First impressions thread

Hello - thank you developers for releasing this beta! I've been looking forward to this game since the trailer came out and it's really good. My main PCs are lvl 9 now, and I have a bunch of other PCs under that. I really enjoy the deck building mechanic and the way that you have to make strategic decisions about equipping items by limiting talents/power tokens. I'm mainly interested in single player, but I've dipped into multiplayer for the chests - though I tend to switch back to single player after one or three wins as the good chests get less frequent after that.

The major annoyance in my user experience has to have been the Compass of Xorr - I just failed that mission over and over a bunch of times. But I'm glad, now, that it was so difficult because I had gotten into some habits - I just had my human warrior, human priest, elf wizard party and I didn't change their equipment around that much - and beating that mission required me to learn how to be a better player. I realized that keeping my fighter based around penetrating attacks couldn't work for that mission - but I didn't have any decent weapons with chops or bashes - and my elf wizard was getting slaughtered at Big Zap range. So I took a new party of PCs through the campaign (dwarf wizard and fighter this time), and experimented with other party compositions in multiplayer (human fighter, human priest, dwarf fighter) and eventually bet Compass of Xorr with chop and bash weapons and a more resilient dwarvern wizard.

I bought the treasure-hunts and a multiplayer team - I may buy a couple of the custom figures. The Club membership is looking too expensive though - I've gone without it so far but I feel a little bit more annoyed each time I see a good item appear in the bonus club chest. I don't mind much about missing out on uncommons or even rares, as these are readily available through re-doing missions and multiplayer chests. What does annoy me though is that when you get the epic item from a treasure hunt, you're missing out on a guaranteed epic club item too, and even if I was to join the club I wouldn't get those guaranteed epic club items from doing the treasure hunts over again. So I have mixed feelings about joining the club because if I never join, I haven't lost anything by not joining sooner, but if I do join then I'll be kicking myself for not joining sooner. As it is I'll probably join the club for a month at launch (if everything resets) and try to race through all the treasure hunts in that time.

Also, how rare are legendary items meant to be? I haven't found one yet and I keep doing the Slub-Gut quest hoping for that 5% chance to come up! I hope that's the real chance of getting that item - I'll be annoyed if it's just flavour text.

 

I’m level 6. So far I haven’t failed to beat an adventure, though I have had the following failures (roughly, from memory):

• Defense of Woodhome (first fight)
• Slub Gut’s Sanctum (second fight and third fight)
• Lair of the Trog Wizard (second fight)

Regarding The Wizard’s Workshop: I didn’t read the module description at the bottom of the screen and went in equipped to fight wizards. The armored golems surprised me -- fair enough! But then I couldn’t figure out how to change my gear mid-adventure, other than dying. I distinctly remember trying to rearrange armor-piercing equipment in during the looting screen and somehow failing. Then I had to fight a boss golem with 2-4 Armor 4 cards on any given turn. I eventually beat it, but it was an unfun slog at that point. Since the point of this dungeon is to more or less require anti-armor cards, I wonder if it shouldn’t be tougher to knock out people who don’t have them sooner.


The following things weren’t clear to me (either because they’re not mentioned or I just missed something):

• You can change your equipped gear during looting.
• You can right-click terrain squares to see their type.
• You can Move to your current square to change your facing to any direction.

Things I like:

• The overall art style -- both the faux cardboard pieces and the old-school D&D module vibe.
• The way the tutorial levels trickle in new concepts.
• The challenge!
• The fun!

Things that irk me:

• I can’t voluntarily discard down to 1 or 0 cards at the end of a turn.
• At least at very early levels, Treasure items seem to sell for just as much as equipment, yet do nothing. I’d rather never get Treasure!

 

The discard works like this on purpose. There are handicap cards (such as Arcane Feedback) which can only be gotten rid of by discarding. If you could always discard down to 0 at the end of the turn, those cards would be a bit pointless.

IIRC, treasure items have twice the sell value of a normal item of the same rarity.
The real 'point' of treasure is that while it's often a good idea to keep many of the normal items you find (so you can switch gear to fight new kinds of enemies etc), you never have to think twice about selling treasure.

