Greetings once again, fellow Hearthpwn community. Since very recently I've began work on my second custom expansion, Dreams of Steel, which is the direct follow-up of my previous expansion, The Shifting Sands (I really recommend you to see it before checking this one out since I'll keep using its previous mechanics and themes to some extent). Previously I've worked by finishing the expansion and only then releasing it but this time I'm going to post cards here as I make it. This means that some of them won't be as polished and there'll be more balance changes but hopefuly you can help me with that by giving me feedback.
The backstory so far is that after being consumed by the time vortex we find ourselves in the distant future, where machines and mechs are the norm. This is tied to the most game-changing mechanic of this expansion, Energy. Energy is a different form of mana that can be earned through specific cards that provide it. Let's see some examples:
First of all, yes I know that's the GvG symbol but I haven't found a better one yet so as of now that's the one I'll be using. Now let me explain in more detail what energy is. It doesn't have a maximum of 10 like Mana Crystals and once you spend it it's gone. But how do you spend energy, you might ask. Well, that's deeply related to this expansion's new keyword, Activate.
And here are some examples:
As you can see, Activate is not only limited to energy which makes it a more versatile keyword. One more detail I want to say is that while The Shifting Sands took into account all the expansions up to KotFT this one goes all the way to the most recent one, The Witchwood so even and odd decks will be taken into account with the design of these cards. For example, Steel War Axe is an excelent card in even warrior since a 1 mana hero power means that you could use it on turn 2 and still attack with it. Finally, let's see 2 odd mage cards that use energy without the need of Activate.
So yes, Echo cards are back (not the Echo keyword from the witchwood but the ones from my previous expansion) and this certainly could seem too powerful based on what I've revealed so far. You don't need to worry, though since I'll design ways for you to interact with your opponent's energy, thus allowing for counterplays for this potential combo.
I've posted these ideas very early in design because I would really appreciate some feedback on the viability of these mechanics. I think they have quite a lot of potential but maybe designing an expansion around them isn't viable due to some unsolvable gameplay problems. I hope you're as excited as I am for exploring these new mechanics so I'll be posting to this thread whenever i get ideas for new cards.
I've come up with a new keyword that allows for player interactivity regarding Energy. Let's check it out.
And now let's see some examples:
By steal what I mean is that the energy would go from your opponent to you (hence the name conductive). There will be more ways to influence your opponent's energy but this will be one of the main ones and that's why I made it a keyword.
Natural Anomaly and Energy Shield both seem like cards that could be played if enough incentives to reach high amounts of energy exist. I'll see what I can come up with in that respect.
This looks very interesting, I also looked at The Shifting Sands and that looks awesome as well, makes me wish that Blizzard would make more dragon paladin synergies.
You might want to lower the cost of overcharged fireblast and make it so that it only targets minions or acts as a boardclear (Maybe 5 mana, spend all your energy, deal that much damage to all enemy minions) but seeing as the cards that gain energy you have revealed thus far onlmy give 1 or 2 at a time, I don't think that will be much of a problem.
What I do think, and thought when I looked at the shifting sands, is where do you want to store all this information. For example, when someone casts a spell that has resonance, you want to be able to have somewhere to see where said resonance counter goes down, now assuming you have some of those counters (which means board clutter as you can have a lot of resonances active at the same time), you also need an energy counter for both players.
The thing with Hearthstone is that it's UI has always been the best in the CCG market, I mean look at Gwent and the likes, they're good and all, but Hearthstone's UI is something else, I fear these mechanics might overly clutter them.
Then again, I am no game designer and I'm a big fan of what you've made, so keep it up!
Regarding Overcharged Fireblast it's supposed to be used to end the game if you managed to gain enough energy. Sure, there's not many ways to gain Energy as of now but when I design more and in conjuction with Echoes of Power you could get to dangerously high amounts.
