Rumble Run - New Details On Upcoming Solo Content + Looking Back At Adventures
Like with the past few expansions, Hearthstone is getting some new solo content to play through! Here's everything we've learned about the mode so far.
- Rumble Run releases on December 13th, 9 days after the expansion launch.
- Shrines - Passives! They sit on the board giving you a special effect. They can be destroyed, but they will respawn after 3 turns.
- Like other solo content recently added to Hearthstone, successful wins let you add more cards to your run's deck.
- They really want to celebrate each of the teams (classes). Overpowered fights had to be done.
- You will fight eight opponents - all the other teams. Each team has 3 different shrines, and 3 champions so your runs won't always be the same.
- Rikkar is your champion you play with. He evolves over the run. He doesn't have a team to start with, that's up to you.
- You earn "Prize Fighters" for successful clears. Pick your own teammates.
- We'll get to play as the champions in "a series of" Tavern Brawls.
Adventures of Old
- The old way of doing solo content, adventures, didn't work out for them due to not having enough cards for a meta.
- Adventures needed to be easy so everyone could unlock the cards.
- The low replayability of adventures was also a problem that needed to be solved.
Frozen Throne - "Linear Battles"
- Knights of the Frozen Throne was the first expansion with the missions team. They went with the old formula, "linear battles" because it was known to work.
- The Lich King fight originally had you getting trapped into Frostmourne with a janky animation that made your game look like it bugged out.
- During QA of the Lich King fight, it was reported that the "Shut Up, Priest" could be stolen. They used that as an opportunity for an easter egg.
- There were several easter eggs within the Frozen Throne adventure that not many people found.
- One easter egg that didn't have many mentions online was the one when fighting The Lich King as a Paladin, turning yourself into Uther of the Ebon Blade and using hero power allowed him to collect your cards. When at 3 out of 4 Horsemen collected, he would say that it would be embarrassing it would be if he collected them all.
- Making the adventure more challenging then usual due to no card rewards turned out to be a positive. They learned players enjoy the challenge and lots of people played.
Kobolds / Witchwood - "Build As You Go"
- One of the big focuses was to make the content replayable. It's sad when they create content that doesn't get to be seen again.
- Making deckbuilding less intimidating was another priority. Lots of players beat the Lich King thanks to the deck copy feature.
- Increasing the challenge even more than before was their final goal for the modes.
- The initial prototype for Dungeon Run saw you playing as Mage and the entire running being just one very long game.
- When the boss died, the board would be reset, you'd pick your bucket of cards in a discover selection, and the new boss would start.
- A fun bug in the prototype caused Arcane Giant to be playable for 0 mana on turn 1 - they didn't reset the spell count between bosses.
- Thanks to that bug, it lead to the special treasure cards which got stronger as your run continued.
- Originally there were 12 bosses to beat each run instead of the 8 we got. They found the decks were too big and the bosses had too much health though which made it less fun.
- You were able to pick your boss in addition to the loot you got. It felt like a negative experience though if you didn't know what each boss did and you lost to them.
- They experimented with Tower Defense a lot with Witchwood. It's a mechanic they are always trying to get into the game.
- Darius Crowley became Hearthstone's Tower Defense and the first hero added to Monster Hunt.
- The final boss in the Witchwood prototype was Jaraxxus.
- Tess Greymane originally had a hero power which was a bag of weapons. Each time it was used, you would get a weapon out of the bag.
- Handgonne - 1 Mana 4/2
- Stake Thrower - 1 Mana 1/8 with Windfury
- Blunderbuss - 1 Mana 2/2 "Also damages the minions next to whomever your hero attacks.
- The weapons in Tess' bag ran out (there were only 3) and then her hero power became the one we have today, Scavenge.
- Magic Mirror allowed players to "break the dungeon" which is fun. Let the players do it.
Boomsday - "Puzzles"
- They always wanted to add Puzzles to Hearthstone.
- It was important to mix up the solo content after doing "Build As You Go" twice in a row.
- Boomsday thematically lead itself well to Puzzles. This was the set to do it.
- Puzzles originally got their start as a Tavern Brawl 2 years ago. They were Lethal-only puzzles. (We actually datamined this)
- The brawl created new tech that allowed them to save your state - absolutely needed for the real deal.
- Toki's replay turn tech helped out in the Puzzle Lab.
- First thing they tried to make was a Tower Defense puzzle.
- Netherspite laser beams tech was used to try and make a puzzle which required bouncing the beams off minions and into portals.
- Since they couldn't let you take extra turns, they instead gave you mana back to cheat in a multi-turn mechanic.
