[SUGGESTION]- Card balancing, accounts, maps and potentially more

Ok, so you guys said you wanted feedback so here is what I've got for what I've played so far. First off my party is level 7 and I just finished Defense of Woodhome to give you an understanding of where I'm at so far.

1) I'll start out with something that frustrated me that is also not related to the gameplay, but to the accounts themselves. Just before I came on here to post I tried to log in, but I kept putting in my email and my password and it wasn't working. So I went through and put in a couple of other passwords that I tend to rotate through. Seriously spent 10 minutes confused because it told me that it "could not find the user." Now I've been playing the game did the confirmation etc and so I'm like... "Uh, what?" Anyways, to get to my point. You guys should make it much more obvious that your account that you play with is not tied to the account that you use to post on the forums. That being said you guys should really just combine the two because it was a bit of a pain for me at least.

2) In terms of some of the cards. I either don't see why I'd use them, think some of the monsters have OP cards or get a ton of movement cards when you don't need 3 dashes and 1 run in your hand. For instance bad medicine, I really don't understand it at all... I take 2 points of damage only to heal 2 points of damage??? What? or do I use it on a monster, but that only seems useful if they die before they heal.

OP cards. Now I haven't come across too many, but there are a few. Crude Plates is one that makes me want to throw my computer all the way across the room. It requires a 3+ rolls to succeed and then it has an armor of 4 and the target moves back 1? That's ridiculous... Especially when fighting against units with spears that have a range of 2. Another is the... bone card that skeletons have (I don't remember the name, sorry) as well as the ooze's Amorphous Body. I understand them from a "realistic" stand point, but at the same time for game play it's just annoying. I'd honestly be happy if I only got to do 1 point of damage. I think what I don't like about it is that you don't get to choose the cards in your hand. So I may get a ton of bashing cards even when I have chopping cards in my deck and there is nothing I can do. So you can spend multiple rounds not doing damage with that character.

Now in terms of the cards that come up. I seriously get so many movement cards it's annoying. Maybe it's just bad luck, but when my wizard sits there for 2-3 rounds only getting to do 1 or 2 attacks in those rounds it's annoying and it really affects the game. Which is fine if it happens sometimes. I think a way to fix this from happening or at least making it so that you don't get killed because you couldn't even attack would be to make it so people always get a single attack, much in the same way you are guaranteed a movement card.

3) I really like the art of the maps and I think they are really nice an pretty, but... There's no strategy to them in my opinion. Every map I play on there is a set way to effectively defend it. I feel playing some of these maps that I don't have much of a choice in how I decide to complete it and when that happens I think it becomes a little bit of YU-GI-OH HEART OF THE CARDS! Because you lose the whole strategy of the maps themselves and it just becomes another card game. I can go play magic the gathering, YU-GI-OH or any other card game. What makes this game different is that you have a battle map to play on and you have to places your units strategically, but that gets lost when it's already laid out for you. Though maybe I'm saying this cause I play games like Civilization, X-com, etc where it's all about placing your units and attacking in different ways.

Overall I love the game and I'm playing tons of it, I love all the DnD references and Gary and Melvin are great. Great game 8/10 I'll be playing it all the way through. Just think there needs to be a few tweaks so far.

Thanks for an awesome game and have a great day,
TaylorAP13

 

1) That is the unfortunate result of using an existing forum software. Developing their own forums to integrate with the game is not a simple task. I would love for it to be done but it's not a top priority.

2) Bad Medicine heal for 2, then attach a buff on the target that deal poison damage for 2 dmg per turn for a duration of 2 turns. Here's the scenario in which it is useful:

- Use it on an enemy with full health, after 2 turns he take a total of 4 damage
- Use it on a allies with Reliable Mail, healing him for 2 HP and nullifying the damage.
- Use it on enemy who has debuff that make him take more damage. (example: Raging Strike). He will take more damage than heal.
- Use it to attach the card to the target, pusing the oldest (powerfull or negative) buff out of him (Any character can have a maximum of 3 different card attached)
- Use it when your priest gain a benefit from healing your allies (Talented Healer, Altruism ) and you are willing to take the damage.
- Use it to heal for 2 HP temporarily, allowing to survive this round, to win or gain an advantages you need right now

