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[piratepwnsninja]

http://hextcg.com/
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cze/hex-mmo-trading-card-game

I'll say that the WoW TCG, with its Raid Decks and whatnot, has been very entertaining. It isn't as popular as Magic, for sure and is in a lot of ways shackled by the license, but it's still a very good TCG.

Seeing these guys attempting this is certainly cool. If they can bring the feeling of the raids into a digital environment, as well as having the other abilities like gemming cards, it should be a lot of fun. I could copy/paste from their kickstarter page to list features, but surely people can click links.

 

[shira]

That's a pretty badass ks video

 

[piratepwnsninja]

That's a pretty badass ks video

Yeah, I meant to mention that the Kickstarter video is quite good.

 

[Rubius]

I somehow want to back this. I like to play TCG games, but I work a lot and dont always access to a vehicle. so having a tournament environment at home might be nice.
I hesitate to go Early Bird King or to go lower.

 

[piratepwnsninja]

I somehow want to back this. I like to play TCG games, but I work a lot and dont always access to a vehicle. so having a tournament environment at home might be nice.
I hesitate to go Early Bird King or to go lower.

In the same boat. I mean, working at a game studio means we have a lot of MtG players here, and play during lunch when we can, but I like the idea of a card game I can play on a side monitor or even my Surface at home while doing other things.

I went early bird King while some where still there. As more information trickles out over the duration of the Kickstarter, if I want to change or cancel, I can without a loss.

 

[Hex]

Interesting

 

[Yaari]

Wow, this sounds like a great concept. They put alot of work into that video aswell.
I might have to check it out. I do wonder how the game itself works though, are you going to have to buy all of these cards? It does sound like that, looking at their rewards with detailed value.

Either way, never backed on Kickstarter before but I'd love to get into the beta for this.

 

[Fragamemnon]

I was for years a huge WOWTCG player, and though I am not currently attending DMFs or on a team, I still follow what Cryptozoic is doing with the game and they have continued to shine in providing a game with low barrier to entry and provide a framework for gaming communities to develop even while competing with the market behemoths.

For a two decades plus TCG veteran, Hex is full of exciting things. The ability to have have card rules and mechanics that aren't possible in a cardboard version of the game is super powerful. You can have things that change cards in your deck, or create one-off exception rules for specific cards, etc, all the things that would be tournament hell for judges in real life. I mean, you can create tokens that are actually cards that go to the graveyard, or dynamically create cards on the fly, the freedom you have with a real digital ruleset not beholden to cardboard is boundless. There's even a marketplace for exchanging and trading everything, so no binders full of women, err, angels to pile through to get to that juicy chase rare.

As mentioned in the video, both TCG communities and MMO guild community share a lot in common and the social constructs should mesh extremely well together. Cryptozoic has a very good understanding of how they can implement PvE and even multiplayer raids in a TCG environment and I expect that the content will be regularly updated with new challenges even between expansions.

Hearthstone is coming but the games are dramatically different in nature despite looking similar. This is really an MMO first with a TCG engine as its gameplay, whereas Hearthstone is really just a streamlined WOWTCG, which while awesome isn't anywhere close to the scope of Hex.

I'm very excited about the game and already got in for the early bird king tier, and will likely upgrade to a higher tier later if they need the late boost. But they really shouldn't as no company is really doing anything like what Cryptozoic is trying to pull of with Hex.

 

[sgjackson]

The proper Hex website has useful information, including an example game. This looks to be a near clone of Magic, with a slightly different resource system and some added mechanics that make sense for a PC game. It's close enough that I was guessing the analogs for keywords on cards and getting most of them right, and the phases and priority system look extremely similar, if not exactly the same. The fact that they appear to be adding cool mechanics to a very sensible, elegant shell in Magic gives me a lot of faith in the TCG elements in this, but who knows about the MMO elements, which looked rudimentary at best in the Kickstarter video.

Considering how much I love drafting on MTGO, getting a free draft a week for life in this game at 250 is very tempting - if it's remotely close to as well designed as Magic from a limited standpoint and comes through on a better UI, that would basically pay for itself fairly quickly. Getting a ton of packs/cards on top of that is icing on the cake.

 

[BigWeather]

I missed the Early Bird tier. =/ Ah, well, will likely still back at a lower tier (no way I'll back at $120 when I could've gotten in at $90, just one of those things). Still looks really cool!

