Or an even more radical suggestion make it set your mana to 0 and balance around that (maybe like a storm friars or dark witch attack)
I like the set mana to 0 idea…
Perhaps change the ability to be.
Make a Ranged attack 5 times your current mana, range 10 leagues. Mana cost: Current Mana total…
This way it’s the same power but it costs all of your mana to cast it.
Also, change Eldermage card type away from mage, (Maybe to something like ‘Elder’) so they don’t count themselves for the mana generation.
Actually, I think that might be a really good idea.
Sorry y’all, that was my strategy. While I did spend money on the game not as much as you might think. Grinding the single player levels sometimes claiming a elf settlement will let you recruit a card for 1 hero coin. Grinding those levels you can build up elder mages and high mages.
I suggested giving more zombie heroes iron hide (cannot get killed except in melee) and having a new zombie lord that eats randomly half of all valor, mana or gold every 12 hours. It would also have iron hide. Depending on how much mana, valor or gold captured it would spawn a variable amount of monsters (golems?). This would make things a bit more difficult all around and would make storing up a lot of mana/gold/valor dangerous.
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Also I would agree with Dex: while I’m not mad/understand the game is in beta if you are hoping people pay for cards I would recommend being very careful when nerfing them. A reward of hero coins would be good if you do nerf them and makes sense. I’d suggest not nerfing cards whenever possible but making zombies stronger/better to make player strategies adapt a little more.
Also I would suggest making the high mages range 8 instead of 6 (down from 10) OR the eldermage power to affect mages within 5 or 6 leagues. The only reason I suggest that is it seems elder mages have changed to only give 3 mana per mage instead of 5. The eldermages have to stick close to the high elves to be effective and if the range of high elves make them need to get close in large maps then elder mages range should be larger to make them more versatile (or high elves have larger range)
I disagree with giving people hero coins back for nerfing cards; the game is still in beta after all. Secondly, I’ve played a lot of games, inevitably it happens in pretty much every MOG…
Players find a strategy which is clearly superior to others, they get tired of losing to said strategy so they decide to play dirty as well. They invest all their time and energy into building towards that strategy. Eventually the developers catch on and nerf said strategy; player community wines like a bunch of babies because they invested so much time/money/energy building towards that single strategy.
After seeing it so frequently now, I never try to chase those fad strategies; you’re just asking for #ButtHurt in the end.
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It is in beta and you are trying to get players in the door and not lose them. Players who pay money for getting cards could feel frustrated if the cards/strategy gets nerfed. It is something that is done other places true but from a customer experience it’s better to not nerf cards but evolve zombie lords/things outside of player cards to deal with overpowered cards. Players feel slightly less frustrated that way and it feels more like a new challenge to deal with as opposed to something taken away from players. It’s a psychological trick but I’d say important. I’m not saying I’m mad, I’m clearly rather invested in this game. But players dropping because of it is bad for the game/community/the creator.
TL;DR I’d still be careful nerfing cards and just because other games nerf whenever doesn’t mean it’s good customer experience
I would generally agree with being cautious with nerfing cards, but I think in the case of eldermages & high elves something needs to be done & possibly something dramatic
It’s already been done actually, it seems like eldermages are cut to 3 mana per mage from 5 and distance of high elf mages is cut to 6 from 10. Still think new zombie lords are the key as it doesn’t really fix the problem long term, if I get enough high elf mages and eldermages I can overwhelm regardless. Zombie lords that are unkillable except in melee, take a percentage of mana/valor/gold and spawn constructs based on amount stolen is a good percentage fix that automatically scales. Just my .02c and I’m perfectly happy being wrong 
Sometimes, nothing but a nerf will do. I feel this was the case for these couple cards. When 1 cards power is so incredibly out of line with all the other cards then that creates it’s own problem. Now, if you’re not going to nerf you need to consider buffing every other card as a balance, to make them more on par with the over powered cards. This can create a feedback loop of continuously chasing the difficulty while tring to create balance.
