We sure hope you had a great weekend and for the start of this new week, we'll give you more previews of what's coming on Wednesday, May 16th with Update 66. Are you excited already? Then let's jump right in!
Update 66 comes with an overhauled UI
Before we start the preview though, we want to address concerns of some users we've spotted, recently. These concerns are about why we work on "visuals" instead of "new content". And who's better in explaining what's going on than our CEO BaboonLord, which he already did in an extensive post on the Steam forums:
The most important thing I wanted to mention here is that we're not specifically focusing on graphical updates above new content and fixes to current issues. It's mainly a matter of different roles working on different things. We've had a long period where designers and programmers have been tied up to the Xbox One port, which means that only the artists are left to make updates.With that being said, we want to assure you that new content will follow. We also value feedback and suggestions the same way we always did. But a rather small team cannot split forces as easily as bigger studios, while also maintaining the same speed in producing new patches. With programmers and designers being busy, our artists are focusing on overhauling visual aspects of the game to make the first steps towards creating a visually and lore-wise more cohesive game. Think about it from a new player's perspective: they can have a hard time understanding the setting of Minion Masters when the first thing they see is a strange robot-looking creature (namely C-Sar), then they see some fantasy-looking arenas magically flying in the air. They also see some fantasy-looking minions, but then, all of a sudden, they also see super high-tech Plasma Marines or Drone Walkers. By nature, PvP-based games don't work nicely with loads of text to explain lore, thus we need to try to make the game as cohesive in a visual way as possible.
However we've also been working on a big new update that required a ton of pre-planning and we can hopefully start soon to go into more detail about that subject in our weekly blog posts. But that update is actually content primarily for long-term players.
So what we're trying to create over the coming months (and with new content in between) is one cohesive world (the world of Minion Masters) where everything is able to live on the same planet. Therefore the Drone units will be overhauled to look more crash-landed. We're going with the story that they crash-landed on the planet and now are unable to communicate with their homeworld. Under these circumstances, their resources are scarce and their stuff is breaking down, slowly. Thus the new visual appearances that will come in future updates.
Coming to the UI, finally, changes have been made to reflect this new focus on a more fantasy-feeling game. You already saw the preview of the new main menu, but we also changed the UI in matches accordingly, as you can see in the picture above.
We also overhauled the deck builder. The rarity of cards is now shown in the bottom right corner instead of the border of cards and the number of duplicates you own is shown above the cards.
The card previews were also overhauled to reflect the new look. Stats are now more comprehensively shown by symbols only (hovering over them with your mouse will still show the text) and the rarity, as well as the number of duplicates you own, is easy to spot.
As always, these preview pictures were still work in progress at the time we made them and thus everything you see might be subject to change. For a high-resolution version of all UI previews, please follow these links:
https://ibb.co/hVvM5d
https://ibb.co/jb3xdy
https://ibb.co/cwjQWJ
https://ibb.co/c91B5d
https://ibb.co/kmtDJy
https://ibb.co/hVvM5d
https://ibb.co/jb3xdy
https://ibb.co/cwjQWJ
https://ibb.co/c91B5d
https://ibb.co/kmtDJy
Again: it is important for us that players do not think: "What is going here?", when they start the game. Thus, the visuals need to be a nice backdrop for the game. More visuals and, as mentioned earlier, more Drone/Sci-fi assets will be changed in the future. For instance, the Drone Force One will get a complete visual overhaul. We have been looking to change the model for quite a while now. It was a reuse of another, existing asset and it never really felt like a slow-moving, hard-hitting enemy. It looks more like a big, sleek attack aircraft thingy. The rework will change the unit's visual appearance and possibly even its' name. More on that subject will follow as soon as we have sharable information.
A new event is about to start
As we discussed in our last blog post on Friday already, Update 66 will mark the start of the Tri-Team Tourney. 3 teams containing 3 Masters each will be available to vote for by players collecting "keys" by winning matches and/or watching streams. Single keys will give you a small reward, while 15 collected keys pledged to one team will result in a vote for that team by you and a mysterious reward chest.
After two weeks, the team with the most opened chests (and thus votes) will advance to the "Best of" tournament, where the process continues. This time though, you'll vote for the 3 winning Masters. All of them will come with a unique "idea" for new in-game content. Last year, for instance, the 3 Masters of the "Best of" tournament brought new card ideas to the table. What will it be this year? Stay tuned for more information during the event!
Make sure to read the more detailed explanation from last Friday's Community Happenings!
King Puff Cup 20
Last, but not least, we want to remind you that King Puff Cup 20 will happen next Saturday, May 19th at 13:00 UTC. The prize pool of $350 total will be split across the Top 8 tournament performers. Don't let this tournament happen without you and check the official announcement for the rules and sign-up information!
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That's all for today, Masters! Or... wait! It's not all! We will start our first stream of 2018 live on Twitch on Tuesday, May 15th (tomorrow HYPE) at 20:00 UTC. Make sure to tune in, hang out and chat with the community, Tengs, and Erythais. Just watch out for the announcements tomorrow. Now, that's all ;)
Cheers from BetaDwarf
