Pet Balancing for 1.2.7

[friarsol]

Instead of clogging up the 1.2.6 thread about Pet Balancing I'm gonna start a new thread.

The plant wall is the only pet that I finished creating artwork for, from the frame to a modified illustration for each level. So editing the text for it was easy. Will be sad if the actual illustration has to change with the other changes, but I'll just have to create a new plant to use it then

I didn't change the actual animals being used, so it should be mostly the text that gets updated. There is a 5th Pet now as well, the Ape.

Color changes:

Ape added as Green
Wolf goes from Green to White
Bird goes from White to Blue
Crocodile still Black
Hound still Red

Attached is the balanced Pets (not including the Wall) and the appropriate index.xml. I'll merge this in after we release 1.2.6.

[Fnoed]

Shouldn't ape lvl 4's text read:

...blocks or becomes blocked, you may pay 2...

?

[friarsol]

Shouldn't ape lvl 4's text read:

...blocks or becomes blocked, you may pay 2...

?

Hah. Yep, thanks for the proofreading.

[moomarc]

Just in case anyone missed it, the new artwork for the ape and wolf pets are up. Download tokens/quest icons to enjoy these for now. Will hopefully get to update the rest withing a week.

[Max mtg]

How can I help you with pets? I know how to introduce some new walls or open another slot for a yet another type of companion.

I also suggest we might add some expendables to start duels with. That is an item from inventory that enables you to start with some kind of permanent on battlefield, but it's gone once you activate it to obtain bonus in a next battle.

[friarsol]

How can I help you with pets? I know how to introduce some new walls or open another slot for a yet another type of companion.

I also suggest we might add some expendables to start duels with. That is an item from inventory that enables you to start with some kind of permanent on battlefield, but it's gone once you activate it to obtain bonus in a next battle.

I don't really need any help with them in particular, I've already made and committed the changes (and additions) of Pets using the xml file and associated scripting files. I think adding too many pets at the same time wouldn't give us enough time to decide whether the current ones are balanced. I may make a future change to the Pet wall, but I'll wait and see how the AI reacts to the current one.

Feel free to add any of the expendable work you want to do. I'm sure some of it would be interesting. What are what the expendables would do?

[Max mtg]

What are what the expendables would do?

Haven't decided yet.
Maybe summon a certain creature at the beginning of the game, maybe grant some extra lives at the beginning of the match or put an enchantment on board on turn four.

I carry a common idea that player will have to use some expendables to beat the hardest challenges. That would involve some methods to acquire the former, an interface to see them in player's collection and to fuse some for the next match.

See bejeweled blitz game for reference of how this mechanics works. In that game one gathers score (to compete against friends) and coins to spend on bonuses that are to help achieve a higher score in a single nearest match.

[moomarc]

Sorry the pets are taking so long. Decided I had to do at least one all-original artwork so its taking a bit longer. But here's progress on the bird so far - original colored pencil and markers, most of the detailed areas done. From here its filling out the wings and feet, drop in a background, apply digital touchups and make minor changes for lower levels.

Bird art progress

[Hellfish]

Love it! Getting Glint Hawk vibes all over.

[Doublestrike]

...birdPetProgress.jpg...

Wow, the guy can draw! Beautiful. Last step is to do it in MS Paint and put it on YouTube.

[moomarc]

Wow, the guy can draw!

I think it was one of the prerequisites for the post of Pixel Commander Glad you like it, and thanks for the compliment! I'll post more progress soon...

[moomarc]

She's done (levels 4 at least). Any comments or things you guys feel needs to be changes before I carry across to the other levels?

[moomarc]

Birds for Sale

Hey everyone. There were no complaints yet so I went ahead and finished the bird pet set:

Levels variations (animated gif - if it doesn't play, blame your browser)

I realise that the level 1 bird has no flying, but I couldn't bring myself to clip the wings.

I've uploaded to cardforge.org and updated the download links. I also realised that the level 2 ape was a 1/1 in the image (so no difference from lvl 1 except that his face was angrier ) So I've fixed and re-uploaded. You'll all need to delete petape_lvl2.jpg from your tokens folder and re-download.

Does anyone have any particularly interesting pics of crocs or aligators that I might use for reference for the croc pet? Photos would be fine too.

[Chris H.]

Does anyone have any particularly interesting pics of crocs or aligators that I might use for reference for the croc pet? Photos would be fine too.

 

[Chris H.]

two more pics