Hex Vault » Cryptozoic

OMG They Nerfed It!?!

HexVault — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 04:52:49 +0000

The “Countdown to Alpha” thread on the HexTCG.com forums got me thinking…

I have first hand knowledge of one of the 3 cost cards having been significantly redesigned since it was spoiled. I figured I’d run a quick competition to give away roundtrip flights to/from HexCon! All you have to do is make a guess at:

Which card has been changed?
What is it’s new cost?
How has the effect text been changed (it’s broadly similar to the original but there is a key change)?

The person who, in my opinion, gets closest to the new version of the card wins. Better be quick – you only have 2.5 days before Alpha (hopefully). And… it could be sooner if the card gets spoiled before that!

The only way to enter is to leave your guess as a reply to THIS post! Have fun!!!

EDIT: Because it’s a FAQ… There may well be more that one card that has been changed. I have a specific card in mind. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re completely right about the card you guess, you need to have guessed the card I’ve chosen!

EDIT2: Entries closed at 4:45pm PDT on 10/8/2013. Set 1 Spoiler List posted to HexTCG.com. The card I had in mind is NOT on the list… yet… As soon as CZE spoils it, I’ll announce the winner.

Embracing the Hex Magics: Exclusive Card Spoiler – Cloudwatcher!

HexVault — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 23:47:57 +0000

Time to spoil the second card provided exclusively to Hex Vault by the fine folks at HexTCG! Cloudwatcher, the Coyotle Mage, has expanded her magic use from Wild into both Diamond and Sapphire.

As you might remember from the Comet Strike card spoiler article, Entrath started out with just 2 native magic sources: Wild and Blood. After the Hex comet smashed into the world the native races suddenly found three more shards available to them: Ruby, Sapphire, and Diamond. The flavor text on the card tells this story pretty succinctly. Cloudwatcher is one of the few cards we’ve seen with an affinity for magic outside her threshold color:

Cloudwatcher

Cloudwatcher is a 1/1 for 1 resource with a threshold of 1 Wild – nothing particularly special there! However, she has a couple of abilities available to her that suggest an affinity for both the Sapphire and the Diamond shards. Right away that tells us that we’re probably not going to see Cloudwatcher in mono-Wild decks, and instead she’ll be more likely to find use in either Wild/Sapphire or Wild/Diamond decks.

Let’s look at the synergy of Cloudwatcher in Wild/Diamond decks first. For 1 Diamond threshold and 1 resource you can exhaust Cloudwatcher and give another of your troops Steadfast (the ability to attack without becoming exhausted such that the troop would still be available to block on your opponents next turn) this turn. A key use for this ability will be to grant one of your large troops (e.g. Legionnaire of Adamanth, Ozawa, Cosmic Elder, or Jadiim) Steadfast so that they can beat on your opponent this turn but also be available to defend on your opponent’s next turn.

In Wild/Sapphire decks you can exhaust Cloudwatcher to allow you to draw a card and then discard a card at a cost of 1 resource (and assuming you have a Sapphire threshold available). This allows you to more quickly find the cards you need in your deck and discard cards that are not useful given the current board state and/or time in the game, in effect thinning your deck.

What does Cloudwatcher bring to the table in PVE?

Cloudwatcher Gear (PVE)

Stormwing Breastplate (Uncommon) allows you to pay 6 resources (1 Diamond and 1 Sapphire) to return a card from your graveyard into you hand. Clearly there is obvious synergy with the Sapphire-based ability – you can freely discard cards into your graveyard and then retrieve them later as needed. I also wonder whether or not the threshold is supposed to be Diamond or Sapphire – I’ll check with the team and post an update.

The Storm Fan (Rare) allows you to play all Diamond and Sapphire cards for 1 less resource cost. That’s pretty good resource acceleration, and allows you to potentially speed up all of your drops past Turn 1.

I hope you enjoyed both of the exclusive card spoilers we’ve been able to share! I certainly enjoyed thinking about how they could be used and sharing my thoughts with you. I’d like to thank the HexTCG folks for providing them. Hopefully they’ll be the first of many!

