Rise for the Leagues!

Hey everybody!

We have just uploaded the latest and most exciting update for Ærena so far. We have been working very hard these last few weeks to bring you:

• THE LEAGUES
• The shell generator
• A cool match debriefing including some statistics
• A completely new champion - Martel  

 Welcome to the Leagues! Alpha Season has started!

We are especially happy to finally have the league system in the game and we hope you'll like it. It is very much at the heart of Ærena, so we want to give you a detailed insight into how the Leagues work.
First of all, there will be several League seasons per year, each lasting for a predefined amount of time. Within that period players have the chance to get to the top of the League and win that season of The Games. Then the league is reset and a new fight for League Master commences. The league is split into 6 tiers called:

• Æther-Masters
• Diamond
• Platinum
• Gold
• Silver
• Bronze

Every game you win will earn you League Points (LP) and every game you lose will deduct LP from your score. When you have reached 100 LP within your current tier, you will be promoted to the next. Once you have reached the Æther Masters tier you want to earn as many League Points as possible as the Æther Master with the highest amount of League Points at the end of the season wins the championship. But don't worry, at the end of each season all players will be rewarded depending on the tier they have reached.

Should you fall below 0 points within your tier, you will be demoted to the previous tier. But don't despair, it will be easier to rise up again, as you won't have to start with 0 LP in the lower tier.

Winning our Alpha Season, which will last until the end of December, will be rewarded with a very special price! Check it out in the game if you want to know more :)

Map rotation

During a season you will fight on different maps. Whereas maps are chosen randomly in unranked matches, the map you are going to play in a league match will be presented in the League screen so you can prepare your best load-out for this specific map. Each map will be played for around 3 days and then be switched for the next one.

 

Generate Shells - Keep ‘em firing!

Along with the new update we introduced major changes on how Æther shells are handled in the game. Currently all shells in the game were available all the time.
To make things a bit more challenging, every use of a shell will now consume it.
But we won't let you run out of shells -  you will be rewarded shells after every match and through harvesting from the Shell-Generator!

The Shell-Generator

Every 2 hours or so a new random Æther shell will be generated for your to harvest there.
The generator holds a maximum of 3 Æther shells and will stop producing until you harvest those.

Starting shells

Because we do not want to overwhelm new players with the complete range of Æther shells the starting shells for every player will consist of:

• Full Comeback
• Blaze 
• Æther Discharge

 

 

A new champion: Martel

With this patch, we are introducing a new champion: Martel!
Martel is a small man with a big ego and an even bigger rocket powered hammer, who makes up for being vertically challenged by dressing extravagantly and taunting other gladiators, daring anyone to slight him. Martel joined the AEther Pirates after a lifetime of hard work in the navy and constant abuse from everyone around him, at last finding a place where normal had no meaning. When The Games started he took to them with the glee of someone having nothing to lose but his inferiority complex. Martel and his self-constructed rocket hammer -  though he sometimes has issues handling it - command the respect of his peers.

Martel's gameplay

Martel is a slow but strong fighter, which has the possibility to sacrifice himself for a ship attack. He has the highest HP in the game.

HP: 8

• Movement-Range: 2
• Basic Skill: Punch
• Deals 2 damage to an adjacent enemy target.
• Super Skill: In your face
• Deals 3 damage to an adjacent enemy target.
• Ultimate Skill: Mortar
• Sacrifices himself to do 3 damage to the enemy ship.

 

 

New Match-Debriefing

To make your victories more rewarding, we have implemented a new Match debriefing, which lists a few statistics and awards you with different badges, depending on your play style.
At the moment these are just visual rewards, but later on they will grant you extra Experience Points, Cash and achievements.
Badges you are able to obtain:

• Headhunter or Shipwrecker
• Headhunter: Majority of damage was dealt against champions
• Shipwrecker: Majority of damage was dealt directly at the enemy's ship
• Thinker or Quick Thinker
• Thinker: Most of your turns used more than the half of your turn time.
• Quick Thinker: Most of your turns used less than the half of your turn time.
• Helping Hand or Watchful Guardian
• Helping Hand: You used 1 or more Æther shell to support your champions.
• Watchful Guarding: You used no Æther shell within this match.

Other changes

The Butcher

The Butcher turned out to be stronger than expected, because he is a nice battlefield controller, but at the same time he is quite tanky.
To lead him into the direction we want him to be, we nerfed his HP down to 6, so he will be used less as a fighter and more as a battlefield controller.

Blaze

According to our statistics and what we have seen in the game, Blaze was way too strong, because it was able to kill 5 HP champions without any limitation.
To make Blaze a bit more interesting, we nerfed it’s DMG down to 4, so you are only able to finish a champion if you already did some damage.
Its Æther costs were set to 6, so the Cost / Value proportion does not get out of hand.

Chaos

The Æthercosts of Chaos were a bit high for the suicidal character of that shell.
So we decreased them to 6!

Æther-Discharge

8 Æthercosts in exchange for 3 damage onto the enemy ship was slightly too high, so we decreased them down to 7.