Those guys were Hero support runes... I mean, if you want to say that supporting Talgar and Euan is enabling a theme... I guess you can argue "Dwarf" theme, but that seems to be a bit of a stretch. Dire Convenant FS Champs with New Abilities Commons - Boghopper Pupil's Shaman Form (Non-theme, Boghopper theme?) Uncommons - Rares - Salaman Hunter's Hunter's Blind (Non-theme) Exotics - Legendary - Finlord's Neophyte's Neophyte (Non-theme, Hero-support, Boghopper theme?) FW Champs with New Abilities Commons - Crypt Guardian's Rotting Blows (Non-theme), Crypt Guardian's Relocate Relic (Non-theme), Utterdark Voidhowler's Void Howl (Non-theme, Sac theme? is that a thing?) Uncommons - Rares - Exotics - Corpse Golem's Hunter: Protectorate (Non-theme) Legendary - Lich's Servitor's Aspiring Servant (Non-theme, Heros-support, Lich theme?) I am not saying there aren't theme runes as LEGs, there certainly are, but I don't think a case can be made new abilities are only on LEGs with the implication that non-LEGs didn't get stuff to support themes.
Well new abilities aren't the issue, it's the champs that fill the needs of themes. You don't play Voils without 2 Voil Infernals. Any good UD beast deck needs 2 Grundlewulf Alphas. Cyclops Warwizard fixes a lot of issues that Cyclops decks have. Krikkenwing Alpha is the only reason to commit to SL Arthropods. Gem BGs aren't nearly as good without Crystal Wolverine. The Thing can enable an entire semi-aquatic deck by himself. Lightning decks are strictly worse without Cyclonic Fesh. Totem of the Fallen is a huge boon to Skeezicks. Arrowsinger would be the binding agent in an Archer deck. Vashal Vicar synergizes perfectly into Vashal decks. The list goes on and on, I just don't know how many more ways I can say X is the best rune for Y deck. I don't think the issue is that the new abilities on LEs are the breaking point, but the builds of LEs in general. They're the best runes. Furthermore, looking at the less supported races, (Myx, Snaptooths, Jellies, Strigs, etc.) there is a huge number of LEs compared to other runes. There are 26 unique Voil runes, and 2 of them are LE. Shallaxy and Infernal. Of the 18 KF Plants, there are no LEs. Snaptooths have 7 unique runes, and 2 of them are LE. Ancient and Chilan. Myx have 7 unique, 1 is LE, 2 are Exotic. There are 11 units with Creep, and 2 are LE. Another 3 are Exotic. That's nearly half. The issue is that this is where the design space is: in the Exotics and LEs. Everything else is filler.
Though I agree with the general idea to some extent, I wouldn't say that everything is filler. For me when I was design, every slot was precious. There are only 5-7 champions per faction per expansion, and I am not going to waste them. At the same time, you can make your list with a bunch of rare or less champions such as "Fae aren't as strong without Chained Fae (R)." This is going to be the case in general with themes. But, I'd agree you are MORE likely to be able to do it with a random LEG or EX than you are with a random R, UC or C. Even more generically, if there are only 2 ranged champions in faction, then adding a 3rd ranged champion will of course improve the ranged capabilities of the faction - even if that ranged unit is not as good as the existing 2. Likely if you are talking about MtG, and there were only a few burn spells like Lightning Bolt and Fire Blast, introducing a slightly weaker Lightning Bolt would improve the deck. Simply due to the distribution of rarities, you don't even have to talk about themes to see that nearly half of the champions a faction gets are Exotic or higher - Endless Wonder has 1 EX and 2 LEG out of 6 champs. Part of the problem here is that unlike other TCGs, the cost of rune production in Pox is fairly high, particularly if they have additional engineering costs such as new abilities. So this means that newer themes like the ones mentioned that haven't had singletons added over time are going to be more heavily weighted towards the LEG and EX side of things by definition. That said, it IS true that EX and LEG are going to receive more resources, and are more likely to have new abilities, better art/idols, etc. than the more common counterparts.
I think its time to look at each theme and come up with 3 different builds for it with increasingly rare cards added. iow, every theme should have a 'poor' build, 'normal' build and an 'expensive' build. Each should be viable. Some do already, but I think this should be a specific design goal going forward both in introducing new themes and rehabilitating old ones.
You have to decide what a theme is first. If you make race=theme and trying to do that with each race is pointless as it cant be done. heavily restricted themes are bad for the game imo. Better to have a theme be a larger more encompassing playstyle based theme where multiple sub faction groups work together adding thier own flavor to it.
In addition to coming up with stats, you also need to program the functionality, animation, and design the sprite.
Sok has a good point. I believe I'm guilty of confirmation bias. I didn't look at abilities that are theme enablers in other rarities.
Yea but is that really that much more than animating/function, and design of cards in online games? I mean im sure we have all seen card games online that have animations with them so really it comes down to sprites and they are expensive to make?
Wouldnt that, in itself, prove that the game is in fact weighted towards a suitcase-gamer mentality? If you require the hardest to acquire runes in order to make a theme viable, even on the dev side, then that says to me there is a seriously huge shortage of 'normal' utility runes. The problem, of course, is worsened by the fact that those LEG/EX are also more powerful than C/UC/R (rather than just more specialized, which is how it works in a more balanced game). Just saying. Seems to me half the problem with rune distribution IS the rarity mentality. Perhaps that will change with DOG.
It doesn't have to be. And receiving more new abilities doesn't automatically make them better theme enablers, as I have shown. It's the same with most TCGs. It's the rares and exotics (or whatever they call them) that normally have unique effects, while commons are commons because they don't do anything in particular special typically. In Pox, we just have fewer commons. But even still, at least when I was designing, I tried to make the C/UCs worthwhile in SOME fashion.
Oh definitely. I didn't mean it in terms of enablers, sorry, it was worded poorly. I meant it in terms of raw power/utility. IMO, the reason commons/uncommons don't do anything special particularly is because they are the 'basic' units. IE, the backbone of your force/deck/battlegroup. Rares and above really ought to be used as the 'one-trick pony' kind of units, like theme enablers...not god-units...
