Palatinus' OverPower Forum

Thanks for fixing it! 

That's my fault. They've been gone for a long time. You have to access them through the wayback machine. I didn't copy the whole address.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160330170919/http://www.beenhereandthere.com/overpower/overpower_card_lists.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20160401152822/http://www.beenhereandthere.com/overpower/Overpower.txt

Just wanted to add that the new cards, which arrived last week, look awesome!

Very excited to see new OP cards! 

The first two links appear to give 404 errors.

Never be afraid to make a charcter = to the middle of the pack.  Otherwise it just doesn't work.

Marvels also offers a non-OPD version of the EB special.
"Play during battle. For remainder of game, any attack made with a Special Card against Captain Britain's team may be moved to Britain's Champion. Captain Britain's team may not defend. Britain's Champion is discarded after 1 Hit."
Polaris has a version that targets Power cards. I still recommend the upgraded EB. It offers so much more functionality.

As to playtesting.... I wish i could say i do more but if I've got something new, I'll just lay a hand or two out vs a common deck and see how they play.

This is good advice........

QuoteTo me, balanced means something to the effect of "not so bad that you would never play the card or character; and not so good that using a certain card, or character, or group of characters, will guarantee a win".

I am guilty of this.

QuoteMost of the times that I have seen "not balanced" come into the conversation, it's when people are justifying NOT using other people's custom cards.

However there are a few guidelines that i've learned over the years that help.
1. (I never realized this for years) Inherents go on characters that are max 6 or have one 7 stat. Characters with a 7-6 stat or an 8 high never have inherents. (Except the Batman Holos) I have broken this guideline sometimes but not often.
2. Locations. If they provide a team above the max deckbuilding limit probably get a negative inherent. Though often the Marvel locations go overboard in my opinion.
3. Max six or less characters often get better inherents and overall spread of specials. (so you might want to play them instead of cheap 8 stat characters. X-Babies and Jubilee are good examples.


EDIT:
Here are some good links to bookmark.
GDMJR's comprehensive overpower checklist. For text from printed cards.
http://www.beenhereandthere.com/overpower/Overpower.txt
GDMJR's checklists. All the individual set checklists
http://www.beenhereandthere.com/overpower/overpower_card_lists.htm
The Marvels set.
https://overpower.ca/wiki/List_of_new_cards_in_Marvels_OverPower
The Masters Of Evil Set from NAOPA
http://www.beenhereandthere.com/SMF/custom-cards/masters-of-evil-set/
Specials by code.
https://overpower.ca/code/
Meta Rule lookup. (Though it's not always right)
https://overpower.ca/meta/

You are quite welcome.  I'm happy to assist and encourage other card creators where I can.  And yes - no hate or mal-intent from here also.  justa an honest expression of opinion, a reasoned defense thereof if needed, and a willingness to concede and admit when I'm proven/convinced that I'm wrong.
I did want to point out, though, the I'm probably the last person to ask about cards or characters being "balanced", because I can't define what it really means.  To me, balanced means something to the effect of "not so bad that you would never play the card or character; and not so good that using a certain card, or character, or group of characters, will guarantee a win".  Most of the times that I have seen "not balanced" come into the conversation, it's when people are justifying NOT using other people's custom cards.

Hi Fennshysa! Thank you again for the templates and thanks for taking the time to giving me feedback.

For starters, the font issue was my fault, I found out how to import them into photopea so that looks like it's sorted out.
And don't worry about being critical or whatnot, I've read enough exchanges between you and justa to know that there's no hate behind both of your words.
I was effectively trying to not fall into the trap of going overboard. Maybe I didn't go far enough.

Character card: I've bumped his strength to 6. Jury still out on an IA, have a vague idea for one but not sure about it yet.

Trusty sidearm: Changed the text to what you suggested, way better.

Selfless Hero: Added your 2nd suggestion, now draws 1 card if defended successfully.

Field Leader: That extra card cost was my way of keeping the card "powerful" but non-opd. Raynor is a hands-on leader preferring to be on the ground with his troops instead of leading from afar. So it felt like this "trick" should happen more often that an OPD. But both you and justa seem to feel that its bad in it's current shape so I'll think of something else. Maybe a simple card draw, not ignoring duplicates.

Call in the cavalry: Again in trying to avoid an OPD card, I've changed it to "Play this card in front of your frontline. No character from your frontline may be attacked until this special is attacked. This card cannot be defended." Note that it only protects the frontline, not the reserve which stays vulnerable. In Starcraft, marines are cheap and canon fodder (well, to some extent ), they are meant to be on the frontline. Also, Raynor is leading an army, wouldn't make sense if he were able to call-in other marines just once. I'm hoping that the card is powerful enough to be useful but not too much to force it to be OPD.