- Mirror was originally supposed to be seeing the solved board state and then having to replicate it. It was hard to remember in more difficult puzzles, even being able to see the solved state whenever you wanted.
- Sometimes there would be multiple developers behind one computer trying to get through a new puzzle they were given.
- One of the puzzles was accidentally unsolvable thanks to a number change and was given to Chakki shortly after he joined the team. Oops!
- They weren't really replayable, but there was very high engagement. They'll probably return to Puzzles again in the future.
The person writing all these articles really needs to learn the difference between "then" and "than."
And now my post will be downvoted into oblivion, but the grammar policeman inside of me is content. Thank you.
Dam grandma nartsee.
:)
I started after Witchwood release. Loved Dungeon Run and Monster Hunt, probably what got me loving the game so much! Would love to see these more generous, maybe a free pack for your first Dungeon Run/Monster Hunt clear each day (Really, you could obtain 100 gold faster).
Was kind of disappointed there was no great reward for finishing all Dungeon Runs/Hagatha. I think a special legendary (even a memey one) only accessible from conquering a Dungeon Run type campaign would make a lot of sense and be rewarding, especially for new players.
Frozen Throne was fun, but less rewarding. I liked the challenge to beat the Lich King with each class. Not a big fan of alternate portraits, but felt I earnt that alternate paladin when I got him!
I've barely touched the Puzzles. They haven't excited me at all, despite the fact I absolutely loved the Boomsday release.
maybe they should do with new expasions like this:
make adventure that gives you certain cards similar amount to kara/loe/brm/naxx.
and then throw in packs that can contain rest of the set but not cards in adventure
You are made of stupid!
If adventures did not have enough cards, you could, I don't know, maybe ADD MORE CARDS. Ever considered that?!! You could have made a 10 wing adventure, each wing costing 700g and unlocking 12 or so cards, and it would still be cheaper than an expansion, despite being insignificantly smaller.
As far as difficulty and replayability is concerned: You had heroic mode for players who wanted a challenge. And it felt good browsing your collection to figure out how to beat the bosses. Even nowadays, I sometimes like to try out new cards against old bosses, and it's sad that you will never add new bosses again.
And who says that players need to get the cards without any challenge whatsoever? You could actually make players work for the cards. Disregarding the fact, that most bosses can be beaten with cheap decks anyway. One of the best experiences in videogames, one of the core mechanics of every RPG ever is to beat a big boss and get a cool new sword or spell to beat the next big boss. Just like in Dungeon Run.
Speaking of which, here is another idea: Maybe keep a system like Dungeon Run, that is fair despite challenging and open to every player, and make it rewarding nonetheless. How about rewarding players for taking up the challenge? How about allowing players to progress in the game by spending more time in the single-player portion? How about tying the replayability to something worth playing it over and over again aside from one card back? How about FINALLY adding something like achievements? Oh, my mistake, that would actually improve the game and possibly make you earn a little less.
The flimsy excuses for stupid decisions (remember the cancelled tournament mode?) were embarrassing before, but this is almost comedic. Like how hard can you try to justify making the game more and more expensive without ever getting to the only point that really matters - you just want to make more money?
Don't get me wrong, I am all for more cool single-player content. And I'm really excited about the "Rumble Run". Just kinda sad that you are playing as some rookie troll without a team, instead of picking one out of 9 champions (=class) and then challenge the other 8. Also, it's a slight disappointment, that there won't be any final bosses this time around. But the best part about Dungeon Run and Monster Hunt is to make a powerful deck and obliterate powerful bosses, and the Shrines deliver just that. I think these "build your deck" kind of adventures are fun and pretty well made from a game design perspective, and I am looking forward to them every time.
However, please stop treating your playerbase like idiots. You gave up old adventures, because they were too cheap. You could have improved them to be more relevant, more replayable, and more challenging, but you decided instead to just go with expansions where you can sell anything between 50 and 500 packs. Everybody knows. When you then claim that it was "not possible" or "not fun" or whatever, you come across like acting all innocent while secretly rubbing your hands, like a smug villain in a cartoon.
This looks really promising. Dungeon Run was so unbelievably excellent, and Monster Hunt was so disappointing in comparison. I think I beat Dungeon Run at least three times with every class. I still haven't completed Monster Hunt with Toki. The big issue with Monster Hunt was that when you finally had a run where you built an OP deck, it still rarely over-ran the final bosses, and often just got obliterated. The card buckets could also really screw you. It also felt like a larger jump from boss 6 to 7 whereas in Dungeon Run if you didn't have a good deck going, you often got knocked out by 5 or 6. And then while I personally haven't played against Hagatha, she seemed very, very easy from what I watched.
