https://i.imgur.com/Ovo5mlz.jpg
I know no one plays (or understands) this great game but I figured I’d update this post anyway.
They are backing off this card system. I don’t think I originally understood what Cards Unbound meant. Most players and the game designers hated it as it became a Pay to Win system.
“We will be replacing it with a new system that I believe the community will be really excited about, including the reintroduction of the deck building point system, and a method for obtaining cards that will be way less grindy,” Larson continued. “We also want to unify the competitive and casual experiences so that we use the same system for both.”
Removal of Cards Unbound
We are still working out the details of the new system, but the rough outline of our current thinking is as follows (NOTE: Subject to some change, but hopefully this communicates the general direction we want to head):
- Legendary Cards will now be called Talents.
- Talents will only have a single level.
- Talents will be unlocked for free by earning XP and gaining Champion levels (for example; level 1,5,10,15).
- All Champion Cards will now be free (No cost or grind).
- Deck creation will return to a point system where players can distribute 15 points across the five cards they select for their loadout. Each Champion Card will have five ranks to choose from.
- Talents will not have ranks, and are not included in the loadout point cap.
- Talents and Decks will continue to be chosen at match start to allow players to tailor their playstyles based on their opponents.
- New Talents will be added over time and give further varied playstyles.
- Champion Mastery will no longer be capped at level 25. Instead, it will work similarly to Player Account leveling (which has no cap).
- Card chests will be removed from the game.
- We are evaluating the best options to compensate players for their previously earned cards, and hope to share details soon.
The release plan is to start testing this new system as soon as we can on PTS (hopefully, next week). Your analysis and participation will be very important over the next few weeks as we work the kinks out of this design and deliver the best possible product to you in the next update.
There is also an update to the upcoming Battlegrounds mode
BATTLEGROUNDS
Thank you so much to everyone that has been helping us test Battlegrounds over the last few weeks – first on our public test server, then starting yesterday in a larger scale Alpha running in the main game client.
The job our team has done on this mode in such a short time is incredible – and I first want to give a huge shout out to our employees that have really rallied around and embraced this new way to play Paladins under seemingly impossible deadlines.
After seeing the results of our recent external testing and some exciting internal tests of additional changes to the mode, we’ve decided to make a few big changes in regards to Battlegrounds:
- We are going to remove the alpha version of Battlegrounds from the core Paladins game, effective tomorrow.
- Over the next few weeks we are going to make a number of aggressive changes to the mode that, based on internal testing, we think will make it considerably more engaging and fun. Our codename for these changes inside the Studio has been YOLO – if that gives you any indication of what lies ahead. Hopefully, you will enjoy them as much as we have in initial testing.
- When we re-release the mode, it will be in a separate game client under a different name. The mode will have the current map and some of the elements from Paladins as well as some significant changes – but it will be re-launched as a NEW GAME. We expect it to be free to play, with monetization around skins and visuals.
- We hope to start public testing of an early alpha mode of this new game as soon as we can (within weeks).
Why make this change?
In short – we think that the things that are necessary to make Paladins Battlegrounds great and amazing are in conflict with the things that will make the OG version of Paladins that we all know and love great. Right now, we are in a spot where the changes we need to make to each mode are in conflict with what the other mode needs. We think that having separate teams focus on separate games will produce a greater result. We also don’t want users to be confused about what Paladins is and should be: Paladins should be the best damn hero shooter ever made – and we want the Paladins team focused on that goal. We’ll aim to do the same with the Battle Royale game and the team working on that.