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Board Index » Planet Stronghold: Colonial Defense » PSCD 0.7.3 - Alpha preview demo!
Franka Nov 08, 2015
I think I see the overall problem here. Playing as Alex is much easier than playing as Diana. Rally is much better than Take Cover fx, and Veteran is generally better than Sharpshooter, because of all the matrick you'll face.



Automated Repair Device might as well be a wall now, enemies target them very often.



When playing as Diana, the game tells you what Alex must do to win, and that Alex died, etc.



Mission 1 is much better now that I can kick the enemy in the face.



Mission 2 is still tough on hard, but I did manage to beat it finally, it seems ok for hard.



Mission 3: Playing as Diana, the enemy didn't die when reduced to 0 life. Playing as Alex, it did. Strange. The mission seems fairly balanced on hard though.



Mission 4: I don't think this fight can be won on normal or hard (the enemy has 19 units on hard, 18 on normal??). First mission where resources become a problem (and you have no resource cards in the deck in normal/hard). Playing as Diana, Take Cover is a useless card in this fight, cramming up your hand. Meanwhile, Alex gets Hold Position, which rocks, but he doesn't have enough offense to win the fight (very, very far from it).

I won it on easy as Diana with my very last unit and 2 health left, and that was near impossible. The only way to win it otherwise would have been to strengthen the correct cards in the side missions, but you don't know that ahead of time, so I had already strengthened other cards.

It was a lot easier (on easy) with Alex.



Mission 5: The lack of Personnel resources makes it impossible to play more than one card a turn (since all your units require personnel), which generally kills you. I see your dialogue choice affects this fight, which can make it very, very easy or quite hard. That idea is not bad, but doesn't feel right for a tutorial mission. If you pick the wrong choice, you've crippled yourself. I know you don't want the text to be "gamey", but maybe there could be a clearer indication that the choices will mean a change in cards.



Side missions are now some of the easiest missions if you construct a good deck (I mix Charlotte and Christophe).



When the demo ends, the game quits. Would be nice to be taken to the start screen. :)
jack1974 Nov 09, 2015

I clicked in the Quick Fix card and then I clicked in the other Quick Fix card, the second one vanished and only one Quick Fix effect was applied on my wall.

Ah weird. This sounds like something for Anima :wink:
I think I see the overall problem here. Playing as Alex is much easier than playing as Diana. Rally is much better than Take Cover fx, and Veteran is generally better than Sharpshooter, because of all the matrick you'll face.

OK I'll need to check how to balance it. Initially thought to have both main characters use same deck to avoid such situation, but though would have been lame :) Now I need to fix it!
When playing as Diana, the game tells you what Alex must do to win, and that Alex died, etc.

In the Info button ? It might be a copy paste error.
Mission 3: Playing as Diana, the enemy didn't die when reduced to 0 life. Playing as Alex, it did. Strange. The mission seems fairly balanced on hard though.

Probably another copy/paste mistake (in the tutorial I have to do two separate mission files, even if they should be identical except for Alex/Diana custom cards).



I'll check mission 4-5, I haven't tested them well after the changes. Since I'm going to change the resource building too, will need to retest them all :mrgreen: well at least resources are OK which is a relief.
When the demo ends, the game quits. Would be nice to be taken to the start screen. :)

Yup, true. The next demo I upload, I plan to have the first round of talks and reach mission 10, so that should be the "regular demo length" and will do a proper "end of demo" screen.



I might be able to make it for next weekend, it depends how long will take to do all the changes (big and small) that I've in mind!
kadakithis Nov 09, 2015

Mission 4: I don't think this fight can be won on normal or hard (the enemy has 19 units on hard, 18 on normal??). First mission where resources become a problem (and you have no resource cards in the deck in normal/hard). Playing as Diana, Take Cover is a useless card in this fight, cramming up your hand. Meanwhile, Alex gets Hold Position, which rocks, but he doesn't have enough offense to win the fight (very, very far from it).

