Not dead yet

I realize I have neglected this project for well over a year now.  I haven’t given up on it entirely, I just lost my motivation (and free time) to work on it.   I’ve also had a very busy yeah of school, and I have focused a lot of my free time working with the MTG files on OCTGN.  Then once Square-Enix announced their plans to build their own final fantasy TCG, I thought all hope in this game would be lost.

All that being said, this summer I plan on starting this project up again.  I have a few people who have expressed interest in helping me with the game, so I should be able to create a more balanced rules system and update the cards.  I also plan on transferring the work I’ve been doing with the MTG files over to this game to provide a more streamlined, semi-automated playing experience.

FFIV: The After Years?

just posting an FYI, I plan on adding characters and events from The After Years into the FFIV set, so that will postpone the set’s final release for a while.  With these additional cards, I hope to fill all 48 Quest slots as well as add some more party and support characters to the current pool.  Now I just have to figure out a way to pull screenshots from the game, which I currently have on the Wii…

images update

I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do with the artwork for cards like equipment, items, and tools.  While cards like the Enterprise or Lunar Whale have reasonable artwork, other cards like Frying Pan, Longbow, Elixir, Carnelian Signet, etc.  do not have useable sprites in the game that I can base artwork on.  This leaves me with a few options:

1) Make up artwork for them – this would pull away from the art direction I’ve chosen for this game, specifically snapshots and sprites from the games.  I could make them look like they’re from the game, but that’s a bit of a stretch.

2) Pull related images from other FF games – this would leave some continuity holes in the structure of each set, in which each set is intended to represent a single FF game.

3) Drop these cards for a later set in which artwork is available (doesn’t apply to some cards) – This option would mean dropping the majority of the tools and items in the set.  This could lead to gameplay issues, since there’s not a large variety of certain card types to choose from.

4) Don’t use artwork / change the card frame for these cards – This is the option I’m leaning to right now.  I was considering making a modified frame for cards that don’t have art, in which the artwork box is either very small or non-existant.  The problem with this is that I’d have to fill the card frame with other things, but a lot of these cards are empty space to begin with.  A variant to this would be to just use a black “blank” for these cards, or create a generic image to use on all the cards.

These are the cards that currently do not have artwork for the above reasons:  Elixir, Phoenix Down, Teleport, Carnelian Signet, Frying Pan, Longbow, Sand Pearl, Whisperweed

Of course these are just the current items I have in the database, I’m sure there will be more before the set’s finished.

Anyone have any other ideas/suggestions?

FFIV set images are almost done

Version 0.3.0 of the game and set files have been uploaded.  To find them, go to the downloads page as usual.

This release deals mostly with card artwork, which now exist for over 130 of the current 168-card set.  As usual, some grammar and sentence structure has been edited as well.

You can now play Sealed games on OCTGN, so I added a “preview” of FFTCG sealed to the game.  The cards currently do not have a rarity system, so don’t expect too much depth in these packs so far.  For now, FFTCG uses 2 types of packs for Sealed: An 11-card pack which randomly contains 5 Hero cards and 6 Enemy cards, and a special pack which randomly contains 4 Party characters and 3 Quests of each skill type.  This is not 100% how FFTCG Sealed/Draft play will work in the future, so consider it merely as a sample .

There are currently 31 different Quest cards in the FFIV set.  Specifically, there are 7 ATK, 8 STA, 8 SKL and 8 BRV quests.  Of those quests there are 6 EARTH, 5 FIRE, 4 ICE, 5 LIGHTNING, 5 WATER,  5 WIND and 1 blank affinities.  Ideally, I want the set to have 48 quests, which makes 12 of each skill type and 8 of each affinity, and each skill type having 2 of each affinity.  However, I’m starting to run out of plot points and dungeons in FFIV to make quest cards for.

So if anyone has any ideas or suggestions for more quest cards, I’d love to hear them.  You don’t have to include abilities if you don’t want to, I’m only looking for names or concepts.  Any contributions are welcome and who knows, they may be rewarded in the future in one way or another

I’m still here!

sorry about the lack of updates, I’ve been very busy this month.  I have an update for the FF4 set file, featuring some ability changes and re-writes, around 8 new cards, as well as artwork for almost 3/4 of the cards.  After I clean up some details I’ll upload the files, expect them in the next 4 or so days.

