Player reputation is now actively used by the game During the Summer Season, we have been collecting the data that we needed in order to properly setup the player reputation system. Now, after we received tens of thousands of scores that players gave to each other at the end of sessions, we are ready to turn the system on.
How does it work? First of all, while reputation scores will be kept on the Amsterdam server cluster, the reputation scores will be reset on the Singapore servers. The reason for this is that while on the Amsterdam servers the scores were given with anonymous masks turned on, so that all scores were based purely on the actual player experience, the masks were turned off on the Singapore server. Now we see that sometimes it leads to strong players receiving negative scores just because they are strong players. Therefore, we will reset the reputation scores on the Singapore server, and from this season on we will turn the anonymous masks on.
Secondly, starting from this season player reputation is fully integrated into the matchmaking system: your reputation is taken into consideration when you are waiting for a ranked or tournament session. Players with higher reputation have a priority in the queue, and are more likely to be matched together – while players with a negative reputation will have to wait longer. The system is not black and white, so the effect will be gradual. The lower player’s reputation, the longer delay in the ranked queue – up to the point where such player is able to play only with other players who also have negative reputations.
Preliminary support for the upcoming second playing field Following this update, you may notice a few more options and switches in the game. For now, they do nothing – but they prepare the game for the introduction of the second playing field later in the season.
Changeable hotkeys The game now has changeable hotkeys for the most common actions in the game - Show/hide card descriptions, show/hide Jail Rank, show/hide last action in the Visual Log, show/hide cards of your teammate, show/hide Gremlinopedia, show/hide game rules, take the biggest bribe available.
Search option A search option in the ranking ladder so that you can check the position of your friends. Now you only need to know the name, or just a part of the name, to find a player.
Improvements in Inventory user interface There is now additional marking for the items in your Inventory that you don't have in your Collection yet. This makes it easier to spot what you are missing in your sets in order to complete the sets and claim your tradeable prizes. [ Consul-Loki]
New special rule for using in mods “An Engine of Progress”, a special rule that was previously available only in the single-player challenge, now can be used in any mods. Its effect allows to any player in the session get extra points for playing three or more cards in one turn.
Updated mechanics of global effects. Now when someone launches a global effect, it does not freeze the game until the effect is shown. Instead, the game continues to work as usual and the effect is shown after a brief delay.
Changes in the calculation of score for ranked sessions – when a player leaves ranked session, and it is finished by a bot, this player will no longer earn any rating points at all. However, they will still lose points by paying the usual amount of points to every player above them.
The effect of „Wait for opponents with a similar rating” tickbox is changed. Now, when activated, it forces matchmaking to use your actual rating, so you might wait longer in the ranked queue but your opponents will be with strictly +/- 10 rating points from yours. When the tickbox is not activated, the current cap of 115 points remains, and you will probably find opponents faster, but their rating might be significantly lower than yours. Those items that can be crafted from the blueprints no longer are available in the Boxes of Goods, which increases the chances of appearing of those items that can't be crafted. When a player should send a Misfortune to one of their opponents, those opponents who have an active "A Lucky Potion" permanent card (and therefore can avoid this Misfortune) will now be marked with a special symbol on their character portrait. Now you can open a Gremlinopedia page with any card by right-clicking on the name of that card in the visual log.
When a Box of Goods of any rarity is opened, the received items will stay longer on the screen so the player had more time to see what was inside of the Box. [Thainlex] The game will now attempt to add an item from a chest/box into a player's Inventory repeatedly until it is done, in case it didn't happen from the first attempt. This should eliminate the rare situations where sometimes, due to connectivity issues, players didn't receive their crafted items until we intervened manually.
The way how player names are ordered in the friend list (when you open it to invite a friend in your lobby) is changed. Now the list is separated into three categories, each in alphabetical order:
1) Players, who are online and have Gremlins, Inc. launched. 2) Players, who are online (they might play another game). 3) Players, who are offline.
[ Sonmi] The rarity level of several items is changed. “The Battery” became uncommon (was common), “Automatic Dice-roller“ became rare (was uncommon). If player creates a custom multiplayer session, this player will no longer be able to join an ongoing session as a spectator.
If a session was played with a mod, it will show the mod's name and the creator's name in the list of previous sessions. [ Thainlex]
The option to use turn timer in single player sessions is disabled. Now the game remembers the state of each tab in your Collection (whether you left it collapsed or expanded). [ Consul-Loki]
Personal notes and markers on players are now also shown in the personal list of previous sessions in player profile. [ Flibustier-USSR]
Player's currently selected lobby icon is now visible in player profile. We increased scroll sensitivity in the list of workshop mods.
The Damned has a new ability - "Aggressor". If you win in a Player Conflict, get 1 and 1. The Merchant has a new ability - "Buy and Sell". If you skip a turn, get $50.
Information about all currently known issues, their status, as well as the suggestions from the community can be found at our public page on Trello: https://trello.com/b/HjOStDAS You can use our forums to report new issues or make suggestions about the game – they will be added to the Trello list. By the way! Have you noticed that quite a few of the fixes and improvements in this post have the names of the players who reported/suggested them? This is because from now on, when a certain suggestion is implemented or a significant reported bug is fixed, the players who reported those first, are rewarded with in-game chests. Please keep those reports and suggestions coming! The next major update is expected in a few weeks, and it will introduce the second playing field ***
”Player reputation”
New feature: at the end of each multiplayer session (ranked or non-ranked) players will now be given a chance to fill out a survey concerning that session. There are three possible options that allow players to rate their experience with the opponents:
– "In this session, I did not enjoy playing with this player." – "In this session, this player was playing like anyone else, nothing exceptional." – "In this session, I enjoyed playing with this player"
Reputation, accumulated this way, might affect some of the gameplay aspects, such as ranked queue priorities, access to tournaments, and how this player's name is displayed in the multiplayer lobby (names of the players with very high\low reputation will be highlighted in different colors).
”Boxes with goods”
New feature: and an entirely new way to get items! By using 10 identical items in their Inventory, players will be able to create a “box of goods”. The rarity of the box will be 1 level higher than the rarity of the used items (i.e. by using 10 identical common items you will create an uncommon “box of goods”).
Each box of goods contains 3 items: the rarity of one of them is guaranteed to be of the same level (or higher) as the rarity of the box; the rarity of two other items might be any from common to criminal.
“Box of goods” can contain any items available in the game and in the chests, with no seasonal restrictions.
Simplified activation process for the collected items
Improved feature: now, if you want to activate a trail, a governor frame or any other item from your Collection, you can do this directly from the Collection screen with no necessity to open the description of that item.
New cards
“Visiting the Voters”
“Perestroika”
New in-game items
“Fake coin” – Emoticon | Summer season
“Sleepy” – Emoticon | Summer season
“Astral Resort” – Main menu background | Summer season
“Astral Holiday” – Music | Summer season
“Gentlegremlin” – Lobby icon | Summer season
“Prestigious Prestige” – Profile background | Summer season
“Eminence” – Global effect | Summer season
“Astral Essence” – Token trail | Summer season
Lobby icon “Foil Gentlegremlin” | Summer Set Prize
Animated profile background “Foil Prestigious Prestige” | Summer Set Prize
Blueprint “Summer chest” | A Summer Season item, but not a part of the Summer Set.
New item on the Black Market:
”Smart Screwdriver” – you can craft a Box of Goods with only 7 items instead of the usual 10.
Permanent indicators next to player avatars sometimes remain blinking despite corresponding events being over.
The permanent card "The Astral Elevator" might still work in the next round even after being destroyed.
If the Astral Plane window is open, you cannot switch between Chaos Cards and the cards on your hand.
If you disconnected and an AI won the game instead of you, the game will get stuck on re-connecting.
The dice-roller animation will be visually bugged when rolling two or more times in a row.
Sometimes when loading single-player session, certain indicators will not appear on the playing field/will appear incorrectly.
When activating "An Automated Bureaucrat", values of bribes next to player avatars may not refresh for a few turns. The stats for the most recently added single-player challenge – A Secret Assignment – do not count the score points that the AI bot already had at the beginning to the session.
Currently unable to reproduce at the studio:
In very rare cases, selection of random spots or locations will not work.
Sometimes, when having a jail rank that allows you to select from 3 jail events, the UI will only show two, but the third will still be clickable.
In some rare cases, activated card "The Astral Elevator" still does not allow you to get to the Astral Plane through the Bank.
Sometimes the "skip turn" icon will not show when working in The Plant.
Single-player sessions will not save when, during that session, you agree to join a ranked session.
Using the card "Secret Knowledge" sometimes might not work properly and will give random cards instead of the chosen ones.
When playing the game on Ubuntu 14.04 x64, some Chinese characters will disappear in the Chinese version of the game.
The visual representation of resources will sometime lose its background.
In some cases the last action that is usually displayed above the visual log, might disappear until you click the log again.
Sometimes when a session ends, instead of the correct results the final table shows 6 players named as Darbl fon Murblenton.
