We've been promising something big for a while now and we're happy to say it's here - our first big content patch since we launched. You've all been waiting for it, and we're as excited about it as you are!
Meet the Shogun Empire
This patch, known as "Rise of the Shogun Empire" formally, introduces the third faction to March of War: Face Off. Detailed in four separate news posts, Empire brings to the table 82 faction-specific cards, 10 new neutral cards, and two new traits: Auto Advance & Shelter. This patch is huge - so rather than go into all the details of Empire, we'll just say: Play and find out! Let us know what you think of them, too. We're particularly excited to see what they bring to gameplay and how much the meta changes with a third faction to account for.
New
- Glicko2 Matchmaking System - Detailed here by Spoon. Explains the matchmaking and why your placement on the Ladder might've changed. You can now also see your Skill Rating on your Profile, and your and your opponent's ratings during a PvP match.
- Deployment Screen - Now displays enemy faction, ladder placement, name, and who is going first or second. Will also show your card back and your opponent's. In mirror battles, the AI will use your card back. In battles against bots, the AI will use the player who the bot's deck is from's card back. (So if Onyxandria has a cardback set, and you play her bot, you see her card back.)
- Animated Card Rarity - Since Empire uses a grey card back, we thought now would be the perfect time to implement animation on our cards. Bronze, Silver and Gold cards They're nifty!
- Level-up Rewards - There are now tickets available for leveling up. Every even level past 10 will grant you 5 tickets, levels 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 will grant you 10 tickets, which will be a total of 105 tickets per faction. At maximum level, you will also receive a special Gold card that can only be acquired through reaching maximum level. For those who reached higher than 10, we will not be retroactively giving tickets: sorry, it's just too hard for us to find who got coins and who did not when we changed the level up rewards. But the gold cards will be given to maximum level players regardless! They are: Shugo Daimyo (Empire), Sky Soldiers (Republic) and Battle Hungry Brigadier (Alliance).
- Four new card backs: Alliance, Empire, Republic and Neutral "Slogan" cards. These can still be used for any deck you want them to be used for (and the Deploy screen now helps you decipher what faction you're really playing against). These (and the Steam gear icon) will be available until September 19th, 2015 - after which time they will no longer be for sale. Cool, yeah?
Changes
- Login bonus now counts days differently. Before, you would have to log in between 24 and 48 hours after your previous login. Now, you have to log in during the next day as determined by the UTC timezone.
- Discarding a card now guarantees you won't get the same card back again, even if you have multiple of that card in your Deck.
- Matches that are auto-resolved (both players timed out/left the game/etc) will no longer show up in Battle History, or give/take Ladder Points.
Fixes
- Freezes at the beginning of PvE games have been corrected.
- Some fixes for PvP freezing.
- Improvements have been made to the AI to make the beginning of the game more interesting.
- The store screen "owned" section for Cardbacks has been improved to be less butt-ugly.
There are also a lot of Balance Changes in this build - too many to fit into this post, so click that link and check them out on the forums.
It's a big week for the March of War games in general. Our "prequel" game, March of War, is hosting a tournament - with pre-determined armies. You'll play with 10 of each unit, and the winner will also receive prizes on March of War in the form of gold, rare units, and Steam Achievements. But to make it a little more interesting, let's mix it up, shall we? The winner will also receive a card back of their choice from Face Off. Any of our new card backs (from the four new ones plus the Steam gear one) can be selected - or a card pack, since the reward will be distributed in the form of 500 gems. And since it's a pre-determined army, even if you don't usually play March of War, you have a chance at winning - so why not give it a shot? You can find out more information by clicking here.