The trial

[zanzarino]

I am starting to plan what will come after the shards are done and balanced and after as many bugs as possible are removed. The best idea that I have at the moment is the following and I'd like to share it with the community:

A new repeatable quest line called, for lack of a better name: "The trial". It consists of a series of battles against new and particularly challenging non-random opponents; "non-random" means that the player will have to adjust his/her deck to defeat a specific opponent. The trial will probably exist in "normal" and "hard" mode, for the veterans.

Completing the trial will grant access to a ritual that will improve your mark giving it a soft counter effect against a specific card.
Every time your opponent plays that specific card your mark will generate 5 extra quanta and heal you for 5 hp. (6/6 if you completed the trial in hard mode).

Do you particularly hate a specific card? That card that always ruins you deck? Now you have the chance to further customize your deck and make less unfair!

Stay tuned for more.

Will mark abilities be active in PvP?

I would say yes, the new marks will work as a dynamic way to fine-balance the metagame: since OP cards will be more frequently targeted by mark abilities those cards should lose part of their power.

If they are active in PvP, it would further increase the gap between veterans and newbies.

Completing the trial in normal mode is going to be quite easy even for a new player and it will take a few hours. Completing it in "hard" mode not so easy, even for a veteran.

will you have to do the quest line each time you want to change your mark's counter thing?

You'll have to repeat the trial if you want to target a new card, but the mark counter ability is applied to all the marks (all 12 elements).

May I suggest that this be unable to apply to pillars/pendulums at a minimum, and perhaps novas as well?  It seems too powerful if one could choose, say, quantum pillars.

Yes, it does not apply to quanta generators, not sure yet about nova/supernova.

[furballdn]

Whoa. That's like seriously all I can say. I cannot wait for more gameplay features, and giving you the ability to have a free soft counter sounds like a pretty cool idea.

[ZephyrPhantom]

Daily quests and mark upgrading rolled into one. Pretty cool, and I'd love to see the mark upgrade do other things (such as generate 2 extra random quantum per turn, or have the ability to turn it into a creature, cast a minor spell, see enemy hand, etc...) I also noticed that there are two cards shown on the mark of time (Skeleton and Cloak). Which one is the actual counter?

Also, will mark abilities be active in PvP or will they be temporarily disabled whenever you use it there?

[Mathematistic]

Daily quests and mark upgrading rolled into one. Pretty cool, and I'd love to see the mark upgrade do other things (such as generate 2 extra random quantum per turn, or have the ability to turn it into a creature, cast a minor spell, see enemy hand, etc...)

Will mark abilities be active in PvP?

If they are active in PvP, it would further increase the gap between veterans and newbies. Other than that, Awesome idea!
Offtopic: I could imagine a mark of time with nightmare counter...

[furballdn]

Daily quests and mark upgrading rolled into one. Pretty cool, and I'd love to see the mark upgrade do other things (such as generate 2 extra random quantum per turn, or have the ability to turn it into a creature, cast a minor spell, see enemy hand, etc...)

Will mark abilities be active in PvP?

If they are active in PvP, it would further increase the gap between veterans and newbies. Other than that, Awesome idea!
Offtopic: I could imagine a mark of time with nightmare counter...

Make a PvP3 with upgraded marks? There's already a bit of a gap between vets and newbies such as rare cards and upped cards.

[Xenocidius]

Oh, wow. This sounds awesome. One question: will you have to do the quest line each time you want to change your mark's counter thing?

I can hardly wait.

[Cheesy111]

May I suggest that this be unable to apply to pillars/pendulums at a minimum, and perhaps novas as well?  It seems too powerful if one could choose, say, quantum pillars.

[rowcla]

Hmm, as nice as the quests sound, i cant say i like the idea of the bonus to the mark, it kinda means that people who are already better at the game, or simply have the cards to make better decks, will have even more advantage...

Although i would like to be able to use it on SNs

Personally i would prefer it if it gave something which is already obtainable, like a shard or just rares in general.

Also have to say that im really not a fan of cards which are hard counters to specific other cards, i mean its not really fun when you play a game and your opponent has a mark for the key card in your deck.

Also, if this is added in, how will this apply to ai opponents? will some of them have them? Or does it only apply to ordinary players?

Oh and i also have a problem with the fact that we need to repeat the quests that change what the card is, this kinda encourages the use of a single deck, which im not really a fan of doing...

But yeah, as i said, getting a shard would be nice, maybe a random non shard, non nymph rare for the normal difficulty quests, and a shard for the hard difficulty quests?

[OldTrees]

@Zanz
I assume there will be multiple Mark abilities to choose from at the end of the trial?

I personally think a mark that alternates between the element chosen at the trial and the element chosen at deckbuilding would be beneficial. It would expand support for Trio and Quad decks while not harming existing decks. This would create a more diverse metagame for the players to experience.

[dragonsdemesne]

I'd approve of any new pve content even if it had no reward behind it.  I'm very glad to see that it should be 'challenging' for veterans; I look forward to that!  The idea of having your mark 'do something', as well as the trial idea, sounds like some of the things I've suggested in the past, so I'm glad that either someone listened, or else someone else had the same idea

I'll reserve any balance issues after we see how easy/hard the challenges are and what benefits this gives.  I will ask one question, though; how will this affect players who have mark cards in their decks, or will it not be affected by those?

Since zanz will be watching this thread, I'll mention my desire to see software-supported tournaments as well as ways to earn nymphs besides oracle luck and marks besides weekly tournaments.  (obviously with comparable difficulty to winning a tournament now, just with more than a 1-2 times per week chance for marks and oracle spins for nymphs)

[The_Mormegil]

This is a very cool idea, but it has a problem: it is repeatable but you don't have that much incentive to actually repeat it. It is not something you can do every day (akin to Oracle's predicted god), it's something you do once then forget about it until you need to re-attune your Mark to another card. Maybe make it so that you can only try the Trial once per day (resets with Oracle) and it has a VERY good reward?

Although, I can see this adding a whole new level to strategic PvP. It would KILL some decks: Pestal, for instance, would die against an anti-Devourer mark. Discord could have problems disrupting a low quanta start if your opponent suddently has +5 quanta when it comes into play. Hmmm...

[TheonlyrealBeef]

Hmm, although it seems fun it particularly seems to target Fractal decks, since these cards are actually played from hand. What about the notorious Gravity Nymph? Will it be able to spam Black Hole while you just have to sit back and suffer, regardless of you having a Mark that counters Black Hole? How will it affect Black Hole, anyway, quanta generated before (maybe leaving as little as 2 left) or after it is cast? (same with healing and say... Lightning, will targeting Lightning on your 4 HP kill you or leave you with 4/5 hp?)

Can it be switched on and off other than redoing the quest to switch it on again? I could see competitive forum events not liking the advantage one gains from a particular mark. Or maybe building entire events around it, we'll see.