Card Design: An attempt at a comprehensive guide (A community effort I hope)

[OldTrees]

Nice chain patchx94!

From now on I will convert normal spells (ones that cost a draw) into theoretical cantrip spells for cost comparisions (aka the costs below are +1elemental quanta greater than in the game)

Heal 4 (3 +1card)  20 healing
Holy Light  10 healing and can target
Luciferin  10 healing and teach Biolum

10 instant healing is worth ~2 (1 +1card)

SoG should cost either 3 +Upped+1card (as it does now) or 4 +Upped+1card.

Tower Shield vs Titanium Shield seems to indicate that 8 ~= 16
From a comparison between unupped and upped creatures, it has been estimated that being unupped gives ~ a-1 to -2 cost reduction.
From a comparison between Vanilla creatures and Elemental Weapons, it has been estimated that being restricted to a special slot is worth ~-3 .
From a comparison between 0cost creatures and other similar creatures, it has been estimated that requiring a draw is worth ~-1 .

Costs: 5 +Shield+Upped+1card vs 4 +Shield+1card
5 +5.5 vs 8 (2.5 +5.5 )
An equivalent effect to SoG would cost 3.5 (or 1 +Upped+1card as most are more used to seeing it)
From a comparision of Vanilla creatures, it has been estimated that +1atk ~ worth a cost of +1 .
From a comparison between unupped and upped creatures, it has been estimated that being unupped gives ~ a-1 to -2 cost reduction.
From a comparison between Vanilla creatures and Elemental Weapons, it has been estimated that being restricted to a special slot is worth ~-3 .
From a comparison between 0cost creatures and other similar creatures, it has been estimated that requiring a draw is worth ~-1 .

Jade Staff costs 2 +Weapon+Upped+1card ~=7.5
Jade Staff has 4 attack
Jade Staff's SoG effect is worth ~3.5 :lifeThe X :2X relationship mentioned above probably changes at cheaper and more expensive. Specifically at more expensive cards it is likely that X <2X and at less expensive cards (like SoG) X >2X . However I would be surprised if the ratio gets much larger. SoG currently uses a 1 :3 ratio.

SoG should cost either 3 +Upped+1card (as it does now) or 4 +Upped+1card.

TLDR: A complicated comparison between SoG and Jade Staff compensating for the obvious differences shows that SoG is either balanced or close to balanced relative to Jade Staff.

The effect of SoG is worth 3.5 (2.5 +1card)

15 Heal < 5 HoT < 20 Heal
2 +1card < 2.5 +1card <3 +1card

Emp Bond costs 6 (5 +1card)
6 * 5 HoT / 3.5 = 60/7 HoT ~= 9 HoT

Sanctuary costs 5 (4 +1card)
5 HoT = 3.5
4 HoT = 2.8
protection ~= 2.2 (is protection really worth this much?)

I am not sure about the next step where you jumped from HoT to DR per turn.

Titanium costs 8 (4 +3Shield+1card) for DR 2
Jade costs 12.5 (7 +3Shield+1.5upped+1card) for immateriality and DR 2

Shield costs  (1 +3 Shield+1 Card) for DR 1
Shield costs between 4 and 5 (probably closer to 4 )
Jade costs 9 (5 +3Shield+1card) for immateriality and DR 1

So:
8->Immaterial->12.5
4?->Immaterial->9
Hope costs 11 (7 +3Shield Slot+1card) for immateriality and Biolum DR

[Zaealix]

I do believe this has moved out of my area of understanding again...Ok, so, here's my attempt at comparing freeze and lightning.
lightning-2 for 5 damage to target.
freeze-2 for 3 turn delay, opens for frozen strategies.
So freeze is very situational, but generally is more useful on those creatures that actually can survive lightning.
lightning is just a 1-shot damage spell, albiet a good one.

[OldTrees]

I do believe this has moved out of my area of understanding again...Ok, so, here's my attempt at comparing freeze and lightning.
lightning-2 +1card for 5 damage to target.
freeze-1 +1card for 3 turn delay, opens for frozen strategies.
So freeze is very situational, but generally is more useful on those creatures that actually can survive lightning.
lightning is just a 1-shot damage spell, albiet a good one.

Perhaps another example of a quantitative comparison

Lightning costs 2 +1card
Basalisk Blood costs 2 +1card
If both cards are balanced then:
5 damage to target ~= target creature gains +0|+20 and is delayed 6 = 3quanta worth of effect
Therefore:
??

[Zaealix]

I do believe this has moved out of my area of understanding again...Ok, so, here's my attempt at comparing freeze and lightning.
lightning-2 +1card for 5 damage to target.
freeze-1 +1card for 3 turn delay, opens for frozen strategies.
So freeze is very situational, but generally is more useful on those creatures that actually can survive lightning.
lightning is just a 1-shot damage spell, albiet a good one.

Perhaps another example of a quantitative comparison

Lightning costs 2 +1card
Basalisk Blood costs 2 +1card
If both cards are balanced then:
5 damage to target ~= target creature gains +0|+20 and is delayed 6 = 3quanta worth of effect
Therefore:
??

Therefore: for the price of 2 +2 cards, you can delay a total 6 turns, split into 2 instances that can target weapons. to 2 +1 card for 6turn delay and give +0|+20.
And honestly, I'm wondering how long freeze and delay effects will be comparable as the same thing, as eventually, the freeze strategys will make freeze more powerful than delays.

