DISCLAIMER: This post contains references to Magic: The Gathering TCG and may be difficult to understand for persons that are unfamiliar with Magic: The Gathering.
So it's been quite some time since DLK Studios put out an update, and we thought we were quite overdue. We've been exceptionally busy trying to polish the game mechanics, 3D models, and GUI of our upcoming MMORPG TCG TerraForge.
For this update, we thought we'd share one of our more recent cards, the associated artwork and a very minor yet (in our opinion) important mechanic in TerraForge. The card we decided to show is what will likely be a pretty staple common in our game, the "Dauntless Militia".
This card has a "passive" ability which increases its attack points by 1 every time it makes an attack, we dubbed this mechanic "Might". For individuals that have played games like Magic: The Gathering, this could be compared to putting +1/+1 counters on your creature card. Nothing revolutionary right? Yeah probably not...
The interesting mechanic that we have in TerraForge is the "Auto" mechanic. This is a modifier that can be associated with any passive abilities on cards. In TerraForge, when an ability has the "Auto" modifier associated with it, it does not go on the "stack", which essentially means that an opposing player cannot respond to it; this effectively makes the ability more powerful.
Here's another recent card addition to the TerraForge library which also harbors an "Auto" ability, the "Novice Soldier".
The "Novice Soldier" is a card with an ability that is similar to that of the "Dauntless Militia" in that it triggers as a result of combat. The fundamental difference is that it is strictly a detrimental ability. The "Novice Soldier" packs combat stats (we'll go over what these are in future news posts) that are significantly greater than those of other creatures with similar summoning costs, however the cards strength will diminish over time. This serves as an example of a situation where "Auto" keyword avoiding the stack provides no benefit.
The last card we wanted to show off is the "Hyperian Hoplite". This card has an ability which is a passive, just like the previous two mentioned cards; however, it is not a triggered ability, and as such does not require the "Auto" keyword (it still does not go on the stack however). Check her out below!
As avid TCG players, we are aware of the implications of this decision; however, the decision was not made to increase the power of said abilities; in fact 99/100 times, the fact that "Might" has this "Auto" modifier would not even matter. This decision was primarily made to help the gameplay remain fluid and quick. As example, can you imagine five creatures with might each attacking and a player having to pass priority each time might triggers? This would bog down the game immensely and ultimately many players would lose interest.
This being said, we'd like to note that with TerraForge we're trying our best to create a TCG experience that rivals Blizzard's Hearthstone in terms of fluid and fast-paced gameplay but still holds true to the roots of more complex and sophisticated TCGs like Wizard's Magic: The Gathering. Blizzards and Wizards!
Thanks for reading guys :) Hopefully we'll have some more juicy updates in the near future!
