You play the game as Corporations auctioning for mercenaries, subsidiaries and operations to gain the greatest advantage.
The goal of the game is to outmaneuver and outbid your competition by reducing their Influence to 0.
This game is currently setup to be played by two players online over Cockatrice. Included is installation instructions and the game files.
The game currently uses magic frames and no art for playtesting but we plan on changing this in the future for obvious reasons.
Please take the time to do a few playtests or look over the card file. It is a lot of fun and we welcome all feedback.
Put the HTO folder into the cockatrice pic directory
This is usually in the app data location:
C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Cockatrice\Cockatrice\pics\downloadedPics
or in your main cockatrice folder
....\Cockatrice\pics\downloadedPics
Open cockatrice
Select Cockatrice -> Settings... -> Paths -> Card Database
point the card database path to the hto_public_release_v01.xml file you extracted earlier
To host a game online:
Cockatrice -> Connect.. and enter the following server details
cockatrice.woogerworks.com
4747
if you have an account enter you username/password otherwise just use a temp username and leave your password blank.
Now click Create, and add a description and password
Load the HTOstack_cockatrice.cod deck file, wait for your opponent to join and begin
Enjoy!
The Rules
1) Players begin the game with 10 credits, 13 Influence (Your life total) and no starting cards.
Credits is the currency used to purchase cards that come up for auction. At the end of each player's turn, all players gain 3 gold.
2) Players play with a single stack of cards called the auction block that can be found HERE. This currently contains 1 copy of each card in Hostile Takeover. The host of the game should load up this deck and be in charge of flipping cards off the top for both players.
Other players should load up any deck and exile it before the game starts.
3) The draw step is replaced with the auction step. At the beginning of the auction step, reveal the top card of the auction block. The active Cooperation may then bid an amount of credits for that card, including zero. In turn order, each Corporation may top the high bid. Each Corporation may only bid once. The bidding ends when all Corporations have had the opportunity to bid. The high bidder loses gold equal to the high bid and purchases the card.
Note: Corporations cannot bid more credits than they possess.
Note: If no player bids on a card, the active Corporation wins the auction.
4) Upon purchasing a card, the purchasing Corporation may choose either to deploy the card immediately or to put the purchased card into their inventory. Corporations may cast cards in their inventory only during their turn unless they are a Reaction card.
Note: All cards in all inventories remain faceup on the board at all times.
5) If the purchased card wasn't a mercenary card, repeat the auction step. This process repeats until a player purchases a mercenary card.
6) Some cards have activated abilities, often with costs. You may spend credits to activate these abilities any time during your turn and only once per turn.
7) Mercenaries attack and block just like creatures in Magic: the Gathering.
8) Cards with "Mobilize -- [EFFECT]" activate their effect whenever they are deployed. (aka enters the battlefield)
Vocabulary
Corporation - The players. Influence - a corporations life total. You lose if this becomes zero. Deployment Area - The Battlefield, where mercenaries and subsidiaries are deployed.
Mercenaries are either Active or Exhausted (equivalent to tapped/untapped) Inventory - Equivalent to your hand in a game of Hostile Takeover. Is always face-up public information. Dumpster - Equivalent to your graveyard. Deploy - Equivalent to casting a spell. Asset - Any card. Mobilize - Equivalent to entering the battlefield
Known as Inanimate at Goblin Artisans, and TyrRev at /r/custommagic!
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!
I'm kinda surprised that you stuck with MTG attacking/blocking mechanics. Particularly the concept of only attacking players. That and summoning sickness (which you included) are kinda two of Magics most counter intuitive ideas. Overall this just doesn't look like a stand alone game.
I've already played using magic cards. Twas fun. But I think it'd be more fun if it differentiated from magic more in thematic ways.
We've considered adopting combat rules closer to HS's ruleset, but one of the ideas behind the project was "Hey, this format works really well. Let's just remake it as a standalone." Changing the rules further didn't seem necessary. Summoning Sickness has proved to be a big deal for giving players a chance to react to things before they can attack. Lots of games try getting rid of it, and it often ends up not working too well. We could totally do a test where everything had rush, but I don't think it'd work very well.