I recommend visiting the forums once in a while, nobody has registered or posted yet but I’m sure you’ll see some activity once more people visit it.  The link is here, please check it out and leave a comment!

Last note, I’m still trying to balance the rules, I think I found something that works but I’ll need to test it some more.   The current rules regarding the drawing of cards is incredibly broken.  The reason I changed it from the Stargate rules was because I feel that card drawing should be an important game mechanic, and having your hand refill to 8 each turn makes abilities that draw and discard cards seem pointless.  On the other hand, having 8 cards in hand each turn guarantees that you’ll have enough enemy cards to stand a chance against the hero player later in the game.  It also makes playing obstacles (the face down cards) a worthwhile strategy because that card will be replaced next turn.

In my current rules, you are limited on how many cards you can draw each turn.  While this makes card drawing abilities powerful, it will also severely handicap the enemy player who may need to play several monsters at each quest.  It also means that the disadvantages created when playing one or more obstacle far outweigh the benefits of them.

So here is what I’m proposing:

• At the end of your turn, you may pay any amount of MP to draw  that many cards.  Then, if you have more than 9 cards in your hand, you must discard until you have 9 cards.
• When you complete a quest, you draw cards equal to the experience of that quest.
• If you are defeated in the quest, your opponent draws cards equal to the experience instead.
• At the start of your turn, draw 1 card for each affinity attached to your party characters.  Stop drawing as soon as you have 9 cards in hand.

Here’s how MP will be obtained:

• At the start of each turn, both players gain 3 MP plus 1 more MP for each affinity attached to the hero player’s party characters.
• A maximum of 9 MP will carry over between turns.

Hopefully this will provide each player with sufficient MP and cards in hand to be able to play their cards.  These changes will not be applied to the official rules until I’m satisfied with how they play.  I will keep you updated on any permanent rules changes.

New card back

I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t actually worked on the game in a few months, I’ve hit somewhat of a creativity block.  I have about 170 cards in the set so far, with artwork completed for about 100 of them.

Here’s a new image I quickly threw together for the card backs, it’s by no means a good job.  I just wanted to give the game something other than the default Magic card back for OCTGN.

Has anyone gotten a chance to try out a few games?  I haven’t heard any feedback on the rules yet.  I’m still not completely satisfied with the rules, specifically about how many cards you draw and MP you gain at the start of your turn.  Next time you play a game, try messing around with these rules and see what you think is the most fun.   I’d love to hear feedback!

Forum

I replaced the chatroom that we currently have with a forum.  You can find the link to the forum at the top of the page, or by clicking here.  The chatroom didn’t suit the purpose I was hoping for, since if there’s only one person in the chatroom then it’s pretty much useless.  With a forum, you can leave messages that others can read on their own time.  It’s also a lot more organized than the comments sections of this blog.  If this site gets enough traffic to warrant it, I may put the chatroom back.  But for now, let’s try out a forum instead.

In the future, I hope to migrate all of my blog updates to the forum as posts, and use the forum as my main source of updates/information.  Don’t worry, this probably won’t happen for a while, so keep this blog bookmarked!

Recent Readers

I’ve noticed I’ve been getting a lot of activity on this site, and I’ve had many downloads of the game files.  However, I have not heard any sort of feedback or discussion pertaining to them.  Have you tried out the game? Do you have anyone to play with?  I am eager to hear what my readers think of the game so far.  Please use the comments section of this post to tell me what you think.

I’m willing to organize some sort of online “gathering”, to demonstrate the game.  If anyone is interested, please respond through the comments section, and we’ll try to sort out a meeting time.  It would be beneficial to me, as I don’t really have opportunities to test out card balancing by myself, and there are several gameplay rules that I have issues with (gaining MP and drawing cards in specific).

The OCTGN game interface

This may look intimidating at first, but I’ll walk you through the various features of OCTGN and the Final Fantasy TCG interface.

