First impressions thread

I've been running a party up from lvl 1 and I am really loving the 'meta' story of Gary et al. I literally laughed out loud when Melvin said he memorised both Arms Law and Claw Law. I remember many happy hours flipping through those gazillion tables to find out how badly hurt you were after that Polearm hit. Answer: A Lot, sometimes A Whole Lot!

 

Hello,

I begin this post by a short presentation. I am 22 years old. I am student. I love playing tactics games, collectible card game, role playing games. I got my beta key one week ago. Actually I played only dwarf team and I complete all the adventure from level 1 to level 7. I want to give you my impressions.

My first feeling was a deception. In fact I can't play cardhunter on linux because it requires adobe flash 11.5 at minimum and adobe choose to stop developing flash on linux at 11.2. After a reboot I began playing. The loading is very fast, it's nice. I appreciate the option for remember my login. I came to the single player or multi player selection's screen and began a nice surprise : the music. For the sound in game are very important. I love this music and the sound effects in game but why don't the map have sound ?

I like that you give me pizzas for discover shop (chest and barrel /Cuthbert's costumes). But when I open a chest I found one item with talent and I didn't understand in this moment why I can't equip this item. When you want to collect adventure's medals one challenge is to have only items with a drawback card but was is it ?

I am satisfied from tutorial, it is good for beginning. I love the dices next to the map. It's a detail, I know but I like it. I was surprised about the number of map's goal ( kill all monster, defend some times one place, prevent enemy to defend a time...) and the diversity of the enemy. Each enemy has one style with different card, and it's amazing.

I tried the multi player when I was level 6, I was a little disappointed. In fact all map have the same goal : control the square in the middle. I know that they have many strategy for that goal but for example, can we have a map wherein one team must defend one zone 6 turns and the other team prevent this, or maybe a coop with 2 character for 2 players versus one IA team... To continue with the multi player, I feel the multi player's treasure too powerful. Before I played multi player I found only one epic item and I was a treasure. And when I played multi players, I found 3 epic item and one legendary in one day ! Was it my lucky day or it is the developer wish ? I don't know. But I fell multi player chest too strong.

My future talk is about the inventory. I love the inventory's interface, it is very fine. But when you tried many strategy on your team with many items in single player and multi players, you have tons of items. It is hard to find the new item from your adventure. I think that a possibility to order items by date will be cool. Another idea is to have one safe chest in your house (keep on the hinterland). You can put items in this chest and there items can't be sell.

Despite the fact I criticize, I am not here for saying "cardhunter sucks", I love this game, it is great and amazing. I try to do suggestions for my problems. And i am sorry for my mistakes, my English is not very good.

friendly,
Platouf.

 

My first impression is that single player campaign is like some rare book which you cant release from your hands all night long, after start reading it at early evening !
Advancing is well balanced, nothing to comply so far at this point of gaming.
Interesting fact for me is that although i loved Elfes actually followed by instict start playing with dwarf warior, also dwarf wizard and dwarf priest, which combination for me becomes very effective and successfull.

 

I'm still a hopeful for a beta key, so I unfortunately don't have anything constructive to add regarding beta-like discussions.. But what I can comment on is the video and artwork so far; impressive. The video was very intriguing and I absolutely love the artwork you guys have done for this game. It's certainly a game worth paying actual money for, that's for sure.

 

Good. My first impression was good. It's a great game. I was a little surprised the maps aren't a bit more dynamic (they don't change due to dynamic events or expand fog-o-war style) but outside of that all my expectations were met or exceeded.

