First impressions thread

I wiped my account and restarted with nothing but 50 pizza and the clothes on my back, to make things as fair as possible. Now I have to play more SP to build up my collection!

By the way: my battle against SurgeonFish was epic. It was one of those "I've lost this for sure... no, wait, now I think I'll win... oh, never mind, this is hopeless... aha! I have a chance again!" battles. When he busted out an attack card from his Epic staff, my eyes nearly bugged out of my head; I had forgotten that card was in the current MP-environment mix. Surgeon, do you remember if you got that as "normal" loot, or as a Quest reward?

 

He told me he got it from a spend-gold-to-open treasure chest.

Apparently, those chests are good. I've only been able to afford one so far, and I did get an item I could use, but no Epic items yet.

 

I was around for Alpha, but am back after a several-month absence. Two quick UI notes:
* I clicked past something Gary said in a tutorial a bit prematurely -- and now have no way to access that information.
* In the screen for setting out on an adventure, there is a big green checkmark that draws the eye and looks like it might be an interactive button. At least for the early stages of the game, it does nothing, and you need to click on the much less obvious red button at the bottom of the screen. Red generally means something bad, so it seems a poor choice for general-purpose button-color.

 

Ooh, that's my vote. On that subject, the little sideways arrows next to the start button could use revision. Currently:

When you first go to an adventure, you see a cover description and a "Begin adventure!" button with a "Left" arrow next to it. "Left," despite context here AND in your browser itself, is not a "Go back" button: it's instead a "Scroll down (and a little left) to look at your characters" button. Then, once you do that, the "Left" button goes away and you get a "Right" button. "Right," despite context, is not a "Return to the cover description" button: it's instead a "Scroll slightly to the right to look at your inventory (which you'd expect to be able to reach by click-dragging as usual, but somehow can't)" button.

I would describe this as problematic.

 

I have to agree so far that the difficulty ramps up really quick. The end fights for Ruby Demon Portal and Highway Robbery kicked my behind last night. (I played until 5am and I've got work today!) The game is very addictive.

Also while I'm getting a decent amount of loot, it feels like I have to sell practically everything to afford anything in the shop(I've seen items I sold for 1 gold retail for 25 gold, and even an item I sold for 5 gold to retail for 100 gold).

The AI sometimes feels truly brilliant, faking you out in the passing mindgame and stuff... other times it feels truly moronic(like the enemy that hits my full health fighter when he's in combat with both my fighter, and my nearly dead wizard, that the attack would have finished off).

EDIT: And battle 3 in the prison is the worst I've seen in damage so far. They got one man down for me guaranteed by round 2, sometimes round 1. 10 damage backstab cards? Ouch!

 

I had a amazing time so far with this game giving me all kinds of amazing nostalgia trips. The difficulty really ramps up fast and kicks my butt but most of the times it seams fair and makes me change my strategy or thinking and difficulty like that is amazingly fun in a love hate sort of way. That said i got stuck early when my party was lvl 2 2 1 and there was no way for me to beat any of the modules except one and that was a lvl 3 not a lvl 2 module which seams hard to figure out. The level 2 module with the armored range stabbers is probably harder then all the lvl3 and some of the level 4 modules which is really confusing.

 

I suppose there's something else to add. Since "level requirements" aren't really the mechanic, and "talent requirements" are, getting that first talent was quite a moment. Among other reasons, the very fact that I had purchases a starter pack for multiplayer (which included items with talent requirements) made this single-player event exciting: I'd seen these items, I'd wanted to use them more, but I had to wait.

Then, I took my first step toward freedom . . .

 

Thanks for letting me in.

I started this morning, so far made it through the intro Kobold levels and next couple Trog levels. Here's my first impressions, untainted by foruming so apologies if I repeat some issues:

First, I gotta say I really do like it. I always thought that I would from back in August 2011, but first impressions sometimes are wrong. For Card Hunter, they held up well. Play is smooth. I encountered few bugs in my outing so far, none of them even close to serious (most if not all are probably reported already. I'll check the bug forum momentarily.)

I laughed out loud at some of the dialogue, notably Gary's second welcome line ". . . forever."

A special accolade goes to the the defeat screen with a die-tossing Grim Reaper. It's a true game triumph that I can chuckle even when losing the same battle umpteen times in a row.

I had a grammar frown when Gary said "playing your cards right" at the first tutorial battle. Right is not an adverb. I know that spoken English cheats on this point, and I do it myself, but I winced seeing it in text. Gary might have encouraged me to play well, or skillfully, or with skill.

I think the shop/inventory screens need work with friendliness in mind. They do the job, but even in my very modest collection I wish things would neatly sort instead of piling up randomly. On a related note, I also wanted better visual distinction between card-giving items and "treasure" items -- I kept trying to check the treasures for cards -- and perhaps when viewing shop inventory a list with "all items" that excludes the treasures I just cashed in.

