asktyrantunleashed-blog

[asktyrantunleashed-blog]

Hi, Ojutai. I have found that most of Righteous are bold and have a blue skin. But some of them are not. Why? Is the blueness some kind of radiation or what? ~ DemonUrg

Hey Demonurg!Righteous are mostly human, but there are effects that come with constant exposure to the Pantheon and Sentinels. Furthermore some Righteous have cybernetic/sentinel enhancements (such as Arkadios). The blue skin that some Righteous possess isn’t radiation but it isn’t exactly known what it is, though it does grant them power - they see it as a blessing that is bestowed upon them by the Sentinels. Some are still granted power but don’t have this effect, primarily because they are completely human with no or little cybernetic/sentinel enhancements. The more time that one spends with Sentinel technology and the more they incorporate themselves with that technology the more likely they are to show this blue skin.Thanks for the question! :)

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Hey Ojutai, the recent Tyrant Unleashed roadmap included no dialogue for the Warriors of Ragnarok event, which was really depressing because the story for tyrant unleashed was always so interesting, it's one of the things I always look forward to. My question is, how will information be portrayed in the story for those interested in it? Will this be done for future roadmaps? Do you guys have better ways to convey the story to us? -Micatesun.

Hey there Micatesun!The event dialog was just not doing a good job of moving the story forward in a way we liked. We plan on continuing to further the story through our Raids and events just not in the form of dialog. I also love the story, but the way our events tell them have become a bit too formulaic due to the requirements of the game. We’ll always keep an eye out for ways to make interesting lore though without having to maintain a status quo in how we deliver that story.Thank you for writing! :)

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I'v got no Cyrus in my cards and I can't unlock tier 2 commanders because of Cyrus absence, I guess. How can I get him or what to do if there is no way to acquire him in game?

That is an interesting issue since Cyrus is the commander you start with! Please send our support team a message and we’ll work with you to resolve the issue. https://support.synapsegames.com 

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Are the joke cards (like Ballroom Blitzplate and Gil's Shard) ever going to have a use, or are they safely salvageable?

Hey there!I would say they are “safely salvageable”. They were made mostly as neat little trophies that could provide a Salvage boost. Feel free to use them to build new and better cards or hold on to them if you like them. :)

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Hi, Ojutai. Demonurg here, again trying to find what else could be brought into TU from other ccg games. So, have you ever considered of implementing some kind of foil cards? How this could look like in TU? Animation, special frame?

Hey Demonurg!We did actually consider something like this, and our technical artist even made a sweet example!

https://imgur.com/5nvRBed

Sorry for the gif quality, the original was bigger but this was the best I could get made quickly.Anyways! We did look into doing something like this using a shader, I would expect that if we had we would have also extended it to a special frame as well (though we did end up making a special frame when we made the Mythic rarity!).As far as why it wasn’t done, the powers that be have never really liked cosmetics. My understanding is we tried it in original Tyrant and it was a mess that was not worth it. Whether we’ll do something like that in the future though is unknown, most of the team is super for these types of neat additions.

[asktyrantunleashed-blog]

Hi Ojutai. Every player playing TU is taking a role of a commander leading his/her squad to the battle. And I always wondered how it could be that units of one faction are fighting in the same squad along with another faction units. I can imagine that Raider seized some Bloodthirsty bests or Progenitor tech. But what about others? Have you and other devs ever thought of this? Maybe you even have a clear reason for this in mind? ~ Demonurg

Hey Demonurg!At this point I think we’ve had a lot of different unlikely alliances across Factions. As far as why a specific selection in a player’s deck makes sense... it is a game. There are some things we don’t explicitly give storyline to. But I’m happy to recount some of the different alliances I remember that have gone cross faction:Imperials and Raiders (multiple times, Yurich is a traitor sometimes)Imperials, Raiders, and Righteous (Set aside differences to defeat a common enemy in Typhon’s ultimate form)Imperials and Xeno (Current events, due to the changes Octane has undergone)As far as I know... we haven’t explicitly done Imperials + Bloodthirsty.Raiders and Bloodthirsty (Multiple occasions, primarily due to Typhon’s thirst for power)Raiders and Xeno (They salvaged Xeno tech and used it for their own means)Bloodthirsty don’t really align with others, though they are happy to assume control of them. They once controlled a bunch of Righteous, Raiders, and others.Xeno primarily stick to themselves though others will steal their advanced tech from time to time. They aren’t above making alliances though where they have an upper hand.Righteous, they only ever make alliances with the human Factions, but there are sects like the Nephilim that believe otherwise (Righteous +Bloodthirsty as well)Progenitors have at one time or another been in control of all other factions, but no one has teamed up with them.There’s very likely times I am missing here or understating, there’s a lot of lore. But every Commander is in charge of how they make their squad - even if it means making previously mortal enemies work together for their gain.Thanks for the question!

