Design Meeting is over
24 hours later (don’t worry, we did get some sleep) the design meeting is over.
I consider it a huge success. All of the cards tagged as problematic are one step further to being fixed, or are replaced. Oliver is on his train back to Hamburg as I write this. As soon as he is home he’ll write up the results for the Design Team to comment on, then on Monday the updated card database will be made available for the Playtesters.
Personally I consider the changes to be significant and the playing field a lot more level than before.
Besides cards - Warlords and their supporting cast, actions, and items - we also laid the foundation for the new challenge system. It’s not set into stone yet, so I cannot reveal any details, but there’ll be a few fun surprises at GenCon :D.
Lastly we have set a schedule for the release of the next sets.
The release dates tentatively are set as follows:
- Expansion 1 - October 31st, 2008
- Special Set 1 - January 31st, 2009
- Expansion 2 - April 30th, 2009
- Expansion 3 (starter edition) - July 31, 2009
- Expansion 4 - October 31st, 2009
- Special Set 2 - January 31st, 2009
- Expansion 5 - April 30th, 2010
The regular expansions will contain 110-160 unique cards again at a ratio of 1 rare : 2 uncommons : 3 commons. We will reprint older cards when they fit exactly what we want to achieve, but for the most part these will be new cards.
The Starter Expansion will be similar to the base set as it will consist of playable starters (so new players can join up easier). This set is exempt from the Ordo Phoenicis Ascendentis Commander and higher ranks “free” sets.
The special sets are “optional” sets of probably 110 cards that we are planning but that depend on the level of sales that we will have. They are special in that they mainly provide cards for alternative formats, for example Multiplayer or League play. The exact nature of them is yet to be determined, but if we are able to make them, these will be free for Ordo Phoenicis Ascendentis Commander and higher ranks. I.e. a Commander will get the usual four expansions plus these two sets for his investment.
That pretty much sums things up for today - I look forward to doing more previews this week.
