1.0.6 Notes

COMING SOON: APP UPDATE 1.0.6

We’re about a week away from the next app update. But it’s been a while, so I wanted to take a second to preview what’s to come …

INTRODUCING MATCH ACCEPT

Update 1.06 focuses primarily on player pain and performance issues. The biggest reported pain point is match AFKs, resulting in 2v3s and 1v3s. We are very sensitive to this issue, and we’re not done addressing it. But as a first step, we want to wipe out AFKs from match start. That’s what Match Accept is for.

You’ll join the Public Queue just as you do now, but before a match starts, the Matchmaker will first ask you to “accept” the match being formed. If you fail to respond or decline the match, all other players will be returned to the Public Match queue, with priority for the next match formed. Making players accept matches confirms that they’re present and ready to play. In addition, we’ve fixed a bug that sometimes caused players to not enter a match properly. Between these two things, we believe the vast majority of match-start AFKs will be resolved.

We know that doesn’t address mid-match leavers, and we’ll be addressing that separately. Just know we care about leavers A LOT and won’t stop until our dedicated players are consistently having great 3v3 matches with teammates and opponents at their skill level.

GAMEPLAY CHANGES

Catherine has a new Heroic Perk: Panzer Faust – Gain 2 armor permanently whenever she stuns or silences an enemy hero with her abilities. Her armor gain per level has been reduced from 8 to 5.

“Catherine’s old Heroic Perk was designed when her kit worked very differently. With this new perk, we clearly define her role as an aggressive roamer who can farm armor while her teammates farm gold.”

Breaking Point remake: Now grants health and escalating weapon power + armor pierce over time.

“Breaking Point was originally designed to be an anti-tank weapon. It turns out that providing simple armor pierce made it equally strong against squishies as well. The new design is focused on the antithesis of burst: an unrelenting escalation of damage as the team-fight rages on. The longer the fight, the higher your damage—and as it turns out, tanky enemies make for longer fights! When choosing between Bonesaw and Breaking Point, remember that Bonesaw amplifies both yours and your teammates’ damage, while Breaking Point only amplifies your own. Bonesaw is often the better armor piercing item, but Breaking Point is superior in long team-fights.”

Spawn platform invulnerability: The longer you stand on the platform, the more invulnerable you become.

“AFKs are annoying enough without the enemy team getting free kills on idle heroes sitting on platform in the late game.”

BALANCE CHANGES

Aftershock max % damage lowered from 22% to 20%, energy recharge lowered from 3.5 to 2.4, and crystal power lowered from 45 to 35.

“Aftershock was becoming a go-to item for almost every single character in the game. It often eliminated buying health as an option the moment an opponent builds an Aftershock. We wanted to keep most of the power of this item, but shave off some of its side benefits.”

Tension Bow base damage removed (was 60), but Weapon ratio raised from 0.65 to 0.85.

“This item is now great for anyone dedicated to building lots of weapon power, instead of being a nice pickup for practically everyone.”

Active ability removed from Serpent Mask; gains 20 weapon power instead.

“We found that managing the active from Serpent Mask was too cumbersome, especially given how frantically weapon carries need to kite & reposition during combat.”

Glaive’s Bloodsong damage-per-stack lowered from 8 + 8 per level to 8 + 6 per level.

“Glaive’s burst from this item was simply too high, and it became a no-brainer to pop Bloodsong in almost every situation. We want the use of this ability to be a careful tradeoff between damage now, and lifesteal later.”

Clockwork energy recharge lowered from 4.5 to 2.4.

“As the strongest cooldown item in the game, this item provided so much energy recharge that it removed energy management as an issue for most heroes. We want focusing on cooldown to have a clear downside, that being energy constraints.”

Shiversteel health lowered from 800 to 600.

“This item was too strong as both the highest health item in the game, and having one of the strongest active abilities.”

Koshka’s pounce damage @ level 5 lowered from 470 to 440, twirl bonus attack damage @ level 5 lowered from 290 to 270.

“Her base damage was too high. A full-tank Koshka was still able to assassinate squishies too easily and still be the mega tank for her team.”

Petal pets’ damage crystal ratio raised from 0.35 to 0.45; Petal pets’ health crystal ratio raised from 0.33 to 0.40; Petal seed healing @ level 5 lowered from 15 to 13.

“Across the board, we found Crystal Petal to be too weak, with the one saving grace being her healing seeds. We’re shifting some of that power to her pets and buffing their crystal scaling overall. Weapon Petal is fine, by the way.”

Warhorn cooldown increased from 25 seconds to 30 seconds

“The cooldown might even be increased more as we keep a close eye on this item. For now, a smallish nerf.”

Frostburn & Eve of Harvest energy lowered from 300 to 250, recharge from 6.0 to 5.0.

“Buying either of these completely removed energy management from the equation for many characters. We want to keep the innate strength of these items untouched but add back some energy constraints.”

A NEW GAME NAME!

