f13.net

(http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/05/battleforge-interview-volker-wertich/b1.jpg)
 

This game looks awesome : must.resist.the.hype (http://www.battleforge.com)

:drill:

EDIT : OK, vader was overkill.

I have no idea what any of that means, but it does look pretty sweet.

(http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/05/battleforge-interview-volker-wertich/b1.jpg)

Is that some kind of bukkake attack?

It looks interesting, but I don't know why it's in the MMOG forum.

Yeah,  MTGO was in regular gaming.  My bad.

New trailer up (http://www.battleforge.com/cms/front_content.php?idcat=10&idart=79)

Beta access for preorder - North America only.

No date for the beta yet.

EDIT : gameplaytrailer (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37614.html)

[update... thread resurrection]

Beta for this started today.  Fileplanet and pre-order folk get access.  Initial DL is only like 70MB, but the patch is quite huge so far. (i'm still patching)  Will report after I have a taste.  Been waiting for this one for a long time.  The fact they're even trying this little "experiment" of theirs deserves some merit, we'll see if they execute properly.  Hopefully it's more fun than Pox Nora (that game sux bawls).

Ah shit, nice.

You know, now that EA is on Steam, they should really do their betas through there. I'm tired of buying PC boxes.

Well, that wouldnt help Fileplanet (Fox Media) gain subs.  And EA needs to justify their own DL manager (which is part of this game).  I'd like to know who's running the servers for this thing though... Gamespy, EA, a small hovel in Germany?

I agree with you though, as much as I kinda despise Steam (you know how I believe all information should be free).

Anyways, nice  tutorial vids (http://www.battleforge.com/cms/front_content.php?idcat=40) to watch while you patch.

They did a pretty dang good job on the music for this (shows a professionalism I wasnt expecting):
http://www.ea.com/eatrax/preview.jsp?soundTrackId=battleforge&curPage=1

Welp, finished patching and going through the Intro. area and...  this, my friends, is a well made game, so far... w/o a doubt.  I foresee come Spring this will be the new Cracktastic Voyage for all to play.   If you value your meagre savings, stay far far away from this game... dont even try the beta (I'm being serious).  The beta will compel you to buy the game, which will in turn compel you to sell your soul (once the game releases) in order to buy cards or gold (which you'll be able to get anywhere/anytime/anyhow)... then once you have those cards, you will never sleep again because at its core it's a collectible MMORPG (with coop single, dual, and even raid lvl gameplay... along with laddered PvP in a pretty slick community format).  It's the absolute worst (errr.. best, depending on your outlook) combination of gaming one could present to "gamers."  If I had kids, they would not be allowed to play it. 

Anyways, if I'm wrong, I'll change my avatar to a flaming pile of rhino dung for a month.  But really, Phenomic is onto something here.  The game even oddly enough has an MMO feel to it (I have to dig into it some more though to fully realize this).

More later, getting late.  Lot to talk about with this one.

cool

World of Blizzard is delayed a year, retooled into an MMOTCG, and smashes all your dreams into a monthly payable bill

Just got done playing the tutorial myself. Very slick. Game plays like a simplified RTS with standard movement and controls, although the ranged cards spells might add a layer of strategy outside unit special abilities. It's basically exactly what I would expect from merging Warcraft 3 and MtG. I think the turning of the Mana/lands into the RTS resources is particularly clever.  If you add in unique units to loot/buy/trade it could be seriously addictive.  I wonder how they are going to treat the overpowered/rare card issues common to CCGs in balancing a RTS though?

This post. It's frightening.

It's good.  It's also pretty easy to get into the beta.

I wouldn't call ordering directly from EA (who has the worst download service in the world) or joining that godawful Fileplanet "easy."

Most of the game is patched in, not from the initial DL.  As far as I can tell they have their own launcher/patcher and isnt using EA (the game is really 3.6GB to DL and 9GB install)... which kinda doesnt explain why they included EA's DL manager in the install, unless later on they plan on autofeeding people patches ala Steam.  A bit confusing who's going to do what with this game.

There's a slight risk with this title getting bigger than they can handle, since I believe there's only going to be one massive server (their servers are already pretty on their knees).  The slick part is since it's setup somewhat like an MMO, you can actually navigate the "gameworld" through the map UI so as to not flood one general location.  There's even an offline area where you can practice on your own, fighting against yourself... tweaking your deck.

Nevertheless, I cant seem to find any real info. on how the server structure is going to be with this one, which is obviously pretty important seeing as how it's a TCG.  My bet is there will have to be multiple servers with separate markets; intermaket sales will have to be done via 3rd party and with retail cards (they will have a Facebook appy btw, which of course links with Ebay).  Game isnt roomy enough for only 1 server, even with the myriad different zones to play in... so at the very least perhaps an Asian, EU, and NA server.

p.s.
This game is an MMO and perhaps should be in that forum section - although sometimes I think anything that touches that forum becomes unclean.

Patching now, CAN'T F'ING WAIT.

Oh hell I did not need to see this...

Guys. I'm gonna say something obvious.

Wait for them to announced a collector's edition with a preorder deal so you can get rare cards. No doubt they WILL do that.

Anyone see any mention of an NDA?  I cant seem to find one on the forums.  There's an agreement at the install, but as usual I didnt read it. :oh_i_see:
Oh well... my in-game character is "Ghambit" if anyone else plays.

Btw, there are (castle)siege elements (like every good RTS) and I believe dungeon runs in this game as well. (if you were wondering)  Stay away from the forums if you value your sanity, a lot of younglings in there.

