KARDS - The WWII Card Game News

Numbers are dry, so I try to make this blog as dry as possible. Hope I don’t manage to squeeze in a single joke.

This blog is part of a series to inform you about all the upcoming changes:

• High-level overview blog
• Wildcards
• National Progression and Achievements
• Non-nation specific seasonal ladder
• Transition to the new systems or "What happens with my stuff?" (this blog)

As you have read in previous blogs then a lot of changes are coming our way, we are getting a

new ranking system, national progression system and wildcards. Please read those blogs first and then come back to this one.

Those new systems overlap with some of our existing ones, so we need to convert and change some things. But how will we do that? And when?

[h2]Wildcards[/h2]

Now that you have read the other blogs, then you know that Gold cards will only be a cosmetic thing after the change. We don't know if people want to keep them as gold cards or use them to get new cards, so we decided to do nothing with gold cards during the transition. It is up to you if you want to recycle them before the transition or leave them as gold cards that can then not be broken down for resources.



As resources are being replaced by wildcards, we have to change the resources players currently have into wildcards.

The current exchange rate to create cards from resources is:



Since we don’t want to simply remove your hard-earned resources for nothing during the transition, we will automatically exchange all existing resources you have at the time of the transition into wildcards.

The value of your resources will be doubled before converting them to wildcards.

So the cost of each wildcard in this transition will be as follow:



All the wildcards in the conversion will be generic wildcards (can be used for any nation) and will be given by the following cycle, that goes round and round until all your resources are all exhausted (if you have a part of a card then we will round up to the next card).

3 x Standard -> 3 x Limited -> 3 x Standard -> 3 x Limited -> 3 x Special -> 1 x Elite

Two examples:

1. Player that has 100 Resources will get the following wildcards:
   
   Standard: 6
   Limited: 6
   Special: 1
   Elite: 0
   
   
2. Player that has 1000 Resources will get the following wildcards:
   
   Standard: 18
   Limited: 18
   Special: 9
   Elite: 3

We think this conversion is done at a pretty good exchange rate. :)

[h2]Achievements out, national levels in[/h2]

The rewards in the achievements have been moved into the national levels (and there are more rewards in the levels than the achievements had and players gain national levels faster).

Everybody will get 2 Officer packs to start with. For every 750 cards played in each nation (see the main national achievements), players will be placed in that level of the national ladder up to maximum of level 50. Then, everyone will get all the rewards of the levels they have automatically finished in the new system.

Lastly, we looked specifically at the national card backs players receive after playing 50.000 cards in a nation, as these were goals players had been working towards for years.

We didn’t want to move people further away from the goal, so we are completing the achievement for those players with over 40.000 cards played in the nation, while those that are below that threshold will earn the cardback at level 250 in the new system where they should be slightly closer to getting the cardback than they were in the achievement system (these players won’t receive another reward for reaching level 250 as they already have the card back).

(Edit on Feb 8: Above image has been updated with the latest in-game example screenshot)

[h2]New Rank System[/h2]

To keep it simple, all existing players that have played more than 80 battles in that season will be placed in rank 20. Other players will be placed in rank 21-25 based on the number of battles they have played.

We know that the beginning of this transition period with a new season starting and a new system in place could be a bit bumpy as people might not get ideal matches in the beginning, but that period will hopefully not be very long.



[h2]Officer Club Season[/h2]

First, the January Officer Club Season will be a normal season.

We are then releasing all these changes on the 10th of February! So, we have decided that a new Season will not start until the new system is live. Therefore the February Season will start when we release the changes and will be shorter than normal.

[h2]When?[/h2]

As mentioned above, we will release these changes on the 10th of February.

Please note that you have time from now until the release date - but not later! - to grind up your achievements and to decide what you want to do with your gold cards (keep them, or convert them into resources). On the 10th, the conversion of resources will take place automatically.

Please share your thoughts on these changes with us, we really appreciate your feedback.

Provide feedback!

Finally for more information on all of this make sure you tune in to the Bunker Chat, where we cover all these changes and more, on the 29th of January at 16:00 UTC on www.twitch.tv/kardsccg

Ladies & Gentlemen... and the rest of you guys!

This blog will cover the details of the changes we are doing to the seasonal ladder along with some other fundamental changes to the overall progression in the game.

This blog is part of a series to inform you about all the upcoming changes:

• High-level overview blog
• Wildcards
• National Progression and Achievements
• Non-nation specific seasonal ladder (this blog)
• Transition to the new systems or "What happens with my stuff?"

National Progression

[h2]National ladder no more[/h2]

Because the current seasonal ladder incentivises players to play different nations and offers a lot of rewards depending on the nation being played, we feel it overlaps too much with the new national specific progression system. Having both national ranks and national levels is confusing and not ideal from a game design perspective.

