The Political Machine 2024 v1.11 brings Game Balance Changes and Quality of Life Adjustments
As the political landscape continues to evolve, so does The Political Machine 2024. The latest update, v1.11, is here, and it’s packed with changes that directly address player feedback, game quality, and balancing. Here’s a look at the highlights of this update.
The core of this update focuses on refining the gameplay experience and ensuring a balanced and fair political battleground. One of the standout changes is the enhancement of the No Card Mode, which now includes War Room and Endorsement functionalities. This adds a new layer of strategy without overwhelming players with cards, catering to those who prefer a streamlined experience.
Balance changes have also been a major focus. To curb overpowered strategies and excessive funds, significant adjustments have been made. Notably, there is now a War Room usage limit per turn, and the cost of operatives increases with each purchase. These changes promote a more diverse and balanced approach to political campaigning.
In addition to these gameplay changes, the custom candidate creator has received a substantial update. Players can now enjoy creating even more unique candidates with the addition of new parts, including various body, head, ear, eyebrow, nose, hair, glasses, eye, and mouth options. This enhancement allows for greater personalization and creativity.
Improved No Card Mode
The No Card Mode has seen significant improvements. War Room and Endorsements functionalities are now integrated, offering more strategic depth without the complexity of managing cards. Additionally, Political Capital and Political Capital Buildings have been re-enabled to account for Endorsements usage, ensuring a balanced approach.
Balance Changes
The balance changes aim to limit overpowered War Room strategies and manage funds more effectively. The War Room now has a usage limit per turn, and operative costs increase by 10% with each purchase. Various Political Action Cards have also seen their fund gains and boosts decreased, making it more challenging to accumulate excessive funds and promoting a more balanced financial landscape within the game.
Event Adjustments
Several events have been adjusted to ensure a more balanced gameplay experience. For instance, the Big Pharma Offer's accepting fund gain has been decreased, and the Mysterious Photographer's base cost option spend has been increased. These changes ensure that events provide a balanced challenge and reward structure.
New Custom Candidate Creator Parts
The custom candidate creator has received a substantial update, allowing players to further personalize their candidates with a variety of new parts. These enhancements allow for greater creativity and personalization, making the game even more engaging and enjoyable.
Gameplay Adjustments and Quality of Life Improvements
Several gameplay adjustments and quality of life improvements have been made to enhance the overall experience. Players can now seamlessly transition from a Primaries win to a Presidential game. The issue where randomized issues persisted between games has been fixed, and the War Room tutorial has been updated to reflect the new changes. Additionally, events that give cards will no longer appear in No Card Mode, and the HQ visual duplication glitch has been fixed.
The Political Machine 2024 v1.11 update is a testament to the developers’ commitment to listening to player feedback and continuously improving the game. Whether you’re a seasoned political strategist or a newcomer, these changes promise a more balanced, engaging, and enjoyable experience. So, gear up and dive back into the political fray with these exciting updates!
Note to users of third-party programs: The game may not launch or work properly after we release a new build if you use a third-party program, due to possible incompatibilities. ArenaNet cannot offer support if a third-party modification breaks, interferes with, or prevents you from playing Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2. Our policy regarding third-party programs can be found here.
General
Updated the behavior of the away-from-keyboard timer that returns players to the character-select screen after extended periods of inactivity. In open-world maps, the time remaining before a player who has not manually moved their character or performed any skill inputs is returned to character select is now reduced to 5 minutes if the player enters combat.
Removed rocks that were blocking access to mursaat tokens 19 and 31 in Ember Bay.
Items
Fixed an issue that prevented some legendary armor pieces from becoming invisible under the effect of thief stealth skills like Shadow Refuge.
Updated the Communal Boost Bonfire with the following changes:
The spawn radius of the wood has been reduced.
Players can now place the Communal Boost Bonfire, select its boost, and interact with it, even if they are already under the effect of one of its boosts.
A Locked Bonfire status will now apply to Communal Boost Bonfires for the first two minutes after they are placed, and only the owner will be able to select a boost during that period. When it expires, it will be replaced by a Public Bonfire status, and any player can select a boost if one has not already been selected.
Players can now interact with a Communal Boost Bonfire multiple times to refresh the boost, up to a maximum of 60 minutes. The boost will not be refreshed if the maximum time limit has already been reached.
Structured Player vs. Player
Automated Tournament Updates
The frequency of daily automated tournaments has been reduced from 8 to 4 per day.
All EU server tournaments will occur during their standard prime-time player activity period.
On North American servers, 3 tournaments will occur during NA's standard prime-time player activity period. One tournament is timed to occur during Oceanic (OCX) prime time.
