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Title: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: naum on November 19, 2018, 09:59:38 AM Artifact (https://playartifact.com/) beta is live now, and release is slated for 11/28. Had some experience (a little bit) with it over the weekend. My account came with 5 Event Tickets (unused yet, & not until I get more comfortable) and 10 packs (which I did bust open). I guess everybody with a scintilla of interest in CCG has heard about the 3-lane board. Your objective is to destroy 2 towers of the opponent before they do likewise. You can takeout 2 of their starting towers (which start at 40 HP). Or take the same tower out twice (another is generated with 80 HP when you destroy one). To accomplish this, you use a deck comprised of hero cards (5 to a deck & each hero card comes with 3 additional copies of a "signature" card that accompanies said hero), creeps (units/minions/creatures in other CCG), spells, improvements (relics/artifacts, that give lasting effect every turn/etc.) and non-color items that I'll explain a bit further along. 1. You order the sequence of heroes -- the 1st 3 are slotted into your 3 opening boards, the 4th you get to add on turn 2 and 5th on turn 3. You can only play cards of the same color as a hero (and you can have multiple heroes of different colors) on a given board and if you don't have a hero there, not much you can do. 2. Four colors in a game --- Red / Green / Blue / Black. Each of these, like MtG & Eternal, have a theme & correlate roughly to MtG except maybe Black which is about heroes & gold. Red is aggressive, good stat heroes/creeps. Green is about ramp & buffs. Blue is the control & card draw color. 3. Items are colored yellow and operate a little differently -- heroes & creeps have a Bounty figure, an amount of gold you receive for eliminating. At the end of round, those items in your deck are offered to you (well, not all, a draw of 3) to buy or you can hold a set too for 1G. You can play them at start of next turn (at no mana cost). 4. No land/resource card -- you start with 3 mana and it goes up by 1 each round (though like just about every CCG, there are cards that can alter your max mana). And mana resets for plays in each of the boards. And you draw 2 cards at start of turn. 5. Heroes can be equipped with weapons, armor, accessories. 6. Heroes never die -- if they get killed they sit out a turn and then you can redeploy the next. That's the basics -- there is a lot of stuff I don't have a firm grasp of yet like Initiative and a bunch of other finer points. But the basic gist of this game is not complex at all. Play stuff, combat (maybe combat tricks too), buy items, rinse and repeat. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Rendakor on November 19, 2018, 10:14:17 AM Any way to buy into the game yet? If not, I'd love a beta key if someone has one to spare.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on November 19, 2018, 10:31:51 AM Looks like preordering was not enough to automatically get in the beta, but they'll probably add more people in the coming days. As far as I know Rendakor at the moment there is no way to have a guaranteed beta spot until the 28th.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: naum on November 19, 2018, 10:39:04 AM I believe Valve gave out 1K beta keys for Twitch streamers to invite.
I got mine, a while back, on Twitter, from the official PlayArtifact site for responding to a Tweet in-form. Though it didn't activate until Sunday, unlike a whole bunch of other preferred who were able to play game pre-NDA. Which didn't make a lot of sense to me because spectating the game without every playing is just an exercise in confusion IMV. Once I played, it not overly complex, as some have stated, like Disguised Toast who said (https://twitter.com/DisguisedToast/status/1064019188975456258): Quote Tried Artifact for 5 hours today. Pros: High Skill Ceiling Lots of mechanics and strategy Cons: Hard to watch as a viewer $20 Initial Cost Must pay for more cards $1 per Draft Run (unless you hit 3 wins) Too much IQ needed for my small brain Not the game for me. 89 replies 190 retweets 3,761 likes While, like I said (& I haven't played much other than the 1st 2 tutorial games & a couple of games against bots & started a Phantom Draft) still muddling about the finer points of game but basic thrust of game is fairly simple -- draw cards, play stuff, combat (maybe some combat tricks), collect gold & buy items, then rinse & repeat until one player takes down 2 towers. A lot of grief about the pay-to-play model of the game, but there is a lot you can do in game without paying & as a result of outrcy, Valve made Phantom Draft free (there are 2 Draft modes -- Keeper, where you keep the cards and Phantom where you don't). Then you can play against bots (and use cards you don't even own, and direct the AI bot to play whatever deck you deem even with cards you don't have). The competitive realm is pay-to-play though. And still seems a heck of a lot cheaper than MtG. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on November 19, 2018, 11:12:34 AM get me a fucking beta key this shit is horseshit
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Druzil on November 19, 2018, 11:15:15 AM And still seems a heck of a lot cheaper than MtG. I think that's hard to say until the marketplace is actually out and prices settle. Unless there is some mechanic of generating specific cards or something that is going to keep card prices in check. Edit: I meant for constructed, maybe for draft this is true. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Rendakor on November 19, 2018, 02:12:32 PM None of the pricing/monetization is a turn off for me, although I wish there was a "$250 for drafts for life" option. :why_so_serious: Whether or not the gameplay is fun remains to be seen, but I'm willing to pay Valve $20 to find out. Lack of a firm entry cost was, IMO, one of Hex's biggest problems: by not charging admission, they pretended that the game was f2p and that fact hounded them for the game's entire life. Asking for $20 at the door (which will inevitably be discounted) should make it clear that this is a real card game, not a Hearthstone free-to-grind mess; of course, this is the internet so idiots are still furious. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Setanta on November 19, 2018, 10:20:54 PM I'll give this a 20 whirl but cash for cards etc - yeah nah, Eternal has spoiled me and I'll stick with that f2p model.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on November 20, 2018, 12:16:03 AM I am happy about the phantom draft for free in custom games (so, with friends). I know this is not what TCGs are really about but it gives me a chance to fool around with my son and friends without anyone having to go past the 20$ mark.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on November 21, 2018, 02:59:22 PM Patch notes:
Features "You can now recycle cards into event tickets at a rate of 20 cards to 1 ticket. There is a "Recycle Cards" tab accessible from the collection. Note that each card will currently show "N/A" where the market price would be until the market is open. Sort by market price will sort by mana cost until the market is open." EDIT: Also, (https://i.imgur.com/St0PZC1.jpg) :grin: Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on November 28, 2018, 03:38:45 PM It's live, folks. When's the first f13 draft tournament?
