I've been playing Card Hunter for about a week, and I feel like my time with the game is either at an end or winding down. At first I thought it was because of issues with the game, but after having read some threads here, I think it's because I'm not part of the target audience. Issues to me are apparently features to others. Some quick feedback on the game, because I want to say it somewhere, dammit. Pros I love that pizza I buy in beta will be credited to me after release. Thank you for the rare sanity on that front. I dig the style, the aesthetic, and the overall game concept. By and large, my impressions of the game are quite positive. Cons The RNG is god. It giveth, and it taketh away. Personally, I think its influence over the game is too powerful, and it needs to be tamped down. I can't use my mouse wheel to scroll in the sections of the shop that have scroll bars. Annoying. You should not be forced to attack an ally if you use a move and attack card and end up next to only an ally. I call bull**** on this explanation - if I use a move and attack card and end up next to no one, I don't have to attack anyone, which means I just used an attack card without attacking anyone. It's inconsistent and frustrating. When you hover over a move card, it should show your actual, real deal guaranteed effective range. E.g., if you have encumberance 2 from Cone of Cold, that's certain, not a "on a 5+", and it should show on the preview. Otherwise, the preview is basically a lie. As a software engineer / gamer / etc. I understand the reasons for not allowing the canceling of move cards, but as a player, I don't really care. If I play a move card but no effects take place and no enemy cards are shown and no dice are rolled, I should be able to cancel that move. I find it really weird that I can go get a bunch of level 18 items in multiplayer pretty easily and then feed them to my level 5 party. Blue and yellow orbs tamp down on a straight up transfer of power, but I still get way better loot for single player by playing multiplayer than I do by playing single player. It feels imbalanced to me. But that out of the way, if anyone's actually still reading, on to the meat! I don't mind hard games, as long as the difficulty is fair, fun, and not cheap and easy. I've got a platinum trophy for Dark Souls, but I never do any of the extra content for Square Enix games anymore, because they think that making a boss with 45,000,000 HP who literally takes 6 hours to beat is a good way to implement difficulty. I also don't have a ton of time for games anymore. I used to be a hardcore gamer, but I'm in my thirties, and I usually only play games for an hour or so here and there. More time than that is a rarity. As such, I'd rather spend my limited time playing games playing something that will be, well, fun and non-repetitive for as close to 100% of the time as possible. I also avoid time sinks. I no longer play MMORPGs, because the notion of coming home from work to grind is positively unappealing. Am I in the target audience for this game? Or should I just pack up and go quietly now, knowing it's not meant for me? I won't be insulted if it's the latter, but if it's the former, then I think the game needs some adjustment. Reading some of the threads here, I think it's the latter. I don't think I should be playing Card Hunter. I'm level 8 in the game, and the breaking point for me almost came in the Trogg quests with the Crude Plate. I came in, was unequipped to handle it, failed, played another mission that gave me a related piece of loot, re-equipped, came back, and barely, barely won. It was extremely frustrating to be faced with Troggs with three crude plates and to end up with none of my cards designed to counter it. Your strategy is only as good as the RNG lets it be. Getting enough loot to best the RNG takes a ton of time. Last night I played the Geomancer missions, beat the first one, and got my ass handed to me on the second three times in a row. I know what I need to do to deal with it, but I don't have the gear. To get the gear, I need to grind old quests, an annoyance which is further exacerbated by the fact that I can only do them once a day. I don't mind grinding every now and then when it's an option and the game mechanics are fun. When it becomes required, and a standard part of progression, though, I'm out. I'll go hit up some The Last of Us or Monaco or what have you. I don't have a ton of time to sink into repetitive stuff that I'm only doing so that I can go do what I actually want to do. Is grinding a central part of the Card Hunter experience? Are those of us who don't like to grind effectively not the target audience? Should I just pack my bags now and head for the door?
my biggest cons: Flash (regarding the no scroll with mouse wheel). Even though the game looks great, the flash is garbage, it crashes and is nasty to handle. And I completely agree with Multiplayer/Singleplayer point, I think those two shouldn't share loot.
Concerning the difficulty, I've read that the devs are in fact trying to target a specific audience. How true this is, I don't know. But it seems like the devs are willing to address the difficulty issue the best they can without making the game too easy or whatever. So, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what changes, if any, are made towards that.