About the UI, I've thought about designing an icon that stays below your hero (between its attack and Health) and that only shows up if you have more than 0 Energy. You're right in that hearthstone's excellent UI is very important for the gameplay experience but as of now I'm just thinking from a design perspective. When all the possible ways of interacting with energy have been designed I'll try to choose how it'd be displayed in-game.
Not a big fan of natural anomaly, seems too random. Maybe make it more specific like draw a spell or something. Also, i've read through it multiple times but i'm still not entirely sure what it is. You say it's diffrent form of mana but for example if you'd have 6 energy on turn ten does it mean you could basicly play 16 mana worth of stuff? If so wouldn't Charged Shaman be too powerful on turn 2? And wouldn't it be too powerful with combos? This makes me think you can't use it like mana but isn't it a little specific then? I'm not quitte sure haha, probally just me though.
Not a big fan of natural anomaly, seems too random. Maybe make it more specific like draw a spell or something. Also, i've read through it multiple times but i'm still not entirely sure what it is. You say it's diffrent form of mana but for example if you'd have 6 energy on turn ten does it mean you could basicly play 16 mana worth of stuff? If so wouldn't Charged Shaman be too powerful on turn 2? And wouldn't it be too powerful with combos? This makes me think you can't use it like mana but isn't it a little specific then? I'm not quitte sure haha, probally just me though.
Energy isn't mana and you can't use it to pay for cards that cost mana. It's just another resource that can only be earned through specific cards that produce it. It only resembles mana because it's exclusively used to pay for things or to improve the effects of certain cards.
Regarding Natural Anomaly I think it would be a good change to make it draw a specific kind of card but making it draw a spell would be getting into big spell mage territory so I'd rather make it draw a minion. Big minions druid seems like an archetype I'd like going into more.
Alright good to know. Although in that case i'm not too sure about the Conductive keyword since it's likely your opponent doesn't even run Energy, and deffinetly not on turn 3 which would still probally be the best time to play the Current Wizard. It seems more like an option for tech against it. Mountain Ravager is such a perfect card in that regard, although i haven't seen the entire set and it might be more important then i think which could very well be the case. Regardless i really like the ideas you're coming up with so keep it up :)
I love your idea and your design, I've seen your previous set and it's well crafted I think. Now there should be a way to play it and that would be awesome :D
Concerning Resonance, I'm very curious if you actually though about how to represent it ingame. From the top of my head I cannot see a convenient way to do it.
I love your idea and your design, I've seen your previous set and it's well crafted I think. Now there should be a way to play it and that would be awesome :D
Concerning Resonance, I'm very curious if you actually though about how to represent it ingame. From the top of my head I cannot see a convenient way to do it.
The way I imagine it could work is:
1. Minions and weapons with resonance have a small icon on the bottom (where the deathrattle icon would be) that has a number, that number being the turns left to trigger. Once the resonance resolves the icon dissapears.
2. Spells with resonance would have a special glow on the history and they would never dissapear from it until they trigger. If you hover over it you can see how many turns remain until it triggers.
I changed Natural Anomaly by making it only draw minions and increasing its cost by 1 but I fear it might be too powerful when coupled with this new giant. It's a combo whose consistency depends on how you build your deck and that's what makes me think it might not be broken but I'd like to hear your opinion.
Alright good to know. Although in that case i'm not too sure about the Conductive keyword since it's likely your opponent doesn't even run Energy, and deffinetly not on turn 3 which would still probally be the best time to play the Current Wizard. It seems more like an option for tech against it. Mountain Ravager is such a perfect card in that regard, although i haven't seen the entire set and it might be more important then i think which could very well be the case. Regardless i really like the ideas you're coming up with so keep it up :)
Sure it's more of a counter to energy but I intend to design cards that give Energy to your opponent thus allowing you to use conductive to your advantage even if your opponent doesn't run Energy at all.
Thanks for your answer about UI, the one from spell would be quite clever actually.