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on November 28, 2018, 05:14:48 PM I'm killing my "free" keeper drafts atm
but I *think* we may be able to make a custom keeper draft? Not sure. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Trippy on November 28, 2018, 10:27:19 PM Is there a breakdown/analysis of the design of the game somewhere? Just started learning about this game and am already confused what the point of having 3 lanes is (e.g. do the lanes interact other than sharing the same pool of drawn cards?) and why there's a "rich get richer" hero item buying mechanic in it.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on November 28, 2018, 10:34:41 PM Just watch a couple matches, it takes basically no time to learn. Sometimes lanes interact, sometimes they don't. It's card driven interaction. It's not really rich get richer in the moba sense. They're mostly marginal improvements, even at the top end. There is a bit of Win More issues with it though.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on November 29, 2018, 12:56:17 AM This is a breakdown/analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnbRCGLj-ns This goes deeper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuE80Rm2InY Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Trippy on November 29, 2018, 01:10:00 AM Thanks, I'll check those out. Though I was asking more about the reasoning behind the design decisions rather than the mechanics themselves. Though it seems like the overarching design goal seemed to be "make it like Dota even if it's doesn't really make sense for a card game".
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on November 29, 2018, 01:39:48 AM I would agree but it's not too much of a weird concept for card games. I believe the Warhammer LCG had a very similar "three lanes-kill 2 to win" mechanic almost ten years ago. Overall, I'd say it works here.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Trippy on November 29, 2018, 02:00:53 AM Legend of the Five Rings CCG had 4 provinces you would attack independently acting kind of like 4 lanes. Unfortunately part of your card draw was dependent on the number of provinces you held which made comebacks extremely challenging if you had fewer territories than your opponent. The follow up game Legend of the Burning Sands CCG fixed that issue by removing that card draw penalty which made for closer games. Unfortunately it didn’t have ninjas nor purple unicorns (except for some cameo appearances) so it wasn’t nearly as popular.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on November 29, 2018, 02:05:29 AM Ugh, I need to share like an overexcited 5 year old. I spent $18 to buy this game with 2 starter decks and 10 booster packs, and in my second booster I found the most expensive card at the moment which I can sell on the Steam market for 16 dollars in a second. SQEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Also, decisions!
(https://i.imgur.com/TS21XWn.jpg) Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Setanta on November 29, 2018, 11:51:45 AM First impressions:
Wow, the tutorial is bad... not bad bad, spectacularly tedious and bad. Artwork: Shit. Even Eternal's early art shits all over it. Crappy font for card text detracts too. Game length: Yuck Graphics: everything on full and it's still not a pretty place to be. Ambience: None. In fact, a pack of physical M:TG cards had more visual/aural depth to them. I'd rather play Hearthstone ... and I haven't touched HS in over 12 months Richard Garfield and Valve should be ashamed of themselves. There is nothing there to grab a new player or make me want to keep playing and pay money, even MTG:A is a superior game. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on November 29, 2018, 01:43:17 PM Interesting take.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Rendakor on November 29, 2018, 02:44:08 PM I don't think Artwork, Graphics, or Ambience rank very highly on my TCG priorities list.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on November 29, 2018, 03:26:40 PM First impressions: Wow, the tutorial is bad... not bad bad, spectacularly tedious and bad. Artwork: Shit. Even Eternal's early art shits all over it. Crappy font for card text detracts too. Game length: Yuck Graphics: everything on full and it's still not a pretty place to be. Ambience: None. In fact, a pack of physical M:TG cards had more visual/aural depth to them. I'd rather play Hearthstone ... and I haven't touched HS in over 12 months Richard Garfield and Valve should be ashamed of themselves. There is nothing there to grab a new player or make me want to keep playing and pay money, even MTG:A is a superior game. lol but yes we're all making fun of the art Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Hoax on November 29, 2018, 03:36:44 PM There is something off about the game length, its a tiring game. I've yet to leave even a win without feeling like I probably should have applied myself even more and not missed some details.
Its a very deep game, even without interrupts there is a lot of layers but I wonder if it can maintain a playerbase even with dota/volvo involvement considering the mental bandwidth requirements. This is way harder to play well than most Eternal decks, and HS/SV I could basically autopilot for the most part without losing too many matches I would have otherwise won. Sharing a single hand over 3 lanes, with some cards able to effect others, initiative and the general its both people's turns at once sort of aspect of the gameplay, being only able to play colors you have a hero in the lane, its a lot. But I'm not sure if its a peak high level thinking game either because sometimes you just get absolutely dicked by where the game decides to play things or where those attack arrows end up. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Setanta on November 29, 2018, 10:25:34 PM There is something off about the game length, its a tiring game. That sums it up beautifully. I used to play millstone decks in the MTG days that would take forever to play out but I was never exhausted. A couple of games playing Atifact and I can't wait for the game to end because it's tiring and clunky and I just don't care anymore. I'm still trying to care about it and that's where the ambience comes in. HS/Eternal et al are trying to create a sense of place and attempting immersion and character. Artifact looks like it stumbled out of beta with no other purpose other than to kill 2 towers with cards. It's just not appealing. MTG did this all the way back to Arabian Nights. Sure the flavour text and stories wern't that good, but you could enjoy the artwork (mostly) and the attempt at world building was there. Then again, I remember loving the homelands set because it really did try to tell a story... even if most of the cards were shit :D Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on November 29, 2018, 10:50:36 PM There's nothing off about the game length. It's one set with no real depth and they don't have a grip on how to design sets for fun and efficiency yet. Magic goes through these cycles. Hearthstone did early on. The games just dragged. Hex set 1, great draft format - but still incredibly slow.
