"Vision," huh? I see . . . (Cue dramatic music.) Oh, wait, Card Hunter doesn't have much game music. Okay, one thing I see is funding to get varied, pleasant, and unobtrusive music. But more generally, I see a strategy game which maintains strategy at the core, while keeping things fresh with additions that don't dilute it. For "additions," Halloween was a great idea: I'm happy simply to collect the re-skinned items. But if I'm collecting, then I want "collection features" like a display case, and this is just a fraction of the options possible in enhancing player inventory. Speaking of which, I see continued effort to improve quality of life for the gamers. Inventory is one thing, but we know the store/retrieve system was just a first pass anyway, and improvement is possible. (A cluster of stored builds per character? Per adventure? Something.) Getting back to the "strategy" thing, I see a reasoned expansion of game content. It took HOW LONG to get the single-player maps to their current balance? Balance, mind you, includes multiplayer. In one year, I certainly DON'T see enough time to expand levels up to 50. I also DON'T see twenty new races and classes. At least not concurrently: the idea of separate "evil" or "monster" play is interesting. But it's so rare that game design actually USES math like "hmm, I have three character slots, and three-by-three choices, what will I do?" that it would be terrible to lose it in a slog of dozens of unused "thrilling options." And I hope to see a Game Master mode. A real one. But that depends: would Blue Manchu make money off of a free GM mode that gave no player rewards? Could they make one that gave real rewards and not have a nightmare? I don't know. So there's what I think. Unless they break the game, I'll probably be here in a year to find out.
A year ?? Aint nobody got time for that. There are soo many games released every week, soo many indies to try... I don't even have the time ughh There must be something that can replace CH by then. Maybe ? No ? Ok I give up, I guess I'll here for the long haul. There probably wont be anything like this for the next 5 year. If there is, I'll probably eat my shoes or something.
This, so much this. I know Joe always wanted to make these kind of adventures (and I plan/hope to find time to make a custom campaign inspired "make your own adventure" books).
We don't have branching story tech in game yet, but it's entirely possible to use external tools to string custom scenarios together like this. The file I attached there should make a pretty decent template for building your own!
Multiplayer PVE progressing like SP did. A seperate area where you start at level 1 and have the option to quest with friends or matchmaking with strangers. Dungeon Master mode. You play the role of DM and try to outsmart Gary and the other characters from Single player. You're given control of monster groups and are tasked with killing 3 NPC's A rogue class would be awesome. Focus on debuffs (armor removal, stuns, halts, etc), and backstab mechanics.
I've been building a list since I saw you ask this question. Now, I'm not sure if you're looking for well thought out ideas or just as many crazy ideas as we can come up with that we'd like to see, but it's safe to say that mine are definitely the latter. So there Single Player More adventures, levels, items and cards. New class(es) / race(s). Alternative victory conditions beyond the VP stars. Reinforcement monsters that are introduced after the first turn (you could even have the models sat by the side of the board so you can see what's coming). Traps / events that occur when entering certain spaces or areas on a map. A survival mode (if the above were introduced). A hard mode for existing dungeons / more types of quest (e.g. monsters are tougher, more monsters, use only two characters, etc.). Ability to play as the DM vs Gary (as the heroes) in the existing adventures. Randomly generated dungeons. Branching dungeons didn't occur to me, but it's an excellent idea. Co-op, as has been mentioned, but I don't yet have a clear idea of how it would work. Multiplayer An official tournament and/or league system. Maybe there could be otherwise unobtainable character skins as prizes. The ability to create unofficial tournaments and/or leagues (or even casual games) with "house rules" - barring certain cards, only using certain maps, different time limits / VP limits, etc. Battles involving more than 2 players, FFA and/or team. Custom Scenarios Create proper module covers and chain battles together. Create your own monsters (e.g. deck customisation). A central place to upload, display, and rate custom scenarios. Other Collection page, number of items and cards obtained of the total possible, adventure stats, MP stats, etc. As Aldones said, some form of Pimp my Keep would be welcome (okay, I admit that these weren't his exact words). I want to be able to build towers on my towers, damn it. A vault to store items you want to keep but aren't using. Other miscellaneous achievements / trophies. Now You're Being Ridiculous A completely new version of Card Hunter with a sci-fi theme (well, you did ask what I'd like to see. Next time you'll know better ) And Finally... As always, good luck and best wishes for the future!
I'm more interested in new Campaign adventures than a whole new race or class. A new race and or class would be nice, but I agree with Sir Knight that the current set of three and three has a pleasant symmetry. I'm looking forward to seeing new items, particularly with new cards, though I'm sure there's still room for interesting new combinations of cards. Assuming the level cap has progressed far enough by then, I'd like to see a second level of multiplayer combat...not replacing level 18, but existing as a separate League, or what have you. I'm thinking Level 28, if possible, because it's the level with four Greater Power Tokens (according to the theoretical chart of power token progression). Since level 18 has 4 each of Minor and Major tokens, it seems like the logical next threshold.
- Tournament PvP Leagues 3v3 where each multiplayer person would control 1 character, so you could have teams of 3 players vs teams of 3 players. - Random maps/dungeons with randomly generated rewards - An actual balanced rogue class if its added. I personally hate rogues in mmos, pvp games because they tend to be inevitably imbalanced. - Loot wager battles for club members OR tournaments with treasure vouchers where the winner(s) get to select the items they want if they win. These are just a few things, I'll add more as I think of them.
