Kongai News

A new version of Kongregate was released tonight. We're cleaning up a couple of tests that we have been running. We've narrowed down the nav test to one of the new ones and the old nav. Other fixes are highlighted in in our forums.

This release attempts to make Kongai more accessible to new players and emphasize ranked matches, where you'll soon be able to earn achievements. To improve the beginner's experience, we have put greater emphasis on ranked matches, where players will be matched up based on skill level. Playing ranked matches is now the best way to earn cards, as the card drop rate for unranked matches has been lowered if you already have more than 10 cards. The drop rate of ranked matches will remain unchanged. In an effort to focus on fun, casual play rather than ranks in unranked matches, we've also stopped displaying rank in the unranked lobby. To make ranked matches easier to get to, we've also added ranked matches (Play 3-card) to the after-game destination menu. This release also includes numerous bug fixes, such as: --Juju same-speed healing on a killing blow with death mask no longer triggers Death Mask --Moving a card to a blank slot in the deck while placing an item no longer prevents placement --Signing in after being a guest no longer cause the guest deck list to show up in the deck gallery --Zina can no longer gain Beast Feast buff before opponent has died --Anex or Cain get the correct damage bonus under 30% HP vs same-speed attacks (The infamous host/non-host bug) We have also made it easier to purchase new cards from inside the game, so anyone who doesn't want to wait for card drops or weekly challenges can get any card they want as quickly as they need it. Let us know what you think and if you find any bugs. Thanks!

Thanks for all the feedback we’ve received in the last few days. We’ve added some features based on your suggestions, let us know what you think! 1. Significantly increased card award chance, especially if you don’t have many cards. 2. Added ability to host a private match vs the player of your choice (use the host game button in the lobby) 3. Decreased turn timer to 30 seconds 4. Choosing starter cards is no longer required to play the game. 5. Bug fixes! Note: Kongai is NOT eligible for the contest, but the contest rankings are automatic so it will continue to appear in it.

Several weeks have passed since our last update -- we once again had to hold back a Kongai update somewhat while we worked on performance issues, but with big improvements this week in site speed and reliability, Kongai has been unleashed!

What's new:
* Ranked matches. These matches show your skill relative to other players, and is based on the ELO chess ranking system (and influenced by Bungie's system for Halo) where beating a player with a high skill level increases your level much more than beating one of the same or lower skill level.
* Server polls clients for status frequently to improve the experience when one player has a slow connection.
* A mute button the main menu. So please no comments: "1/5 needs mute button" :-D
* Your win/loss stats are shown on main menu.
* New players with 3 or more character cards can postpone picking starter cards.
* Quick Tips added to the Starter Card Selection screen with advice on picking cards and three suggested starter decks
* Quick Tips added to the Deck Builder
* Earn cards page explains how to earn cards
* Balance changes 1.6 seen here:http://sirlin.net/kongai-beta
* Many, many bug fixes: -Sacred Candle can no longer remove an innate ability -Leafy Trap is not sprung by enchanted attacks -Scroll of Inner Focus has no effect on 0 energy move -Cards no longer get stuck if clicked on during switch -Cornelius is immune to slow -Procs no longer do an extra turn of damage -Takes 55 energy to change range with Stoneheel Totem -Attack buttons update to reflect General's Insignia and Staff Strike -Chakkra Slash can't make Trueshot -1 Speed -If deck card killed with Gem of Souls equipped, deck card's innate ability stolen instead of active card -many other smaller fixes

What's coming soon:
* Improved AI for single-player/practice mode
* More bug fixes, keep the reports coming!
* Continued Balancing Thanks for all your help and feedback so far, pleas let us know what you think! We appreciate all your help so far.

Thanks for your patience while we stopped progress on Kongai in order to work on the performance problems on the main Kongregate site. We moved to new servers last week, and now we've finally gotten a chance to release a fresh build of Kongai. What's new: * Levels * A 2% chance to win a card with every win * Improved animations * Music & sound effects (plus a mute button) * Lots of small interface improvements (instantly updating health and energy bars, same speed attack animations play at the same time, cards added to a deck in the deck builder are now flippable, attack type icons on attack buttons, etc.) * Interface bug fixes * Quick tips in-game for new players What's coming soon: * Fixes for most of the game logic bugs * Skill rankings and ranked matches * Improved AI for single-player/practice mode

I’m sorry to announce this, but we’ve decided to stop letting people into the beta for the next couple of weeks. I expect you’ve all noticed that we’ve been having more frequent server problems/slowness in the last week after another spurt of traffic growth. We’re very close to moving to new servers with more capacity, and we’re all concentrating on getting everything working there and testing to make sure it’s as efficient as possible. In the meantime unfortunately Kongai is experiencing intermittent lag, which makes it less fun to play, and we haven’t yet put in the bug fixes and new features that we’re planning to add. So we’re going to put a hold on new players in the beta until we are in a better situation server-wise and can start updating Kongai again. Thanks for your patience!

So last night we released a pretty big update to Kongai, which now includes starter cards, match chat, single-player, plus some bug fixes, animation improvements, and some sounds. Much more of the last 3 to come. I’ve just given access to level 23 & 24 beta requesters, with more to be invited once we’re sure of the stability of some lobby changes. Kongai is still a work in progress, and more fixes, features, and UI improvements to come based on your feedback over the next weeks. Thanks to all current beta testers for their help so far.

Happy Friday! Since the servers seemed to be handling things well we've expanded the Beta from 50 people to about 250 people in two rounds of invites. Currently the Beta includes players level 25 and up plus moderators level 18 and up.

Holy crap, our card game is finally live on the site, for approximately .25% of those who requested invitations (sorry 99.75% of you!).

We're starting things off very small, so only 50 of the 20,000 requests were granted access. We'll gradually invite more and more people as the testing continues. For now, we granted access to the people who applied with the highest level on Kongregate (roughly, anyone around level 31 or higher).

We're working incredibly hard to get this thing out to everyone else, so bear with us for a bit!

Kongregate's card game is coming soon! As amazingly awesome as it is, though, it's still full of bugs — not unlike a delicious cheese danish left just a little too close to an anthill.

So if you're the type of person who doesn't mind picking out a few cockroaches to enjoy a gourmet homestyle pizza, apply to be a beta tester today!