Have to agree, was having a blast but have hit a brick wall and can't seem to find the motivation to log on and retry the 2 dungeons I have repeatably failed on.
Okay, I'll bite. Would you care to explain more? Because, well, this game isn't necessarily for the casual gamers. We've been discussing for much of the game's development how it calls back to older games: not just in terms of the visuals (which are a blatant callback), but in terms of the difficulty. It's supposed to be hard . . . BUT PLAYABLE. Thus people come by, post about trouble they're having, get advice, and then usually beat that trouble. Here are some threads where you'll see a million such conversations: http://www.cardhunter.com/forum/threads/first-impressions-thread.333 http://www.cardhunter.com/forum/threads/lets-talk-about-game-difficulty.1249 http://www.cardhunter.com/forum/thr...ture-its-unfair-its-impossible-et-cetera.2171 So! Would you care to explain more? We can probably help. Do note that the difficulty is being tweaked. It's been dropped considerably already. If there's a legitimate problem with a level, and it isn't "playable," the developers just might change it.
Why? It's not a game for what many people consider 'casual' players. That's pretty much been established.
Because however many times we repeat ourselves, the newest new folks will not "remember" what we told the last new folks. Then, New Person A might honestly believe that "casual gaming" is the only gaming worthwhile and will be turned off no matter what; but New Person B might actually understand game difficulty and just need a little encouragement to make a contribution to the community. And as a general rule, both A and B might feel better if greeted politely.
I'd be interested to know at what point in the campaign people are so stuck that it's "impossible" to proceed. Personally i played up to the lvl.15 modules and only failed a couple of adventures, due to poor tactics or gear setups but never from lack of options.
Up until the temple (and dragon, so about lvl 18) i felt that i was able to change each defeat into a victory with a few changes and retries. which is quite a perfect balance as i like to be challenged as long as it is possible to proceed. @OP: I also suggest that you state your issues en detail, there are probably a lot of finer details that could help you.
I felt this way too after days of attempting Against the Cockroaches. The last battle bordered on impossibly difficult for me no matter what I did. I wonder if it would still feel that way now that I have beat it once. Other than that one instance, though, I haven't felt any encounters were arbitrarily difficult and I'm up to the level 14 encounters. Usually the correct mix of cards and strategies solved how to beat a module within a couple of tries and there have only been a handful of modules that I have entirely exhausted my retries and had to start completely over. It may be arguing semantics, but I disagree that this game is not for the casual gamer. The short nature of the encounters, the daily refresh of the modules, and the almost-required grinding to get items all lend themselves to short bursts of play common to casual games. The game is even written in Javascript so you can play in your browser while working on other things. I think, instead, the game is not for people who are accustomed (or desire) a lower difficulty curve. Many of the later encounters have you completely outnumbered by opponent with attacks that are as good as or better than anything you can produce. This means that if you go in with guns blazing, you will usually lose a character or two before you make a significant dent in the opposition. And in this game, if you lose a character in anything other than a strategic sacrifice, you are usually defeated. The game requires strategic play and encourages experimentation because your "best" items will not work for every encounter and you will often have to go through an encounter twice because you had completely the wrong build the first time. So fiendishly difficult, but hopefully not fun-killingly impossible. As has been said, if you are having difficulty ask around or look on YouTube for a video.
I think he may be a sock-puppet but I don't really think he's trolling - there are folks who honestly feel it's too hard, and don't get why many of us actually like a game that demands you to come up with a working strat for each scenario.
Hmm, that's an interesting point. Though I do believe it is about semantics, however important: we agree that "the game is not for people who are accustomed (or desire) a lower difficulty curve." The ease-of-play features you mentioned are all there to make a particular sort of game: one where people can enter it easily, and also experience the different parts of play (combat vs. deckbuilding) easily. Just not WIN easily.
The client side of the game is written in Flash, the back-end server is written in Java, javascript is a different thing altogether. While it is made to run on browser, I disagree that I can be the kind of game you can play while working on other things. The game are made to be fast paced (compared to other TBS) and card effect fly by quickly (unless you change option to pause all) that you really need to pay attention. The AI instantly respond and turn change quickly. Versus other people, you really have to think about positioning, range every turn etc... To sum up, I wouldn't agree that it is casual in that sense. About the topic of frustration, the most frustrating part of the game mainly come from the luck of the draw (and in a lesser degree, block and amour). Sometimes a battle can be over if you draw the wrong card and get surrounded in turn 1. The game is also not casual in a sense that it didn't follow a straight up progression. Some low level can be incredibly difficult and downright impossible compared to a high lvl module if you did not have the proper card (or know how to build proper deck) to counter it. I agree that this part should see some improvement since players might face a brick wall too early in the campaign. Also, making a mistake in a move can easily kill one of your character, ending the match quickly, an example of unforgiving punishment, which is not typical of a casual game. The only casual characteristic of the game I can think of is the short duration of a match. But overall the campaign isn't really that hardcore until you reach quest. Counter card to most campaign module are easily available in shops. The quests allow you to play the campaign map again with increased restriction, with some requires the stars to align to have a shot at winning (1 HP challenge).
Thank you for the correction. I'm not sure why I was thinking that the game was written in Javascript. You can play this game while working on other things. I do it quite often. Maybe it won't work in multiplayer, but in singleplayer the computer doesn't care if you take twenty minutes between moves. I think you have very clearly pointed out my definition of "casual game." Casual game means low time investment and low technology requirement (i.e. you don't need a high spec system to play). Casual game means one you can play casually (def: occurring at infrequent intervals; unpremeditated). It does not mean easy. Easy game means mindless game (e.g. Farmville). Granted, most easy games found on the internet are also casual games. The only reason I'm harping on the distinction is that I suspect most new players writing "This game is no fun" and "This game is too hard" threads here on the forum are using your definition of casual game (Casual = easy), which is dangerous because Cardhunter has all the trappings of a casual game (browser-based, ease of mechanics, casual time requirement) while being very difficult. And that last bit doesn't coincide with their expectations. So if people coming to play Cardhunter can learn from us on the forums that while Cardhunter looks like (and is) a casual game, it is not an easy game, I think we might have fewer threads just complaining about the difficulty and more threads contributing towards smoothing out the rough spots in the difficulty curve. (But maybe I am too hopeful.)
