Community Update - July 2023

[RadicalX]

Most of the recent/upcoming content is based on community requests, the card contest, balancing discord, forums, our 2022 feedback survey, or just general play-data. We do not ignore constructive feedback by any means, we sometimes just lack the resources to implement ideas quickly, even the ones that are undeniably good for the game. We always need feedback aimed at improving ideas or proposals, helping us to ultimately make better decisions for the game.

The responses that some of our staff members have received from a very small group of players have been insulting rather than constructive though. The fact that this has happened repeadately with almost every card nerf only serves to reduce our willingness to engage with said members. However, this does not affect our attitude towards the community as a whole, which has been extremely helpful. 

[Majora]

It has become quite common in gaming communities these days for players to get angry and feel ignored if their feedback doesn't get implemented. But being loud and frequent, doesn't equal being right. I have noticed some players only feel listened to if their feedback (and as RadicalX mentioned, definitely not always constructive feedback either..) is implemented at is. Anything else will be considered ''we don't listen to the community''. That is not what feedback is. Feedback is data, and we use that data to make decisions. If, for example, 10 players dislike a change, but 200 players like it, we tend to lean towards the 200. If you are among those 10 players, it can feel like we aren't listening to you, and that sucks. But just because those 200 players aren't as active in the discussion, doesn't mean they aren't playing the game and should be disregarded. 

This does not mean our changes are always based on the majority vote. There are multiple situations or reasons why a change (doesn't) get made, like technical limitations, a change we have to make for other changes to happen, feedback conflicting other data we see, and more. But there is always more at play than player X saying Y, and if we do not implement Y, we are not listening to the playerbase. If no one likes a change, we are obviously not going to make it. We are not actively trying to ruin the game. 

It is also worth noting that almost every change we make will be liked and disliked. Some players get frustrated if we make changes that result in Skylords Reborn drifting away even more from the original BattleForge, while others love to have new tools and gameplay to enjoy. We might change a niche card, causing more players to play and enjoy it, but disappointing the minority of players who played the original card in their deck. We might nerf a card because its clearly over-performing, limiting the number of options and making the game feel same-ey, but frustrate the players who like playing these powerful decks. All we can do is gather as much data as we can, and make informative decisions based on it. And sometimes we might miss the mark. We are not perfect after all. But some players still bring up a mistake we made (and fixed) two years ago as an argument of us not caring about feedback, which is just absurd. Creating and analyzing these yearly feedback surveys cost a ton of work. We don't do that to keep up the image that we care about feedback, but secretly disregard everything the community has to say for... profit?... It makes no sense. 

If our team and the decisions we made caused some players to enjoy the game less or even leave, that makes me sad. At the end of the day we are all here with this revival project because of our love for BattleForge. But insulting and harassing staff members because you disagree with their decisions (which has sadly been happening recently) is never okay, and is arguably harming the team (and thus the project) a lot more than some changes we make that might be unliked by some. 

To end on a positive note, I agree with RadicalX that the majority of this playerbase is awesome and helpful, and im grateful to be in it. 

[Kapo]

I'm not sure everyone understands that some of those decisions are not questions of "better" or "worse", but more of a general vision of how the game should work and function, so about game design. There are several valid options, especially for needed or not-needed nerfs, which take the game in a slightly different direction. You may or may not agree if this is the correct vision for the game, but if anyone would want to engage in a productive discussion should beef up their abstraction level to understand that a slight shifting of the meta serves just a different vision of the game.

You may still disagree if this is the right direction for the game, but saying some changes or nerfs make "the game worse" with a close-minded laser focus on how the game is "supposed to be", maybe mixed in with some nostalgia for oldschool BattleForge, is not very helpful.

What I do is just throw feedback at the devs as productive as I can, and I'm far from happy with every change. Still, to quote Toggy again, what we got right now is by far "the best BattleForge has ever existed". 

[Draconnor]

Great idea. I can't wait for expert and expert++

But still i'll miss diff 1. It was great to play when there was 1-2 min left to "daily" 😉

[Dutchy]

We've uploaded a video on YouTube related to the survey: https://youtube.com/shorts/5TxA1RJjpg8?feature=share

Feel free to share this video around 😄 

 

[Riviute]

Am I being crazy? Didnt we already had this survey? I think i have now filled it twice 😅

[WindHunter]

1 hour ago, Riviute said:

Am I being crazy? Didnt we already had this survey? I think i have now filled it twice 😅

We do a new survey every year in the summer. Some of the questions stay the same, so we can measure changes in player sentiment, while others are removed or added due to relevance and changes in priorities. 

