Mitternacht Playtest Guidelines & Rewards

Hi, thanks for choosing to be a part of this playtest. I'll try to keep it as brief as possible, but there're a number of things we are and aren't looking for, so please read this post carefully before posting your feedback. Thanks!

What is Castle Mitternacht?
Our next expansion, Castle Mitternacht is a massive set of cards & items. Approximately 35 new cards and 250 new items, it'll really shake up PvP and also give campaign-only players a lot of fun new tools. It won't be paid: all of the new content will simply be added to shops & loot tables. You'll be able to buy chests from the Mitternacht Chests Shop.

How to participate

1. Log in to the test server (http://test.cardhunter.com)

* instructions here
* if you had to register a new test server account, play through the tutorial until you can access PvP. There is no cheat to skip the tutorial currently.​

2. Once you are in the test server PvP lobby, hit f1 to open the console and use the 'everyitem' cheat any number of times to fill out your collection of items.
3. Build parties, find opponents, and test!

Nature of Desired Feedback

What we're looking for: balance problems. We want to know which new card(s) or item(s) are going to be problems in the constructed PvP environment. There is some selective power creep and some entirely new effects and what that means is that we can't know for sure there are no issues. We also pushed some cards and items in order to increase the chances that a particular archetype might be competitive, but it's possible we went overboard in some cases. So we'd love feedback you have on the balance of the new content only as it relates to PvP. That said, we're only really interested in feedback based on played games, see below.

What we're not looking for: Castle Mitternacht's design is done; we are not going to change anything drastic in terms of the set's theme or main mechanics. In other words, while we love hearing how our players feel about our content, we're not actually interested in how you feel about the theme, the art, etc., as part of the playtest.

We are also always interested in any bugs you find. Check our Known Bugs thread before posting though.

Quality & Format of Desired Feedback

I mentioned above we don't want feedback based on speculation, but on played games. This means that for us to value your feedback you need to have played with whichever cards you tell us are broken. This forum is not for armchair balance discussions.

To submit feedback, simply make a new thread in the Castle Mitternacht subforum.

Include the following in your writeup:
* number of games
* list your opponents, and describe what kind of decks they were using
* describe the party you used to test, and include its items & cards in a spoiler tag. (Use 'partyanddecksbbcode' f1 console command from the Keep.)

Spoiler: Example of posting a party in a spoiler tag

Good Hair Day
Level 36 Elf Warrior
The Inquisition
Double-edged Sword
Double-edged Sword
Werewolf Hide
Black Cat Buckler
Chapeau Of The Afflicted Artist
Galvanized Zombie Shoes
Drow Rapidity
Reckless Lycanthropy
3 x Parry
2 x Potent Stab
1 x Toughened Hide Strips
1 x Fleet
1 x Brutal Charge
1 x Monstrous Hide
4 x Dancing Cut
1 x Dodge
1 x Lunging Bash
4 x Creature Of The Night
1 x Howl
4 x Inquisitor's Strike
1 x Investigate
1 x Lycanthropic Form
1 x Quickness Aura
2 x Backbiting Strike
2 x Sundering Strike
1 x Hardy Mail
4 x Impaling Stab

Anonymouse
Level 18 Dwarf Wizard
Silver Lightning
Silver Lightning
Mirror Of Disasters
Mirror Of Disasters
Ortaf's Messy Orb
Mirror Of Disasters
Mantle Of Lingering
Cautious Sentry Boots
Apprentice Resilience
Beginner Ethereality
1 x Path Of Knives
1 x Trip
4 x Boo!
1 x Reliable Mail
1 x Ethereal Form
1 x Antimagic Skin
8 x Inquisition Bolt
3 x Acid Blast
1 x Hover
3 x Stone Spikes
1 x Jump Back
3 x Telekinesis
1 x Cloth Armor
1 x Hardy Mail
4 x Obliterating Spark
1 x Inquisitor's Badge
1 x Melt Armor

Bill the Buffer
Level 18 Human Priest
Vampire Knight's Embrace
Vampire Knight's Embrace
Cleansing Shroud
Aegis Of The Wolf
Yovel's Boots Of Pillage
Charismatic Teeth
Countess Dracytha's Shroud
Vampire's Teeth
Subtle Positioning
Beginner Corruption
1 x Cleansing Ray
1 x Spear Of Darkness
1 x Shifting Block
2 x Vanguard
1 x Reliable Mail
1 x Defender's Block
1 x Curse Of Fragility
1 x Greater Heal
2 x Mass Frenzy
1 x Consuming Spear
1 x Blight
1 x Prowl
1 x Parry
1 x Sapping Spear
1 x Team Walk
9 x Vampire's Kiss
4 x Invigorating Touch
1 x Destructive Purge
1 x Subtle Parry
1 x Loner
2 x Inspiration
1 x Sacred Shroud

* Any number of paragraphs describing whatever balance issue you want to bring to our attention. The more detail, the better.