Any thoughts on how to rework the core mechanics, or make new ones that could take advantage of both the theme and the auction?
So, I got to playtest this for the first time a couple days ago! It was quite fun! A few things I noted:
1.) We only got to play a few games, but it felt like it was pretty hard to 'come back' sometimes. Players who were winning tended to keep winning, it seems. (That might just be because I'm not very good at this game yet, though.)
2.) Smuggler's Droid was really, really good. Ancestral Recall for this format. The problem was that I was lower on funds after my turn, and my opponent - who revealed the Smuggler's Droid - was more wealthy. So he just bet my amount (which was low), I couldn't top it, and he got three cards for the price of one. It sucked for me, and there was no way I was coming back from that.
3.) Genesis Titan was very strong, a real bomb that was difficult to beat.
4.) Management Optimizer felt very unfun to play against. The more auctions he won, the more he won the game as well. Winning auctions already has a reward - giving you a card - so it just felt very oppressive that he got two rewards for the price of one each time. I think this might have been because of the specific circumstances, though - it was my first game and I had bid too high, causing myself to be poor for the entire game as I struggled to keep up.
Speaking of...
5.) I don't know if this is just me, but once you're poor, it's very hard to become rich again. The problem is that a poor player still needs to maintain a board state, so they can't just wait to get money while they let their opponent get nice cards - they have to still be buying stuff, even while poor. It just seems like there's not a lot of mechanisms in-game for a poor player to stabilize their economy.
-
As I noted, in our games we had 'snowballing' effects and a difficulty in coming back after spending too much. I think more 'come-back' cards would be nice. Things along the lines of Timely Reinforcements.
For example triggers:
If you have less influence; If you have less credits; If you control less permanents; if your opponent controls the mercenary with the greatest power; and so on.
I know you have some of these in your stack, but we rarely saw any. (I think we saw one, tops.)
-
I have some other ideas for fiddling with the game's balance, but I want to playtest them myself before I suggest them.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Known as Inanimate at Goblin Artisans, and TyrRev at /r/custommagic!
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!
Thanks for the feedback. I don't want to give too much of a response yet, lest I color your next playtest, but I will say one thing... If the person behind on board is at a huge disadvantage, or too far down on gold makes a huge disadvantage... Try factoring that into your purchasing decisions.
You play the game as Corporations auctioning for mercenaries, subsidiaries and operations to gain the greatest advantage.
The goal of the game is to outmaneuver and outbid your competition by reducing their Influence to 0.
This game is currently setup to be played by two players online over Cockatrice. Included is installation instructions and the game files.
The game currently uses magic frames and no art for playtesting but we plan on changing this in the future for obvious reasons.
Please take the time to do a few playtests or look over the card file. It is a lot of fun and we welcome all feedback.
DOWNLOAD Hostile Takeover
VISUAL SPOILER
Installation Instructions
Install Cockatrice found at:
http://www.woogerworks.com/index.php/client-downloads
Download the game files:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14755602/Hosted Files/CMC Visual Spoiler/HTO draft1/Hostile_Takeover public_v01.zip
Extract the Hostile_Takeover public_v01.zip file
Put the HTO folder into the cockatrice pic directory
This is usually in the app data location:
C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Cockatrice\Cockatrice\pics\downloadedPics
or in your main cockatrice folder
....\Cockatrice\pics\downloadedPics
Open cockatrice
Select Cockatrice -> Settings... -> Paths -> Card Database
point the card database path to the hto_public_release_v01.xml file you extracted earlier
To host a game online:
Cockatrice -> Connect.. and enter the following server details
cockatrice.woogerworks.com
4747
if you have an account enter you username/password otherwise just use a temp username and leave your password blank.
Now click Create, and add a description and password
Load the HTOstack_cockatrice.cod deck file, wait for your opponent to join and begin
Enjoy!
The Rules
1) Players begin the game with 10 credits, 13 Influence (Your life total) and no starting cards.
Credits is the currency used to purchase cards that come up for auction. At the end of each player's turn, all players gain 3 gold.
2) Players play with a single stack of cards called the auction block that can be found HERE. This currently contains 1 copy of each card in Hostile Takeover. The host of the game should load up this deck and be in charge of flipping cards off the top for both players.
