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    Artifact - Artifact Foundry Uodate 11th March 2021

    11:20 PM

    Artifact - Artifact Foundry Uodate 11th March 2021

    		Link to Artifact - The Dota Card Game

    Artifact Foundry Uodate 11th March 2021

    Posted: 11 Mar 2021 01:20 PM PST

    Quantum Mechanics

    Posted: 11 Mar 2021 02:15 PM PST

    Working towards drafting a formal petition from the community for Valve to continue working on Artifact.

    Posted: 11 Mar 2021 07:57 PM PST

    I think it's important to move fast and garner support from those interested in seeing a stand-out, unique title in the PvP digital card game genre that's chock full of the usual MtG / Hearthstone clones.

    here are my thoughts on Artifact in general and how we should proceed :-

    The only way for a card game makes it to anywhere near the legendary popularity status of juggernauts like MtG, Pokemon, YGO, etc is by initial luck of the draw (LUL), having a strong IP to draw on for its theme, and having an inordinate stockpile of talent and wealth to fund a LONG HAUL PROCESS of dialogue between the players and creators. How do you get your players to care about a bunch of images with numbers and text on them... The creators iteratively make mistakes and learn about the psychology of players, while the players continually try to break the game and push the designed mechanics to it's limits. One by one, each little kink in the armor is evened out and you get a highly refined and vibrant rule set. (i know its a very droll and naive way of looking at the design process, but if you want to learn more about it, I'd highly recommend Mark Rosewater's articles and podcast)

    Back in 2017 - 2018, our optimism for Artifact Classic (AC) stemmed from the fact that it was being co-developed at Valve alongside 3Donkeys, a team that's easily one of the most experienced in both video games and in card games respectively, and also all the factors seemed to align to make AC a long running powerhouse. We all in the DCG community hoped and prayed that this team would carefully look at other popular DCGs such as hearthstone, Duelyst, Gwent, shadowverse, etc, learn from their mistakes and make a game that utilizes the computer as a ground for a fun, mechanically vibrant and competitive card gaming experience. Another reason to be excited was that Valve had based their game in the dota universe, one where in both theme and mechanics design, the sky was the limit, and competitive balance was "crown jewel"

    Was AC mechanically rich and competitive? Absolutely! No doubt. (I'd recommend reading through this MtG HoF Pro's Review and his Post-Mortem). It's honestly quite fun to read through it again after last week. It took me a long time to understand what the reviewer saw in the game (around the 90 to 100 hour mark is when AC started to make sense to me, similar to how dota2 started to make sense after 2000hrs), and as of this writing, I generally agree and align with his take in regards to game play. Monetization style is one of pure greed and I will maintain that position to my grave, especially when dota2 continues to champion the free gameplay model.

    But we could not deny there were "deep rooted issues" in the game's design and economy as Valve themselves so eloquently put it (before they jumped ship to underlords and made the worst game in that genre too)..

    Every single decision taken in regards to AC's presentation to the public was antithetical to Valve's usual approach. They were doing all of this publicity when the game itself was totally unfit for consumption. It was difficult to see the path they could take to redeem themselves.

    When the new team of developers began to reach out to the community and started the process once again, it was only logical to react with critical and apprehensive optimism, and that is exactly my position towards Artifact Foundry (AF) even now. But with each blog post that was put out before the beta, it was clear that the new team had learned from mistakes of the past and had a solid plan in store to revive this game (before they initiated an excruciatingly slow beta invite process that killed off majority of ppl's interest towards the needed iterative process).

    In spite of this plodding and labored rate of adding new players, Valve were making many substantial changes to the formula which would, IMO, make AF more palatable to the general gaming public. It is debatable whether the changes made are good or not, but we were definitely moving somewhere more concrete, towards a future where AF could garner a small but sturdy foundation to build off of.

    So, naturally the decision to COMPLETELY ABANDON development of Artifact came as a shock to all of us in the community who were looking forward to inviting friends and family into the beta. (It would have been understandable if they said they're taking a hiatus due to reduced productivity, but saying THE END effectively kills off any possibility of creating new sustained interest in the future...)

    Making AC free was something that needed to happen a long time ago, but why they would abandon the game after making it free still boggles our minds. Now, since the game is free, those ppl who watch the anime later this month and looking for a card game in this IP can play AC or AF (Only to find a barren wasteland SMH), which is where the community's role comes in.. I strongly believe we should create a comprehensive set of resources to guide new players towards learning and getting the most out of their predictably short time in the games. Draft Guides and decklists for AC are plentiful. We need to create similar resources for AF. To do that, ppl need to play the game first (FFS).

