1/30/2015

Tournament Update - Jan 30th

Tournaments are now awarding Light Ascending Packs properly. Thanks for your patience while we figured this one out.

1/29/2015

R3.1 Release Notes

Today we have released a number of fixes and adjustments based on community feedback.

Tournaments

All Paid Tournaments (those with a Ticket Entry cost) will now award Light Ascending packs as prizes.

** NOTE: There appears to be an issue currently with this. LA packs are being shown, but Tribes packs are being won. This didn't happen in testing and we will figure out what the issue is as soon as possible. **

For our many new players, we are currently working on a new special prize pack for tournaments that will include all of the cards from our first three expansions, Eve, Rise and Tribes. When ready, we'll add this to the tournament rotation. We're also reviewing the overall tournament schedule to make it more fun for new players, including reintroducing the Pauper and Kingdoms formats. We'll have more on this in a later update.

Tribes

Tribes packs have been reduced in Gem price and are now available for Gold at a price of 20,000 per pack.

Rare Prices

The prices of rare singles in Eve, Rise and Tribes have been reduced overall.

*Note: This won't appear until the next price update.

Raise the Guard

Due to an unexpected interaction between Indestructible and self-sacrificing creatures (they don't die when Indestructible) we have removed the granting of Indestructible from Raise the Guard. We will be working to fix this interaction in an upcoming release, and at that time may reintroduce Indestructible to the card.

Note that yes, you can still achieve this using Belnir's 4 charge ability, but as this can't happen on turn 1 and takes effort to set up, we're leaving this as is.

Bug Fixes


  1. Inverted Hourglass will no longer cause Out of Sync errors while being used in PVP.
  2. AI Defending has been given an overhaul. It will no longer set creatures to defend improperly, and will be more likely to defend properly. Creatures with 1 Health and Armor will also no longer set themselves to Defend while Bleed is in play.
  3. Realm Crusher will no longer count creatures with Indestructible as having been destroyed when setting its ATK/Health
  4. Steam users can now use the Password Reset feature.
Free Gems


Yep! This weekend (GMT) just log into Kingdoms CCG and get 20 Gems Free! Just a special thank you to all of our players for enjoying this great game!

1/23/2015

Release Update

Whenever we do a release, we watch our official forums for the reaction from our players and to see if we missed any bugs.

In this release it was two changes that we didn't make that appear to have caused the most problems and we would like to respond to both:

1) Ticket Tournaments are not awarding Light Ascending packs

This was an oversight in development. Tournaments are supposed to automatically award the most recent set, but this didn't happen in this case. We believe that we've found the issue and will be addressing this next week. Light Ascending packs will be awarded for Tournaments.

2) Tribes was not made available for Gold purchase

When releasing Light Ascending, we decided not to move Tribes to Gold. Our intention was to move it with the release of the next 55-card set, which "completes" Light Ascending. We have heard your complaints about this decision. For many of you who have been with us through the entire transition, the wait has been long enough. We will be making a final decision as to the pricing of Tribes on Monday, and will aim to get the change into the same update as the Tournament prizing change.

In addition to these two issues, we've discovered that some problematic bugs were missed in testing:

1) The AI is setting creatures to Defend en masse

When one creature on the AI's side is set to defend, the other creatures are also set to defend. This bug appears to be a result of our fixes to the way that the AI handles Immolate and the new Rune Word "Bleed". This is a very important bug for us to fix and we will be working over the weekend to get it resolved.

2) Inverted Hourglass is causing Out-of-Sync Issues in PVP

This is a PVP issue only, and appears to only negatively affect the player who actually plays the Inverted Hourglass. It is strongly recommended that you do not play this card in any constructed tournament until the issue is resolved. The card appears to work fine against the AI and therefore can be used in Guild Wars.

3) Realm Crusher is interacting with Indestructible incorrectly

The creatures don't die, but Realm Crusher gains stats like they do. This is simply a logic error that shouldn't be difficult to resolve. 

We'd like to thank all of our players who gave their opinion - positive or negative - to the new set and changes, and everyone who helped us with detailing the above bugs. We'll keep you posted with updates as these issues are resolved.

- The Kingdoms CCG Team.

1/21/2015

A Legend Arrives

At last the Light Ascends!

Leading the charge is Elara, Angel of War - the first 7 mana Legendary creature in the game!

Elara is just the 10th 7+ mana card released, and joins such powerful, format-defining cards as Skybreaker Giant, Realm Crusher and Epic Battle Axe.

So what does a 7-mana Legend look like? Here you are:


Even without her card text, she's a 4/4 flyer who stays alive with ALL of Holy's ability suite: Regenerate, Armor and Puresoul. Polymorph your way out of a sticky situation? Sorry, Elara will have none of that.

So let's look at her card text:

On enter: Your Hero gains 5 HP. - Simple, yet powerful. Undo some of the damage done to you so far, so that Elara has time to win the battle.

