Patch notes: November 22nd, 2016

We’ve dashed ahead and slammed an update into your Faeria client today. Solo content has been overhauled, keywords have been introduced, and we’re teasing the first 3 new cards!

Solo Content Overhaul

As we previewed in a Faeria Friday earlier this month, the Solo content is getting a major update this patch. The current content is being broken up into 12 “Quest Packs” (previously described as Acts). Each of the three lanes will now contain 4 of these Quest Packs. Out of those 12 Quest Packs, 6 will be entirely free while the remaining will need to be purchased. It is also worth mentioning that level requirements to unlock quests has been removed, but there does remain a level lock on lanes. Level 3 unlocks lane 2, and Level 5 unlocks lane 3. However, a player should have plenty of Solo quests available to unlock the extra lanes without having to leave the Solo experience.

“How have the rewards changed?”

Roughly speaking, we have more or less condensed all of the rewards from completing the previous Solo content model into the first 6 free Quest Packs. Yes, that means new players will now need to play about half as much Solo content to obtain an equivalent amount of gold and Battle Chests as before, ramping up their collection even faster than previously possible.

The remaining 6 Quest Packs will be purchasable with 500 gold, or $1.99 each. Each purchasable Quest Pack will deliver further rewards as you progress through them, including an equivalent amount of Battle Chests for the purchase, extra gold, and experience. Check out a preview image of the Quest Packs here.

“How will my previous progress be saved?”

Your place within the Solo will be reevaluated based on where the quests you had progressed to went into the new Quest Packs. If you were at a stage that is now in a paid Quest Pack, this will be unlocked for free.

Because of the complicated nature of these changes, we will be giving out compensatory gifts to current players who were partway through the previous Solo mode:

  1. If you have already completed all of the content in what are now the free Quest Packs, but not completed any of the content in the new paid Quest Packs, you will receive compensation worth 1000 Gold*.

  2. If you have completed all of the still-free content, and some of the paid content, you will be compensated with a package worth up to 1000 Gold*, depending on your previous progress

  3. If you have not progressed past the prologue, or have completed 100% of the previous version of Solo, you will receive no compensation (but all rewards earned previously are kept)

*Compensation will be given in a mixture of Quest Packs, Battle Chests and Gold.

“What’s next for the Solo content?”

Needless to say, with this not being the final version of the Solo content, we have a lot of plans remaining to be executed. We’re not ready to share it all just yet, but we’re looking forward to making good use of the current lane system and provide ways to deliver a nearly endless amount of Solo content in the future.

The model introduced in this update will be used as a foundation from this point on and allow us to begin working on some more really exciting stuff.

We thank you for your patience during this Early Access period!

Features and Updates

  • Updated In-game User Interface elements:

Land count, deck holder, and power wheel visuals have all been updated with a new look. Note that this area is still considered a work in progress and has not yet reached its final form.

  • Cleaner Emotes:

Emotes will now only be usable by right clicking to prevent accidentally activating them, and you should now be able to send emotes at the same time your opponent does.

  • New card animations when a card is added to hand, played, or drawn.
  • Deathtouch is no longer represented with an icon, but instead with new graphical effects
  • The last prologue quest (versus Raizeon) now completes upon win or loss

New Abilities and Balance Changes

  • Combat now triggers on Orbs and Structures
    Tooltip now reads: Does something whenever this creature fights.
  • Two new keywords have been introduced to the game:

Dash - Dash {N}: When summoned, move this creature up to {N} spaces in a straight line.

Dash lets you invade the enemy territory in a really explosive way: after summoning the creature, you’re prompted with the option to move it right away by some spaces. This can be used for positioning a defender between your orb and a threatening creature, or to push your creature into an aggressive position.

Dash has been crafted to increase the sensation of speed and interactivity experienced when playing Faeria.

Slam - When this creature attacks, it also damages every enemy adjacent to the target.

Slam is the groundbreaking ability Faeria was missing. Being able to inflict your damage to a pack of creatures, but also the enemy god and their structures, makes Slam the ultimate tool for piercing through defenses.

We’ve implemented these new keywords on a select few of our existing cards to give you a taste of them and how they operate. All of this is only an introduction to the next week’s patch we’re preparing: you can expect Slam and Dash to be much more present once that patch is out.

