Battleforge - Modern TCG (Yes) by EA (NOOOOOO)

[DLRiley]

They killed 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 what 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.

[Ghambit]

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.

[DLRiley]

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.

[Ghambit]

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. 

[Draegan]

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.

[Ghambit]

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

[schild]

Fuck, this game is pretty goddamn great.

Even if my starting card pool was shit.

[DLRiley]

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

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.

[Ghambit]

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

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.

[schild]

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

Gets converted into 8 cold

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

[Ghambit]

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

Gets converted into 8 cold

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)

[schild]

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

A boy can dream.

[Draegan]

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.

[Ingmar]

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

[schild]

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

IT'S A VIDEO GAME.

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

You should. 

[Ghambit]

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

[DLRiley]

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

[schild]

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

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

[Ghambit]

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

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.

[DLRiley]

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

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

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

[Salamok]

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?

[schild]

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

[Ghambit]

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'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.

[Salamok]

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?

[schild]

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.

[Salamok]

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 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 link, thinking this is what I want?  If so probably didn't even need to register with EA for it.

[Ghambit]

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 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 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.

[schild]

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

[Ghambit]

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

What happened to your Razorleaf spawl?? 


I thought you were invincible!   

[schild]

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

What happened to your Razorleaf spawl?? 


I thought you were invincible!   

Tome deck.

[Salamok]

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?

[schild]

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

[Arrrgh]

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

[Chinchilla]

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.

[schild]

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

I'm not sure there's any DRM.