text:
Home / News / Government / Mortgage Cram-Downs by Bankruptcy Judges Are Taking Place: DBRS
Mortgage Cram-Downs by Bankruptcy Judges Are Taking Place: DBRS
in Government, Loss Mitigation, Secondary Market May 2, 2011 870 Views
_NOTE: Article has been updated to include jurisdictions where DBRS says most primary mortgage cram-downs are taking place: California, Texas, and Louisiana._
The research firm and ratings agency ""DBRS"":http://dbrs.com/ has learned from various servicers that although Congress never authorized bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages on primary residences, these ""cram-downs,"" as they have been termed, are currently being performed in some courts.
[IMAGE] ""The amount of the cram-down varies by state, property value, and borrower situation but usually includes a reduction in the principal amount of the loan to fair market value,"" DBRS said in a report released Monday.
Kathleen Tillwitz is an SVP in DBRS' structured finance group. She says the ""small number"" of cases that have been uncovered involving cram-downs of first mortgages have been concentrated in California, Texas, and Louisiana.
The bankruptcy cram-down was part of the original language of the ""Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009"":http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-111publ22/pdf/PLAW-111publ22.pdf and would have amended the federal bankruptcy law governing a Chapter 13 debtor to allow judges to alter the terms of mortgages on primary residences.
However, that provision was dropped in the Senate and was not included in the version that was eventually signed into law on May 20, 2009.
Historically, bankruptcy judges could only modify the terms of mortgages on investment properties and vacation homes but not on primary residences, DBRS explained in its report.
The proposed provision in the 2009 legislation would have allowed a bankruptcy judge to reduce the principal amount to the fair market value of the property; reduce
[COLUMN_BREAK]
the interest rate; extend the term of the mortgage up to 40 years; prohibit, reduce, or delay the adjustment of an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM); and waive prepayment penalties.
DBRS says the cram-down provision drew extensive criticism because it would have allowed borrowers to abdicate their contractual obligation to repay the full amount of their loan. Additionally, many argued that allowing cram-downs would have made it more costly for other individuals to purchase a home because lenders would have had to increase interest rates and down payments to supplement the loss from the loan modification, the research firm explained.
The use of the controversial bankruptcy cram-down has been voted down in Congress several times, but DBRS says that hasn't stopped some judges from putting them into practice.
The news has the residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) market worrying about an increase in AAA downgrades and bankruptcy filings, according to DBRS.
Many transactions have a bankruptcy carve out that places a limit on the maximum amount of losses that will be absorbed by the subordinate tranches from bankruptcy filings, the ratings agency explained, adding that any bankruptcy losses exceeding this limit may be allocated on a pro rata basis, which can lead to losses on the senior most tranches.
Furthermore, when a bankruptcy judge reduces the principal amount of the loan to the fair market value of the property, the amount of the write-down becomes an unsecured debt that will be paid pro rata along with any other unsecured claims that the borrower has, such as credit cards, DBRS says.
As a result, the unsecured portion of the mortgage debt (or the cram-down amount) will likely result in immediate losses to RMBS pools, which may cause subordinate classes to be written down faster, according to DBRS.
The analysts at DBRS say that once it becomes more widely known that bankruptcy judges are utilizing cram-downs on first mortgages in certain situations, they believe the practice will become more prevalent in the industry.
As a result, DBRS expects to see an increase in personal bankruptcies in 2011 as well as judges becoming more aggressive in the use of first-mortgage debt forgiveness.
Bankruptcy DBRS Loan Modification Negative Equity Principal Writedown 2011-05-02
Carrie Bay
Tagged with: Bankruptcy DBRS Loan Modification Negative Equity Principal Writedown
Previous: Urban Lending Solutions to Utilize New Appraisal Technology from FNC
Next: MERS Taps Former CitiMortgage Chief as New President and CEO
About Author: Carrie Bay
Carrie Bay is a freelance writer for DS News and its sister publication MReport. She served as online editor for DSNews.com from 2008 through 2011. Prior to joining DS News and the Five Star organization, she managed public relations, marketing, and media relations initiatives for several B2B companies in the financial services, technology, and telecommunications industries. She also wrote for retail and nonprofit organizations upon graduating from Texas A&M University with degrees in journalism and English.
CoreLogic Names Selma Hepp Chief Economist
HUD Invests $5.5 Million in Hispanic-Serving Institutions
Report: Forbearances "Reach a Floor"
For the third consecutive month, the nation's forbearance rate has remained relatively flat, with new forbearance requests and re-entries being reported at nearly the same pace as exits.


It's hard to imagine the thrill of a motorcycle unless you've been on one yourself. The sound of the engine, the wind rushing by you, the speed and precision of the bike. And in the city of Los Angeles, riding can be especially fun, with all of its unique roads and freeways. But riding in Los Angeles can also sometimes lead to accidents, and if that occurs, you'll want an attorney who knows motorcycles. An attorney like Cameron Yadidi Brock of the Law Offices of Burg and Brock, Inc.
The legal team at the Law Offices of Burg and Brock, Inc. is known for handling all sorts of personal injury cases, and can provide an excellent dog bite attorney for those who need one. But when it comes to car and motorcycle accidents, it's nearly impossible to find a better option in Los Angeles than Cameron Yadidi Brock and his team. He rides the streets of L.A. on his own bike frequently, and has made it his mission to make sure riders get the best possible settlements when they're in accidents with negligent drivers.
The Law Offices of Burg and Brock, Inc. can also provide a head injury lawyer for those who have sustained serious physical damage to their head or spine. These types of injuries can be especially stressful, and a fair settlement can help one deal with emotional and physical pain, as well as medical bills. The bottom line: for anybody looking for a motorcycle accident attorney in Los Angeles they'll want to contact Cameron Yadidi Brock and his powerful legal team at the Law Offices of Burg and Brock, Inc.


text:
Home » FreedomPay to Unleash the Power of Pay at NRF 2023
FreedomPay to Unleash the Power of Pay at NRF 2023
One of the world's fastest growing fintech to showcase award-winning global commerce technology platform and industry-leading partner network.
NEW YORK, National Retail Federation, Jan. 15, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FreedomPay, the global leader in Next Level Commerce and the commerce technology platform of choice for global retail, hospitality and payments brands including Marriott, Foot Locker, Shake Shack, Engage People, and Castles Technology, will showcase its innovations and partnership announcements this week at NRF in booth #4250.
The event will mark the launch of FreedomPay's new call to action, Unleash the Power of Pay. As the commerce landscape evolves with new technologies and changing consumer needs, Unleash the Power of Pay introduces the notion of unleashing the power of payments to drive greater customer loyalty, leverage business intelligence insights, and bring value-added services.
"FreedomPay is excited to make a splash at this year's NRF and to launch Unleash the Power of Pay. The concept is a testament to our award-winning technology and best-in-class partner network that is enabling billions of transactions in more than 75 countries across the globe," said Tom Durovsik, Founder & CEO of FreedomPay.
As part of its line-up at NRF, FreedomPay will host a roundtable discussion on Monday, January 16 at 10:30AM at booth #4250 with industry influencers Castles Technology, Charter Communications, and Elo Touch, moderated by Dale Laszig of the Green Sheet. The event, Next Level Commerce : Unleashing the Power of Pay, will focus on the challenges and opportunities across retail, the trends influencing retail's future, and strategies for merchants to navigate the changing retail sector. Those who would like to attend virtually are encouraged to register here.
FreedomPay also announces the publication of a new industry white paper The Next Level of Global Payments: Unleash the Power of Pay. The report highlights pivotal opportunities for retailers to elevate customer relationships and increase profit margins internationally, outlining strategies for security, safety, speed, simplicity, and customer satisfaction with service across borders. Download now to read the bespoke report.
FreedomPay's global footprint continues to grow through the power of its partner network and new integrations to allow merchants to Unleash the Power of Pay for their customers. FreedomPay also announced in the days leading up to NRF 2023 new partnerships that will bring its solutions to more merchants around the world.
Moneris Solutions Corporation ("Moneris"), the largest payment processor in Canada*, will now be able to offer its merchants access to FreedomPay's commerce technology platform, bringing an enhanced checkout experience to millions of shoppers across Canada.
FreedomPay also announced an integration with Flooid, bringing enhanced innovation, choice, and flexibility to retailers around the globe on the Flooid platform.
To learn more about FreedomPay, visit us at NRF booth #4250 or www.freedompay.com.
About FreedomPay
FreedomPay's Next Level Commerce platform transforms existing payment systems and processes from legacy to leading edge. As the premier choice for many of the largest companies across the globe in retail, hospitality, lodging, gaming, sports and entertainment, foodservice, education, healthcare and financial services, FreedomPay's technology has been purposely built to deliver rock solid performance in the highly complex environment of global commerce. The company maintains a world-class security environment and was first to earn the coveted validation by the PCI Security Standards Council against Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE/EMV) standard in North America. FreedomPay's robust solutions across payments, security, identity, and data analytics are available in-store, online and on-mobile and are supported by rapid API adoption. The award winning FreedomPay Commerce Platform operates on a single, unified technology stack across multiple continents allowing enterprises to deliver an innovative Next Level experience on a global scale. www.freedompay.com
*Based on total number of transactions processed in Canada
Jennifer Tayebi
Hill+Knowlton Strategies for FreedomPay
Jennifer.Tayebi@hkstrategies.com
Category: Africa, Asean, MENA, Pakistan, Press Release, South Africa
« PM renews pledge to eradicate terrorism with nation's support
Pakistan reiterates commitment to peaceful, developed world »