Balance Changes

  • Sagami Warrior
    3f 1F (was 4f 1F)
    3/4 (was 2/5)
    Dash 2 (its previous Combat ability has been removed)

Sagami Warrior is the only creature that is receiving a heavy redesign along with the new keyword. The rest of the creatures are retaining all of their previous stats and abilities, with the addition of the following keywords:

  • Seifer, Blood Tyrant: Slam
  • Oradrim Templar: Dash 1
  • Wild Avenger: Dash 2

In addition to these changes, we are pushing some additional balance adjustments with this update. Note that we have some other modifications we are considering for next week’s patch with the introduction of the new cards, but have decided these were important enough to get in sooner rather than later.

  • Unbound Evolution renamed to Failed Experiment
    0f 1L
    Event
    The next creature you summon costs 3f less. It dies instantly.
  • Triton Banquet
    3f 1L (was 5f 2L)
    Give a creature +1/+1 and Jump (no longer gives Protection)
  • Sunken Tower now costs 1f (up from 0f)
  • Luduan is now 1/3 (down from 1/4)

Unbound Evolution is a card we’ve had our eyes on for quite some time. We know it’s been a hot topic among the community, as well. The card has gone through several iterations since it was first created, and while we still really like some of the exciting situations it can create, it seems like it just can’t be a good fit for Faeria at this time. Along with Triton Banquet, these events often become a reason to be very hesitant to engage a Blue player’s creatures due to these incredibly high value tricks that can be so commonly executed. Along with those adjustments, we’ve also toned down Sunken Tower and Luduan just a bit, though we still believe they will remain very powerful cards. We hope the new Failed Experiment will encourage some new decks that were previously not possible, or at least make them more fun to play.

  • Scourgeflame Specter
    7f 3D 3M (was 6f 3D 3M)
    2/5 (was 3/5)

This was a change directly related to the new and improved Combat keyword functionality.

  • Ruunin the Relentless text and functionality changed to:
    Last Words - Return Ruunin to your hand. She costs 2f less for each time she’s died.

This is a change we felt was necessary and directly related to the addition of Failed Experiment. To be clear, this means that she will also no longer be discounted by cards like Ogre Dance.

New card teasers

As mentioned previously, we’re excited to be releasing 10 brand new cards next week, some of which will feature the new keywords listed above.

We’ll be slowly revealing them until they are released… starting today! Here is your first look at 3 of the new cards we’ll be adding to Faeria:

Bug fixes

  • Various crash bugs have been fixed
  • Architect should now properly cause Faeria Tree to activate
  • Fixed highlights (of charge/jump/ranged) that were not disappearing properly when a creature lost the ability
  • Pandora coin fragment progression is now more clearly shown in the Pandora gate screen

New card art

  • Meteor - Franck, Jordi and Andrey
  • Aurora’s Dream - Franck, Jordi and Andrey
  • Bloodstone Sprite - Franck and Jordi
  • Zealous Crusader - Franck, Jordi and Vitaliy
  • Humbling Vision - Franck, Jordi and Andrey
  • Earthcraft - Jordi and Yuan
  • Day of the Dragons - Franck, Jordi and Andrey
  • Oasis Explorer - Franck, Jordi and Vitaliy
  • Sandstone Explorer - Franck, Jordi and Vitaliy
  • Savannah Explorer - Franck, Jordi and Vitaliy
  • Taiga Explorer - Franck, Jordi and Vitaliy
  • Caldera Explorer - Franck, Jordi and Vitaliy
  • Rainforest Explorer - Franck, Jordi and Vitaliy

With this update, Blue is the first color to have all of its final art in Early Access!

Thank you for your continued support - and, as always, for your valuable feedback.

  • The Faeria Team
2 Likes

So sad what happened with unbound… butwas actually a problematic card though, lucky me that didn’t craft them before the patch lol

However… i was reading the outcome for those who completed de previous content… I had all solo mode completed, and only earned a simple chest ;-; I’ts a bug, or am I not worthy for the gold compensation? :joy::joy::joy::joy::joy:

The following cards will benefit from the full disenchant rates for 1 week:

  • Ruunin, the Relentless
  • Scourgeflame Specter
  • Luduan
  • Sunken Tower
  • Triton Banquet
  • Unbound Evolution (that became Failed Experiment)

Note that Ruunin, the Relentless is not properly set for full DE at this time. We will fix that tomorrow.

