FYI Necronomicon: Final Battle and Board Game The next update will give you a choice whether you want to continue playing these sections after winning the main card game, or exit and receive your high score - and in the meantime we'll be working on improvements in terms of strategy and depth.
And Slava thinks, that better to use simple confirmation dialog after base card game complete: "you want to finish and see highscores? or you want continue to expand campus and win final battle?". So in first case you will get highscores dialog directly and in second - continue as now. And in future updates these 2 parts of the game could be upgraded based on feedbacks. folks, what do you think?
It's kind of a shame, because I think the other aspects are cool in their own right - but I agree, they need more polish and better integration. The board game right now feels far too easy and almost superfluous to the card phase. One more thing - what determines when the card game is over? I finished the entire game (beat the final battle), but I didn't really understand what caused the card game to end. I got to 15k sanity points, or whatever they're called, when it ended - is that the determining factor? Anyway, I love the entire feel of the game - nice and creepy. It'll be great when it's all put together properly.
Thanks, we' working on it now. And the card game ends when you fill the bottom row with Investigators, and then draw 2 or 3 more to close the Cthulhu Doomday clock. Watch the Doomsday Clock in the lower left-hand corner of screen, it will begin to close after the bottom row of Investigators is filled up, and you draw 2 or 3 more. Then you will go to board game and final battle. But if the top row of Monsters fills up, then each additional Monster you draw will damage the Doomsday Clock until they shatter it completely - then you will lose game.
Heya dustin, I absolutly love this game and love the board game and end game parts. I do agree they need things added to build up the tension, but as it stands I would hate to see them taken out. I'd rather they be left in and just updated as you go along. Once again awsome game just what I've been wanting for a long time.
Some questions and ideas Thanks for this Ojtitus I'm really enjoying the game, but have to agree that I prefer the card game section, and would appreciate the option to cancel after that until the board game bit has been improved. I do like board games a lot and love the art of the final battle. Maybe it could be some kind of tile based game similar to hero quest or zombies, where you lay the tiles to try to reach the final battle, choosing them at random, maybe with a limited number of tiles depending on the outcome of the card game, or what investigators you have at your disposable, and what monsters you might meet all depending on the results of the card game. With a dungeon crawler feel in terms of tension. (could die any time and lose it all) I have some queries about high scores. Despite reaching the dizzy heights of 9th on OF for an hour or so... So high scores are gained by buffing your investigators with the power up cards to extend their mythos quotient value, and also buffing monsters and giving them the treasure cards to make them stronger and more valuable, then killing them? Is that the general idea or have I got it wrong? I've found that if I am lucky (?) enough to draw mostly investigators early on and not many monsters, then the card game ends with a low score. Which seems a little luck based and not too strategic to me. Anyone got any tips? I think 61k odd has been my highest so far. Also, would be cool if there was a deck viewer, so you could familiarize yourself with the cards and also indulge in some of the eye candy here! and also check out the new cards you have earned. Maybe with a full screen, swipe to change view like Photos on the idevices? Congrats to the devs by the way, there is a great game here and it looks amazing! tl;dr: Love the game. Prefer the card game, Board game ideas - could be tile based and more random? How about a deck viewer? How do I get a good score?
I think this game has a lot of potential, and the devs are really reading the thread, the reviews and listening us. They are very close, so we should start helping them with new ideas and suggestions.
for sure ; ) We are changing now the things about base card game and board game+final battle. Now it will be like that: - after "new game" you will see list of two: "Base Set" "Base Set + Extended" so you will choose - you want to play ONLY card-game and then go to highscores/degrees screen or you want to play full version: completing card game, then go to campus and final battle. Sure there will be a new leaderboard at OpenFeint "Base Set" We will make such most important updates for 1.1 version and then will provide solid improvements to board-game and final battle. Thanks for all for impressions and suggestions to improve this game. We know now what it needs to be done in the game after so much feedbacks. As well, thanks for WaningMoon for suggestions about final battle: "...Finally, we come to the Final Battle. I have one idea that I believe would make the final battle much more interesting as well as add another layer of strategy to the card game. I think that augmentation items (weapons, special items, etc.) drawn during the card game should have two statuses. One would be the normal use for the card against the monsters on the board. The second status would be for use during the Final Battle. The catch would be that a card could be used immediately on the board OR placed in a special inventory for use during the final battle. That way players would have to decide if they need the help now or risk saving an item for the final battle (that they might not make it to anyway). The weapon cards could act the same as they do in the card game by conferring bonus dice, but in the final battle they would be one use items that the player could pick when to use. Other cards could have healing properties when used in the final battle or some such..." (http://necronomicon.forum-motion.com/lovecraft-circle-f2/my-impressions-and-suggestions-to-improve-this-very-promising-game-t22.htm)
I knew I could not be the only one who does not userstand this game at all. In Slidetoplay's review they say, "Terrible in-game tutorial. The tutorial that explains all this is a hopeless mess.", and I sadly have to agree. Having never played a game of this genre, I found myself lost in the game and very overwhelmed. Even after reading through the instructions and website, I still am having a hard time with the game. Have you consider adding an interactive in-game tutorial like the one in Carcassonne?
we are working today on fixing iphone 3g running, please PM me, I'll try to help before update will be released.
