Game Update 0.21 - Sanctum & Favor

Notice: If your device is running Mac OSX Catalina 10.15, this update will get stuck on "Retrieving User Cards". To fix this you must grant the "gods" application "Full Disk Access" in your Privacy Settings. This issue is widely affecting a lot of software on Catalina. You can fix this by following our guide here.

Last week we introduced Flux and Fusing, our newest Play to Earn system which allows players to trade the core cards they earn in-game for real money.

Introducing: Sanctum and Favor

In 0.21 we’ve added the Sanctum, an exciting addition to Gods Unchained increasing the strategic depth and skill-reward of gameplay

With six domains of cards, each of them giving multiple deckbuilding options to players, GU offers a lot of upfront strategy for players. But once you get into a game, games can fall into a... well...predictable pattern.

The Sanctum throws predictability out the window. Players will be challenged to adapt on-the-fly to changes in an entirely new way.

So how does it work?

First, the Sanctum introduces a new resource, Favor 

• Players begin the game with 0 Favor.
• Whenever you complete a ‘Favor Action’, you are rewarded as follows:
• You gain 1 Favor during your first turn,
• You gain 2 Favor during your second turn
• You gain 3 Favor during subsequent turns
• Favor Actions are as follows:
• You attack an opponent’s God
• You destroy an enemy creature outside of combat
• Your creature survives an attack during combat and the attacking creature dies

(Updated 6/25/20)

So, what do you do with Favor? Ya’ spend it in the Sanctum!  

• The Sanctum is a shared zone in the game where players may access cards outside their deck to use within the game. Players may spend their Favor to pull a card into their hand from the Sanctum to use for the rest of that game (and only that game, you do not permanently own the cards you get from the Sanctum).

• The Sanctum consists of 5 decks of 12 cards. Each deck will have a theme, for example, a deck with the theme 'Tempo' will contain 12 different cards that will be high tempo cards. We will regularly update these decks.

• Both players share the Sanctum, meaning that you will see the same cards your opponent will see. When a player spends their Favor on a card from the Sanctum, that card will no longer be available for the opponent. This will create a race to pull a specific card that may be favorable for your deck, or to block an opponent from pulling a card that can be damaging. 

• The card pulled into hand will be replaced at the end of the turn with a card from a different deck in the Sanctum. Once a card is purchased from a deck in the Sanctum, it will no longer appear in the Sanctum for the rest of the game.

• This style of play, a strategy card game with deckbuilding-game elements, is unique among digital TCGs. We’ve created something of our own, and we believe it improves the game for both the experienced and the new players. We’ll be heavily iterating on the Sanctum based on player feedback, so as always we’ll be listening to what you like and dislike.

If you want to learn a bit more, our lead game designer wrote a post on the Sanctum which can be found here.

New Turn Timer 

A new turn timer is being introduced that is aimed to discourage players from roping (intentionally waiting as long as possible every turn).

Penalties

Nobody likes that player who just sits around waiting for their turn to expire, so from now on if an opponent’s timer fuse starts burning or the player runs out of time, they’ll have 20 fewer seconds on their next turn to make a move. These penalties will continue to accrue if their behavior doesn’t change. The minimum turn time a player can have is 20 seconds. 

Penalties can be removed by ending your turn before the fuse timer starts burning. If you have multiple penalities, only one will be removed per turn. 

Time Bonuses

The new timer will also allow players to take more complex turns without running out of time by rewarding small amounts of time to the clock for actions taken. 

The following actions will award the player more turn time for their current turn:

• Playing a card
• Drawing a card
• Attacking with a creature/weapon
• Using a god power
• Activating an ability on a creature/weapon
• When a creature is summoned  

Time bonuses for actions do not carry over into the next turn, and bonuses can be gained regardless of if penalties are applied.

New Bag of Tricks

To avoid player confusion, the Bag of Tricks mechanic no longer has the appearance of a card. There are now clickable gemstones, known as Mana Pips, next to the player mana UI to activate your bonus mana. When highlighted, a play can click the Mana Pip to activate the Bag of Tricks.

Quality of Life Improvements

We made sure to pack in a ton of improvements into this update, including:

• We polished mana gem regeneration including filling sequentially at the start of the turn rather then all at once!
• Almost every piece of UI in the game has received a visual update, polish or a complete rework.
• Mana system, loading screens, menus, and Delve screens underwent a redesign.
• We made the game feel smoother, more responsive and snappier than ever before. Many many small changes are all adding up into a much smoother experience.
• We updated our VFX system under the hood, meaning that we will be able to update our VFX more often and much faster than previously. While it won’t impact players right now, it means we will be able to update VFX independently from our large updates

353 bugs were fixed in this release (including 59 major)! A few highlights include:

General Fixes

• Game client can now self-recover from desyncs that could be previously recovered from by forcing a reconnect.
• Cards can no longer show the wrong tooltips when hovered over.
• When the player reconnects to an in-progress game on their own turn, their creatures will no longer appear asleep.
• God Powers can no longer remain highlighted after being used.
• Fixed several issues which could cause the counters on Burn and Regen icons on Board Creatures falling out of sync.
• Legendary Wreath colours on Board Creatures now sync correctly to the card's shine.
• Fixed an issue that could cause one of the cards inside a selection overlay to appear invisible.
• Game End screen can no longer appear so quickly that the killing blow is obscured.
• Fixed several issues that could lead to cards sticking on the screen after being played.
• Fixed several issues that could cause board spaces to be taken up by invisible creatures.
• Fixed an issue that could lock up the game when queueing an attack with a creature on 0 health or weapon on 0 durability.
• Fixed an issue that could cause clicking rapidly on a card with Ability, immediately after another action, to cause the game to lock up.
• Fixed desync issues with cards returned from the Void that have Abilities.

Card Fixes

• Umber Arrow: Fixed a desync issue when the player returns a card that has been Umber Arrow'd to their hand then returns in back to the board in the same turn.
• Amplification Machine & Me Two Three: Fixed a lock up issue when playing these two cards in combination.
• Unruly Shredder & Hades, Underworld Lord: Fixed a lock up issue when Unruly Shredder dies from Burn effect while Hades is on the board.
• Tutankhamun & Pyramid Warden: Fixed a lock up issue when Skeleton summoned by Tutankhamun destroys an enemy Pyramid Warden.
• Felid Assassin: Fixed Felid Assassin not correctly interacting with several cards with the Nether tribe.
• Hades, Underworld Lord: Fixed an issue when a large number of Afterlife creatures are destroyed simultaneously and Hades is on the board.
• Amplification Machine & Ambush: Fixed an issue that would cause Amplification Machine's Ability to be disabled after being returned to the deck with Ambush.
• Miscellaneous card fixes for: Anhotep the Embalmer, Arkmonian Onslaught, Radiant Embalmer, Promethean Flame, Broken Harvester, Atlas, Amplification Machine.

Known Issues

Lastly, there are a few known issues we’re actively working on. These include:

• Mac OSX Catalina 10.15 has graphical issues in full-screen mode. These can be avoided by playing in windowed mode. This issue is widely affecting a lot of games on Catalina.
• Mac OSX Catalina 10.15 will cause the game to get stuck on "Retrieving User Cards". To fix this you must grant the "gods" application "Full Disk Access" in your Privacy Settings. This issue is widely affecting a lot of software on Catalina. See a guide for another application here.

We’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this update, so be sure to include some feedback in Discord and enjoy your journey in the Sanctum! 

Till’ next time, 

Your Friendly Neighborhood GU Team