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Patch notes, news and other announcements
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Vontre
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Campaigns Update

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We wanted to alert players that when the Monster Island expansion is released in late July, campaign mode will be removed from game. We feel this aspect of the game is not living up to our quality standards, and would rather focus exclusively on making multiplayer mode the absolute best it can be. Players will have until the release day in July to finish their existing campaigns and collect their rewards!
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Card Pack Upgrades!

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We've just updated the card icons with the upcoming legacy mode changes, so players can better prepare for the upcoming set rotation. Cards with the C icon belong to the legacy set, and will not be available for ranked play after July 21st. With only two months left before the expansion we decided to test out some new balancing numbers on legacy card packs! Drop rates for quest and free packs have been greatly increased. The Shop now only has one standard Card Pack, available in several bundle sizes. Several upgrades have been made to the card drop algorithms:

- Legendary cards in the new Card Pack drop 8x as often as they did in Black Market Boosters! Players can expect to find a Legendary every 10 packs or so.

- Packs now drop a more even distribution of faction cards.

- Store purchases now include an algorithm that prevents very unlucky drop rates. For example, players who purchase a Mega Pack will be guaranteed at least 1 legendary if their luck is exceptionally bad.

- The drop rate of rainbow cards, which are a cosmetic-only upgrade, has been greatly increased.

One small note is that with this change, Age of Dragons cards will no longer drop in the standard shop Card Pack. Players will want to purchase Age of Dragons boosters if they are looking for those cards. Age of Dragons boosters are still exactly the same as they always have been, and have not changed at all with this update.

We hope everyone enjoys this update and has a lot of fun opening packs!
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Card Pack Upgrades Part Deux!

Post by Vontre »

The community response to our previous packs update has been great, so we've decided to move forward with using the new upgraded drop rates for Age of Dragons packs as well! We've also rebalanced the bundle tiers and made packs slightly cheaper at all tiers. There are now only 3 tiers with bundles of 1, 10 and 25 packs. Age of Dragons will also use the same 3 tiers as the "all sets" Card Packs!

We hope the community enjoys these changes and simplifications!
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Expansion Rank Rewards!

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We are excited to announce that the release of Monster Island on July 21st will also begin a new ranking season, and with it comes some ranking rewards! The team has been carefully considering whether or not it would benefit the playerbase to reset ranks for the expansion. We believe that resetting ranks every month was far too frequent, however, we also believe it is not desirable for the player ranks to remain static forever. Therefore, we will be performing a soft reset at the launch of every major expansion, so roughly two to three times per year. The addition of new cards and mechanics is an ideal time to restart the ranking process and see how far players can get with the new cards!

Players will be getting a small reward when Monster Island launches based on their best Badge Level achieved before the reset. The reward table is a random Monster Island card or cards as follows:

B1: 1x common
B2: 2x common
B3: 3x common
B4: 1x rare
B5: 2x rare
B6: 3x rare
B7: 1x epic
B8: 2x epic
B9: 3x epic
B10: 1x LEGENDARY

After receiving the rewards, a player's star count will then set to a low starting value based on their current badge level. This way current badge levels are still meaningful going into the new season, but do not give an overwhelming edge. We hope you enjoy these prizes and the excitement of competing for ranks with a new season!
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Ranking System Tweak

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Hey everyone, we've examined the state of the the ranking system and have decided to enact a small change to make things easier on our hardcore players. Effective immediately, the star penalty for a lost game has between rank 1500 - 3000 has been reduced from 40 to 30! What this means is that players between 1500 and 3000 star points will lose slightly less stars when losing a game. This should make it a little bit easier to for players in those ranks to make progress.

We'd also like to take this opportunity to explain a little bit how our point system works. Players earn and lose points based on the comparison between their own rank and their opponent. If two players are closely matched in rank, then the winning player can expect to earn 40 points. The losing player may lose up to 40 points depending on their current rank. At very high ranks a loss is more penalizing, whereas at very low ranks a loss means very little. Progressive increases in loss penalties ensure a smooth increase in difficult as the player progresses through the game.

If two players are very unevenly matched, then the amount of points at stake may be significantly lessened. Unlike a traditional ELO system, we soften possible point losses for both the lower ranked player AND the higher ranked player. This ensure that high ranked players are not risking a huge number of points when they have to play lower ranked opponents.

We hope you enjoy the update and have fun ranking up!
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Store Improvements!

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We've just made a number adjustments to our store packs and pricing designed to deliver an overall smoother purchasing experience:

- Pack prices have generally increased, but the drop rate of Legendary cards has GREATLY increased.
- The crafting price of Legendary cards has been reduced by 20%.
- You can now buy Card Points directly from the shop using Silver Points.
- We've added a new one time purchase item, the BLACK MARKET DEAL, which contains 3 card packs for only 1,000 card points!

We hope everyone enjoys these improvements!
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Minor Faction Update

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Lately we've noticed a lot of legacy players returning to the game and having their decks flagged as invalid due to faction changes made several months ago. With this change, several previously neutral cards such as Barbarian, Craxus, Treant etc were changed from neutral cards to faction cards. We have decided to revert these cards back to their neutral status to avoid deck invalidation and create a smoother experience for the players. Because these cards are being changed to neutral, no deck modifications will be required by any players and we believe the impact on the overall game will feel fair at this point in time.

One other reminder, the next expansion Return to Monster Island is launching on July 21st! It's getting close!
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Monster Island Preorders!!

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We've started releasing information on cards from the next expansion, return to Monster Island! Check out our post with 4 new cards and expansion information here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6187

Monster Island preorders are on sale now, and you can receive an epic discount AND an exclusive castle if you preorder!
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Legacy Cards

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We would like to remind players that when the Monster Island expansion releases on July 21st, legacy cards - those are the cards marked with a "C" - will no longer be available in ranked play. As such, we believe now is the appropriate time to remove legacy card options from the store and prevent any buyer's remorse. Currently the Age of Dragons packs are still available, as those cards will NOT be phased out of ranked play. Special bundles have been updated to use Age of Dragons packs for the time being as well.

Additionally, because the Warlock Academy release was so small, we have at this time merged the Warlock Academy cards into the Age of Dragons set. Nothing about the cards themselves has changed, just the icon displayed and they can now be obtained in Age of Dragons packs. This should make the packs better and collecting the cards you want easier!

Monster Island preorder packs are available now! If you are excited about the expansion launch, you can get a great deal on cards AND an exclusive castle right now! Check it out!
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Bit Mass is now Red Team Games!

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We've changed our name! Yes that's right. When the Bit Mass team formed a few years back, circumstances forced us to come up with a name and logo very hastily. We've never really been satisfied with that identity, and we felt that leading up to the Monster Island expansion was a good time to change that identity. Nothing about the game or team has actually changed, only that we have a new name and our logo will be much prettier!

Have a happy Fourth of July weekend everyone!
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