I understand your point about it being too easily removed from play though. How about I kept it as a non-opd with "Play in front of a frontline character that isn't already protected by Call in the cavalry. For remainder of game, that character's grid is +1 when defending. This card can be attacked and cannot be defended." ? Still easy to get rid of mind you but doesn't force the opponent to attack it.


Had a question for you guys. Short of playing the game with someone else, what's your preferred way of playtesting your content? I can obviously play myself in a double handed fashion but that's not a real test.


Thanks to both of you for looking into my stuff.

good catch on "Field Leader", fenn.  the extra discard would make it non-OPD, so please ignore that part of my comment, Bloodwurm.  i stand by the AT code (though i don't think i would ever use that card in a deck).

Awesome! Nice work. I could probably whip you up a border with a starcraft logo (I assume there is one) faded into it.

As to the fonts being off, did i send you a zip file with all the fonts? If not, I can. But as justa said, you can make em anyway you want. Sometimes custom stuff for different characters looks better.

I know nothing of Starcraft. But i will critique as to usableness. Feel free to disregard. Usually when someone starts designing customs they come in hot and overpowered. My overall advice for you is maybe make em a little stronger.

Character Card. The stats are low. Only X-Babies in the official cards don't have a 6 (thought their total is lower) so they get an awesome inherent and good specials to offset that. So he'll probably need a good inherent (especially since his grid total is higher than X-Babies) or a bump in stats. (He's a marine in a battlesuit right? Maybe a 6 Fighting or Strength?)

Trusty Sidearm. I really like this idea. It reminds me of "Quick Draw" from the Imperial Assault game. In general this card would probably be OPD but on Jim Raynor with a Max 5 it's probably not necessary. "that the source of the attack can defend" is very nebulous (an unnecessary if Jim's high stat is 5. everyone has a grid that high). Might i suggest "Play when Jim Raynor is attacked. May make an immediate attack with a Power card against attacking character. If successful, target character's original attack is avoided."

Selfless Hero. AC codes never get included in decks because it's a loss of 2 cards to avoid 1 attack. I'd reccomend doing what most custom creators have done. Either make it a "teammate may avoid" or add "If defended successfully, may Draw 1 card. Discard duplicates." to the AC.

Field Leader. AT codes are "Draw 1 card. Do not discard if duplicate." Your wording means you have to play this card and discard another to draw 1. So it actually hurts you to play this.

CMC Armor. AAs are always solid.

Call in the Calvary. Those early EB are weak. all they have to do is attack with a 1 and they remove it. I prefer the OPD kind from The Marvels set. Like Beast's Star's and Garters.....
Play during battle. For remainder of game, any attack made on Beast's team may be moved to Stars & Garters. Beast's team may not defend. Stars & Garters is discarded after 1 Hit.
That way you choose what hits it.

Sorry if i sound critical. Just want to help you make them more playable. Please keep making them. Feel free to disregard anything.

Hey Justa, thx for the feedback, I feel justa honored!

Happy to oblige!! I've been trying to get into it for a while but didn't have photoshop and for some reason couldn't get into Gimp. Found photopea.com from custom creators for another card game and found it rather easy to use. Add to that a bit of time to spend and here we are!

Thx for feedback on the cards, I'll correct them up. As for Trusty Sidearm, I was trying to make it a card that would prevent your opponent to play it's card as if the hero shoot its attacker in the face before it could even trigger the attack. The intent is to use that card as a defensive card but not be a boring "Evade an attack" card, while making it hopefully a nasty surprise. Bullet point-wise, I'll try and explain what I was seeing as the flow of event for the card:

1- Opponent plays an attack against the hero (power or special card, doesn't matter)
2- Player plays Trusty Sidearm as a response
3- Trusty Sidearm allows the Hero to play it's own attack against the character that initiated the first attack (in step 1)
4- Opponent may defend against the Hero's reactionary attack (from step 3)
5- If the attack is not defended, damage is scored as normal against the opponent and the original attack (from step 1) is evaded
6- If the attack is defended, the original attack still happens and the hero can defend against it.

Hope that makes sense?


I've been reviewing Field Leader and Cable's Battle Tactics. I'm tempted to keep Field Leader as a non-opd for 2 reasons:
1- as opposed to Cable's Battle Tactics, Field Leader has an additional cost to playing it. So it's not giving an extra card to the player but simply replacing one (while yes, allowing for duplicates). Also, it's a random card so might be worse than the discarded card.
2- The rest of Raynor's kit is rather blend/boring: no powerful attack, a rather ordinary grid, mostly a defensive character. Furthermore, it somewhat fits the character's story of always being able to survive against all odds and always coming up with last minute gambles/hail maries.

Now, I know from some of your previous posts that you'll probably tell me that its my character and do whatever I want   but In your experience and opinion, how badly unbalanced would it make the character If I were to keep that card as is?
To be clear, I'm not trying to be stubborn or disrespectful, I'm simply trying to learn from one that clearly understands the game better than me and that I admire