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Messages - Fentum

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1
I played Academy three times now.

Twice vs. my son who has played Mage Wars Apprentice mode. He prefers Academy as it is much shorter.

Once vs. my non gamer mate. She would NEVER have played Apprentice as it was way too complex looking.

Initial thoughts are that Academy will be great for casual games with people who don't want to invest time in the system. It really takes two committed players to properly enjoy proper Mage Wars. Academy is an easier route and may pique the interest of some to get into full on Arena.

2
Lots of family staying over for holidays but will get onto Tabletopia soon!

3
Hi Fentum and Sailor Vulcan,
just go to http://blog.tabletopia.com/ and find the entry from november the 20th (Games for this weekend) . There is a link that will take you to a game room with mw academy. It does not make sense to post that link here, because it will become stale after a while which i guess is what happened to the link in the other thread.
Both starter spellbooks are there. Each player can just pickup one and you can start playing. It does not support any automation or does enforce any rules whatsoever, so it should be exactly after your taste, Sailor. Hope that helps ...

Thanks Tyrnan. The real thing arrived on Christmas morning, but I will check out a tabletopia as you suggest.

4
General Discussion / Re: Merry Holidays wishing thread :)
« on: December 25, 2015, 02:24:06 PM »
Merry Christmas all!

Got two games of Academy in on Christmas Day... Vs son and vs sister in law.
Let's just say that the Beastmaster ROARED!

I think several glasses of Prosecco helped...

More tomorrow plus a family game of TIME Stories.

5
Tabletopia is currently in closed beta. The official release won't be until sometime in the first quarter of the year, and when that happens it will be available for free at the bronze level. You can pay for a month early access for $10 and it costs more if you also want a subscription or if you want earlier access. I would advise against paying for early access if you're not planning to get a paid subscription in the long run, since it's not going to be too long before it's free at the bronze level.

This question has been asked countless times and there's a lot of people who aren't properly informed about it. Even Arcane Wonders was misinformed when I asked them about it. They said that tabletopia wasn't going to be free, but they're wrong. It will be free at the bronze level once it is officially released. In the article on the AW website, Arcane Wonders made it sound like they thought that tabletopia was already officially released.

While a lot of information about tabletopia is spread out all over the place, once you know where to look it's very easy to find out the answer to this question.

Go to: https://tabletopia.com/
Click "Join Now" and then Click "Read More" and scroll down a bit. That should answer your question. There's also a timeline for tabletopia development near the bottom of the page. The information is all right there on the website.

When I first found out about tabletopia it was a wild goose chase to find this out. First I saw the article on arcane wonders about it, where it did not say how much it would cost or if it would cost anything, only said to "click here to  start your first game of mage wars academy on tabletopia!" and i clicked the link and it turned out i needed an account, and that in order to create an account I needed an invite code. Then I googled it and found a tabletopia blog which didn't answer the question at all but was interesting to look at. Then finally I found the tabletopia website and went to the join now section, clicked "read more" and found out that it would be free at the bronze version once the app is officially released. I googled the release date, and according to steam it was Q4 2015, or in other words, the fourth quarter of the year. But it was already nearly the end of the fourth quarter of the year. Finally I asked on tabletopia's facebook page, and found out that it wouldn't be released until the first quarter of next year. Then later it turned out there is a timeline on tabletopia's main website, and it says there flat out that the official release won't be until 2016 so I shouldn't have even needed to ask, I could have just clicked "join now" and then clicked "read more". Unfortunately, that wasn't completely obvious at the time. If you didn't click "read more" you would never find out that there was a free level, since absolutely NO ONE is talking about the fact that it will be available for free (although if you want some extra cool features, you might want to consider getting a subscription. I think I'm going to wait until I've tried a free account first though before I decide whether to upgrade or not).

Hope that helps!

Thanks Sailor Vulcan, that is particularly helpful. I actually went through every step that you did, so we are are either great minds or fools.

What confused me even more is that there was a Tabletopia link from the S&S KS that looked similar to the link from the AW page, promising to 'play now on Tabletopia'. The S&S link took me directly to a fully set up game board etc so that I could play the first scenario. No subscription or any of that malarkey. I was hoping for the same here, but encountered the same issues that you did.

I guess I'll wait for the full release, but the AW page should be updated so it's clear that it doesn't work.

Or even better, sorted out such that we can play a demo with starter spell books...     ::)

I'd be happy to take a good beating from you anytime...



6
OK, I got it... Sir Kenneth Rogers of Westlock.     ;)

He seems to know when to hold'em that's for sure.

I'm a little concerned about potential artwork for Lady Parton of the Shyre.      ???

7
OK, I got it... Sir Kenneth Rogers of Westlock.     ;)

8
Can't get OCTGN to work on my Mac, so I thought I'd try out Academy on Tabletopia, but the link from the AW site takes me to a login page. Is it now necessary to take a out a paid subscription to try out Academy on Tabletopia?

The Academy description makes me think it is an unfinished version (e.g. no spell books, etc) so I don't want to part with cold hard cash for something that is still a trial.