So we have opted to simplify the current ladder, making it a single, non-national track where it will be more competitive to reach the top and more about status and bragging rights than rewards.

It didn’t really make sense that the most advanced and experienced players with big collections were getting the most cards from this system while players outside of the top few hundred players were struggling to get cards they needed to complete their decks. In the new Kards ecosystem, the national progression system is the main driver of your collection, while ranked play drives your status through prestige, and is reflected with gold card rewards and other equipment & other decorative items later. Overall the amount of rewards in the game will be higher and more consistent, hopefully allowing for a great player experience.

We have heard your concerns about this leading to less diversity in decks on the ladder. What our experience with the ladder so far shows is that players tend to have their favorite nation or nations and split their games between that and whatever might be popular in the meta at the time, therefore we are confident moving forward with the change. This is, however, something we will keep a close eye on in the future and take action on if needed. A diverse and fun game experience is something we will always strive towards.

[h2]The Ranks[/h2]

The number of total steps (stars) to climb the ladder to the top will remain very similar to the current system. However instead of having to get to the top with 3 nations, the progress is non-nation specific. There are 25 ranks, starting from 25th rank and reaching rank 1 of Field Marshal at the top. Each rank has 5 stars to complete to rank up to the next except rank 1 of Field Marshal, which only has one star which you get as soon as you complete the 5 stars of rank 2.

While you are still in ranks 25 - 21 you can not drop down between ranks, which should help new players off to a good start.

Most other aspects of the system will work as before or very similar, such as “safe points” at the bottom of each rank and winstreaks etc. However, these are parameters we may or may not change and fine tune as a result of testing and feedback so we are not giving out the exact details yet.

The seasons will remain 1 month seasons bound to calendar months and at the beginning of a new season, all players will drop down in rank as in the current system. Exactly how many stars/ranks will be dropped, will also be configured after more testing and feedback.

Rank icons, names and stars.

[h2]Matchmaking changes - What you see… is mostly what you get[/h2]

As many of you may know, we have not been matching players based on ranks in the current system. The main reason for this is that everyone has different ranks in different nations and thus the rank in the nation you are playing at any given time, says nothing about your overall position in the ladder or your skill level. So instead we have been using a behind-the-scenes Elo system which we feel has worked very well for the purpose of matchmaking but offers no visibility to players.

With the new and simpler, single-track ladder, we are changing this so that the rank (ladder position) is the main matchmaking factor and the Elo system only a secondary matchmaking tool for more granular matchmaking within the ranks. So with the new system, you will ideally be matched against players with a similar rank (maximum 2-3 ranks up or down depending on number of players in the queue).

And finally, both players will see each other’s rank while in Battle.

Rank icon and name in battle.

That’s it for now in this quick summary of changes to the seasonal ladder. Keep in mind that we can expect some bumps in the road to begin with, especially when it comes to matchmaking and queue times, so we will be monitoring the system very closely and adjusting the appropriate parameters and fine tuning the system as we need for the system to work as fairly and efficiently for all players alike.

Please share your thoughts on these changes with us, we really appreciate your feedback.

Provide feedback!

Also, make sure to keep an eye out for the transition blog, where you learn how your current ladder position and rewards will be affected when the new system lands.

Finally for more information on all of this make sure you tune in to the Bunker Chat, where we cover all these changes and more, on the 29th of January at 16:00 UTC on www.twitch.tv/kardsccg

Hello friends!

In this blog we will discuss the changes we are making to the account progression system in Kards. By account progression system, we mean the permanent progression you have for playing the game, as opposed to the temporary status progression you can have in the ladder rank system that resets every month (which is also changing, as discussed in another blog).

We will start by going over why we are making this change, then describe the new system in more details, namely the progression mechanics and rewards. We will then end up by briefly going over what is next on the horizon for this system.

This blog is part of a series to inform you about all the upcoming changes:

• High-level overview blog
• Wildcards
• National Progression and Achievements (this blog)
• Non-nation specific seasonal ladder
  
• Transition to the new systems or "What happens with my stuff?"

(Edit on Feb 8: Above image has been updated with the latest in-game example screenshot)

[h2]Achieving Nothing[/h2]

The current account progression system is mainly tied to the achievement system. We have never been fully satisfied with the achievement system, for several reasons.

1. It is very hidden and hard to grasp for new players, thus difficult to use as a goal setter.
   
   
2. It scales badly, with a clump of early achievement followed by very sporadic achievements later on, which reduces its value in giving a good sense of progression.
   
   
3. It makes it very hard for new players to focus their efforts in order to build a competitive deck in a specific nation, both because currently rewards are too rarely nation focused and just too few on the whole. As Kards grows older, with more and more cards added, it becomes increasingly difficult for new players to get into the game and compete with other players at a similar skill level, but with vastly larger collections.

