My Patch 1.6 Impression So Far

[Pr0digy]

Lots of changes. This is what I think so far.

New Ladder System

Still waiting...

Public Chat System

How could you have screwed this up? Seriously? Who can't program a decent chat room? On the bright side, since nobody uses it, I'm not getting subjected to spam.

Daily Mission

I like this. This gives me incentives to play. Hopefully, it does the same for others, though I still struggle getting into card battles. The only one that really kills me is the winning 5 card loot games. Since the patch, I've only been able to play one such game. Why do we only have two one-hour windows to play? It seems when my window is up, nobody else is playing.

New Cards

I think I've only seen two of them so far. They aren't really getting picked up, mostly because you have to spend diamonds (cold hard cash) to see them. ecb_admin made some demeaning post about how this is supposed to fix the game and not fatten up his pockets (according to him, you'll understand this if you are smart, which apparently I'm not). The two I've seen is the tree that is semi-immune to pierce damage but has a LOOOONG cooldown and the one that buffs the far-left unit card, which I actually find rather interesting. I'd like to get my hands on one of those.

Complete redesign of the Global Match System

I mostly love this. I'm glad we aren't forced through the match history screen, which speeds getting into battle immensely. I still wish we could repeat our last deck without having to get into the deck selection screen. Come on, there is room for a repeat button, please add it, ecb. Overall, I like what he's done with the place.

Except, the 100 - 500 - 1000 coin bet structure. Getting into 300 gold bets was hard enough. I've yet to get into a 500 coin bet. Again, I offer the suggestion that this not be radio buttons, but multi-select buttons. Better yet, a range of money, even if it is a dropdown. This is what I envision:

Select Minimum Bet: [100] Maximum Bet: [100]

Now, when they click on the boxes, a dropdown appears and you can choose 100, 250, 500, 750, and 1000 (or something, you decide). So if I want, I can bet between 100 and 500 if I'd like. Then when it goes into the matchmaking it will find somebody else in that range. If somebody only wants to play 1000 - 1000 games, I wouldn't be matched with them. But if somebody wants to play 250 - 1000 then the highest agreed upon bet is 500, so we would go to battle against each other for 500 coins. Right now, nobody does 500 coin battles, so nobody wants to select them and get stuck in a queue with only one person in it. Likewise on the 1000 coin bet battles, I've YET to do one since I started playing two months ago, and believe me, I've tried.

Notices System

I turned it on, but haven't received any notices yet. I'm not sure which ones he's got planned... get a notification when challenged by a friend? Your gold is ready to be collected? (I actually already get that on my iPad, but not on my android). I'm guessing something will be implemented soon.

20 New Quests

Yay, quests!! And you earn one diamond for getting 3 stars on these quests. That means you can get a total of 20 diamonds for beating them all. Don't spend them all in one place. They are challenging, and diamond rewards are nice, but I feel like the reward doesn't really justify what it takes to earn them.

Boots of Speed

YAY!!! I love, love, love this. This might be my favorite change. I only upgraded twice, but hope to max this out when I can earn up some diamonds.

Now if it would just turn on by default, or give us the option to turn it on by default...

Reset Enhancement Cards

I'm glad this was added, especially since some of my upgraded cards got nerfed. Ouch! You get all your rubies back, not just a portion. I think this was pretty generous. You do need to spend a healthy amount of gold to make this happen. It's hurt, but I can see why he put that in there. You wouldn't want somebody to be able to enhance a deck, then un-enhance and get a a fresh new deck of fully enhanced characters. Anyway, overall, I'm happy with this.

Loading Bar with Hints

The hints are okay (anybody have any idea where this easter egg is?), but most of what is in there is readily available in the documentation. I do like the loading bar, on those long loads I know something has happened and that my phone hasn't just crapped out or something.

Ability to Skip Certain Quests in Campaign

This one surprised me. I went through them all one-by-one and only advanced after beating the deck, regardless of stars. Now that I've reached the end, I'm going back and slowly earning 3-stars on each. If I can do it, so can everybody else. Was anybody asking for this "feature"?

Redesigned Calculations Behind the Match Making System

If you've been reading my posts, I've been asking ecb_admin to not do this, not until there is a huge influx of players. I struggled getting into card battles before, and now it is even worse. I hate to tell you I told you so, but I told you so. If this game doesn't attract new players it is going to die. STOP PUTTING THINGS INTO THE GAME THAT REDUCE GAMEPLAY!!! The dailies is great, now give us the opportunities to achieve them.

