Loot & Legends: First Big Departure from "Card Hunter" Design

I think a lot of the changes are good. There are a few weird ones, but I'd suspect it will be a much more strategic and interesting game with cards that have complex interactions. Would love to test it out, but they are only deploying to iOS tablets at the moment which I don't plan on getting any time soon.

 

Interesting, but for me it seems the opposite. Less strategic and interesting game b/c of all the reductions and restrictions on race/class combinations. why do you think restricting players and limiting the options to one of each class is a good change? reading that blog has not convinced me of anything, except they want to be appealing to the masses. every player will have the same cookie-cutter stereotype race/class combinations. If i want to play 3 dwarf priests then I can't because it would be too 'confusing and complex' for the average, casual player. And that seems to be the key. They want to appeal to more causal players so they dumbed it down. Or that it would be too much work to make the levels 'fun' if people wanted to play combinations that were outside of the pigeonholed stereotype build the devs forced upon you. The fun for me was trying different combinations during subsequent playthroughs. I like options and flexibility, not less. Finally, another change they made was (as per their v0.5.3 patch notes) players won't get any xp by replaying previous levels. After that I lost interest. Sure you didn't get much after you were too high a level, but at least you got something for your efforts.

 

Outside of race / class restrictions -- which have only been solidified for single player (not multiplayer as far as I'm aware) -- the game has a lot more complexities and synergies between cards. I don't see how you can claim that it is dumbed down save for the forced race / class combinations.

 

maybe i think of it differently. say for example i want 3 dwarf priests in my group. i can equip them however i want. but with these changes, i am limited to 1 priest (not even a dwarf) and 1 of 3 archtypes. so for me that is a lot of reduction.

 

That is only confirmed for single player. I haven't heard that it is forced for multiplayer as well.

 

I hope we will be able to play it for at least next 3 years.

Where did you find patch notes for Loot&Legends? Are they visible only for beta's participants?

 

For all their reasons why they are making these changes, I can't see them giving people more choice in multiplayer. But who knows. I mainly just play single player, so that wouldn't help my situation
Maybe a compromise would be after beating the game you are allowed more race/class options like in original CH... but I'm thinking that probably wouldn't happen either. They really seem determined to limit you to 3 characters and 3 specific class/race combos.
But it makes me wonder, what happens if they ever release another class? since they pigeonholed the first 3 classes to specific races where or how would, a thief class for example, fit into that? I wonder if they would have to make a new race to fit that class.

Nope, I believe anyone can view it. I saw it in their forum http://forums.dropforge.com/forums/announcements/ They also have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/dropforgegames I'm not a beta tester, but was able to make an account on their forum. I asked about beta testing for android devices, they said keep an eye out on their fb page for when they ask for testers.

 

I'm guessing Hobbitses, by whatever name. I remember D&D when Elf was a class, rather than just a race. The change was a definite improvement. I don't think fixed race/class combos would be good for L&L either.

 

I'm kinda dubious myself, but the fact they're changing things around for very specific design reasons makes me want to wait and see.

I think it's too soon to tell if all the departures from the original formula are gonna be for the better or the worse. L&L it's gonna be very different from CH indeed, so I think it's not very fair to bash on the devs for putting their own twist on things, rather than straight out copy-catting.

Give the guys a chance!

 

Yeah, Halflings are the generalized term for Hobbits (which are LotR specific). I remember talking about introducing a Halfling class when then leaked rogue class files were around. Was saying they could have life between human and dwarf, with Scuttle as their racial (Free Move 2) and their racial traits would be about dice manipulation / mitigating luck / other trick stuff. It would work with the system and I'm sure they could do something similar in L&L if they wanted to keep race + class combos forced.

I do think that's the weakest choice they've made so far design wise. I can see forcing different race / class in the group somewhat to keep diversity, but I hope it isn't that way for multiplayer as well.

 

If anything they should add MORE classes. I get pretty bored with just the Wizard/Warrior/Cleric split. If I were in charge of this game, there would be upwards of 6-8 classes and 6-8 races available to add more depth and replayability.

 

You like opening chests and seeing items that no one in your party can use?

 

well to be fair I already open a lot of chests and see items that I either already have multiples of and have no use for, or have no interest in using

 

I've been pretty enthused about the art direction and class subtypes L&L has offered. It's distinct enough that I might actually have reason to play it in addition to CH.

Of course, on the flip side, who actually owns a tablet?
Not a single person I personally know, anyway :X

Accessing the game is certain to be more of a challenge for many people than appreciating its unique features is.

I never really got why tablet games aren't offered in an emulated form on PC (be it through an actual emulator or a specialized interface).

But then, I guess that would prevent all those awkward tablet to PC special edition rerelease ports we keep getting. :X

Edit:
Looks like there's a functional emulator now:
http://www.andyroid.net/

 

yep, there are some android emulators out there, but theres always a performance hit with emulators though.

 

since cardhunter is coming to steam I wonder if this means that L&L will be strictly mobile devices only? Sometimes you'll see a mobile game migrate to pc after some time, but I can't imagine that happening now.

 

Pretty sure that DropForge only has the rights for the game system on mobile. Although considering how game systems can't really be copyrighted (only patented) I'm sure they *could* (if they really, really wanted to) come out with a non-mobile version as long as they used a different theme / art from what they currently use. Doubt that is in their plans at all since it seems they are focusing solely on mobile development. They just announced another project they are working on too and are looking for iPad beta testers.