[OBSOLETE] welcome early testers

The next Card Hunter expansion, working title Mitternacht, is a multiplayer-facing set of cards and items meant to drastically expand players' options, adding and bolstering archetypes here and there while also creating more counterplay to some existing strategies (like Blesscano & Burfft). The general theme here is that the creatures of the night are besieging Cardhuntrian civilization.

http://test.cardhunter.com
The test server is in maintenance, but you should all be able to log into your test server accounts.

Use the console cheats to clear your inventory, then use everyitem a few times to rebuild a collection. The deckbuilder set filter should allow you to select all the new items. Let me know if not. If you want to do a search for items, a good bet to get a lot of them is "silver."

And again, note that we have no art for the new content yet, so all the new items are gray discs and none of the new cards have any illustrations. I understand this might be annoying, but I've selected you as playtesters because I believe you can look past this (and you know how to check the battle log if you get confused about what just happened).

I'm going to give you an overview of the content & new mechanics, and then talk about what I'm looking for at this stage of playtesting. PLEASE read this before giving feedback!

There are about 35 new cards, and 250 new items!

New Mechanic: Transformations, "Form" cards
• Each class gets a transformation: warriors have a trait that turns them into werewolves, wizards into spirits, and priests into - you guessed it - vampires.
• The way these Form cards work is they're traits that replace your normal deck draws with random card creation from a set list of cards appropriate to the form. So warriors who are in werewolf form will draw Massive Jaws and Monstrous Hide and other fun toys instead of their normal cards.
• Each form also has a passive boost: warriors get armor, wizards get immunity to untargeted effects, priests get regeneration. These effects are printed on the cards.
• Ultimately, these traits will also transform your character's figure. But since we don't have any art, this isn't implemented yet. Just pretend
• Some cards care about Form cards, like Flaring Torch. There are THREE Form cards: Lycanthropic, Ethereal, and Vampiric. Some cards care about Werewolf, Spirit, or Vampire cards. These are the cards used by the forms. There are about 11 of each.
(Each class also got a 2nd new trait meant to kickstart some new archetypes. They should be fairly straightforward.)

New Mechanic: Silver Damage
• There's a new damage type in town, representing attacks optimized for the eradication of the creatures of the night.
• Elves are good at silver damage, regardless of class.
• Some cards care about silver damage, like Monstrous Hide and Creature of the Night. Let me know if there's any confusion about this but basically this should work exactly like other damage types.

What we're looking for:
At this point we basically want a sanity check on the new content before proceeding with getting our art in order. If you hate the theme, that's cool to know, but we are sticking with it—the sanity check should be on mechanics. Is something totally broken? Is there a stupid interaction? Is something basically just unfun?

We don't need statistically significant playtest data on which archetype(s) are going to be dominant. We're going to do a broader playtest with way more people to figure out environment-level issues, hopefully after we get all our art. The point of this stage of the playtest is to get a sense of which card(s)/item(s) we need to take back to the drawing board, if any. (Preferably none!)

 

Mel and I played a few games earlier, caught some possible bugs:

Prowl is not Free Move.

Fey Silversmith doesn't affect Inquisition Bolt?

Spoiler

Bees fires a silver bolt at MelHuWar3
Fey Silversmith added 2 damage.
MelHuWar3 revealed Monstrous Hide
MelHuWar3 revealed Howl
MelHuWar3 revealed Flight Aura
MelHuWar3 revealed Sundering Strike
Flight Aura failed!
MelHuWar3 took 15 Silver damage. (should've been 17 damage)

and

Bees fires a silver bolt at MelHumPriest
Fey Silversmith added 2 damage.
Toughened Hide Strips reduced damage to MelHumPriest by 2.
MelHumPriest took 1 Silver damage. (should've been 3 damage)

Ancient Grudge looks at target's discard for bonus damage?

Spoiler

MelElWiz1 goes searching for movement cards
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Force Bolt.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Path of Knives.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Sorcerous Bolt.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Path of Knives.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Silver Bolt.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Ancient Grudge.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Path of Knives.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Spark Generator.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Gusts of War.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Flash Flood.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Stone Spikes.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Flash Flood.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Ancient Grudge.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Long Spark.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Ancient Grudge.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Lava Pool.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Medium's Garb.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Lava Pool.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Reliable Mail.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 discarded Telekinesis.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
MelElWiz1 drew a card.
...
MelElWiz1 exacts ancient vengeance upon Cirliasmae! (23 cards in MelElWiz1's discard, 1 card in Cirliasmae's discard)
Cirliasmae took 2 Arcane damage.

Cirliasmae exacts ancient vengeance upon MelElWiz1! (1 card in Cirliasmae's discard, 24 cards in MelElWiz1's discard)
MelElWiz1 took 17 Arcane damage.
MelElWiz1 died.

Inquisitor's Strike - 2 damage per attachment, not 3?

Spoiler

MelHuWar3 punishes Prism Black!
Prism Black took 14 Silver damage. (8 damage base, Prism Black had 3 attachments - should've been 17 damage) (2 of the attachments were boosts, 1 was a handicap)

Another Inquisitor's Strike onto target with 3 attachments again did 14. This time, target had 1 boost and 2 handicaps. Looks like it's only +2 damage per attachment.

