On April 28, Gremlins, Inc. receives its major Spring update. The update includes 2 new cards, improvements in balance, more options for custom sessions, bug fixes, and a sizeable number of under-the-hood improvements. Below is the list of the changes:

NEW FEATURES

More options for custom sessions Now: When a new session is created, the list of goal values for each goal type is limited by 5 options. After the update: The list of goal values for each goal type is expanded to 12-19 options with a smaller step between them. For points and rounds it is possible to set any value between 10 and 100 that is divisible by 5 (10, 15, 45, 75, 90, etc). For minutes the limits are 10-120 with a 10 minutes step (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, etc). Reason: that was a popular request that existed for a long time, and for a good reason. We finally found the time to make it happen thanks for the patience!

NEW CONTENT

New cards: cards "Prize fund"
Location: Casino Cost: FREE Move points: 4 Type: regular Number of these cards in the default deck: 1 Special rule: Choose what you get: +$100 or +votes4 or -malice4. "If you are tasked with distribution of valuable prizes, do not forget to quietly add yourself to the list of winners. Preferably under some kind a pseudonym." cards "Spire of Gremlins"
Location: Inferno Cost: $650 Move points: 5 Type: secret Get: +score8 +malice2 Number of these cards in the default deck: 1 Special rule: Each opponent loses votes3. Teleport to The Astral. "Conceived as the greatest breakthrough that would connect the Inferno and the Astral Plane, the Spire of Gremlins became a perpetually delayed construction project. Some say that the construction of this Spire cannot be finished, but can only be stopped.

BALANCING CHANGES

Cards: cards "A Diversion in the Astral Plane" Now: +score13, +malice8 After the update: +score15, +malice8 cards "The Allies of Chaos" Now: +score6, +malice6 After the update: +score7, +malice6 Reason: Chaos cards are harder to play in the Astral, so they got a slight buff. This makes the choice more interesting: do you spend 10 votes/$1000 in the Inferno or try to deliver them to the Astral for a better reward? cards "The Runner Bomb" Now: 1 copy in the deck After the update: 2 copies in the deck Reason: as the number of permanent cards in the deck grows, players need an additional tool to deal with them. Characters: "The Banker: Money makes Money" Now: Whenever you stop on one of the income spots, your income is increased by 2. After the update: Whenever you stop on one of the income spots, your income is increased by a value equal to the number of opponents in the session (in team sessions, only players of opposing teams count as opponents). Reason: The Banker is a polarizing character: too good in duels but weak against multiple opponents. The change slows down the Banker a bit in duels but allows growing income faster in sessions with multiple opponents. "The Collector: Excavation" Now: doesn't exist. After the update: When you stop on an Income spot, choose between getting double income or discarding up to 6 cards. Reason: The Collector relies on playing permanent cards more than other characters and this ability helps cycling cards in the hand for a cost of double income. This ability also provides a meaningful choice for the character: do you want to change cards or do you want money? "The Damned: A Servant of Evil" Now: Your starting malice is 2. After the update: Your starting malice is 1. Reason: the malice2 on this character is somewhat redundant as it was added to the Damned in order to exceed the Thief's malice who at some point had it at 1. There is no more need in that and the change also helps the Damned in the early game if its player wants to get rid of the malice and avoid being auto-targeted by such cards as Karma, An Unmasking, etc. "The Damned: Agressor" Now: If you win Player Conflict, get score2 and malice1. After the update: If you win Player Conflict, get score2 and malice1 (in team sessions this effect applies only to conflicts with players of opposing teams). Reason: the lack of such limitation makes team combos with the Damned too strong, especially if combined with the Pauper. Playing fields: Reversal of change of the Clockwork Colony Now: An Income spot and a Misfortune spot before the Jail removed on both boards. After the update: Both spots will be returned to their initial spaces on the second board Clockwork Colony. Reason: The lack of the Misfortune spot before the Jail makes this location on the second board more welcoming than it should be. While our initial goal was to make the Jail less punishing, this is just too much: an arrest often turns into a way to teleport yourself closer to such locations as the Market or the Office.

OTHER CHANGES

The Jail events Now: Players are forced to accept the last Jail event. After the update: Players can decline the last Jail event. In this case, the player receives +1 malice and -1 Jail experience. Reason: Jail events should provide a meaningful choice at all steps, including the last one which it now does. The change also eliminates the feeling that players are forced to accept the last event even if they don't like it. Matchmaking Now: 2 players can't enter the same ranked session if they already played together 3 ranked sessions in the previous 24 hours. After the update: 2 players can't enter the same ranked session if they already played together 3 ranked sessions in the previous 24 hours OR if they played together 10 sessions of any type in the previous 720 hours (30 days). Reason: this is a change that is based on the analysis of hundreds of players' protests. In ranked sessions, team play is only possible between friends who exploit matchmaking in order to play together. The change prevents such behavior more aggressively in order to make the ranked mode fairer. The limit of 10 sessions per month was made on purpose. This way, the limitation won't affect players who are unfamiliar with each other but occasionally meet in ranked sessions because they play at the same time. Please keep in mind that it doesn't affect our approach to the Fair Play Rules. The change makes harder to utilize team play but doesn't reduce or cancel the responsibility for the violation if it is confirmed. Updated dice-roller animation Reason: while we were fixing an issue with re-rolls (see below) we also used the opportunity to update the dice roller's animation which is now a bit shorter. No ping indication on the server list Reason: due to multiple changes that were made in the servers' architecture in the past months, the numbers on this list lost their meaning and mostly confuse players as they often show 0. The actual ping during sessions still can be seen through the in-game menu.

FIXES

• Fixed a rare issue: if during a session player receives the request to roll the die and skips that request, the bot will decide if the roll happens or not. If bot decides positively and then rolls 1, the session might bug out and freeze. After the update, the session will continue normally.
• Fixed a rare issue: if the timer expires during a dice re-roll, the result that is shown to the player on the screen and the result of the actual roll on the server could differ. This could lead to a different outcome than was expected by the look at the dice roller. After the update, the value on the dice roller and the server will always be the same.

Thanks for sticking with us, and for being a part of this game's wonderful community we wish you lots of fun with the updated game, and we promise to continue working on improvements and new content throughout 2020!

[ 2020-04-25 08:02:58 CET ] [ Original post ]