If you follow the news of Gods Unchained closely, you already know that a couple of days ago the roadmap for the year 2023 was released (you can check it here: "Gods Unchained Roadmap for 2023" ). Just today a "Ask Me Anything" session (AMA – Ask Me Anything) with Daniel Páez, executive director of the game, and Eclipse, community manager.
I am José Francisco Alfaya, promoter of GU Master, and I reproduce below the questions posed and the answers provided by Daniel . Be careful, it is not a literal transcription and perhaps I have slipped in some small inaccuracy, but it will be minimal.
Without further ado, Let's go with questions and answers.
WADA Session 25/05/2023
What is cosmetic set?
A great set of trinkets, backs and a new board. Learn more in our buyer's guide coming out next month. In addition, it will be a new way of sharing the Lore of the game. It will also be useful and we are going to make Two experiments : one refers to the selling mechanics themselves and the other to the possible advantages that cosmetics could give you in the game, specifically with regard to the game's reward structure.
Expansion rotation?
We're not going to do a traditional expansion rotation like the one you normally see in other trading card games.
Not only do we want the old cards to remain useful in the game's main modes, but we're looking at ways to make them useful for future expansions. We really want the cards to build up value simultaneously over time, especially for people who have come before or have been working hard to get some of these old cards, so it's not about expansion rotation in the sense that you normally do in these games.
Instead, what I've been working on with Clay is how to create separate game modes, including one called Eternal where our rules right now would be that all expansions are playable and that it will probably become the main mode for the most involved players to get greater rewards.
This It's part of a broader overhaul we want to make of the competitive scene within Gods Unchained (beyond community tournaments). With the Eternal mode being our main reward mode and the different game modes will allow us to experience what are the most fun ways to play and could be inspired by the tournaments of the community.
New game modes?
We have about 12 different game modes designed and ready to experience . We call them experiments because we're going to look at players' opinions about each of them and if there's one that consistently becomes a player favorite, we could put it in a permanent position where it's available for people to play Eternal, but also opt for these alternate modes with different rulesets to continue enjoying the game.
Use old expansions for future integrations?
We are thinking of Two ways :
- One is if we create a game mode that can use, say, Genesis and TotG plus our next big expansion.
- The other is also how players can acquire cards from future collections using cards from previous collections, so this is more of an economic issue. We're designing it, and when we start polishing it a little more, we'll share it with you for feedback.
Mobile soft launch: what does that mean compared to a hard launch?
There is no very specific definition in the sector; some soft launches last for a month and then officially move to the hard launch; others can last for years.
It means that we are not one hundred percent sure that everything we release is what players are going to like the most , but we've done what we could, so what we do is launch it on mobile. The goal is to put it out there and see how the players play. It's a kind of trial and error in which the real product is 95% of what we want to launch. The hard part of launching is when we have all our features secured, we're in a good place with them, and we launch marketing campaigns to engage users.
New Game Modes vs Sealed
What we're planning is that next month we'll be launching our first new game modes, which will be free and open to everyone. They will have different rules. Next, we'll launch Sealed mode, which is kind of Premium game mode with paid buy-in (in $GODS) and exclusive rewards.
As I mentioned before, you will have:
- Eternal Mode (Rewards).
- Different game modes from different sets of rules (fun).
- Sealed Mode, which is riskier obviously because there's a paid entry but then you have exclusive rewards.
Will expansion rotation occur before chests are at Layer 2?
We don't have a set plan to be able to take the chests to L2. It's actually really complex given our current smart contract and the limitations we have from a technical standpoint.
Can you put specific dates on the roadmap instead of quarters?
We're pretty sure that We can reach each release within the period we plan internally and we're going to try to give more accurate information as we go along. We actually have a roadmap that goes beyond what we have shared with you. We have chosen to blur it and we will inform you every quarter.
Any news about the localization of the game into other languages?
For the moment we have put Paused Short-term localization plans while dedicating resources to improving and fixing the fundamentals of the game.
I agree 100% on the importance of localization for key markets and I can attest to the great impact it has. When I was working at Blizzard, I was specifically dealing with Latin America, so obviously the Spanish and Portuguese localization was absolutely critical for us to grow a community there.