This part I find a little bit puzzling as I'm not at all sure what type of gear you're saying are needed to beat those missions. The geomancer levels are slow and a bit annoying but I'm fairly sure you don't need any specific types of items to beat them. There are of course some that certainly help but are they necessary? Not really. If you or someone else having trouble with those levels would care to post their current equipment list, I'd be happy to try beating the level using those items (or similar ones if I don't happen to have the exact items). The quick way is to open the console with F1, type 'partybbcode' without the quotes (copies the equipment list to clipboard), then just paste the result here. I'll be away for a couple of days though so if someone does post their item list, I'll do the test when I return.
I just beat Goblins in the Woods (L11) and I have not failed any missions or bought significant gear. (I did spend 15g on a 'revive team' of one campaign in which I realised the correct strategy after losing three times.) Generally there are different ways to beat every level, which means in turn that there is no particular gear that you need. For example, cleansing is nice for geomancers, but you can do without it - better have plenty of mobility, though, and be tactically aware. The AI may have passed for a few rounds, but it will wake up and put a hot spot under you if you've used all your cards. Do this by all means if another character has Shuffle Team etc., there's nothing like wasting the enemy's cards - but not otherwise!
If that's the case, then I either suck horribly and shouldn't be playing this game (which goes to my original post), or I got horribly unlucky and / or you got lucky, which goes back to my growing dissatisfaction with the RNG as god. When I played the second geomancer level, I failed three times in a row. I'd generally move one of my characters - since it was the only thing I could do - and then I'd get a pool of lava dumped on all of my characters. I'd be unable to move out of the lava due to lack of movement cards or difficult terrain, which means I've basically lost the fight after one turn. For those rare times when I last long enough, I usually get in range of an enemy, and then that enemy moves out of the range. Lather, rinse, repeat. My mage tends to get a few spells off and even manages to kill someone before I lose, but I never came even remotely close to winning in three attempts, after which I just quit playing the game permanently. Luc the Bull Level 8 Human Warrior Burnished Blade Old Adze Grey Rapier Jerkin Of Thorns Ricochet Buckler Crusty Helm Croc Skin Boots Untrained Command Untrained Chopping Mirabelle Level 8 Elf Wizard Unstable Staff Sorcerer's Staff Malachite Orb Burning Bangle Akon's Amulet Zapping Headband Heavy Green Robe Hidebound Boots Apprentice Footwork Electroporter Novice Crysania Level 8 Human Priest Long Axe Of Retribution Blessed Branch Glowing Hide Armor Cover Shield Mantis Boots Blessed Demon Claw Crude Healing Charm Healing Ring Untrained Command Trained Healer The more I hear the more I think I should not be bothering with the game; I'm simply not hardcore enough. I guess it's not really casual or even semi-casual friendly. It's good to know, though - I'll just move on to something else.
Thanks, I'll give it a try with those items once I return from my trip on Monday. Quick tips in case you want to try to beat the level before that: - Try to save at least one move card for everyone until all the enemies have attacked. That way even if they dump lava on you, you can still move out of it. If you don't draw any extra move cards, you can often just pass. - Unless they've fixed the AI lately, you can actually use the rocky terrain as safe spots. The AI seems to never actively target a character already standing in a previous terrain effect with a new terrain spell so if you end your turn in rocks, you'll be safe from lava. (Unless there's another character standing in normal terrain nearby, then the AI may still target both with a lava pool). - Any additional movement helps avoid lava and helps catch up with the enemies. Step attacks, team moves, Charge, Telekinesis. And of course Resistant Hide and Hover allow you to avoid the lava damage completely. None of those are a must for beating the levels but if you've happened to find equipment with those, it's a good idea to use them.