If you're trying to decide which new content to test, look over the forums to see if there's anything that hasn't been reported on, or anything that you feel hasn't been tested enough.

Here's an example of high-quality feedback: Maniafig's Measurements

Playtest Rewards

For every five games you play and do a writeup of, we will give you 1 Castle Mitternacht epic chest upon release. (So you can earn more by playtesting more.)

Games played against AI like Cardotron do not count!

Note that it's not particularly valuable for us if you just play 100 games and don't give us any meaningful feedback, so if you're hoping to win a lot of chests please put a lot of thought into your writeups.

Playtest Duration

Unless things wrap up smoothly before then, we will be playtesting all of October. There will be a brief interruption in mid-October when we use the test server to prepare and launch our October release (Mauve Manticore, Aloyzo's Arsenal, Halloween Store, Halloween costumes, Halloween PvP boards).

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I am leaving this thread open in case there are any questions about playtesting, what kind of feedback we're looking for, etc. Please do not use this thread to give us feedback, thanks!

 

If I may add a word from playtest experience:

My unofficial advice: Don't use this to test out what you like, but test what you hate (what you really don't want to see in the game.) Example: When EttSC hit playtest there was an arcane item that had Volcano and Accelerate Time together! I don't usually play wizards, but in playtest I exclusively played 3 wiz packed with this item to show how broken it was (thank goodness, because of this, it never made it into the game).

If you see a card or combination that you don't ever want to have to face in the game, exploit it to death here. It might just be what dials it back to a balanced level. Regardless of your approach, right now is your opportunity to affect the quality of the game. If you have time its well worth it! Happy testing!

 

"List your opponent" mean username of other player? or class race of his party?

 

I mean, all of the above, since I ask you to list your opponent AND describe their deck But yes, username would be nice.

 

Haven't been able to get in the test server as of yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing how I can help with testing.

When it comes to testing PvP, does that only refer to ranked matches or does it include Quick Draw as well? The tiny deck size might have unexpected consequences for how some cards work, but if there's no interest in it then there's no need for testing.

 

I'm mostly interested in normal constructed matches.

 

"Describe their deck" mean something like "Dwarf volcano Wizard" or something like

Dwarf volcano Wiz
Mordecay lavastaff
Mordecay lavastaff
... etc? if it is the second i will ask my oppo to look at his console





Edit:

it is also good to tell which deck won and using which card? strategy employed are important? or are important only the card used and occasional bug found?

 

One thing about Walpurgis.... If the other player is testing that, it becomes REALLY hard to test whatever YOU had in mind!

 

- I followed all instructions, I signed in http://test.cardhunter.com/ but it is in campain mode. Moltiplayer options is grey. How is it unlocked?
- How many threads do you want? just one with all the information or one for a combination of several matches?
(this I wrote may be posted in other place I don´t find)

 

Beat the tutorial

 

Emphasis mine.

I guess one thread / player is enough.

 

haha, sorry about that

 

So I asked, how much is that? :-P to get level 18 or....?

 

Beat the tutorial aka complete all level 1 adventures. When you unlock lvl 2 campaign adventures, you unlock MP as well.

 

I don't need their item list but honestly the more info you give the better!

Good point.

To be honest, you should probably communicate with your opponent about what you are trying to test.

 

Should I bother testing a build that requires 9 copies of a certail legendary item?

It is getting good results and might be a bit frustrating to play against, but still 9 copies of a legendary item...

 

Maybe don't spend a lot of time on it, but yes, the more things that get tested the better!

Another note, we need some of you to play pre-Mitternacht builds in this playtest. We'll need to see how the best new builds fare against the best old builds

I've updated the OP with a link to a really good feedback thread as an example.

 

I am going to start testing, 2 douts:
1) How many threads do you want? just one with all the information or one for a combination of several matches? So, after my first testing, should I do few games and write a post? where?
2) see there is too much people posting, if you want us to be update about everything. We should have a place (wiki, updated post or something) where we can see all the information updated: bug funded, what it is needed to post, .... very tight, don´t you think?

3) how can I select only games of this bundle? "IA ", and now.... "M "? (searching items)

 

1) One per player, as specified in the first post of this thread.

2) I'm actually very happy with the number of threads, this is what I'm looking for in the playtest. There is one thread for bug reports however: http://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/known-issues-bug-report-thread.10156

3) There is no search term right now.

 

Ok, so I have created my first post on my threads. Is that right? I will add posts with other team composition. I guess I will see coments about it there.