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Spanglish Watch Online Free
Mexican immigrant and single mother Flor Moreno finds housekeeping work with Deborah and John Clasky, a well-off couple with two children of their own. When Flor admits she can't handle the schedule because of her daughter, Cristina, Deborah decides they should move into the Clasky home. Cultures clash and tensions run high as Flor and the Claskys struggle to share space while raising their children on their own, and very different, terms.
Director: James L. Brooks
Actors: Adam Sandler, Cloris Leachman, Ian Hyland, Paz Vega, Sarah Steele, Shelbie Bruce, Téa Leoni
When Hong Kong Inspector Lee is summoned to Los Angeles to investigate a kidnapping, the FBI doesn't want any outside help and assigns cocky LAPD Detective James Carter to distract…
A neurotic worker ant in love with a rebellious princess rises to unlikely stardom when he switches places with a soldier. Signing up to march in a parade, he ends…
Unknown Origins (2020)
Watch Unknown Origins Online Free. In Madrid, Spain, a mysterious serial killer ruthlessly murders his victims by recreating the first appearance of several comic book superheroes. Cosme, a veteran police…
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A romantic comedy. Michael Keaton and Geena Davis are speechwriters for competing political campaigns. Witty and amusing for the political junkies amongst us.
While trying to save their childhood orphanage, Moe, Larry and Curly inadvertently stumble into a murder plot and wind up starring in a reality TV show.
Piranha 3DD
After the events at Lake Victoria, the prehistoric school of blood-thirsty piranhas make their way into swimming pools, plumbing, and a newly opened water park.
Snatchers
Sara's one of the cool kids… but she's totally terrified of losing her status. She'd be a lot more secure if she could just win back her super-hot ex, Skyler,…
A young autistic woman runs away from her caregiver in order to boldly go and deliver her 500-page Star Trek script to a writing competition in Hollywood. On an adventure…
World's Greatest Dad
In the wake of a freak accident, Lance suffers the worst tragedy and the greatest opportunity of his life. He is suddenly faced with the possibility of fame, fortune and…
An independent, single mother who owns a small hotel on a Greek island is about to marry off the spirited young daughter she's raised alone. But, the daughter has secretly…
Watch Spanglish Online Free
Trailer: Spanglish


Fine quality George III mahogany serpentine serving table, with good colour and ebony and boxwood inlay. Figured top over three flame figured drawers, fitted with original brass swan neck handles. Flanked by oval shell marquetry panels and raised on square tapered legs.


text:
Q: How can I use gtk.Builder.connect_signals to only connect signals from one window? I'm developing a GUI application using Glade and Python 3. I've designed the UI in Glade; it consists of a main application window and a custom dialog with certain information that is shown when the user clicks a specified button. The dialog has its own class, let's call it InfoDialog; its constructor handles creating the dialog window and showing it. The class also has methods that correspond to signals sent by widgets in the dialog; for example, there is a "Cancel" button, and the signal (and the handler method in the class) is called on_cancelButton_clicked.
The problem is that I would like to connect this signal on a per-instance basis in InfoDialog's constructor and specify self as user-data, so that InfoDialog.on_cancelButton_clicked receives all the arguments and can take action on that instance of InfoDialog. The problem is that as I connect the signals for my main window after I create it, Gtk.builder expects me to provide all the signal handlers in there, not just for the main window, but also for InfoDialog and its children - in general for every single signal defined in the UI .xml file.
What can I do to solve this, other than just calling widget.connect() manually for every child?

A: The usual way is to split the UI definitions for different windows/dialogs into separate XML files.
If you don't want to do that, you could use Gtk.Builder.connect_signals_full(), and pass a custom function that connects only the signals you want to connect.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Home Anti-Corruption Saraki Asks CCT to Dismiss Charges Against Him… Tribunal Reserves Ruling
Saraki Asks CCT to Dismiss Charges Against Him… Tribunal Reserves Ruling
Prnigeria
The Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki pointedly told the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) to dismiss the false assets declaration charges brought against him at the Code of Conduct Tribunal in Abuja by the Federal Government on the ground that no prima facie case has been established against him.
He told the Tribunal that from the 18-count charges and the totality of evidence adduced by the government witnesses, he had not been linked in any way with the allegations against him.
The CCT chairman, Danladi Umar has indefinitely adjourned its final ruling on case saying more time is needed before a final decision can be reached.
Danladi said: "We have received all the submissions. Myself and my colleague will look at all the issues raised. After which we will come back and give our ruling. We cannot pick a date now but as soon as we do, we will communicate it."
In his no-case submission argued by his counsel, Mr. Kanu Agabi (SAN), Saraki said that the prosecution failed to establish the charges against him and as such there was no need for him to be ordered to enter defence by the Tribunal in respect of the charges.
He said that the charges against him were predicated on petitions and that throughout the prosecution's case, the reports of investigation on the petitions were never made available to the Tribunal for verification.
Saraki's counsel pleaded with the tribunal to painstakingly read all the petitions so as to be able to establish that the petitions have nothing to do with the Senate President.
Apart from the fact that the reports on the investigation on the petitions were no made available to the tribunal by the Federal Government, the counsel submitted that none of the petitioners was invited as witness in the charges against the defendant.
Agabi specifically informed the tribunal that he made a no case submission for his client because the charges against him were founded on faceless petitions and pleaded with the Tribunal to dismiss the charges so as discourage writers of faceless petitions.
The senior lawyer also drew the attention of the tribunal to counts 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 16, adding that in the counts Saraki was charged with false declaration of assets by making no declaration of assets.
Agabi insisted that the charges were full of anomalies and also inconsistencies adding that false declaration by refusal to declare is unknown to law.
He maintained that Saraki declared his assets as required by law and that no one can make a declaration that the statement of a public officer is false unless such a person is authorised by law to do so.
Throughout the prosecution's case against Saraki, Agabi a former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice said that nobody was mentioned as having declared the assets declared by Saraki in his assets declaration forms as false.
Agabi specifically referred the tribunal to the evidence of Mr. Samuel Madojemu, the Head of Investigation and Intelligence Unit of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and his affidavit evidence adding that throughout his testimony, he based his evidence on hearsay from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), adding that witnesses ought to be called to prove the case were no called.
The senior lawyer therefore urged the tribunal headed by Hon Danladi Yakubu Umar to decide the no case submission on justice and not on sentiments from the prosecution.
However, in his opposition to the no case submission, counsel to the Federal Government, Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) insisted that serious prima facie case has been established to warrant the defendant to be called upon by the Tribunal to enter his defence in the charges against him.
He drew the attention of the Tribunal to some assets forms of the defendant, adding that investigations established false declaration of assets.
Rotimi told the Tribunal that discharging the defendant at a no case point level will defeat the fight against corruption and purpose of the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
He maintained that name of the defendant was mentioned in the petitions and that even, without that, a person can still be prosecuted without any petition against him.
The prosecution counsel urged the Tribunal not to form opinion, evaluate evidence or make observations on the facts at this level and urged the Tribunal to hold that a prima facie case had been effectively established against the defendant.
The Tribunal chairman, Hon. Danladi Yakubu Umar, after taking arguments from both sides announced that he will sit down with his colleague on the panel to decide on the no case arguments and that a date for ruling will be communicated to the lawyers when the ruling is ready.
It will be recalled that the Federal Government had in September 2015 slammed charges of false declaration of assets on Saraki while the charges were amended three times in the cause of the trial.
Saraki's trial was initiated by government shortly after he emerged Senate President against the government preferred candidate.
By PRNigeria
PRNigeria encourages institutions to be transparent in their information management as it provides news items from authoritative sources for free use by the media
Abubakar Bukola Saraki
Previous articleFG Approves Central Coordination, Placement, Posting and Funding of Medical and Dental Graduates to MDCN
Next articleICPC to train local citizens on Inclusive Budgeting
PHOTO: New Year Eve, EFCC Arrests 21 Internet Fraudsters at Luxury Home, Three others jailed in Uyo
Romance Scammer Iweregbu Fined N300,000 for Defrauding Female-Lovers $166,000
PHOTO: How Eze Brothers Allegedly Stole N1.5bn From Prince Arthur Eze
EFCC Have No 'Ambassadors'- Spokesperson
NJC Sacks Judges over age falsification, Seeks Appointment of 69 Judicial Officers
Banker, Internet Fraudsters Bag Jail Terms in Ogun, Lagos
Lawyers Jailed for N24m Fraud In Lagos


The taxi I booked for 8am this morning arrived at 8:30, which did not put me in a good mood for my trip to the 2nd Annual Learning Commons Development and Design Forum in Brisbane. Canberra's new airport terminal is wide and a little empty looking. Standing at the check-in I could not see the departure area or security. It looked more like a large hotel lobby than an airport. This sparseness seems to have caused disorientation for customers, with the airport having to stick extra temporary signs to the floor.
The new QANTAS club lounge in the airport is similarly large and a little empty looking. The wood panelling has a Scandinavian feel to it. The white desktops for the business area may have looked good in a brochure, but at 8:30am the sunlight shining off the surface made the computer screens hard to read. This was not helped by the use of shiny Apple Mac screens, which are good for watching a video in a dim room, but have glare problems in a well lit room.


