#58 - The Angry Chicken: “Title”

• Garrett • Dills • Jocelyn

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Intro:  Welcome to The Angry Chicken!

Thanks to everyone for continuing to support us on Patreon. Go to Patreon.com/TAC.

Top of the Show Announcement

Brian Kibler of bmkgaming.com is joining us on the show next week!

News

Reddit AMA Today

Ran from 2pm-4pm.

• Brode answering a question about HS’s new-player friendliness: I super appreciate that you guys are looking out for new players. It's really important to us that Hearthstone is approachable and accessible. We're on the same page here.

We do have some problems with Matchmaking. We had taken steps to make sure brand new players were not matched against players who had already built massive collections, but we recently found some issues there and have been working to make it better.

We are going to continue to monitor the new player experience, and I do think we'll need to do things to make it better over time, especially as we continue to release new content.

• Q: Do you have any plans for the future to introduce formats like Wizard did? Is it an option to rotate cards out and make only the latest two sets and basic cards ranked legal?

Yong Woo: This is something we'll want to address as we release more content. But we feel that we're still far away from that point. We're continuing to think about the best player experience for this.

• Brode on new classes being added: There are pros and cons and we have to figure out when, if ever, the right time would be. Pros: Would be friggin' rad. Cons: less likely to get cards for the specific class you're excited about. Balance is trickier.

A good design exercise is to think: "How many classes is too many?" My sense is that it's closer to 9 than to 20.

• Yong Woo said that more in-game competitive tools (like in-game tournaments) are “still at an early stage of forming the idea.”

• Yong Woo’s awesome but a little lengthy description on the production order for a new HS card: What is the process to get a card created?

First design team comes up with the theme for the given expansion. In the case of GvG, the theme was going to be Goblins, Gnomes, and their wonderful mechanical inventions. The backbone of the set is designed around that theme: e.g. we definitely need to have a Goblin Shredder! So those cards start from the flavor and then game mechanics is built around it. "Piloted" mechanic arose from the hilarious image of random denizens of Azeroth ejecting out of these things. Other cards start from interesting and fun game mechanics we want to highlight in the expansion and then we come up with the best name/art work that would fit that card mechanic: e.g. Bouncing Blade.

Once name and stats start taking shape, we take a look at the huge breadth of amazing WoW art we already have in our repository. If there's something that fits perfectly we go with that. If we can't find something we are perfectly happy with, the designers work with the art team to put together an art description which describes what that card is like. The art description then goes out to the wonderful artists we work with and we collaborate with them to finish the piece. Sometimes we want something very specific for a card, other times there's general guideline which the artist can run with.

Ben Brode and Jason Chayes on The Instance #393

• Tweaking cards can discourage players from solving their own problems, and can make them feel less confident about the game.

Links

• https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/2ped94/blizzard_hearthstone_developer_ama_ben_brode_yong/
• https://www.facebook.com/Hearthstone/photos/a.522822504427189.1073741828.498467596862680/828189180557185/?type=1
• https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/instance-world-warcraft-podcast!/id115594899?mt=2

Hearthstone (Begins) Release for Android!

The Hearthstone Android tablet rollout begins! As part of the first phase of our Android launch, players in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand can now download Hearthstone for free on Google Play—and in the coming days, we’ll be fully rolling out Hearthstone worldwide on the Amazon Appstore for Android and Google Play.

Links

• http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/17141107/hearthstone-rolls-out-on-android%E2%84%A2-tablets-12-15-2014?abt=nav1&utm_expid=68589644-24.yOgsCsWhSz-gOSDIbl82Wg.1&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fus.battle.net%2Fhearthstone%2Fen%2F%3Fabt%3Dnav1%26-

Kinguin for Charity Tournament

100% of the donations went to charity, the highest bidder was guaranteed a spot in the tournament. Donations went to Child's Play - Kinguin's charity partner - and equally shared between 4 hospitals in Poland, Germany, United Kingdom and United States.

1. $ 2,500  StrifeCro Cloud 9
2. $ 1,500          Powder         Team IHEARTHU
3. $    500         Firebat  Team Archon
4. $    500         Amaz    Team Archon

Links

• http://wiki.teamliquid.net/hearthstone/Kinguin_For_Charity_-_Christmas_Edition_2014

Strategy

Paladin GvG Card Reviews

GvG Paladin Cards on HearthHead

365 of you voted and Paladin won! Vote for which class we’ll review next week at TinyURL.com/TAC59.

Bolvar Fordragon

• 5 Mana Legendary Minion
• 1/7
• Whenever a friendly minion dies while this is in your hand, gain +1 Attack.

Cobalt Guardian

• 5 Mana Rare Mech Minion
• 6/3
• Whenever you summon a Mech, gain Divine Shield.