The solution of course is to demote the current system and promote a new and better one - a better one that is more friendly to new players, shows players better how they are progressing and giving them greater control in the process. In short - a brand new progression system that in one brilliant stroke will fix all the wrongs with the current system and quite possibly all the wrongs of the world (we at 1939 are nothing if not ambitious).

Before we dive into the details it is worth noting that the current achievement system will be removed from the game as a part of this update. See a transition dev blog later on for details on how we are compensating you players for this.

[h2]Illusions of Grandeur[/h2]

The new progression system focuses on your progress in each of the five main nations. When you battle with them, you will gain experience in a traditional leveling system. You will always gain experience, regardless of the outcome of the battle, though winning generally gives you a little bit more. The best thing? Every time you gain a new level you gain a reward! (More on this later). You will receive full experience in Battles and Draft, and 20% in Training, Campaigns and Challenges.

New players start at level 1 and for the first few levels will reach a new level pretty much every game. The leveling will slow down slightly as you go higher, but even at high levels you are still gaining a new level every 3 or 4 games, so your sense of progress will be frequently reinforced. You can climb to level 250 for each of the five main nations. Note that you only gain experience in your main nation, no experience is gained for the ally nation. This of course means there is no progression for the minor nations at this stage. We will look into doing something for them at a later date. Note that existing players (that is you, in case you’re wondering) will be adjusted to a higher level, based on how far along they already were on the national achievement track. See the transition blog at a later date for more information.

Various rewards for German national progression.

[h2]A Bacon Shaped Button[/h2]

Finally we come to the meat of this blog - rewards! Juicy, juicy rewards. Admit it, that is why you are here, right? For some it is enough to brag to their parents about being a level 250 Brit, but for the rest of us, it’s all about that sweet, sweet reward that feeds us endorphins and strokes our ego all at once.

As stated above, each national level gives a reward. The rewards at each level are not equal - some levels have better rewards than others. You can see 50 levels at a time, and their rewards, for each nation. So at start you can view levels 1 through 50, then 51-100 and so on.

Here is a list of possible rewards, the key thing to remember is that all cards and wildcards given out are always nation specific - so if a level gives you a gold card it will be a gold card of the nation you are leveling up, for instance.

• Gold
  
• Specific card (this is only for levels 1 to 7)
  
• Wildcard of a specific rarity
  
• Random card of a specific rarity
  
• Random gold card of a specific rarity
  
• Random pack (base pack from any set packs can be bought from)
  
• National pack
  
• Emote (these are the same as can be unlocked in the current achievement system, with a couple of new ones sprinkled in).
  
• Card back (the same two per nation that can be unlocked currently).
  
• Draft Ticket

Taken together, the rewards in the new system are greater than the total rewards of the achievement system.

[h2]This is the End[/h2]

That is all, just a few more things before we sign off. The new system is designed in such a way that it is easy for us to add more levels on top of the existing 250 ones. It is likely we will do this at some point in the future once enough veteran players are at or near the top. So, to some extent, the new system can be thought of as an infinite reward system.

As you may have noticed levels 1 through 7 give out specific cards as rewards. These specific cards are solid higher-rarity cards for each nation that are good for new players to acquire. The reason for this is that we are working on redoing the current unlock system new players have to go through and this new system will move them through the first 7 levels. So the setup anticipates this change, which comes later this year.

That is all, please give us your thoughts and feedback on these changes, we really appreciate it. See you on the battlefield!

Provide feedback!

Stay tuned for more blogs about the upcoming changes and for the Bunker Chat, where we cover all these changes and more, on the 29th of January at 16:00 UTC on www.twitch.tv/kardsccg

Hello friends!

In this blog we will cover a most significant change coming to Kards soon - using wildcards instead of resources as a way for players to acquire new cards. We will discuss what wildcards are, how you use them, how you get them and most importantly, why we are making this change.

This blog is part of a series to inform you about all the upcoming changes:

• High-level overview blog
• Wildcards (this blog)
• National Progression and Achievements
  
• Non-nation specific seasonal ladder
  
• Transition to the new systems or "What happens with my stuff?"

Wildcards

[h2]The Wild Wild Why[/h2]

Let’s start with, what is a wildcard? A wildcard is something you can exchange for an actual card of your choosing. Wildcards come in varieties, such as based on rarity. A limited wildcard can for instance be turned into any limited rarity card in the game. Wildcards can also be nation specific, so you can have for instance a German limited wildcard.

Creating new cards using Wildcards

Wildcards are a much stronger visual medium for players to learn and use than the current resource system and this is the main reason why we are making this change - we saw that many newer players had a hard time understanding how to actually go about using their resources to full effect. Wildcards offer players a more directed crafting experience, which helps newer players in particular. There are three more strong reasons for this change:

1. First off, the resource system doesn’t really kick in until players start to get duplicates of cards they already have the maximum amount of. This was an issue for newer players with small collections, as they had a hard time getting resources, at a time when they needed them the most. In the current system, gold cards offer newer players the best avenue to extra resources, but this is a very hidden feature, plus many players loath to lose their gold cards. With the new system, it is easier to provide new players with wildcards for them to start crafting decks sooner, in a much more hassle-free manner.
   