A new weekly automated tournament has been added. This tournament happens every Sunday at the following regional times:
EU: 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7)
NA: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7)
A new monthly variety automated tournament will happen every second Saturday of each month at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7).
This tournament will alternate between 2v2 and 3v3 modes.
Tournament of Legends will occur every 6 months on the third Saturday of each month at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7).
Structured PvP Titles
The "Champion Brawler" title awarded for winning 10,000 rated arena games is now colored pink.
Added a new colored tournament title, "Champion of Champions," for consistent high placement in the Kormir's Clash monthly automated tournament. Players accrue points by placing in the top 4 teams. First place awards 30 points, second place awards 15 points, and third and fourth place both award 10 points. The title is earned upon reaching 120 points.
Djinn's Dominion Objective Update
The lamp map objective has received several updates:
The objective now requires channeling, rather than being awarded by standing within a capture circle boundary.
The special action skill is no longer granted to the entire team. Only the player who channeled the lamp will gain access to it.
Leaving the lamp arena now causes subsequent uses to apply Weakened Soul for longer durations. The maximum penalty lasts for 30 seconds, refreshing when you enter or exit the lamp.
Special action skills have been updated:
Giant Meteor is no longer ground targeted, and it is now unblockable and requires a targeted enemy. The meteor will be attached to the target upon casting.
Disenchantment Field has been replaced by Waters of Life, a ground-targeted area of effect that revives allies and finishes downed enemies within its radius.
Waxing Doom has been replaced by Starfall, which damages and launches enemies in a radius around the player. Using Starfall on an enemy capture point will instantly neutralize it.
Fixed an issue that prevented jumping players from being counted as present in the Market (middle) capture circle.
World vs. World
General
This update focuses on changing some aspects of WvW scoring, as well as some siege updates and various WvW quality-of-life improvements.
These next few changes are part of an effort to make scoring feel healthier and to make fighting for structures feel more valuable. We will monitor the impacts of these changes and adjust as needed to maintain healthy scoring as play patterns evolve.
The victory point values from skirmishes will now be weighted based on player activity during the skirmish.
The war score awarded for capturing objectives has been increased and will additionally increase based on the objective's tier when it is captured.
The war score awarded for defeating an enemy player in WvW is increasing from 2 to 3.
These changes are focused on making gameplay in and around sieging structures feel healthier, paying particular attention to the tools defenders have available. We continue to strive to make both attacking and defending feel good for players.
Objective-contesting conditions are changing. Objectives will now become contested if the lord is put into combat or if a gate or wall is damaged below 98% health.
The Emergency Waypoint tactic now spawns 3 waypoints in various locations near the lord's room in Stonemist Castle and keeps.
Alacrity can no longer be applied to players using siege equipment and will be removed from players when activating siege equipment.
Boons other than swiftness can no longer be applied to siege golems.
Flame ram health has been lowered by 50%. Iron Hide will be applied to flame rams when they are operated.
Guild siege golem supply cost has increased from 50 to 75.
Arrow cart supply cost has been reduced from 40 to 25.
Superior arrow cart supply cost has been reduced from 50 to 35.
Trebuchet supply cost has been reduced from 100 to 50.
Superior trebuchet supply cost has been reduced from 120 to 60.
Rewards
Added a new Corrupted Hero weapon set to WvW.
Exotic versions of the weapons have been added to the Mist-Hardened Lockbox.
Ascended versions of the weapons can be acquired from a new Mystic Forge recipe utilizing rare Hero weapons, which are acquired from the Hero Weapon Reward Track.
Added varietal seeds to herb synthesizers.
July 17th HotFix
Bug Fixes:
Fixed an issue that prevented new players from entering the World vs. World game mode.
Fixed an issue that prevented walls in WvW from being repaired when interacting with them.
Fixed an issue that prevented "Repel the enemy attackers" events from starting in WvW.
Fixed an issue that caused some items offered by the Skirmish Supervisor in WvW to be priced incorrectly.
July 18th HotFix
Bug Fixes:
Fixed an issue that blocked access to mursaat token 25 in Ember Bay.
Fixed an issue that prevented this week’s updates to the AFK timer from functioning correctly.
July 25 HotFix
Bug Fix:
Fixed a pricing issue that affected the Living World season complete packs. They will be 20% off again until August 2, at the proper price.
To view these patch notes in your native language please visit our forums here:
The Jackbox Megapicker: A free product exclusive to Steam, where you can view your game library, sort and filter the games you love, and quickly launch an evening of fun. The Jackbox Megapicker is now available for wishlisting, and will be fully released on July 29th, 2024!
Users who download The Jackbox Megapicker within the first 30 days post-launch will also receive a free copy of Drawful 2!
