Looking back, 2.02 has come a long way from its initial release in January 2008. The patch has grown in stages, with major updates in March 2008 (2.02a), January 2009 (2.02c), July 2009 (2.02e), and most recently January 2010 (2.1), and with a few minor updates in between. It has reached a very mature stage, and there's not really much that needs changed anymore. The game is, on the whole, very well balanced. So now, what happens in the future? Where do we go from here?
2.02 updates will not stop, that's for sure. There is always more to be balanced. In future patches, things that aren't viewed as balance issues now will be brought under scrutiny for changes. For example, even though Untamed Allegiance received a large nerf in Version 2.1 (all units now take 40% longer to build than in 2.0, and Cave Trolls deal 17% less punch damage), only now has it emerged as an imbalanced aspect of the game. The game will never be completely balanced, so patches will always be necessary. The goal is to continue to ensure that 2.02 is updated to address these changes, up until the point where the game's competitive community dies down for good.
But on the other hand, large updates are disruptive and eliminate continuity in the community. Players may play less often if they know a large update is on the way, since there's not much point in mastering strategies if they're about to change. Future updates must be much much smaller than they are now, so as not to seriously affect the game. Besides, the game is already very well balanced, so things
should stay pretty much as they are right now. Soon, our patches should be
about the size of a BT2:DC update. Also, they should be less frequent than they are at the moment. Small patches should have about three months in between them, and somewhat larger patches should follow even longer periods of stability.
In the short term, we can talk about Version 2.3 with certainty, since it will be released this Saturday (or Friday night for Americans). Version 2.3 is a medium sized patch (larger than our goal for future patch sizes) with a few specific changes, most notably to hero buildtimes, Untamed Allegiance, Battlewagons, and Sorcerers, though there are a few other important changes as well.
View the 2.3 changelog here; it is being constantly updated to reflect the most current build of the patch, but the final patch should be all but exactly the same as what is listed now. The patch is also heavily focused on noncompetitive improvements, such as to Campaign, War of the Ring, and Create a Heroes. Version 2.3 will certainly be a change from 2.1, and will hopefully be the biggest change that 2.02 will ever undergo again. A few units will be tweaked, with significant balance repercussions. But on the whole, things will still be pretty much as they are now, and they'll stay that way for good.
Discuss the future in our forums
