If I may ask a favour of the beta testers, could you specify which are the most important crads which were removed in the transition from Orions 1 to Orions 2 so that we have some info to chew on while waiting for the oh-so-expected release? From your posts, I picked that Forest Spirit, Ice Wizard, Priest, Paladin and Paralyze have been removed. Any other major removals? And, as a side-question, do you feel that the role of the removed cards is filled by the new goodies or that they still hold a now-unfilled niche? Thank you, The guy you'll read about in newspapers that his hands fused with his iPhone from too much Orions.
I'm gonna let our resident guru Meneisyss respond to this one but I do want to point out that a few of the original cards in this set may also have been altered from before. Funny, even with the O2 beta on my iPhone, I have been playing O1 as well and am still enjoying it. And it kicks my butt on hard. I think the new set rocks. Lots more challenges and let's face it, 116 cards means lots more to discover. One more important thought: not everything is 100% as it appears and not every creature reacts 100% as you would initially expect. There are a few Easter Eggs to be discovered as well and that is definitely going to be some of the fun.
Not entirely. However, some of both the existing and new cards have received these capabilities. Now, after having learnt all the changes, I consider them worthy - that is, I don't miss those old cards that much any more. Of course, it'd be the best if Pavel added the old cards back...
It heals a LOT. I think it's fair - after all, it doesn't have card healing or element bumping side-effects, unlike several of the other owner healer spells (e.g., Revival already included in O1).
was never a fan of forest spirit. The AI plays it every single time it has the card and if you have no spell to get rid of it they just get used again and again, maybe just too predictable
It's an excellent card against high-offense cards, where you weaken the card with other means (e.g., spells or offensive abilities)
I never felt Rejuvenation was overpowered. It does heal pretty well but it does nothing to advance your goals of damaging your enemy or killing his cards. You also can't control how much Life element you use on it which is a potential drawback. Basically I see it as a lost turn with big healing. Sometimes it's handy but if you're in desperate need of healing and taking a turn to play a stopgap card then you'd better come up with something REALLY good next turn because if you don't the situation that caused you to be nearly dead will probably be happening even worse since your opponent got a free turn to tighten the screws on you. Forest Spirits are sort of annoying, and the AI does seem inordinately fond of them. But they also do little damage, usually end up costing plenty of extra Earth in heals, and are easily killable by magic. If I'm even vaguely thinking of casting Fire Spikes or Poison anyway, the appearance of a Forest Spirit seals the deal. I don't have a problem with them and consider them kind of subpar myself for the same reasons as Rejuvenation. They're a stopgap piece, and don't do much to address the situation where you felt you needed a healer in the first place. Soon he'll be gone and all he did was buy you a little time to (hopefully) come up with a better plan while your opponent was gleefully bringing out bigger creatures/spells or building up his elements. My shorthand for both cards is something like this: 1. Am I in serious trouble? 2. Will a Fireball/Lightning/something save me? 3. Do I need to hold out another 1-2 turns to get enough element to cast it? 4. Then maybe try using Rejuvenation/Forest Spirit, otherwise no There may be some good situations where you can block a creature with the Forest Spirit while killing it with something else, but these situations are rare in Orions 1 where few creatures attack non-opposing creatures with significant strength. There's the Hydra I guess. Zeus can't hit big stuff (though he's ace on the little guys), and the Behemoth doesn't do enough damage. These are all expensive creatures too. In Orions 2 it sounds like more creatures can do this though (Archer, etc..) so he might be more viable for that reason. Maybe that's even why he was taken out, although I like to think that perhaps it was for the interaction between Forest Spirit and Blessed Anyway, I've been playing more matches on Hard to get myself in shape for the sequel whenever it finally drops.
There has been a steady progression of steps required. It's not only the coding, which was changed mid-stream due to the overwhelming demand for MP. However, that's the main problem and you are getting what you wanted MOST. Meanwhile, even the title screens have needed to be changed and GC and Crystal implemented. I don't want to even think about all the work that has gone into this and is still going into this as Meneisyss and I find a glitch here or there or correct text or add flavor text or whatever. This is a huge task and I'm thrilled that I am not the programmer. Be patient. It will be worth the wait. And when you meet up with Meneisyss online, forget it, you don't stand a chance. He's the Grandmaster.
I have a ton of respect for Meneisyss and have appreciated his insights into Orions for many years now. As far as being the Grandmaster of O2 goes, I'm sure he is. But when there is a field of players out there all playing the game, I'm willing to bet he'll soon be finding opponents that will give him a run for his money. That's the beauty of a game like this, especially if the developers would stay with this one and start releasing expansions to keep the game growing and fresh, things are always changing and different players bring different perspectives to the game which can result in a challenge you never saw coming I can not wait to play this!
Hey, Quorlan - still waiting very excited for Runemasters. I'd bet it will dominate the market next to Carcassonne, etc... Well, at least I hope the developers didn't make the mistake and make NO introductory sale for Orions 2. Too many people and old fans of WinMobile Orions got burned by the iPhone version of Orions; thus they might be hestitating to buy O2. With multiplayer added, Orions 2 needs a good start with a strong base of players, so that (no matter if it's day or night) always some multiplayer opponents are available. If there is no one from the beginning, this game will suffer from the start and soon be forgotten or not bought by the most people. I saw quite some games (like Yslandia and others) which haven't built a fanbase early at release and of course, they never were a huge success. Some came out with the normal price and lowered it after 2 weeks, but this was too late already... So, someone should point out these things to the devs - a good promotion and a price reduction at the first 2-3 days after release might give the game a good start. After this sale, a fanbase might have been built and more and more players will notice this. That introductory sale would be also a nice thing for early adopters or first-day customers.
