Artifact - My final imagination-crafting on this game, so I can seal my own wounds |  |
| My final imagination-crafting on this game, so I can seal my own wounds Posted: 26 Jul 2021 12:41 PM PDT Once I read that game-designers are like doctors and players like patients. You as player know what is feeling wrong and tell this to the doctor, but only he knows how to treat it. I fully agree with the above statement and yet I think I need to do an Artifact 2 (Considering Artifact Classic) in my thoughts and express it here so I can have a closure on what could have been, the text with all the changes will be lengthy and meaningless since the game has ended:
Many agreed that some kind of grind is needed, even LoR, the most free-2-play friendly still have some kind of it. It can copy the system of LoR, but it could also have been this: Every 1-copy of a card that is not a hero comes with the (FREE TO PLAY) game along with 3 heroes in each attribute, al: Each win you unlock 1 more copy for 11 random cards that you played in that match and a random champion, if you have 3 copies of all the cards you played in that match, each win gives a shine version for 1 copy of a random card you played, which you can trade for 11 random copies of other cards. With that you have a true free to play, but the feeling of acomplishment for playing will exist and you will unlock 3 copies of any deck in 6 wins. In addition to that a day 1 ranked system is essential. I'm not talking about ranked points or levels, I'm talking about a change of Bronze-Silver-Gold... so in some given wins you'll feel you surpassed something big, you'll want to achieve that Masters in that season, you have a specific goal in your mind to aim at, every good ranked system employs it. As LoR has proven, sometimes the achievement reward can be something as simples as an icon for that season + tournament entry at certain level, but it still works.
Truly the most hard to think, to diagnose what felt wrong is easy, how to fix it... it's a monster of a thing Well let's go in parts:
No need to reinvent the wheel, 3 attributes worked in dota and it's simple to appease to a larger base, rock paper scissors in a simple form but more complicated on a profound look.
The lack of agency in some rounds felt terrible there will be a lot of adjusts to that, one of those: No need for a blue hero to cast a blue card in that lane. In here you can have 2 things to fix it: The only need for the blue hero is to draft the blue cards in your deck OR Having at least ONE hero of Red color in the mid lane grants red card -1 cost in the mid lane. It doesn't stack with more heroes.
Sometimes to make a game right in one genre, you don't need to translate every mechanic from another genre, the shop is entirely removed. Learning from playing TESL, items in a game are not bad. But they shouldn't be separated from your deck draw. So: Item cards are drawn from your deck, you can choose or not to put items in your deck, one of the two could be implemented: Gold still exists, you pay it for the items you drew. OR Gold removed, you pay mana for items and they have their colors, just as in TESL, I prefer this one.
Deployment: First of all, this is the only thing I'll get some from Foundry as in, No random Arrows, deployment hero strategy order stays the same as foundry with the difference that you can not choose a [slot] to fill, it will behave like in Classic, but the strategy remaining the same as foundry it still gives a feeling of safelane, midlane and offlane. And by not having the slots to fill strategies of positioning remains the same as in classic and along with having no limits in units. In addition, you have the choice of holding the deploying of a hero in that round, to deploy him later along with another hero On creeps: This again is one of the things that they felt they needed to transfer from on genre to another, but what it did? The lanes were constantly with units created outside of your agency, even in Foundry, having a total of SIX units per round that none of you played just doesn't feel right, it feels more like the game is playing for you than a small mechanic you need to adjust. Even when it's not randomized, units that you or your enemy didn't create, to end up spawning should be a minimum of 1 if not zero. But I'll go against the zero: Before the deployment phase begins in the first round: 1 creep will spawn in the left lane of Radiant and 1 in the right lane of Dire. On the 2nd round 1 creep will spawn in the midlane for both, and so on. It will rotate. With that you have 2 total units not played per round being summoned instead of a total of six. The single creep will provide a safety landing for the hero of each safelane in the first round
The battle just happens when all lanes have resolved, all at the same time, so in the third lane you can still save that first lane that would have collapsed. That would make Artifact not only profound in you having to think waay in the future but you would have to think about the past lanes resolve as well. More draws would end up happening, but that's the same for Chess, and chess is far from having a small audience.
As in Classic, each lane mantains your own mana pool, that's a good complexity. But Artifact has a big problem, the scaling of its cards are fucked up to make up for the fact that a game with 3 lanes will take too long and because of that the game begins with 3 mana gems, when cards are costing 8 mana or more the text is already like: PLEASE END THE GAME. I'll argue against the fact that a long game is bad, yes, you will play one and will want a break, as it ALREADY happens in Artifact classic despite the time because the game is complex: it's tense. But it will make you want to comeback later, for that goal you aimed at, for that thought-provoking game that made you think a lot. So, this needs a complete overhaul, mana gems beginning at 1 and being balanced as such. Many games know how to make relevant creatures and spells even at one mana, Artifact shouldn't be different. For the lategame: TESL had a good difference from LoR, even in the rounds of +10 mana, gameplay decisions were still being made instead of just: Complete your combo or drop your biggest creature and win, creatures at 8 mana were still not guaranteed game winning, not even 10 or 12 mana were. One of the most powerful creatures in TESL at 12 mana had the following text: Deal 4 to every enemy across lanes on deployment, a 10/10 body that could die to a 2 mana 1/2 with lethal, so the game was still not decided. The feeling with Classic is: The game out of nothing has a giant blip of power, you don't feel the scaling very well, some cards are just a No, like anihilation or time of triumph, they don't allow room for any decision that isn't: "Should I pass my initiative?" this decision should still be extremely important but not because of cards that just don't allow interaction, if a card like that exists, it should at least be stackable so you can interact with it, instead of resolving at Burst speed. So in a deeper level extremely good players will still have the initiative system mattering and low level players will still feel in control of it instead of just being blown in their face. There should be more crosslane cards in the basic set. Again, this means more feeling of agency and makes the feeling of "That lane is already doomed" more rare. The stats being where they are is good: There are sometimes in LoR where you see that if a card gains just one 1 single health buff or nerf, it would be OP or killed, but it's still not balanced in the way it is. By all bodies stats being multiplied by 2 it allows for more room in balancing changes. So resuming this single point: Certain spells should be stackable in the table to allow interaction, Manapool should begin at 1 and the game shouldn't print cards to close out like it does because it messes up with the feeling of scalability. The health of towers and the ancient could be adjusted because of cards scaling the same as it was in TESL, like towers having 20-25 health and the ancient 40-50. Artifact was the most beautiful, visual and in OST card game out there, it still is until today. But the name is already plagued, I believe and I'm probably wrong because of what I said in the first paragraph, that a game like that (Having another name because again, plagued), while having a good support with new additions of cards would mantain the playerbase and make the card game that I always wanted I wish I could live in a simulation where Artifact launched exactly like that, with all those things, the mechanic in-game and the system of economy and acomplishment, I will ask myself my entire life if that would have worked out as I wished it did. Thanks for anyone who gave me company in this copium and the times of hype in this sub, they were marvelous times. [link] [comments]  |
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