Update 60 - Looks matter

Minion Masters!

With Update 60 we've introduced a number of visual changes to the game so everything looks a lot better!

The biggest difference you'll notice is that everything is bigger.
This makes the game a lot more readable, showing characters clearly and getting you closer to the action.
At the same time we saw an opportunity to improve on a few gameplay things we wanted to solve both through wide changes, but also with some balance.
You’ll find a detailed list of changes and reasons below, but we quickly wanted to mention some other exciting stuff.

The KPI happened saturday with great games and exciting announcements!
If you haven’t watched it, go check out the Group Stage & Final Stage.

You’ll even see the Minion Masters Card Design Contest winner Incubus showcased during the show.
Also announced was the fact that the winner of the KPI gets his name on a special King Puff Invitational 2 skin, immortalized in the game for all eternity.

NOTE: We have reverted all quality settings for this patch because a lot of things have changed. Please set up your settings again

Now on to the changes of the patch that we all know you’re waiting for!

Visual Overhaul

• Assets scaled up
  • All characters are bigger, but so are the individual environment pieces.
  • Better readability - you can get closer to the action, seeing things more clearly both for existing and new players. It also helps when people are watching streams and tournaments, catching the eye more easily and showing new potential players the appeal of Minion Masters.
  • Collision radius increased Increasing radius was a clear requirement with bigger Minions to avoid clipping and too much, well, cluster-muck. This has had a slight effect on Minions as their range and aggro is based on radius. In most cases it will mean they’ll notice each other slightly earlier. While this means existing players have to relearn a few of the finer placements, it will help moving forwards by focusing the gameplay more on Minion interactions. A common strategy was to play very cheap Minions to take the bridges by placing them behind the opponent, especially through splitting units that could take both bridges. While the idea of maintaining bridge control as a strategy is not problematic, the idea of putting down Minions that are as cheap as possible is counter to the intention of Minion Masters. A Scrat or an Illusory Cleaver is not an especially exciting challenge for the opponent, so in many cases playing against a cycle deck was a chore of having to take back the bridges with a much large mana investment. With plenty of time and space to handle it, the opponent could often place something behind your Minion to take the bridge and then answer your Minion easily, leaving you with the chore again. (This idea of time and dead space is further discussed below). The specific thing radius has solved is that it makes it harder to play things behind an opponent, often requiring specific cards to solve that problem. It’s no longer possible to place a splitting unit if you’re under attack from ranged units, as your units will have to fight before they take the bridges. It’s still possible to place small units in the far corner of your arena to grab a bridge. We had this dynamic before, but it only happened at longer ranges. Now the threshold has been lowered, and it allows us to play with more ranged units as board control units, especially when you bring in a buff such as Marksmanship, where they will be placed far enough back that the opponent cannot grab the bridge except with a dedicated card such as Bridge Buddies or a group drop.

• Reduced noise of environments to help Minions stand out more. This makes the game clearer and allows the eye to focus on gameplay elements.
  
• Added fog, depth of field and other VFX changes to help bring different environments together in a cohesive look.

• Minion speed increased
  • We increased the movement speed of everything for a number of reasons. While it helps the look of the bigger Minions overall, it also allowed us to solve a few gameplay issues we’ve wanted to look at for a while.
  • Less dead space There was a lot of waiting in Minion Masters when an enemy push was coming, especially for big units. In many cases, this led to new players throwing plenty of units into a push with no success, especially in healing situations. For higher level players, you sometimes had to spend your mana elsewhere to avoid overflowing, but at the same time could not invest too much elsewhere, since you had to keep enough mana for answering the push. Meanwhile, the opponent had built up a lot of mana as his Minions walked across the map, which allowed him to freely support with spells or backup units. Ultimately this could lead to 20 mana pushes on your field, while you only had 10 mana to defend with. With more speed, mana build-up while you have a push going is reduced, which means you have to be more careful about the investment you put into other areas. Defending and using spells to support your push becomes less likely, which brings the focus of the game into creating a mana advantage over the course of the game so that the opponent cannot counter attack, which allows you to invest in your push.
  • Viable counterpush Very much connected to the dead space was the fact that once an opponent placed something big in a lane, your ability to attack him through the other lane was severely limited. He would most of the time have plenty of mana to defend any push you placed, since it took it a long time to get to his tower. We want to make it more possible for regular decks to perform aggressive moves, and this is accomplished through overall speed. A few very aggressive cards may need additional tuning after this, given that they’ve also become better at what they do, but we’re aware of them and will continue to gather data.
  • Fits with animations An obvious visual improvement of faster movement is that it fits better with bigger unit sizes. We’ve already done some reworks of walking animations for big units such as Living Statue and Demon Warrior, but creating more cases of animations that felt too slow was naturally undesirable.
  • Quicker resolution - more focus on engagements. One last thing that changes the overall feel of the game, is that a faster Minion speed makes for quicker resolution, i.e. from a Minion is played till it dies the time is shorter. This also helps to reduce the noise as there will be more focus on individual engagements rather than having to keep an eye out everywhere on the field. This will both help newer players find their way, but will also help the experience when watching streamers and tournaments, as both audience and casters can focus on exciting parts without missing out on key information.
  • Of course we should remember that overall the game has not changed in a major way, we have simply pulled it a little in a direction we believe is better for the future of Minion Masters using this as an opportunity to solve many problems at once.

