This feels a lot like a typical freemium game, in that your options are either: a) Spend money to get cool stuff b) Go through a ton of repetition to get the same stuff In this case, if you want to be able to get just one pack (15 cards), you have to level up 4 times, which means fighting something like 20+ battles. There are a limited number of opponents to choose from, so you'll probably end up fighting the same 1 or 2 guys over and over again. Granted, the battles are fairly interesting, but not so interesting that I want the same opponent that may times. Mind you, this may differ from a typical freemium title in that there is more depth once you've invested tons of time or a bit of money. I dunno.
It's more like a typical CCG than a typical freemium game. The difference is that in a typical CCG your only options for acquiring new cards is to either buy or trade for them. In SE you at least have the option to work (yes, a LOT) to get new cards without spending money. The other difference is that in SE (as opposed to say MtG Online) a booster costs about $1 for 15 cards (an MtG Online booster costs like $4 for a 15 card booster) and a starter deck costs $1 for about 30 cards (MtG online starter deck costs about $10 for 60 cards). Overall, Shadow Era is a bargain compared to MtG Online and it provides ways to get new cards without spending any money if you have the time to put into it. Q
Hey Quorlan, seems you answer more questions than I do! I'll have to return the favor when your game comes out
I simply LOVE the game, Kyle. Can't tell you how much I appreciate the time and effort that has gone into Shadow Era and you've truly brought the only full-blown CCG to the platform. Happy to help players in any way I can, the more players, the more interesting the meta-game becomes. I'm a huge fan of yours and have been playing your games since the original Kyle's Quest, so it was a real honor to get to help beta test Shadow Era and it's a fantastic game to play. Like many others, at the moment there may as well not even be any other games installed on my iPhone If I can ever be of help with anything all you have to do is ask!
@Quorlan in mtgo you can win events and get free boosters, more or less good players do not need to spend a lot for mtgo. there are Set Redemptions program too.
Kyle, I still cannot play online or go through my decks etc. I don't understand why not. I've taken all advice so far. UnityWebPlayer.exe is on the desktop, I have run it dozens of times, it appears to be installing, it says installed and finished and yet everytime I go to play now, I am back on the d/l page. I use Firefox and I can't even get the durn thing to work on Safari. Re private browsing, there is no setting to turn off in 3.0.19 and I've cleared private data anyway. HELP! Am I the only one????
@amn624: Maybe your firefox is too old, the latest is 3.6.15. Try Help->Check For Updates... I'm not sure what else could be wrong, it works fine for me and thousands of other people @Quorian: Wow, Kyle's Quest... Those were the days lol. One of the first real games on the Palm Pilot back in 1998 or something @eev: I paid for mtgo, and tried really hard to play it. I mean, I had to play it to research the competition. But yet I just couldn't. It was so overwhelming and confusing that it was a huge turnoff. Definitely it's only aimed at hardcore mtg fans. I felt the same with Alteil, I just couldn't get into it or understand it enough to make me want to play. That's why I tried to design Shadow Era to be as friendly to new tcg players as I could, and that includes being really free to play and very affordable if you choose to pay. A lot of people have said that this was their first tcg and they love it, even calling it a "gateway drug" to other tcgs like magic. And others still are confused how to play, so I still have a ways to go to make it really accessible to everyone. But it's by far one of the most affordable tcgs out there, mtg and Alteil are really bad in that area and just try to gouge players...
Understood but it doesn't even work on safari 5, and that is the latest version. It's the exact same problem. Sigh. I'll try on the laptop later.
@Kyle i just wanted to correct Quorlan, because his comparison is not really fair. but of course price of packs in Shadow Era is very acceptable.
I certainly didn't mean to be unfair to MtGO. In fact, I used to play it myself but their lack of Mac support has kept me away since I made a wholesale platform switch a few years ago. However, in my experience, those events cost money to enter (in one way or another) and Set Redemptions are nice if you have the time, energy, money and patience to collect full sets of each expansion digitally, but then you are out those cards in the online game. And sure, GOOD players can win events and get free boosters and such, but what about the other 99.9% of the players who aren't "GOOD". For them (and me!) MtGO was a very expensive hobby. Shadow Era is far more accessible both financially and strategically (i.e. it's easier to learn and play than MtG).