    Before we put out the formal petition for Valve to restart development, we as a community need to convince the public that the digital card game genre as a whole benefits greatly from having a remade Artifact as a part of the family. (This is where I would like your input). I would love for anyone to help me write up a comprehensive list of reasons why Artifact deserves to have a place at the table with other popular CGs of the day. It would be unfair of me to simply list my subjective reasons in the petition, so if you could please present your own views, it would be helpful!

    Next, assuming we have the larger gaming public on our side, we have to hope that individuals actually sign the formal petition when its uploaded.

    Then we need to hope that our chorus reaches the ears of Valve as an organization, not just the Artifact Team. The likelihood of this working are remote, considering how they treated the Half Life franchise all these years.

    We still have a long and challenging road ahead of us.. I for one am not ready to give up!! even after the last two years.

    pls.. i cant go back to playing LoR skinner boxes... anything but THAT!!!

    We are alone.

    We don't have the good will of popular gaming influencers,

    we barely even have a consensus within the community on where artifact should go,

    but one thing i'm sure we can all agree on is that ARTIFACT MUST LIVE before it can become anything noteworthy..

    submitted by /u/LoL_is_pepega_BIA
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    Artifact - Artifact Foundry is now Generally Available

    Posted: 11 Mar 2021 02:15 PM PST

    PERFORMING AN EXORCISM

    Posted: 11 Mar 2021 06:09 PM PST

    Latest YouTube video right here:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjgEvV28tR8

    Also, when it comes to the update last night. I don't even know what to say about it. good that it had the changes, but, if a game is abandoned, it's abandoned. Trying to keep good will, I suppose.

    I will be live on Artifact Friday afternoon. Feel free to join.

    ​

    Thanks, as always!

    submitted by /u/TTVwindfell_
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    I'm still in disbelief over how it could end up this way. The Artifact team seemed pretty confident about things from the start and going into the Christmas break.

    Posted: 10 Mar 2021 11:33 PM PST

    Before Beta

    Progression: The most popular request outside of gameplay changes was for more robust progression systems. People wanted to feel like their time spent with the game was being rewarded, and also wanted a better measure of their competitive strength so they could see themselves improving. We would like people to be able to feel a sense of progression in the game through unlocking cards and other collectables in the normal course of play, without being forced to spend money, but we're still experimenting with different reward structures.

    For competitive play, we are working on a design similar to the Underlords ranked system, which we hope will provide people with goals to aim for, a clear path to get there, and a meaningful way to measure yourself against other players. We're also thinking through ways we might be able to connect these systems with Artifact's robust tournament support.

    Quality of Life Features: Tracking your competitive rank is just one aspect of giving people the tools to improve at the game. We're also fleshing out player profiles, letting people track statistics about the games they've played, view match histories, and watch replays.

    Additionally, we're looking at frequently requested quality of life and social features, such as chat history, the ability to spectate friends, access to more game modes when challenging friends, and saving templates for tournament settings.

    Single Player: A lot of you recognized the potential for telling stories about the DOTA world through Artifact and loved what we'd already done through comics and flavor text. We are doubling down on that effort through a single-player campaign which will both teach new players the game and continue the story that began with A Call To Arms. Tying in to our progressions systems, we want people to feel rewarded no matter which way they choose to play the game, whether it be in competitive play or the campaign.

    All this sounded fantastic.. then before christmas

    There are still quite a few things we feel need to be in place before we're ready to enter a major growth phase of the game. We will need to invite new players before then to test whenever we add something new, but the aim will still be testing things, rather than inviting players with the goal of growing the player base just yet.

    We don't want to enter any major growth push until the game is ready for a wide range of players to consume without bouncing off of it. Additionally, we want to be in a place internally where we no longer have catch-up work to do on the main game experience and can shift our focus more towards new content as soon as open beta starts.

    Players should have a clear way to learn to play the game.

    • In-game tutorial to teach the basics.
    • Hero card demo puzzles to teach individual cards.
    • Informative UI and effects.

    Learning game strategy should be fun and players should have a long runway available before being thrown in the shark tank.

    • Improved bot play to make playing against bots more meaningful.
    • More single player missions and a system for regularly adding more missions.
    • Progression for playing with friends, incentives to invite friends and play with friends.
    • Progression for playing vs bots, not just ranked.
    • Clearer unlocking progression for hero draft.

    Gameplay should be relatively stable and not constantly changing as players are trying to learn the game.

    We should largely be done with large game-changing rules experiments. This doesn't mean we'd ever stop changing cards, but that we should get to a point where it's less frequent, and more often bundled together in larger patches.

