Abalon 2.90 - Legendary Leaderboards are here!

[h2]Greetings D20 Fans![/h2]

I'm so excited to deliver this update. For years, you've been asking for a proper leaderboard experience, and for years I've wanted to give you one. When I first reset the leaderboards, I promised that one day I'd build a Hall of Fame to commemorate everything you'd accomplished. Today, that promise is kept. Legendary Leaderboards are here, and every original score is preserved. Tiered trophy badges have been retroactively rewarded. This is the culmination of countless player requests and suggestions, and I'm grateful for your patience and your ongoing support.


The leaderboard system has been rebuilt from the ground up. You now have three main ways to engage: the live season, your own journey, and the Hall of Fame.

[h2]Active Season[/h2]
Compete in the current competitive season across all supported game modes (Adventure, Traditional, Custom, Fast Adventure, Survival, and more). Choose My Division to see how you stack up against players at your tier, or Global Elite to see the very top scores in the world. A My Standing panel shows your current tier, division, and rank, plus a progress bar toward the next tier when you're playing in the current season. When Diamond tier isn't open yet but you've reached the top tiers, the panel shows the minimum score you need to qualify for Diamond so you know exactly what you're chasing.

[h2]Personal Journey (Your Runs)[/h2]

A dedicated view for your own runs, ordered by score and date. Filter by game mode (including All Game Modes) and by season. When very old seasons roll off recent history, we automatically show your archived bests from the Hall of Fame so your journey is never lost.

[h2]Global Legends (Hall of Fame)[/h2]

Past seasons are frozen in time. In the Global Legends tab you can browse:

1. Top Players: the highest scores for that season and game mode
   
2. Top Summoners: the best runs for each summoner across any game mode (All-Stars, or drill into a single summoner's top 100)
   
3. Personal Bests (Trophy Room): all of your awards and top placements for that season
   

These views never change once a season ends. Your achievements are permanently recorded. All of the original leaderboard data from before the reset has been preserved and migrated into the Hall of Fame with tiered trophy badges (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond) applied retroactively so your past accomplishments are properly celebrated.

[h2]My Standing: Clear Rank & Progress[/h2]

The My Standing widget now handles three clear states:

1. Unranked: A friendly message invites you to complete a run to calculate your Tier and Division. When you do have a run on the board, the game will still show a temporary "ghost division" so you can see where you'd land.
   
2. Ranked (Bronze–Platinum): Your division, your Division Rank (e.g. Rank #12 / 100), and a progress bar toward the next tier.
   
3. Diamond: Your Global Rank and total Diamond players. Diamond players always see the full global competition.
   

Within the active season, in both Global Elite and Top Summoners views, you can see the total number of players in the season so you know exactly how big the field is. And as you can see, not that big right now while my family and I were testing the feature :P

We sure had a blast dominating each others' scores, though. And don't worry, season 4 had over 80K participants, so that bar will jump real quick!

[h2]Run Summary (Chronicle)[/h2]

Click any eligible leaderboard row to open a detailed Run Summary (Chronicle):

1. Battle-by-battle breakdown of how that score was earned
   
2. Fate encounters, resource gains, challenge modifiers, and their score impact
   
3. Game mode, difficulty, descent level, and the game version the run was played on
   

When deck or team data is available, you can view the winning Deck or Team as a browsable card list, then close and return right back to the same run summary without losing your place on the leaderboard. For archived seasons in Global Legends, Run Summaries are preserved for the top performing players of the season and pulled from the Hall of Fame itself, so historical chronicles never depend on your local save.

[h2]Fairness & Versions[/h2]
Only runs started on eligible game versions count toward the current season. Old-version runs are still cloud-saved and appear in Personal Journey, but they don't affect current-season rankings. The Hall of Fame always shows your best scores and ranks for each past season, even after live leaderboards roll over or old run data is cleaned up.

[h2]End-of-Season Flow[/h2]
At the end of the season, the active season leaderboards and personal journey boards, and run summaries are cleared for the next season. Every ranked (badge earning) player's score is captured in their personal bests (trophy room).



Additionally the top 100 global scores for every game mode (and the top 100 scores for each summoner) each season earn a special bonus: a permanent archive of their run summary, deck and team chronicle.

