Update: It's all about the Orbs!

[[K] Hugo]

Dear Psy Captains,

Welcome to our third patch notes! Here is the latest information we can give you about MGG’s upcoming update!

NEW FEATURE:ORBS
Psy Captains, we are glad to announce you that a brand new kind of item will be added to the game soon: ORBS!

This important update aims to add a new dimension to the game - customization of the mutants - as well as a new layer of strategy to be victorious in the arena.

What is an ORB in Mutants: Genetic Gladiators?

An orb is an item which can be equipped on a mutant, producing an impact on its stats.

What orb types will be available in the game?

There will be two main categories:

Normal Orbs:
These ones can boost the Attack, Health and improve the chance to land a "Critical" o a creature. They can also improve your mutant's original ability.

Here are 2 examples of Normal Orbs you will be able to equip:

• "Attack +10%" - increases the damage of this creature by 10%,
• "Shield +20%" will increase damage resistance when the ability Shield is triggered.

Special Orbs:
Some of them will allow you to add a second ability to a mutant, such as Retaliate, Shield, or any other. Last but not least, a Special Speed Orb will allow you to increase the Speed of a mutant!

The orbs will be available in several versions, each one offering different percentages - For example, some orbs will increase Health by 5% or 10% .

Can every mutant be equipped with orbs?

Yes, all creatures can be equipped with at least 1 Normal Orb.

How many orbs can be equipped on a mutant?

The number of orbs you can equip, depends on the rarity and type of mutant.
While a basic mutant can have 1 Normal Orb, more uncommon creatures (like Legendary mutants, for instance), will be able to hold up to 2 Normal Orbs and 1 Special Orb!

Once an Orb has been equipped on a mutant, can I remove it and equip it on another creature?

Once an Orb has been equipped, it cannot be removed - it can only be replaced by a new orb - the previous one will be destroyed.

How can I get orbs?

There will be many ways to get a hold of orbs:

• Orbs will also be purchasable in the shop.
• Some orbs randomly appear in Mystery Gifts sent between players.
• Others will be rewards of Global Tournament or Events.
  

EDIT: Please note this will be a step by step process. Initially the orbs will only be available in the Shop.

How to equip an Orb on a mutant?

1. Open the profile of the creature you want to equip.
2. Click an orb slot at the bottom of the mutant's picture.
3. Using the panel on the left, choose the orb you want to equip and confirm.

Here is a short video showing these easy steps: VIDEO

OTHER CHANGES

• REACTOR: Both on Facebook or mobile devices, any spin made using Gold in the reactor now grants you a mutant you don't already own (if you did not complete the collection yet, of course). [This is already in game]
  
  
• GLOBAL TOURNAMENT: Just like on Facebook, mobile players will now see the "Sum of Level" of the opponent right before a Global Tournament fight.
  
  
• Improvement of the stability of the game - both on the Facebook Desktop and Mobile versions of the game.
  
  
• Correction of other minor bugs.

_______________________


We expect this update to go live between this week and the next (we will keep you informed in regards to potential changes)

If you ask questions about this update, feel free to ask in this thread.

Last but not least redeem today's gift! -> http://bit.ly/1Os8ckP


Cheers,
The MGG Team

[Howard]

I just want to say, wow, this is a great update. I look forward to see this live.

I love the special orb idea, it is similar to my idea of when doing the Beta testing for the abilities; instead of it being dependent on genes and the mutant, have abilities as equip-able.

Is the sum of level for mobile already implemented? or is it going to be with the new update?

Also, anything on Bingo?

[[K] Hugo]

Hey Howard, glad to hear!

The sum of level will be in game in a couple of days, as well as the orbs :)

[Ameen Saadi]

Well, its nice to here a bout new update :positive:. Good job Good hard work.

Best regards,
Ameen

[Unregistered]

i don't like the idea of orbs.. games should be something to get relax on your everyday's work.. but if this game is going to be more calculative & heavy on brain to play.. then i might have to stop playing.. sorry to say but battle calculations s/b easy so that playing this game w/b more fun rather than calculations...

[Roki]

Kobojo great job and can you please put some new mutants in PvP or PvE and i know we already said that million times but its a good thing for game.....other Psy Captains also agree with this

P.S i know that you've been bored with this post

[Matthew Sherry]

So just equip my already pay to win legendary mutants with a Boost Orb and 2 other orbs to increase health and damage. If they already have boost just give them the shield ability. System isn't even out yet and I can already see it being broken. You give us this and still do nothing to PVP? The broken PVP which forces everyone to use Saber and Zoo 1st gene mutants and nothing else? I'm not grateful for adding more content to the game to give us more things to do, I just think you people don't have your priorities straight. There are more important things to be done before giving us new stuff.

