Another patch hit the test server today, making the total number of patches two this week. Read on for the changelog and a breakdown of the new custom match layout.

But first, flavor text contest winners! Hah, tricked you.

Congratulations! These players will receive the design contest avatar head and a Tier 3 copy of those scrolls once Echoes goes live. That wraps up all of the flavor text contest for this set. A big thank you to everyone who entered!

OK, now for today’s patch.

Scrolls

Seed of Insurgency + Scout / Aes Moran Scholar: Now delays sifting until beginning of your turn [bug fix].

The changes to the custom match interface were quite extensive this week. It was reworked from the ground up. Let’s go over some of the changes in detail.

Custom Match interface overhaul

Aron has been a very busy man. The custom games menu is now its own scene instead of a popup. Scenes are interface areas like the Arena, Deck Builder, Profile, and so on. It won’t have its own place on the top navigation bar, but it will function much the same. This gives it a lot more space to work with, and makes it a lot more extensible. Here’s what you’re now presented with when beginning your custom match:

Pretty big change, huh? This is a look at the single player custom match list – keep in mind that the multiplayer area has its own unique list of matches. You’ll notice a lot of differences right away. The first one that may immediately jump out at you is that match ratings are now shown as stars instead of a number.

How are custom match ratings determined?

Well, for server performance reasons, every match starts out at a middle-ranged rating of “3” (Otherwise, there can be some ugly divide by zero issues). The rating will not be displayed on the list until at least one player has cast a vote. How do you cast a vote? You use the already existing match rating system that is currently offered at the end of all matches.

Another difference you’ll note is that you can now see the player that created each custom match underneath the match’s name. Note: Custom match names are now capped at fifty characters.

Custom match display

When selecting a custom match, you’ll now be presented with a cleaner match description, including a space for the newly added flavor(text) function, which is displayed in much the same way as trials.

Show decks

Ah, but what’s this? Decks are now shown in their own layer within the match details to reduce clutter. In order to display them, you’ll have to click that “Show decks” button in the upper right. You’ll then see something like this.

Betting display

If a bet exists in a multiplayer game, it is displayed in a special manner as well:

Verify button

There’s still more. We’ve got a new “Verify” button to use when creating custom matches. This will help you figure out what might be incorrect in the syntax of your code. For example, if you forget to close one of your brackets, you’ll see this:

New challenge window

Finally, Aron has found a way to support having truly custom popups for the first time. While this might seem like it would be an easy thing to achieve, it was quite a battle. The end result is that now the custom match “You have been challenged” popup uses the same format and rendering as above, so custom challenges are easier to digest.

For example, if someone were to challenge me with the Bet Test custom match shown above, this is what I would be presented with:

Got all that? Good! The custom match feature is still a work in progress, and it’s not completely done by any means, but these improvements should help usability of the feature by quite a large amount. Let us know what you think!

Braggin’ Brawl

On a completely different note, the Guild vs Guild Braggin’ Brawl is in full force this weekend, with the ESL taking a break. This Saturday and Sunday, keep an eye out for the Badger Guild tearing at the throats of anyone who would dare challenge them. Not in a guild? Don’t forget about the Scrollsguide Guild Recruitment Forum. Joining a guild is the easiest way to surround yourself with like-minded Scrolls players.

That’s it, have a good weekend!

-Gary(@Atmaz)