The Quests are Repeatable

Meh. The rewards don't justify it. I guess if you are under 100 gold and need some cash so you can play in bet mode it might be an option.

PVP Matches No Longer Require Energy

I guess energy will only be useful in ladder play mode. I've suggested getting rid of energy altogether, this was a good first step. I'm not sure how it will be utilized in ladder play mode, so I'll wait until that opens. You still spend energy to play in the campaign, and I'm still scratching my head as to why on this, but whatever. At least if you lose in quest mode, you don't lose any energy.

Leaderboard now shows ranking points change instead of change in position

This confused me at first. I'm not sure what this was supposed to achieve, but I don't care either way.

Refer award when the person referred reaches level 10 or 20

I'm not sure which is correct, the documentation says 10 but the refer screen says 20. Typo? I'm thinking it is only 10. Who is excited about this? Raise of hands? Bueller? Bueller?

I'll say it again, this game is going to get awesome when a ton of people are playing. This does NOTHING to make that happen. I'm not telling my friends about this because I don't want to be pestering them into getting to level 10 if they don't want to. I can understand level 5, that can be done in less than an hour and it will either hook them or not by then. If not, then they stop playing long before level 10 and I get nothing for trying to help ecb grow this game. Come on, man!!! Get people playing this game!!!

All Cards Sold In Packs Now

*Sigh* You better come up with some awesome combinations in silver and gold card if you only want to play for free. You have to pay money for diamond cards now? Okay, there is a small chance that diamond (and legend and even epic) can be won in the lower two/for-gold packs, but I don't know anybody who has yet. I certainly haven't, and I've bought about three decks (give or take, but memory says 3). I don't get this nerf, probably because ECB says I'm too stupid to understand (see his condescending post in announcements). He doesn't want top tier cards dominating the playing field. Okay, I can somewhat get that, except that the diamond-level cards are not top tier cards.

Whatever. He just wants money. This is a financial decision and nothing to improve the quality of the game. We all know it, and ecb, despite his insisting that isn't the case, knows it too.

Match History Now Shows 7 Matches

Meh. I rarely cared about any match more than two or three prior.

Reduce the Difficulty of Quests for New Users

Why? I didn't need them nerfed to do it as a new player. But, whatever.

"Send Energy" and "Receive Energy" now separate

I love this! This was a good idea. Before I felt guilty not sending energy because I didn't need any. Now I can send and have some in reserve of receiving for when I need them. Good on you for this one, ecb!

Revised CAP Calculations

I don't/didn't want to admit this, but this was needed. A heavily upgraded cards *SHOULD* be more CAP than a level 1 card. This hurts me a little bit, but I see the wisdom in it and can't fault ecb for this decision.

In-Game Cards/Texts Are Refined

Thank you! Some of these cards make more sense now. There is still a little bit to go, but since they aren't considered "bugs", I haven't gone out of my way to point them out to you. Consider that *MY* Easter Egg that you must find. *snicker*

Fixed Ability to Peak at Opponents Deck by Logging Out and Logging In

Yes. Thank you!! Thank you! THANK YOU!!!!!

Corrected some cards' skill activation

Another round of applause!!

The "Repeat" button card duplication Bug

Cheers!!

Fixed Freezing When Looking At Card Details When They Where Being Acted Upon

I'm so glad you fixed this. That was soooo annoying to have to leave the game, come back in, redo the match (with no boots of speed), and so on. Thank you!!

Replay is Repeated After Playing

Meh.

Major Balance Changes

You've nerfed some of my favorite cards. *Sad Face* The buffs you gave to most cards was a boost in hit points, which is interesting, but then you nerfed heals on top of that. Ugggh!!!! There are other heal cards to consider, I understand. The buff you gave to The Hero is interesting. Giving more hit points to the Succubus Queen surprised me, that was actually a nerf, not a buff. And you've nerfed my Gargoyle. It wasn't THAT overpowered, was it? You do have hit hitting for more, but I did like having that one tanking card. I may do another post on my take on all of them, but I'm now questioning most of my strategies and investigating new ones. Hard on my brain, but probably good for the game.