Are there guilds and such? This game is up a lot of Bat Country's alley. I would not mind running it in this game. DO WANT.

Moving to MMOG.

Whats with the popularity of card based systems recently? Game looks cool though.

This game is fuckawesome.

It's best if I never knew this game existed.

HmmMmm... I need to be a paying member of FP to try this?

Ok you really shouldn't have posted that trailer.

I hate you.

I want to play this now.

If by chance you have comcast as your internet provider you have  file planet subscription privileges, at least until the end of the year.  I'm patching now, if I understand the beta agreement correctly, there is an NDA (described under confidential information IIRC) that basically allows you to say that there is a beta and you are in it.  

I'm using comcast.  How do I get an account?

This was it.  http://www.comcast.net/gameinvasion/setup/index.html  As you can see, the link to activate is empty.  Sorry. 

I'm not sure, I signed up a while back, I think it was under games or downloads on the comcast site.

I signed up years and years ago, too.  It was a Founder's Club bundle offered by Comcast.  They actually got rid of it in August and even though I switched
to FIOS months ago, it was still good.  Recently I had a letter from Fileplanet stating they were going to cut all the Comcast people off at the
end of the year. 

Oh, if you want to continue, FP has a special offer.  You sign up and it's free for a month but then they'll charge you $40 or something if you don't cancel within the allotted time.  FORTY!!!   :ye_gods:

I got it by posting a silly picture of me imitating a Juggernaut in the forum.  It was not random, you had 100% chance of getting in if you posted a picture.  I imagine it should turn into an open beta pretty soon.

I stopped playing because  you can't buy cards for the beta.  You're pretty much stuck playing with what you have with the few free starting packs, which is a shame since a huge part of the game is building your deck and improving your cards.  Might be just me though, I never grind past the early levels in mmorpg's beta because I find it pointless.

This game will live or die by their ability to release new cards.  I wouldn't bother with the actual game if there was no other card set planned.  The actual cards aren't leaving much place to innovation right now.

Well yea, I've already said I'm not really gonna play again til live, but fuck, this game feels like crack. I might just have to uninstall it like I did the megaten beta >_>

I lovehate all of you.

I still fire up Etherlords II and Culdcept because there haven't been enough deckbuilding games recently.  Could Battleforge be The One?

I forgot my sekret answer and password to my Comcast online account and I nearly broke the phone after navigating Comcast's phone system.

So I'm safe for now.

I hope The One never arrives or I am fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked.

Hmm fucked as in homeless or fucked as in die in your chair due to starvation?

In any CCG beta (and I've done a couple) you obviously cant buy cards.  Talk about throwing money away...
As for the cards themselves, I believe the Twilight series is releasing with 200 cards.  Considering a deck is only 20 cards max? that's not bad.  I believe your standard 40-card minimum deck TCGs are usually around 400 cards, tops.  MtG was around 300 cards I believe, and that's with a tourney legal 60-card deck.  So Phenomic has it right to start with this ratio.

A LARGE chunk of the game involves upgrading cards (you cant trade the upgrades though) through loot either won coop or pvp... so that adds a whole nuther layer to the game, making exponential combinations... way more than MtG 1st edition.  It's a system similar to Pox Nora's, where your runes arent just there for looks - they're actually characters you maintain.

Lastly, to even think for a SECOND they wont fully support this game with new cards is shear folly.  The char. models really arent that complex, although the stylization and presentation is great... so I wouldnt doubt them being able to easily generate many new cards per day - most of that hinges on the creativity of their art department and what they can come up with, along with the quality of their playtesting department.  I mean, remember this is frakkin EA we're talking about here and this is a retail giant in the making (as long as EA doesnt tank the game like they usually do).  If you follow Chaotic: Online at all you know how ravenous the Europeans are over that game/cartoon... and Chaotic pales in comparison to BattleForge, although BF is using a similar retail model (only better).

Even if the game doesnt kick off well in the US (which I seriously doubt), the Euro market will eat this up.  And dont be surprised if there's some kind of animated series... if they were smart they'd make it "Adult Swimmish."  The Lore is compelling enough IMO (obviously not on the level of MtG though).

p.s.
If you want a cheap way into the beta just sub to Fileplanet for a month (what?  like 6 bucks?), DL the client and then cancel.  Gotta remember this game is a monetary collectible investment; getting the jump on the retail crowd is worth 1 less Happy Meal IMO... assuming you plan on buying the game.

The problem here is it's both.  It's not like you just play a quick pickup game during recess (like in MtG).  You feel compelled to sit there, even in this simple beta.  If you're a competitive person, you have endless avenues to satiate yourself... 24/7, 7 days a week.  If you're a compulsive buyer or HSN junkie, the same.  If you're a raid-leader control phreak, same.  Lone wolf?  covered.  Min-maxer? ditto.

So yah, fucked.

Haha if you you tough Etherlords was good you're pretty much fucked. This game will consume your life force until you are but a empty husk.

Tanks for the explanation.  :uhrr:

np   :grin:    You just sounded really disappointed you couldnt buy cards.  But, I'll just take it like you ran out of content - which I aggree can happen w/o having the market, the 12-mans, the ladder, guild UI, etc.  Just kinda sounded like you expected it.  How long have you been in the beta?

I was in the first wave.  Was it the beginning of November?  I played maybe 10 matches, decided it was worth a try at release but felt like I was wasting my time in the beta. So I stopped.  And yeah,I was stuck because I couldn't get more cards to try new tactics.


