Will Resume Activity Soon & Major News

I know things have been in a slump to say the very least, but I'll be active again soon enough. That's one part of the news. The other involves the BattleCraft post I did awhile back. In a chance meeting I got to chatting with one of the developers of the game and he will be granting me access to the test server. This means I'll be able to give reviews on any and all cards BattleCraft will be producing so my reviewing potential won't be inhibited by lack of collection, only lack of play testing.

I will also be writing up an effect cheat sheet so newcomers (and those just curious) will be able to dive right in knowing what everything does. Who knows how far this will go. If this gets big enough I might have to start another blog just for BattleCraft alone...okay I'm getting ahead of myself. Long story short, the hiatus is nearly over and I'll be working on an updating scheduled.

BattleCraft – A Game For People Too Busy to Hardcore Game But Want To

I needed to show I’m still alive and College hasn’t fully eaten me yet. As some might know I LOVE card games but my love of them won’t stop me from tearing a shitty one a new hole if it proves it needs one.  This so happened to be in Beta testing so I decided to give it a shot.

With that in mind I will not be giving anything resembling a Final Judgment until the game is in full release, at which point I will reveal the gamer name I play under on the site in case you want to challenge me to a fight. Battle Craft is a card game that presents itself as a “game for busy people” ( so let’s keep this in mind before I go further) and it shows. The battles are quick and furious. Once you sign up you get to pick a deck to start with from a few Clans. Once then they game will fling you into a tutorial mode where you’ll be taught the basics and given cards for advancing through the tutorials so you can start tweaking your deck with new cards- Oh, where is my head!? Let me show you the two kinds of cards you use in game to build your fighting machine. You are to have 8 of both kinds in your deck.

This is one of the Hero cards. Hero cards of course are your foot soldiers who will deal the bulk of the damage to your opponents Heroes and your enemies Morale while trying to keep yours high. Four of these are picked at random from your deck. Before I go further let me explain a basic of the game. You and your opponent start off with a set amount of Morale and Energy depending on your level  (30 until you hit level 15, then it becomes 50). The goal of course is to get it to 0 or lower. Each time a Hero attacks they eat into your energy (indicated amount by the green lightning bolt). If you run out of Energy all other attacks and abilities will come out of Morale. The fight ends of course when this hits 0 or you kill all your opponents Heroes. The Fist shows how much attack power the Hero has and the Heart is HP. The icon on the upper right hand side shows what faction it belongs in and the one on the upper left hand side would have a B in it if the card is bound to your account.

This is a Support card. You attach these to your Heroes to help turn the tides of battle. You will notice four symbols on these. In descending order we have Clan (the one on this card is Unaligned so it may be used by any Hero), an Hourglass, A Blue Lightning Bolt and a Green Lightning Bolt. The Hourglass will have a number on it to show what turn it activates (these can only have their effect activated one time), the Blue Lightning Bolt will show its Energy cost if it takes effect before your Heroes slug it out and the Green Lightning Bolt works when your Hero attacks. Unlike the Hero cards, all of your Support cards are available before all Hell breaks loose but keep in mind you can only assign one per Hero.

Once all cards are positioned and confirmed the fight begins. Each Hero takes swings at the one across from them until a winner is decided. It can get more complicated than that, but I wanted to keep things simple for now and save a more in depth explanation once it comes out of Beta.

The game does have a Marketplace where you can buy AND sell cards on Auction for Shards (the in game currency) or use Hydra Cash (the premium currency) to buy booster packs (most boosters can be bought with just Shards) or Shards. If you want to play in the higher ends of play you’ll need cards from Booster Packs, but fear not, the game has implemented a Ladder System insuring you won’t be constantly bullies by higher ranked players. If you got someone in the low end with a really powerful deck, don’t worry, they’ll be out of the lower end soon enough unless you get silly and join a Tournament then prepare to see that dude again.

If you want you can craft some cards you need, but the materials required are other cards and materials that you could find in Daily Challenges. They drop randomly, so unless you got the patients of a Saint you might go mad hoping the Random Number God will toss you a bone.

Now for a point of concern. The packs. As of now I feel that they might be asking for too much money for the packs (in terms of Hydro Cash). $3 for 6 Cards in the Platinum pack sounds like a sweet deal but I wouldn’t mind getting at least 2 more out of it. Players can offer you cards in Private deals (for free if they’re generous enough), but in order to get these you must become a Member. Yeah, I know that look on your face going “HOW ARE THESE FIENDS GOING TO MILK ME DRY!?” Fear not, you only need to buy Hydra Cash at least ONCE and only $5 at the very least (smallest amount they’ll take) and you’ll have access to everything Marketplace wise.

Another grievance I have is with the card art. Once you get in you’ll notice in a good deal of cases the background is repeatedly recycled which drove me INSANE. It still does grind my gears, but it’s in Beta (and an Indie Project) so I’m hoping the backgrounds will become FAR MORE VARRIED once fully released. If any of you developers are reading this the same-y backgrounds aren’t professional and make your game seem like a “fly by night” operation. This ALMOST turned me off from the game before giving it a shot because I couldn’t help but wonder “if they’re too lazy to change up the background on each card do they really have faith in their product? Is this a real project or a scam?” Varied backgrounds means you care enough about the details to get me to invest and not changing up CONSTANTLY is sending the wrong message on a subconscious level!

There’s a bunch I left out, but that’s only because if I told you EVERYTHING I think you wouldn’t try it or yourself. Go ahead, sign up and give it a shot. The game is seriously starved for a strong player base, and if you like it then you could pass word to another friend and get things rolling. The place is small, but I have yet to run into any douchebags.

P.S. The lower in rating you are the more Shards you get. You’ll get a lot more Shards in the lower ranks, so don’t get discouraged if you keep losing. That will pay for itself with access to more power.