Tales of Tribute - Review and Break down.

Commandment

After playing 3 days of ToT and easily being able to reach rubedite without any difficulty only to find there is no leader board. (Just playing a few games till i get bored maybe a loss every 4-5 wins or when ever it takes for me to lose my win streak)

At first glance the game is very boring to look at or watch, your only interest is discovering playstyles. The game seems technical at first but here is the break down of any game
- Learn which cards are the best - Always buy them so If you see a card is red, let it get to your head and buy it. You have a high chance to win. first person to get the 5 cost 5 pain usually wins.
- Camp your opponent to clear the tavern in hopes to get the next best thing
- People will most likely keep picking the same 4 decks- making it repetitive
- The game keeps adding cards to your deck whether you want them in it or not. You have 0 choice on the autonomy of your deck.
- Same fight over and over.
- Mail Rewards are decent 0 complaints.
- Ranking rewards looks like garbage

My ranking on the basic decks
1. Red - I'll end your career by just getting 1-2 reds and keep passing
2. Yellow - Riches - control the tavern
3. Blue - Scry for riches & pain
4. Purple - I'm edgy and want to try to get combos. (You'll probably draw a lot of garbage and never combo even if you have 6-8 crows in your deck, or you will combo and pull out exodia) A lot of work for a chance for reward. this is the games funny cousin that people are interested in but no one really wants to hang around. Buy these only if you want to have fun. The other 3 can easily land you wins. - Only card i recommend snatching if you see a person trying to build ravens is the draw 1 on play raven cards

This card game will get stale very fast, and here are my reasons
1) No autonomy over decks
2) 0 deck building required - (I mean you making your own deck)
3) only 8 premade decks - and most people dont seem to want to earn anything passed the first 4 decks
4) At the end of the day it will just be who gets the better card first in the tavern.
5) Again ranking rewards look boring. 100 + transmute stones arent that hard to come by, you can play a bgs which take the same amount of time of ToT and get a lot of transmute stones.

In conclusion

Game 3/5 - Average
Longevity 1/5 - Low this is that board game you bought and just put in your closet after a few days

My recommendation?
You can only enter ranked after getting all 8 decks or at least minimum of 6 decks unlocked. A banning system that allows each player to ban one deck they dont't like leaving 6 decks to choose from so the game can stay fresh.

My dream for the game- an actual TCG where you build your own custom deck, and then you split that with your enemy. (That will never happen)

Bugs I found- You get stuck on the board screen, with nothing loading and if you wait x minutes and nothing happens and decide to leave the game punishes you by lowering your rank score and giving you a 10m timer.

Treeshka

The game looks promising but currently a lot of cards require a lot of adjustments, since if you manage to get certain cards in very early game you are most likely going to win.

Commandment

Treeshka wrote: »

The game looks promising but currently a lot of cards require a lot of adjustments, since if you manage to get certain cards in very early game you are most likely going to win.

I disagree with adjusting card powers, they're fine. You can get the best card early on and the opponent can luck out and get better end game cards. With Gold you just need a few copies and you can easily turn all patrons

Skvysh

Commandment wrote: »

My recommendation?
You can only enter ranked after getting all 8 decks or at least minimum of 6 decks unlocked. A banning system that allows each player to ban one deck they dont't like leaving 6 decks to choose from so the game can stay fresh.

You're already "banning" decks by choosing only 4 out of 8. If you don't like playing against certain deck - don't pick it. I'm sure we'll eventually see Pelin being ignored completely because it can be too one-sided, while Rahjin will only get picked to deny a useful deck.

Commandment wrote: »

My dream for the game- an actual TCG where you build your own custom deck, and then you split that with your enemy. (That will never happen)

TESL servers are still running, if you want constructed decks. A deck builder is a breath of fresh air in comparison, though it seems few people have played equivalent board games before and are confused by the concept (and therefore try to make it something it isn't).


Overall, there are a lot of issues surrounding the game (various bugs including progress not being tracked for achievements, partially tracked or tracked incorrectly, match never loading in, leaderboard point system not making much sense and highlighting issues missing in UI, plus a few QoL features that would help keep track of the game better), but the gameplay itself is fine as it is. This concept has been around since 2008 at least - you don't need to like deck builders, but there are quite a few suggestions out there to remake the game partially or completely just because people don't get the point of the game.

