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Omni's suggestions

Started by Omnipotens, April 21, 2010, 07:24:45 PM MT

Omnipotens

I just started playing this game today and I have to say this game has a lot of potential. There are, however, a bunch of key features missing that I think would not only make the game better, btu also give the game a much needed community boost.


1) Tutorial
- As I stated, this was the first day playing. I made an account and was immediately brought to the lobby. The first thought that crossed my mind was "What now?". Tutorials help new players not only understand how the game works but also explains what their goal should be. I think the best way to do this is through a simulation battle as well as a little popup guide explaining each tab.

2) Goals
- Currently the goal of the game is to win battles and get on the leaderboard. This does not add much to replayabillity. Games become addictive and fun when there are numerous relatively easy to achieve goals. I think this can be achieved through "achievements", or quests that will reward the player with either new heroes or new cards. Another possibility is that since the game uses cards, a currency can be added and different amounts will result in different "booster packs" that will contain multiple cards with a small percentage being rare.

3) Customization
- From what I've seen so far, there is no way of getting new cards or any way of customizing your card deck. Editing card decks allows the game to be user customized, resulting in many different ways a game can be played. I think that this is the biggest issue that needs to be addressed. From what I've seen, the only way to add customization to the game so far is by playing different maps.

There are many other features that make a game good, but until the game gets some if not all of these suggestions, I think the community will never grow.

Feedback appreciated. =D

helpicantfly

well as a player of a few games.
i thought i d jump in here !
this game is based on a board game ,and unlike magic, the cards are in one deck that is shared between players,the units however are change-able,so the idea is to use them to there best ability,find out there strengths and weaknesses.
there are a lot of different combinations  for your 3 chosen units some work better than others.
so the customization part is the group of three units not the deck .
and finding which hero you like the best is quite helpful too.
and the tutorial is a good idea.
i found it best to play game with a good player lucky enough diesbudt  (no 1 player on this).
not only did he talk me though it,make a suggestion etc he also did it unranked too .
i just wish i had the grasp of the game half as well as he does .any way stick around play a few more games,gl and enjoy i expect dies or ross will answer this better just my thoughts .


Ross Przybylski

Hello Omnipotens and welcome to Hero Mages!  I'm Ross Przybylski, game creator, and I wanted to personally thank you for your suggestions.

Yes, yes, and yes- I agree with all of your ideas.  It's been evident for some time that a tutorial is sorely needed.  Despite the documention in the "How to Play" section, the reality is that few if any users ever look at this and are left pondering exactly what it is they're supposed to do.  Most players that stick around are those lucky enough to find a good player to help show them the ropes (as helpicantfly had mentioned).  I'm programming some computer opponents for the game for v1.4, and with these, I hope to introduce a tutorial and perhaps some single player quests.

The achievement system is another key feature I'd love to incorporate. It's been on the backburner for awhile now since AI and some other key features have taken priority, but will probably be one of the main features of v1.5.  This is an area, in particular, that I'd love to hear more from the community about- so if you've got some ideas for achievements you'd enjoy, please share with us.

And finally customization- I do certainly understand the need for this and how it will draw more members to the community and help drive business as well.  Part of the challenge here is how to incorporate some degree of customization without severely altering other elements of the game players enjoy.  The shared deck is a pretty core feature; so I've wondered if a customizable deck would entail a new sort of game entirely (CCG) with a demand for many new kinds of spells- or maybe it's as simple as a special sideboard of cards you can include? Additionally, I've considered expanding the depth of the characters to allow for customization. Perhaps there are additional powers (new songs for the bard, traps/stealth for the rogue, etc.) that could be unlocked by playing those characters and then customized to equip different powers each battle.  Again- thoughts and ideas are welcome!

Thanks for the post- I look forward to hearing more from you!
Manager of D20Studios, LLC

Omnipotens

Good to hear some positive feedback.

I spoke with Six about the custom deck idea and he pointed out a very valid point which both of you have stated. The shared deck is a focal point of the system. As Six said... you would be making the cards the central feature instead of having them act as a means to boost your army a little. I agree with that statement. I don't want the cards to be the focal point, but I do think some customization is necessary. I like the idea of a sideboard. Like maybe 5 cards that only you have to help your team.

It would be good to hear from the community of any ideas on how we can add some customization while keeping the game structure relatively the same.

