32
« on: March 04, 2013, 06:54:50 PM »
So this has become a somewhat heated debate at times. Hopefully I can shed some design perspective on this.
The uniqueness of the mages has currently been developed as dual process.
On one side we have the mage cards. In the beginning (duh Duh DUUUUH!)... there were tons of mage ideas and each mage idea had tons of ability ideas. All in all it was brutal process to work through and contributed heavily to our initial 5 year playtest cycle. We experienced a great deal of difficulty pairing ourselves down to the primary mage abilities that you now see in the game. But keep in mind we still want to create other versions of the existing mages. To give some clarification, there may be Wizard trained in the White Spires who currently has the abilities you know and love. Our concept is what if instead of being trained in that lofty institution you were trained in the private college of Aldamar. You would still be a Wizard of Sortilege, but you have a different set of abilities.
On the other side of the equation we want to add to the unique feel of the mages and help them share in their family of mages. We achieved this through the "Mage Only" and "School only" cards. Far from being a random decision and attempt to short cut card design, we want each mage to have iconic spells that when you see them cast in an Arena, you know immediately that mage is "blank" from "blank" or that mage is trained in the "blank" school.
Functionally this method provides us with two additional things as producers. Mechanically it adds an extra layer of consideration for every variation of every mage. To help them have similar feel of initial training and yet maintain variety enough that every players mage can unique. In terms of story, which is a major function of the design, it gives nearly unlimited storyline options and now mages from the same country, but different schools can weave into numerous threads.
A good point was made earlier that the new Forcemaster Vs Warlord expansion seems to be a 'horizontal' expansion. That is both a good observation and accurate. The Forcemaster Vs. Warlord expansion introduces three schools of magic that aren't well represented. War, Mind, and Earth. We really wanted these to get off to a good start.
Another point was made that the number of 'only' cards was significant in this set. That too is accurate. During the playtest period it was discovered these two mages favored additional cards that helped with their feel. Again there a lot of sacrifice in getting the mages to this stage. Once we get to alternate versions of Forcemaster and Warlord, this will make more sense. Going forward you will see 'only' cards getting increased playability as we increase the numbers of alternate version mages and also increase the number of mages.
Keep in mind that each class of mage is specific to a set of magic schools. It is possible to say that we have had mage suggestions for nearly every possible combination of schools. For example, there is an idea for mage trained in dark and holy. There's your dark priest, although that won't be the name of that mage.
Lastly, we very much want to bring deep experiences into Mage Wars. Now that all the schools (except Water) are represented you can expect a lot more depth in the coming developments. In particular the upcoming Druid Vs Necromancer Expansion will bring more use out of the Nature only and Dark only cards.
I hope this helps to give you some insight on what goes on behind the scenes. Know that our entire design team has seen the comments in this post and on this forum and we are taking notes. Please feel free to ask me any questions and I will do my best to get you an answer.
Now if you have read all the way through this post...here's your treat. Alternate art cards for Wizard and Beastmaster.
[attachment=147]Beastmaster-v2.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=148]Wizard_v2.jpg[/attachment]
Enjoy and keep gaming!
Show Posts