Other thoughts :
Giving energy to your opponent and trying to steal it seems like a overly complicated and dangerous way to get energy, while you can just play cards that give you energy right away. I am not convince having a whole keyword solely to steal energy from opponents is worth it, and it's extremely parasitic. A set like that would clearly need one or two cards that counter energy, just in case it goes out of hand, but that should be enough.
Also I would make conductive like that : "Whenever that minion deals damage, gain that much energy"
There could even be a number associated, for the amount of energy gained, but it seems unnecessary.
Man, there's some really cool stuff here. My only nitpick is that activate is only used for attacking, you could use it to make some pretty powerful spells with it.
Any chance you can take a look at my expansion? It's in my profile.
Sorry for the delay guys. I've been busy with exams but now I can keep designing. Here's a new card I devised a couple of days ago.
He is meant to be a good counter to decks that like to flood the board. Notice that it also affects heroes which makes it more interesting in my opinion.
From now on I'm back to designing more regularly so expect more cards soon.
Very interesting, but it doesn't stop anything from attacking, and the cost and stats probably mean you are dead if you plan on using this guy against aggro. I would add taunt, or make it activate (2 Mana). Anyway very interesting card that would need playtesting to really get.
Very interesting, but it doesn't stop anything from attacking, and the cost and stats probably mean you are dead if you plan on using this guy against aggro. I would add taunt, or make it activate (2 Mana). Anyway very interesting card that would need playtesting to really get.
I mean it doesn't "stop" your opponent unless he has more minions than Mana Crystals but it greatly limits what he can play to keep up the tempo. I thought about making it 2 mana but then it would be too polarizing of an effect so I decided to keep it to 1 but make it a druid card. This way if you ramp early on you can play this on turn 3 with the coin for example and it would be tough to deal with for decks like odd paladin.
Regarding taunt I think it's better if it doesn't have it because then you can protect it behind other taunts. For example you could play Oaken Summons into Ironwood Golem on 4 and then follow it up with this card.
I've designed some cards that interact in some way with your opponent's Energy.
Eerie Mist is very good when played before Mountain Ravager, Charged Reload could fit well into odd hunter and The Dark Punisher is an interesting way of countering energy decks although you could also just use it in a deck that gives your opponent Energy.
Charged reload is just a way worst arcane shot? Yeah, except in odd hunter I guess, but even there it's just 3 damages face for 3 mana, it's not really exciting. Plus it has a drawback.
Otherwise I like the other cards, I'd love to playtest your set!
Charged reload is just a way worst arcane shot? Yeah, except in odd hunter I guess, but even there it's just 3 damages face for 3 mana, it's not really exciting. Plus it has a drawback.
Otherwise I like the other cards, I'd love to playtest your set!
Now that you mention it it seems like the card is a bit underpowered. I could make it so you gain 2 energy instead of your opponent or I could think of some new card that benefits greatly from your hero power so that you would run this in your deck. I'll see what I come up with.
Greetings once again, fellow Hearthpwn community. Since very recently I've began work on my second custom expansion, Dreams of Steel, which is the direct follow-up of my previous expansion, The Shifting Sands (I really recommend you to see it before checking this one out since I'll keep using its previous mechanics and themes to some extent). Previously I've worked by finishing the expansion and only then releasing it but this time I'm going to post cards here as I make it. This means that some of them won't be as polished and there'll be more balance changes but hopefuly you can help me with that by giving me feedback.
The backstory so far is that after being consumed by the time vortex we find ourselves in the distant future, where machines and mechs are the norm. This is tied to the most game-changing mechanic of this expansion, Energy. Energy is a different form of mana that can be earned through specific cards that provide it. Let's see some examples:
First of all, yes I know that's the GvG symbol but I haven't found a better one yet so as of now that's the one I'll be using. Now let me explain in more detail what energy is. It doesn't have a maximum of 10 like Mana Crystals and once you spend it it's gone. But how do you spend energy, you might ask. Well, that's deeply related to this expansion's new keyword, Activate.