text:
Hein Cooper
Home > Upcoming Shows > Hein Cooper
Tickets from $29.00
Saturday 3rd August 8:00pm - 10:30pmBuy Tickets
Presenter: 123 Agency & Title Track
After dropping previous singles "Hear My Voice" and "Over Again" last year, and playing a bunch of sold out homecoming shows across the country, Hein Cooper returned from writing in British coastal towns, Canadian mountains, and cinematic French chalets with single "Like That" and announced his second album 'Underneath It All' (set for release June 14).
A song about yearning for something more,"Like That" took Hein's recognisable layers of acoustic guitar, the smooth synth, and the crisp backbeat, but offered something entirely new, giving us a taste of just how diverse his new album will be. The track took fans by surprise with its deep groove and falsetto vocals - clocking over 500k streams, was added to triple j rotation, and set Hein off on a massive tour across Europe.
Latest album preview "Hijack" shows another different side of the album entirely. The album opener offers a moodier take on Cooper's sound, with a slow brooding build of vocals, beats, and synth set to hypnotise the listener into a woozy swirl of emotion.
Hear "Like That", "Hijack", as well as "Hear My Voice" and "Over Again" and the rest of the new album when Hein returns to Australian shores for his album tour in August!
Doors 7.30pm.
Support: Leonie Kingdom


text:
Website harnesses local distribution, Sequenom CMM to provide national footprint
DENVER/ATLANTA (Nov. 27, 2012) – The Global Down Syndrome Foundation and the National Down Syndrome Congress have announced distribution agreements for the hallmark Down Syndrome Prenatal Testing Pamphlet that provides current, accurate information about Down syndrome to pregnant women and families.
The organizations anticipate distributing 25,000 pamphlets in the next year through the pamphlet's new corresponding website, www.downsyndrometest.org. In the two weeks since the website launched, more than 1,000 pamphlets have been requested and are in the process of being distributed to several states, including California, Michigan, West Virginia, Texas and Florida. These pamphlets will be delivered free of charge by the end of the year, and distributed to pregnancy centers, OBGYN offices, parent support groups and to participants at an upcoming perinatal conference.
In addition to local distribution accessed through the website, the pamphlet will be distributed nationally by Sequenom Center for Molecular Medicine TM (Sequenom CMM), one of the largest prenatal testing laboratories in the United States. Sequenom CMM will provide medical professionals with the pamphlet, and will recommend that those who administer their test offer the pamphlet to patients / expectant parents at the point of testing and diagnosis. In the next year, Sequenom CMM anticipates providing between 75,000 and 100,000 printed copies of the pamphlet to the medical centers and facilities administering the MaterniT21TM PLUS LDT.
"Sequenom CMM has expressed a desire to better understand the Down syndrome community's concerns regarding prenatal testing, which opened up a discussion for them to distribute our pamphlet," said David Tolleson, Executive Director of the National Down Syndrome Congress. "We appreciate their input on our pamphlet, and particularly the acknowledgment in their marketing materials that these tests can help a woman or family to 'prepare medically, emotionally and financially for the birth of a child with special needs'."
"It is so important to provide a pamphlet to pregnant women that explains both the prenatal testing associated with Down syndrome and facts about the condition," said Michelle Sie Whitten, Executive Director of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation. "Requests for local distribution continue to grow through the website, and coupled with Sequenom CMM's nationwide footprint, we expect to have a real and positive impact on thousands of pregnant women and their families."
Dan Ketcherside, Director of Market Development at Sequenom CMM agreed, "Sequenom CMM encourages medical professionals to offer accurate information to pregnant women and their families about the conditions tested for through our products. The Global Down Syndrome Foundation and the National Down Syndrome Congress graciously included our perspective on prenatal testing in their pamphlet with messaging that mirrors the dialogue we're already having with specialists around the country. We are honored to be a partner for this important educational material."
The Global Down Syndrome Foundation and the National Down Syndrome Congress will continue to monitor advances in prenatal testing. They will also measure the impact of the pamphlet through follow-up surveys and update the pamphlet as appropriate. Sequenom CMM will also contribute to the pamphlet's utility by surveying medical professionals on a quarterly basis.
The pamphlet format allows for easy updates and distribution. The costs for approved distribution of the pamphlet (printing and shipping) will be incurred by Sequenom CMM, the Global Down Syndrome Foundation and the National Down Syndrome Congress. There is no financial benefit or incentive associated with the distribution agreements.
For free downloads of the pamphlet or to learn more, visit www.downsyndrometest.org.
The Global Down Syndrome Foundation is a public nonprofit 501(c)(3) dedicated to significantly improving the lives of people with Down syndrome through research, medical care, education and advocacy. Formally established in 2009, the Foundation's primary focus is to support the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome, the first academic home in the U.S. committed to research and medical care for people with the condition. Fundraising and government advocacy that corrects the alarming disparity of national funding for people with Down syndrome is a major short-term goal. The Foundation organizes the Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show — the single-largest annual fundraiser benefiting people with Down syndrome. Programmatically, the Foundation organizes and funds many programs and conferences, including the Dare to Play Football and Cheer Camps, Global Down Syndrome Educational Series, and Global Down Syndrome Multi-Language Resource Project. The Foundation is an inclusive organization without political or religious affiliation or intention.
About the National Down Syndrome Congress
Founded in 1973, the National Down Syndrome Congress is the oldest national organization for people with Down syndrome, their families, and the professionals who work with them. A 501(c)(3) non-profit advocacy organization, the NDSC provides free technical support and information about issues related to Down syndrome throughout the lifespan, as well as on matters of public policy relating to disability rights. Best known for its annual convention – the largest of its type in the world – the National Down Syndrome Congress is a grassroots organization recognized for its "family" feel, its "We're More Alike than Different" public awareness campaign, and, its outreach to individuals from diverse backgrounds.


How do we create purposeful, values-based and future ready organisations?
How do we increase genuine ownership, acceptance and support for change?
How do we build healthy workplaces and flourishing communities that are self-renewing and self-sustaining?
Founded in 2001, Sequoia is a Leadership & Organisation Development consultancy firm that delivers customised solutions in the areas of Strategic Planning, Innovation, Change Management, Engaging Leadership & Organisational Learning. Through our suite of accessible models and frameworks, we help transform your organisation into a high-performing, thriving and healthy ecosystem.
We aspire to transform workplaces and communities into flourishing ecosystems that enable people to thrive and live fulfilling, meaningful lives. We create organisations that are truly worthy of people's commitment, building a strong foundation for a highly engaging culture where leaders are committed to delivering lasting positive impact for employees and stakeholders.
In many ways, this story is a parable that illustrates our work – O.D. (Organisation Development) and to develop flourishing organisations.
We know that each client's context is unique. It is important for us to understand your needs through a partnership approach.


text:
A Review of Political Science Research Design: University of California, Berkeley Joint Project on the Categorization of Trauma-based Findings by Jay-Miguel Fonticella (A22)
by tuftsigl
My previous courses in psychology and community health at Tufts University cultivated my interest in the social sciences research process. While ongoing research continues to develop our understanding of social phenomena, I have found myself questioning the consistency across published experiments. All around the world, academic institutions conduct investigations aimed to elucidate the effect of trauma on human behavior. However, I question if the foundational design of these experiments is comparable across studies. Do the researchers from all institutions define or measure trauma in a similar manner? If not, could the differences in the variable definitions, data measurements, or participant populations account for the variations in the findings among these studies?
I interned as a research assistant with Elizabeth Herman and Justine Davis at the University of California Berkeley on their project to categorize trauma exposure/response findings on political, social, psychological, or economic behaviors. At weekly meetings, I engaged in virtual discussions regarding publications in political science, psychology, and sociology. Through these conversations, I learned about cross-sectional data, quasi-experiments, and moderating variables. Subsequently, I applied these concepts to our research project, which involved coding articles based on their categorization as trauma exposure or trauma response investigations.
Trauma exposure is defined as an individual's direct or indirect exposure to violence, whereas trauma response is defined as an individual-level indicator capturing response to a trauma-related event. Among these related articles, we aimed to determine trends in outcomes between studies coded as trauma exposure vs. trauma response. Our initial findings suggested that trauma exposure articles showed positively correlated social-oriented outcomes, including intergroup trust and social networks. I also observed that trauma response articles commonly demonstrated negative associations with psychological outcomes, specifically PTSD and hostility. Taken together, the data obtained through this systematic review indicates that the research design and variable definitions impact the experimental findings, providing an explanation for the difference in trends among the related trauma, violence-based articles.
Alumna Biz Herman and colleague Justine Davis provided this remote internship.


You may always inform the standard of a service and also a business by their customer services. Don't worry, your private information won't become people. Do not be hesitant to have in touch with us quickly as you believe it mandatory and you are going to be amazed at all our expert services. Furthermore, our service is easily the most punctual.
You may get personalized and unique writing of the ideal caliber every time you put an order! In the event you've received an order that must be completed immediately, you may be assured knowing that people'll be those to visit rescue! Greater than that, that you don't desire to place your application in jeopardy. Additionally, there are plenty of lucrative offers from assorted essay creating services and also that you don't know essay company which to prefer.
Analysis doesn't mean retelling the story. An financial essay may begin having a thesis, or it might begin having a motif.
Though the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soto finish paragraph comes at the conclusion of your informative article it ought not be considered as a afterthought. Interpretation words request you shield notions of your own in regards to this area. When you're producing, make an effort to prevent applying the exact words and phrases over and over again.
No matter the mission of this essay, be sure that you're interested in the topic. Devote a number of moments on teaching your composition in case you've got some time. Essays might perhaps not be submitted. Creating essays or any sort of paper-works is definitely significant and serious undertaking.
In case you're indecisive to pay somebody to compose your essay, explore other facets of the web sites or get in touch with our support team for any added guidelines. Furthermore our internet site blog comprises complimentary writing tips and tutorials to help possible clients along with to for both pupils who simply require educational assistance. You'll need to do a little study once you have ascertained that the point. To assist you obtain off to a wonderful beginning we have put together the following advice and tips.
Ask a few distinct experts just what a personal essay will be and you're probably going to have three distinct answers. Your-self is among the cultural announcements. Whatever the instance, direct and indirect estimates are indispensable to encourage your own understanding of academic writing design.
You can find some crucial things which move to a exemplary Shared Program article. The most big idea of all the criticism is really to supply an opinion both of positive or negative implication. Hence, the attention isn't simply descriptive. The important word here is important.
The essay needs to be concise. It will soon be marked with your tutor and another mark. Your article should have an introduction. Just one article will become necessary.
You may always explain to the grade of a service and a company by their customer services. Do not stress your own private information wont become public. Do not be hesitant to have in contact us as soon as you feel it mandatory and you're getting to be surprised with all our services. Additionally, our assistance is readily the very punctual.
The assortment of missions allows you to get paid a acceptable collection and make sure of their timely shipping we all offer to a regular basis. Numerous alternative logical arrangements for essays are visualized as write my essay diagrams, which makes them an easy task to implement or accommodate inside the building of a debate. The further you wish to know far more about and connected to this topic, the more the simpler it's goes to be to attract your reader, therefore should you clarify a individual, choose a man whose traits standout to your own .
Your composition deserves attention and effort, however bear in mind that it's simply an element of the total application approach. When it's describing a procedure, like just how to make a great chocolate cake, ensure the paragraphs drop within the suitable purchase. You will carry on to continue to keep your argumentative essays on the up coming job portfolio in case they have been highly graded. Our informative article producing services provide professional aid within the subject of instruction.
You view, the traditions of English essays are far more formulaic than you may think and, in plenty of manners, it can be as easy as counting. Illustrate abstractions like personality characteristics just since you may watch them. Inch final tip in regards to composition arrangement is always to make sure to write inside the local dialect.
Write on the way you're eager to begin your own career field since it has ever been your own dream, and attending faculty will probably make sure it's a reality. Numerous students fall in the trap of telling your reader what's going on in the written text as opposed to analyzing it. Virtually all college students defeat substantial challenges to pursue their educational objectives.