 

After more playing game is fantastic and i want to share some of my visions about possible improvements, which are maybe because i didnt find such an option in game interface

Something about multiplayer as possible modification. When in rarities or armory selling dont needed items, dont know exactly which of them is used by my multiplayer party. So it happens to me if i was lazy to go there and look or take a sidenote of this, loss of some items in party member slots. Actually i remember that was sold and now missed me. In shifting between campaign and multiplayer some more info of momentarily hold items
would be nice detail and relief for player like me.
2. So far i didnt see option to rename member of multiplayer party. (maybe i didnt notice that)
3. Is it possible that my campaign party can be used also in multiplayer battles ?
4. Also by mistake i bought two same aditional members of campaign party and when i want to remove one
doesnt have an option to do that. (could be also usefull hint in combining alternative members as replacement
for those in party)

Continuous improvements are visible, specially from earlier multiplayer screens. Game is much better and more exciting each time for me when i log in. Excellent work and beautiful game.

 

I have to agree with Bassetlord some indication of what your multiplayer party has equipped would be nice so you don't accidentally sell it.

 

I feel the challenge level is pretty good starting out, I don't feel cheated when I lose.
I wish there was something explaining card effects like 'sneaky' in game.
I also wish that with the attack cards that let you move and attack, that you could have the choice using the attack first and then move.

 

I got my beta invite yesterday, logged in around 10:30 and played for about 2 hours straight. Here are my impressions.

• I thought the tutorial was well done and made a mirthful snort when Melvin appeared.
• I love the art style. It looks better in play than it does in the screenshots. I am very impressed with the art direction. If this an installed game I might go looking through the assets to see if I could find the character stands so that I could print them out for my tabletop RPG nights. Please consider publishing them for print and play.
• I was disappointed that I could only choose from Warrior, Wizard and Priest adventurers. I really wanted to try playing around with a Thief or tricky class of some kind. Similarly, I would loved to have seen our short, hairy-footed friends as an option. No doubt more classes and races are on the list of possible future additions.
• Combat is great. With the exception of one fight versus a golem with tons of HP none of them dragged on longer than was fun and the issue with that fight was that my warrior died and I had to whittle down the golem with a wizard and priest. I usually find strategy battle games become rote and boring, but thanks to a constantly changing set of moves each round every turn was interesting. That is by far my favourite thing about this game.
• When I unlocked my first new portrait/costume I was disappointed to find I couldn't apply it to any of my existing adventurers (as far as I could see).
• I found that the Dungeon Master referenced pizza way too much. It felt like it was nagging me to spend cash. This may have been less annoying if it stopped after I had purchased some pizza, but it did not.
• I found that game performance declined the longer I played. By the time I hit the 2 hour mark the game was lagging and generally struggling. My computer fan was also going nuts blowing out heat. I don't normally see my fans work that hard on when I'm playing something like Guild Wars 2.
• Moving from the tutorial to the Trogs I noticed a bit of a difficulty spike, not enough for me to lose (I haven't lost yet!) but enough for me to mutter that things "just got real".
• I haven't tried the online yet and the lobby was empty when I checked it out.
• I wish that some of the fights/adventures had some win conditions other than just killing the other side. Things like survive X rounds, get across the map, get to and grab the golden idol and then escape, protect the villagers and so on. Maybe there are later in the campaign. I like the battles as they are, but variety is the spice of life and I think mixing in some alternate challenges would go a long way in making the adventure modules feel like a story.

All said, I am loving Card Hunter. I have been following the development since way back when RPS first covered Card Hunter and I feel like the game is living up to the hype that I felt when reading the blog.

 

Welcome!

We all share your wishes. Yes indeed.

They have promised us a Rogue! After playing awhile, I made some guesses for how it would look. Also, don't forget that you can "build" most any class you want by choice of items: want a Paladin instead of a Priest? Invent it!

But as to other races, I don't know. And I know that you're just speaking of "expectations instilled by gaming industry habits" when you say "no doubt more are on the way," but I deeply, truly hope they don't ruin this strategy game by adding too many. Mainly, you wanted a hobbit (or halfling) because of how fun it would feel, right? I can totally follow you.