The new season tier thresholds are calculated based on player performance, then, when the new season starts, a 7 day countdown begins until the apex threshold (currently Diamond tier) unlocks and is fixed based on the performance of top scoring players. (Note: It'll be a little shorter countdown for this season due to testing on the new feature).

[h2]Adventure is the Heart of Abalon[/h2]
Adventure Mode is the signature Abalon experience. To reflect this, the leaderboard is designed so that Adventure Mode is the premiere "Major League" competition. While specialty modes (Traditional, Fast, and Custom) offer elite challenges for specialists, the title of "World #1" is pursued on the Adventure stage, where the highest scoring multipliers and the largest Diamond tier reside.

[h2]The Pursuit of the Apex[/h2]
Diamond tier badges are earned on a Global Stage and defined by the world's best players.

1. The 7-Day Qualifying Period: Every season begins with a 7-day "Settle." During this time, no one is Diamond. Rather, the community competes for the highest scores to "set the bar" for the elite.
   
2. Defining the Standard: After 7 days, the top 100 players in Adventure (and top 50 in Specialty modes) who meet the minimum "Diamond Standard" are promoted. The score of the 100th player becomes the Diamond Threshold for the rest of the season.
   
3. Earn Your Way In: If you didn't make the initial cut, the door isn't closed. Once the threshold is set, any player who beats that specific score is instantly promoted to Diamond.
   
4. No Demotions: Once you earn your Diamond tier badge, it is yours for the season. You will then compete for your Global Rank to see exactly where you stand against the world.
   
5. The Legacy Floor: To ensure the rank remains prestigious, the "Diamond Standard" can never be lower than it was in the previous season. The bar only ever goes up.

[h2]Final Notes on Leaderboard[/h2]
Just wanted to say again how I excited I am to deliver this feature! I did my best to preserve your score legacy. Note that because the previous leaderboard only recorded a single high score per player (regardless of game mode) I wasn't able to fully represent the full number of scores you would have now with the system. This is why the speciality modes like Traditional and Fast Adventure look a bit unpopular (they simply had different scoring systems). Some modes, like Survival Mode, didn't even have a leaderboard score, so I'm excited to see this become a new competitive ground :)


In addition to the leaderboard, I spent a considerable amount of time analyzing bug reports, with a special focus on fixing the continued AI time-outs. This includes several major optimizations to the AI algorithms as well as an overhauled AI worker system that should hopefully resolve the two-minute timeout warning.


Another long-standing community request: a central place to look up cards, encounters, and strategies. My son Wesley has built an Abalon Wiki that includes:

1. Full card library with details on every card
   
2. Details on every encounter in the game
   
3. A full unit database
4. Plans to incorporate the player community to help populate strategy guides and other fun content
   

I'll add the wiki link to the game and our community channels once it's live.


Still in ongoing development and on the horizon for release later this year are:



1. Descent 20 and Descent 20+ : I really wanted to include this in the update, but I'll be totally honest: the leaderboard was a giant beast, and like a hydra, it just kept growing more heads the more I swung my sword. Don't worry, it's still coming ;)
   
2. The Caves Expansion: Will introduce a new biome, new bosses, encounters and more! This will be our next paid DLC. No dates yet because, like everything I do, I need to feel satisfied that it's truly raising the bar of the Abalon experience.
   
3. Asynchronous Multiplayer: I am particularly excited about this one as I support a world-wide community of many different timezones and play styles. Now, with a true and meaningful leaderboard competition to seal-the-deal, I suspect this could be the thing that takes us to the next level!


You're also going to find one more cool thing on that leaderboard: a timer showing when the season ends. Hint: If I'm ending a season, it means I've got something special planned for the next season. Going forward, you can use this as a countdown to the next major Abalon build drop :)



None of this would exist without your feedback, your patience, and your support. I read your messages, I listen to your suggestions, and I do my best to make Abalon the game you want it to be. If you have a moment, leave a Steam review and tell me what you like and where I can keep improving. You can also share feedback in-game via Menu → Share Feedback.

Thank you for being part of this journey.

~Ross