Meltdown format up now on test server!

Hello everyone, we have been hard at work on some great new features for Shadow Era, that are now available on the public test server for final testing.

Meltdown - A great new format carried over from the physical game!
Message System - Send messages to people right in the game.
Friend Lists - Everybody needs friends.

To play Meltdown, choose Create Game and select Meltdown as the Game Type.

You will be presented with the contents of 4 booster packs, from which you make a deck of 30 cards or more - with no class restrictions! You have 3 minutes to do this.

Once your deck is made, you will get paired with another player as follows:

If you left the password blank and another person created a game with blank password too, then you get paired when both of you have made your decks. If you entered a password for your game, then the other player will see your waiting game when your deck is ready and so they can only make their deck after you made yours.

If all looks well, we're ready to push these great new features to the live version ASAP!

Nice Update

Great stuff but wish I could access the test server via iPad :(

Ooh I know what I'm doing tonight :)

Just on freaking time..My exams ended today and I have nothing else to do except be on the computer all day! haha I really love to try it out:D

Anyone else having troubles downloading the update on the test server? I'm stuck at 0.00%, using Chrome.

EDIT: Never mind, it just went from 0% to 100% in about 4 seconds after sitting on the screen for 5-10 minutes.

Awesome. I'll have to play this some more tomorrow. My net decided to get destroyed by a storm and hardly works atm! See you guys then.

Trying this tomorrow. Awesome!
~~nyan :3

Is anyone else unable to use any of these features on the test server?
The create game page doesn't have any options you can change at all, you can add a password or start game.
I can't find where the friends list is or find how I can message other players either.

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Originally Posted by qzwoiv

Is anyone else unable to use any of these features on the test server?
The create game page doesn't have any options you can change at all, you can add a password or start game.
I can't find where the friends list is or find how I can message other players either.

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You need to force reload the page. Or clear your cache. You are on the old version.

Waiting for an opponent right now for my first meltdown game ;)

Question:

If the password is blank would these be rated matches? Perhaps a separate rating system for meltdown exclusive games would help. After all, it's MORE challenging to play in this format than other formats. (Example: omg 4 decks and nothing USEFUL? Aaaah)

The pairing up of two blank passwords is somewhat of a hack to get "Quick Meltdown" functionality but Meltdown is currently unrated, yes.

Alternate ratings for different formats are indeed planned.

Note that this version of Meltdown is completely free and a good way to try cards you might not own.

Tournament Meltdown (coming soon) will require you to buy packs and you will get prizes and keep your cards.

wonderful !!!

must try this now ;)

Back in my MTG days booster drafts and sealed tourneys were always my favorites. Not only were they my best format but I like how they reward ingenuity, creativity and different types of styles than you see in 'standard' play. I enjoy deck building and teching for meta games as much as the next guy but I love booster/sealed formats like this.

Just played a few games of this and enjoyed it immensely. Might take over regular QM once it hits the live server.

This is Epicly Awesome!

I have to wait 13 hours though before i can play :/

Why isn't this announced yet in the loading screen ?.?

Meltdown is cool but having only 3 minutes to pick your cards makes it hard to come up with a good strategy. I could see in the physical deck version you would not want to take too long since your opponent is waiting on you. In this version, however, it does not pair you up until you have chosen your cards and selected ok. My suggestion give us at least 5 minutes (or maybe no time limit) to choose our cards. A lot of the fun is thinking about the cards and how they can work together. With 3 minutes I barely have time to pick the cards. Does any body else think 3 minutes is too short?

3 minutes is plenty. I usually get my decks done in 2.


You can join passworded games without putting in the password in Meltdown. Could you please fix this?

Yeah, 3 minutes is plenty as long as you know what the cards are just by lookin at them. More time once the newest expansion is out would be nice tho.

The games can't be password locked like Airact posted that spoils the fun of testing, other than that cool. :)

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Originally Posted by Martin JF

Yeah, 3 minutes is plenty as long as you know what the cards are just by lookin at them. More time once the newest expansion is out would be nice tho.