Couple of random points :

I also read about the 200 cards but it didn't feel like there was that many in the beta.  I read the forum more than I played and it was always the same cards being discussed.  I think they are counting a normal card and his epic version has 2 cards.

I think they missed an opportunity by giving you access to your whole deck at any time.  I miss the strategy and tension related to drawing in Magic.  The resources system would prevent the mana problem found in magic.  Could have been nice to be able to use resources to draw cards faster.  Having unit or spell to discard the opponent hands or draw more cards could have augmented the strategic possibilities.

I think this game is going to suffer from player quiting when they lose the first battle.  The resources system doesn't leave much room for a comeback.  You lose one of your color orb and you're stuck throwing mid level units at his late game units.  The units are also pretty easy to heal with a splash of green.  You can steamroll a player army and be left with almost 75% of your army while he has to recast everything. I see most pvp game being a fight for some orb ressources in the middle of the map, the looser instantly quit.

There's one particularly good feature : they have a flexible league system.  You can open a couple of booster and restrict them to a specific deck for a months (you can't use any card from your collection) and play vs  other player with the same restriction.  It's a nice way to learn the game on equal ground vs the veteran while you build your collection.  With out this, the newcomers would simply get steamrolled by veterans with fully upgraded cards and quit.

Ooh.  Closed deck leagues.  Personal favorite feature in a CCG.  My gaming budget is right now cowering in a corner praying that I won't mug it for booster pack money.  Its prayers will not be answered.

It's not as bad as Magic for the budget since the deck last you one month and work for an unlimited number of games.  The money wasting part will be for running after rare cards and keeping up to date with the updates.

Already uninstalled it, I like CCGs but find I still hate RTSs so I'll be giving this one a miss.

I'd tend to agree with you about people quitting; I've seen it happen in other slightly similar games.  BUT, BF is an MMO with the vast majority of its content coop and solo PvE (they even stole WARs unlockable lore...  i.e. u cant find out what happens unless you beat a certain map/level).  The PvP element is kind of the gravy.  The beta doesnt really reflect this because some of the content is missing, so you're left with just playing a lot of pickup games.  Hence, people get bored and quit.  If it didnt have that awesome coop feature and the really slick community UI, I wouldnt play it either.

So, it's basically like every other MMO in a way.  Yah, you can PvP... but unless you pwn PvE occasionally, you'll likely be undergeared when you fight a live person 1v1.  Also remember, there's 2v2 and 4v4 right? So, if you suck... grab a friend - adjust your tactics to compensate.

How much are packs etc in this game or typically in this genre?

Usually about 3 bucks a pack. They almost always discount for buying them by the "booster box." which is usually 30 - 40 packs. A good idea is to go halvsies with somebody on a box like we used to do way back in the MTG days.

The booster boxes in BF are called "tomes."  Dunno how much they'll be.

eh so it's not turn based? Pass.

... not really possible with this design, the battles would take entirely too long, especially when we're talking about 12-man PvE, 4v4 pvp, etc.  Making it turn-based would also screw up the loot system, since people will likely drop games before they're done.

It's not like it's entirely RTS either (no game really is), and it's probably on the slower end of those.

I have a mild interest in RTSes, and a mild interest in CCGs. A combination of both, sadly, only equated to a mild interest.

However, it did make me want to try it again, so maybe I will. I'm reserving my limited amount of RTS love for Dawn of War 2 and Starcraft 2, though.

Empire: Total War will own all next year.  DoW while great, wont have the long term value Total War or BF will have IMO.  I have a bad feeling I'm going to end up playing all 3.  :uhrr:
For some dumbass reason they're ALL releasing around the same time.

Fun game. But for a pure pvp'er the upgrade system is both a money and time sink rolled into a bottle of fail. Honestly I can understand the money sink (which I hate), but the time sink just going to have to die come launch. Otherwise the new player vs veteran is going to be very lopsided. To explain to upgrade cards you need 2 currencies. Victory Tokens and Battle Tokens. You get both from pvp and upgrading any card usually cost a couple. Fully upgraded card would cost 10-15 Victory Tokens (I never run out of Battle Tokens). The problem is that Victory Tokens are gained in matches you win that last for 3 minutes. On average a match can last between 1-15 minutes, with a good portion of matches even against skilled opponents ending in 2 minutes. Because a non level card < level 2 card, this becomes an issue. Its not a LARGE gap but a still a big enough to lose you matches. At any rate if you play 20 games (pvp) you win all 20 it still doesn't equal 20 victory tokens.

Another thing is that the boys behind this game have one big gaff against them which is the way the balance cards. This may change come launch but right now, the general feeling is that they skim the forums and toss a nerf hammer at whatever gets mentioned a lot. This is a concern in a lot of games, but something to make note of because they will nerf something without telling you exactly what they did. Very annoying.

Unfortunately the game seems to go in and out of playable, which can be blamed on beta, but it is something to keep in mind considering servers and match types can be down for hours and days at a time. Though a lot of the major errors have been worked out so I don't expect this ruin the launch too much.

Magic The Gathering Online beta (1.0, before the succession of fails) you could buy cards iirc.

The upgrade system isnt designed to cater solely to the pvp crowd.  Much, if not most of it is in the PvE areas and player advancements/accomplishments (xp, etc.).  The only PURE pvpers there will be in a game like this are the ones with money to throw away; they'll just buy rares to take up the slack.  Smart players will do it all, including being active in the marketplace.  Either way, there's no death penalty so who cares.