It's a valid complaint, but it's a common complaint. It's not a differentiation between products. Also, ALL of the Homelands cards are shit. If you think there's a good card in Homelands, you're legit crazytown. None were good. 0. Zilch. As for Artifact, I'm not really a person that gives a shit about lore and setting. But even in a vacuum, I'm more likely to play Artifact than ANY other card game available because the client itself is the best ccg client ever created. Objectively it's just an astounding achievement in design and translation of a market and genre to digital. It's an utter masterpiece. I've played through 25 years of Magic with small breaks, I can wait for the Artifact designers to get a grip on how to design sets. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Setanta on November 29, 2018, 11:11:00 PM Autumn Willow is the only usable card I can think of that came out of Homelands. The rest was unplayable in competition although I did see Spectral Bears used a bit when mono black and necro was a thing.
I haven't given up on Artifact and I hope it resolves itself. I love TCGs all the way back to MTG so more competition is good. I'm just not feeling Artifact and that worries me, because if I'm not feeling it then god help new players. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on November 29, 2018, 11:19:59 PM People played Homelands cards because they basically had no choice back at release. None of them are good and none of them should be played. At all. Not anymore. Not for a very, very long 22 years.
It actually sounds like you're a tough sell with weird taste. I wouldn't compare your experience to the average new player. Or to the average Magic player that's going to be playing the thing. Or the average core Steam user. End of the day, these guys made something pretty damn new, all things considered and the first step has some weird stumbles. Alpha Magic was garbage. Hex Set 1 was a disaster for constructed. The first Hearthstone set was literally a series of coinflips and boredom. Basically, I hear all the complaints, and they're all basically fine (except for the complaint about price - not that you really made it, it's just a stupid fucking complaint). They're all just existing in a place where we can ignore things that are completely expected. That is to say, we expect certain problems and then we're still somehow surprised when they show up? Sure, why not. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Draegan on November 30, 2018, 05:22:03 AM I opened a bunch of packs and played a few bot games to get a feel of the game.
The client is amazing. The pacing is good I think. I like the general game design. I want better cards, better cards that exist and better card design. Also, it seems like I never have the cards I want. I can't seem to cycle my deck enough. The game ends after 9ish turns or so (yay a few bot games) and I have a 40 card deck plus items. I need to learn proper deck building for this game. I think it's easily worth the money. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: naum on November 30, 2018, 02:42:39 PM As for Artifact, I'm not really a person that gives a shit about lore and setting. But even in a vacuum, I'm more likely to play Artifact than ANY other card game available because the client itself is the best ccg client ever created. Objectively it's just an astounding achievement in design and translation of a market and genre to digital. It's an utter masterpiece. ^^THIS^^ Considering this is the client pushed out of the gate on initial release, it's a marvel, all the game modes, tournament setup (that blows away any other digital CCG), other game features (though Shadowverse, oddly, still might rival this, as it provides replays & leaderboards) like built-in deck tracker. The games are longer than the typical CCG, I guess cause you're playing 3 boards, and even if game is over by round 5-7, it still longer than most other CCG games. I wonder about player retention -- in Artifact, skill differential weighs more than any other CCG I've played (including MtG). Yes, there's RNG in it with what you draw on opening flop (& no mulligan) and the lane arrows, but those are minor compared to the myriad of decision points in a game. This morning while getting ready for work, watched Stan Cifka on the tail end of a 12-0 constructed run and it's not uncommon to see pros / expert level players just go perfect run after perfect run. That means a lot of players are losing a lot, and it not fun to continuously lose. In HS & MtG there enough RNG (I know not much RNG in MtG, but thinking of mana screw/flood) that a poor player can still win a good % of games. Here, it looks like new and/or weaker players get farmed. Also, the constructed game may get repetitive fast -- already I see from WePlay tournament decks, Axe & Legion Commander are in almost every single deck (exception thus far was B/G infinite combo deck Strifecro went 4-0 with yesterday). Draft (and Draft is the best limited format in digital CCG at present, hands down) will have to carry this until the next set pops, hopefully early next year. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on November 30, 2018, 03:08:22 PM It's shorter than best 2/3 in any other game I've played. The only faster game, I think, is Hearthstone - which is garbage.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: naum on November 30, 2018, 03:17:11 PM I'm so thankful that there are enough digital CCG out now that I can shelve Hearthstone for good (though I've said that before and then return :().
Artifact now my #1. Eternal now takes the place of #2, even if I don't like some of the design decisions (Markets! mainly, but also trend to encourage 3+ faction decks) and the current meta (the Haunted Scream / Cookbook FJS meta). But I can play it on a phone or tablet. Though I think Valve is bringing Artifact to iOS/Android next year. Unless I lose a job again, that's all the time I can spare for CCG, so Hearthstone, Shadowverse, MtGA are out. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on November 30, 2018, 04:02:55 PM Do we know if the 1 million dollar tournament is gonna be constructed or draft?
