The big Summer Update for Gremlins, Inc. is here, and as usual it brings new content and features – as well as fixes and re-balancing changes.
But before we jump into the details of the update, we wanted to share this information:
ːmaliceː At the end of 2019, we changed our server cluster in Singapore. A couple of months later, we discovered certain connectivity issues with the new server, and we did our best to fix them.
We are aware that these efforts weren't entirely successful and some players, mostly from mainland China and certain regions of Japan, still might experience lags when they play the game on the Singapore server.
We've spent the last 3 months trying dozens of options for addressing this issue, and we have no intention to leave it "as is" – we will continue working on a solution.
In the near future, we will be testing other geographical locations to see if moving the server from Singapore to another city could improve player experience in Asia.
ːhypnoheartː We are thankful for your patience and appreciate your understanding, and we hope to find the solution that will improve the experience of those players who currently may still experience lags.
– and now to the changes that this update brings to the game:
[h2]
NEW FEATURES[/h2]
[h3]
Results of the previous seasons[/h3]
Before: When a new season begins, the rating of all players resets without the possibility to see any previous results (personal or overall).
After: The results of all previous monthly seasons (starting from January 2019, when the very first one was played) are now available in the game. The ultimate ladder now shows not only the results of the current season, but also the results of the previous seasons as well.
Reason: the ability to check your (or overall) previous results not only is very convenient, but also shows the names of the players who were the most successful in the game in the past seasons.
[h3]
More control over your custom multiplayer session lobby[/h3]
Before: When a player creates a lobby for a custom multiplayer session, anyone can join it. When someone joins but you don't want to play with them, you can kick them out of your lobby. However, nothing prevents them from re-joining again immediately.
After: If you kick someone out of your lobby, they won't be able to come back. The restriction only works for this particular lobby and applies for as long as the lobby exists. Just be careful – if you kick someone out by mistake, in order for them to join your session again, you will have to create a new lobby.
Reason: Such behaviour can be used to harass or annoy players in the multiplayer lobby, and we would like to protect them from such experiences.
[h2]
NEW CONTENT[/h2]
Some changes are invisible, such as optimisation of the server code. Some changes take a long time, such as looking for the alternative to the Singapore server cluster that would provide faster connection to players from Japan and from China. But some changes are much more obvious, such as new cards that arrive to the game with every major update!
[h3]
New card: "Charity"[/h3]
Location: The Bank
Cost: Free
Type: Normal
Movement points: 3
Get: -10 income, -ːmaliceː5.
Number of these cards in the default deck: 1
"A charitable donation: the means of securing a discount for future bribes” – from the gremlin vocabulary.Reason: the idea of a card that allows using income as a resource that can be spent on something else (in this case: malice reduction) was in our heads for quite some time and now it makes its way into the game.
[h3]
New card: "Cold deck"[/h3]
Location: The Casino
Cost: Free
Type: Secret
Movement points: 4
Get: +ːmaliceː2
Number of these cards in the default deck: 1
Special rule: Look at 6 new cards. You can swap any of them with any cards on your hand. You can play another Casino card in this turn.
All cards in this deck are different, no matter from which side you look at them.Reason: we want to "boost" the Casino a bit more with a card that can be played in multiple ways: just for hand management; as a part of a prepared combo where you already have 2 Casino cards when you visit the location; or as a part of a lucky combo in which you find your second Casino card at the top of the deck.
[h2]
RE-BALANCING CHANGES[/h2]
As you may know, when we developed Gremlins, Inc. in 2013-2015, we put little thought into tools and architecture that would allow us to quickly mod the game. Later, we were busy adding major features and game content. And only this year we finally put serious thought and effort into making the game really moddable.
The first part of the moddability project is done by now: our own team is able to quickly modify every card in the deck, in addition to the composition of the deck itself. This finally (finally!) allows us to listen to the community feedback and quickly implement changes that make the most sense
every month, together with the change of the ranked session rules.
We start with re-balancing of 17 cards. The changes are described below in detail. These changes are based on the data of how the cards are used in the game across more than 60,000 recent sessions, as well as on the community feedback and discussions on the game's forums and its Discord server.
We would also like to express our gratitude to our Pillars of Community players, whose feedback and recommendations were extremely helpful during the process of re-balancing.
[h3]
Election Campaign[/h3]
Reason: we want to weaken the impact of this card and to make it more useful for movement. At the same time, the card is now cheaper.
[h3]
Riskomatic-30[/h3]
Reason: we want to make this card a bit more effective, since in its current state it doesn't see as much play as we would like it to have.
[h3]
Contraband[/h3]
Reason: we want to make moving with this card less punishing. The card, while very useful in some circumstances, has a very situational effect. In its current state it often becomes a burden that players have no reason to play, but also don't want to use to move because of the cost. We'd like to change that.
[h3]
Coup d'etat[/h3]
Reason: to reduce the number of situations where this card is played completely unexpectedly. Considering how impactful this card is, it shouldn't happen for free, and completely "out of the blue".
[h3]
Judgement Day[/h3]
Reason: we want to reduce the impact of this card. Without the extra turn, it still produces a significant outcome.
[h3]
Undercutting the Competition[/h3]
Reason: we want to make the card a bit more punishing for those who play it, as it currently gets a lot of play despite its criminal status and a relatively high cost of 3 votes.
