I made some correction to the "Raid" cards, specifically now the ICON used is a "Demon Head". This now gives you the "bad-karma" feelings you would get when the opponent plays such a card AGAINST you. Much more "nastier"-looking now! (LOL)
I am also working on the design (it's under review)... Because I can't actually get to where I wanted to be in HOW the game is to be played. I've re-thought some details (big ones too), like HAVING a "Treasury" which was a concept in the First Edition of the game... But disappeared from the design work of the Second Edition. Well the good news is "Treasuries" are BACK! Yup... For certain and I know exactly how they are to work. Using INCOME (a sort of "Worker Placement" mechanic), you will be able to use some cards in your Treasury to offer different card bonuses (not all cards - but some).
Generally speaking INCOME is another aspect that WILL DEFINITELY be a part of the game. Aside from Victory Points and Scoring to Win, "income" will be a bonus resource that can affect your Hand, Treasury and Card Playing capabilities. This is where the "Worker Placement" comes into play... See you need to "optimize" your income for the goal you want to perfect. If it's Drawing more cards, Playing more cards or Using Treasury Fragments to your advantage, each aspect is modifiable according to WHAT you use your income for!
The under-the-hood review is with the "Engine Building". As a form of programming, I am still struggling with how the various pieces come together. It's easy to put out some samples... But if they DON'T make any sense, what is the point?! So, that's why I didn't upload any new card, I am working on them and seeing what can or cannot be possible. The design is going to be "tight", meaning that all parts will need to work together. Otherwise the game won't WORK!
I also trimmed out "2" core types of cards and did a re-ordering of the Quest Fragments such that there is now only "8" types and a color for each. Note this did NOT help me in the "color-blind"-sphere... It is still a "challenge" to distinguish some "resources" from the others like Orange from Red or Purple from Blue. I'm sorry 10% male population, I just can't make them colorblind-friendly...
I've also had to review the "card counts" due to the Chinese Printer that I have been talking to. They tell me German Black-Core is 54 pieces/plate and that means 270 cards instead of 300. That's 30 LESS cards which is good in a way, it means LESS Art too (Nice)! But the minimum for a CCG is over 250 cards. My earlier plans were for 300 ... But with the card counts, it's just not possible.
Also, I'm making the Booster Packs ONLY ten (10) cards: 6 Common, 3 Uncommon, and 1 Rare/Mythic/Legendary. So the RARE card can be even more precious but still only one "rare" card per Booster. So a bit hogg-ish about the rarity ... It's what I HAD to do because of the German Black-Core card count.
Still NO Dice in this game... Which is VERY KEWL! Loving the DICE-LESS approach to a very deterministic game where strategy is KEY (and King). The aspect of randomness only comes from card drawing and you can use income to BOOST your Hand-Size (for example) and allows you to get further into your Deck. Like Magic, I believe the Deck size will be 60 cards. I'm not sure about DOUBLES and TRIPLES ... That needs to be sorted out soon: do I want multiples and if so, how many and is it going to be specific to each card (probably)...
That's about it for now... Just wanted to give an in-detail report about how THIS design has been progressing. Definitely put in a lot of hours on the various aspects and plan to spend countless hours (days) more. I want this one to be my "Big Kahuna"! Cheers.
Comments
If you would like to see some updated cards...
Check-out my earlier Blog Entry:
https://www.bgdf.com/blog/quest-adventure-cardstm-%E2%80%94-2nd-edition-...
The two (2) cards that have been updated are "Stolen Crown" and "Purse of Plenty". It says "out of 270 cards" and various edits to the cards now seem more "defined" for those two (2) cards.
I'm still very BUSY with TradeWorlds (TW) rulebook edits. I hope to finish them up over the weekend and then submit the "care package" to Stan (over at OLG) and then address any questions that he may have. But finally we are looking at MOVING FORWARDS with TW in the next month (move to production).
So while I have been "laser-focused", I also have some time before sleep to ponder about the "Quest AC v2" design/concept... Yeah it's crazy how busy I am. I still haven't checked the registrations since last week and I've got to re-format the Crystal Heroes (CH) rulebook. Plus I have to follow up on some Banner Ads leads for the Ad Program.
Cheers all!
