Outlaws of Thunder Junction arrives next Tuesday, April 16, and that means you have just one week left to get in your preorders for the new set. We have three bundles that'll get you off to a good start with the new set's release:


Take a look at all the cards in the Outlaws of Thunder Junction Card Image Gallery, including which products you can find each card!



Don't miss your first opportunity to see the new set in action during the Outlaws of Thunder Junction Streamer Event, happening this Wednesday, April 10, kicking off at 8 a.m. PT

Join popular Magic streamers on YouTube and Twitch as they open packs, talk about the new cards and strategies, and do some live drafting and playing to take the new set through its paces!

Cards banned in Historic

• Force of Vigor
  
• Commandeer
  
• Reanimate
  
• Mana Drain

In our last update, we rebalanced Fragment Reality and Geological Appraiser, which were outliers in our otherwise diverse Historic metagame. Those changes have proven positive, and we are happy with the current state of the format. We believe now is a great time for classic cards like Stoneforge Mystic, Path to Exile, and Surgical Extraction to be added with Outlaws of Thunder Junction. We hope that these powerful new additions will create new competitive archetypes and unique play patterns.

One of the things that defines Historic's power level is game speed. We have been cautious of free spells in the format that allow for a rapid change in tempo. To maintain the current game pace, Commandeer and Force of Vigor are banned in Historic.

Another defining characteristic of Historic is its overall card power level, particularly now that Timeless exists as the highest-powered format on Arena. The Breaking News Bonus sheet brings some clear power outliers, so Mana Drain and Reanimate are banned in Historic.

TIMELESS

As MTG Arena's newest and most powerful format, players have been rapidly experimenting and exploring. Timeless continues to evolve as new cards get added to the game and decks adapt to keep dominant cards in check. While Timeless is still new and developing, we want to let players play with cards before we apply any restrictions or bans to them. Mana Drain is certain to be an impactful addition, so we will be monitoring how it changes the metagame and will take action if it proves to be too much.

Finally, we need to talk a bit about the card discussed the most since its release with Murders at Karlov Manor, Show and Tell. While its play rate has been higher than we would like to see, decks using the card currently have a consistent win rate when compared with other high-performing archetypes. If Timeless were static, we would strongly consider restricting Show and Tell due to its play rate. However, we expect Timeless to change a lot this year with new format-defining cards from Outlaws of Thunder Junction and Modern Horizons 3. We will see how Timeless evolves before making a decision on Show and Tell.



The latest Draft format event in MTG Arena, Remix Draft: Artifacts, continues for one more week. Play in Best-of-One and Best-of-Three matches with rewards of gems, Historic-legal packs, and Play-In points.

Try out this new format before it ends at 8 a.m. PT on April 16!



This weekend is your last opportunity to qualify for Arena Championship 6, and it's the last event before the announced changes to Premier Play events!

The monthly doubleheader weekend features Standard events and begins this Friday, April 12, with the Qualifier Play-In Best-of-Three event. Perform well in this one, and you'll be invited to play in the weekend's main event: the April Qualifier Weekend.

Kicking off Saturday, April 13, at 6 a.m. PT, the two-day April Qualifier Weekend is where the top players challenge one another for a coveted invite to the Arena Championship. This also happens to be the last time you can earn an invite to the Pro Tour from a Qualifier Weekend before this prize becomes part of the Arena Championship prizes under the new Premier Play structure.

So, tune up your Standard decks—this weekend may be the start of your path to the Magic big time!



This Tuesday through Thursday, April 9–11, check out Midweek Magic's Gladiator Community Spotlight event! Gladiator is a fun, fan-created format that continues to grow in popularity, and through Midweek Magic you can try out ten preconstructed 100-card singleton decks shared by the Gladiator Council.

We've also updated the Gladiator banned list to match the most recent banned list, so you won't see these cards in the preconstructed decks:

• Demonic Tutor
  
• Field of the Dead
  
• Natural Order
  
• Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes
  
• Oko, Thief of Crowns

Because this is Midweek Magic, this event is Best-of-One (traditionally games of Gladiator are Best-of-Three). There's no entry cost to play in Midweek Magic, and you can earn prizes like individual card rewards (ICRs) and cosmetics!

---

Events open at 8 a.m. PT on their starting dates (excluding Midweek Magic) and close to entries at 8 a.m. PT (UTC-08:00); after March 10 UTC-07:00) on the ending date shown unless otherwise noted.

Midweek Magic events open on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. PT and close to new entries on Thursdays at 2 p.m. PT (UTC-08:00).