 

First impression: nicely done, everyone--you've put together a great game that succeeds both on its own merits and on triggering the nostalgia of the genre. I thought of a couple of things I thought should be added, but from a quick scan of the forums, it seems you're already on top of them: namely, more of feeling of continuity between levels, addition of a thief class, etc. Most of all, I think the game needs more of an aspect of exploration, that is: more complex boards, hidden areas (fog of war, I guess), traps, something to do other than just killing the enemy. Good work, so far!

 

I like the meta, laid-back attitude of this game, the referential humor, and the art, for the most part, (professional artist here) though the skeumorphic snacks on the intro page seem a bit crowded or off-putting to me. I've been playing it very heavily for the last couple days.

 

First impression - ffffffffff how am I going to study now?

Second impressions - the helpful hints disappear much too fast after starting a mission and waiting for it to load, because the load time is insignificant (right now at least). Also, it is not intuitive when exhausted quests become available again. Even checking the help page (Menu -> Help) did not have this information. I had to check the forums.

 

First impressions:

- Fun!
- Somewhat surprised there is no card collection aspect to the game, I know you can collect equipment that contains the cards.

Questions:
- If I remove or replace a character, do I lose an existing character? If not, how characters can you have?

Suggestion:
- A re-equip screen in-between campaign battles after you take the loot, you can do this now, after you open the chest but, before you take the loot.
- Show the number of battles in the mouse over for each location on the Campaign Map (some times you don't have time for more than 1 or 2 battles).
- Some sort of achievements, show number of battles won/lost.
- Fog of War, can't seen enemies or how many until you are within range, I think this would help the AI and add some surprise.

Wish list:
- Would like to see a rouge/thief class characters & hidden/locked/trapped areas on maps, what's behind that locked door, prize or surprise.

 

You can have many characters (I have at least a dozen and haven't found a limit yet), and you don't lose an existing character if you remove him from the party. In fact if you actually want to delete him, you'll find that you can't, there is no option for that at the moment.

Please note that if you remove a character from the party, he keeps his gear. It thus might be a good idea to unequip all his gear to have the equipment available for the new characters.

 

The devs have mentioned at some point they've been saving cards for a rogue type character so it will almost certainly be coming sooner or later.
This is somewhat confirmed by the fact that you can't find for example Pickpocket, Steal or Cowardly Attack on any of the current items.

 

I just got into the beta last night, and I've been playing it quite a bit since. I've got a party of level 5's so far. I am absolutely loving it. I haven't had a chance to try Multiplayer yet, but if the singleplayer is any indication it should be a fun ride.

So, far the game has been quite challenging. I think the blending between TCG and Tactics-based D&D is such a weird concept, but it's done perfectly. As has been said before, I think that the looting process should be a little more involved or fun, because it does make a large portion of the game, although I'm not sure how this could be done. Perhaps an item trading system for players like a real TCG? Furthermore I'd love to see more customisation for the PC's and the Party. Like being able to distribute stat points for heroes on level up, or something similar. And definitely more Races/Classes, I feel 3 of each is a little too small and doesn't leave too much room for customisation. Personally, I'd love to see some RPG staples like Rogues and Druids.

Of course, I realise that this is a beta and that everything is subject to change and by release some of this may be addressed. I'd like to note that, these suggestions are not put fourth in a negative tone. I'm thoroughly impressed with the game so far and I'm loving it. One of the smoothest running betas I've played in a while. Keep up the good work.

 

So far im having fun playing the tutorial was fun didnt tell me that i can play a quest again after reset once a day. When the game was starting to get too easy it starts getting challenging and fun and i hope it will only get harder later on

What i didnt like so far:
- the one thing that i didn`t like so far was the limitation on debuffs/buffs/trait only 3... it would be nice if the buffs had 3 and debuffs had 3 so ppl couldn`t remove debuffs with buffs and the other way around
- i didn`t like the multiplayer so far the 20 win to get epic on average 20min a fight would take around 7hrs if u win every fight more if not... the AI battles with Gary where way to easy compared to when it started to put me up against players with 200-300 higher rating than me thats when i had to change the equipment on the adventure starter to even have some hope of wining