And here are some examples:
As you can see, Activate is not only limited to energy which makes it a more versatile keyword. One more detail I want to say is that while The Shifting Sands took into account all the expansions up to KotFT this one goes all the way to the most recent one, The Witchwood so even and odd decks will be taken into account with the design of these cards. For example, Steel War Axe is an excelent card in even warrior since a 1 mana hero power means that you could use it on turn 2 and still attack with it. Finally, let's see 2 odd mage cards that use energy without the need of Activate.
So yes, Echo cards are back (not the Echo keyword from the witchwood but the ones from my previous expansion) and this certainly could seem too powerful based on what I've revealed so far. You don't need to worry, though since I'll design ways for you to interact with your opponent's energy, thus allowing for counterplays for this potential combo.
I've posted these ideas very early in design because I would really appreciate some feedback on the viability of these mechanics. I think they have quite a lot of potential but maybe designing an expansion around them isn't viable due to some unsolvable gameplay problems. I hope you're as excited as I am for exploring these new mechanics so I'll be posting to this thread whenever i get ideas for new cards.
Check out my Hearthstone expansion: The Shifting Sands
CONDUCTIVE
I've come up with a new keyword that allows for player interactivity regarding Energy. Let's check it out.
And now let's see some examples:
By steal what I mean is that the energy would go from your opponent to you (hence the name conductive). There will be more ways to influence your opponent's energy but this will be one of the main ones and that's why I made it a keyword.
Check out my Hearthstone expansion: The Shifting Sands
3 MORE CARDS
These are the cards I've designed most recently:
Natural Anomaly and Energy Shield both seem like cards that could be played if enough incentives to reach high amounts of energy exist. I'll see what I can come up with in that respect.
Check out my Hearthstone expansion: The Shifting Sands
Regarding Overcharged Fireblast it's supposed to be used to end the game if you managed to gain enough energy. Sure, there's not many ways to gain Energy as of now but when I design more and in conjuction with Echoes of Power you could get to dangerously high amounts.
About the UI, I've thought about designing an icon that stays below your hero (between its attack and Health) and that only shows up if you have more than 0 Energy. You're right in that hearthstone's excellent UI is very important for the gameplay experience but as of now I'm just thinking from a design perspective. When all the possible ways of interacting with energy have been designed I'll try to choose how it'd be displayed in-game.
Check out my Hearthstone expansion: The Shifting Sands
Not a big fan of natural anomaly, seems too random. Maybe make it more specific like draw a spell or something. Also, i've read through it multiple times but i'm still not entirely sure what it is. You say it's diffrent form of mana but for example if you'd have 6 energy on turn ten does it mean you could basicly play 16 mana worth of stuff? If so wouldn't Charged Shaman be too powerful on turn 2? And wouldn't it be too powerful with combos? This makes me think you can't use it like mana but isn't it a little specific then? I'm not quitte sure haha, probally just me though.
Energy isn't mana and you can't use it to pay for cards that cost mana. It's just another resource that can only be earned through specific cards that produce it. It only resembles mana because it's exclusively used to pay for things or to improve the effects of certain cards.
Regarding Natural Anomaly I think it would be a good change to make it draw a specific kind of card but making it draw a spell would be getting into big spell mage territory so I'd rather make it draw a minion. Big minions druid seems like an archetype I'd like going into more.
Check out my Hearthstone expansion: The Shifting Sands
Alright good to know. Although in that case i'm not too sure about the Conductive keyword since it's likely your opponent doesn't even run Energy, and deffinetly not on turn 3 which would still probally be the best time to play the Current Wizard. It seems more like an option for tech against it. Mountain Ravager is such a perfect card in that regard, although i haven't seen the entire set and it might be more important then i think which could very well be the case. Regardless i really like the ideas you're coming up with so keep it up :)
I love your idea and your design, I've seen your previous set and it's well crafted I think. Now there should be a way to play it and that would be awesome :D
Concerning Resonance, I'm very curious if you actually though about how to represent it ingame. From the top of my head I cannot see a convenient way to do it.