Threshold & Resources in HexTCG – Exclusive Card Spoiler!

HexVault — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 21:11:58 +0000

Exciting news! The HexTCG folks have given me a couple of cards to spoil exclusively on Hex Vault! I’ll spoil the first card today in this article, and follow up with another article tomorrow with the second card. First up, threshold fixing and resource acceleration!!!

#HexTCG cards to spoil!!! New resource fixing! Thank you @HexTCG @Cryptozoic

— Hex Vault (@HexVault) October 1, 2013

Before I spoil the card, let’s spend a little time talking about threshold and resources in HexTCG. It’s probably obvious to most people following the development of HexTCG that the resource system is based on five basic shards: Wild, Blood, Diamond, Sapphire, and Ruby. When you play a basic shard resource card it actually provides 2 distinct things: a threshold of the appropriate type AND a resource. This is key to understanding the resource system in HexTCG – although threshold and resource are frequently given as a package deal (i.e. basic shard resource cards), they are technically completely separate. What does that mean to me? That means that cards can potentially provide threshold but no resource, resource but no threshold, or both. In the UI, the display on the two mechanics (threshold and resources) is actually separate — two numbers that are displayed independently and can be changed independently. Time to get out of the habit of checking the numbers in the threshold symbols to calculate how many resources I have available!

Adaptable Infusion Device is an example of card that provides a permanent threshold of your choosing without increasing your available resource count. Notably, for now anyway (and definitely in Set 1), anything that provides threshold is permanent.

On the other hand, when we look at resource acceleration, cards (or actions) can provide temporary resources that are only available on the turn they are played/used [X/0] (e.g. Spectral Lotus), resources on the turn that they are played and on each subsequent turn [X/X], or permanent resources only on subsequent turns [0/X] (e.g. Surge Mechanism). Chlorophyllia is even more nuanced – you essentially get 2 Wild threshold, and a resource effect that is essentially [0/2] (no temporary resources the turn you cast Chlorophyllia, but 2 resources each turn thereafter).

OK, now that you understand threshold and resources in HexTCG, let’s look at the card! Crimson Clarity – threshold fixing and resource acceleration for Ruby:

Crimson Clarity

As an aside, and like most of the cards spoiled so far, I love the flavor text for this card…

Basically the card text says “Gain 1 Ruby threshold” (a permanent change) and “Gain 3 resources this turn” (and only this turn!), i.e. playing this card results in a net gain of 1 Ruby threshold and 1 resource. Threshold fixing and (albeit modest) resource acceleration on the same card! As an example, on Turn 2 with 1 Ruby and 1 Wild threshold and 2 resources in play, you could play Crimson Clarity and then play another troop for 3 resources. At the very start of Turn 3 you’d have 2 Ruby and 1 Wild threshold but only 2 resources available to you.

Crimson Clarity’s resource and threshold fixing obviously allows you to play cards with 2 or more Ruby threshold earlier than normal, even if you’ve only been able to play 1 Ruby basic shard resource card, e.g. Mancubus or Zoltog on Turn 3, Ash Harpy on Turn 4, Inferno on Turn 3 (assuming you’ve had 2 Ruby basic shard resources), etc. You could even get a Turn 4 Te’talca, Orc Gladiator, ahead of the curve, and likely with your opponent only having weaker troops and potentially being resource constrained! It can also smooth out bad basic shard resource draws when using Poca, The Conflagrator – after all, her charge power (Blaze Elemental) requires 2 Ruby threshold.

Crimson Clarity will probably have utility in PVP in constructed formats, especially in very aggressive decks and also decks that stray away from mono-Ruby. It’ll see even more use in limited formats, especially in decks where 2 other shards are prominent but you need to add a splash of Ruby to play a bomb and/or removal, e.g. Ragefire. Another thing – Crimson Clarity is common ensuring that we’ll see it in drafts pretty frequently.

