev name for them)

[Fourdottwoone]

@Jeto

Sorry, mythic shards = mythstones (code/dev name for them)

Now I’m even more confused. We have mythstones on every explore level, so this doesn’t really apply:

@Jeto

some rewards that are only available above lvl 12 could be removed from your account, such as Mythic shards

I’d actually appreciate it if there were a way to throw away all collected mythstones. We get more from each E12 run than we can spend, so they keep piling up. This will be a huge annoyance next vault weekend, because it will catch up by throwing mythic battles into dozens of E1 runs (that possibly trigger E12 mimic battles with E1 loot).

[Zuul-Emo]

@Fourdottwoone

I’d actually appreciate it if there were a way to throw away all collected mythstones.

Just being able to decide whether or not to use them at the end of a run would be fine. But I’m hoping they’re planning something in the future with these explore increases, because right now mythstones are really piling up. Maybe something else we can do with them?