I have to say, I like a developer that takes constructive criticism gracefully. Good luck on the updates Dustin. One suggestion: How about a multiplayer card-battle mode (local wifi or online)? Similar to Orions Legends? That would take this over the top. Or you could release a side-story as a separate game that's a duel. I have a few other ideas along this line, PM me if you're interested.
While there are some rough patches that have already been addressed, I think that the elements are in place for a truly wonderful game. The dev(s) are incredibly gracious and active, so I have no doubt that this will soon be a complete experience. I definitely would vote for an option on whether to play the board game/final battle rather than completely removing it from the game in an update. It certainly needs to be tweaked to be more challenging, but I still like to go through the process. Again, I appreciate the effort that has gone into this, and look forward to where it will eventually go.
Dustin, I originally thought that the number of turns you had to complete the board game had something to do with the turns displayed in the card game but that doesn't seem to be true. As it seems you have infinite turns in the board game. Was this something you changed? Because it seems it would be better connected if it worked like that and it would give a better sense of urgency in the board game and would add more strategy to the card game. Still lovin the game!
Game Impressions May I start off by saying that you guys have done a wonderful job and as a big Lovecraft fan it was an essential purchase even to see the wonderful art. The menu's are some of the best I've seen on the Iphone to date, credit were its due. As already pointed out in the forum there is one or two issues that you are addressing. I'm running the latest operating system on Iphone 4 (not Jailbroken) and had the same problem with the cards being displayed then not shrinking back down again, a reset will fix this for a little while anyway. If I would be so bold to give some suggestions: 1) The card game is by far the strong point of the game, some more scenarios or maybe even an option to only play the card game? 2) The mansion part of the game I felt was pretty weak (you did say that your expanding the game so I do understand), I was really only playing this part in the hope of seeing more art. Maybe there could be a more strategic element to the battles, or random battles such as your turn based RPGs (Final Fantasy, etc). The finding of the required book, etc didn't really have much of a challenge. Possibly the card game outcome would determine your character stats for turn based battles, allowing allot more variation in games? 3) The final battle, same as above, more strategy. This area would also benefit a turn based strategy of some sorts. Maybe references to the books, etc that you collect in the mansion? I did notice that there is 'Shop' in the menu, is this for future in app purchases or an in game shop? It would also be an incentive to open other quests/boards, maybe even other story's from other Lovecraft tales. Could be bought using gained credit as a posed to in app purchases? This is all just constructive criticism for a game that I think is truly great and I look forward to your bug fix's and further developments. However I'll hold off giving any stars on the App store until the bugs are ironed out. I will give the game top marks.
Dustin already said earlier in this thread that there is update in the works for the option to play just the card game, so when you finish the card game you will be given the option to continue playing the other two parts or to finish the game with your score.
I agree completely. I can see people's points about the board game being purely "luck-based" and not very deep, but I still really enjoy it, and would be saddened if it was taken out of the next update. Anyway, I have a couple of game play questions. These may have been covered in the "in-game" tutorial, but I learned from the tutorial on the website. Firstly, how exactly do the buff cards work for investigators? I totally get that each investigator can only have 1 weapon/buff card, but do the weapon/buff cards need to be played on the bottom row before placing an investigator? Or are they supposed to be able to be played on top of an already existing investigator? If so, I think I've definitely come across situations where I was unable to do this. On this topic, I think it would be really helpful to have some kind of icon on the investigator cards to show that they're already buffed. I know you can tell this when you get another buff card and try to place it (they won't highlight), but it would be nice to see it at a glance. Can the monsters have multiple buff cards placed on them? Again, it would be nice to see some kind of "stack", or indication of how many buffs they had placed on them. Also, during the battle phases of the card game, how exactly is the winner decided? I get that each investigator has a associated die (1d6, 1d8, etc), as does each monster. When you roll, the base die for your investigator is rolled, and added to rolls for their weapon, and then is this added to any other value (their sanity or defense?). Same question goes for the monsters. Are the values on the card added to the dice roll? It would be nice to have (maybe just as an option), a breakdown on the battle screen for exactly where the numbers are coming from. Anyway, I'm really enjoying this game. It has a couple of rough spots right now, but what game doesn't on first release? You can really see the enthusiasm in this project. From the text descriptions on the cards to the obscure references to the artwork, this definitely shines as a game made by a Lovecraft fan for Lovecraft fans.
