BattleForge Thread of Threads

[fitbabits]

It occurs to me that there has been very little in terms of coverage for EA's upcoming Phenomic-developed BattleForge. Well that's about to change...

We've arrived in the holiday season, exactly the right time to sit in a comfy chair in front of the fireplace and have a nice cuppa tea - or play a round of BattleForge. Which our BattleForge testers from around the world seem to be doing with undiminished vigor. But not only that: they also have a lot of feedback for us, and new faces show up every day in the community forums (http://www.battleforge.com/forum/) for our beta test. And so Father Frost has given all the BattleForge fans from Russia an early Christmas gift by setting up a new Russian community forum (http://www.battleforge.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=33).

You're not in the beta yet? No problem, just register on http://www.BattleForgeCardHunt.com and receive your personal access key with the next wave of invitations! To get you started, Stromberry has compiled a great German guide (http://www.battleforge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1488) with the most important tips and hints for all new beta testers.

The first 2-on-2 Cup has been underway in the Electronic Sports League (http://www.esl.eu/) since November 30 now, with Premium Accounts for the eSports league waiting for the winning team. Currently, the teams "zwei bobs" and "w4" are fighting for the crown of the first team tournament victory. Anyone who wants to talk to the ESL teams or admins can always find someone in the official BattleForge ESL channel in Quakenet: #esl.bfg.

A quick update regarding fan sites: BattleForgeCardBase (http://www.battleforgecardbase.de/) by now offers details on nearly 100 cards of all powers. You too can help to provide the CardBase with data; here's a tutorial (http://battleforge-cardbase.de/anzeige.php?lang=en&page=neue) on how to add missing cards that you might have in your beta deck. Another way to learn more about the cards in the game is our cards section (http://www.battleforge.com/cms/front_content.php?idart=161) here on the site, of course, which we update with two new cards every Thursday.

Speaking of tutorials... apart from the new wallpaper (http://www.battleforge.com/cms/front_content.php?idart=191) and cards, we have posted a new tutorial in our media section as well: This time, Sebastian Nell explains what the special abilities of some of the cards can do, what they cost and how to use them. I highly recommend this video to anyone who has not seen it yet!

Finally, when you log on to the beta, you should take a look at the cards collection of your first main character, as a new card should have been added with the latest beta patch (Ensnaring or Timeshifting Spirit). You can always find the current beta patch notes in our beta announcement forum (http://www.battleforge.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=31).

http://www.BattleForge.com

I will be updating this thread as news becomes available. Expect lots more from me and EA/Phenomic on BattleForge.

[Hotcod]

i was just poking about trying to find out what in hell the game actually is since the website is a little... light... on details... and i found this

http://www.esl.eu/eu/news/69423/Get-your-Battleforge-Beta-Key-here-/

if you sign up at that website you get a beta key... seems to work

[Libuke]

Took a quick looks around the website and I am intrigued.

Edit: Never mind I take that back I saw something about buying cards. I like the concept but I don't think I'll pay 50 dollars then have to buy cards on top of it to have a chance at being competitive. Sure in the beginning it might not matter as much but I am sure it would in short order.

[Hotcod]

ah i thought so... the full game will have you buying points to buy cards... it's not to bad in that there seems to be ways to earn points and cards with out having to part with cash but it is in essence going to be an online TCG.

Shame it doesn't seem to play that well

[Deadend]

I remember getting some of the cards at PAX, not sure where they are now though, somewhere in my room I think.

[fitbabits]

Whether your favorite song in the game is "Lords of the Sky", "Northern Steel" or "Ascension" - as of now you can purchase and download all the tracks from the official BattleForge soundtrack from online music store emusic.com (http://www.emusic.com/album/EA-Games-Soundtrack-Battleforge-MP3-Download/11335626.html). You'll also find a sneak preview of the songs there. Beside the three tracks mentioned above, we have many more orchestral songs on the soundtrack, of course. Here's the track list:

01. Lords Of The Sky 2:19
02. A Light Of Winter 2:15
03. Northern Steel 2:09
04. Escape From The Underrealm 2:07
05. Shores Of Wintershade 2:27
06. The Forge Of Creation 2:38
07. A Spirit Of The Forest 3:28
08. Deep Roots 1:52
09. The Soultree 1:56
10. Whispering Ruins 2:03
11. Ascension 2:22
12. A Storm Of Fire 2:18
13. Slaves No More 2:08
14. Wrath Of The Sun Elves 2:03
15. Brannoc At The Forge 2:09
16. Echoes Of The Amii 2:44
17. A Slayer From The Shadows 2:48
18. Bitter Chains 2:09
19. The Reckoning 2:10
20. Into The Night 2:16
21. Gods Requiem 2:03

http://www.BattleForge.com

[Telefrog]

Beside the three tracks mentioned above, we have many more orchestral songs on the soundtrack, of course.

Is that the royal "we" or did this come directly from EA/Phenomic?

[fitbabits]

Is that the royal "we" or did this come directly from EA/Phenomic?
It's from EA/Phenomic.

This thread will be updated regularly with bits and bobs from EA/Phenomic.