[asktyrantunleashed-blog]

I am a great fan of tyrant and was wondering if it would be possible to send cards from your other tyrant accounts to another ? It would be fun but that's Up to you 😊

Hey there!Unfortunately we don’t allow for systems like this because they tend to be open to abuse. If you are having trouble with an account though be sure to send a ticket in to our support team at http://support.synapsegames.com 

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Hi, Ojutai. Players have mentioned that new cards from the latest boxesand caches has a single image. Is it intention to reduce artists' work, or it is something temporary? Also it seems that most of the latest images contains more detailed things than before. Is it result of some new approach to art creation? ~Demonurg

Hey Demonurg!We did reduce the number of scene arts for new cards, for exactly those reasons. It reduces overall work, allows for the artist to make a more interesting/realistic or special image while overall reducing the cost. We’ve also been experimenting with lots of new methods and styles that help us make interesting concepts we otherwise wouldn’t have the time to do if we’re making two arts for each card. Ultimately it came down to I would rather make one cool thing than two okay things. It gives our art team the room needed to really innovate, make beautiful art, while remaining in a realistic work load.Hopefully folks like how they’ve been turning out, we’ll continue to refine our processes as time goes on to make the most of our current systems.

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Hi, Ojutai!Have you ever planned to make a limited series of merch things like t-shirts or posters branded with TU,maybe not for selling but as prizes.I think there are lot of people who would like to get one with favourite character like Typhon or Kylen.I know you said that most of game art is not appropriate for printing and such things,but I think that it could be done with a low effort. It could be the greatest goal to achieve for people who are not interest in current top prizes in Brawls.

Hey there!I’m personally very interested in limited print run merch as prizes or for sale in our games. That said, it is not currently a company priority. I bring it up every once in a while but there are a lot of logistical issues and challenges to making something like that work. The biggest challenges are typically production and shipping costs because our games are played worldwide. Some companies get around this by limiting the territories that can claim products or winnings but that can feel really bad for folks that aren’t in those regions. So, its something I spend a bit of time thinking about - I’d love for us to make neat things for folks. We’ve tried a few different runs of 3D printing characters and some of them have turned out pretty neat, but nothing we could effectively produce and ship.All of that to say, maybe some day. The stars would have to align, but we share your desire. Pic related:

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Hi, Ojutai! Demonurg here again with another question about cards design process. I have already asked about Xenos' card names. Now I want to ask about card names in general. How do you design them? Do you arrange some kind of brainstorm? Is it only storywriters' task or developers participate this process as well? Do you take a look at cards first before giving them names? Do you have a list of do's and donot's? Do you use some tools to prevent repeating?

Hey Demonurg!Typically this is something that only the designers work on, though if there is one that we really want to get right (like a new very special character or very important card) we sometimes bring in designers of the other games to discuss, although that doesn’t happen too frequently. In normal card design the process consists of taking the art, finding inspiration, and then taking that inspiration to find a good name. Its not a standardized process by any means so I can talk about how I typically approach it but others likely differ.If the art is already available, which most of the time it is (though in the past there were times this was not the case), I will look at the art and try to find something about it that resonates with me. If I am unable to find something very interesting about it (let me tell you how many times I have named a tank), I’ll try to think of how it integrates with the world/story. What is this thing, and why is it here? This can be challenging, and sometimes necessitates creating design space for it to exist - such as referencing characters or places currently lightly or not referenced elsewhere. As mentioned previously we take a lot of inspiration from popular culture, lore, and mythos. Depending on the faction I may spend some time looking into interesting characters from different ancient mythologies (Greek, Norse, Japanese, Sumerian, anything really!) and finding something that feels good there as a base. Other times I may be trying to tie a card to a specific character or event in the game already. It really depends on the significance of the card and the detail of the art.We try to find our own original takes on things generally, our only real donot’s is don’t directly reference copywritten media (although light references are okay so long as we’re not using other people’s properties), avoid words that would be considered inappropriate for the game’s age rating (Hellwing is okay but Fuckwing is a definite no). Aside from that try not repeat the name - which we do by simply searching for the name in our database. We’re okay repeating some of the secondary words, usually more descriptive, whereas we try to not duplicate what I would call the core word (if there is one such as a pronoun) So like we could have “Strong Hansel”, and “Strong Gretel”, but we wouldn’t want to have two different Hansel or Gretel cards. Hopefully that makes sense.Overall our best tools for naming cards are thesauruses and literary references, I typically spend a lot of time on wikipedia.There are times we just completely make up words though. (Yaw’oth’rugo is a great example of something I completely made up, though there was still inspiration in Cthulhu sounding words... or some of the weird ones like Baughe. Don’t ask, that one wasn’t me, and there is no right way to say it).

