Discord: Gauging Interest

 As another option to communicating, I decided to open up a Discord Server for the Chaotic Community.

https://discord.gg/ZwYEpuX

 It's essentially the same as that chatbox on the right - except it can be accessed using the Discord app on phones (or in browser). That way conversations can go a lot faster than 1 message a day.

It also has Voice Comms if you eventually play matches on TradeCardsOnline (or the like) and want to chat with your opponent.

You don't need to register (Although it's advised to), and it's there to gauge interest.

That's it

Malcolm9

P.S A new Coding the Drome Post will be up in the next 1-2 days.

Coding the Dromes Part III

 Welcome to Coding the Dromes Part III,

 It isn't the most popular thing to be writing about granted, but I do like to keep tabs on my own progress.

 We begin as we ended yesterday -- The board setup with a Location, the Attack Card Hand, a shuffled deck and Creatures setup.

Time to add the simplest of combat systems - The Player who begins first can now select their Creature and then attack a Defending Creature. If the Dromes do end up getting upgraded to a 3v3 format, movement will be added to this "Action Phase". 

Once a battle is started, the Location's Initiatives are activated and it checks which player should go first (Which usually means Lord Van Bloot due to his stats).

Aand now for the most simple of Combat Systems. (And yes, I did "buff" Tangath's Energy so I could play-test the drome). But here, we return to the State of our First Coding the Dromes. 

The super simple AI picks his attacks at random which arguably does quite a bit of damage to Tangath (due to his poor stats). The Attack Cards damage are all automatically calculated and the drawing of cards is automatic. (Both Sides Energy does Drop).

There are of course - a few bugs ever present (and that I'm aware of)

• Energy "Bars" not functioning as intended
• While Challenge, Checks and Elemental Damage do work - External effects like Vine Snare's Earth: Reduce the Opposing Creature's Speed by 25 does not presently work

The Drome is still far away from opening, but it's definitely taking shape.

That's all for now!

malcolm9

What Changes do Chaotic would you make?

 Chaotic hasn't been generating any new cards for several years now (Are you surprised by that?), so playing with the same ruleset can be slightly boring.

 It is because of this that some have been playing with additional rules such as "Build Restrictions" such as only using Commons/Uncommons in their deck and so on and so forth.

 Here's my main discussion point though -

What changes would you make to the Game Rules itself to make things interesting?

 Obviously we cannot simply play it with an "Over-powered" rule like allowing 50 build points worth of attacks in a 20 card deck.

 Here are some ways I've been testing with...

• The Current Location is determined by which space is being attacked.
  
  This is somewhat of a weird rule but let me explain. Chaotic's game-board is built with each player having their side of the battlefield (or board). Instead of flipping the Location Card for the Attacking player's turn, we flip the location card based on which side of the board the battle takes place in.
  Consequently, this makes it slightly more difficult for the Attacking Player to win a bout (assumedly) but it does make sense when you think about defending player having the home-field advantage from players. Locations aren't necessarily the "make-it or break-it" things in battles (usually) so I think it can be an interesting take. (And make you relook at your location deck)
  
• Top-deck Mode
  
  This is more of a deck-testing tool than an actual change to the rules. Essentially, you remove the concept of Attack Hands and play solely using the top card of your attack deck. This essentially tests your attack deck overall as you can't strategize usage of your attacks (saving some attacks, using your Magma Mights on 5 energy creatures etc). It's a very random and can sometimes help you see flaws with the deck.
  
• End of the Line Win (6v6 and up)
  
  This is an alternative win condition, suppose an enemy attacks and lands on the very end of your side of the board. Add a "Hold" Counter on that creature, if at the end of your turn, the creature with the "Hold" Counter is still there... you would lose the match.
  
  "WHAT?!?", I hear you exclaim.
  
  That's fine, allow me to explain... When you think about it, your side of the battlefield is your "territory". If somebody can infiltrate (or fight their way) into your territory and hold it. You essentially are surrounded and fighting between a rock and a hard place. Some Creatures will do this better than others (Xelfe combination, Ere, etc), but it'll promote different deck building strategy. It may make it so MAYBE your Muges shouldn't be too far back. MAYBE you'll need more Defenders... We'll definitely see.
  

 So have any of you played with any weird rules to the game? Curious to see if there are any. :)

Coding the Dromes Part II

Hi there!

It's been awhile hasn't it? University (and other Games) has kept me swept away and totally busy. But now with a bit of spare time, I decided to proceed on with an older Project involving Coding the Battledromes.

So what are the progress? Well I decided to start over and use Unreal Engine this time... So there essentially hasn't been any much "progression" if you will since last time.

But of course! If you're still reading this, you'll probably want to see what's been done. I will just briefly go over each thing done.

So we begin with a relatively simple board - Two of my favorite "Dawn of Perim" units are the chosen fighters (rather than the random Velreth and Toxis).