What i would like to see in the future:
- it would be nice if the multiplayer would get rewards something like ticket and a new shop to exchange them for something,
- i dont know how the rating system works so far been playing just 2nd day but it would be nice for it to work like everyone starts with 1000 rating and evry time they win they get 20-30 and if they lose they lose 10-17 rating and reset it weekly and put some rewards for the top 1-3 and for top 10% or 1-50 or maybe some rewards for getting some fixed rating, i know for this to work there should be more players it may work after the beta
- an achivement system would be nice to see too
- few more classes like a thief and archer
- and a way to get slices of pizza like one a day or something

 

This beta is amazing. I only hope the final release is even greater! It took me back to my old D&D days and all the innuendo hinting at the older D&D books is great! The monetary system is innovative, Pizza, so F'ing awesome! The level up system is cool to look forward to your next level. The monsters as well as the graphics are the feel old D&D first edition. I can tell you are all old school gamers, when gamers referred to table top gaming. I plan on playing the beta all the way to the final release and reporting all bug and any ideas that may help you guy to make this the best Card Hunter you can release to the public. Keep up the great work and I'm a fan for life. If you guys need mods for the forums or code testing I'll do it for free! Also I will keep proprietary info confidential and will sign all the necessary paper work! USE ME!!!!!!!

 

Awesome game and having a lot of fun with it. Plenty of strategy, cursing at the screen, and the "one more try" syndrome.

 

What strikes you first when you play the game?
First, there's music, at least in the title screen, and that's good. (Not so good that you never hear music after that.)
Sound effects are wonky and fun.
Graphics are outstanding - fantastic art and great job representing the cards and miniatures in-game. Very sleek!

What's your overall impression?
So far (my party is only level 5) it's awesome. I haven't had this much fun playing a TCG (is this a TCG?) since I started playing Magic in 4th edition, which I have long since abandoned looking for something new and better. The crossover into the turn-based tactics realm is very seamless and its done so well it can easily please fans of either genre. The 80s D&D theme and dialogue is very enjoyable and the level of detail and love and care put into crafting the game is very obvious. Great job, guys.

What do you find confusing?
Seems like the issues I've had are the same that other people have had. Things like: Why can't you cancel move commands? Why is there no countdown timer on expired missions, and why do they only reset once per day with no opportunity to refresh them with pizza? Is it ever going to be possible to create our own campaigns, story and all, or is the open level editor just an afterthought?
As far as game mechanics go, they're quite well explained and straightforward enough without being overly complex and gratuitously confusing (the way modern MTG tends to be). The only thing I would change is make it clearer that Trait cards can be completely negative without having a positive side to them. I found myself staring at some of the trait cards for a long time wondering what the heck they actually *do*.

What needs more work?
Expanding the campaign, possibly, certainly allowing for additional scenario maps down the line, and permitting grinding in some way/shape/form (such as refreshing missions with pizza as mentioned above). The free-to-play "model" tends to have this kind of daily lock-out, but you must institute a workaround or its just simply bad design.
Also, this may just be an issue in beta with a small number of players, but there should be some kind of handicap option in multiplayer so that beginners and pros alike can play together without fear - possibly an option to reduce the starting HP of both teams.
Finally, add in more classes! Races are balanced pretty tightly and there isn't much room for more, but you could ALWAYS benefit from more classes. I'd certainly buy them.

What's do you find appealing about the game?
Pretty much everything! I love the aesthetic, I love the gameplay -- I just want more!

 

I have only completed the initial adventure, with the green dragon. So far I am impressed with the game, and plan to continue playing it, the combination of DnD, cards and the grid are exciting. I am still getting familiar with the rules, but nothing too complex so far. I need to explore around with the options more, and a few more adventures before I offer an suggestions, but wanna say thanks for the invite, and i look forward to being a productive member of the Beta team. So far the only thing that appeared confusing to me is the triggers for a few of the attacks. I understood why they triggered, but having the attack that triggers them side by side with the trigger rather than behind it would make it more clear. I like to read everything! Off on another adventure now, keep it up!

 

My very first impression about the beta e-mail was actually "wow I thought that project faded away a year ago" because I stopped checking for news as there werent any for a long time... glad you are still kicking!

