State of the Game: September 2012

==State of the Game: September 2012==
Greetings community! 
There are quite a few things to go over today so let’s get started!
Tuesday on 8/28/12 we summoned the very first Clash of the Dragons Mega Brawl! We collected a lot of feedback from our sister game’s (Legacy of Heroes) Mega Brawl and adjusted things in Clash accordingly. 
We want to continue to put focus on fun, community driven events in Clash and you can expect to see more Mega Brawls in the future. Some things that were missed with the release of Mega Brawls (5s refresh timer) were added in shortly after the initial release, however if you feel there are other features that Mega Brawls would benefit from having, please post about it in the suggestions section of our forum!
This has been a really big hit for Clash, it’s something we enjoy seeing the community participate in and we intend to add on more features to this system as time goes on. 
In the short term you can expect us to continually vary the rewards of this event every week. 
One of the largest changes we’re going to implement into Clash is the way we roll out new sets of cards and zones. 
===Base Sets===
A base set is what you will see in all of the packs that are available for purchase within the game. Thus, the cards you find within Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Mystery and Draft packs will be made up of whatever the current base set is. Currently that’s a mixture of First, Second and Third Clash. 
Base Sets will be changed on a 6 month cycle and will contain an assortment of all cards previously released in the base sets or expansions, with the exception of an expansion that is still on sale (details further in this post). Adjusting the base set will allow us to keep the power jump between rarities tight, which will be important for new players and sealed events such as Drafts. Powerflux cards will be considered part of the base set. 
===Expansions===
In the very near future we’re going to roll out the very first preview of our first expansion set. This set will be made up of entirely new cards that will be found in Quests, Brawls, Clan Brawls, Mega Brawls, Drafts and Packs. However, we’re going to do this a bit differently than we did during previous set releases. 
We’re going to roll out an expansion over a three month time span. The 1st month will preview 20ish new cards in Base packs. These cards that will be found in Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Mystery will be in addition to the Base cards in those packs. During the 2nd month, we are going to preview a *different* set of about 20ish cards from the same expansion set. So those first 20ish preview cards will come out of the Base packs and a new batch will go in. 
During the 3rd month, we will be releasing all of the expansion cards in a separate expansion pack. This will consist of the first 20ish cards, the second batch of preview cards and about 20ish new cards. These packs will have the same rarity distribution and chances as a Diamond pack and will cost the same price (100 Dragon Coins). These packs will *only* contain cards from that current expansion. These packs will be on sale for three months and then will be rotated out. 
In addition, during that 3rd month, there will be no expansion cards in Base packs (Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Mystery), with the exception of Draft packs. For that one month, all of the expansion cards will be available in Drafts in addition to the Base cards.
During the 4th month, a new expansion cycle will begin. About 20ish preview cards from the next expansion will be rotated in to Base packs (Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Draft). The expansion pack from the first set will still be available for purchase during the 4th month. During the 5th month a different batch of preview cards will be in those packs and the first expansion promo will still be on sale.
Now during the 6th month, a new expansion pack will be in the shop for sale and the first expansions pack will be removed. This will be handled the same as month three, with Gold/Platinum/Diamond/Mystery only containing Base cards and the Draft packs containing Base and all expansion cards. 
During the 7th month of the cycle, we will be rolling out the new Base set. The expansion packs and previews will be handled the same way as the previous months, with a 20ish card preview of the 3rd Expansion being found in packs in month seven. This new core set would be made up of cards from the Base set and 1st expansion, but not the 2nd since those packs will still be on sale for two more months. 
It’s a lot of information to cover, so to assist in explaining this entire process here are some pictures!
An X in a cell shows when those cards are attainable. The cells highlighted in blue show what cards are attainable in Draft packs.
Here’s another picture to explain how Draft packs are going to work.
===Eldritch to Relic Tokens===
We’ll continue the trend of converting players’ Eldritch Tokens to Relic Tokens at a 1:1 ratio when we switch out the draft rewards (the ones you spend your Eldritch and Relic Tokens on). Players will still be able to manually convert their Eldritch Tokens to Relic Tokens at a 2:1 ratio at any point however. 
===Gold Packs===
This was covered in another thread already, but it’s worth mentioning again. Gold Packs will permanently become 5,000 Gold starting with the first preview of cards we release. Old Gold Packs will not work with new Drafts.  
