Solforge

Conefed

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,805
1,648
Launch Steam. After launching, go to the Games menu to "Activate a Product on Steam" and enter this key: XPPW4-HTXRB-7VR2D
This is my beta key. I've so far used it twice without any problems. So perhaps free Solforge for all.

Digital Card Game
Currently there are only two decks for the free PC version and they are randomly selected as far as I can tell.
Easy AI is easy
Normal is tough balls to beat -which prompted me to post this to see how others fare (and give something in payment of years of lurking)

Edit: Code doesn't work. And it hasn't gone public yet.

AI
The AI doesn't cheat the creators said, they just came up with an impressive algorithm. But to be honest, it is too difficult for "Normal". There should be a difficulty level between the current Normal and the current Easy, (and one above the current Normal)

Play
There are 5 "lanes" - places you can put your cards.
Most cards have summoning sickness. All cards without summoning sickness attack every turn, crashing into whatever is across from them or into the opponent if the lane is clear. Damage and buffs are permanent.
Your Life starts at 100, but don't let this fool you - It'll drain fairly quickly.
You can play two cards on your turn, as a sorcery before and/or after combat. You must discard all cards you don't play and then draw a new hand of 5 cards at the end of your turn.
When you play a card, a leveled up version of that card is put into your graveyard - This is true for creature cards too, you cannot keep an opponent's level 1 creature alive and on the battlefield to prevent it from leveling. You're essentially playing a sorcery spell that puts a token onto the field and the sorcery levels up.
When you cannot draw any more from your library, you shuffle your deck into your library. Your character level shows you roughly when this will happen.
 

Bain

Bronze Knight of the Realm
399
2
I just tested it and the code does not work. Thanks for trying though!
 

Attog

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,341
1,767
I kickstarted this, and it is fun, but we'll have to see how they handle the single player and getting more cards. There is no way I'm going to be buying packs of virtual booster cards for $3 each. Also the timing might suck for them with Blizzard releasing what looks to be basically the same type of game.
 

Conefed

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,805
1,648
attog have you tried the Steam version? The AI is better than the iPad.

After playing it more, the two decks aren't even. In Magic terms, I win the most with the Black-Green deck. But, with regards to that, the computer can still whoop me when I get it. But, when I do win, it's not even close. The closest I've come to winning and still lost was getting the computer to low 20s (I was the White-Red deck using Electronets)
 

Attog

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,341
1,767
I've played both, I think the AI is great. There is nothing worse than bad single player AI in these kinds of games. The Duels of the Planeswalkers is a good example, on the hardest AI setting it is difficult to ever lose to the computer. In Solforge it is easy to lose to the computer, to me that is a good thing. I'm looking forward to their steam update for the pc, they said it should be released soon.
 

Delly

Trakanon Raider
2,981
622
So is the game fun? I had decided not to back this, but having to wait to play it is painful.
 

Conefed

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,805
1,648
DeLLy - I like it more on the PC than iPad. It is addictive. But I'm not convinced it is fun.
-But it is good enough to suggest to others to get them hooked so I'm not the only one.
 

Conefed

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,805
1,648
I've been "playing the shit" out of it also; this I think qualifies it as fun. It is now available for free download on ipad.

iPad AI is far below PC. In short, I keep winning.
 

Vaclav

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
12,650
877
Apparently up on Steam for "buy-in" Early Access now - it worthwhile with all the others around?
 

Goldenmean_sl

shitlord
138
0
Apparently up on Steam for "buy-in" Early Access now - it worthwhile with all the others around?
Eeeeenh. Tough call.

I backed it on kickstarter and have been playing casually. The patch today finally added deck construction, but it's still pretty clunky. It depends on what you're looking for. If this was something like a 15$ indie title and you didn't have to pay for new cards, I'd say it was a no brainer purchase. For a pseudo-CCG with a CCG price structure, it still feels a bit too simplistic to me.

If you just want a lane combat game with an interesting leveling gimick, you could probably get your money's worth out of a starter pack and see if you liked it enough to buy more. If you want a genuine CCG experience though and won't be happy with less, I'd probably say pass.
 

Vilgan_sl

shitlord
259
1
I kickstarted it after getting a bit overly excited about it at Pax. It looks fun and I don't regret the money, but it doesn't look earth shattering. Coming out around the same time as Hex and Hearthstone will be rough.
 

Conefed

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,805
1,648
I've easily garnered 50$ worth of fun out of this one.
I randomly have access to all the decks now for both the iPad and PC. The deck construction option is still greyed out however.
 

Conefed

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,805
1,648
On Steam, Online play is available. Massive changes were made across the board on most cards - several to personal favorites, but oh well.
I am "Conefed"
 

Vilgan_sl

shitlord
259
1
Game appears to have gone open beta today and you can actually start to play it as a TCG. Supporters got their packs, and you can buy more. Or, you will be able to open/buy packs once their servers catch up. The cloud, how does it work? Even their webpage seems to be having problems.
 

Vaclav

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
12,650
877
Seeming neat from the tutorial - but holy crap their servers are absolutely hosed for registering right now.
 

Conefed

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,805
1,648
(On Steam at least)
You get a daily free random card.
You get another for beating one+ game per day against computer
You get a daily free pack for beating three+ online opponents per that day

My Steam handle: Conefed
 

Vilgan_sl

shitlord
259
1
Enjoying this a lot more than I expected. The strategy isn't really deep, but it is surprisingly fun. Glad I kickstarted it for $25, and at like 7 hours played it has already been well worth it.
 

Mist

Eeyore Enthusiast
<Gold Donor>
30,362
22,121
Hearthstone is a lot better than this game, which sucks because I really like the people who made this game and I really am not very happy with blizzard.