Unfortunately, you have to figure out a default Move card, HP progression, and skill set for each new race, and have it not be redundant. It was hard enough in that thread I linked (about the Rogue) figuring out how to move item slots and not be redundant; and there I didn't have to come up with a creative variation on something as fundamental as "2, 3, or 4 Move points."

Speaking of visuals . . . don't forget those little drop-down menus for race and class. Costumes are locked to one combination.

Buying or eating? Because eating pizza is part of the meta story for the game.

A known issue: Flash leaks memory. It just does. You can flush some memory by pressing F1 repeatedly (this cycles through console windows).

Keep playing! Yes, we're also hoping for yet more variations than are currently in-game, but there are indeed variations.

Glad you're having fun!

 

I've already been playing around with that a bit, but I think I'll need to make my collection much bigger before I can get a proper Paladin going.

I completely understand where you are coming from and thought it myself when I was thumbing through the options. I guess I just assumed that since this will be a F2P title that additional races/classes/adventure modules would trickle in like we see with other games. Regardless, it seems a shame not to round out the Tolkien and D&D archetypes with a hobbit/halfling. Where would Middle-Earth be without Frodo and Sam?

Hmm. Not sure. I just recall there being a lot of stuff like, "Do you feel like pizza?" and "Why don't you order pizza?" coming up. To me it felt like the game way trying to remind me that I could buy currency and it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Perhaps I misinterpreted it.

I plan to. So far it has been overwhelmingly better than I expected and I'm looking forward to challenging some people in multiplayer this weekend.

 

Oh, I'm sure they have plans for expansion even beyond the Rogue. Have to keep gamers from getting bored, right? I just hope that they come up with meaningful content, instead of sacrificing the game on the altar of "more is better."

If you want to cast a vote for the little people, you could resurrect this elderly thread or this more recent one. Some suggestions . . . have been a little sillier than Brandybucks and Proudfoots.

 

Gary is obsessed with pizza because he's obsessed with the pizza delivery girl! We have no guarantee that the player will play every adventure and it's non linear so we had to keep repeating it in the early levels. Apologies if this comes across as an unsubtle prod to spend money! It's definitely not intended.

 

Barnstormed way to level 5 characters yesterday on single player. Had a great time all around. I love that the items can come with a mixture of good and bad cards. Also like the way additional slots appear as you level instead of overloading you at the start. It would be cool if there were some way of identifying and items level and rarity by looking at the item's icon like a number and a colored dot or something - but I can see how there is limited space and it might take away from the simplicity of the visuals.

I feel like I've had a bit of an easy time getting to level 5. I had a couple close calls at finishing an adventure and those were the most satisfying battles. I could have done with some tougher fights I think. Perhaps it was the luck of the draw.

My only pet peeve is Gary. It seems like the character is a missed opportunity. I enjoy the dialogue, but having him wear giant glasses limits the connection you make with him. He could be so much more expressive and engaging with eyes. There is something much more solid about making eye contact during interactions - even if it is with a piece of artwork in game. I couldn't image gaming with a DM that wore mirrored glasses.

 

Okay, I've played up to level 6 in a few hours over two days, so here are my random impressions and questions.

Overall, I'm really enjoying the game. The tutorial was a little simplistic (understandably so), so I wasn't sure if it was going to stay interesting, but the new bits and bobs that I've unlocked have kept it fresh.

I'd LOVE to be able to create and run my own missions, even if it's just for my friends, particularly if I could control the monsters.

I thoroughly enjoy the interactions between Gary and Melvin and would have prefer to see more about that rather than having the cliched storyline about socially inept Gary liking the pizza delivery girl.

Why doesn't Purge get rid of Rejuvenation?

The "buy time" undead mission in Defense of Woodhome is lame (I won in the same turn that the skeletons finally got to me and took an action).

It would be nice to have some more diversity in the overlay story and in the character standups at the beginning

It wasn't clear at the beginning that when Gary was talking about pizza, he wasn't talking about the in-game currency (he said something like, "hey, we should buy some pizza!" which felt a bit like a hard sell).

