Hacks/bugs

[Evil Hamster]

Yeah. He did an awesome job creating this game. But now he should find an assistant to do the daily hacker cleanups so he can focus on the game

[neosapience]

Well, after playing for a week I've decided to stop. I keep playing with people that are either hacking or getting desynced. Whichever is happening, I just can't play like that. Even if it IS just a bug, there's always that nagging feeling that I'm being cheated.

Also, while I like Elements and have enjoyed playing it, I think there's just a tad too much luck involved. If you get all pillars or no pillars at the beginning (and for a few turns afterwords) you're just doomed.

I might play the PC when I'm bored with other stuff, but PVP is out for sure. Anyway, I hope you guys get the bugs fixed and ban the hackers. Maybe I'll play more later.

Bye!

[neosapience]

I too have played many card games (Magic, Magi-Nation, Yu-Gi-Oh, DBZ, Pokemon, just to name a few), and, plain and simple, the bigger the deck, the harder it is to draw what you need (unless, in the case of some games, you can use tutors or draw excel). Elements doesn't have Tutors, so we must rely on the Hasten ability of Hourglasses and Sundials.

Since you've played other TCGs, and that you claim to have calculated the odds of drawing, I think it's safe to assume that you understand that the smaller the deck, the more consistant the draws.

As for the hacker thing, well, there is only ONE person working on this game, so it's hard to maintain the server, get rid of the hackers, and work on improving the game while, at the same time, having a job, taking care of a family, and living a life away from the computer. Zanzarino has a full load.

The draw problems seem to stem from the high mana, er, quantum cost of most cards. This requires that decks contain a large amount of towers relative to other cards. This causes two issues I don't recall having in other card games: a hand that is useless for 2 or more turns (no towers) or a hand that can only play 1 card per turn (all towers). Also, the problem of '+1 or greater' cards is quite game breaking, especially if your opponent gets several of them first. If the game needs some tutor cards then add them. Don't break the game and make entire deck types obsolete by forcing people to play one kind.

As for there being one person working on this game, well, wow, just wow. I don't know whether to applaud Zanzarino for being such a hard worker or slap him in the head for being foolish enough to try and maintain an online game all by himself. 

[neosapience]

Well, bye, person...=/

Most of the time, it usually is a desync or a bug. There ARE hackers out there, and they usually do get banned if they hack their score, but Zanz is having trouble keeping up, as many of them just keep coming back. =/

As for the "too much luck involved" part...have you ever played a TCG/CCG? Almost all of them require luck when it comes to drawing. The specific point that many need to understand is that if you want to avoid too many bad luck draws, then you need to lower the chances of that happening by building smaller, well constructed decks that either are 30 cards, or have draw excel.

Hacking sucks, plain and simple. 

But I must say, I've played a lot of games, including card games like Magic and Yugioh (I had several decks and even played the online versions). I know quite a bit about the luck involved, having even calculated the exact percentages at which I could draw specific hands. I must say, Elements has much higher chance of the player getting a 'bad pull' compared to other card games. Another issue I noticed is how certain decks (like rainbow) simply destroy just about every other kind. I think they need to limit certain cards like sundial, hourglass and steal. In almost every card game I've played, '+1 or greater' cards were always severely limited or banned altogether. They simply provide the player (whoever gets them first) with too great of an advantage.

Well, that's my 2 cents worth anyway. I hope they balance the game better and figure out how to prevent those hackers from cheating. 

[Tanga]

I agree: this game is a phenomenal achievement. I think many large software houses would be proud to produce something this good.

[Uncle Jellyfish]

I too have played many card games (Magic, Magi-Nation, Yu-Gi-Oh, DBZ, Pokemon, just to name a few), and, plain and simple, the bigger the deck, the harder it is to draw what you need (unless, in the case of some games, you can use tutors or draw excel). Elements doesn't have Tutors, so we must rely on the Hasten ability of Hourglasses and Sundials.

Since you've played other TCGs, and that you claim to have calculated the odds of drawing, I think it's safe to assume that you understand that the smaller the deck, the more consistant the draws.

As for the hacker thing, well, there is only ONE person working on this game, so it's hard to maintain the server, get rid of the hackers, and work on improving the game while, at the same time, having a job, taking care of a family, and living a life away from the computer. Zanzarino has a full load.

[Uncle Jellyfish]

Well, bye, person...=/

Most of the time, it usually is a desync or a bug. There ARE hackers out there, and they usually do get banned if they hack their score, but Zanz is having trouble keeping up, as many of them just keep coming back. =/

As for the "too much luck involved" part...have you ever played a TCG/CCG? Almost all of them require luck when it comes to drawing. The specific point that many need to understand is that if you want to avoid too many bad luck draws, then you need to lower the chances of that happening by building smaller, well constructed decks that either are 30 cards, or have draw excel.

[jabberwocke]

Hey thanks for the feedback. As it stands I am liable to agree with you, that is; that is it my problem. Sadly I have a Linux connection and a current generation computer. I SHOULD have no problems, but clearly I do. In the end of the day, some people are just not going to be able to partake. Obviously the system used here is unable to support my system.

  My biggest concern and hope is that is I am the exception and that the majority are able to log in and not suffer all the bugs that I have found rife in the game. Kudos to the designer, lots of problems, but a brilliant Alpha game. Cheers again. Wish I could play.

[jabberwocke]

The resurrecting creatures is REALLY BAD! Half of the players I play this occurs with. The creatures are coming back half the time. If its a bug, thats fine, but the fact it happens literally half the time, this is no bug, its a fatal flaw.

Another bug/cheat is the playing multiple cards when the opponent shows no cards and can only possibly draw one card. Somehow multiple cards get played. Another bug? It is hard for me to believe this site would be a success with half the players cheating.

The randomness of this game is unique. Playing live every once in a while you will have that "bad pull". Here that bad pull happens at least a third of the time. Programmers know the "random" effect of some programs tend to become patterned and follow themselves. I think the flaw here is the random effect of the program is sub par.

I am very surprised there is not a larger string on this topic. It leads me to believe it may just happen to a certain type of computer or link up ( eg: Mac/ Linux). More conversation upon the resurrecting creatures is greatly welcomed. The other issues pale in comparison.

EDIT: I have read the post that declares the Desynch the main issue. I suppose I would just like confirmation that is the final word. If so, it makes the game unplayable at 50% rate of automatic losses.

[Uncle Jellyfish]

I forgot to mention before that you also need to take into consideration the distance between you and your opponent. If, say, you life in the United States, and your opponent is in China, the time between turns is much longer, and there is a higher risk of desync because it takes longer for the packets to get from one system to another. I've encounted this problem with games like Grand Chase and other Flash based multiplayer games (Kongai, Minions, etc).

I'm not familiar with Linux (I've never actually seen it, and I only recognize the name from conversation. No one around here uses it), so I'm not sure how it would effect your performance with this game.

[Uncle Jellyfish]

Well, really, it may just be you. The better your internet connection and processing speed, the less likely you are to have a desync. But likewise, the person you're playing against also needs to have the same specifics, or they might be the ones to desync. Yes, it's a problem, but it's a hard one to fix with Flash.

[RoKetha]

Just wanted to mention that Elements is unique in that quanta is cumulative. You don't need 5 bone pillars to play a card that costs 5 death; just one (or a quantum pillar) will eventually produce enough quanta. This is the reason for the higher card costs, but it's also the reason that no matter what, every card will always be viable for a rainbow deck (Miracle, the most expensive one-shot card in the game works okay even with sundials using light quanta) as long as you don't go completely overboard.