Artifact: Surprise, Valve still makes games-all

Valve is jumping on the card game bandwagon.

Useless teaser that just shows the logo:

"A DOTA 2 Card Game."

Meh. And here I had my hopes up for at least something relatively new.

WipEout wrote:

"A DOTA 2 Card Game."

Meh. And here I had my hopes up for at least something relatively new.

Valve: We Want to be Blizzard

I don't know if this is better or worse than Gearbox's Project 1v1 where it's an arena shooter like Quake mixed with a card game.

I'll get excited when this gets TF2 cards.

Sandvich gets a card or I'm out.

Someone on Reddit posted some details from Day9's stream. It honestly sounds pretty good.

- There are three game boards that represent the lanes
- You control 5 heroes, just like DotA
- You can equip item cards on to the Heroes that you buy with gold
- There are creeps that spawn every turn
- You can play creature cards
- Some cards are cast on the lane and have persistent effects on that lane
- Each Hero has abilities like their DotA counterparts ("You can cast track on a Hero as Bounty Hunter and get extra Gold")

But will it have trading cards?

(Jokes aside, I heckin' love card games. I'm very keen to see more)

Djinn wrote:

Someone on Reddit posted some details from Day9's stream. It honestly sounds pretty good.

- There are three game boards that represent the lanes
- You control 5 heroes, just like DotA
- You can equip item cards on to the Heroes that you buy with gold
- There are creeps that spawn every turn
- You can play creature cards
- Some cards are cast on the lane and have persistent effects on that lane
- Each Hero has abilities like their DotA counterparts ("You can cast track on a Hero as Bounty Hunter and get extra Gold")

Are the lanes going to be similar to how Gwent operates, aside from the idea of vertical vs. horizontal?

Artefacts can be alien in origin
Half life had aliens
Five hero cards
Gordon f. Was a hero
Take away two cards and you get three

#halflife3confirmed!

Djinn wrote:

Someone on Reddit posted some details from Day9's stream. It honestly sounds pretty good.

- There are three game boards that represent the lanes
- You control 5 heroes, just like DotA
- You can equip item cards on to the Heroes that you buy with gold
- There are creeps that spawn every turn
- You can play creature cards
- Some cards are cast on the lane and have persistent effects on that lane
- Each Hero has abilities like their DotA counterparts ("You can cast track on a Hero as Bounty Hunter and get extra Gold")

This sounds less complex than DotA.

New life goal: Get job at Valve, so I can pitch "Half-Life Ep 3: The Collectable Card Game."

Wow, I just realised that they could (and likely will) work this into the existing marketplace. It could actually be a TCG (not just CCG). You could buy and sell singles for real money.

I like the idea of buying the singles you need for the exact deck you want to play, but it could get very pricey if not done right. But gosh, cracking packs with the chance of gaining steam wallet money is going to get a lot of people invested.

That's an "if", but I honestly can't see them not going down that road.

Or it could be an entirely free to play game like DOTA 2 with cosmetics being the only thing that you can spend real money on. If Valve is looking at this game as a way to get new players into the DOTA ecosystem rather than a way to maximize profits it's a real possibility.

This news just makes me sad that Metal Gear Acid 2 never jumped from PSP to iOS.

Valve said they were announcing 3 games this year so 1 down and 2 to go.

I recall Gabe on a podcast talking about all the stuff they tested in VR to see what worked and what didn't. An example he gave was how normal maps didn't really work well in VR but something surprising they found was that looking down on small objects for some reason worked really well. And with the few details we have for Artifact, it sounds almost like a board game so I'm pretty sure this will work in VR and be their VR showcase game.

I think a secondary goal for this game will be a way to introduce players to Dota 2 and all of it's complexities in a roundabout and more entertaining way. Someone could play a lot of Artifact, jump into Dota 2 and not be so overwhelmed at the abundance of heroes and items as they would have a basic understanding of all of them from the card game.

There is still hope that one of the remaining 2 games is Left 4 Dead 3. Believe!

'Oh wow, new game from Valve. Obviously not Half Life, but it should be something interesting...'

*sees DOTA based ccg*

*Poop emoji*

As the GWJer with maybe the most DOTA hours.....yawwwwwwwn.

BNice wrote:

I think a secondary goal for this game will be a way to introduce players to Dota 2 and all of it's complexities in a roundabout and more entertaining way. Someone could play a lot of Artifact, jump into Dota 2 and not be so overwhelmed at the abundance of heroes and items as they would have a basic understanding of all of them from the card game.

