I think the holiday break may have changed the patch cadence this time around. FWIW we'll always have patch notes available as soon as we're allowed to go live with them. There has been a couple of times where we've been a tiny bit late to posting about them. That's always my fault and has been due to there being an overwhelming number of other things going on at the same time - aka my whole life apparently.
There has been many Pandaria references recently, enough that I'd love to find some time to right an article about it all because it is absolutely fascinating. The upcoming Battlegrounds board, Jade Gardens, that was shared in a survey is an even bigger "we going to Pandaria" that I had initially thought before this past patch.
The only thing that I can see maybe not being us going to Pandaria is us looking too deeply into the Lunar New Year goodies. Pandaria shares so many themes with East Asian culture (I think there's a better word to describe the region, I can't think of it at the moment) so it only makes sense to use that part of Warcraft as a focus. All the new hero skins though from the last patch are super Panda themed, bringing in the August Celestials.
I'm super excited to see where it goes. If not this year, almost certainly next. As Dean even said in his Q&As, Pandaria is a "when" not "if". The only reason why I don't think it'll be this year is because they've been talking about how it's not time for a new class (source), and I can't see them doing a Pandaria-central expansion without debuting Monk. We could of course do something smaller in Pandaria; perhaps we could go chill with the Klaxxi for a bit or go jump into the Throne of Thunder (good chance to bring back the Lei Shen hero skin too).
That Q&A I sourced above about new new classes mentions for at least 2 years. Well, the Q&A was a year ago so if we get through this year, that gives us next year as the earliest available time slot.
We’re also getting Pandaria themed BG board soon which is real suspicious. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re diving into Pandaria even without the Monk class
Microsoft has been doing good in the past 5-7 years with their acquisitions. I see this as being a huge positive and once Kotick gets the boot (rumored he is leaving after ATVI is acquired) that should really pave the way for a strong path forward.
He'll almost certainly stay on for a transitional period and then be let go, or leave to "hang with the family". I don't think they'd keep him around after another bad news cycle. Can't hurt that Game Pass brand!
There’s been all the cool new BG cosmetics recently (and more coming), that we wanted to make it clear this wasn’t that. And just also generally remind people that BGs is a fun, free game mode.
This isn't the first time they have advertised updates as being free in Battlegrounds. It's a core part of the marketing at this point IMO.
It is quite unfortunate that a crappy brand of peanut butter (why is it so damn sweet) shares the same name sound as the glorious web animations image format.
Every patch is going to bring in new bundles and skins, Hearthstone finally got into the proper rate of releasing cosmetics so everyone can find something they like. The bundles are also just super easy to do and good value over buying regular packs so I certainly can't fault them.
I hope they figure something out for wild. Keeping wild, wild, and then adding a new expanded card pool format that they are willing to apply some balance to would be the best way to go imo. Then they can make wild the place for cards with no changes and whatever the new mode the place for people to go that actually care about playing with thousands of cards, but with a tad less bs.
I think we'll see something in the next couple of weeks since 22.4 is likely the mini-set. (DMF + Barrens had *.4 as their mini-set, SW was *.6 because *.4 was Mercs).
I don't think the primary goal will ever be to win over a large population of the player base into Mercenaries, it simply isn't a game for everyone. It's to keep the players they have and maybe catch some others to join in the fun occasionally when they're feeling bored of Constructed or Battlegrounds (or Arena) and a new event is going on.
Keep in mind, this is a dev comment on the unofficial Mercenaries Discord server. It's like if a dev were to make an announcement of an announcement. I'd never expect huge insights here, that's what the official communications through patch notes are for.
Quote From Alper
The training ground is the most stupid thing, even casual players level up their mercaneries very fast. It takes not even an hour to max out a mercanery
That's a very broad statement and likely doesn't take into account what a casual player really is. Casual at its core is someone who pops in, plays a round or two in a day and moves on to something else. Maybe its on the train to work or when you're in the bathroom. Casual players are not maxing out their characters in an hour play session, I can almost guarantee that.
I believe what you mean is the more "hardcore casual" type of player, and yes, that person who goes into the game mode with an understanding of how they can do stuff efficiently but they don't play the mode all that much are also not the primary target of this passive XP machine.
Casual players aren't even likely to be looking up what the best decks are, or in the case of Mercs, parties. They aren't super committed to the game(s) they are playing. These folks would greatly benefit from passive XP. It gives them progression so things can feel new when they login the next time. Logging in and having slightly more power than last time means they might clear their next objective or it might make them feel much stronger so that they play a little more.
Not everything in a game is designed for the hardcore. Perfect example of this is the reluctance to add additional deck slots to Hearthstone. They didn't want to overcomplicate things.
I think the holiday break may have changed the patch cadence this time around. FWIW we'll always have patch notes available as soon as we're allowed to go live with them. There has been a couple of times where we've been a tiny bit late to posting about them. That's always my fault and has been due to there being an overwhelming number of other things going on at the same time - aka my whole life apparently.