• April 9-12 Gladiator Community Spotlight (Best-of-One)
  
• April 16-19: Jump Into Outlaws of Thunder Junction
  
• April 23-25: Outlaws of Thunder Junction Constructed
  
• April 30-May 2: On the Edge

• April 9–26: The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
  
• April 26-May 7: Outlaws of Thunder Junction

• April 2–16: Remix Draft: Artifacts

• April 12: Best-of-Three Qualifier Play-In
  
• April 13-14: Qualifier Play-In

All times listed are Pacific time (UTC-08:00). Note that daylight saving time in the US begins March 10 and UTC shift changes to -07:00.

Qualifier Play-In events are single-day tournaments in which players compete to earn invitations to that month's Qualifier Weekend events.

Qualifier Weekend events are two-day events in which eligible players compete for invitations to upcoming Arena Championship events.

Qualifier tokens are delivered to your MTG Arena inbox. Remember to claim them before the event starts!

• Qualifier Play-In (Best-of-Three)
  April 12, 6 a.m. PT–April 13, 3 a.m. PT
  Format: Standard
  
• Qualifier Weekend
  April 13, 6 a.m. PT–April 14, 4 p.m. PT
  Format: Standard

The Arena Open Day One entry window begins at 6 a.m. PT and closes to new entries the following day at 3 a.m. PT (UTC-08:00). The Day Two entry window is 2 hours only, from 6 a.m. PT until 8 a.m. PT (UTC-08:00).

• Arena Open: Outlaws of Thunder Junction
  - May 4: Day One, Outlaws of Thunder Junction Sealed (Best-of-One and Best-of-Three)
  - May 5: Day Two, Outlaws of Thunder Junction Draft (Best-of-Three)

---

The April 2024 Ranked Season begins March 31 at 12:05 p.m. PT (UTC-08:00) and ends April 30 at 12 p.m. PT (UTC-07:00).

• Bronze Reward: 1 Outlaws of Thunder Junction pack
  
• Silver Reward: 1 Outlaws of Thunder Junction pack + 500 gold
  
• Gold Reward: 2 Outlaws of Thunder Junction packs + 1,000 gold + Binding Negotiation card style
  
• Platinum Reward: 3 Outlaws of Thunder Junction packs + 1,000 gold + Binding Negotiation card style + Aven Interrupter card style
  
• Diamond Reward: 4 Outlaws of Thunder Junction packs + 1,000 gold + Binding Negotiation card style + Aven Interrupter card style
  
• Mythic Reward: 5 Outlaws of Thunder Junction packs + 1,000 gold + Binding Negotiation card style + Aven Interrupter card style

---

• Twitter @MTG_Arena
  
• Facebook @MTGArena
  
• Instagram @mtgarena
  
• TikTok @MTGArena
  
• MTG Arena YouTube channel
  
• Magic: The Gathering Discord channel
  
• Threads @mtgarena

---

Just a quick update.

• All Principle artwork has been done for "Prepare".
  
• Translations has been done.
  
• Replay and Sex Gallery updated.
  
• Interface work has been done.

What's left for me to do for release:

• A few more gallery images.
  
• Add new achievements and images to those.
  
• Fix a sound issue with two of the videos.

Good day fellow Meeps!

With launch date almost here, I thought I'd share the final two additions for now.


Once you have constructed a boat yard, your Reeve can embark on expeditions across the waters. Search for distant neighbors, special islands and medicinal herbs to apply to the World Turtle's wound.




While we have managed to keep our World Turtle reasonably healthy up to now, age will eventually catch up to it, even on the cosmic scale. It may only happen in the distant future on the Meep-scale, but we have the capability to start preparing for it now. Our actions may sometimes seem inconsequential, but has any significant event ever come to pass that had not been constructed entirely from inconsequential ones? So, let us do what we can, when we can, to try and ensure our own survival, and the survival of those around us.



See you again soon, for 1.0 launch...

Our Discord Server

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1512050/World_Turtles/

De Chelonian Mobile
Gideon

This should probably be an Update 0.2.0, but there are a lot of AI bugs to consider this one stable.

• Save-Load system, yay!
  
• Reworked Client-Android interaction
  
• Reworked craft (again)
  
• Store stats (Reputation, Cleanliness)
  
• Garbage generation
  
• Reworked currency animation with tips support
  
• Overall UI tweaks and improvements

Hi folks,

Creating a new game is always a challenge, especially when you're fortunate enough to have a dedicated fan base. Such support brings high expectations, and the pressure to meet them can indeed be overwhelming. Remembering why you embarked on this journey is crucial, particularly when the path becomes tough, and the workload seems insurmountable. But honestly, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything, not even for a million-dollar buyout. It's been a few weeks since our last update, and I'm thrilled to share some of the key developments that have kept me busy.


