Upcoming League Changes

Some nice changes but I'm not sure I agree on some.

The tie breaking system might work, but it is going to change the dynamic of the game. Many times you'd give someone points knowing you'll position yourself better and ultimately win the match. Now it is also important to deny VPs even if you win. It might work out, but we'll see. The bigger problem I see is this: decreasing the VP to 4 on Geomancy and making Waterways 20 minutes.

This makes the Geomancy matches much swingier and more prone to luck. Getting an early cave in / stone wall + fly or lava + accelerate time means you can win due to nothing but good draws.

Increasing the time on Waterways is also a weird change. League matches are already a large time commitment, and when you double the time you're asking for a potential of 160 minutes per league at most. I've played 16+ Waterway matches and have yet to even come close to a time out... it could just be the deck I'm running, but it seems like a weird change.

Having 10 minute time limits kept the games moving. Yes, sometimes there were time outs, but generally the most people get accustomed to the situation the faster they can think and the less time outs there will be.

Also, you mention if you already have a figure you get an Epic Chest (valued at 330 pizza). Isn't it valued at 150 pizza in-game?

Definitely love the "keep playing to advance on normal win track" though. Will make progressing on it much easier and more fun instead of risking Elo each game.

 

I like the changes in general.

Agree with Stexe re: the value of an Epic Chest - surely 150? And will this be an epic artifact chest for artifact leagues, or a standard epic chest?

15 minutes for Waterways might be a good compromise? Even I've adapted to that one and not timed out yet! There are less permutations to consider, even if it lasts more turns.

 

So far, I like it.

The original setup was slightly biased toward producing ties, since people who win four games automatically tie each other in terms of Victory Points. If you change the calculation, then suddenly the players who consistently trounce their opponents will be less likely to tie. This is good.

And yes, Stexe, I can see how it would change dynamics, but not in any bad way. Valuing every Victory Point just slides the dividing line where people take risks; they'll still take 'em 'cause they'll still value winning more.

For the Waterways map, I've seen a good amount of time-outs. Primarily people who are less experienced. I agree that 15 could be a good enough compromise, because 20 (x2 players) really is a long game.

 

I agree with Stexe that Geo should stay at 6 points. I know that this is an attempt to speed things up, but I think it's okay to have a 1 version of league play that is more slow, positioning strategy. Different leagues should appeal to different people. Geo is my absolute favorite and I think changing it to a 4 point victory will make it less back and forth battle of minds and more luck of the draw which would be disappointing.

I'm pretty sure the "valued at 330 pizza" is a typo, and should be "30 pizza."

I don't think waterways needs more time, but I don't really mind either. The vast majority of matches are still going to end at the same time point, so who cares if a couple of them take a little longer.

 

I'd suggest changing Geomancy to a 15 min time limit to speed it up or reduce it to a 3 match minimum. Having only 4 points will make it super swingy.

And Waterways seemed fine at 10 minutes for me. Once you get used to the map I doubt most people would time out. Do you have any metrics saying how many people lost due to time outs vs. how many times they've played?

 

That wouldn't be an Epic Chest, that'd be a Magnificent Chest. :-P

 

I think that's part of the game honestly. If people are timing out then they are over thinking things. You could sit there and calculate the probability of every card the enemy has, the potentiality of them using it, and what that could lead to... but just playing to keep the clock going is just like a timer in Chess.

The time limit increase on Waterways seems really weird...

 

I've never come close to timing out, but I play with a lot of WW/WWE/FS. However, I can certainly see problems if neither player has the cards needed for that map. One thing that would help a lot would be adding the Fly keyword to Telekinesis and Improved Telekinesis.

 

Yes, I don't think the Geo time limit can be shortened. I'm not a particularly fast player myself and yet the last Geo league I had one or two wins due to opponent timeout (I can't remember if the second was by timeout, or if he was just getting really down there.) It's just a league that needs time. I do think people will start to learn to play it faster making the 6 points viable. (I won a geo match 2 leagues ago with 12 seconds remaining, I've never let the time get that far down since! Sometimes players just need time to adjust.) If something must be change on Geo, I'd suggest a 5 point victory rather than 4, but I'd still rather see it kept the same a bit longer and see if the number of timeouts decreases.

 

I'll be glad to see how Geomancy works.

It occurs to me it'll make Resurrection played even less.

 

I've seen a lot of time-outs too, and I had suggested previously adding some more minutes, 12 or 15. 20 is too much.

About the 4 VPs at geomancers, we'll see what happens when it's implemented, but as there are some very op cards there, it will increase the chances of winning just because a player draws a combination of them, like Pool of Lava and Accelerated Time.
I like the other changes.

 

Perhaps the next step, then, is tweaking the Geomancer decks.

Though I must say that the sheer amount of Terrain re-writing has meant that my games very rarely have Accelerate Time hit exactly according to plan.

 

How shortly, before or after the remaining scheduled Leagues?

 

I'd suggest revising the Geomancer deck then. Remove one Accelerate Time, remove the Revive (it is useless), and maybe remove the Whirlwind. That makes each person have the same deck size but removes the cards that can really be problematic while still keeping some big hitters (one Accelerate Time, Thunderclap, and others).

Agreed. I loved that suggestion back when someone mentioned it to me before. Would really make Telekinesis stand apart from other movement like Winds of War.

 

I'm pretty sure it'll be at the next daily reset. (Midnight UTC.)