[Ten19]

So I was finally able to get the client to patch last night, and gave this a spin. Thought I'd post my thoughts and a mini-review of what this game actually is.

As has been seen, it basically mixes a TCG with an RTS, and has a pretty decent interface for controlling resources and moving your guys around. Stats are displayed pretty prominently, and explanations for each ability pops up with a tooltip when examining each card/ability.

There are three types of cards, Units, Buildings and Spells, across the four "factions", Fire, Frost, Shadow and Nature. You can customize your deck (the units available to you) with any mixture of cards and colors. In-game, the cards aren't drawn randomly or anything, but you are limited to only being able to cast the cards depending on your resources (power and orbs). The progression of your units is directly linked to how many rare Monument nodes you've captured on the map, (each of which is captured by placing an orb of one of the four colors.. i.e.: you capture a monument with a Frost Orb, and now you can play any cards that require only one Frost orb, etc). Almost every unit has a specific role, some have different modes and/or abilities they can use, though most of them need to be activated by the player.

Doing anything (summoning units, building fortifications, using a unit's abilities) costs Power, slowly supplied by each less-rare Crystal node you capture, though each node can run out eventually. Power you spend also slowly comes back to you through what they call the "Void Pool" (or something similar), an interesting sort of recycling process that can be impacted by spells/abilities. There are tons of units, as well, with varying sizes and abilities. Cards can be used over and over again as long as you have the power, but the more powerful ones have longer cool-downs. There is a unit cap, but it's pretty generous, though it may open up in the bigger scenarios. You can build walls in certain areas, manning the turrets with ranged units and opening the central gate for your guys to charge past. Shame you can only throw these walls up in certain areas, but still kind of cool nonetheless.

The buildings you can place are an interesting component, many of them act as defense (shooting enemies that come close) or offer a buff aura to your units. For example in the Nature cards, you can build Tunnel entrances all around the map, and a few types of your units can use these to get around quickly. Spells seem pretty straight forward, mostly AoE damage or AoE healing, though there are some ones that change it up.

There seems to be quite a lot of thought put into the structure of this, you engage in a battle by participating in scenarios, when completed the first time will unlock the next scenario in that chain. Winning a scenario rewards you accordingly (booster packs or the Enhance cards that permanently buff one of your cards). Each scenario has three difficulty levels, completing the harder ones yields the better rewards, obviously. There are single-player scenarios, as well as 1v1, 2v2, and 6v6 (not sure if there are free-for-alls, there weren't that many people on when I was to try it out). As you complete scenarios, you gain xp and level your character up, though I'm not sure what the purpose of that is, yet.

There's also a game mode called The Forge, where you can basically practice summoning your units and have them face off against a few AI factions in a sort of practice arena. You can hop from one side to another and summon your units on both sides, having them duke it out or practice attacking fortifications. Very cool for learning which of your units does what exactly without getting burned in a real game.

There are also some disabled game modes on the primary map, and if I had to guess they refer to Arenas and Tournaments, providing additional gameplay.

All in all it's actually pretty fun, at least so far. There is a ton of potential here, my only concern is the cost. If there's an initial retail/digital copy to download with minimal micro-transactions, I may consider it. There seems to be a lot of potential for getting new cards without having to pay an extra cent, but if it is entirely driven by buying booster packs with real money, I'm going to take a pass.

Anywho, it's a beta, it's free, I suggest everyone take a crack at it. I got my key from the ESL site HotCod posted: http://www.esl.eu/eu/news/69423/Get-your-Battleforge-Beta-Key-here-/

Let me know if anyone else gets situated, I'd love to try a real 1v1 (or more if others sign up).

[Goronmon]

Looks like there are no more keys available.

Edit: Nevermind, got one.

[danielOut]

No more keys error when I tried. OH NOES!

Also, why is this thread stickied? Just curious.

[Goronmon]

I searched for battleforge beta keys and got what is apparently the US version of that site, which seemed to have keys still.

[danielOut]

Thanks for the tip; that worked.

[danielOut]

alright, just finished the tutorial. seems interesting, but anything with a pay-for-more-cards kind of mechanic makes me nervous. someone hit me up (danielout, of course) and we can play a game.

fits, the game is cool and all, but why the sticky, seriously? were you drunk?

[Ten19]

I also got a second beta key after signing up on the main site initially. If someone has trouble getting one who wants to check it out, shoot me a PM and it's yours.

[Nura]

I just got 3 beta keys to give to friends, so if anyone is interested hit me up.

[danielOut]

Seems like a lot of people have keys, but is anyone actually playing?

[Hotcod]

honestly i uninstalled it all a few days ago... just nothing in it that grabbed me. It's not really a TCG more a RTS where you pick and pay for units and meh there's far better out there

[Quinefer]

BattleForge Beta Opens Its Doors
2009-02-27 11:52:04

Starting on Friday, the 27th of February, gamers will no longer need to get a beta key to gain access to BattleForge Beta. The move to open the beta comes after the most recent patch released all 200 BattleForge cards and maps into the game, and approximately one month before BattleForge goes live. For anyone looking to get started with the beta, the process just got easier
http://www.battleforge.com/cms/front_content.php?idcat=10&idart=466