[Riviute]

No i mean i feel like i have done this like last month or so, i even already had the code redeemed. It was a bit odd

[Dutchy]

You did, on the first of July when the survey went live initially 🙂 
So yeah, its the same survey.

[Riviute]

So i did! I have done so many surveys lateley for many different games, i got confused. 😄

[SirTegethoff]

As a rpve 10 player, who is again rightfully banned, I think you truely took the wrong step. Skilled players should teach players, who are interested how to play rpve 10, how to play it. To understand the mechanisms, which hut you to have to destroy, how your deck should look like, etc... Players like kybaka are willing and nice enough to help you to build a deck so you can play rpve 10.

Edited July 13, 2023 by SirTegethoff

[Majora]

8 minutes ago, SirTegethoff said:

As a rpve 10 player, who is again rightfully banned, I think you truely took the wrong step. Skilled players should teach players, who are interested how to play rpve 10, how to play it. To understand the mechanisms, which hut you to have to destroy, how your deck should look like, etc... Players like kybaka are willing and nice enough to help you to build a deck so you can play rpve 10.

Not sure if you misunderstood, but we are not removing rpve 10. We are adding an addition difficulty between 9 and 10. 

[SirTegethoff]

yes I understood it, but just in my humble opinion, that was the wrong way, but also please understand, i am a persona non grata.
it would have been better to get people thought how to play lvl 10 than to create a new lvl.

I probably will ask for an unban as I really like kybaka and bluefire, and want to play with them again.
Let bygones be bygones.

You ll find me in the motm 10 rpve 4 player rankings...  So you see, i am legit what i am talking about.

Edited July 13, 2023 by SirTegethoff

[Cocofang]

Well, I suppose the counter argument to that is that this is how it's always been up to this point and it hasn't really worked out in a way that players are being on-boarded to make the jump from 9s to 10s.

On the contrary, the achievement that required people to play 10s was in part received negatively because it disrupted the veteran experience by pushing unprepared players into lobbies for 10s. There they were mostly perceived as a nuisance that has to be carried. In addition, taking the extra step and asking for a mentor isn't something most people will generally do.

So it's probably fair to say that the difficulty curve has to instead be smoothed out so that players can more or less help themselves.

[WasWie]

Hi , eine Frage gibt es das spiel in naher Zukunft auch fürs Handy ?

 

[Cocofang]

Please use English on the Forum and the official Discord server.

If you can make it run on your smartphone then go ahead. There is no official support planned for other platforms though.

[SirTegethoff]

On 7/13/2023 at 7:56 PM, Cocofang said:

Well, I suppose the counter argument to that is that this is how it's always been up to this point and it hasn't really worked out in a way that players are being on-boarded to make the jump from 9s to 10s.

On the contrary, the achievement that required people to play 10s was in part received negatively because it disrupted the veteran experience by pushing unprepared players into lobbies for 10s. There they were mostly perceived as a nuisance that has to be carried. In addition, taking the extra step and asking for a mentor isn't something most people will generally do.

So it's probably fair to say that the difficulty curve has to instead be smoothed out so that players can more or less help themselves.

It is a thin line to walk. But yeah, you are right, if you dont change rpve 10, that is not a loss, really.  But it is still "sad", why not try to learn lvl 10, really. And I know capable players, who are willing to help how to play it, if players want to learn and listen.

[Sasorith]

I have filled out the survey weeks ago and still didnt get the two mentioned boosters? Is this sill work in progress or was there an error?

[Metagross31]

1 hour ago, Sasorith said:

I have filled out the survey weeks ago and still didnt get the two mentioned boosters? Is this sill work in progress or was there an error?

At the end of the survey, there is a 16 character code.
You have to enter this code ingame in the market window. This will automatically add 2 boosters to your inventory.

[Majora]

2 hours ago, Sasorith said:

I have filled out the survey weeks ago and still didnt get the two mentioned boosters? Is this sill work in progress or was there an error?

On the last page of the survey it says "Please confirm your answers with the button below to get two boosters." 
Once done so, you get a page with a scratch code unlocking those 2 boosters. If you forgot the code, please DM me. 

[Sasorith]

4 hours ago, Metagross31 said:

At the end of the survey, there is a 16 character code.
You have to enter this code ingame in the market window. This will automatically add 2 boosters to your inventory.

Thank you very much. I just re-did it with the same email and saw the code. My bad 😄