We’re going to save the reveal for the release of version 1.06, but Kindred will have an awesome new game name. There are a number of reasons for this. Ultimately, Kindred was always intended to be our working title for the game during internal development. Honestly, we should have probably revealed the new name sooner, but we didn’t realize the player base would grow so rapidly while we were still so new! Sorry to anyone who has grown attached to the name “Kindred: Asunder.” We hope you love the new name as much as we do and enjoy how it’s integrated into the game world. More about this soon …

PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENTS

You’ll get the full lowdown when 1.06 releases. The two main callouts are:

• For anyone seeing a “Are You Connected to WiFi?” message, we’ve resolved this for most reported cases.

• The infamous “Double Catherine” bug is fixed. No more two (or three) of the same hero! Hope you enjoyed the wackiness while it lasted!

UPDATE 1.0.6: A NEW GAME NAME & BIG MILESTONES

APR 08, 2014

App update 1.06 brings with it a number of important milestones as we make this party bigger, stronger and louder.

First off, this update introduces players to the game’s real, official name—finally shedding our working title of more than two years. This had to happen immediately because of the amazing growth that’s happening in the player base.

That’s the next milestone: We’ve expanded into the Philippines, where San Pablo, Laguna, native Chainsaw welcomed a huge audience that has been absolutely devouring matches. Just over the past weekend, our player base and match rate has jumped more than 30%, which means more players to get into matches with much faster match times.

We’re also taking a big step forward in eliminating AFKs with Match Accept, which SurpriseBirthday explains below.

We’re listening … and it’s happening. Step by step, inch by inch, together we’ll make this game better with each update. So, keep telling us what you want in the forums, and we’ll keep delivering and expanding as quickly as possible!

—PlayoffBeard

A NEW GAME NAME: ‘KINDRED’ IS NOW ‘VAINGLORY’

We are incredibly excited to at last reveal the real name of the game you know as Kindred: Asunder … and that name is Vainglory.

Kindred was the internal, working title of the game for more than two years, and it was never intended to be the official name for a variety of reasons both creative and logistical. With the player base growing so rapidly, it became obvious we needed to make this change public … and fast … before players became too attached to the old name. If you already have a soft spot in your heart for Kindred: Asunder, we feel you, but we hope when you see where this is going you’ll get as psyched as we are.

First, we love the feel and multiple meanings of the word. Vainglory is a real dictionary word that speaks to that unbridled confidence we share heading into a match—that you and your two best friends will take on the world and emerge victorious. Deep down you feel it … that you are a god amongst men—unbeatable, unstoppable and will crush all comers. Of course, there’s also that other feeling, realizing you’ve stepped into a real fight where you’ll need to throw in everything you’ve got to squeeze out a victory. But c’mon, it’s the tough battles that leave scars that become the stories worth retelling.

Secondly, the new name has implications for the game map and lore. Coinciding with this, we are officially naming the crystals in each base Vain crystals. You’ll hear us regularly referring to these as the Vain or Vain crystal from now on. Shatter the Vain. Win the Game … and get the glory.

We also love what player hunny_bunch1 wrote in the forums:

““Vainglory, it’s like ‘die in vain’ or ‘die in glory.’ Or, like ‘win in glory, lose in vain.’ … The name makes me want to play right now. …” ”

— hunny_bunch1

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!

We’re also going to find other “moments” within the game to weave the feeling and language of Vainglory into your play experience.

One more thing: You likely already saw the new game logo on the main menu, including what we nicknamed the “dagger O.” We’ve updated the compass rose in the middle of the Halcyon Fold lane to incorporate this “dagger O” shape as an extra Easter egg.

We know some people are going to love the heroic feel of Vainglory … and some people are going to want to go back to Kindred. This is one of those things where we can’t please everyone. But our hope is that the word Vainglory is redefined to stand for our in-game action and amazing player community. When people think Vainglory, they’ll think about badass heroes, insane team-fights and clutch Kraken steals the same way you think Master Chief and interstellar war when you think Halo.

Thanks to players like NeoCharles (more than 350 matches played already!) and zonkerou and PartyGod and Toilets and IDecimus and Rwrit3r and so many more, we are together building a game and community that’s something very special.

This is a 3-real-players vs. 3-real-players online multiplayer game. It’s nothing without players like you … and it’s 100% for you. We hope you love it, and we hope you love the new name.

See you in the Halcyon Fold. And may your next match be vainglorious!

NEW VISUALS: VAIN CRYSTALS & MORE

• We’ve updated the look of the giant crystal in the Home Team and Away Team bases. These are now known as Vain crystals, accompanying the new game name, Vainglory. There’s also an extra Easter egg: The compass symbol in the middle of the Halcyon Fold lane now looks like the Vainglory logo!

• Not to be forgotten, Ringo also has a new run-fast animation! Try it out.

INTRODUCING MATCH ACCEPT

When a match is found, everyone will have 10 seconds to confirm they are present and ready to play.