Commandment

Skvysh wrote: »

Commandment wrote: »

My recommendation?
You can only enter ranked after getting all 8 decks or at least minimum of 6 decks unlocked. A banning system that allows each player to ban one deck they dont't like leaving 6 decks to choose from so the game can stay fresh.

You're already "banning" decks by choosing only 4 out of 8. If you don't like playing against certain deck - don't pick it. I'm sure we'll eventually see Pelin being ignored completely because it can be too one-sided, while Rahjin will only get picked to deny a useful deck.

Commandment wrote: »

My dream for the game- an actual TCG where you build your own custom deck, and then you split that with your enemy. (That will never happen)

TESL servers are still running, if you want constructed decks. A deck builder is a breath of fresh air in comparison, though it seems few people have played equivalent board games before and are confused by the concept (and therefore try to make it something it isn't).


Overall, there are a lot of issues surrounding the game (various bugs including progress not being tracked for achievements, partially tracked or tracked incorrectly, match never loading in, leaderboard point system not making much sense and highlighting issues missing in UI, plus a few QoL features that would help keep track of the game better), but the gameplay itself is fine as it is. This concept has been around since 2008 at least - you don't need to like deck builders, but there are quite a few suggestions out there to remake the game partially or completely just because people don't get the point of the game.

Well they put a ranked on ToT meaning it's a competitive scene. I will refer this to other games with the "I pick first" in games such as League of legends. It's not because you don't want to go against something. It's a strategic play to disallow people from picking certain combinations. This game doesnt have any real deck construction, so I can only see each deck as classes/characters.

You won't always have the same person picking the same deck, people have their own taste.

As for pelins, it's not even that OP, it's just a solid pick when you see it, I for one will always pick it. My point is, if I know something is solid why would I deviate and pick something else?

As for your statement on rhajin. it's not really even a good deck, because you also can get gimped, and can easily be jumped over by the psijic deck. This decks impact is minimal, this si for people who want to make the game longer, all you have to do is convert the curse into writs. Not really a game breaker.

If you don't like strict rules in competitive mode, you can always switch to casual play where anything is fair game. Thats why I'm saying you should atleast unlock a minimal of 6 decks-8 in order to even compete in ranked. This will be a safety net for new players so they don't get discouraged.

Skvysh

Commandment wrote: »

It's not because you don't want to go against something. It's a strategic play to disallow people from picking certain combinations.
...
As for pelins, it's not even that OP, it's just a solid pick when you see it, I for one will always pick it. My point is, if I know something is solid why would I deviate and pick something else?

That's the thing - you disallow playing Pelin (or any other deck) by not picking it. There are 8 decks, but you can choose only 2. Your opponent can choose only 2 as well - if both of you don't like how Pelin deck can win on good draws, you "ban" it by not picking it. On the other hand, if you feel confident about it while your opponent doesn't - the deck's still in play. At the same time, that doesn't necessarily mean that you'll win there, because your opponent can and will go for Pelin cards when available.

Other deck builders I've played didn't have any banning because all the factions were in play by default. There, you have to adapt at all times to the fact that cards you deem OP will be in play. Of course, that concept doesn't work in ToT by design.

Commandment wrote: »

This game doesnt have any real deck construction, so I can only see each deck as classes/characters.

Yes, it doesn't have any deck construction (unlike TESL, MtG and such) - instead, building your deck is part of the gameplay (hence - deck builder). While each deck is a new faction with some new abilities, its own strengths and weaknesses, you're still limited to 4 decks in a game - with or without ban phase.

Commandment wrote: »

As for your statement on rhajin. it's not really even a good deck, because you also can get gimped, and can easily be jumped over by the psijic deck. This decks impact is minimal, this si for people who want to make the game longer, all you have to do is convert the curse into writs. Not really a game breaker.

That's my point - it's a horrible deck, no matter how you look at it. It generates 0 power on its own, so you can't even win with pure Rahjin deck. It's a good pick for a deck when you're already satisfied with the deck choices and don't want to bring something else in.

Commandment wrote: »

Thats why I'm saying you should atleast unlock a minimal of 6 decks-8 in order to even compete in ranked. This will be a safety net for new players so they don't get discouraged.