   
2. Secondly, we want to give players a stronger path to progress in a specific nation - currently, the rewards in the game are either random (like cards from packs) or generic (like resources), making it difficult for players to focus on progressing a specific nation above others. With the new national level progression (see another blog), players will be getting nation specific wildcards, helping them progress faster in that particular nation. This gives players a focus and helps them in setting goals.
   
   Nation specific elite Wildcards
   
   
3. Finally, as a part of introducing wildcards, we are also making gold cards be true vanity items. Currently, gold cards have a dual functionality of being a vanity item to bling your collection, but also an important source of resources. This dual functionality has limited gold cards severely, meaning they haven’t had the chance to really shine (pun intended). After this change, gold cards can no longer be broken down for resources. This means we can be much more liberal in giving out gold cards, as we no longer have to worry as much about them inflating the economy. Note that we also intend in the near future to upgrade the look of gold cards.

[h2]What You See Is What You Get[/h2]

As stated above, wildcards are associated with rarity and can be nation specific. This means we have 24 different types of wildcards - 1 for each nation at each of the four rarity levels, plus 4 more generic ones, that are not tied to a specific nation. So a German limited wildcard can be used to craft a German limited card, while a generic limited wildcard can be used to craft a limited card for any nation. Note that the minor nations (currently France and Italy) do not have nation specific wildcards, only generic wildcards can be used to craft them. The reason why we have nation specific wildcards is to be able to reward players more directly with progression in a specific nation.

The wildcards are not actual cards you will see in your collection. Instead, to get an overview of the wildcards you own - hover over the new wildcard icon. This will show a popup window listing how many wildcards you have of each type. Note that it is not possible to exchange a wildcard for another.

Crafting using wildcards is very similar to how you craft today with resources - select the card you want to craft and below it is a button to craft it. The button shows what wildcard you will use, a nation specific wildcard will always be used if available before using a generic one.

[h2]Getting Wild[/h2]

Now we get to the final part, which is discussing how you get wildcards in the game. There are four sources for wildcards in the game:

1. Progression rewards
   Wildcards are often given as rewards in the new national level system (the rewards here tend to be nation specific wildcards), as well as in draft.
   
   (Edit on Feb 8: Above image has been updated with the latest in-game example screenshot) Collecting Wildcards as rewards through the new national progression path.
   
   
2. From Packs
   Packs can contain wildcards, of any rarity (higher rarities less likely). The wildcards in packs tend to be generic, not nation specific.
   
   Wildcards when opening packs
   
   
3. For every 6th pack opened
   You get a bonus wildcard for every 6 packs you open. For this purpose, Officer Packs count as 2 packs. The wildcard received rotates over time, as follows:
   
   Limited > Limited > Special > Limited > Limited > Special > Limited > Limited > Elite > New cycle
   
   These bonus wildcards are always generic. You will be able to track in client how close you are to receiving a bonus wildcard.
   
   
4. From Crate
   The Crate fills up as you open duplicates of cards you already have the maximum amount of. The higher the rarity of the card that goes into the crate, the more the Crate fills up. You will be able to track how close the Crate is to being full (as a percentage). When the Crate has filled up, you can open it up to get rewards, including gold cards, high rarity wildcards and a draft ticket. You can fill the Crate multiple times.
   
   Crate concept

That is all for the wildcards, please let us know your thoughts on them, we really appreciate your feedback.

Provide feedback!

Also, make sure to keep an eye out for the transition blog, where you learn how your hard earned resources will be morphed into wildcards when the new system lands.

Finally for more information on all of this make sure you tune in to the Bunker Chat, where we cover all these changes and more, on the 29th of January at 16:00 UTC on www.twitch.tv/kardsccg

Following the high popularity of our previous National offers (one bundle for each nation containing several national card packs + a selected national card back), and on popular demand, we have created another round of National bundles for you!

As always, these bundles contain something special. This time, you can claim National Officer packs for the first time!



National Officer packs contain 7 cards (compared to 5 cards from a regular pack), and all of those cards are from a single nation! Each pack contains guaranteed 2 limited cards and at least 1 Special or Elite card. The perfect tool to build up specifically one nation.

But there is more to it!

Each of these new bundles also contain a brand new, nation-specific board decoration. We keep the exact details as a surprise for you to discover over the next few weeks, keep your eyes on the news!

For the next five weeks, from January 26th to March 1st, a new National bundle will become available in the KARDS Store every week with a significant discount.

Don’t hesitate too long though, each bundle will be available for one week only!