Duelyst makes me angry. Not angry as in, professionally disappointed by sub-par mechanics or imperfect execution, no no no, though I'm glad you think so highly of me. Just in general. Standard Videogame Anger. Good old fashioned "fuck you, fuck this game, fuck everything" table-flipping anger. And I've been having a right good think about why that is and weather or not it's my fault.
See, Duelyst is a good game. I can't really deny that. Mechanically, it's a very well designed little thing that, sensibly, nicks it's foundations from Hearthstone and builds that into a set of core mechanics far more interesting than it's predecessor. Check out the lovely Cool Ghosts' video on it if you aren't convinced. But even though it's mechanics are all well and good, I still spend most of my time playing it getting increasingly pissed off. So I spent some time while playing trying to isolate exactly what was gripping my ballsack and when.
And after intense studies of metaphorical foreign objects interfering with my bollocks, some things were clearer than others. First thing I noticed was a pretty big one: nothing feels powerful, because everything can die before even taking a breath. Duelyst is PACKED with cards that instantly kill minions. A deck's success in Duelyst is measured by how many cards it has that instantly kill other minions. And as a direct result, nothing you summon ever feels all that great. No matter how theoretically brutal a minion you just summoned is, chances are it'll be gone before it even moves. Which ties in to another, more interesting "problem".
Not being able to see the opponent's hand. Now, that might sound like heresy to purists, but hear me out. Why is it that card games have you hiding your hand? It's been so since their inception in the Corporeal Realm, of actual cards that you can touch and get paper cuts from, because it was easier. Think about it, if the rules of a physical card game required you to have your hand visible at all times. Imagine the juggling involved. Bit of a pain, innit? So physical card games have always been designed with this restriction in mind, barring a few adventurous types. But Duelyst is a videogame. The restrictions of the mortal plane do not apply. So Duelyst has the freedom not to take hidden hands for granted, to genuinely consider weather they're needed. And the thing is:
Duelyst would be fine if you could see the other player's hand.
The reason this ties into the previous point is that Duelyst's insta-death cards would be far less infuriating if you could see them coming. Every move in Duelyst is an ass-pull, and the more powerful a move someone makes then the worse it is that you couldn't have done something about it beforehand. Plenty of times I've had opponents pull ridiculous 20-odd damage combos out of nowhere, and the more I think about it the more I think that the problem isn't their existence, but that you can't see the build-up.
You may have noticed that I'm being very tentative for someone writing about stuff that makes them angry, and that's because I don't actually think this stuff is BAD. I think my own predispositions hold a lot of the blame for why I've been screaming at cards so much. Regardless of how annoyed I am when someone else destroys my ace in the hole as soon as I summon the damn thing, it seems that the card gaming audience as a whole doesn't see that summon as that important in the long run. I lost The Best Minion, they just lost A Minion. I'm used to different nuances of different genres, and here that's made a difference to how much I enjoy Duelyst.
So why am I even voicing my gripes if I don't think they're all that relevant as criticisms of Duelyst and others of it's type? Well, because this stuff can be used for other games. I'm a game developer at heart, so knowing why certain people don't get on with a genre is something that interests me, and many others, greatly. Making hands visible to both players presents problems of it's own(if you just added it to Duelyst as-is, it would probably at least DOUBLE the length of your average match), but I feel it's an avenue worth exploring to create a competitive card game for folks like myself.
So I'll top this little train-of-thought thing off with this pitch for a card-visibility system in a digital card game: Divide cards into two groups, visible and hidden, based on their power. Your standard low-cost minions and spells can be hidden, in Duelyst terms those'll be your Pyromancers, obelysks, and other things that aren't Vitruvian(I play a lot of Vitruvian, my knowledge outside of that is limited). Doesn't matter if they come out of nowhere, they don't matter too much. Then on the higher end you have your Dragonbone Golems and the like, visible to your opponent. You couldn't just base visibility on cost, I'd think you should still be able to see the Vitruvian 0 cost dispel, and certainly the 4 cost insta-death, but roughly you'll have high-cost minions visible and lower ones not. This way the ridiculous stuff can still be seen before it happens, but you leave enough room for surprises that you won't make games drag on for TOO long.
So yeah, that's what I took away from my thoughts on this. You can go home now.
