Guest posts by deadwolf

1

Patch Notes and Development News / Re: AI improvements

« on: January 18, 2010, 06:13:16 pm »

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but the AI shouldn't use improvements on a Fate Egg, but wait until the Egg hatches... It just Chaos Powered a Fate Egg and then transformed it...

2

Card Ideas and Art / dual/tri-towers?

« on: January 11, 2010, 11:21:05 pm »

Given the cards that are coming out, it might be nice if there were some towers that had benefits for two or three elements, rather than the totally random quantum towers. Pretty basic, but what I was thinking was something like this:

Gravimetric Tower
When GT comes into play, gain 1 earth and 1 aether quanta
GT produces 1 gravity quanta during your turn

Upgraded versions of the tower might produce 2 random quanta per turn from the 3 types it's associated with; for balance, it wouldn't produce quanta when it comes into play.

There would have to be a lot of them to represent all the possible combinations -- but that could wait: for the time being, 12+ of them would be a good start.

3

General Discussion / how much of an update should it be?

« on: December 21, 2009, 06:12:48 pm »

I have a modest suggestion: Rather than a huge update with a bunch of new cards released all at once, it might be better to add a new card to the mix every couple of weeks.

I suggest this for 2 reasons:

1) Given that it seems like there is now a rather long time between updates, this would allow the developers more time to develop new cards, maybe providing a system whereby there are continuous updates (rather than a feast or famine approach), and

2) If all the cards are released at once, players will spend 2-3 weeks trying to find an optimal combination and reach a new, stagnant plateau; if a new card is released every couple of weeks, there will be constant retooling of decks (thereby keeping people interested in the game).

What do you all think?

4

Patch Notes and Development News / Re: AI improvements

« on: December 19, 2009, 11:50:47 pm »

One thing I don't think people have mentioned yet:

The AI seems to use Rewind to target the creature with the highest attack on the opponent's field. It's usually better to use Rewind against the creature with the highest cost -- thereby forcing your opponent to once again spend those quanta. As a default, it might be good to make that change, and allow for some exceptions (e.g. targeting creatures with activation powers over creatures without activations).

5

Card Ideas and Art / Heroes?

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:36 pm »

Maybe the even cooler thing to do -- and something that would really utilize a computer based platform rather than just paper cards -- is to have heroes along the lines people are discussing, but they actually gain experience points by being played in winning games. For example, if I play my Time Hero and win the game, that hero gets 1 experience point. Experience points can be banked and spent on increasing power & toughness, decreasing casting cost or activation for effects, maybe even buying new effects. This way, each Time Hero would be slightly different from other Time Heroes played by other players.

It might be complicated, but I think it could be kind of awesome...

6

Game Suggestions and Feedback / hand size

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:34 pm »

I think players should be able to hold as many cards in their hands as possible -- but need to discard own to 7 at the end of their turns.

I often find myself in the situation where I have a set of Sundials and Electrum Hourglasses to activate, but already have 8 cards in my hand. So I either have to play a card to draw a card, or forgo drawing cards.

If it shouldn't be a standard feature -- if it's part of the rules to only be able to hold 8 cards -- then maybe there should be a creature that increases your hand size. Like this:

Spectral Adviser (3 Aether): 0/5
As long as Spectral Adviser is in play, your hand size is increased by 2.
2 Aether: Draw a card. Immediately discard a card.

7

Game Suggestions and Feedback / more gold. more... something

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:34 pm »

Yeah, I think what we have going on are two parallel games:

1) Card collecting vs. the gods, which you need one deck for.

2) PVP for fun, where you can have the deck of your choice. But you need #1 to stay competitive, because everyone else is playing #1.

So, it can get boring. I think everyone is probably feeling that fatigue (there's a bunch of essentially identical threads right now, all about how tired people are of grinding).

So maybe some new quests would allay some of this fatigue?

Someone mentioned (in another thread) forms of "mastery" that would reward kinds of decks (e.g. Swarm Mastery -- winning with no creatures with power greater than 2). Instead, this might form the basis for a series of quests with specific rewards:

Swarm Quest: Win with no creatures with power greater than 2. Reward: Improved Otyugh.
Weapon Quest: Win by only using weapons for damage. Reward: Improved Weapon of your choice.
Sorcery Quest: Win by only dealing direct damage. Reward: Firelance.

Etc, etc.

That would inspire some new deck construction, and with usable rewards.

8

Game Suggestions and Feedback / wheel of fortune?

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:34 pm »

After thinking about this idea for a bit, I think it might be implemented at Levels 1 & 2 -- you would always get a card from the wheel of fortune, but it will most likely be a common, uncommon or land card. Which is great for people who are just starting -- either something to add to the deck or to sell for not-too-much -- but at the higher levels it might net a rare card too often...

9

General Discussion / Sundial Downgrade

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

Well, who says "upgrading" a card makes it more efficient based on its original element? Upgrading just makes cards different. It's true we've seen that a lot of cards get cheaper to cast or activate, but that needn't always be the case. Pulverizer is a good example of this too: It's no cheaper in Earth quanta to cast, but it's cheaper in Gravity quanta to activate. Is that good for Earth players? Not necessarily, but it is good for Rainbow players. And, by the same logic, if you're running a few Electrum Hourglasses, it might actually net you more cards to be spending some Light quanta to activate your Sundials...

10

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Turn Off Animation

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

Yeah, at least get rid of the card-drawing animation: I sometimes play faster than the animation, and it can lead to bugs (like if you click on an Oty while a card is floating over the field to your hand, nothing is target-able and the Oty's activation is used up).

11

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Tournaments

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:30 pm »

I second this idea -- I've been thinking about it for a while, and if there's a way to pull it off, I think it would be great.

12

Game Suggestions and Feedback / two other levels

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:29 pm »

I was also thinking that there could be 2 additional levels, that 1) allow a player to play a deck in the Top 100 and 2) play a deck in the Top 10.

M