But before we dive into that, I'd like to take you back in time to better understand what this game means to me. Feel free to skip ahead if you prefer; if not, let's take a stroll down memory lane together. About a decade back, when I developed my first game: Erannorth the Unfinished Tales. It's unlikely that you played or heard it. Anyway, it was a browser-based game in PHP and JQuery, and the login page proudly stated:

"Erannorth the Unfinished Tales is a Choose Your Own Adventure that incorporates RPG elements and takes place in the open-ended world of Elos. Your character chooses how their adventures will turn out and which adventures they will play."

Does the concept sound familiar? Both its writing and my English back then totally sucked, but it was still fun to play according to the close-knit community it formed. Most choose-your-own-adventure games lock you to a single story, so back then, the idea of Unfinished Tales was to take your very same character across many different stories in the same world, more like an RPG game would.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the finances to support its sole server running back then, and it never kicked off. But I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life: making games. The obvious solution was a single-player game. The problem is that as a web developer, I needed to gain more knowledge or experience in Unity or C#, so I started with something simple instead. This brought us to Erannorth Reborn, an offline single-player game and my first game on Steam. It did evolve into an exciting breed of an RPG-lite card game, but it was not the game of my dreams.

Enter Erannorth Chronicles. The hardest part was working on Reborn's spaghetti code and convoluted systems and trying to bring it closer to the vision of my dream game and its new player base. Having significantly more experience and exceptionally more extended development time than Reborn, it became something much closer.

Something that these lyrics by Eminem describe perfectly, so I quote:

"Who dress like me; walk, talk and act like me
It might be the next best thing, but not quite me!"

Is the third time the charm? I certainly hope so. We are still far from the release date, but it feels nice each week brings us a step closer to Erannorth Renaissance.

So, what have I been up to since we last talked? Let's see. Having developed the ability to trigger willingly or automatically fixed stories or events, the next step was to add a more dynamic factor.


I've introduced a new system that makes the world around you feel more alive and unpredictable. You may encounter events specific to your terrain as you explore different areas. Whether you stumble upon a hidden treasure in the forest or encounter a wandering merchant in the desert, the game world reacts to where you are and what you're doing. Behind the scenes, after the terrain is chosen, you are directed to a hub full of hand-written events specific to that terrain, and one of them is chosen randomly based on the time of day or other factors.

This is how it appears in Unity's Dialogue System plugin which I am using to create the stories.

First we choose the Hub based on the terrain.



Then we proceed to the hub and select a random event from those that meet the requirements. As you can see, out of these 30 woodlands events, only two are half-done. However, this approach offers extremely high scalability, as adding new events is simply a matter of adding a few nodes, and they will automatically integrate into the game.



The same is true as you navigate urban areas. You may encounter the NPCs who reside there within or outside their schedule, initiate their introduction event, or, if you already know them, further advance your relationship.


I've added dozens of new attire, armor, and weapon items to the game to provide gear that complements your play style and role-playing experience. Items in Erannorth Renaissance can offer passive and skill bonuses and new actions you can use in and out of combat.

This is how the weapons look in the in-game editor; there are about 264 at the moment.



They are usable but lack what makes them truly interesting: passive bonuses, their actual effects like whether they'll inflict vulnerability or bleeding, and any bonus actions that accompany them. So, they are still a long way from being finalized, but they provide me with an idea of the kinds of weapons and actions to tinker with, allowing them to show up in merchants' inventories or the loot tables, etc.

You can also collect "physical" copies of books and read them at your convenience.

"Let's first grab a few items from Ennathil's supplies."



Let's see what this book is about!




I introduced a new system for your NPC interactions powered by distinct personality tags. Your choices will influence NPCs differently based on their personality type.

I also started implementing various interactions with the NPCs other than socializing. Ie. You can now barter and trade with anyone.

Based on their net worth, NPCs can carry an assortment of items. You'll never know what you may find.



All these are just checks to naturally facilitate various interactions, such as bartering, and pave the way for more complex actions down the road, like recruiting characters to your party, or feeding if you're playing as a vampire, among others.



NPCs and your choices could fall into the following archetypes:

Guardians protect order and tradition, always ready to defend those in their care. Their leadership shines in crisis situations, where their calm and organized approach brings reassurance and unity. For example, faced with a threat, a Guardian might rally the community with resolve, saying, "Fear not, for we stand united. Follow my lead, and we shall protect our home and kin together."

Empaths are the heart and soul of any group, intuitively connected to the emotions of those around them. They excel in offering comfort and understanding, making them invaluable in times of distress. When a character is in sorrow, for instance, an Empath would offer a shoulder and a kind word: "I can't begin to understand your pain, but I'm here for you, to listen or just sit in silence, whatever you need."

Trailblazers are adventurers, always eager to explore the unknown and innovate. Their fearless spirit and curiosity drive them to discover and lead, making the path where none existed before. Confronted with the mystery of an uncharted territory, a Trailblazer's eyes light up with the promise of adventure: "There's a mystery in these woods waiting to be discovered. Let's see what secrets lie hidden beyond!"