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on November 30, 2018, 04:38:49 PM Constructed cut to draft I think but who cares. There's no way to get into it. -_-
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Hoax on December 01, 2018, 07:34:19 AM I'm still very new and very inexperienced but I'm pretty sure the way draft handles heroes complete garbage.
Still feel odd about the game, its very nice in the ways Schild says, I keep wanting to play it. But once I'm playing it I feel instantly a lot more ambivalent about the whole thing. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on December 01, 2018, 09:39:35 AM The way draft handles heroes is in fact so garbage I'm tempted to write a medium piece about it.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Trippy on December 01, 2018, 11:49:05 AM What's the issue(s)? The way the game semi-randomly assigns you one if you don't pick one yourself?
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Hoax on December 01, 2018, 01:34:14 PM well what's the worst part about mtg drafting? its when someone drafts a 1st pick bomb, gets to play it and it wins them the game without them really drafting a good deck or playing well because you just can't handle it.
heroes, esp the good ones, are so much worse than any bomb. The quality of a given deck is determined by such a massive margin by the heroes of the deck. Because not only does a hero count as 1 super important card and give you 3 copies of another card that can each be a bomb (hello drow) or utter trash. So that's a massive swing in deck power level. So having better heroes was always going to be a huge swing. I'm basically positive though that every draft pack having 1 hero and only being able to pick 1 hero per pack /and/ drafting heroes like they are normal cards when they most certainly are not.... it just all adds to up the experience feeling bad and if it weren't for the fact that playing the game correctly is so beyond players right now (myself included) then drafting better heroes would be winning a lot of people drafts for free even if they aren't the better player or drafter. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Malakili on December 01, 2018, 03:04:14 PM I can live with sometimes getting worse heroes. In fact my best decks so far have been with pretty medium heroes but great other cards. What pisses me off more is I can only draft one hero per pack so you're never really sure you should take one unless it's absolute top tier. Feels terrible to draft a solid hero then open Enchantress next pack and be unable to draft it.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on December 01, 2018, 06:30:24 PM I can live with sometimes getting worse heroes. In fact my best decks so far have been with pretty medium heroes but great other cards. What pisses me off more is I can only draft one hero per pack so you're never really sure you should take one unless it's absolute top tier. Feels terrible to draft a solid hero then open Enchantress next pack and be unable to draft it. Yup. This right here. Either DON'T show me future heroes or let me pick more. Don't purposefully give me FOMO.Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Strazos on December 02, 2018, 07:13:58 PM You can only draft one hero per pack, or per draft?
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Trippy on December 02, 2018, 07:57:53 PM Per draft round, there are 5 rounds in the draft, but you also see multiple packs per round. Which is how you end up the situation where you can see Heroes in packs you can't draft cause you already picked a Hero in that round.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Draegan on December 03, 2018, 05:57:00 AM Oh so thats how it is.
Kind of dumb. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Teleku on December 03, 2018, 06:26:26 PM Err, that's how draft always works for all games, except for the prohibition on hate drafting away all the hero's to deny opponents any.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on December 03, 2018, 06:30:47 PM what
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Teleku on December 03, 2018, 07:49:53 PM Am I miss-reading? Drafting is always opening multiple packs and passing them around each round, is it not?
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Rendakor on December 03, 2018, 07:55:02 PM That's not the problem. There's never (that I know of) been a limit on drafting certain types of cards; imagine being unable to pick up a passed rare/mythic because you had selected the rare opened in your pack. It's bizarre and creates feel bad moments; it's more strange since you're not actually drafting from the same packs as the others at the table with you. It would be trivial to just hide any further heroes from you once you've already drafted one.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on December 03, 2018, 07:59:44 PM either hide them or let me draft more heroes. It's my fault if my deck is garbage at the end of the draft because I took what, 50 heroes?
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Sutro on December 03, 2018, 11:42:50 PM People played Homelands cards because they basically had no choice back at release. None of them are good and none of them should be played. At all. Not anymore. Not for a very, very long 22 years. Decided to make my first post in, like, five years to stick up for Merchant Scroll, a card that still sees Commander and Legacy play. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on December 04, 2018, 06:25:27 AM People played Homelands cards because they basically had no choice back at release. None of them are good and none of them should be played. At all. Not anymore. Not for a very, very long 22 years. Decided to make my first post in, like, five years to stick up for Merchant Scroll, a card that still sees Commander and Legacy play. Commander sure, but that's not an endorsement of anything. What legacy deck still uses it? I know the reprint got it shoved into a few modern UR decks due to the lack of tutors, but I'm about 90% sure merchant scroll has been tossed aside in legacy. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Setanta on December 07, 2018, 05:10:12 AM So I've pulled 3 Axes and sold 2 of them and other nice excess cards before the market started to fall. I bought some packs and the RNG dropped me good cards. I wont buy any more packs.
It's taken a bit to string together wins but the game still feels a bit of a chore and I still feel disconnected from it - the RNG is the worst part of the game. I want to like it, technically it's well engineered but I have no sense of progression other than "hey, can I sell this to get more cards?" Any ideas on how the player base is travelling? Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on December 13, 2018, 05:53:40 PM Patch 1.1 is out.
