Vote for replacement of Fire Wormlings

[Majora]

Greetings Skylords,

In our last Community Update, we discussed the desync issues with the Fire Wormlings card that are currently impacting the live server. Please read this for context if you haven't already. 

Ever since, we have been hard at work on trying to find the source of the issue, and a potential fix. Unfortunately, this has not resulted in a reliable fix. While we were able to reduce the issue somewhat by reducing the worms to a single unit instead of a squad, all signs currently point toward worm-movement being the culprit. 

This leaves us with only one option: swap the unit for a different model while keeping its design intact. We truly regret this situation, what was supposed to be a cool reward, has overshadowed two months of our first season. We saw many frustrated reports of desyncs from the community, and would therefore like to include all of you in the solution. 

We have prepared two potential candidates as a replacement for the worms, which will behave similarly to the current design. 

Please vote for your favorite replacement, as we'd like to move quickly. We will leave the poll open for just a few days, since we want to get the new card into your hands as fast as possible, and need time to finalize it (artwork, effects, implementation).

We have prepared the following options:

A: The Void Maw model. 

B: The Snapjaw model.

Both will come as a squad of two M-sized units, just like the Wormlings. 
Once implemented, every Fire Wormlings card will automatically be replaced for the new card.

Please vote in the poll which model replacement you prefer!
Below you can see the models alongside other fire units.  

We know players enjoyed the looks of the Wormlings, so we hope we are providing two decent alternatives. 
We will share more information regarding the outcome in our next Community Update. 

[zeemona]

please make them unknockable

[DonProm]

will they move as fast as OG wormlings or as their respective "parent" model units?

[Majora]

The goal for the replacement model is to act as much like the current design as possible. 

The new models will move like their existing counterparts, but the speed of an average M-size unit and animations adjusted for that speed. 

[This Is Halloween_2]

IF you are going to replace wormlings, I hope the card will behave in exactly the same manner :

1) Immune to knockback
2) ~same movement speed

3) Ability to shoot through walls

And what about the 50% dmg reduction or the damage while moving part ? Those were also really important.

If it's a replacement, it needs to do all these things, since we've never replaced a card before.

Players have grind to get their new card.

So I do expect that we get all the abiliy we expected on the new card.

Edited July 20 by This Is Halloween_2

[NegativeZer0]

Hey so have you tested single unit and by that I mean SINGLE unit aka make it unique.

In my personal testing it only seems to glitch out when i spawn multiple units and if I only spawn one it doesnt seem to cause issues.

If we reduce it to a single unit and make it unique I think this will massively reduce the issues if not eliminate them entirely.  Obviusly it will need some slight buffs if its made unique

[Titan]

Yes we tested that case as well in hopes it would fix it, but it didn't. We tried so many things before this. 😧

[Bini Inibitor]

36 minutes ago, NegativeZer0 said:

Hey so have you tested single unit and by that I mean SINGLE unit aka make it unique.

In my personal testing it only seems to glitch out when i spawn multiple units and if I only spawn one it doesnt seem to cause issues.

If we reduce it to a single unit and make it unique I think this will massively reduce the issues if not eliminate them entirely.  Obviusly it will need some slight buffs if its made unique

We have tried a variety of potential solutions.
From seperating the unit into two single worms (which resulted in one worm spawning undazed and unbound), giving it regular movement (which let's the worm just drive around without any animation), proper single unit Wormling, changing the texture, changing the model, swapping abilities in and out.
Single wormling was the most promising approach but just yesterday we got desyncs, so even that flew out the window.
And while the single Wormling managed to be fine up until that point, the replays spat out a desync message, despite them running through normally.
That alone made us a bit anxious. Cosmetic desyncs we weren't sure about if those may cause problems for events or regular watching due to the limited sample size.
Thanks to @LEBOVIN for providing a variety of versions up until that point.

[Hrdina_Imperia]

It's a shame it had to come to this. I have wanted a new Worm unit in the game for years. But it is for the better - at least for now. 

Also, Snapjaws for the win O:)

[NegativeZer0]

really appreciate the replies.  my exp was that only spawning a single worm unit at any one time (treating the unit like it was elite) pretty much eliminated any issues for me.

