Sorry folks, no Ditto fun here!
We've datamined a new building for Hearthstone Mercenaries called the "Training Hall", or Training Grounds as it is referred to sometimes internally. This building was absent on the original Mercenaries Village and has not yet been seen by Blizzard in any other communications. With the mode less than two weeks away from launch now, and it not being implemented fully in the game, we're assuming this is likely an update that we'll see in the future.
Please remember that datamined information is subject to change as the content is not yet released and is based on our best attempt to interpret the client.
How Does the Training Hall Work?
When one Mercenary loves another Mercenary very much, th- The Training Hall allows you to place two of your Mercenary heroes into a "daycare" setting which will allow them to accumulate experience while you aren't playing.
The Old Man always reminded me of Master Roshi...
Initially, only one training slot will be open so you can train one Mercenary at a time. Your first upgrade to Tier 2 will increase the amount of experience Mercenaries inside of the Training Hall receive, with a final and third tier of the building finally opening up the second slot. More details on those costs in a moment.
How Much Experience (XP) Do Mercenaries Earn in the Training Hall
We were unable to find any client-side values that would let us know how much experience you can earn, though it does appear to be an hourly amount.
What Does the Training Hall Look Like?
We've datamined the interface you will see for the Training Hall. On the left you can see your Mercenary characters and on the right you can see who is currently taking part in a special time.
How Expensive is the Training Hall
Unlike other buildings in Mercenaries which are mostly free, the Training Hall is going to be responsible for over a third of your gold costs for construction inside of the village.
The Training Hall costs a total of 600 Gold to fully upgrade. Here is the breakdown per tier:
The Training Grounds - Tier 0
- Cost: Free (0 Gold)
- Unlocks: An empty plot of land.
The Training Grounds - Tier 1
- Cost: Free (0 Gold)
- Unlocks: A place to train your Mercenaries.
The Training Grounds - Tier 2
- Cost: 200 Gold
- Unlocks: Improve the training experience
The Training Grounds - Tier 3
- Cost: 400 Gold
- Unlocks: An additional training slot
How Long Until My Mercenaries Egg Hatches?
No.
What sort of messed up crossover fan fiction is this?
That's everything we know about the Training Hall. Are you excited to make Mercenary babies experience gains?
Comments
I don't entirely disagree you, my main point it that a system that allows you to skip boring parts of the game should be considered a red flag due to the large number of games that abuse such systems to try to get more money from their players. Even in this case, the developers are asking for pseudo money (gold) to give us this option rather than tying it to something like having one merc reach maximum level.
Personally, I'll be enjoying the slow grind in PVE, so I've got no skin in the game. I just don't like psychologically manipulative stuff in games.
If Blizzard wanted to satisfy PVP players without pressuring them to buy packs and such, there are routes they could go. All characters in PVP could be set to the same level. XP and coin rewards could be increased for playing PVP. Equipment that can only be used in PVP could be unlocked based on how many PVP games are played. There are lots of ways that don't involve spending money to speed up the process that would give PVP players a more fun experience. Blizzard has chosen not to go that route. There's nothing wrong with enjoying the game anyway, just be aware of what the developer has chosen to do.
If they implemented a single character boost, like pay 200 gold to level a chosen character by, say, 10 levels. Then THAT would be something to complain about, since it is seriously exploiting players' impatience. It's also exactly the sort of thing I expect modern games to do.
The Training Grounds they went with though, with it's one-off investment of 200/600 gold to permanently have a way to speed things up a bit, feels much more honest. Is it going to make Blizz a bit of money, albeit indirectly? Yes, but it's far from the micro-transaction money drain it could have been.
To me it feels like this is an instance of a perfectly reasonable game mechanic that invites cynicism primarily because its in a F2P/micro-transaction game, where everything even slightly monetised invites cynicism. Had this exact thing existed in a traditional game where you buy the whole game up front, then it would just be another thing to use the in-game currency on and no-one would bat an eyelid at it.
Agreed. This implementation seems fine, it only seems ominous because of the implementation in other games.
I would prefer that the developers not copy elements from F2P games to avoid these sorts of comparisons. It makes it feel like they were considering making it worse, but dialed it back before launch. Hearthstone is pretty good all things considered, I just hope they don't backslide.
Because the main selling point of your game should be....you know...playing it? By already bringing a "you don't have to play to progress" feature they're basically implying that the meat of the game is not all that interesting, which isn't a good sign, especially when levelling is the main gameplay loop.
I mean, they are letting you train 1, maybe 2 characters passively at a time. That's still going to be a small contribution when you actively train 6 by actually playing it.
Whether it is the daycare centre, rare candies, exp share or lucky egg, Pokemon does the exact same thing by giving you a few ways to speed up leveling. No one ever takes that as a sign that the core gameplay of Pokemon is worth skipping. Rather it is a sign that the grinding isn't the only part of Pokemon gameplay, and if the competitive battles are your jam then of course you welcome ways to speed up the process of leveling up.
Except in Pokemon most of those aren't substitutes for playing but are meant to be used alongside gameplay. You don't just jam Rare Candies to skip training because you still need EVs. Exp Share and Lucky Eggs are additional ways to help out training weaker Pokemon, but are designed to be used alongside playing through the game. The daycare isn't even really used for levelling as much as it is for breeding.
The idea for a daycare in Mercenaries only makes sense if you didn't have the ability to passively level up Mercs while keeping them in your party.
You don't EV train all the way to level 100. You only do it until you've maxed your EVs then try to gain exp as quickly as possible, which often does mean jamming rare candies down their throats. And the fact exp share and lucky egg still require you to do battles doesn't change the fact they reduce the number of battles you need to do.
I agree the day care isn't really for leveling though, but that was it's original intent in gen 1 when breeding didn't exist. Heck, it took 'til 7th gen before they finally removed the exp training side of it, meaning it was still meant as an option to train things passively. A crappy option, but still an option.
I was never a fan of the Daycare Center except in the case of acquiring eggs. When it came to XP, I'd rather play the game "normally" and earn XP that way: feels like you're taking away from your overall playtime when you rely on these kinds of boosters. It's not like it'll come with coins to match your new-found level, so your abilities might be under-par.
I don't think I'll be using it much, myself.
I never used the daycare much either, but then Pokemon doesn't really give you much reason to outside of breeding. Most of the time you only care about 6 Pokemon, and it's much quicker to train them normally. It's also way too slow for training lots of Pokemon for competitive battles (and it won't give you any sweet EVs).
I can see its use in Mercs though, where you very well might want to train >>6 characters at once, so having a passive option is nice to have.