Our "3 matches at once" epic showdown is indeed going well. One of the matches is almost finished, and the two others are about halfway through. Good games so far, currymutton! That being said, though, I have a hard time imagining myself keeping up the pace here in the tournament in terms of timeline, so I'll happily take a replacement for the coming rounds, no hard feelings at all. Playing 3 games in a week, be it simultaneously or sequentially, still takes up some time for me - the simultaneous way would be the preferable approach in terms of timeline for me. I don't mind starting the next round, though, if the match ups are already decided, and finishing the previous games beforehand. If there are any takers for my spot, let me know, otherwise I'll keep playing as long as I can! Cheers, Paulo
You can tell us if it'd be quicker for you to play two games at the same time first, and then see if you need to play a third game. I'm sure three games at once vs the same guy may get confusing, but it might be faster actually playing three all at once. You're keeping us well updated so I think it's cool if you keep playing with us. Maybe the two of you can arrange a time where you guys may be able to play live around the same time, figuring the time zones. I can always take ur spot with 2 entries if need be!
It appears that some HUGE changes are in store for Ascension which may adversely affect, or even eliminate, the iOS version we all know and love: http://pockettactics.com/2013/02/12/stone-blade-to-crowdfund-a-new-ascension-online-future-of-existing-ios-ascension-in-doubt/ After being a day 1 purchaser of the base Ascension iOS app and a day one purchaser of the two expansions, I'm going to be very upset if Stone Blade turns off the online server for its iOS app in favor of a free to play model that will surely require an additional out of pocket expense to play online.
Okay, I won't brag about it much, we don't see nothing at this point. Ascension iOS is my favourite game on the system, period. It made me buy the physical versions of SoS and IH, couldn't even wait for the latter on the iPad. Ascension is great as an app and it plays well as a physical version, so I'd gladly kill for a decent PC version, especially on Steam. However, I'm not loyal to Stone Blade in any way; I don't like the Solforge demo and I'm not so hot about the pay to play /be competitive ways of it. If they kill Ascension iOS and take that route with a new app, well, I think it will be a disaster. Let's hope they won't pull a Thunderstone or Dominion iOS with this. Again, the infos are scarce at this point.
I hope not to see the best card game in iOS banished just so they can win more money than they already have!
I can handle the painful trend of freemium games, but to refit an existing classic into a freemium model that screws the current users, no!
Yeah, I'm pretty much along the same lines. It would fine if both were kept active, but I doubt that would happen. I could see them making the base CotG version free with the expansions costing money, but I'm not sure how else they could do it without changing things drastically and potentially ruining it for the vets.
I don't really see the potential "freemium" as a problem here. I mean, it's a deck building game. How can anyone have access to any better cards than the next person in a common pool deck building game? The problem I see, is it looks like they want to make it cross-platform. Which means their own servers, which means no more gamecenter and no more asynch? Is that right? This game is on gamecenter isn't it? And that's what gives it the asynch?
Well, as far as I see it Stone Blade is not that involved with the current version asides form licensing, so it might be that the license contract expires and they want to take it in another direction. If they choose to force Playdek to shut down the existing servers and game, well... that would suck immensely, since it's this game that has gotten me into playing other TA folks online. I'll miss it a lot, in spite of my lack of regular time to play it. On another news, good game currymutton, I believe I was somewhat lucky in my cards in the beginning! I'm looking forward to these two we're also playing
They could still do async, but yeah, it wouldn't be on gamecenter since that's not cross-platform. They would have to use some other 3rd party or proprietary service. I'm guessing the latter, since I can't currently think of a service that works on mobile and PC.
This can't be happening freemium is ruing so many great games.... Please leave this app alone it is fantatstic as is
Thx for the link! I see on Ascension's FB page that they are definitely interested in getting an in-house thing for Android going. In the PT forums, Justin Gary put up a post to answer some questions about the iOS app. http://forums.pockettactics.com/discussion/775/stone-blade-to-crowdfund-a-new-ascension-online-future-of-existing-ios-ascension-in-doubt
Ok cool - as I figured, they're making CotG free while expansions are paid. I think it would behoove Playdek to follow suit, but I guess we'll see.
Stone Blade could monetise a freemium Ascension in a few ways. They could go the Team Fortress way and sell hats for player avatars, or sell background music for playing in the background or different background mats. Selling timer bypasses. Freemium Ascension could include timers so that a player can only have one active game per day. Additional games can be bought on a monthly basis. The XBox Gold approach. Since Stone Blade will likely be running their own servers for cross platform play, they could sell monthly subscriptions to enable online play, with offline remaining free. Monetising the cards. They can add Stone Blade powers that are consumables allowing the player to alter the face up cards for a turn. Well basically many ways to pry cash from freemium punters... For those just jumping in, it is Stone Blade, a new contractor for the original makers of Ascension, the physical card game, that is proposing freemium. Playdek, whom had published the current iOS Ascension app, remains awesome. Buy all their games and IAP expansions to show your support. I know I did...
After reading it (with the updates of course), it seems the base app isn't going to change, they're just going to expand on it. If that's the case, it's fine by me! After playing IH physically, I'd love to see the addition of it to ios, and campaign doesn't sound too shabby either.
