Idea Help... (Anyone?)

[Jyiber]

So I had this card idea that kind of goes like this:

• Zero cost spell card that sacrifices a creature.
• Summons a special Other creature that corresponds to cost of sacrifice. (creature that costs 1 quanta summons the level 1 other)
• There are 10 of these Other creatures from 1-10 quanta. (above 10 cost creatures just summon the level 10 creature)

Notes:
These creatures aren't OP, but unique, and bring new synergies.
In the event one is RT'd or Fractaled, it costs  .
Each creature has a new skill that can be useful in any element.


So now that I've shared my idea, tell me where it went horribly wrong.

[ZephyrPhantom]

This card's 'spawn' factor seems pretty complex, since you have a possibility of spawning 10 different creatures each with their own specific stats and ability. 2-part cards like FFQ and Pharoah already have a slight degree of 'complexity' to begin with since the player has to know what the 'spawn' card does in addition to the normal card. (Shard Golem is an 'exception' to this because it's more like Adrenaline - you can either know the basic 'concept' or know all the specific maths behind the card.)

Would there be any way to lower the number of potential 'spawns' to a more manageable number, like 3 or 5?

[dragonsdemesne]

It might not be what you were going for, but what about a single creature with some sort of variable stats based on the sacrifice?  (compare to shard golem, which is one creature with an extremely high number of permutations)  A smaller sacrifice might give some sort of little vanilla creature, a medium sacrifice might give a creature with an okay ability (weapon ability of an element, things like lobo, snipe, etc, or of similar power) and a huge sacrifice might give something with nymph abilities or things on that level.

How you would implement the specifics I don't know... but that might make things simpler.  Or more complicated... :p

[OldTrees]

Like the others have said, the idea seems more complex than ideal for a card. We do want all cards to be usable by players within a few minutes of getting to know the game.


However lets examine the structure:

0 cost
0 cost cards interfere with the automatic mulligan. Your goal was to allow usage in all decks and minimize the quanta cost of the card since quanta was used to get the sacrifice. Good thinking.In this case a cost of 1 would be less of a burden on the player.

Summons a special other creature that scales in strength.
Like dragonsdemesne, I would recommend looking at the shard golem generated from just shards of integrity as an example. Notice that different stages share the same activated ability. You could do something similar where each stage improves upon the last stage by gaining new passive abilities, new status effects, altering/replacing the activated ability OR improving stats.

Start by deciding on 2-4 very similar generic abilities that you can order in strength.

If fractal'd it costs 
There are significant balance issues for high  costs. Additionally a creature created from a dragon is probably worth much more than 1 nova (12 ).
A simple solution would be to have it adopt the element of the sacrifice. However continue to look for better solutions.

[OdinVanguard]

Having it spawn up to 10 distinct cards will be quite a feat and will take a good deal of new content. (E.g. 1 card for each).

A much simpler way to do this would be something akin to a controlled "improve"

E.g. have a single creature template. Scale hp and attack based on "level" and define separate abilities / traits for each "level".

This limits you to needing 2 new cards (1 for the spell, one for the creature)

[Jyiber]

Having it spawn up to 10 distinct cards will be quite a feat and will take a good deal of new content. (E.g. 1 card for each).
A much simpler way to do this would be something akin to a controlled "improve"
E.g. have a single creature template. Scale hp and attack based on "level" and define separate abilities / traits for each "level".
This limits you to needing 2 new cards (1 for the spell, one for the creature)

This is much closer to the original idea, didn't really clarify on my part. But 10 new creatures would be cool...

Thank you, Zblader, OldTrees, and dragonsdemesne for input on how troubling the complexity is. What if I cut number of new skills in half, and used every other as just a stat upgrade. So the table would look like this:

Level 1  1|1
Level 2  1|1  New Skill
Level 3  3|3 
Level 4  3|3  New Skill
Level 5  5|5 
Level 6  5|5  New Skill
Level 7  7|7
Level 8  7|7 New Skill
Level 9   9|9
Level 10  9|9 New Skill

(by the way, it's an example, I haven't put thought into stat balancing)

If fractal'd it costs 
There are significant balance issues for high  costs. Additionally a creature created from a dragon is probably worth much more than 1 nova (12 ).
A simple solution would be to have it adopt the element of the sacrifice. However continue to look for better solutions.

