Variable resources in missions

[jack1974]

I'm still in the "design phase" and was wondering about one thing. With the framework, I have a lot of freedom. I can have:
- starting amount of resources
- increase each turn of resources

plus of course, the cards like Solar Panels who gives you +1 Energy at end of each turn, or special Hero cards like Christophe Excavation that gives you +3 Materials etc.

The question is: would be confusing to not have a fixed rule? In some missions you start with a good amount of resources but little increase, in another you start at zero but you get +1 for all resources, in others you get +1 except for a specific resource (a mission where you must extract ore).

I know players are used to Hearthstone (+1 total mana each turn) or Magic The Gathering (play lands to get mana-type).

I did this to have variety, but I'm wondering if players could get confused? Maybe I just need to integrate more with the story before of each mission and it will be enough...

Another solution could be that the building cards once played give a permanent bonus but cannot be destroyed directly by enemies. The problem with this approach is that I don't have enough space currently in the battle layout (and also would need to ask Anima to modify the framework slightly)

[Franka]

It sounds like a bit of a red flag for the balancing of the cards, but since this is a single player game, it becomes almost a puzzle game, and you can get away with it.

It's going to make deck building really hard if all cards require resources though. If you have to redesign your deck for each mission, because otherwise your hand will get cluttered with unplayable cards, it might be a bit much. Also, if you don't know before the mission starts how many resources you'll get, it will be very problematic. Trial and error is nice and all, but if you have to design your deck around each mission, you need to know what you're designing it for. I don't know enough about the cards yet to say if this is the case.

So, I would say that it's not necessarily confusing, but the question is if it leads to too much work for the player?

I'd personally like to see SOME missions that shake things up, but to have a standard that is used for the majority of the missions. (I'd also like the ability to save my standard deck, so I can quickly revert any changes I've made due to specific mission requirements.)

[jack1974]

OK some good points.
You can build decks and save them. In theory there's no limit to the amount of decks you can make. I haven't tested the deck building a lot since in the first missions you use a fixed deck, but should work.
It limits the cards you can play but not much, though this is related to the fact that being the deck fixed in the first missions, I test them, so you never end with a bunch of unplayable cards (unless you do things badly). Maybe I should try a mission where you can build your deck to see better.

The credits resource is the only one that works differently: you earn them killing enemies. I think this works great, since limits the usage of very powerful cards (you can't use them unless you kill X enemies) and makes the decisions more fun/strategic. Some minor cards have like 1 credit, so can be used early as long as you kill some enemies. Enemies have different "bounty" on them, some give 2/3 credits.

I am even thinking this different approach: the standard is +1 resources/turn (not credits) and the building create a new resource starting from other two. Like Solar Panel give +1 Energy in exchange of 1 Population/Materials, and so on. This way the cards would be used only if you need +1 in a specific resource. But with the +1/turn standard, there should never be much shortage of resources to summon cards with.

Need to make more experiments to see what is better

[Troyen]

+1 to what Franka said. I think it'd work for a couple of missions mid-game, but try to avoid making me change my deck for every single mission. And we probably should see the battle conditions (win/defeat/special rules) before we actually get into the battle, so we can adjust our deck appropriately.

[jack1974]

I made some more tests this afternoon. Having +1 each turn on all resources, you end up with having a high amount of resources after several turns, since not all cards use them all (also in the early battles the cards require small resources.
So it's not uncommon to be at round 10 and have double digit on one of the resources. Of course I have to see when higher levels cards are introduced, since some have more requirements, but honestly I don't think there's ever going to be the problem of not being able to summon a card. The main limiting factor seems to be the credits, which can be obtained almost only by killing enemies (there's a card that gives credit, but just one).

This way seems that gathering resources is not pointless, but almost not required. I see now why Magic used the land tapping thing...

My game under that aspect is more closer to Spectromancer. I need to replay that one, but in practice if I remember correctly they had high level cards which required a lot of one specific resource. So I might even just do that...

[jack1974]

I checked that game (Spectromancer). I didn't remember, you could only summon one card each turn! so there are two limits, the resources, and the fact you can play only one card at time.
Though I don't think playing one card at time would work in my case. Anyway, all the campaign missions in that game are custom built (so with predefined decks).
I think to make it work in PSCD, I need to raise the costs (but maybe also the power) of the higher tier cards at this point.
Need to find the sweet spot between having too many resources, or too few

[Franka]

This way seems that gathering resources is not pointless, but almost not required. I see now why Magic used the land tapping thing...

Wait, are you saying that resources are infinite once you get them? So if you have 4 OMG resources, you can play all cards that require 4 or less OMG resources in the same turn?

Or are you saying they get used up and you have to start over from 0 every time?

[jack1974]

No no, they're consumed based on card costs. But since in the early matches most cards costs like 1 population 1 energy, you can summon one each turn
Though I kinda like the "faster" approach. I mean might also be because the CPU is instant, but after playing a few matches of Hearthstone, and then testing PSCD, seemed to go at lightning speed (not saying that's better of course, just faster).
Haha I might record a video of playing one of the early matches to show better

[Franka]

I edited the last sentence in while you were replying, sorry.

Does that mean then, that once resources are spent you have to earn them back one at a turn again?

Or is it like Hearthstone where you get an increasing amount every turn? In which case I don't understand the bit I quoted, since that is pretty much how Magic works.

[jack1974]

Yes, once is spent you have to earn back.
So like:
turn1: 1 energy (+1)
turn2: summon card that cost 1 energy = 1 energy left (+1)
turn3: 2 energy (+1)

I made a video, will upload it and post to show how it is. Honestly, maybe I'm worrying for nothing - it would be worse if you couldn't play the cards. And if I raise the cost of the rarer cards, I think it should be well balanced.