[Nel'Tharion]

Well, I really like the Void Maw unit. And by the way, last week I had a game desync while playing a Deepcoil Worm unit with about 7 units. Maybe it's not the wormlings, but all the Worm units. I don't know if this is already known, but I thought I'd mention it.

[Bensist]

Since this was a really cool concept, would it be possible for those who had the original card to receive some kind of exclusive reward, like a profile picture?

[Rankerz]

Voted for The Void Maw model since we already have Promo Snapjaw

Maybe a silly question, but will there be any compensation for this? Like a couple of points in reward track or something? 

[Icrine]

mini construct model would be cool, but im guessing this isnt an open suggestion

void maw would be my preferred if only from those two choices

[JarodDempsey]

1 hour ago, Icrine said:

mini construct model would be cool

gotta save that for fire frost 

13 hours ago, Bini Inibitor said:

We have tried a variety of potential solutions.
From seperating the unit into two single worms (which resulted in one worm spawning undazed and unbound), giving it regular movement (which let's the worm just drive around without any animation), proper single unit Wormling, changing the texture, changing the model, swapping abilities in and out.

did you guys idk try anything extra weird like increasing its elevation so it doesnt clip through the ground, (idk if it even does lol) or make it stationary and then just give it a teleport ability or change the model to something entirely different but keep the worm movement ability?

[TAWYDAMI]

How exactly this desync works? Because i've been spamming wormlings in solo plays since i got them and everything was fine 🤔

[Majora]

1 hour ago, TAWYDAMI said:

How exactly this desync works? Because i've been spamming wormlings in solo plays since i got them and everything was fine 🤔

The desync message is hidden in solo play. Desyncs can often be seen in the replay though. 

[Cocofang]

13 hours ago, Nel'Tharion said:

Well, I really like the Void Maw unit. And by the way, last week I had a game desync while playing a Deepcoil Worm unit with about 7 units. Maybe it's not the wormlings, but all the Worm units. I don't know if this is already known, but I thought I'd mention it.

The theory is that worm movement is the culprit in general, as other community members have also pointed out in the past. But the issue gets drastically worse for Wormlings because they are summoned way earlier in the game, you summon much more of them and they are also a squad.

8 hours ago, Rankerz said:

Maybe a silly question, but will there be any compensation for this? Like a couple of points in reward track or something? 

Nobody is going to lose anything so at least on that front there is nothing to compensate. The card will be straight up replaced.

[Tigershark]

Can't decide. How about one of each? The "Fire Demons" 😉

 

Is it possible to split movement type and animation? If yes maybe you could fix the Wormlings by applying another movement type but keeping the worm animation?

If not and since the problem seems to be the worm movement, maybe you can reintroduce the Fire Wormlings as a defense building (fire - root network tower?) or as a spell that summons x immobile Fire Wormlings for n seconds.

Edited July 21 by Tigershark

[Titan]

Sadly no, it was tried, but the animation looks really silly as it kind of slides along the ground. Tried to cover it up with fx, but it just isn't animated for it to walk normally. We hope to reintroduce them some day though.

[Toshka]

but the question is....

if i have like 20/30/50/100 cards of worms they all will be replaced?

[Bini Inibitor]

The Wormlings will be replaced with the new card. So if you have 10 Fire Wormlings, after the change they will be 10 Fire Snapjaws/Voidmaws instead.
For the forseeable future, the Fire Wormlings will cease to exist.

[Zaiphonx]

Would it be the same if it was just one wormling?

[Draconnor]

Snapjaws have far more interesting model than Maws... 

[WindHunter]

Fire Wormlings began as a T3 S-archers unit, but this failed because they could not mount walls without major problems. They then morphed into their current M-sized design. As regards an M-sized carry unit, I think the Magma Maws are better and I am glad they are winning. I also like that they match Sunderer's coloration (Sunder Maws). 

I do think the Magma Snapjaws look terrific and that they could potentially fill the T3 S-archer role Fire Wormlings failed to achieve.