===Smaller Zones!===
With the addition of more constant card releases we’re also going to release a brand new zone every month as well. This means new zones will be smaller by roughly half (node wise) but will still have cards and other items to hunt and chase after. 
A concern this does bring to mind is that some players are stuck in old zones, because of difficulty. Since we’re releasing new zones on a monthly basis we’d like to ensure everyone has an equal opportunity to access this new content, and as a result we’re going to go over older zones and adjust attributes and other limiting factors. This won’t be ready by the time zone 9 is released but we’re confident we can start laying the foundation of this change shortly thereafter.
So, what do these changes mean and how do they impact you as a player? 
*You can expect a new, smaller set of cards to enhance your deck after every month.
*A new zone to explore and slay numerous monsters will be released every month.
*Gold Packs will be cheaper but will need to be purchased more frequently.
*New cards will continually be streamed in with the assistance of things like Mega Brawls and Clan Brawls.
*All expansions will be comprised of Rare or better cards, so every 3-6 months we will be releasing a small batch of Common/Uncommon cards exclusively for Drafting to keep it fresh
*Draft rewards will be refreshed every 3 months, beginning in month 1. So the draft reward for a certain expansion will be the currently available reward while that set is rotating through its preview/preview/pack cycle.
This is a major shift in the way Clash handles sets of cards but we’re incredibly excited to get it into the hands of the community! Expect the first preview very soon.  
This is an area we’ve had our eye on for quite some time now, and now that we’ve tweaked the Duel system we feel it’s about time to give Colosseum some love and cuddles.  
Colosseum is going to see a major revamp of not only its entry fee but also how players compete against one another. We’d like to keep Colosseum nice and competitive and to help drive that forward we’re going to implement a rotating rule system that changes week to week.
One week may force your deck to be a minimum of 20 cards and be built up of nothing but Common and Uncommon cards, the next week it could be something completely different.
This is a major undertaking but we’re excited for the Community to try it out. The rotating rules is something that will possibly also be applied to Clan vs Clan battles to help provide a more dynamic and competitive atmosphere. 
The entry fee for Colosseum will shift as well, and while the details of this change are not finalized the cost of entry will be cheaper than it currently is. 
It’s important that players still have areas of the game to play whatever cards they’d like, and so Duels and Custom PvP will remain unchanged.
So, changing Torment is something we’ve talked a lot about doing in the past but have yet to implement. Part of the reason is the simple complexity of the task at hand. 
Banning an individual card from the game is not an easy task, however this is actually the preferred approach we’d like to take with the card. It would be banned from Player vs Player but would still be allowed in PvE content.
One of the great strides we’re taking in the direction of this change is the new Colosseum revamp, as this would be very similar technology for our team to put together.
Pending the changes to the Colosseum and the amount of time they’ll take to implement, another possibility is simply nerfing the card. At this stage if we find that adding in the new Colosseum revamp is going to be longer than expected, we’re likely going to tweak the card instead.
Regardless of whether we ban the card or nerf it, you can rest assured that Torment will absolutely be addressed in the near future. 
Awhile back I spoke at length about the new features players can start getting excited for involving their beloved Clans, and while this is still very much a high priority for us it’s also something that is going to take time to create and adjust. 
Part of the reason the Clan features have been waylaid on their way out the door is because we’ve added a lot more to them than we originally planned for. Clan vs Clan with a fully functional targeting system is no small task for Clash. 
We currently do not have a release date to announce as of yet. 
In the meantime, players can expect new Clan brawls and other Clash features to continually be added to tide you over as we work towards new features for Clans.
Ever since the Leaderboard Shop became “Coming Soon!” players have expressed their concerns over whether or not this is another paid gameplay advantage.  
Items from the Leaderboard Shop will not provide any edge over live players and only occasionally against the AI, the rewards will be cosmetic in nature in almost every case (equipment being the only planned exception). They are items that are intended to really show off your prowess in various categories.
We’ll continue to add fun and interesting things to the shop as time goes by, however players can expect alternate card art, familiars, equipment and card sleeves as some of the rewards we’ll start adding to the shop from day one and beyond. 
There was a lot of information to cover this month and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post as much as I’ve enjoyed presenting it.
As always, Stay Beautiful, Clash Community! 
Category:State of the Game