Arena is a format that needs to be stolen by HEX :)
I do think Arena or at least league-style play is something Hex should get going, but PvE may fill that need anyway, letting players play whenever they feel like and team up when they can, with progression for your time spent playing. I keep wishing the game had an Arena mode, but I really do think that PvE should take priority over that (and from everything they’ve said it is indeed a priority - there are just different teams doing different things, and the PvP side chugs along even though PvE isn’t out yet).
@Mark - the PvP game for the first set will pretty much be finished when the AH patch comes out next week (assuming it’s still on-schedule). Not sure if there are still bugged games, but I haven’t had any bug out recently in a way that impacts tournament play (the only bug I’ve seen was when an opponent quit while I was looking at a card closeup). There will still be tournament formats added after that, I assume, but the main thing that will be missing is simply players. So there will be a solid couple months of play time with the first set before set 2 comes out.
Re: Arena mode. They’ve already announced that they’re working on an asynchronous sealed mode which should fill that void very nicely whenever it’s finally ready.
As for the announcement of Set 2, I have mixed feelings. By the time it launches, collections will have been live for 4 months, which is a totally reasonable pace of development for a TCG that depends on shaking things up on a regular basis to prevent the meta from getting stale. Letting their core base of players get bored certainly isn’t a good option. But of course, it’s still in closed beta, so not everyone will have had the chance to play in the Set 1-only environment. Really, the problem isn’t that it’s too soon to launch another set, but that the features necessary to move into open beta are so delayed.
In retrospect, it’s not really surprising that a company with a core background in physical games and experience running the WoWTCG would be able to keep up a steady pace on the new card pipeline despite running into delays on the software features. In an ideal world, PvE, trading, double-backs, open beta, etc. should all have been launched before Set 2. But in this situation where they just aren’t ready, I think it’s the right call to keep the core PvP game (their minimum viable product) humming along rather than letting it stagnate while waiting for everything to come together.
I’m impatient for PvE too and anxious about the lack of visible progress, but I’m willing to believe them when they say the delay is more of an issue of ambitious scope leading to design and implementation challenges rather than a lack of prioritization. You might read this if you haven’t already: Cory Hudson Jones - HEX Beta is (almost) here!
I get this psychologically, but it doesn’t really make practical sense. Limited formats are a level playing field regardless of the size of your collection. Casual constructed decks are pulled from whatever you happen to have rather than 100% optimized, and a collection with mostly set 2 won’t be any weaker than one with set 1, especially since you can easily pick up common and uncommon playsets of set 1 to give you a much bigger pool to draw from. And if you get serious about competitive constructed, you’ll likely need to pick up singles for the decks you want to build from the auction house; in that case you’re filling 60 slots and it doesn’t make a huge difference whether those slots are pulled from a total pool of 300 or 1500 cards. The only time it’s a real problem is if you’re trying to collect full playsets almost entirely from buying and opening packs, which is a terribly inefficient approach to TCGs at the best of times.
Any game hoping to maintain and grow a community over a period of years has to ensure that things are approachable for new players, and that’s the purpose of the block system. Having a few sets in rotation is definitely manageable – if it wasn’t, no TCG would have ever gotten off the ground.
Besides all that, there’s every reason to expect that the game will be more fun and varied in both limited and constructed when the meta is drawn from two sets rather than one, so if you happen to start playing a bit later, you’ll have a better first experience than the early adopters.
Also, not sure what your “more finished” benchmark is, but if you are interested in drafts, there’s no reason to keep holding off right now. Games, packs, drafting, deckbuilding, and collections are all functional, stable, and enjoyable.
Does anyone know if Set 2 is a full-sized set, or more of a half-sized set? They’ve followed Magic in nearly everything else, but I haven’t heard how they’re treating set/block releases. Is Set 1 more of a core set, with Set 2 kicking off a block? Did Set 1 kick off a block, with Set 2 being a smaller supplemental release?
No one’s answered this yet, so I’ll weigh in with my less than definitive “I think Set 2 is part of the Set 1 block.”
Yes, I’m pretty sure set 1-3 are a block. I haven’t seen a statement on the size of the set, but I’m going to guess somewhere in the 240-card range.
They’ve said that set 1 is particularly enormous at around 340 cards, due to the need to have it cover all the bases to act as a base set for the next couple years. So I doubt that set 2 will be quite as big.
But on the other hand, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them referred to it as “another big set” or something along those lines, which would indicate that it’s not all the way down to a half-size set. Also, drafts will be 2-1-2, which wouldn’t work very well if 2 is a small set.
