I just posted our PAX trailer on youtube: It features quite a bit of game footage not shown elsewhere.
Hmm . . . . . . A lot of that game footage looked familiar. In fact, it looked like what we saw in the real-live-people-playing-the-game PAX videos we saw. So since you made this video BEFORE you went to PAX . . . I guess you were serious about rigging the decks so people had similar play experiences. But the stuff that we HADN'T seen: Cave-in looks like great fun, yes. Also Volcano and the various other terrain-affecting cards. Hey, I wonder if I can make a good Terrain Jockey deck. The card selector looks even more user-friendly. I noticed the ability to click on the helmet slot to reduce the items list only to helmets. I think we'd seen cards get cut in half before, but I'm a little uncertain about what it means. E.g., All Out Attack, 1 minute in. Explanation? There appear to be orcish Mona Lisa portraits in the treasure chest. I don't think this requires any explanation at all. Your "Battle Rivals Online" section nonetheless has the text "Game Master is moving Harry the Wizard." Yay, voice actor sound effects! How many of you folks recorded yourselves screaming in pain?
Hi Jon, I'm seeing just over a dozen dungeons on the map at 0:23. I remember you mentioned elsewhere that the area shown is only a third of the total planned world. Does that mean there will be approximately 30-40 dungeons on launch? Considering the dungeons are planned to be played quickly, what's stopping people from rushing for the 'end-game' and moving on after no new content is available? After SWTOR and D3, there's a general shift in online gamers' playing behavior and loot/PVP might not be enough to entice, especially for f2p game, player to stay beyond the last boss. Do you guys have any mechanics in place to address that possibility?
That happens when the card is a "temporary" card and isn't going to be shuffled back into the deck. I think in this case Ben probably rigged the draw to get the card he wanted and so that card got cut up instead of placed into the discard pile. It does happen in regular play though, for example, when a card gets copied on attachment to multiple targets (like a Fireball that hits a big group). That would be the dSonic crew screaming.
Probably more than 30-40 adventures, though don't quote me on that. We're working right now on replay mechanics. Eventually, any content will get old though and that's what multi-player is for (and expansions, hopefully).
By multi-player do you mean PvP and co-op? I think the main reason why D&D, WoW and Eve outlasted its competitors is the social group built around the in-game communities which insulate the game from repetitive content and apply social pressure to continue playing. How you'd implement community building co-op, as opposed to competitive PvP, in a you-go-AI-goes turn based combat will be interesting to see. All the best and good luck!
Would spells like cave in only work in dungeon/cave type levels? or work everywhere regardless of the fact that there is a stone roof above you? say in an open forest instead.
interesting footage) and do this pretty shiny treasure chests tiles affect gameplay some way or they are only embalisments on battle map?
We are promised "priceless works of art" in Lord Batford's Manor.* I don't know if I could put a price on Shrek as Mona Lisa. Is it done on black velvet, too? And there's a gem and two barrels in Rudolfo's inventory in the first few seconds that don't look like equippable items either. *The link is an older version of the module cover. Edit: Oops, looks like there's a gem in the loot chest that does have an item rarity. Maybe you can use it somehow. The example for "Create Crafty Combos" (Penetrating Cut + All Out Attack + Impaler) is wicked awesome! We have good shots of the auto-facing in action. I apologize for my previous skepticism. At the end, the button on the victory popup reads "Return to L..." I wonder where L is.
I wouldn't say that's due to a "general shift in playing behavior", per se. TOR was ostensibly a single player game in a gaily-wrapped MMO box. It's fairly unsurprising that players stopped playing after completing their class storyline and hitting the level cap: they'd beaten the game, after all! Diablo 3 is a bit of a different beast. We're starting to drift dangerously into the realm of "Roshirai's personal opinion", but I feel like Diablo 3 attempted to crib the end-game of Diablo 2 (continue to get progressively better gear, perhaps use some of it to create alts, fight an overpowered bonus boss monster or two), but didn't do as good a job of itemization, meaning that the trek for better gear had a definite end point. The Auction House also had a hand in this. I suppose my point is that what happened to TOR and D3 shouldn't necessarily be taken as an indicator about how people feel in general about loot, PvP or MMO endgames. I'd say whatever happened to those games was brought on by themselves. At any rate, I'm not immediately concerned about Card Hunter having a PvE content problem. If beta shows that people are absolutely plowing through the static PvE content, there's a bunch of stuff you could do to create repeatable PvE content: random dungeons, player-created dungeons, Challenge Modes (beat content X under Y restrictions), PvE competitions (who can beat Greenfang the fastest/most efficiently in the next 48 hours?), and so on. Some of this stuff could also be packaged as expansions or whatever, meaning that Blue Manchu could both spend the time to make it AND still feed Farbs!
I agree, the inventory management and item equipping looks slick! My only complaint about the video is that it isn't nearly long enough.
After the above discussion, I've been thinking about trends and patterns in how one entices customers and keeps them playing. I'm not getting anywhere. Thus, as is traditional for people who don't know what they're talking about, I'll say a whole lot. I have never bought a game for the "amazing multiplayer capabilities." Thus, when people told me "multiplayer is THE FUTUUUUUUUURE!!" I haven't gone nuts about it; I've just learned the lesson and moved on. That is: singleplayer is one type of experience, and multiplayer is a different type, and some people will pay money for the privilege of beating each other up online for years and years. Got it, next topic. Later, people told me how player-made mods are the new thing. I have never bought a game for the "amazing modding capabilities," but hordes of other people buy stuff not for the content but for the capacity to mod. So, "mods are THE FUTUUUUUUUURE!!" perhaps? My beloved Thief series will only be remembered because of the mods? Well, there ARE mods, but that's not why it still shows up on "top games" lists. Lesson learned: modding is another type of experience, and some people will pay money for it. Moving on. On many, many occasions, games have attempted to create player-run in-game systems such as government. I love the concept itself, but I have never gotten in one that succeeded. Care to guess the lesson I learned here? In this thread, there was the idea that players are moving away from grind-based loot gathering. You know, I didn't see the appeal of that in Diablo 2, let alone 3. Marching through an entire Act of Diablo 2 so you can smash one loot piñata at the end? That is the exact opposite of "gaming", and I have never participated in that in my life. But apparently other people do! I am learning so much! In conclusion, I suppose, my point is this: all of these ideas are old news. All of them are worth considering when developing a product, as there are players interested in ALL forms of play. And if you're going to say that there is some grand shift in the gaming world, you need to explain it in more detail in order to prompt helpful response and/or change, as all of these individual factors already exist and are already being considered by smart developers.
Video looks great. I am wiping the drool off of my keyboard already. As an old school D&D'er from the 70's and 80's I love the module look you guys gave to your adventure selection page! I want to play now. TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY!!!