text:
Study: The Non-medical Use of Prescription Drugs
"I had seen a lot on the news about pain killers and drug abuse," Thomas Stewart said. "I felt like there was still a lack of information on what demographic is using and how they are accessing these drugs." He, an SDSU grad with a master's in social work, and Mark Reed, an associate professor in SDSU's School of Social Work, decided to study the non-medical use of prescription drugs. By gathering research at University of North Carolina on Americans ages 18 to 25, they determined information they found shocking. As told on medicalxpress.com, Stewart says, "I found it very surprising that individuals who had recently experienced a financial hardship were more likely to engage in abuse of these drugs."
As well, they determined, "More people die from prescription overdoses than illicit anxiety prescription stimulants, opioids and depressants," Reed said.
While non-prescription drugs are considered drugs were not prescribed to the individual or not prescribed for that purpose, results showed that more than 17 percent of the respondents said they had used a prescription drug without a prescription at some point in their lives. And the most commonly abused prescription drugs were painkillers and prescription opioids. Nearly 15 percent of respondents had used these drugs, which are considered the most deadly, according to Reed.
The more they looked into the research, the more info they found that was contradictory to what they originally believed.
Parents education level was a big factor in whether or not these young adults were using. As their parent's level of education increased, so did the use of non-prescription tranquilizers and stimulants. Also unexpected: Health insurance was negatively associated with the use of non-prescription drugs. Meaning people with better insurance and easier access to these drugs were less likely to abuse these drugs.
Access to these drugs is a huge problem. Because the most susceptible demographic in America is young adults, Reed encourages preventative educational programming and prescription drug monitoring programs in high schools.
Their solution: "Many states have strong information logging regulations, said Reed, which help keep track of who has these drugs and who is allowed to take them. If this logging is done correctly, he believes that less abuse of these drugs would continue."


text:
La BYD S8 è un'autovettura prodotta dalla casa automobilistica cinese BYD Auto dal 2009 al 2010.

Descrizione
La S8 è una coupé-cabriolet presentato per la prima volta sotto forma di prototipo al Salone di Shanghai nel 2006 con il nome BYD F8.

Il veicolo ha un tetto in acciaio retrattile che si apre e ripone nel bagagliaio. Il design della vettura ha suscitato numerose controversie, in quanto nella parte posteriore assomiglia alla Renault Mégane CC, mentre la parte anteriore ricorda la Mercedes-Benz CLK.

La S8 ha la trazione anteriore ed è alimentata da un motore a 4 cilindri da 2,0 litri.

Nel 2009 l'auto è stata venduta in soli 96 unità e solo 7 auto sono state vendute nell'anno 2010. In tutto, l'auto è stata venduta in sole 103 unità.

Note

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

Automobili BYD Auto

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Canal Mills draws on its creative past, rooted within the backbone of the industrial revolution to create a dynamic space that intertwines historic and modern day creativity whilst ultimately playing host to unique, bespoke events in Leeds.
Interweaving the lines of its own authentic history and the unbounded innovation of modern art, the venue offers up a revolutionary space unique of its type in Leeds. Canal Mills itself is an artefact that visually awakens the traditional processes of the textile mill from which its creative heredity stems, in a modern environment.
The venue will showcase a range of artistic pursuits from exhibitions, theatrical projects and film screenings, to live gigs and electronic dance events, all the while sustaining the unique aesthetic elements born from the heart of its heritage as a textile mill.


Blessed John Henry Newman - The Convert: Is there any truth in matters of religion? Should the Church simply retreat in the face of the challenges of culture? John Henry Newman came into the Church as a convert and used his prodigious intellectual gifts to help the Church better understand its identity and mission and engage the challenges of a secular age.


Central Oregon's high desert is graced with stunning mountain views and unlimited treasures to explore. Whether your passion is kayaking, climbing or bird watching this magnificent part of Oregon has something for everyone. It is an ideal place to go within, reflect and discover your authentic self. Breathe in the smells of Sage, Juniper berries and Ponderosa Pine as you renew your spirit in so many ways.


text:
Q: Python - Tkinter - Checkbutton dinâmica não pega o valor da variável quando referenciada de outro arquivo/tela estou tendo o seguinte problema:
Consigo pegar o valor de uma variável dinâmica (checkbutton) quando todo o programa está em um só arquivo com apenas uma função:
import string
from tkinter import *
import tkinter as tk
qtdvinhos = 3
linhacheck = 1
var=dict()
mostra = Tk()
mostra.geometry("650x400")
mostra.title("Sydvinn - Vinhos cadastrados")
def Lecheck(event):
    for x in range(1,qtdvinhos):
        stringcheck = 'Check ' + str(x) + ': ' +str(var[x].get())
        print(stringcheck)
for x in range(1,qtdvinhos):
    var[x]=IntVar()
    check1 = Checkbutton(mostra, variable=var[x])
    check1.grid(row=linhacheck, column=0)
    linhacheck= linhacheck+1
button_excluir = Button(mostra, text="Pega Valor")
button_excluir.bind("<Button-1>", Lecheck)
button_excluir.grid(row=4, column=4)

mostra.mainloop()

No entanto se separar o código em dois arquivos, cada um em uma tela e dois módulos, só consigo obter os valores 0 dos checkboxes:
Arquivo 1: DuasJanelasPT2
import string
from tkinter import *
import tkinter as tk

class ChamaClasse:
    global Lecheck
    global var
    var={}
    global qtdvinhos
    qtdvinhos = 3

    def Lecheck(event):
        for x in range(1,qtdvinhos):
            stringcheck = 'Check ' + str(x) + ': ' +str(var[x].get())
            print(stringcheck)

    def Abrejanela(event):
        global linhacheck
        linhacheck = 1
        mostra = Tk()
        mostra.geometry("650x400")
        mostra.title("Sydvinn - Vinhos cadastrados")

        for x in range(1,qtdvinhos):
            var[x]=IntVar()
            check1 = Checkbutton(mostra, variable=var[x])
            check1.grid(row=linhacheck, column=0)
            linhacheck= linhacheck+1

        button_excluir = Button(mostra, text="Pega Valor")
        button_excluir.bind("<Button-1>", Lecheck)
        button_excluir.grid(row=4, column=4)

        mostra.mainloop()

Arquivo 2: DuasJanelasPT2
import string
from tkinter import *
import tkinter as tk
from DuasJanelasPT1 import ChamaClasse

novo = Tk()
novo.geometry("650x400")
novo.title("Sydvinn - Vinhos cadastrados")
checks = dict()

button_excluir = Button(novo, text="Chama o Mechama")
checks = button_excluir.bind("<Button-1>", ChamaClasse.Abrejanela)
button_excluir.grid(row=4, column=4)

novo.mainloop()

Alguém pode me ajudar nessa?

A: As variáveis do outro arquivo podem ser acessadas normalmente se você importar o outro arquivo - mas sem ser com a sintaxe from outro_arquivo import x, e usar o nome do arquivo como prefixo:
Por exmplo, você poderia colocar todas as variáveis num arquivo
de nome sys_vinho_variaveis.py e usar uma linha assim
import sys_vinho_variaveis as var

E aí dentro desse arquivo você pode acessar as variáveis com var.qtdvinhos e assim por diante.
Seu código está bem bagunçado, mas as vezes fazer é o único jeito de aprender - eu recomendo um terceiro arquivo, por que senão você pode
cair num problema de dependencia circular de importação, do jeito que está trabalhando.
Outra nota: a palavra chave "global" só faz sentido dentro de funções - e diz que aquelas variáveis, dentro da função, vão estar visíveis naquele módulo (arquivo) - (e dessa forma vão estar visíveis dos outros arquivos usando a forma de prefixo, como mostrei acima): usar "global" dentro de classes e fora das funções não faz sentido. (Até faria diferença, mas a pessoa tem que saber muito Python para saber exatamente o que está fazendo, e mesmo assim, dificilmente seria a forma correta de fazer qualquer coisa).