 

[Fragamemnon]

Considering how much I love drafting on MTGO, getting a free draft a week for life in this game at 250 is very tempting - if it's remotely close to as well designed as Magic from a limited standpoint and comes through on a better UI, that would basically pay for itself fairly quickly. Getting a ton of packs/cards on top of that is icing on the cake.

Having drafted Cryptozoic's WOWTCG sets and blocks too many times to count, I can say that the booster draft design experience in the company is exceptional. I had a lot more fun drafting WOWTCG than I did MTG as a whole.

 

[sgjackson]

Having drafted Cryptozoic's WOWTCG sets and blocks too many times to count, I can say that the booster draft design experience in the company is exceptional. I had a lot more fun drafting WOWTCG than I did MTG as a whole.

When did you last draft with Magic? I never played WoW TCG, so I'm curious what your frame of reference is.

 

[Fragamemnon]

When did you last draft with Magic? I never played WoW TCG, so I'm curious what your frame of reference is.

My last draft was triple RTR, so it has been good while. I haven't had much time to play outside of the occasional local Legacy event. I have been doing MTG sealed product gaming on and off since Revised though I in general prefer constructed decks in that game.

 

[sgjackson]

My last draft was triple RTR, so it has been good while. I haven't had much time to play outside of the occasional local Legacy event. I have been doing MTG sealed product gaming on and off since Revised though I in general prefer constructed decks in that game.

I'd call RTR fairly recent, so if you think WoW TCG drafting is superior to, say, Innistrad, I'm more inclined to throw more money at this. 250 is a lot to swallow right now, though, so I'll keep an eye out as they release more info and make my decision later, I think.

 

[QisTopTier]

Annnd I'm totally freaking backing this.

 

[Fragamemnon]

I'd call RTR fairly recent, so if you think WoW TCG drafting is superior to, say, Innistrad, I'm more inclined to throw more money at this. 250 is a lot to swallow right now, though, so I'll keep an eye out as they release more info and make my decision later, I think.

Yeah without a doubt I had more fun drafting both Scourgewar and Worldbreaker block than any permutation of ISD/DKA/ACR. The interaction and tension that occurs due to the class-based WOWTCG system and faction split, along with the fewer number of cards in draft decks and the awesome power of quests, made it a much more fun experience. Even Scourgewar draft, whose namesake set that is about as balanced as Urza's Saga, was fun (and CZE didn't design most of that block).

The one complaint that I hear over and over is that they can't find local groups to play WOWTCG with. The reason for that is simple-MTG's ubiquity strangles anything remotely resembling a competitor in the crib. You can always find people to play Magic with, and don't have to deal with the hurdle of finding a reliable playgroup near your house like you do with WOWTCG.

 

[piratepwnsninja]

I sent a question asking about the $250 free draft a week for the product life tier. I'm wondering if they'll let players at that tier draft newer sets for free as they release, or if players at that tier are stuck free drafting the core set.

 

[Gintamen]

Video was quiet persuasive and very funny on top, wish I could pledge a bit. :'(

Thanks for the vid sgjackson.

 

[KuroNeeko]

I'll back this.

 

[Emitan]

Looks very MtG which is a good thing. I can see myself spending a ton of time in this and I'm really curious what the PvE stuff will be like.

 

[QisTopTier]

Looks very MtG which is a good thing. I can see myself spending a ton of time in this and I'm really curious what the PvE stuff will be like.

Looks like there will be party and raid stuff to. That should be fun to play with friends

 

[The Xtortionist]

WoW TCG was extremely fun. I really like the idea of persistent damage on units and the resource system seemed much improved from Magic's. Face cards are also a lot of fun in various games.

Upper Deck used to be incredible (not sure if they still are). VS System and WoW was like a one-two punch delivered by God himself. The games never seemed to blow up though. I know VS died to lack of prize support (RI fucking P, I mean what other card game can pit the X-Men against the Teen Titans?).

 

[questionmark]

I've always wanted to get into online tcg's, so I was excited for Hearthstone. Definitely keeping my eye on this. Will probably back at some point.

 

[iirate]

Yep, definitely watching this closely along with Hearthstone! I just want a fun, FtP, digital TCG that takes advantage of the medium. One if not both will hopefully deliver.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Up to 100k , 33% of the way there on the first day. They should have no problems clearing their goal.