Warmage

I have been thinking about customization for awhile and im slightly torn. I like many games that have customization, but I also really like this way sharing the cards and for some reason I dont like the idea of straying too much from that,. perhaps I feel it would put emphasis where it should not be and perhaps its something about over complicating that which should be simple.

I think any customization should be in small steps. Perhaps for starts there could be something called a "charm" lets say you can only use it once a game and perhaps you pick from like 5 or 10 dif things. maybe things like you are allowed to reroll one die or perhaps you are able to move one extra space, or gain 1 hp. Just something small or like a little trick.

When im playing right now I dont get the feeling of wanting card customization because we both get to pull from the cards and I love the idea that both people are using the same ones it adds an interesting element and in some ways keeps it from turning into many other games. I could totally understand how people feel dif about that though.

I tend to think or enjoy ideas that dont just make it about the game, I think any game like this is always sorta boiled down to being like chess.

I often think about this game having a  world map and the map is divided into say 50 submaps that could be made in the map creator.Now perhaps people could control territory (lets face it who doesnt love controlling some digital land :) and if you control dit people could challenge you and get profile awards or something. I can visualize people or guilds taking land over and wanting to keep it or expand and so on. Something like this would give your battles greater purpose so it just doesnt seem like playing over and over for perhaps jsut rank.

I think there could be some written history of the land but make people work to recover it. perhaps people could be in battle and at some point there could be a random "drop" and the person who wins the game finds just a little piece of the written history - sorta like finding some ancient scroll.The person could get credit as the finder of it and it would get long in the history of the land. I think that people get attached to finding special things or one off things and it gets recorded in the game history.

Perhaps people could be working somehow to find a new spell and after doing so that could be how a new card is put into the game. Perhaps they discover new artwork for champs or avatars or even maybe "charms" maybe you have to get charms as random drops while playing in game then once you use them they are burnt up and you have to play enough to get another random drop. so it adds customization but keeps it from getting out of control and yet rewards players for being active.

I have many more thoughts I will be posting in here but its getting late for now. Lets keep this convo going.

diesbudt

Help, you have got to stop thinking me as some kind of god-king. - _ -

I think customization is awesome... but I would think twice before adding too much.

A) The shared deck is a pinnacle with this game. In no way shape or form will I agree on deck customization. First, a shared deck means no one person will have a card advantage, making the game more rely on luck of the draw, luck of the roll, and the skill it takes to merge the two. Second, a merged deck adds massive strategy, as in since I have a certain card, my opponent can't. So if I have disentigrate in my hand, I know its safer for my hero to get closer.

B) Too much customization has 1 problem, and that is instead of the original idea of the game (skill, luck, and political talking in FFA) now it will depend more on who has better customization, or who spent more on better customization, or who obtained better customization. The luck and skill part of the game will be greatly reduced. (Think of rock/paper/scissors. No matter how good the rock can roll the dice, he will never beat paper.)

C) customization if used should mostly be cosmetic. Maybe change the avatars looks or the color their units can be.  (btw can I have the ability to have the black color)

Also if I could customize my deck... this is what would happen.   1/3 the deck will be teleports, the other 2/3s will be touch of death. Ill run wizard warrior and paladin. once I hit 15 valor I will be able to teleport in, kill a unit through 3 touch of deaths, than teleport out.

D) Also customization on units through achievements will discourage even further new/lower ranked people from starting or playing someone who has earned the 'better' powers.

Idk take this as you will, I'm fine with small customizing like warmage said.  Maybe earn the ability to once per game reroll 1-2 dice, etc. 

Idea!   Maybe, let a deck be customizable in the way, have 20 base cards. than each player puts in 10 in a duel, 5 in team and FFA, cards, along with a list of the deck available during the game.

Omnipotens

Those are both good ideas. Charms or adding a few cards would be a good way to add customization while keeping the game structure relatively the same. I think another good way would be to just add a ton of more heroes that could be played. The reason DOTA (a popular warcraft 3 custom game) is so popular is because of the wide selection of heroes and items... the game is never played in the same way.

Slightquills

I have something to add too. What about  pre-built or map-based decks of spells. All these decks would be pre-determined with a simple drop down menu at the match start screen.

Obviously there must be the same number of spells, at the same cost of the same type  to keep each deck balanced, but each deck would have different summons, attacking spells, ect;