https://playartifact.com/dec13update Leaderboards are in. Full patch notes: Quote PATCH NOTES NEW FEATURES (CALL TO ARMS): Added two new decks: Death From Above and Dark Aggro. Added random mode: each game you'll be given a new random deck from the Call To Arms gauntlet. Added maximum win-streak leaderboards for each deck with Global and Friends filters. NEW FEATURES (CHAT): Added unit chat wheels accessible in-game. Every creep and hero has custom voice lines accessible by pressing 'Y' when hovering that unit, or by doing a long hold of the left mouse button. Towers and improvements also support the chat wheel. Unit chat wheels have an option for custom lines to allow general in-match chat. Added the ability to request a Steam Chat with your current opponent either during the game, accessible through their nameplate in the HUD, or from the end-of-match screen. Opponent’s chat wheel messages can be muted, either through the in-game or through the message itself. NEW FEATURES (TOURNAMENTS): Added new Free-For-All tournament type. This is a less-structured mode where all participants can play against each other (up to specified time or rematch limits). The event winner is determined by whoever has the most wins over the course of the event. Added Open Tournaments. These are tournaments that are created and maintained automatically by Artifact. For this first release, each Open Tournament will last three hours and have between 16 and 64 players participating in a Free-For-All using only common cards. Added the ability to adjust many tournament options after tournament creation, for instance maximum player count, series types, or rounds of Swiss. NEW FEATURES: Added Color Blind Mode option: when enabled, this will separate card colors more on the luminance scale the in game and various UI. Added Color Suit Banners option: when enabled, this will add flags to the face of each card representing its color. Added Bot Gauntlet where after each win you will go up against a tougher deck. BUG FIXES: Fixed the 'Minimize Shop' button not appearing during the shopping phase if you had no cards in your hand. Fixed an issue where optional unit ‘subtitle’ chat bubbles would sometimes not follow animating cards. Fixed an issue where users with IMEs enabled couldn't use certain keyboard shortcuts (eg., spacebar for pushing the pass coin). Fixed an issue where you could unintentionally add multiple copies of the cards required to complete your set before making a Steam Market purchase. Fixed the deck editor text filter not doing partial matches for Hangul characters. Fixed an issue where cards cloned by Ogre Magi's Multicast or ...And One For Me that were later locked wouldn't have the visual lock indicator in hand. Fixed an issue where sometimes the deck editor would unhelpfully remember an earlier state when loading initially (eg., your deck from a completed draft). Fixed Path of the Wise taking an unnecessarily long time to return control to the player. Fixed a client crash that would happen when previewing certain effects on a card that was about to be destroyed by an opponent action. Fixed a rare client crash after an opponent played certain cards. Fixed a rare client crash when looking at a tower's damage preview tooltip in unusual cases. OTHER: Easy bot difficulty is now a little easier. Updated the localization files. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on December 13, 2018, 05:56:54 PM whew, pauper on the first patch
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Rendakor on December 13, 2018, 06:29:47 PM Does that mean we'll get EDH sometime before Set *checks notes* 9?
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on December 13, 2018, 06:39:07 PM this game is hilariously ripe for EDH, they just need to either remove the signature cards or bring it down to 1 per hero. Maybe lowering the number of heroes would be fun also. Kanna would be (more) OP.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on December 13, 2018, 07:29:56 PM Pauper and its accompanying tournament mode are EXCELLENT.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Hoax on December 16, 2018, 08:23:18 PM player base collapsing and word of mouth seems (for the overall game) to be quite bad. its already pretty hard to get any pauper games it seems
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Setanta on December 16, 2018, 11:40:04 PM I'm getting what I suspect are bot games in PvP. Fast turns from my opponent. I'm hoping it's not the case.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on December 17, 2018, 04:17:10 AM Nothing to worry about. Game is good and only gonna get better.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Trippy on December 20, 2018, 11:03:51 PM LOL, Valve gave in to the Hearthstone whiners:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/583950/announcements/detail/1714081669510213123 Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on December 20, 2018, 11:31:31 PM Yea, huge fucking mistake.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: HaemishM on December 21, 2018, 07:08:04 AM So they are essentially removing the trading value of any card long-term because all the best cards will eventually get nerfed.
I mean, it's AN approach, it's just not a good approach in a trading card game. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Trippy on December 21, 2018, 08:16:27 AM It’s not just the nerfing. People can now earn free packs (and event tickets) just from playing — up to 15 a season — though it’s unclear exactly how long each season will be.
Edit: a season Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on December 21, 2018, 01:53:35 PM Are you sure about the season Trippy? It seems to me that the RANKING will be reset every season, but your player level shouldn't/wouldn't. Hence no more rewards after level 16. At least for now.
EDIT: From the Steam page now Quote Artifact comes with 5 Card Packs and 2 Event Tickets. Unlock 15 more Card Packs and 15 additional Event Tickets as you play. You'll also receive 2 Starter Decks each with 40 cards and 9 items. You get 3 tickets less now with your $20 purchase. And that wording seems to imply the 15 cards and 15 tickets are one off. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Trippy on December 21, 2018, 02:19:21 PM No, not sure. I'm going off of this page: https://playartifact.com/buildyourlegend
Quote Every match made game in Artifact grants XP used to level your account and unlock more content. Reaching certain tiers grants level icons to show the world what you've accomplished, while others grant card packs or tickets (up to fifteen of each this season). The "this season" part implies to me that when the next season rolls around more card pack and ticket rewards will be available.Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on December 21, 2018, 02:30:21 PM Ah yes, I missed that.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on December 21, 2018, 02:46:27 PM Yeah it's x packs for y months and seasons will probably be 3-4 months. There's a way to make this not shitty and turn the industry on its head but they'll fuck it up because they're idiots. Can't believe I'm saying this shit about Valve.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Hoax on December 21, 2018, 02:51:49 PM not nerfing cards ever is stupid in a digital game.
Artifact would have been dead before they could get a 3rd set out imo if they didn't do something, that I'm sure of. I have no idea if what they did is right or matters but I laugh at anyone who is pissed because they intended to play the market and they've lost value. Seems to me the change is pointless, the modes worth playing are pay to play, some free packs here and there won't really change anything? Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Draegan on December 26, 2018, 10:24:31 AM No one gives a shit about free packs of cards. Only poor people and children are angry about not being able to earn a free pack of cards worth a good cup of coffee.