I don't think anything short of a mandatory 100 hour 1 on 1 coaching curriculum would give a basic understanding of dota.

BNice wrote:

There is still hope that one of the remaining 2 games is Left 4 Dead 3. Believe!

If a L4D3 announcement dropped, I would lose my mind. It's been ages since I played a good co-op shooter.

Aaron D. wrote:

This news just makes me sad that Metal Gear Acid 2 never jumped from PSP to iOS.

You and I both, what a perfect fit! It's a shame the Ac!d games were largely overlooked. They were incredibly well designed games.

They had a press event yesterday and a bunch of information dropped:

- Runs on Source 2
- Late this year on PC/Mac/Linux
- iOS and Android mid 2019
- Not free to play
- Players will be able to trade cards and sell them using Steam Market
- They don't want it to be pay to win. Rarity won't equal more power
- Richard Garfield (creator of Magic the Gathering) is working on it
- Closed beta this spring

A couple of good articles about it:

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/artifact/b/pc/archive/2018/03/09/how-do-you-play-it-and-how-will-you-pay-for-it.aspx

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/03/valves-making-games-again-hands-on-with-artifact-digital-trading-cards/

Looks really good in motion. I wish we got some direct feed footage of an entire match.

Gabe's presentation:

They've been streaming games from PAX on steam.tv. I've watched about half a dozen matches so far and really like what I've seen.

This weekend's preview tournament stream had me intetested.

Then I looked into the pricing model.... Looks only marginally better than MTGO.

I was a little worried when they first published the FAQ but I feel a lot better about it since they clarified some things. Most constructed is free but I hate constructed so I don't really care about that.

Depending on how the market shakes out, I think it might be possible to rarely have to put your own money in to play draft. If you get to 3-2, you get your ticket back. If you manage more than that, you get packs (one for four wins and two for five). Every pack has a hero and at least one guaranteed rare. Commons will certainly be worthless or at best sell for three cents on the market (netting you a penny) but I would guess you'll be able to get something for uncommons and rares. So, if you can manage to win enough packs to make $5 before you run out of five tickets, it's self-sustaining. If you can't make that much in four to five, that's really good news for constructed players and I'll likely be playing more Magic.

There's been a lot of whining about there not being a free draft mode but that seems be exactly what the tournaments are for. Assuming the player base isn't abysmally small, there will always be public tournaments open. And, if you can't find one, you can set one up yourself.

It would be nice if there would be something like the gold grind in MTGA where you can get around having to buy into events by playing a sh*tton of free constructed but they obviously can't do that when the rewards can be sold for real money.

It's all still a bit up in the air.

Looks like there will be ongoing options for community driven tournaments including draft tournaments which is a plus. As for playing "competitively" to earn in game rewards it seems the best option will be the phantom drafts where going 3-2 earns you your event ticket back and any additional wins nets you additional benefits. Everything else doesnt seem like it allows for going "infinite".

The community seems to already be organizing to run pauper tourneys which is always interesting. It's noteworthy that this seems to be poised to launch with a good set of tools.

Not so sure about this. I think I'll check it out on release. It all really depends on how quickly they release expansions for this.

Tyops wrote:

Everything else doesnt seem like it allows for going "infinite".

Expert constructed has the same reward structure as phantom draft if you’re one of the weirdos that likes constructed.

As for expansions, hopefully, that’s more up to Garfield and the people he brought in. Because if it’s up to Valve, I would expect a regular release schedule.

iaintgotnopants wrote:
Tyops wrote:

Everything else doesnt seem like it allows for going "infinite".

Expert constructed has the same reward structure as phantom draft if you’re one of the weirdos that likes constructed.

Right. That'll have the added cost of having a constructed deck and keeping up with the meta. Draft seems more plug and play in that regard.

Oh yeah, somehow the fact that constructed players need to pay for cards completely slipped my mind. That's how little I think about constructed I guess. But still, if you don't care about keeping up with the meta, you do get two starter decks and 120 cards plus the basic heroes/items. Granted, you're unlikely to be able to get to three wins against net deckers.

I picked this up today. Played the two tutorials and one of the pre constructed deck. The game is entertaining and complex. The one game I played I lost and I’m not sure if it was due to the draws or if I was just out matched. Maybe a little of both. If anyone picks this up let me know.