Just a couple of items from their forums:
- Raids are three people, dungeons are cleared solo.
- There will be a in-game gold AH and RMAH for player goods

edit: I'm kind of excited about this because it's real hard right now to play TCGs with friends who just want to play casually due to their inherent head to head battles. The Co-op challenges and ability to loan out cards in the guild bank would be perfect.

 

[Emitan]

One of the devs confirmed an optional $4 a month subscription that gets you a booster every week. Boosters are $2 so that's a pretty good deal.

 

[Lombax]

this is the first kickstarter I have ever backed. Hope they make it, game looks awesome.

 

[piratepwnsninja]

Article about drafting:

http://hextcg.com/drafting-in-hex/

Which sounds a lot like MtG drafting. I'm OK with this.

 

[Rubius]

Article about drafting:

http://hextcg.com/drafting-in-hex/

Which sounds a lot like MtG drafting. I'm OK with this.

6$ per person by draft is a pretty good way to make a MMO gain some money. Lets say its one draft by week. For a pro player (who did not spend 200$ for the Pro Tier), its 24$ a month on virtual card where the devs dont have to spend money on shipping, making, testing the virtual cards. That's pretty cool for them. I might go and drop 200$ on the free draft for life. Will see.

I really hesitate between the Dungeon Crawler and the Pro Player. I'm not good at TCG,so I might be better off with doubling the Boss loot.
Also, wondering if we can choose when to open the booster pack? Because having 150 booster pack of the first set is kind of silly.
EDIT: Seem like you can wait to open them whenever you want,

Booster pack rewards can be opened at any time. You can open the booster now, but save the boosters "treasure chest" to trade or open at some other time.

now I just have to know if they are set bound or not. Like can you save some boosters for boosters of an another set, or is it like TF2 crates. Pretty sure they are like TF2 crates. This mean that if in Set 4 people cant buy of the Set 1 anymore, Set 1 boosters might gain value with other players.
Nice.

 

[sgjackson]

Article about drafting:

http://hextcg.com/drafting-in-hex/

Which sounds a lot like MtG drafting. I'm OK with this.

This sounds so much like Magic drafting I'm surprised he didn't mention BREAD in the drafting tips. I'm ok with this.

Stuff

I'd probably go with Pro Player. PvE cards won't be usable in competitive tournaments, and I'd bet the monetary benefits from getting PvP cards could be used to buy equivalent loot and PvE cards on the AH. I'd also bet that packs go into an inventory system where they can then be used or sold.

The Cryptozoic reps on the Hex forums are doing a pretty great job of answering questions, if you ask about this stuff there you have a pretty good shot of getting official confirmation.

 

[Yaari]

I wonder if they have any plans for if they really go far beyond the 300k mark.
Their Youtube channel gets plenty of new videos aswell, http://www.youtube.com/user/CryptozoicGaming?feature=watch

I'll see what I will do, perhaps a 20$ or 35$ backing. Not good at TCG at all so won't do anything crazy. Although the 100% extra loot sounds pretty awesome, but not for me.

 

[Card Boy]

I was excited until i saw the following

Talents
Socketed cards
Equipment

This is not balanced and is way too much like LoL. Talents should under no circumstances exist in a TCG. Wouldn't surprise me if the game had boosters you can buy that they are not telling you about.

Also what does he mean the game has the PvE you would expect out of a traditional MMO? Does he mean i can walk around like the Pokemon Gameboy games and battle people? That would be cool, except it looks it didn't look anything like that in the video.

If Evolving monsters is what i think it is then yeah im completely out. I'm saying I hope its like the Pokemon TCG and not like that GREE/Mobage crap.

 

[Emitan]

I was excited until i saw the following

Talents
Socketed cards
Equipment

This is not balanced and is way too much like LoL. Talents should under no circumstances exist in a TCG. Wouldn't surprise me if the game had boosters you can buy that they are not telling you about.

Also what does he mean the game has the PvE you would expect out of a traditional MMO? Does he mean i can walk around like the Pokemon Gameboy games and battle people? That would be cool, except it looks it didn't look anything like that in the video.

If Evolving monsters is what i think it is then yeah im completely out. I'm saying I hope its like the Pokemon TCG and not like that GREE/Mobage crap.