What about Crimson Clarity in PVE? Insane resource acceleration! Let’s look at the equipment:

Crimson Clarity – PVE Gear

Crimson Copperhead (Common) reduces the cost of Crimson Clarity by 1 thereby giving you a Ruby threshold and a net gain of 2 resources the turn you play the card. Now you’re potentially getting all of the cards I described previously a turn earlier!

Lucid Gloves (Uncommon) take the temporary resource gains and make them permanent – 3 extra resources every turn, including the turn you play Crimson Clarity. Using these gloves in combination with the Crimson Copperhead, and having multiple Crimson Clarity cards in hand on Turn 1 could result in a very large and angry dragon (well, in Set 2) beating on your AI opponent by Turn 2!

I’m excited to see more threshold and resource acceleration in the game. What do you think of Crimson Clarity? Leave your comments below or on Facebook or Twitter.

That’s all for today, but tomorrow I’ll be spoiling a Coyotle Mage who has embraced the Diamond and Sapphire magic brought to Entrath by Hex… Check back soon!

Game Night @ Cryptozoic HQ

HexVault — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 00:18:17 +0000

I had the extremely good fortune to visit Cryptozoic’s HQ last night. Cory and the entire team were incredibly welcoming and I had a great time. As it turned out they would have been more than happy to let me take a bunch of pictures and ask a bunch of questions, but I didn’t want to impose – I’d accepted an offer to participate in “Game Night” so I wasn’t there as a blogger, nor was I on a mission to unearth new Hex information. I figured I’d relay some of my experiences. Never fear, I’ll go back sooner or later, squeeze the Hex team for new information, and document the visit fully for the community!

Hex: Shards of Fate

I wasn’t completely oblivious to the fact that I was at the “source” of Hex. I got to meet the entire team, including almost everyone we saw in the Kickstarter videos, and spent a good deal of time talking to the developers. They’d just got the art assets for the new loading screen and apparently it’s “beautiful” and “incredible”. I also got to see the UI at a much higher resolution than we saw at GenCon – it looks awesome. The (in)famous paper decks that are being used for playtesting Set 2 were laying around – definitely took a lot of self control to not pick one up and start thumbing through the cards. Finally, I saw what I’ll call the Card Manager” admin tool where all of the cards are defined, art is associated, etc. I may have accidentally seen a new bunny and another robot troop from Set 2…

Cryptozoic’s Other Games

During my tour I was blown away by the sheer number of games, trading card sets, etc. that Cryptozoic is working on. Most visitors to this site are mainly interested in Hex, as I am myself, but CZE has a lot more going on.

Game Night

I started my night playing The Hobbit Deck Building Game for the first time. Same general rules as CZE’s DC Deck Building Game, but with minor tweaks. Definitely a great deal of fun. The most notable thing was that we were clearly playing with a demo version of the game (with mocked up laser printed cards) that’s been around since the game was in development. I lost… narrowly…

I played a few other games, but the highlight of the game was a marathon “The Resistance” session. For those unfamilar with the game, here’s the description from boardgamegeek.com:

“The Empire must fall. Our mission must succeed. By destroying their key bases, we will shatter Imperial strength and liberate our people. Yet spies have infiltrated our ranks, ready for sabotage. We must unmask them. In five nights we reshape destiny or die trying. We are the Resistance!

The Resistance is a party game of social deduction. It is designed for five to ten players, lasts about 30 minutes, and has no player elimination. The Resistance is inspired by Mafia/Werewolf, yet it is unique in its core mechanics which increase the resources for informed decisions, intensify player interaction, and eliminate player elimination.

Players are either Resistance Operatives or Imperial Spies. For three to five rounds, they must depend on each other to carry out missions against the Empire. At the same time, they must try to deduce the other players’ identities and gain their trust. Each round begins with discussion. When ready, the Leader entrusts sets of Plans to a certain number of players (possibly including himself/herself). Everyone votes on whether or not to approve the assignment. Once an assignment passes, the chosen players secretly decide to Support or Sabotage the mission. Based on the results, the mission succeeds (Resistance win) or fails (Empire win). When a team wins three missions, they have won the game.”

