MArcomage

Here is a new idea of mine:

-Each card in the deck editor costs a certain amount of "Gold", depending on it's strength.
-For each victory you get Gold.
-When you create a new account there should be like 150 cards for free and for the rest you have to defeat other players, to buy them into your deck or maybe into you account.

Thats the general idea and I think there are lots of ways to develop this idea into something very very good. Please comment and give constructive ideas :) ( I'd really like to explain everything I have in mind but my English is just not good enough to make myself clear :( )

Unfair. It will make the game much easier for high-rank players.

Thats right but thats just how it is. Alsmost every mulityplayergame works on this principle. Even life does. The one with the best job who does the best work has more money...
For me it would be a goal to strive for to have every card and it would motivate me to challenge other players to get more and more gold. If we say that you have to earn gold for each of your decks it would also be a very strategic and difficult decision which card to buy: "do I take 2 cheap cards... or the very expensive and good one..."
But since you are right an it would be a little unfair for newcommers I created this thread to discuss everything here and work out a few restriktions to make it easyer and more interesting for everyone :)

ps: of course everyone would start with 0 gold and no deck.

maybe we could create a "Gold-Mode". Everyone who likes this game just the way it is can play the current version, and everyone else may switch to the gold version but has to start from the beginning on.

I believe most of the games are based on precise balance and player's skills :) and (only) those of MMORPG kind are based on amount of time you have spent on grinding.

well... I think it's just the amount of time that is differend. In counter-strike for example the one with usp and knive who has just started to play is in a disadvantage against the on with cevlar+helmet,m4,desert eagle, he+flashbang etc...
But the one who hast just started to play will be on the same level after a few minutes and therefore he has to shoot enemies even though he has the disadvantage.
Same goes for diablo2, age of empires, world of warcraft.. or other browsergames like warofgalaxy or whatever...
Even if it is more difficult... we could say that the more money a player has spend into his deck the more worth is his defeat. For me this game is not about the highest number of victorys but the most fun :) and for me fighting for a better deck is fun :) it's like getting better weapons in a sidscrolling shooter :p

There has been discussion in favor of rewarding achievements in the form of additional game slots or deck slots. I agree with CF, however, in feeling that the cards themselves should be available to all in the name of balance and fairness.

I find the Gold cost idea strange. If it is implemented, there should only be 3 costs for common, uncommon, and rare cards. Of course, one might desire one card over another from the same rarity due to keyword etc, but each card of the same rarity should be equally valuable when using it at an ideal situation.
Now this doesn't sound too attractive does it?
Furthermore, it's unfair for new players because they won't know which card is more worthwhile of purchasing without ever try the card with their deck.

Here's a more random system:
1. Every player start with the exact same deck/cards, or,
2. Everyone start with a random deck of 45 random cards, in another word, everyone's starting deck is different and can not be modified until you get new cards.
3. Everyone start with more than 45 random cards, say 50 or 60 to allow minor adjustment.
Now, say every 5 victory or 10 loses or whatever works, the system will give you/player a new random card that is not in your card pool. so this way player collect cards at a fix speed.
To make things harder, the system could assign any card to you, therefore it will be harder to receive new cards later. If one is unlucky, he/she might never be able to get the card he/she wants!
This idea works like cards games on the market where you buy booster pack without knowing what card you are getting.

Pros:
battles could be interesting with lots of variety.
every card will probably be used.

Cons:
could be frustrating to get the card one wants.
some victory condition (ex: titan) will be extremely hard

I would like MArcomage to be a game where a new player can quickly gain many victories if he has the skill. I don't want "level up-ing" to be a necessary thing to do in the new ranking system (like in some MMORPGs). High ranking players should get some extras like extra deck or game slots (or guild slots), but not more cards to choose from.

I was thinking about the gold system too. Gold could be gained by winning tournaments, 2v2 matches, guild wars or contests, not by leveling. With gold you could rent some special locked cards, but only for a certain time period.
What do you think?

Even if rented, I'm not sure that giving access to powerful cards by merit is a good idea. Perhaps if they were special versions of existing cards with only small additional benefit?

Also, rather than offering them for a set amount of time, perhaps a set number of games? There's a wide gulf between the number of games different players manage over a set time period, as I'm sure we've all experienced.

If we wanted to implement a gold system, I'd suggest only making cosmetic effects available. Special borders around favorite cards that have no actual effect, member guild tabards or banners to display guild colors, extra things to display with your avatar in games and on the forum, etc. People would be able to do extra things without altering the balance of play.

I think special card, even for a short period is not exactly ideal.
How many people wants to play against someone who has overpowered cards?
(Here I'm assuming the 'special' card is more powerful, otherwise what's the point of being special?)

Unless it's 2 players who both got special card playing against each other, that would be different, it depends on how rare these special cards are awarded.

I think DPsycho's cosmetic idea is better. Gold can allow player to buy different image of wall/tower so they look prettier/eviler?

This 'gold' idea is dumb.

This is a card game, not an RPG.

To raise your gold by winning matches is a bad idea, but it would be great if you have got a fixed number of gold and you are able to make cards cheaper, to increase the percentage to get a special card or to increase the attack of a card with the gold, but I think, that are dreams of the future.

I've always thought that allowing all players access to all of the cards takes a little of the strategy out of it. I think that it would be cool if there was a pool of cards everyone had, and then maybe once a month everyone receives a few random cards they do not have. Just to spice things up a little.

I'm very much against this kind of thing. There's less point if the matches aren't equal... and restricting access to cards makes things unequal.

agree. the greatest thing in this game is that new or experienced, you have the same chances to win. but, with time, there could be a few things that the page could do to make the game more atractive to mmorpg players, like, i don't know... mmm with gold you can get more slots to play, more chances to be first to play, or with the gold buy things like useless pets :P (i don't know why but that could be funny :D buy your dragons or your own wizard, just to showit up and have something more interactive stupid things like that atracts a lot of people and are a litle funy )

I want to have a kite flying above my tower. A red one. With pretty ribbons on its tail.