[asktyrantunleashed-blog]

Hi, Ojutai. I have long ago noticed that some or even most card image assets have funny names. Whose idea was it? Does anyone validate these names? Or is it a intended attempt to bring a bit of humor into the grim darkness of TU?) -- Demonurg

Hey Demonurg!Card art names can be pretty funny some times. They are decided basically at the whim of the artist working on them, the only requirement we place on them is that they not be “inappropriate”, that they be unique, and that they (hopefully) follow the same format for implementation. But otherwise we let them go wild! And they have made some pretty funny ones over the years, either to entertain themselves or us. Since we don’t surface them to players we don’t name the images intentionally often unless they are a specific character (like a raid boss). I’ve always enjoyed some of the BT art names the most personally.Thanks for the question!

[asktyrantunleashed-blog]

Hi.How do you and your team feel about boxes and base fusions spoilers published by community members?Do you think they are useless?It seems community in most cases like to discuss and even probably to have a chance to influence the release(though in most cases with no success).Why does not your team post it?And you do not encourage community to do that.On the other hand,if you do not want it to be posted why do not you prevent it?It is said you even hired MK to make him keep silence)

Hey there!First off, we did not hire MK to silence him, we hired him because he has proven himself a great designer and knows our games very well. It was originally an internship that turned into a full time opportunity. The only reason he is typically less engaged than he used to be is because he is doing his job. There are things we’re not allowed to talk about, because of non-disclosure agreements, but its not anything he was previously privy to.We take all suggestions when it comes to stats with a grain of salt. Typically if people dislike the numbers attributed with something a great deal we will re-evaluate a card based on that reaction, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll change anything or even what folks want changed. It ultimately comes down to what we decide is right for the card and is thus on a case-by-case basis. The trick to designing a game isn’t making the changes people request, its finding the reason why they request them and changing that, sometimes it aligns but often times it does not. We don’t mind feedback, and in fact we love it for the most part, but due to the content release structure we don’t take the time to prepare preview posts largely because it has always been a community effort and we prefer to spend our time working on the cards themselves. You’re more than welcome to discuss the cards found in XML beforehand, or cards we’ve already released. It helps us plan our future releases. :)Thanks for the question!

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Hey Oju, I was wondering what your intention was with the Silus Raid? Did you try make it that hard on purporse to give a tough challenge or was is some kind of miscalculation concerning the BGE/ Commander combo? I'm just curious, because this raid was just exceptionelly hard and there's a lot of talk going on on LINE and forums. Would be really nice to get your side about it.

Hey there!All Raids are intended to be difficult. The ones that are not difficult are much bigger failures than ones that are too difficult. That said, I would say the mid level balance needed more tuning. I think the early levels and the late levels were about where I would have wanted them having looked at the win-rate data and comparing it to other raids. The issue there is largely related to how scaling BGEs work, being more linear in scaling which is why we’re going to retire using that sort of effect for normal raids.We are planning on making some overhauls in how raids are developed and designed. They take a significant amount of time compared to other content which means typically having less time to balance effectively considering they typically use new skills and try to do things in different ways to stay interesting. Especially given our already tight resources these sorts of “miscalculations” can happen. There are some systemic issues with how they are made as well, but we’re going to solve those issues in other ways more likely - unfortunately I can’t talk much about that right now but its something we’re discussing internally.Thanks for the question!

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Hi, Ojutai. I would like to find out the whole history of Ashrok. History and social hierarchy of factions. What would you recommend to start from and where i can find out more if I will want to dig deeper? Thanks! -- Big Turant Fun

Hey there!I would recommend checking out the wonderful community provided “Story” page on the Wiki. It is pretty comprehensive of all the story we’ve told so far.http://tyrantunleashed.wikia.com/wiki/StoryThanks for being a fan. :)

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This might have been asked already but are there plans to release f2p mythic fusions?

It’s something I could see us doing some day, but it is not currently planned. We would have to solve a lot of things for it. Material costs, how to get the required materials and the like. Also something like that might start dipping into “too expensive to be worth it” for most folks to save up for. I think that we would introduce more mythic quests before mythic fusions.

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When do you think the commanders will get updated art? I know that some would be easier to update than others (for example, Nexor the Farseer could benefit from the Advisor Nexor art.) Is there any chance of an art update happening at the same time as the skill update for player-obtainable commanders?

We’re a ways off still, but the plan is that eventually we’ll do enough events with updated character art to be able to update the whole roster as a big commander update.

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Any chance we can revist the brawl rule that one can't match against guildmates? The rule gives huge a huge advantage to the already top guild(s) for a couple of reasons. 1)With so much power in DT, those guys get a huge advantage from not having to face each other (~50 top 100 decks they don't have to face). 2)All of the top 5 guilds have sim gauntlets made up of all real competitor decks anyway, so they are not losing any advantage of knowing their opponent's deck.

We’re always open to revisiting matchmaking restrictions like this, though I imagine there would have to be a pretty significant call for it among those affected considering this is what got the restriction put in place originally. I am personally in favor of changing it, but it has a pretty heavy negative user experience for those players. So, I am saying there is a chance, but it is low.