(http://www.nyworms.com/images/groupcrickets.jpg)

I see your cup of crickets, and raise you a bowl of drunken Mexican death bees!  :grin:

(http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w274/willzweigart/images_pic-medium-25373-bees_love_b.jpg)

I see your bowl of drunken mexican death bees and raise you two gimp-gagged actors:
(http://cfs7.tistory.com/image/5/tistory/2008/06/20/15/29/485b4e3f75480)

But fo' real 'doh... I thought this game would get more discussion in here.  Either it's good enough not to bytch about or too crappy to waste the text.  I'm guessing the former, which is a good sign... uhh, I think.
Anyways, I like this game... so screw all ya'll

Any pure PVPer talking about this game is just wasting his breath anyway. It's not a pure PVP game. This is not the darkfall thread.

Schild, what decks do you foresee as being the strongest?  I've only had quality time with Frost and a bit of Nature.  Both are control oriented; definitely not a lot of steamroll in those decks so far.

I only looked at Nature as that's what I'm playing. Me and Falwell have tentative plans to whore our way through the universe with him as shadow.

whats you kids ingame ranks? 26/1

No one here cares about that shit. And if they do, they're in the wrong place.

I have yet to play a single PvP match.  I'm having fun just running the solo campaign(s).

I've played both Shadow and Frost decks. Shadow is very big on short term, kill your own units for massive short term buffs kinda play (kinda like sac decks from MTG black.) Frost is all about defense. Lots of slows, freezing, shields, high defensive value units etc. Big on buildings, especially defense towers.

Both are enjoyable so far in their own way. Over the long term I'd certainly prefer to play shadow over frost from what I've seen.

EDIT: Also, it's a helluvah good time for me personally. I'm taking the Schild approach and staying out of it till it goes live for the most part. I played enough to know that I dig it and have just enough knowledge about it to be functional when it launches.

Beta is now available to ALL regardless of if you pay for an FP sub. or not.  You just have to be an FP member and willing to stand in line for the DL.  So, no more excuses.
In other news:  they're tweaking their servers in efforts to separate the authentication from the game servers (and some other crap I'm unaware of I'm sure) and they've borked them a bit in doing so it seems, so it MAY be difficult to start a map occasionally, but you'll be able to log in at least.  There was recently a "small" (in their terms) patch that addressed a LOT of stuff; I'd call it a large patch IMO.  Game was pretty bangin before and pretty much it's all gravy and balancing right now.

They're really doing a good job so far it seems.

I've played the beta for about 20 hours (in total). It's borrrring.

PvP negates the usage of S creatures, focusing on M to L. Resource strangling is the easiest and most effective tactic. Shadow Frost, Shadow Nature, Shadow. The vast majority of cards never see the light of day because they are interesting but ineffecive in any strategy, but also because the balance is screwed. Not Orc shamans are better than Tauren shamans screwed, I mean "look for a filter to remove types that are never supposed to be used" screwed. The poor S squads who are most effective against M are wiped out before doing half damage to every medium i've seen.

The mechanics are variations on the same X concepts, with balance being expressed as fiddling with stats that aren't strategically relevant. Equivalent tier (orbs, then matching orbs) healing per resource is higher than the DD, so people don't use it except to instakill S squads. At the very least, I can agree with the assessment that they just browse the forums and randomly make changes to hear what people say.

The pve scenarios are badly designed, requiring tactics that are outlawed in beta tournament play (stacking construction hut coverage till towers are free) just to win. Forgetting special abilities completely, valuable rares and uncommons all revolve around the concept of M creature powers that are too strong or any M creature that can damage another M creature. This negates the early game and only makes endgame available to the person with the resource advantage (M creatures that do L damage is commonplace).

If they learned how to balance power, evened out creature/damage types, and created some more interesting effect types, fixed and expanded on PvE it wouldn't be terrible. That being said, it would still be a Warcraft3 like RTS with an essentially custom race. Unlike WC3, the (Shadow) NE are better than the (Frost) Humans, even when they use a maphack because balance is based on what the players can figure out. What's left unsaid explicitly is that momentum is never slowed. The first battle wins the game.

At least it's still beta.

// good graphics, interesting concept, swing and a miss, going to play FusionFall

You are right on how the game is played but I think you're confused on the counter system. 

From a dev :

Normally, if everyone is loaded with M units, you should fill your deck with with bonus dmg to M.  Maybe it doesn't work but that's the theory.  S unit aren't inherently better against M units.

I can't play. I create a character and it says disconnected from server. I try creating again and the name is taken (duh!).
I keep creating random generated names chars and it keeps disconnecting before it getrs to the next screen. Then, the random name is taken. No character selection screen whatsoever as it thinks I still have to make a first char but it says that my free deck has been assigned to my first char (which I cannot get access to, of course).

Beta.

This is because of what I just posted.  You can login just fine even if the servers are "down."  You can even make it to the Forge, but lately it's been tough actually playing a game.  I got in just fine last night though.

There is no way to do this as the number of cost efficient counters to M (that aren't rare) can be counted on one hand. Most counters are more expensive than simply dropping a random M creature and letting the 2 M creatures slug it out. What's more is that this same scenario is repeated by tier (excepting all L's seem to not be much better than M because many have relatively low hp). Since the only real counters to a creature of size X is another creature of size X, momentum starts at the M level and the early winner is the winner when they start pumping out XL or just strangle the opponents' resources (usually involving a horde of M's and some XLs rampaging) if the player stays to die a slow death. This game does lack the ability to record replays, but oldschool FRAPS battlereports would provide a prettier demonstration of the pattern.

