GENCON 2015 Tournament

[silverclawgrizzly]

Play. If nothing else it'll be fun.

[DaveW]

Play. If nothing else it'll be fun.

Really! You will get to play a wider group of players and probably experience games that are different than you usually get at home.

[V10lentray]

Trying now to playtest on OCTGN, but i've been staring at the spellbook builder for 20 minutes trying to figure out this thing.

This is terrible.

There is no running totals, you can't just type in a card name, you have to filter every category to even get close to finding what you are looking for...

[sIKE]

V110lentray

There is a Name category that you can search on. Sure it not an open field that you can just type in but it is one extra click and you have the same result as the online builder. If you followed the SBB instructions here, under the Plugins drop down you select Validate Mage Wars Spellbook, it will give you how many spellpoints you have used.

It will also copy the results to your clipboard. If you open up a text editor or Word you can paste that in and you will see all of the spells by category - number in book, name, the spell level, the spell cost for that mage, and the total cost for the spells.

Unlike the online builder you can look for cards that have the Ethereal Trait in the Attack bar. The thing you are not liking to me is the why the OCTGN one is so much more superior than the online one.

If you like the Online one and want to start their, that is supported to. The guys at Arcane Duels made a fantastic video about that exact feature.

[sIKE]

Here is the output from the clipboard (this is from Schwenkgott's Facemelter Spellbook):

A Mage Wars Spellbook, built using the OCTGN SBB 7/20/2015 9:30 PM

Spellbook points: 120 used of 120 allowed

Key: Quantity - Spell Name - Spell Level - Spellbook Cost - Total Spellbook Cost

Adramelech Warlock

---  Magestats  ---
1 - Adramelech Warlock Stats - 0 - 0 - 0

---  Attack  ---
6 - Flameblast - 1 - 1 - 6
4 - Fireball - 2 - 2 - 8
2 - Acid Ball - 1 - 2 - 4
2 - Devil's Trident - 2 - 2 - 4

---  Conjuration  ---
1 - Battle Forge - 2 - 3 - 3
1 - Mana Crystal - 1 - 2 - 2
2 - Wall of Fire - 2 - 2 - 4
2 - Wall of Thorns - 1 - 2 - 4

---  Enchantment  ---
3 - Adramelech's Touch - 2 - 2 - 6
3 - Rust - 1 - 2 - 6
1 - Poisoned Blood - 1 - 1 - 1
3 - Marked for Death - 1 - 1 - 3
1 - Arcane Corruption - 2 - 2 - 2
1 - Agony - 1 - 1 - 1
2 - Enfeeble - 2 - 2 - 4
2 - Death Link - 2 - 2 - 4
1 - Regrowth - 1 - 2 - 2
1 - Akiro's Favor - 1 - 2 - 2
1 - Hawkeye - 1 - 2 - 2
2 - Nullify - 1 - 2 - 4

---  Equipment  ---
2 - Fireshaper Ring - 1 - 1 - 2
2 - Lash of Hellfire - 2 - 2 - 4
2 - Dragonscale Hauberk - 1 - 1 - 2
1 - Adramelech's Torment - 1 - 1 - 1
1 - Ring of Curses - 1 - 1 - 1
1 - Cloak of Shadows - 2 - 2 - 2
1 - Eagleclaw Boots - 1 - 2 - 2

---  Incantation  ---
1 - Combustion - 1 - 1 - 1
2 - Ignite - 1 - 1 - 2
1 - Explode - 2 - 2 - 2
3 - Dispel - 1 - 2 - 6
1 - Disarm - 1 - 1 - 1
2 - Teleport - 2 - 4 - 8
2 - Seeking Dispel - 1 - 2 - 4
2 - Dissolve - 1 - 2 - 4
2 - Force Push - 1 - 2 - 4
1 - Force Wave - 1 - 2 - 2

[C Savy]

There is no running total but you can always load a deck in a single player game with debug on and it will tell you your deck size. Clunky but it works. Can always just count cards.

I use the name filter like sIKE said and build my deck on OCTGN after I have built it with my cards. That way I'm just loading cards into the deck and I'm not building or daydreaming from the OCTGN deckbuilder.

You can also click the card type column to have them sorted ascending or descending by type. This way you can leaf through all the avaiable cards of any type if your in daydream mode.

Other than the running total thing it does most other things just fine when you know how you like using it. It also has the advantage of having all the promo cards for interest sake.

[vlad3theimpaler]

I currently am scheduled to play in the tournament, but with out time to playtest and build I may withdraw. Still not certain.

I'm going in with practically no testing either.  Should be interesting.

[silverclawgrizzly]

I don't see too many ways to realistically practice. Unless your local play group has enough players that at least one of them focuses on each of the mages, and plays them well, you're just gonna have to go in blind on some level. Playing on OCTGN could help though.