From playing up to lvl7 (highest adventure was the first of the Troglodyte ones) with my initial party I have to say I really enjoy the game. Its a great blend of CCG and tabletop RPG. Artwork is good and fits the theme.

I am only interested in PVE play (solo or coop) so I have a bit of a concern about the long term depth of the game. But even if that turns into a real problem the ride is sure to be fun. Its one of those games where you play "one more adventure" and suddenly its 6 hours later. That's a good start for any game, I hope you build great things upon such a solid foundation.

Edit 1:If I would have one (well, two) request it would be at last a thief class for the "basic 4" and coop multiplayer.

Edit 2: I didnt fail any adventure but I had close calls and full wipes where I had to do a second (one time even a third) attempt in several adventures: Having no prior knowledge that or even a complete failure here and there is to be expected, and I welcome the moderate difficulty. I did replay the Slub-Gut (?) and the prison rescue adventure once each and they felt easier on the second run because I had a level or item more by then. I hope the difficulty stays because at least the PVE side has to be challenging or it becomes meaningless. I write that here because many games these days have a tendency to make things easier to attract more players, and it usually turns out to be a mistake.

 

SO I finally got my Beta access after months of wait and I've been playing pretty much constantly...well as often as possible, I do have other things I want to do in life and have to tear myself away.
So anyway, here's my first impressions:
Pros:
- Tons of fun!
- Challenging! Without being OMFG all the time!
- Very nice that I can play an adventure in 30 minutes and get tangible loots!
- I really like the card system very much, it can be occasionally challenging when I come up with nothing but move and block cards when you really need some combat cards. But then again getting double stacked Spark-Booster and Deadly Zap is hella fun....until it gets block by...a sword...really?...lol

Cons:
- Stupidly addictive,I've lost serious chunks of time when I first started playing...8)
- The High-powered demo is nice, but there's a few things that require more explanation as to how some of the weirder cards work, although that's usually something that can be worked out in time. I don't have any specific examples at the moment other than what is the Keep on the Moors for? Can we stash higher-level characters and gear there? I'd say no on the gear and from what I've been told it's just a place to organize loot.
- Not enough classes! Where's the Rouge? How can it be a D&D group without a rouge?or Barbarian, or Monk?...hoping these will be for expansions.
- Not enough races! I want to play a Half-Troll Were-Dragon!...sorry was channeling a munchkin I knew...8)

Wishes:
- More Classes and Races, assuming those will come in expansions?
- More Races...same on expansions?
- A button on item list(s) to organize by class/race, save time on organizing...

That's it for now!

 

Mostly enjoying it.

I am only at level 10 at the moment and finding the difficulty so far to be fairly good. I've had to retry a few maps but haven't found anything yet I can not cope with.

Don't like that it keeps showing the extra item that I could get if I was in the card hunter club. Not interested in joining. I have already purchased some pizza (for treasure hunts and costumes.)

I seem to be getting too many disconnects. It is really annoying when you have nearly completed a map and you disconnect and lose all progress.My internet connection seems OK.
Good thing I am not interested in multiplayer as people would think I was quitting.

 

First impressions:
Loved the presentation (game master, module 'book' covers etc). It really works perfectly for me. I especially liked the GM way to do tutorials 'The Party leaves for the Caves'. Immersion style tutorial, very nice.
I've played the first couple battles, which are admittedly rather easy.
The interface felt easy to work with. I did have trouble to actually select targets for spells, and often ended up with some kind of auto-pick. Maybe this was due to only having one valid target. I might have missed visual cues.

The very first selection of spell cards was not too impressive. I will have to play on for a bit, to see for myself if the card selection introduces more mechanics later.

All in all, very good first impression.

 

First impression - Didn't expect a web based game to take up all my gaming session in one night.

The GM interaction was a nice touch, the dialog boxes could use a bit of a touch up on screens where you are starting a new quest (Sometimes it made it look like you should be waiting for something more from the dialog, but nothing came.)

Game mechanics overall seemed pretty well thought out, I feel it is a little slow with the pacing to start with, but that will probably pick up with more playing.