Guest posts by collimatrix

37

General Discussion / Re: Elements Creation story

« on: October 25, 2010, 09:29:20 pm »

...

And after many eras of warring and chaos, the heroes banded together to create something far greater than what had come before:

Agriculture

38

General Discussion / Re: What are your favorite patch changes?

« on: October 25, 2010, 04:57:04 am »

v1.25.

'Nuff said.

1.25 was a pretty big step forward, although none of the cards released seem particularly powerful.

I wouldn't be too upset if Zanz said that 1.252 was as high as it was going to go.

39

Tournament Archive / Re: Western Tournament - 23 October 2010 - unupgraded - Menagerie

« on: October 23, 2010, 07:18:40 pm »

Collimatrix 2, ~Napalm 1


He broke the squidkrieg!  But in the end I prevailed.

40

Tournament Archive / Re: Western Tournament - 23 October 2010 - unupgraded - Menagerie

« on: October 23, 2010, 07:01:41 pm »

Collimatrix 2, Nyama 1

Nyama fought fiercely and with honor!

41

Tournament Archive / Re: Western Tournament - 23 October 2010 - unupgraded - Menagerie

« on: October 23, 2010, 06:42:32 pm »

Collimatrix2 - Dogg1

He fought valiantly, but fell do the deadly squidkrieg.

42

General Discussion / What are your favorite patch changes?

« on: October 21, 2010, 07:56:25 pm »

What patch changes have you thought were the best?

I remember being very pleased when metamorphosis was made free.  That was an excellent change for sure, and the best I remember being made.  If I had to choose another, I would say splitting PVP into PVP1 and PVP2 was a really good idea as well.

43

Entropy / Re: What element does Entropy work best against?

« on: October 13, 2010, 12:11:42 pm »

Depends; upgraded or not?

Unupgraded it's passable against mono rush decks, although some of the more effective countermeasures against high damage/cost creatures like maxwell's demons and antimatter are expensive and slow to get out.  Chaos seed is a reasonably cost effective way to kill or neutralize most things under 3HP, or at least dent them so the demons can finish them off.  The biggest problem for unupped entropy is the lack of anything really cost effective for rushing.  Discord is freaking brutal, but as a rare card.

Upgraded entropy cards often do something completely different than the unupgraded ones, which is annoying.  Want to pack a bunch of cheap creature buffs and a bunch of cheap creature control?  Sorry buddy, you can only have a total of six chaos seed and chaos power.  Upgraded entropy works better in concert with something else, e.g. as one half of the evil nymphomania combo (pwn the false gods with math!) or powering a rush deck with supernovas.

44

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Re: Give some use to the Relics and unupgraded Shards

« on: September 02, 2010, 07:37:41 am »

Ugh. Why resurrect this thread? Zanz said that he won't give any uses to Relics.

I'm curious if he would be opposed in principle to giving relics a purpose that doesn't allow you to grind nymphs.

45

Patch Notes and Development News / Re: Elements 1.25

« on: August 12, 2010, 01:58:13 am »

Noticeably faster performance.

46

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Re: PVP3: Desperado Alley

« on: August 09, 2010, 01:18:04 am »

Hmm.. While this idea may not be the same as yours, it was inspired by it so...

PvP 3: 40 coins to play, normal as other pvps go. Upgraded cards allowed.
However... if you lose, any cards your opponent spins will be lost to you. The cards in the spins are the exact cards in your opponent's deck, so upgraded cards could be won there.

Might require some exceptions vis a vis nymphs, but I like the idea of stretching out the risk/reward curve a lot.

47

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Re: PVP3: Desperado Alley

« on: August 08, 2010, 08:07:41 pm »

Sounds like a person with a lot of electrum could just spend it all and then play this to earn cheap upgraded cards. Doesn't keep experienced players away.

Assuming that they're willing to blow all their electrum rather than hoard it.  You do have a point though.  Do you think it should be 30% + a fixed amount, or something different?

48

Game Suggestions and Feedback / PVP3: Desperado Alley

« on: August 08, 2010, 11:53:13 am »

One of the things that's most frustrating for friends I've introduced to this game is the amount of grind it takes to develop a healthy catalogue of cards, and that's a gap that only grows with each new introduction.  It's just hard to get up to speed without spending an enormous amount of time playing.

The game already already has a fairly well established risk/reward curve though.  If you risk more electrum, the rewards are potentially much higher.  Most of the advice to new players revolves around developing a good lvl3 or top 50 grind deck, since that's the very edge of the risk/reward envelope that can be reached and operated profitably quickly.  From there it's false gods, ideally with a deck good enough that the player can regularly pull in upgraded cards.  Again, following the risk/reward curve all the way to the edge.

I propose an extension of the curve in the form of a new PVP mode.  Entry fee for each game would be 30% of your electrum balance or three relic cards (not refunded).  The winner would get four spins and would be able to win upgraded cards if the other player was using them.  There would be no electrum reward for winning.  The score bonus for winning would be very high as well.

Clearly this is not the sort of thing you could grind.  In fact, it's a negative sum game as far as electrum is concerned!  In fact, this isn't the sort of thing a well-established player would touch.  For a fairly new player though with just enough cards to make a rainbow rush deck, the ability to get upgraded cards that easily would greatly shorten the path to getting upgraded cards for that god killer or PVP2 deck they always wanted.  It would also give the relic card a purpose that doesn't make nymphs grindable.