Artifact Classic News

When the members of the team decided to reboot Artifact we all did it for different reasons. Some of us loved the original game and wanted to see it thrive. Some of us liked the freeing sense of creativity you can have with a card game. Some of us love trying to figure out how something is broken and see it fixed. There was one unifying reason for all of us - we thought that there was something special in the game, and with hard work we could bring it to light. Thanks for the feedback over the last two weeks, it's been great seeing how many of you share those feelings.

There is one class of concerns raised that we wanted to address specifically. Those from the founding players of Artifact - the people who played extensively and built a collection in the original game. There are some great ideas floating around for things we could add, and they mesh well with our own. We want to make sure that there are some incredibly cool and special things that we deliver to our founders, but we aren't ready to implement them yet.

We mentioned in our previous post that we were focusing on gameplay first. That wasn’t just a random choice - We wanted to make sure the game had a strong foundation to build upon. It's not going to look polished because we're going to be changing things a lot during this process based on feedback and data. It's really important to us that we take your ideas for how to improve the game into account, so please email them to [email protected]. We are going to read all of them.

With all that said, let’s look at some of the fun stuff to come! Also, speaking of things that aren’t finished yet, check out this sweet placeholder art. ;)

Mirana

• Mirana has a pretty standard stat line for a Black Hero. (Stats overall have been scaled to around 60% of the original game.)
  
• Leap gives her excellent mobility and can be used defensively and offensively. You can select your landing spot so it’s possible to buff specific units and go for a knockout punch.
  
• Her include card, Sacred Arrow, is versatile and powerful. (Probably a bit too powerful right now, to be honest.)

Wraith King

• Wraith King looks fragile for a green hero, but his built in death shield makes him one of the most survivable units in the game.
  
• Reincarnation makes killing Wraith King a bad time for all the enemies in his lane.
  
• The Decay from Hellfire blast works similarly to regeneration, just in reverse. Unless a hero gets healing it often means death after two turns.

Sticky Greevil

• With the increased amount of movement in the game, a cheap blocker like this little guy can really gum up your opponent's plans!

Morphling Whelp

• As you might have guessed, this unit is hilarious.
  
• Does it copy both Passive and Active abilities? Of course it does!

Defenstrating Ogre

• This is one of the few blue creeps with a big stat line.
  
• Bouncing returns a hero to be deployed next round, or a creep to the hand.
  
• You need to be careful not to bounce units with a strong deploy effect.

Sheep Stick

• So cute you might almost feel bad for killing your enemies.

This week we wanted to talk about the Artifact Beta 2.0, what it will include, and when it will happen.

We’ve been focusing on gameplay changes first. The biggest change is zooming out to allow players access to all three lanes at once. The majority of effects still work on individual lanes so they still maintain their identity, but it’s less likely that a player will get shut out in the same way they used to.

We’ve also focused on making the game easier to pick up. We aren’t selling cards, so you won’t face an opponent with a stacked deck. We’ve also added a new draft mode, Hero Draft, that gives you a taste of constructing decks without all the pressure.

The beta will exist as a new executable and access will be granted to individual accounts. When we are ready to send out invites we will let you know the process.

Here’s the current road-map:

1. Test boring stuff
2. Trickle out invites, starting with players of the original release (ramping up similar to Dota 2)
   
3. Work on the Beta, eventually transitioning to an open beta
   
4. Leave Beta (hopefully quicker than Dota 2)
   

FAQ:
Q. I didn’t play the original. If I buy the original game now, will I be able to get in?
A. No, we will prioritize people who purchased before today’s date.

Q. I played the original, will I have access to my stats, cards, decks, etc. from the original game?
A. In the new version cards are unlocked through play. Individual cards are likely to have been changed, removed, or brand new; so old decks and stats wouldn’t be valid.

Q. Can I buy cards/packs in the Beta?
A. We have some ideas about what we’d like to sell, but none of them are cards/packs.

Q. I’m a member of the press, a celebrity, a streamer, an influencer, a pro gamer, etc. Can I get in?
A. Selection will be mostly random. So… maybe?