I won it on easy as Diana with my very last unit and 2 health left, and that was near impossible. The only way to win it otherwise would have been to strengthen the correct cards in the side missions, but you don't know that ahead of time, so I had already strengthened other cards.

It was a lot easier (on easy) with Alex.


So glad it is not just me. I knew the decks were stacked so I could win, but felt absolutely impossible. I fought it 5-6 times before I lowered it to easy and it was still hard. (I was playing with Diana)
Franka Nov 09, 2015

I think I see the overall problem here. Playing as Alex is much easier than playing as Diana. Rally is much better than Take Cover fx, and Veteran is generally better than Sharpshooter, because of all the matrick you'll face.

OK I'll need to check how to balance it. Initially thought to have both main characters use same deck to avoid such situation, but though would have been lame :) Now I need to fix it!


If Sharpshooters could hurt matrick (don't they have armor piercing ammo?), that might be fine. Take Cover will still be a weak card though, because targeting is pretty random in the first place, and you'll often have to kill your own unit when attacking anyway, but you could sometimes take one attack with a Sharpshooter and Take Cover (which I suppose was the idea to begin with). It's just very situational, and works best against 1/3 matrick, who we can't shoot at end of turn so no reason to go back into hiding.



When playing as Diana, the game tells you what Alex must do to win, and that Alex died, etc.

In the Info button ? It might be a copy paste error.


Both the info button and the game over screen.
Franka Nov 09, 2015
I’m going to analyze the cards we have access to so far, and make some suggestions. This is based on what we can do with the cards in the deck builder at the time we get them, which means the first 5 tutorial misssions and the side missions. If a card has further uses later in the game, that’s nice, but we’re talking about what the card can do right now. I'm also going to look at the cards we get specifically in the tutorial missions, outside the deck builder, but that will be for tonight, after work.



Buildings: I don’t have to talk about these, we know they’re not good enough as they are, and there’s a whole thread about them.



Resource increasers: They don’t really have any use , we already know that.



Neutral cards:

Scout: This is a good support card and has a sensible cost.

Automated Repair Device: It’s a fair card for drawing enemy fire and staying alive, but not anything special.

Regular Infantry: Compare this to Scout. I think this should either be 2/1 or 1/3.

Wall: It’s a wall. It buys you some time. It’s cheap, so there’s that.

Battle Drone: It’s pretty good actually, can snipe a big unit and live to fight another day, and also has flying (which is not important yet, the enemy has very few walls).



Charlotte:

Spiked Iron-Vines: This is currently the best wall. It deals damage and regenerates. If you have 2-3 of these out, the enemy gets confused and rarely kills them off. It’s pretty cheap too.



Mizuki:

Force Field: It’s ok, but doesn’t deal any damage (so it’s a delaying card, which we don’t really need at this point) and is expensive for requiring multiples of the same resource.



Alex:

Rally: A good card. You get to choose what to hit, instead of letting the enemy randomly target you.

Veteran: A very good starting unit. Hits hard and can survive multiple small hits. A good candidate for upgrading to silver/gold. Cost seems good and goes well with Rally, which requires another resource, making Alex a good all round starting hero.



Christophe:

Matrick Mercenary: The best unit we get right now. His drawback is easy to play around. Probably priced right since he requires credits. Good for upgrading to silver/gold. Why is he organic, when the enemy matrick aren’t?



Diana:

Take Cover: A bad card. Targeting is already fidgety enough that most of the time you don’t need to hide your units. What this card should do instead is give a unit a force field. Then I'd play it.

Reinforcements: I like this card. I would rather have a unit that can attack at this point in time, but this is card that stays useful. Helps your small units early on, but becomes strong later with bigger units.



Samuel:

Domesticated Boragrub: A bad card. Expensive for 1/3 and an ability that may as well be a penalty. I don’t think this should be able to hit your own cards.

