Some suggestions for PTCGP
I’m a fan of both Pokemon and TCG game. So when PTCGP’s trailer comes out, I paid close attention to it, and I downloaded it when it soft launched in Sep 26th. I played it and for 8 months and I really enjoy it. I think it would be the most potential game, probably would be the best of the online TCG game in the future above YGODL and hearthstone. Then I would like to give some suggestions for this game.
1.Energy system
Energy cards have been eliminated, instead, the energy type of the preset attributes in the deck is randomly provided each turn, similar to Hearthstone's simplification of MTG. So that there are no worry for lack of energy or full of energy. Therefore, unlike real PTCG, PTCGP has very low requirements for drawing cards, as long as the ordering of cards is correct, drawing cards is not necessary, while real PTCG also needs to get cards every turn to ensure constant energy apply. I think this change has its advantages, it allows players to free up some room of their decks. The disadvantage is that it is not possible to determine the probability of this random energy card, sometimes in the real PTCG you may only need 1-2 energy cards for a certain type, so you can control the amount of it, but in PTCGP I can not change the ratio, so the multi-type construction is very hard in this mode.
My suggestion is to build an energy deck for up to 15 energy cards, you can adjust the ratio of these energies, the basic energy is not limited, the special energy is limited to 2. Energy deck can be less than 15, for example the night march deck in the XY era has only DCE, and then with the special charge to ensure energy supply.
At the beginning, both play reveal an energy card from the energy deck. At the start of each player’s turn, that player reveal an energy card from the energy deck. Only revealed energy can be attached to a Pokemon once a turn. Some card can reveal energy from energy deck such as energy search, some can return energy from discard to revealed energy zone such as energy retrieval, and some can return energy from discard to energy deck such as energy recycle.
You can adjust the energy ratio through testing, which is more conducive to the construction of multi-type decks.
2.Deck limit and point card
The limit of the deck is only 20. I think PTCGP does not do well, because there are too few cards, for few variables, and simple tactics. But think about it under the current rules, you only need to get 3 points to win. Under this rule you only need about 10 Pokemon, and you haven’t got enough trainer cards to run for a group of cards, so only 20 cards under the current framework is reasonable.
I think adjustments of deck limit have to be made along with the prize rules, and more trainer cards need to be released to complement the deck.
My idea is that the limit of cards is 30, the card with the same name is limited to 2, both players put initial 4 point cards. Each time your Pokemon is defeated, you get 1 point card. When Pokemon ex is defeated, you get 2 point cards. The player take all point cards loses the game. If a player has no cards in his deck when his turn begins, his does not immediately lose the game, but draw a point card.
So far, the games I've played against players almost last less than 10 minutes. If it change to a 4-point match, the average length of the match may be increased by 3 minutes, but the tactics will be much abundant. 1-point decks often have disadvantage in the early game, but slowly chase the prize to win. The game is too easy to be one-sided in a 3-point game, which is unfavorable for the counterattacking decks.
The rule of the point card is different from that of the prize card. It is a kind of compensation for the disadvantaged side. Originally, the prize card rule of the PTCG made it easy for the dominant side to expand their advantage, while the disadvantaged side would find it difficult to reverse the situation due to the key cards stay in the prize cards. Therefore, PTCG has added many shuffled cards, such as the Lono and N, to try to reverse the unfavorable hand situation of the disadvantaged side. The point card directly compensates the underperforming player, making it easier to obtain the key cards hidden in the point cards.
Usually, the side that runs out of a deck in PTCG loses directly. However, if a bit of buffering is provided, for instance, starting from the turn when the deck has no cards and then drawing a point card instead, the process of judging as losing will not be too sudden and can also effectively limit the time of a game.
The appearance of point cards will make certain variables in the game, and will not make the experience of repeated play. I think this can be retained, and we can design cards related to point cards in the future, such as UB in SM era.
3.Starting hand rescheduling
Many TCG games have starting hand rescheduling rules. As a TCG that is highly dependent on the order of cards, I believe that adding starting hand rescheduling rules to PTCG can effectively improve the game experience.
The starting hand rescheduling rule is very simple. At the beginning of the game, each player draws 5 cards from their deck. Then, any card can be put back into the deck for shuffling and the same number of cards can be drawn. After rescheduling the cards, arrange the initial Pokemon according to the rules of the PTCG. If there are no basic Pokemon, follow the rules of the PTCG, show the hand and put them back into the deck for a redraw until there are basic Pokemon in their hand, and the opponent can draw the cards as the number of redraws. Both sides should set up the initial Pokemon first and then set up the point cards.
4.Weakness and resistance
Weakness and resistance is an important part of Pokemon, and I think the combination of different types is the most interesting thing of Pokemon. If there are 8 basic types, and if only 1 type is added in the deck, we can only build 8 type decks. But if we have a combination of 2 types, then wen have 56 decks. So I think multi-type decks would be supported for PTCGP.
However, the weakness has too magnificate influence in PTCG, while the resistance reduces the damage by 30 seems not that strong. Under this value, weakness is obvious in the case of big monsters fighting, while resistance is significant in the case of small monsters fighting.