 

Looks like the spirit card draws from Medium's Garb don't count towards the draw limit?

 

Ah, probably because they are created instead of drawn? I think that's probably fine, but I'm sure Jon can change that later if we need to nerf it in that exact way.

 

Any updates? I still have a team I want to test more, but I'm curious about when the first round of bug fixing is going to happen, so we can get back to testing the un-bugged versions of the new cards. Also, anything in particular you want tested at the moment?

 

Jon should be working on the bugs I couldn't squash right now, though it might be a bit delayed since he's going to throw together a birthday event for CH next week.

We're starting to get some of our first art.

Nothing specific I want tested at this point. I think we're going to get the bugs worked out, ask you all to double check to be sure everything is WAI, then, hopefully with all our art in hand, open the playtest to the public and try to rack up a statistically significant number of playtest games.

 

Sweet, thanks for the update!

 

Some more updates.

1. All our art is done, and up on the test server
2. I think we're also done with audio but I'm not completely sure. Either way most of it is in if not all of it.
3. All known bugs have been fixed.
4. Hex of Dissolution, Spark of Undeath, and Ancient Grudge have all received nerfs (mostly on the minor side). We don't want to make more balance changes until we have more playtest feedback.
5. There is now a Castle Mitternacht chest shop, both in PvP lobby & on campaign map (beat both Gladiatorial Arenas modules to unlock it).
6. No prompts yet.
7. We have not yet done our final proofreading.
8. This includes item short names - some items may change during playtesting.
9. We've updated CARD short names, though. I think some of you may have complained about them and I think they're much better.
10. FORM CARDS CHANGE YOUR FIGURE!!!!!!!!!!

Also, we're revealing the rest of the set/story this week in daily blog posts, and opening the test server to the public at the end of that. I hope you'll all have some time to participate

A note on playtest prizes.

I would like to give every early playtester 160 pizza - enough for a foil figure.

Additionally, during the open playtest, all playtesters (yourselves included) will be able to earn epic Castle Mitternacht chests for your efforts. I'll be revealing the details of that when I open the test server.

Please let me know if any of you have questions or concerns, and feel free to check out the sweet new FULLY ILLUSTRATED set on the test server!

 

Haunted Mail's item art seems to be missing / broken.

I really like the new treasures! However, I'd like change some treasure levels, so they're a bit easier to acquire from campaign loot chests:

• Currently basic set has two lvl 13 and lvl 17 legendary treasures already.
• Currently basic set has three lvl 5 rare treasures (same as Silk Pajamas)
• Currently basic set has three lvl 9 common treasures (same as Blighted Ingots)

Unless there are some specific campaign adventures planned for those treasures, might I suggest following changes:

• Portrait of Countess Jovana to lvl 16 and Count Yurik's Goblet to lvl 3
• I think / feel that silk > satin, so I'd change the names of Silk and Satin Pajamas, so Silk Pajamas (epic) and Satin Pajamas (rare). I like that the epic treasure is purple and rare is blue.
  • Epic Silk Pajamas (purple) to lvl 7
  • Rare Satin Pajamas (blue) to lvl 6
• Blighted Ingots to lvl 8

If these OCD suggestion only frustate you, I hope you at least consider switching the names of Silk / Satin Pajamas.

 

Thanks for the catch!

 

Only have internet on my crappy phone at the moment - really looking forward to checking these out ASAP!

 

Alright, Haunted Mail icon is fixed on test, and I also snuck in a wording clarification on the Form cards: A "Form" keyword that explains that the Form replaces any previous Form and swaps your figure.

 

Also, everyone, a couple things I'd love to see tested before the public playtest opens so we can fix them if they're embarrassingly broken (as in, nonfunctional):

1. Attaching Forms to large monsters (i.e. with Walpurgis Night)
2. Attaching Forms to characters using effects like Genetic Engineering/Gene Therapy
3. Attaching Forms to characters with a Form already attached, using effects like Genetic Engineering/Gene Therapy
4. What happens when Shifting Block procs for a character who already has a Form attached?

Thanks!

 

Ran a bit of High Mountain Pass with these things in mind. My findings:

Walpurgis Night worked every time (about five instances). Large figures change to form figures but keep the large base.
Shifting Block changed my Vampire form warrior into a Spirit when it triggered (one instance).

A couple of random notes:

A Spirit Form goblin cast Curse of Fragility on it's own teammate.
Acid Hex still seems to be doing 1-1 damage. It did eight damage to an ogre with eight acid tiles on the board.
Walpurgis gets VERY confusing on a map full of goblins!

 

It base damage is 4 so that's 8/2 + 4 = WAI

Wellll you can't fix stupid

Makes sense

Thanks for testing all this!

 

I've redesigned Spark of Undeath to attach a new Form - Zombie Form - to target. Still attaches Blind Rage and still draws 2 cards, but it's a bit less good. Still flexible & interesting to use I believe. Shifting Block and Walpurgis Night can both attach Zombie Form, as can radiation since it's got worse draws on average than a normal deck of cards and is thus a hybrid Handicap.

This change is live on the test server.

We're going to try to get a fix in for the interactions between Form cards & specific card draws (e.g. Elven Maneuvers) asap.