The way I imagine it could work is:
1. Minions and weapons with resonance have a small icon on the bottom (where the deathrattle icon would be) that has a number, that number being the turns left to trigger. Once the resonance resolves the icon dissapears.
2. Spells with resonance would have a special glow on the history and they would never dissapear from it until they trigger. If you hover over it you can see how many turns remain until it triggers.
Check out my Hearthstone expansion: The Shifting Sands
IS THIS BROKEN?
I changed Natural Anomaly by making it only draw minions and increasing its cost by 1 but I fear it might be too powerful when coupled with this new giant. It's a combo whose consistency depends on how you build your deck and that's what makes me think it might not be broken but I'd like to hear your opinion.
Check out my Hearthstone expansion: The Shifting Sands
Sure it's more of a counter to energy but I intend to design cards that give Energy to your opponent thus allowing you to use conductive to your advantage even if your opponent doesn't run Energy at all.
Check out my Hearthstone expansion: The Shifting Sands
Thanks for your answer about UI, the one from spell would be quite clever actually.
Other thoughts :
Giving energy to your opponent and trying to steal it seems like a overly complicated and dangerous way to get energy, while you can just play cards that give you energy right away.
I am not convince having a whole keyword solely to steal energy from opponents is worth it, and it's extremely parasitic. A set like that would clearly need one or two cards that counter energy, just in case it goes out of hand, but that should be enough.
Also I would make conductive like that : "Whenever that minion deals damage, gain that much energy"
There could even be a number associated, for the amount of energy gained, but it seems unnecessary.
Man, there's some really cool stuff here. My only nitpick is that activate is only used for attacking, you could use it to make some pretty powerful spells with it.
Any chance you can take a look at my expansion? It's in my profile.
I'M BACK
Sorry for the delay guys. I've been busy with exams but now I can keep designing. Here's a new card I devised a couple of days ago.
He is meant to be a good counter to decks that like to flood the board. Notice that it also affects heroes which makes it more interesting in my opinion.
From now on I'm back to designing more regularly so expect more cards soon.
Check out my Hearthstone expansion: The Shifting Sands
Very interesting, but it doesn't stop anything from attacking, and the cost and stats probably mean you are dead if you plan on using this guy against aggro. I would add taunt, or make it activate (2 Mana). Anyway very interesting card that would need playtesting to really get.
I mean it doesn't "stop" your opponent unless he has more minions than Mana Crystals but it greatly limits what he can play to keep up the tempo. I thought about making it 2 mana but then it would be too polarizing of an effect so I decided to keep it to 1 but make it a druid card. This way if you ramp early on you can play this on turn 3 with the coin for example and it would be tough to deal with for decks like odd paladin.
Regarding taunt I think it's better if it doesn't have it because then you can protect it behind other taunts. For example you could play Oaken Summons into Ironwood Golem on 4 and then follow it up with this card.
Check out my Hearthstone expansion: The Shifting Sands
I like a lot the Activate mechanic, but I feel like Energy and Conductive are pretty parasitic, especially the second one.
I think they would be really cool as a core mechanic for a different CCG, however.
OPPONENT'S ENERGY MANIPULATION
I've designed some cards that interact in some way with your opponent's Energy.
Eerie Mist is very good when played before Mountain Ravager, Charged Reload could fit well into odd hunter and The Dark Punisher is an interesting way of countering energy decks although you could also just use it in a deck that gives your opponent Energy.
Check out my Hearthstone expansion: The Shifting Sands
Charged reload is just a way worst arcane shot? Yeah, except in odd hunter I guess, but even there it's just 3 damages face for 3 mana, it's not really exciting. Plus it has a drawback.
Otherwise I like the other cards, I'd love to playtest your set!
Now that you mention it it seems like the card is a bit underpowered. I could make it so you gain 2 energy instead of your opponent or I could think of some new card that benefits greatly from your hero power so that you would run this in your deck. I'll see what I come up with.
Check out my Hearthstone expansion: The Shifting Sands