What we have is a list of countries of location to which we want to address and to which we give priority. Aspects such as English proficiency, the number of potential players, compatibility with cryptocurrencies, average spending per player, difficulty in entering the market... things like that. We've got it for both Gods Unchained and Guild of Guardians. We are currently looking to run more localized marketing testing in some of these select markets to help validate that opportunity before moving to full localization.
As we are rebuilding a lot of things within the game and we have to locate a lot of cards, we're focused on getting to what we call Gods Unchained 1.0 , which is a complete game with all the features working well and people enjoying them. When we have that
We will be able to determine the extent of the location.
What is being done now with the player experience and Strike Team and load testing? Is it an ongoing project or is it finished?
For the moment There is no specific work in progress for Strike Team or load testing.
Matchmaking and improving deck building: how are we doing about it?
There's always a balance between the time it takes to find a match and the difference in skill between players, and then there's another factor: what domains they play and what type of deck or archetypes they use. We are bringing in someone who would work together with our game designers to come up with a solution that will allow us to change things up a bit so that in each session the player feels better .
As for deck building, Sealed mode will come with some very specific deck-building improvements for that mode. Deck building is something we want to address and the New customer built in Unity will allow us to have the tools to improve our deckbuilding experience.
When is the World Tournament?
There is a lot of fundamental work to be done to Improve the gaming experience And then there is the growth part, for which we have prepared in recent months by improving our incorporation and early retention. I see the World Tournament as a result of all this work against something that will take Gods Unchained to the promised land.
We get very excited imagining spectacular tournaments, but We will get better results if we focus on the game now , building to a point where the World Tournament is like a really good outcome of it.
We're talking internally about what we can do for the players who have Tickets … We don't want to leave people in limbo of "is this going to happen or not?"
What is the common envelope you see on the package opening changes screen that appeared on the roadmap blog?
That was just the placeholder, right now there is no common envelope. What you'll see is that We have new types of packs on the way Because one of our engineers was able to increase our flexibility with what we put in the envelopes and how things appear.
Can we still expect a new mobile playable version by the end of the second quarter, as originally announced earlier this year?
Unfortunately not within the second trimester . Many of our searches and deals took longer than expected and then we increased their reach, so iLogos is our partner and we went from just porting the game to mobile to now also rebuilding the client and building a new progression system.
In fact Our goal is to beta test before soft launch in the fourth quarter, and also that it takes place at the beginning of the fourth quarter, not at the end (we don't want to release it in December, before everyone goes on vacation).
We'll keep you posted on what's going to be included in the soft launch in terms of all the features and dates to expect.
Won't there be new cards before the next big fourth-quarter set?
Some cards will be added with an upcoming collaboration that we'll announce soon, but it won't be on the scale of a mini-expansion (and nothing overpowered or broken).
Right now, the team is basically torn between finishing game mode designs, cosmetics sales, and starting work on the next big expansion. In the meantime, we are planning to use the Game modes to make room for a bunch of cards that are not in the meta or that have not been used in a long time. You know we have 1700 cards, but only a fraction of them are actually used, so the game modes allow us to open that.
Let us remember that we are Rewriting Server Logic And, while it doesn't sound sexy, this is the piece that allows us to build many more different card types and mechanics for cards, so we're imagining season two. As we progress, each expansion will be of better and better quality thanks to this.
Is there anything new about decklists or player names that are visible or unavailable?
Yes. And I really want to, once again, thank everyone who gave us feedback on the solution we mentioned. It seemed good from a play point of view Ranked , but we knew it was also hurting tournament organizers and such. So we have a possible solution that we've come up with, and it revolves around the API update so that decks are only shared when a game has ended . Right now we do not have an exact deadline. As I said, it's something that one of the engineers we're bringing in would work on. It's not a hard solution or something that takes a lot of time. It's relatively fast. But we just need the moment when the team picks it up to really tackle it.
Do the new game modes require a $GODS input? Do you have any other plans to make $GODS more useful?
