The game is in early beta right now, but it's been in development for years, so the gameplay is very well polished. The best way to describe it would be like a non-collectible card game, or a digital board game, with elements of Starcraft, Magic: the Gathering, and Dominion. You build an economy and develop your board from a pool of units which are partially randomized at the beginning of each game, and new units are being added all the time.
Looks pretty dynamic and deep with lots of strategy - right up my alley. I'd love to give it a try and report on my experience Can I politely request one of your beta keys?
Edit: Thanks for the key, and this game is a blast! It was a little harder to pick up than I expected because it's rather complicated - probably more than 15 games (which as a person who has played a lot of different strat games over the years, I mean this as a compliment). Even still I've only been playing on unlimited time games because of the quick thinking required. I highly recommend it and look forward to catching the streams to learn more.
Wow Cel, long time no see. You streaming again any time soon?
I don't have time to really get into another game right now, but this game definitely remind me of a couple of other games that I've seen played IRL before. Can't remember the names, but I remember liking the concept. Any idea what the pay model is going to be when it launches?
On October 24 2014 11:45 RavaJava wrote: Looks pretty dynamic and deep with lots of strategy - right up my alley. I'd love to give it a try and report on my experience Can I politely request one of your beta keys?
Sent.
On October 24 2014 11:49 deth2munkies wrote: Wow Cel, long time no see. You streaming again any time soon?
I don't have time to really get into another game right now, but this game definitely remind me of a couple of other games that I've seen played IRL before. Can't remember the names, but I remember liking the concept. Any idea what the pay model is going to be when it launches?
Hi. About streaming, I dunno, I kind of quit Hearthstone but I've been thinking of doing some casual game streams or maybe Prismata streams once I'm a little bit better at it.
They don't really have a pay model in mind at the moment, and I'm not really sure what it would be. The game is pretty much self-contained, so all I can think of is that they could separate units into different expansions and charge per expansion. I think for awhile they're just concerned with growing the playerbase and getting people interested.
thanks - and no pressure intended, just curious about the game after reading up and watching the first "how to play" - videos from the devs' youtube channel
Wow, this game looks interesting; a card game with no luck involved, all about quick thinking and adapting strategies. I would love to get a key if anyone has one to spare >.<
On October 24 2014 13:07 boon2537 wrote: Wow, this game looks interesting; a card game with no luck involved, all about quick thinking and adapting strategies. I would love to get a key if anyone has one to spare >.<
There's still luck involved, but not as much. TBH, with how it's set up, I could see arrangements where the person that's on the play always wins if both sides play optimally. It all really depends on the random draw of secondary cards. Unless the random secondary card pool is really deep and really balanced, I can see build orders simply going up around certain powerful random cards whenever they're up, and those possibly being unstoppable, but again, that depends on how the balance is. The random cards determine what kind of game you can play and the best build orders/counter build orders. Given how much randomness is involved in generating that many cards, the card pool could potentially expand faster than people find optimal build orders, making the game "unsolvable", which would be a nice change.
Point is, there's still a good amount of randomness, but none of it has to do with drawing the right cards/resources, so less than the average card game.
On October 24 2014 11:49 deth2munkies wrote: Any idea what the pay model is going to be when it launches?
They've sworn up and down that multiplayer will always be free in its entirety - no charging for new units, at all.
Stuff that's been discussed as a possibility for monetization off the top of my head: card reskins, single-player campaigns (though the first will be free)... that's actually all I can remember, though I've heard more mentioned before.
On October 24 2014 13:07 boon2537 wrote: Wow, this game looks interesting; a card game with no luck involved, all about quick thinking and adapting strategies. I would love to get a key if anyone has one to spare >.<
There's still luck involved, but not as much. TBH, with how it's set up, I could see arrangements where the person that's on the play always wins if both sides play optimally. It all really depends on the random draw of secondary cards. Unless the random secondary card pool is really deep and really balanced, I can see build orders simply going up around certain powerful random cards whenever they're up, and those possibly being unstoppable, but again, that depends on how the balance is. The random cards determine what kind of game you can play and the best build orders/counter build orders. Given how much randomness is involved in generating that many cards, the card pool could potentially expand faster than people find optimal build orders, making the game "unsolvable", which would be a nice change.
Point is, there's still a good amount of randomness, but none of it has to do with drawing the right cards/resources, so less than the average card game.
That's true, but the game is pretty difficult to solve, and you most certainly won't be able to solve a random set in the 30 seconds you have to review it. They've also been talking about making tournament matches bo2 like chess, where you will play first one game and last in the other.
