KARDS - The WWII Card Game News

This is a minor KARDS patch to fix a bug with incorrectly messaging a server maintenance when there was no such maintenance.

[h2]Bug fixes and Improvements[/h2]

• In some cases, when starting up the client, a message was shown saying the server was under maintenance when it was not. Fixed.
  

Thrilling news from the KARDS development front: New cards and other excitement will arrive in KARDS much faster and more continuously!

Enter World at War.

[h2]The World at War Series[/h2]

With World at War, we introduce a new series of updates that stretches over the next half year and brings regular updates rapidly: A new update will arrive almost every month now!

Let’s go over the why and the what: Why are we switching to the World at War update cycle, and what will you get from it?

With the World at War updates, we want to satisfy several demands:

• Release new cards more often
  
• Provide strong, coherently themed, and history-aligned bundles to ease access to KARDS
  
• Deliver regular exciting content for new and veteran players alike
  
• Trying out new methods to deliver exactly defined content (additional to the current card draws from packs)

Each of the World at War updates focuses on a specific historical theme and comes with a bundle of new and existing cards to support each theme.

The reason to also include already existing cards in the World at War bundle is twofold.

1. KARDS already has a good variety of cards that align well with a historical theme. Providing these cards strengthens the theme and supports the bundle.
   
   
2. A strong bundle with a mix of new and existing cards will help especially new players (but not only those), a lot more than a bundle with only new cards. We want players to be able to see a specific theme, fall in love with it, and then get the cards for that theme without the need to look through all the various different sets one by one and pick all the individual cards one after another. This should also help with getting competitive decks more efficiently..

World at War bundles will be available in different flavors: A standard version (available for gold) with all the cards, and a premium version that includes all the cards plus exciting additional goodies like new board decorations and alternative art.

The reason to offer standard and premium versions is also straightforward:

1. The standard version is perfect if you just want the cards (you can either use gold or real currency to get the standard version).
   
   
2. The premium version is ideal for those who love to have exciting extras to further enjoy KARDS and stand out from the crowd with exclusive decorations and items. Additionally, the premium version comes with a sizable number of wildcards providing additional value.

If this got you excited, then there is even more good news!

[h2]World at War: Battle of Britain[/h2]

Our first World at War update is themed around the famous Battle of Britain and focuses on air operations - just like its historical counterpart.

This first World at War update comes with 18 unique cards (35 in total), which are 7 completely new (18 in total). Included in the premium version will also be the first alternative art in KARDS!

We will reveal World at War cards in the coming days as we get closer to the release date. You can find spoiler cards in various places; we recommend especially keeping an eye on our popular KARDS Discord!

World at War: Battle of Britain will be released on November 18.

Let us know what you think of our new World at War updates in general and the update with the Battle of Britain on the 18th of November!

Best KARDS community,

Following our recent update and the bug fixing bonanza on October 29 with more than 60 resolved bugs, we noticed a keen interest to learn more about our War on Bugs. How did we prepare for this major assault?

We would like to provide some insight here, especially since a significant share of our success stems from community bug reports.

Let’s together inspect the troops and arsenal ready at our hands to continue the war on bugs and the various stages, which involve the gathering of intel on the enemy, secret operatives, our war machine, and of course, glory.

Let’s dig in!

[h3]Long Range Intel[/h3]

As in any war, the first step to success is gathering intel about the enemy and actually knowing what is going on. Therefore, we first must watch out for and collect bug reports.

We have several channels for reporting bugs, and we continuously monitor all of them. Think of internal reports within the team (we have recently expanded our QA team) and external channels such as Discord, QQ, Customer Support, Social Media, direct messages, etc.

Yet, missing in this arsenal is the ability to report bugs directly in the game client and some standardization. This is something we are looking into.

[h3]Secret Operatives[/h3]

Even though we at 1939 Games have our own descent QA capabilities, bug reports from you, the player community, are invaluable!

Over time, we have received thousands of reports and reviewed them all. The most popular reporting methods are via the KARDS Discord #bug-reports channel and our QQ group, both closely monitored by our QA team. The next most popular method is via customer support tickets.

Not all reports there, however, are pointing to actual bugs. Sometimes, good gameplay gets mistaken as a bug (e.g., Countermeasures not triggering due to a C6N Saiun on the battlefield). But even in cases when a report was not pointing to a bug, we still get valuable information as those reports point us to general improvements (e.g., making players better aware of what is going on).

