Hello everyone! It is great to see so many old and new faces in this forum!
My nickname is Tofu, I used to be very active in the old forums where i stood by the name TouchiHakufu. I am from Portugal, and played Battleforge since very early on (probably first week after launch). If for nothing else, many will remember me for my habit of writing long walls of text like this post which will inevitably become one in the span of the next two minutes of typing.
I am the guy who prophecized UrBestFriend becoming a moderator. I am the guy who prophecized MrX becoming a moderator. I was active in the map creation subforums (in spite of how very little activity it had) as an enthusiastic tester and was always proactive in helping people learn how to manually install player made custom maps from the forum attachments map creators posted.
I only started being active in the forums many months after release when some computer error with Direct X 9 stopped me from being able to launch Battleforge. I registered in the forums and made a thread detailing my problem, which a few other people also shared with me. My first thread was actually the thread where Ptolemyll made his first post (we registered in the same day). His name unlike mine might ring a bell for the more PVP oriented players here. I played with him from time to time but as terrible as I was (and am! maybe) at RTS games I didnt get anywhere in PVP. I loved the game though.
I was also very active in the OffTopic forum in the English section and would often meddle when non-english speakers happened upon the forum speaking portuguese asking for informations or requesting assistance. I translated wherever I was useful.
I am 23 atm, and am hoping to become a civil engineer someday. I hope we get along well everyone!
So this will be my first real post in quite a while, so I do wonder if anyone remembers me.
Anyways, I always remember everyone trying to come up with ideas on how to properly mix Fire and Frost as a dual faction, but with no real resolution or agreements. I just recently realized last week that I could actually play the limited beta of BF and I have been playing religiously since then. I then remembered about the dilemna that concerned this debate for years, and decided that I might give it more thought. And give it more thought I did! I'm very confident in my idea mostly because it just sounds fun to me.
There has never been a "spell slinging" strategy in this game yet compared to many other TCG games, and when I realized this, inspiration hit me like a brick. What if we made Frost and Fire a spells matter faction? So my logic begins from here, everyone who has thought of the idea of making this Fire/Frost faction has always battled with the fact that offense and defense do not combine very well in a way that doesn't make it a little more on the broken side, so I said, what does the heat and cold create? Storms and even tornados if the conditions are right. So from there, I came up with a theme. So I combined the storm idea with spells, and obviously enough, their main mechanic could be "Spellstorm".
Before I go through what Spellstorm is, I also thought about the lore of this Fire/Frost faction. I deemed them the "Apostles of the Storm". They just want to see the world churn (in a storm). They attack as fast as lightning and can ride the oncoming winds to victory. This faction could easily set up for another part of the campaign where you have to save the world again again from these guys.
So what is this new mechanic called Spellstorm. Well, my idea is that it activates whenever you cast a spell (be it a normal or arcane), to add buffs or create additional effects. Here's an example card I came up with (Keep in mind these are first drafts, so numbers might be a little scewed to powerful or weak):
So here, Spellstorm would read in the sense, "Whenever you play a spell, Storm Raptor gains 15% damage for 10 seconds; this effect and stack up to three times". That means if you were to play a Homesoil or Eruption with this guy on the field, he would basically gain 67.5 damage not including homesoil, and if you add other spells, it will buff up to three times which makes its attack a wopping 652.5 for a couple seconds, which is pretty decent.
Spellstorm needn't only apply stat buffs, it could even do other things like this guys:
--> He should probably be a rare yeah?
So his Spellstorm would read, "Whenever you play a spell, this unit gains an Ice Shield that absorbs up to 120 damage for 10 seconds; this effect can stack up to 3 times". I would compare him to a mini Avatar of Frost, only now you have access to cards like ravage and disenchant (ooh scary). I don't think there is much more to say about this guy. But how do we play so many spells when the more important ones have large costs and cooldowns. Well I've thought about that too, and here are some neat enablers:
Refresh reads, "Reduces the cooldown of all other spells in your deck by 20 seconds. Additionally, all spells you play for the next 10 seconds require 15% less of the usual power cost". Now that's a spell enabler if I ever saw one. Here would be a great way to be able to spam more spells to get those Spellstorm procs off. Though what if you just want to play a spell for cheap?