Being able to nerf cards is terrible though. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on December 26, 2018, 11:04:51 AM not nerfing cards ever is stupid in a digital game. Artifact would have been dead before they could get a 3rd set out imo if they didn't do something, that I'm sure of. I have no idea if what they did is right or matters but I laugh at anyone who is pissed because they intended to play the market and they've lost value. Seems to me the change is pointless, the modes worth playing are pay to play, some free packs here and there won't really change anything? It was wrong. They should've banned. Also, catering to poor people kills the card game. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 09, 2019, 02:15:14 PM https://medium.com/@schild_23338/artifact-how-can-a-company-that-does-everything-right-manage-to-do-everything-wrong-eb9bb960c39
blah Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Trippy on January 09, 2019, 03:39:36 PM Richard Garfield loves RNG. I know to most people RNG doesn't make sense from a competitive gaming perspective but he truly believes having RNG makes for better competitive games. Or to put it in a way that's perhaps less stupid sounding: to him, without RNG gameplay can become stale -- i.e. RNG makes gameplay more varied and interesting.
Richard Garfield - "Luck in Games" talk at ITU Copenhagen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av5Hf7uOu-o This video is similar to the above except more painful to watch and listen to but if you go to the 34 second timestamp you can listen to him state that his personal interest is in games with high luck (RNG) and high skill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSg408i-eKw&t=34s And that's how we ended up with Artifact. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 09, 2019, 04:18:04 PM I know he loves RNG. And that's why it takes a village to make his competitive games good. Drawing from a deck blind is exactly where RNG should begin and end.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on January 09, 2019, 05:02:39 PM Drawing from a deck blind is exactly where RNG should begin and end. It's hard to overstate how true these words are. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Setanta on January 09, 2019, 06:54:22 PM How many hits has Garfield actually had? M:TG stands out but while I loved V:TES, it never took off to the same extent, Netrunner was fun but again, couldn't compete with M:TG, SW:TCG was good but didn't sustain an audience over the years. The board games were nothing to write home about (I still have Roborally in the garage somewhere).
Of his games, only MTG stands out and Star Wars, but that has more to do with the latter's IP I suspect (although the mechanics were good). That leaves us with artifact - which unfortunately, is incapable of sustaining numbers at the moment. I don't care about the monetisation of the game, it just isn't fun for the bulk of players who tried it, and without the numbers, the devs are going to be questioning what to do. I wish there was some happy medium but the RNG and flawed cards are letting the gameplay down badly. This game didn't need Richard Garfield and it certainly needed a better beta stage. With a full set of cards, I've stopped playing for now, in hope that they do something with it to revitalise the game. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 09, 2019, 07:13:13 PM They absolutely did NOT need Garfield to turn DOTA into a card game. Especially if they were just gonna fuck it up.
There's just so much wrong with the entire situation that I can't actually form completely cohesive thoughts about it. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on January 11, 2019, 02:24:50 AM After much waiting for a miracle patch the new update released yesterday does... nothing. Except halving the timer, which would supposedly make games faster but also kill a lot of people who couldn't act fast enough. If your time runs out, you automatically forfeit the game. Very, very weird decisions at Valve.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 11, 2019, 05:55:20 AM As I said, they don't know what they're doing.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Draegan on January 11, 2019, 09:46:35 AM So sad, the client is so beautiful.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Setanta on January 16, 2019, 06:37:55 PM The game is sitting at between 1500 and 2400 concurrent players. How the hell are Valve going to fix this? F2P isn't going to resolve the issues.
I know they were trying to DOTA this with 3 lanes, but I'm wondering if the complexity is one of the issues. It would be interesting if they trialed a mono lane league followed bu a dual, followed by the game as it exists now with higher rewards for playing the tri-lane to ease new players in and allowing hard core to play the existing game. Getting rid of creep RNG/arrows would be my real hate and they could ditch it. I'm grasping at straws really, I jumped in last night, played 1 game and called it quits after RNG chewed me up from a solid position. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 16, 2019, 06:43:23 PM i could fix it
:oh_i_see: Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Setanta on January 16, 2019, 06:45:06 PM Someone needs to because Valve don't seem to have a clue.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 16, 2019, 06:56:59 PM ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
it won't be them Much like CZE, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on January 17, 2019, 04:42:06 AM We should bet on how they are gonna try to fix it. Obviously they are going for something dramatic. For example, a big patch was planned for January 11th and they pushed it to the 21st. Now I wonder if they are trying something big so soon, or if they will let it die slowly while planning a HUGE revamp behind the scene and some sort of total relaunch, as Final Fantasy XIV did it, close to The International 9.
So, what are they gonna do? If they embrace the Hearthstone/MtG Arena model which is free to play with cards grind, they'd have to refund too much to every customer and I still they could still be sued by some American with time to waste, but I still owuldn't be surprised if they decided to go with that. Also, it is obvious that they need to swallow their pride and rework the RNG elements. How? Which ones? When? For the record, I really like the game even in its present form. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Draegan on January 17, 2019, 07:07:07 AM It's just bizarre they decided to go with random creeps and random attack patterns. DOTA/LOL both have predictable creep/minion deployment patterns and you can almost always predict their AI when it comes to what they are attacking.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on January 17, 2019, 07:11:04 AM Exactly. Yet I tried asking on Reddit and another message board if anyone knew of early versions being tested without arrows and the answer is always STFU WITHOUT ARROWS IT WOULD BE ALWAYS THE SAME AND HEROES WOULD BE TOO POWERFUL. Ridiculous. With that said, I wonder if such a version ever existed in early designs, less RNG, less arrows and more precise card placement and for some reason didn't work or wasn't fun enough and so eventually they came up with this stupid solution.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 17, 2019, 08:31:01 AM Reddits artifact community is one of the worst gaming communities on Reddit.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Setanta on January 17, 2019, 02:34:43 PM It's absolutely toxic, from the "hurr durr this game is failing" trolls to the "I don't want to spend money" kidlets, not to mention the "If this game isn't your thing then leave" elitists.