I have to imagine the resistance (4)/spy (3) ratio with 7 players has to be just about the hardest level of difficulty for a resistance win. The game is ridiculously addictive. Most of us hadn’t played before, so it was a great combination of flat out lying, nerdy strategy discussions (Ben “wait, I need to go read 100 strategy articles before I can play this” Stoll), and general hilarity.

I can’t thank everyone at CZE enough for making me feel welcome. I had a great night doing one of my favorite things in the world – playing games. I also got some unexpected, and personally very exciting news, about something Hex-related that might happen in the near future. I’ll let on what it is when/if Cory confirms it.

Colin

DragonCon 2013: Interview with Chris Woods, Magical Creature

HexVault — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 14:07:12 +0000

Gwaer managed to catch up with Chris Woods immediately after the HexTCG PVE Design Panel. He got Chris to answer questions on the following topics (questions sourced from the HexTCG.com forums):

Whether or not PVE content would be retired over time
Health pools in raids and alternate loss conditions
Whether or not any equipment would be Bind on Equip (BOE)
Treasure chest contents
PVE progression

DragonCon 2013: HexTCG PVP Design Panel – YouTube

HexVault — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 21:51:09 +0000

Note: the images in the slide show at the top of this post are 4x the size of the ones I posted previously – higher quality card images FTW!

DragonCon 2013: HexTCG PVE Design Panel

HexVault — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 16:30:40 +0000

The DragonCon 2013 HexTCG PVE Design panel featured Cory Jones (President & CCO, Cryptozoic), Chris Woods (Magical Creature, Cryptozoic), and Ben Stoll (Game Designer, Cryptozoic). I’ve posted the audio from the panel to SoundCloud. You’ll find quite a few PVE card spoilers (dungeon [Arena of Souls, Information Control] and raid [Vengeful Figment, Ruby Golem, Voodoo Doll, Gront's Favorite Pet]), a walkthrough of the plans for the “Junkyard Dog” dungeon, information about “Pudgington Hallow”, a spirited Q&A session, and much more!

You can also see all of the slides (thanks, Cory!) Chris talked to in the slideshow above this blog entry – they are displayed in the correct order starting with the HexTCG Key Art slide and ending with the HexTCG logo. Notably, compared to the PVP panel slides these are much less easier to follow without the context of the panel audio. In a day or two I’ll upload a video to YouTube marrying the audio and the presentation to make it even easier to follow along.

Key Discussion Topics (thanks Shadowelf and Stok3d!)

0:01:50 Interface of PVE (Junkyard Dungeon)
0:06:45 Dungeon Rewards
0:07:05 PVE Set of Cards
0:10:05 PVE/PVP Format
0:10:48 Verdingo Hunt Dungeon
0:12:48 Dungeon That Feels Like Draft
0:13:18 Raids
0:13:48 10-11x Raids At This Point
0:15:25 Raid Rewards
0:16:30 72x Raid Rewards
0:17:30 Assigning Roles in Raids
0:18:00 Raids 3 Stage Format
0:19:50 Equipment System
0:21:50 Rarity of Equipment
0:22:47 Equipment Will be Affecting All Copies of a Card
0:23:02 Equipment Sets and Set Bonuses
0:26:10 Mercenaries and Champions
0:30:50 World’s Interface
0:33:00 Faction’s Interaction
0:34:10 Raid’s Rewards
0:35:28 Keeps
0:36:30 Can I Respec My Champion?
0:37:20 Daily Quests
0:39:15 Phantom Versions of Cards
0:40:11 Interaction Between Players in Raids
0:41:55 PVP/PVE Cards
0:42:25 Doubleback System
0:45:30 Dual-Specs
0:46:10 Griefers
0:48:45 AI-Reoccuring Villains
0:50:50 Can I Save and Name Decks?
0:51:20 PVE Expansion Policy
0:56:20 Sideboarding Between Dungeons/Raids
0:57:18 Economy
0:59:15 Does PVE Scale With Starters?