My Overall Impressions

I'm mixed on this patch. I'm glad that you aren't limiting gameplay based on energy anymore, now you are just limiting it based on the difficulty of getting into games and putting timers on the game modes and bet limits. A serious WTF, DUDE?!?!? on that one. Few changes are put in to encourage more people into playing the game, many rewards don't justify the work it takes to earn them, and you still rely on the "a few people will send me buckets of money" business model when the best model for everybody (total win-win) will be "several thousand people won't mind sending me a chunk of change" business model. Let me help you with the math.

If you've got 100 players willing to send you an average of $500 per year, you've made $50,000. Not bad. Puts food on the table, though I'm sure Apple and Android take a healthy chunk of it from you. But are you satisfied with that? Your top players all have a ton of epic cards, but not 100 of them. I'm guessing you are making $50k - $100k per year off this game. I could do some math and get a better estimation.

Now, if you've got 5,000 players willing to send you an average of $10 a month for a little boost here and there (some might be $5, some might be $100+), then you'll be raking in $50,000 per MONTH. I don't know about you, but I feel like I could sustain a healthy lifestyle off that revenue.

Get people playing. Go to a micro-transaction system. This game will be hugely successful. If you don't understand this, then you're the idiot, ecb! There... now how does getting a taste of your own words feel now?

[Topdekx]

Whew. Just finished that wall of text.
As always, im amazed by your ability to put collected data
into writing. =) agree with most feedback as its a fair evaluation
Of the game. Making the game less dependent on Epics seems to be a step in the right direction. Easier ways to get Ruby! Just great!

There are several more cards in the campaign and others Ive seen.
But how many, has yet to be revealed.

Epic on packs? Really where Did u hear that? Ive bought about 10 and only seen up to diamond. Even a .1 percent chance for Epic would make the game fun for me.

Im going on a limb and assuming a more detailed patch
Changes will be launched as time goes by.Seen too many changes to cards for there not to be any more information . many i believe will positive affect the game, others could use rebalamcing. Its hard to get data on Epic though.

Nerfed cards i know so far having impact on me: heal, garg, succubus, queen, 9tail, meteor, Duke vamp mia

Buffed cards: Cyclops (Hes pretty insane now) , the half life spell.

[Pr0digy]

Epic on packs? Really where Did u hear that? Ive bought about 10 and only seen up to diamond. Even a .1 percent chance for Epic would make the game fun for me.

When I bought an epic pack before this patch, I was bitching to ebc_admin that it said it would contain diamond, legend, and epic level cards, but what I got was 1 epic, a couple of diamond and legends, and then a slew of silver. We went back and forth with each other over his honesty and he promised to update the description to clear up any misunderstandings.

During our back and forth, he said that ANY card could drop in ANY deck, though anything epic had an extremely small chance of having that happen. That said, I don't know of anybody who has received an epic while purchasing something besides the epic pack. That would be cool if it happened now and then, but for now you need to "pay to win", so I wouldn't make getting one without forking out a ton of cash a priority.

Thanks for reading the wall.

[kissbb]

Gj prodigy(again)!
I agree with you.. Some change maked the game terrible for new players and this will heaviliy impact the playerbase, you really should do the math again(lvl10 or 20 change, diamond card and rubies change). I really feel many people(mostly new) lost interest now, because they have so little chance earn a better card and have like minimum chance win battle(without payment), before this patch they have an oppurtinity too grow up a little and when they started understand the game and make the progress faster, i'm sure most people invested in diamonds, and the most important thing without pressure!!

I bought 5 Lucky Stars pack so far(25 card), 0 diamond (or better card) no luck I guess . We should do a topic for this and collect some data, if we buy 100 pack(500 card) i'm curius how many diamond or+ card will be there just for science

[PennFifteen]

Great post Pr0digy

ecb please take his points into consideration and while you are at it hire this guy to implement game changes. Some of the changes are so questionable I really feel you are not a gamer yourself...

We want this game to strive! It is great. But there are things that so obviously turn newer players away it makes me think you dont really care.

[ecb_admin]

Dear Pr0digy, thanks for another round of feedback. We do listen to every feedback player give, no matter how long it is.

Public Chat System

We made a lot efforts to implement the chat system, and even put up new server dedicated for it. We can't control players to use it, but at least we did our best to provide the option that allow players to communicate in game. That's what we do, do what we could do to player, make the game greater, adding value into it even it costs more.