But this sounds like a return to form. 9 classes, 3 shrines/class, and 3 champions/class, plus class-specific prize fighters. Lots and lots of replayability. I hope they balance the bosses. The best example is The Darkness. It's such a tough boss the first time you face him, especially with a very good, but not great deck. But if you have a great deck, you can steamroll him if you play carefully.
"The old way of doing solo content, adventures, didn't work out for them due to not making enough profit"
And the reward will be just a cardback again i think which is a really shitty reward in my opinion .. Thats why i liked adventures better because after completing wings you would get some cards for reward which it felt so much rewarding and you had to actually try and get past every wing.
The reward is a sense of accomplishment and having had fun along the way. Don't forget this content comes as a bonus alongside the expansion, the very fact it is there at all is great, tangible rewards or not.
There was zero 'rewarding feeling' in adventures. You could play the bosses with literally a deck full of basic cards and you would still win. It was just a very drawn out going through the motions.
Regardless, I'd happily pay for an adventure over having an average solo mode. Just saying. I love solo content, and don't mind forking out for it.
It wasn't an reward. You had to BUY expansion and maybe get the cards back. Which was very unlikely with the beginning of the curse of naxxramas. Imagine having only 1/3 of classic set and trying to beat bosses which require specific deck. Imagine trying to climb ladder or simply make some gold, but everyone around already has entire expansion completed.
Geeee what an reward!
Yes but we weren't talking about that, we were talking about 'earning' the cards which didn't need Heroic mode. Heroic Mode was indeed challenging, and rather fun, but let's not pretend that the basic mode was anything other than a drawn out cut scene to give you the cards.
Most people may disagree with me but I personally prefer Dungeon Runs type of modes to Adventure modes. Dungeon Run was really unique design, defeating OP bosses, collecting OP treasurers, having weird interactions etc. I think that with this mode people had a lot of fun with its OP'ness. Like summoning Ragnaros for 5 mana or having 2 2/2 Silverhands in turn 1. I went crazy with this and finished all 9 classes in a week. The only problematic thing was Priest and Mage, which was really hard to finish. But overall It was a refreshing and great experience. Even now, Im still playing and trying to finish the Sword of Qual'delar! But I think they need to add 2 more things which are better rewards (no one is even using the cardback!) and an endless mode for players like me. I always liked RPG games where you gained EXP, became stronger upon each monster. And Dungeon Run made the same experience. But it was like an level cap, of 8. So I would be grateful if they added these.
I agree with you! This is the only solo content I've gone back and replayed after finishing. My favorite deck was getting the "Your weapons cost 1" power after the first game... and then immediately getting a package with 2x Vinecleaver!
Same dude! Getting Scepter of Summoning with having tons of Recruits were really awesome! I really do not get why people want to play pay to play battles with 0 replayability. I own 3 adventures so far and I finished Heroic on 2. Since then, I did not even click on them. But I have played Dungeon Run yesterday. Adventures also lack balance in game. Im a F2P and I can not get and adventure immediately. And if that adventure has an meta card or an OP card, I can not even race with them in Standard mode. I really think that doing Run themed modes were their best idea. Becuase players got really bored of the same Expansion, Tavern Arena modes, I believe. They want to see new and unique things. Isn't this one of the reasons of the decline in HS?
Infinite mode sounds cool, but is probably hard to implement. The bosses are designed and balanced in a way that you would have a reasonable chance to beat them given how many bosses you fought before. You can't really make them scale infinitely without things getting easier over time. The hero power would have to get better every time, the deck size would have to increase (which cards get multiplied?) and only a few bosses are even intended for later in the run, so you would not have a lot of variety when going infinite.
One way could be that you get back to the first boss and start all over again, keeping your deck, but all bosses get permanent bonuses as well, like the +1/+1 for all minions, or an extra mana crystal at the start, or making all your minions cost 1 more etc.
Would be nice to test it out, but making that work out well is probably harder than it sounds in a game like Hearthstone. It's not like some action RPGs where you can just scale damage, health and perhaps enemy numbers and see how long the player is able to keep up.
yes for endless mode
sometimes you make bomb-ass deck and want to try with the hardess bosses but your journey finish abruptly
The only way to consistently beat DR as Priest, is to pick C'thun every time is available
"The old way of doing solo content, adventures, didn't work out for them due to not having enough cards for a meta."
*laughs in Reno Jackson*