So somewhere around 2/3 or 3/4 the size of set 1 seems like the likely ballpark to me.
Set 2 is about 250 collectible cards. It introduces the other 4 races.
Set 1 was overly large, but we knew that and needed to get a certain amount of stuff out there to look good compared to other TCGs as well as ensure the set could last through both the closed and open beta period without the Kickstarter folks getting tired of it. We don’t really intend to ever do another set as large as that again. (Which, now that I’ve said that, means someone will was set 3 to be 500 cards or something.)
Chris Woods
Patching in a couple hours. The highlights are the launch of the auction house and the introduction of larger-scale scheduled tournaments. Constructed and Sealed each starting every 4 hours, staggered from one another. Entry fees for the Constructed will be temporarily turned off to bring people in for the initial testing wave, so a nice chance to get some free packs if you can put together a winning record.
Adorable.
I can use a little help in understanding what to do in this game ;)
I am opening up my packs (finally) but should I start opening the treasure chests? Are the chests different types too (rarity or something)? I thought I read that the chests were not working properly and we were supposed to hold off - not sure if that is still true.
It seems like I hardly have any rabbits and I really wanted more rabbits! :D
Not sure but shouldn’t any of the cards in a starter pack also show up to build other decks? I cannot tell if that is occurring.
I am just a TCG/CCG wimp!
Any help or maybe tutorial suggestions that show how to use the interface would be appreciated. (I have not found any yet). I was hunting for a simple rabbit deck to try out but the ones I am finding - I do not have all the cards. So I am opening up more. I was planning on keeping some of my packs in reserve but maybe that is just silly since there probably re so many from all the backers (I am a pro backer).
You can’t open the chests yet. The contents will all be for PvE, and that’s not in yet.
Thanks, malkav11!
Don’t open all the packs in case you want to draft, which costs 100 platinum ($1) and uses 3 packs.
I have kept fifty packs unopened either for trade or whatever. I also have my three booster drafting tickets for my pro level. Tried that for the first time last night. Was fun but I accidentally closed the hex window and bounced myself out of the game after losing to my first opponent.
Question about booster draft: if I try to make a 40 card deck how many should be resources. Not sure what a good ratio would be ( assuming I concentrate on two colors only).
23 minions/spells/artifacts, 17 resources – that’s the magic number that carries over from Magic.
Thanks, slantz!
Personally, my approach is to never open packs except as part of a tournament. I’ve been playing regularly since beta started, and currently have over 200 packs in my inventory. I see them as having two purposes: 1) entry into draft and sealed events and 2) stored value that can easily be sold if I need more platinum for tournament entries or to buy singles for a constructed deck I’m building.
The way I see it, limited-format tournaments are simultaneously the most fun way to play the game, and the most efficient way to grow your collection. Everyone’s on a level playing field regardless of collection size, and the games can tend to be more varied and unpredictable, with a wider variety of cards seeing play. For growing the collection, after a moderate number of tournaments you’ll soon wind up with playsets of commons and uncommons without even trying. And if you decide to always take the rare from the pack you open, you’ll never come out any worse than you would by just opening packs, and might get ahead if people pass you rares. Picking a non-rare is a bit of a gamble when trying to build a collection, as you’re hoping that the card is enough better that you wind up winning more games overall to make up for passing it, and you can wait until you’re more experienced to do that. As for entry fees vs. prizes, you only have to win 1/6 of your matches to break even on your entry fees compared to buying packs from the store, and any better than that will be putting you ahead.
And for making specific constructed decks, going to the auction house for the rares you need will usually be much more efficient than opening a bunch of packs and hoping. On average, the contents of a pack will have a lower value than the unopened pack did. You mentioned that you wanted more cards to build a bunny deck, and none of those are current metagame staples, so they don’t cost much on the AH. I took a quick look at the going rates, and it looks like you could sell 7 packs and make enough platinum to buyout 4x Uzume, Grand Concubunny, 4x Hop’hiro, Samurai, 4x The Mushwocky, and 4x Ritualist of the Spring Litter.
That’s a safe starting point, but don’t take it as inviolate gospel. Adjusting a bit up or down depending on the average cost of cards in the deck is reasonable. I find that I tend to gravitate toward 18, since in comparison to Magic, the hero charge powers lessen the sting of drawing too many resources.
Thanks, Thraeg!
I appreciate all the insight of everyone on this thread.
Here’s a solid (but not comprehensive) overview of one of the PvE dungeons they’re working on, as well as an example of the Might in-dungeon levelling and some other tidbits:
I cannot fucking wait.
No, seriously, please don’t make me wait. :(