Combat has not been inputted yet... However, the setup for an apprentice battle is more or less setup by the end of the day. With the following features being implemented during the Start-Up (I'll add more as I remember them)

• The Starting Player is Randomized
• Location Decks and Attack Decks are shuffled 
• The Starting Player's Top Card of their Location Deck is flipped Up
• 2 Attack Cards are drawn for both players.

I know it isn't much (especially compared to how much I did in a day for Unity), but I did try for a cleaner code and spent most of my time bug squashing (ensuring little to 0 problems). And it's also more "exciting" for me to look at - compared to the plain blue background and 2 pictures.

Finally (although not totally relevant and very ugly due to my lack of experience in "art"), A scroller based on the cartoon/anime. This was more of a side-track thing. If I did want to pursue it, I'd probably actually get a friend of mine to help make me a spinner :p

That's all for now. 

Peace

malcolm9

Card Creation II - Eehrin, The Combat Trainer

Let's try creating an Overworld Creature today...

This time, a Creature called Eehrin done by "E-Mann".

Eehrin

Overworld Hero Warrior

Courage: 85

Power: 75

Wisdom: 45

Speed: 45

Energy: 45

Mugic Counters: 1

Elements: Air, Earth

Adjacent Creatures deal an additional 5 damage with attacks

Eehrin deals an additional 5 damage with attacks

Loyal - Unique

To discuss the card... Eehrin seems to be a bit an instructor to some of these weaker Overworlders but definitely not one to shy away from battle... 

As such, giving her an ability to support her fellow Overworlders could potentially be quite good on her. Placing her on the middle row with a Bronzeflight allows easy protection due to her fairly bulky presence, while still supporting the front row. 

I also felt that such a boost may be considered a tiny bit strong... Especially on guys like Maxxor, Protector of Perim... as such, we gave her a little vulnerability with the low energy so that she can be coded without too much effort.

That all being said - Eehrin is a nice alternative to Lomma, Desert Wanderer and can be considered. 

We hope you enjoyed Eehrin, The Combat Trainer!

9 Years Anniversary of Chaotic: Card Creation I

 Hello once again... and Wow! Has it really already been 9 Years?

 It's difficult to come up with a great special way to celebrate the 9 Years... So... to try and come up with something - I'll be bringing up some Chaotic Art you may/may not know about (1 per post) and perhaps some... fun Abilities/Stat.

Perhaps making these into cards and "proxy-ing" them may lead to some fun results hahaha!!

Without further ado!!

Ahnem

Mipedian Caretaker

Courage: 45

Power: 45

Wisdom: 75

Speed: 65

Energy: 30

Mugic Counters: 1

Elements: Earth

Expend Earth: You may return a Battlegear from your discard pile and equip it to a non-equipped Mipedian you control.

Unique - Loyal

 I think this is a fairly interesting concept idea to try out... The idea of constantly returning a Battlegear like Vial of Liquid Shroud or Nexus Fuse would make this guy a constant threat on the board. This is especially true in things such as Mipedians that rely on their Invisibility to make a devastating first strike...

His low energy is rather this Caretaker's downfall as you should find it fairly easily to burn through this guy. Even engaging him through regular Range/Swift tactics would be able to crush him easily.

Nonetheless, you should always be cautious of this little Caretaker... as a Battlegear returning constantly can mean devastating implications if not dealt with straight away!

What do you guys think of Ahnem? Too OP? Interesting? Let us Know!

Credit: Art by JayAxer.

Coding the Drome Part I.

Hey,

I obviously don't know how many of you are still out there or still hold a ant-bite amount of interest for the old game.

But for those who follow the Backup Forums:
http://chaoticbackup.forumotion.com/

There has been a spark of talk about the community wanting to re-create a World of Perim (3-D Adventure) or to re-create the Dromes. Now these are incredibly daunting tasks that had previously took a team of programmers to accomplish.

With no plans drawn up, I decided to spend some time with Unity3D to code up a storm across the holidays and see what I can get done/working and what... isn't so... easy to forge.

That being said - this blog will act as a "log" about the progress, setbacks and etc. faced when trying to code a Drome. :)

Day 1: Final Screen-Shot

That may be a tad small... But here was what was done in Day 1:

• A 20-Card Attack Deck has been created. It is shuffled at the Start of the Game (Before Cards are dealt) and is re-shuffled when the deck is depleted.
• 3 Attack Cards are drawn and deals Base Damage (The Stat Checks, Challenges and Elements work as intended.)
• An attack card drawn replaces the previously used attack card.
• Images was added to Attack Cards/Creatures for better Visibility
• Stats (Not real stats but proxy stats) is implemented to test attack conditions and damaging the enemy (including elements)

This Drome (for now) will be built for 1v1 Apprentice mode (To be expanded later) and I have yet to code Battlegear or Locations (No I haven't forgotten).

Once I get those functions working, I can work on making it prettier :)

Peace

malcolm9/CounterGambit