Monthly Archives: October 2015


Shalev’s Rule in Prismata

Hi everyone!

First, a small item: We have a brand new Prismata unit balance survey available. If you’re interested in providing feedback on the latest Prismata unit balance changes, we’d really appreciate it! It should only take about 5-10 minutes, though you could spend more time on it if you want.

On with today’s topic: I figured it was about time that I explain one of the design concepts that has existed in Prismata since very early on in its development—the so-called “Shalev’s Rule”. There have been a number of questions posted on the topic (such as this one) and there’s actually quite a bit of misinformation floating around on the definitions involved. So I’m here to set the record straight, and explain a little about why the design rule exists, and how it influences our decisions in creating new Prismata units.

Truth be told, we’ve never really discussed Shalev’s Rule much in public. Public knowledge has mostly leaked out through small mentionings here and there, which led to gradual (and rather incomplete) dissemination of the concept through the Prismata community. The rough idea is essentially “stuff that’s supposed to be good is never bad”, but the rule actually goes much deeper than that, and its implications in Prismata’s design induce a lot of really cool emergent properties.

Obligatory random image that has nothing to do with the article's contents...

Obligatory random image that has nothing to do with the article’s contents… but it’s pretty awesome, agree? Coming soon!

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Mini balance patch incoming!

Hi everyone.

Two quick announcements regarding balance on the Prismata alpha server:

  • We’ll be launching a new balance patch soon. It will be going live this Wednesday at 11:59pm ET.
  • Effective immediately, Redeemer has been temporarily disabled and will not appear in any ranked games, or as a random unit in custom games.

 

Redeemer’s getting another makeover

Redeemer’s been having a tough time. After multiple balance changes, the latest Redeemer looked promising. Unfortunately, some terrifying new builds were discovered, including the crushing “Thunderdeemer” rush for player 2, popularized by Zezetel through his fascinating article on the subject. For this and other reasons, we’re going to be releasing a reworked Redeemer later this week.

Balancing Redeemer has proven to be quite the opposite of a piece of cake.

Balancing Redeemer has proven to be quite the opposite of a piece of cake.

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A guest article on Prismata.xyz

Hi all,

 

Just a quick note: I have a guest post up on /u/evanisvinks14‘s new web site, prismata.xyz. The site hopes to host a ton of community-written Prismata articles on a wide range of topics, and Evan is still accepting submissions. We’re very supportive of these types of community initiatives, so I’ve contributed myself by authoring a strategy article on Trinity Drone there. It’s here if you’d like to have a look.

 

I look forward to lots of other great content on Evan’s blog. Evan’s been one of our greatest ambassadors, moderating our subreddit and giving out tons of keys. We owe him tremendous thanks!


How well can you predict the outcome of a Prismata match?

Hi folks!

I apologize for not blogging much lately; the Canadian Media Fund deadline is coming up so I’ve been slaving away on an application for government support that will help pay for the giant advertising and PR campaigns that will be accompanying Prismata’s release. (Exciting, I know….)

In the interim, I have two small things for you:

(1) A quick survey on what we should do with the “Good Game” emote, which has recently been removed from Prismata. It should take less than two minutes to complete.

(2) I want to run a quick little “Guess who wins” contest, inspired by a few recent threads on our subreddit.

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