This creature cannot lose Health directly... - Undead spells often cause Health loss directly, and these spells and effects will do nothing to Elara. Take that 

... and cannot be destroyed. - Skybreaker of the skies! Elara ignores Smother and Echo Blast as well.

So exactly how do you kill Elara? Two Disintegrates will do it, if played on the same turn, but one of the best options is actually Enigma of the Unknown. His four points of Volatile will kill an unbuffed Elara is one blow, and get you two mana and some charges back in the process!

Watch for Elara to rule the skies! Light Ascending is available now!

R3 Release Notes

Today marks the release of Light Ascending, but also includes a number of fixes and game changes.

Changes in today's release include:

Fixes

1) Fae Mischief will no longer trigger the On Death effects of Gear being stolen.
2) Nomad's Grand Theft will no longer trigger the On Death effects of Gear bring stolen.
3) All cards that grant a random ability no longer grant Corpsecraft, as it is not useful once a creature is already in play.
4) Dirty Fuel's text has been fixed, so that it properly shows the Banish effect.
5) Akatril's Angel now has a cost of 4 again.
6) Enigma of the Unknown has been fixed.

Buffs

The following cards and heroes have been improved:

1) Belnir's Sanctified Burial now grants Indestructible in addition to the +1 ATK.
2) Diffusion Blade reduced from 5 mana to 4.
3) Realm-Guard ATK raised from 1 to 2.
4) Stormborn Combatant now has Invoked.
5) Seraph Enlightener reduced from 5 mana to 4.
6) Abomination now has ATK/Health equal to 1 + the number of corpses destroyed.

Crafting For All

1) Card crafting is now fully open to all players, regardless of crafting level. The maximum Essence allowed is set to 300 for all levels, allowing you a chance to craft Epics whenever you have collected enough.
2) All cards scrapped will now give some essence. If a Stone appears, it will always be in addition to the amount of essence given. Commons now always award 1 essence per scrapping.
3) The Tribes Crafting Stone has been added to the game. It can only be acquired through scrapping cards at this time. All Tribes Commons-Epics can be crafted with this stone.

Marketplace Changes

The Marketplace has two significant changes:

1) The Gold price of Eve and Rise packs have been raised to 15,000 Gold. The entire Kingdoms economy has been built around the idea that 1 Gem = 1000 Gold. These prices were set too low by Antic and, as numerous players have stated, made paying Gems for these packs a waste. We are raising the prices to where they should be based on the Gem costs of these packs. Note that we have decided to leave the price of Core packs as they are.

2) The singles market has had significant price adjustments. Legendary and Epic cards have been set to fixed costs. Epic card costs are now lower than their previous highs, will not go down as they once did. Commons to Rares have been left with dynamic prices, but the price ranges have been adjusted so that single prices will not drop as low as they once did.

This change was made for the key reason of making Booster Packs a more valuable part of the game. When it is actually cheaper to purchase cards directly than to pull them from Booster Packs, the balance of the game's economy isn't correct. And with the dynamic pricing system's tendency to drop prices from the highs to their lows overnight randomly, it meant that even key constructed singles could be found at less-than-booster prices. For the long term financial viability of this game, a change had to be made.

Note that when developing the no-longer-supported iPad version, Antic removed the singles market entirely. This was a concious financial decision, not something that they couldn't implement. We had this option as well, but decided to adjust the pricing, rather than remove the feature.

Again, it is our goal to make Kingdoms CCG a popular and successful card game for years to come, with new heroes, cards and features coming out regularly. To do so, we needed to make some changes to the system that Antic had created. We will continue to monitor these changes and make further refinements as we go forward.

1/16/2015

Not So Fast

Jorma.



Since the early days of Kingdoms CCG she has been the top choice for aggressive decks, and a force to be reckoned with.

When the changes were made to Noran and Dravkas last year, we all knew that Jorma was the number 3 played hero and by not changing her that she would likely rise to the top. And that is exactly what has happened. Jorma is the number one played hero in both Limited and Standard (though still not even close to the domination of Dravkas pre-revision).

So why was she spared from any changes? Read on.

Fuelling her success are creatures with Haste. The top three creatures in standard right now are: Firecat, Fury Stoker and Erratic Werewolf. Haste is the backbone of aggressive strategies, and Jorma embraces this better than most.

And for good reason. Haste is arguably the most powerful ability in Kingdoms. It turns a creature into direct damage and creature removal. Any creature with Haste will get more attention than a creature without it. It's just that good.

So going into the design of Light Ascending, I knew that I wanted to create some new tools against this very popular strategy. So far we've only had this guy:


A decent card, with the right card text, but with only 1 Health, and Jorma's ability to remove resist, he was often the wrong guy for the job.

In Light Ascending, we're introducing not one, but 3 new options for dealing with the red menace.

