jack1974
Dec 12, 2015
I'm at mission 22, so far everything is going fine. The only problem I might have is balancing the cards costs. Raising the basic cost even more probably is too much (like having 3 of a resource needed, in practice means waiting 3 turns to summon a unit!).
I think will keep the non-credit resource to a max of 2, and instead for the tier4 and 5 increase the credit costs. With the more powerful enemies you face at end of the game is not a problem to raise more credits anyway (I had some battles in which I maxed it!).
I'm also going to raise the HP of both heroes in those later battles, since with only 30HP the fight could last just a few minutes (some good card combo and you can easily end with a 5 attack unit that does double attack... and so
).
I've tested one which starts with both players at 50HP and was still probably just a few minutes (playing with max animation speed). Of course talking about Hard difficulty, Easy will still be very easy (and enemies will still have low HP, while your player higher one).
jack1974
Dec 12, 2015
It seems that you'll be able to use the Legendary cards only in the last missions. I think is fine, considering there's also the DLC planned which will be another 10 missions. I considered for a moment to keep the Legendary cards for the DLC only, but I'm unsure if to go this route.
Oh well, 99% of people will be playing this in VN Mode anyway
Franka
Dec 12, 2015
Don't worry, no matter what you decide, I'll break it.
Nah, I guess we'll see about the resources, remember also that for the last tiers, you can only have 1 of each card, so you won't have to wait 3 turns for every single card you want to play.
Oh well, 99% of people will be playing this in VN Mode anyway
I won't, so you're expecting to sell at least 100 copies?
jack1974
Dec 12, 2015
Don't worry, no matter what you decide, I'll break it. Nah, I guess we'll see about the resources, remember also that for the last tiers, you can only have 1 of each card, so you won't have to wait 3 turns for every single card you want to play.
No I explained badly, I know you can fill the deck (obviously) with lower tier cards. But I was finding myself never playing the more expensive cards... because I always had a cheaper one to play.
So it was a matter of tweaking the gameplay, and raising the HP as consequence. Another game I was looking at while doing mine is Spectromancer, which has higher values cards (higher than Hearthstone) but also usually higher hero/player HP.
Oh well, 99% of people will be playing this in VN Mode anyway
I won't, so you're expecting to sell at least 100 copies?
Haha I think you're a special case
I was joking, even if would be cool to know. I put a VN Mode specific achievement, but I suppose people will also play in that mode to try other romances or unlock some hidden scenes with specific requirements. So impossible to really know
Troyen
Dec 12, 2015
Don't worry, no matter what you decide, I'll break it. Nah, I guess we'll see about the resources, remember also that for the last tiers, you can only have 1 of each card, so you won't have to wait 3 turns for every single card you want to play.
No I explained badly, I know you can fill the deck (obviously) with lower tier cards. But I was finding myself never playing the more expensive cards... because I always had a cheaper one to play.
I'm actually having this issue already, on some of the two resource cards. I can't remember the exact name, but some resources are definitely easier to get/harder to bank than others, and I'd just opt for playing two cards instead of the one expensive card. I think three of one type would probably be too much.
jack1974
Dec 13, 2015
I rebalanced a bit all the cards now, though of course depends which ones you pick, but a card never costs more than 2 of a resource. I increased the credits costs of the new cards because it's the only resource that you can constantly get by killing enemies, even more than 1/turn, since there are tougher enemies that reward with 2-3 credits
I think I reached a good balance now. I've also reduced all skill/action cards since are one-time use, and even if some are powerful, in most cases is preferable to summon a unit.
I'm also leaning towards reserving the "Legendary" tier of cards for the DLC, since there are already 100+ cards available and I want to keep something for the DLC, also considering that was "forced" to expand it for the extra romances, making bigger than originally planned (will be around 1/3 of base game in term of content!).
Franka
Dec 13, 2015
As long as you made an overall decision, there's always room to balance individual cards, whether by strength or by cost, and it helps if everything is basically "in line" before we start doing that.
About multiple resources, deck building plays a part in this. When I take the time to think about what I'm doing, I try to spread out costs, so I don't have multiple different cards requiring 2 Energy, fx. Deck building to diversify card costs is also a skill, even when it means you have to let go of that sweet looking card you wanted in the deck.
jack1974
Dec 13, 2015
As long as you made an overall decision, there's always room to balance individual cards, whether by strength or by cost, and it helps if everything is basically "in line" before we start doing that.
Yes it was overall, I increased the Epic tier4 of cards to require all 2 credits, because in the battles after mission 20 there are enemy like the Antlion that give 2 credits, and player skills like barrage that can "refill credits" much faster than the other resources.
