I have a feeling that Card Hunter (CH)) would not pass the test of time in the current form. It slowly becomes more and more boring to me. I used to play Etherlords 2 (E2), so I have some analysis and suggestions for you. If you don't know the game, you might want to watch some youtube videos to understand some principles I will talk about. But it is not necessary. Plus I do not want to make every game the same either. Etherlords 2 I suggest to put some random elements to PvP gameplay. Main question should be: How to make every game different? For every player. In E2 it was done by making a few modes of matches in PvP. So you could choose some kind of tournament, a normal fight with prepared decks of cards, but the most funny and keeping the game alive option was random mode. Random mode does not rely on gathering your cards at all. It uses all cards available in game. Here games are different as CH relies on people who try to gather all the cards while E2 gives you an option to focus on tactical battle only. Additionally in E2 we had some races and cards were race specific so choosing a race for fight made the card pool limited and easy to choose from. There also were no items with cards - just cards alone. So how to make something similar and fun but in the CH world? Analysis Current mode of PvP uses the items and teams we prepare beforehand. Each item is made of 3 cards and weapons of 6. But the problem is, that you are running the same setup over and over with very little modifications. At some point your teams will have all they need and new items become less and less attractive. Additionally you face the same opponents and builds all the time. Lets analyze a simple random mode. Random mode could work with all of common and uncommon items plus items of higher quality (rarity) you gathered. Both players would randomly choose a pool of rare items they have. And then select cards from it. There is a trap here though! Some items are much stronger than other. And some of them you need in more quantity than other. So you would benefit from *removing* unwanted items and limiting you options. This is unacceptable. How to work around this? Suggestions - Divide PvP play in some categories like: normal decks fight, tournaments, random battle and maybe more, with different card options and set of rules (peasants are an example of this) - One player should be available to queue for different types of games plus he should be able to stay in queue while both in stores and in single player. Some kind of messages, pop-ups and selection choices would need to be done to make it work. - There should be some way to prepare some generic builds. Like tank warrior, step-attack warrior, AoA warrior, nuking electric wizard, movement control wizard, wallbuilder, firestarter, priest healer, vampire, tank, buffer, etc. I will call these characters *Role Models*. - We need to attach pool of items to each Role Model (RM) somehow. This could be done by preparing a sideboard for such character. So we would have several main builds with items they could substitute from. A player should be able to make as many of these as he likes probably. This is just to speed things up. - Now the random game works like this. It decides what kind of classes and races (!) you and your opponent will play and on which map. Both players would be able to choose any Role Model matching that plus Class Trait. Pool of class traits could be some separate one or just give access to everything. - You would also be able to adjust each build and use sideboard to make it work as a team. There is a possible mode here with all items available in game but accessible pool of rare+ items is randomly limited. - A match could be played just as a one game or till 2 wins. I am not sure if it should be another PvP mode just for that. Probably because such games would take much more time. So just an option during team selection might be not enough. Sideboarding between battles would be necessary of course. Other options This is just a quick proposal how to make game more interesting and lasting longer. It would need a lot of testing and modifications but it could be a start point. You could also think about making random items made of randomly chosen cards or put some other crazy ideas into work. Or limiting level of characters. Main concept is simple - each game should be a bit of surprise and unique. Then the game will have more and more veterans instead of people who try it and leave it after a month or two.
All right, very good ideas here. I like the idea of being given a random character (EG Elf Warrior) and giving them a "Role Model" which will give them access to certain sets of cards (like lots of armor or step attacks, etc). It's a very interesting idea. Going off on what you are saying, I was thinking of being given 3 random characters in a "Sealed Format" (similar to TCG's) , where you are given a chest of 3-4 random items of the same type (EG Weapon), having to pick and equip only one (and therefore putting those 3-6 cards in your deck), and then continue opening chests until all 36 cards are in that character's deck and they are ready to go. That is the base idea, and from there the possibilities are endless.
The main challenge is to make it fast and simple. The longer you prepare before actual game, the less chance you have to play it. And it would be a pity to waste time building your party, when your rival would just hit "Resign" (when unlucky or called by mom) or time-out.