The Sword & Sorcery KS allowed me to try out the game via Tabletopia without payment. Granted I HAD KS'd that game, but hey, I saw an Academy-shaped box under the Christmas tree...

What do you recommend?


9
Alternative Play / Re: Public request to Sailor Vulcan
« on: December 22, 2015, 12:47:15 PM »

Tower defence is all good and well, but it would be just dandy to get proper Mage Wars, or Academy with AI.

That's been discussed before for arena and it was concluded that it would be just too complicated.

Check out all of the board games I mentioned above. They are all pretty complex games and all run AI systems that work well. Redjak on BGG has been able to write AI rules for challenging games as a solo effort in his spare time.

But it certainly would be a MAJOR task.


10
Alternative Play / Re: Public request to Sailor Vulcan
« on: December 22, 2015, 11:04:13 AM »
Tower defence is all good and well, but it would be just dandy to get proper Mage Wars, or Academy with AI.

11
Alternative Play / Re: Public request to Sailor Vulcan
« on: December 22, 2015, 09:12:51 AM »
Ah, Sailor Vulcan,

Card Hunter is a truly excellent game, particularly if you grew up playing 1980's D&D. It is now available as an app call Loot & Legends. Very swish.

I contacted Redjak on BGG. He says that he might give Mage Wars a go (solo rules) when he gets round to buying it.

I say to Arcane Wonders... SEND HIM A COPY RIGHT NOW!!!

PS Elf Wizards in CH are not so great. Very squishy. Dwarf Wizards cope a bit better. But I just go with the best artwork!

The thing about the elf wizards are that they need to stay at the distance from the enemy and they have great mobility. The problem I have been noticing is that there are just not enough magic attacks that have >1 or >2 range, at least early on in the campaign.

Not to get too far off topic but if you go with an Elf Wizard then you might do well with ice spells which tend to have longer ranges. Few and far between at start though. electrical isn't too bad either.

Also, some of the tropes of fantasy don't marry with the rules. Mobility isn't so much required for Wizards with longer ranges. In fact, elves make the worst wizards due to squishiness. Fighters need better mobility to get into the fray.

Anyway, send Redjak a copy of our favourite board game...



12
Posting this up here as it is a summary of a couple of threads elsewhere, and General Discussion seems well visited...

Rules for solo Mage Wars (either version) would be FANTASTIC.

Looking at Descent 2, Gears of War, Galaxy Defenders,  D&D adventure board games,  etc, I am sure that a talented team of game designers could figure it out.

In fact, the Descent 2 model covers a board, with movement, and monsters, each with special abilities. You could imagine how that might work in a translation. Galaxy Defenders and the upcoming Swords and Sorcery use boss style monster cards which could be used for the Mage whilst general AI by 'monster type' could be used for the monsters.

Also, Card Hunter, Loot & Legends, Hearthstone, Magic, Ascension, etc from the video world.

If the official AW team have no time, then there's a guy on BGG called Redjak who writes very high quality solo rules for all sorts of complex games. E.g. Descent, Star Wars Imperial Assault. They create AI for the monsters (creatures) and for the big bad guy (the mage) which is comparable in complexity to Mage Wars. Give him a call!

Actually, I sent him a Geek mail and he came back to say that he may well do a solo Mage Wars rules set but hasn't gotten round to buying the game yet.

I say to Arcane Wonders... SEND HIM A SET RIGHT NOW!

13
Alternative Play / Re: Public request to Sailor Vulcan
« on: December 22, 2015, 07:56:05 AM »
Ah, Sailor Vulcan,

Card Hunter is a truly excellent game, particularly if you grew up playing 1980's D&D. It is now available as an app call Loot & Legends. Very swish.

I contacted Redjak on BGG. He says that he might give Mage Wars a go (solo rules) when he gets round to buying it.

I say to Arcane Wonders... SEND HIM A COPY RIGHT NOW!!!

PS Elf Wizards in CH are not so great. Very squishy. Dwarf Wizards cope a bit better. But I just go with the best artwork!

14
Alternative Play / Re: Public request to Sailor Vulcan
« on: December 22, 2015, 04:07:39 AM »
Rules for solo Mage wars would be FANTASTIC.

Looking at Descent 2, Gears of War, Galaxy Defenders,  D&D adventure board games,  etc, I am sure that a talented team of game designers could figure it out.

In fact, the Descent 2 Model covers a board, with movement, and monsters, each with special abilities. You could imagine how that might work in a translation. Galaxy Defenders and the upcoming Swords and Sorcery use boss style monster cards which could be used for the Mage whilst general AI by 'monster type' could be used for the monsters.

Regarding point three, there's a guy on BGG called Redjak who writes very high quality solo rules for all sorts of complex games. E.g. Descent, Star Wars Imperial Assault. They create AI for the big bad guy which is comparable in complexity to Mage Wars. Give him a call!

Also, Card Hunter, Loot & Legends, Hearthstone, Magic from the video world.

15
It's a Paladin called 'Lady of the Silly Mid Leg Off Stump'

HOWZAT!?

For our non-English friends, it's just not cricket, what?

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