I've not seen the first this bad in a reddit before, the second is just a total failure to understand that it's cheaper to put a cardset together than most games and the last, well sadly people did just that. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 17, 2019, 03:28:42 PM People who hate any CCGs because they're expensive and they can't afford them desperately need a new hobby and a visit to gambler's anonymous.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Hoax on January 17, 2019, 07:23:07 PM here's why artifact "sucks".
optimal play feels bad to anyone who doesn't just enjoy discovering and breaking games by playing optimally. heroes are garbage. optimal strats are about suiciding them at proper times as often as its about keeping them alive. when you play a hero to a lane often they just do nothing on their own. it feels wrong to people. its not a truly bad game but its a game that doesn't play the way people want/expect it to play and the things they think are cool/powerful aren't actually at all. so people don't want to play it. yes the length, complexity, model, costs etc. those don't help, but if they don't fix heroes and the way heroes "feel" the game is DOA. period. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 17, 2019, 10:43:26 PM It's way more than that. The game, from the ground up, was designed to make you actually play into feelbad uninteractable moments. I don't know if this is Garfields fault or Valve's fault, but it's astounding they can't figure out how to fix it.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Ironwood on January 18, 2019, 01:29:05 AM Did you delete your medium thing ? I was going to catchup on what's killed the latest Be There, and I can't find your article 'cause the linky no worky ?
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Teleku on January 18, 2019, 01:32:36 AM Probably asleep right now, but yes, he did. Don't know why, but I remember him mentioning he killed it.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on January 18, 2019, 03:06:37 AM Why? Did it trigger some reactions?
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 18, 2019, 06:44:13 AM Not quite for that reason :awesome_for_real:
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Teleku on January 18, 2019, 09:40:57 AM Heh, because nobody responded in the comments?
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 18, 2019, 09:50:54 AM you're in discord, you know exactly why i deleted it
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on January 18, 2019, 04:00:24 PM Quote 1/18 Update Fixed the game engine pausing when bringing up the Steam Overlay. Added buttons to the HUD for viewing decklists. Fixed not being able to inspect heroes in Minimap. Fixed Marrowfell Brawler dialog not working. Fixed being able to get the Fought Well bonus in tied games. Visual improvements for Keenfolk Musket, Sow Venom, Fury Swipes, Corrosive Skin, and Hellbear Crippler. Fixed visual bugs with heroes sometimes overlapping during deployment. Thundergod's Wrath now shows its played card after the animation. Various stability improvements. Reduced length of various animations and effects: Card draw Entering and exiting shopping When opponent plays an Improvement the camera no longer scrolls to the target lane Dimensional Portal, Defensive Bloom, Sow Venom Eclipse, Thundergod's Wrath, Poof Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 18, 2019, 05:10:26 PM WOW LOOK AT ALL THOSE THINGS THAT CHANGE NOTHING
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Setanta on January 19, 2019, 12:26:14 AM I'm certain the 2000 odd people left playing this appreciate these QoL changes.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on January 19, 2019, 01:56:37 AM I believe it's the opposite. Those who are left are there waiting for a big nice fat miracle patch. Every time we see a new update, and it's nothing, our heart sinks a bit and we feel like "fuck it, this is it".
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on January 28, 2019, 02:43:20 PM More card nerf/changes.
Item Card Changes: Blade of the Vigil: Cleave increased from +2 to +4 Keenfolk Plate: Added "Equipped hero's attackers have -1 Armor" Stonehall Pike cost reduced from 6 gold to 5 gold Stonehall Plate cost reduced from 6 gold to 5 gold Barbed Mail cost reduced from 6 gold to 5 gold Assassins' Veil cost reduced from 6 gold to 4 gold Phase Boots cost reduced from 6 gold to 5 gold Broadsword cost reduced from 7 gold to 6 gold Keenfolk Musket cost reduced from 7 gold to 6 gold Chainmail cost reduced from 7 gold to 6 gold Fur-lined Mantle cost reduced from 7 gold to 6 gold Red Mist Maul cost reduced from 10 gold to 9 gold Obliterating Orb cost reduced from 10 gold to 9 gold Ring of Tarrasque cost reduced from 12 gold to 10 gold Cloak of Endless Carnage cost reduced from 13 gold to 10 gold Claymore cost reduced from 15 gold to 14 gold Platemail cost reduced from 15 gold to 12 gold Hero's Cape cost reduced from 15 gold to 12 gold Private Lobby & Tournament Changes: Added Random Two Color deck option for private lobbies and tournaments. This gives both players different randomized 2-color decks in each match. Added Speed Timer option for private lobbies and tournaments. This allows players 10 seconds to take each action. Automated Open Tournaments are now 'Chaos Blitz'. Chaos Blitz is Random Two Color, Speed Timer, 8 player free-for-all lasting for 1 hour and 30 minutes Bug Fixes & Other Changes: Hovering gold in the HUD displays the amount of gold spent but not yet revealed through playing items (this is a clue rather than an exact amount because of hidden information with Hold, Shop Deed, etc.) Fixed Rebel Instigator combat arrows not appearing sometimes Fixed issue with Plague wards spawn particles Fixed losing a few seconds from the action timer after deployment Fixed tournament draft replays not showing selected cards Fixed long persona names such as getting cut off Fixed crosslane targets sometimes not showing in Last Action text. Fixed Chat Wheel lines for Rebel Decoy, Pit Fighter of Quoidge, Zeus, and Beastmaster Reduced low end noise in deck building ambient audio Added particle effects for some passive abilities Slightly reduced draw card animation speed (time between draws remains the same) Slightly increased the time between Eclipse beams (intro/outro time remains the same) Improved stability Updated localization files Unchanged: Still in it for the long haul Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Jeff Kelly on January 28, 2019, 04:30:41 PM According to a reader mail submission on last week’s Giant Bombcast (so take it with a grain of salt) Garfield and his team have been let go at Valve mid January. Also this being Valve - a company with no hierarchy and leadership - many internal developers already moved on to other projects because no one wants to work ona failing game.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 28, 2019, 04:36:46 PM They should've responded to my job application.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on January 28, 2019, 04:39:17 PM You must be wrong Jeff. Haven't you read the patch notes?