PRESS RELEASE - Human childhood is considerably longer than chimpanzees', our closest-living ape relatives. A multinational team of specialists, led by researchers from Harvard University, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) and the ESRF applied cutting-edge synchrotron X-ray imaging to resolve microscopic growth in 10 young Neanderthal and Homo sapiens fossils. They found that significant developmental differences exist despite some overlap, which is common in closely-related species. Modern humans are the slowest to the finish line, stretching out their maturation, which may have given them a unique evolutionary advantage.
Evolutionary biology has shown that small changes during early development may lead to differences that result in new species. These changes may take the form of modifications in the sequence or timing of developmental events; therefore, understanding developmental transformation is key to reconstructing evolutionary history. Anthropologists have documented many differences in adult characteristics among closely related species, such as humans and chimpanzees. Genomic data combined with fossil evidence indicate that these two lineages split six to seven million years ago, and have since been evolving separately. However, we know much less about which changes led to the separate lineages, how these changes arose, and when they occurred.
It might seem that life history is invisible in the fossil record, but it turns out that many life history variables correlate strongly with dental development. "Teeth are remarkable time recorders, capturing each day of growth much like rings in trees reveal yearly progress. Even more impressive is the fact that our first molars contain a tiny 'birth certificate,' and finding this birth line allows us to calculate exactly how old a juvenile was when it died" says Tanya Smith, researcher at Harvard University and MPI-EVA.
State-of-the-art synchrotron imaging of the tiny upper jaw (maxilla) of the Engis 2 Neanderthal allows scientists to virtually isolate the permanent teeth inside the bone (center image), count tiny growth lines inside the first molar teeth (lower image), and determine that it died at age 3. Fossil courtesy of the Université de Liège. Photo credits Graham Chedd (PBS), Paul Tafforeau (ESRF), and Tanya Smith (Harvard University and MPI-EVA).
This forensic approach to the past is possible with a 'super-microscope:' extremely powerful X-ray beams produced at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, which is one of the largest synchrotron in the world. Paul Tafforeau, from the ESRF, notes: "At the ESRF, we are able to look inside invaluable fossils without damaging them by using the special properties of high energy synchrotron X-rays. We can investigate fossils at different scales and in three-dimensions, ranging from studies of overall 3D shape down to microscopic daily growth lines. This is currently the only place where these studies of fossil humans are possible." Scientists and curators have been quietly visiting the European synchrotron, often with some of the rarest hominin fossils in the world, for imaging with this state-of-the-art technique.
The study includes some of the most famous Neanderthal children, including the first hominin fossil ever discovered. This Belgian Neanderthal child, discovered in the winter of 1829-1830, was thought to be 4-5 years of age when it died. Powerful synchrotron X-rays and cutting-edge imaging software revealed that it actually died at a mere 3 years of age. Another invaluable Neanderthal discovered in Le Moustier, France in 1908, barely survived the shelling of its' German repository during the Second World War.
Scientists Paul Tafforeau (ESRF), Tanya Smith (Harvard University & MPI-EVA), and Jean-Jacques Hublin (MPI-EVA) position the upper jaw (maxilla) of the Le Moustier 1 juvenile Neanderthal before passing powerful X-rays through the fossil to see inside its' teeth. Modern human developmental models suggested that this individual would have been 15-16 years of age, while the current study demonstrates that this 11.6-12.1 year old individual matured more rapidly than modern humans. Fossil courtesy of the Museum fur Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Berlin). Photo credit Chantal Argoud (ESRF).
A remarkable finding of this five-year study is that Neanderthals grow their teeth significantly faster than members of our own species, including some of the earliest groups of modern humans to leave Africa between 90-100,000 years ago. The Neanderthal pattern appears to be intermediate between early members of our genus (e.g., Homo erectus) and living people, suggesting that the characteristically slow development and long childhood is a recent condition unique to our own species. This extended period of maturation may facilitate additional learning and complex cognition, possibly giving early Homo sapiens a competitive advantage over their contemporaneous Neanderthal cousins.
These new results present a unique opportunity to assess the origins of a fundamentally human condition: the costly yet advantageous shift from a primitive "live fast and die young" strategy to the "live slow and grow old" strategy that has helped to make us one of the most successful organisms on the planet.
Smith, T.M., Tafforeau, P., Reid, D.J., Pouech, J., Lazzari, V., Zermeno, J.P., Guatelli-Steinberg, D., Olejniczak, A.J., Hoffman, A., Radovčić, J., Masrour, M., Toussaint, M., Stringer, C., Hublin, J-J., Dental evidence for ontogenetic differences between modern humans and Neanderthals. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 107, 20923-20928 (2010).