For now, the only game mode that will require $GODS is our premium game mode, Sealed . The other game modes will be free, although this may change in the future.
The other piece of the puzzle that the sending part of these $GODS to the Pool of strike , but we're actually discussing how we can use the $GODS that come from Sealed in different ways that really help boost the game and the value of your token.
When will Draft mode arrive?
Right now we're focused on the Sealed , the draft requires a lot more work and would have further delayed the launch game modes.
I'm not saying it's "never coming," but right now the focus is on premium sealing and many rotating free-to-play game modes.
When will the 20% of the primary and secondary odds go to the betting pool as promised in the White Paper?
This has already been happening . What we've seen is Offering of the $GODS, the strike It's not inflationary and it's based on 20% of the revenue collected from both our primary sales and the royalties we get from secondary trade, so yes, this has been happening.
Any news about card balancing?
We are working to Add a new group of card balancers , a fairly large group. This will improve both the balance of cards before launch and minimize drastic changes after launch, and will also allow us to do a lot more internal playtesting before releasing any cards.
I know people have been talking about using the PTR for the community to provide feedback, but what's missing right now is our ability to digest that information and take action on it.
The only unknown we currently have is that we know that after rewriting the code, we're going to have a lot more design space for our designers to create new cards. What usually happens now is that they create a lot of letters, on paper, and then they go talk to our engineers and that's when they say 'okay, we can't do any of that'. Rewriting the code changes that dramatically, so what we don't know is How many full expansions we can do per year . Ideally, if we're able to get two expansions a year, with maybe a couple of mini expansions in between, we'll be in a good place. I prefer full expansions, which allow players to really enjoy that content for at least three or four months. We don't want to burn you out releasing expansions too often.
Governance?
We have some proposals to share with the community regarding reward distribution, especially around $GODS. We're not yet sure which ones would fall under official governance or focus more on community feedback. But overall, how to move towards governance is a conversation we started with our token team earlier this year, when we started shifting our mindset to be more of a community-driven game.
I don't think this is something we're going to "rip our band-aids off" on and from now on we'll be putting tons of supercritical decisions in the hands of the community. I don't think GU is yet in a healthy moment to do that. But I think we're at a point where we need to start moving more toward a Community-driven development , where we make decisions based on many of the feedback. Governance, I think, is a natural extension of that evolution. So, yes, I hope to give you more details as we go along. But this is something that is still very much in the rough as we debate how it can be...
If the release of the new big collection is for the fourth quarter, does this mean that Mortal Judgement will be the reward of the Weekend Ranked until then? Is there hope that the minting of these cards will eventually stop and other rewards, if any, will be distributed for the weekend ranked events?
When we start thinking about what Weekend Ranked becomes in a few months , looks really good in terms of the reward structure and what we want to put behind it. But what happens between now and then?
We have some Band of the Wolf Envelopes that were reserved (10% of the remaining supply). These wouldn't replace Mortal Judgement, they would probably be combined.
The other conversation we're having now is also with the Rewards in $GODS … thinking of an increase, in addition to the envelopes.
These are short-term things that we are studying, because We want to make weekend rewards more meaningful while improving the Weekend Ranked.
One experiment we'd really like to start doing is to create between half a dozen and a dozen cards that are very rare and can only be obtained through Weekend Ranked . We don't want to make any more broken cards, like Martyr, for example, but they would be powerful Legendary cards that could only be earned by performing well on the weekend leaderboard.
Will the cosmetic set be a reward or just a purchase?
Only from purchase . We are discussing whether to take one of them to reward community members.
Will the Eternal game mode and Weekend Ranked be separate or will they be simultaneous?
Eternal will be our primary ranked mode, so it won't replace Weekend Ranked. However our plans at this time are for Weekend Ranked to be played with the same expansions as Eternal . I think we would only change our minds with the feedback from the community. If the community said, hey, weekend ranks should have limited expansions or card rules around collections, things like that. But that's something we'll discuss with you and leave it open for the community to decide.
Will we have two possible rank progressions? One is Eternal and the other is rotating, potentially, but the rewards will be very, very skewed towards Eternal mode. The other is much more about the gaming experience.