[[K] Pogolina]

So just equip my already pay to win legendary mutants with a Boost Orb and 2 other orbs to increase health and damage. If they already have boost just give them the shield ability. System isn't even out yet and I can already see it being broken. You give us this and still do nothing to PVP? The broken PVP which forces everyone to use Saber and Zoo 1st gene mutants and nothing else? I'm not grateful for adding more content to the game to give us more things to do, I just think you people don't have your priorities straight. There are more important things to be done before giving us new stuff.

Hey Matthew,

Thank you for your feedback.

I would like to say that the team is heavily focused on PVP improvements. All the opinions and suggestions that have been sent our way have been discussed and analysed within the team, in order to decide what the most appropriate changes would be. I cannot at this point disclose the improvements we have in the pipeline, but we will make sure to publish a new set of patch notes describing these changes as soon as possible.

[Fra N Cis]

is their expirations of orbs?

[Kenneth Pocaigue]

First I want to say.. this is a great Update!! I Honestly love that we get more in depth strategic gameplay!! It is Close to one of my suggestions I posted prior to Beta testing, actually.. close to a couple iirc.. and I love the Idea of greater dynamic mechanics being implemented!!

But there is a HUGE flaw in this Update... namely ease of acquisition.. among other things.. Let me breakdown some possible repercussions..
I'll start with Acquisition...

How can I get orbs?

There will be many ways to get a hold of orbs:
Some orbs randomly appear in Mystery Gifts sent between players.
Others will be rewards of Global Tournament or Events.
Orbs will also be purchasable in the shop.

1st method is Gifting.. this is all well and good if you have all the friends in the world.. but some players don't have many friends. Especially newer players. This new feature makes PvP non attractive to newer players because they won't be able to amass enough orb gifts with the few friends that they may have. even for some that do have a lot of friends.. I myself have over 200+ friends but barely get 50 gifts in a day.. and I gift daily.. So these orbs better have a pretty darn good rate to be reliably obtained for newer players or players like myself.. Or even Players with massive friends lists due to the nature of the Random Number Generator...
2nd method is Tournaments and PvP.. Tournament events are dull and boring.. seriously.. theres no challenge to it whatsoever.. a lower evo player that has access to the best tags can sleep through these.. over the course of the event duration.. PvP is a different story.. its a harsh battleground.. and USED to be pretty darn fun.. till britany came.. now it is just. click. tag. win. but even with that.. rising in PvP is hard enough as it is.. the existence of Cheaters and Alt accounts... and Of course. BRITANY.. She seriously ruined the metagame.. Easy to win... easy to lose.. with this power creep.. Newer players will have a HARDER time getting into the PvP scene and will generally lose interest in the game when they see how unfogiving it can be.. Token, stars, mutant,,, gold... all those things are great.. but now to put this new Augmentation into the mix.. Makes PvP more desirable.. yet.. near impossible for the new player.. and to a lesser extent the free player..
3rd Method.. Shop.. yep.. this one is the kicker.. the Shop.. Judging by that video.. this feature is pretty costly.. This is the single thing that will destroy the image of the game... Why? Because this hurts the free player really really badly.. it gives and even greater advantage to the paying player.. The buy their gold.. so they essentially can buy their win.. And with that... the gap widens between the paying players and the free players.. I have talked about the health of the free players and their importance in other threads.. this feature will Widen the gap between premium and free players.. What happens when your free players Walk? You really don't want that to pass.. Lets get back to the premium players.. These guys spend money.. some little.. some lots.. but they spend money to get that slight edge.. to get those gold stars.. that gold income.. those legend mutants.. no one forces them to spend.. they do it themselves.. it is their choice... and I have no qualms with that.. But the team should look at this one particular part of the playerbase in detail.. and how it can greatly affect the spending habits of your premium players.. These orbs cost gold.. the best ones most definitely cost much more gold.. and your gold prices are still at an all time high.. All these sales that go on... it increases the frequency of our gold purchasing.. and not this feature will suck up majority of our expenditures.. it costs gold to unlock locked slots.. it costs gold for the best orbs... probably around 200 or so... since the Vid showed 10% boost for 75 and a 10 gold discount for an extra 10%.. 20 for the slot.. 200 for the 30%.. lets just say thats the approximate amount.. and then another 200 to fill the second slot.. so thats 420 gold.. and some mutants have 3 slots?? I could speculate that the gold cost for "Special" orbs would be slightly higher than "Normal" ones.. so we can safely say we'll need at least 750 to 1k gold to fill 3 orb slots with the best orbs on just one single mutant.. thats already More than $10 USD.. well $10 isnt much really.. except.. thats just one mutant.. we need a team.. and a team isn't one mutant.. its 3.. Most legend mutants Cost more than $30 USD already!! So a good team will cost anywhere between $90 USD to $130 USD...Most people don't have just 3 mutants they wanna slot up...for variety's sake.. they'll want to Slot up as many as they can to keep those defense teams Strong and have the best Offense teams to tackle any defense team.. and also for that one special lady we all have a love-hate relationship with.. Britany..**shes gonna eat up all those Attack Orbs** Do you see how Expensive this is going to be? Eventually the Premium players will turn free.. guess what.. the free players that most likely walked.. those premiums will walk along after them..