There ARE maps where the amount of resources is pretty much even, putting the supply lines far enough back to not be effected in the early game (so player skill in deckbuilding, strat., and tactics plays more of a role).  If a player lets his rear defenses/resources get pwned then he deserves to lose (just like in most RTSs).

Concurrently, there are cards that mitigate resource losses (especially shadow and nature); giving you more of a shot at a quick counterattack (I've done this many times with Shadow).  And then there's direct dmg. and sac. units that can make the opponent pay for every step they take.

... could go on and on arguing, just like any good TCG or RTS - the fact that it's a TCG though means NOTHING is set in stone, which is what has me so excited.  It's not like playing SupCom or Sins and having carbon-copy games over and over only dependent upon which faction you choose.  This is different... there's unlimited variation, not even including the ease of adding new cards in expansions and using upgraded units.

It's a night and day difference IMO.  Not as vanilla as it seems, not even close. (relatively speaking, considering the current crop of RTS and turn-based strat. games).

Haven't played, not sure I care. But goddamn I love Ghambit's avatar! Damned if for the life of me I can't remember the name of the movie though. Motown and Kung Fu though... odd but easy-to-remember concept.

Barry Gordy's "The Last Dragon"
Taimak as Bruce Leeroy

THAT'S right, the Bruce Lee title tie-in and Taimak's Hero.

I have the power (*bad guy's hands shorting out*). Good times!

Rez. They're letting you download some of the soundtrack now at www.battleforge.com, and I'm probably going to be doing a But is it Fun for it. Seems they're 5 weeks from release.

They've had the OST up on EAs pay site for a while, but last time I fooled around on there I caught a virus.  So beware.

In other news, they've been patching away with HUGE patches.  Of late they're wanting us to test the Tome mechanics (the unopened deck matches) and have given us all 6000 pts to do-so.  What I like is the incentive to building Tome decks, since you get extra cards for doing-so.  After the deck has expired the cards go into your main collection so smart players with patience will utilize this.  Not to mention the rewards for Tome victories are higher I believe.  It's really a nice touch to get folk who dont have interest in PvPing more reason to, especially since everyone starts with an unopened pool to build the tome decks from.  So those who bitch about pvp imbalance now you have no reason to.  Granted, those who pwn in Tome matches will have much more powerful cards to pick from in normal PvP (since they'll be upgraded more heavily)... but hey, just like every other MMO you gotta earn your keep.

And as of yesterday's patch now all cards have been released.  So you have a better sampling of the game. 

And looks like they've been fooling with the matchmaking and ranking system, not sure what they've changed though.

I saw this at NY Comic Con, but didn't get a chance to play.  If I get time I'm going to try it out.

As Schild said, here's the link to the free music and an article/video on the sdtk creation process:
http://www.battleforge.com/cms/front_content.php?idcat=10&idart=429

Of note, the soundtrack customizes itself to the deck you construct.  (that's pretty cool)

Of bigger news, after the last big patch the beta is now totally open  You no longer need an FP account or a pre-order key.  The DL link is active on the BF site regardless.  Enjoy!

p.s.
I believe all features except the guild UI are in
edit: although the new sdtk link is different from the beta music... kicks even more ass (hope they use the new stuff in the release)

How many people am I going to be playing this with? Does it need it's own forum for deck builds and such? Comes out Monday. I want teammates.

Might give it a shot if it isn't too latency reliant. Being a TCG, I should be in the clear.

It's an RTS.

you might have issues once you start getting into the 8 and 12 man "raids" but I've not even tested those yet.  Regardless, you should give it a shot.  There's nothing forcing you to get into those maps anyways really.

Schild, you know I'll be playing (and I'm bringing friends)...   but they better get the phuckin guild UI activated by release.
This is NOT a game you want to PUG.  I'd actually rather PUG in WoW than this game; that's how badly they need a guild UI.

p.s.
they just patched in multi-threaded graphics support so good news for duelie users  (thank the gods; game was seriously boggin down in the larger battles)

Well, as per always, I'm gonna start up Bat Country, your friends are welcome to join and use our vent. How many people if I may ask?

Also, my name will be schild in game, guaranteed. Even if they do a reset.

wont know till release; depends on how much traction I've gotten from the community for this game.
friends=guildies

I can't believe there aren't more people here interested in this :(

Ghambit, I'm going to be going pure Nature/Green/Whatever. So if no one else plays, you and your friends are gonna have to help me get that color together if you could be so kind. I can't afford cards past what I'm being given.

Prey for rares and ultras in your starter decks and parley those in colors you're not using into a more powerful green deck.  Also, trade up those multiple common/uncommons for powerful green singles.
Back when I played MtG 1st edition;  the very first MtG U.S. Champion made his winning deck just from a few starters and smart trading skills.  Granted, that was when a 40-card deck was legal.  Nevertheless, more suckers are generated in online gaming than in real-life, so you shouldnt have a problem trading up... plus it'd be fun

As for building decks, my skills are lacking now that they've opened up all the cards including ultras and totaly re-balanced the game.  And I really havent been playing that much.  But I do know Green is all about Shamans and Archers.  Razorleaf is a must.

I'd say if people spent what they spent in traditional MMOs per month buying/trading in BF would be easy.  12 bucks a month is 6 boosters eh?  Problem is discipline.   :)

Razorleaf is a fucking animal, thankfully, I only need 1. :) That's kinda the beauty, I should be able to get 1 of Every Green Card from the retail package within a day.