text:
Please enter a name Please enter a name
Champions Cards Click on an image to insert
Please enter a name
Hex Player Login
Hex Website Login
HEX: Shards of Fate »
HEX News and Announcements »
Pinned	AskHEX Answer Thread
Dinotropia
AskHEX Answer Thread
Q: What's it like working at HXE/CZE?
A: It's great! Other than working with a bunch of nerds….
Seriously though, as with any other job, we have deadlines, meetings and have a lot to get done. I've certainly lost sleep for this game, worked weekends, and have a few more gray hairs than I did two years ago. I think that's true of everyone here. For example, I just watched one of our designers freak out for two days on what to rename a single button.
But, for however stressed I get, I can step back and look at what I work on and it makes me so happy. This is my dream job, and there's a reason I lose sleep and work weekends for this game. I love my job, this game, this company, and this community.
TLDR: It's a job. It's the BEST job, but it's a job. –Ryan Sutherland
Q: Evo Gauntlet was a big and welcome surprise for most people. Do you have more such surprises in the works or do we more or less know what's coming down the pipeline?
A: Evo Gauntlet was much better received than I could have imagined when designing the format. It was something I spent a fair amount of time on, interacting with different members of production and R&D to get feedback, and I'm so pleased with the reception from players.
As for the future, we're always working on new things. We're hoping to get out another fun project that I personally have been working on for years. It took some convincing of some people that this was the best way to implement the system, but I'm really excited that they're on board now. I'm hopeful that this will go out soon, and I really hope that players will love it as much as they have Evo Gauntlet. –Corey Burkhart
Q: As I recall from the Kickstarter, the original plan was for every card to have equipment. We're now up to Set 5, and half of the card still don't have equipment. Will we finally see the rest of the equipment with AZ2 or have you changed your minds and decided not to give every card equipment? Also, speaking of equipment and Kickstarter plans, are the set bonus cards still going to be a thing?
A: Yes and no. We still plan on releasing 2 pieces for most cards (I'll get into that in a moment), but there are only so many we can release with each batch of content. We will try to continue pushing these out the door. AZs will always have equipment for cards from older sets as we try to fill in those gaps. For the most part, I try to go through and look for what still doesn't have equipment. Cards that see a lot of play or are fan favorites are good targets for filling out equipment.
In regards to the "no" portion of my answer, the design philosophy on equipment has changed since what was originally announced during the Kickstarter. Common cards will typically only have one piece of equipment and some uncommons will only have a single piece as well. Set bonuses also haven't been looked at in a while. It is still something that we like, it just requires some design work and is a great deal less important than our other priorities at the moment. –Dan Clark
Q: What are Matt Dunn's 5 favorite snacks?
A: Spam and more spam. –Dan Clark
Q: Escalation cards are Set 1 only. Inspire is a Set 1-2 mechanic. Empower is a Set 4 mechanic. Prophecy is a Set 3-4 mechanic. Will older mechanics be revisited or will they remain in their blocks? If they make another appearance, will it be a whole Set dedicated to them, again, or just some cards here and there?
A: I imagine one day we will see most, if not all, of our older powers return. It depends on how popular and deep the mechanic is.
To rate the specific powers you listed, I think Escalation has the highest likelihood to return since we only saw five cards with the mechanic and it was well received. However just as before, I don't believe you'll ever see Escalation in high volumes in a set.
Inspire was mined pretty deeply the first time around, so I'd be surprised if we see it back too soon. (Most Diamond, Ruby and Sapphire keywords were used already.) I also think it's a mechanic that needs a certain density so you feel like you're living the Inspire dream of curving several Inspire troops in a row.
Empower is a surprisingly difficult mechanic to find a bunch of interesting numbers, but I'd be happy to bring it back at some point in the future, probably at smaller amounts though.
Prophecy will certainly be back. It's one of my personal favorite abilities from HEX and does randomness in a very fun way. One thing to note is that the next time we see Prophecy it may show up under a different guise. The idea of keying off of the next X in your deck has a lot of play and I wouldn't be surprised if there's more than one mechanic living inside of the Prophecy shell.
TLDR: Yep, we'll certainly see keywords return once we've spread our wings for a bit longer. Each mechanic dictates how much of the set needs to be dedicated to the mechanic. –Ryan Sutherland
Q: What card from any set is your favorite and least favorite?
A: Favorite was Lady Shimmer for sure. I love unbounded effects, and getting 6 or 7 of her to march out is epic. I think my least favorite was Zared Venomscorn, of all things. I like limited a lot, and I felt like he made a lot of builds impossible when mixed with that cardpool (there were a lot of interesting X/1's in Shards and Destiny.). –Chris Woods
Q: Do you have a set contact for community events? For example if you wanted to ask for prize support, a shoutout on the hex website, or twitter etc
A: All requests should be sent to your friendly, neighborhood Dinotropia. Feel free to contact me either through a direct message on our forums or at dinotropia@hextcg.com –Nathan Revere
Q: With regards to PvE, are you guys planning to either add content to AZ1 or adjust the difficulties of various things to smooth out the difficulty curve when (or around when) AZ2 comes out?
A: Potentially yes to the first part. Adding content to old AZs has been something that we have discussed many times. The issue is that it is difficult to find places where it is correct to add content to a previous AZ vs having it exist in a new adventure zone. But we do have some ideas on how to tackle this. And yes, we are definitely making modifications to adjust difficulty in previous AZs. You might just hear more about this later... –Dan Clark
Q: Are there any AAs that outnumber their originals? And if not, is Lixil on a trajectory to get there?
A: There are no AAs that currently outnumber their original art versions. Lixil is no exception to this. In fact, for every alternate art Lixil there are more than 7 original art Lixils! This being said, we don't want alternate arts to match the number of arts an original has. We want alternate arts to be special, something someone strives to earn or find, not something that becomes the most common version. –Corey Burkhart
Q: Why do gems rotate out in PvE? (I'd be thrilled if the answer to this is something like, "They'll only be illegal until you collect them somehow in the campaign.")
A: This was one of the most debated topics within HEX R&D over the past year, and we started with two camps that felt very strongly about their positions. In order for you to get the whole picture, I'm going to also be answering why gems do not rotate in Immortal as well.
On one side of the argument, we had the people who felt that when gems rotate in Standard they should rotate everywhere and essentially be completely removed from HEX. This means not only would you not see them in Standard and PvE, but when Immortal launches they would not be available there either. On the other side, you had people who said that when gems rotate they should rotate only in Standard but stay forever in both Immortal and PvE.
The crux of this argument came down to what the fundamental role of gems is.
Gems allow players to build the cards that they need for specific decks. With cards like Azurefate Sorceress, we got to see it played in both decks that used the Major Ruby of Destruction and the Major Sapphire of Subterfuge to allow players to either deal damage or bury their opponent's entire deck. No other card game allows for cards to have that kind of versatility. However, with such new territory, it is very difficult to judge what the power level of these kinds of cards would be. Especially considering that our first gems were created long before Azurefate Sorceress, Rune Ear Hierophant or Dark Heart of Nulzann were ever created.
The argument for making them available everywhere is that it allows players to have the maximum number of options during deckbuilding. It also means that for a player who specifically went out to buy Azurefate Sorceress to socket it with the Major Ruby of Destruction (aka, the damage gem), they get to keep playing with that version of Azurefate Sorceress in Immortal and in PvE for forever, much like they would a card that rotates out of Standard.
The other side of the argument is that, while having a wider variety of gems in theory gives you more options for which socket to put into your troop, it doesn't work out that way in practice. The way it actually works is that if one or two gems are at a power level above the rest of the gems, you end up with much LESS diversity in gems being used. That's the situation we were in with both the Ruby of Destruction and the Minor Wild Orb of Conservation (Spellshield). Both of these gems were at a higher power level because they dissuaded players from interacting with one another. From the short time we've had the Herofall gems, I've seen a far wider variety of different gems seeing use. That makes for far more interesting gameplay.
Furthermore, some socketed cards are simply far more powerful with one particular gem than any other gem. If we never rotated gems from a format, players lose the experience of looking at a card like Xentoth's Inquisitor and having to ask themselves how good is this card without the ability to shrink an opposing troop every time I play this.
In the end, we felt that players have gone out of their way to get cards that work with specific combinations of gems. By removing gems that were key parts to those cards, we were essentially editing cards, which is something we promised not to do for PvP.
So, that leads us up to your actual question. Why are the gems rotating in PvE?
Well, while we have a lot of highly skilled players who play our PvE, one of the primary goals of the campaign is to serve as a place for people to first sink their teeth into HEX. We have to manage complexity for them very carefully.
Even from the starting point of having twenty gems, it's pretty daunting for a new player to choose which gems to put into their first socketed card. In addition, as we continue to release more sets and the gems that go with them, having access to all of the gems immediately for new players is just too overwhelming. Maybe it doesn't break the camel's back with 40 gems, but at some point we will have 100 or 200 gems to wade through, and that's just unacceptable to saddle new players with. This is especially true if we continue to produce gems that reference specific mechanics like Valor or Dreadlings.
There are some who would argue that players already have to do that with the volume of cards at their disposal, but those cards are usually earned gradually as you play campaign or open booster packs, so you're discovering those cards one at a time. Some could also argue that we could hide the majority of gems behind filters. However, this just gates new players from accessing the "best gem" combinations for many cards.
This reason combined with the other issues detailed earlier lead to the compromise where we would rotate gems in PvE but have Immortal have access to all of the original gems. We expect the complexity of Immortal to be higher, but that's a complexity you accept by participating in the format. There may also come a day where we deem one or more gems to be too powerful to continue existing in a format, and I personally feel much more comfortable banning cards in Immortal than I do in taking specific things away from players in PvE.
So are we planning any ways to earn them through PvE?
Not currently. It is an idea that was floated when we decided to rotate gems in PvE, however currently gems don't exist as items you own (since everyone has access to them). Introducing this functionality would take time away from other features we want to implement.
Could it be implemented at some point? Sure, but we've got some other ideas for gems as well.
TLDR: Too many gems create complexity for new players in PvE and makes new sockets less interesting. "Unlocking" gems is not currently planned, but not out the question. –Ryan Sutherland
Q: How do you plan to handle future Exalted community members? Will it be a yearly thing, or will it be awarded when an individual has earned the title. If possible could we get some insight into how the nomination process works?
A: The current plan is to announce a new Exalted once a year during Gencon. There is no nomination process per se, but we are pretty tapped into the community - we play the game, watch streams, and use all the fantastic community tools made by our passionate players. Exalted candidates arise as part of an internal discussion we have and is based on people we think have gone above and beyond to help make HEX a great place to be. -Nathan Revere
Q: Can we please get more character slots sooner rather than later?
A: Yes, but only since you asked. –Dan Clark
Q: While Hex seems to have a nice overall art style there are also sub-styles that can often be found in different races, particularly in AA. Coyotle cards can often be more abstract while shin'hare can occasionally be more cartoonish. Was this a conscious decision or just did it just happen. If it was a conscious decision what would you say are the art themes of all the races and do the themes extend beyond the main 8 races into say goblins or minotaurs?
A: The sub styles in HEX art style emerge from the variety of artists we like to work with. The pairing of a certain style with a particular race is merely a result of giving artists things they enjoy painting. When rebooking artwork, we consider the fan response and the availability of our artists. I really enjoy our ability to showcase different art styles in the game. We are conscious though of how this might affect a player's immersion and tend to have a bit more uniformity in style for champions, ambient, and key artwork. –Tyler James