Quote Still in it for the long haul You must be wrong. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Jeff Kelly on January 28, 2019, 04:43:07 PM Given that DOTA is run by what seems to be just one guy who has been doing the balancing for a decade now, maybe they don’t need a whole team?
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: naum on January 29, 2019, 12:07:51 PM More card nerf/changes. … Basically, all items not being used much got a slight buff. This update looks like a giant punt. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on January 29, 2019, 01:23:55 PM The artifact team is terrible.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Draegan on January 29, 2019, 01:32:12 PM I wish I could get my money back.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on January 29, 2019, 05:18:22 PM This update looks like a giant punt. I think it's safe to say they couldn't get a single first down so far. Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Trippy on March 11, 2019, 01:29:00 PM Garfield no longer actively working on Artifact:
https://www.artibuff.com/blog/2019-03-08-garfield-is-no-longer-at-valve Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Setanta on March 12, 2019, 11:23:14 PM I'm not convinced that anyone is working on Artifact
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on March 13, 2019, 02:27:20 AM At this point me neither, although I am totally expecting a relaunch close to The International, with huge changes like a free to play model and of course a new set.
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: naum on March 18, 2019, 01:44:45 PM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9fOq1pII3s
Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Falconeer on March 30, 2019, 02:44:01 AM More apologies from Valve and the breaking news that the game is being reworked for a massive redesign and relaunch in the distant future.
We all knew that, but they made it official. https://steamcommunity.com/games/583950/announcements/detail/1819924505115920089 Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Trippy on October 08, 2019, 09:27:49 PM Artifact: What Went Wrong? by Zvi Mowshowitz of MtG fame.
https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/10/08/artifact-what-went-wrong/ Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: schild on October 08, 2019, 10:10:23 PM man he wrote so many words and from a cursory search he failed to point out that Garfield is GREAT at initial design and terrible at really drilling something down to be something amazing long-term.
A slew of things went wrong, but before it even started, it really had no chance. The design just wasn't there. There were baseline flaws that were cardinal sins (things that are uncontrollable and get in the way of "fun" and "player agency"). ah, well, zvi is better at magic than me so i guess there's that Title: Re: Artifact: The Two Tower Takedown CCG Post by: Trippy on March 06, 2021, 11:51:31 PM RIP Artifact(s):
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/583950/view/3047218819080842820 Quote Artifact, the Dota 2 card game, shipped in November of 2018. Despite good initial sales, our player count fell off pretty dramatically. This warranted a shift from the service/update development model we'd planned to a full reevaluation of the game's mechanics and economy. Didn't even realize they were working on a 2.0 / Foundry though it makes sense given how bad the original flopped. Differences between the two versions:It's now been about a year and a half since the current Artifact team began work on a reboot in earnest. While we're reasonably satisfied we accomplished most of our game-side goals, we haven't managed to get the active player numbers to a level that justifies further development at this time. As such, we've made the tough decision to stop development on the Artifact 2.0 Beta. However, we recognize that both versions of Artifact still have players and still have value to the community. For this reason, we're opening both games up to make them available for free to everyone. Final releases of both Artifact Classic and Artifact 2.0 Beta (renamed Artifact Foundry) are now available. Technically Artifact Foundry remains an unfinished product, but most of what's missing is polish and art - the core gameplay is all there. While both games will remain playable, we don’t plan to ship any further gameplay updates. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/583950/view/3047218819080852982 Quote Artifact Classic and Artifact Foundry are both games played between two players who each bring a deck of cards and 5 heroes to a battle spread across 3 lanes, with the goal of winning 2 of the lanes before the opponent can win 2 themselves. In Artifact Classic, the lanes are played in sequence, while Artifact Foundry features a simplified zoomed-out gameplay where you can play in any lane at any time. Artifact Classic gameplay embraces unbounded lane capacity for units, allowing for massive armies to clash with one another. Players choose to play powerful spells and resources into each lane, pressuring their opponent while balancing their momentum as enemy towers fall, or friendly towers come under threat. It features a large number of random events which skillful generals must mitigate with forethought and arcane knowledge. Artifact Foundry gameplay gives more direct agency – almost all random elements aside from a shuffled deck have been removed – and the gameplay is more focused on heroes, which have been given a significantly more powerful role. In addition to heroes, almost every card in the game has been reworked at least somewhat to be somewhat more impactful, fun, and easier to focus on. Over 100 new cards and 20 new heroes have been introduced in Artifact Foundry. |