Faëria - online strategy card game

Games
1

Faëria seemed to have a lot of interest in the Kickstarting and Screaming thread, so I thought I’d pull the discussion over here.

The developers of Faëria describe it as a “strategy card game” or “SCG.” It essentially adds an adaptable board to the deck building and drawing mechanics from a traditional TCG (trading card game). Resources are actually played on the board, terraforming tiles while allowing you to play your more powerful cards. There are two additional resources of gold and faëria (read: mana) that must also be managed in order to play creatures, structures, and spells (“events”). Each turn gives you three actions that you must split between gathering gold, drawing cards, terraforming lands with resources, or creating a new tile on the board.

Have I mentioned the morning, noon, and night cycles? Yeah, there’s a lot going on.

Faëria just began a Kickstarter and, as an interesting marketing tool, will give anyone who pledges $15 or above a key for the closed beta that is going on right now (note: $15 gets you beta access only; you have to pledge at least $25 to get Faëria when it’s released). The game is browser-based and is primarily 1v1 multiplayer at the moment. There are a few single player tutorials but a lot of the learning curve will be trial by fire. Fortunately, there is a ranking system so that you can get slaughtered by relative novices instead of experts. If you don’t like it, cancel your pledge before the last 24 hours of the campaign.

One last thing: even though the “T” is missing in the game’s “SCG” acronym, you can still trade cards with other players. However, there is no way to buy cards. You can only gain cards by playing matches, which gives you “memoria” (you get more for winning) that you trade in for boosters. No money sink here.

Some random thoughts:

[ul]
[li]The aesthetics might be a little precious for some. It’s still an attractive game, even when most of the card art is placeholders. [/li][li]The tutorial “Quests” don’t come close to properly introducing you the game. I recommend reading the beginner’s info on the forums at some point before trying to play a human being. [/li][li]Even then, some things aren’t entirely clear (e.g. the rules for placing tiles), so it will take some trial and error. [/li][li]You apparently only have a single deck, so experimenting with new builds means dismantling your old one. Boooooooooooooo. [/li][/ul]

PS For anyone who cares, ë = ALT+0235.

2

Dammit, if only I hadn’t just bought into Hex…this game looks more interesting.

The art is really high-quality and they seem to be well-funded and pretty far along in development. Wonder why they need a Kickstarter now?

3

According to their page, they’ve been prototyping since 2009 (which I assume is why it looks so good and is already in beta). They need the new dough to polish it up and add some new features like an SP campaign, new types of multiplayer, and an improved UI (new deck slots, I hope). They talk about building a “standalone game,” too; maybe a dedicated client instead of the browser?

4

It looks interesting, but paying up front for it does not appeal. I’ve played way too many online card games that didn’t pan out for me to be interested in anything that requires investment just to try. Maybe if they do some sort of trial period after release.

5

Point taken, but I just wanted to reiterate that if you want to pledge $15 to try it out, you can always cancel the pledge if you decide it’s not for you.

6

I was in for $25 a couple days ago and made it through the solo missions. Good stuff so far.

7

I’m in as TommyTutone, still going through the solo missions but really enjoying so far. Reminds me of Sanctum that I used to play long long ago.

8

I’m there as justfletch and am still making a lot of mistakes, so hit me up.

9

Really? I loved Sanctum and still miss it. One of my most-played games. I may have to put some money into this one.

10

Must have skimmed past that point in the original post. I’ll give it a shot for the rest of the month, then. Can always cancel, as you say. I’m ineffablebob there, too, if anyone’s looking to play.

11

Anybody run into dragons yet? I had a guy’s orb down to 4 points with mine at full for a clear victory, when he spawned some fire dragon that immediately killed all my guys and cleaned my clock. Ouch. He was only level 8 so I guess he saved his memoria for a 1000 point booster and picked up that legendary.

12

Quick tip - so far all of my 3 wins in ranked play have been because my opponent has run out of time. The time goes by very quickly so it’s good to have a plan while it’s your opponent’s turn.

13

I lost 2 games to running out of time. :/

Great game, I’m in as lordpolish. Funny I beat someone called TvB today. I asked them if it meant Tom vs. Bruce and they didn’t respond.

14

Giving this a try, in as Arkon.

15

Going to give this a try also- I want a good card game- suffering through a bad one is no fun.

16

My in-game name is Wendelius. I’ve played a few more games. Lost them all, but I’m learning and trying out different builds of my green deck (as allowed by my small selection of cards).

I’ve watched an interesting and close match with Desert cards on Twitch. Really made me want to try that colour as it’s got some really neat tricks up its sleeve. I like that you choose what colour to make one of your lands. So you’re never mana hosed, as you can be in other CCG mutli-coloured decks.

Wendelius

17

Is there a way to play a specific person in a match that will give you memoria? If there is I haven’t found it. I can challenge someone, but that results in an unranked match with no rewards.

18

How in the world do structures work? I was doing the “red” tutorial quest and had a structure that could fire on adjacent creatures. Nothing I did caused it to trigger.

19

Hover your cursor over the structure (or click on it) and then click on the tooltip above it describing the effect. That should allow you to apply it.

Wendelius

20

I’m really digging this so far (username: charmtrap). I’ve only played a few of the early quests, but making your own board and choosing your resources with limited turns really adds some strategic choice to the basic MTG-ish duelling card game. Really impressed so far.