Visionaries are dreamers, constantly looking to the future and imagining how it could improve. Their big ideas and aspirations inspire those around them to think beyond the present. Gazing upon a neglected part of the city, a Visionary might share their dream: "Imagine this place not as it is, but what it could be—a beacon of prosperity and unity for all."

Beacons are charismatic leaders who inspire hope and confidence. Their optimism and ability to motivate others make them natural leaders in any endeavor, guiding their followers toward a brighter future. A Beacon would lift spirits in the face of adversity, proclaiming: "Let our spirits not be dampened by the shadows. In unity, there is light strong enough to dispel any darkness. Follow me to victory!"

Enigmas are mysterious figures whose depths are hidden behind a veil of secrecy. They reveal their true selves only to those they deem worthy, making their trust valuable. Sharing a glimpse into their hidden depths, an Enigma might confide: "There are reasons for my solitude, secrets from a past that haunts me. Perhaps, in time, I'll share my story with you."

This system is all about immersion and works behind the scenes. You won't encounter colored labels or influence numbers to guide your decisions. It's about your genuine choices and their consequences on your journey through Erannorth.

There aren't wrong or correct choices. Based on your choice and the personality of the person you speak with, your influence may increase or decrease by an amount that now depends on your compatibility as characters. For example, an Empath choice might find common ground with a Guardian's protective nature or a Beacon's communal focus. Still, it may struggle to resonate with an Enigma.

As a player, you aren't locked to a fixed personality type. You can choose whichever option best reflects your RP at any given moment. This system fosters complex and nuanced behaviors, creating a world where personalities interact in realistic and multifaceted ways without you realizing it's the case. Which I hope will make your adventures more enjoyable.

At the end of the day, there are interactions that are only available to your rivals or enemies, so you really don't need to be nice to everyone. Even if you are, not everyone may appreciate you snooping into their affairs.

Let's try to be nice and choose option 1.



While this may work for some NPCs, she is a tough audience.




So, when will it be released? I wish I could tell you. The coding and functionality needed to host the content for a 'minimum viable product', suitable for early access, are complete. However, the content itself is not fully there yet. So, the answer is, of course, 'when it's ready.' We can all hope that will be sometime in 2024.

That's all for today folks! If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to comment below!

• Fixes values in input fields not being used.
  
• Fixes a number of crashes

• All the goals in the match-3 sections should be fixed
  
• Fixed some localization errors

We don't close down our rides for maintenance, the team has been hard at work addressing the reports submitted by players! Thank you for helping maintain The Carnival alongside us.

• Task sounds added to volume sliders.
  
• Dead players no longer earn tickets from tasks.
  
• Fortune Teller task no longer targets Spectators. Note: Crystal Ball reveals random player, no correlation to roles.
  
• Mirrored cosmetics accurately display in Rabbit Alternate Sabotage Wheel.
  
• Ghosts no longer visible after dying on rollercoaster.
  
• Whack-a-Mouse task will now give credit towards the ‘Cat-like Reflexes’ Achievement.
  
• When Pelican dies to rollercoaster, eaten players die alongside the Pelican.

• Survivalist no longer prevents other role win conditions.
  
• Lobbyist can no longer kill instantly coming out of a Meeting (now has kill cooldown).
  
• Morphling and Identity Thief can no longer be on the same map together.
  
• Cupid Duck can now correctly target Blind Ducks.
  
• Adventurer can use phones on Eagleton Springs.

• Owl is able to steal DNA of Spotters and Snipers.
  
• Misfire from Sniper in Hoot n Seek shows red dot on map.
  
• Thralls now show cosmetics in Trick or Treat Mode.
  
• Music fixed in Trick or Treat.
  
• Lounge Card Game - Controller use is fixed.

Encountered a bug or unintended feature? Please be sure to let our team know by emailing support@gaggle.fun or https://gagglestudios.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Our game just came out of early access!

We got a tonne of feedback through our feedback form, YouTube comments, Discord, playtesting and the forum.

So we focussed on improvements to:
- Combat
- Munching
- Controls (incl. KB+M and rebindings)
- Music

It took some refactoring, but I think we're set-up for a better game.

Updates:
- Various improvements on combat mechanics
- Added aim support (can be toggled off in settings)
- Better control on enemy aim
- Dash improvements (enemies don’t block you)
- Movement improvements
- KB+M support. Mouse for attacking + munching. Abilities shifted to be near WSAD
- Munching can be done while moving, making it easier to eat
- Nearby food of the same time will merge
- Enemies AI improvements
- Fixed key rebinding
- Some music changes
- You can now smash obstacles out of the way
- No longer staggered as much when enemies are smaller than you


Next update we're hoping to have some new content to try, more varied enemies and a new playable monster... stay runed!