"- Try to save at least one move card for everyone until all the enemies have attacked. That way even if they dump lava on you, you can still move out of it. If you don't draw any extra move cards, you can often just pass." This is the key with geomancers as far as I can see. They may throw the odd spark - I'm not certain - but basically they can only harm you with terrain effects. So bring some healing, take your time and always keep a move card in hand (remember some armour can be used as a move - I'm always forgetting when I have those cards). If you have to pass a turn, it's no big[*]. If they have pets such as sparklers or trogs, always kill those first (unless you have nothing better to do with your cards than off a geomancer). Geomancers are helpless in melee or against magic, so you don't need much in the way of attacks except to deal with any pets. [*] It might be interesting to design a level that has geomancers and victory squares and is still winnable - but there is nothing like that in the two geomancer campaigns so far anyway!
My memory is not perfect, so I could very well be wrong, but I seem to recall having situations where I got a 4x4 (or is it 3x3?) pool of lava dumped on me, and I had characters in the middle of it with a move card. There were either enemies nearby (Troggs?) or the terrain that had been hit with lava was also difficult, which means it was impossible for me to get out of it even if I had movement cards. And really, even if you do use my setup and beat the mission, it's entirely possible that you just got lucky once and I got unlucky three times in a row, which makes it really hard to objectively gauge the difficulty of the mission. Good luck - no, wait - bad luck with your attempt though
Lava overwrites terrain difficulty, so you should always be able to get out of it. But yes, might have been enemies or impassable terrain (walls et c) making it not work out. Geomancers can be a pain in the ass, but loading some more movement in your deck for these fights would be my number one suggestion. Terrain cleansing effects help, as does hover, electroporter, dimensional traveller, slippery, any free move movement, any fly effects et c.
Out of curiosity I took the challenge. Same race and class. For items I was missing Crusty Helm, Electroporter Novice, Blessed Branch and Mantis Boots. Rather then worrying about similar items and whether my replacements were better or worse I just didn't equip items in those slots yep my cleric attacked the vile geomancers equipped with bare fists. My levels were higher since I wasn't willing to relevel to exactly 8. This gave me 2 extra hp on the fighter and 1 on the cleric and wizard. The lowest my hp dropped was 3 due 100% to a play mistake (my wizard stood in a pool of lava taking 10 damage while my priest had a party move card in hand). Results - Cleared the adventure with 0 deaths and only 1 close call due to the previously mentioned forgetting that lava is hot. The hardest level is the 2nd one due to the 6 trog scuttlers who are more dangerous then any number of geomancers. Suggestions This adventure is about rationing your move cards. I never moved unless 1) I was standing in lava 2) the geomancers had already taken their turns 3) I had multiple moves and could get back to a cave in area or 4) didn't care if I took 10 lava damage. So my initial turns were mostly me either passing or jumping out of lava behind pillars to break LoS while taking any long ranged pot shots I could. The troggs got 2 stabs in because I refused to move until the geomancers had used their action. Mid game starts once a cave in came comes down. I used it as a safe area to advance towards and eventually attack the geomancers. My later turns would generally be as follows wizard runs out of cave in uses all her attacks (geomancers place lava under her) wizard runs back to cave in and safety. Nobody has more then one move card? Hang out and have a tea party on those nice safe rocks. Have 3 move cards this turn? Run around like a chicken with your head cut off so the geomancers waste their actions on you and the rest of your party can safely wander out and attack without worrying about lava showing up. By doing this your going to get more cave ins. If your moving because you can't do anything else save the move. Every move should have a purpose ie getting you out of lava, moving closer while remaining safe (los or rocks), forcing the geomancers to waste a action, getting cave in's placed where you want them etc. Rng - This adventure is much harder if the geomancers never use cave in. LoS and not moving until the geomancers place lava under you will keep you safe for awhile but going on the offense without the safety of the rocks is much harder. As with any adventure some draws will just kill you. General Thoughts - Despite what is advertised Card Hunter is not primarily a card game but a skirmish level miniature game. Not a bad thing but a different set of skills and way of thinking.
Depends on how you look at it... Item management is necessary and can be see as Hardcore, if that falls under Casual it's pretty much ok. But it's easy to make campaign impossible by selling all your "extra" loot at some point. Avoiding multiplayer despite contants harassing by Gary will also makes things harder and much more annoying. (I caved in after 7th or 10th reminder from Gary...) But started pack items really make things easier, even if planning to skip multiplayer otherwiese.
Back home again. I can still do the test if someone wants me to but looks like Ratticus already took care of it. And his suggestions are all good.