Single-player: A reason to play single-player on a daily basis. This could be something as simple as picking a random dungeon each day and giving a loot bonus for clearing it, or something more advanced like others are suggesting, with some sort of randomly-generated dungeon you can do once a day (with good loot!) More Adventures! I don't think this should even be confined to working within the existing framework either - I'd like to see things like mini-campaigns, missions with different win/loss conditions and other new mechanics, basically things beyond simply raising the level cap and adding "more" (although, that's good too!) Multiplayer: Some sort of sealed-deck/draft-style tournament mode. The idea here would be to have a mode where everyone's on equal footing, regardless of how much loot they have (I'd expect this mode to have some sort of entrance fee, which could be paid with either gold or pizza). An incentive to get a high rating. The way things work now, you're incentivized to have a low rating, as it's much easier/faster to gain loot that way. This seems to me like a simply fix - have player's ratings decay over time, and at certain intervals (every week, every month, etc.) give rewards to players based on their rating (loot, gold, pizza, w/e) Custom Games Monster deck editor. The idea of making/playing custom adventures is really appealing, but without the ability to create unique monsters it feels very..."more of the same". I've already fought these monsters tons of times - why would I want to do it again on slightly different maps? Ability to chain together maps as full "Adventures", with text, adventure level, and everything else. Long-term, I think there's a lot of potential for custom adventures to serve as a sort of single-player end-game, if uploading and browsing of full adventures was built-in to the game and there was a way to earn loot from playing them that couldn't be easily abused (which is tricky, but possible).
Since you're looking at a specific date, I'd like to sell Rogues debut with next year's Halloween content.
Card Hunter is on the consoles. They've used their genius to make non-combat as much fun as their combat. Updated their adventures to include non-combat and combat. Players can tackle adventures together. Pizza Delivery Girl turns out to be Card Hunter Player/DM. Maybe she already is, I haven't played that much. I hope they didn't follow the "tried and true" path of MMOs.
There's so much I could say here that I'll try to keep it to a few most important things for me: 1) Increase the competitiveness of bash/chop/stab warrior attacks vs pure damage/step cards (from the perspective of MP) 2) Custom-scenario's giving loot - organise competitions, where people come up with a single fight (to prevent grind) or a MP map and BM tweaks (if necessary) and certifies the maps to give loot (on a daily refresh basis) while the map-makers are awarded with in-game prizes. 3) 2v2 MP and 2vE fights (feeds in to point 2)
I'm pretty sure certified Custom maps are coming pretty soon. There are some hints about it if you know where to look...
I grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons in the 80's and I have such fond memories of playing 'Against The Giants' and 'Vault of the Drow', and so on, in my early teens. CardHunter's Campaign brought back so much of the flavour of those days. I really believe that CardHunter has the utility to create the same deep and engaging adventures as D&D or Pathfinder (which I currently play). Instead of the usual 3-4 encounter adventures in the current campaign, these could be proper adventures with numerous locales and encounters associated with the same scope and depth of a D&D/ Pathfinder adventure: a real sense of story evolution, as well as varied challenges for the single player or a group of friends. I thought the calibre of writing in the cardhunter campaign was exceptional, not simply the wry humour, but the atmospheric and at times 'poetic' descriptions. The game has everything necessary to keep players coming back just like the traditional pen and paper RPG's: the potential to build deep and engaging campaigns with rich stories. Cardhunter club members could play them for free (??), or non-members could pay a fee for them? You log in, and you have the option to choose from a variety of adventures based on character level and content (and potentially many other variables). I'd also be very interested to see the kind of adventures the community might come up with. Paizo (the company behind Pathfinder) has a yearly competition called RPG Superstar, in which community members compete to create the best pathfinder adventure. It comprises all kinds of 'disciplines' within the game, such as creating a unique or wondrous item; creating a new monster; and of course coming up with a complete adventure. The winner gets the adventure published. Cardhunter could come up with something similar: a unique new card, a new game dynamic, a new adventure, etc. I have so enjoyed my pathfinder experience so far, and I could really see myself coming back for more for years to come were something like this implemented. Here's hoping.
Short term MP: A draft MP option that would give all players the same chance of getting good gear, regardless of playtime. It should contain a reward system, much like the current onw. It could have it's own ranking system. Long term MP: More viable multiplayer strategies, by having more viable skills to choose from (right now there is an imbalance, more specifically in the valuation of cards, where some really good cards are cheap and some really bad ones are expensive). This would either be done by nerfing/buffing current skill valuation, or introducing new skills. I think doing both would be the best, starting with the first.
Co-op adventuring. Some type of MP balance, whether through allowing rarer drops to fall more frequently or some type of gametype that restricts what cards you play against. A card balancer is hired to carefully look for underpowered cards to buff, and overpowered cards to nerf. These changes are then released on a regular monthly schedule. Blue Manchu has a big Christmas sale with big savings. New class. I like the Rogue/Archer/Assassin Genki mentioned above. By the end of the 12 months, upcoming MP tournaments for the next year are announced based on the success of the new improvements that have been made to MP balance. More campaigns.