10/29/2012

v0.8.8.1 is live!

v0.8.8.1 Dev Notes

Pushed @ 5:45 EST on 10/29/12

Halloween Bundle

We have decided the following solution to the Halloween bundle to allow all players to have the same opportunity.
There will be 3 options to purchase the bundle during the limited time offer.
- Purchase with kreds/$ as is now. You get the 4 cards + LE etching, plus 50 bonus gems.
- Purchase for 100 Gems. You get the 4 cards, regular edition.
- Purchase with 100k Gold. You get the 4 cards, regular edition.
We feel this is a fair solution to all players. Those who purchased gems during the sale, can still acquire it. Free players have a gold option, and further supporters get extra value for their $ with $5 worth of bonus gems and LE etching.

Heroes

Shadow
- Price/unlock condition bug was fixed and returned to normal values.

Deck Editor

- Card sizing's/spacing has been adjusted to fit 42 comfortable, shown in a similar proportion to before. A scroll bar will appear when there is more than 42 cards displayed.

Bugs/Minors

- Trick/treat stacking bug has been fixed
- Tutorial flow was smoothed a bit

10/26/2012

New Holiday Bundle! v0.8.8 is live!

v0.8.8 Dev Notes

Expected release: 10/26/12 @ 2:30 EST

Spooky Bundle

A limited time Halloween bundle is available for $10 or 100 Kreds. It contains 4 Exclusive cards PLUS 50 Gems. There is no limit to how many you can buy.
Starting October 26th, the Halloween bundle is our seasonal treat for the players of Kingdoms. Containing four limited edition cards and 50 gems this is one bundle you don't want to miss! These cards are only available until November 5th and then they will be locked away with only those who jumped on the chance able to get these sweet treats!

Deck Editor

Deck editor got a revamp to be a little more user friendly. Also better illustrates arena rules when building/modifying a deck.

Pack Adjustments

There were a few pack adjustments to improve the experience.
Eve
The Eve gold pack was removed and 2 new packs are now offered.
Eve Basic
Costs 5000 gold and contains 6 cards with commons/uncommons and 25% chance for a rare or better (2% for epic), which on average is 50k cheaper than it was. We chose to do this to allow players an easier access point to Eve cards rather than having to save up 15k.
Eve Premium
Costs 39 gems and contains 6 cards with 3 commons, 2 uncommons, 1 rare w/ 10% chance for an epic
Kingdom Packs
Epic chances changed to 1 in 10 (from 1 in 8) to match the Premium packs.

Tutorial

Introduction
We have finally added a tutorial that should better explain the battle system and key areas of the game to newer players.

Bugs/Minors

- Overrun bug fixed where it called the 'attack' trigger twice.
- Promo card #'s have been hidden since they get shifted around too much with new cards coming out
- AI now chooses to defend a little more wisely

10/19/2012

v0.8.7 is Live!

v0.8.7 Dev Notes

Pushed @ 5pm EST on 10/19/12

GEM SALE!

This weekend only receive 25% off all gem packages $20 or more!

Deck Slots

- Players can now remove their decks from arenas. Their old deck will remain in place until they rejoin with a new valid deck.
- Guild slots are now freed upon kick/exiting a guild

Heroes

Belnir
- On death effects now properly trigger
Shadow
- Shadow Strike now targets any creature properly
- His 10th star is now fixed. It requires 100 wins against unaligned heroes
Jorma
- Due to all the issues with the Hastey Victory star, we changed it to Defeating Noran 50 times
Noran
- Win 500 times vs Elemental star has been lowered to 100

Bugs/Minors

- Willow Guard now gets a proper +1 boost against elemental heroes
- Improved some animation performance in battle
- AI improvements

10/12/2012

v0.8.6 is live!

v0.8.6 Dev Notes

Pushed @ 5:20 EST on 10/12/12

New Hero - Shadow, Assassin of Kings

We are pleased to announce the release of a new T2 Hero - Shadow, Assassin of Kings.

