PSCD 0.9.9 - beta demo!

[jack1974]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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