Upcoming White Star changes
We are changing how White Stars work on our next update. Here's the how and why:
It is understandable that this change will disappoint some players. 20vs20 has been designed from the beginning to be the most engaging mode, the mode that sets apart the most organized Corporations and allows them to progress the fastest in the Relics race.
But if White Stars are to be successful long term, it is necessary for this mode to be eliminated. Doing so will remove a lot of conditions that cause the matchmaker to take a lot of time to find a match, and to cause widlly imbalanced matches. Simply put, there's not enough Corporations in the game searching for a 20vs20 match at any given time to allow balanced matches. The result is a downward spiral: players think 20vs20 (or White Stars in general) are broken, causing fewer and fewer of them to participate in the bracket.
These changes will take effect in Hades' Star 2019.2, which is currently scheduled to be deployed by end of May.
20vs20 slot will no longer be available
We are removing the 20vs20 slot, meaning new White Stars after the next update can only be 5vs5, 10vs10 or 15vs15.It is understandable that this change will disappoint some players. 20vs20 has been designed from the beginning to be the most engaging mode, the mode that sets apart the most organized Corporations and allows them to progress the fastest in the Relics race.
But if White Stars are to be successful long term, it is necessary for this mode to be eliminated. Doing so will remove a lot of conditions that cause the matchmaker to take a lot of time to find a match, and to cause widlly imbalanced matches. Simply put, there's not enough Corporations in the game searching for a 20vs20 match at any given time to allow balanced matches. The result is a downward spiral: players think 20vs20 (or White Stars in general) are broken, causing fewer and fewer of them to participate in the bracket.
2 White Star slots per Corporation
The removal of the 20vs20 bracket allows us to rebalance White Star progression. At the same time the 20vs20 slot is eliminated, we will be adding 2 slots to each Corporation to run White Stars from. This allows several benefits:
- Competitive Corporations can have much more members collecting Relics from a White Star at the same time (up to 30), allowing faster progression. The separate White Star slot can also offer opportunity for more members to step up to leadership positions (or give dictator leaders more responsibilities).
- 5vs5 matches become more viable for Corporation progression. Running two 5vs5 on a Corporation will allow significantly more progression speed compared to a Corporation that runs 5vs5 now. A lot of players have told us they prefer 5vs5 to all other White Star modes. 5vs5 is the most popular mode among all Hades' Star players.
- The additional overall search activity should help with finding more balanced White Star matches, faster
Rewards and Corporation Progression balancing
White Star rewards (Relics and resources) will be tweaked to account for the loss of the 20vs20 bracket, and to reward risk and effort more fairly. What won't change is that maximizing a Corporation's level will still be a multi-year process, made faster for Corporations that participate in more White Stars and by special events that will run throughout each year.These changes will take effect in Hades' Star 2019.2, which is currently scheduled to be deployed by end of May.