Card Rarities

October 30th, 2012 at 10:46 pm

Card rarities are a big part of any CCG. Here’s a quick insight into how they work in Card Hunter.

Previously all our cards had a rarity, but we didn’t display it. Now you can see a little icon in the lower right of the card image “C”, “U” or “R”. I’ll let you guess what those mean.

There are two concepts associated with each card that are easy to confuse but importantly different. The first is the card’s “quality”. That is a rough estimate of the card’s power and is indicated by the color of its title bar. So, the gold Dwarven Battle Cry is more powerful than the bronze Charge which is, in turn, more powerful than the plain Blind Rage. Of course, these quality assessments are subjective, and a large part of the fun of deck building is deciding whether or not we got it right. Is Blind Rage actually a good card for your deck? Or maybe Dwarven Battle Cry isn’t that great in your Elf/Elf/Dwarf party…

The second concept is the card’s “rarity”, which we’ve been discussing. Note that rarity is not the same as quality or power. Rare cards are generally more complex than commons, but they aren’t always more powerful. Blind Rage is rare partially because it’s a pretty complex card. It marries a powerful effect (Frenzy 3, which adds 3 to all your melee attacks) with a pretty nasty drawback. Dwarven Battle Cry is powerful but simple. The uncommon Charge is somewhere in between.

All these cards come from Trained Ferocity, a rare dwarf skill. Trained Ferocity is rare because it contains a rare card. The calculations for item rarity can be a little more complicated than that, but card rarity is where they start. Basically, an item is at least as rare as the rarest card in its suite. So, you’ll never find a common item with Blind Rage in it.

Because you find rare items more rarely (duh), that means that rare cards are also rare. Makes sense, right?

Here’s the kicker – because items are combinations of multiple cards, we can actually end up with item rarities greater than those of the cards themselves. For example, the Lost Amulet:

Yeah, that gets you two rare cards in one bundle – so it’s an Epic item itself. Path of Knives – ouch!

18 Responses to “Card Rarities”

  1. Awesome stuff. Can’t wait for beta!!!

  2. The base of every good card game start with the cards. It’s what makes other people better than the rest.

    I want me some of that!

  3. It all makes sense! :)
    I can’t stop thinking about getting my hands on all of those items and start thinking of the best combinations!

  4. Sounds cool. Bring on Beta. :)

  5. I’m so very, very stoked for the Card Hunter beta. Thanks for the interesting read, I look forward to the next dev diary.

  6. Can’t wait to play. Hope I get a beta key soon.

  7. Awesome stuff! Best X-mas gift ever would be for this game to hit BETA before X-mas. :) Keep up the good work. Game is sounding more amazing by the update.

  8. Cant wait to play

  9. I have been following you guys since I saw card hunter mentioned in a game informer well over a year ago maybe almost two. Just a small thing about fresh ideas done by people who believe in them. So happy to see its almost here. Simply can not wait for beta. Thanks for all the hard work and the tantalizing bits to keep us dancing up and down in anticipation.

  10. BETA!

  11. Wow I really want to play now. I wonder if I signed up soon enough to get in on the first wave? oh well well this game is going to be great.
    Battle On

  12. Interesting cards indeed, i see me using the blind rage with other cards for a nova char. I want to play this…really and i thing when i get money, to oput money in this game. Keep with the good work guys. And GIVE ME THE BETA FOR MORADIN SAKE!!!! 😉

  13. That icon must be in top-right place:
    Name card area is so plain, need a litle more of graphics, ad that icon can do the job prety well.

  14. I am not 100% clear on the difference between quality and rarity. I mean, I understand there IS a difference between the two, but why?

    I guess I just don’t know enough about the game mechanics yet, but intuitively it seems odd to have “quality” and “rarity” be separate. I am sure there is a good reason to have both that is relevant to the game mechanics.

  15. @Time4Pizza: rarity is what it sounds like, i.e., how often the card occurs in the items we hand out. Quality is the power level of the card. We don’t want rare cards to always be more powerful – that’s why they are different concepts.

  16. One question, on the maze card is says “stealthy”, i’m assuming that is a trait. What does that mean?

  17. @goodyear: This was answered on the forums. :) Normally, characters spin to face an attacker after a card is used against them (if they weren’t already facing that direction). “Stealthy” doesn’t trigger auto-facing.

    Maze needs to be stealthy to prevent auto-facing from ruining the random facing in the instructions.

  18. I suppose a better way to phrase my question is, why have either quality or rarity? What is their purpose? And given that purpose, it it necessary to have two distinct classifications? Why wouldn’t one, or even zero classifications work?

    I am nit picking really. As I said, I am sure there are game mechanics which motivate such a classification. Although, I am hard pressed to think of mechanics off the top of my head which would require both classifications and not just one to deal with card “power/rarity”.

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