That's one thing I didnt like about this game; the lack of need for multiples of one card.  It becomes tougher to trade when people only need 1, especially since upgrades grant extra spawns.  If I was playing Shadow though, I'd probably have multiple cards in a skeleton/resurrection deck.  Fire's DD spells are good to have more than one of also I guess.  Any direct heals for green might be smart to have more than one of along with shamans, unless you've upgraded them.

Your pve is showing. Upgrades < Charge Upgrades. there is a big difference between summoning 5 troops of tier 1 before the recharge ticks in and 15 of the same tier 1 before the recharge ticks. That's a principle that crosses all factions.

I'd play this, but it just looks to be too expensive. The RTS bit doesn't help a whole lot, I prefer turn based, but the cost is the main thing.

it's really designed to be played 1 Tome/month.  A tome is what?  $20?  10 boosters that go into a special pool for pvp tome games?  After 30 days, those cards release into your general pool to use however you want.  The reward for going at it this way is cheaper boosters and 6-8 xtra commons I believe.

The problem is most everyone cant hold back the urge to dump loads of cash on boosters.  If you can, great.  Because really there's only 200 cards in the set to begin with.  If you focus on 1 color like Schild you're okay.  Unlike MtG where you lose unless you play 2 colors, you're fine in BG with just one.

For the 1st month I'd buy like 6 boosters and work the marketplace in building 1 color deck in addition to the starters you get for buying the game.  After that, once I've got the hang of the game I'd start buying tome decks; because tomes are where the big rewards are (along with large pve coop).  It CAN be done for the price of a normal MMO per month.

Regardless, to have any real power in PvP you need to work the PvE areas a bit (unless you're a Tome player)... which only really require standard deck builds and a lot of trial and error.  The guys who win in PvP are the ones with uber upgraded units that've run the gauntlet in PvE already.

Shyt, really even with the default decks the game is sill fun.  It's just too frakkin easy to spend money.  I cant fault Phenomic for that.
And remember, FLGS TCG boosters are all around $3-$5 so BF is no different really ($2.50).  Chaotic Online is more money and the game sux, even being online and tabletop.  BF intends to do retail packaging and it's a quality game so the pricepoint is right imo.

There are Tome only PvE things? What?

Talk to me about Tome rewards. I wasn't aware they were different/better. Also, man I'm gonna suck at PvP and I'm probably going to be playing the most underplayed color.

no no... tome battles are only PvP (i misphrased).  They're basically closed pool "equal-footing" matches (built-in sidebar obviously).  You can disband your tome deck whenever you want and it'll flow to your normal collection, but after 30-days I believe it's automatic.
I remember reading that the rewards for Tome battle victories will obviously be a bit higher than normal; not including tourney or ladder play.  The loot system is something they seem to be constantly fooling with though, so dont quote me :(
Might be they're just a more even playing field for folks that want a fair shot at climbing in PvP rank... which is reward enough I guess (along with the extra cards).

btw, tomes are 6 boosters (for the price of 5) and tome decks contain 8 xtra commons.   Probably smartest to buy 1 of those every month.

So the first month I should just buy 2 tomes with what's in the box and then get into constructed after that?

The thing for me is that in a MMO I can stop playing for half a year, a year, and then come back and play again and not have to pay more to catch up. I might have to play a bit more, but that's ok, because playing the game is the reason I'm paying for it. CCGs work on the premise that you start playing and don't ever stop. If you do stop then you've got to pay just to play again.

I've just had enough of that model with Pox Nora I suppose. I'd prefer a game which wasn't so hardcore about the rare/collectible aspect and had a monthly fee to play and cheaper cards instead. No need to keep stiffing people with a model that grew from real, not virtual, cards.

What pissed me off with Pox Nora is they rendered older decks completely obsolete to the point they didnt even WORK with the game if you stopped for a while.  That was dumb and I agree with you there.  But, I dont see that happening with BF.

Why?

Because it's just a simpler (yet more complex) TCG.  Pox was turn-based with multitudes of stats and abilities for every card (the main of which was movement points).  BF cards are more simplified, therefore any expansions really wont stray too far from the norm imo.

Since there's a tome mechanic and robust PvE, you're still able to actively play w/o feeling gimped because you've got last year's expansion.  You didnt have that in Pox Nora; you were just screwed.  That's one reason why Pox added coop campaign mode recently.

Were this turn-based, it would be super happy fun time OK!  But RTS...  I suck pretty bad at managing ten different unit types at the same time.  I've always been mediocre at best with RTSes.

Its a good game. I played the shit out of it in beta till they did the reset. Will I'll be paying for this game now? NO! As a pvp'er and only a pvp'er I'm getting the general sense that between pve, seal deck play, and regular I'm getting the waiting for que vibe coming from this game. Than there is the the money required to play this game. Unless you can't upgrade/charge upgrade your cards in tome decks, than no, tome is hardly inexpensive compared to regular. You DO need 3 copies of all 20 cards in your deck for you to be competitive. You maybe can get away with one charge upgrade. The tome decks will save you money after the next expansion.

They killed it with the RTS gameplay.  It's not a mater of taste but competition.

They could have been an highly polished turn based collectible game.  They would have destroyed the indie/crappy actual competition.

Instead, they are an average a RTS who wants to sell me individual units.  Pass.

This game doesn't have nearly enough depth as a card game to prove as a real threat to all the web based indie card games. Actually it is effectively those same card games but with enough money behind to warrant the need for an actual budget. As a hybrid I see a lot of people thinking of this game as the best of both worlds. Not nearly enough depth for a turned based card game in the magic the gathering (hell yu-gi-oh fucking smarter) sense but not too deep as an RTS either.