I don’t mind being generous with the hero coins at this early stage. You guys are doing some great work helping us find these issues and most people here on the forums are paying customers so I’m very happy to just dish out more coins when requested.
(Soon Penny and I are going to want you guys to help us test the leveled up Righteous and Corrupted cards and you will have to grind up 10 regular cards to make one )
Unfortunately my design philosophy is to try and make a card really good, and only pull it down if its a problem later. Its much better I think than having cards that are a bit crap and trying to make them better latter. Unfortunately it means you are more often nerfing cards rather than boosting them.
Thats a good approach. It lets us know what the outer edges of possible are.
I’ve been tuning a lot of cards up and down this week and not all the changes have come through yet. You’ll soon find that a lot of the mages cost more gold, as they were very cheap compared to the might cards. I’ve also made some powers cost less mana. Some cards will also cost less gold or have more strength.
This is an ongoing process and just because something has gone up/down doesn’t mean that it won’t go back towards what it was. Please keep the feedback coming. I’m trying to make all the cards a bit more balanced in regards to how much they cost and what kind of benefit you get, whether they are might or magic focused. As a result, a number of the Elf and Troll cards will cost a bit more Gold.
Are the changes documented anywhere or do we just need to keep our eyes out (or yet another spreadsheet for me)
I would be very interested to see what you have in mind… especially for elves. I did my own break down for elves in another post -
In looking back on it, I agree I skipped over most of the mage cards - except maybe one or two - but many of them could also use a cost boost; cards like Dark Forest Witch, Elder Mage, and the High Elf especially. Even the Archers could cost a little bit more.
Just to comment on this, it’s entirely possible to get that many mages without spending money, . I have a similar range of cards, and I have not spent a single dollar in this game so far, I just have a lot of free time at the moment 
(I used to be a premium member of the original though, so I got some coins to begin with)
The elder mages got another change so they cost 200 gold instead of 100. The high elves now cost 225 and range is limited to 6. Definitely changes things a lot now.
I’m seeing a lot of gold cost changes to a lot of units/heroes…
Not a fan of the Tangle Mage increase. Its already hard enough to get Trolls around the board.
Frankly though, the 20 mana cost to use their ability (and the fact it can only be used on specific squares) is probably enough barrier to widespread use while still keeping them at 50G. Im on a map now with 10 Tangle Mages deployed, and its not likely I am warping all over – it takes time to get an extra 20 mana I can use for this type of thing (rather than prioritize for damage abilities).
I dont think a gold increase on Tangle Mages was really necessary. Their are useful support units, but not game breaking and certainly need other cards to be useful (effectively making them a 50G + 20M cost increase to other units).
Please reconsider.
It could definitely come down a bit. I will think about the Mana cost too. Jay thought that 50 was way too low for the Troll mages, but maybe somewhere in between 50 and 150 would be better. I’ve done a fairly rapid pass through to bring all the mages up and fix some outlying mana/gold costs across the board.
In the game I’m playing as Trolls at the moment, I cashed in my starting Valour for Mana, as all I really needed was my starting town and then I gathered up Mana wells, continuing to cash Valour for Mana and Gold. It works better now that you actually get Valour when Trogs eat Goblins.
My thought comes down to this; If you spam out a bunch of Tangle Mages – is that unbalanced or game breaking? I dont think so. What offering Tangle Mages at 50G did was give the Trolls a strong niche role to play – they can get to a mana well quickly at the cost of hobbling other options.
On the other hand, offering the Tangle Mafe for 50G does allow the Trolls a bit more options, especially at the early game stage. It allows a players to get one or two out and to grab that mana pool (but only one – since the mana needed to go to another and capture it is usually just under another 25 hours away).
Tangle Mages are fun at 50G. They are cheap and only do one thing really well. So, once they do that one thing, they are bumps on a log. Keeping them at 50G allows a Troll player to get them out there, opens up options in an otherwise very, very slow race (which is painful at times), and doesnt really unbalance things.
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