Invigorate reads, "Invigorates targeted friendly unit with a newfound strength: it gains swift speed for 20 seconds and takes 15% less damage for 10 seconds". Something cheap and simple. Can be useful as a way to let a unit get past some obstacles, or just let's you get in a very cheap Spellstorm proc. Though I don't want to think of a Construct with swift .
So we've gone past some of the basic synergies for the faction, but what do the big spells do? Where's the "wow" factor? I've even thought of some cool cards for that too, so let's start of with an interesting shrine that could be:
Storm the World reads, ""Activate (costs 50 power) to cause all of your spells played in the next 10 seconds to immediately refund 50% of their power cost and then they are immediately reusable ". I'll let you guys think about that one. So many possibilities. >:D
Now we go on the Magnum Opus of the Apostles of the Storm, the big spell to end all other spells:
So let's go through what the ability does, shall we? "Casts a massive spell storm that deals 150 damage per second to enemy units and buildings in a 30m radius, up to 600 in total, for 10 seconds. If another spell is played within this radius, the duration is extended by 5 seconds, and the damage dealt is increased by 50, up to 200 in total. This can only be extended a total of 10 times. Additionally, enemy units can only move at walk speed inside the radius". Here is what will be able to kill everything, especially when there are more players . I'm sure the spectacle will be more than worth the cost.
So that's what my idea for the Fire/Frost faction would be. You can definately point out whats overwhelmingly op, but I'd like to think I made things decently fair. What do you guys think about the name "Apostles of the Storm"? What about the Spellstorm mechanic? I do eagerly await your thoughts on the faction, have a good day!
Edit: Before we go on, there is still a lot of things to consider about Spellstorm. I was thinking of it being a spellspam deck, but perhaps it can be left to only 1 instance of the proc at a time, but with more powerful buffs added, then casting another spell after the first would just refresh the timer on the proc. Which sounds better? Also, should it also count buildings played? (Ice Barrier?)
Edit 2: it just occurred to me that it might be possible for Spellstorm to count your opponents' spells too. How would that sound?
Edit 3: I think I might need to clarify, but this thread is more to showcase what might be possible with this mechanic and cards that can synergize with it. The specific cards don't matter too much.
If it comes with steampunk infantry, mutated elementals, and shoots all manner of brimstone, ice shards and electricity all over the place sign me up. I'm not conventionaly a fan of enforcing card design that survives on dependencies (so, cards that are below rate by themselves that require other cards being cast in order to be competitive) as that is a slippery slope that restrains deck choices, but provided the new faction's cards were to be balanced around a healthy game state where the usual culprit spells (eruption, lava field, coldsnap, disenchant, ravage and so on) were considered (so, not designing the cards in a vacuum, but also not considering always having access to them) there could be a decent set to be made out of this idea.
I'd like to see some units that have non-combat supportive text that affects either the owner's or all friendly players' spells in their vicinity. So maybe a boost to damage spells, or extended CC duration, or some immediate void refund - and of course some nice active abilities that have a lot of flair.
If it comes with steampunk infantry, mutated elementals, and shoots all manner of brimstone, ice shards and electricity all over the place sign me up. I'm not conventionaly a fan of enforcing card design that survives on dependencies (so, cards that are below rate by themselves that require other cards being cast in order to be competitive) as that is a slippery slope that restrains deck choices, but provided the new faction's cards were to be balanced around a healthy game state where the usual culprit spells (eruption, lava field, coldsnap, disenchant, ravage and so on) were considered (so, not designing the cards in a vacuum, but also not considering always having access to them) there could be a decent set to be made out of this idea.
I'd like to see some units that have non-combat supportive text that affects either the owner's or all friendly players' spells in their vicinity. So maybe a boost to damage spells, or extended CC duration, or some immediate void refund - and of course some nice active abilities that have a lot of flair.