First Aid: At this point in time, not a useful card, except if paired with Matrick Mercenary or Spiked Iron-Vines.



Mario:

Repair: A very bad card, except if paired with Spiked Iron-Vines.

Reinforced Wall: It’s a big, dumb wall. If it wasn’t for the lack of offensive units in the early game, this could be good for stalling.



Xavier:

Assault Biker: A VERY good unit, 3/2, charge and bypass walls?? This one should probably cost a credit. Upgrade to silver/gold and it becomes very powerful.

Quick Fix: Extremely bad card at this point in time. How many robotic units do we have? How much life do they have? Yep, this is no good.



Graciela:

Stun: Not a bad card, but for it to be really good, it should be able to target invisible units. These are the ones we usually want to stun.

Recon Unit: Look, this doesn’t work except in the tutorial mission that’s tailored to showcase the card. There aren’t enough invisible units on the board at the same time for it to do anything interesting. You’ll be holding onto the card in the hopes that it will do something, because nobody wants to play a 1/1 unit with charge for 2 resources, one of them a credit.



Galina:

Mine Field: It’s good, even if it’s a bit expensive costing a credit. Sometimes it kills 3 units, because the AI is dumb, sometimes it kills one big unit, which is also good.

Bounty: Currently the most worthless card. You can pay 1 credit to make a card that gives 1 credit give you 2 credits instead. Why would I want 1 of these, let alone 3? This should absolutely not be a starting card.
jack1974 Nov 09, 2015
Just back from a short trip, so will read all your suggestions carefully, one thing though I already changed this morning: take cover does indeed give force shield now :) I limited it only to organic units (otherwise would be too powerful I think) but is already a good card now.
jack1974 Nov 09, 2015
I've read your comments, some good points. Since I know the other cards/enemies, will comment only on the ones I think to change. I am sure will tweak a few cards anyway even on next update. I don't want to make big changes though, but I thought about this:



Resource increasers

They were made when initially you hadn't the resource limit nor the auto-increase each turn. But I see now that they could be maybe used only rarely for some custom mission, but it's a bad idea to do this, better have cards that can be used regularly. So, I'll transform them into offensive/defensive or summon cards.



Charlotte & Mizuki

The spiked iron vines with attack AND regenerate is too powerful, so I'm thinking if to remove attack and give it instead to the force shield, so at least does 1 damage. Iron vines would still be a fairly good card to stop enemies. Or I could make it a 1/3 card instead of 1/4. Or even 1/2, since with the upgrades you could still make it a 1/4 (each upgrade adds +1HP). For sure will add damage to Force Shield though.



Christophe

Yes the Matrick mercenary shouldn't be organic indeed :) will change that.



Diana

As said, take cover will add force shield now, instead of invisibility.



Samuel

I'm thinking to make Domesticated Boragrub a 2/3 or even 3/2 card, this way should balance the "penalty on death". I want to keep the death effect as it is now though :)



Mario

I'll change repair maybe with possibility to add damage to walls, then should be a good card. Reinforced wall should be useful in some battles later :)



Xavier

The biker indeed is quite powerful, should cost 1 credit. As for quick fix, like the other action cards, will tweak them and change the effects. Even just adding +1 AT permanently will make it useful (with 3 of those you can give a turret +3 attack for example and repair it).



Graciela

Want to keep the Recon Unit, but will give it 2/2 instead, so should be less bad :)



Galina

Even in this case, I'll figure out a way to make Bounty useful, I agree right now is not really good.



Thanks for all the feedback!
Franka Nov 09, 2015
I'm back! The problem with "cards that are useful later" is that they should be unlocked later then. In the deck builder, I think you should try to have at least one card for each character, at each tier, that does damage, whether it's a unit or a spell.



Right now, Mizuki, Mario, and most notably Diana do not have a single damage card unlocked at the first tier. This really means that you shouldn't make decks with them for the first free missions, and I think that's sad. It's worst for Diana, because she's a main character, while Alex gets the excellent Veteran card.



