Nightfall (by Playdek) - Universal

[syntheticvoid]

hmm... it might be a good idea to have a little "?" icon on each of the pages... and when people hit it, it could have a pop up screen showing what everything on that page means...

like Damage Dealt... explain how that's calculated... Damage Taken... explain how that's figured out... and so on...

There are a lot of people that try to get into card games, but just WILL NOT read through the tutorial or manual. I've got a friend at work like that... bought Tigris & Euphrates about 2 months ago, and still doesn't know how to play it, and won't play a game with me because he said it frustrates him and that the tutorial is too long.

=o/

Just an idea...

[the9quad]

Originally Posted by Talbs

Crunc, re: kickers. If a card has a kicker it will have a colored dot next to it. If the colour of the card played BEFORE the card that has the kicker is the same colour, then the kicker will work. One of the videos posted back on the other page (it was of two guys talking about the game), explains the kicker bit. Also the rule book (terminology part IV) also explains it, but you really have to be on the ball to pick up exactly what it's saying, without actually seeing an example. I can't remember if the tutorial also shows it.

Example:
A card has a kicker with a blue dot.
Now, first a blue dot card is put down in a chain, then following immediately after that you put down this card with the blue kicker. The kicker will now be active because the preceeding card in the chain was blue.

I thought the kickers came into play when the cards are reconciled in a first in last out order, not when they are layed down. So to me that meant if you put down a card with a kicker the next card layed down must have that kicker color in order to activate the kicker, so when it reconciles in reverse order the card you played after the kicker will now be proceeding the kicker to activate it. Confusing I know but I was under the impression that is how it works.

[crunc]

Another bit about this app that could be better, maybe, is if you have a lot of cards in your hand, the cards overlap and cover up the colored dots/globes on the cards, which means you *have* to zoom in to figure out what order to play your cards so they'll chain. It's not a huge deal, but I wonder if they couldn't have made the layout work a little better in that regard when not zoomed in. Maybe it wasn't possible, though. We need a 13" iPad. LOL.

Also thanks for the clarification on Kickers. Now I know it's one or the other direction that matters and I can try to figure it out. LOL.

[Tinsel]

Originally Posted by Alyindar

Woohoo! Just finished the tutorial, very well done. Another great implementation by Playdek! Now begins the wait for Summoner Wars and Agricola.

I cannot wait for Summoner Wars. I fully believe it to be one of the biggest releases this year (if they do even half as good a job on the ports as they have done with their 3 releases thus far).

Originally Posted by Strangiato

although it will come closer to the "living card game" model

You cannot imagine how much this hurt to read. To have you even ACKNOWLEDGE the living card games (or LCGs) by FFG, without you throwing us a bone, has actually caused me physical pain. Take one of those large cardboard checks over to FFG, and tell them to write a number on it, the largest one they can imagine, and that's how much the two of you would make if they allowed you to port over all of their LCGs to iOS. Can you imagine CoC, AGoT, LOTR, or *shudder* WH:I on iOS? It is my firm belief that iPads would cease to be used in any other fashion than card game emulators.

Originally Posted by LordGek

Zombie Horde becomes available when you get the tutorial achievement. On the details screen, tapping the Zombie Horde card will activate it.

Do you know what achievements are linked to the other two promo cards?

Finally, some comments about Nightfall:
1. Amazing port as usual by Playdek. The scrolling sigils and changing backgrounds make the game quite striking.

2. You should go through the rulebook and tutorial and fix some grammatical and spelling errors. In particular, there are a lot of "its/it's" mistakes and plural/possessive mistakes (persons, person's).

3. No offense, but the tutorial is terrible. I came into the game without knowing how to play it, and the tutorial did not do its job. The first minute or so of it are fine, however, after that, you are merely describing what to do, and what is happening on screen, without explaining any of the WHY. Fully four or five minutes of the tutorial are just explaining what you are doing and what is happening, without any explanation of game rules or mechanics. As an example, early on a kicker gets activated. You basically say "Look a kicker is activated! Let's perform that action and move on". I did not know WHY the kicker is activated. Of course, I assumed it was because the kicker color matched the previous card, but I shouldn't have had to assume, I should have been TOLD in the tutorial. I honestly did not have a firm grasp of the game after the tutorial. The rulebook, however, is quite well done, and I did feel more confident after reading it. Of course, videos on BGG would help me more (but I don't feel I have to see them after the rulebook). I really do think you should redo the tutorial entirely.

