The difficulty increase on Frozen Steppes has been altered so that joining late will no longer be as punishing. If you wish to understand the math behind it, continue reading.
HOW FROZEN STEPPES WORKED BEFORE THE CHANGE:
Because of the altar on Frozen Steppes, players can reach much higher levels than they’re able to on other maps. To balance this, Frozen Steppes’ difficulty increases slightly more exponentially than other maps. However, there is still an issue: joining late is much more punishing on this map, as the new player doesn’t have the bonus XP upon joining.
To alleviate this a little, I’ve moved the additional difficulty increase from the overall map difficulty to the difficulty added by the player. If you wish to know more, continue reading.
HOW PLAYERS ADD DIFFICULTY ON ALL MAPS
To keep the difficulty balanced regardless of when a player joins the game, each player increases the difficulty based on how long they’ve been in the game. A player who joined on wave 1 will have a bigger impact on the enemies’ health come wave 50 than will the player who joined on wave 25.
THE NEW DIFFICULTY SYSTEM FOR FROZEN STEPPES
Only on Frozen Steppes: Each wave, each player’s contribution to the difficulty will increase and additional 0.3% for each wave they have been in the game (If they’ve been in the game for 10 waves, they will add an additional 3% each wave). Therefore, there will be a slight exponential affect: The longer you’re in the game, the faster you’ll add to the difficulty. If a player joins on wave 1, by the time they reach wave 200 they will be adding about as much to the difficulty as they would add on wave 270 of any other map.
TOO LONG, DIDN’T READ
The net result is that the difficulty will increase slightly slower than it did before the change, but it will be tied to how long each player has been in the game. Therefore, joining late will be less punishing to your team.