Tri-Line Force: Free to Play Online CCG

[Fayte]

- TRI-LINE FORCE -
NAME TENTATIVE

GOAL
{Tri-Line Force} is a free-to-play virtual "CCG.". With the endless creature abilities and the limited amount of moves a player can make in a turn, {Tri-Line Force} will require patience and strategic skill. In order to win a duel, a player must get three of their own cards to line up either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Another form of victory is to make your opponent run out of cards otherwise known as "milling the deck" or "deck out."

CARD TYPES
CREATURE - Each creature has a stat on each side to determine the respective sides strength.

POWER - There are 4 types of power cards;
• Standard - A regular power card.
• Equipment - A power card that attaches to a creature when activated.
• Counter - A power card that can be activated on your opponents turn.
• Persistent - A power card that stays on the field when activated.

LEGENDARY - Legendary cards typically have very powerful abilities and can be either a creature or a power.

PHASES

• DRAW PHASE - Player draws one card for their turn.
  
  ACTION PHASE - Player can summon 1 creature and/or activate 1 power per turn. (creature abilities are limitless.)
  
  PASS PHASE - Player turn ends and passes to their opponent.

BATTLEGROUND

RULES

• The game is played on a 3x3 board.
  
  Decks consist of no more and no less than 40 cards.
  
  At the start of the duel each player draws 5 cards.
  
  A player can have no more than 5 cards in their hand at pass phase.
  
  When a creature is placed adjacent to an opponents creature with a smaller number on the same side, the opponents creature is destroyed.
  
  When a creature is placed adjacent to an opponents creature with a larger number on the same side, nothing happens to either creature.
  
  Only one creature can be played per turn NO EXCEPTIONS. I.E You cannot summon a creature and then activate a power or ability that allows you to summon another creature.
  
  Counter Cards can be activated on your opponents turn as long as it does not violate the cards played per turn limit.

QUESTIONS?
ask away.

WANT TO HELP?

We would LOVE it if you guys would join in and create a card of your own.
Just tell me the type of card you want to make (Creature or Power).
and the ability you want it to have.

 

[Fayte]

is it me or is the text on pc a lot smaller than it is when you're looking at it on mobile?

 

[Xhukari]

Oh you made the thread!
Yeah the text is very small on PC. And only PC. Odd. It's a different font for some reason... (mobile / other threads are Sans Serif, this is Serif).

Strange, you describe the game as similar to YuGiOh. I'd say it's more similar to Triple Triad.

What would Hand Traps be? I'm not aware what you've mentioned what they are? (Though saying that, I've not really read any of the cards; reading cards as raw text feels awkward. A spreadsheet would be more comfortable).

You may want to consider a means to limit Counters; YuGiOh has the Spell/Trap field. MTG has land resources.

Is there any duplicate limit beyond the one of Legendaries? (Can I have a deck of 40 of one powerful creature?) Also you may want to look into a hard-cap on how many Legendaries can be in a deck beyond the no-duplicates. Perhaps you'll go the MTG route and limit the amount of Legendaries that can be on the field (or grave for Powers, I'm not sure). Not much can be more annoying than a lucky player who gets a string of Legendary plays. I know this pain all too well from Hearthstone.

 

[Fayte]

Strange, you describe the game as similar to YuGiOh. I'd say it's more similar to Triple Triad.

It's a mix of both really. The board set up and card look mimics triple triad but then the card attributes and game style mimic Yu-Gi-Oh!. I took my two favorite games and made them 1.

What would Hand Traps be? I'm not aware what you've mentioned what they are? (Though saying that, I've not really read any of the cards; reading cards as raw text feels awkward. A spreadsheet would be more comfortable).

Hand traps would be the counter cards. The way I worded it was probably confusing. When I said I was thinking of having hand traps I was just saying I was thinking of having trap cards (or counter cards as they would be called) that you could use from your hand during your opponents turn. I was also thinking of making some creatures that have a secondary effect as a hand trap (counter) card. I was also toying with the idea of putting a space below the battleground where you could place up to 3 counter cards but I didn't want it to mimic Yu-Gi-Oh! Too closely.

You may want to consider a means to limit Counters; YuGiOh has the Spell/Trap field. MTG has land resources.

It's still an idea I'm toying with. Since there's no life points or mana source in this game giving cards a cost is difficult or limited in what I can charge (for lack of a better term lol. get it? cost and charge... never mind). I'm going to do some testing without them and see how the game flows first.. they might not even be needed.

Is there any duplicate limit beyond the one of Legendaries? (Can I have a deck of 40 of one powerful creature?) Also you may want to look into a hard-cap on how many Legendaries can be in a deck beyond the no-duplicates. Perhaps you'll go the MTG route and limit the amount of Legendaries that can be on the field (or grave for Powers, I'm not sure). Not much can be more annoying than a lucky player who gets a string of Legendary plays. I know this pain all too well from Hearthstone.

I'm toying with the idea of having limits on cards based on rarity. commons up to 3. Rares up to 2. Legendary's at 1. But as of right now everything except legendary's can be ran in up to 3. As far as limits on the amount of legendary's in a deck there's isn't one. If you found a way to make a deck out of 30 legendary's that most likely don't have any synergy and 10 power cards. Hell.. that's dope in my eyes! Legendary cards are just cards with really good abilities.. they aren't indestructible.

 

[Fayte]

updated the thread a bit to add another question about card design.

Also..

reading cards as raw text feels awkward. A spreadsheet would be more comfortable.

How would I transfer what I have into a spreadsheet? I've never messed with them before. Wouldn't it still be just raw text?

