What’s next for the Silberheim ECG beta?

Over the course of the beta test - and the subsequent period of less intensive beta maintenance - a wide variety of game versions passed before the eyes of Silberheim’s dear souls. Most recently, the Silberheim ECG beta had reached version 0.8.3. The jump to version 0.9 might annoy the sticklers for order among you - after all, what the hell happened to versions 8.4 through 8.9?! Well, our programmers are probably asking themselves the same thing. However, given the rather significant changes involved, the marketing team decided it was time for a new number! Yes, such decisions are made just as arbitrarily as that sounds. But hey, don’t worry - we’re very professional, and sometimes we even know what we’re doing! Our programmers, in particular, really do know what they’re doing with Silberheim ECG. Yet, over the last few weeks, that has amounted to exactly one thing: nothing. And we mean that quite seriously.

After all, the past few weeks - and May in particular - saw a lot of scheduled vacation time for everyone. While the actively managed beta test did result in some overtime, this was promptly balanced out. However, there was no period of total inactivity; Karl, for instance, handled our internal IT needs and implemented new animations into the game. Naturally, we also analyzed your feedback on the Silberheim ECG beta. Work on the content update for version 0.9 has been underway recently - specifically over the last few days and weeks. In addition, we have developed initial concepts for the long-awaited and highly requested tutorial, and a suitable system for it will be built soon.

We are honored to announce that an article covering the content update has already been published by GamersGlobal. We and all of you owe this to Roland! A big thank you to him once again. Feel free to check it out here. The article provides a good, broad overview of the new features awaiting the dear souls of Silberheim ECG. However, we are delighted to elaborate on a few details here. One issue that caused considerable frustration in previous beta versions was opening booster packs in the "Reveal Fragments" menu. Previously, players had to open every single booster pack one by one and reveal every game card - or "fragment" - individually. It was, to put it mildly, a bit of a chore. We are confident that the new "Open All" button will be well-received - though perhaps only until we reveal that it is intended to be temporary, pending a more exciting alternative. Otherwise we can announce that a remodeling of the formats has taken place. You once knew - perhaps - the evolving format, which was allowed to contain 85 cards from a maximum of two factions. This initially became a kind of chaos evolving format with a revealed hero. Now it is disappearing in its form and is being replaced by a new format: faction battle! What's new is that only 50 cards from a single faction (depending on the fortress and hero used) can be used - so that this whole faction thing actually makes sense. In addition, there may be three copies of the same card in the deck. Furthermore, the flux fight format will also change. In the future there will be a restriction to two factions from which the fragments may come. Two copies per card are also permitted. What's that supposed to mean? Well, I asked our full stack developer Max Weber: "We don't do flux flight remodeling because it's cool. We do flux fight remodeling because we like to do it. Apart from that, we don't do flux fight remodeling at all." Wait, that was the wrong quote. Again: "Among other things, this is also a type of balancing measure. A lot of wild combinations will then no longer be possible. The meta will shift. Of course, it's not the only thing we want to do when it comes to balancing and it won't solve all the problems either. We'll see what happens." In fact, it's Felix's turn to adjust the balancing of the individual cards. In fact, you could say he's starting to lose his mind in the process. You can also look forward to over 140 new cards and numerous new, of course hand-made illustrations. Amaze and admire this one, for example:

The new display shown after bundling cards is only marginally less beautiful, yet maximally practical. It actually allows players to track what changes and how the card has improved. There are also new VFX - visual effects - in general. Things look different. For instance, there’s a big vortex. It even moves. Pretty awesome. Naturally, the content update also brings some bug fixes. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean everything will run 100% smoothly. Out of an abundance of caution, perhaps even excessive caution, we want to emphasize once again: Silberheim ECG is still in beta leading up to its Steam release (a phase that can cause issues, which is why it’s free to test).

There’s likely something else on your minds. Judging by this section's heading, it’s probably a question about the future: What other content are we planning for Silberheim ECG? Max Weber has an answer to that, too. "Could you stop broadcasting my last name all over the internet?" he explains. "There are still a few things that need doing to finish the game's foundation. That includes networking, matchmaking, the tutorial, a revamp of the deck builder, and other core elements. After those points, we get to the cool stuff. That’s the fun part, and it doesn't take as long." Max can also tell us exactly what he considers fun: "Basically, you could vaguely summarize it as 'more customization.' My card evolves because I play it the way I play it, so I have this new, evolved card and you (yes, you) don't." I have to admit, that sounds like a lot of fun - though perhaps not if you’re the one on the receiving end. Beyond that, however, Max enjoys other aspects as well: “There are no limits to this customization. Perhaps a custom soundtrack will play at some point, or new artwork will appear as cards evolves - who knows?”

Before customization, Silberheim ECG is just a card game. But with customization, Silberheim ECG becomes your card game. That’s why the programming team is pulling out all the stops to get the fundamentals wrapped up as quickly as possible. Finally, you can expect a few changes here on the website. You might even see your personal user area evolve. And soon - coinciding with the content update - you’ll start hearing others talk about Silberheim ECG again, perhaps even on various streams. We’ll be sure to let you know via Discord when that happens. We hope you have a great time with Beta 0.9. See you in Silberheim.