what are the things

[totalitärling]

So i started playing yesterday and while i like the game, it is redicilously hard and the ui is absolutely idiotic at points and some aspects are so complex it is really frustrating, and i've amassed a few questions the game doesn't clarify

 

What are the difference of the card types? They are like 1,2, 5, b etc, some have that swirly thing around their little picture and others have varying frames, and it's different colours for some (blue is rare?) But it's all very unintuitive and confusing and i can't find any sort of explanation anywhere, aand it's confusing because cards like orb of electricity is far inferior to orb of storms, but orb of el sells for more, which to me is an indicator that it's probably more "rare", yet it drops way more often than orb of storms and it has "elite" written on it. Why is 1d4+electric considered more "elite" than 2d4+electric?

 

Sometimes when you draw a card, it just banishes without any interaction. Why is that?

 

Why do my spells and other cards disappear? One game i have them and the next they are gone without explanation. I.e. i had a sunburst or whatever on my cleric, she used it and then it were gone. Why?

 

Why does only some of the banes you have to hit twice to kill state that they do? What is the purpose of imposing a guessing game like that on players?

 

Why do you some times when you recieve damage and have to discard cards, you also has to bury specific cards from your discard pile?

 

Cheers

[Hannibal_PJV]

Mostly because of historical reasons...

http://paizo.com/download/pathfinder/PZO6000-Rulebook.zip

 

There Are Also a lot of interactions between locations, scenario powers, characters power that Are complicated.

I would help if you can play the actual boardgame somewhere and most of the things you Are asking would be much clearer.

The program handles so Many things that players have to deal by themselves in the board game that youmeasily forget or don`t find out when playin the app.

[totalitärling]

Well but they developed and released this as a standalone game with no indication that you needed to be familiar with a boardgame version of it to je able to fully comprehend some aspects of the game.

 

Now i do like tye steep learning curve and that there was almost no tutorial, but at the prices they are charging for content you'd think they could at least bother to specify core concepts of the game a little better..

[totalitärling]

I also get and appreciate character, area, scenario powers etc by the way.

[Guest]

Have you tried playing through the tutorial? I know that I was complete lost until I sat down and finished it.

[Hannibal_PJV]

Yep. Tutorial is essential, if you don`t have tabletop experience.

Also clossary at the settings will explain the rules. So They Are there.

I just wanted to tell that this is easier to crasp if you have the board game experience.

 

In short, this is a game of improving your odds by using character powers and cards by fellow adventures. And knowing when it is essential to win the check and when it is not. In the meantime the banes, locations, and scenario power try to hinder you of doing this. So all in all very simple game, where the combinations of these powers can be very complex and that is the bane of this game why it is so fun. The olmost infinite combinations of these conflicting power and how to manage them.

There Are some good videos in YouTube that Also help in the beginning. And good Luck to your adventures, you need it, like in all games where dice Are involved

[totalitärling]

Ok thanks guys, some of the things are coming to me. I haven't done the tutorial and i frankly didn't know there was one until you mentioned it i'm not much of an instruction reader though, but i've rpgs and magic: tg since the 90's so i'm usually allright.

 

But can you explain how the elite/rarity system work?? Because none of that **** makes any sense, what card functionality is concerned.

Take this i realised now when i was sorting spells for my cleric: lead blades is purple aka "epic" card, gives 1d10 to attacks only with slashing effect on it, aquired on a check of 6, recharged on arcane/divine 8.

Greater aid on the other hand has the same asuirement/recharge values, but yields 2d6 - regardless of check it's used for. It yields both higher top and lowest score, yet it is blue and just "rare"???? It is a WAY better card, maybe one of the best in the game, yet it's placed invthe same "rarity category" as **** like improved guidance Electric splash. Electric splash, blue level rarity - 1d4 to combat and electricity, while lightning bolt is "uncommon" or "common" yet does 3d6 damage..

 

This might come down to playstyle but i think some characters and their builds are way overpowered, and the only thing that makes this game hard is including other characters than lini and the sorceress in the party. Those two with the right cards are a right steamroller.

[Guest]

Keep in mind that 99% of these decisions were made by the designers of the tabletop game and then ported over by Obsidian. Aside from curiosity’s sake, I’m not sure that it matters: the drop rate is the drop rate. Not telling you not to be curious, but I do think you’re getting hung up on something that doesn’t really matter and isn’t going to be changed.

[Ethics Gradient]

> But can you explain how the elite/rarity system work?? Because none of that **** makes any sense, what card functionality is concerned.

 

Ok, there are various systems in play here.  

 

First off, the game has three main "grades" of cards.  Basic, Elite, and neither.  Starting at AD3, Basic cards start getting removed from the game.  And at AD5, Elite cards start getting thinned out as well.  In tabletop, the way it works is that when you banish one of those cards after AD3 or AD5 you can remove them from the game permanently.  It is a good way to get crap boons out of the game, but you might want to hold on to weaker enemies in the event you discover them in later scenarios.