"Born from the darkness, Shadow knows not of compassion or allegiance. Legend says he was once a crowned Prince of a dynasty, now known as an assassin of Kings. Shadow trusts nobody and definitely should not be trusted himself."
Shadow is unlocked after acquiring 75 stars - then he is available for purchase with 150k Gold or 89 Gems. Discounts and Trading do not work for Shadow.
Full details can be found here: http://wiki.kingdomsccg.com/?q=wiki_heroes#t2_nonaligned

Starter Packs

There are 6 brand new Starter Packs designed specifically for new players to help get an early boost into some competitive playing with their favorite kingdom!
Each Starter Pack contains: 1 Epic, 2 Rare, 5 Uncommon, 8 Common cards plus a bonus of 50 Gems and is available for $10 or 100 kreds. Starter packs are available in the newly designed store!

Arenas

Limited - adjusted base amounts to be more on par with Standard
- Win amount increased to 300 (was 200)
- Loss amount increased to 150 (was 100)
- Energy increased to 6 (was 5)
Kingdom
A new arenas has been added. Here you will only be able to play with only the cards that share a kingdom alignment with your heroes.
- rules/payouts will otherwise be similar to that of Standard

Battle Replay

- After a defeat in Campaign or an AI arena battle, you now have the option to immediately replay. This is shown where the old "Buy a pack?" option was.

UI

- There are now confirmation popups on any Gem purchases
- There's a new guild component that should look a little nicer

Bugs/Minors

- You now have an "edit deck" option after purchasing packs/singles
- Virtuous Summon now starts searching from the top as described (was searching from the bottom)
- Torch now only gets destroyed if it did infact damage an undead creature
- Loading progress bar fixed
- Fixed forgot password bug

10/05/2012

v0.8.5 is live!

v0.8.5 Dev Notes

Pushed at 5:30pm EST on 10/5/12

Battle Mechanics

Decking Out
When a player can no longer draw a card due to no cards left in their deck, - they immediately lose. This is known as Decking out. There will be cards that allow players to "Mill" other players. Mill will be a new keyword that puts the top X cards from a players deck into their discard pile. We added this as an additional strategy type to allow for multiple win conditions. *This is not enabled in campaign story mode*
Discard Pile
Now when players play a spell, discard a card (not banish), get a gear destroyed or have a creature corpse removed, it will get added to their discard pile which is visible to the right side of your hand. This can also be used to see what cards were just played by the opponent. Interactions with this will be coming in a future set.
Copy Creatures
Copy creature spells/abilities now copy the creatures current form - meaning if it has new abilities/status effects or taken damage, those will all be copied as well. Cards affected by this are: Phantom Image and Doppelganger

UI

- Reworked beginner mode targeting to be a little more intuitive
- Discard Pile was added to battle. You can click on it to view either players list. Mousing over will display the full card.
- Entering chat now shows how many friends you have online

Load Times

This is big enough to warrant its own header. We managed to reduce the overall game size by more than 1/3, subsequently decreasing load times by that much!

Card Tweaks

Core
Flight of the Pegasus
- Mana cost reduced to 4 (was 5)
Eve
Blunderbuss - available for trade-in
On your turn: destroys a random gear and deals 1 ` damage to its controller. If no other gear is in play, destroy this gear.
Note: This nerf was done as this was too effective to completely neutralize a core strategy in the game. 1 card should not be able to do this.
Indestructible
- Mana cost reduced to 3 (was 4)
Fervor - available for trade-in
Ally creatures get +1 attack and gain Haste until end of your turn
Fae Trickster
Now has 2 attack
Realm Crusher
Now has Giant as a subtype as well
Poverty
Now lasts 5 half turns
Mundane
Now lasts 5 half turns
Promo
Realm Sworn Bard
Other ally creatures get +1 ATK and +1 HP

Bugs/Minors

- Players who bought the old Hero Bundle are now able to buy the Dragon Bundle without having to purchase the Bard Bundle
- Refactored a bunch of the targeting code - proper targets should highlight appropriately now
- Battle victory/defeat screens how show the player component of who you battled so you can easily find their profile
- Fixed the energy arena bug

10/02/2012

Energy Arena Bug is Fixed

Hi all,

We have just fixed the energy and arena bug.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Any players affected by it have received 15 Gems.

Happy battling!
- Kingdoms CCG