MArcomage

I'm curious to hear what people think about the new long mode so far. I've been playing it almost exclusively since it was rolled out, and I have to say I really, really like it. I think it's one of the best additions to the game in a long time. I like the fact that you're less vulnerable to early rushes, and the fact that it seems to reward different strategies than the regular game - in some ways, it feels like a whole new game.

Recently, I started enjoying deck-building less and less, but long mode has really made me excited about it again. I get to take old keywords and strategies and adapt them to this new mode, sometimes with really interesting results.

Anyways, what are everyone's thoughts about long mode so far? How do you think the strategy is different?

Generally, I've noticed that:
- Rares play a much larger role.
- Cards that scale, like Greed is Good, Citadel of Myr, or Duplication, become a lot more powerful (obviously).
- Controlling your opponent becomes even more important, and cards that discard, copy, or steal opponents' cards really shine.
- Certain keywords seem naturally suited to long mode (Illusion, Alliance, Mage/Legend, Undead), while others seem rather bad (Beast, Brigand, Soldier/Charge).

I've been playing Long Mode with my (unaltered) Unliving deck to great effect. Multiplying bricks production becomes very profitable when having several more Quarries is something you can count on happening before the end. The hard part is determining whether I want to build or attack since shifting strategy mid-game is a much more dire decision.

Overall, I'm really liking it. I'm finding that I want the Games list to show me which ones are Long Mode, though, so I don't click into a game, see both towers are 80+, and immediately start assessing the situation incorrectly. That, or I could train myself to look for the icon at the bottom first, but old habits die hard.

Quick addition. On our player profiles, the average game duration is listed. With standard and long modes now in place, this statistic is going to be somewhat meaningless except to hazard a guess as to how often someone has played Long Mode. Should the statistic start counting average duration for standard length and long games distinctly?

It's quite funny indeed, some decks that were weak in normal mode now work great.
Some cards that fit perfectly long mode are: gateway, architet academy, byakko, and samurai. also all the the cards that rise facilities are important.
Finally leviatan's wall reduction have some sense.
I'd like to have a way to identify long mode other than the icon, maybe having max tower and max wall written near tower and wall values
e.g.:
tower 30/100 wall 25/150 in normal mode
tower 60/200 wall 50/300 in long mode

I love this mode ... Thanks

It's true that it is revitalising for deck building and the game itself.
Overall I think that in long mode rares play a major role. The 60/50 tower/wall safety lets you build on your facilities and resources in the early turns and then it's quite easy to play every rare card. I believe the player who draws rares first, or more rares have high chances of winning long mode. Particularly rare durables are very useful in long mode.

I disagree about brigands. I believe they're best suited for long mode. :)

dimitris wrote:
I believe the player who draws rares first, or more rares have high chances of winning long mode. Particularly rare durables are very useful in long mode.

It's not really up to luck though, when you have so many common and uncommon cards that can summon rares. Also, Durable rares have very good counters in uncommon and rare banish cards.

DPsycho wrote:
Quick addition. On our player profiles, the average game duration is listed. With standard and long modes now in place, this statistic is going to be somewhat meaningless except to hazard a guess as to how often someone has played Long Mode. Should the statistic start counting average duration for standard length and long games distinctly?

Implemented in r1219.

Most of the times I get the feeling that in long mode lots of cads are imbalanced....
I think I will abandon it, despite the fact that now in normal mode mostly rush decks live. At least rush decks are balanced.

EDIT: Sorry, this was meant to go to the "First impressions of long mode" topic. [Mod (DPsycho): Fixed!]

The biggest problem with long mode right now is that while some cards (Sabotage, Avenging Angel, etc.) were balanced for long mode, some weren't that needed to be (Residence of the Gods, for example). This hasn't been enough to make me stop enjoying it though.

We could rescale long mode constants to 150% of normal mode constants instead of 200% which is used currently.

// normal mode
$game_config['normal']['init_tower'] = 30; // starting tower height
$game_config['normal']['max_tower'] = 100; // maximum tower height
$game_config['normal']['init_wall'] = 25; // starting wall height
$game_config['normal']['max_wall'] = 150; // maximum wall height
$game_config['normal']['res_victory'] = 400; // sum of all resources
$game_config['normal']['time_victory'] = 250; // maximum number of rounds

// long mode (current)
$game_config['long']['init_tower'] = 60; // starting tower height
$game_config['long']['max_tower'] = 200; // maximum tower height
$game_config['long']['init_wall'] = 50; // starting wall height
$game_config['long']['max_wall'] = 300; // maximum wall height
$game_config['long']['res_victory'] = 800; // sum of all resources
$game_config['long']['time_victory'] = 1000; // maximum number of rounds

// long mode (rescaled)
$game_config['long']['init_tower'] = 45; // starting tower height
$game_config['long']['max_tower'] = 150; // maximum tower height
$game_config['long']['init_wall'] = 37.5; // starting wall height
$game_config['long']['max_wall'] = 225; // maximum wall height
$game_config['long']['res_victory'] = 600; // sum of all resources
$game_config['long']['time_victory'] = 1000; // maximum number of rounds

Keep it doubled. Shifting it to time-and-a-half doesn't really fix anything and makes some of the math require more thought.

I like it doubled either

Long mode games are very fun, just look at this match