• Many environment assets have been completely redone. For example, the Area 52 arena has been replaced, but most arenas have been updated.

• Sticky placement
  When placing cards they will now stick to the eligible space. We’ve done this to help new (and old) players make fewer mistakes in placement. It also shows more clearly where your units will effectively spawn in cases where they would be outside the arena before.
  Additionally, we’ve added the ability to place group units closer to the edge, as they will bunch up instead of being limited to a specific formation.

• Range & aggro indicators
  Range indicators are now dotted to differentiate them from area indicators. Aggro indicators have been added to show which enemy your Minions will target when placed.

• Reward opening
  Chests have received new animations and a faster flow for rewards.
  Achievements now play a simpler reward effect when claimed.

• Increased the force that separates Minions a little. This also makes bigger Minions feel heavier, as smaller Minions cannot push past them as easily.
  
• Healthbars now scale according to the Minions they’re attached to.
  
• Added a small tactile movement for cards when you mouse over them.
  
• A new personal goals section now shows on the News screen.
  

We hope you have a good idea of why we’re making such large changes, we did say 2018 was going to be legendary ;)

We’re very happy to listen to your feedback on the forums, and you can be certain this is not the last time we make large changes to the game, because we’re determined to make it the best thing we possibly can.

On to Balance!

• Prowler
  • Pounce cooldown reduced from 3 to 2
  • Pounce Minimum range reduced from 4 to 3
  • Damage increased from 75 to 85
  • Clarified Extra damage as Double Damage in text.

  --- Developer comments ---
  The Prowler didn’t feel as impactful as we’d hoped. Often he would end up walking to his target in cases where you expected him to jump.
  After additional testing, we also increased his damage to give him more impact in longer fights.

• Brutus & Terror Brutus
  • Attack Speed from 3.0 to 2.5 sec
  • Damage from 30 to 50 (DPS 10 to 20)

  --- Developer comments ---
  Brutus was simply not as impactful as you’d expect from a one-time effect in a Master perk.
  At higher levels he was simply ignored, as he did not pose a threat himself, while new players tended to throw plenty of Minions at him because he looked more threatening than he was.
  With this change the Ravager becomes more powerful by putting a tank on the board that can also have an impact on its own.

• Scrat Tank
  • Health up from 600 to 700
  • Attack Delay from 1.5 to 0.7 sec
  • Damage from 50 to 60

  --- Developer comments ---
  The Scrat tank had 2 major problems;

  • Its mechanic did not become relevant often enough, especially because it took plenty of damage even when fighting in its ideal environment because of the long wind-up on its attack.
  • It was not enough of a threat in itself to warrant the high mana cost.

  We considered many options, but did not want to make more tanks at 3-4 mana cost. Instead, we opted to make his mechanic more relevant. He now quickly hits the enemy and closes up afterwards. This means he fights well against ranged attacks like Plasma Marines and the Succubus as he no longer takes as much damage. It requires better play from the opponent to circumvent the mechanic with a tanky unit.
  Additionally, we increased his health and damage so this 5-mana Minion is a threat in itself even when his mechanic is not overly relevant.