Not sure how it would provide a safety net for new players - having more decks unlock doesn't make you a better player, it just means you have more decks unlocked. Moreover, you don't even need to have a deck unlocked to see it in play - because you opponent can choose that deck instead. Finally, it's up to the player to make a decision whether they're ready for ranked or not (although currently it's the best time for anyone to get into it - while majority of the players are still clueless, it's fairly easy to unlock rank achievements if you have at least some experience with deck builders). Limiting players' freedoms "for their own good" is just silly - you can't queue for vet DLC dungeons below 300 CP, but you can still manually teleport to them.

tsaescishoeshiner

It's not that people don't want to EARN the 4 decks, it's that 2 of them take too long for anyone to have done yet. You need rank 8 to do the quest for Red Eagle, and Master Rank to get Orgnum. Even people who are playing for hours a day are probaby halfway there at best.

Rahjin is fairly easy to get, but Hunding is locked behind the main quest. I was gonna wait to do the MQ, but I'm rushing so that I can use Hunding to have more diverse games.

I DO think this creates a problem where the match-ups are sort of stale at the moment. I wish they had changed it so that the final quest was unlocked at rank 6 instead of 8, and maybe Orgnum could be gotten a bit sooner.

While I understand they want these decks to be earnable, and I'm fine with waiting to earn them, it makes the matches feel a bit samey.

Also I've won almost all my games with crow combos. Don't doubt the duke of drawing! You never know what strategy will be available to you each game, which I like. It'll be better when there are more patrons to play against and adapt to.

Commandment

Skvysh wrote: »

Commandment wrote: »

It's not because you don't want to go against something. It's a strategic play to disallow people from picking certain combinations.
...
As for pelins, it's not even that OP, it's just a solid pick when you see it, I for one will always pick it. My point is, if I know something is solid why would I deviate and pick something else?

That's the thing - you disallow playing Pelin (or any other deck) by not picking it. There are 8 decks, but you can choose only 2. Your opponent can choose only 2 as well - if both of you don't like how Pelin deck can win on good draws, you "ban" it by not picking it. On the other hand, if you feel confident about it while your opponent doesn't - the deck's still in play. At the same time, that doesn't necessarily mean that you'll win there, because your opponent can and will go for Pelin cards when available.

Other deck builders I've played didn't have any banning because all the factions were in play by default. There, you have to adapt at all times to the fact that cards you deem OP will be in play. Of course, that concept doesn't work in ToT by design.

Commandment wrote: »

This game doesnt have any real deck construction, so I can only see each deck as classes/characters.

Yes, it doesn't have any deck construction (unlike TESL, MtG and such) - instead, building your deck is part of the gameplay (hence - deck builder). While each deck is a new faction with some new abilities, its own strengths and weaknesses, you're still limited to 4 decks in a game - with or without ban phase.

Commandment wrote: »

As for your statement on rhajin. it's not really even a good deck, because you also can get gimped, and can easily be jumped over by the psijic deck. This decks impact is minimal, this si for people who want to make the game longer, all you have to do is convert the curse into writs. Not really a game breaker.

That's my point - it's a horrible deck, no matter how you look at it. It generates 0 power on its own, so you can't even win with pure Rahjin deck. It's a good pick for a deck when you're already satisfied with the deck choices and don't want to bring something else in.

Commandment wrote: »

Thats why I'm saying you should atleast unlock a minimal of 6 decks-8 in order to even compete in ranked. This will be a safety net for new players so they don't get discouraged.

Not sure how it would provide a safety net for new players - having more decks unlock doesn't make you a better player, it just means you have more decks unlocked. Moreover, you don't even need to have a deck unlocked to see it in play - because you opponent can choose that deck instead. Finally, it's up to the player to make a decision whether they're ready for ranked or not (although currently it's the best time for anyone to get into it - while majority of the players are still clueless, it's fairly easy to unlock rank achievements if you have at least some experience with deck builders). Limiting players' freedoms "for their own good" is just silly - you can't queue for vet DLC dungeons below 300 CP, but you can still manually teleport to them.

Not sure how you quote part by part XD So i'm going to be messing in your replies by numbers, soo many topics.