As someone who's played Pox, BF, MtGO, Chaotic Online, etc;  BF was more fun then all of them and more deep; the depth just resides in different areas.
It wont "threaten" the indie turn-based games because it's in a league of its own, a whole new type of game to begin with.  Not to mention, those titles dont have any overhead, so even if there are a couple people playing, so what.  Regardless though, I'd rather pour my money into THIS game then ANY of those other titles.  In a competitive sense I do foresee some leeching of playerbases taking place regardless.  Pox boosters are what??  $1.50?  So you have to pay an extra buck per booster for BF... it's worth it imo.  Not even close by comparison.

And if you want even more brutal honesty... (I consider myself a hardcore RTS and turn-based strat guy).  This game has proven more entertaining than many titles such as DOW2, Sins, Civ (sometimes), etc.  So an average RTS I'd say it was not.  Of course, that's just my opinion... but if all these games were 50 bucks, I'd recommend BF over most of the other RTS's out there.... in some cases even Empire:Total War.

Different strokes for different folks I guess.  The cynicism is appropriate, but I foresee this game becoming popular regardless... if not laying the groundwork for some better online TCGs in the future.

This game kicks the shit out of DOW2. I see this game being popular with or without me telling all my friends about it. I'll probably recommend it to a friend who has an "impulse buy now" tendency and have him share the account with me.

Here's a post I dug up to alleviate some confusion about the pricing scheme:
http://forums.battleforge.com/forum/showpost.php?p=26312&postcount=1

They give you points with buying the game at release so that's nice, along with the starter decks.  All in all that's not that bad of a deal. 

I had forgot about this game.  I'll take a look at it when it comes out.  Thanks for the post about the cost.  I guess it comes out next week?  I'm away for the weekend and don't have the time to reasearc h the game.

Game is now online, but I believe you can only access it as a trial account since it seems they havent activated/sent the keys yet.  Full release is supposed to be tomorrow.  Today is probably the "press day."
Another nice touch with this title is that they're not wasting time providing a free trial account... you can play it free from day 1

Fuck, this game is pretty goddamn great.

Even if my starting card pool was shit. :oh_i_see:

I think you mean, you can play for free for as long as you don't buy any new cards. The game still cost 40-50ish retail. Basically the game will give a certain number of points to get a starter and maybe a booster or two and from there how much you spend on the game is highly dependent on how much suck your willing to endure because this games makes no bones about the difference between rare and commons, and also to make an optimal deck not all the commons are remotely meta worthy.

No no no.  I mean you can play for free, for FREE.  They have a trial account (demo) that allows you a single starter and basic entry into PvE/PvP.  You are able to gain loot while in the trial that'll apply to your retail, but you cant physically upgrade anything until you buy a key.

For 50 bucks you get ALL the starters (64 cards?) along with 3000 BP which allows you to purchase tomes/boosters.  Along with the starters, the preorder folk get 5 additional rares.  Technically, that's just about free for the game and you're just paying for the cards.

Personally, I think the price structure is fine.  w/o it, remember you'd lose the trading-card metagame - which in reality is half the game unless you're made of money or a PvP genius.  From the get-go, the initial investment is on par with most any other online TCG, just a bit more to cover the quality of the game and the server expenses.

Discovered what happens when you get an upgrade you already have.

Gets converted into 8 cold :oh_i_see:

How about just not giving me upgrades if I've already gotten them.

Have you seen how expensive some of these upgrades are?  Give it some time and you'll be farming gold with those old upgrades, watch. 
At least you dont have to arbitrarily transform it into a shard or something and then auction it.

(hmm, i wonder if they've ever thought of adding some kind of crafting system)

A boy can dream.

I played the tutorial last night.  Pretty fun.  Not sure the stickiness with me and spending cash on it. 

I like the simple RTS elements.  Nothing insane.  All the complexity I imagine is through making decks and trading cards.

Of course, there could more things than building power sources and getting orbs that complicate things.  I'll play out the rest of the game more tonight, since I started the game 1:30am last night.

So what are you doing in this game, doing missions then going against other people in tournaments and stuff?  Sounds typical.

I will have to try this. I need something to satisfy my collectible/competitive itch since DDM basically died.

IT'S A VIDEO GAME.


You should.  :drill:

Can we get a screename list goin in here?  Cant PUG this thing really, you just cant.  And trading is easier amongst acquaintances.
I'm "Ghambit."

Another thing we could do is some arranged Tome battles... not too many folk are taking part in this mode of play yet

Generally seal deck play is something you introduce after an expansion or 3.

You're just talking to hear yourself speak now, stop it.

Normally I'd (dis)agree with you but there's whisperings the ranked matchmaker is screwed up again, hence the reason we're just sitting in the lobby forever waiting for the match.  With 2000 people online it shouldt take that long to find a game.

Other than that, the game launched smoothly enough.  But they really need to fix the matchmaker; again.

I'm guessing you haven't started pvp'ing yet. Try waiting for que for a few minutes.

Lol I just noticed this thread for the 1st time and the game looks great!

I have never been 1 for CCG's but I did immensely enjoy Starcraft as an RTS.  Closest things I have played to CCG card games are the diplomacy in VG:SoH and that cheesy little Castle Wars flash game.  All this talk of PuG = Disaster makes me think that there is probably no place for my ignorant self in this game.  Is there such a thing as solo PvE content and will that get me up to speed and let me know if this is my sort of thing?