You'll change Mizuki's wall, so she should be ok. Mario needs a card that does damage. New Repair that can add damage to a wall could do it. Maybe call it Reinforce instead? (Quick Fix could be Customize, First Aid , uhm, Steroids? :lol: ) Diana needs a unit though, or even a direct damage card. Preferably a unit so she isn't completely different from her brother.



I'll go have a look at the other cards that have been spoiled in the tutorial missions.
jack1974 Nov 09, 2015
Wait Diana has a unit, the sharpshooter :)

Here's the design (as said there can be some minor tweak, I didn't bother to update the design doc after I started coding):

http://i.imgur.com/zvlH5vM.png" style="max-width:100%">

I think actually that her marksman could be too powerful, so probably will put a limit to the card attack to 5 or something (increase each turn up to 5 attack).
jack1974 Nov 09, 2015
Ahhh LOL me dumb. I put wrong rarity value in the card, so wasn't showing up!! :lol: so well, on next update will show up.
Franka Nov 09, 2015
Observation: Mission 2 and 3 shouldn’t have HP on the foe (and nothing happens if you reduce them to 0 anyway). Mission 4 probably should, so it can possibly be won on normal/hard. Mission 2 has more cards in your deck than there are turns.



Cards found in tutorials:



Cannon Turret: It’s a fair enough card, walls that hit back are good, and this one is priced fairly.



Grenade: This is the kind of card we should have more of in the tutorials, I think. Damage cards that don’t cost us our units. This allows for more strategizing. I’m not convinced this should cost a credit, but that’s tweaking.



Grenadier Unit: Very good card, and doesn’t cost credits. He’s like two cards rolled into one. He might be too good, but he does cost 3 resources.



Flamethrower Turret: Wayy overpriced, but I guess this one also deals 1 or 2 damage to an organic every turn? It’s still too expensive for a wall with 5 life.



Sharpshooter: This guy doesn’t know what to be. An attack unit with 3 attack, or a sniper unit who does 1 damage every turn? Except he only works on organics. That’s not good enough to keep him invisible with all the matrick we face in the tutorials. This is also one of the reasons why Diana just isn’t as good as Alex, Veteran is more durable and reliable from the get go. In my opinion, Sharpshooter should be able to hit matrick and robots as well (armor piercing ammo). At least I see now that Diana is supposed to have him in her starting cards, so we can upgrade him through side missions.



Alien Scavenger: I think it’s probably an ok unit. Maybe it costs a bit much for a unit that will probably die fast. Are credits a random resource? It looks like they are. I’m not sure they should be.



Robo-Ant: He’s expensive (any unit costing 2 of the same resource is), but he’s also strong. Fair enough.



Assault Infantry: This is how a Charge unit should look. Expensive, frail, high attack. Compare this to Assault Biker, and you’ll see that card was just too strong.



Hold Position: Getting to draw a card to replace it at once is pretty damn good.



Assault: This is even better than Hold Position, and instantly replaced again means it’s silly good.



Missile Turret: I see now. This is a good card. I don’t know about it being a wall. On the one hand, it means it can’t attack, which is good. On the other it means the enemy will target and kill it, which makes it less useful than it could be. I kind of wish this was not a wall, but couldn’t attack.



Alpha Team: These guys are clearly too cheap. Compare these to Matrick Mercenary, they have the same stats, charge and a positive ability, but cost the same number of resources.



Marksman Team: I like the idea. Of course they’re useless in tutorial mission 5 because they’re one of the last cards you draw, where they should be one of the first or maybe in the middle. Like you say though, put a limit on their ATK, or they'll just sit around and OHKO the opponent when they're ready.