About multiple resources, deck building plays a part in this. When I take the time to think about what I'm doing, I try to spread out costs, so I don't have multiple different cards requiring 2 Energy, fx. Deck building to diversify card costs is also a skill, even when it means you have to let go of that sweet looking card you wanted in the deck.
Indeed, I know. But a main difference vs for example Hearthstone is that resources are consumed and each turn they're not reset to the current counter. So I had to make sure that even if you built your deck terribly (with all cards costing 2 resource!) you should still be able to play a card every 2 turns (you would still probably lose in Hard difficulty, but still
).
jack1974
Dec 13, 2015
Doing mission 25 now. It's very complex because based on some choices, different things will happen, so need to test it carefully. I don't know yet if once I'm done will release a new beta, or will try to finish everything and do the next update after the whole game is done. I guess depends how long are the new missions
Anyway, I think I'll have it done before Christmas (still in beta of course) so that then there's a month to do testing and find bugs (even plot ones since with so many endings and variables, something might go wrong).
SirJid
Dec 15, 2015
A couple thoughts on card leveling
I don't know if this is intentional or not, but upgrading to gold level costs two stars regardless of wether it's already at silver or not. With this, upgrading to silver is basically a complete waste.
additionally, I really wish there was some upgrade for spells or units' abilities instead of just their attack/health. I don't know how possible that would be with how the game is made, but I feel like it would be better to upgrade a card's unique feature rather than just giving them all +1/+1.
Many thanks for your awesome games :D
jack1974
Dec 15, 2015
Ah! So that explains why the cards are too powerful ! upgrading to gold should consume also the silver cost, so 1+2 = 3 Stars, not just 2
Regarding your other question sorry but it would be too complicated and time consuming to add ability upgrade, also consider the upgrading wasn't even planned from the start but an extra bonus feature. The +1/+1 though will make quite a difference in the later levels, I assure you
Franka
Dec 15, 2015
I've always clicked silver first, then gold, and I still have 30+ stars left.
Good catch though!
jack1974
Dec 15, 2015
Yes I noticed for your cards, however I was testing the new missions, and if I upgraded most of the new cards I would run out of stars quickly. So I think now they work as they should, before it was really too easy to get many golden cards. Now you'll need to decide more carefully
I've fixed some new cards, and I'll keep going, I might finish everything for this weekend. We'll see !
jack1974
Dec 19, 2015
Annnnnnnnnd it is done!!
Need to add credits, check some endings. But all major coding is done. Of course there'll be the testing, so official release will still be in January, but at least from now on will be only tweaking.
I will upload the new version tomorrow
It's crazy to think that the game coding actually took me only from September to now. I mean, 3 months is not a long amount of time for a game like this (I daresay it's actually a record). But it still felt an eternity for me
I guess that I'm partly still a bit burned from SOTW last year (and DLC this year, plus I coded QoT a lot) and also being a bit scared to release something since all other easier/smaller/simpler games were late
Miakoda
Dec 19, 2015
It's crazy to think that the game coding actually took me only from September to now. I mean, 3 months is not a long amount of time for a game like this (I daresay it's actually a record). But it still felt an eternity for me
I guess that I'm partly still a bit burned from SOTW last year (and DLC this year, plus I coded QoT a lot) and also being a bit scared to release something since all other easier/smaller/simpler games were late
Well, you put in a lot of good, hard work so it being done is to your credit.
Of course, a lot credit also goes to @Anima (the Coder) as well as the Scripter and Artist for working hard on things. I want to thank them as well for making things go as smoothly as it did
jack1974
Dec 19, 2015
Thanks, and you did a good job as well. Writing so much (and in my opinion so well) in a year... quite an achievement
jack1974
Dec 20, 2015
There you go, uploaded it!!!
There are still some missing FX for some unit abilities, but since I'm surely going to do more updates, I thought to put the new version online anyway to begin testing and get bug reports. It's content complete, so the only thing left are possible game/plot bugs. There are a lot of variations on later missions so even just playing in VN Mode could reveal some mistakes
Franka
Dec 20, 2015
At what mission can I expect to see jealousy scenes? I can't start playing just yet, but that's where I'd prefer to start when I do have time.
jack1974
Dec 20, 2015
Hmm I don't remember the exact mission, however I did a test playthrough on Linux in VN Mode, and was able to get one shortly after the demo end. So I guess around mission 15 or something. In practice to trigger it you need to reach the second romance talk with 2 or more people. After that, the next scene will be a jealousy talk.
Of course if you do this too much (like getting 2 romance point with all 4 romances and then trigger all jealousy scenes) you might not have enough time to trigger the final romance. I haven't tested that honestly, but I'm looking forward for feedback