Then there is the balancing issues.. yes.. It isn't even in the game yet and I can tell you there are balancing problems..

What orb types will be available in the game?

There will be two main categories:

Normal Orbs:
These ones can boost the Attack, Health and improve the chance to land a "Critical" o a creature. They can also improve your mutant's original ability.

Here are 2 examples of Normal Orbs you will be able to equip:
"Attack +10%" - increases the damage of this creature by 10%,
"Shield +20%" will increase damage resistance when the ability Shield is triggered.

Special Orbs:
Some of them will allow you to add a second ability to a mutant, such as Retaliate, Shield, or any other. Last but not least, a Special Speed Orb will allow you to increase the Speed of a mutant!

The orbs will be available in several versions, each one offering different percentages - For example, some orbs will increase Health by 5% or 10% .

All these things are percentage based.. thats good.. so that means each mutant will receive the same benefits of the orbs no matter their stat totals..
Then what is the problems? the Orb subcategories.. Attack.. this is good.. doesn't hurt the metagame so much.. except if this is allowed on tags.. and it should be the only one that applies. it would be nice.. but there is a very special case for this one.. Britany and Buranka.. Britany is currently and affectionately dubbed the Tag Team Queen!! She is 75% stronger than other mutants in her speed tier.. "85% stronger than Normals" but he attacks are mitigated by being spread attacks so upward from a base of 50%.. well.. lets give her another 30% damage boost... wait.. that would effectively makes her stand at 113% of the power of other mutants in her speed tier.... and she ONLY HAS SPREAD ATTACKS>. Seriously.. if the Attack orb is applicable to tags.. OMG what a pain PvP will be.. outside of that one particular thing.. I'm completely content with this Orb..
Health Orbs... Yeah.. this will be useful... for those pesky britany tags..
Critical Hit Orbs.. No.. NO NO NO NO NO!! Why? Ever played an MMORPG? You would know that with higher Attack Speed, any crit ratio over 15% will pretty much double your average damage output.. Crit buff + Crit Orbs.. can you say Auto-crit? Ceres, x27, 11.11 speed tiers. will be the only things ever worth using. It is nice to see the occasional critical hit.. but every turn.. not fun..
Ability amplification Orbs. YES!! This is AWESOME!!.. Puts greater emphasis on specialized teams!! Problem? Hahahahaha Math is a problem.. Abilities are still imbalanced as it is. Spiking their drinks with some good ol' magic tonic? Much Frustration will ensue...
Special Orbs.. Secondary abilities. read above. Ability changing. *sigh* its bad enough that abilities are not outright displayed over an opponent.. this may add some real fun to the mix. But then again. do we really want to see some Ceres teams running AUTOCRIT+Curse/Drain/Wounds?? I'd definitely abuse this mechanic if you stick with this. and you can't call me out on being a cheater because honestly.. You guys are ultimately the ones that allow it to happen.. its in the game.. and it wont be breaking any ToS xP
This Last one I honestly would love.. but it will impact your game much harder than the rest.. Speed orbs.. there better be a darn good limitation on this.. everybody wants to see that Britany swinging her lovely hammer at hte speed of lightning.. except.. If that is the case.. GG packing up.. game over.. we had a good run.. But of course I know that it won't be absurd.. I'm guessing something like +1 speed or +0.5 speed... thats a lot more reasonable.. but even that gives an absurd advantage to the hardest hitting mutants in the game.. at +1 speed.. Britany will achieve 4.33 speed.. thats her special orb.. now lets give her normal ones.. Attack +30% and Critcal +??%.... now this forces you to target her.. but what if there were two? and the third being ceres with +1 speed? with Britany tag on her Wheaties diet... It would only take ONE britany to make a move.. and GG.. and if you don't have any +speeds.. that would definitely mean.. you have no time to choose your targets carefully.. because you just lost..
Oh Back to acquisition. IF you plan to make the Orbs hit the shop... I think it is FAIR to say that they should ALL be available for mystery gifting, Challenge Hall purchasing, and Only the BEST of them available in PvE/PvP... That way.. there is actually some work involved into getting those Max +value orbs that is available to BOTH the Free players and the premium pay Players...So this game doesn't become a P2W type of game... Now that thats off my chest. I really do like this Update.. Be prepared for some Devious teams coming outta yours truly xP

[Kenneth Pocaigue]

Allow me to give just some examples on how this feature can be abused...