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DragonCon 2013: HexTCG PVP Design Panel

HexVault — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 00:07:21 +0000

The DragonCon 2013 HexTCG PVP Design panel featured Cory Jones (President & CCO, Cryptozoic), Ben Stoll (Game Designer [PVP Lead], Cryptozoic), and Chris Woods (Magical Creature, Cryptozoic). I’ve posted the RAW and UNEDITED audio from the panel to SoundCloud. You’ll find quite a few card spoilers, and lots of new info about CZE’s plan for the game, including the news that Alpha will last for “months” before it switches to Beta (rather than the oft-repeated “3 weeks” comment that Cory made during the Kickstarter).

You can also see all of the slides (thanks, Cory!) Cory and Ben talked to in the slideshow above this blog entry – they are displayed in the correct order starting with the HexTCG Key Art slide and ending with the HexTCG logo. Sometime tomorrow I’ll upload a video to YouTube marrying the audio and the presentation to make it even easier to follow along.

After the panel I had the chance to catch up with Cory. He provided a couple of additional interesting tidbits. There are well over 20K backers at this point with more than 14K unique – that’s definitely higher than I thought given our perception of how many multi-pledgers there were. Also, Alpha access will be granted in phases. However, there won’t be an appreciable time difference (no more than a couple of days) between the different phases. They’re still working out the details on who gets slightly earlier access – some combination of level of Kickstarter tier and when you made your pledge most likely.

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Audio Highlights (thanks, Shadowelf!)

0:00:50 No 3D World
0:01:45 AIDA
0:05:35 Sets Balanced Around Draft
0:12:38 Set 1
0:24:55 Shard of Fate
0:28:40 Gem Socketing
0:31:15 Transformation
0:36:05 Alpha end of September
0:36:10 4x every card in Alpha
0:36:32 Beta Several Months After Alpha
0:39:05 Policy/Plans of Banning/Nerfing
0:41:15 Emulating Print Sheets
0:42:00 Boxes-RNG
0:43:50 Differences With MTG (Resource System)
0:48:00 Tournaments (Hobby Retailers)
0:55:50 Security
0:58:35 Tablets

DragonCon 2013: Kickstarting Videogames Panel

HexVault — Sat, 31 Aug 2013 14:26:06 +0000

The DragonCon 2013 Kickstarting Videogames panel (AKA “How we Kickstarted Hex with special guest star Chris Avellone”) featured Cory Jones (President & CCO, Cryptozoic), Chris Woods (Magical Creature, Cryptozoic), Ben Stoll (Game Designer, Cryptozoic), Chris Avellone (Creative Director, Obsidian Entertainment), and Chris Polk. I’ve posted the the RAW and UNEDITED audio from the panel to SoundCloud. No HexTCG card spoilers or new information, but worth a listen to relive the first 30 days or so of HexTCG’s introduction to the world through Kickstarter, explore the teams’ motivations, and get their views on their relationship with their backers.

I’ll create an edited version later in the week with just the HexTCG Kickstarter-related questions and comments!

DragonCon 2013: MMO Design 101 Panel (featuring Cory Jones)

HexVault — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 20:30:41 +0000

Luckily I got my DragonCon 2013 badge in time to make it to the MMO Design 101 Panel featuring Cory (as well as Eric Bakutis [Game Designer, Elder Scroll Online], Jonathan LeCraft [Senior Game Designer, WoW], and Alex Mayberry [Lead Producer, Diablo III]). I’ve posted the the RAW and UNEDITED audio from the panel to SoundCloud. It’s not necessarily specific to HexTCG, but there are a couple of interesting points made by Cory that definitely relate to HexTCG.

DragonCon 2013: MMO Design Panel

I’ll create an edited version later in the week with just Cory’s HexTCG-related soundbites!