Are we going to have more significant shinie forging or collecting incentives for our owners, our big investors or collectors?
One of the parts of our economic review that we're looking at is how make collections play a role in the Gods Unchained ecosystem . A couple of things that we've currently raised is the impact on daily Play and Earn, as well as other economic impacts like discounts on the purchase of packs, discounts on Sealed, things like that. Another thing we're looking at for people who have collections and also $GODS, is how it becomes an interesting distribution mechanic for new sets and cards that are coming out.
What you'll see in the future is that we're going to breaking down the barriers between people who have $GODS and those who have cards , and I know a lot of people have both, and we're going to make them much more interconnected with the economy, so that things like the level of quality and rarity of the cards and the size of the collection, the percentage of collection completed, etc., are much more accessible to people who really want to feel rewarded for their commitment to Gods Unchained as a whole.
As for the Forge and the cards shiny , The Forge is something we plan to review . We've been planning for this for a while, and it's been much more about capacity and speed of delivery. We want to make some changes that go beyond just "glitter" and focus more on mechanics like crafting and the benefits of participating in it.
One thing people always ask for is the cosmetic quality of the cards shiny . A blueprint has already been put together on how to move forward in this regard, and what you'll see in the coming months is that a portion of that project is tied to Gods Unchained at the IP level. So you'll start to see Artistic Renovations And we're looking for ways to make the cards look cooler.
What that looks like, if it's just the future collections that are coming, how far we can go back and redo the card frames of all the old collections. We are still debating it, but we are sure to agree.
When will we have the Weekend Ranked ranking within the client, as well as the change in the profile picture and the titles of the collections? And weekend rank rewards within the client, so you can use it as a tracker.
If you ask, why do I have to wait for certain things to appear? Because We do everything manually . Why? Why do we do everything manually? Why do we have to do it using spreadsheets and tools ad hoc to distribute things? It's because every time someone came up with an automated solution in the past they would say, "oh, you know, this could take a long time and actually now we have to work on the next expansion." So all these simple things related to quality of life were relegated to the background. We have taken many of them and put them back in the foreground so that they are finally built and delivered, even if we do not build them ourselves. At least as long as it's built to our specifications.
I'm surprised that people have to track their ranking progression over the weekend and the new client will allow us to start bringing a lot of these things to the surface much better, without people having to go to third-party websites.
So, could we have weekend leaderboards inside the launcher, as well as custom profile pictures so people don't have to be rats anymore?
Yes, I know. Those profile pictures. Yes, yes. The client has been one of the biggest pain points in the game. I can tell you that the Blizzard client was also a pain point back in the day. But yes, the Gods Unchained client has been a huge pain point for the way it was built. Essentially Let's rebuild it , because everything we want to do is still blocked for technical reasons. So things like profile pictures, things like tracking your position on the leaderboards, things like even knowing, hey, we can announce "we're live, play now to participate", all of that is almost impossible right now. But in six months, all of that will be possible. So we're moving toward that.
What about optimizing a game client with long animations? Will it be done with the new customer review?
That would be more part of the part of the server logic and the Rewriting Server Logic addresses many of these problems.
Immutable Passport?
Immutable Passport is a login system that will have an associated custodial wallet and We're not going to integrate it into Gods Unchained yet because the product is still in beta and the things that the game currently supports are broader than what Passport supports today. So the Passport team is focused on two Passport products: One, for games like GU, which is on StartNet; another, for games that are based on ZKEVM. Right now they are prioritizing ZKEVM. So, for now, no changes are expected. We're not going to integrate Passport yet. We have enough functionality, even if it's still not super friendly for the traditional player. But the Passport team is thinking about developing these two Passport tools simultaneously. So, when Passport reaches a good state, we can replace our current tools with Passport and none of you will notice it, but all new players who arrive will no longer have to connect MetaMask if they don't want to.
What are your feelings after reading all this? Do you think that this AMA session has enriched the information already available?
Share them with me, whether it's through Discord, YouTube, my live streams, or any other channel. I'll be happy to find out what you think about it.
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Images courtesy of Gods Unchained Pty Ltd.
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