Coghammer

• 3 Mana Epic Weapon
• 2/3
• Battlecry: Give a random friendly minion Divine Shield and Taunt.

Muster for Battle

• 3 Mana Rare Spell
• Summon three 1/1 Silver Hand Recruits. Equip a 1/4 Weapon. (Yes it is a Light’s Justice.)

Quartermaster

• 5 Mana Epic Minion
• 2/5
• Battlecry: Give your Silver Hand Recruits +2/+2

Scarlet Purifier

• 3 Mana Rare Minion
• 4/3
• Battlecry: Deal 2 damage to all minions with Deathrattle.

Seal of Light

• 2 Mana Common Spell
• Restore 4 Health to your hero and gain +2 Attack this turn.

Shielded Minibot

• 2 Mana Common Mech Minion
• 2/2
• Divine Shield

Crazy Game Stories

MechaMicrobiologist

Greetings poultryesque podcasters,

After a short sabbatical from hearthstone I was pulled back in by GvGs release and I've been obsessively playing the game and getting caught up in the TAC podcasts that i've missed. I was playing around with a mech-paladin-deck when this happened:

It’s turn 8 and I have an avenging wrath in my hand and a cobalt guardian on board. My opponent drops down the Tradeprince Gallywix which makes me worried about handing him a copy of my best spell. On turn 9 I draw my second avenging wrath. Unsure of what to do I play a finicky cloakshield on my cobalt guardian and pass the turn. My opponent goes for my face but I survive the onslaught. It’s turn 10, I have 1 coin and I realize that if I play my first avenging wrath I will receive a second coin and then be able to double coin out my second avenging wrath. I unleash the full might of my avenging wraths and hit the rogue in the face with my guardian for a very lucky victory!

Emails

From Garrett

I want to know what Legendary you guys think I should craft next? Got some stinkers in my packs. Already made Bolvar.

Dustin

Howdy Cluckers,

You all probably know me better as berserkergnome, I wanted to bring up a situation I have been having and get your guys thoughts on it.

I have a severe anxiety disorder and it has started to creep in to my gaming. I have quit playing the more social games like WOW for more solo games like Hearthstone. I mainly stick to games that don't have a chat system so that I don't have to hear comments from others.  I just can't seem to deal well with the fear of hearing the other players ripping into me or another player with the "noob" comments and such. So I was wondering if this is something that you guys might have faced and how you deal with it.

Thanks guys love the show.

Tony

Greetings Huffy Hens,

On Episode 57, you spoke at length about card backs. I was just curious as to whether you all thought the card backs were actually a prestigious thing. I, for one, do not. To me, getting a card back means nothing.  While it is cool art, it doesn't actually signify any grand achievement on my part. I expect to hit rank 20 with little to no difficulty, and I consider myself a decent player at best. I've capped out at rank 5 but usually hover between 10 - 13.

I'm not suggesting that they raise the bar to rank 5 or even 10, but I think maybe rank 15 would at least signify a modicum of skill involved. Perhaps I'm underestimating the skill-level it takes to get to rank 15. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Outro

Patreon Thanks

TAC is supported by our epic Patrons. You can become a TAC Patron by going to Patreon.com/tac.

• Corey M
• Aaron A
• Myth
• adam m
• ShadowTiger

iTunes Thanks

• Dblohsevn
• larvacea: Gave us 5 stars cars “this was the first place I heard Ben Brode laugh.”

Orando Fireside Mention: Doing my first Fireside Gathering in Orlando this coming January. Big props to Amy for coordinating the whole thing. Go to meetup.com/FloridaFireside to RSVP and for more information.

The Angry Chicken is a production of Amove.tv and the Frogpants Studios. You can also email the show at TACpodcast@gmail.com.

Past live shows and other videos can be found on Youtube.com/starcastshow. Get The Angry Chicken tshirt over on SlashLoot.com.

Follow the show on Twitter @TACpodcast.

Catch the live show Monday nights at 10pm Eastern on Twitch.tv/Amovetv. Mobile live stream provided by Alpha Geek Radio.

Thanks to Brian Griffith, the musician responsible for our intro music. He can be found at briangriffithmusic.com or @briangriffith on twitter.

Personal Stuff

Follow Garrett @GarrettArt

NOMOONart.com for Garrett’s stream designs.

Into the Nexus: The Heroes of the Storm Podcast!

Dill’s where else can everyone find you?

Follow Dills @WillieDills

The Instance - The World of Warcraft podcast so you don’t have to

TortureCast - A podcast by and for fans of the San Francisco Giants

MGA MedioCast - A podcast about the Mediocre Golf Association

And Joce where can you be found?

Follow Jocelyn @GISgamer

The Gamers’ Inn

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