I think the subscription is one booster per week for $4 a month. 50% off the normal price.
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Hex MMOTCG Kickstarter by Cryptozoic Entertainment [Complete, ~$2.5 million funded]
- Thread starter piratepwnsninja
- Start date
piratepwnsninja
Member
Yeah, the sub isn't three boosters a week for $4 a month. It's 1 booster a week.
Eh, my problem with Magic is one part the mana system, and one part creature value. I'll skip the mana system thing as it's the same tired old arguments and can be seen as a tradeoff. My issue with the creature system is in two halves.
First, combat isn't tactical. It's strategic, and there's bluffing, but there are no real tactics because you only target the player. Just like in my video games I like it when there's more to combat, and this was the main reason why I fell in love with VS. System.
Second, creatures are too easy to kill. You would think that given the speed of spells it would be Creature > Sorcery/Artifact > Instant. And that's mostly how it is when it comes to dealing damage or running your deck. But when it comes to the power levels of cards it ends up being Instant > Sorcery/Artifact > Creature, because Instants are the primary way to respond to your opponent's actions. And in Magic strong creature removal is standard, rather than combat pumps.
Combined with the variance caused by the mana system, this means any creature above a cost of 3 or 4 is terrible unless it cheats it's way in. This means there's a cap on how much mana is useful unless you get a lot of draw power and gather multiple spells in hand during the later turns. The crazy amount of monster removal is one of the reasons I got so sick of Yugioh as a kid over a decade ago.
I mean, look at these two cards:
In Vs. System, these would be the capstone of your deck. Your pride and joy. And the game would close out with a clash of your titan against your opponent's, with plot twists and other effects to interact and counter each other.
In Magic, these cards wouldn't see competitive play outside of draft. Of course, I don't play Magic regularly, so I'd like to be proven wrong.
During this post, I noticed that the site has updated before the Kickstarter today: http://hextcg.com/enter-the-arena/
Eteric Rice
Member
I agree with you here. It's kind of why I loved Yu-Gi-Oh. The clash between your biggest beasts was pretty cool. You should bring this point up on their forum.
I hope they jack a few ideas from Yu-Gi-Oh as well. As flawed a game it was, it was fun as hell. Would be cool to see fusions and ritual monsters in Hex.
I saw this linked on the Hex forums; it's a 20-minute video interview with Hex's lead designer Ben Stoll. Pretty interesting, and he spoils a few cards I hadn't heard of before like General's Tent and Tectonic Break.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPEve_kzM9k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPEve_kzM9k
I think the collector tier is the only other $250 worth a damn, but its still underperforms. You are getting $364 a year from free drafts, the 6 alt art cards are unlikely to be worth that much. Also, you're not getting anything unique right now for it, so it doesn't pay off until way later. I'm still tempted, because I am a collector at heart, it's just not equal value though.
In Magic recently they've actually swung the balance a lot of the way to creatures being the finisher of your deck in recent sets. Instant speed removal has gotten generally worse (it is usually either conditional or harder to cast) and the creatures that get played these days are either so good that they are played even if they might get killed immediately, are hard to kill or impossible to kill with removal, or provide value the instant you play them. And sometimes you can't even counter them.
Creature removal and instants are still certainly good, but creatures are pretty great too these days.
So combat can still be a huge part of these games, but it just depends on what cards they print. If they have Doom Blade, Swords to Plowshares and Lightning Bolt equivalents running around it might be tough for creatures to fit into competitive decks, but I'd guess they are smarter than that.
Thanks for showing me those. Here's hoping.
So, new update is out here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cze/hex-mmo-trading-card-game/posts/482859
The update contains an interview with the president on a podcast, and he talks about a lot of the thoughts and events that led up to this kickstarter happening.
As for this interview, it confirms that they went with the Magic style of combat and resource systems for the same reasons Mark Rosewater goes on about; it creates variance and therefore more excitement in the average game. If you can say Magic is as it is now because for better or worse it captures the attention of the most amount of people, then that's what they'll go with. Still, it's definitely worth a listen just to hear more about how far they're taking the opportunities provided by designing a digital card game.
I also forgot to mention in my last post that they've clearly acknowledged in their design space that they need to give a player something when they're mana flooded, which is what the champion charge system is for. We still have to wait and see if there's anything for being mana screwed.
The update contains an interview with the president on a podcast, and he talks about a lot of the thoughts and events that led up to this kickstarter happening.
As for this interview, it confirms that they went with the Magic style of combat and resource systems for the same reasons Mark Rosewater goes on about; it creates variance and therefore more excitement in the average game. If you can say Magic is as it is now because for better or worse it captures the attention of the most amount of people, then that's what they'll go with. Still, it's definitely worth a listen just to hear more about how far they're taking the opportunities provided by designing a digital card game.
I also forgot to mention in my last post that they've clearly acknowledged in their design space that they need to give a player something when they're mana flooded, which is what the champion charge system is for. We still have to wait and see if there's anything for being mana screwed.
