Mid-game save would be great. Nothing worse than losing progress due to unforseen interruptions. Ok, there are plenty of things worse but I'd sure appreciate the save function. #
I'm disappointed that this got dumped on by 1* reviews. The rules are compelling and the strategies are complex. There are a ton of cards. The game is criminally underpriced at $1. Yes, I wish it was playable offline but the dev has already said that's being worked on. Even with the online restriction this is an amazing game for the price.
This is 1 of the dangers of pricing a game too low, even if for a brief period of time. While pricing it low will get it on to many more devices, there will be a lot of people who, had they bothered to research the game first, would know it wouldn't be their cup of tea and move on, but now that it's only 1 step up from free, a lot of folk with nothing "invested in figuring out what the game is really about, can just poo poo it out of hand.
This game is amazing. Really, really well done. Art is top notch, mechanics are top notch, strategy is deep, card abilities seem balanced (from what I can tell so far - more on this below), has a small amount of randomness as well as a little risk/reward. The devs did a really good job here, because if any one of these elements (aside from the art) isn't perfectly tuned, the game will not work. One thing I would really like to see, is the game pause and prompt you to continue at a few key points... specifically at the start of round 4 when you get to see the pool of cards you'll be working with. I'd like to see all my options and formulate some kind of plan going into the 4th round, but everything flies by so quickly. I've actually taken a screenshot as the cards are going by to accomplish this... lol. The other place would be when a card's ability is going to randomly affect one of say 3 different cards. This wouldn't need to pause, but somekind of animation denoting which cards can potentially be chosen and the card that gets chosen. As far as card balance is concerned, it seems like (and I've only played about 10ish games) the victory point push is always the way to go, and the military push can't really contain it. But I could be wrong with my limited experience. Anyway, great, great game. Anyone remotely on the fence for whatever reason should definitely pick this up... especially for 0.99.
The coins/collectible aspect is starting to annoy me now that I've started playing against real people. They have characters I don't have and I don't even know how that affects the game. I want to be able to strategize, get better at the game with everything on the table, not just parts of it. Oh well. Still enjoying it, but it means I'm less inclined to devote time and energy into it outside of just playing each round and seeing what happens.
Yes! That's the one glaring thing I've noticed in my first handful of games...that 4th round preview of your city goes by too fast - and I can't tell if it's a design oversight, or if it's fast because you don't need to linger on it. Anyway, seems like a phenomenal game so far. It's this weirdly perfect mashup of Carcassonne, Ascension, Star Realms, and Dominion. Better to just buy it and enjoy rather than trying to picture that in your mind. Well done, devs!
I can answer that. The effect on the game is actually not that high. The only thing characters can do is allow you to pre-select (guarantee) 1-3 cards before you start the game. This means that you can choose 1-3 cards that will definitely show up in the draft on your side. All other cards are always chosen randomly from all the cards you own. Initially, you can only guarantee 1 card. As you collect more "rival cards", you'll eventually be able to guarantee 3. That's the biggest increase in "advantage" you can get. The match-making system is designed to try to match you with players who have roughly the same progress as you, but it depends on how many players are online. Getting more game cards doesn't give you that much of an advantage, since you're going to end up with half of your cards and half of your opponent's cards, and all the cards are theoretically balanced. We've done two big balance updates since launching on Kongregate. Getting more cards really just adds to the variety/complexity of the game. Over time you can find interesting 3-card combos to try bringing into the game with you. But this is certainly not a typical CCG like Hearthstone where having more cards allows you to construct more powerful decks. You can only pick 3 cards, and you still have to share your deck with your opponent.
Also, you never get duplicate cards you don't need, so you will constantly be unlocking new stuff at a steady pace (it doesn't get exponentially slower later on like it does in most CCGs). I believe it takes around 70 card packs to unlock all the characters and cards (until we add new ones).
Thanks for clearing all that up! I guess it just feels too much like an artificial incentive to play, and to play in a specific way? Just seems to me like the game is deep enough and varied enough to stand on its own without dangling those coins constantly. This was my issue with Card Crawl, and you're right it's much less of an issue here, not least because it doesn't seem to be a high score chaser. But I just don't see the *need* for it. Maybe I'm an outlier, but if the game isn't teaching you something through the unlocking of cards in a specific order, I would rather just have everything available so I can play the game in all its glory without having to first play a ton of games to unlock everything. Also, the coins can be gotten by winning or losing, so then I also feel I have to continue with a game (against the AI) I have no chance of winning just to get the coins. So my main issue with it is that the coins take focus away from the game itself. They seem like an unnecessary distraction. I think a better incentive (at least for me) would have been leaderboards with how many times you've won against the AI, how many times you won against other players, etc.
Actually, lest everyone fall off their horses, the description did not say that when it first went live. You can see the timeline of it on the first page of this thread. The dev acknowledged that was a problem and they addressed it. Having said that, I'm firmly convinced this is one of the best strategy titles on iOS (admittedly my preference is for lighter fare) and anyone with a passing interest should buy it, even if they don't have constant net access, IMO. @appunwrapper I kind of feel like with so many cards, it might have been overwhelming if they were all available at the start. I get where you are coming from, though
I don't agree. I think it's a good way to learn how to value cards, how to play, while slowly introducing more and more options. There are still plenty of cards in the base set, and unlocks are brisk. I don't miss having every single card available from square one at all.
Something seems really off to me. I try to keep my cards from being knocked out. Seems like the right thing to do. But then I see that if more than one card gets knocked out, it gets mostly restored. But if it doesn't get knocked out, it keeps its damage? So let's say I have an attacker with 1 defense left after a war. He keeps that 1 defense for the next round. But if I let him get knocked out, he could be restored to his 5 defense. That makes no sense to me.
Yeah, it's a bit strange, but that's how it works. I think the choice you are making there is between: a) this card is vital and I can't let it get knocked out (because the VP is needed right now or because the risk of getting ruined) vs I can risk this card getting ruined because it may get repaired. Rationally it seems weird, but the risk/reward makes sense mechanically.
This is generally considered a "must-have" feature by most mobile gamers. I have seen many, many times where people flat out refused to purchase a game because it lacked this. This is especially critical on phones, where receiving a phone call could easily cause one to lose progress. I think it would be wise to make this a priority. Understand this should happen automatically and not require user input. Some other, more minor, requests: It would be great if the game could remember which rival was last used from session to session. Can we do away with the edit button and the confirmation box on the rivals screen? I would ditch the panel showing how many of each card the player has. It simply isn't necessary here, IMO, and can be found elsewhere. The way this is currently set up works fine, but is rather clunky. Aside from that, thanks for the game and for listening to input/keeping us in the loop. I'm having a blast with it.
I agree with most of what you said but DO like having the card type totals there. Lets me know going into a game the odds of various non-guaranteed cards showing up for purchase.
Ok, but it could easily be added to the card or empire screens if there isn't room for it on the rivals page. Furthermore, the way it is currently, after you edit, you can't get back to that screen, can you (short of closing the app or something)?