First off, we wanted to say thanks for all of your tweets, emails and posts. The continued interest in Artifact has been encouraging, and we sincerely appreciate all of the feedback!

You might notice some changes soon – we are starting tests on our systems and infrastructure. This shouldn’t impact live Artifact but we wanted to give you a heads up.

Expect more news after the launch of Half-Life: Alyx!

When we launched Artifact, we expected it would be the beginning of a long journey, that it would lay the foundation for years to come. Our plan was to immediately dive into our normal strategy of shipping a series of updates driven by the dialogue community members were having with each other and with us.

Obviously, things didn't turn out how we hoped. Artifact represents the largest discrepancy between our expectations for how one of our games would be received and the actual outcome. But we don't think that players misunderstand our game, or that they're playing it wrong. Artifact now represents an opportunity for us to improve our craft and use that knowledge to build better games.

Since launch, we've been looking carefully at how players interact with the game as well as gathering feedback. It has become clear that there are deep-rooted issues with the game and that our original update strategy of releasing new features and cards would be insufficient to address them. Instead, we believe the correct course of action is to take larger steps, to re-examine the decisions we've made along the way regarding game design, the economy, the social experience of playing, and more.

So what does this mean?

Moving forward, we'll be heads-down focusing on addressing these larger issues instead of shipping updates. While we expect this process of experimentation and development to take a significant amount of time, we’re excited to tackle this challenge and will get back to you as soon as we are ready.

• Blade of the Vigil: Cleave increased from +2 to +4
  
• Keenfolk Plate: Added "Equipped hero's attackers have -1 Armor"
  
• Stonehall Pike cost reduced from 6 gold to 5 gold
  
• Stonehall Plate cost reduced from 6 gold to 5 gold
  
• Barbed Mail cost reduced from 6 gold to 5 gold
  
• Assassin's Veil cost reduced from 6 gold to 4 gold
  
• Phase Boots cost reduced from 6 gold to 5 gold
  
• Broadsword cost reduced from 7 gold to 6 gold
  
• Keenfolk Musket cost reduced from 7 gold to 6 gold
  
• Chainmail cost reduced from 7 gold to 6 gold
  
• Fur-lined Mantle cost reduced from 7 gold to 6 gold
  
• Red Mist Maul cost reduced from 10 gold to 9 gold
  
• Obliterating Orb cost reduced from 10 gold to 9 gold
  
• Ring of Tarrasque cost reduced from 12 gold to 10 gold
  
• Cloak of Endless Carnage cost reduced from 13 gold to 10 gold
  
• Claymore cost reduced from 15 gold to 14 gold
  
• Platemail cost reduced from 15 gold to 12 gold
  
• Hero's Cape cost reduced from 15 gold to 12 gold
  

• Added Random Two Color deck option for private lobbies and tournaments. This gives both players different randomized 2-color decks in each match.
  
• Added Speed Timer option for private lobbies and tournaments. This allows players 10 seconds to take each action.
  
• Automated Open Tournaments are now 'Chaos Blitz'. Chaos Blitz is Random Two Color, Speed Timer, 8 player free-for-all lasting for 1 hour and 30 minutes
  

• Hovering gold in the HUD displays the amount of gold spent but not yet revealed through playing items (this is a clue rather than an exact amount because of hidden information with Hold, Shop Deed, etc.)
  
• Fixed Rebel Instigator combat arrows not appearing sometimes
  
• Fixed issue with Plague wards spawn particles
  
• Fixed losing a few seconds from the action timer after deployment
  
• Fixed tournament draft replays not showing selected cards
  
• Fixed long persona names getting cut off
  
• Fixed crosslane targets sometimes not showing in Last Action text.
  
• Fixed Chat Wheel lines for Rebel Decoy, Pit Fighter of Quoidge, Zeus, and Beastmaster
  
• Reduced low end noise in deck building ambient audio
  
• Added particle effects for some passive abilities
  
• Slightly reduced draw card animation speed (time between draws remains the same)
  
• Slightly increased the time between Eclipse beams (intro/outro time remains the same)
  
• Improved stability
  
• Updated localization files
  

• Still in it for the long haul