Barrage: Uh, no. Compare this to Grenade. This is MUCH too strong, dealing 2 damage to everything. I think reduce the damage to 1 and either increase the cost, or lower the cost of Grenade. I see in your design doc that it's supposed to deal 1 damage, so you made a snafu, it's doing 2 damage.



Snipe: This seems more reasonable, also compared to Grenade.



When I look at your design doc, I think you should exchange some of their cards between them. Putting almost everything that's about durability and AoE on Alex, and almost everything that's about high damage and single target destruction on Diana creates a strong imbalance between the two. I can't tell which is more powerful, Alex staying alive forever, or Diana killing the opponent in 2 turns. :lol: Seriously, I think Alex will clear the board of opponent units easily, while Diana will struggle to keep anything in play (that's already how it is with Veteran vs. Sharpshooter). But I guess we'll see, the change to Take Cover should help.



(Isn't Kamikaze just a little bit too strong? How about destroy friendly unit to destroy an opponent unit?)
Anima_ Nov 09, 2015
I'm only making implementation comments, since I don't really have anything to do with balancing.

Flamethrower Turret: Wayy overpriced, but I guess this one also deals 1 or 2 damage to an organic every turn? It’s still too expensive for a wall with 5 life.

No it has no ability. It only does double damage to organic units. Oh and fun fact. It's actually the first real card I made during development. The other two test cards Redshirt and Space Rat are not in the game.


Alien Scavenger: I think it’s probably an ok unit. Maybe it costs a bit much for a unit that will probably die fast. Are credits a random resource? It looks like they are. I’m not sure they should be.

No credits aren't random. But the amount of credits is card dependant.


Missile Turret: I see now. This is a good card. I don’t know about it being a wall. On the one hand, it means it can’t attack, which is good. On the other it means the enemy will target and kill it, which makes it less useful than it could be. I kind of wish this was not a wall, but couldn’t attack.

Actually that's possible. The trait that prevents units from attacking is separate from the wall trait. So you'll just have to convince Jack...
jack1974 Nov 09, 2015
Observation: Mission 2 and 3 shouldn’t have HP on the foe (and nothing happens if you reduce them to 0 anyway). Mission 4 probably should, so it can possibly be won on normal/hard. Mission 2 has more cards in your deck than there are turns.

For the 4th, I'll replay/rebalance it once I have done the card changes :)
Flamethrower Turret: Wayy overpriced, but I guess this one also deals 1 or 2 damage to an organic every turn? It’s still too expensive for a wall with 5 life.

No doesn't do damage each turn, but I plan to move a bit the towers around, to make it a lower tier card.
Sharpshooter should be able to hit matrick and robots as well (armor piercing ammo).

All right, since is an early card makes sense. Will do that. Won't damage walls / buildings though :)
Alien Scavenger: I think it’s probably an ok unit. Maybe it costs a bit much for a unit that will probably die fast. Are credits a random resource? It looks like they are. I’m not sure they should be.

Originally weren't but was a bit problematic to make it work with the engine, so I left it.
Assault Infantry: This is how a Charge unit should look. Expensive, frail, high attack. Compare this to Assault Biker, and you’ll see that card was just too strong.

I'm thinking to make the biker 2/2 or even 2/1, since can bypass walls should still be powerful, but not as it is now.
Missile Turret: I see now. This is a good card. I don’t know about it being a wall. On the one hand, it means it can’t attack, which is good. On the other it means the enemy will target and kill it, which makes it less useful than it could be. I kind of wish this was not a wall, but couldn’t attack.

It could be possible but maybe confusing since all other turrets are walls. Maybe I can make some turrets not wall and see if it's not too confusing. Or a solution would be later in the game to just summon more than 1 wall :wink:
Alpha Team: These guys are clearly too cheap. Compare these to Matrick Mercenary, they have the same stats, charge and a positive ability, but cost the same number of resources.