 

[Xhukari]

It is still text, yes. But with aligned rows and columns and formatting (colours, bold, italics, etc). Plus it can be sorted and filtered. (Though some of this would need to be set up). Google Drive has a handy one for this; you can or remove editor s. Just have readable etc.

I would go with design 1.

 

[Fayte]

update: added a third design that someone from another forum suggested.

 

[Xhukari]

I'm not a fan of the new design, I find it harder to find the side's number I'm looking for. Which is what these new designs are suppose to solve; I'd say it is even harder than the original design. Since I frequently have to look to both numbers on a side; work out which one is facing my direction and then properly read that one. This new design might be easier if it was colour-coordinated, but that could introduce issues with those who are colour blind...

 

[Fayte]

I'm not a fan of the new design, I find it harder to find the side's number I'm looking for. Which is what these new designs are suppose to solve; I'd say it is even harder than the original design. Since I frequently have to look to both numbers on a side; work out which one is facing my direction and then properly read that one. This new design might be easier if it was colour-coordinated, but that could introduce issues with those who are colour blind...

ha that's a good point. I wasn't too keen on it either because I feel like it compromises the size of the image and leaves a lot of open space on the card. I figure I'd throw it up there since it's the only other outside suggestion I got.

 

[ZenVirZan]

I'm not much of a tcg player but heres a mockup done in like 2 secs in paint
obviously the borders and padding and shit would be better proportioned but you get the idea
i really dont think having numbers upside-down is an issue. you can read numbers pretty easily upside-down, its the effect text that causes the game to slow down.

Spoiler

removing the directional info at the top would probably be ideal. its super easy to read when its upside down anyway so you dont need to repeat info like that

 

[Xhukari]

Y'know, I think we've been trying to deal with this in the wrong way. If all the numbers are low, why not replace them with graphics? This also gives you the option of later expanding the game by utilizing different symbols for different effects. Or just stick to circles or something if you don't want that.

This is what I was thinking of...

Spoiler

 

[Fayte]

That's an interesting take, Xhu... but it doesn't actually solve the problem. If you turn that card upside down the shapes are still going to be on the wrong side.

 

[Xhukari]

Oh yeah... Nuts. Tunnel-visioned on the looking at it upside down xD
Back to design 1!

 

[Fayte]

UPDATE! We're going virtual. I have a team now that I meet with every saturday to discuss everything in person. Progress is moving along smoothly. We would love your input though!

 

[Xhukari]

Going virtual gives some new design decisions... Do you take advantage of it being digital, and do things you couldn't do on the tabletop? Do you introduce elements beyond the game, like how YuGiOh games often did? Do you design it as a one-off or let it be expanded in sequels? Or do you have the singular client which gets updated?

 

[Fayte]

Going virtual gives some new design decisions... Do you take advantage of it being digital, and do things you couldn't do on the tabletop?

Yeah, nost at the same time we decided we were going virtual, we came up with the idea for persistent powers which changes the field and really alters how players will play. Not only that but if you look at the battleground mock you'll see that there is an avi location with level, w/l, and battle points. We're toying with ideas on how to we to incorporate monetary and non-monetary purchasables. We don't wanna get too far ahead of ourselves though because we're still working on bringing unique cards into the game -- which we plan on having 500 of opening day. (which is why we need you guys' help! create your own cards for mentions in the special thanks!

Do you introduce elements beyond the game, like how YuGiOh games often did?[/b]
I'm not too sure I understand the question. I play a Yu-Gi-Oh! Game now that's an app on my phone and the only thing it has is purchasables which I talked about earlier. If you could elaborate a little more that'd help a ton.

Do you design it as a one-off or let it be expanded in sequels? Or do you have the singular client which gets updated?

It's going to be a client that will be updated. Out the gate we'll have 5 different packs, 500 different cards, and about 6 different deck types (so far).. not including what people think up from putting cards together to create their own brain baby's.

Thanks for the feedback! Seriously I appreciate anyone that takes the time out to comment and ask their questions or leave their thoughts and input (both good and bad)

 

[Xhukari]

Some of the YuGiOh games featured a proper world to navigate, with storylines etc. Everything was solved with a friendly (or not so friendly) card game against the AI! If you go that route, you could potentially have it so that the story gets progressed in updates, with new areas and the like to go with new cards. This could also be a potential path to go with in terms of monetary; Pay like £1.99, get accessed to areas A and B, with C new story quests, D sidequests and E packs of cards which can be unlocked with in-game currency.

A big issue with most TCGs is that they're too expensive to stay into; Hearthstone is even starting to feel this, especially now they plan to release 3 blocks of cards per year, with 120 cards per block.

 

[Fayte]

Some of the YuGiOh games featured a proper world to navigate, with storylines etc. Everything was solved with a friendly (or not so friendly) card game against the AI! If you go that route, you could potentially have it so that the story gets progressed in updates, with new areas and the like to go with new cards. This could also be a potential path to go with in terms of monetary; Pay like £1.99, get accessed to areas A and B, with C new story quests, D sidequests and E packs of cards which can be unlocked with in-game currency.

A big issue with most TCGs is that they're too expensive to stay into; Hearthstone is even starting to feel this, especially now they plan to release 3 blocks of cards per year, with 120 cards per block.

Oh no we're not going to have anything like that. It's simply going to be a card game. We actually haven't talked about the certain functions and features of the program yet. We decided to come up with and create 500 cards before we get to the easy stuff like design and interface.

 

[Fayte]

we're nearing the completion of the first 500 cards. We have 35 cards to make before we move on to play-testing. If you guys would like to make any cards to be considered for the game then the time is now!

 

[Xhukari]

You guys are getting there! You'll be moving onto the arguably harder part! Good luck!