Is this still able to be played for free atm?  If I end up liking it and wish to buy is there a super awesemo collectors edition starter pack that will give me an advantage?

There is solo PvE! Indeed. And you can still play for free, they give you a random starter deck.

There's plenty of content for single-player and another map releases in April.  I think there's like 5 single-player PvE missions on this map (I'm not sure though because I've not opened them all up yet obviously; some areas wont unlock until you defeat a certain difficulty), each that must be completed at each difficulty (3 modes).  So that's 15 missions.  

They released the game with a demo available, so just DL it and you're set.

There's no collector's edition, but the pre-order folks got an advantage by being given 5 rare fully-upgraded units.  Euro folk get some Warhammer unit.  If you look closely you'll see some units are taken from the Warhammer verse actually.

You're giving up quite a lot by not wanting to group in this game, just like any other MMO... because you're gonna miss some great content.  But if you threw in some PvP I'd suspect you'd have more than enough to do.

it's not that i don't desire to group i just want to get the hang of the game before i risk ruining a group out of ignorance.  Is there a link to download that doesn't require signing up for a bunch of other crap?

I just got my ass rocked.

Edit: If you have an EA account it's easy to sign up. Otherwise it's a convoluted mess, granted you only have to do it once for all of the EA networked shit.

k, signing up here (https://account.ea.com/reg/create-acct.jsp?locale=&sls=2&site=eaco&skin=eacom) i'm guessing that the hidden variables they are accidentally echoing on this form are a sign of bad things to come.  Wish me luck.

edit: that was painless, i only saw options to purchase or view the trailer for battleforge on EA's website, However I did follow a link to the battleforge website and it has a large Download the Demo (http://www.battleforge.com/portal/site/BattleForge/landingpage) link, thinking this is what I want?  If so probably didn't even need to register with EA for it.

You dont need to register with EA.  Just DL the demo from the website and go from there.

Man, mountaineers are pure fear when put into multiplayer. Their early game is sick.

What happened to your Razorleaf spawl?? 
(http://www.geocities.com/cinemorgue2/jackblack.jpg)

I thought you were invincible!   :drill:

Tome deck.

so if cards are tradeable (not sure they are) is there something from preventing an individual from creating multiple trial accounts and transferring the best of the starter deck stuff to their main?  Or are the starter deck cards really bad?

Can't trade off demo accounts. Some of the cards are decent, but yuo can't do anything with them.

Any deal breaking DRM? Does the demo come with a rootkit?

Aw crap.  Just when I was in the market for a MMO I come across this.  I'll download the demo tonight and give it a try.  I'm a huge RTS junkie.  I played Saga for awhile.  Hell... I still play it.

I'm not sure there's any DRM.

A common quote in chat is "... it's like Saga, only without the suck"

only did like 2 PvE scenarios but it's pretty cool.

Oh ouch!  What's wrong with Saga?  I do think some of the scenarios are tough as hell, but not too bad overall.

Finally got around to trying this. Not what I wanted, even a little, at all. Mostly an RTS, not mostly a card game.   :oops:

Oh god oh god oh god. How did I miss ever reading this thread? I should have kept on missing it, I think I'm fucked if this is as good as everyone's saying it is.

It's not.

(http://home.comcast.net/~machaira/necro_sm.JPG)

Battleforge is now free. (http://www.battleforge.com/portal/site/BattleForge/landingpage)

As far as I know, it's always been "Free." When you made an account, you got a random starter deck of 8ish cards. Now it just looks like they give you all 4 starter decks when you make an account.

Edit:

Ok, not quite the same thing, and I wouldn't really call it free, but it's a good way to get people hooked.

Well this will get me playing again. I thought the demo was fun just not fun enough to spend money on. 

This seems good.
It's not that succesful yet, am I right? What's wrong with it?

no guild UI, crappy chat UI, and no VOIP. 
They've designed many of the coop maps around this issue by making it so you dont really have to interact heavily with more than 4 people at a time, but there's only so far that'll take you.
The other issue is many people who play dont (or choose not to) speak English and since this is a global release that can get rather annoying.  They've added language specific channels recently, but I'm not sure how that's going.

Seems like the game is growing now though... servers are pretty full and they've had to add a 3rd one.  This Free2Play thing (which shouldve been active from day 1) should bring in a lot of new players.  But, since there's no real organized way to interact with them it kinda doesnt matter.

This game isn't that bad, I can see the fun but I'm not much of a RTS gamer these days.  If you had a group of 4 to play it with just going through the single player might be pretty cool.  I need to turn up the graphics some though it feels really "soft" for some reason.

The CCG elements are pretty understated though which is too bad.  If there was a draw mechanism or more of a limit to how many units you could get out of a given card...

Also NECRO!?

Anyone want to work through the newb maps with me I think I might fool around with it for a week or two see if it grabs me.

I just (re)started playing this. If anyone else is up for some multiplayer or mutually educational PvP then my character name is Requiel. The game has improved a lot since I played it just after release, also you can get cheap BFPs by buying the game on Ebay (typically <$10) and applying the licence code as a scratch card ingame. That gets you 3000 BFPs and 32 random additional cards (as opposed to $9.99 for 1000 BFPs from the official store). It also unlocks the full game if you are still on the Play4Free deal.

You can look for me Ghambit and Tsalrioth on Steam and yell at us.  I don't have special cards though and those other two do.  It is sort of fun but the whole you can't let another person play a map unless every party member has unlocked it was annoying as balls since I had only done single player noob difficulty maps.