To start, we've got a new way of shutting down haste directly:


Headpiece of the Watch? It's that and more. Circlet shuts down all Haste. Period. It's also one half (okay, 3/7ths) of an Omni Cloak, all for the very playable cost of 3 mana. We expect that the more than a few heroes will don the Circlet in the near future and that aggressive decks will need to be ready for it.

Of course sometimes has is just a bonus. Once a Firecat is actively attacking, it's going to deal its damage, hasty or not. Need a quick blocker? Then you're dealing with the number 2 most played card - Disintegrate. What if there was an option that helps decks with both of these scenarios?

Now there is:


Simple, yet deceptively powerful. Introduced in Tribes, Immune has only been seen on two creatures so far, neither of which made a significant impact in the tournament scene. Woodland Sentinel might just change that. With Elemental creatures and spells taking up so much of the top cards list, a simple creature that just flat out ignores those cards is definitely main deck worthy, and with the right heroes (I'm looking at you Petrice and Belnir) he could turn into an all star. Jorma decks will definitely need to diversify there removal or end up stuck looking at an impossible board state.

Finally, we look at the situation where the problem isn't just when the creature has haste, or is Elemental. There is a certain Goblin that has been annoying players since the beginning of year, and we'd like him to have a little more challenge scavenging...


Ouch.

Creatures with one health simply can't attack with this Rune Word in play or they'll die instantly. Larger creatures will also be whittled down, throwing off combat math. As physical damage Bleed can be resisted with a nice coat of armor though. Will Hero's Calling find a place in the next generation of decks? Wait and see.

So back to Jorma. Overall we like Jorma and have no issues with her power level, despite being the top played Hero (someone always will be),yet with these new tools other heroes may just rise up to challenge her crown.

Stay tuned for more previews soon!

1/14/2015

One plus One equals Boom

One Attack. One Health.

In Kingdoms CCG it takes a lot for a lowly 1/1 to get noticed. They can barely attack, and are rarely more than a speed bump. Yet surprisingly, the history of Kingdoms has seen a number of 1/1's reach tournament status:

 

Each of these creatures provide solid value despite their meagre stats. Fast damage, fast mana or creature removal - their impact is immediately felt.

Light Ascending carries on this tradition with two new creatures that will have players talking about and building around.

First, we have this little guy:


 Seems pretty innocent right? Wait until you play against him.

Immolated hasn't really had its day in the sun, as it has so rarely been seen. Firesworn Elf will change that. For those who don't know, Immolated is a negative status effect that says at the beginning of your turn, you are dealt 1 magic damage for each point of Immolate on a creature you control. Yes, Immolate stacks, so if your creature has Immolate 3, you're taking 3 damage. Per turn.

Sending Firesworn Elf into a clear lane while the opponent has a creature on the board guarantees at least 2 points of damage. One for the attack, and one for the Immolate that he places on your creature.

A standard defence against haste creatures is to just move a bigger creature in front of them. Here Firesworn Elf really shines. He'll happily crash himself into a giant. Another Immolate point will appear and now the defender is taking 2 a turn from their own creatures.

Don't be surprised if you're soon targeting those Echo Blasts at your own creatures.

And if that is in the main course, here is dessert:


When the changes to Dirty Fuel were made, I said that the strategy of Self-Mill wasn't dead and mentioned that we had a card in waiting. Well here it is. Introducing Rotfeeder.

Rotfeeder has a huge upside. Played with a stocked discard pile, he becomes a 5/5 with Reassemble 4. That's up there with the Legendary Army of the Abyss.

And he is happy to help you fill that discard pile. Though unlike Army, Rotfeeder only looks at Creatures in your own discard pile. So the more spells like Frantic Search you include to speed his 5/5 state into play, the less likely that 10 cards alone will do it.

Even if you can't power him out in the first 3 turns, having a 5/5 for 2 mana in the late game is no slouch, and a great way to recover from a Divine Wrath or Realm Crusher.

Finally, he doesn't have to be hulking out to be of value. Fury Stoker and Raging Vines are happy to see cards in the discard pile at any time and Rotfeeder can make that happen.

Will these creatures reach the heights of tournament play? Only time will tell, but it is clear once against that smalls stats don't always mean small impact.

These are just two of the cards that will be appearing in Light Ascending. We'll continue to reveal more cards throughout this week and over the weekend, leading up to the set's release on... January 21st.





1/05/2015

Server Upgrade Details

As the final step in taking over Kingdoms CCG from its previous owners, tomorrow we will be moving the game into our own server infrastructure. We've built and improved our system over the past 10 years, and have handled well over a million players in a single day. This move will also give us the control we need to ensure that the game is running as best as it can.

To make this important change, we will be shutting down Kingdoms CCG fully starting at 9 am EST tomorrow (Jan. 6, 2015). We expect that the game will be down for a minimum of 6 hours. Please note that all tournaments will be shut down at this time, so we strongly recommend against joining any tournaments after 7 am EST.

To tide you over tomorrow, we'll be posting some additional art from the upcoming set, and perhaps even a card preview or two!

Cheers, and Happy New Year!