4. My feelings on the game itself. Small Note: I consider myself an avid board gamer and card gamer. I own hundreds of board games and many different types of card games (including tons of ccgs and I believe almost every deck builder). I have only played 6 games now (1 tutorial, 2 level 1, and 3 level 2 all against 1 AI) and I have won every game, but I still feel as though there is too much chance going on in this game, which is causing me to not like it as much as just about any other deck builder.

Maybe my noob status on this game is causing me to see it this way, and further plays will change my opinion of it. But, I feel that the color matching is too stringent, and too random, to ever be able to really play against an opponent. At the moment, I have tried two strategies: 1. picking all of the strong damage cards as quickly as possible, 2. attempting synergy between all of my cards, and they have worked equally well, because of the frustrating amount of luck it seems that you need to have and the and lack of control you have over what your opponent does.

Two points in particular about this:
a) you can build an amazing deck with tons of synergy. In Dominion, for example, this means you generally have several good things you can attempt on your turn (towards end game). In Nightfall, however, you might still be only able to play a card or two in the end game, due to unlucky card draws. I don't particularly like that.

b) the order of phases makes me like the game even less. You have very little control over what your opponent(s) can do. You can try to see every card they pick, but they likely will have cards of nearly every color fairly soon, so what is the point? So what can happen is this: I play my chain, with little regard to what the opponent may or may not have in his/her hand (because so far my opinion is, why bother?). Let's say I play 2 actions and a minion (and I have 1 minion on the board). Then, the opponent miraculously chains into 5 minion cards. Soooo, now I have been blindsided and I will likely be facing 5 v 2 in my opponent's next combat phase (or worse). I could not have anticipated this, and worse, I have NO RECOURSE. The fact that I cannot respond to my own chain, and that the opponent's combat comes directly after (with no possibility of me recovering) again makes this game seem too random and arbitrary.

Well, those are my thoughts so far. I'd appreciate it if some Nightfall pros would chime in and say exactly why I'm wrong on my feelings about the game.


tl;dr: another excellent port by Playdek, but seriously, redo the tutorial. Also, Summoner Wars now plz and throw money at FFG until they let you port over all their LCGs. Don't really like NF at the moment (my least favorite deck builder) as game seems too random and luck based with not enough room for strategy.

[crunc]

Something that was clarified for me elsewhere, and is very important to understand: cards are not in play, and thus not targetable, until they have been resolved in the chain. I.e. if you play a card that says it targets another minion, you can't target a minion that is to the left of it in the chain (because the chain is resolved in reverse order, from right to left). You can also target a minion that is already in play, from a previous chain.

[the9quad]

Ok I was wrong I'm sorry.


Here is the deal if you lay down a card during the chain phase with say a large blue moon and the next card you lay down has a kicker moon color of blue then the kicker will be active. Sorry for confusing you if I did.

[LordGek]

Originally Posted by crunc

Something that was clarified for me elsewhere, and is very important to understand: cards are not in play, and thus not targetable, until they have been resolved in the chain. I.e. if you play a card that says it targets another minion, you can't target a minion that is to the left of it in the chain (because the chain is resolved in reverse order, from right to left). You can also target a minion that is already in play, from a previous chain.

Although there is at least a couple of action cards that targets "orders" (i.e. before they're resolved in the chain).

So blocking is optional but all of your remaining active minions must attack on your turn which will use them up, right?

[crunc]

So much to this game to learn. I'm now dying to play it again. Thanks for the help everybody.

[Dreamshadow]

Tinsel, I would love to have Warhammer Invasion or LOTR LCGs on ipad!!

[Vesper6]

Is anyone else having trouble getting friends to show up in multiplayer? I know some of my friends have this game, but the "Friends" list in the app is blank.