Star trooper (Super Villains)
Level: 36
Ability: Boost
Orbs 1: Attack Orb +30%
Orb 2: Critical strike +30%
Special Orb: Secondary curse ability

Damage: 1689
Damage: 2195 (attack orb)

After first turn....
Damage:2853 (Orb + ability)

Thats a pretty hefty amount of damage for an 11.11 speed mutant at level 36.. some serious DPS going on here.. but lets not forget the rest of it..
that 30% critical strike will double her damage making it 5707 on critical strike.. thats the normal damage of a level 36 mutant at 3.45.. and she will keep this up after her first turn.. lets go deeper and apply the critical strike *Buff* which is +50% ... now she will almost ALWAYS Critically strike!!
hence the term AutoCrit.. Lets factor in weakness.. Brutal hits will dish out 8,560 Damage after her first turn.. ALWAYS.. I say always only because that is enough damage to end the match in about 3 turns.. after her first turn... don't even need tags.. you cant even run a tank team against her with 3.33 speed because that gives her 3 turns to apply damage.. But lets not forget the ever so useful Curse ability.. Her Special Orb (you seriously might want to consider nerfing this one Orb Subcategory).. At present.. Curse does what 30% of the damage as mitigation? So thats 2,568 damage curses applied on each attack!! Those poor tank teams.. will NEVER stand a chance.. Unless of course they are Britany.. lols

Lets Do another one!!

Galactic Guardian (Gold Star)
Level 36
Ability: Retaliate
Orb 1: Attack + 30%
Orb 2: Retaliate +20% (I am assuming these are multiplicative makes more sense)
Special Orb: Secondary Drain

Damage: 5864 (OMG STAR TROOPER)
Damage: 7623 (+attack orb)

Thats a pretty big number.. If I recall correctly Retaliate was nerfed to 20% counter damage...even if I am wrong.. lets just use this for the sake of this example...

Damage: 1524 (Counter)
Damage: 1828 (+retaliate orb**Multiplicative)
Damage: 3049 (+retaliate orb**stackable)

A full team of Guardians would pretty much make speed teams look like suicide!! Well.. they already are anyways.. But this way.. the Guardians would probably not get a chance to hit something.. Because everything would just kill themselves on his shield.. and if he does? Well.. he'd heal right back up.. onto the next one...

Cyber Punk
Level: 36
Ability: Wound/Bleed
Orb 1: Health +30%
Orb 2: Critical Strike +30%
Special Orb: speed +1(speculation)
Health:7221
health: 9387(+Health orb)

Damage:2360 (4720 Critical)
Speed: 8.69(+Speed Orb)
Not only does she look like she's at below 5 speed.. She hits pretty darn hard and frequently! Able to outspeed mutants in the 8.33 speed tier and chunk their health by nearly 60% while applying a sizable wound that could end them in their next 2 turns or so..not to mention survive their hit on her.. She can wound the next mutant on her following turn and live out her purpose.. or maybe by then her teamates could cleanup..

Overall these examples are just few of the many things that could happen.. And over time players will adjust to these nifty perks.. but the main problem is the separation and distinction that comes with this update.. Free vs Premium.. of course Premium will win out.. and it will take a free player quite some time to reach up to the premium.. or be forced to start spending money.. which not everyone can do.. I'm a premium player... I spend money on you guys.. if you look at my history logs.. you'll know that... So I'm not crying unfair on me.. but on the player base in general.. I love this game. One of the few games I ever decided to spend on.. So I really would like to see it grow indefinitely.. I wouldn't say this update is bad.. or unwelcome.. believe me I would really like to explore the many possibilities of orb combinations.. but it does make the game much more expensive than it already is. Perhaps it would be prudent to permanently increase gold amounts per purchase, or lower incurred fees for gold purchasing slightly.. It would make these things more accessible to ALL players that way... You could even keep the gold Prices and amounts the way they are.. and just make this more acquirable towards free players.. Like as random campaign loot, or on level rewards.. and maybe do a little more balancing of the items... 80% critrate is pretty obscene.. anyways.. Thank you Hugo, and Kobojo for such a great Game.. xP and thanks for the update!! Cheers!!