State of the Game: October 2012

==State of the Game: October 2012==
Hail, Community!
It’s time again for a new State of the Game Post!
=Colosseum: Revamp, A Recap And The Future=
We were very excited to see the release of the much anticipated Colosseum Revamp in September. This revamp features the Rules of Engagement system which allows us to adjust the entry requirements on a weekly basis to help keep the Colosseum fresh and exciting.
We’re going to spend a lot of time experimenting with a variety of rules and restrictions that were discussed internally but we also plan to add some community and Council ideas to the mix as well.
====Rewards, The Future====
When we first started planning out the Colosseum Revamp we debated how we’d like to handle the current rewards (Black Hecuba and Scatter the Shadows) ultimately we felt as though these cards needed more opportunities to find homes before they were replaced with new rewards.
However, we fully intend to rotate Black Hecuba and Scatter the Shadows out in the future. The current plan is to introduce new rewards once the Among the Dead set is wrapped up and we begin with a new set of cards.
We’re currently planning to introduce a system similar to the way Eldritch and Relic Tokens work but we unfortunately don’t have any final details at this time. As we get closer to rotating the current rewards out we’ll provide additional information.
=Clan Features: Where Do We Stand?=
We’ve talked a lot about where we stand as far as Clan enhancements go, we mentioned some details about Clan vs Clan awhile back and a lot of you have been excited to hear more about what to expect and more importantly when to expect these features.
While I don’t have the exact date for you at this time I can tell you that the Colosseum Revamp was a huge step in the direction of Clan vs Clan in particular, as some of that technology and time spent will carry over to the Clan vs Clan system.
Enhancing the overall experience for Clans in Clash is a high priority for us and I can’t wait to show you the final product. Continue to be patient and we’ll get information into your hands as soon as we can.
=Mega Brawls: Improvements on The Horizon=
We love Mega Brawls, it’s an absolutely amazing feeling to watch the community band together to triumph over such a large opponent. However we’ve heard a lot of very constructive feedback on how to make this feature better, so today I’m going to recap on changes we’ve already added and then some exciting information on what you can expect in the future.
===Community Rewards: Why Wait?===
Originally players had to wait days after a Mega Brawl had concluded to receive their well deserved Community rewards, however this is now a thing of the past! With our most recent Mega Brawl we made it possible for players to receive their Community rewards the moment a Mega Brawl was over.
We’ve talked a lot internally about “Mega Brawls 2.0” and this was a major feature that was needed to really enhance the overall user experience for this very social activity. 
===Additional Loot===
Another enhancement we’d like to implement for the Mega Brawl are ways to improve the or enhance the loot you receive on a per battle basis. While we can do this to a degree by adjusting the general drops, we want to take this a step further.
The current plan is to implement a system where you may pay for a special Ticket specific for Mega Brawls. This Ticket will only be consumed if you are victorious within your Mega Brawl battle, this will prevent wasting Dragon Coins on an uncertain outcome while making your victory all that much sweeter.
This ticket would not enhance the standard loot but would give additional, separate and special loot that would be very specific to this system. We don’t have an ETA on when this feature will go live, but it’s the first step to improving the overall reward experience in Clash. 
===Queue System===
Probably the most anticipated feature for the “Mega Brawls 2.0” system is a queue. We agreed with the community very early on during the release of the Mega Brawl system that a queue could greatly enhance the fun factor of the overall experience, however we had a lot of things to consider and some technical aspects to consider. One of the biggest aspects was the best way to handle the Brawl cooldown and how we would choose who would be the Brawl host.
We came up with a lot of really good ideas that would have worked, however in the end we felt like the best user experience was simply removing the cooldown system which makes the host irrelevant as well as solving some other concerns.
We don’t want to take away player freedom so we’re going to split the queue system off completely from the standard way of joining and creating Mega Brawls. What this means if you will still have the ability to play and join normally through the list, but if your friends are offline and you just want to run with a random group then you can place yourself in the queue system to find a suitable match and get to Brawling as quickly as possible.
Currently the only criteria you can adjust while entering the queue is what difficulty you’d like to be part of. Game speed will default to 800% each time. 
We’re very excited to get this system in place as soon as we can, and we look forward to reading feedback presented by the Community. 
=More Reasons to Quest=
We really want to enhance the overall questing experience. Currently players have very set paths they take to be as efficient as possible while clearing through a Zone, often times farming specific items that are not guaranteed to drop, and while we don’t intend to start guaranteeing drops in every Zone, we recognize that a player’s time is valuable and it’s not a very encouraging nor rewarding experience to run through a Zone and come up empty handed.
Something we’re looking into is a Zone completion bonus. This system would likely hinge on clearing every node in a Zone but by doing so you would be awarded with additional loot. The specifics on what that loot will be is still something we’re finalizing but we consider this a welcome change to the uncertainty that currently surrounds Zones while retaining their farmabilty.
=The Nexus: Its Future=
Awhile back we put Nexus Clues on a hiatus while we worked to enhance the overall appeal of the recipes as well as the Clues themselves. Working closely with the community and Kalevra we feel very good about the quality of the clues that we’ve put into the game and I’d like to congratulate everyone on solving some real stumpers!
However we’re still not happy with the current system. It’s a lot of fun to provide players with in depth clues, however this also means anyone who isn’t a regular forum user is missing out on a very cool and very fun portion of the game.
We’ve put The Nexus on another hiatus because we’re currently working on ways to provide better recipes while also reaching out to players who may not check the forums. 
While we won’t be retiring the Nexus Clues from the forum you’re going to see far fewer popping up. However, when we do provide a Nexus clue our current plan is to make it a much more engrossing experience, more in line with the hunt for the Royal Family. 
Simultaneously we’re also working on other improvements to The Nexus, including more ways to sort items and improved loading times. We feel as though both of these features will enhance the overall experience and will strive to get them into the hands of the players as soon as we can.
=Torment: Banned=
After a great deal of debate, discussion and anticipation we have banned the card, Torment, from both Colosseum and Duels.
Many players have been concerned that this will start a slippery slope of bans and that we’ll start seeing more and more cards added to the list. While it’s entirely possible that we’ll continue to add more cards to the banned list, it’s not something we intend to do lightly. Especially with the overall control we have with the new Rules of Engagement system we’re excited to keep the Colosseum diverse and ever evolving, forcing players to invent new and interesting decks to compete against one another.
We want to make sure players can use the cards they work so tirelessly to acquire, but we also want to ensure the game is healthy and balanced, and while there are many constructive posts on other cards that upset this health and balance, none of them had the same impact as Torment did.
We don’t currently intend to ban any other cards at this time but will continue to evaluate and monitor other cards to ensure they belong in a competitive, PvP environment. 
=New Cards and Zone 10=
Just to remind everyone: we’re going to be releasing Preview 2 and Zone 10 next week (10/09/12) which means Preview 1 Cards will be rotated out of packs to return at a later date.
For more information about the set rotation system, please read the September State of the Game Post found here:
http://www.clashofthedragons.com/for...September-2012
As we quickly near the conclusion to the year 2012 it’s incredible to look back at all the ways Clash has evolved and all the plans we have for its future. I am incredibly excited to show off and discuss some other features we are currently working on and look forward to discussing it with the community as a whole.
Thank you for taking the time to read this months State of the Game Post! And as always...
Stay Beautiful, Clash Community! 
Category:State of the Game