Other players should load up any deck and exile it before the game starts.
3) The draw step is replaced with the auction step. At the beginning of the auction step, reveal the top card of the auction block. The active Cooperation may then bid an amount of credits for that card, including zero. In turn order, each Corporation may top the high bid. Each Corporation may only bid once. The bidding ends when all Corporations have had the opportunity to bid. The high bidder loses gold equal to the high bid and purchases the card.
Note: Corporations cannot bid more credits than they possess.
Note: If no player bids on a card, the active Corporation wins the auction.
4) Upon purchasing a card, the purchasing Corporation may choose either to deploy the card immediately or to put the purchased card into their inventory. Corporations may cast cards in their inventory only during their turn unless they are a Reaction card.
Note: All cards in all inventories remain faceup on the board at all times.
5) If the purchased card wasn't a mercenary card, repeat the auction step. This process repeats until a player purchases a mercenary card.
6) Some cards have activated abilities, often with costs. You may spend credits to activate these abilities any time during your turn and only once per turn.
7) Mercenaries attack and block just like creatures in Magic: the Gathering.
8) Cards with "Mobilize -- [EFFECT]" activate their effect whenever they are deployed. (aka enters the battlefield)
Vocabulary
Corporation - The players.
Influence - a corporations life total. You lose if this becomes zero.
Deployment Area - The Battlefield, where mercenaries and subsidiaries are deployed.
Mercenaries are either Active or Exhausted (equivalent to tapped/untapped)
Inventory - Equivalent to your hand in a game of Hostile Takeover. Is always face-up public information.
Dumpster - Equivalent to your graveyard.
Deploy - Equivalent to casting a spell.
Asset - Any card.
Mobilize - Equivalent to entering the battlefield
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
In the visual spoiler, Douse in Napalm mentions "structures". But I don't see any structures in the card file?
Also, I was really expecting a Human tribal and a Mech tribal card. (:
EDIT: You never mention what a 'Grunt' is. A 1/1, I assume?
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!
Thats is a mistake, I'll update it later today.
Yes. I'll add that to the rules. Thanks for pointing that out.
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
I've already played using magic cards. Twas fun. But I think it'd be more fun if it differentiated from magic more in thematic ways.
Any thoughts on how to rework the core mechanics, or make new ones that could take advantage of both the theme and the auction?
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
1.) We only got to play a few games, but it felt like it was pretty hard to 'come back' sometimes. Players who were winning tended to keep winning, it seems. (That might just be because I'm not very good at this game yet, though.)
2.) Smuggler's Droid was really, really good. Ancestral Recall for this format. The problem was that I was lower on funds after my turn, and my opponent - who revealed the Smuggler's Droid - was more wealthy. So he just bet my amount (which was low), I couldn't top it, and he got three cards for the price of one. It sucked for me, and there was no way I was coming back from that.
3.) Genesis Titan was very strong, a real bomb that was difficult to beat.
4.) Management Optimizer felt very unfun to play against. The more auctions he won, the more he won the game as well. Winning auctions already has a reward - giving you a card - so it just felt very oppressive that he got two rewards for the price of one each time. I think this might have been because of the specific circumstances, though - it was my first game and I had bid too high, causing myself to be poor for the entire game as I struggled to keep up.
Speaking of...
5.) I don't know if this is just me, but once you're poor, it's very hard to become rich again. The problem is that a poor player still needs to maintain a board state, so they can't just wait to get money while they let their opponent get nice cards - they have to still be buying stuff, even while poor. It just seems like there's not a lot of mechanisms in-game for a poor player to stabilize their economy.
-
As I noted, in our games we had 'snowballing' effects and a difficulty in coming back after spending too much. I think more 'come-back' cards would be nice. Things along the lines of Timely Reinforcements.
For example triggers:
If you have less influence; If you have less credits; If you control less permanents; if your opponent controls the mercenary with the greatest power; and so on.
I know you have some of these in your stack, but we rarely saw any. (I think we saw one, tops.)
-
I have some other ideas for fiddling with the game's balance, but I want to playtest them myself before I suggest them.
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane