OFFICIAL: 4.3.3 Update Notes - Now Available!

[fanghoul]

Impressions so far:

It's funny that the first things I wanted to respond to were the changes to the MAs for Double and Parasoul, both of which I considered must have, make these some of the best characters in the game. Damn did the change to Parasoul make me flinch, what with cutting her Crit Damage per Tear in half. I get it though. I used to sell Parasoul as "She kills a lot of characters with two Napalm Shots!" which was probably not well balanced. I've been using her in the new Rifts and even if she's not insanely powerful anymore, she's still getting me through tough nodes.

Double, same sort of thing. Applying tons of 20 second debuffs is insanely powerful. Tuning that down is an understandable thing. Also, making her other MA more appealing is a nice thing.


Anyway, other huge change that I really care about: Rifts!

I've fought in a bunch of them now. They're pretty nifty and kinda addictive. I think this is the pick up and play mode the late game needed I was talking about in that post a long time ago.

I've liked that I've never fought the same defense node twice. I like that they're faster to get through, but that I can put them down if I feel like it or something comes up. I like that I feel like I have some choice in what I'm going up against, that I can pick an opponent or just go "nah" about the whole thing after looking at my options. I like that they require enough strategy that being completely thoughtless in who I use where early on might cost me, but not being so big that I actually need to break out a piece of paper and start taking notes. I like that the additional multi-catalyst nodes are making it more likely there's interesting combos on each node. I like the idea that there's going to be a new set of nodes regularly.

I do have some concerns about beating up the "noobs" being both required and rewarded in the current dynamic.


Deployments are a nice little boon. Worth mentioning that I like, but not as game changing as the other things. I appreciate the them as an addition though.

Accolades are also going to be interesting to work though. I find it amusing that my habit of using Parasoul for everything means I've already easily finished the 100 Intercepts one.

 

[Dusty00]

It was nice getting new fighters from all the relics I hoarded for 8 months. Can finally make progress in the game now.

accolades and deployment are very important and great addition for new players retention. They also benefit end game players so overall great additions. Still sour that deployment didn’t replace meaningless daily for mid/end game players. Hopefully next patch you guys will streamline existing content so the gameplay is more meaningful rather than chore-like, mindless grinds.

Rift 2.0 is less stressful and snappier now which is good. Im hoping that rift rating will settle in about 2-3 months like rift 1.0. Eventually all the lower lv players should drop to maybe 300-500 range, gold about 800, and diamond should be starting each week around 1000. Actually it might take 6 months to get there but I think eventually we will get there. That is when strong players will finally not be facing low lvs at beginning of the week anymore.

I’m curious why you guys thought it would be a good idea to set everyone to 1000? You could’ve start Silver and below at say 500 so those guys won’t just get attacked by high lv players from the get go and can have a better starting experience in their own league.

My biggest complain is the 12hr streak reset. I’m sorry but that just doesn’t work with my schedule and it goes completely against the whole point of making rift a mode that people can pick up WHEN THEY HAVE TIME! Devs I love you guys but I love having control over time more. Please don’t assume SGM is everything and expect people will play this like an addictive drug. At least don’t include design elements that force people in that direction. It’s unhealthy and can burn your players out. This one small thing really offsets all the good things you’ve done with 4.3.

Another small thing I noticed but don’t care as much about is the nerf with social gifts. It’s so bad that you didn’t even have the guts to include that detail in the patch notes. Just shows how some of your staff members wasn’t on the same page with that change and was probably afraid of the backlash. I get we are getting more rewards from deployment and accolades but you could’ve just been transparent with that rationale for economy balance rather than trying to hide it under the rug and hope that people won’t notice. Even if that wasn’t the intention that’s how I perceived this change.

Overall, 4.3 added a bunch of improvements for new and mid game players. The game is moving towards a good direction but hopefully end game players can get something soon with meaningless grind and mechanism that forces you to play every 13 hours.

 

[saintshish]

Another small thing I noticed but don’t care as much about is the nerf with social gifts. It’s so bad that you didn’t even have the guts to include that detail in the patch notes. Just shows how some of your staff members wasn’t on the same page with that change and was probably afraid of the backlash. I get we are getting more rewards from deployment and accolades but you could’ve just been transparent with that rationale for economy balance rather than trying to hide it under the rug and hope that people won’t notice. Even if that wasn’t the intention that’s how I perceived this change.

It was in the notes:
SOCIAL GIFTS

• Standard Gifts and Gold Gifts have had their contents adjusted. The top rewards (Inner Pieces, Relics, etc) remain the same, but the more common rewards are now a little bit smaller. Social Gifts also no longer contain Bronze or Silver Keys.

Gifts were nerfed to hell though, not "a little bit". But not getting silver keys from a gold gift anymore is good.

 

[Dusty00]

It was in the notes:
SOCIAL GIFTS

• Standard Gifts and Gold Gifts have had their contents adjusted. The top rewards (Inner Pieces, Relics, etc) remain the same, but the more common rewards are now a little bit smaller. Social Gifts also no longer contain Bronze or Silver Keys.

Gifts were nerfed to hell though, not "a little bit". But not getting silver keys from a gold gift anymore is good.

I saw that. I was saying that the details weren’t listed because we all know it wasn’t just “a little bit”. It was more like half of the original amount. In the past they would be detailed to say what it was before and what it got changed to. None of that data was disclosed.

I don’t mind the nerf but I’m not happy losing that transparency we used to get from the devs.

 

[Robokit]

So far the update is great. My only gripe is that the streak resets after 12 hours. And so I have to actually schedule my rift battles and finish one before going to sleep. It's especially nerve wrecking after a nice deep sleep and I wake up and I do my morning activities and I think: Oh god how long do I have before I need to do another rift battle before my streak ends. and it shows 45 minutes left.

In the patch notes, they said we have to win a "match" before the 12 hr timer expires to maintain our streak. Does it mean a rift battle or just a fight within a battle?

Also, can we see the 12 hr timer? I don't seem to find it anywhere in the game. Are we supposed to keep track of the 12-hr period ourselves?

 

[saintshish]

Also, can we see the 12 hr timer? I don't seem to find it anywhere in the game. Are we supposed to keep track of the 12-hr period ourselves?

The timer is right under the streak number on the main rift page. It goes away once you engage in the battle for some reason.

 

[Robokit]

The timer is right under the streak number on the main rift page. It goes away once you engage in the battle for some reason.

Dang was I dumb! Many thanks! And yeah it'd be nice to be able to see the clock too after picking and entering battle mode with a specific opponent.

 

[Scorialimit]

To ensure new, low level players don't run into players way outside their league on their first attempts at Rift Battles, any player below level 30 will only be matched with other players below level 30.

I keep finding posts of people below level 30 not being able to find a match at all. Maybe some bots should be added to ensure at least they can get in.

I have more rift thoughts but I'll add them later, this seems a bit bigger of a deal

 

[Galiyuka]

Since the update accessing the servers got painstakingly hard. Problem is suddenly the game decided i needed to redownload all the game data but because of that stupid lag, it is now so slow it just won't be completed unless i leave my phone on sg for hours, which i can't do. Which means i can now forget the end of thr fireworks pf and playing the game until you fixed that server problem.

On another note, i really feel the accolade system won't compensate the extreme nerf on gifts on the long term.

 

[Art3mes]

Oh mai GIFTS!
How they have massacred my gifts.
I used to get around 4 rift coins from pink gifts while around 8 from golds.
But now, 1 from pink and 2 from golds!

[In terms of Rift coins, we have no Rift coins!]

 

[Sh3t]

Oh my GIFTS!
How they have massacred my gifts.
I used to get around 4 rift coins from pink gifts while around 8 from golds.
But now, 1 from pink and 2 from golds!

[In terms of Rift coins, we have no Rift coins!]

see the reply number

honestly why do we still have rift coins in gifts, at this point just get rid of them

 

[Hall☆weenQueen]

Oh my GIFTS!
How they have massacred my gifts.
I used to get around 4 rift coins from pink gifts while around 8 from golds.
But now, 1 from pink and 2 from golds!