• Morgrul the Swarmer King
  • Roar Knockback distance up from 3 to 4
  • Roar now also summons 2 Swarmers
  • Health reduce from 300 to 240
  • Damage reduced from 45 to 35 (dps 30 to 23.3)

  --- Developer comments ---
  We wanted Morgrul to feel more special and Legendary, so we opted to make him the real swarmer king.
  Summoning Swarmers both on spawn and death makes him much more versatile, but testing revealed he was too hardy for the cost.
  Reducing his health and dps makes AoE counters clearer, as units will perform better when they’ve removed the Swarmers from the battle first.

• Battle Shi-hou
  • Health increased from 350 to 450

  --- Developer comments ---
  The Battle Shi-hou had an issue with taking too much damage when fighting large groups of minions. Even in the ideal situation he would be left without much power for such a high cost card.

• Healing Shrine
  • Fixed an issue that added Healing Shrine radius to its range. Effectively this reduces its healing range from 11.5 to 10.
  • Healing per second reduced from 100 to 75
  • Lifetime increased from 10 to 12 (total healing 1000 to 900)

  --- Developer comments ---
  This is a bit of an experimental change which didn’t receive much testing given time constraints. However, we wanted to iterate on the Healing Shrine now that it’s been brought up in a lot of feedback. Reducing the range should help separate it more from Healing Fireball, as it cannot affect Minions on the opponent’s board.
  At the same time, we wanted to make the impact of having a counter to it feel better. We experimented with delaying the healing until it was fully summoned, but this created a lot of other issues, so we decided to stretch the healing a little.
  This also opens up the possibility of overcoming the healing with enough damage.

  We’re keeping a close eye on the Healing Shrine and would appreciate feedback about the situations where it’s good or bad.

  Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a bug where Spirit Vessel’s health buff had a longer delay than intended - Thanks Grey Wolf!
  • Fixed a bug where Rage would not work on Gax’ damage - Thanks Grey Wolf!
  • Fixed some expedition objectives failing in Team Battle because of your ally.
  • Fixed a bug where the Zeppelin was missing it’s projectile.
  • Fixed Razorback Ravager being slightly offset - Thanks StevenEven!
  • Fixed the Magma Cannon becoming a mess when stunned.
  • Fixed re-boomer and re-boomer eggs being different radius - thanks Mr.Win!
  • Fixed premade Team Battle win streak breaking when you lost a solo Team Battle - Thanks YokoZar!
  • Fixed Draft showing 3 losses if you quit with 12 wins and came back - Thanks Parallel.
  • Fixed a bug where changing expedition during a long move would make you stuck.
  • Fixed an issue where controllers could not change volume sliders.
  • Fixed Expedition UI not showing the proper deck when searching for a match - Thanks FFA.
  • Fixed a bug where Spiritmancer’s health buff would target a Minion that was already dying - thanks Sick Dinosaur.
  • Fixed a bug with swarmers getting stuck between the totem and arena wall - Thanks Ecke.
  • Fixed a number of layout issues in Expeditions where you could access Might Towers without fighting a challenge.
  • Fixed replays no longer indicating the winner correctly - thanks Khazlariko, StevenEven and Vango
  • Fixed Battle Shi-hou not having enemy indicators on Ugly - thanks Khazlariko.
  • Fixed a bug where Mordar would reset his attack without showing it visually.
  • Fixed an issue where Averill would give the wrong objectives.
  • Fixed a bug where spectators could also clear and receive achievements - Thanks Felicia!
  • Fixed Disruptor Puffs getting Rage from Volco’s 3rd Perk - thanks Dauntless Duelist.
  • Removed the “leaver message” when spectators leave a team battle.
  • Fixed a UI bug where Masters would display in the wrong order on the VS screen.
  • Fixed an issue with spectator numbers not updating properly when spectators left and joined.
  • Fixed Emotes being clickable for spectators even if they didn’t send anything.
  • Fixed bug: Highlight on enemy units when hovering with spell still disappears when teammate hovers with their spell. - Thanks Memfisto.
  • Fixed a bug with Bronze League achievement reward showing as claimable - thanks Brianna & ThatSprite.
  • Fixed solo challenge UI not updating title properly when you finished a set of Masters - thanks FFA.
  • Fixed a bug where having too many symbols would display your name as “ERROR_SafetyMaxHit” - thanks Felicia.
  • Fixed not being able to switch decks in Expeditions if you entered from Draft mode.
  • Fixed a bug with accepting friend invite during matchmaking breaking the lobby - thanks Eazotop
  • Fixed an issue where joining a disbanded lobby could cause you to never find new matches - thanks Memfisto ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
  • Fixed a bug where Hypnotizing a Minion cursed by Cursebearer would make curse permanent.
  • Fixed combustion not affect units it was highlighting.
  • Fixed some cases of replays becoming corrupt.
  • Fixed a bug where Lost Legionnaires would gain King Puff’s perk 2 effects - thanks Syluxmaster!