Next week, Odin Sphere. I'm also looking into spending some time with old favourites. Sunless Sea for one, in light of it's follow up Sunless Skies being announced, and Muramasa: The Demon Blade, because damn did Odin Sphere make me want to play that again.
See, Duelyst is a good game. I can't really deny that. Mechanically, it's a very well designed little thing that, sensibly, nicks it's foundations from Hearthstone and builds that into a set of core mechanics far more interesting than it's predecessor. Check out the lovely Cool Ghosts' video on it if you aren't convinced. But even though it's mechanics are all well and good, I still spend most of my time playing it getting increasingly pissed off. So I spent some time while playing trying to isolate exactly what was gripping my ballsack and when.
And after intense studies of metaphorical foreign objects interfering with my bollocks, some things were clearer than others. First thing I noticed was a pretty big one: nothing feels powerful, because everything can die before even taking a breath. Duelyst is PACKED with cards that instantly kill minions. A deck's success in Duelyst is measured by how many cards it has that instantly kill other minions. And as a direct result, nothing you summon ever feels all that great. No matter how theoretically brutal a minion you just summoned is, chances are it'll be gone before it even moves. Which ties in to another, more interesting "problem".
Not being able to see the opponent's hand. Now, that might sound like heresy to purists, but hear me out. Why is it that card games have you hiding your hand? It's been so since their inception in the Corporeal Realm, of actual cards that you can touch and get paper cuts from, because it was easier. Think about it, if the rules of a physical card game required you to have your hand visible at all times. Imagine the juggling involved. Bit of a pain, innit? So physical card games have always been designed with this restriction in mind, barring a few adventurous types. But Duelyst is a videogame. The restrictions of the mortal plane do not apply. So Duelyst has the freedom not to take hidden hands for granted, to genuinely consider weather they're needed. And the thing is:
Duelyst would be fine if you could see the other player's hand.
The reason this ties into the previous point is that Duelyst's insta-death cards would be far less infuriating if you could see them coming. Every move in Duelyst is an ass-pull, and the more powerful a move someone makes then the worse it is that you couldn't have done something about it beforehand. Plenty of times I've had opponents pull ridiculous 20-odd damage combos out of nowhere, and the more I think about it the more I think that the problem isn't their existence, but that you can't see the build-up.
You may have noticed that I'm being very tentative for someone writing about stuff that makes them angry, and that's because I don't actually think this stuff is BAD. I think my own predispositions hold a lot of the blame for why I've been screaming at cards so much. Regardless of how annoyed I am when someone else destroys my ace in the hole as soon as I summon the damn thing, it seems that the card gaming audience as a whole doesn't see that summon as that important in the long run. I lost The Best Minion, they just lost A Minion. I'm used to different nuances of different genres, and here that's made a difference to how much I enjoy Duelyst.
So why am I even voicing my gripes if I don't think they're all that relevant as criticisms of Duelyst and others of it's type? Well, because this stuff can be used for other games. I'm a game developer at heart, so knowing why certain people don't get on with a genre is something that interests me, and many others, greatly. Making hands visible to both players presents problems of it's own(if you just added it to Duelyst as-is, it would probably at least DOUBLE the length of your average match), but I feel it's an avenue worth exploring to create a competitive card game for folks like myself.
So I'll top this little train-of-thought thing off with this pitch for a card-visibility system in a digital card game: Divide cards into two groups, visible and hidden, based on their power. Your standard low-cost minions and spells can be hidden, in Duelyst terms those'll be your Pyromancers, obelysks, and other things that aren't Vitruvian(I play a lot of Vitruvian, my knowledge outside of that is limited). Doesn't matter if they come out of nowhere, they don't matter too much. Then on the higher end you have your Dragonbone Golems and the like, visible to your opponent. You couldn't just base visibility on cost, I'd think you should still be able to see the Vitruvian 0 cost dispel, and certainly the 4 cost insta-death, but roughly you'll have high-cost minions visible and lower ones not. This way the ridiculous stuff can still be seen before it happens, but you leave enough room for surprises that you won't make games drag on for TOO long.
So yeah, that's what I took away from my thoughts on this. You can go home now.
Next week, Odin Sphere. I'm also looking into spending some time with old favourites. Sunless Sea for one, in light of it's follow up Sunless Skies being announced, and Muramasa: The Demon Blade, because damn did Odin Sphere make me want to play that again.
Comments
Post a Comment