Many thanks to all of you for your constant support and passion for helping improve KARDS by reporting bugs and perceived issues.

[h3]The War Machine[/h3]

Once we have received a report about an issue, the war machine kicks in!

In the first step, we examine the report and see if it actually points to a bug or, as mentioned above, is a misunderstood regular game mechanic.

Then, if the report describes a real issue, we categorize it and compare it with our internal list of unresolved bugs. If the bug hasn’t been reported before and is new, we prioritize it according to its potential severity and reach.

Investigating the bug (reproducing in a controlled environment such as a test server is a good step) and finding the root cause can be challenging. At other times, the investigation is straightforward. Each bug can be quite different and could lead down a rabbit hole (or not).

After a bug fix has been developed, it goes through several test cycles to ensure its correctness. All these individual bug fixes then get bundled together into a release to resolve all those issues.

[h3]For Glory[/h3]

We earlier mentioned that many bug reports originate from within the community; they were not idle words. We are truly grateful for all the reports and the various pointers we receive.

The ideal bug report includes:

• A screenshot of the issue (if possible)
  
• A short description of what the situation was at the moment of the bug manifestation
  
• The expected outcome, and
  
• The actually observed outcome

A bug report doesn’t need to be long or complicated; it can be very brief and to the point. But even if you don’t write an ideal report, we still encourage you to join our War on Bugs.

Keep the reports coming!

We hope this short overview gave you some exciting insight into our ongoing War on Bugs. Our recent breakthrough effort with more than 60 resolved game issues left us with only a few more known bugs to wrangle with.

Keep an eye open for more info!

Attention soldiers!

The round-robin in the KARDS 2021 World Championship has now concluded, and 32 elite players have reigned supreme! These players will now face off in a Double Elimination bracket to find out who among them will be one of the four to make it for the final face-off in Reykjavík, Iceland!

[h3]Your 32 contenders[/h3]



Out of the field of 2000 players that played the open qualifiers, only 32 contenders remain fighting for their spot in the Grand Finals! These are your first-round matchups for the double-elimination bracket!

We congratulate them all on the incredible achievement of making it this far and wish them good luck for the rest of their journey!

[h3]Decider broadcast - October 31st[/h3]



This Sunday, October 31st, we will broadcast all 4 deciding series for spots in the Grand Finals live for your viewing pleasure! This will be an extremely intense series as the winners will continue to compete in Iceland while the defeated player will exit the tournament.

Join Olikrummi, Admirable, Spooz, and Bubbles for all of the exciting World Championship action on our Twitch channel, www.twitch.tv/kardsccg starting at 13:00 GMT on October 31st!

Make sure to follow us on the following channels to never miss a beat!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KARDSccg
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KARDSccg
Discord: http://discord.gg/kards
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kards_game/

This year's Halloween in KARDS has something special for everyone: Test your resolution with unique challenges on the Halloween-decorated battlefield between October 28th and November 1st!

Are you in for a treat, or will you get tricked?

Read on and dive into the details!

[h3]KARDS during Halloween[/h3]

To honor the efforts at the homefront during Halloween (more about this below), we have a special battlefield ready for you and extra challenges.

We dare you to try the unique Halloween challenges between October 28th and November 1st. These challenges are fun and exciting tasks to complete for a yummy prize at the end. Check out the Mission tab and snatch your treats!

The Halloween challenges are, of course, sweetened by some fantastic offers available only during the Halloween festivities. Check out the KARDS Store and give yourself some extra treats!

As Halloween also marks the end of the month, you can further benefit from climbing up the ranks and earning bigger rewards from the ladder.

[h3]Historical background[/h3]

Traditionally, Halloween is a night of great mischief from young and old alike.

The wartime Halloween, however, was very different. Halloween's focus changed during the critical period when all efforts were towards out-producing the enemy and surviving the harsh realities with food shortages and rationing of essential goods.

Some people considered the Halloween mischief to be sabotage and treason, helping the axis powers. Treat-or-trick activities were considerably reduced. Evening ringing doorbells to collect candy was not welcome: Government reasoning for this drastic change was that tired factory workers needed all the rest they could get; war efforts should not be disturbed by pranks.

Instead, there was a surge in organized activities, and the movies ran double shifts. Costumes and parades were wildly popular.

We hope you can join this extravaganza from October 28th to November 1st. There is a lot of fun waiting!

PS:
The second round of the Community Emote event is live. Cast your vote!