[h3]
An Artifact[/h3]
Reason: we want to adjust the deck that grew much bigger with all the recent updates, and at this point contains many more cards that can be played at the Plant during one session.
[h3]
A Bag of Money[/h3]
Reason: we want to reduce the impact of this card as it gets a lot of play. As more cards have been added to the game that give additional votes, this card can take a little nerf that would make it less popular.
[h3]
Jurors for hire[/h3]
Reason: we want to make this card more efficient as it isn't played as often as we'd like it to be played.
[h3]
Robbery![/h3]
Reason: we want to reduce the impact of this card, which is currently so high that players almost always keep it on hand in order to get the money – despite its criminal status. Initially, we wanted to reduce the outcome of the card by $100 but after receiving players' feedback we decided to start with $50 instead.
[h3]
The Evil Statue[/h3]
Reason: we want to make this card more attractive for being used to move. Initially it was done through its movement buff but after additional consideration the card was changed in a different way.
[h3]
Misappropriation[/h3]
Reason: we want to reduce the impact of this card, and to slightly increase the punishment for playing it for action – because in its current state this is one of the most played cards in the game.
[h3]
Toxic Waste[/h3]
Reason: we want to make it easier for players to get rid of this card from their hand, so this would happen more often and the card wouldn't be kept on hand until played for action.
[h3]
Diablerie[/h3]
Reason: we want to make it easier for players to get rid of this card from their hand, so this would happen more often and the card wouldn't be kept on hand until played for action.
[h3]
A Prank[/h3]
Reason: we want to to reduce the impact of this card, which is so strong already that even the complete removal of the bonus probably won't change its popularity too much. But we decided to start with the reduction of the bonus first, and to see if a further nerf is needed.
[h3]
A Quest from Dariol[/h3]
Reason: we want to make this card a bit more popular, and have it played more often.
[h3]
The Common Fund[/h3]
Reason: we want to give this card a slightly negative effect to compensate for the fact that the player also receives a free score point.
[h2]
OTHER CHANGES[/h2]
[h3]
Only the owners of the game can now join ranked/tournament sessions[/h3]
Before: Ranked sessions are open to everyone for as long as they can launch the game and don't have a ban for a Fair Play Rules violation.
After: In order to participate in ranked sessions, you also have to own the game on your own Steam account.
Reason: free access to the game during free weekends or with the Steam Family Sharing feature is nice, but there are major downsides to it:
1) some of these players don't have any reason to care about the result of a session and often leave it early or purposefully ruin it for the opponents. While we allow the freedom of behaviour in ranked sessions, it doesn't mean that we don't want to reduce the number of such cases. And those who care about the result, often do so for a wrong reason, which brings the second downside;
2) free access can be easily exploited in pursuit of dishonest goals. Players who are banned from the ranked mode for the violation of Fair Play Rules can create a new account and be back in ranked sessions literally in minutes, which doesn't help improving other players' experience at all. This also opens up a lot of possibilities for team play where the same two players use multiple accounts to avoid restrictions of matchmaking.
Therefore, we made the decision to limit what is available to the users who don't own the game. They are more than welcome to play against bots or play custom sessions with anyone they want – no limits applied there.
[h3]
Standard dice-roller changes[/h3]
Before: when you roll a die with the standard dice-roller, the final number can be predicted by the look at the initial value, and the lever animation is quite jerky.
After: the final number won't be known until the dice-roller stops, and the lever animation is now smoother than before.
Reason: both changes are made with regard to the feedback that we have received after the Spring update.
[h3]
Illustrations adjustments[/h3]
Before: the contrast, brightness, and saturation of some of the cards were not in line with the others.
After: the contrast, brightness, and saturation of all cards are brought to the same level.
Reason: after years of development and adding multiple new cards with new and unique illustrations, we have noticed that their coloring became less consistent. It wasn't awful but it was noticeable enough for us to decide that it is time to give all cards an overhaul in order to reduce the inconsistency.
[h2]
FIXES[/h2]
- Fixed an issue: if the special rule “A Box of Secrets” is used during a session with bots, some cards would disappear from the deck in the course of the session. This was an absolutely bizarre issue that existed for a very long time and was discovered only recently, but now it's not the case anymore.
- Fixed a rare issue: if a player experiences heavy lags, it is possible that for the opponents their movement on the board would appear chaotic and absolutely impossible. This happened due to sync issues caused by lags and delays between the player's client and the server, and is now fixed.
- Fixed an issue: If the last Jail event was declined, the timer stays on the screen until it ends or until the next turn of that player begins. It's not the case anymore and the timer will disappear as soon as the action is completed.
ːsteampunkːːsteampunkːːsteampunkː
Thanks for sticking with us, and for being a part of this game's wonderful community!
We wish you lots of fun with the updated game, and we promise to continue working on improvements and new content throughout 2020 and beyond. We are now back to having 2 members of our development team working full-time on Gremlins, Inc., and we expect to surprise you with more cool stuff in the coming months.
千反田爱瑠 (1308) – 8 sessions, 8 victories. ːfirstplaceː ːHoly_Grailetː x5, ːsunnyemoː x7, 
АРТёМ.spb.ru (1215) – 8 sessions, 7 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː 4, ːsunnyemoː 7, 
hoshino408 (1092) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x4, ːsunnyemoː x6, 
nikron (1083) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x3, ːsunnyemoː x6
Ukey (993) – 8 sessions, 6 victories. ːHoly_Grailetː x1, ːsunnyemoː x3