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While that's true, the two Meltdown games I tried on Test Server ended as soon as they started cause the other guys spent too much time building their decks. So I ended up wasting 10 minutes and 2 builds and 2 other person also lost a couple of minutes.

The timer isn't even needed.

I could see it being useful in tournaments but it should be an option.

Meltdown being free, a lot of newer players (who can't identify and process build options from skimming over 60 cards) will try it. It needs to be newbie friendly.

I only had a problem with the 3-minute timer once. I'd just finished building my deck, and upon review of its contents, decided to use a different hero than the one I'd selected. Of course, if you want to switch heroes, you have to clear your entire deck, so you end up scrambling to replace the 29 cards you had in there a second ago.

Is there any way to make it so that changing the hero doesn't clear the deck?

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Originally Posted by Fou DeLile

While that's true, the two Meltdown games I tried on Test Server ended as soon as they started cause the other guys spent too much time building their decks. So I ended up wasting 10 minutes and 2 builds and 2 other person also lost a couple of minutes.

The timer isn't even needed.

I could see it being useful in tournaments but it should be an option.

Meltdown being free, a lot of newer players (who can't identify and process build options from skimming over 60 cards) will try it. It needs to be newbie friendly.

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I would say the fix should be as follows:

1) if you set no password then it is fine for someone to take as long as they want because you are only paired when someone has a deck ready. You are only waiting for the quickest person to finish their deck and this will never cause you an issue on live server because Meltdown will be hugely popular.

2) if you set a password, then I think there should be a time limit so both of you cannot leave the other waiting, and this will also help with organising ad-hoc Meltdown tournaments (before the proper in-game tournaments go live).

Just played one game, and was wondering what would prevent someone from canceling out a match every time they didn't get a favorable draft and restarting till they do? (In non password matches that is.)

Well, 3 minutes is far more than i need, than,s to the timer i can know it. But obviously players who don't the whole set will maybe struggle.

+1 to GDC previous post.

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Originally Posted by GondorianDotCom

I would say the fix should be as follows:

1) if you set no password then it is fine for someone to take as long as they want because you are only paired when someone has a deck ready. You are only waiting for the quickest person to finish their deck and this will never cause you an issue on live server because Meltdown will be hugely popular.

2) if you set a password, then I think there should be a time limit so both of you cannot leave the other waiting, and this will also help with organising ad-hoc Meltdown tournaments (before the proper in-game tournaments go live).

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Unless someone can come up with a really good argument against this, I think this is the best solution.

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Originally Posted by ToneMastaG

Just played one game, and was wondering what would prevent someone from canceling out a match every time they didn't get a favorable draft and restarting till they do? (In non password matches that is.)

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Yup there ought be some way to ensure that the player does not try to wriggle out of an unfavourable draft. Maybe an option to concede.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ToneMastaG

Just played one game, and was wondering what would prevent someone from canceling out a match every time they didn't get a favorable draft and restarting till they do? (In non password matches that is.)

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Yes, we did think of this already, so the live server version will make it so that if you restart within a certain time then you get the same cards. It's just not implemented yet.

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Originally Posted by GondorianDotCom

Yes, we did think of this already, so the live server version will make it so that if you restart within a certain time then you get the same cards. It's just not implemented yet.

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Brilliant!!!

I was wondering will be able to invite friends to games and/or see who is online via friend list?

I played a game of Meltdown last night. It is a lot of fun I must say and I'm glad it will be coming to digital. I didn't know this was planned :)

I think 3 minutes is ok if the player knows the cards but newer players may find it little. GDC's idea is good. As an alternative, there could be a dropdown menu under Meltdown where you choose difficulty or game type or something or there could be two meltdowns in game types.

Examples:

Meltdown
- no time limit
- 3 minutes to build deck

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Normal
Meltdown
Newbie Meltdown?