How long would it take enough quanta for Fractal and enough for any dragon using a deck with Novas and/or Quantum Pillars. Then calculate the odds of having this card, Fractal, and that dragon in your hand. This hypothetical is from an unupped deck designed around this card.

I do like having it keep the element of sacrifice idea. I might use it if the proves to complex to balance. My other idea was for the cost to be 150% of the original sacrifice.

[OdinVanguard]

Having it spawn up to 10 distinct cards will be quite a feat and will take a good deal of new content. (E.g. 1 card for each).
A much simpler way to do this would be something akin to a controlled "improve"
E.g. have a single creature template. Scale hp and attack based on "level" and define separate abilities / traits for each "level".
This limits you to needing 2 new cards (1 for the spell, one for the creature)

This is much closer to the original idea, didn't really clarify on my part. But 10 new creatures would be cool...

Thank you, Zblader, OldTrees, and dragonsdemesne for input on how troubling the complexity is. What if I cut number of new skills in half, and used every other as just a stat upgrade. So the table would look like this:

Level 1  1|1
Level 2  1|1  New Skill
Level 3  3|3 
Level 4  3|3  New Skill
Level 5  5|5 
Level 6  5|5  New Skill
Level 7  7|7
Level 8  7|7 New Skill
Level 9   9|9
Level 10  9|9 New Skill

(by the way, it's an example, I haven't put thought into stat balancing)

If fractal'd it costs 
There are significant balance issues for high  costs. Additionally a creature created from a dragon is probably worth much more than 1 nova (12 ).
A simple solution would be to have it adopt the element of the sacrifice. However continue to look for better solutions.

How long would it take enough quanta for Fractal and enough for any dragon using a deck with Novas and/or Quantum Pillars. Then calculate the odds of having this card, Fractal, and that dragon in your hand. This hypothetical is from an unupped deck designed around this card.

I do like having it keep the element of sacrifice idea. I might use it if the proves to complex to balance. My other idea was for the cost to be 150% of the original sacrifice.

You could probably do with as few as 2 skills and 3 traits to make sure every level has a unique combination (2 * 2^3 = 16 total combinations).
Another option would be 3 skills and 2 traits (3*2^2 = 12 combinaitons)

[OldTrees]

I do like the even scaling (every X levels the player can expect a specific change).

I worry about the ability to come up with 5 similar unique high quality generic skills that would fit that progression. However now that you have a system, you can adjust it based upon the number of skills you do come up with.

If fractal'd it costs 
There are significant balance issues for high  costs. Additionally a creature created from a dragon is probably worth much more than 1 nova (12 ).
A simple solution would be to have it adopt the element of the sacrifice. However continue to look for better solutions.

How long would it take enough quanta for Fractal and enough for any dragon using a deck with Novas and/or Quantum Pillars. Then calculate the odds of having this card, Fractal, and that dragon in your hand. This hypothetical is from an unupped deck designed around this card.

I do like having it keep the element of sacrifice idea. I might use it if the proves to complex to balance. My other idea was for the cost to be 150% of the original sacrifice.

I think the fastest base would be Quantum Pillars + (10 cost Dragon) Pendulums + Aether  Mark
2 QP + 3 AP + M + 4 turns = 2 per off element + 8 (10 cost Dragon) + 12 Aether quanta
2 QP + 3 AP + M + 5 turns = 2.5 per off element + 11.5 (10 cost Dragon) + 13.5 Aether quanta
So turn 5 would be a reasonable minimum turn to expect a fractal 7 cost and turn 6 is a reasonable minimum to expect a fractal 10 cost.
This is not data about the average turn to expect and this was done by example rather than by simulation.
This is data not a conclusion, and data with qualifiers at that.

The 150% is another good solution I think.

[0arsios]

well first it is a great idea but instead of an other creature being summoned due to the sacrifice . how about make it an already known card that comes out based on the level of the sacrificed card and based on the mark of the player . hope you like my idea