Though when I reached the point where Axes and Things had more than one item to sell, I spent a lot of time staring at that screen to decide what I both could afford and most wanted. Interesting decisions.

I find the battles to be tough and challenging; progression and maneuvering are quite varied even when replaying with the exact same decks (because I can't afford anything else yet). The Trogs are very-super-annoying with not staying in my young party's melee range yet able to stab me. I should probably experience more of the game before condemning any one mission, but I'm certain the only reason I'm here reporting instead of still fighting is that after many tries the minions finally stood and attacked twice in a row instead of seeking a safer positon. Is it anyone else's experience that the Warrior seems to never draw enough moves to chase down an enemy? Even so, it's a wry pleasure watching the AI play to its decks' strengths.

Those are the major points of my experience. Overall, positive with a few rough edges, as good and in some respects better than I would hope for in a beta game.

P.S. Checking my notes: I have a line: "While I'm thinking about it - no Terms of Service?"

 

Gary should say 'Use cards wisely"

One thing i dislike about the shop screen is selling things, its sometimes hard to dig through your inventory to find the stuff you just got but dont want. I think you should be able to sell items immediately as you find them.

 

I might be wrong, but I would assume "playing your cards right" is a reference to Brucey's 'Play Your Cards Right' TV show from the past, a little inside joke for those who are aware. Either way, it'd give me a chuckle rather than a frown, accident or not.

 

Well, at least Merriam-Webster disagrees:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/right
--clip--
3right

adverb
Definition of RIGHT

1
: according to right <live right>
2
: in the exact location, position, or moment : precisely <right at his fingertips> <quit right then and there>
3
: in a suitable, proper, or desired manner <knew he wasn't doing it right>
--clip--

 

Clearly, I am in error.

All I have is the weak defense that it didn't feel right (adverb). That was my impression, so I gave it.
(Not all words work well together: "feel right," "do right," yes; but "play right" grates on me.)

 

Hi! New Beta Tester here and first, thanks for invite me
I've played 4-5 hours this night, so this is my VERY first impression

The game looks rlly good and funny, and too much addicting Is good seeing a new game that not implement the same old gameplay. I'm not a fanatic of turn-based game, normally i prefer the real-time gameplay, but with this game i can't stop playing "Ok, i've lost that damn adventures!But i can try another time and i'll win!" "Ouch!I lost again!Damn!Another time!!" and so on

The character r very good , the skill/item system is well balanced and formed,and the fights r hard, but when u win the stisfaction is double. Is not an easy game, and i like this ! The idea of a table game on my monitor is awesome and the graphics is rlly light and good.

Now stop with the good impression and let start with the bad
First, i've not some VERY BAD impressions, only some "I think is better if.."

- "Need more HELP" I've found some problems to understand the square types at start. I've not understand properly how the different terrain modify my movement and my spell. Is not incomprensible, but a little more description meanwhile we r in the fights i think can help me. (Like mouseover on a wall, or a hard terrain, ecc ecc)

- The AI is fair? This is my big question. I know, the game is hard (and i like that) , and i've not understand proprly all the mechanics, so i'm very noobish..but too much times i've the feeling that the AI is not so fair ..maybe is a my "noobish" problem, but i think that is better if the enemy actions r more "clean" (or only teach better the enormous number of actions in this game)

This for now
I repeat, the game looks very good and is very,very funny,also to a "noob" of turn-based gameplay like me..so gg and go on with your awesome works

IGN: Lunotto

 

My first impressions:

Gameplay - Excellent core game design paired with an easy to use UI.
Sound - Quality event/background noises. Better than any other browser-based game I've played.
Difficulty - Tutorial levels are as easy as intended. Difficulty increases once you reach the Trogs.
Entertainment Value - High. For a casual game Card Hunter held my attention for a long time.
Frills - Game Master Gary dialogue is great. Flavor text on cards is a nice touch.

Criticisms:

Character recruitment system needs more work. Some thoughts on how to improve it:

• Make hiring additional characters beyond the 3 initial ones, cost gold (possibly increasing the cost the more you recruit).

• Implement a max character limit but make it upgradable via gold investment at the player's Keep.

 

It's available: use right click (or spacebar on Mac, I believe) to get pop-up information on a tile.

 

I've saw the tooltips, but for example : I'm near a Difficult Tile , the tooltip tell that End move on entry, but if u use a Walk card, i (or the enemy) can move without problem in the farest clean tile. The move is ended on the first tile only if there r 2 Difficult Tile in a row. Maybe i do something wrong, but i think i need some better (Better or more clear) explanation from the game for learn all the rules at start

 

What you are seeing is that the game calculates all possible routes, then politely just shows you the endpoints.

So, suppose the difficult terrain is in the middle of a big open field: you could go diagonally around the difficult terrain. Nothing to stop you! And thus the game tells you that you can "move without problem."

But suppose the difficult terrain is in a narrow corridor: you cannot go around it, so movement stops there. The game will not show any valid endpoints beyond it.