Thank you for sharing info about this game, it looks SWEET. I was going to watch the 2nd how to play video but I don't want to spoil the joy of learning it. Would I be able to have a beta key? How big is the beta right now in terms of population? With good developer choices (looking like it) I could see this game being very... addicting.
On October 24 2014 13:07 boon2537 wrote: Wow, this game looks interesting; a card game with no luck involved, all about quick thinking and adapting strategies. I would love to get a key if anyone has one to spare >.<
There's still luck involved, but not as much. TBH, with how it's set up, I could see arrangements where the person that's on the play always wins if both sides play optimally. It all really depends on the random draw of secondary cards. Unless the random secondary card pool is really deep and really balanced, I can see build orders simply going up around certain powerful random cards whenever they're up, and those possibly being unstoppable, but again, that depends on how the balance is. The random cards determine what kind of game you can play and the best build orders/counter build orders. Given how much randomness is involved in generating that many cards, the card pool could potentially expand faster than people find optimal build orders, making the game "unsolvable", which would be a nice change.
Point is, there's still a good amount of randomness, but none of it has to do with drawing the right cards/resources, so less than the average card game.
That's true, but the game is pretty difficult to solve, and you most certainly won't be able to solve a random set in the 30 seconds you have to review it. They've also been talking about making tournament matches bo2 like chess, where you will play first one game and last in the other.
It's not really about solving the entire random card pool in 30 seconds. It's more like the first couple of picks in a Magic draft, you have knowledge of all the possibilities that you open beforehand. You can make power level determinations in a vacuum and even theoretical matchups concerning 2-3 card sets that you might see and how you can win, similar to picking a card on color/curve concerns. Then all you have to do is evaluate the pool that you get with all that prior knowledge.
The major difference is that if there are enough, well balanced cards, there will be waaaay too many possible combinations to work out everything, which lets you think on your feet based on past experience a lot more often than you would in a Magic draft. That said, if there are a bunch of random cards that are just trash compared to the few powerful ones, it becomes a lot easier to figure out which cards you want to build towards in any given game.
On October 24 2014 13:37 SwatRaven wrote: Thank you for sharing info about this game, it looks SWEET. I was going to watch the 2nd how to play video but I don't want to spoil the joy of learning it. Would I be able to have a beta key? How big is the beta right now in terms of population? With good developer choices (looking like it) I could see this game being very... addicting.
Sure, you can have a key. The population is not to big, but it's highly active. There are people playing 24/7, so you can always get games. Tournaments and "brawls" (ranked sessions that occur for a few hours at a time) happen frequently.
On October 24 2014 13:07 boon2537 wrote: Wow, this game looks interesting; a card game with no luck involved, all about quick thinking and adapting strategies. I would love to get a key if anyone has one to spare >.<
There's still luck involved, but not as much. TBH, with how it's set up, I could see arrangements where the person that's on the play always wins if both sides play optimally. It all really depends on the random draw of secondary cards. Unless the random secondary card pool is really deep and really balanced, I can see build orders simply going up around certain powerful random cards whenever they're up, and those possibly being unstoppable, but again, that depends on how the balance is. The random cards determine what kind of game you can play and the best build orders/counter build orders. Given how much randomness is involved in generating that many cards, the card pool could potentially expand faster than people find optimal build orders, making the game "unsolvable", which would be a nice change.
Point is, there's still a good amount of randomness, but none of it has to do with drawing the right cards/resources, so less than the average card game.
That's true, but the game is pretty difficult to solve, and you most certainly won't be able to solve a random set in the 30 seconds you have to review it. They've also been talking about making tournament matches bo2 like chess, where you will play first one game and last in the other.
It's not really about solving the entire random card pool in 30 seconds. It's more like the first couple of picks in a Magic draft, you have knowledge of all the possibilities that you open beforehand. You can make power level determinations in a vacuum and even theoretical matchups concerning 2-3 card sets that you might see and how you can win, similar to picking a card on color/curve concerns. Then all you have to do is evaluate the pool that you get with all that prior knowledge.
The major difference is that if there are enough, well balanced cards, there will be waaaay too many possible combinations to work out everything, which lets you think on your feet based on past experience a lot more often than you would in a Magic draft. That said, if there are a bunch of random cards that are just trash compared to the few powerful ones, it becomes a lot easier to figure out which cards you want to build towards in any given game.
Who knows? Could be fun.
I mean, there's a huge difference compared to Magic draft or HS arena, because the build orders can be planned concretely, and any small difference in the card pool throws off all of your calculations for whether a preconceived build order will work. Yes, you can get by on basic theory and knowing what works well with what, but concrete planning will be necessary to play at a high level if the game ever gets that far.
EPT
Can I politely request one of your beta keys?
