Lord of the Rings Battlecards

[randomnovice]

Hi folks!

Complete amateur with Love2d here but for quite a while now(!) I've been playing around with making a card game with CCG-type mechanics (e.g. Hearthstone) but based on the characters and world of Lord of the Rings (because hey, I love that!).

Up until now it's been completely for my own entertainment but now that I'm actually managing to get somewhere (a little bit at least) and I've completed the cards for 5 of the 11 decks and a rudimentary A.I. (and it's crashing less and less!!) I was wondering about posting it up and getting a little bit of feedback?

Possible problem however - er, copyright. Of course not looking to market anything here but I was wondering whether that's likely to be an issue of posting it up online? Has anyone else run into problems with that?

However I'd really appreciate the feedback - mostly because at this point what I really need to work out is the balancing of different decks vs each other and when I play the A.I. against itself it's never going to be as good as a human opponent. And it's a slow process for me to continue to play and play with different decks and tactics.

The copyright elements I'm talking about are:
- Idea/concepts: e.g. the Lord of the Rings universe & CCG-type mechanics
- Music: Howard Shore, Fellowship of the Rings (mixed by myself to be one continuous play)
- Voices/Sound effects: Lots of different sources e.g. The Lord of the Rings movie but others including Zelda & Age of Empires!
- Pictures: Basically see Google!

I guess the alternative of me attempting to become a graphic designer, voice actor and sound effects recorder (not to mention the conceptual copyright problem) makes me think there's not a lot else I can do except borrow what's out there for free.

If you guys think "nope, don't go there as the copyright is a big deal" then I can post a version with no music, sound effects or card images - but I feel that would be pretty lame. And there's still nothing I can do about the LOTR concept but that's the whole enjoyment for me anyway.

Thoughts anyone??

[randomnovice]

A bit of deafening silence so I'm going to guess that it's not of a standard that anyone will much care

Let me know your thoughts folks!

Download version 1.2

Read me available here

Please note, the currently playable (finished) decks are:
Erebor (Thorin)
Gondor (Aragorn)
Isengard (Saruman)
Lorien (Galadriel)
Mordor (Sauron)
Moria (Durin's Bane)
Mirkwood (Thranduil)
Rohan (Theoden)
The Wild (Tom Bombadil)

[DanielPower]

Your .love file doesn't work. When I extracted it, I found that there are no .lua files at all. Only images, fonts and audio files.

[randomnovice]

Sorry - silly mistake. I packaged the folder rather than the contents. I'll repost a link when it's fixed.

*Edit: I've repackaged it and it should be working now. Try the edited link in the original post. Thanks for spotting.
Has anyone been able to confirm that it worked for them?

[randomnovice]

Hello all. Anyone managed to get the link to work for them now?

I'd appreciate the feedback - especially regarding balancing. Playing it on Pass and Play is the best way to test, especially if you have a friend!

I've been trying to play every possible combination match of the six finished decks to test my balancing and learned that:
- The Moria deck was significantly over-powered.
- In general ally heavy decks do much better e.g. Moria & Erebor
- Traitor was an over-powered ability/card.

I've uploaded a newer version with these changes:
- Lowered Durin's Bane HP to 220 and Thorin HP to 210.
- Traitor is now 50% chance to switch allegiance but costs 5.
- Some minor graphic changes to damage/heal animations
- A few bug fixes

My thoughts of under-powered abilities at the moment are:
- Imprisonment (Mirkwood deck) (e.g. change to draw zero cards for 2 turns?)
- Burning damage (e.g. change to 8-10 per turn?)
- Poison damage (e.g. increase to cumulative 5 more each turn?)

Let me know your thoughts if you've tried it!

[HanaIndiana]

The Single Play doesn't allow me get past the deck selection. Unless I'm doing something wrong.
I do autoselect, but it doesn't look like it creates a large enough deck, so it won't continue (?)

[randomnovice]

Thanks for posting. DId you select one of the completed heroes?
- Aragorn (Gondor)
- Durin's Bane (Moria)
- Saruman (Isengard)
- Thorin (Erebor)
- Thranduil (Mirkwood)
- Tom Bombadil (The Wild)

The other five are still to finish...

[HanaIndiana]

Oops, I missed that bit in your post. Got it working now
The AI seems pretty good, and is kicking my butt actually. I like the mechanics, and the card choices/text, music and sound.
Except, since I have to click on a card to actually read it, it gets annoying hearing the sound effect every time I click it. It would be nicer to
only hear it maybe when it is played/put into action.
I can't really see the hitpoints in green. If its possible to make it a different color, it may be more readable without having to click into the card, which would be helpful.

Nicely done overall, and I enjoy playing it! I'm not sure what copyright problems you could get into. I'm not much help there, sorry.

[randomnovice]

Thanks for the feedback I hadn't thought about the trickiness of seeing the colours, I'll darken them up. I could add an option to the options screen for the sounds to be summon only, yes they can get a bit repetitive! They're switched off automatically for Pass and Play so you don't give away the contents of your hand to your opponent
Thanks for playing!

Ps updated version uploaded now fixes Flood card bug and improves option screen giving you the ability to pick your opponent in single battle.

[randomnovice]

Version 1.1 is now available!

Updates:
- Théoden (Rohan) is now available to play as a complete deck. Featuring the riders of rohan, famous heroes such as Éomer, Éowyn and Erkenbrand, not to mention Théoden's famous sword Herugrim... there's lots of fun to be had
- Lots of balancing work: lowering the HP of allies making them easier to kill and therefore more worthwhile to remove from play (it seemed that 9/10 times before it was more worthwhile to simply attack the opposing hero, hopefully this means more strategy now).
- Sabotage now also removes siege towers.
- Other minor changes and bug fixes.

The seven completed decks are now:
- Aragorn (Gondor)
- Durin's Bane (Moria)
- Saruman (Isengard)
- Théoden (Rohan)
- Thorín (Erebor)
- Thranduil (Mirkwood)
- Tom Bombadil (The Wild)

Any feedback? I'd love to hear any thoughts on over-powered/under-powered decks and cards.
At some point I'll have another go at writing the A.I. too!