This is also a good opportunity for me to post Riot's live balance philosophy, since some players curious about patches may have missed that. It was a really good post they did in the 21.8 patch notes late last year and it's interesting to see how they approach patches just from a balance point of view this year.
https://outof.cards/legends-of-runeterra/3729-runeterra-patch-2180-live-balance-philosophy-detailed-card-balance-adjustments-more
There has been many Pandaria references recently, enough that I'd love to find some time to right an article about it all because it is absolutely fascinating. The upcoming Battlegrounds board, Jade Gardens, that was shared in a survey is an even bigger "we going to Pandaria" that I had initially thought before this past patch.
https://outof.cards/hearthstone/4120-hearthstone-battlegrounds-might-be-getting-a-new-jade-themed-board-jade-gardens
The only thing that I can see maybe not being us going to Pandaria is us looking too deeply into the Lunar New Year goodies. Pandaria shares so many themes with East Asian culture (I think there's a better word to describe the region, I can't think of it at the moment) so it only makes sense to use that part of Warcraft as a focus. All the new hero skins though from the last patch are super Panda themed, bringing in the August Celestials.
https://outof.cards/hearthstone/4147-new-hero-skins-coming-to-hearthstone-to-celebrate-the-lunar-new-year-include-xuen-mogushan-guldan
I'm super excited to see where it goes. If not this year, almost certainly next. As Dean even said in his Q&As, Pandaria is a "when" not "if". The only reason why I don't think it'll be this year is because they've been talking about how it's not time for a new class (source), and I can't see them doing a Pandaria-central expansion without debuting Monk. We could of course do something smaller in Pandaria; perhaps we could go chill with the Klaxxi for a bit or go jump into the Throne of Thunder (good chance to bring back the Lei Shen hero skin too).
That Q&A I sourced above about new new classes mentions for at least 2 years. Well, the Q&A was a year ago so if we get through this year, that gives us next year as the earliest available time slot.
I believe the next patch will be the new expansion that drops in February. Afterward, we'll be getting a 2022 roadmap too which is exciting!
No patch this week =)
We’re also getting Pandaria themed BG board soon which is real suspicious. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re diving into Pandaria even without the Monk class
Datamined!
Hearthstone has been declining in popularity since 2016, yet, it's still a massive game.
Yu-Gi-Oh has been out since 1999.
Correct, it wouldn't make sense to do so.
Microsoft has been doing good in the past 5-7 years with their acquisitions. I see this as being a huge positive and once Kotick gets the boot (rumored he is leaving after ATVI is acquired) that should really pave the way for a strong path forward.
He'll almost certainly stay on for a transitional period and then be let go, or leave to "hang with the family". I don't think they'd keep him around after another bad news cycle. Can't hurt that Game Pass brand!
That's neat!
Decktech expanded on this.
This isn't the first time they have advertised updates as being free in Battlegrounds. It's a core part of the marketing at this point IMO.
Gym, Gel, Giraffe, General, Gin.
It is quite unfortunate that a crappy brand of peanut butter (why is it so damn sweet) shares the same name sound as the glorious web animations image format.
Every patch is going to bring in new bundles and skins, Hearthstone finally got into the proper rate of releasing cosmetics so everyone can find something they like. The bundles are also just super easy to do and good value over buying regular packs so I certainly can't fault them.
I hope they figure something out for wild. Keeping wild, wild, and then adding a new expanded card pool format that they are willing to apply some balance to would be the best way to go imo. Then they can make wild the place for cards with no changes and whatever the new mode the place for people to go that actually care about playing with thousands of cards, but with a tad less bs.
I think we'll see something in the next couple of weeks since 22.4 is likely the mini-set. (DMF + Barrens had *.4 as their mini-set, SW was *.6 because *.4 was Mercs).
I don't think the primary goal will ever be to win over a large population of the player base into Mercenaries, it simply isn't a game for everyone. It's to keep the players they have and maybe catch some others to join in the fun occasionally when they're feeling bored of Constructed or Battlegrounds (or Arena) and a new event is going on.
Keep in mind, this is a dev comment on the unofficial Mercenaries Discord server. It's like if a dev were to make an announcement of an announcement. I'd never expect huge insights here, that's what the official communications through patch notes are for.
That's a very broad statement and likely doesn't take into account what a casual player really is. Casual at its core is someone who pops in, plays a round or two in a day and moves on to something else. Maybe its on the train to work or when you're in the bathroom. Casual players are not maxing out their characters in an hour play session, I can almost guarantee that.
I believe what you mean is the more "hardcore casual" type of player, and yes, that person who goes into the game mode with an understanding of how they can do stuff efficiently but they don't play the mode all that much are also not the primary target of this passive XP machine.
Casual players aren't even likely to be looking up what the best decks are, or in the case of Mercs, parties. They aren't super committed to the game(s) they are playing. These folks would greatly benefit from passive XP. It gives them progression so things can feel new when they login the next time. Logging in and having slightly more power than last time means they might clear their next objective or it might make them feel much stronger so that they play a little more.
Not everything in a game is designed for the hardcore. Perfect example of this is the reluctance to add additional deck slots to Hearthstone. They didn't want to overcomplicate things.
Stein*
We don't have collection-based achievements on the site for two reasons:
It looks like you just naturally accumulated quite a few achievements from browsing around last year.