Note #1: I even have not had any time for Video Game Programming Tutorials or resuming my "First Game" (not that it's the kind of game that I want to develop, just following along with the videos into the code and elements required to develop a Video Game - Using Game Maker)... Would love to get back to that too (Aka Syndicate.North)!
Color Blind
Quest, is it possible to make the different fragments different shapes or sizes (without increasing the cost) so the color isn't the only distinguishing factor?
Unfortunately for the Color-Blind folks
It's not the fragments: a fragment is a card which is a part of a quest. The real issue is with the "wooden cubes" that represent the resources. There are six (6) resources: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple.
So the CUBES themselves are not very compatible (think Orange and Purple). But the "rainbow" spectrum is VERY important. Because it NATURALLY symbolizes the resources and how you can "Upgrade" them. So, if I have a Yellow "cube", I can go UP one (1) and get "Orange" or I can go DOWN one (1) and get "Green". If I was allowed to go UP TWO (2), I could get "Red" or "Blue"... Without the "rainbow" it would be very HARD to know what the NEXT color could be (given some arbitrary set of colors).
Those SAME cubes are on the Cards (or Fragments) too. So there are challenges on both the physical resources (wooden cubes) and the cards themselves... I don't see a solution because of the wooden cubes...
Note that it would be POSSIBLE to "fix"...
But I don't like breaking the Game's Theme and colors and what each one means.
See this table illustrates what each CARD COLOR "symbolizes". YELLOW cards represent "Thieves and Assassins". Naturally those Quests (and their Fragments) are meant to represent the NATURE of the color... So, as you can see, these colors (and the rainbow) all make sense and have their own "color-pie".
I cannot simply EDIT these and the cards will look OKAY...! No it's going to break the entire THEME and color-pie that I have created. Again, I can't possibly do that, sorry 10% of the Male Market...
Here is the NEW Player Layout (with income)
This is the most recent version 7.0 of the player layout. I've removed some of the extras as the design becomes tighter. Still this is very much a WIP (Work-In-Progress) so I'm not sure if this will be the FINAL version... My guesstimate is that it is close to being final.
Note #1: The "circles" are income chips and reflect where "Worker Placement" is "affecting" the normal method of play in certain areas of the game.
In this example, I believe that 1 income is FREE and +2 income comes from the two (2) completed quests. Which makes for a total of 3 income. And the explanations go as follows:
1 income: to augment the player's hand to 4 cards.
1 income: to be capable of drawing 2 cards.
1 income: allowing a reactive fragment ability to be in play.
This is the explanation offered by this layout... It's not final as I have already mentioned but ... my thoughts are that this layout is pretty darn close to "final"...
not a big deal
I guess it cold be possible to put an Icon in the fragment space on the card, and on the cubes themselves...but the cost associated in manufacturing would definitely not weighing the 10% of people that are color blind, and will most likely be playing with someone who isn't.
That's a GOOD point
If a color-blind player plays the game, he is most likely to play with family or friend (and naturally), someone who is NOT color-blind. So if there is any confusion, the other(s) player(s) can help point out any incorrect play based on the wrong color... It's not like a group of color-blind players ONLY get together with OTHER "color-blind" folk and only they play as a group.
It kinda sound silly if you think about it! (LOL) So yeah, I guess it's not so bad of an issue. Just to be mindful when playing WITH a "color-blind" person, to ensure that there are no errors or "faux pas".
Still working on some "basic" mechanics
I've determined that ONE (1) SHARED "Active Quest" Timeline will exist for BOTH players. In this regard, I need to figure out some basic rules about how card play will work (between you and your opponent). It's very easy to state the there will be ONLY one Timeline and that both players will play cards to contribute towards it.
The idea being that when you ACCOMPLISH a "Quest", you score "Virtue Points" (VPs) and those cards get placed into your Treasury.
Anyone can tell the score by adding said "Treasury" Fragments per player. And the good thing about this is that each player has his/her own Treasury. All of this is not "ground-breaking" but is a SOLID foundation.
What is a bit "sketchy" ATM is the relationship between cards and their position in the Active Quest. I have some NEW thoughts on the matter... I will go and plan/think about those new ideas ... And will report back my progress.
For now... The Active Quest Timeline is where all my "blockage" is at.