MArcomage

Free multiplayer on-line fantasy card game

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Mojko on 18:43, 7. Sep, 2010
dindon on 19:03, 7. Sep, 2010
Really liking the balance changes. A few points:

- Some of the wording is a bit confusing. Cleansing was hard to get my head around, but I eventually understood it. I don't understand the new Ambush at all though. And in the new Harvest Fairy card, I don't understand what 'spot' means in that context.
- To some degree, I would caution against balancing cards based on the statistics section alone. Yeah White Shrine was being used a fair bit, but is that because it's overpowered, or because lots of people like to take School of Restoration, which makes that card more widely accessible than other rares? Same with Prosperity. I don't think White Shrine, Baron's Keep, Prosperity, or Princess of Elves needed nerfing (and Lookout Tower is questionable...).
- Changes to Moat, Priest, and Cleansing are awesome. I wonder if Cleansing is powerful enough though. It would be great for a keyword like Nature, Burning or Beast, where there are cards affected by the number of that keyword in the game, but for Holy it doesn't seem that hot..
Fithz Hood on 19:19, 7. Sep, 2010
Dindon have anticipated me, I have the same perplessity on mentioned card's text and on the nerf of the rare restoration cards.
The rest is ok for me.
I'm almost at level 36 and I was looking for a new idea for a deck to fill the slot I'll get.
Now I know what to do: nature/undead.
I wanted to propose a dozen of concept tomorrow, but it's too late for this update i suppose.
dimitris on 19:25, 7. Sep, 2010
I think Deathwood Necromancer should be maxed as are other common stock boosting cards.
Other than that I find quite interesting the new cards, although I think Colossus of Cran to be quite overpowered with a possible +8 quarry.

For the rebalances I don't have to say something at the moment. I wait to play them and see how it goes. I only wonder if Prosperity will be playable anymore.
Mojko on 19:28, 7. Sep, 2010
"Spot" means that you have to have mentioned card in hand. So in case of Harvest fairy you need to have at least one Wheat farm already in hand before playing the Harvest fairy.

Ambush now has the ability to move itself in your hand. If you play it with a selected position that is different from the Ambush's current position, it will relocate to selected position. If the selected position is the same as Ambush's current position and it is not New, it will discard the matching card.

In short it's a common focus discard card, but to actually target a card in opponent's hand you have to play it the first time to move ambush to matching position, then wait 1 turn to lose the New flag and then play it again to finally discard the matching card.

Balancing is not based only on statistics, but on games themselves (via replays).

@Fithz Hood: I don't expect the update to be so soon, so feel free to suggest more cards for this update if you wish.
Lord Ornlu on 19:55, 7. Sep, 2010
Prosperity should at least give a fair amount of +stock. 6 is so little. It can potentially give 12, but maybe we could increase the standard stock increase and decrease the conditional one?

Ofcourse it's been used widely (I know at least 5 players who use it in all their decks) but now it'll end being replaced by Princess of Elves. Perhaps remove the Restoration keyword if you think it overpowered and restore the "If not New" but other than that it was a good card


Also on a side-note, an idea that occurred to me just now thinking of Prosperity. Maybe we could create a new condition to make things interesting. Cards that their concepts rely on ambush (such as Ambush) could be added the condition "If not Revealed". That would make things very interesting in hidden mode games and could also be used in cards such as old Prosperity to further balance them. I understand this might be a bit tricky though for non-hidden modes, but we could allow the condition to be replaced with "If not New" in non-hidden mode games, or we could disregard it completely.
dindon on 20:41, 7. Sep, 2010
Now that I understand how the new Ambush works, I almost think it's worse than the old version. Either:

a) You get lucky and the card you want to discard is already opposite where Ambush is drawn. Now you pay 8 recruits to discard it instead of 4.

b) The card you want to discard isn't opposite ambush, so you have to pay 8 recruits, wait another turn, then pay another 8 recruits. Oh, and let's hope your opponent hasn't played it in the mean time...
DPsycho on 02:38, 8. Sep, 2010
I would alter Ambush text to "...targeting self, then discard..."

Then again, I agree with Dindon's reasoning that the card is really pretty awful in its proposed form. Is it balanced for the assumption that it will only be used against Rare cards the opponent is building resources to afford?
jbryant3 on 02:56, 8. Sep, 2010
Another option for Ambush: "If not new, discard matching enemy card and pay additional stock based on discarded card rarity."

I also agree that White shrine didn't need nerfing. For a rare it's a pitiful card (facility increasing just isn't that useful).
DPsycho on 03:07, 8. Sep, 2010
I like the Castle beyond looking glass change. Same overall effect with the cost change reflected in the diminished stock gain, but now slightly easier to play.
Mojko on 07:49, 8. Sep, 2010
I would propose a different approach regarding Ambush. How about you get back few recruits in the case that you are just moving the Ambush and not discarding?

So for example let's lower the cost to 6R. If you play it to move to a different position in your hand, you get 2R back. Isn't this a little cheap? I mean compare it to the cost of Intrigue (6/6/6) which is uncommon. On the other hand, it does take 3 turns to discard a card...
Mojko on 14:19, 8. Sep, 2010
Since Fithz Hood and other players as well were so kind to provide so many nice new concepts, I can't just ignore it. So, I will be delaying the update in favor of new cards. I'll be reposting the preview as soon as I have the cards implemented.
Mojko on 19:37, 8. Sep, 2010
jbryant3 on 19:38, 8. Sep, 2010
Shouldn't Thug and Desert traveler have the Brigand keyword?
Fithz Hood on 19:48, 8. Sep, 2010
true, I've forgot to put the keyword in my concepts too.
and desert traveler should reduce enemy resources and give them to you (I've corrected the code I suggested), or do you think it's too powerful that way?
Mojko on 22:05, 8. Sep, 2010
I'm aware that they don't have the Brigand keyword, since they don't steal resources. I think desert traveler would be too powerful if he had resource steal.
jbryant3 on 22:12, 8. Sep, 2010
I think it should have the Brigand keyword, so we could either reduce the amount of resources stolen (4?), have him just destroy resources, or take 4 from each player.
dindon on 22:26, 8. Sep, 2010
I'm not crazy about uncharted lands. It's a lot like Ancient Ruins in terms of effect and power, and Ancient Ruins doesn't get much play (and is pretty boring). Or, for another comparison, it's not that much better than Magic Spring (though Magic Spring is one of those cards I'm afraid to talk about too much, for fear that people will realize how amazing it is...).

I quite like Eternal Dream though.
jbryant3 on 22:30, 8. Sep, 2010
dindon has a solid point. I totally agree. Maybe the gain should be raised...
DPsycho on 23:27, 8. Sep, 2010
Now that we know what "Spot" means on Harvest fairy, might we revise the text on some of the existing cards that currently read "If there is a XYZ card in hand..." to use the word spot as well? It would be a good way of shortening text all around, and seeing the term on multiple cards will make it stand out less (while being easier to remember what it means).

Not right this moment, of course, but maybe for the next update or soon after. Heck, I could compile a list myself. Been a while since I performed that comprehensive spelling/grammar check.