I think the weakness of PTCGP can be changed to get 50% more damage ,while resistance be changed to get 50% less damage. This has an effect in the early and late stages, and the effect is smooth. 100 damage under the old rule is 200 for weakness and 70 for resistance, while under the new rule is 150 and 50. The effects of weakness and resistance are more balanced. Of course, unlike real PTCG, PTCGP uses HP strips to recork damage, so it can recork 5 damage if damage is 10 after 50% increase of decrease. This is more convenient than real PTCG.
Here are my own assumptions about PTCG type weakness and restraint and its features:
Water: Flow, freeze, control your energy flow and discard your opponent's energy.
weak grass+50% (part of weak electricity, such as Gyarados), while ice: weak steel+50%
Fire: Burn, damage, discard your energy to increase damage, additional damage, such as burns.
Weak water+50%
Grass: Growth, natural, rapid evolution, but also has a strong recovery and special condition ability.
weak fire+50%, (part of resist water, such as Parasect), while bug: weak fire+50%
Fighting: high attack, bench attack, emphasis on fast attack, have the ability to attck the bench(both players) .Ground type skills are affected by stadium.
Weak psychic+50%, while Rock: weak water+50% resist fire-50% (some weak grass+50%, such as Kabuto), ground: weak grass resist electric-50% (some weak water, such as Gligar)
Dark: Disturb, death-alive, interference with the opponent's attack or cards playing, using the discard plie and their own death.
weak fight+50% resist psychic-50%, while poison: weak psychic+50% resist grass-50%
Psychic: Controls, retrieves, regulates damage and special conditions, has the moves or ability to retrieve or predict.
weak dark+50% resist fight-50%, while ghost: weak psychic+50% resist fight -50%, while fairy: weak steel +50% resist dragon -50%
Electric: Charging, self-explosion, there are many charging moves or ability at the cost of self-injury. Some can attack bench.
Weak fighting+50% resist steel-50%
Steel: Defense, equipment, damage reduction, and take good use of equipment.
Weak fire+50% resist dark-50%
Normal: All matching features.
weak fighting+50%, while flying: weak electric+50% resist fighting-50%
Dragon: Mixed features
5.2v2 mode
Back to the ADV-PCG era, PTCG had a 2v2 mode. At that time, many cards were designed with 2v2 rule, but later due to balance issues, 2v2 mode was abandoned.
I think PTCGP could consider introducing 2v2 mode. The 2v2 mode allows players to interact with each other more frequently, and also helps players socializing. I've imagined this model myself:
The field contains 2 active zones and 4 bench zones.
Players A B are in a group, C D in a group, A is facing C, B is facing D. Players in the same group share a turn, in the turn each player can use 1 supporter and attach 1 energy, and then in the battle phase, 2 Pokemon can both attack. Players in the first turn cannot draw cards and attack, they can only use a total of one supporter and attach energy once.
Each of the 4 players places 4 point cards and loses when the total number of point cards on one side does not exceed 2.
In 2v2 mode, AB players can play cards at the same turn, and both players can confirm their hands to each other. 2v2 mode can be played horizontally on mobile, so you can see your teammates' hands at the same time. Or vertically play, player A to player C, and then slide the screen will show player B to player D, so you can confirm the hand of both sides.
I think this is the best chance to revive the 2v2 mode, which will make the game exponentially more fun and allow more players to participate. However, the game's values need to be adjusted to slightly reduce damage and increase HP.
6. Sealed deck mode
Many card games have sealed deck mode, but PTCG hasn’t got so many fans of this mode, because you can not build a deck only from cards of the card packages, many PTCG seal deck is actually a pre-structured deck. The reason is actually that the demand for drawing cards in PTCG construction is too high, and the demand for evolution chain and continuous energy is too high.
PTCGP actually solves this problem. At present, PTCGP's evolution Pokemon does not have too big strength gap with basic Pokemon, and the energy area design can ensure constant energy supply. I think sealed deck mode system can be added.
Entry costs 50 store tickets (roughly the price of 2 packs), then you can open 10 packs, and randomly obtain 10 Promo cards (such as the professor's research, poke ball, potion, etc.) choose 20 of them to build a deck, and build an energy deck with up to 15 energy, each game is 3 points to win.
You can choose one of the opened cards to add to your collection, and for every 2 wins you get an extra card, and there may be other rewards, such as promo cards.3 loses ends.
Sealed deck mode is a more entertaining mode. As a card collecting game, players can get cards while playing, I think everybody would like to try.
7.Story mode
At last I would like to play some story in the game, such as that in the PTCG GB game.
Play with NPC and get missions from them, playing card game with advertisement is so fun.
I hope that would be better if we play with AI with a good story.
Pokemon IP has a huge user base, and it is a very wise choice for Nintendo to develop a card mobile game based on this big IP. At present, PTCGP has given me a very good experience, and I also hope it can be better and better. At the same time, to meet the needs of players in collecting and playing cards (the two needs are not in conflict), I hope that developers can increase the playability of the game, so that this game will become a popular game.
Comments
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I agree with the multi energy point, that should be the priority to improved/changed.
And I also believe weakness/resistance should be more impactful.
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