We heard a lot of feedback from all corners of the Artifact community about which areas of the game we need to work on in terms of adding more game modes. We heard from players newer to the genre that they wanted a more detailed introduction to the game in the form of a tutorial and expanded introductory campaigns. We heard from players experienced with deckbuilding that they would like a better way to find matches for Constructed mode, and we heard from many others that we should keep exploring the intermediate game modes that center around a draft. We agree with all of this, and we sat down to figure out in what order we can build these things, so that we can get the best data from our playtests and make sure we're building the right game for how the community is playing Artifact.
The first mode we're introducing is a matchmaking queue for Constructed. A highly competitive and strategic mode like this will be the toughest test for our game mechanics and there will inevitably be changes to the cards so they can work well in both Draft and Constructed. Initially, player ranks and MMR will be shared across the Constructed and Hero Draft queues, but we anticipate that it will be necessary to separate them in the future. In addition, for Constructed matchmaking we're going to try out matchmaking parameters that make it more likely that you will be matched against players with a similar tier of unlocked cards. We'll evaluate how best to implement multiple rankings and how we can use the information from one mode to influence your ranking in the other, if we can use that to improve your matches.
The Artifact team has also started work on a series of tutorials, to replace the one in the original Artifact. Gathering data throughout the beta has given us a much better idea of what concepts need a more detailed introduction, both for players familiar with the original Artifact rules and for new players. We've seen a lot of players enjoying the campaigns and puzzle missions, and we anticipate the tutorials to take a similar form and flow right into the introductory campaign. We'll keep working to improve access to tutorial information within the game, too — last week we updated the glossary UI that shows when you interact with a card, which we found has helped to teach keywords and concepts.
Finally, we're at a point where we're ready to invite the remainder of players who acquired the original Artifact before March 30, 2020 and signed up for the beta. Those invites will be going out shortly.
Keep sending us your feedback, discuss the changes in the Artifact Discord Channel and get to building your decks for Constructed!