1. I'm not sure why your so opposed to have some players be forced out there play style, and to adjust and think outside the box of a different play.

I'm not sure what deck builders you play, but in competitive mtg and even games like yugioh, pokemon there will always be the meta try hard builds. So i'll give one example, MTG arena, all the finalist were either BW control, or mono red, and the occasional green guy who doesnt go far. Who wins most of the time? Usually the same control person, it's only in blue moon do a non control deck wins. But hey its all luck of the draw.

2. This doesnt have deck constructing is correct so this makes the game lack any skill, when people just keep picking the same 4 decks, and just hope they get the better cards first. This game isn't a deck builder, it's a resources builder as they describe. So this honestly can't be compared to MTG, Pokemon, Yugioh, ect. This game can be compared to uno more or less.

3. - Rhajin, - Only if you want a longer match, it does have its way of winning, but it just takes a long time to do it if you play it right. Just takes 4ever.

4.It provides a saftey net, because most decks require you to reach a certain level in playing the card game to get the said decks. Therefore you would have to play normal till you get better. Your not limiting players for there own good, this is how most games are, even games like league of legends where you have to have x amount of characters and x levels before you start rank. Having someone have more choices of decks give them more knowledge and more advantage than you, unless they're a donut player.

Skvysh

Commandment wrote: »

Not sure how you quote part by part XD So i'm going to be messing in your replies by numbers, soo many topics.
/quote]

You just create a new quote block when writing the message (f.x. copy the tags from the original quote).

Commandment wrote: »

1. I'm not sure why your so opposed to have some players be forced out there play style, and to adjust and think outside the box of a different play.

They already are forced out of their play style, by design - deck builders have a fluid strategy, rather than a set one. Your turn one purchase doesn't necessarily line up with the strategy you have on turn two and so on. You can't just say "I'll always play the red cards" because in some games - the red cards won't come up, in others - your opponent will snatch them before you and there will also be games where red cards won't even be in play.

Commandment wrote: »

I'm not sure what deck builders you play, but in competitive mtg and even games like yugioh, pokemon there will always be the meta try hard builds.

You're talking about games with constructed decks. I'm talking about deck building mechanic (and this game relying almost entirely on it). It's an entirely different genre of games at this point, where games like Star Realms have developed their own competitive scene.

This distinction is what's causing confusion for most people, it seems. They expect this to be a standard T/CCG like the ones you mentioned - games where you (normally) run a constructed deck with a set strategy beforehand, knowing almost immediately what strategy your opponent will deploy during the game and only making small changes to your course as the game progresses. ToT, however, is a deck builder - a game where there's no set strategy at the beginning of the game and where you have to adapt at every step. Both you and your opponent start on (mostly) equal grounds and draw from a shared pool of cards, making changes to your plan according to what's on the table right now, what you've acquired previously, what cards your opponent has (both in deck and potentially right now) and what's the game score.

It being a digital game, you also have an insanely unfair advantage (in comparison to table-top deck builders) of being able to look into what cards you and your opponent still have at any given time. That's why Crows+Psijic is so good - you can look into your deck and see if you still have any good cards left to draw as well as how many. Ideally, you want to end your turn on 0/1 cards left in your deck, so your discard pile gets shuffled, potentially giving you new crow cards to draw (and people say there's no skill involved??).

Commandment wrote: »

4.It provides a saftey net, because most decks require you to reach a certain level in playing the card game to get the said decks. Therefore you would have to play normal till you get better. Your not limiting players for there own good, this is how most games are, even games like league of legends where you have to have x amount of characters and x levels before you start rank. Having someone have more choices of decks give them more knowledge and more advantage than you, unless they're a donut player.

Been a while since I played League, but weren't there bonuses tied to player level? Having max level meant that you had all the runes/masteries and summoner spells unlocked, whereas a level 1 player would be at a severe disadvantage. And the reason there was a character requirement is to make sure that after ban and pick phase, you still had at least 1 champion to pick from. That doesn't really apply to ToT's case.

Besides that, it shouldn't be the game's job to make sure you're properly ready for competitive scene. If you already got the hang of the game in 2 matches, you can - and should - be able to head into ranked games if you wanted to. That is, assuming that higher level doesn't necessarily give you any advantages (which, in the case of ToT, it doesn't).