    More game modes to bridge the gap between the relatively lighter experience of hero draft and the heavier experience of constructed.

    • Advanced hero draft is the most likely candidate.
    • Ephemeral events so that we can add temporary game modes to focus the player base.
    • Focused playtest events.

    The game should be both functional and fun to look at.

    • Final card art.
    • Beautiful animations and effects.
    • Beautiful board.
    • Effects that serve a functional purpose, conveying what the cards are doing and the resulting game state.

    HOW CAN ANYONE LOOK AT THIS AND GO "Too few ppl in closed beta with hardly any features. Nobody will play it. CAN IT!"

    Most critical part why I call bull on their reason for pulling the plug

    We'd like to test it (tutorial) with the current player base first for a few weeks before trying with new players. Once we've got our first round of feedback we'd like to start inviting small waves of new players who signed up for the beta but hadn't played 1.0 while we iterate on teaching the game.

    Sometime in mid-to-late January we'd like to start letting players invite their friends as our main way of inviting new players while we continue to iterate on all the above goals. We expect we are a few months away from slowing down constant changes to cards, game rules, and balance.

    At that point we expect to spend more of our effort on UI, UX, and all the many features listed above on the road to open beta and eventual release.

    We expect release (with open beta and a growth push happening shortly before then) is far enough away that it would be a disservice to try to pin down a date right now. We know what we need to do before then, but for now it's still one foot in front of the other until the game is ready for it.

    And look at this concept art for a completed board. i still have issues with the perspective; would rather have the old isometric type view as an option, but who can deny that it doesnt look good?

    ALL OF THIS IS LITERALLY EVERYTHING THE COMMUNITY WANTED SINCE 2018, AND WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE WHEN ARTIFACT 1 RELEASED

    All of the above plus additional nudges to the gameplay would have easily established a small base from which to grow further.

    It really hurts everywhere... I can't take this lol.

    If I was working for this company, I'd just hand in my resignation after this load of bs

    submitted by /u/LoL_is_pepega_BIA
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    Artifact: Reborn (Part 2)

    Posted: 11 Mar 2021 05:24 AM PST

    Good day to all.

    Lets continue this topic with the new thread (part 2 for now). The first thread is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Artifact/comments/m0dak0/artifact_reborn/

    I have cross-checked my previous e-mails to Valve with some ideas, and here it is (have changed something, added something, etc).

    1) If you put the hero card in the middle line, it will be there until death of the hero or winning/losing the match. And the only chance to move it to another lane is to use some device/artifact/teleport, or if the hero is dead, then he goes to the tavern and you can choose another lane for him. So there should be an option for heroes to move to any line at the end of each combat phase without any items/teleports. And, to make it more "real", if you want the hero to move from 1-st line to 2-nd line, or from 2-nd line to 3-rd line, then you can do it, and the hero appears on the required line right on the next turn. But if you want the hero to move from 1-st line to 3-rd line, then you need like "more time" (it is the same like to run the Hero from top line to bottom line in Dota 2), then you make it, and the hero appears on the required line in two turns (not in one). So, if you have turn 5 combat phase, and you want to move the hero from 1-st line to 3-rd line, you make it, then you play turn 6, and at the beginning of turn 7 your hero appears at the line 3 (he does not take part in the turn 6, because he is "running" to the 3-rd line at that time). If you make a move, for example, from line 1 to line 2, then next turn you can also use "Blink dagger" card to move the Hero to line 3, and at the end of combat phase you can go back to line 2. This is a kind of "dynamics" move.

    2) Heroes shall have the possibility to increase their levels. After killing a creep the hero can get 1/2 level experience, after killing the second creep the hero can get +1 lvl up. After killing the enemy hero he can get +1 lvl up. On level 3 the hero can get +1 additional skill. And there can be for example max 6 levels, and on the 6th level hero can get ULTIMATE ability. Every Hero has concrete skills which they can get with level 3 and 6 (so two extra skills for each hero).

    3) Win condition could be improved: a) each tower has 30 hp (or even less) b) you must destroy all towers on all lanes first (like in Dota 2) c) after that the Throne appears, and you have the possibility to attack the Throne d) you can attack the Throne from any lane (like in Dota 2) If all your heroes have the possibility to move from lines to lines, then you will have more freedom, and the game dynamics will be higher. You will try to protect different lines from enemy not letting him to destroy your towers. And if some strong hero comes to one of the lines and attacks your Throne, then you can move all your heroes there to protect the Throne. Also, after destroying the 1-st tower, the defense of 2-nd and 3-rd towers shall be +1, and after destroying any of these two towers, the defense of the last standing 3-rd tower shall be +2.