Love the new card art and I’m excited to properly test out the new keywords. However, slam does seem way too strong on Seifer, I thought he was strong already!? The new solo puzzle quest just shows how ridiculous this ability is, especially on Seifer, and when green or red buffs come into play. Those are just my initial thoughts though, as I don’t have the card to test it, so I stand to be corrected (but I doubt I will be :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:).

I’m confused about the Ruunin the Relentless change, why does she no longer get discounted and what is the reasoning behind this change?

As mentioned in the patch notes:

“This is a change we felt was necessary and directly related to the addition of Failed Experiment. To be clear, this means that she will also no longer be discounted by cards like Ogre Dance.”

Simply put, Failed Experiment onto Ruunin would be broken. Way too strong.

We wanted to have the design space to have a fun card that encourages synergy and combos like Failed Experiment. In order to do that, we had to push Ruunin to the side a bit. Ruunin should still be a very strong card that newer players can easily use.

I see, thanks for the explanation. To my mind though, the new Relentless wording doesn’t seem to imply that it can’t be discounted by Failed Experiment, Ogre Dance, etc., or am I missing something? I don’t mind the change though, I’ve disenchanted her to try out some other cards, so I’m happy :rubyfish:.

Ruunin can be discounted by Failed Experiment in the sense that you can play her for 3 faeria less and that she needs 2 faeria less the next time you play her.

What Atmaz meant, though, was, with Ruunin’s old mechanic, you could’ve played Failed Experiment -> playing her for 5 -> she dies and is reduced to 3 immediately. Which would be outright broken.
With the new mechanic, you can still play her for 5, but you only reduce her to 6 (because she just died once).

Oh yes, I forgot that that was how she worked before. The discount basically used to apply multiple times, I thought that was a bit wrong. The Ruunin update sounds right to me. Still think though that Seifer is going to be a nightmare, anyone tried him out?

Most important, if you get Ruunin out of a Bloomsprite, now she’s not broken anymore :slight_smile:

Took you some time, but you made the good change on this one :smiley:

Ferel Kodama (upcoming card here) looks scary! I would expect slam to go with creatures that have lower attack. How do you defend against this without removal? You can’t spread out and protect your orb at the same time. I’m interested to hear thoughts on this.

Anyway, I’m excited to try out slam, and the new creatures, next week :smiley: .

What I find scarier is that there is no strikeback from slammed creatures. You can attack a weak 1/1 and slam kill a Verduran next to it without any problem. No matter how I look at it, it feels weird, and probably unbalanced (it’s not an easy task, or a good idea to spread your creatures, and such an effect is quite hard to play around)

Slam is an interesting concept, but have you tried to lower its impact ? (like, deal half damage, or set amount (e.g 2 or 3) to enemies adjacent to target ? This way you would have to target the bigger one with the attack to kill it, and as a collateral, kill weaker ones or damage other big ones around it. Or maybe let adjacent slammed creatures retaliate as well so there is at least an incentive to place them in the right position (well, with Jump it won’t change much, though).

Very good point! I did not think about that, now I’m even more worried :fearful:. But I like your first idea, reduced damage to secondary targets. Maybe by a half (rounded down), or a third (rounded up) :relieved:.

Whoops! :pencil:
In our hurry to share the new cards with you, the recent preview image for Annoying Gnat was assigned the wrong Desert land cost. Its correct and intended Desert land cost is 1, where previously it was listed as 2. We have fixed the image, and apologize for any confusion.

Looks like I had misunderstood annoyin Gnat : I thought that it was when you summoned it from your hand that it would be summoned on a random tile (which was pretty weird and pretty weak). Now, I understand it as : when it dies, resummon it somewhere random. Is that correct ? If so, do you summon a copy or the exact same card ? (meaning, does it retain buffs from Jesters, Oakling … ?) I hope not as it would be quite OP then (might already be, though …)

Nope, it’s like summoning a brand new Gnat each time.