There is likely a system in game that sorts the PvP cards separate from PvE-only cards. All cards can be used in PvE of course.
Edit: Or what was stated below! lol
Check the rewards page on the official site: http://hextcg.com/rewards/
There's an icon along the bottom border, towards the left. If you see a little mask looking thing, that's PVE-only card, if there is no mask, it's PVP-capable.
Shrennin
Didn't get the memo regarding the 14th Amendment
Yeah, you're right. I was confused with the free draft tier of the pro-tier. Three packs a week for $4 a month would be crazy.
AstroZombie
Banned
Incredibly impressive performance(disregard the last day).
Edit: Today seems to be their best day yet, disregard what I said about disregarding the last day
Delusibeta
Banned
Incredibly impressive performance(disregard the last day).
Yeah, the donations/day has been impressively flat, instead of explosive start > dead middle > explosive end.
The Xtortionist
Member
Oh yes. I have fond memories of sitting for literally minutes at a time during my attack step with Teen Titans, perfecting my play. Combat in VS was fucking intense.
Are any Hex designers associated with VS? I know WoW and VS were produced by the same company.
Delusibeta
Banned
That seems to be the general consensus it seems.
Yeah, it you are playing the game it pretty much gives you seven dollars every week. The other ones have some cool stuff, but Pro Player can pay for itself multiple times over the games lifetime.
inanutshell
Member
Yeah, the pro tier is the best of the $250 tiers but it will take a lot longer to pay off than most people think. Packs for the first set will probably be sold for close to $1 at the start since kickstarter backers will have an excess of packs but no in game currency for the entry fee in the limited events. Future pack prices will probably settle around $1.50 on the secondary market going by how packs settle around 3 tickets on magic online for the most recent expension/core set. The Pro tier is a great value if you have confidence that the game will grow in popularity and release net sets regularly.
If the number of backers continues to increase, I'll go in on the pro tier or grand king. I've played magic online for years, but I've gotten tired of the lack of features in the program and how clunky the present and future clients are. PVE looks especially promising since I used to love playing the Shandalar MTG game back in the day.
You can have this fear for every new game the came out. Take a low tier so if the community will drop off, you'll not lose much money.
Well, yes and no I'd have to go around Wikipedia to be sure. What I do know is what I heard in that podcast from the recent update; that while Upperdeck was still making VS. System, the current Crypto president got hired because of his idea for the WoW TCG, which then took the same resource mechanic from VS. System. Before WoW TCG separated from Upperdeck, he definitely would have absorbed something from his time there.
Shrennin
Didn't get the memo regarding the 14th Amendment
So far, all the races seem interesting to me mechanically. I'll probably main Shin'hare though as they seem to be the closest to elves in MtG.
New update is out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cze/hex-mmo-trading-card-game/posts/483980
They link the article about the dwarven drafting that Ryuukan already grabbed. They also link to the interview that Kuno brought to us yesterday, which has since been removed.
Another stretch goal has been reached, so they're planning on revealing new ones over the weekend.
Finally, in two hours there will be a stream at twitch.tv/hextcg. I won't be able to catch it, but they've eluded to wanting to show off how the game isn't just Magic++. Wait and see time.
They link the article about the dwarven drafting that Ryuukan already grabbed. They also link to the interview that Kuno brought to us yesterday, which has since been removed.
Another stretch goal has been reached, so they're planning on revealing new ones over the weekend.
Finally, in two hours there will be a stream at twitch.tv/hextcg. I won't be able to catch it, but they've eluded to wanting to show off how the game isn't just Magic++. Wait and see time.
QisTopTier
XisBannedTier
I havent looked at the cards too much really but I hope I'll be able to make a hand control/field control deck in the future
QisTopTier
XisBannedTier
Echoes are up.
I havent looked at the cards too much really but I hope I'll be able to make a hand control/field control deck in the future
blue/black all day son
QisTopTier
XisBannedTier
Yeah, I either do that or I go Blue/Green for speed depending on what's available in the meta
QisTopTier
XisBannedTier
darkressurection
Banned
Yeah, pretty rough to get mana screwed 2 games in a row.
AstroZombie
Banned
The thread title is out of date, this project is at 672k with paypal donations
TerminalDogma
Member
having just quit magic a few months ago, I'm really tempted to get into this. I'm also really tempted to NOT get into this, due to just quitting magic a few months ago. I'm also a bit worried about putting too much money into something that isn't' guaranteed to go anywhere. But damn if this doesn't look really cool.
(If they go over, it doesn't matter, everyone who paid for that tier will get it)
Dang. Pro was at 250, hit refresh, down to 157!
Ah, 85 of them went to Paypal
You are just missing out on someone getting mana screwed
That poor Mareep ;~;
QisTopTier
XisBannedTier
It's ok they like it, I mean look at the one next to it, it's already ready.
Edit: http://www.twitch.tv/hextcg/b/404773267
That's from the stream earlier if you are home from work and haven't checked it out yet.
piratepwnsninja
Member
Under 100 pro tier slots left on the KS page.