HEX Update – Entrath’s Alive!

PVE is here! Campaign launched this past Tuesday to great success. We’ve broken all sorts of records as all of you players dive into the world of Entrath. Thank you for making this an amazing week for HEX! If you haven’t played yet and are due Kickstarter rewards, last week’s update will help you with account creation and getting your rewards.

Latency

Lag, or its far more business-speak-friendly term “latency issues,” is our primary focus at this time. We’ve reduced the lag experienced by players through hotfixes on Wednesday and Thursday. We have more improvements in development, and we’ll continue to monitor performance throughout the weekend.

Development and Tweaks

One of our hotfixes also implemented some development tweaks. We increased the quantities of some of the unique AI-only PVE cards in their respective decks, and sprinkled in some more surprises in the later AZ1 fights.

This is a great time to remind everyone that while PVP cards will not change once released, anything PVE— cards, equipment, and encounters— are subject to change. This includes cards that can be owned by players. It comes down to the fact that there are virtually infinite combinations available to players in our game when taking cards and equipment into consideration. We certainly test and tune PVE, but it’s not possible in the way that we balance tournament PVP.

And that’s part of the appeal for PVE—it’s this crazy place where so much more is possible because of many reasons, one of which is that the opponent’s enjoyment of the game doesn’t have to be taken into consideration. The computer doesn’t care if you have the board locked up for 30 turns in a row. We can put a much wider range of effects into PVE.

We don’t change cards just because they’re powerful—but that is one of the vectors by which we evaluate if something’s better off being changed. And we certainly don’t take pleasure in changing cards. In some cases, we’ll have to change PVE cards in order to maintain the integrity of the game and the PVE experience. So, buyer beware!

MMORPG – Hands-On Preview

“Wait a minute,” I said to myself. “Am I playing the same game?” I could hardly believe it. The intro quest went on to walk me through a series of turn-based battles where card and resource usage were explained to me and from which I actually gained some meaningful understanding of the game. I was also able to move around a beautiful map, choose my objectives and engage in interesting dialog with a variety of strange characters. For an RPG player like me, it gave combat what it desperately needed—context and purpose.

As part of our press day, MMORPG came by and took a look at Chronicles of Entrath. Check out what they have to say about the campaign launch!

$100k Tournament – Now Free to Attend!

We have some exciting news, if you’re planning on attending the finals in-person, tickets are free! All you have to do is show up at ESports Arena on March 5th and 6th. We wanted to let you know that we discussed this internally and decided that we’d like to waive the ticket fee to attend the HEX Invitational at eSports Arena. We’ve refunded each attendee who purchased a ticket via eventbrite and apologize for any inconvenience or confusions this may have caused.

We think the experience should be free and we’d rather that you spend some money on the beautiful HEX merchandise offered there instead. These items will be exclusive to the finals! We look forward to seeing everyone there! You can read more about eSports Arena here.

VIP

VIP weekend is also here! This month is your first chance to win the alternate art Minion of Yazukan and alternate art Crocosaur! The format is Sealed Deck, so you don’t even have to build a constructed deck in order to play. We did a very, very small number of players who experienced an issue with their round completing, but other matches were not affected and we don’t believe that the remaining tournaments over the weekend will encounter that issue. So, take a look at the tournament times below and get those AAs!

Start times listed in CET below:

Friday: 19:00

Saturday: 04:00, 12:00, 20:00

Sunday: 03:00, 18:00

Start times listed in PST below:

Friday: 10:00 AM, 7:00 PM

Saturday: 3:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 6:00 PM

Sunday: 9:00 AM

Start times listed in EST below:

Friday: 1:00 PM, 10:00 PM

Saturday: 6:00 AM, 2:00 PM, 9:00 PM

Sunday: 12:00 PM

If you are not yet a HEX VIP and don’t want to miss out on these tournaments, you should definitely become one. Head to the in-game store and choose 1 month, 3 months, or 12 months. With your purchase, you get a pack per week of the current set plus tickets to allow entry into these events (tournament entry fees still apply). Players who sign up for the full year also get the exclusive Cerulean Mirror Knight Alternate Art sleeve! See the VIP FAQ for more information.

That’s all for this week. Please leave any questions or comments in the forums, and don’t forget to Follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitch, and register on our forums.

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