Will reduce their power a bit, or increase costs slightly :) Probably no charge would make them already less powerful.
Barrage: Uh, no. Compare this to Grenade. This is MUCH too strong, dealing 2 damage to everything. I think reduce the damage to 1 and either increase the cost, or lower the cost of Grenade. I see in your design doc that it's supposed to deal 1 damage, so you made a snafu, it's doing 2 damage.

Yes I moved that from higher tiers so probably forgot to change the values! 2 dmg is too strong though in the design is missing that they hit VISIBLE units only (though is probably not so common).
When I look at your design doc, I think you should exchange some of their cards between them. Putting almost everything that's about durability and AoE on Alex, and almost everything that's about high damage and single target destruction on Diana creates a strong imbalance between the two. I can't tell which is more powerful, Alex staying alive forever, or Diana killing the opponent in 2 turns. :lol: Seriously, I think Alex will clear the board of opponent units easily, while Diana will struggle to keep anything in play (that's already how it is with Veteran vs. Sharpshooter). But I guess we'll see, the change to Take Cover should help.

I wanted to make them different on purpose, so people could play as the other sibling not just for the romances, but also because of the different playstyle :) I will swap some cards, but I don't think will make them even as you say. Since in any case there are still the neutral card and the other hero cards to pick, so it's not like Alex/Diana will only play alone. Probably both will have some preferred/better partners based on the cards, that's sure :)

(Isn't Kamikaze just a little bit too strong? How about destroy friendly unit to destroy an opponent unit?)

I'm thinking to change it so that deals the damage to ALL units :lol: so even allied. It would be a sort of all or nothing/last resort card, but could save players from some bad situations and could be funny.
Franka Nov 09, 2015
When I look at your design doc, I think you should exchange some of their cards between them. Putting almost everything that's about durability and AoE on Alex, and almost everything that's about high damage and single target destruction on Diana creates a strong imbalance between the two. I can't tell which is more powerful, Alex staying alive forever, or Diana killing the opponent in 2 turns. :lol: Seriously, I think Alex will clear the board of opponent units easily, while Diana will struggle to keep anything in play (that's already how it is with Veteran vs. Sharpshooter). But I guess we'll see, the change to Take Cover should help.

I wanted to make them different on purpose, so people could play as the other sibling not just for the romances, but also because of the different playstyle :) I will swap some cards, but I don't think will make them even as you say. Since in any case there are still the neutral card and the other hero cards to pick, so it's not like Alex/Diana will only play alone. Probably both will have some preferred/better partners based on the cards, that's sure :)


I understand where you're coming from, I wouldn't want them to be perfectly even, and they never will be as long as the cards are different, they're just very lopsided in what they do right now. I'll reserve judgment until we get more cards and game to play with. :) Testing shall commence!


I'm thinking to change it so that deals the damage to ALL units :lol: so even allied. It would be a sort of all or nothing/last resort card, but could save players from some bad situations and could be funny.


That could be fairly useful. You use it to clear the board, then throw down a big guy, Rally and Splat! I'm not sure Alex really needs another AoE damage card though... this would actually be more useful for Diana, whose units are sure to die as well, and she doesn't have Rally, so can't abuse it (as much). Alex will just have a handful of damaged units left since his units have higher life than attack.
Franka Nov 09, 2015
Just to talk about something other than gameplay balancing, here are a few typos:



"You do know your presence is here is entirely voluntary, right?"

- Too many is'es. :p ...presence here is



"It seems one of the repair bots cross-wired the ships navigation controls"

- ship's



"As interesting as this line of thought maybe,"

- may be



"Perhaps changing our armanent?"

- armament



"This is one of the rare cases where both Alex and Diana will take part into a fight together!"

- take part in a fight
jack1974 Nov 09, 2015
Thanks, I think maybe will open another thread for typos/writing related stuff. Anyway tomorrow will resume working on the next update with all the various changes planned and several tests to make! I'll also add stars after each main plot mission, so Easy mode will be even easier (and I'll need to make Hard missions tougher).