 

Since replayability in the digital app wasn't really geared for permanent deck changes, it has a system that handles things silently in the background before each scenario is dealt.  Starting at AD3, about a quarter of all Basics get randomly selected and held back before each game.  And at AD5, a little under half of the Elites get culled as well.  That percentage slowly ramps up in subsequent ADs, and by the time you're at AD6, it is really unlikely you'll encounter a card with either of those traits.

 

As far as treasure cards go, there's not always a lot of reasoning behind deck level or rarity.  Legendary cards are probably subjectively "better" than other cards at their AD level, but there's really no guarantee.  It likely depends on where that card was sourced from, how the developers wanted to "balance" the decks, and at what point they felt it would be best introduced into the game.  That, or there's a dart board in the Obsidian break room and treasure cards were randomly assigned.  Both are equally valid theories.

 

> This might come down to playstyle but i think some characters and their builds are way overpowered, and the only thing that makes this game hard is including other characters than lini and the sorceress in the party. Those two with the right cards are a right steamroller.

 

Almost all of the characters have a steamroller build with the right cards. However, in the tabletop game you often had to be extremely lucky to pick them up before the adventure path concluded.  Replaying scenarios and jumping back-and-forth, while technically rules-legal, is something that generally did not occur much before the app.  There are a lot more min-max opportunities now that you can grind for the "perfect" hand.

Edited December 29, 2017 by Ethics Gradient

[Jenceslav]

Starting at AD3, Basic cards start getting removed from the game.  And at AD5, Elite cards start getting thinned out as well.  In tabletop, the way it works is that when you banish one of those cards after AD3 or AD5 you can remove them from the game permanently.  It is a good way to get crap boons out of the game, but you might want to hold on to weaker enemies in the event you discover them in later scenarios.

Perfectly said, Ethics Gradient, but a slight nit-picking: the banes (enemies) are removed automatically whenever they are banished. So the weaker monsters gradually disappear.

 

Totalitärling, with the spells you have to consider also their use - combat spells (Lightning Bolt) and support spells (Acidic Splash, Fire Weapon and such) inherently have different power. But yes, the card rarity is often extremely weird, but is usually based on different real-world products.

Kohl of Uncanny Discernment (AD1, uncommon; comes from Alchemist Class Deck) gives 1d4 to Perception, whereas Spyglass has 1d6 (I think) and is a B deck item from RoTR. The same properties otherwise, traits of course different. And that's only because of different source.

[Ethics Gradient]

but a slight nit-picking: the banes (enemies) are removed automatically whenever they are banished. So the weaker monsters gradually disappear.

Er.  Yeah.  You're absolutely right.  Digital mechanics are screwing with my tabletop memory.  

 

... whenever you banish a bane with the Basic trait, remove it from the game; whenever you banish boon with the Basic trait you may remove it from the game.

 

Nonetheless, implementing that in the app where you skip forwards and backwards (or play each scenario multiple times to complete each difficulty) could have weird effects.  The current system where it automatically holds back some percentage of Basics or Elites does an ok job thinning out "easy" cards as you progress through the game.  Excluding treasure cards, the RoTR decks hold steady around ~500 total cards after the auto-cull kicks in and manages Basics/Elites:

 

 

But it also does so indiscriminately.  If you're looking for a specific Basic card it's unlikely you'll see it again after AD4.  

 

I'm not entirely sure how the above chart would look with Treasure cards on since everyone has a slightly different set, but if I get a chance maybe see what how it would work with an Obsidian Edition loadout.

Edited December 29, 2017 by Ethics Gradient

[Dagolar]

> That, or there's a dart board in the Obsidian break room and treasure cards were randomly assigned. 

I've found that such appears to be a commonly applied design methodology within game design.

I imagine such is likely especially true for any design teams using this as their theme song.

[totalitärling]

Thanks for all the answers guys! Let me first say that i love the game and i in no way mean to slam it, i'm just used to the more "traditional" card game mechanics, like MtG and it's derivents like the elder scrolls and hearthstone etc and instinctly assume all card games would operate based on that system.

 

Till now i've just been playing on my phone, but yesterday i got the game on steam, and getting a bigger screen had me noticing that the scenarios were assigned either a letter or an ascemding number, which made sense to the whole rarity deal. I think it's ultimately a good thing that the card classification is so random or erratic though, because it in the long run makes it superflous and forces you to think more rather than just assume that higher rated card = better card.

 

Playing more also answered most of my initial questions, like why i lost my two sunbursts by giving them to arcane casters. Man how many good cards i managed to rid myself of due to negligence