None of that is in the PvP. I think gems for sockets might be in PvP but they are all provided for you for free.

 

[Rubius]

None of that is in the PvP. I think gems for sockets might be in PvP but they are all provided for you for free.

Yeah. The Hero is only PVE, so all the talents are useless in PVP, but nice while doing raids and dungeons and PVP have all the gems provided as explained in drafting.
PVP is like your normal Card game except that you can socket stuff in your cards. PVE add more gimmicks and bonuses. For example, the raid level add one more card in your hand at the beginning of your game in PVE.

Just like in normal MMO, you need a PVP set and a PVE set.

 

[Rubius]

And here some more interesting answers:
"All the boosters are set 1 rewards.

We don't know if we're going to make sets go 'out of print' yet or not; we plan to collect feedback from the players in that respect. Our goal is always to create the best experience for the players possible, and our decisions are always driven in that direction.

The internet overhead of the game is very, very low. The amount of data that goes back and forth to the server is minimal, and we have a 3 minute reconnect timer, that if you lose connection during a game, you have 3 minutes to log back in and you will be automatically rejoined to that game. Any single player experience just uses save states, so you can actually rejoin almost any time after disconnecting.

There are two sets; PvP and PvE; with all cards existing in either one or the other. You can use PvP or PvE cards in PvE, you can only use PvP cards in tournaments and sanctioned play, and there is an 'anything goes' format where you can play your friends using PvP or PvE cards.

Equipment, Heroes and Talents are PvE only. That includes going on raids with your friends, and there is a 'wild west' format, where you can play all that stuff against your friends. To maintain a good competitive environment, though, we want anyone to be able to jump in and play drafts immediately without having to "level up" their champion first..

PvP has Champions, which are heroes with specific stats and gametext that doesn't change. There are also Heroes and Mercenaries, which are the guys who change as you level them up.
The only thing you can use in sanctioned PvP is cards from the PvP set and champions from the PvP set (we give you all of them for free). There is a 'wild west' format where you can play anything, but it's more for casual friends and for people to have fun with their friends."

EDIT: Double Post. Damn you weak internet!

 

[piratepwnsninja]

Yup, going to up to the $250 Pro Player tier I think

Chris just stated on Kickstarter:

At the Pro Player tier we provide everything. Once a week, you can do a draft for free of any format that is available. You don't have to bring any packs or pay any money. This will last for the rest of your natural life.

 

[wanders]

So is the gameplay like Magic?

 

[Rubius]

Yup, going to up to the $250 Pro Player tier I think

Chris just stated on Kickstarter:

Kind of shitty for people who want to implant them self into robots. The term Natural life is to save themselves from those who say "His spirit inhabit my body!"?
This way they can say "Oh sorry, your natural life is gone."?

I went with the Dungeon Crawler but I may go with the Pro Player. I dont know which one will be the most interesting at the end. PVE or PVP.

 

[piratepwnsninja]

So is the gameplay like Magic?

Very much so. You can see a video of a sample game here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SfOfGvkdzlI

 

[Yaari]

I hope they add stretch goals soon. I am quite interested in what they can do if we go beyond the 300k.

 

[Minsc]

Regarding Gez's comments about balance, I wonder if anyone has straight out asked them if the PVE structure/campaign is going to abuse the hell out of the players and require 100s of hours of grinding for item sets to beat near-impossible battles, or require lots of money? That would be my worry, that it ends up becoming a bit of a money-pit / scam.

 

[sgjackson]

Regarding Gez's comments about balance, I wonder if anyone has straight out asked them if the PVE structure/campaign is going to abuse the hell out of the players and require 100s of hours of grinding for item sets to beat near-impossible battles, or require lots of money? That would be my worry, that it ends up becoming a bit of a money-pit / scam.

Considering they're using the terms MMO (hundreds of hours) and TCG (money pits), I think that's a pretty safe bet. Hopefully it's structured in a somewhat interesting way (MMO) and not just a raw grind you can brute force your way through with money (F2P social games). I think it would be interesting if, for example, there was a campaign to complete which you could largely do for free, but if you wanted to do the more challenging raids with your friends that might require more of a time and money investment.

I don't think the PvE element of this game is what's interesting about it, honestly. What little they've shown of it so far via the Kickstarter video seems pretty rudimentary. The fact that they're leading with their best foot forward and getting a bunch of TCG pros to talk about the draft format also supports that.