  Misc

  • Increased the playable area of bridges slightly. With the new radius, units had a tendency to get caught on the corners or bottleneck on the bridges. More space to move around in helps this.
  • Fixed a small issue with the playable field on the bottom side being bigger than the playable field on the top side.
  • Minions no longer collider with Minions in Stealth. Stealthed Minions still collid normally themselves.
  • Optimized the spawning of ragdolls.
  • Minions now look more in the direction they’re trying to go than their movement, especially when colliding with other units.
  • Removed the “synching expedition map” modal message when starting an expedition.
  • Pings in Team Battle are now shown on top of the Card UI
  • Added Screenspace Reflections to visual settings - warning: extremely heavy, not for potatoes.
  • Moved Camera Movement settings into visuals.
  • Move Split Versus Screen option into advanced graphics
  • Added indicator for newly unlocked Expeditions in Main Menu.
  • New VFX for Succubus’ teleport.
  • Snake Druid now shoots a projectile for his attack.
  • Improved VFX of: Blood Imps damage, Bridge Buddies scroll symbol, Spiritmancer staff, AtG lights, Daggerfall, Hypnotize.
  • Delayed Settsu’s return to the Master tower on Victory/defeat slightly.
  • Updated Premium Upgrade reward text to reflect new premium upgrade.
  • Added VO for Volco’s Burn the Bridges and Tempers Flaring.
  • Eggs now have referenced stats in preview for Boomer, Re-boomer and Gax - Thanks FFA and Dipshit.
  • Added new Rage VFX
  • Milloween’s Arcane golem now gains up to 5 stacks of power when she gains Perk 3.
  • Snake Druid’s immobilize effect now stops movement abilities from working, e.g. Musketeer’s Riposte, Succubus teleport and more.
  • Updated UI for expeditions with a number of improvements.
  • Opponent emotes now appear on top of expedition objectives
  • You can now watch replays while in a matchmaking queue.
  • Featured offers now still show when you have them, but show as claimed.
  • Changed Ratbo’s “not enough mana” VO to fit better with the situation.
  • Removed a small delay in the reward from daily spin.
  • Clarified Next League Reward UI when you had dropped down a league.
  • Added read more functionality to card descriptions.
  • Added VFX when you use Call to Arms
  • Polished Draft feedback when winning a draft match through Expeditions.
  • Dragging a card onto another will now only replace the other card if the deck is full - thanks GraveCrawler!
  • Bolded the mana cost of cards that have changed values.
  • Improved the cursor indicator for the following indicators: global spawn indicator, Global cursor, Bridge Buddies, Future Past, Future Present and Call to arms.
  • Upgraded Cursebearer’s VFX.
  • Spectator UI now indicates what state the other player is in.
  • You can no longer click on cards during Spectating.
  • Units no longer attempt to attack enemies they will not be able to reach - e.g. Succubus getting stuck on the edge because she does not have range to reach and enemy above it will now ignore it instead.
  • Mordar no longer targets invisible Minions on his board. He will still hit them if currently attacking something else though.
  • Milloween can no longer hit invisible Minions when attacking visible minions.
  • Daily Quests can now be completed in friend matches.
  • Optimized some reward flow.
  • Leaderboards can now show top ranking players even without deck data.
  • Added “and left-click” to the ping loading tip.

  And just because these patch notes aren’t long, enough, we want some honorable mentions from the PTR!

  PTR fixes

  • Thank you all for testing. So much feedback came in and we’ve tried to fix it all
  • Specifically we scaled many of the units that people reacted to on stream and PTR to fit better.
  • We reduced the dust in the sandy skybox.
  • We will continue to evaluate the changes and see what else needs tweaking. No change of this size is done in the first iteration.

  Cheers from Betadwarf!