Guest posts by Wirt

1

Card Ideas and Art / Re: Technology/Artifact Element

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:32 pm »

12 elements is more than enough. Just add "technology" as a property of one of the elements. Gravity, maybe, as it already has little bits of that - armoured creatures and that sort of thing. Or maybe spread it across all the colours. Light could definitely make use of lasers, for example.

That is, if technology would even fit anywhere in the concept of "elementals dueling for whatever reasons they may have".

2

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Wins/Losses and score should only apply to PvP.

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:32 pm »

Well, limit the AI matches rewards to electrum, and 500 points. That is, to get your score above 500, you'll have to fight other players.

3

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Surrendering a match

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:32 pm »

What's the difference, you can just as well mash space to skip your every turn.

4

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Mulligans

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:32 pm »

Paying for a mulligan with hitpoints is actually a clever idea. I like it.

5

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Wins/Losses and score should only apply to PvP.

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:31 pm »

Agreed. You can keep the old score by making score separate for each season. Every time the scoring system changes or a major update hits, we start a new season and start with 0 score in it, but get a record of this season's score. Simple.

6

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Surrendering a match

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:31 pm »

You can "exploit" quitting mid-match just as well, and I'm trying to avoid exactly that.

Okay, to make it less exploitable, deny it on first three turns. It's simple, but it should be enough.

Uhh, also, even if you do make a second account with a horrible deck, what exactly are the chances that it'll meet your main when looking for a match? And how often do you have to grind it just for it to give any points for defeating it?

7

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Surrendering a match

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:31 pm »

Another simple request: a surrender button in PvP matches. I don't think any additional explanation is needed here.

8

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Trying out starter decks

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:31 pm »

Chival: Weird. I looked through the topics again and still can't see yours or anything to do with trying out cards (Edit: found it later, but, uhh... link removed pending trainer investigation). Anyway, since there's that trainer, all's fine. Closer integration with the game would be welcome, but it's not that important.

Harpoonedfish: The difference between unranked AI matches and resetting the account is that you don't lose your stats. You don't lose anything if you lose, you get nothing if you win.

On another topic, shouldn't all AI matches be unranked, or at least ranked separately from PvP matches?

9

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Trying out starter decks

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:31 pm »

Choosing your starting deck can be difficult. In Elements, it's even more difficult because once you've chosen your deck, there's no way, short of resetting your account (Or playing with a deck you don't like until you can afford one you like), to change your mind. So why not let players try out starter decks before (or after) choosing?

It can be as simple as an unranked match against the weakest AI where you get the starter deck (Mark included) of your choice. Or the option to choose and play with (but not edit in any way) any starter deck at any time.
Of course, you can just create a new account on a fake e-mail address, or reset yours (And lose whatever progress you made).

As an added bonus, this feature would work nicely when new card sets appear.

10

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Option to cancel "throw away card"

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:31 pm »

It's just an interface operation, so there's no harm in reversing it. And unlike using abilities or cards, there's no way to add a penalty to canceling it.

11

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Mulligans

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:31 pm »

That's pretty much what I meant. For mulligans to work at this point in the game's development, they'd have to be somehow limited, and the only limitation that seems viable to me is only being able to once. Later on, as new gameplay options and comboes appear, this limitation might have to be lifted. That'd be a little bit painful.

The mechanics I proposed would be good because they also help with other in-game situations, such as being stuck in a lock, or recovering from earthquakes, or being otherwise crippled.

12

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Mulligans

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:31 pm »

I agree there should be a counter-bad-draw mechanic, but I don't like mulligan. For decks relying on one card, as already noted with the lobotomizer example, mulligans can be abused to get that one card early. At least until there's more cards, that doesn't seem like a very good idea.

I'd rather see new mechanics that can be used for the whole game. For example:

Pillars only: when you posess no pillars, you can discard one from your hand to draw a card. This'd work only on your first turn, or when all your pillars are destroyed or stolen, obviously.
No pillars: each turn you do not play a card (including a pillar), you get two quanta from your mark instead of one. Again, works on your first turn or when you're locked and can't do anything.