Artefact Deck - Card Tricks

[CheeseThief]

When I first saw the tab you use to look at your artefact cards was called a 'Deck' my mind started racing with the possibilities! Alas none of them were realised but since I am so unenthused with finding multiple Rifle Salvage artefacts and the current ammo box system I figured I would lay out my initial joygasm as a suggestion.

Overview

Basically what I envisaged was that instead of the player taking ten consumable items into the game and a single artefact, the player would take a deck of ten artefact cards into the game, accessed in game via the Q menu. The player would have 3 artefact card slots instead of 1 and they would build a deck to take into the game rather than selecting a single artefact. Other players would be able to view your deck by clicking on the current question marked artefact slot and vice versa.

Now each player would have 3 different card slots instead of the current single slot, a Primary slot and two Booster slots. The Primary card would function exactly the same as artefacts do currently in that they give a small bonus that effects the group, the booster cards would only effect the player that equips them but also enhance the effect of the primary card if they are the same type.

The Workings

Now there would be three different types of artefact cards, buff cards, utility cards and supply cards, and while only the card in the Primary slot would effect the group, it can be buffed by adding cards of the same type to the Booster slots.

The general rules of these artefact cards would be;

• The Primary card affects the whole team
  
• The Booster cards affect the player
  
• Booster cards only empower the Primary card, not each other.
  
• The Primary card does not empower booster cards.
  
• Booster cards will only empower a Primary of the same type.
  
• Boosters cannot double up on the same card unless they are the same as the Primary
  
• Slotted cards cannot be removed or changed after you close the Q menu for the duration of the match.
  

Players would select and equip their cards in game via the Q menu, this gives players the option to take more buff cards and less consumables into battle to help cover for things like frozen levels.

Slotting Cards

Lets say a player has 3 Rejuvenation cards, they are buff type cards and if a player slotted one of these cards into their Primary slot then the group would get +0.5HP a second regeneration.

If a player puts rejuvenation cards into their primary and boost slots the group would get;

1 Primary = 0.5HP per sec

1 Primary + 1 Booster = 1.5HP per sec

1 Primary + 2 Booster = 2.5HP per sec

The player that slotted the cards would also receive the benefit from slotting the booster cards, in this case +0.5hp/s from each booster card. The group buff would be 2.5hp/s, but the player that equipped them would be getting 3.5hp/s.

For another example, if a player had a Steel Charge, Rejuvenation and Energy Regen cards with the Steel Charge card as primary, the group would get their melee damage increased and their melee attacks would be imbued with a small amount of HP and Energy steal, while the person who equipped the cards would also gain the small passive energy and HP regen from slotting the booster cards.

For an example with different elements, a player has 2 utility cards (Loot Radar, Enemy Radar) and 1 buff card (Energy Regen), the buff card would not link to the utility cards, so if the primary card was the Loot Radar and the other two were in the boosters, then the group would get a Loot Radar that is empowered to also show enemies in a medium sized area, but the Energy Regen card wouldn't link and only give the equipping player a small bit of energy regen. On the other hand if the player equipped the Energy Regen card as primary, then the team would get the small amount of power regen, but only the player equipping the cards would get the Radars.

Flipping Cards

For the other cards a player could bring into the game, they would function like consumables, except reusable. If a player uses a rifle ammo box then they have their rifle ammo refilled to maximum and they have to buy another one after the match, if a player flips a rifle scavenger card then they are also given max ammo and the card is removed from play but it becomes available again next game at no cost.

If a player flipped a HP or Energy regen card then they would recieve double the basic buff, but only for a minute or two.

Crafting

A player could make more low grade cards through crafting, the player could sacrifice a blueprint (because seriously who needs more than 1 Cronos?) and craft it with 20 ammo boxes to give a scavanger card of the same type as the ammo boxes. The blueprint wouldn't matter, your just cutting it up to make cards.

The player has access to ammo boxes, health boxes and shield batteries as consumables so everyone could have easy access to max health/shield cards and scavenger cards to slot into their primary and boost slots. Alternatively a player could flip these cards instead of slotting them, for the low price of 20 consumables, 1 blueprint, 15000 credits and 12 hours of your life, these would effectively give the player an 'advanced consumable' that they don't have to buy again after they use it, or use in the making of other, better cards.

Also, a rich trolling inclined players could turn a colour picker extension into a card, this card can be flipped(not slotted) during a game and it randomly changes the rest of the teams colours for duration of that match, preferably into something bright and hideous.

While a player would be able to craft low end cards and combine cards together to empower or enhance them, most cards would come from alerts. A player should have easy access to a basic set of cards, but should always have something to grind for.

Like all good card games trading is a must, but also cards should be used to create enhanced or better cards, so a relatively common mid range card might be extremely valuable not because it's statistically very good, but because players can craft it into a card that gives their character speed lines, distortion effects or a little pet that follows them around. And of course like all good money making ventures, you could sell card decks in the shop for real money that gives the player 5 random cards with the guarantee of at least 1 rare.

Preventing stacking

There are some problems with this, especially if this is done in an additive nature like the rest of the game.

For starters an example above gives the entire group 2.5hp/s regen and one player 3.5hp/s which is fine on it's own, but if everyone took all HP regen cards and they stacked then everyone in that game would have +11hp/s which is extremely powerful.

To prevent the entire team stacking the same mods for additive affects, I'd make it so that a player would have to choose between the effects of duplicate Primaries. If two players are running HP regen as their primary, players would have to open up the Q menu and select which one they want to receive the benefit from, if they don't choose then the game randomly does it for them after a minute. One player may have boosted their cards to give maximum HP regen, the other may have chosen to boost their HP regen with some energy regen and + max health, and for the sake of competition it would tell everyone how many other people selected your duplicate to use (no names, just numbers).

This artefact card system would give people loads more stuff to grind for or buy without making things like weapons and such super rare, it would improve character build capacity and it would, I feel, enhance gameplay in general.

Edited January 17, 2013 by CheeseThief

[Volt_Cruelerz]

Liked the first half of things, didn't like things as far as merging them or crafting them though.

[Ced23Ric]

I am casting Gaea's Embrace on your Runeclaw Bears.

By which I mean: +1.

PS: Yeah, even with the crafting. Wasting over 20,000 and some mats and a BP on getting a meager Rifle Scav? Cool. ;)