We are almost finished testing our major revamp of the game, and we couldn't be more excited! This patch will be our largest redesign ever, making use of all the lessons learned from launch and our previous content update to prepare the game for a strong future with more releases. While full patch notes are not yet finalized, we wanted to explain some key points ahead of the update and what our intent is around them. These changes are within the context of a rigorously tested full game retune and card overhaul, with some significant updates to individual faction gameplay as well. Within that, we've changed a few very important things we'd like to share:
Early game aggression has been MASSIVELY nerfed; defensive options are much cheaper and easier to run in a well balanced deck, many early game options now allow you to build board while prepping resources for the future, and most critically, it is now far more difficult and costly to stick overbuffed units or swarms on the enemy Castle and deal massive damage over multiple turns. To top it all off, almost all spells that could directly damage the Castle can no longer do so.
The previous overhaul clips the wings of many broken aggro strategies, pushing aggressive play into a far tighter and more streamlined bucket. But that does not mean that aggression has no purpose or point, as the early game chip damage can both disrupt the opponent's gameplan, or soften the Castle for a devastating combo finish in late game. To make this calibration work correctly and effectively for a variety of deck types, THE STARTING HP OF THE CASTLE WILL BE REDUCED TO 20.
We wanted to present this change with as much context as possible, as it may seem very agro friendly on its own. What we've found in testing is that the minimum game length is significantly longer than on live, with almost no game ending before turn 8. The typical length of long games is also lessened, with almost no games lasting beyond turn 20, more typically ending somewhere between turns 11-17. We have been working hard to specifically achieve this tuning goal, and thanks to the relentless efforts of our community playtesters we believe we have succeeded.
There is plenty more to the update than that as well! Interested players will be able to see a SNEAK PEAK of the changes on REDMASTER'S STREAM on Saturday, starting at 2:30 PM EST, and lead developer Vontre will also join the stream for Q+A! Keep in mind while we are very close to done, development and testing are still ongoing and anything seen on stream is subject to change before final release. We hope to see you there! Find us on https://www.twitch.tv/redmaster787