Rapid KARDS improvements: New UI features, bug fixes and card balances
Hello friends!
Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday here in Iceland and kids of all ages dress up goofy and beg strangers for sweets. Humbug! What better than a dev blog to take the mind off such foolishness? ːsteamhappyː
We aim to bring a patch out later this week. This patch will include several features and improvements for the game, most of them visual. We are also doing a minor balance tweak on a few cards. The patch is currently being tested, so be aware that if we discover any nasty bugs in some of the stuff discussed below, then we might pull that out of the patch. Make sure to keep your eyes out for the patch notes released later, with full details on what is included in the update.
[h2]In-game chat[/h2]
The biggest new feature is chat! You will now be able to chat with your friends directly in the client.
The chat function is pretty standard, so I won’t go into excruciating details in this blog, just try it out in game once it is live. A couple of points though:
[h2]Improved auto-recycling [/h2]
We are going to change a bit the visuals of recycling extra cards when opening packs. Instead of automatically breaking it down right during the pack opening, there is now a button for you to manually break down surplus cards you own. You get an overview of how many and rarity spread of the cards you are breaking down.
The reason for this change is that the current system makes it rather hidden when a card is being broken down, especially for newer players. We want to make it a bit clearer and more visual when this happens.
[h2]Improved battlefield UI[/h2]
There are many visual changes arriving in the patch. Some are very noticable, like the targeting arrow getting a revamp, to more subtle ones like timing of draws, discards and some effects.
Another neat new addition is the ability to see cost changes on cards in your hand more clearly, whether they cost more or less than their base cost. The buff history on the card indicates what card altered the cost.
[h2]Card balances[/h2]
We are making balance tweaks to 6 cards this time around. The first 3 are to balance better the experience at lower tiers for newer players. The last 3 are then intended to adjust the balance slightly at higher tiers. Let’s get to them.
The 22nd Guards Brigade sees a fair amount of play at lower tiers and is pretty efficient at what it does. But we want to push it a little to make it more useful for longer.
Artillery is extremely strong at lower tiers, where removal is less dominating. The 4 defense on the 25 Pounder made it very hard to deal with for many players, so we’re tuning the unit down slightly to improve the experience of facing one early on in your KARDS career.
The same applies to the 28cm Coastal Howitzer, which can totally take over games at lower levels on its own. We want to maintain the powerful aspect of the unit, but make it a bit more commitment to using it. You are now less likely to be able to shoot an enemy unit in addition to deploying or operating threats of your own, making the 28cm Coastal more of a board controller/delayer, than a big tempo advantage like it can be today. These artillery changes should also help improve some draft experiences slightly.
Desert Rats being nerfed was tough for the British, as it meant they had no really solid cheap removal to deal with fast aggro decks. We don’t want to give them too much push in this area, as Britain should be focused more on delaying over hard removal. Even at 0-cost Unexpected Resistance is still unlikely to see a wholesale adoption in all British decks, but it’s good they at least have the option of using it when the metagame calls for it.
Soviet good-value decks have been putting up extremely solid results lately, with plenty of ways to deal with early aggression and the ability to grind out wins against midrange and control alike. One of the key culprit is the 83rd Naval Brigade. As always, we are loath to adjust elite units, especially one that is crafted as much as the 83rd is. But its power level was such that we had to adjust it slightly and it can even be argued that even with one higher cost it is still extremely good (it even dodges Annihilation now). If you have crafted this unit recently and are unhappy with this change, feel free to contact Thomas to get the full 320 resource refund if you so desire (the unit will be removed from your collection of course in this case).
The USA have on the other hand been struggling a little bit as a main nation (they are very solid as allies), so we want to give them a slight boost. We’re using this opportunity to promote the iconic M4 Sherman, as we’d like to see it used a bit more than it currently is. Drawing 2 cards is of course extremely solid, but does require a bit stronger commitment to the US cause.
That’s it for balance changes. Feel free to let us know on social media your thoughts on these changes.
[h2]Bame balancing insight[h2]
Before sounding off, we want to take this opportunity to address the issue of balancing the game a bit. When it comes to balance, there are many caveats to take into account. One, as was mentioned above, is to not only look at what the veteran top players are playing, but also what the experience is for newer players.
Secondly, and most importantly, the balance must take the overall win rate and matchups into account, and not just look at what players are playing the most. The reason for this is simple - ladder grinding is NOT a good indicator of balance, despite what many think.
This comes down to math, so let me give you an example (using a bit extreme numbers to highlight the issue): Let’s say we have two decks, one has a win rate of 60%, the other of 80%. But the average match length with the first deck is 2 minutes, while it’s 10 minutes for the latter. Which one is better to use on the ladder? The answer is that it is much, much better to use the first one. Playing deck 1 for 50 minutes gives you approximately 75 points in the Officer Club ladder. Playing deck 2 for the same time gives around 40 points (in all cases, point gain assumes you are playing someone with a similar amount of points as you).
The same applies when grinding stars in rank - because it’s all about achieving streaks rather than overall win rate, it is better to use a fast deck, even if it has a lower win rate than a slower deck. This is why in games with both ladders and tournaments, there is frequently a big difference in the types of decks you face in each. In fact, this was something we saw in the World Championship last year. As we don’t have a tournament mode (yet), all players have to go by are the ladder decks, which can easily give a distorted picture on which decks are best.
That’s it for now. The update will go live in the next couple of days. It is likely it requires a bit longer downtime than usual, as we have to do a bit of database and server updates/maintenance as well.
We welcome all your feedback and encourage you to let us know how you like these changes - especially after they are live! Please use either the comments here or use our KARDS Discord server.
See you on the battlefield!
Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday here in Iceland and kids of all ages dress up goofy and beg strangers for sweets. Humbug! What better than a dev blog to take the mind off such foolishness? ːsteamhappyː
We aim to bring a patch out later this week. This patch will include several features and improvements for the game, most of them visual. We are also doing a minor balance tweak on a few cards. The patch is currently being tested, so be aware that if we discover any nasty bugs in some of the stuff discussed below, then we might pull that out of the patch. Make sure to keep your eyes out for the patch notes released later, with full details on what is included in the update.
[h2]In-game chat[/h2]
The biggest new feature is chat! You will now be able to chat with your friends directly in the client.
The chat function is pretty standard, so I won’t go into excruciating details in this blog, just try it out in game once it is live. A couple of points though:
- You can only chat with those in your friend list.
- You can chat while in a match. It is not possible to resize the chat window, but you can drag it around and minimize it.
- You are responsible for what you type in chat: don’t harass your friends.
[h2]Improved auto-recycling [/h2]
We are going to change a bit the visuals of recycling extra cards when opening packs. Instead of automatically breaking it down right during the pack opening, there is now a button for you to manually break down surplus cards you own. You get an overview of how many and rarity spread of the cards you are breaking down.
The reason for this change is that the current system makes it rather hidden when a card is being broken down, especially for newer players. We want to make it a bit clearer and more visual when this happens.
[h2]Improved battlefield UI[/h2]
There are many visual changes arriving in the patch. Some are very noticable, like the targeting arrow getting a revamp, to more subtle ones like timing of draws, discards and some effects.
Another neat new addition is the ability to see cost changes on cards in your hand more clearly, whether they cost more or less than their base cost. The buff history on the card indicates what card altered the cost.
[h2]Card balances[/h2]
We are making balance tweaks to 6 cards this time around. The first 3 are to balance better the experience at lower tiers for newer players. The last 3 are then intended to adjust the balance slightly at higher tiers. Let’s get to them.
The 22nd Guards Brigade sees a fair amount of play at lower tiers and is pretty efficient at what it does. But we want to push it a little to make it more useful for longer.
Artillery is extremely strong at lower tiers, where removal is less dominating. The 4 defense on the 25 Pounder made it very hard to deal with for many players, so we’re tuning the unit down slightly to improve the experience of facing one early on in your KARDS career.
The same applies to the 28cm Coastal Howitzer, which can totally take over games at lower levels on its own. We want to maintain the powerful aspect of the unit, but make it a bit more commitment to using it. You are now less likely to be able to shoot an enemy unit in addition to deploying or operating threats of your own, making the 28cm Coastal more of a board controller/delayer, than a big tempo advantage like it can be today. These artillery changes should also help improve some draft experiences slightly.
Desert Rats being nerfed was tough for the British, as it meant they had no really solid cheap removal to deal with fast aggro decks. We don’t want to give them too much push in this area, as Britain should be focused more on delaying over hard removal. Even at 0-cost Unexpected Resistance is still unlikely to see a wholesale adoption in all British decks, but it’s good they at least have the option of using it when the metagame calls for it.
Soviet good-value decks have been putting up extremely solid results lately, with plenty of ways to deal with early aggression and the ability to grind out wins against midrange and control alike. One of the key culprit is the 83rd Naval Brigade. As always, we are loath to adjust elite units, especially one that is crafted as much as the 83rd is. But its power level was such that we had to adjust it slightly and it can even be argued that even with one higher cost it is still extremely good (it even dodges Annihilation now). If you have crafted this unit recently and are unhappy with this change, feel free to contact Thomas to get the full 320 resource refund if you so desire (the unit will be removed from your collection of course in this case).
The USA have on the other hand been struggling a little bit as a main nation (they are very solid as allies), so we want to give them a slight boost. We’re using this opportunity to promote the iconic M4 Sherman, as we’d like to see it used a bit more than it currently is. Drawing 2 cards is of course extremely solid, but does require a bit stronger commitment to the US cause.
That’s it for balance changes. Feel free to let us know on social media your thoughts on these changes.
[h2]Bame balancing insight[h2]
Before sounding off, we want to take this opportunity to address the issue of balancing the game a bit. When it comes to balance, there are many caveats to take into account. One, as was mentioned above, is to not only look at what the veteran top players are playing, but also what the experience is for newer players.
Secondly, and most importantly, the balance must take the overall win rate and matchups into account, and not just look at what players are playing the most. The reason for this is simple - ladder grinding is NOT a good indicator of balance, despite what many think.
This comes down to math, so let me give you an example (using a bit extreme numbers to highlight the issue): Let’s say we have two decks, one has a win rate of 60%, the other of 80%. But the average match length with the first deck is 2 minutes, while it’s 10 minutes for the latter. Which one is better to use on the ladder? The answer is that it is much, much better to use the first one. Playing deck 1 for 50 minutes gives you approximately 75 points in the Officer Club ladder. Playing deck 2 for the same time gives around 40 points (in all cases, point gain assumes you are playing someone with a similar amount of points as you).
The same applies when grinding stars in rank - because it’s all about achieving streaks rather than overall win rate, it is better to use a fast deck, even if it has a lower win rate than a slower deck. This is why in games with both ladders and tournaments, there is frequently a big difference in the types of decks you face in each. In fact, this was something we saw in the World Championship last year. As we don’t have a tournament mode (yet), all players have to go by are the ladder decks, which can easily give a distorted picture on which decks are best.
That’s it for now. The update will go live in the next couple of days. It is likely it requires a bit longer downtime than usual, as we have to do a bit of database and server updates/maintenance as well.
We welcome all your feedback and encourage you to let us know how you like these changes - especially after they are live! Please use either the comments here or use our KARDS Discord server.
See you on the battlefield!