[OldTrees]

Simple CC Spell Effects:
(assuming Xquanta+1card is ~= X+1quanta+0cards)
2quanta effects:
Freeze target creature (or player?) for 3 turns
3 quanta effects:
Deal 1 damage to all enemy creatures
Deal 4 damage to target creature or player, and Shockwave frozen creature or weapon
Delay Target Creature 6 turns, and give it +0|+20
Target creature gains Gravity Pull
Deal 5 damage to target creature or player
Reverse Time target creature
5 quanta effects:
Infect all enemy creatures
8 quanta effect:
Deal 3 damage to all enemy creatures
9 quanta effect:
Antimatter target creature

Cost: Varies
Target: Creature, Creature or Player
Range: Single target, Area of Effect
Effect: Varies

[Captain Scibra]

Pardon the necro, but this still should be an actively discussing topic anyways, as it is still incomplete (particularly spells).  However, perhaps you could add some common modifiers found in card ideas such as stat changing abilities or perhaps a chance-effect modifier.

[OldTrees]

Pardon the necro, but this still should be an actively discussing topic anyways, as it is still incomplete (particularly spells).  However, perhaps you could add some common modifiers found in card ideas such as stat changing abilities or perhaps a chance-effect modifier.

It is incomplete but also increasingly discovered to be partially inaccurate. I have an open challenge to any member or group.

Who will make the 3rd generation of card cost theory?

[eaglgenes101]

Pardon the necro, but this still should be an actively discussing topic anyways, as it is still incomplete (particularly spells).  However, perhaps you could add some common modifiers found in card ideas such as stat changing abilities or perhaps a chance-effect modifier.

It is incomplete but also increasingly discovered to be partially inaccurate. I have an open challenge to any member or group.

Who will make the 3rd generation of card cost theory?

Maybe me, with the help of others.
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,37644.0.html

[moomoose]

something not copied over from the forum move:

A couple small suggested additions to the guide- card art and card novelty.


My take:

Card art- Even if you are not an artist such as vrt, pipo, kami, cryo, thalas, ET or etc, you can still find and/or make decent art for your card with a little time and elbow grease.

sources:
1)  http://freakmutantmonster.blogspot.com/
Hawanja has gracefully permitted anyone and everyone to use his art of creatures for their cards, many of his creatures are on the silly side, but he does have many others more serious in nature.  he also has a deviant art page, which is just a subset of his blogspot page.  * make sure to credit Hawanja as the artist on the card and a link to the actual creature in the artist field of the card post such as "http://freakmutantmonster.blogspot.com/2010/11/rock-wurm.html" and not just "http://freakmutantmonster.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-03-18T22:01:00-07:00&max-results=10"
2)  deviantart.com
Almost all of the art on here is copyrighted, and not immediately available for use.  Some images on there are, however, listed as "creative commons" (CC) and may be used, but *not altered*.  Even if you do find a piece of artwork that you really enjoy, you can sign up for an account (if you do not already have one) and very politely, professionally (ie proper school grammar/spelling/etc) and informatively request their permission to use their art.  Sometimes they won't respond, other times they may have questions before giving permission, and if you're lucky they will consent.  Make sure to credit the artist in the card art and in the CIA post.
3) http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/board,22.0.html
The card art CIA subforum has many already created works for public use.  You can also request artwork, but your mileage may vary depending on who you know and who knows you.
4) http://www.sxc.hu/
A lot of the images on here are photography, however there are some images which are digitally designed, or more abstract.  This is a good source to go to for images to add together and edit.  Use of http://pixlr.com/editor/ and/or photoshop can lead to some decent art simply by resizing and/or cropping the art, placing the images on top of one another as 'layers' and then reducing the opacity of the top layer or changing the layer style from "normal" to "multiply" or "overlay".  SG also had a tutorial on editing art in photoshop which I have found useful.  http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,34313.0.html
5) http://muro.deviantart.com/
You can doodle on here, play around with the various brush tools and see if something inspires you.  I find the interface simple and easy to handle.  It can be fun if nothing else.

Novelty- Look at the cards in level 4, they all have one thing in common.  Novelty, they brought unique ideas which had not been previously considered.  You can't look at any of them and say "Oh, they took <existing card> and put it in <a different element>, with a slight alteration."  Many, but not all, of the level 3 cards are also novel.  Try to come up with an idea that is truly unique, it is not wrong to think "oh, this mechanic from <card x> would be great in <element y>" or "this mechanic from <card x> would work better as a <permanent/spell/creture> instead", and you may very well be right, especially if it does not conflict with the elemental loyalties section of this article.  If it is a re-purposing of an idea that you had previously, and feel that this new card may better convey the idea that you had developed, great.  But if it essentially boils down to a minor twist on someone else's idea, the two courses of action to consider are 1) leave it be and move on or 2) significantly alter the new card to bring something new to the table.  And if someone else's idea inspires an idea of your own, please seek permission from the person prior to submitting your card idea to level 1.

[Einstein Skw]

Excellent topic, a very good opportunity of deep insight on the game's mechanics!

In my opinion, when it comes to "Flavour", we might consider not to use God-like creatures. Maybe someone's got an idea about adding a mithological god (greek, egyptian, nordic, other), but this is against the 'False-God' concept. This should be a disclaimed limit.