Q: Any hints why the deck builder lists "Factioned" as a property in the Validation Summary tab, when you select 20 troops of the same faction?
A: This was added by Chris Woods for special tournaments that would require 20 of the same faction troop to be in a deck at a minimum for the deck to be valid. We might use this more in the future, but if you're not entering a special tournament using these rules you have nothing to sweat about this one! –Corey Burkhart
Q: I know fiveshards sponsors several tournament series. If others were interested in that sort of thing would it be possible and how would we arrange it?
A: If you want to set up and run tournaments please reach out to me at dinotropia@hextcg.com -Nathan Revere
Q: Could a bribe of baked goods get us Twilight Revenant sleeves at some point?
A: Bribes do no good - The Mushwocky is always hungry. We would never even see them -Nathan Revere
Q: Let's talk Wormoids - You explored some interesting design space here and were able to give players a unique dTCG experience. In that respect, it seems very successful. However, from what I've seen around the web, the general consensus is that these encounters are quite unpopular. Do you feel like the encounter lived up to your expectations? Do you feel like it was a good fit for AZ1, or do you regret not saving it for a more developed part of the campaign? Put another way: What lessons have you learned from the Wormoid encounter and its reception? Will we be seeing more Wormoids in the future? I imagine an entire dungeon sprawling from the breach crater of the Wormoid Queen, filled with the creepy bastards. And while it makes my brain hurt just thinking about dealing with it, I confess I'd be kinda stoked. Also, will we ever see more collectible Wormoid cards? The Wormoid Hydra is awesome, and I'd love to build a proper Shai-Hulud deck at some point
A: In terms of design, the wormoid encounter did fulfill our expectations. It offers an experience that was unique, but we misjudged the overall enjoyment the encounters offered. If we could go back, those encounters probably would have been redesigned. We still like the general idea, but it would have been a much better fit for a future adventure zone where class talents would help you along with your deck being underpowered due to the gnomes. There is a big upside to seeing community response to it, though. We feel like we recognize the benefits and drawbacks of these encounters and plan to have other instances that will feel reminiscent of the wurmoid encounters but with tweaks to help remove feelings of frustration while trying to play through them. Also, yes, wurmoids will be seen again at some point. Yes, you will be able to own more. –Dan Clark
Q: How do you guys keep morale up during stressful times (I.E. launches for AZ's/Sets/new content)?
A: Honestly, those are some of the most upbeat times right around a release. We're all so excited to see the content come out. It's the weeks leading up until the release, right before R&D cannot change anything anymore, that we stress out. For me personally, I handle it by just trying to power through and get everything done. As far as the team goes in general, we're all pretty laid back about things. We'll stress out in the moment, but we're all laughing about silly things so much that deadlines don't drive anyone on the team truly crazy. –Corey Burkhart
Q: As more and more AZs get released, can we expect the average power levels to rise along with this?
A: Yes, the campaign's difficulty will increase to match with the raising power level of each class. –Dan Clark
Q: Most of the races have an established mechanic, lore, and feel in the game. What is the plan / direction for the Necrotics?
A: The necrotic are certainly important to the grand scheme of things in Entrath, and as you've said there's a lot in the lore that we can do with them.
Our first four sets of HEX had a very specific task of showing off each of our first eight races of HEX, along with giving glimpses into the world that surrounds those races. For the necrotic we spent their time in the limelight focusing on the fact that the necrotic are a hivemind and expressed this with the ability Shift. Their ability to share knowledge between the different members of the necrotic display this part of their identity. We also have seen the necrotic are attuned with all of the five shards of HEX with Lixil, Uzzu and the "Midnight" cards like Midnight Shepherd and Midnight Paladin. We've seen the Midnight Express deck be very successful at showing off the necrotic in constructed through these means. While interacting with the crypt is certainly part of their racial identity, they have to share this space with a few of the other races of Entrath.
In many ways, I like to think of the first sets of HEX as setting up all of the players in our world. So, Herofall marks the first of the sets where a set's mechanics aren't bound by defining these racial identities. Instead, we get the chance to focus on making stories with the different races that we've introduced. These stories will focus on different races in varying amounts, since it is difficult to keep all eight races at the forefront every set. Herofall in particular is looking at the Ardent and Underworld as wholes as opposed to particular races, although humans and orcs are playing a larger role for the Ardent while the shin'Hare and the vennen are playing a larger role for the Underworld.
For me personally, the necrotic are one of the more interesting races to me. However, it is difficult to show off what makes them interesting to new players as the casual observer will simply assume they are undead. This means that, while they do interact with the crypt, I try not to be too heavy handed with that because it often helps reinforce this idea that they are just HEX's zombies. This is further exacerbated by a bunch of goblins sticking gems into corpses improperly, but I digress.
I don't want to pull the curtain back too much and expose what we have coming up for next year, but you will certainly see some new faces for the necrotic, both in terms of characters and mechanics.
TLDR: We have plans for necrotic, but sometimes we have to pull back on certain races for storytelling purposes. Also, the necrotic are far more than an undead race. –Ryan Sutherland
Q: What are your feelings on the current status of the gold economy, specifically faucets vs sinks?
A: This is something I want to address more in the coming months. There's a massive amount of gold in the economy and not enough attractive ways for players to spend it. We have the ability to buy startdust to make your cards extended art, chests you can spin on the wheels of fate for awesome prizes, and the auction house, but the options still feel limited relative to what you can do with platinum. This often results in hoarding behavior in players, and many have fairly large stockpiles of gold. This issue is intensified as we add new gold faucets with the release of new game systems.
We have a few plans in the works to add more sinks to give players outlets to spend the gold they've been stockpiling, but I know I want to go further than this still. I would say this is something we can drastically improve upon by giving players a few more meaningful ways to spend their gold. AZ2 will have some of these, and hopefully there will be more in the months surrounding the adventure zone's release. –Corey Burkhart
Q: I know you've also worked for some pretty high-profile games in the past. How does the experience measure up? Is working for HXE everything you hoped it would be? @HEXahedron
A: HEX certainly stands out as the smallest company I've ever worked for. The last game studio I worked for had two QA departments, each of which had a larger staff than all of HEX Entertainment's departments combined. But, I really love working with small teams. Everyone has a wider variety of duties and tasks which keeps things interesting, and people tend to be a lot more invested in their work. Plus, it's great to be able to know the name of everyone you work with (not just because it makes communication between departments a lot easier.) It's a project that I love, and I can really see the affect my work is having on the game. Working at HEX Entertainment is, in many ways, my dream job. –Nick Scamman
Q: How is California treating you?
A: The super-consistent weather here is both very convenient and a little unnerving. The food choices are fantastic (except I can't get a good NY-style pizza anywhere). The traffic is horrible. There's a lot of good locations to play Pokémon Go. –Nick Scamman
Q: How do you like the Con scene as a HXE representative rather than a pure spectator?
A: I had the pleasure of helping represent Hex at both SDCC and GenCon this year. It's a great opportunity to interact with the community, and a rare chance to try to give newcomers the best possible introduction to the game. I intend to continue volunteering to help at conventions whenever the opportunity arises. –Nick Scamman
Q: As a QA tester, do you ever play HEX for fun or has the day-job aspect of it cooled the recreational ardor? What other games do you enjoy?
A: I play HEX recreationally up to 8 or 10 hours a week in addition to the normal work week. I really enjoy the game, and it helps to have a good idea of which bugs are affecting our live build. I spend most of my time playing in limited format tournaments and leveling characters in campaign. I've been playing a lot of Overwatch lately, and am particularly looking forward to Sid Meier's Civilization VI and Pokémon Sun & Moon, which are both releasing soon. I also play lots of board games (which makes working next door to Cryptozoic Entertainment particularly nice) and almost always have a D&D or Pathfinder game that I'm involved in. –Nick Scamman
Q: As you and Magician are our liaisons for all things "official rules" and "working as intended," can you offer any insights as to the state of a comprehensive rules document and whether there are plans to make such a resource available to the public?
A: Magician (a.k.a. Corey Burkhart) is the rules authority for HEX. I simply keep up to date on the rules and communicate rulings that Corey makes. If we ever make a comprehensive rules document intended to be released to the public, it will almost certainly be Corey's project. Although, if he asked for my help looking it over, I'd gladly do so. –Nick Scamman
Q: Are there any plans to update the Unity version HEX is using in the near future? There are some important bugfixes and performance improvements in the newer versions that would be great to have.
A: Sure, we'll update it to 5.4.1f with AZ2. –Chris Woods
Q: What is shard identity in Hex? A lot of the color identity and strengths we're used to come from previous games in the TCG genre or from general characteristics of these colors in real life. Are there any new choices you've made regarding what each shards capabilities & strength that's differed from the traditional take or even from the early vision you've had in early sets?
A: I think our views on shard identity is still evolving set by set. During Armies of Myth we first toyed around with Diamond being the shard of unification, which was shown by Diamond being the primary home of Shardcall type effects. Lixil, the Deathless Gem was the true originator of this, but it came into its own with Armies and Primal Dawn.
While we try to stick to the confines of shard identity that we outlined in the first few sets, we are still allowing ourselves to explore new shard identity. One such card from Herofall was Reginald's Riposte. While traditionally, we've kept Sapphire the king of interrupting, the mechanic of interrupting is a pretty vast play space one to be confined to one shard. While designing Herofall, I explored what it would be like to have a truly ruby interrupt and created Riposte, a card that caused many arguments amongst R&D.
Our previous version of that card that was available during the PTR did not play within the confines of what it is to be Ruby. Riposte is meant to allow you to strike back at an opponent at a specific time, but still keep the "Use it or lose it" type of gameplay as cards like Impulse. However, for the older version of Riposte, "losing it" was just as good if not better than using it for cards like Extinction. In the end, the final card that ended up in packs is much closer to where I'd like to see Ruby interrupts land. It's uncharted territory, but we are willing to take small risks and explore space like this if it is well received.
TLDR: While we have defined the space of our shard identity with the first sets of HEX, we are still slowly exploring where else we can go. –Ryan Sutherland
Q: Was the card Halt, its art & its equipment, the work of a single genius or a collaboration of great minds?
A: A collaboration of a bunch of great minds. When I was putting together equipment, I knew it needed to pay tribute to the art that Cory, Ryan, Tyler, and Kirchhoof cooked up. I assume you have an extended art? –Dan Clark
Q: What is the most challenging thing in your day-to-day business at the moment?
A: For me personally, the most challenging thing is having enough time to focus on all the different things involved in making HEX. As of writing this, I feel somewhat connected to the larger story of AZ2 - the characters, the flow, the feelings being evoked. I'm trying to focus on improvements for the economy, templating, rules, etc. Just the number of things that I'm involved in here… there's so many things that are really exciting that I want to be more involved in and give feedback on, but I don't always have the time. For me personally, it's a challenge trying to budget my time working on things I need to get done versus the things I want to help the team out with more. –Corey Burkhart
Q: How do you feel about champions and where do you feel they could be improved? I read in the making of the Wells (I think it was there) that you guys value the champion ability a lot and so you value the charge power that comes from shards. I originally thought that champions would have multiple abilities (pay 1 = do this, pay 3, do that, pay 5 do this). Are you satisfied with how they work and would you do something to make them more important in games (Ex: a card could change the champion's ability mid-way or add new ones)?
A: Champions have a fine line to walk. On one hand, we don't want them to single handedly win the game. On the other, they need to be impactful enough to help support decks that need the support. I think our current champions are doing a great job of this while also being very simple to read and understand for new players.