The Jackbox Megapicker: A free product exclusive to Steam, where you can view your game library, sort and filter the games you love, and quickly launch an evening of fun. The Jackbox Megapicker is now available for wishlisting, and will be fully released on July 29th, 2024!
Users who download The Jackbox Megapicker within the first 30 days post-launch will also receive a free copy of Drawful 2!
The Jackbox Megapicker: A free product exclusive to Steam, where you can view your game library, sort and filter the games you love, and quickly launch an evening of fun. The Jackbox Megapicker is now available for wishlisting, and will be fully released on July 29th, 2024!
Users who download The Jackbox Megapicker within the first 30 days post-launch will also receive a free copy of Drawful 2!
Today, we’d like to announce that our upcoming VR spin-off, Aces of Thunder, will be releasing in Q4 2024, and is available to wishlist on Steam!
Aces of Thunder will share a lot of similarities with War Thunder in regards to models and graphics, but it’s built from the ground up as a VR title, and will bring a completely new experience to the skies.
The game will feature more than 20 of the most iconic WW2 fighters, available immediately after purchasing the game. These include the P-51 and P-63, Bf 109 and Fw 190, IL-2 and Yak, Spitfire, A6M3 and more. All will feature highly detailed functional cockpits, you can quite literally grab the controls with your hands! You can also get a real sense of scale from your aircraft by walking around it on the airfield before heading out on a mission.
Battles will take place on 15 maps representing three key theaters of operations: the Eastern Front, Western Europe and the Pacific Ocean. You can take part in online PvP, fighting solo or in a squad, or fight in various single player scenarios.
The game will be compatible with the widest range of VR devices. To control your aircraft you can use the interactive virtual cockpit controls, VR controllers or joysticks.
You can read more about the game on the official page on Steam, as well as on Aces of Thunder pages in social networks.
The Punch Club 2: Iron Fist Expansion DLC is coming on July 22nd, and today we wanted to provide you with a first look at what to expect from it, including some of the core features of this new adventure!
New Story Content
Once you meet Emmit in the original Punch Club 2: Fast Forward story, you'll receive a leaflet delivered to your home in the garage. If you have finished the game, load an old save file to access the DLC; look for an icon indicating its availability on the load screen. Note that if you start the ""Down the Memory Lane"" quest, the DLC will not be accessible.
After picking up the leaflet, you'll discover it's for the new Robot League. Shortly after, you'll receive a call from Emmit, asking you to meet him at the Dream Lab. Upon your arrival, your new adventure into the world of fighting robots in the Iron Fist DLC will begin!
From there you’ll unlock new locations, upgrade your robot, make the best popcorn the world has ever seen and… plug a fully functioning AI into the internet? That’s surely a good idea..
The Warehouse
One of the first things you’ll do in Iron Fist is unlock the new Warehouse Facility. Here, you’ll meet your fighter robot, not in the best shape, but excited to finally get out there and show the world what a Robot with Dreams can do! You’ll also find all of the tools necessary to upgrade your robot, but we’ll get more into that in a second!
As well, in the Warehouse, you’ll find MoMMi, the AI who will help guide you through this adventure and has no nefarious intentions whatsoever. You’ll also be able to enter the robot into fights in the robot league from this oh-so-glamorous new location, which, incidentally, is also upgradeable.
Upgradeable Robot
When you arrive at the Warehouse, you’ll find an old Robot that needs to be trained, charged and repaired. All of the tools you need to do so are in the Warehouse, but, at the start, your robot is going to be unable to beat much more than a fly in a fight, if it could even hit the thing.
You’ll need to train your robot, either via VR personally or passively over time while you’re doing other things. Once your robot's stats don’t suck, you’ll be able to start entering it into fights, unlocking Badass Robot Points (BRP) for victories in the Robot League, which you can then spend on the new fight path for the robot - more on that in a second!
You’ll also unlock punch cards, which are a bit like the bonuses from fight schools in the main game, but are customisable, so you can really make your robot suit your fighting style. As well, you’ll be able to customise the look of your robot, with customisable body parts and colours! And even better, as a bonus, when it’s not fighting, the robot can work for you, earning you some resources on the side!
New Fight Path
The robot has access to its own fight path, which, like in the main game, lets you spend currency to unlock new moves, skills and buffs for use in the fights.
This skill path is totally unique for the robot and contains a plethora of moves and skills for you to try, test, and play around with to create the ultimate fighting machine!
And that’s a wrap fight fans!
We hope you enjoyed this look at the Punch Club 2: Iron Fist DLC, coming on July 22nd - don’t forget to wishlist it here:
