Things that annoy me about the game that i find healthy to improve

[Grimstringer]

Hello! i love this game ,but since i have tried so many games, im very critical about what i play
these are minor annoyances and  id like to know if other people have noticed it /care at all

I dont really like how the attack spells of every school feel special among each other, like  Lightining, earth,fire,etc

i see what people in arcane wonders try to do, adding special yellow dice effects, so each spell has something different, but  i dont think that's enough, especially if the yellow effect is 8+ and doesnt happen as often

like earth has heavy damaging attacks with slam/daze,  but is that only how earth is different from fire? like 2 dice more and a little side effect?    the same goes for other schools

we could toy with range, damage(which already happens but feels super minor to me) more effects/some effects you could rely on ,and more effects on spells without die i guess, any other ideas?

i know that we try to have a color pie, each element does it differently , but maybe we havent gone to different enough yet, or maybe im just too demanding? id love if casting a fire spell/lightning /eath spell would actually feel more unique and not just throwing 1-2 more or less dice

another thing i noticed is the circle of pet abilities some feel very similar, and not every mage has to have a pet , but seeing the new mages etc we have toyed with many new and cool abilities (really like paladin/siren)

its pretty hard to design similar but different abilities i guess :/

flavor text could also improve ,some are really funny, others are pretty stupid/meh though

familiars/spawnpoints  kind of do what i like, are similar but different with dmg spells is the design space limited or am i just seeing things that arent there?

one last one, is new cards that are worse than older cards, or dont have any use whatsever , or useless cards in general, i know that mistakes happen, and arcane wonders sure learns from them!

what is your opinion?

[EricTheGreat12]

The issue with board games, especially compared to video games, is that the makers are constrained and therefore are limited in how creative they could be. In Mage War's case, the players rely on dice and therefore mechanics evolve around the use of dice.

I would expect fire spells to be a lot more efficient compared to lightning spells, but again they are limited due to game balance. Unless they completely re-do the way the game is played, I doubt that we will ever see huge differences between attack spells.

Ps: I wouldn't say that the older cards are more 'terrible', but it would have helped if the game designers had future expansions in mind while preparing the base game.

[Grimstringer]

im talking about creatures like the Psylok,moonglow faerie,Sardonyx,Cerberus  and some others


maybe lightning could have more range, and more chance to stun/daze 

earth could be as it is, just heavy hitter, but short range, 

im sure there are ways to tack on abilities to feel more unique

[farkas1]

I will say this about the effects.  I was hesitant too at first if I liked them when I first started playing.  The probability of them rolling is sometimes high and it seems things should be receiving them faster or on a more consistent basis.   

However after playing this game many times I really like the way it is.  I'm excited for what happens when an effect triggers or happy if it doesn't work when someone is attacking me.    Odds of dice take on many of the calculating odds a computer program or game would do.  So thematically I feel they work. 

Last I have noticed in some of the cases for newer cards out is that there is a portion of them having them triggering the effect at a greater chance or just automatically with an additional card text .  Such as Afflicated Demon being able to pass weak tokens to damaged living creatures during an attack or the Firefist brawler giving burns out to critical damage attacks ect. 

[Grimstringer]

i dont mind the probabilities /luck or the dice,

it's just that attacks spells from school to school dont feel that different to use, just some effect that depends on the die roll, even that is minimal

[farkas1]

Ah i see.  I find this topic interesting and like to dive in further. 

I still differ on opinion.  i feel many effects in each school feel very different.  Maybe range could factor in it more depending on water, earth, fire etc.  but I do think a big part of the each schools attacks spells have to be balanced.

  However I do feel similarly with the attack spells in academy.  They are more similar mostly because of the stagger dominant effect in the schools. 
 

In arena, most water school attacks can only target non flying creatures. Fire deals more damage and can burn plant based or some conjurations easier, light attacks usually deal more damage and have higher percentage to daze or stun undead or nonliving creatures, etc. 

I do feel earth Needs some more diversity.  Earth attacks are the most generic and could use a little more creative variation.  Maybe a specific or random earth terrain gets used or casted in the origin of the attack spell allowing the terrain to shift in good or bad ways.  So the rock from range 0-0 is now a crater and units get -1 to range attacks and have to take a full action to move.  Or now the zone is all spikes and creatures moving into the zone take a direct damage etc.


Maybe metal earth attacks that have more piercing,  or combined with lightning spells they get that extra dice and effect modifier.   

There is some creative room left for sure.  I just don't think attacks spells are similar as you think.

[RomeoXero]

Im not really sure how you want them to shift from a mechanical standpoint though. Attack spells are what they are. Making lasting changes to the arena is the realm of conjurations. Creatures are modified by enchantments, the mage gains traits by using equipment. Attack spells are basic because that's what's required of them.

In fact the most common way of applying conditions in mage wars is with attack spells. And the difference in dice really equates to the mana curve when designing the spell.
The 8 mana attack spells are a good example. Lightning bolt, hurl boulder, and fireball. For the same 8 mana you've got 5, 6, 7 dice respectively. That basically means that daze stun chances and etheral are worth 2 dice, burn at a pretty decent percentage is worth one die. Low chance of a slam is worth the same mana for those high dice but no other bells and whistles.
I guess I'm just not sure what differences you wanna see.

And for what its worth i think the flavor texts are awesome!

[Halewijn]

In my point of view we only have 3 'pets' out of 14 mages. The holy avenger, the blood reaper and the bm pet. Each with their own flavor and mechanics. Pet is a simple big boost especially when fighting along the bm, avenger grants extra life an a revenge attack and bloodreaper gives bloodthirsty and heals the warlock. I dont see how 3 slightly similar abilities are an issue.

The newer familiars/spawnpoints are quite different. (naiya, cassiel, banner, echo) and libro is also quite unique.

Are you saying that the newer cards are better or the older ones are?