Beta Officially Announced as Coming Soon at PAX Prime 2012

Instead of "extra" clicking, there's always the possibility of right-clicking. They already have a system in place (just look at this video) for right-clicking on a card to give a pop-up of what it does; how about right-clicking a tile during movement to give a pop-up of facing choices?

Again, it ties into the keep things simple philosophy; but as part of that same philosophy, there comes a time when you must accommodate the complexity people WANT. Hence that dev diary mentions control-key-clicking, which is another good option. I think facing, when there's a choice at all, is important enough it should be under (optional) control.

 

Just as the auto-target system has a manual override, they could add a control to the movement for "advanced" players.

I'll assume that playing any movement requires two clicks: one to choose the card and bring up the legal moves overlay, the second to choose the destination tile. I'm not sure how they code it at the moment, but suppose each of those overlay arrows were a selectable object. Then clicking on it would complete the movement action, but you could also add an override so that Ctrl+click rotates the arrow. Then you have freedom to choose the facing at your intended destination with no extra clicking if the default is okay.

Edit: Sir Knight got in before me. Right-clicking for a selction is viable, although I think I like it better if both overrides use the same mechanism.

As a plus, it would make it more strategic to move a character "backwards" without exposing his vulnerable posterior. I'm not running away, I'm making a tactical withdrawal.

Remember that you auto-face on your own attacks as well (meaning, I presume, that melee cards can now target behind you), so you don't always have to stay in the direction that someone else puts you. This may actually increase your opportunity to change facing as opposed to drawing a purpose-built card. Although you may have to prioritize which of your characters gets to move: hopefully that's a tactical, fun decision instead of feeling helpless because you used your only move card.

 

I love this idea. Right clicking in order to bring up options if you want them, or ignoring that all together and left clicking until your heart's content. Another option would be left clicking and holding until the options pop up.

Yeah, I foolishly forgot that I could make an attack in-between my opponent's moves. That could be a detail that would get me killed! Good thinking, and I imagine it would fall under the category of fun as opposed to helplessness.

 

So I finally got to watch a gameplay video. At 24:31, you can see the player choose to keep his wizard at the same spot and the facing option comes up. This reminded me that they already have an old system hanging around in which players chose facing on every move. It's perfectly analagous to the way players chose a target before auto-target was invented. The manual override can have the same solution in both cases too, ctrl-click to play a card. Our ideas above are nice, but why perform all this click-trickery on the arrow when we can just have one override that signals, "I'm an informed player and I want the less automated choice this turn."

 

You make a very good point there, I agree with you. You have convinced at least one. I am all for not being able to choose your facing after every move.

 

I'm all for facing options not being player-controllable by default. As long as they make at least deterministic sense in that they're intuitive enough you should be able to determine what direction characters end up facing before even referring to the move overlays, that's the best of both worlds.

 

I'm very reluctant to cater to players who aren't willing to do something so simple to play optimally.

But I've never been one to let good business sense guide my decisions, so clearly we have different concerns here.

From what I can tell in the videos so far, "end move by taking longest possible straight line" is pretty close to the current method. If you have to move around an object, sidestep first and then move straight ahead.

 

You have also convinced me. I like the flanking, I like that running away would make you vulnerable, and I like the idea that you guys could introduce cards like cautious retreat. If I play it, and end up hating it, then I will become unconvinced, but for now taking a turn to... well turn, that's alright with me.

 

Eh, I suppose it's okay. Speeding up play, making movement a known quantity, and all that.

I guess I should be more worried about the auto-targeting system for attacks; in context, it's actually a little odd because it has the extra complexity. But we've already known about this feature for awhile, so I'll just have to see how it plays.

 

Yes. That is a good idea! Oh shoot. We don't habe a beta yet. Can we? Pretty please?

 

I think I much prefer the auto-facing system.

I remember something like that on Final Fantasy Tactics on game boy advance. It adds a whole layer to your strategy and adds some additional consequences to your actions.

 

I agree with Schaefer here. Reduced interface complexity plus reduced needless system mastery plus making movement matter more seems like win-win-win.

 

I thought of another reason this beta needs to happen soon soon soon: procrastination.

Procrastination is best when you have some other thing to do as a distraction. Sure, there's Minesweeper and a million stupid little games, but the best distractions are the ones that give a feeling of accomplishment: "I may not have accomplished what I was SUPPOSED to, but I got somewhere in Card Hunter today, so that was good."

I just can't procrastinate the way I want until this game is available.

 

I second this line of thinking. Come on, guys. College started over a month ago, and currently I'm forced to do homework by my lack of procrastination tools. I need you to give me a good one stat.

 

Back in my day, we had "Master of Magic" for that!

But, fear not. I am busily preparing a delicious load tester, so I can make sure that our server can handle all your exciting "procrastination."

Your job is not to fail out. If you graduate and get a good job, your support can continue to help keep great games alive! (Or you could possibly even make them, someday!)

 

Oh, but of course. The art of procrastination is a special one and those advanced enough may still maintain high GPAs with a minimum time allotment. Card Hunter will merely be a vigorous relaxation tool.

 

You're not looking hard enough.

 

Clever Roshirai. I'm looking forward to "not" and "looking." Especially looking forward to playing "not" in a few hours.

 

Oh man MoM was a great procrastination tool. Many an hour has been lost to that game. So many fun things to discover. I still love my "Super Slingers". That game runs swimmingly inside of DosBox as well.

Those are some good stuff. I am personally downloading "not" now. It should hold me over for a little while.