The bottom of the screen is the info panel, are where all the various groups are.  From left to right: The Chat and Actions Log, your Hand, Deck, Discard Pile, Party characters, and Quest Pile.   The counters above the hand are where you keep track of your MP, total experience from quests, total experience from scored Bosses, and current quest difficulty.  The tabs at the top of the panel allow you to see your opponents panel (although all his cards will be hidden).
NOTE:  MP, experience and difficulty must be counted and kept track of manually.

The main play area is called the Table.  The table is divided twice, down the middle horizontally and vertically.  The horizontal (left-to-right) division separates the cards controlled by each player, and the vertical (up-to-down) division separates the cards that are used on each player’s turn.  For example, on player A’s turn, only the left side of the table is used.  Player B uses the right side.
The table is the “in play” area of the game.  Each box on the playmat image is used to organize the various cards that can be in play.

The big card on the left side of the screen is a close-up image of whatever card the mouse is hovering over, and will change accordingly.

Card Conditions

Each card condition can be easily identified:

• Ready – These cards are face-up and have no icons or glow on them.
• Assigned – These cards are face-up, turned sideways, and have a yellow glow around them.
• Stopped – These cards are face-up, turned sideways, and have a  icon on them.
• Blocked – These cards are face-up, can be (but usually aren’t) sideways, and have a icon on them.
• K.O.’d – These cards are face-down and turned sideways.

Actions

• If you right click a card, the table, or your hand, deck, discard pile, or quest pile, various options will appear.  These are meant to automate the various actions you can perform on a card.  Most options also have a shortcut key combination that you can use instead of right-clicking.
• If you hold shift and click a card, a target reticule will appear on the card.  Use this as a target, so your opponent knows which card you selected, such as from an ability. You can do this to any card on the table, as well as cards in your or your opponent’s hand.
• If you hold shift and click-drag your mouse from one card to another, an arrow will appear joining the 2 cards together.  Use this for things like showing which card/monster is blocking or affecting another card in play.
• Actions in the right-click menus that are bolded can be automatically activated by double-clicking the card.  For cards on the table, double-clicking will Assign the card.  In the hand, double-clicking will move the card to play.  For the deck, double-clicking will draw a card.  For the quest pile, double-clicking will play the top card of the quest pile.
• If you hold space and click-drag on the table, you will move the entire table around.
• If you hold space and rotate the click-wheel with the mouse on the table, you will zoom in and out of the table.

Specific actions:

• Clear Targets (esc) – This will remove all target reticules and arrows from all cards on the table.
• Pass Turn (ctrl+p) – Use this to indicate that you’re skipping your action during the quest phase.
• End Quest (ctrl+q) – This will automatically unblock all blocked cards and stop all assigned cards.  Use this during the quest resolution phase.
• End Turn (ctrl+e) – This will automatically unblock all blocked cards, ready all assigned and stopped cards, and stop all K.O.’d cards.  Use this at the end of turn.

How to Find an Opponent

These steps must be performed in order, to ensure a proper connection.

1. Find a friend who wants to play, or look for an opponent through the newly-implemented chatroom (which can be found in the links below the site banner)
2. Decide who will be the host of the game, and who will connect.  OCTGN uses IP addresses to connect to other players.
3. The host clicks “Start a New Game” on the OCTGN main menu, and then selects a game from the icons in the next screen (FFTCG currently has a Magic: The Gathering card back – this will be fixed in a future update).
4. The host must send his IP address to the opponent.  Read the instructions on the screen to find out which IP address to use.  Click “Start”
5. The connector clicks “Join an Existing Game” on the OCTGN main menu, and then selects THE SAME GAME AS THE HOST CHOSE from the icons in the next screen.
6. The connector enters the host’s IP address into the appropriate box, leaving the port number as it is (unless a different port number was used by the host).  Click “Join”
7. Once the connector is successfully connected, his name will appear in the “lobby” of the game.  Once all players are on the list, the host checks “Use a 2-sided Table” and then click’s “Start”

Note:  Once you get to the game board, you have to load a deck from the menus up top.  Once the deck is loaded, you have to manually shuffle both the main deck and the quest pile, as the program does not automate this yet.