Magic: Legends recently released its Open Beta for PC, and the ARPG from Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios has received some harsh reviews, but it looks like the developers are aiming to improve the game with the upcoming update this Thursday.
In a State of the Game blog post published today, Magic: Legends Executive Producer Steve Ricossa talked about what the developers are bringing in April 1's update, and what they're targeting next on their journey to full launch. In addition to the technical fixes and gameplay improvements, the Dimir Assassin class will now appear as the level 50 reward in both tracks of the Battlepass (alongside continued availability in the Booster Pack), and they're officially doubling the spell drop rate from enemies throughout overworlds, ordeals, and missions.
"This past Monday, we delivered a build that solved one of the larger known navmesh issues, and another that revolved around the Nemesis Mask's triggered effects resulting in stalls," Ricossa said on improving the game's performance. "We still have a lot of fixes to make, but these two were causing immediate issues. As our investigations have continued regarding performance, we've discovered more optimization opportunities within the foliage of the Tazeem environment, with our shadow tech, and even further adjustments of our navmesh tech. With the huge number of players in the game, we are getting valuable data and discovering great opportunities to see where the performance issues are and get them fixed."
As for the Battlepass, Ricossa addressed the issue of players stumbling through quests that can't be completed as they progresssed through the Battlepass, he said that the entire community will be granted Battlepass XP equal to 7 daily Battlepass quests plus one Weekly quest.
Ricossa also mentioned the dev team's efforts to reduce overall time to complete the tutorial in Tazeem, as well as a number of fixes - including an onboarding skip function - to bring the core gameplay faster to new players.
Ricossa also talked about what they're doing to help balance the builds and combinations players are discovering in the game. "We're actively taking a look at the biggest issues that are popping up with different deck combos, synergies, things that are overpowered or underpowered," Ricossa said. "Some of the combinations you've been pulling together are things we have never seen before, which is exciting for the team and is something we've been looking forward to. We're going to continue to keep an eye out for spells and/or loadouts that are under or overperforming to make sure that the game's variety of approaches stays as close to balanced as possible.."
Hopefully, the next update will significantly improve the overall gameplay experience. Magic: Legends didn't have a great start, with players expressing their complaints in the first few days since the Open Beta launched last week: problems with monetization as well as design and technical complaints. Twitch streamer Day9 has criticized the game's card draw system, calling it "anti-fun". You can watch his reaction here.
Here's the official description for Magic: Legends:
An ancient force moves in the darkness, requiring adventurers to traverse various planes of the Magic: The Gathering Multiverse and gather the power needed to fight this evil. Developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Perfect World Entertainment, players will choose their path through the planes while collecting and upgrading a multitude of spells to create a powerful spell library. Players control the chaos of spell-slinging combat as they fight to save the Multiverse from its greatest threats yet.
Magic: Legends Open Beta is now available on PC. It will be available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One when it officially launches later this year. Don't forget to check out more details about the Open Beta here.
Related:Magic: Legends Reveals 5 Regional Reputations
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Magic: the Gathering