 

[Totakeke]

Feels too close to MtG mechanics, lame.

 

[V_Arnold]

So is the gameplay like Magic?

It is exactly like magic. Down to keywords that are just named slightly differently.
That in itself is not a bad thing - MoTG is a good staple framework that many sytems use -, now it will boil down to the individual abilities and combos for variety.

 

[Totakeke]

I don't see why I should play a MtG clone when if I can just play MtG which has a way bigger community than this ever will.

 

[Rubius]

Regarding Gez's comments about balance, I wonder if anyone has straight out asked them if the PVE structure/campaign is going to abuse the hell out of the players and require 100s of hours of grinding for item sets to beat near-impossible battles, or require lots of money? That would be my worry, that it ends up becoming a bit of a money-pit / scam.

Well its a MMO, so I'm pretty sure Grinding will be included, but I dont know how big it will be. I'm sure the Raids will be hard on the players like all MMOs.

 

[traveler]

I didn't like the fundamentals of WoW nearly as much as Magic, but it was enjoyable enough. Never drafted it though. If it's as good/better than triple Innistrad era Magic, then wow, that is saying something. Need to give it another shot. Too bad I know 0 players that play WoW.

Yep, definitely watching this closely along with Hearthstone! I just want a fun, FtP, digital TCG that takes advantage of the medium. One if not both will hopefully deliver.

Yeah, as much as I like Magic, MTGO is not the standard setter it should be given the position of its IP. Someone needs to come in and absolutely destroy Wizards with a game that can at least challenge Magic mechanically so that they will actually have some incentive to get their act together with MTGO.

Hearthstone looks like My First TCG, but there's no denying the interface looks considerably better than Wizard's best effort. (Hilarious given the 16 man team behind it) If it's fun enough, I'll play it, even if it doesn't match Magic.

All in all, glad to see this space livening up. Was only a matter of time given the continued ascension of f2p models.

 

[sgjackson]

I don't see why I should play a MtG clone when if I can just play MtG which has a way bigger community than this ever will.

I'm mostly excited about cheaper drafting and a better UI.

 

[Fragamemnon]

I don't see why I should play a MtG clone when if I can just play MtG which has a way bigger community than this ever will.

As someone who has played a lot of MtG, both online and off, the biggest draw here is:

- MTGO really is just that bad.
- PvE co-op challenges are inclusive, and let me play to my fullest capacity while also playing with more casual minded friends. No casual player is going to want to play me at Magic if I am running a deck I consider optimal and playing at the best of my ability.
- Hex's digital-only nature allows a range of card and deck interactions that are completely impossible to do in MTG. Tokens are real cards that actually go to the graveyard and persist when they die. The game can randomly choose cards out of either player's deck and modify them for the rest of the game. And so on.
- Resources and threshold mechanic is still a huge upgrade on lands, which are terrible.

The fact my friends can sign up, play PvE in free to play to earn cards, and build (likely very causal) decks, characters and equipment and we can all go on one of the PvE raids is very appealing to me. Currently there's not very many good ways to play TCGs online with friends who only enjoy them casually.

 

[Ravager61]

As someone who has played a lot of MtG, both online and off, the biggest draw here is:

- MTGO really is just that bad.
- PvE co-op challenges are inclusive, and let me play to my fullest capacity while also playing with more casual minded friends. No casual player is going to want to play me at Magic if I am running a deck I consider optimal and playing at the best of my ability.
- Hex's digital-only nature allows a range of card and deck interactions that are completely impossible to do in MTG. Tokens are real cards that actually go to the graveyard and persist when they die. The game can randomly choose cards out of either player's deck and modify them for the rest of the game. And so on.
- Resources and threshold mechanic is still a huge upgrade on lands, which are terrible.

The fact my friends can sign up, play PvE in free to play to earn cards, and build (likely very causal) decks, characters and equipment and we can all go on one of the PvE raids is very appealing to me. Currently there's not very many good ways to play TCGs online with friends who only enjoy them casually.

I used to play a lot of competitive Magic as well and I agree with everything here except the bolded part. Mechanically, I think lands are fine. Great, even. MtG's problem with them is they made the good ones wayyyyy too rare and expensive for a card that is required in every deck.

MTGO is so bad. If this can give me a similar competition level as MTGO, I'm all over it.