The items are a little overwhelming. It would be nice to be able to see everything that a specific character can equip so that you can more easily see equipment that will work well together. I'd also like to be able to save and load equipment loadouts (e.g. I could have an "Undead" save that includes lots of bashing weapons) for quick changing between levels when I'm fighting different types of enemies. I'd like to have items that I can't use displayed or sorted differently (outlined in red or put in a different part of the inventory) so that I don't accidentally sell them. It would be nice to be able to mark items for sale so that I can do that as I get them and then just sell all of those with one click at the store.

Often when I crtl-click to loot an object, it gets placed at a random spot in my inventory that's off-screen. The first time it happened, I thought I'd accidentally sold it or something.

It would be nice to be able to see how a cone effect would work in directions other than that which you're facing

I didn't expect the "no movement" effects to keep me from playing Shifty Strike, I just expected it to keep me from using the movement part of it.

I'd like to be able to cancel a card after I've "played" it but before I've chosen a target. Sometimes I play a card and then realize that the target I wanted was an extra square away.

I'd like to be able to choose not to use an attack. For example, if I use the Shifty Strike and then move so that only one of my characters is within range, it doesn't make sense to me that I have to attack them.

Sometimes I get into a situation where I'm just running around until I find the right card (ex: skeletons when I'm only getting piercing attacks). I'd love to be able to cycle my deck faster, perhaps by taking no actions and then drawing more or by discarding down to zero and drawing more. Another possibility would be to let me play without certain equipment. In some levels, I'd gladly go without the armor from a helmet in order to get attacks more often, but unequipping helmets just gives you some default cards.

It was a bit weird to get pizza to buy a treasure chest that then gave me items that I couldn't use until for 2-3 hours of play. Maybe that reward should be provided later, when it's more likely that players will be able to use the cool stuff they got.

Sometimes "Can't block" appears on the screen when I target an enemy and I still don't know why.

The difficulty seems pretty good, with the first scenario or two of a mission being pretty easy and the last being much harder or at least more interesting (with the exception of Woodhome, as I mentioned above). After the first few levels, I often have to adjust my equipment or strategy to beat an area.

I really liked the way that the servants encouraged me to reevaluate my strategies. Suddenly, there was the possibility of leaving an enemy alive. The victory locations were interesting too, but not quite as game-changing (for me, at least). The area-changing spells like acid and lava were similarly interesting.

There are some typos in some of the mission descriptions. I remember noticing them in Woodhome and the Baron's tower, but unfortunately I don't remember the specifics.

Sometimes, the game slowed down and started to use a lot of CPU, particularly when drawing and discarding cards. I noticed it particularly during the last level of Diamonds of the Kobolds after I'd killed most of the kobolds. It also seemed to happen consistenly when I went into my inventory screen.

I'm looking forward to playing more!

 

Yeah, I agree with this. It should really sort those items as well instead of putting them in a random spot (which is especially annoying with a small resolution.

Block cards don't work for attacks coming from behind. If you're hitting from behind an enemy, the game will display 'Can't block' as a little reminder.

There's a well-known memory leak problem that slows the game down eventually. The quick fix is to press F1 three times when the game starts slowing down. (Opening and closing the console flushes the memory and speeds the game up again)

 

Ugh. This is supposed to be about Gary's enthusiasm for the pizza girl, rather than our enthusiasm for your money. Changed for the next build.

