November 7th, 2016: Update to Latest Plans and Roadmap

[andyk_]

Howdy all!

Please Note: These plans are very subject to change and reordering. Some things here may just be ideas and may not happen.

Our plans change all the time based on what we are hearing from you, and what's happening in the game. New features sometimes sound better in the idea stage and then don't work out during implementation or we come up with something better.

November 7th, 2016

We just released our biggest update yet! Based on all of your wonderful suggestions and feedback, we completely overhauled and expanded PvE. Note - if existing players would like a progress reset, please post and let us know. If there are enough requests, we'll make it an option in the settings menu at some point.


In Progress:
-Tournament planning: We want to crown the champions of Ember Strike, and a North America, and Europe tournement, with prizes is in the works! Details to come, but start practicing now!
-Strike Clarity: More than a few strikes aren't giving enough in-game information. We're going to spend some time making sure all is clear.
-Strike Balance: We are reworking some of the existing strikes, with some being rather big.
-New Summonable Minions: New strikes and minions are coming your way. Stay tuned.


Up next:
- Reaching 100+ minions
- Sound
- More Heroes

Unscheduled planned: (In no order)

- More mini-games
- Language Localization
- Login with your Steam Account in our future iOS/Android version of Ember Strike.
- OS X support
- Linux support
- New game modes

Previous Roadmap work completed

Finished

- Hammer, a new mini game!!: The Hammer is now out in the wild. It's a fast strike activator, but it can be quite challenging.
- Story Mode Expansion and Balance part 1: Short-term - we will be pushing a tiny update to chill out early game a bit. Current players who are far on the map will not feel a huge difference in the difficulty curve. If you are past Bao, then please consider that the great wilderness and expect a high curve until we can finish Story mode so that math will work out. We didn't anticipate this much demand for story mode at launch vs. PvP, and we are most definitely going to double down on making the experience great. Long-term: We do not want it to be impossible/pay-only to have a fun experience in the map, and many players who have not bought gems have unlocked Chairman Bao. The point of the story is to find and recruit heroes, but we have always intended for every minion in the game to be part of the world. Please rest assured-this is our highest priority after bug-fixes and challenges.
-Challenge Queues: We tested challenges with friends-only to make sure that it didn't explode. Now we are going to let you get matched with anyone. This is an experimental feature that will be turned off if we detect any form of abuse. There may be restrictions for challenges with gem rewards for players to protect the economy and players, like how steam deals with limited accounts. This will be the first time that players can earn gems in the game directly, so we have to be extra sensitive to preventing exploits.
- Earn gold in PvP!: This is by far the most common we've request we've had, and it's a great idea. PvP is the true heart of the game. (Done! version 0.211)
-Strike System Tutorial: Capturing mana stones and striker order is crucial, and we didn't make it clear for players.
-Better PvP UI: You'll now be able to see how your rank changes between battles. (Done! version 0.211)
-Ratings for Heroic Players: Once you hit the top rank of PvP, you'll now see your rating. (Done! version 0.211)
-More strikes and Minions: We are working on our next big set that has the new conjurations mechanic!(Done!)
-Mystics: Special versions of minions that can travel between players, and have fancier cards. Every minion will have a mystic version, but each mystic will only be available for a limited time and sometimes quantity and then never again, ever. (Done!)
-Steam Community Marketplace: Mystics will be able to be sold to other players for real money. (Done!)
- Direct friend challenge (Done!)



We'll post all updates to the plan here, but in the meantime happy striking!

[smulover *******]

greetings not sure if this is the right place to post it but woulld it be possible to add a mode with a little less flashy colours? i like the game and even the colours alot but after only 5 minutes of play my eyes start blurring and i only have that with this game even tho i play every game i can on full screen so i might be wrong but i think it might be because of the colour palet many thanks btw the game is very very enjoyable and original to with using those minions the way the game does :D congrats keep going :D nice road map :D

[AzureDragoon]

Add gold receive when lose pvp battles, its pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ that u lose and dont get anything, should get at least 1/3 of a win gold

[andyk_]

Originally posted by AzureDragoon:

Add gold receive when lose pvp battles, its pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ that u lose and dont get anything, should get at least 1/3 of a win gold

The thing is that we actually tried giving rewards to both players, but no matter what we did, bad-apples would keep coming up with ways of simply mindlessly grinding and not caring about winning. We tried using a hueristic to estimate player effort and determing the award by that - didn't matter. We tried to make the reward based on the number of moves/casts the player did - didn't matter. Here's a user quote I remember: "Oh, I get gold anyway, so I just match and cast randomly." The thing we discovered is that if we reward a player for doing something, they will do it. If the a person isn't playing to win, then it's not as exciting for their opponent. So what is the answer? Well, you can't lose everytime, right? We have rating/rank based matching so your expected win rate does reach an equilibrium even if you aren't improving. However, move speeds (and ratings) increase with practice and therefore so does your winrate as your rating is catching up. Therefore, we can reward losses in a different way - by increasing rewards when you win. We actually have increased the win reward by 50% over the lifetime of the beta releases.

The thing is, you feel like it's a bummer, which you're totally justified to feel that way. I get it, and I'm not trying to diminish it. I'm only pointing out that we have put in a bunch of work in this area and have months of experimentation with how players react to various reward systems. No matter what we design, the end goal of the game is to feel good, have fun, and, of course, rage at times because your opponent must die.

[Easy Target]

How much gold is requared to beat a campaign? 1 million? 100 millions? I dont know what can i expect from this grindy game.

[Shrenk]

Hello,
I'm just waiting (since ~7min) in the "search for opponent" screen and got a question now !
How you think about a button to cancel the search or approximate time ?

[andyk_]

That sounds like a bug. Is it still happening?

[Shrenk]

Originally posted by andyk_:

That sounds like a bug. Is it still happening?

Well it was the EU server down thing :D
And what you think about getting "Direct friend challenge" in "Up next:" category ? ^^

[andyk_]

We finished the code for direct friend challenge on Friday. It's under testing at the moment, and will, most definitely be in the next build! : )

[PowerMetalHead]

When might we see the next build please?

[andyk_]

Originally posted by PowerMetalHead:

When might we see the next build please?

Since we released our first Early Access build, we learned a ton about how people play Ember Strike from both game history, and, most importantly, player feedback. We found that the core battle system needed quite a bit of work. We have a ton of changes in the works, and the bigger the changes, the more time it takes. At the moment, we are very well on our way. To give you an idea of how big of a change we're making - Each battle will have at least 15 minions on each side. Minions will be jumping from their pedestals and fighting from inside the board itself. It should be really really cool if we take the time to do it right. :)

[klevcov-1990]

Why is the Bao his bird almost does not cause damage to enemies?!!
Proof of the video in youtube: Не спаведливо! Мой Бао в ПВП бесполезен, почему?!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXfa♥♥♥7QNk&feature=youtu.be
In PVP from Bao no avail! Do not knock the super hit anyone. Damages only shadow blaster.
When an enemy hits me Bao, the damage is huge! Why is it not fair! This is PVP, all must be of the same level !!

[JeHaD ZnTa]

sdf

[ᵐⁱᶜʳᵒ ᵃˣᵉˡ ³]

DELETE INVENTORY NOW!