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Spectromancer is one of my favorite digital CCGs, even though it wasn't 'collectible' in the usual sense. Co-designed by M:tG-designer Richard Garfield, who was a big fan of Alexey Stankevich's Astral Masters, it felt in a lot of ways like his attempt to 'solve' some of what might be perceived as problems with Magic: the Gathering, namely the issue of mana, and making positioning of creatures an additional element of strategy. It was never a hugely popular game, but even 6 years after its last expansion still has some dedicated players. In addition to its great mechanics, Spectromancer was known for having really, really good AI. Astral Heroes is the next game by Alexey Stankevich and plays very much like the earlier game with some tweaks. I never played his other game, Astral Masters, but I have read several times that this game is like a combination of both games.  Similar to Hearthstone, Mana is a universal resource, not split into elements as it is in Magic and Spectromancer. Every turn you gain Mana equal to your Power, and every turn you gain 1 additional Power. Unspent Mana doesn't roll over. Cards and items can also increase your Power or Mana. An early AI opponent ballooned up to 9 Power against me on his third turn. I haven't yet seen any spells that directly damage your avatar/Planeswalker-equivalent. All damage to players appears to be done through creatures. Similar to Spectromancer and a few other digital CCGs, the play field is divided into lanes. All your creatures attack automatically at the end of every turn (except the turn they were summoned) and are blocked only by an opposing creature directly opposite them, so positioning becomes a major factor, and a lot of cards effect it. For example, the Elven Scout card has a flavorful special ability that he can move once per turn to any empty spot. Another creature prevents allied creatures adjacent to him from being the targets of spells, etc. Damage is also persistent, so a creature that starts with 15 defense which takes 5 damage now has 10 defense. You can't run out of cards, and there is no discard pile. Discarded/dead cards just go back in your deck. Every turn you draw one card, and each turn you can also choose one card to discard and draw another. Things this game does that are unique, as far as I know: - You have special abilities you can collect and customize that you can only cast when your hand is completely empty, so even if you have no cards in your hand you might have something to do. Might even be an advantage. - Your character can collect items that affect your avatar, such as a ring that gives you +2 starting life. - Deck-building is free form with three restrictions -- you can only use two types of magic in any one deck, you must have a certain number of cards in your deck -- no more, no less. This starts at 25 cards, but presumably can be increased somehow. Most uniquely: ala tabletop Warhammer or X-Wing each card has a point value (better cards being worth more) and you can only have a certain number of points in one deck. The limit starts at 600, but can be increased. Matchmaking is supposed to match you against other decks of the same point values. This combined with being forced to have 25 cards in your deck means you can't just make your deck from all your best cards.  It is F2P but what they call "fair to play" in that it's possible to get anything in the game without spending money, and the point limit for decks and matchmaking should hopefully keep things more balanced. There's: - a single-player campaign that unlocks in-game store gold and cards and items, and if the AI is as good as Spectromancer's, this will actually be fun to play. - draft tournaments - a mode that lets you play with random-pre-built decks It's in open beta right now and just passed a Steam Greenlight. The interface isn't flashy, but it is extremely well laid out and easy to understand. The artwork isn't as pretty as modern Magic cards, but it has some of the handpainted charm imho of early Magic art. Here's a gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05BhBxvRqFE I'm not sure how or if players can play against their friends. There is a Guild tab in the interface, but it says it's not implemented yet. Edit: goddamnit I forgot about the whole thread icon thing. 
Imagined fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Jul 2, 2016 |
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Jun 30, 2016 15:06
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 15:54 |
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Fear the sheep.
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Jul 1, 2016 21:59
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I have been enjoying this. If the matchmaking can't find anyone for you it pops you into a pretty decent AI battle instead.
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Jul 5, 2016 21:37
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It is fun. It's hard to imagine dropping any actual money into it until it's more clear whether anyone will play it (this thread isn't a good sign). Maybe when it hits Steam, though that didn't save my previous favorite digital CCG: Might and Magic: Duel of Champions.  Back in the early Magic days I also played Illuminati, Doom Troopers, Vampire/Jihad, etc, so it's possible that my liking a CCG is just the kiss of death.
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Jul 6, 2016 22:22
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It dumps decent bots on you if it can't match you with another player, which should help get it over the usual low-pop death spiral hump. There seems to be a decent social aspect planned, something a lot of online ccgs tend to overlook. Only interacting with the rest of the playerbase via 1v1 combats does not a community make. Very curious about those guild caravans. A couple of op corrections: you have a cap of 3 of a card per deck, and there's a few direct damage cards including one arse of a card that halves your health and then does the same amount of range to your opponent (i.e me  )They also make good use of the fact that these are not physical cards, with a lot of card-copying effects and similar tricks that wouldn't work too well with real cards.
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Jul 7, 2016 10:58
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This game looks cool, but just like every other CCG with moderate-deep complexity, the playerbase looks grim. From previous experience I've learned enough to just wait it out, and actually see if the game sill exists 6 months from now before trying it.
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Jul 11, 2016 18:41
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Guilds are up! Someone take the bullet and found Something Astral
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Aug 16, 2016 17:31
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 15:54 |
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Anyone here still playing this? Guild caravans are a Thing now. You can get four people together and set off on a caravan. Random idlers then get alerted to come fight you!
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Sep 14, 2016 18:42
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