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I dunno which of these (including GDC's idea) is easier to implement. I'm good with any of those.

Meltdown is ridiculously fun but I think the time to build your deck should be based from your current rating.. the lower the rating, the more time you get to build. I also think that once the time runs out, if at least 30 cards have been added already the game should automatically start rather than cancel out..

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Originally Posted by Kross

Meltdown is ridiculously fun but I think the time to build your deck should be based from your current rating.. the lower the rating, the more time you get to build. I also think that once the time runs out, if at least 30 cards have been added already the game should automatically start rather than cancel out..

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Nice suggestions! They may not make it in this time, but there will be room for tweaking in future.

In my negligence, I hadn't noticed until now that several of the issues that I wrote about in a separate thread have already been under discussion here. Shame on me.

First of all, after giving it some extra thought, I'm not sure if a timer-based fix to prevent "fishing" is good enough - will fishers be able to play regular games during their time penalty and then "fish" again? Even with a time penalty that increases incrementally, there might be people who are willing to wait the penalties in order to get as good cards as possible, to push their win-ratio above "non-fishers".

In every case, taking into account everything that's been said in this thread so far, here's one more idea how the system could be arranged:

Creating a Meltdown deck could be part of the deck editor - you'd go there, select a Meltdown version (Quick Match, custom game or Tournament), click "Create a Meltdown deck"-button, and you'd get your card pool. Then you'd edit the deck just like you would a normal deck with the ability to clear and save the deck, and return later to modify it, and all this without any time limit.

However, you could only have one Meltdown deck at any time for each version of Meltdown (one for Quick Match, one for custom games and one for Tournament play), and you wouldn't get a new card pool for a deck until you'd start a game with it against an opponent. (Cancelling the game before an opponent shows up wouldn't renew the card pool).

In Quick Match, the moment the game would begin (with two players joined), the saved QM deck would be deleted, and the next time when the player would create a QM Meltdown deck, the card pool would be renewed. In official digital events like Tournaments though, a deck shouldn't be deleted until it's certain that it's not needed anymore (like when players play through the whole event with the same Meltdown deck). Even if there's an official event where players play each game/match with a new Meltdown deck, the data from previous decks should be saved in the case that there's a need to replay a game/match due to a sync error or such. Custom games could follow the QM principle, or have additional options if needed (for example, for games like best 2 out of 3 with the same Meltdown decks).

As far as I can tell, the benefits of this kind of system would be:

-Players can create their deck at their own pace without time limits in all Meltdown versions.
-(And without time limits, whether or not switching the hero clears the deck shouldn't be much of an issue anymore.)
-Players can create their deck ahead of custom games and Tournaments, which saves time in these events and makes them more friendly for new players.
-Players can't "fish" for good card pools. (If they concede the game right after an opponent has joined, they'll get the normal penalties that come with losing a game.)
-Players can't lose their deck due to errors before starting a game, since decks are saved until a game is properly started.

EDIT: Clarified the paragraph above the list of benefits to better accommodate the different Meltdown versions.

^I'm liking Awer's suggestions a lot. A time limit on building a deck while 2 players are waiting will always potentially lead to frustration when one of them has to wait, while the other one might not even be done in time. I don't see a downside to doing it his way on the other hand.

A not-time-based fishing prevention is also the only solution if you want meltdown ratings / win ratios to at least matter a little.

i noticed a bug with mocking armor where my opponent was still able to target all of my allies (none of which had protector) while mocking armor was in play. anyone else notice this?



~yooo~

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Originally Posted by Night Cricket

i noticed a bug with mocking armor where my opponent was still able to target all of my allies (none of which had protector) while mocking armor was in play. anyone else notice this?



~yooo~

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What card did your opponent target your allies with?

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Originally Posted by Martin JF

What card did your opponent target your allies with?

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he targeted them with Banebows shadow ability and also a lightning strike