[V10lentray]

I don't see too many ways to realistically practice. Unless your local play group has enough players that at least one of them focuses on each of the mages, and plays them well, you're just gonna have to go in blind on some level. Playing on OCTGN could help though.

Then why bother playing the game at all. Why should AW continue to produce the game if we are only going to sit in our houses and play for free on OCTGN.

I know a few people within 20-30 minutes of me who play, but only play on OCTGN. So why bother continuing supporrting a product if we're only gooing to play online. What benefit does AW have to continue producing the game if the answer to playing, is play on OCTGN.

[SharkBait]

OCTGN can be a good supplement for playing in person, but it shouldn't replace it all together. Sometimes the temporary answer is to play on OCTGN until you can grow a following in your area.

[sIKE]

OCTGN is not intended to be a replacement for purchasing the product to play and play in real life. I still try to have at least a 1 IRL game a week, and purchase practically all that AW has to offer. OCTGN should be good for getting in additional games, playing players outside of your meta, and just for fun.

I have talked with bunches of players both here, face to face, and on OCTGN, some of them refuse to play online mainly because they don't like playing the game against a faceless partner. I can respect that, but as someone that has a wife and three kids getting out to the Dragons Lair or over to the Emerald Tavern is really a super special and rare treat for me. So what little additional playtime I get besides my half game day on Friday has to happen on OCTGN. Even then I don't get the chance to play anywhere near as often as I desire as I have been focusing in on the dev side of things.

I truly hope that people are not playing for "free"!

[Sailor Vulcan]

OCTGN is not intended to be a replacement for purchasing the product to play and play in real life. I still try to have at least a 1 IRL game a week, and purchase practically all that AW has to offer. OCTGN should be good for getting in additional games, playing players outside of your meta, and just for fun.

I have talked with bunches of players both here, face to face, and on OCTGN, some of them refuse to play online mainly because they don't like playing the game against a faceless partner. I can respect that, but as someone that has a wife and three kids getting out to the Dragons Lair or over to the Emerald Tavern is really a super special and rare treat for me. So what little additional playtime I get besides my half game day on Friday has to happen on OCTGN. Even then I don't get the chance to play anywhere near as often as I desire as I have been focusing in on the dev side of things.

I truly hope that people are not playing for "free"!

Well, I actually don't completely agree with you, sIKE. It's okay to test for free before deciding what expansions to buy. And if you don't have anyone to demo the core game to you irl. And even in real life, it's okay if not everyone in your playgroup owns a copy of the core set, or even owning any of the cards.The ideal number of players in a playgroup per copy of the core set I would say is about 2-4. It's totally fine if a couple players designate themselves as the "card banks" of their playgroup. Mage wars collections are meant to be shared, after all. I actually discussed that at length in an article I posted on these very forums:

http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=15686

So you see, an individual playing for free is perfectly acceptable, as long as at least one person in their playgroup is paying for it. If you don't share your collection, you're probably not going to be getting the full value out of it. However, I don't recommend getting into mage wars as a hobby if you're not planning to ever play irl too. And if there aren't enough mage wars players willing to share/loan their collection with/to you, be prepared to buy your own anyways. If you're buying your own collection, it's also a good idea to start your own playgroup to share it with.

[sIKE]

Sailor Vulcan,

I do understand what you are driving at, though, I disagree. I feel I have no issues playing game on OCTGN as I own the physical cards that I play with. No moral issues for me at all. What I am driving at, is the solution OCTGN provides is not intended as a way for someone to play Mage Wars on the cheap. The guys with the "card banks" have in my opinion "fair use" to use the digital images on OCTGN, the guys who do not own the cards, really do not have a "fair use" leg to stand on. Now if you are thinking about buying one of the expansions but are not sure which one is desired next, OCTGN is a good forum to learn about what it is you want and then you go buy it.

What you will notice here, is that, everything is centered around ownership of the product you are playing, OCTGN is not intended to be used in lieu of....

[Sailor Vulcan]

Um, now I really have to ask. Have you never gone over to a friend's house to play a game that they own that you don't? What I'm talking about is a lot more like that. Mage wars collections are meant to be shared, the person who owns the collection isn't going to get the full value for what they paid for otherwise. And if people want to try cards from a particular set so that their playgroup's card bank(s) knows whether to buy that set or not, that's perfectly acceptable. Of course having "card banks" isn't the only way for collections to be shared, it's just a method that's probably easier to coordinate.

[sIKE]

I have to ask, have you gone over to a friends house sat down in front of his computer, logged in and played, I don't know, Call of Duty? No of course not, you friend will tell you to go get the game and play it on your own computer.