[In terms of Rift coins, we have no Rift coins!]

see the reply number

One rift coin is about as useless as 10 regular coins. Considering how expensive rift purchases are in CoC you can barely get anything with that. I'm not sure why they even bothered with putting rift coins in gifts if it's so low. Maybe because we'd complained more if they were gone altogether? But this is ridiculous! It's just a wasted gift option at this point. I agree with @Dusty00 , they really should've been more transparent about this instead of a brief one-liner in a massive mass of patch notes. But more so, why nerf gifts again? I feel like nerfing something once is already bad practice but people can usually be fine after a while. But nerfing twice? That really reflects poorly on the Devs and makes for an unhappy player base. Especially since there was no imminent good reason to nerf gifts again. I really don't see players excelling because they would get a few more rift coins in a gift, do you? Nerfing just because they can really hurts the trust between the players and the Devs, plus it seems more like money grubbing which no one likes to play a game that doesn't care about their players. With all the grinding you need to do to get gifts, the rewards should be better. Otherwise, reduce the chances of pink gifts a bit.

 

[Art3mes]

With all the grinding you need to do to get gifts, the rewards should be better. Otherwise, reduce the chances of pink gifts a bit.

Yeah. I agree.

 

[saintshish]

With the end of the first week I can conclude that the new rift is a smashing success. I'm actually looking forward to playing the rift instead of dreading it. Love choosing an opponent, changing the defense for the new modifiers, smaller map (I think it's perfect now), double nodes with two catalysts, no time pressure, increased value of defensive wins. And I finally got into Gold! And not just Gold, but Gold 1, which didn't exist with the old rift with everyone in Gold 1 automatically qualifying for Diamond 4. That's a sign that the new rift is more popular and it feels like a lot more people can get to higher reward tier than they used to.

I feel like deployments could use a buff in the experience rewarded. The only use for deployments right now is to get some skill points from the bronze fodder. When I first looked at it I thought the experience numbers are per fighter an I think it would be perfect that way. I'd take longer deployments for more exp.

 

[rexturtle1120]

I don’t understand why there is a bronze relic for one of the ad rewards. While yes bronze fodder is nice, a majority of premier relics are bronze. A premier relic is also offered in ad rewards so it’s not like anyone’s missing out. I feel like that reward slot would be better fit for say, a random character specific relic. Or even elemental shards if your feeling generous.

 

[rexturtle1120]

With the end of the first week I can conclude that the new rift is a smashing success. I'm actually looking forward to playing the rift instead of dreading it. Love choosing an opponent, changing the defense for the new modifiers, smaller map (I think it's perfect now), double nodes with two catalysts, no time pressure, increased value of defensive wins. And I finally got into Gold! And not just Gold, but Gold 1, which didn't exist with the old rift with everyone in Gold 1 automatically qualifying for Diamond 4. That's a sign that the new rift is more popular and it feels like a lot more people can get to higher reward tier than they used to.

I feel like deployments could use a buff in the experience rewarded. The only use for deployments right now is to get some skill points from the bronze fodder. When I first looked at it I thought the experience numbers are per fighter an I think it would be perfect that way. I'd take longer deployments for more exp.

I like the new rift too, I like that I don’t have to beat someone else’s score unless they revenge me. The addition of revenge is also nice. In regards to your gold 1 remark, while I know it you were joking, take a look at my profile picture.

 

[Diony]

The catalog isn't even showing the fighters that are currently in my collection, it only shows the ones I've obtained since the 4.3 update released.

So am I.
Anyone else with the same Catalog Problem?

 

[saintshish]

So am I.
Anyone else with the same Catalog Problem?

Yes, I have the same issue.

 

[Lililira]

Yep, I posted a bug report thread on it a few days ago, and the devs are looking into a fix for it.

 

[Seyoga]

the game is often interrupted during the battle. most often this happens in its final part. In this case, defeat is counted. this is very unpleasant during a rift.