Daily Mission
Time limit is an attempt to increase the chance of getting matched into battles that small portion of players will play. Putting them together and help the matching rate. Perhaps when more people know about it, and they actually want to play them, they will remember the time slots.

Complete redesign of the Global Match System
The bet searching range will be in future versions. Give us some time.

Notices
It's actually game announcements, the tab besides Public chat

Boots of Speed
Option to be default will be in future versions.

Loading Bar with Hints
I also don't know what they put for the easter egg, they want keep it as a secret.

Redesigned Calculations Behind the Match Making System
Perhaps you getting it wrong, the new match making system do help for new players! It's only taking more time for old players to find matches and compete with similar skill level.

The Quests are Repeatable
It's not a brainless game, should players encouraged to repeat quests for coins without playing with others for the real fun? This new function is to provide more options for the game.

Refer award when the person referred reaches level 10 or 20
It's a typo. Should be 20. Pr0digy, you have no idea how players will use referral system to cheat for coins and cards.

All Cards Sold In Packs Now
About it, it was a design flaw, we are basically correcting it. "Rarity", what does rarity mean? Where is the fun of getting rare card? Old players doesn't like it for certain. But it's for good sake of this game, it has a long time to go.

Reduce the Difficulty of Quests for New Users
Statistics shows it really helps new players to stay. Great improvement

[MrXtotheZ]

Hey there

Just passing by because I just played vs Prodigy. I liked your implementation of the new Diamond Heal+Buff card.

Some of my observations on the patch:
- I really like the Hero right now, my Hero deck isn't even closed to being leveled full and it can take on higher level decks with ease.
- Fairy Dragon is buggy. He applies both two effects only on the opposing monster, so he effecively does nothing now
- Anti-Dodge Silver Unit doesn't work as intended
- Multiple Pit Traps are weaker now. I hated Trap Detecting one and walking into the next, now only one activates at a time
- Most nerfs were on point, just the Death Tower change confuses me
- Repeating quests, the new quests, new energy system, i really like these
- New packs, no single cards: So contrary to the posts I've seen here, I already got 3 Diamond cards off 5 packs and 2 additional Golds.
Still the single cards were better to access and gave you less useless cards. I'd like to have both options available
- Please bring back 8000g 200 Ruby trade. Why not?
- Free Diamonds for quests, yay. The game got even more Diamond dependant after the patch though imo and I didn't and don't plan to spend cash on the game
I feel like even upgrading my Silver cards takes way too much work and I'd like to have a chance to get to Legend cards without Card loot. Maybe a expensive 5k pack with a guaranteed Diamond and a chance for Legend would solve this problem.

That's it for now, see y'all on the battlefield.

[winstonz]

Actually, I see ecb_admin's point.
If the rare cards are too easy to get, then the market would be saturated with "rare"cards, making them common.
Over a period of time, most people would be able to collect some rare cards.
But from a beginner point of view, if they are not having fun, they will give up early and leave the game all together.

Not sure what solution to this, maybe have different leagues? A lower league with no legendary/epic cards but less reward?

[oblitzo]

I started playing just 3-4 days before the patch. At first I was happy to see new changes, but now I am so frustrated I only login to collect the 200g rewards.

First, the packs system is all luck. So far I have opened 5 packs and got only 1 diamond card and mostly silvers. I can see how this is supposed to prevent everyone from owing too many "rare" cards but like mentioned in the earlier post, this has reduced the incentive to play. I don't even bother doing dailies or campaign anymore because I know I'm going to get the same silver and maybe golden cards again. If I don't see anything new, why would I keep coming back to the game?

A more frustrating part is the Match system. Ever since the patch, for some reason, I have been matched against really hard decks in Quick modes. I have played about 50 Quick matches since the patch and believe me I have won only 8-9. If I pick a low CAP deck, with silver and golden cards, I get matched against Mias and Dukes and Blizzards. If I pick a high CAP deck I get matched with Legend and Epic cards. It's not always because I pick cards without any strategy. Before the patch I used to win about 50% of my battles. I also know CAP doesn't always matter, but its frustrating when most of your battles now finish in around 10s. And this has happened enough times for me to stop playing completely. I am lvl 12. I don't know how many low level players have experienced this.

Sorry for the long rant but I just wanted to bring this up. I am sure many new players feel the same.