Take a look at Capes if you want an XCOM Super Hero game:
(there is a demo last time I looked)
They do have that! There’s a robust photo mode during tactical battles, but you have to call it up yourself. Behold:
But for folks that either don’t want to do that or who forget to do it, the game also makes a randomly generated comics cover after every mission.
What teams are everyone’s favorites? I struggle with some configurations. Seems like you always want a Tank, Support, Damage Dealer
Each hero brings 8 cards to the mix. Missions are played with three heroes, and therefore 24-card decks. It’s all very manageable, and weirdly, they bury the deck management under the hood completely. There’s no representation of how many cards you have, or which ones you’ve used, or when – or even whether! – the cards cycle. I don’t know if you reshuffle all 24 cards every turn, or work through it linearly, or what. Which is kind of a shitty way to present a card game, but that’s what you get when you sign up for videogames these days; players are on a “need to know” basis, and most designers figure we don’t need to know…
Does anyone know the basic mechanics of the cardplay? There’s at least one Doctor Strange card that lets you draw the last two attacks you played, but there’s no way to see a discard pile. What the fuck is up with that? I’ve probably seen about fifty or sixty unique cards by now, and so far it’s only the one that bugs me about not being able to see the discard pile. But as more rare and powerful cards start getting folded into the mix, I’mma rage out if there start to be problems because we can’t see things like how many cards are left in the deck. :(
Well, you usually have to take the dumbass Hunter, so that means Captain Marvel will always take up one of the other two slots, which means my teams are basically whoever wants to tag along with me and Carol. We’re not picky.
Really, though, the game does a good job so far pushing you away from just sticking with your favorites, but also letting you do that if it’s what you want. I’m really digging Doctor Strange’s support tricks and especially how he can supply the other two characters with a ready supply of heroism. He’s basically the fuel in my tank for whatever two heroes I bring into a battle.
And you guys be sure to add Magik to your team if you want to see some insanely fun stuff with environmental effects. Her portals are a real joy*!
* See what I did there? Anyone? Anyone? C’mon, surely someone spotted that!
Haha, you saw New Mutants!
Here is a question that has been nagging me, and I keep forgetting to try to research it in game: when you’re in a tactical battle, you often get a “Level Up!” notice for a hero. Is that a general level up, or just for that particular battle? I had assumed the latter, but even if that’s the case, not sure what that means, exactly.
What determines who attacks on a team-up card? Is it the two members with the highest friendship? And does the actual members in the team-up change the damage output etc?
You don’t get a selection of city backgrounds at the end of missions though, right (like Xcom 2)? Wish it did.
That’s what they initially thought when they started making it. It felt terrible, so they created this beautiful thing.
Yes. It tells you the stat increases just below the notification on the right side of the screen. Card values change dynamically
I think this is chosen randomly when you start a mission, but not positive. Hero damage values do modify the attack.
I might be misunderstanding what you’re asking, but it’s a hero leveling up. But I wouldn’t put too much stock in it, since there’s a ton of under-the-hood catch-up voodoo xp and autoleveling. I don’t like it, but that’s mostly because I can’t follow it and therefore don’t understand it.
That’s a good question and I’ve tried tests swapping between characters, but it seems like it’s attached to a single character, which is probably why you’re asking. It doesn’t help that I don’t understand how the cardplay works, because the game won’t tell me. Are combo cards added to the deck or do they just appear in your starting hand? When you discard them, can they cycle back around? When they’re used, do they go to the discard pile to cycle back into my hand, or are they one-use? How many are in the deck?
Again, for some reason I don’t understand, Firaxis keeps the cardplay mechanics under the hood. I have no idea why that is and I’m uneasy that it might become an issue later.
You’ll probably have to take a look, but I seem to recall there is a “backgrounds” option for comics covers. Frankly, I’d be surprised if there are fewer features than in XCOM’s poster editor, but dumber things have happened.
I think the most important thing to know here is that as the Hunter levels, the minimum Hero level of the entire roster increases.
They have exhaust on them, so single use. You get one. It is added to the deck when the mission starts (according to the tutorial)
Sorry, I wasn’t actually asking so much as trying to make the point that since the process of how cards work isn’t detailed anywhere, there’s a ton we don’t know that also applies to the combo cards, so we might not have an answer to @geewhiz’s question.
Also, I just checked and there are a bunch of backgrounds in the photo editor. I think you should be pretty pleased how with how it compares to XCOM 2’s posters.
when you draw the combo card it shows who it uses. I think it’s similar to crits and Nico’s random stuff and just chooses randomly on draw
Your point about the discard pile (if it exists) is well made. I went to look at the tutorials to see if there’s anything about basic card mechanics and didn’t see anything. We ought to be able to say for certain if it goes through the entire deck and then reshuffles by tracking cards, but who has time for that?
Weird. I’ve never seen one come up when randomizing post-mission.
Ok, after seeing the posts on how to disable the launcher, and reading about the mechanics, I got this. And…I like it. Quite a bit. Only done the first real mission after the tutorials, but not being a Marvel enthusiast, and having nearly zero knowledge of any of these characters (other than maybe the bad Spiderman cartoon and that Black Sabbath song off of Paranoid), I actually find the dialog and voices pretty cool. It’s fun. It’s got a nice balance of dark and light, sort of like that Netflix show Wednesday, which I also love. This isn’t quite as stylish but it looks pretty enough, and the tone is spot on. For me at least, not having anything to compare it to having seen exactly zero of the superhero movies.
I like the combat mechanics. They are pretty crunchy, and the card system seems well designed. I do wish there was a photomode more like in, say, Cyberpunk 2077 or the Assassin’s Creed games, but other than that it’s wicked cool.
What sold me though was Charlie. I mean, as a dog person, seeing the reunion with a faithful pooch who spent three freakikn’ centuries pining for Daddy…well, melts the heart it does! Erm, well, ok, it’s a hellhound, but still.
Thanks for the explanation Tom. I’ve had several other light / dark choices and just went with what seemed like the answer that fits me the best. I wish you and Captain Marvel the best. I hope my Hunter is invited to the wedding.
Ouch, that sucks. Good luck and I hope you didn’t permanently lose anything.
Ooh, thanks for bringing this up, because I want to backpedal from something I’d posted upthread. I had previously been willfully skipping the cutscenes, banter, and basically any “writing” or “narrrative” as much as I could, mostly because I just wanted to find out more about what kind of game it is. But now that I’ve found that out, now that I know I’m here for the long haul, I’ve been letting some of the cutscenes and dialogue play out. I’ve even been reading some of the banter in the faux social media screen, and I’ve come to the conclusion…
…Midnight Suns is good writing.
I don’t want to make too much of it, and I’m not saying it’s clearing any high bars, or that it’s even any meaningful worldbuilding or ongoing narrative. Instead, I’m saying it’s playfully and effectively riffing on that same mythology we all know to varying degrees and all variously love, mildly like, or even loathe. It’s easily better than the pointless nonsense crammed into Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, which is the other big Marvel videogame I’ve played enough to know the writing (I didn’t play the Guardians game). However, I’m not the least bit invested in the main storyline or the player character, so the whole thing might be a wash in the end. But I can say that I’m finding some of the ancillary stuff charming enough to pay attention to.
You’re the third person in as many days to bring up this thing with a glowing comment. I’m still reeling from the Rob Zombie Munsters, but I’m just going to have to got over that, aren’t I?
You guys posting all your Hunter photos as a guy is weird. FemHunter all the way.
And the order of attack (if you want to consider it) is always the same on the hero combo cards. Left, then right. It shows the symbols of the characters to denote it for quick look on the card.
If you like the writing here, Guardians is better.