this game is really GREAT!!! I just have an EPIC turnback, my Boris vs Nishaven!! that was just a battle to the finish!!! that was a decent play takuya ^^
Agreed Quorlan. I'd played MtG since 1997. And if anyone thinks that MtG is a very expensive hobby, thinks about people who lived in a country that is only half GDP of United States. (I live in Taiwan, GDP about USD 15,000 in 1997, and 17,500 now). The cost of one MtG booster is really a lot of money. In recent years, I quitted playing MtG. I just couldn't keep it anymore. Both time and money. I missed MtG so much. I still could dreamed of playing MtG these days. I would be a liar if I said that I like SE more than MtG, or SE is better than MtG. No, it isn't. SE isn't perfect or better, it has many drawbacks now, and I hate its combat rule so much (since I'm an MtG guy). But it has potential, and I loved it more and more. I loved SE in two ways: it's both accessible and affordable. I have not much time to go to a card shop playing MtG for hours, I'm not a student anymore. I have a very busy daily job. I use Mac too. I could set up an Windows environment for MtG online. But the Windows client of MtG online is bulky, slow, unfriendly and painful. I could easily pick up my iPad and start playing SE in 5 seconds, so grateful! But I would be lucky if I could start playing MtG online in 5 minutes. (hey, even MtG Pro Player Zvi Mowshowitz couldn't successfully set up his computer to install MtG online Windows client). I wish they could release a Mac client, I wish they could release a iPad client. But a wish is just a wish, and SE is a real thing that I could seize in my hand. I could play SE wherever I go, I could play SE on bed before sleep, I could play SE while I'm waiting in a line... I could go on and go on. I picked up my passion like fourteen years ago. The affordability of SE is just icing on the cake.
The only problem I see now is that all the time/gold invested in getting my Eledewan mage deck competitive, is out the window with the update once she gets nerfed. I'll likely have to sell the entire thing to build something new. I wonder how many will drop this deck completely once she can only attack every 4th turn, instead of third. I certainly do not win all my games with this streamlined 30 card mage deck, there are plenty of responses to it at this point. But it will be good to see some new 'blood' in the game. Maybe 'hunters' will finally make an appearance. Many of the heroes are still never seen in competitive play.
Its one more turn and not that big a deal what so ever and alot if not most will still use her with portal.
My 2c. It's crazy to nerf a card that was beta tested for months. I'm positive the next set will raise similar hackles about some new wrinkle/combo and the set after that and the set after that. I am more interested in finding an answer to Eledewan's ability with the present cards. That said, overall I still believe ALL the heroes powers are too awesome and unfortunately, they mostly make the supporting cast of characters into a jumble of also rans. Even Aeon can be killed too easily. Eledwan's ability can also be subdued by new card sets that subtly take advantages from Mages and give them elsewhere. Such as? Katoclyzm - Shadow Ally - Cost 4 - Attack 2 - HP 3 - Ability: Protection from Mages. Even Portal can be effectively subdued with new cards. I'm against nerfing unless there is incontrovertible evidence the game is broken without it.
Web play Ok, I even went to the laptop to see if I could solve this. Even d/l Firefox 3.6 and the new flash plugin. Zip. Nada. I log in and am asked to d/l the Unity player over and over and over. This is ridiculous. Wtf am I doing wrong?! PS Am NOT using private browsing. Well, apparently, I am not the only one with this problem. http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=179832085535&topic=10739 Edit again: d/l Google Chrome. Same crap. I am done. Sorry, Kyle, but I'm not a happy camper.
Yeah, I definitely see your point. I guess I'm just wondering what the payoff is, at least in terms of the 1-player experience. Is it always about choosing from a set of 5 or 6 predetermined decks to play against? Also, do the rewards for defeating them ever go up? And what's the deal with weapons? Several of the starting heroes have powers related to weapons, but I don't think I've ever seen one.
Anyone complaning about the prices for IAP in Shadow Era should take a look at how much TCGs usually cost. My last competitive Magic the Gathering deck cost me 250-300 dollars, and that's pretty cheap considering how much some other decks cost -- say, a Superfriends. On the other hand I've dropped maybe 10 bucks into Shadow Era and that already puts me at a position where I can easily make 4-5 competitive decks. I hate Eladwen with a passion, but I even made an Eladwen deck (yes, with 4 Stormcallers) just for the hell of it. In Magic, ten dollars will get you three booster packs, tops. That's 45 cards -- not even enough for ONE deck (let alone a competitive one). I for one think the model Kyle used in Shadow Era is perfect. Like it? Feel free to spend a little bit of money if you're impatient. Hate it? Delete it -- at least you didn't spend a cent to try it out. How many players so far, Kyle?
Unity is a 3D game engine. If the graphics drivers or other hardware drivers are way out of date or not installed that may cause an issue.
Since I was able to play the online version before the iPhone release, that is clearly not the problem. But thanks for the reply. Much appreciate any input.