Champions like [champ]Winter Moon[/champ], [champ]Yotul Mogak[/champ] and [champ]Morgan McBombus[/champ] are great because the help give certain strategies huge boons without completely winning games on their own. A player who understands the basic rules to HEX can look at these champions and understand them. Now, they may not know the intricacies well enough to know how a card like Combat Training will work with McBombus or when is the right turn to activate Yotul, but they understand the basics of what the champion is doing. A champion with three different charge powers could lead to too many decision points for one game, not to mention having to factor in your opponent's slew of charge powers. We do allow Mages to play around in this space in campaign, but that's the draw of the class and it doesn't impact another player. Some of our mercenaries will also live in this kind of design space as well.
That said, every time we make a new set we ask ourselves what is the next thing we want to try with champions. One of the great things about making so many champions in a set is that we can reserve one cycle of champions for some experimental designs. For Herofall, we tried out the champions that make Banners, which essentially allow you to have an ability for the rest of the game instead of a one-time power. This isn't radical, but champions don't exist in a place where they should be radically changing games. I think we will continue to experiment as more and more sets come out with what it is that champions can do.
TLDR: I'm very happy with how champions impact games currently. They are impactful without being complicated or gamebreaking. We'll continue to play around with new champion design space. –Ryan Sutherland
Q: If you could have gone back and changed something at the start or done something differently what would it be? Maybe something you've already fixed / changed or something that has been a thorn in your side or just something that could've been improved / executed better?
A: This is a really tough question to answer. I know the things I know now specifically because of the mistakes I've made, and a lot of the things I would have done differently would probably have just led to other, different mistakes. I remember hearing a pretty good response to this question by a Sony film producer: "If I had axed every movie I approved, and approved every movie I axed, everything would have turned out exactly the same." (That's not the exact quote; I wish I could remember the exact quote because it's marvelous.)
I guess the biggest thing that has never really been apparent to the user side would have been the thin client. About a year and a half ago we redid the entire client to have no idea how the game worked and require the server to tell it everything. Prior to that, the client was trying to run the game rules with the theory that it would come to the same conclusion the server did.
We have probably lost months of time over the period prior to that chasing "bugs" that only existed because the client disagreed with the server as to the games current state, and it made figuring out strange card interactions significantly more difficult.
I guess I would have been a whole lot louder as to how important it was to solve that Right Now. The rewrite was massive, scary, and showed no obvious benefit other than having to convince people to "trust me, it's super important", but the results of having done it has led directly to making it very easy to accomplish things that seemed impossible before. –Chris Woods
My least favorite card was Duplicitous Duke. I think we tried to pull the trigger on copies before we were confident with them, and it made Duplicitous Duke much less exciting than I wanted it to be. In combination with that, there are a number of ways we could have made the experience of the duke much better, but between changing the functionality so often with copies and difficulties of getting the Shifting hive mind of the Necrotic to work they fell between the cracks.
My favorite card is Eternal Drifter. I think we could have executed the card slightly better in terms of presentation, but what the card does is exceptionally fun. Champion Charge powers is one of the most unique things about HEX, and allowing you to earn the ability to use a new one is exceptionally fun. I love the adapting on the fly nature of the random power you gain as well. It's an exceptionally valuable skill to have in HEX, as you never know what cards your opponent's are going to have or what power Eternal Drifter will get! –Corey Burkhart
Q: You finally made it on a 4 month schedule to release a new set. How hard was it? What was the worst problem that you had to overcome to respect that deadline, and will it be a problem on future sets or have you pretty much nailed it?
A: As lead designer of Primal Dawn and Herofall, I can say it was stressful but well worth it. I wouldn't say there was any one particular problem with the development between these two. Staying nimble as a designer was important, and being able to adapt quickly to feedback was key.
While it's not one particular thing, the most difficult challenge with the amount of time to make a set is that, in order to give our engineers the most complete package that we can, we do many iterations of a set in physical form first. This means that when we want to have a test draft, it takes several hours just to cut and sleeve all the proxied cards. As our engineering team has become more adept at speeding up the process of making cards actually work in the engine, we are beginning to look at the possibility of frontloading the engineering process, which would further improve our R&D process.
TLDR: Kind of tough, but I'm not complaining and we're still improving. –Ryan Sutherland
Q: We all know that Cory Jones drafts a lot. On average, how many drafts does Cory Jones play in a week. How about a day? What is the most amount of drafts Cory has played in a 24 hour period. What set was he drafting?
A: Cory is very passionate about the game and loves to draft. I don't know that we have exact numbers for you because Cory drafts in between his tireless efforts to make HEX great. He is a very busy guy Let's go with "As often as he can." -Nathan Revere
Q: What is the atmosphere in the office like on a day to day basis? Is communication pretty open (rowdy, creative thought, ideas are blurted out to the group and you toss them around) or structured (focus driven, maximum efficiency, lot less free discussion)?
A: R&D is without much doubt the loudest department in the building. We will often yell ideas and jokes at each other, and often it's hard to decipher which is which. We work in an open office so conversation is very open. If I need to concentrate, it'll involve headphones and Spotify. That said, all someone has to do is wave at me to get my attention for my opinion on something.
Everyone in our department has domain over their portion of the game, so the structure of the day is going to be pretty freeform for most of us depending on what we need to get done. When we have an actual topic to discuss we will schedule a meeting, although lately many of those have been outside as opposed to in a meeting room. If you need to talk to someone in another department, we have chat programs for that or you just walk over to them and discuss it face to face.
TLDR: Rowdy, but everyone has their job and gets it done. –Ryan Sutherland
Q: What are your plans for improving the collection manager? Letting us quickly switch between PVP and Arena cards is nice, but decks don't get saved in that category so my Decklist is still pages long. How about visually grouping decks in folders by pvp/pve validity and shards included (standard resources or cards played, preferably the first)?
It is not normally our policy to talk about future features, but I will say that we are aware of our UI needs. The collection UI is one of the most complex screens of any TCG because of all the masters it needs to serve. It needs to be easy for new players but also smart enough to help a veteran player find the perfect card for their deck. It needs to communicate legality, format restrictions, and handle searching through large collections smoothly. Not to mention, in HEX specifically we have equipment and campaign considerations which extra screens and thousands of additional items to display cleanly. This is an area we have a close eye on, and are always looking to improve. -Nathan Revere
Q: Being as specific as you'd like, what is the reprint policy for HEX. To give specific questions which would be helpful to know, do you favor functional reprints over actual reprints? Would you prefer to print a new 4 cost board wipe in Blood instead of just reprinting Extinction for example and why?
A: We will make reprints as necessary, but until we have a larger backlog of cards, I don't think we'll see a ton of those kinds of cards. I prefer actual reprints to functional reprints, but I like cards that play with current mechanics more than I like actual reprints. That's not a blanket statement though. I personally like to have "Clean" versions of basic cards, like Nature Reigns and Reversion available in a format. Of course, often sets will have new mechanics that need to meet a certain threshold so we will print a card like Rust and Ruin instead.
When it comes to sweepers, I think that's a little different. I certainly would rather print a new 4 cost board wipe that wipes in a slightly different manner or a 5 cost board wipe with a clear upside. Having sweepers that are contextual make for a more interesting experience than having nothing but Extinction. Having cards like Heat Wave, Mass Polymorph Dingler, Lazgar's Vengeance, Horrors of War and Clash of Steel seeing play in a format is more interesting because it makes for matchups that are more dynamic than if we had a bunch of Extinctions. Is this me condemning Extinction and saying it will never be back? No, of course not, but I like the look of formats with diverse, yet still effective, mass removal effects as opposed to one sweeper that is clearly better than others. That said, when we decide Extinction should come back, I'd be surprised if we didn't use Extinction itself as opposed to some other name. It's much nicer to see an old friend return rather than some kind of impostor.
TLDR: We'll lean toward actual reprints unless they don't make sense for some kind of story reason. –Ryan Sutherland
Q: What is it like working with a developer & publisher that are in two very different time zones?
A: It can be a challenge working across the ocean, but we have regular conference calls to make sure we are all working in sync. It is certainly sometimes a challenge, but the upside is that we have access to a passionate team who works to make HEX awesome every day. -Nathan Revere
Q: Why are there only 5 shards? Are there plans to have more of them?
A: Great question. I wasn't here when the game was originally conceived, but from what I remember from conversations about the original game being created, all of the different mechanics were hard pressed to support six different shards without a good amount of bleed. Also, even though we are named HEX, there's certainly a beauty to the number 5. Not to get into weird Numerology or anything, but I also think there are certain numbers that have a certain mystique like 3, 5, 7, 10 and 12.
At this point, it would be even more difficult to create definition for a sixth shard because we've kind of set in stone what each of the shards do and tried pretty hard to not leave any unexplored space. I don't think it would be very likely for us to add it.
TLDR: Too difficult to create back then, too difficult to add now. Somewhere in the middle I spouted some nonsense about weird number religion. –Ryan Sutherland
Q: Why are races bound to specific shards? Why no Sapphire orcs, Wild humans, Diamond elves or Ruby coyotles?
A: A lot of the reasoning for this is for thematics. Sapphire has certain characteristics that crcs do not have. Sapphire is the most cerebral of the shards, whereas the crcs are far more savage. Wild is a very nature loving shard, while the humans we have seen so far are generally all about building giant castles and sticking to rules, etc. Now these rules are not hard and fast across each of these races, but it's important that you create the rule before you make the exceptions. Lazgar Chul, was the first of these kinds of exceptions, but it's those exceptions that prove the rule. When you see a Ruby coyotle or Diamond shin'hare, it will be an important moment for story.
TLDR: Each race's shards are thematically tied to those races, but there are always individuals that are outliers amongst their own race, such as Lazgar Chul. –Ryan Sutherland
Q: Why are there no other cards like The Triumvirate, where you combine cards to something new?
A: For some mechanics, I think it's important to let something unique keep its uniqueness for a while. Much of what Shards of Fate did was show all of the different things we can and someday will do. There's also some downside that by spending two cards to make one card you are opening yourself to get 2 for 1'd by your opponent which makes cards like these less appealing to a large number of players. I think you'll see cards like these in the future, but only after we've found the right thematic for them.
TLDR: You'll see them when the time is right. –Ryan Sutherland
Q: What are the thoughts on a PvP format where card equipment and/or PvE cards can be used against one another?
A: This was something I envisioned when I started interning for HEX over 4 years ago now. I think it sounds exceptionally awesome, and I'd want to give it a special weekend or two to let it play out sometime. As far as a long-term healthy format, I think it would be lacking. Equipments are designed somewhat in a vacuum trying to give a new taste or twist to many of the cards you already enjoy in HEX. They're not designed in the sense where we're building tons of decks with these and battling them against other equipped decks.
I fear this format would be widely imbalanced and we'd have to re-design, nerf, and buff equipment for the health of this format if it was something that existed forever. Even though PvE cards and Equipment are content we could change, it's seldom a decision we make lightly. We're always concerned about the monetary decisions that people have made with their possessions, but we still want to do what's best for the game.
In short, I expect we'll do this at some point in time, but I don't think it's something that would exist forever unless it's a huge hit and we're willing to change the format aggressively with nerfing and buffing cards, equipment, mercenaries, and classes. –Corey Burkhart