Bluetracker
Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.
Rhino Games Update for 9/9/2018
The September release is getting ever closer to completion. As of today, I'd guess that there's a 1/3 chance that we manage to get it out by the end of the week and a 2/3 chance that it'll slip a few days into the beginning of next week. For a non-expansion patch, this one's a monster - the patch notes are over three pages long! With the velocity at which this team works, there's sure to be some new bugs that make it in as well, so as per usual, expect a bug-fix patch to follow shortly on its heels.
Looking forward a bit, we're working to get Orange faction out at the end of October. That'll bring our total card count to somewhere around 320 cards, and I can't wait to stir up the meta with a new block. The art in this faction looks absolutely stunning too, with some of my favorite pieces yet!
Speaking of art, I thought I'd talk a little about an often overlooked feature of Mythgard that I haven't seen in other CCGs: gallery mode. If you haven't already found it, go to the collection or deck editor, zoom in on a card you own, and look for the magnifying glass in the lower-left corner of the card art. When clicked, the card art zooms to full-screen for your enjoyment. This often reveals little Easter eggs in the art that aren't visible otherwise. Currently, in the Alpha, the gallery mode art is still a bit low-res (either 0.25MP on web or 1MP on stand-alone builds). However, when we release, you'll be able to view the full 4K (16MP) artwork in this mode!
rhinophu
Yes, we've been making balance adjustments (both up and down) to the cards throughout the Alpha and plan on continuing to do so even into release (though once we release, we'll be more considered about the changes we make, and plan on doing so only between seasons unless absolutely necessary). One of the advantages of not having an auction house/player trading is that we can make changes for the health of the game without having to worry about the player who spent $500 on a single card and would obviously take issue with us changing its balance afterwards. Personally, after having been an early part of the Diablo III team, and following very closely its saga with the Auction House, I'm very leery about how much impact such systems have on player experience - they often benefit a very small number of players to the detriment of everyone else.
As for balance, we welcome suggestions, either here or in our discord. Looking over the patch notes, we've adjusted the casting costs for: Bog Basilisk, Born-Again, Enchanteater, Enyo, Murder's Muse, Metzin Giant, Red Carnival, and Yahui. We've made functional changes to Foul Harvest, Godsblud Transfusion, Grinning Kolobok, Serpent Den, and Thunderclap, as well as each of the Paths.
Notably, Ollama Ring is not on the list. We thought hard about changing it and initially intended to, but would like to leave it at where it is for another cycle in order to take stock of what the landscape looks like after the change to Serpent Den (which has been sitting on the list for a while now due to the desire to restrict rush from Yellow).