 

Just received my beta key yesterday, and have been trying to play as much as possible. First impression is that the beta is already amazing. The tutorial went very smoothly, and the game play is very intuitive. The artwork really brings the game to life and adds a lot of nostalgia value. These are the stand-ups I wished we would of had when I was younger. The tiles look great and I like being able to grab the board and move it around instead of having to fool around with a floating camera. I like how different mechanics are introduced with the different monster types. I like a lot of the small touches. EX: The gold colored chests at the end of the adventure are more exciting to open than the regular chests. And although I usually cringe at the idea of micro-transactions I like the way you implemented pizza and feel that the prices are very reasonable. I'm going to have figure out how to actually use my paypal account just because of this game. I was just introduced by the tutorial to the muti-player portion of the game so I don't have much to say about that yet except that I didn't notice there was a timer because I was so busy enjoying crushing fools with the leveled-up dwarf warrior. Favorite game play moment so far was a desperate battle for both sides where the only card I had left was Misguided Heal and I wasn't sure if I could kill a mob with only 2 health left, but I tried it anyway. It was beautiful!

 

Just got into the beta on Thursday and so far I am extremely impressed. I saw the Card Hunter demo at PAX Seattle last year and was interested but had no idea it would turn out to be as deep and strategic as it is. Being an avid student of game design over the centuries, the biggest compliment I can give you is that Card Hunter has reminded me in many ways of Chess.

After about level 4 I started to realize that thinking of some of the movement cards as being akin to having a rook, king, or a queen from turn to turn was very helpful in my strategy and planning. Then I noticed myself subconsciously treating the scenario map as I would a chessboard with the columns and pillars acting as the non-existent chess pieces. Finally, I went from just rushing in with guns blazing to a more subtle approach of using pins and skewers on the opponent to restrict their movement and allow my damage dealers to maximize their damage output.

I was quite startled to see this level of depth emerging so readily. It's an impressive game design feat! I ended up playing the game all night until I realized it was 2:30am. That's what it's all about!

Now to a couple of cons. Nothing too major but definitely areas for improvement:

- After playing for 1.5-2 hours straight, gameplay became quite laggy and the card dealing animations were so sluggish that animations were barely appearing as nearly all frames were being dropped. I had to close down my browser and restart and then all was good for another hour or two. I'm a Flash game developer building Facebook games so I'm very aware of the problems with memory leaks in Flash. However this seemed pretty pronounced and is worth investigating. I'm playing on a Win7 box with 16GB RAM and an SSD so there should be no bottleneck on my end. The browser I'm using is the stable channel of Chrome.

- The difficulty curve seems unpredictable, and not in a good way. I found that at times the AI was obviously going easy on me. There have been games where it should have beat the crap out of me but it chose to not play any cards and just started passing even though it was in prime attack position and had attack cards. But then other scenarios the AI was much more aggressive and going all out with abandon. This makes formulating general strategies difficult when I felt that the AI would treat me like a monkey one scenario and then suddenly go straight for the jugular the next. I guess what I'm saying is that more distinct difficulty levels would be nice. But maybe this all evens out at the higher levels? I'm only at level 6 or 7 now.

To sum up: Awesome game guys! Love it!

Dennis

 

Yesterday I finally got my beta key. When I did all the necessary administration stuff and ran the game the very first idea was .. oh boy it looks so good. This is exactly my type of graphical design I love. Then I got into the first tutorial mission when the Sonic monstrosity attacked me. Let me be honest here .. I am a bit freak about sounds and what I heard in that tutorial mission was god damn scary loud and ugly. I tried to tame the sonic beast with all sorts of sliders in the menu but none of them seemed to work. I tried both Opera and Firefox browsers to no avail. The Sonic beast kept attacking me with that ugly ambient loop. The worst part is when the loop ends and starts again .. it was killing me so I had to skip the tutorial .. really I had to.
Since then everything got much much better. I quickly went through lvl 1 encounters and just as I started to think how easy this game was I wiped on some metalic monstrosity and had to do that one again. That was cool .. since then I feel the game is easy but still a bit challenging but not so much that it turns into frustration , if you know what I mean.

To sum it up .. if it wasn't for the tutorial Sonic beast it would been wonderful first impression ... but now it is .. just .. less wonderful but still great first impression .. ehm.