    4) There should be additionally "neutral" cards (without any color), which don't require the Hero of special color to be on a line to be able to use them at this line. These cards will make additional dynamics. For example, if your enemy has "Red color" hero at the current line, then you can understand, that your enemy will not use any green/black/blue cards at this line, only Red. But this is too much information for me, in reality (I know a lot). But if there will be neutral cards, which can be used in any line and at any time (just spend mana on them) - there will be more unpredictable situations for both players, and the game will become much more strategic.

    5) The spell cards, which can make the units / heroes "invisible" could be added, that it can't be attacked/damaged with any unit in front, until this spell is dispelled. If your unit is "invisible", you play the combat phase, and there is the enemy unit in front of your unit, then you can choose, whom to attack - the unit in front of you, or the tower / Throne. But your enemy "does not see you" (he can see the card of your unit, but he can't attack it), and he will attack only the tower/Throne behind your unit. This will be interesting game mechanics.

    6) One of extra topics is to make stack spells mechanics. For example, you cast a spell on enemy hero "to deal 2 damage to any unit/hero". And if nothing happens, this spell kills this hero. And let's pretend that the opposite player has some artifact item which gives +3 HP. So right now the gameplay does not let us to save this hero. It will die for sure. But if the stack mechanics will be used here, then the opposite player can put the item on and get +3 HP to the hero, so he will survive. This stack mechanics is now at MTG and LoR and it brings much deeper strategy aspects.

    7) That would be nice, if it is possible to "pass" the artifacts/goods between the ally Heroes, which are on one line. If one of your Heroes wears the armor, but your another hero could be dead this turn, you can pass this armor from one hero to another, to save him. That should be some kind of penalty for such move, but not very big.

    8) There should be the possibility to sell the bought goods back to the shop, if you don't need them anymore to be able to buy more valuable items at the current game stage for any reasons.

    9) It will be much better, if all cards will be animated (like in Gwent, or Hearthstone). The frozen pictures are nice, but animation will surely increase the cool view of the game. People like it very much. For example, all heroes in Dota 2 have animated portraits. With this option all cards will become "live".

    10) Seems not very logical, that the creeps are spawned randomly on two of three lines. The player must solve it by himself (because he can also build the strategy on this). He shall be able to decide, on which two lines will the creeps appear. Or you can also make, that creeps will appear on all three lines (so it will be not 2, but 3 creeps every turn), one creep for each line, also like in Dota 2.

    11) There should be the complete shop available for each player during the shopping phase (not adding cards with items to be potentially bought into the deck before). It should be the possibility to buy any device which is available at the shop (you need only to have enough gold). The players can have a lot of gold, but they can also get "bad" or "not interesting" set of 3 goods to buy at the current turn. So, that is also boring and "limiting" option, to have only 3 goods to buy. It is really better to make the full shop available.

    Also, it would be nice to make some kind of "Special shop" ("The witch house"), where you can buy some super special devices / strong weapons / armor / tools / units. But to come there, you need to kill 5 (or more) enemy Heroes on any line during the game (it is like the small quest for reaching the special shop).

    12) It is nice to make the traps cards. Traps can be placed in front of your own cards (on the line of the opponent cards). The idea is that these cards take place on opponent's side and the opponent can't put his cards on these places to block your creatures/heroes, because at first he must remove your trap card. Traps can be real and fail. The opponent can remove them either with the spell like "remove the trap", or just to drop some creature/hero card on this trap. If the trap is not real, then it will be just removed and the opponent's creature will take it's place. But if the trap is real, then the creature can get damage or even die. Traps have different effects, they can be neutral color and concrete color (red, green, blue or black). Neutral traps cost lower than colored. Colored are special traps, with different strong effects. And colored traps can also be fail.

    13) Graveyard. It could be great to have it to resurrect the dead creatures or to check the used cards, to have some option to use them again or something like that, to make some interesting mechanics of reusing the used cards like in MTG or Gwent.

    14) There could be the cards of laws. Every such card contains its unique law, which takes place immediately after use of card. For example, "all goods at the market cost 20% more", or "green cards cost 1 mana less", or whatever. And when the player uses this card, the law goes into the game, and works immediately and forever, until the other law is played. If the opponent uses his another law, then the first law stops and the second one becomes the main law. It could be tons of laws, which can change the current situation.

    Please feel free to discuss whatever regarding any aspect given here.

    Then I will also add the ideas which have been already discussed here in this thread, and which will be discussed in the near time, to have the set of ideas to be potentially implemented into the game.

    Thanks in advance.

    submitted by /u/BrudaVoo
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