2) OP Card exists in single player only. Some card that you think OP might make it in MP with some limitation/drawback with them. The idea of OP card is that an AI opponent can never be as good as human. You are encouraged to learn the AI's deck and cards and develop a strategy around his card. Any OP card can be countered with proper strategy. (After all, this is a strategy game). I agree that some of them can be too frustrating sometimes. Some enemy type are immune to certain type of attack, which means you must equip items with the other type of attack, changing your deck, how you approach for each enemy type.
Luck of the draw will always screw you up, but you can decrease that by building your deck a certain way, build for consistency etc... If you have too much move card, reduce them in your deck. Maybe your problems is that you don't have a large selection of item yet.

3) There are many more ways to effectively use the map layout to your advantages. However those card might not be available to you yet. Those including terrain alteration (lava, acid, wall...), powerful telekinesis effect.
To sum up, the lack of strategy that you perceive is likely caused by the lack of diverse items in your possession. Give it a few more tries, check out cardhuntria wiki, grind some more low lvl map for items and you will have a better idea

Cheers and welcome to Cardhunter.

 

I just want to add on to the response of number 2)

In SP, a large part of the challenge is building your deck to defeat that specific mission. Not all missions are going to be beatable your first attempt and you are expected to modify your deck to suit the challenge. Like if you know you are facing spear wielding trogs with heavy armor, bring lots of step cards, piercing cards, and discard/armor killing cards, etc. If you know there are skellies on the map, change out your slashing and piercing weapons for bludgeoning, and the reverse for slimes.

You are not supposed to be able to beat any mission with the same "best" items that you would choose to use. Like Programmer said, part of the problem may just be that you don't really have a great selection of items right now, but look through what you do have and you may be surprised how useful some of the cards can be in certain situations.

About the maps, it does seem as if there tends to be one specific "best" way to approach most scenarios that utilize the terrain optimally. Again, I don't think the intention here is to give players unlimited options to beat the scenario however they see fit, but to examine the situation and use the best option. I mean, you COULD use a non ideal position and still win, but one would have much better luck if they can see where good choke points/engagement points/cover is located and utilize it. If this aspect of the game seems obvious and not challenging to you I would imagine that you are just good at map positioning. I know personally I have lost a few maps by not paying enough attention to where I engage and had to retry.

 

Thanks a lot to both of you.

I definitely can see what you're saying and that's why I wanted to let people know how far into the game I was just because I figured I hadn't discovered things or like you said I just haven't gotten the gear to have too many selections. I am glad to hear that some of the "OP" cards are single player only and that does make me feel a lot better in that it's more to create a challenge then just poorly thought out cards.

In terms of the maps. I have died once maybe twice because of bad positioning, but for me it was more like I tried to hold the enemies at one choke point and got flanked or something so it was like oh I should hold them at this point first. I have gotten Hot Spot, Acid Spray and Telekinesis and I think they are all extremely useful. So far they have been more of a way to hold off a group of enemies or I use Hot Spot at the end of a round when an enemy can't use since it does 10 points of damage. I think what I'm looking for in terms of the map is more of a options thing. So maybe I have charge, so I'm going to rush in and attack or maybe I notice a passage and so I try and flank to the side. I feel like those things don't exist consistently on a map. I feel like for the most part I just hole up in a certain spot and defend by using choke points. Again that could be just because I'm not that far into the game so I haven't encountered those scenarios.

Game is definitely awesome and I will not be done playing it for awhile, though frustrating at times it's also just a game and I enjoy 95% of it so who cares if a portion of it is annoying. Thanks again for those tips too, I think it also comes down to not necessarily understanding some of the cards and how they work.

 

I do think the maps might have more options and less obvious advantages in the later campaign

 

I'm pretty sure that the damage from Bad Medicine cannot be reduced by armour, because it is poison type damage. But I agree with the rest of your examples.
(Although I've yet to see any case where that 2 hp healing is actually helpful on an ally, given that it is removed again at the start of the next round by the poison. I imagine cases where it is helpful would be extremely rare.)