“Bugs shall be squashed, cards shall be balanced, and art shall fill the world”
##The History of Pandora
Nearly three months ago we released our new game mode, Pandora, with the goal of creating a brand new experience that is both exciting and different from our normal constructed mode. During this time we have been listening closely to feedback from you, our community, about what you all love or hate about Pandora (as we do for all aspects of Faeria!)
Before releasing Pandora, we expected to hear strong opinions on it - we tried to make this a really crazy form of Faeria, and knew it couldn’t be to absolutely everyone’s taste. Sure enough, immediately we started hearing strong negative views from some of our players, but at the same time it instantly became our most-played game mode - which it still is to this day - and we also heard lots of positive feedback as well. Because of this, we wanted to take the time to see how opinions would change over time, while also exploring many different ideas for how to improve it.
With all the feedback we gathered, we have created many different versions of Pandora to test internally, and ran many sessions on our private servers for Vanguard testers to try out, and we believe that today’s update will make Pandora an exciting game mode for even more of you. We have tuned down the craziness, while keeping some additional layers of excitement above and beyond constructed mode. We now think that the core concept of Pandora is set in stone, but we will keep listening to your feedback and keep tweaking it wherever necessary.
We mentioned the Vanguard testers above, and would like to take this opportunity to thank all participants in our Vanguard program, and especially those who have helped us test Pandora in the lead-up to this update. We are grateful to our entire playerbase for helping us during our Early Access stage of development, but Vanguard testers regularly go above and beyond in helping us find the right balances in the game, so please take a moment to recognise their dedication. You can also apply to join the Vanguard program - find out more in our Faeria Friday from July 15th.
Enough backstory, let’s find out what’s new in Pandora!
##The New Pandora: An Overview
Drafting
- Drafting a deck now means picking 30 normal cards, like before, but also 3 Treasures.
- Treasures are powerful creatures, structures or events, and are available only in Pandora, not in booster packs or constructed mode.
- Shards are shuffled randomly into players’ decks, just as before.
- Shards do not do anything individually, but once 5 Shards have been drawn Pandora will awaken.
Once Pandora awakens:
- Both players receive one of the three Treasures that they drafted.
- Players now receive 6 faeria per turn rather than 3 (as in the old version).
- Faeria wells are depleted for the rest of the game (as in the old version).
- Remaining shards are removed from decks, and two ‘Treasure Found!’ cards are randomly placed into each player’s deck.
- When drawn, these cards give each player one of their remaining Treasures.
- Once all three Treasures have been found, the remaining ‘Treasure Found’ cards are removed from the decks.
Here’s a small taste of the sort of Treasures you can expect…
##Why Have We Made These Changes To Pandora?
We want Pandora to offer maximum excitement, increased uncertainty and the chance to see come backs late in the game, and we are confident that Treasures deliver exactly this, without adding random elements through-out the game that would feel out of place.
Artifacts in the old Pandora mode could slip into your game without warning, potentially overshadowing players’ strategies and drafts. Unlike the old Artifacts, Treasures are drafted by players, who can then decide if and when to spend faeria playing them. We’ve made sure that Treasures can be worked into certain strategies, and will have an important and intriguing place in your decks, in a way that we never envisioned with Artifacts in the previous versions of Pandora.
Sudden Death!
Think of Pandora awakening as a ‘sudden death mode’, more than anything else. Because Treasures are only drawn after Pandora awakens, they can only influence the last turns of a game. This way, the early-mid game really feels like constructed Faeria, and it’s possible to finish the game even before Pandora awakens, if you are fast enough. But when Pandora does awaken, the increased faeria per round, well depletion and the mighty Treasures can change the outcome to produce to an exciting and memorable climax.
##What’s Next For Pandora?
As mentioned above, we will keep listening to your feedback. But changes to Pandora aren’t limited to drafting and gameplay, we are also looking to introduce a new ranking system in the future, as requested by the community.
We are currently studying several different possibilities, but right now we don’t want to remove the current ranking system until we have a new system designed and ready to replace it. If you have any thoughts or suggestions on this topic, all ideas are very welcome! Let us know your thoughts in this boards post.
Due to the nature of this update, current Pandora runs will no longer be valid - however, we are giving every user one free Pandora coin to start your first run in the updated mode.
We hope you love the new Pandora as much as we do - go check it out now!
p.s. This patch included some other, non-Pandora updates, which you can read about here
