Please be aware that the new format will be available starting from Monday, July 15th.

Greetings, citizens,

It’s no secret that the past few weeks have been turbulent for our campaigns. We reached a point where continuing with the “pip” or energy system was no longer sustainable, and the introduction of both the strike and unlimited play campaign systems were not suitable replacements. However, we now have a system that we believe is robust and sustainable for future campaigns, with room for improvement if needed.

I know there has already been a post describing the issues with the energy system that prompted the initial changes, but I think it’s worth revisiting here. This will set the scene, highlight some of the obstacles to campaign design, and show how this new form of campaigns was developed.

Issues with the Energy System

The main issue with the energy system is that some games can be unpredictably dropped, and this doesn’t affect all players evenly or consistently. This leads to a bad experience for players, who lose out on matches, progress, and rewards. It’s also challenging for us, as it creates a constant drain on customer support and coding resources. We’re a small team, so this resource drain was becoming significant, especially as we aim to bring larger and more impactful features to the game. While fixing the stability would be ideal, it’s deeply embedded in the game’s infrastructure, and an easy fix would have been implemented already over the last five years. Therefore, it makes sense to move away from that system entirely in favor of something that doesn’t rely on limited attempts.

Formats to Avoid

Considering the issue of disconnects, several campaign formats should realistically be avoided:

  1. Any campaign with limited attempts (energy) where a player loses progress or even maintains their current level on a loss. If a disconnect causes this loss, the player’s maximum reachable level is reduced.
  2. Any limited attempt system that totals the score of all played matches, where matches can be lost due to disconnects.
  3. Regular strike formats can be problematic as disconnections count as losses unfairly.
  4. Any campaign format where the level always progresses (like in horde) is unsuitable for a regular campaign since players hitting a difficulty ceiling would be pulled through to levels they are increasingly less likely to complete, creating an unpleasant experience.
  5. The Milestone progression rewards are intentionally generous since they are not meant to be run as regular events. Featuring them as the standard format would require reducing the rewards total, which would be a bad experience for everyone, and we want to keep these events feeling like something different and special.

The New Campaign Format

With all the “cannots” covered, I hope you can see why creating a suitable campaign format has been challenging, and also understand where we are headed with future campaigns. Now, let’s look at the new format:

Limited Win Leaderboard

Attempts: Unlimited

  • Players can play as many times as they wish without being restricted by time or currency.

Wins: Limited to 20

  • Once a player achieves 20 wins, the campaign is over, and they cannot play any more matches in the event.
  • This “20” is more accurately 10 wins per campaign day, so a standard 2-day campaign is 20 wins, and a longer 3-day campaign is 30 wins.

Losses: Unlimited – Awards 0 VP

  • Players can lose an unlimited number of times without affecting their ability to participate.
  • If a player loses or forfeits, they are awarded 0 VP for that battle. This prevents exploitation of the leaderboard score by surrendering or forcing losses.
  • Given there is no participation penalty for a loss, awarding 0 VP does not impede a player’s potential progress, only their time.

Loss Effect: Back 1 Level

  • When a player loses a match, they move back to the previous level (not 2 levels as in the historic standard). This ensures their chances to win are good for each battle and means their ability to score maximally is not overly impeded by facing an under-powered opponent that counts against their win total.
  • If the loss maintained their current level, players would get no “penalty” for losing, as they could continue to fight this higher level without risk, and might even forfeit a sub-optimal battle in favor of retrying for better results.
  • This ensures players always attempt to win the current battle but are not overly penalized for a loss, maintaining a manageable level of difficulty.

Rewards: Leaderboard + Single Milestone

  • Primary rewards will be in a standard leaderboard format. All the above contents ensure the parity and fairness of the results.
  • A milestone will be part of the campaign for getting all 20 wins, although it is not required to place on the leaderboard. This gives a bonus reward for the most successful and engaged players.

Hopefully, this provides a clear picture and plenty of detail about what’s going on behind the scenes, what the new campaign format will look like going forward, and why we decided it’s the best option available. I know there’s been a call for more transparency recently, and longer, more detailed posts like this should help with that. It does mean there’s a lot more to read, so apologies for that!

I’m always happy to talk about this on our livestreams, and I’ll try to be more active in the Discord again, although it has been difficult with increased (and split) responsibilities over the years. That said, I am very confident that this new format will provide the best experience going forward given our restrictions, and I think it should give both a new and yet familiar feel to campaigns that is positive for players at all levels.

Please keep the feedback coming, and I look forward to hearing from you all soon.

Harry/MadEmp